Dylan Cease came to New York and made the Yankees look silly for six-plus innings. The $210 million ace mowed through the lineup with his signature high-octane stuff, working deep into a no-hit bid that had Yankee Stadium buzzing for all the wrong reasons if you were wearing pinstripes.
Cease gets big ole Spencer Jones to go down swinging. 7Ks for Cease on the day https://t.co/s1wvjuhedn
Cease finished with 8 strikeouts and tied a season-high with 5 walks, needing 111 pitches to get through 6 2/3 innings. Toronto's biggest offseason bet has been paying off all year — he entered the day with a 2.42 ERA and over 200 strikeouts for the sixth straight season, numbers that have him squarely in the Cy Young conversation. This start was another data point for that case, even if it didn't end the way a Hall of Fame outing should.
And there goes the no-hitter for Dylan Cease! https://t.co/eNtrqKo2HR
The no-hitter died with two outs in the seventh, on Cease's 106th pitch, when Jazz Chisholm Jr. lined a single to right field. Austin Wells followed with an RBI single that trimmed Toronto's lead to 3-1 and ended Cease's day for good. It stings a little extra given Cease already has a no-hitter on his resume — this would've been his second — but a strong final line and a win are still a strong final line and a win.
Toronto's offense made sure the near-history wasn't wasted. Nathan Lukes put a charge into one in the eighth inning, a moonshot that left the bat at 105 MPH and traveled 384 feet, stretching the lead back out before the Yankees could make things interesting.
Nathan Lukes…..hammer time https://t.co/4xMyUycrCZ
New York didn't go quietly. Luis Garcia Jr. answered right back with his 26th home run of the season, a two-run shot that turned it back into a one-run ballgame and had him admiring it all the way around the bases. It wasn't enough — Toronto closed it out for the 4-3 win — but it was a reminder the Yankees weren't just going to fold after getting no-hit for six-plus frames.
When Garcia gets one he pimps the fucking shit out of it Find a way https://t.co/APZQQsyR7z
For Cease, it's another line in a Cy Young-caliber season and a reminder of exactly why Toronto handed him $210 million over 7 years last winter. For the Yankees, it's a loss that started with them getting shut down for two-thirds of the game and ended one big swing short of stealing it. Either way, this was the kind of game that makes late-August baseball worth staying up for.