Dylan Cease thought his stuff was decent Thursday night against the Houston Astros.
“But I wasn’t able to utilize it,” the Sox starter said.
Cease didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, and the Chicago White Sox fell to the Astros 10-2 in front of 21,795 at Minute Maid Park.
Cease (5-3) allowed seven runs (six earned) on four hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 3? innings.
“I wasn’t getting count leverage, and the offspeed wasn’t there like it usually is,” Cease said.
He matched a season high in earned runs and a season low in innings.
“I was just not quite getting down the mound like I needed to,” Cease said. “That’s what I would attribute it to mostly. They’re obviously a good offensive team, and if you put them in hitter’s counts, it’s going to be tough.”
The Astros jumped on Cease early. An infield hit and a fielder’s choice/throwing error by third baseman Yoán Moncada preceded a Michael Brantley three-run home run in the first inning. Three batters in, the Astros led 3-0.
Cease retired the next nine batters before running into trouble in the fourth. He walked Yuli Gurrie and hit Yordan Alvarez with a pitch. Carlos Correa drove one over the head of right fielder Brian Goodwin that resulted in a run-scoring, ground-rule double, making it 4-0.
Abraham Toro followed with a two-run single. Cease left after a one-out walk. He was charged with a final run when Jose Altuve brought home Toro on a sacrifice fly against reliever Zack Burdi.
“He’s been so outstanding this was really the first game where his secondary pitches weren’t consistent,” Sox manager Tony La Russa said. “He’s usually nails with them and it compliments his fastball. Today he was inconsistent. He made some good ones, but against that lineup (the inconsistency) came back and it haunted him, especially in that four-run inning.”
While the Astros showed why they have one of the top offense’s in the game, the Sox struggled to get much going at the plate. They had just one hit through five innings, a Yasmani Grandal single in the second inning against starter José Urquidy.
“(Urquidy) commanded the fastball up and down, both sides,” La Russa said. “He’s got a nice slider (and) threw some changeups, especially to left-handers.”
The Sox struck for two runs in the sixth with RBI singles from Adam Engel and José Abreu.
But Altuve hit a solo home run in the bottom of sixth, and Toro added a two-run shot in the seventh, both off reliever Matt Foster.
The Astros entered Thursday leading the majors in several offensive categories, including runs, hits and batting average.
“They’ve been together several years now, they’ve been tested, played a lot of winning baseball against good pitchers,” La Russa said. “Have solid approaches. Right now they’re at the top in a lot of things you measure as far as putting the ball in play and not chasing.
“They have a bunch of guys who are professional hitters, and getting Brantley back, it’s a deep lineup even without (injured third baseman Alex) Bregman.”
The Sox were held to four hits and lost for just the second time in eight games. They lead the American League Central by 31/2 games over the second-place Cleveland Indians.
Cease was ready to turn the page to his next start.
“That’s the name of the game,” Cease said. “Obviously we’re not going to be perfect. We’re going to have bad ones. I’m going to feel bad for tonight and then tomorrow I’m going to get back after it.”
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