Blue Jays 10, Giants 0: Dylan Cease Takes A One-Hitter Into The Ninth Inning . . . Of The Human Heart (Probably)

 

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What a lot of fun this one was! And from the very beginning, too: the Blue Jays blooped and blasted their way to a five-run first against the excellent (except for today) Logan Webb, Kazuma Okamoto's grand slam being the obvious central event of that especially sikk inning. After that, everything else was quiet aside from a couple more Blue Jays runs in the eighth, and three more on back-to-back home runs from Vladdy (there you go, Vladdy; there you go, Vladdy) and George Springer in the ninth. And when I say everything else was quiet, it really was everything, in that Dylan Cease was perfect through four, and several innings and just three walks later, he took the mound in the ninth looking to complete the second no-hitter of his career, and the Blue Jays' first since Dave Stieb's in September 1990 (we were in the stands for the Roy Halladay ten-inning shutout where he carried a no-hitter all the way through two outs in the eighth in 2003, I feel like noting here [if not here, where?]). Heliot Ramos singled on a liner to centre field just three pitches into the ninth, though, and that was that: Cease was a hundred-and-eighteen pitches in, and it had been a laugher for a while, so John Schneider brought in Tyler Rogers (a former Giant making his return to San Francisco for the first time since he was traded to the Mets last year) to finish things up. In the end, Dylan Cease's line read no runs on one hit with three walks and eleven strikeouts (five in a row at one point, I think it was) in eight innings. As a last start before the All-Star game goes, this really couldn't have gone much better, and puts Cease in the conversation for American League starter in that pretty neat game I genuinely still enjoy every year (it probably should be, and probably will be, the Yankees' Cam Schlittler who gets the start, if he's up for it). Even before it became clear that Dylan Cease wasn't just having a good day, but a great one, with a chance at an historic one (in the admittedly limited sense of baseball history), this game was already so much fun after the five-run first made it seem likely the Blue Jays would pretty much for sure win the series. It's remarkable what back-to-back wins to take a series on the road can do for one's disposition; I've felt it often enough that I shouldn't be surprised when it happens, but it got me again. 

And hey, would you believe we're only two-and-a-half back of the Rangers as we head to San Diego for the final series before the break? As I am sure I mention every year at exactly this time, the last series before the break is a particularly fraught one, in that, should you lose it, you have five whole days to stew on in it before the next (non-All-Star) game, which is honestly more than any of us should have to bear. But maybe we'll win it? As the Padres have been no better than we've been this year? Whatever it is, exactly, that has befallen us so far, there's really kind of a lot of it going around this year.  

KS