Some Good, Some Bad From Alek Manoah in Blue Jays Loss
Manoah #Manoah
The Blue Jays rookie struck out nine, but his fastball command sailed on him in a 7-1 loss to Tampa Bay.
Before Alek Manoah took the mound against the Tampa Bay Rays for the second time in seven days, there was a debate.
Would the Blue Jays starter roll with the same game plan that saw him strike out 11 hitters on July 2? Or would he switch things up to keep Rays hitters guessing?
During Friday’s 7-1 loss, Manoah settled somewhere in between.
The slider, Manoah’s go-to-pitch in both outings, worked well and he spun it like a frisbee. Brandon Lowe, the Rays’ very first batter of Friday’s game at Tropicana Field, started his swing on a pitch that began in the opposite batter’s box. In a blink of an eye, Manoah’s 81-mph slider hooked under Lowe’s hands on an awkward swing-and-miss.
Tampa hitters sat on the slider and Manoah went fastball. Hitters sat fastball and Manoah went slider. With the bases loaded and one out in the third inning, the Blue Jays rookie crossed up Wander Franco — getting him to swing on a slider outside the zone, then take a heater down the middle.
But, in typical fashion, the Rays grinded for their runs. After Franco struck out, Manoah sawed off Austin Meadows with a fastball, but the Tampa Bay cleanup man blooped a two-RBI single into right field. A bases-loaded hit-by-pitch in the fourth added another run and booted Manoah from the game.
The 23-year-old managed nine strikeouts through just 3 2/3 innings, but allowed three earned runs on three hits, walked three and threw 88 pitches — only 48 for strikes.
Manoah’s command of his sinker — which he threw noticeably more on Friday — failed him. His fastball placement, especially to left-hander hitters, wasn’t sharp. Manoah flew open and the ball consistently sailed up and away. This has been a problem of his and Friday’s heat map illustrated the trend.
After completely blanking them a week prior, the Rays got some revenge on Manoah and the Blue Jays. Toronto, of course, did itself no favors.
With runners on first and second and one out in the sixth inning, Lowe lifted a high fly ball to Teoscar Hernández in left field. Hernández casually drifted to the ball, caught it on his back foot, but realized too late that runners were tagging and had no chance to get Mike Zunino running to third base.
This play was incredibly important because that mental error by Hernández allowed both runners to move up and brought the infield in. The next Rays batter, Ji-Man Choi, dumped a soft liner into center to score two.
Blue Jays third baseman Cavan Biggio also committed an error on a groundball in the fourth inning, his ninth of the season.
Friday’s loss was no clinic in terms of offense, defense or pitching. If the Blue Jays want to be a playoff team — which this roster is certainly capable of — they’ll need to mentally tighten things up for Game No. 2 of the series on Saturday.