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Blue Jays Talk

Cease Notches 11 Ks in Jays Walk-off Thriller

10 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Blue Jays' walk-off win against the Phillies?

2.377 - 31.708 Jeff Blair

All right, Kevin Barker. Well, a whole lot of Dylan Cease to start this game. And a winning ninth inning put together by, I'm almost going to call them the usual suspects, Jesus Sanchez, Yohendrik Pinango, and Brandon Valenzuela, who I don't think he wants to go down to Buffalo when Kirky comes back.

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Chapter 2: How did Dylan Cease perform in his return from the IL?

32.701 - 36.188 Kevin Barker

Yeah, I don't think he's going to Buffalo.

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36.268 - 54.683 Jeff Blair

Yeah, I think he's probably okay. He's probably okay. Look, that was one of the most – we're not going to talk important wins of the year or anything. It was just one of the most satisfying wins. When you think of who they beat after – you know, they – They lost to Christopher Sanchez yesterday, but they made him work.

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Chapter 3: What impact did Brandon Valenzuela have on the game?

54.783 - 76.579 Jeff Blair

They grinded out at-bats. They made him work. They're facing Zach Wheeler, who's awfully good. They had opportunities in the first three innings tonight to put some runs on the board. That didn't work. But then they come in against a really good bullpen. I mean, eventually they do get to Wheeler on the Sanchez home run, and then they...

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76.812 - 84.371 Jeff Blair

I mean, Yohan Duran, you talk about closers with the light show. He's got one of the best. And he didn't get anybody out.

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85.413 - 102.499 Kevin Barker

Well, yeah, you know, I think you got to give everybody credit. Mark Budzinski, right, with whenever you're bringing in pinch runners, knowing that a guy's not very good at holding runners on, you put pressure on him. You try and steal bases, right? That's exactly what they did in the ninth inning there with Strahl running, with Varsha when he was pinch running.

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102.539 - 121.145 Kevin Barker

He was stealing a base to make it in second and third with nobody out. Like you put pressure on, you know, when you got a guy that's really good on the ropes, right? You just continue to try and step on their neck and you try and put them away. That's making it easier for the guy standing at the plate. That's kind of the whole deal, right? And then you get the wild pitch and then you get the kid.

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121.446 - 122.407 Kevin Barker

How about the kid learning?

Chapter 4: What were the key plays in the ninth inning that led to the victory?

122.567 - 139.601 Kevin Barker

Talking to Hazel saying, you know, yesterday I saw the split finger. Today when I faced him again, all I was doing was looking up. I mean, look, it sounds simple, but, boy, it's big league stuff. It's like you learn from one game from one at bat to the other just to give yourself a chance.

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139.681 - 147.741 Kevin Barker

That dude throws so hard, has such a good secondary pitch against lefties that it's almost as simple as I just need to see it up.

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Chapter 5: How did Jesús Sánchez contribute to the game?

147.721 - 154.351 Kevin Barker

If I see it up, I got a chance. If it's down and I'm swinging at that thing, I got no chance. What's he do? He walks it off.

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Chapter 6: What strategies did the Blue Jays use against Zack Wheeler?

154.532 - 170.276 Kevin Barker

I mean, that's big league stuff, Jeff. Like that's, that's kind of how you, you, you start to build something when you start getting your dudes back. Right. We saw one of the dudes tonight and Dylan cease, you know, and you fight and you claw, you keep it close. You just get, you give them a chance. You give them a chance.

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170.296 - 171.758 Jeff Blair

That's exactly what happened.

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172.139 - 195.835 Jeff Blair

He recorded 29 whiffs tonight, which is the most. It ties his career high. It's the most by a pitcher in a game this season. It's the most by a Blue Jays pitcher in a game since they started pitch tracking in 2008. And, of course, we all remember how horrible the game was before pitch tracking. And it's only the 11th time that someone's logged 11 or 29 whiffs in a game in the last five years.

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195.815 - 216.962 Kevin Barker

Yeah, he was really good, man. You know, you asked me today what I was looking for, and I said strike one. That was 68%. That's on point. When you throw that hard, then the next thing I said was glove side with the fastball and the slider. The slider's got to be tunneling off the fastball. It's got to be tight. It's got to be a tough take. That's exactly what happened.

216.942 - 230.2 Kevin Barker

He had ten whiffs on the fastball. He had seven on the slider. Only way you're getting those two things is to throw strike one. And then against lefties, you start, you know, like Valenzuela said, they started using the changeup as a weapon, not something you can get ahead with.

230.541 - 250.868 Kevin Barker

So when he's working those three and can mix in the sinker when he wants to mix in the sinker when he's throwing that hard, he's that competitive with all five of those pitches. Jeff, it's good night. That's basically what it is. When he's pitching ahead and he's got all those and they're tough takes – He's almost as unhittable as you can get, and that's what happened.

250.888 - 269.73 Jeff Blair

416-870-0590, star 590, 1-888-666-0590. The text line is open, 590-590 is the text line. In his postgame interview with Hazel, Brandon Valenzuela also made an interesting point about the use of the changeup tonight, using it more as a weapon instead of just a setup pitch.

270.993 - 287.871 Kevin Barker

Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, sort of kind of what you do, right, is you establish some other stuff like the fastball, like the slider, and then you start throwing the change up. You know, Siddle talked about that a little bit the second time through. You establish one to make the other one that much better, right? You've got to give them a different look.

Chapter 7: How did the pitching performance affect the game outcome?

295.966 - 313.31 Kevin Barker

Right out of the hand, you knew it was a ball. Normally when he goes through it and he's throwing too many pitches in an inning, throwing too many pitches to a batter, they're non-competitive. I don't remember a non-competitive pitch. If he did throw one, he self-corrected, and then he got it back in the lane, and he was competitive again. That's what you love about it.

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313.33 - 325.902 Kevin Barker

How do you build off of that? If you're asking him, you get him in a dark room. If you're Pete Walker, you say, how do you build off of that? How do you consistently do that? If you do that, you're top five or six or seven or eight in baseball.

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326.023 - 331.628 Jeff Blair

Brendan from Stony Creek on the text line. Jeff and Kevin, tonight confirms that Valenzuela gets sent down. We riot.

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332.722 - 335.897 Kevin Barker

I mean, come on. That's not going to happen.

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336.62 - 358.791 Jeff Blair

Well, that tells you, though, it tells you what people, how people view. the cacification of this team, that people are concerned. They are concerned that, you know, Brandon Valenzuela may need to go down to develop a little bit here because God knows he would not want to lose Tyler Heinemann. God forbid a team like the Yankees should latch on to Tyler Heinemann.

358.831 - 380.987 Jeff Blair

It could single-handedly turn their season around. So, I mean, you know that people are – They'll need to see Brandon in the flesh on Friday before they are convinced that he isn't going to go down. But we talked to Joe Siddle about this. I think we've all changed our minds on that. We all thought a couple of weeks ago that...

381.119 - 389.388 Jeff Blair

well, they'd probably keep hiding him in and send this guy down because we know that they're absolutely terrified to lose anybody. I mean, every minor leaguer they have is treated like gold in this organization.

389.408 - 392.791 Kevin Barker

Catchers, catchers, they don't have any depth when it comes to their catchers.

392.811 - 412.833 Jeff Blair

Yeah, that's right, and God knows you need catching depth at AAA. You do. Well, you do, yeah, no, but my point is that people are, and I think that's why that'll be a topic of conversation for the next couple of days at least, and we'll do our best to keep it going. Robin Port Hope, you're on Blue Jays Talk.

Chapter 8: What does the future hold for Brandon Valenzuela with the team?

828.791 - 854.033 Jeff Blair

11 strikeouts, one run, three hits, 29 whiffs. And against... You know, a lineup, especially a lineup that's top four, Schwarber, Turner, Harper, and Marsh is pretty tough. I mean, Marsh is really one of the better hitters in the game right now. And Dylan Cease kept them under control. Louis Varlin gives up his second earned run this year.

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855.055 - 881.854 Jeff Blair

And Brandon Valenzuela comes through in the clutch, and the Jays get a 3-2 win, walk-off win over the Philadelphia Phillies. The series is tied at one game apiece. Game three is tomorrow. The Jays have a chance to move a game within 500 with the New York Yankees coming in town after the off day on Thursday. 416-870-0590, star 590, 1-888-666-0590.

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882.695 - 910.153 Jeff Blair

Take a look at the out-of-town scoreboard with the standings watch presented by Bet365, home of the five-run early payout. Must be 19-plus. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Before you get to the scores, a couple of items of note. Freddie Freeman collected his 2,500th hit tonight. He is the only active player with 2,500 hits. First Bella Hall of Famer? I mean, yeah.

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910.927 - 912.931 Kevin Barker

With what he's done in the playoffs, absolutely.

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913.452 - 933.728 Jeff Blair

Yeah, no, yeah, I would, yeah, absolutely. You know, again, strength of ballot, yeah, but I mean, by the time he retires, yeah, he'll absolutely be a first ballot Hall of Famer, and he gets all the marks for being a good dude and all that stuff, too. So not even a cynical old SOB like me would find a flaw in Freddie Freeman's case.

933.708 - 935.17 Kevin Barker

Boy, you nailed that.

935.23 - 958.678 Jeff Blair

Ronald Acuna Jr. has left the Braves game with a leg injury, trying to leg out a chopper to third base. I'd like to say I'm surprised, but given his injury history or not, it's a tough blow, though, for the Braves. It is. They're just a different team when he's in it. He's one of the five best players in basketball. I'll say this is one of the five best players in baseball.

958.999 - 959.54 Kevin Barker

Without a doubt.

960.041 - 980.633 Jeff Blair

When healthy. It's one of the five. I mean, there's some stuff that goes along with him, but I mean, it's irrelevant. Talent-wise, he's one of the five best players in baseball. So anyhow, we'll wait and see if there's anything further on that. So let's get to the scoreboard. The Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 3-2. Spencer Jones. Got his first career home run tonight.

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