Resurgent Cease takes mound for first taste of Blue Jays-Yankees rivalry

The Yankees and Blue Jays entered the season as favorites to once again vie for the AL East title, though the battle hasn't gone as expected so far.

While New York (29-19) is right in the thick of things in the divisional race, three games behind the first-place Rays, the defending AL champion Blue Jays have struggled with injuries and inconsistency and find themselves five games below .500 and 10 1/2 games back after Monday's 7-6 loss at Yankee Stadium.

But there's plenty of baseball left to be played, and plenty of time for a shakeup in the AL East standings. And tonight, righty Dylan Cease will look to get things moving in that direction for Toronto when he gets the ball opposite Yankees righty Will Warren (5-1, 3.42 ERA) for his first taste of the Yankees-Blue Jays rivalry (7:05 p.m. ET on TBS and MLB.TV).

The resurgent Cease will look to continue a stretch in which he's been about as good as the Blue Jays could've hoped when they signed him to a seven-year, $210 million deal in the offseason. He's coming off three consecutive seven-inning starts -- all Toronto wins -- in which he allowed a total of four earned runs.

The most recent two starts have been especially noteworthy: Cease allowed just one run and struck out a combined 19 batters against the Rays and Angels. Those performances lowered his ERA to 2.41, the fifth-best mark in the AL.

That doesn't mean he'll have it easy against the Yankees, who lead MLB in homers (71) and lead the AL in runs (244) and OPS (.766). Though the Bronx Bombers have been a challenge for Cease during his career -- he's 1-2 with a 5.34 ERA in six career starts -- he handled them quite well the last time they faced off. As a member of the Padres last season, Cease went 6 2/3 innings and held the Yankees to one run on one hit -- a homer to Cody Bellinger that ended a no-hit bid -- and struck out nine.

But there's another development this season that could prove to be a difference-maker for Cease and the Blue Jays: The righty has improved significantly against left-handed batters this season.

Lefties had a .735 OPS against Cease last season and hit 10 homers. This season, though? Left-handed batters have just a .550 OPS against him and have yet to homer. This is relevant because the Yankees have the third-highest percentage of plate appearances by left-handed batters this season.

And no other lefty has given pitchers more fits this season than Yankees slugger Ben Rice, who leads the Majors with a 1.062 OPS and has 15 homers. As one might imagine, most of Rice's damage has come against righties, off whom he's hitting .308 with 10 homers and a 1.095 OPS.

Rice and other Yankees lefties aside, Cease will also have to deal with Aaron Judge, whose 16 homers rank second in the AL as he makes another push for league MVP honors. But if Cease continues to perform as he has recently, the Yankees could find scoring runs an equally tough challenge.

It all makes tonight a key matchup in a key series that could help determine the eventual AL East champion.