{"id":802820,"date":"2026-07-15T04:59:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:59:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/802820\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:59:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:59:20","slug":"toronto-blue-jays-dylan-cease-strikes-out-side-as-american-leagues-asg-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/802820\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays’ Dylan Cease strikes out side as American League\u2019s ASG starter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> right-hander Dylan Cease<\/a> struck out the side in his lone inning of work as the American League\u2019s starting pitcher at the 2026 All-Star Game from Philadelphia on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Cease, a first-time All-Star, set the tone with a strikeout of designated hitter Kyle Schwarber<\/a> of the Phillies in front of the home crowd fans, before punching out New York Mets<\/a> superstar Juan Soto<\/a> on four pitches.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> first baseman Freddie Freeman<\/a> drew a walk against Cease in a marathon nine-pitch at bat, before Washington Nationals<\/a> shortstop C.J. Abrams struck out swinging to end the dominant showing from the AL\u2019s starter.<\/p>\n

Cease was tabbed to get the ball for the junior circuit by Toronto manager John Schneider over New York Yankees<\/a> righty and Cy Young favourite Cam Schlittler<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Schlittler would later pull out of the Midsummer Classic after he threw 6.2 innings on Saturday to close out his first half.<\/p>\n

Cease, 30, became just the third pitcher in Blue Jays history to start the All-Star Game after Roy Halladay (2009) and Dave Stieb (1983 & 1984).<\/p>\n

He was relieved to begin the bottom of the second inning by Cleveland Guardians<\/a> rookie Parker Messick<\/a>. The AL was leading 3-0 at the time.<\/p>\n

A native of Milton, Georgia, Cease has pitched to a 2.56 earned-run average with an AL-leading 148 strikeouts across 17 starts and 98.1 innings pitched.<\/p>\n

He also leads the American League in fWAR (3.7), K\/9 (13.55) and FIP (2.20).<\/p>\n

Blue Jays closer Louis Varland<\/a> was called into the game in the bottom of the eighth inning, surrendering one hit and recording a strikeout in a scoreless frame.<\/p>\n

Varland struck out Nationals outfielder James Wood<\/a> to open the outing, before Chicago Cubs<\/a> speedster Pete Crow-Armstrong<\/a> reached base on a single up the middle. <\/p>\n

Colorado Rockies<\/a> catcher Hunter Goodman<\/a> would line out to shortstop for the second out, while St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> backstop Ivan Herrera<\/a> grounded out to third base to end the inning.<\/p>\n

Ernie Clement<\/a>, who earned an automatic spot in the starting lineup after finishing as the AL\u2019s top vote-getter, went 0-2 while batting out of the nine spot in the order.<\/p>\n

He was replaced at second base by Guardians rookie Travis Bazzana<\/a> to open the bottom of the sixth inning. <\/p>\n

The AL defeated the NL 4-0 on Tuesday for the 11th time in the past 13 games, with New York Yankees<\/a> outfielder Cody Bellinger<\/a> being named the MVP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Dylan Cease struck out the side in his lone inning of work as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":802821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,252679,3302,75156],"class_list":["post-802820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dylan-cease-sports-baseball-player-player-statscom-829000","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-blue-jays-sports-baseball-team-team-statscom-238"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/802821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}