Career Night for Dylan Cease, Walk Off Propels Blue Jays Past Phillies
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To say Dylan Cease has been missed from the Toronto Blue Jays starting rotation would be an understatement. But luckily, he wasn't on the injured list too long, and he was nearly perfect in his return.
Cease suited up against the Philadelphia Phillies Tuesday night, and clearly came back with a vengeance. He had been adamant that he didn't want to miss a start despite straining his hamstring, and Cease stepped back on the hill, ready to make up for lost time.
Well, he did more than that as he punched out 11 of the Phillies' red-hot offense, including two against Kyle Schwarber and Brandon Marsh, two of the best hitters in the game right now. But that wasn't the most impressive part of his evening, which is somewhat hard to believe.
6 IP, 11 Ks
— MLB (@MLB) June 10, 2026
Dylan Cease generated 29 swing & misses tonight, the most by a pitcher in a game this season and tied for Cease's career high! pic.twitter.com/8RSL1nvCIQ
But by the time he finished the fifth inning, he had 25 swing and misses, which tied Milwaukee's Jacob Misirowski as the most through five this season. Once his start came to a close, an inning later, he had logged 29 whiffs, tying the most of his career, and the most of any pitcher in 2026.
When his time on the mound was over for the evening, he had allowed one run, giving the Blue Jays a real chance to win this one and split the series, which they did in dramatic fashion.
The Final Six Outs of the Ballgame
Going into the ninth inning, it was tied at one a piece in a pitchers' duel, and watching Louis Varland give up a run was not something anybody has been used to. It had been six weeks since he let a runner cross home plate.
But the bats would not let the best reliever in the game feel the defeat, as he had come through for his team all year.
Jesus Sanchez was the leadoff man and had already scored the only run of the game, a solo homer back in the sixth. He smoked a single on a pitch that was at his ankles. Yohendrick Pinango followed suit with a single of his own.
No outs, a pair of runners on the corners, followed by a wild pitch that scored a run, and the game was now tied with Brandon Valenzuela up, the best hitter the Jays have had in the last month. He didn't disappoint. With a 1-2 count, off of closer Jhoan Duran, Valenzuela smoked an RBI single off of a near 100 mph fastball.
VAMOS, VALI!
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) June 10, 2026
HIS FIRST CAREER #WALKOFF 🔥 pic.twitter.com/W6wD7fj7q3
The rookie's first, of potentially many, walk-offs. Game over.
Cease was nearly perfect Tuesday night and has firmly put himself in the Cy Young conversation as the first pitcher to cross 100+ strikeouts in the American League. This is the ace that the team has been begging for in recent years, and they will have him for the next six.
The offense has let this team down on more than a handful of occasions this year, but not in this 3-2 victory. If this is the all-around performance that they can consistently get going, they will be nearly impossible to beat when October rolls around.
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Maddy Dickens resides in Loveland, Colorado. She grew up with two older brothers, where their lives revolved around sports. She earned a master's degree in business management from Tarleton State University while simultaneously playing basketball and competing in rodeo at the collegiate level. She successfully parlayed a reserve national championship into a professional rodeo career and now stays involved in upper-level athletics by writing for On SI on several different MLB teams' pages, along with some NCAA sites.