The race for this year’s AL Cy Young Award is heating up, and there was no cease fire on Friday night.
While New York Yankees right-handed pitcher Cam Schlittler delivered eight strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball during a series-opening 1-0 win over the rival Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays righty Dylan Cease kept pace with eight Ks of his own.
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Schlittler, 25, eclipsed the 200-punchout barrier — joining Cease in that rare August air — however, Cease made some swing-and-miss history amid an 8-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners.
For the 19th consecutive start, the 30-year-old Cease piled up at least seven strikeouts. The last player to string together that many outings like that in a single season was Baseball Hall of Famer Randy Johnson in 2001, according to MLB.com.
Johnson won one of his five Cy Young Awards — and four straight with the Arizona Diamondbacks — that season. The towering lefty also took home World Series MVP that year. His streak of games with seven-plus strikeouts ran 20 games.
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Cease can match Johnson during his next start for a 66-70 Blue Jays squad that’s scrapping for positioning in the wild-card hunt.
He went six innings and gave up the Mariners’ lone run on Friday.
Both Schlittler and Cease made this year’s All-Star Game. Cease, who began his stay with the Blue Jays with an auspicious 12 K-spectacle back in March, got the starting nod for the Midsummer Classic.
Cease teased his second career no-hitter — his first came with the San Diego Padres in 2024 — before that exhibition in July. Later that month, he spun a complete game, one-hit shutout.
Schlittler has the edge in the ERA department at the moment, but Cease trails only Milwaukee Brewers flamethrower Jacob Misiorowski in strikeouts this season.
And he doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
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