Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Sports

Blue Jays' Cecil flirts with perfect game in win

Associated Press
Published | Updated

CLEVELAND (AP) — Brett Cecil took a perfect game into the seventh inning for the Toronto Blue Jays and settled for a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians on Monday night.

The left-hander allowed one hit over eight innings, striking out a career-high 10.

Cecil (2-1) lost the perfect game when he walked Grady Sizemore with one out in the seventh. He then walked Shin-Soo Choo but came back to strike out Austin Kearns before Jhonny Peralta ruined the no-hitter and shutout with one swing. Peralta lined a 2-2 pitch to left field, scoring Sizemore to get Cleveland within 4-1.

Cecil was seeking to pitch only the 17th perfect game since 1900 and the first in Cleveland since the Indians' Len Barker did it against Toronto on May 15, 1981.

Toronto's only no-hitter was by Dave Stieb, 3-0, over the Indians at old Cleveland Stadium on Sept. 2, 1990.

Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez pitched the only no-hitter this season, the first in Rockies history, over the Atlanta Braves on April 17.

Kevin Gregg gave up a one-out single to Sizemore in the ninth. He walked Kearns with two outs, then fired a called third strike past Peralta on a full count to complete the two-hitter.

Before Peralta delivered in the seventh, the closest Cleveland came to a hit was a line drive by Matt LaPorta leading off the third inning that was backhanded by third baseman Jose Bautista.

Toronto hit three home runs off Mitch Talbot (3-2), giving the Blue Jays an AL-leading 41.

Bautista's two-run homer put Toronto ahead in the second. Travis Snider hit his fourth of the year in the fourth and John Buck connected for his fourth in the eighth to make it 5-1.

That gave the Blue Jays 13 homers in their last six games.

Buck is 9 for 15 (.600) with four homers and eight RBIs in his last four starts. He opened the season in a 9-for-58 (.155) slump.

Toronto made it 3-0 in the third. Aaron Hill doubled with one out and scored on a two-out single by Vernon Wells.

Talbot, a rookie right-hander, had not allowed a homer in his previous 19 1-3 innings. The right-hander gave up five runs and eight hits over eight-plus innings, leaving after Buck's homer to open the ninth.

Cecil made his major-league debut against the Indians last May 5 and came in with an 0.69 ERA in two career starts against Cleveland. His previous high for strikeouts was nine against the Indians last July 21.

NOTES: Cleveland has scored 50 percent (43 of 86) of its runs with two outs. ... Toronto 3B Edwin Encarnacion was scratched from an extended spring training game Monday with soreness in his right arm. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list April 15. ... Snider returned to the lineup after sitting out Sunday with the flu. ... With the Cavaliers playing in the NBA playoffs next door, the crowd of 10,117 was the second-lowest of the season in Cleveland and in the history of Progressive Field, which opened in 1994.