Dylan Cease's Historic Blue Jays Run Puts Him in Absurd Company
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Dylan Cease's recent performance on the road looks less like something you should see in real life and more like what happens when you play MLB The Show on the lowest difficulty.
The right-hander continued his historic stretch Wednesday, tossing six scoreless innings in an 11-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians. Cease allowed four hits, issued no walks and lowered his season ERA to 2.25.
Across his last seven road starts, the 30-year-old has allowed one earned run over 48 2/3 innings, good for a 0.18 ERA. According to Sportsnet Stats, that is the lowest ERA over a seven-start road span since 1913.
There may not be a superlative in the English lexicon that can do that sort of number justice. On the road, Cease has put together one of the most dominant seven-start stretches by a pitcher in more than a century.
The next three names on that list are Bob Gibson, Gaylord Perry and Roger Clemens, all of whom gave opposing hitters nightmares on the road in their respective eras.
A Transcendent Run
If someone called Bob Gibson’s 1968 campaign the greatest pitching season in baseball history, it would not be an absurd claim. The Hall of Famer posted a 0.28 ERA during his seven-start road stretch and dominated hitters in a fashion that may never be replicated, finishing the season with a 1.12 ERA, 13 shutouts and 28 complete games.
Gibson's dominance came during the infamous “Year of the Pitcher,” when offense was at a premium. MLB hitters combined for just a .639 OPS while teams averaged 3.42 runs per game.
Eventually, the mound was lowered and the strike zone was shrunk to encourage more offense. Gibson making MLB hitters look like they were swinging nine irons instead of bats probably did not hurt the case for change.
Gaylord Perry’s 1977 season was not as statistically obscene as Gibson’s 1968 campaign, but it was still a great year in an era when hitters had remembered what they were paid to do. His 0.30 ERA stretch came in a season when teams averaged 4.47 runs per game while MLB hitters combined for a .730 OPS.
Roger Clemens posted his 0.20 ERA stretch in 2005 at age 42, finishing the season with a 1.87 ERA. The number sounds comical considering both his age and the run environment, but Clemens was in the middle of an extraordinary late-career surge. MLB teams averaged 4.59 runs per game that season while hitters combined for a .749 OPS during an offensive boom in the sport.
That brings things back to Cease, whose current run environment falls somewhere between those of the legends he just surpassed. MLB teams are averaging 4.48 runs per game this season while combining for a .719 OPS. Even if this were the dead-ball era, a 0.18 ERA across seven road starts would still be ridiculous.
If Cease can maintain anything close to this form, his name should be firmly in the American League Cy Young discussion by season’s end.
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Wesley Dixon is a sports writer focused on thoughtful analysis, roster-building angles, player development and feature-style storytelling. He has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and the NBA, with work centered on breaking down team direction, player fit and the larger stories behind the game. Wesley is a lifelong MLB fan, following multiple teams throughout the league. He is excited to bring that same detail-oriented approach to On SI.