Dylan Cease believed he had a better feel for getting pitches in the strike zone Monday than he had in recent starts.
“In that terms it was better,” the Chicago White Sox starter said, “but obviously the results were still not good.”
The right-hander allowed a season-high seven earned runs as the Kansas City Royals throttled the Sox 12-5 in front of 9,814 at Kauffman Stadium.
“This was a tough one,” Sox manager Pedro Grifol said. “We accomplished some things that we wanted to get accomplished, which was to get ahead in the count. Our (goal of) two out of three (strikes to a batter) was really high.
“But when we got them on two strikes, we just couldn’t put them away. I think they got about seven hits with two strikes — three extra-base hits, including a homer and a couple doubles. That was the game right there.”
One day after a blowout win against the Cincinnati Reds, the Sox suffered a blowout loss.
In both cases, one big inning stood out.
Sunday, the Sox scored 11 runs in the second inning on the way to a 17-4 victory at Great American Ball Park.
Monday, the Sox surrendered eight runs in the sixth as the Royals spoiled Grifol’s return to the place he served as a coach the previous 10 seasons.
Cease allowed the seven runs on nine hits with six strikeouts and one walk in five-plus innings.
He is winless with an 8.25 ERA in his last five starts. That stretch includes allowing seven runs (six earned) in four innings on April 27 against the Tampa Bay Rays and four runs in five innings in his last start Wednesday against the Minnesota Twins.
“I actually thought Cease had really good stuff,” Grifol said. “His velocity was high. He felt good. He was strong. He threw some really good sliders.
“He left some balls out over the plate they hit. At the same time, in this game you fight to get ahead in the count. When you do that at a 72-74% clip as a team and you lose and you give up that many runs, there’s something. (Monday) was two-strike pitching. They got seven hits with two strikes, so that was tough.”
Cease said finishing off an at-bat is a matter of execution.
“I need to hunker down with my slider,” he said. “I’ve been backing them up and not getting the consistency that I need. And it really comes down to executing.
“I feel like I’m on a good track right now. We’ve made some good improvements the last 10 days or so. Just got to keep feeling the process. The results are disappointing.”
Three of the runs Cease allowed came in the sixth. He exited with the bases loaded and no outs, and each runner eventually scored.
“He had really good stuff,” Grifol said. “I just think that we’ve got to get back to the drawing board — him and (pitching coach) Ethan (Katz) and (bullpen coach) Curt (Hasler) — and look at those pitches again and go through the game, recall the game.
“He did a really good job getting ahead in the count. He won the two-out-of-three battle a lot. Then they’ve got to look at, with two strikes, what do we (need) to do with two strikes? It’s a weird game. Once you get ahead in the count that high of a percentage, normally things like that don’t happen. They did a good job with two strikes.”
Reliever Aaron Bummer followed Cease and was tagged for four runs in two-thirds of an inning. Jimmy Lambert also allowed one run in the inning.
When the bottom of the sixth started, the game was tied at 6. When it ended, the game was essentially out of reach.
With the loss, the Sox dropped to 12-24 to match the third-worst 36-game start in franchise history.
Cease, who has a 5.58 ERA in eight starts, knows there are steps he can take to help get the team going in the right direction.
“Mechanical stuff can be challenging to kind of iron out instantly,” he said. ”For me I’m looking at it like I have to just keep following the process. My bullpens have been getting better, my catch-play has been getting better. (Monday) the results weren’t really better, but in terms of executing pitches it was better.
“We’ve still got more to go with it. I feel like I’m on the right track.”
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