Blue Jays’ Dylan Cease loses no-hit bid in 9th inning of 10-0 win over Giants

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Toronto’s Dylan Cease worked eight no-hit innings against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday before allowing a single to Heliot Ramos leading off the ninth as the Blue Jays rolled to a 10-0 victory.

Cease (6-4) was pulled after Ramos’ clean line-drive single to center and got a standing ovation from the San Francisco crowd. The All-Star right-hander threw a career-high 118 pitches, 81 for strikes. Former Giants reliever Tyler Rogers got the final three outs on four pitches.

Cease struck out 11 to increase his American League-leading total to 148.

The 30-year-old Cease threw a no-hitter for the San Diego Padres at Washington on July 25, 2024. Eight days later, Blake Snell threw one for the Giants. Since then, there have been two combined no-hitters — including one in March by Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert, Alimber Santa of the Houston Astros — but no pitcher has done it on his own.

Thirty-five pitchers have thrown multiple no-hitters. Mike Fiers of the Athletics became the last to do it on May 7, 2019.

Cease set down the first 14 San Francisco hitters before he walked Willy Adames with two outs in the fifth. Cease also walked Drew Gilbert leading off the sixth and Rafael Devers with one out in the seventh.

Leading off the eighth, Bryce Eldridge hit a drive to deep left-center. Center fielder Daulton Varsho raced to make an excellent catch before running into the wall.

Kazuma Okamoto’s opposite-field grand slam off Logan Webb (5-7) capped the Blue Jays’ five-run first inning.

After Okamoto’s homer, Webb retired the next 13 batters. He worked seven innings and allowed five hits, only one after the first inning.

The Blue Jays scored two unearned runs off Spencer Bivens in the eighth. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run homer off Ryan Walker in the ninth and the next batter, George Springer, also took Walker deep to left.

In Toronto’s 9-3 win Tuesday night, the Blue Jays retired the final 15 San Francisco hitters.

Up next

The Blue Jays face Padres LHP JP Sears (2-1, 4.70 ERA) in San Diego on Friday night. The Giants host the Rockies and RHP Ryan Feltner (3-2, 4.27) on Thursday evening.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Steve Kroner, The Associated Press