Game #59 Preview: Manoah vs Lynn

The Blue Jays will attempt to bounce back and take game 2 of their 3 game series in Chicago against the White Sox. Start time for this one is once again 8:10 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Alek Manoah will make his 3rd start of the season today, hoping to have an outing that looks like his start against the Yankees as opposed to his last time out against the Marlins. Between the two games, his young career still has a lot of shine to it - 1-0 with a 3.86 ERA over his 9.1 innings. He has 12 strikeouts against 5 walks and 3 home runs, and got hit pretty hard and consistently throughout that start against the Marlins. Part of being a Major Leaguer is seeing how you come back from challenges like that, so today is a big day for Manoah.

White Sox’ Starter

Veteran righty Lance Lynn will make the start for the White Sox in this one. Lynn, now pitching in his 11th season, is off to a phenomenal start. He is 7-1, sporting a 1.23 ERA over 58.2 innings. He has 63 strikeouts against 17 walks and just 5 home runs, doing a great job keeping the ball in the ballpark despite allowing a lot off fly balls.

The 34 year old righty had a rebirth in 2019 with the Rangers, and it has continued for him. The signs for him entering free agency after the 2018 season weren’t good - diminishing velocity, rising ERA, loss of command. But once in Texas, he found a bump in his fastball, getting it up to a career best 94.7 mph average. He figured out how to not walk people, lowering it to a career best 2.55 BB/9. And he figured out how to get more strikeouts, also a career best 10.63 per 9 innings. All of this has carried forward for him, and instead of a good contact limiting pitcher like he was with the Cardinals, he’s a dominant righty who has a lot of tools to beat you.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

On the surface, the Jays had a decent game yesterday. They collected 8 hits, hit 4 doubles and drew 4 walks. They were able to get the guys on base, but getting them in was the problem, as they went 1-12 with runners in scoring position, and also saw Marcus Semien get picked off second base. A lot of wasted opportunities.

Yesterday was a lineup full of righties against Rodón, but with the righty Lynn on the mound, Joe Panik, Rowdy Tellez and Reese McGuire will be back in the lineup.

White Sox’ Lineup

Yoán Moncada, the team leader in offensive output, was shut down pretty well last night. He went 1-5 with 3 strikeouts, including a big one to end the 7th inning to strand the bases loaded.

Andrew Vaughn, the DH/1B playing LF this year, was the catalyst for the offense last night from the bottom of the lineup, although anyone in the top 7 of that lineup can be the catalyst on any given night. The talent on this team, especially once they get Eloy Jiménez and Luis Robert back, will be incredible to watch from top to bottom for years to come.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Fangraphs is giving me troubles again this morning, so I’ll have to take guesses here.

Brandon Crawford went 2-3 with a pair of home runs and a pair of walks, driving in 4 runs to pick up the Monster Bat award.

However, it was Michael Tauchman’s 8th inning grand slam in that game that was the big hit, as it turned a 4-2 deficit into a 6-4 lead. The home run was worth .652 WPA, and Tauchman’s WPA King total for the day was .543. The Giants used the outputs of both Crawford and Tauchman to toppled the Rangers 9-4.

Pablo López went 8 solid innings, allowing a pair of runs on 5 hits, striking out 8 batters and walking none to take home the Pitcher of the Day award. López also earned the win in the Marlins’ 6-2-victory over the Rockies.

Find the Link

Find the link between Andrew Vaughn and Jason Varitek.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant