A Blue Jays All-Star Game Recap

The American League cruised to a 4-0 victory in last night's All-Star Game, and the Blue Jays' representatives all did their part to help the cause. Here's how each of them performed. 

Dylan Cease

By the time Dylan Cease threw his first pitch, he was already working with a comfortable lead. The AL All-Stars sent eight batters to the plate in the top of the first – the whole starting lineup except for Ernie Clement – and scored three against the Phillies' Cristopher Sánchez, much to the chagrin of the passionate Philadelphia crowd. 

It turns out that a one-run lead would have sufficed. In his inning of work, Cease set the tone for the AL pitching staff, throwing the first of what would be nine scoreless frames. First, he embarrassed MLB home run leader Kyle Schwarber. Cease got Schwarber to swing through two heaters down the middle before making him chase a slider well below the zone. 

Next up was Juan Soto, arguably the hardest out in baseball. Yet, Cease only needed four pitches to retire the Mets slugger. Known for his keen eye at the plate, all Soto could do was watch as Cease floated a knuckle curve and a changeup past him for strikes one and two. After Soto fouled off a sinker to the moon, Cease called his shot: "fastball down and away." (Both he and catcher Shea Langeliers were mic'd up for the inning. I have very mixed feelings about the "in-game mic'd up" thing, but it was interesting to hear Cease call some pitches over the broadcast.) The plan worked, and Soto's face said it all as he walked back to the dugout:

The next batter was beloved Canadian / bitter World Series enemy Freddie Freeman, who battled his way to a nine-pitch walk. Oh well. It wouldn't be a Dylan Cease outing without a high pitch count and the occasional control issue. And it wouldn't matter anyway. 

The final batter of the inning was CJ Abrams. The Nationals shortstop gave Cease a beautiful whiff for his third swinging strikeout of the inning. You can't ask for much more than that.

Ernie Clement

Clement went 0-for-2 at the bottom of the AL lineup, grounding out on the first pitch in both of his at-bats. However, he still made his mark on the game. In the fifth inning, Clement ran into the outfield on the left side of second base to grab a hard grounder up the middle. Then, he leapt into the air and launched it to first base in time to steal a base hit from Andy Pages:

For many, Clement included, it instantly called to mind the catch Pages made last fall to rob Clement of the hit that would have won the World Series.

"Yeah, I had to get him back for what he did to us in the World Series... Getting him back a little bit, it felt pretty good," Clement said after the game.

While it would have been nice to see him get a hit, I'm so glad Clement had his moment to shine in the All-Star Game. The way Blue Jays fans supported him in the voting was incredible, and being there clearly meant so much to the man himself.

"I believe that I could help a team win in the big leagues, but this is just way farther off my radar. I never would have dreamed of it, and I'm just lucky to be here."

Louis Varland

Louis Varland didn't get to finish the game like I was hoping. He didn't even get a hold, like the seven pitchers who threw before him, because the AL had increased its lead to 4-0 by the time Varland came on for the bottom of the eighth. Still, I'm grateful he got to pitch a full inning.

Varland started things off with a triple-digit heater (way outside) to James Wood, perhaps just to show he could. He would quickly retire Wood, perhaps the NL's most dangerous hitter right now, as well as Hunter Goodman and Iván Herrera. The only blemish on his line was a groundball single to NL MVP contender Pete Crow-Armstrong.

John Schneider

It's hard to argue with the way the AL skipper deployed his pitchers. He gave every available arm a chance to throw in the game, and those arms put on a masterclass against the best competition the NL had to offer. The AL pitchers held their opponents to three hits and two walks, never letting a runner reach scoring position. Most impressive was their 15 strikeouts. By strikeout rate, this was the most dominant showing by a pitching staff in All-Star Game history:

As with the pitchers, it was admirable that Schneider got every eligible position player on his roster into the game. However, his starting lineup decisions were a little more questionable. Hometown kid Mike Trout leading off in Philadelphia was a great call, as was batting AL MVP favourite Yordan Alvarez second. It was a little harder to understand why Langeliers was batting third, considering how cold he's been for the past two months. Similarly, batting Cody Bellinger ahead of Ben Rice and Riley Greene seems to indicate a complete lack of awareness of how badly Bellinger has been playing as of late. That said, Bellinger would go on to win All-Star Game MVP honours, so maybe I'm the one who doesn't know what I'm talking about. (And of course, it's not like it really matters.)

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't include this screenshot, showing the moment broadcast accidentally confused John Schneider with Mike Trout. Personally, I make that mistake all the time, so I totally get it.

Crunching the Numbers

The Blue Jays franchise record for most representatives at the All-Star Game was set, unsurprisingly, in 1993, when Toronto sent seven players to the Midsummer Classic. While the Jays only had four All-Stars this year (including Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who did not participate), they did have a record number of All-Stars in another way. Sort of. I'll let Jays Centre contributor Mike LeSage explain:

Anyway, that's it for our 2026 All-Star Game coverage. Good luck surviving the next two days with no baseball, and get ready for a whole lot of trade deadline talk over the next 20 days!