Game #64 Preview: Manoah vs Eovaldi
Manoah #Manoah
After a fun win yesterday, the Blue Jays will try this evening to take 3 of 4 against the Red Sox as they wrap up their weekend series in Boston. Tonight’s start time is back to 7:10 ET.
Blue Jays’ Starter
Alek Manoah is once again going through trial by fire, having faced the Yankees in Yankee Stadium, the first place and strong offence of the White Sox in Chicago, and now he’ll go against the Red Sox at Fenway. The theoretical easiest opponent he has had was the Marlins at home in Buffalo, and that was his worst start.
Over his 3 starts and 14.1 innings, Manoah 1-0 with a 3.14 ERA. He has allowed just 10 hits, but has walked 7 and struck out 16. The walks are rough, and could be a problem for him as he gets established in the Majors, but they weren’t an issue for him in his short Minor League career.
Red Sox’ Starter
Nathan Eovaldi goes for the Red Sox, and depending on what stats you look at, he’s having a pretty good year. He is 7-3 with a 4.11 ERA, but his FIP is 2.63, which is giving him a top 10 fWAR across the league of 2.2. The main source of his success has been the fact that he has allowed just 3 home runs in 72.1 innings, a number that is by no means sustainable. This series has seen the Jays correct the absurdly low HR rates of Pivetta and Pérez, so we’ll see what they can do for Eovaldi.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
With the righty Eovaldi on the mound, the Jays will go with their left handed bats in a few positions today. That means Rowdy Tellez at DH and Reese McGuire behind the plate are very likely. The third potentially platooning lefty, Joe Panik, might get in there if someone else is getting a full day off.
Cavan Biggio, with his strong weekend and great results since coming back from the IL (6-12 with 2 home runs, 2 doubles and 2 walks), has gotten his season wRC+ up to 100. That makes 6 regulars on the team with a wRC+ of at least 100. Next up is Lourdes Gurriel Jr., who is currently at 86 and closing fast, with 12 multi-hit games over the last month.
Bo Bichette, who had an incredible day yesterday collecting 4 hits and scoring 5 times, is starting to heat up himself, now with 4 multi-hit games in his last 6. He now solidly leads the Majors in runs, and is putting together a good case for making the All Star Game roster.
Red Sox’ Lineup
Even in the face of the difficult game for them yesterday, they still looked pretty solid against Robbie Ray yesterday. They put together some good at bats, got a nice rally to set up the 2-run double, and ultimately had a decent offensive game.
Xander Bogaerts was back in the lineup yesterday after missing the first two of the series with a sore knee, and announced his presence right away with a home run in his first at bat. He was right back out at SS, so he’s probably fine to go again today.
Rafael Devers was on the bench yesterday, and it doesn’t appear to be anything more than getting him a rest day against a tough lefty with a good fastball.
Christian Vázquez was off yesterday as well, a day of rest for the catcher, but he’ll be back out there today.
Yesterday’s Heroes
Teoscar Hernández, who went 3-6 with a pair of home runs and a double, driving in 6 runs, is the Monster Bat award winner.
Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a 7th inning grand slam, breaking the tie and setting his Padres up for victory. He takes home the WPA King with a .474 mark on the day, as his Padres beat the Mets 7-3.
Joe Ross threw 8 shutout innings, allowing 5 hits and no walks while striking out 9 on his way to the Pitcher of the Day award. He also took home the win in the National’s 5-0 victory over the Giants.
Find the Link
Find the link between Rafael Devers and Charlie Culberson.
Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant