Manoah making strides as Trade Deadline approaches

SEATTLE — It doesn’t must be stunning, it simply has to work.

Sunday’s 4-3 win was one the Blue Jays wanted, one Alec Manoah wanted and one the tens of hundreds of Canadian followers deserved after turning T-Cell Park right into a postseason preview celebration for 3 days.

The stakes had been extremely excessive for Manoah, making one of many largest regular-season begins of his profession following two heartbreaking losses for Toronto on Friday and Saturday. In Manoah’s two begins since coming 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 group in Los Angeles, the Blue Jays wanted to see one thing. Not perfection, simply progress.

“I needed to ensure we acquired a win right now,” Manoah mentioned. “I needed to do every thing I can to assist this group get a win and stick with the highway journey.”

A win is a win, maybe carrying a bit additional worth in opposition to a group gaining floor within the AL Wild Card racehowever the Blue Jays additionally wanted to see some big-picture strides from Manoah. There must be a degree of confidence that he generally is a contributor on this rotation the remainder of the way in which, even with Ryu returning and even with the Commerce Deadline simply greater than per week away.

“I really feel actually good. You’ll by no means get to some extent on this sport the place you’re feeling such as you’ve acquired all of it found out,” Manoah mentioned. “When you do, it’s by no means going to finish nicely. For me, it’s nearly persevering with to hone my craft and make changes from begin to begin. I simply wish to keep aggressive each time I’m on the market.”

Manoah has been working his manner by means of 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. Close to the highest of that listing is Manoah’s slider, which stopped being a official, two-strike weapon for him and is so essential to his success.

The third inning in Sunday’s win captured a few of that progress. Check out these three at-bats in a row:

1. Julius Rodriguez
Manoah acquired Rodríguez right into a 0-2 rely rapidly, then threw him three consecutive balls. We’ve seen an excessive amount of of that nibbling from Manoah at occasions in 2023, however he got here proper again with one in every of his finest sliders of the sport, which dived to the underside fringe of the zone and beneath Rodríguez’s swing.

2. Eugenio Suarez
Suárez labored a full rely, too, however he walked when Manoah’s slider flew open to his arm aspect and missed inside. This was an instance of the “dangerous” Manoah slider, which he didn’t get on high of sufficient.

3. Teoscar Hernandez
With Hernández in a 2-2 rely, Manoah discovered the nice slider once more. As an alternative 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 in opposition to Hernández within the sixth, utilizing that sweeping motion to drive a third-strike swing on a pitch that dived nicely out of the zone.

“Having the ability to set up the fastball was the principle half,” Manoah mentioned, “getting forward with that and placing them in swing mode. Then, it was about having the ability to combine within the good sliders.”

Manoah walked 4 and hit one other, however he managed to restrict the injury to 3 runs over 5 1/3 innings. Once more, that’s not good, however Manoah battling by means of 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 one letdown now’s that these groups don’t play each other extra usually.

“It’s a back-and-forth sport with plenty of these guys, going again a few years now,” mentioned supervisor John Schneider. “It looks like that’s the way in which we match up. It looks like there’s all the time massive moments, whether or not it’s relievers or starters pitching out of huge jams and a few massive at-bats.”

It solely will get harder from right here, because the Blue Jays open a three-game set in opposition to the mighty Dodgers on Monday, however Manoah has performed sufficient to curb some worries after his final outing. He stays one of many largest variables on this roster, and the Commerce 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.