Dylan Cease’s five good innings, Jose Abreu’s three RBI lift White Sox past Tigers

White Sox win for fourth time in five games on road trip

Right-hander Dylan Cease lasted only five innings for the fifth time in his six starts, but this time he kept the damage to a reasonable level — a season-low two runs — in the White Sox’ 5-3 win against the struggling Tigers Tuesday afternoon at Comerica Park.

Cease, 23, the Sox’ second-ranked pitching prospect behind Michal Kopech, who is out after having Tommy John surgery, is navigating his first tour of the major leagues. Fans, media, teammates and Sox management are watching closely, knowing much of the team’s future hangs on his right arm that delivers mid to upper 90 mph velocity with a sharp overhand curveball.

What are the Sox watching?

“How is he going to manage the situations presented to him, how is he going to handle trying to command the arm he has,” manager Rick Renteria said Tuesday. “You see the gift he has, obviously a very good arm. Hopefully the work they’re doing to clean up the action on his pitches is showing through. I think it is, I think he’s getting better.”

Cease avoided the “extraordinary events,” as Renteria put it, often encountered in his first five starts. Over his last three, he gave up 11 of his 12 runs in a single inning.

Cease (2-4) won for the first time since he beat the Tigers in his debut at Guaranteed Rate Field July 3. In that one, he allowed three runs in five innings.

In this one, the lowly Tigers (32-77) nicked him for a run in the third and a run in the fourth.

Cease did not avoid rather heavy traffic, though, allowing seven hits in five innings and never facing the minimum in any of them. He needed 101 pitches to get through it.

“And even if he does have traffic, how does he handle those situations?” Renteria said. “Those are big things for us to learn from for him and for us. I repeat — this guy is going to be an excellent major league pitcher. Elite. Has a good chance to be elite.”

Jose Abreu drove in three runs with three hits, hiking his team-leading RBI total to 81. Abreu hit his 24th homer in the first inning to give Cease a 1-0 lead, and Ryan Goins tripled before Adam Engel doubled for another Sox run in the second against Tigers lefty Daniel Norris (3-9).

Abreu doubled in a run in the fifth and Welington Castillo, who caught Cease in his return from emergency family leave, hit his sixth homer in the sixth. Abreu singled home Leury Garcia in the ninth to make it 5-2.

The Sox bullpen combined for four innings of one-run relief with contributions from Evan Marshall, Aaron Bummer (two innings) and Alex Colome (22nd save in 23 chances).

The Sox, who won for the fourth time in five games on their current road trip, face the Tigers again in the second game of a day-night doubleheader at 6:10 p.m. (Central time).