The Chicago White Sox are not going to the playoffs. They have been eliminated from postseason contention in both the American League Central Division and the American League Wild Card race. The teams are officially set but now we will just wait to see who is seeded where.
In the meantime, there are still a few things for White Sox fans to watch for as this very disappointing season comes to an end. That is the pitching of Dylan Cease who is in the middle of a Cy Young Award type of season.
He isn’t a lock to win and he might even be the long shot compared to Justin Verlander of the Houston Astros. He is certainly ahead of the other competitors in the American League and should finish no lower than second place.
Cease is second in baseball with a 2.06 ERA. The only person he trails is Verlander who has a 1.80. He is second behind Gerrit Cole in American League strikeouts with 222 and cunting as well. He won’t catch Cole, but Shohei Ohtani or Robbie Ray won’t catch him for second.
He is also the pitcher that leads the American League in batting average against but Verlander is right on his tail. With a big game against the Padres on Saturday, he might be able to lock in that lead for the season.
Chicago White Sox ace Dylan Cease is pitching for a lot in his final start of 2022.
The cool thing about Cease is that Saturday will lock him into 32 starts on the season which is a full season for a starting pitcher. No other White Sox starter can say that this year. He has shown the ability to pitch at an extremely high level while staying healthy.
Going up against the San Diego Padres lineup is not going to be easy. They are a hungry team that has struggled to score lately so they are going to bring their best effort in this game against an elite pitcher like Cease. Facing guys like Juan Soto and Manny Machado is really difficult.
Davis Martin was able to shut them down on Friday night so we can only hope that Cease picked up a thing or two about pitching to this lineup. An amazing performance could mean big things for the White Sox ace.