TORONTO -- All that waiting and finally, an explosion
Daulton Varsho walked off the Rays with a grand slam in the bottom of the 10th, the biggest swing of the Blue Jays’ season. The 5-3 win on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre saved the Blue Jays from a sweep and could be the burst of momentum this club has been waiting for.
It was the Blue Jays’ first walk-off grand slam since Steve Pearce in 2017.
This is what mattered most from the win:
1. SCRAPING BY: Getting to extras
The Blue Jays walked four times in the ninth inning and loaded the bases twice, but scored just one run on a Kazuma Okamoto sac fly.
Sure, it’s encouraging to see the Blue Jays “pass the baton," but eventually, someone needs to run the anchor leg of this relay race and finish it off. The Blue Jays aren’t driving the baseball like they did a year ago and the contact they’re making simply hasn’t been threatening enough. They couldn’t buy a break, either, with four double plays including a pair of line drives that were quickly turned into two.
“You have to be able to create your own luck sometimes, and you’ve got to be ready to punch back when you get punched in the face,” manager John Schneider said. “It doesn’t happen every day, but when it does happen, it just allows it to happen more.”
They didn’t need much until the 10th inning, though, which is all thanks to one man…
2. CEASE IN ONE PITCH: Aranda in the 1st
Each pitcher has one specific pitch that makes them happier than any other.
“The front-door two-seam is arguably my favorite pitch in baseball,” Dylan Cease said earlier this season.
Cease pulled it off again Wednesday, freezing Jonathan Aranda with a 97.2 mph sinker up and in that just barely clipped the corner of the zone. This pitch was a masterpiece.
Cease had already shown Aranda his entire arsenal in that at-bat, but this pitch is nearly impossible to hit unless you’re looking for it. Even then, you’d be excused if you flinched a bit. Cease’s ability to throw his sinker in that location and still produce enough running action -- which moves the pitch from a ball inside to a strike on the inside edge of the zone -- is truly special.
There’s plenty to love about a fastball that touches 100 mph and a slider that’s been one of the best ‘out’ pitches in Major League Baseball for the past five years. If your friend is a casual fan, though, and you want to show them just how good Cease is with just one clip of one pitch? Make it this one.
3. CEASE IN ONE AT-BAT: Palacios in the 5th
Changeup, changeup, changeup, changeup. That’s how Cease started out Richie Palacios in the fifth. He’s not just toying around with a changeup anymore, he’s leaning into it and winning with it.
All of this off-speed brought the count to 2-2, and after Cease missed high with a sinker, he dropped the perfect slider that darted in on Palacios. After seeing all of those changeups in the 80-85 mph range, some of them tailing away from Palacios, this slider was perfectly timed and captured exactly what Cease and the Blue Jays have been trying to do with his arsenal.
Even Cease’s own teammates, used to getting a little more action, got to stand back and watch him carve through the Rays.
“Boring,” Varsho joked. “He’s a great pitcher. He’s very intelligent and knows what he wants to do on the mound. He has earned everything he’s gotten so far and he’s developed to be even better than when I faced him in Chicago and San Diego. It’s very impressive to watch.”
Cease calls this a “complementary” pitch. Everything else he does lights up the iPad, either flirting with 100 mph on his fastball or pushing the limits of how breaking balls can break. The changeup’s job, Cease believes, is to float.
“With my slider, I want it to have depth. I want it to have all of those parameters. I want it to be faster, have better spin, all of that,” Cease said earlier this season. “With the changeup, all I really care about is the change of speed.”
This balance should only help Cease work deeper, too, putting less weight on his fastball and slider. This was Cease’s third consecutive outing of seven innings, a crucial step forward for him after throwing seven just twice last season with the Padres.