Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dylan Cease threw a career-high 118 pitches against the San Francisco Giants last Wednesday, coming within three outs of a no-hitter.Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press
He rarely ceases to amaze.
On Sunday, Blue Jays ace Dylan Cease was announced as the American League’s starter at Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia.
He will join Dave Stieb (1983 and 1984) and Roy Halladay (2009) as the only Toronto pitchers to start the Midsummer Classic.
Cam Schlittler of the New York Yankees was considered the leading contender to start but Blue Jays manager John Schneider informed Major League Baseball of his decision on Saturday night.
Schneider is the American League’s manager as a result of the club winning the pennant in 2025.
Schlittler pulled out of the game on Sunday because he threw 6 2/3 innings against the Washington Nationals on Saturday. Schlittler was concerned about pitching between his regular starts.
“If Cam was going to pitch, my choice was still going to be Dylan regardless,” Schneider said before Sunday’s contest in San Diego with the Padres.
Blue Jays squash Giants 10-0, with Dylan Cease falling short in no-hit bid
Schneider broke the news to Cease and his teammates before the game by unveiling a whiteboard which contained some of the quirky Cease’s favourite things: a baseball field, cats and oysters.
Schneider said he called New York manager Aaron Boone in the morning to tell him he had chosen Cease as Tuesday’s starter and also to talk to him about managing in his first All-Star Game.
The announcement was made four days after Cease took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in San Francisco against the Giants. He was pulled after giving up a lead-off single.
He threw a career-high 118 pitches before being replaced in a 10-0 victory.
“After six innings, he said ‘I’ve got 120 [pitches] in me,’” Schneider said afterwards. “After seven he said, ‘I’ve got 130.’”
Cease will be the American League’s starter at Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Philadelphia.Jeff Chiu/The Associated Press
Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sanchez will start for the National League.
Cease ended the unofficial first half of the season with a 6-4 record and 2.56 earned-run average and 148 strikeouts in 98 1/3 innings. He has struck out 10 or more batters in seven of his 17 starts and opposing hitters have just a .189 average against him. It is his first time in an all-star game.
In December the Blue Jays signed him to a seven-year, US$210-million contract, the largest awarded to a free agent in franchise history.
The 30-year-old right-hander struck out 200 or more batters in each of the previous five seasons and is well on his way to accomplishing that again. He has won four of his last five starts during which he has surrendered only six runs.
Toronto entered Sunday with four victories in its last seven outings and had pulled within five games of .500. The Blue Jays were last in the American League East, but still just 2 1/2 games out of a wildcard playoff position.
Blue Jays may need a run better than last year’s to turn their season around
Ernie Clement will start at second base for the American League and reliever Louis Varland was named to its pitching staff. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was voted in as the starting first baseman but declined the opportunity due to a sore back.
The only other Toronto player who was deserving of a spot on the team was third baseman Kazuma Okamoto, who entered Sunday with 22 home runs and 62 runs batted in. He has been the club’s most valuable player up to this point.
Okamoto has tied Shohei Ohtani for the most home runs by a Japanese-born rookie in major league history. He is also only two home runs shy of the club record for a rookie, set by Eric Hinske in 2002.
Okamoto finished second among third baseman in the AL in fan voting and thus was not automatically named to the team. The only other option was for him to compete in the home run derby, but he was not selected for it.