Blue Jays 11, Guardians 0: Guerrero Drives In 5 as Cease Shuts Down Cleveland

Six runs in one inning, and then it was over

September 2, 2026 – Cleveland – Joey Cantillo allowed nine earned runs in 5 1/3 innings on Wednesday night, and five of them came in the second when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. parked a three-run homer into the right-field seats and the Toronto Blue Jays walked out of Progressive Field with an 11-0 rout of the Cleveland Guardians.

That second inning is what the scoreboard said. The pitching is what made it last all nine.

Cease keeps rolling

Dylan Cease got six innings, scattered four hits, struck out four, and walked nobody. He has not lost since July 20, going 4-0 with a 1.38 ERA in eight starts since then. The right-hander retired side after side while his teammates built a six-run lead in the second and Toronto never looked back.

Cease's 19-game streak of at least seven strikeouts ended Wednesday, one short of the MLB single-season record shared by Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. He didn't need nine strikeouts to dominate. Cleveland had a runner past second base exactly zero times in his six innings.

Paul Sewald, Brendon Little and Braydon Fisher finished the six-hitter and kept the zero intact through nine.

Guerrero's five-RBI night and a five-run second

Brett Bateman got things started in the second inning, and when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepped in with two on and two out, the game effectively ended. His homer off Cantillo landed deep in right, and Toronto led 6-0 before Cleveland batted in the third.

Bateman scored three times across the night on Guerrero's three hits alone. Josh Smith added a solo homer in the eighth off Carlos Hernández to cap the scoring at 11.

Cantillo took the loss, allowing a career-high nine runs in 5 1/3 innings. Five of those were unearned, charged after Angel Genao's error at shortstop opened the inning. Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges worked 1 2/3 innings of mop-up relief.

What this means for the wild-card race

Toronto entered the night 1 1/2 games behind the Guardians for the third AL wild-card spot. Cleveland's loss means that cushion is exactly 1 1/2 games again after the series splits at 1-1.

Baltimore and Texas are also 1 1/2 back, and all three are chasing a Guardians team that just lost to a team 14.5 games off the AL East lead. The Blue Jays are 21-13 since July 27. At some point you stop calling that a run and start calling it a calendar-half.

AthX Engine angle

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) credited Dylan Cease with 22 pitching FP on Wednesday, the second-highest pitching total on the slate behind Cam Schlittler's 29. The Blue Jays posted 25 team FP, the best of any team on September 2.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. earned 13 hitting FP on his homer-and-five-RBI night, placing him among the day's top hitters. Fantasy points measure what a player did under platform scoring rules. Share prices also respond to market activity through dynamic pricing.

Toronto won the series 1-1. José Soriano starts Thursday's finale against Tanner Bibee.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*