White Sox Keep Rays' Bats Quiet in 3-2 Win
CHICAGO, Ill. — The Tampa Bay offense has been scuffling of late, and talented Chicago White Sox starter Dylan Cease wasn't about to take his foot off their necks on Friday night.
Cease sailed through nearly six innings, and it wasn't until he left that the Rays could put anything together, getting back-to-back doubles off reliever Aaron Bummer. But that's all the damage they could do all night, and the White Sox won 3-2.
This was the fourth loss in five games for the Rays after sweeping Baltimore to start the season. It's certainly too early to be concerned, but the fact of the matter is that the Tampa Bay lineup hasn't heated up yet. This was the fourth time in five games that they've scored three runs or less.
Cease, who's 2-0 now on the young season, was that good. He threw 91 pitches and allowed only three hits before leaving with two outs in the sixth and a 3-0 lead.
"Cease had a really good night. He was pitching well, really locating well, and his breaking balls were landing where he wanted them to,'' said Rays third baseman Yandy Diaz, who had one of those sixth-inning doubles off of Bummer after Cease had departed.
In the sixth, Brandon Lowe walked to lead off the inning, but then Cease got two quick outs. White Sox manager Tony LaRussa opted to pull him to not let his pitch count get too high. He also wanted Bummer, a left-hander, to face Ji-Man Choi, who's been one of the Rays' hottest hitters.
Choi laced a long ball to deep left center that Chicago center field Luis Robert went up the wall to get but couldn't make the play. Lowe scored and Choi, who is 10-for-19 on the season, wound up at second.
Diaz hit the next pitch down the right-field line for another double, and Choi scored, making it 3-2. Mike Zunino pinch hit next, and hit a hard line drive to center, but right at Robert to end the threat.
"That's kind the way baseball goes. We wanted to get more runs there, but we weren't able to,'' Diaz said.
The Rays never threatened from there, getting just one Kevin Kiermaier single in their final 10 at bats. Closer Liam Hendriks pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his third save of the year. The White Sox are now 5-2, and have the best record in the American League.
Rays manager Kevin Cash tipped his cap to Cease, who had Rays hitters off-balance all night long
"He was outstanding. He had both breaking balls going and he even threw a couple of changeups the third time through the line,'' Cash said. "He had, what, eight strikeouts. He had a really good ballgame for them.''
Drew Rasmussen started and went five innings for the Rays, the longest outing by a Tampa Bay starter through eight games. He gave up single runs in the second, third and fifth.
White Sox third baseman Jake Burger was a pain in his side all night, though. He hit a towering 430-foot home run in the second inning and drove in another run in the fifth with a single to right.
"Burger did a really good job. I thought he hit a really good 0-0 fastball in his first at-bat and then he was able to switch up approaches in his second at-bat and hit a breaking ball that I thought I had thrown pretty well,'' Rasmussen said. "That was pretty impressive. It was frustrating because I thought I located both pitches pretty well, but that's a good lineup over there and it's a tough game.
"I thought I did a better job of controlling the counts today, but unfortunately the circumstances didn't work out for us too well. That's a good lineup, and they do a really good job of putting balls in play. They put some good swings on some good pitches and that can be the frustrating part of this game, when good things don't work out.''
It also hasn't helped, of course, that the Rays can't get much going offensively right now. They had only six hits, and were just 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position. In three of these four losses, the Rays went 3-for-20 — a .150 average — with runners in scoring position.
"It's good pitching, but we're just not locked in right now,'' Cash said. "It's fair to say we've got a couple of guys hitting, Wander (Franco) and Ji-Man, but then we've got a lot of guys still trying to find their comfort zone.
"Ji-Man, he's always having good at-bats, and now he's doing damage with those at-bats too. He's seeing 6-7 pitches, laying off, and getting good pitches to hit.''
Through eight games, Choi and Franco are a combined 23-for-52, a .442 average. The rest of the Rays roster is hitting a combined .209.
"I think mentally we just have to keep working and stay positive,'' Diaz said. "We just need to keep working on the field, working in the cage, and the bats are going to come alive.''
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.