TORONTO – Dylan Cease’s stuff is always overwhelming, but over the past couple of weeks, he’s also steadily progressed toward his performance peak, too. Between finding a better mix for the complementary offerings behind his fastball and slider, and a mechanical tweak, keeping his glove tighter to his body so his delivery remains compact, the Toronto Blue Jays ace is pitching deeper into games, throwing seven innings in three straight starts.
The most dominant of the three came Wednesday, when he held baseball’s best contact lineup to one run while striking out nine before Daulton Varsho eventually delivered a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning to prevent a second Tampa Bay Rays sweep in 10 days.
A promising Blue Jays rally in the eighth produced the tying run and forced extra innings, where the American League East leaders seemed set to pull out a second straight win in extras after RBI singles from Ben Williamson and Yandy Diaz.
But one-out walks by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – his third base on balls of the night – and Kazuma Okamoto off Aaron Brooks set the stage for Varsho, who lashed a four-seamer over the wall in left for a 5-3 victory.
Up to that point, there were parallels to Tuesday’s 7-6, 10-inning loss, when a late comeback managed only to tie the game without plating a go-ahead run. And along with last week’s 4-3 loss at Tropicana Field, it was on the verge of becoming another near miss that could have the Blue Jays 3-3 with the Rays so far, rather than the current 1-5.
Offence remains an issue – the Blue Jays hit into four double plays, three in the first four innings versus Griffin Jax – and timely hits like Varsho’s have been few and far between.
At 19-24, they need to correct quickly, as after an off-day Thursday, they head to Detroit for three games before a four-game set at Yankee Stadium and are in danger of getting buried before their corps of injured players return.
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