Game #128 Preview: Manoah vs Ureña

The Blue Jays will try once again to get back on track, and attempt to pick up a win against the Tigers in game 2 of their 3 game set in Detroit. The game today is scheduled to get underway at 6:10 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Young righty Alek Manoah gets the ball again for the Jays, making the 13th start of the season and of his career. So far, things have been going quite well for him. He is 5-2 with a 3.31 ERA. Through 68.0 innings, he has 78 strikeouts against 25 walks, while allowing just 9 home runs. He has also beaned 8 batters, which is something that he will continue to be prone to do, but overall they’re not hurting him so far (aside from the one that gave him a suspension).

Tigers’ Starter

Longtime Marlins’ starter José Ureña will get the start for the Tigers. Ureña signed as a free agent this past offseason with Detroit after spending the last 12 years in the Marlins organization. This will be Ureña’s 18th start with the Tigers, and first since July 17 when he went down with a groin injury. He’s not worked fully back up to full strength yet, and he’s only expected to get a few innings in today.

Through 80.0 innings this year, Ureña is 2-8 with a 6.19 ERA. His FIP is a bit better than that, but still bad at 5.36. He doesn’t strike batters out (5.85 per 9 innings), but he does walk a lot (4.16 per 9 innings). He has also allowed 12 home runs in his 80 innings, a rate that’s slightly above league average, but at least not exceptionally so.

Likely to be following Ureña today is left hander Tyler Alexander, who worked last weekend against the Jays. Despite coming into that game with a 4.57 ERA, Alexander had one of the best starts of his career. He went 7 innings, allowing just 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6. Vladdy hit a home run off him, but otherwise the Jays’ bats were pretty useless, as they have been for the last 2.5 weeks now.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

I’ll maybe just update these in a bit with the actual lineup.

Tigers’ Lineup

I’ll maybe just update these in a bit with the actual lineup.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Yasmani Grandal made his presence back in the lineup known, as he went 4-6 with 2 home runs and 8 RBI in taking home the Monster Bat award. The White Sox needed every bit of production out of him as well, as they took down the Cubs 17-13.

Thanks to what is maybe a bit of an accounting error, Edward Olivares gets is our WPA King. His first big situation was pinch hitting to lead off the 10th, where he was credited with the value of a passed ball that moved the runner to 3rd. After a sac fly by Olivares, the Royals had a short lived lead. The rest of Olivares’ WPA came on a 2-run home run in the top of the 12th, which was enough to hold up for the Royals, as they beat the Mariners 8-7. Olivares’ WPA on the day was .597.

Joe Musgrove threw a complete game shutout, allowing just 3 hits and 2 walks over his 9 innings of work, striking out 9 and taking home the Pitcher of the Day award. He obviously got the win as well, as the Padres took down the Angels 5-0.

Find the Link

Find the link between José Ureña and Jhoulys Chacín.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant