Hail, Cesar! Jay gets first win in 7 years
TORONTO — In a Blue Jays season short on happy endings, unheralded pitcher Cesar Valdez authored his own feel-good story Tuesday night.
The 32-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic recorded his first major-league win in more than seven years as Toronto defeated the Oakland Athletics 4-1.
No wonder he called it a career highlight.
“I’ve played everywhere, I’ve been everywhere,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “I’ve been in the big leagues and the minor leagues. Coming off the mound today and having the fans screaming and congratulating me was something really nice.”
Valdez (1-0) exited to a standing ovation after yielding a double to open the seventh before an announced crowd of 40,624 with the Rogers Centre roof open on a pleasant night.
Valdez’s baseball journey has taken him from Arizona to Pittsburgh, Florida, Toronto, Houston, Oakland and Toronto again with a stop in the Mexican league and a year out of baseball along the way.
His only other win came in his majorleague debut May 3, 2010, for Arizona over Houston.
Filling in for the injured Aaron Sanchez, Valdez gave up one run on five hits with four strikeouts and one walk in a surprisingly smooth 77-pitch outing featuring 51 strikes.
Valdez stole the spotlight from Oakland starter Sonny Gray, with scouts on hand eyeing the 27-year-old Athletics righthander ahead of Monday’s non-waiver trade deadline. Gray (6-5) arrived having gone 4-1 with a 1.62 earned-run average and .155 opponents’ batting average in his last five starts.
Gray was done in by four unearned runs in a second inning that saw eight Jays come to the plate. Troy Tulowitzki’s groundout, Ryan Goins’ two-RBI double and Jose Bautista’s double did the damage in a wobbly 32-pitch inning for Gray, who did not help his cause with a costly throwing error.