SAN FRANCISCO — Dylan Cease started talking more in the dugout during the later innings, working through game plans and discussing upcoming at-bats. The starter, pitching coach Pete Walker could tell, was beginning to think more. A no-hitter was so close. Cease had completed history before, but the Blue Jays haven’t in a while.“Impossible not for it to be in your mind,” Cease said.After near misses for almost four decades, the Toronto Blue Jays once again came painfully close to the second no-hitter in franchise history on Wednesday. Cease, after eight hitless innings in a 10-0 win over the San Francisco Giants, lost the bid on Heliot Ramos’ flared single to start the ninth. A day of pitching brilliance ended in Toronto’s latest close call.“You see it there,” Cease said. “Any little thing could be a hit. Until you have it, it’s really far away.”Cease sits alone in the Toronto dugout during the top of the eighth inning in San Francisco on Wednesday. (Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)Plenty of Toronto pitchers have come close since Dave Stieb finally delivered the franchise’s only no-hitter in September 1990. Roy Halladay lost one in the ninth in 1998. Dustin McGowan and Brandon Morrow did in 2007 and 2010, respectively. Bowden Francis, in late 2024, lost a pair of no-hit attempts in the final frame in the span of just three weeks. Even Stieb suffered through four lost attempts in the ninth before ultimately achieving the feat against Cleveland. Cease now joins the near-miss list.Stieb has sat alone in Blue Jays history for 35 years. The quest to join him continues.“Selfishly, wanted it for this group, for the team,” Walker said. “Certainly since I’ve been here, we haven’t had one. It would be kind of cool.”Cease, currently making his case to start the 2026 All-Star Game for the American League, joined the Jays on a seven-year, $210 million deal this winter. He’s been the stable strikeout force at the top of Toronto’s rotation all season, and fought for more after each inning on Wednesday. Cease threw a no-hitter with the San Diego Padres in 2024, a dominant 114-pitch performance against the Washington Nationals. He felt even better today.“I just felt like he was cruising along,” Walker said. “Throwing strikes, pitch count was reasonable. He got some early contact here and there, so there weren’t too many deep counts. Obviously his stuff today, I mean, it was electric.”It seems like every no-hitter has a moment; a defensive play that steals a hit that could’ve ended it all. Ernie Clement darted across the infield in Wednesday’s seventh inning, corralling a scorched grounder and sending it across the diamond for an out. That seemed like it until, an inning later, San Francisco’s Bryce Eldridge launched a ball 396 feet to centre, sending Daulton Varsho sprinting to the wall. The outfielder arrived under the pitch at the final moment, caught the fly ball and crashed into the wall. The no-hitter remained alive.“When Daulton made that play,” Cease said, “it was like, that’s what happens in no-hitters. At that point, I really did have it in my mind.”As Varsho stood on the warning track, Cease began his march off the mound. It was the same routine after each of his final few innings, stepping off the mound and staring into Toronto’s dugout. He waved his finger in a circle. The message was clear: I’ve got the next inning. After 106 pitches through seven, manager John Schneider handed him the eighth. After 115 pitches through eight, Schneider sent him back for the ninth. It was Cease’s game and his no-hitter to lose.“If I can let a player have that opportunity,” Schneider said, “I’m going to do it every single time. Maybe not every single time, but as long as I’m allowed to.”Cease’s first half-season with Toronto couldn’t be going much better, aside from a brief injured list stint. In 17 starts, Cease has a 2.56 ERA and has 148 strikeouts in 98 1/3 innings. As the Jays attempt to fix issues that have them five games under .500, their ace certainly isn’t one of them. Cease has flashed top-of-rotation talent before, but that’s essentially all he’s shown since arriving in Toronto.He earned his first-ever All-Star appearance, where he’ll play for his manager, Schneider, with a real shot to start the game as one of the American League’s top pitchers. If Cam Schlittler, who leads the American League in ERA, can’t start, Cease said, he’ll happily take the ball.Asked before the game if Cease’s Wednesday outing could impact Schneider’s decision for the starting spot, the manager smiled and confirmed he’d take it into consideration. Cease certainly made his case, even as he fell just short of history.“He could’ve gotten three more outs,” Schneider said.