St. Louis Cardinals at Toronto Blue Jays

With the Trade Deadline at their doorstep, the Blue Jays are scrambling to make it interesting. Friday’s 3-1 win over the Cardinals, paired with a Guardians loss, moves the Blue Jays (51-59) within 4 1/2 games of the final American League Wild Card spot, even if that picture is still incredibly crowded. Luis Urías played the hero, finally breaking the Blue Jays through with a two-run single in the eighth. “No matter what happens over the next couple of days, I want the guys to play like they did today,” John Schneider said. “Have a little bit of urgency.” Here is what mattered most: **1\. Cy Young Watch: Cease vs. Schlittler** This is officially a two-man race. Dylan Cease and the Yankees’ Cam Schlittler are going blow-for-blow lately, but there aren’t many players in baseball hotter than Cease over the past month. It’s going to take some continued dominance by Cease and a few duds by Schlittler to flip the ERA battle here, but Cease’s strikeout totals could become overwhelming. Cease just keeps getting better, too, with six innings of one-run ball against the Cardinals on Friday night. **Cam Schlittler:** 2.04 ERA over 136 2/3 innings with 165 strikeouts (4.8 bWAR) **Dylan Cease:** 2.41 ERA over 119 1/3 innings with 174 strikeouts (4.0 bWAR entering Friday) Schneider has seen some great pitching, but nothing like this. “He’s right up there with the best I’ve seen or had on a staff. It can be pretty special on any given night,” Schneider said pregame. “There’s a few guys who have been on some pretty good rolls here who you’d feel pretty good about, but I think he’s in a bit of a different category right now with the way he’s feeling, how his stuff’s working and how he’s using it. He’s pretty damn good right now.” **2\. Vladdy almost hit one out … finally** Just a couple of inches higher and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. would have hit his first home run at Rogers Centre in 2026. Yes, that’s a bizarre sentence to be reading as July turns to August, but here we are. After some unthreatening swings earlier in the game, Guerrero’s timing came together on a great one in the bottom of the sixth, a 396-foot missile to left-center field that left his bat at 112.4 mph. Guerrero soon came around to score on Kazuma Okamoto’s double, which finally jolted this sleeping offense to life.