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 for the first time in his career.
The most dominant of the three came Wednesday, when he held baseball’s best contact lineup to one run while striking out nine, and Daulton Varsho made his efforts count with a walk-off grand slam in the 10th inning, a 5-3 victory averting a second Tampa Bay Rays sweep in 10 days.
“We were freaking out,” said Cease, who was in the clubhouse doing post-outing arm care with other pitchers when Varsho’s drive stopped a three-game losing streak. “Very happy.”
For good reason, as a promising Blue Jays rally in the eighth produced only the tying run that forced extra innings, where the American League East leaders took a 3-1 lead on RBI singles from Ben Williamson and Yandy Diaz.
But one-out walks by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – his third of the night – and Kazuma Okamoto – whose sacrifice fly in the eighth tied the game 1-1 – set the stage for Varsho, who lashed an Aaon Brooks four-seamer over the wall in left, as a crowd of 40,119 roared. He was just 3-for-20 against the Rays heading into that at-bat and hadn’t homered since April 30, with just two extra-base hits this month until he connected.
“I thought I took some good swings today, I thought overall my at-bats have been good,” said Varsho, who added he’d been “trying to do mechanical things” in the batter’s box, which led to him “swinging at stuff that shouldn't be swinging at, just trying to feel for myself in the box instead of trusting my approach in the box.”
Until then, there were parallels to Tuesday’s 7-6, 10-inning loss, when another late Blue Jays comeback managed only to tie the game without plating a go-ahead run. Along with last week’s 4-3 loss at Tropicana Field, another 50-50 contest that didn’t go their way, the Blue Jays could easily be 3-3 against the Rays rather than the current, ugly 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.
The difference in what manager John Schneider described as “a big win,” and the element he most wants to see carried over, is the way his hitters were “commanding the zone.”
“And in a perfect world the slug comes up earlier in the game,” he added. “You look up and Jax is at 66 pitches, 38 strikes and three double plays, with four walks and you're just lacking the big hit, you're lacking a home run with guys on base. So you've got to keep grinding, you've got to keep doing that, passing the baton. … I like the fact that they just kept going, moved the order and then waited for someone to get the big hit and great swing from Varsh.”
The challenge, of course, is to get such swings more often, as at 19-24, they need to correct quickly or risk getting buried before their corps of injured players start returning. After an off-day Thursday, the Blue Jays head to Detroit for three games before a four-game set at Yankee Stadium, and they leave for the trip 6-13 on the road so far.
That’s why when Varsho’s drive cleared the wall, Guerrero said he “felt relief, felt good.”
“We needed this win,” added the slumping slugger, who started his day with an hour of early hitting on the field and looked much better than he has in a while. “We took good at-bats and we put the ball in play a lot. When you put ball in play and you take your walks, something like this can happen.”
Varsho, whose “face still hurt for a little bit” Wednesday after slamming into the wall making a sensational catch Tuesday, concurred.
“Trust the guy behind you, knowing that you don't have to be the selfish one to get that hit or make that pitch,” he said. “It's just like, trust everybody in this lineup, in the clubhouse and go out there and give it your all every day and trust it, because that's how we win a lot of ballgames.”
The Blue Jays will also win a lot of ballgames if Cease continues to pitch the way he’s been.
He only faced two batters over the minimum through six and surrendered the only run against him in the seventh, when he walked Jonathan Aranda and Jake Fraley around a Yandy Diaz pop-up and Richie Palacios dunked an RBI single to centre.
Cease finished at exactly 100 pitches, using his sinker, slider and curveball alongside his four-seamer and slider to contain a lineup stacked with six lefties and a switch-hitter, looking like the pitcher he strove to be during spring training.
“Yeah, I think we're right there,” said Cease. “I always think that there's room to be better and to learn from every start. But I like where my feel's been, especially the last two. If I stay right there, just to continue to do that, I'm going to be very happy.”
If swings like the one from Varsho in the 10th can come more often, so too will the Blue Jays.
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