Blue Jays did the right thing even if Dylan Cease came up just short of history

Blue Jays did the right thing even if Dylan Cease came up just short of history originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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The Toronto Blue Jays weren’t going to take Dylan Cease out.

They did once he gave up a hit to start the ninth inning, but when his no-hitter was intact, this was his ballgame on Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco.

And frankly, that’s refreshing.

Two pitchers were pulled just this week after having made it through six innings without allowing a hit. 

Teams are careful with their arms. They’re big investments.

Would anyone have really blamed the Blue Jays for pulling Cease after seven or eight innings? This rotation has been crushed by injuries, and Cease signed this offseason for seven years and $210 million.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider, though, felt Cease deserved this chance.

“I’m a fan of baseball. If a guy has a chance to throw a no-hitter, you let him do it, and I think you make the adjustments after that,” Schneider said postgame, via MLB.com. “Dylan, he’s done it before, and he’s really durable. He’s in the category where you can be pretty aggressive with it. It’s not very often you get to see that, so if I can let a player have that opportunity, I’m going to do it every single time.”

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Cease himself told reporters after the game that he was willing to go up to 130 pitches.

He started the ninth with 115 and left at 118 after Heliot Ramos singled on a pitch left a bit too up in the zone.

So in the end, Cease didn’t get to make history, but no-hitters are obviously quite rare.

The cool part is that the Blue Jays let him go for it. That’s something not to be taken for granted in the modern game.

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