GLENDALE, Ariz. — Jimmy Lambert exchanged texts with fellow White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease shortly after Cease’s atrocious Cactus League start against the Royals Wednesday night.
“I said, ‘Are you healthy?’ ’’ Lambert said. “He said, ‘Yeah.’ So then who cares. On to the next one.”
Lambert was not at the game, so the line score he saw on Cease — 11 runs allowed while recording two outs — startled him as much as everybody else. It’s spring training. Pitchers work on things, they’re not game ready. And stuff happens.
As Cease said, “flush it” and move on to the next start.
“He just wasn’t landing his slider,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “That’s his bread and butter and he was pulling it just a little bit. Once you get behind the count you’ve got to come in and you’ve got to commit to the heart of the plate and those guys did a nice job of not missing the pitches that they could hit.”
The Royals also swung early in counts, a trend Grifol has noticed from most teams in most games this spring.
“Weird things happen in spring training,” said Lambert, who gave up two homers on three pitches in a game last week after allowing four all of last season. “If you played that [Cease] game over a thousand times it would never happen again. That’s just the way it is.”
Bummer’s first pen
Left-hander Aaron Bummer threw his first bullpen Thursday, tossing about 15 pitches as he slowly works his way back following an offseason that saw him slowly recover from the lat and shoulder problems that limited him to 32 relief appearances last season.
“I was happy with the command, the movement profiles,” Bummer said. “I threw all my pitches and I felt good throwing it all. As long as we feel good moving forward, we’re right where we need to be.”
Bummer is still aiming to be ready by Opening Day in three weeks, which seems optimistic considering he has yet to ramp up intensity in his throwing, pitch live batting practice or appear in a game.
“There’s still hurdles to climb,” he said.
Versatility matters
First baseman/right fielder Gavin Sheets will play the second part of Friday’s game against the Cubs in left field, part of Grifol’s aim to give multiple players at least a few innings at positions where they might be needed in a pinch during the season. To that end, first baseman Andrew Vaughn has taken ground balls at third base.
Grifol also has to identify an emergency catcher, a title Danny Mendick worked at last season by catching occasional bullpens.
“Versatility is really important to me,” Grifol said. “We have guys that are capable of doing a lot of things. And we just have to put them in a position where they feel comfortable doing them. You’ll see a lot of moving parts here. We have to make sure we think about our roster because there’s always a guy that ends up playing a position that he’s never played before in the Major Leagues.”
Colombia 5, White Sox 4
Team Colombia defeated a Sox squad comprised of mostly prospects, including infielder Lenyn Sosa, who had an RBI double, and catcher Carlos Perez, who had two hits including an RBI single.
*Two Sox minor leaguers pitched for Colombia, including Luke Shilling who struck out two batters in the ninth and recorded a save, then, in a Sox uniform joined Colombia’s handshake line.
*Michael Kopech, who could make his first Cactus League start early next week, “looked great” in two innings of live batting practice Wednesday, manager Pedro Grifol said. “His stuff was good, fastball was explosive, sliders were good. Threw some changeups, pitched up in the zone. He’s in a good spot, man. I was really encouraged with what he did.”
On deck: Sox at Cubs, 2:05 p.m., Friday, Mesa, Lucas Giolito (0-0, 9.00) vs. Drew Smyly (0-1, 11.25), Marquee, 670-AM. Giolito is slated for three innings in his second start. Reynaldo Lopez is also scheduled in relief.
