White Sox’ Dylan Cease striving for efficiency in second major league start

Cease, who needed 101 pitches to get through 5 innings in debut, hoping long layoff won’t affect his feel.

Dylan Cease will start against the Royals Tuesday with 12 days rest. That’s more than a double dose.

Rest is good, and maybe wise as the Sox map their rookie’s workload for 2019 as a bridge to 2020 when he’ll make an Opening Day roster with his first full season on the horizon.

The layoff also runs the risk of Cease not being sharp in that first inning on Tuesday, but so be it.

“I don’t anticipate it affecting my feel, but I guess we’ll have to see,” said Cease, who threw five innings of three-run ball in his debut against the Tigers on July 3. Cease will have two side sessions under his belt between the starts.

“Pretty much staying in my same routine,” he said. “One side a week and [playing catch] spinning stuff, preparing [to pitch].”

While fans have called for Cease’s arrival since season, the Sox have practiced patience, saying their top pitching prospect needed to polish up a few things. The key items, Cease said, were commanding his fastball, throwing more strikes and working on his slider.

“Making sure the slider is harder than 80 [mph] and not as the same as my curveball,” he said. “When you get to the higher level, all the little things add up to bigger things.”

Cease struck out six and walked two Tigers in his outing and needed 101 pitches to get through five innings.

“I need to be efficient,” said. “Basically fastball command and not wasting pitches. If I command my stuff I can get through that many.”

Castillo nears return

Catcher Welington Castillo (oblique) is expected to return from his minor league rehab assignment at Charlotte during the road trip, which continues in Kansas City for four games starting Monday and Tampa Bay next weekend.

That could spell a return to Charlotte for rookie catcher Zack Collins, who is 2-for-xx and started only four games behind the plate since his callup June 18. AJ Reed, like Collins a left-handed hitter, is expected to get most of the designated hitter reps from the left side.

Herrera: ‘Worst stretch of my career’

Kelvin Herrera thought he was all the way back from a Lisfranc surgery (left foot) when he was pitching to a 1.59 ERA over seven relief appearances during a stretch in June but things have turned for the former All-Star who was signed to a two-year, $17 million deal in the offseason.

Herrera has given up nine runs (eight earned) on 10 hits over his last six appearances covering 3 2/3 innings.

He said he feels healthy, which is why “this is the worst stretch of my career,” he said.

“But I don’t want to get frustrated because I’ve had a lot of good moments in my career. Obviously I want to do well, they signed me here to do a job.”

Herrera says he’s not “going to reinvent myself. I’m going to trust my routine, keep working and attack hitters and see what happens.”

This and that

Shortstop Tim Anderson (high ankle sprain) is taking batting practice, fielding grounders and moving well but his minor league rehab stint is not imminent. ‘‘He’s still not pushing off that leg as well as we’d like,” Renteria said. “But he’s healing. We’re going to be careful.”

*Eloy Jimenez was the DH for the first time, “just to get him off his feet,” said Renteria, noting Jimenez made every start in left field since returning from his high ankle sprain.