Things can’t get any worse for Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Alec Manoa after another lousy start Monday against the Houston Astros.
Manoah who entered the night together Lowest fWAR rating in major (minus -0.4) Of the 93 eligible starters, he pitched just four innings in his last start on May 31 against the Milwaukee Brewers, and hoped to end up with a marginal performance. But even that ended up being wishful thinking.
Instead, the 2022 All-Star threw 38 pitches and gave up six earned runs with just one out, recording the worst and shortest outs of his major league career. Toronto will lose 11-4.
The former ace is in more than just a rut, and manager John Schneider has left no room for how the Blue Jays go from here.
“Right now, we’re not sitting here making plans, but doing everything we can for him means using all the resources we have and staff. It means using him and using his teammates to help him through,” Schneider said after the game. game. “When you say it’s all on the table, yes it is. We’re just trying to help him get back to the pitching quality he once was.”
In the first inning, things quickly went awry when Manoa’s first pitch was carried to the right field by Houston’s Mauricio Dubon. Then Jeremy Peña hit a perfect bunt along the third-base foul line.
Despite Manoa’s best effort to get the ball into the foul area, Peña’s bunt single sent him undefeated with two runners and the ever-dangerous Jordan Alvarez at bat.
After Manoa trailed 0-3, Alvarez eventually converted an eight-pitch at-bat into an RBI, his line drive hitting Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s grab and landing shallow in right field. Alex Bregman, on a 98.1 mph flyout, flew into midfield, but things went downhill from there.
Kyle Tucker scored the Astros’ second point of the night on an off-field fieldline drive, advancing Alvarez to second. Manoa went 0-2 to José Abreu, but followed up with four fastballs and the bases loaded with only one out to Corey Jurks.
Jewkes, who had only four home runs in his MLB career, ambushed Manoa’s 94.2 mph two-seamer on AB’s first pitch and delivered a 386-foot grand slam to give Houston a 6-0 lead.
Manoa was given the opportunity to right the ship after the base was lowered in one big swing. But after a back-to-back hit from a screamer going 160+ mph, Schneider had no choice but to pull the hook of a struggling right-hander.
Blue Jays fans didn’t hesitate to voice their displeasure as a handful of boos dominated from the Rogers Center after the 6-foot-6 Haller’s night ended prematurely.
The 25-year-old’s final pitching line was anything but clean, allowing seven hits, six runs and one walk in just one-third of an inning. He was only the second Blue Jays pitcher to record such a bad pitch.
After Monday’s disastrous pitching, Manoa’s ERA jumped to 6.36 in 58.0 innings in 13 starts this season, the seventh-highest in the majors. He has an MLB-best 6.53 FIP and a home run-to-fly ratio of 14.9%, the worst by far in his career.
Toronto is the only MLB team to have just five starters this season, but amid Manoa’s endless woes, that streak may soon end.
