Blue Jays and Cubs Deadlock in Wild Series Opener as Cease and Bregman Headline the Night
Toronto and Chicago couldn't be separated on Thursday, with the Blue Jays and Cubs playing to a 2-2 tie in the opener of this early-season set.
The story of the night belonged to the mound. Dylan Cease was outstanding for Toronto, turning in a performance worth 64.2 fantasy points that made him the runaway Game MVP. Cease dominated for long stretches, working through the Cubs lineup with the kind of swing-and-miss stuff that's made him one of the more electric arms in the league, and he gave the Blue Jays exactly the length and shutdown innings a team wants from its starter in a game this tight. When your top performer nearly doubles the next-closest player on the stat sheet, you've found your best pitcher of the night, full stop.
Chicago countered with a strong start of its own. David Peterson turned in 15.5 fantasy points on the mound, and Aaron Civale chipped in 15.0 more, giving the Cubs a steady if unspectacular pitching effort that kept them level with Toronto into the late innings. Trent Thornton matched Peterson's 15.5 out of the bullpen, and that kind of matching production between the rotation and relief corps is part of why Chicago has been able to hang around .500 through its first several games this season, even after Thursday's stalemate.
Offensively, the night belonged to two infielders on opposite sides. Alex Bregman was terrific for the Cubs, posting 41.0 fantasy points to lead all hitters in the game. Bregman has been the steadiest bat in that Chicago lineup, and this was another example of why — his production was head and shoulders above everyone else on his own roster. Toronto had an answer in Andrés Giménez, who put up 37.5 fantasy points and was every bit Bregman's equal on the other side of the diamond. Giménez has quietly been one of the more productive hitters for the Blue Jays, and Thursday reinforced that.
Behind those two, Pete Crow-Armstrong continued to show why he's become a name Cubs fans are excited about, racking up 24.0 fantasy points in center field. Alejandro Kirk matched him closely for Toronto with 23.5 behind the plate, giving the Blue Jays production from both ends of the battery. Those four — Bregman, Giménez, Crow-Armstrong and Kirk — were the engines that kept this game as tight as the final score suggests, even if none of them could push their team over the top.
The larger story here might be how evenly matched Toronto and Chicago look to open the year. The Cubs, meanwhile, have looked sharper on paper, having taken three straight from the Dodgers before this series with Toronto, but they weren't able to solve the Blue Jays on Thursday. A tie between the two says as much about the quality of both rosters as anything else.
Going forward, both teams will look at this result as a sign that these are two evenly built ballclubs who are going to be competitive all year. For Toronto, Cease's outing is the type of building block a rotation leans on in a long season. For Chicago, getting 41.0 points out of Bregman on a night the offense otherwise struggled to break through shows the Cubs still have their best hitter locked in, even when the results don't fully cooperate.
For fantasy managers building lineups on JockBroker, Thursday was a reminder that dominant pitching performances like Cease's can carry a roster even in a game that ends level, and that bats like Bregman's and Giménez's are worth building around no matter what the scoreboard says at the final out.