We’d best hope that whatever demons accosted Dylan Cease in Surprise tonight don’t plan on accompanying him back to colder climates.
Whether it stemmed from pitch clock-inspired urgency or just regular old bad command, tonight’s version of Cease was an ugly throwback to one of his bad outings before 2022. He recorded twice as many walks (four) as outs, and he fell behind to just about every hitter he didn’t walk, showing a pretty much complete inability to throw any of his off-speed pitches over the plate. The result? When he did occasionally send a fastball plate-ward, hitters were more than ready for it.