John Cerutti, pitched the best game of his career, a 2-hit shutout, as the Toronto Blue Jays routed the Kansas City Royals, 8-0 before a crowd of 48,675 at SkyDome.

The Blue Jays, in third at the time behind Baltimore and Boston, were managed by Cito Gaston, who took over from Jimy Williams on May 15. Kansas City was managed by John Wathan and had Mark Gubicza starting on the mound.

Cerutti's sinker was working almost perfectly as the Royals kept hitting grounder after grounder. Toronto first baseman Fred McGriff had 16 putouts at first and Cerutti struck out just three. The Royals had just five fly outs to the outfield. Cerutti had a no-hitter until there was one out in the seventh when Kansas City first baseman George Brett doubled. Center fielder Willie Wilson also had a double in the ninth.

McGriff supplied the only run Cerutti would need in the fourth when McGriff homered. The Blue Jays had five hits good for five runs in the fifth to knock out Gubicza for reliever Steve Crawford.

The Blue Jays added another run in the seventh when right fielder Lee Mazzilli homered off of Rick Luecken. Designated hitter Rance Mulliniks drove in the final run in the eighth off of Steve Farr on an RBI single to score left fielder George Bell.

Toronto had 15 hits and all nine starters got hits. Mazzilli would go 3 for 3 and four other players would have two hits.

The Blue Jays and Orioles would have a close race for first in the AL East all season. The Blue Jays would clinch the pennant on the second to last day of the season with a 4-3 win over the Orioles in Toronto. The Blue Jays would lose the ALCS to Oakland in five games.

Mazzilli, along with center fielder Mookie Wilson, were late season acquistions from the New York Mets to supplement the Blue Jays outfield. Wilson would bat .298 in the final month and help pick up the offensive slack for the slumping Lloyd Moseby. Mazzilli, in his final season in the majors, batted just .227.

McGriff led the AL in home runs with 36 and finished in sixth in the MVP voting. Surprisingly, Bell finished in fourth despite having a worse season, hitting just 18 homers and having an OPS 140 points less than McGriff's (.924) which led the AL.

The Royals finished in second place in the AL West at 92-70, seven games behind Oakland. The Royals have finished second just once since then, in 1995 in the AL Central and they went 70-74 and were 30 games behind first place Cleveland.

Cerutti would post an 11-11 record in 1989 with a 3.07 ERA. He would pitch just two more seasons before injuries cut short his career. Cerutti passed away on October 3, 2004 in Toronto of a heart attack at the age of 44.

Sources: Toronto Star, Baseball-reference.com, Retrosheet