The best night of the Toronto Blue Jays‘ first half came in Philadelphia, from a pitcher on the mound for the American League. Dylan Cease started the All-Star Game on Tuesday, struck out the side in a scoreless first inning, and walked off with the win in the AL’s 4-0 shutout of the National League.
Cease needed one inning to make the case that has been plain in Toronto all season. He struck out all three outs he recorded and allowed no hits, working around a lone walk. The American League had already handed him an early lead, and as the starter of record he became the winning pitcher.
It was Cease’s first career All-Star selection, which speaks more to timing than to talent for a pitcher with two top-five Cy Young finishes on his résumé. He carried a 6-4 record and a 2.56 ERA into the break, along with 148 strikeouts — the most of any pitcher in the American League — over 98.1 innings in 17 starts. His 13.55 strikeouts per nine innings pace the Toronto rotation and nearly all of the league.
For a club that reached the break at 45-51 and in last place in the AL East, Cease has been the steadiest thing going. Sorry, but the rest of the first half earned that record: injuries thinned the rotation, the offense ranked near the bottom of the majors in runs, and the reigning AL champions spent three months looking nothing like it. Cease’s inning in Philadelphia was a reminder of what the front of this staff can still be.
Toronto opens the second half at home against the Chicago White Sox on Friday, 12 games back in the division and two and a half out of the final wild card. Cease will settle back in as the rotation’s anchor, and the Blue Jays need the version of him the rest of baseball just watched.
For fantasy managers, the All-Star start changes nothing about Cease’s standing — he was already a set-and-forget option, and leading the AL in strikeouts only reinforces it. The useful wrinkle is a rested arm: a starter who threw a single inning Tuesday should be fully stretched out for the first turn back, making him a confident play in a favorable home matchup with the White Sox.
