TORONTO — It took a while for the Blue Jays’ offense to join the party, but what an entrance it was.
Rookie catcher Brandon Valenzuela was the walk-off hero in the bottom of the ninth in Tuesday’s 3-2 win over the Phillies, singling into left field before his teammates mobbed him on the infield at Rogers Centre.
This is what mattered most from the win:
1. THE BIG SWING
The setup wasn’t pretty, but who cares?
Two fortunate ground balls, a stolen base and a wild pitch brought home the first run without the Blue Jays even driving a ball out of the infield, which set the stage for Valenzuela, who shot a single into left-center field.
This was Valenzuela’s first career walk-off hit in the big leagues. He has become one of the best stories of this season, and even with starter Alejandro Kirk expected to return as early as Friday, Valenzuela has forced the Blue Jays’ hand. Not only does he deserve to stick in the big leagues, he deserves at-bats any way the Blue Jays can find them.
“Oh, man. He’s been great,” said Dylan Cease, Tuesday’s starter. “The cool thing is that he’s just continued to get better and better. Offensively, he’s been doing amazing. Defensively, he’s calling great games, blocking, just doing everything. It’s really cool and promising to see that growth and development as the season goes. That’s what you want to see.”
2. WHIFF KING: Cease dominates Phillies
By the swing-and-miss numbers, this was one of the best starts of Cease’s career:
Pitches: 93
Swings: 50
Whiffs: 29 (58%)
Those 29 whiffs are the most by any pitcher in Major League Baseball this season and tie Cease’s own career high (May 27, 2021). This is also the most whiffs by any Blue Jays pitcher since pitch tracking began in 2008, beating out the old record of 28 from Kevin Gausman (April 29, 2023).
“That’s pretty impressive against that lineup with that much swing-and-miss,” manager John Schneider said. “That’s big. He wanted to keep going, too. I didn’t want to get him up over 100, 105 [pitches] his first time back, but that was pretty good.”
Each of Cease’s pitches got in on the fun, but his changeup was particularly dangerous, getting seven whiffs on nine swings. That pitch came into the season as Cease’s “fifth pitch” that he described as “not metrically sexy,” but it’s developing into something much more than just a change-of-pace pitch. When Cease is flirting with 100 mph on his fastball and throwing one of the nastiest sliders in baseball, a floating changeup can be baffling for an opposing hitter, even if it isn’t lighting up the iPad.
“That felt good,” Cease said. “They helped me out a bit on some of the changeups up in the zone, but when I get that pitch in the zone, I think it really helps me out. I definitely want to keep working on it, but it felt pretty good today.”
The old-fashioned box score didn’t look too rough, either, with six innings of one-run ball and 11 strikeouts. With his ERA now down to 2.91 and a whopping 103 strikeouts in just 68 innings, Cease is right back to being one of the top pitchers in baseball. His brief IL stint isn’t enough to derail his season-long stats, so we could be talking about a Cy Young Award race again very soon.
3. CRUSHING RIGHTIES: Jesús Sánchez
Sánchez’s game can be an adventure at times, but when it all clicks, it’s a beautiful thing.
His seventh home run of the season finally got the Blue Jays on the board in the sixth inning, a rocket to right-center field that was gone the moment he made contact. Sánchez is rarely going to see left-handed pitching at this point, so it’s not likely you see him in the starting lineup for Wednesday’s finale against Jesús Luzardo, but his job is to crush righties, and he’s nailing the assignment.
The reality of the Blue Jays’ lineup is that Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s slow start has created a power void. Addison Barger’s injury and George Springer’s slow start have only compounded this lack of power, so secondary threats like Sánchez are more important than ever. The Blue Jays want Sánchez to let it rip.