No-hitters aren’t easy to pull off, even for pitchers like the Jays’ Dylan Cease who’ve thrown them before
Dylan Cease came within three outs of a no-hitter this week, but fell just short of the feat that only one pitcher has ever accomplished for Toronto.
The 30-year-old right-hander struck out 11 batters and walked three during the first eight innings of Toronto’s 10-0 steamrolling of the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.
But a single off the bat of Heliot Ramos in the top of the ninth ended Cease’s no-hit bid and his outing, as Blue Jays manager John Schneider turned to his bullpen to wrap things up.
“That’s baseball,” a philosophical Cease tolds Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae after the game.
Cease, who joined the Blue Jays this year, has already pitched a no-hitter in 2024, and narrowly missed another in 2022.
His dominant performance on Wednesday gave fans a glimpse of how hard it is to quiet the bats of a major-league ballclub for an entire game, and served as a reminder of some of the no-hit bids Toronto has flirted with in the past.
“A lot of things have to fall into place,” said Larry Millson, a veteran sportswriter who has covered the Blue Jays for decades, including the game in which the Toronto franchise saw its one and only no-hitter happen.
According to MLB.com, there have been 327 no-hitters from 1876 up to the most recent one in May. That was a combined effort by multiple pitchers for the Houston Astros, but there are also occasions where individual pitchers throw no-hit games, as was almost the case for Cease on Wednesday.
If he’d managed to pull it off, it would have put him in rare company in Toronto, where only one pitcher has ever done it before.
A long wait for Dave Stieb
The only Blue Jays no-hitter to date was thrown by Dave Stieb on Sept. 2, 1990 — five years before Cease was even born.
Stieb struck out nine and walked four batters in Cleveland that day, with outfielder Junior Félix catching a fly ball to right field to close out the ballgame, which Toronto won 3-0.
It had been a long time coming for Stieb, who’d seen potential no-hitters fall apart in the ninth inning multiple times during his career.
Former Blue Jay Bo Bichette returns to Toronto for the first time since signing with the New York Mets. The two teams start their three-game series tonight. CBC’s Greg Ross asked Bichette what reaction he expects from Toronto fans.
Millson started covering the Blue Jays in 1980, and as a result saw many of Stieb’s starts — including his 1990 triumph.
“With Stieb, you always felt that he could get the no-hitter, but you also thought he would run into some bad luck somewhere,” he said.
“I think he was the best pitcher Toronto had,” said Millson, noting that Stieb’s prime years came at a time when the club “was not so good.”
Flirting with no-nos
Stieb and Cease aren’t the only Blue Jays to miss out on no-hitters for Toronto.
In 2024, Bowden Francis carried potential no-hitters into the ninth inning twice in the span of three weeks, only to see home runs spoil both attempts.
On Aug. 8, 2010, starter Brandon Morrow was still on the mound for the Blue Jays in the ninth inning of a potential no-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays, when Evan Longoria connected for a single. Morrow would finish out the complete game, striking out 17 and walking two. Toronto beat Tampa by a score of 1-0.
Three years earlier, Dustin McGowan lost a no-hit bid of his own, also in the ninth inning. He struck out seven Colorado Rockies and issued just one walk during his complete-game performance on June 24, 2007.
The late Roy Halladay, in just the second major league start of his career, took a no-hitter late into the ninth inning against the Detroit Tigers on Sept. 27, 1998. With two outs, Bobby Higginson hit a pinch-hit home run, ending Halladay’s chance. The Jays went on to win the game 2-1.
Halladay, a Hall of Famer, was traded from Toronto to Philadelphia after the 2009 season, where he went on to pitch two no-hitters for the Phillies the following year, including one perfect game — a no-hitter with no walks.
Jim Clancy, who died last year, took a no-hitter into the ninth for the Blue Jays in a game against the Minnesota Twins at the end of September in 1982.
David Cone, in his second stint with Toronto, saw a no-hitter die in the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers in June 1995. Cone would eventually get a no-hitter — a perfect game, in fact — when playing for the New York Yankees a few years later.
The no-hitter Cease did get
Cease’s 2024 no-hitter came in a game against the Washington Nationals on July 25, 2024.
That time, Cease struck out nine, en route to a 3-0 win for the San Diego Padres — where he played before signing with Toronto.
If Cease had managed to add a second no-hitter to his resume this week, he’d join a select list of MLB pitchers with two or more no-hitters in their career.
Thirty-five major-leaguers have thrown multiple, complete-game no-hitters.
Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan leads the list with an astounding seven — including one he notched at age 44, in 1991.
Mike Fiers is the most recent major leaguer to throw multiple no-hitters — recording his second career no-no in May 2019, four seasons after his first.
And there’s another big-leaguer closer to home on the list: Blue Jays starter Max Scherzer, who threw both of his no-hitters in 2015.
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