Cease tossed seven shutout innings while striking out 12 Tuesday for High-A Winston-Salem against Lynchburg. He allowed two hits and zero walks.
At one point in the 22-year-old righty's career outing he retired 19 batters in a row. Cease now ranks eighth among all minor-league pitchers with 36 strikeouts over 26.1 innings this season. He consistently threw his mid-90s fastball in this outing, reportedly touching 100 mph on the ballpark's radar gun, which is not a new development for the fireballer. Cease also credited mixing in his changeup in this one to keep hitters off his fastball, MiLB.com's Andrew Battifarano reports. The number one statistic to keep an eye on with Cease in 2018 is innings pitched. He has never topped 100 innings in a season as a pro (career-high 93.1 innings last year) and will need to start eclipsing that mark if he wants to shed the future reliever label.