Dylan Cease came within three outs of becoming the first Toronto Blue Jay in 36 years to throw a no-hitter Wednesday afternoon, striking out 11 in a 10-0 road victory over the San Francisco Giants.

Kazuma Okamoto capped a five-run first inning with a grand slam and center fielder Daulton Varsho prevented an extra-base hit by the Giants’ Bryce Eldridge with a leaping catch on the center-field warning track in the eighth, each helping Cease’s cause.

The All-Star right-hander retired the first 14 Giants he faced until losing his perfect game by walking Willy Adames with two outs in the fifth.

Cease (6-4) also walked Drew Gilbert leading off the sixth and Rafael Devers with one out in the seventh, but breezed through a 1-2-3 eighth with Tyler Rogers warming up, earning a shot at the ninth despite having thrown 115 pitches.

Home runs by Vlad Guerrero Jr., his fifth, and George Springer, his ninth, added three runs to the Toronto total in the top of the ninth, giving Cease a long rest before continuing his quest.

Attempting to match the feat of Dave Stieb in September of 1990, the only previous no-hitter in Blue Jays history, Cease went 1-1 on Heliot Ramos before the Giants outfielder lined a fastball up the middle. Ramos had struck out his previous three times.

Cease was pulled at that point, having walked three and recorded his sixth double-digit strikeout performance of the season.

No opponent has ever pitched a no-hitter in the 27-year history of Oracle Park.

Rogers retired all three men he faced after taking over for Cease, wrapping up Toronto’s sixth shutout of the season.

The first six Blue Jays hitters gave their pitcher all the support he would need against Giants starter Logan Webb (5-7).

Singles by Ernie Clement and Nathan Lukes, and a one-out walk to Springer, loaded the bases for Varsho, who blooped an RBI single into right field.

Okamoto then took Webb high and deep the opposite way, landing his 21st home run atop the 20-foot-high wall in right field at Oracle Park. The hit was reviewed and Okamoto, who had stopped at first base, was sent the remaining 270 feet for a grand slam and a 5-0 lead.

Lukes, Varsho and Okamoto each had two hits and scored twice for the Blue Jays, who improved to 3-3 on their nine-game Western swing.

Webb rebounded from his rough start to serve up just one more hit through the seventh inning, finishing with five runs and five hits allowed. He walked two and struck out two.

–Field Level Media

After Egypt coach Hossam Hassan outlined several complaints in the immediate aftermath of Argentina’s come-from-behind 3-2 win in the round of 16 on Tuesday, the Egyptian Football Foundation followed up on Wednesday with two statements amplifying their country’s issues with the officiating.

The second statement revealed that EFA president Hany Abou Rida filed a formal complaint with FIFA “demanding an investigation into the French referee Francois Letexier after the serious refereeing mistakes committed by the team of referees and double standards, which caused the Egypt team to lose the match and leave the World Cup.”

As part of the complaint, Egypt “demanded the exclusion of the referee and the entire crew from the World Cup after investigating these mistakes.”

Egypt led 2-0 late in the second half before Argentina reeled off three goals in a 13-minute stretch to advance to the quarterfinals.

That late lead could have been 3-0, but Egypt had a goal in the 58th minute disallowed after a VAR replay discerned an Egypt foul against an Argentina player shortly before the goal.

“The Egyptian Football Association cannot remain silent,” the first statement began, “regarding the refereeing decisions witnessed during the match against Argentina as well as the failure to make appropriate use of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system.

“Several key incidents raised serious concerns and left profound questions about the consistency and fairness of decisions that directly influenced the course of the game.

“A number of football experts and specialist analysts, both locally and internationally, have highlighted controversial and influential refereeing incidents during the match. This underlines the importance of maintaining the highest standards of integrity, fairness, and transparency in match officiating, particularly in a competition of the stature and significance of the FIFA World Cup 2026.”

Hassan’s translated words after Tuesday’s match put Egypt’s opinion more bluntly.

“There was neither respect nor fair play today,” Hassan said. “Argentina’s victory is entirely undeserved.”

Argentina play Switzerland in the quarterfinals on Saturday in Kansas City.

–Field Level Media

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — France and Morocco meet on Thursday in the World Cup’s first quarterfinal, reprising their engrossing semifinal in 2022.

France again will be favored after edging that meeting in Qatar 2-0 on an early first goal from Theo Hernandez and late second from Randal Kolo Muani.

And this time, France’s Kylian Mbappe enters in even better form than that of his Golden Boot-winning 2022 performance.

Mbappe owns seven goals through five matches, including his decisive penalty in France’s professional 1-0 triumph over a petulant Paraguay in the round of 16 on Saturday. He’s tied with Norway’s Erling Haaland and one behind Argentina’s Lionel Messi for the tournament lead.

Les Bleus also enter the match with a sense of minor injustice after they were the recipients of all three cautions issued by Uzbek referee Ilgiz Tantashev on Saturday, despite Paraguay’s consistent role as instigators.

That included one to Michael Olise, who leads the tournament with five assists but could be out of a possible semifinal if he earns another caution on Thursday. France appealed Olise’s yellow card against Paraguay, but manager Didier Deschamps confirmed that FIFA’s disciplinary committee had not overturned the decision.

Thursday’s match will be officiated by Argentine Facundo Tello, with the two assistant referees and the fourth official also coming from Argentina, the nation that defeated France on penalties in the 2022 final and will play its own quarterfinal on Saturday.

“I try to trust the referees,” Deschamps said through an interpreter. “I hope that Mr. Tello and his assistants, who we’ll have tomorrow, are as good as (French referee Francis) Letexier and his assistants who refereed another match.

“Obviously, there are always decisions that can lead to discussion. It all depends on which side you’re on, but I consider Morocco to be the opponent. I’m not going to consider the referee an opponent. Quite the opposite, he’s there to ensure the laws of the game are applied as fairly as possible.”

Meanwhile, the Atlas Lions will no longer be a surprise to the world at this stage.

They have followed their 2022 semifinal appearance by winning the 2025 African Cup of Nations — albeit after the fact via an AFC ruling disqualifying Senegal for its behavior in the final — and reaching this stage by drawing Brazil in the group stage and defeating the Netherlands on penalties in the round of 32.

But Morocco will have to carry on, at least on Thursday, without striker Ismael Saibari. He leads his side with three goals at this tournament, but he played only 22 minutes of their round of 16 victory over Canada on Saturday after succumbing to a muscle strain.

While his injury originally was not characterized as serious, he did not participate in Tuesday’s training and was ruled out by manager Mohamed Ouahbi during his news conference Wednesday evening.

“Everybody is available except for Saibari,” he said through an interpreter, “because the match is too early. But I am sure, and I hope that he is not out for the rest of the competition.”

Without him, Morocco eventually overcame a resolute Canadian effort with a brace from Azzendine Ounahi and then Soufiane Rahimi’s second goal of the tournament late in added time.

Only Belgium have more multiple-goal scorers this tournament with four.

–Ian Nicholas Quillen, Field Level Media