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Thursday, July 9
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The Lead

Cease Flirts With History, Bats Do The Rest

Dylan Cease carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning in San Francisco before the Giants' Heliot Ramos broke it up with a line-drive single to center field. The Blue Jays' Dylan Cease took a no-hitter into the ninth inning Wednesday before the Giants' Heliot Ramos broke it up on a line-drive single to center field. Tyler Rogers came on and got the last three outs on four pitches as the Blue Jays won 10-0. The Blue Jays didn't need the history to win big, closing out a 10-0 shutout that buried a Giants lineup already fading in the NL West race.

The more interesting story here isn't the near-miss, it's the timing. This came one night before an off-day and roughly three weeks before the August 3 trade deadline, the exact stretch where one dominant start can either cement a starter's trade value or talk a front office out of selling him. Cease just made that decision harder, and more expensive, for whoever is on the other end of a phone call.

The Rest of the Slate
World Cup
The World Cup quarterfinals began this week and run through Saturday across four American stadiums, though only one match is on today's slate. The quarterfinals begin Thursday, July 9, and continue through Saturday, July 11. Today's opener is France against Morocco in Foxborough. The two biggest clashes come Saturday: a Norway-England meeting at 5 p.m. ET at Miami Gardens, Florida that pits Golden Boot rivals Kane and Haaland — born a week apart in late July, both having won the Premier League Golden Boot three times — against each other for the first time at this tournament, and Argentina's title defense against Switzerland at 9 p.m. ET in Kansas City, Missouri. Argentina needed extra time to get past Cape Verde and a late stoppage-time goal to complete a comeback against Egypt, while Switzerland reached the quarterfinals for the first time since hosting the tournament in 1954 by beating Colombia on penalties.
Raptors
Kyle Lowry signed a ceremonial one-day contract to retire as a Raptor this week, and immediately turned around to join the ownership group of the Toronto Tempo alongside his wife, Ayahna Cornish-Lowry. Lowry ceremonially signed a one-day contract with the Raptors so he could say he ended his career as part of the franchise, and the retirement announcement coincided with the news that Lowry and his wife, entrepreneur and philanthropist Ayahna Cornish-Lowry, are now part of the ownership for the WNBA's Toronto Tempo. The move quietly answers a question nobody was asking about where Toronto's most decorated point guard would land next: still in the building, just on the business side of it now.
Maple Leafs
General manager John Chayka has rebuilt more of the Leafs roster this offseason than any GM in recent franchise memory, adding a new goaltender, a new top-pairing defenceman and a new top prospect while extending pieces like Ryan Tverberg. John Chayka is a Canadian hockey executive who is currently the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League. A roster built by committee usually means competing timelines, and the fair question is whether Chayka is building one team or several different ones stapled together.
The Number
43-49

Blue Jays' record entering Wednesday's near no-hitter One dominant start from Dylan Cease doesn't rewrite a season that has the Jays sitting games under .500 with the deadline approaching. The next three weeks matter more than any single line score: if this front office is still debating buyer or seller by the All-Star break, Cease's trade value just went up regardless of which side of that debate they land on.

What's On Tonight
3:00 PM ET · Spain vs. Belgium (World Cup Quarterfinal) · TSN
4:00 PM ET · France vs. Morocco (World Cup Quarterfinal) · TSN
5:00 PM ET · Norway vs. England (World Cup Quarterfinal) · TSN
9:00 PM ET · Argentina vs. Switzerland (World Cup Quarterfinal) · TSN
Top Dog — Betting Angle

The pick: Norway to beat England in regulation, Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. Erling Haaland has scored in fourteen straight Norway appearances, while England needed a stoppage-time penalty just to get past Mexico in the round before this one.

“A no-hitter broken up in the ninth inning is, statistically speaking, still an excellent start”
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