Cease caps dominant July; Urías' big hit lifts Blue Jays over Cardinals

TORONTO -- With the Trade Deadline at their doorstep, the Blue Jays are scrambling to make it interesting.

Friday’s 3-1 win over the Cardinals, paired with a Guardians loss, moves the Blue Jays (51-59) within 4 1/2 games of the final American League Wild Card spot, even if that picture is still incredibly crowded. Luis Urías played the hero, finally breaking the Blue Jays through with a two-run single in the eighth.

“No matter what happens over the next couple of days, I want the guys to play like they did today,” John Schneider said. “Have a little bit of urgency.”

Here is what mattered most:

1. Cy Young Watch: Cease vs. Schlittler

This is officially a two-man race. Dylan Cease and the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler are going blow-for-blow lately, but there aren’t many players in baseball hotter than Cease over the past month. It’s going to take some continued dominance by Cease and a few duds by Schlittler to flip the ERA battle here, but Cease’s strikeout totals could become overwhelming.

Cease just keeps getting better, too, with six innings of one-run ball against the Cardinals on Friday night.

Cam Schlittler: 2.04 ERA over 136 2/3 innings with 165 strikeouts (4.8 bWAR)
Dylan Cease: 2.41 ERA over 119 1/3 innings with 174 strikeouts (4.0 bWAR entering Friday)

Schneider has seen some great pitching, but nothing like this.

“He’s right up there with the best I’ve seen or had on a staff. It can be pretty special on any given night,” Schneider said pregame. “There’s a few guys who have been on some pretty good rolls here who you’d feel pretty good about, but I think he’s in a bit of a different category right now with the way he’s feeling, how his stuff’s working and how he’s using it. He’s pretty damn good right now.”

2. Vladdy almost hit one out … finally

Just a couple of inches higher and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. would have hit his first home run at Rogers Centre in 2026. Yes, that’s a bizarre sentence to be reading as July turns to August, but here we are.

After some unthreatening swings earlier in the game, Guerrero’s timing came together on a great one in the bottom of the sixth, a 396-foot missile to left-center field that left his bat at 112.4 mph. Guerrero soon came around to score on Kazuma Okamoto’s double, which finally jolted this sleeping offense to life.

“Those are the types of swings you take on a pitch that’s up in the middle,” Schneider said. “Encouraging, for sure. The big fella’s working. He’s staying positive. Hopefully he can get one to go over that little light blue line here sooner or later. I just want him to take those swings on pitches that are in that area.”

At this point, there’s no chasing 30-plus homers, no chasing awards and no shaking what’s been a disappointing season. Even later in the game, Guerrero grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded, so it wasn’t all roses. We still need to see signs from Guerrero, though, to inspire some confidence in 2027, if nothing else. This was the biggest, loudest sign we’ve seen in a while.

3. Deadline Watch: George Springer

It’s so easy to envision a contending team -- especially one that might be lacking postseason experience -- viewing Springer as their missing piece for the postseason. Not as a superstar who takes a team over the top, but as that perfect veteran fit who might just have one more big moment left in him.

A few weeks ago, the Blue Jays would have needed to sell Springer’s reputation alone, which isn’t an easy thing to market, but now he’s playing his best baseball of the season. Springer looks quicker and more energized, and perhaps healthier than he’s been in some time. He looks like the player who was the Blue Jays’ MVP last season, and who delivered one of the biggest moments in this franchise’s history with his home run in Game 7 of the ALCS against the Mariners.

In Springer’s first at-bat Friday night, he stuck with a breaking ball and drove it on a line to right field, just another swing that interested teams will love. While the Blue Jays may need to involve some cash considerations to land a higher-end prospect for Springer -- he’ll still be due just over $7 million -- there will be multiple teams with legitimate interest.