Dylan Cease looked well-rested as he pitched a dominant first inning at the MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday.
The hard-throwing right-hander struck out the side against the top of the National League’s lineup after throwing an MLB season-high 118 pitches in his previous start with the Toronto Blue Jays
Cease struck out Kyle Schwarber, Juan Soto and CJ Abrams, giving up a walk to the NL’s No. 3 hitter, Freddie Freeman, in between.
The Blue Jays ace challenged Schwarber with three straight fastballs to start the bottom of the first and eventually got him to chase a low slider for strike three.
Cease was mic’d up on the FOX Sports broadcast and was heard talking through his pitch selection, including a particularly nasty changeup to Soto.
Soto then swung through a 98-m.p.h. heater on the outside edge, and looked bewildered by the pitch.
The broadcast congratulated Cease on a good start after the second strikeout, to which he coyly responded “Thank you.”
Cease threw 17 of his 25 pitches for strikes and got six whiffs on 15 swings.
The Blue Jays’ marquee free-agent signing, Cease took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the San Francisco Giants on July 8, before allowing a single to Heliot Ramos to start the frame. The 118 pitches were also a career high, surpassing the 114 he threw in his no-hitter with the San Diego Padres in 2024.
Four days later, the Blue Jays announced that Cease would start the All-Star Game. The other leading candidate, New York Yankees righty Cam Schlittler, withdrew from pitching in the Midsummer Classic earlier the same day.
But Toronto manager John Schneider, who also managed the American League team, said he would have chosen Cease regardless of Schlittler’s decision.
Cease has a 2.56 ERA in 98.1 innings while racking up an AL-best 148 strikeouts. He also leads AL starters in WAR, as calculated by FanGraphs, at 3.7, checking in ahead of Schlittler (3.6) and Minnesota Twins ace Joe Ryan (3.1).
The 30-year-old joined Dave Stieb (1983, 1984), David Wells (2000) and Roy Halladay (2009) as the only Blue Jays pitchers to start an All-Star Game.