The Blue Jays were looking to start out this series against the Cleveland Guardians on the right note, but were unable to on Tuesday night.
The Toronto Blue Jays have the Wednesday and Thursday pitching matchups lined up the way they want them, with Dylan Cease and Jose Soriano set to take the ball against the Cleveland Guardians.
But entering Tuesday's game trailing the Guardians by 1.5 games in the wild card race, Toronto was hoping for a big night from Spencer Miles and Spencer Arrighetti to help move them even closer in advance of those matchups.
Unfortunately, it was Gavin Williams who delivered the big performance. The big righty delivered a gem on the mound, going seven innings while giving up just one unearned run on two hits. He walked one and struck out 13, improving to 13-7 on the year with a 3.81 ERA.
As noted by Codify Baseball, this is only the third time this season that a pitcher has struck out 13 batters or more while allowing no earned runs and no extra base hits. Drew Rasmussen of the Tampa Bay Rays and Jacob Misiorowski of the Milwaukee Brewers are the only others to accomplish it.
The Jays struck out 14 times in all in falling to 68-71. They are now 2.5 games back of the Guardians, meaning even if they beat them the next two games, they cannot overtake them in the standings.
Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider (14) relives pitcher Spencer Arrighetti (45) during the sixth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. Ken Blaze-Imagn ImagesFor the Jays, they got scoreless opening innings from Miles and the recently called-up Ricky Tiedemann, but Arrighetti gave up two earned runs over 3.2 innings. Joe Mantiply and Michael Lorenzen also gave up two earned runs apiece. Toronto pitching only had three strikeouts all game.
The Guardians got home runs from Patrick Bailey, Angel Martinez and and Angel Genao in the win. They are now 70-68. In addition to battling for the wild card, they are also trying to win the American League Central for a second straight season.
The two teams will play again on Wednesday night with first pitch coming at 6:40 p.m. ET. Cease, who delivered a great start on Friday night against the Seattle Mariners, enters play at 9-5 with a 2.33 ERA. He leads the American League with 217 strikeouts, while also leading in hits/9, homers/9 and strikeouts/9.
On the other side is left-hander Joey Cantillo, who has been tough this season. He's gone 9-7 with a 3.70 ERA while striking out 145 batters.
The series will conclude on Thursday as Soriano pitches against Tanner Bibee.
