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| Dylan Cease |
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.
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