HOUSTON — So much for the meaning of spring training.
Dylan Cease was back to his Cy Young caliber stuff in a 3-2 White Sox victory on Opening night.
After posting a 7.31 ERA in Arizona, Cease stymied the defending World Series champion Houston Astros with his most dominant performance since his near-no hitter against the Twins last September, retiring 19 straight batters after World Series MVP Jeremy Pena’s leadoff single Thursday. Cease struck out 10 batters and walked none before exiting with one out in the seventh inning of a scoreless game with his pitch count at 86.
Catcher Yasmani Grandal hit a tying homer in the eighth against Rafael Montero, and first baseman Andrew Vaughn’s two-run double in the ninth against Astros closer Ryan Pressly broke a 1-1 tie as the Sox won in Pedro Grifol’s managerial debut.
Touching 98 mph after usually topping out at 95 in Cactus League games, Cease threw his fastball for strikes and his slider and curve, too. He worked ahead in the count.
After striking out Alex Bregman, his 10th punchout of the night to tie Jack McDowell’s Sox Opening Day record of 10 in 1991, Cease hit Yordan Alvarez with a slider in the dirt, then gave up a single to left to former Sox Jose Abreu.
With lefty Michael Tucker coming up, Grifol went to lefty Aaron Bummer, who walked Kyle Tucker to load the bases. After striking out Yainer Diaz, Bummer bounced his first pitch to Jake Meyers off Grandal’s mitt, allowing Alvarez to score the go-ahead run.
Grandal tied it 1-1 against Rafael Montero with a 401-foot home run to right-center. That came two batters after Yoan Moncada tried stretching a two-out error by Abreu at first base into three bases, but was out for the first out of the inning. It was the kind of bad baserunning that plagued the Sox at times during their disappointing 81-81 season last year.
Cease was charged with one run on two hits in 6 1⁄3 innings. Of his 86 pitches, 62 were strikes.
Astros starter Framber Valdez, who finished fifth in Cy Young voting last season — Cease was second — pitched five scoreless innings before getting lifted by manager Dusty Baker at 85 pitches.
Valdez escaped a bases loaded, one out jam in the fifth. The Sox loaded the bases with one out in the seventh against Hector Neris but Andrew Vaughn and Eloy Jimenez, the 3-4 batters Grifol’s lineup, struck out.
Kendall Graveman pitched a scoreless eighth and Reynaldo Lopez, touching 100-mph, pitched the ninth for his first career save, but not before giving up a 440-foot homer to Alvarez to cut the Sox lead to 3-2.
Lopez got Abreu on a bouncer to third and Tucker to end the game, ending the Astros’ 10-game winning streak on Opening Day.
“It was an emotional day,” Grifol said before the game. “I got a bunch of text messages, a bunch of phone calls from people I love, people I care for, people that care for me. And I got a bunch of text messages and phone calls from people I haven’t spoken to in a long time. It just meant a lot. Never realize how many people you impact in life until they are calling you years later and just telling you thank you.
“It was an emotional day and it was an emotional morning. But now I’ve got to go work and flush it out, and we’ve got to go to work.”