SEATTLE — It doesn’t need to be stunning, it simply has to work.
Sunday’s 4-3 win was one the Blue Jays wanted, one Alek Manoah wanted and one the tens of 1000’s of Canadian followers deserved after turning T-Mobile Park right into a postseason preview social gathering for 3 days.
The stakes had been extremely excessive for Manoah, making one of many greatest regular-season begins of his profession following two heartbreaking losses for Toronto on Friday and Saturday. In Manoah’s two begins since getting back from the Minor Leagues, he’d pitched a gem and struggled as soon as, and with Hyun Jin Ryu a day away from rejoining the crew in Los Angeles, the Blue Jays wanted to see one thing. Not perfection, simply progress.
“I wanted to make sure we got a win today,” Manoah stated. “I wanted to do everything I can to help this team get a win and keep on with the road trip.”
A win is a win, maybe carrying somewhat additional worth towards a crew gaining floor within the AL Wild Card race, however the Blue Jays additionally wanted to see some big-picture strides from Manoah. There must be a stage of confidence that he could be a contributor on this rotation the remainder of the way in which, even with Ryu returning and even with the Trade Deadline simply greater than per week away.
“I feel really good. You’ll never get to a point in this game where you feel like you’ve got it all figured out,” Manoah stated. “If you do, it’s never going to end well. For me, it’s just about continuing to hone my craft and make adjustments from start to start. I just want to stay aggressive every time I’m out there.”
Manoah has been working his approach by an inventory of priorities since he was despatched again to the Blue Jays’ coaching complicated in early June, a serious transfer that hit the reset button on his season. Near the highest of that checklist is Manoah’s slider, which stopped being a respectable, two-strike weapon for him and is so essential to his success.
The third inning in Sunday’s win captured a few of that development. Take a take a look at these three at-bats in a row:
1. Julio Rodríguez
Manoah received Rodríguez right into a 0-2 rely shortly, then threw him three consecutive balls. We’ve seen an excessive amount of of that nibbling from Manoah at instances in 2023, however he got here proper again with one in all his finest sliders of the sport, which dived to the underside fringe of the zone and beneath Rodríguez’s swing.
2. Eugenio Suárez
Suárez labored a full rely, too, however he walked when Manoah’s slider flew open to his arm facet and missed inside. This was an instance of the “bad” Manoah slider, which he didn’t get on high of sufficient.
3. Teoscar Hernández
With Hernández in a 2-2 rely, Manoah discovered the great slider once more. Instead of slipping this one beneath Hernández’s bat like he did to Rodríguez, Manoah swept this one throughout the zone and away from Hernández with extra horizontal motion. Seeing this work the primary time, Manoah used an analogous slider towards Hernández within the sixth, utilizing that sweeping motion to power a third-strike swing on a pitch that dived properly out of the zone.
“Being able to establish the fastball was the main part,” Manoah stated, “getting ahead with that and putting them in swing mode. Then, it was about being able to mix in the good sliders.”
Manoah walked 4 and hit one other, however he managed to restrict the harm to a few runs over 5 1/3 innings. Again, that’s not excellent, however Manoah battling by these baserunners was an encouraging signal. The Blue Jays wanted this, as a result of coming off the 2 losses to open the collection, one other would have been an absolute intestine punch.
The solely letdown now could be that these groups don’t play each other extra typically.
“It’s a back-and-forth game with a lot of these guys, going back a couple of years now,” stated supervisor John Schneider. “It seems like that’s the way we match up. It seems like there’s always big moments, whether it’s relievers or starters pitching out of big jams and some big at-bats.”
It solely will get tougher from right here, because the Blue Jays open a three-game set towards the mighty Dodgers on Monday, however Manoah has executed sufficient to curb some worries after his final outing. He stays one of many greatest variables on this roster, and the Trade Deadline might throw one other wrench into all of this, however for now, he’s again the place he belongs as a part of the Blue Jays’ success.
Content Source: www.mlb.com