Dylan Cease strikes out 11 in win over Kansas City

Dylan Cease

To this point in the season, it has been assumed that the White Sox playoff pitching rotation will include Lance Lynn, Carlos Rodon, Lucas Giolito and Dallas Keuchel, in some order.

And it has been assumed that Dylan Cease will move to the bullpen when October rolls around. 

I'm not so sure.

Cease (8-6) is pitching better than the veteran Keuchel right now, and he had one of his best outings of the season Tuesday night. The right-hander went six innings in a 7-1 win over the Kansas City Royals. He allowed no runs on one hit -- a bloop single -- with 11 strikeouts and two walks. He was absolutely overpowering.

You could say that the Royals (45-60) are a weak opponent, and you would be correct. Keuchel will get his chance Thursday to face this same Kansas City lineup, and we'll see whether he can put up six quality innings.

That has been a problem for Keuchel as of late. He made five starts in July and went 1-2 with a 6.26 ERA. Worse, he gave up nine home runs in those outings. He's going to have to show more over the final two months of the regular season for the Sox to trust him in October. 

Cease is making his case, and he kept the Royals off the board Tuesday until the Sox bats were able to break the game open late.

The Sox had only three hits off Kansas City starter Kris Bubic (3-5), but two of them were home runs. Andrew Vaughn hit a solo shot in the second inning. Tim Anderson's two-run homer followed a Seby Zavala walk in the third to give the Sox a 3-0 lead.

The score remained the same until the top of the seventh, when the Royals nicked Sox reliever Michael Kopech for a run.

But with Bubic gone after six innings, the Sox blew it open with four runs in the seventh. The inning began with four consecutive walks, the last of which gave Zavala an easy RBI. As the inning progressed, Anderson delivered an RBI single, and a two-run single by Jose Abreu put the game out of reach.

The Sox are 63-44, and they have a 9.5-game lead in the AL Central.

Eloy Jimenez is back ... but the White Sox continue to slump

Eloy Jimenez

After missing the first 99 games of the season, Eloy Jimenez was back in the White Sox lineup Monday night. 

Jimenez batted fourth and served as the designated hitter. And he went 0 for 4 and swung at some bad pitches as the Sox lost, 4-3, to the Kansas City Royals.

I'm not overly surprised that Jimenez didn't produce immediate results, nor am I particularly worried. You expect a guy who has missed that much time to struggle at the outset.

The rest of the Sox batters have no excuse, however, as they were baffled by Kansas City starter Mike Minor (8-8), who entered Monday's game with a 5.45 ERA.

Alas, Minor allowed only one hit -- a double by Adam Engel -- through the first five innings of the game. The Sox were trailing 3-0 at that point, before they finally broke through in the sixth on a two-run single by Andrew Vaughn.

The Sox have scored only eight runs during the first four games of this seven-game road trip, but it's not Vaughn's fault. He's 7 for 16 with three doubles, a home run and three RBIs in the past four games.

Monday's loss, however, was well-earned by Sox starter Dallas Keuchel. Just after the Sox got him back in the game with those two runs, he gave up a solo homer in the bottom of the sixth to Andrew Benintendi.

Keuchel also gave up two solo home runs to Jorge Soler, who entered Monday's game with a .193 batting average. Keuchel (7-4), who is known for his sinker, needs to start doing a better job of keeping the ball in the park. He is allowing 1.41 home runs per nine innings. That's the worst rate since his rookie season. His ERA is 4.32, and he looks the part of No. 5 starter at this point.

The Royals (43-55) are in fourth place in the division, but they are good at closing out games -- 36-1 when leading after eight innings this season. And they led 4-2 after eight innings in this game.

Scott Barlow worked the final two innings for his sixth save, but the Sox almost got to him in the ninth. After Jimenez popped out, Yoan Moncada doubled and scored on a single by Engel that made it 4-3.

Pinch-hitter Brian Goodwin had an atrocious call go against him -- a pitch that was both low and outside was called a strike -- but he managed to work the count full. With Engel running on the 3-2 pitch, Goodwin lined out to second base, and Engel was hung out to dry -- easily doubled off first to end the game.

The Sox (59-41) are 1-3 on the road trip and have lost four out of five overall. I guess this is why you get a big lead in the division, right? The division lead in the AL Central is 8.5 games. That's still comfortable. You'd just like to see the Sox swing the bats better against less-than-spectacular pitching.

Nelson Cruz is out of the AL Central ... but it won't help the White Sox

Nelson Cruz

The Minnesota Twins have officially given up on the 2021 season. The White Sox won only two of four games against Minnesota this week at Guaranteed Rate Field, but nevertheless, the South Siders are 12-4 against the Twins this season.

And the Sox (58-38) are 17 games ahead of Minnesota (41-55), which is mired in fourth place in the AL Central.

The Twins' front office obviously recognizes its over for them, and on Thursday, Minnesota traded well-respected designated hitter Nelson Cruz to the Tampa Bay Rays for pitching prospects Joe Ryan, Drew Strotman and Calvin Faucher.

