Cease Stifles Angels in 2-0 Win as Blue Jays Tickets Draw Interest
Dylan Cease delivered seven shutout innings and the Blue Jays beat the Angels 2-0 on Friday, ending a four-game losing streak in front of 41,923. For anyone tracking blue jays tickets, the result offered a cleaner box score than the offense had been producing, but Toronto still needed pitching to carry the night.
Cease Sets the Tone
Cease retired the first nine batters he faced and kept Los Angeles from ever building momentum. He worked seven scoreless innings, giving Toronto the kind of start that let a thin offense survive.
The Blue Jays scored both runs in the third inning. Kazuma Okamoto drove in one with an RBI single, and Ernie Clement followed with a sacrifice fly.
Toronto Finds Just Enough
That was all the run support Toronto got, and it was barely enough to cover another quiet night with runners in scoring position. The Blue Jays went 1-for-9 in those chances and worked six walks off Reid Detmers, but only one of those runners crossed the plate.
John Schneider liked the approach, but not the missing hit. "I liked the way we approached him, for sure, and today you just kind of miss the big hit, whoever it was," he said after the win.
He added, "Bases loaded, you get a sac fly from Ern, if that's a hit, it kind of breaks the game open a little bit, it gives you a little separation." Toronto had scored only seven runs during the four-game skid and entered the day 23rd in both home runs and slug.
Okamoto, who has eight homers and 20 RBIs in 19 games, also described the job in simple terms. "Obviously, it changes based on the situation and the pitcher that's throwing, but every time I'm out there, the least I can do is to move the runner over," he said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima.
Blue Jays Climb to 17-21
The win moved Toronto to 17-21 and gave the club its first victory with fewer than three runs this season. Jeff Hoffman touched 99.5 m.p.h. in a scoreless eighth, and Louis Varland closed it out for his fifth save.
There was one roster note attached to the night. Addison Barger’s expected return from the injured list was pushed from Friday to Saturday, with Schneider saying, "He played a few games in a row, just give him a day to kind of recoup and travel, and then assuming that he travels fine, he should be ready to go (Saturday)."
For a club that had been living on too little power, the formula was plain: a strong start, one useful inning of relief, and just enough from the middle of the order to stop the slide.
