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Series Recap: Blue Jays find offence against Giants thanks to a stuffed dragon
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Photo credit: © D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
Jul 9, 2026, 08:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 9, 2026, 02:17 EDT
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The Toronto Blue Jays picked up a much-needed series win against the San Francisco Giants.
Simply put, they were spiraling. After reaching .500 in the first game of a 10 game home stand, the Jays went on to drop seven of the last night games. Their struggles continued on the road, defeating the Seattle Mariners in the series opener, but they were then shut out over the next 29 innings.
That stretch of scoreless baseball continued into their three-game series against the Giants. Entering the top of the sixth down 3-0 on Monday, Kazuma Okamoto hit his 20th home run of the season to finally get the Blue Jays on the board. Then the Giants immediately responded with five runs, taking the series opener 10-1.
Often, you can look back at a moment as a turning point of the season. That may well be the case on Tuesday when Jonatan Clase of all players hit a three-run blast in the top of the second. The red home run jacket appeared, but so too did a stuffed dragon.
It makes no sense at all, but hey, it’s working for the Blue Jays for whatever reason. After the Giants got on the board in the bottom half of the second, the 2025 Blue Jays showed up and scored five runs in the top of the third thanks to some small ball. In the end, the Blue Jays won this one 9-3, bringing their season record to 43-49 at that point.
Before the Giants even had a chance to bat on Wednesday (spoiler alert: they didn’t do anything with their opportunities), the Jays already hung a five-spot on Logan Webb. With the bases loaded, Daulton Varsho hit an RBI single to get the Jays on the board. That brought up Okamoto, who just barely hit a grand slam, the first of his career.
The Jays didn’t score again until the top of the eighth, but that didn’t matter as Dylan Cease had one of the best games of his career. He was throwing a no-hitter through seven, with the Jays tacking on two more runs in what was a long break for the right-handed pitcher. It took Cease just nine pitches to get through the bottom of the eighth, putting him just three outs away from a no-hitter.
But before he returned to the mound, the Jays tacked on three more runs, as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer hit back-to-back home runs. How needed were those two home runs?
Unfortunately, Cease surrendered his first hit to lead-off the ninth inning, one of many times in the Blue Jays history that a no-no was broken up in the ninth. It at least allowed Tyler Rogers to face his old team, generating two fly outs and a pop out to end the game, a 10-0 victory for the Jays.
Just as the season looked doomed, the Blue Jays have pulled us right back in. There’s only one more series left before the All-Star break, and they head south to San Diego to play the Padres for three games this weekend.
Is this stuffed dragon going to turn the season around? Who knows, but if they sweep the Padres like they did last season, the Jays will suddenly be just two games back of .500 once again. With the trade deadline looming, the Jays need to find a way to take all three games.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. She can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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