Cruz, 41, continues to defy Father Time. He appeared in his seventh All-Star game earlier this month, and in 85 games with Minnesota this season, he batted .294/.370/.537 with 19 homers and 50 RBIs.

He also has tormented the Sox throughout his three years with the Twins. This season has been no exception. In 15 games against Chicago, Cruz has posted a .907 OPS with four home runs.

So, good riddance, right? Get him out of the AL Central, no?

Well, not so fast. The Sox only have three games left with the Twins, and they also have three games remaining with the Rays. So, either way, they will see Cruz three more times in the regular season.

Not to mention, Tampa Bay is a likely playoff team. The Rays entered Thursday's play with a 57-39 record, one game back of the Boston Red Sox in the AL East. The Red Sox were tied with the White Sox for the best record in the AL, in fact.

There are a lot of different ways in which the Sox could end up facing the Rays in the ALDS, or the ALCS, if both teams are fortunate enough to win a playoff round. Thus, I can't celebrate Cruz's departure from the AL Central too much. 

It will be a happy day for Sox fans when Cruz retires from baseball.

Here are the White Sox's draft picks in Rounds 1 to 10

I'm not much of a draft guru, so I won't pretend to know a lot about the guys the White Sox selected in the first 10 rounds of the MLB draft.

But, of note, the Sox selected high school position players in each of the first two rounds, followed by eight consecutive pitchers -- seven from the college ranks.

I agree with the philosophy of taking a couple of prep guys early. The Sox's farm system, frankly, is barren. It was ranked dead last among the 30 MLB teams by FanGraphs. Nearly all of the top prospects have graduated to the majors now. There isn't much coming in the next couple of years, which might be OK, given that the current core is locked up long term.

However, you'd like to see a second wave of prospects that become ready for the majors in, say, 2024 or 2025, so you don't have to undergo another long, painful rebuilding process. If these prep guys pan out, maybe they help form that second wave when it's time for the current group to be phased out.

Without further nonsense from me, here's the list of the guys the Sox have selected:

Round 1: Colson Montgomery, SS, Southridge HS, Huntingburg, Ind.

Round 2: Wes Kath, 3B, Desert Mountain HS, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Round 3: Sean Burke, RHP, Maryland

Round 4: Brooks Gosswein, LHP, Bradley

Round 5: Tanner McDougal, RHP, Silverado HS, Nevada

Round 6: Taylor Broadway, RHP, Mississippi

Round 7: Theo Denlinger, RHP, Bradley

Round 8: Fraser Ellard, LHP, Liberty

Round 9: Gil Luna Jr., LHP, Arizona

Round 10: Tommy Sommer, LHP, Indiana

Adam Engel has as many home runs as Yoan Moncada

Adam Engel

White Sox outfielder Adam Engel has played in 13 games in 2021. Hamstring injuries have limited him to only 42 at-bats through the first 89 games of the season. 

Nevertheless, Engel has homered five times in those 42 at-bats. That's the same number of home runs third baseman Yoan Moncada has in 272 at-bats. Doubt anyone expected that.

But Engel's fifth home run came at an opportune time Sunday. It was a 3-run shot in the top of the 10th inning that lifted the Sox to a 7-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles.

With the victory, the Sox are 7-0 this season against the AL-worst Orioles. They will go into the All-Star break with a five-game winning streak, a 54-35 record and an eight-game lead over the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.

Sunday's game should have been a tidy 4-2 win. Closer Liam Hendriks got two easy outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and appeared poised to secure a victory for Sox starter Dylan Cease. Instead, Hendriks got sloppy. He gave up a single to Ryan McKenna on a first-pitch, get-me-over slider, which is about the only pitch the .185-hitting McKenna can sting. 

Then the Orioles used Trey Mancini, their best player, to pinch hit. Mancini drove a 1-1 fastball, which was middle-middle, over the short porch in right field to tie the game at 4.

Hendriks struck out Pedro Severino easily to force the game to the 10th inning. Frankly, there was nothing wrong with Hendriks' stuff. All three of his outs came by strikeouts -- he just appeared to lose focus after getting the first two batters out so easily.

The Sox were in jeopardy of not scoring in the top of the 10th. Tim Anderson was placed on second as the ghost runner, and Moncada walked to set up a RBI opportunity for Jose Abreu. Alas, Abreu struck out, and Brian Goodwin flew out deep to center, advancing Anderson to third.

Baltimore reliever Tyler Wells (2-1) had a chance to get out of the inning with no damage, but he fell behind 3-1 to Engel, then served up a center-cut fastball that Engel hit out for a 7-4 Sox lead.

Jose Ruiz had problems in the bottom of the 10th. After a single, a sacrifice fly that scored the ghost runner and a walk, Baltimore pulled within 7-5 and had two men on with one out.

Matt Foster relieved and got the last two outs for his first career save. The last out was a 408-foot fly off the bat of DJ Stewart, but hey, it's 410 feet to center field at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Engel caught the ball just in front of the wall to secure the win for the Sox. They don't ask how; they just ask how many.

On vacation this week ...

 Heading to Michigan for the week ... Blogging will resume Monday, July 12.

Happy Fourth of July from The Baseball Kid