Among the many things on John Schneider’s plate right now is the prep work to manage the American League in next week’s All-Star Game, a set of duties that includes selecting a starting pitcher. So, in the lead-up to the break, he’s naturally kept tabs on various candidates for the honour, with his own ace on the Toronto Blue Jays, Dylan Cease, very much among them.
“You’re kind of quietly watching what they’re doing, you know?” he said Wednesday morning when asked if Cease can help his case in his final outing before Tuesday’s Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia. “So, I hope that it’s a very productive outing for Dylan and the Toronto Blue Jays.”
Cease proceeded to not just deliver a productive outing, but a near-historic one, carrying a no-hitter into the ninth before Heliot Ramos’ leadoff single ended the bid in a 10-0 thumping of the San Francisco Giants. The 30-year-old threw a no-no for the San Diego Padres against the Washington Nationals on July 25, 2024 – when he struck out nine and walked three in a 114-pitch gem – and was similarly dominant at Oracle Park, recording 14 outs before issuing the first of his three walks while striking out 11 over eight innings.
On the cusp of joining Dave Stieb with the club’s second ever no-no, Ramos ripped a sinker to centre, Schneider came out to get his ace and fans of both teams in the stands gave him a standing ovation as he walked off.
“I think I was better today” than during the no-hitter two years ago, Cease said. “I was really commanding the ball well, mixing the ball well and I’m just happy it wasn’t Luis (Arraez) that broke it up again.”
The Giants second baseman broke up another near-miss for Cease, that one with two outs in the ninth inning Sept. 3, 2022, with the Chicago White Sox against the Minnesota Twins, and was due to follow Ramos.
He didn’t get the chance to play spoiler again, and close calls are very familiar for the Blue Jays since Stieb finally got his gem Sept. 2, 1990, with Brandon Morrow, Dustin McGowan, Marco Estrada and Bowden Francis among those to flirt with the feat.
Taking the mound in the ninth, “it’s impossible for it not to be in your mind,” Cease conceded, but shifted his thoughts to his sequencing, first up to Ramos.
“I spin the ball well, they probably know that, and I’m thinking (Ramos) is probably going to be looking for a slider at some point,” Cease explained. “I figured if I go a couple of heaters and then sinker in, (it would) surprise him. I wish I got it a little more in, but good batter got a hit, it’s baseball. Could have been a groundball one day. It’s a hit today. It’s all it is really.”
Before that swing, Cease’s effort survived a difficult seventh, when Jung Hoo Lee grinded out nine pitches before flying out to deep right and Willy Adames sent a grounder up the middle that Ernie Clement scooped and fired to first. And it held through the eighth, which opened with Bryce Eldridge sending a drive to deep centre that Daulton Varsho chased down before crashing into the wall.
That left him at 115 pitches through eight, but Schneider wasn’t going to pull back the reins.
“Dylan came in after the sixth and said, ‘I got 120,’ and I said, ‘OK,’” the manager relayed. “And then after the seventh, he said, ‘I got 130.’ It was his until he gave up the hit. Just really fun to watch him execute, good pace, good stuff. Awesome day for him.”
While Schneider wasn’t going to let Cease’s pitch count get “outrageous,” he said that “if a guy has a chance to throw a no-hitter, you let him do it and you make adjustments after that.”
The 118 pitches he finished with were a career-high, spurred along by the defensive gems made behind him that made the no-no feel inevitable.
“Especially when Daulton made that play, it was like, man, that’s what happens in no-hitters,” said Cease. “At that point, I really did have it on my mind, and I thought, all right, we got a shot today. But I really just kept trying to attack and get outs.”
Varsho caught Tyler Gilbert’s no-hitter with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2021 and said he felt a surge of adrenaline chasing down Eldridge’s smash – “it’s just like you either want the ball or you don’t, and in that moment I was like, OK, bring it on.” But he also thought through the outing from a catcher’s perspective and “the only pitch I kind of shook my head at that (Cease) threw was the sinker in to Ramos because it gives him a chance to stay inside of it and flip it over the infield.”
“I’m sure he’ll think about that one for a while, because he kind of dominated going down and away to him,” Varsho added. “But he made his choice, that’s what he wanted and it just sucks.”
Regardless, the outing should not only bolster Cease’s case to start for the American League, but more importantly, it extended the rejuvenation Tuesday’s 9-3 provided after the low point of an 8-1 thumping Monday.
The Blue Jays ambushed Logan Webb in the first when Varsho dunked an RBI single to open the scoring and Kazuma Okamoto followed with his first career grand slam in the majors. And the Blue Jays kept adding on from there, getting a two-run shot from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a solo drive from George Springer back-to-back in the ninth.
They open a three-game series Friday on the road against the San Diego Padres, trying to maintain some consistency in their approach at the plate and make up some ground in the wild-card race.
“We’re kind of getting back to the baseball we want to play, we want to grind every pitcher and battle,” said Varsho. “We did a good job of that.”
Cease has done a good job throughout his first season with the Blue Jays since signing a $210-million, seven-year deal back in the winter, arriving at the all-star break with 148 strikeouts, second in the majors to Milwaukee phenom Jacob Misiorowski’s 167, in 98.1 innings over 17 starts. His ERA of 2.56 is seventh in the majors, while his WHIP of 1.13 is 22nd.
Driving his success is better usage of his sinker, changeup and curveball to complement his dominant fastball and slider, with pitching coach Pete Walker believing a focus on “getting him to move a little faster” in his delivery being key.
“There are times when he’s pretty deliberate with his delivery, it gets slow, that’s when he overthinks it and can get in trouble mechanically,” explained Walker. “Today he had great tempo. I thought his turn toward home plate was on time and he was in a great position. I felt like his delivery was really under control. And those are the things we’ve been focusing on and he did a great job with it.”
All of which leads to his case to start the All-Star Game.
Cam Schlittler, who is slated to start for the New York Yankees on Saturday, is a leading candidate, but how much the team is willing to let him throw is a question.
Ranger Suarez of the Boston Red Sox also goes Saturday, Joe Ryan starts for the Minnesota Twins on Sunday, with Drew Rasmussen pitching Thursday for the Rays and Parker Messick going Friday for the Cleveland Guardians.
Schneider said factoring into the decision will be “who’s going to be on turn, who is probably deserving based on innings, wins, quality starts, strikeouts. There are a few guys. Dylan’s one of them, in my mind, not just because I’m his manager. …
“By no means do I want to be biased,” he added. “This is about baseball, not about really any one individual. I’ll try to make the best decision I can, but I’m going to get input from a lot of different people, too. The people that have done it before me from this seat, pitching coaches, but I think we all kind of look at the same things.”
Cease would be the third Blue Jays pitcher to start an All-Star Game, joining Stieb (1983 and ’84) and Roy Halladay (2009).
Asked about his chances of joining them, he said, “a lot of that’s dependent on if Cam can start. I feel like he’s probably earned it. But if he’s not throwing it, then I would love to throw my name in the hat. It’s out of my pay grade, but if asked, I would probably say yes.”
He made his case in a big way Wednesday afternoon, nearly carving out a place for himself in Blue Jays lore in the process.
Keep it Factual
Add CityNews Toronto as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.
