On the player side, the Blue Jays will be represented by AL starter Dylan Cease, starting second baseman Ernie Clement, and closer Louis Varland, who will be in the AL\u2019s bullpen.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Sunday afternoon, it was reported that Cease would take the ball as the starter<\/a> for the AL club on Tuesday. The decision in the AL came down to Cease and New York Yankees right-hander Cam Schlitter, but before Cease was named, Schlitter announced he wouldn\u2019t pitch in the All-Star Game as he focuses on the second half of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the first time in 17 years, when the late Roy Halladay started an All-Star game, a Blue Jay will be making the start. Cease earned this honour after going 6-4 with a 2.56 ERA and a 1.13 WHIP over his first 17 starts in a Blue Jays uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n Even after dealing with a hamstring strain that forced him to the 15-day injured list, Cease still sits second in MLB with 148 strikeouts over his 98.1 innings pitched. After signing the largest free agent contract in franchise history, Cease has given the Blue Jays everything they could have hoped for to begin his tenure with the Blue Jays.<\/p>\n Clement will play second base and bat ninth<\/a> in Schneider\u2019s order on Tuesday. After being released by the Athletics during spring training of 2023, the Blue Jays signed Clement to a minor league contract, and for the past four seasons, the 30-year-old has been a part of the Blue Jays\u2019 organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n After a strong showing in 2024, Clement earned himself a key role during the 2025 run to the World Series, including setting a postseason record for most hits with 30.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clement has picked up where he left off last season, as across 93 games he is batting .296 with eight home runs and 32 RBIs. Clement\u2019s strong first half and the support of an entire nation behind him helped allow him to become the AL\u2019s leading vote-getter for the 2026 rendition of the All-Star Game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Varland\u2019s first half of the 2026 season was special to watch. The 28-year-old has pitched in 44 games for the Blue Jays and has gone 3-3 with a 1.10 ERA and a 0.98 WHIP. After taking over the closer\u2019s role in April, Varland has picked up 19 saves and has held opposing teams to a .199 average.\u00a0<\/p>\n While it remains to be seen if Varland will pitch on Tuesday, expect strikeouts if he does, as the right-hander has punched out 67 batters over his first 49 innings of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pitching for the NL on Tuesday will be Cristopher S\u00e1nchez. Starting in his home park, S\u00e1nchez has been elite this season, going 11-4 with a 2.62 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP in his first 20 starts of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n Relying on a heavy sinker-changeup combination, S\u00e1nchez has struck out 144 batters over 127.1 innings and has allowed only 25 walks during that span. With the home crowd behind him, it will be interesting to see how long S\u00e1nchez pitches for.\u00a0<\/p>\n Three Canadian-born players, including Tristan Peters<\/a>, Otto Lopez and Cade Smith, will take part in the 2026 All-Star Game.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how the lineups look for the All-Star Game:\u00a0<\/p>\n Location: Philadelphia, PA \u2013 Citizens Bank Park<\/p>\n First Pitch: 8:00 PM ET<\/p>\n Watch\/Listen: Sportsnet, SN590<\/p>\n Starting Pitchers<\/p>\n American League \u2013 Dylan Cease: 6-4 record, 2.56 ERA, 98.1 IP, 148 SO, 44 BB<\/p>\n National League \u2013 Christopher S\u00e1nchez: 11-4 record, 2.62 ERA, 127.1 IP, 144 SO, 25 BB<\/p>\n Lineups:<\/p>\n American League:<\/p>\n Mike Trout \u2013 CFYordan Alvarez \u2013 DHShea Langeliers \u2013 CJunior Caminero \u2013 3BBobby Witt Jr. \u2013 SSCody Bellinger \u2013 RFBen Rice \u2013 1BRiley Greene \u2013 LFErnie Clement \u2013 2B<\/p>\n National League:<\/p>\n Kyle Schwarber \u2013 DHJuan Soto \u2013 RFFreddie Freeman \u2013 1BC.J. Abrams \u2013 SSMax Muncy \u2013 3BOzzie Albies \u2013 2BBrandon Marsh \u2013 LFAndy Pages \u2013 CFDrake Baldwin \u2013 CPRESENTED BY THE BLUEJAYSNATION NEWSLETTER![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784129770_154_image.png\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 96th Major League Baseball Midsummer Classic is set to get underway this evening at Citizens Bank Park…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":803741,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-803740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803740","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=803740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}