Cease scratched before White Sox roll over Indians, 8-0

After warming up in the outfield bullpen Thursday night, Dylan Cease made the routine walk back to the White Sox's dugout and looked ready to make the final start of his rookie season.

He wasn't.

Cease was scratched right before the game, which the Sox won over the Indians 8-0 at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The 23-year-old righty was removed from his start for "precautionary" reasons and later diagnosed with a left hamstring strain. Cease will have an MRI Friday and his season is done.

"Toward the end of my bullpen, I felt a little tweak," Cease said. "I don't think it's very severe. It's disappointing, but it is what it is."

In 14 starts for the White Sox this year, Cease was 4-7 with a 5.79 ERA. He had 81 strikeouts and 35 walks in 73 innings after arriving from Class AAA Charlotte on July 3.

"He's had his ups and downs, and he's starting to understand the way he's supposed to get after it when he can, when he has to," manager Rick Renteria said. "I know the command is what we're trying to get the most out of. He's had balls that cut a little that he's trying to control. It's still an effective pitch, he's still trying to execute and hit his spots."

Said Cease: "This was a really good season for me. I didn't really perform the way I'd like, but I learned a lot."

Reliever Jose Ruiz started in place of Cease and the Sox's bullpen shut down Cleveland, which is battling for a wild-card berth.

Offensively, American League batting leader Tim Anderson was 1-for-4. The White Sox's shortstop is hitting .338 and leads the Yankees' DJ LeMahieu, who is second at .328.

Jose Abreu leads the AL in RBI and the Sox's first baseman upped his season total to 123 with a run-scoring triple in the fifth inning.

Daniel Palka, who was 7-for-77 (.091) entering the game, hit his first 2 home runs of the season.

"It was really nice to see that happen for him," Renteria said. "Seeing his swing the last 3-4 days, it was bound to happen,"

Weather watch:

The White Sox and Tigers are scheduled to play a doubleheader Friday to make up a July 2 rainout.

With rain in the forecast, Game 1 has been moved up 30 minutes, to 3:10 p.m. If Game 2 is postponed by wet weather, the Sox and Detroit are likely to try playing another doubleheader Saturday.

Outside of Reynaldo Lopez Saturday, manager Rick Renteria isn't sure about his starters.

"It just depends on the window of time that we have to play games," Renteria said. "If the windows are questionable, I'd be hard-pressed to try to throw my starter out there to go. We might go with an opener and then go with the bullpen side of it and see where we're at."