White Sox 8, Rangers 0: Cease, Romy and Robert Pace a Blowout

The White Sox were due for an easy win, suffering an entire second half that’s basically been win one, lose one. They got that easy win, opening a weekend series in Texas with an 8-0 blowout.

The first inning was kicked off by Tim Anderson getting a strange sort of double, and a single to shallow center by Luis Robert moved him along to third. Typically we’d probably see Anderson leg it out to home, but it seems (justifiably so) that the team wants to be cautious with him coming back from the IL. José Abreu hit a sacrifice fly, bringing Anderson home and giving the White Sox a quick 1-0 lead early. Taylor Hearn managed to calm down and find the strike zone after that, striking out Yasmani Grandal and forcing Eloy Jiménez into a ground out.

But the offensive jabs would continue, as Yoán Moncada doubled to start things off the second and was brought home by Romy González, who doubled to deep left on a misplaced slider, giving the White Sox a 2-0 lead.

The White Sox broke the game open a couple of innings later, taking a 5-0 lead in the top of the fourth when a one-out, bases loaded double from Luis Robert drove in González, Anderson, and Billy Hamilton.

Abreu doubled to drive in Robert, and with a 6-0 lead the White Sox drove Hearn from the mound. Jharel Cotton came in for relief and was a greeted by single from Jiménez, upping the lead to 7-0.

Cease dragged his way through the start of his appearance. Through a scoreless six outs, he was at 50 pitches, on five strikeouts, one walk and three hits. As Cease moved into the third he seemed to have regained some semblance of control, with efficiency that found him starting the bottom of the fifth at “only” 81 pitches. Cease ended the night with 10 strikeouts and 92 pitches, having walked two and given up only four hits.

It’s worth remembering how far Cease has come this season compared to previous ones, no matter how shaky his last two starts have looked:

González managed to score from first on a double by César Hernández, giving the White Sox a 8-0 lead. A bad throw by Adolis Garcia in right ultimately is what cost the Rangers the run, not that it really mattered at that point in the game with the Rangers being so far behind.

Aaron Bummer was brought in for relief in the bottom of the sixth, followed by Ryan Burr in the seventh, José Ruíz in the eighth, and Jace Fry to close things out in the ninth.

At the end of the night, the White Sox had 12 hits, helping them run right over the Rangers, with the third-worst record in baseball and praying for the season to just end, already. Abreu’s fourth-inning double wins the night in terms of highest exit velocity (110 mph):

That’s all, folks. Get some rest and we’ll see you tomorrow night from steamy, sunny Arlington.