White Sox crush Twins 13-0, Dylan Cease plays nine-inning game

The Chicago White Sox won 13-0 over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday as White Sox’s starting pitcher Dylan Cease played a full nine-inning game.

Cease held the Twins scoreless, disallowed any run from the Twins' batting lineup, and tallied a nearly no-hit performance, allowing only one hit.

The only hit for the Twins came in the ninth inning, courtesy of Luis Arraez. Arraez hit the ball thrown by the 26-year-old pitcher into the right center of the field as Cease was going for two strikes and two outs.

Arraez, who leads the American League with a .318 batting average, ended Cease’s effort to be listed as one of the White Sox’s pitchers with a “no-hitter” game.

Due to his pitch being hit in this game, Cease could not manage to match Lucas Giolito’s no-hitter performance against the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020, and Carlos Rodon’s against Cleveland Guardians in April 2021.

''Obviously, it's disappointing,'' Cease said. ''But that's the game.''

However, Cease finished his first-inning complete game by striking out Twins’ batter Kyle Garlick as the teammates celebrated his performance with high-fives as Cease walked off the field. Also, the fans chanted his name loudly “Cease! Cease!"

''It would have meant a lot,'' Cease said. ''It's obviously an incredibly difficult feat to achieve. It definitely would have meant a lot.''

Before this game, Cease claimed that he was not on his “sharpest stuff." Pitching for the fifth inning, he did not manage to strike out any Twins batter, but he ended the game with a total of seven strikeouts.

With the result, Cease recorded a total of 103 pitches and struck out for 68 this when pitching for White Sox.

Cease retired several players in this game, including Jake Cave and Gilberto Celestino, which happened when White Sox’s catcher Gary Sanchez made a double play on Cave and Celestino, who was stranded when Cease struck out Arraez in sixth.

White Sox catcher Seby Zavala said that he started to think about Cease recording a no-hitter in this game in the third inning.

''I started counting outs,'' he said. ''I felt like we had something going on.''

Meanwhile, the Twins’ third baseman Gio Urshela asserted that Arraez was the “perfect guy” to end the possibility of Cease recording a no-hitter play.

''Yeah, he's the perfect guy for that situation if you want to break a no-hitter,'' he said. ''That was the perfect guy for that.''

White Sox's players contributions in the game

Eloy Jimenez, Romy Gonzalez and Elvis Andrus were among the White Sox batters who homered as the team won the game. Jimenez tallied his three-run shot in the first inning against Twins’ starting pitcher Tyler Mahle.

It was followed by Gonzalez, who tallied his first-career homers in the fourth inning, for a three-run shot against Twins’ reliever Aaron Sanchez. Then, Andrus hit the ball for a grand slam to secure four points in the eighth inning.

After the match, White Sox recorded a four-game winning streak win and stay in the third position in the AL Central division. They rank under the Guardians in the first position and Twins in the second, with two games behind.

Both teams will be up against for the final game out of the three-game series on Sunday.