Blue Jays 8, Mariners 1: Cease Strikes Out Eight, Springer Goes 4-for-4

Canzone homered in the first. Toronto scored the next eight.

August 28, 2026 – Toronto – Dominic Canzone led off the night with his 20th homer to right-center. For about ten minutes the Seattle Mariners had the lead they wanted at Rogers Centre.

The Toronto Blue Jays answered with three in the first and never looked back. Dylan Cease struck out eight in six innings. George Springer went 4-for-4 with a homer. Toronto won 8-1.

Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh did not drive in a run. After Canzone, Seattle was done.

Three in the first, then the homers started stacking

Brett Bateman singled to open the bottom of the first. Emerson Hancock stayed in after chasing down a grounder. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled Bateman home. Springer singled. Jesús Sánchez was hit by a pitch. Kazuma Okamoto lifted a sacrifice fly. Andrés Giménez singled Springer home. 3-1, and the Canzone homer was already a footnote.

Nathan Lukes homered in the fifth, his 10th. Springer followed with his 14th, a fly ball to left. 5-1. Okamoto hit his 27th in the sixth off Seranthony Domínguez, a Blue Jays rookie record. Myles Straw and Okamoto added RBI singles in the seventh. 8-1.

Springer singled in the first, doubled in the third, homered in the fifth, and singled in the seventh. Three runs scored. One RBI. Four hits, zero outs. Hancock lasted five innings, five earned, eight hits. Cease needed 92 pitches to finish six: four hits, one run, one walk, eight strikeouts. He has 217 strikeouts, first in the American League.

Cease did not need a save. Seattle needed a second run.

Mason Fluharty, Paul Sewald, and CJ Van Eyk each threw a scoreless inning. Toronto did not use a closer because the game did not ask for one.

Seattle is 27-40 on the road. Canzone's 20th was the only extra-base hit that hurt Cease. Cole Young doubled. That was the rest of the damage. J.P. Crawford struck out three times. Raleigh walked and struck out twice. The Mariners had five hits and one run, and they used them in the wrong order.

Toronto is 38-13 this season when it scores five or more. Friday it scored eight. The math was not close.

AthX Engine put Springer on top of a loud team card

AthX Engine put Toronto at 18 team fantasy points. Cease scored 21 pitching FP. Springer's 12 hitting FP led every hitter on the Friday slate. Okamoto added 9. A 4-for-4 with a homer and an eight-strikeout start in the same win is how a club owns two boards at once.

Fantasy points measure the night. They are not share price.

What's next

José Soriano is lined up against Kade Anderson on Saturday. Toronto just beat Seattle the way a first-place-feeling lineup is supposed to: early runs, stacked homers, and a starter who never let Canzone's swing become a game. Seattle has to score more than one.

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*Sources: MLB Gameday, ESPN recap, MLB schedule, AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*