Game #20 Preview: Whitlock vs Manoah

The Blue Jays won’t be going for the sweep today like we all hoped, but they are looking to make it three of four against the Red Sox, which would be quite alright too. They wrap up the series this afternoon, with an abnormal start time of 3:07 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

The young and exciting Alek Manoah heads back to the mound for the Blue Jays, making his fourth start of the season. Each of his first three resulted in a successful 6 innings, with Manoah earning the win in each game as well. As a result, he enters play today with a 3-0 record and 2.00 ERA over 18 innings. He has allowed 12 hits and 6 walks, giving him a 1.00 WHIP, with 18 strikeouts as well. Just a very balanced and clean looking stat line thanks to his 18 innings.

Red Sox’ Starter

The Red Sox will go with closer-turned starter Garrett Whitlock. Whitlock found his way into the rotation for the first time in his career last week against the Rays, where he made it through 4 shutout innings, where he allowed just 1 hit and struck out 7 of the 13 batters he faced. He threw just 48 pitches, so maybe 60 total today would be a reasonable expectation.

Overall on the season, he has allowed 1 run over 13.2 innings. surrendering just 5 hits and 2 walks while striking out 18.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Alejandro Kirk hasn’t started for two days in a row now, his longest stretch of the season. He’ll undoubtedly be catching Manoah today though.

Santiago Espinal also had the day off yesterday, but expect to see him back in the lineup again today.

The Jays seem to be taking the opportunity to give rest to some of their players as they work through this long and difficult stretch of the schedule. Perhaps today is the day they give Bo Bichette a chance off to regroup. He probably could use a game off.

Red Sox’ Lineup

Christian Vázquez had the night off again last night, but he’ll likely be back in the lineup today after Kevin Plawecki started games 1 and 3 in this series.

Don’t be surprised to see a few regulars get a rest day for the Red Sox either. Visiting teams frequently get an older outfielder off the turf for one game in a four game series, so don’t be surprised if Enrique Hernández is on the bench, or at least out of the outfield, for this one.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Taylor Ward went 3-4 with a grand slam, triple and double, scoring 4 times and driving in 4 to take home the Monster Bat award. His bat helped his Angels to the 9-5 win over the Guardians.

Andrew Vaugh hit a 3-run home run in the bottom of the 7th, giving his White Sox the 6-3 lead. They would take the game 7-3 over the Royals, thank to Vaughn’s WPA King total of .429.

Joe Ryan threw 7 shutout innings, allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 9 batters on his way to the Pitcher of the Day award. He also walked away with the win as his Twins beat the Tigers 5-0.

Find the Link

Find the link between Enrique Hernández and Edgar Martinez

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant