​SAN FRANCISCO — Both starters worked into the fifth inning or later without allowing a hit Wednesday afternoon at Oracle Park, but the Giants’ pitcher found himself in a five-run hole before his teammates even had a chance to swing. Logan Webb settled in after a rough first, punching out 13 in a row at one stretch, while Dylan Cease dominated from the outset and quieted San Francisco for longer than its crowd is used to seeing.
Cease was who the Blue Jays expected when they signed him to a seven-year, $210 million contract in Toronto. He carried a no-hit bid into the ninth, finally yielding a single to Heliot Ramos with one out in the frame. Ramos lined the third pitch of Cease’s 118th into center, ending the no-hitter and giving the home crowd something to cheer about in a 10-0 Toronto victory. Cease worked eight innings of no-hit ball before the ninth-inning single, striking out 11, walking three, and exiting to a standing ovation from fans on both sides.
The Giants faced immediate trouble from Webb, who had just come off the worst start of his career. The Blue Jays scored five in the first inning, all with two outs in the frame, as Okamoto delivered the big blow with a grand slam that emptied the bases and left San Francisco staring at a 5-0 deficit before it even got to bat. Webb, who had been the team’s most dependable starter in recent times, found himself in a bases-loaded jam right away, as the first five Jays hitters reached. Okamoto’s slam capped the early scoring surge and set a stark tone for the day.
Webb managed to settle after the early blow, quickly locking in and cruising through the middle innings. He worked through a tough stretch after that initial inning, posting a nine-pitch battle against Andres Gimenez to begin the second and then needing only 65 more pitches to record the next 17 outs and reach seven innings. He did not allow further damage to snowball, even as the Jays’ offense otherwise stymied him for the most part. The only hard contact that left the bat against him was a ball that didn’t leave the park: Okamoto’s drive off the arcade in right, a ball measured at 328 feet by Statcast and likely to be a homer in only a couple of parks—Oracle and Yankee Stadium.
As the day wore on, San Francisco’s futility grew more pronounced. The home team had never seen a hit by its own side in this ballpark’s 26-year history without a hit in this setting, and Heliot Ramos obliged in the ninth by lining Cease’s 118th pitch into center for the lone baserunner and the only hint of life for the Giants on offense. Cease finished with one hit surrendered, the single to Ramos, and walked off to another ovation.
The Giants’ season has reached a new nadir, dropping further below .500 than at any point earlier in the year. In a game defined by the stark contrast between Cease’s dominance and the Giants’ early collapse, San Francisco’s home crowd was left to think about what might have been if a different decision had been made in the winter and whether the team can recover from a season that has felt like a slow drift toward the bottom of the standings. One hit may not change the outcome, but it did matter in this particular setting, underscoring how far the Giants are from their competition and how much work lies ahead as they try to salvage some pride in a challenging year.