ARLINGTON, Texas — One day after anxiously waiting for the trade deadline to pass, Dylan Cease, still wearing a White Sox uniform, looked nothing like the 2022 Cy Young runnerup contending teams were inquiring about to bolster their starting rotations.
Needing 79 pitches to get through 1 2⁄3 innings, Cease allowed seven runs on seven hits and three walks against the Rangers at Globe Life Field. He struck out one batter, and threw 45 pitches in the second inning before manager Pedro Grifol pulled him with two outs.
Grifol had a beef with umpire Adam Hamari after the second inning and was ejected for the fourth time this season.
Meanwhile, former Sox right-hander Dane Dunning extended the Sox’ scoreless streak to 26 innings by pitching 7 2⁄3 innings of one-run ball. Dunning, 0-3 with a 6.10 ERA in his previous three starts, retired 21 batters in a row before Seby Zavala homered with two out in the eighth inning of an 11-1 loss.
Before Zavala’s homer, his seventh of the season, the Sox were held to singles by Luis Robert Jr. and Eloy Jimenez in the first inning.
The rout came a day or so after the Sox officially raised a white flag on the season and their failed rebuild that began with two big trades in 2016, one of them bringing Dunning, Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez to the South Side for Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton. Dunning was traded to the Rangers for Lance Lynn in December, 2008. Lynn is no longer a Sox, sent to the Dodgers with Joe Kelly for three minor leaguers. Giolito and Lopez were traded to the Angels.
The Sox were known to be listening to offers for Cease, another key piece acquired in a rebuild trade with the Cubs, and asking for a hefty return — he’s under club contract control through 2025.
“It was just kind of a wait and see moment,” Cease said Tuesday night after the deadline passed. “I really didn’t have any other information on that. I was just hanging out and seeing what was happening.
“The unknown of it is kind of interesting.”
Cease hasn’t been the same pitcher he was last year, with velocity numbers a mile per hour down on average on his fastball, curve and slider. He was sixth in strikeouts per nine innings at 10.78 but his ERA climbed from 4.15 to 4.61. Against the Rangers, his command was poor and his stuff wasn’t sharp, either.
The last time the Sox (43-66) were 23 games below .500 (a season low) was the final day of the 2018 season when when they were 62-100.
The loss to the Rangers (62-46) was their ninth in 11 games, 11th in 14 and 31st of 46.
“We have to put this together,” Grifol said Wednesday. “Not only do we have to put it together on the field, but the right chemistry together and create a nice foundation where we can build a good culture that is going to allow us to move forward in the direction we want to go. That’s really important for us.”
This and that
Outfielder Trayce Thompson, acquired from the Dodgers in the Lance Lynn/Joe Kelly trade Friday, will be activated Thursday. Thompson joined the team in Texas Wednesday.
*Right-hander Jimmy Lambert was recalled from Charlotte.