Game #25 Preview: Taillon vs Manoah

After the loss last night, the Blue Jays will look to rebound and finally end the Yankees 10 game winning streak as they play their second game of their three game set tonight. Gametime is once again set for 7:07 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Alek Manoah will get the tough task of taming the red hot Yankees, and he’s probably one of the best suited for the job. Manoah brings his 4-0 record and 1.44 ERA into action tonight. Through his first four starts, he has thrown 25 innings, allowing just 15 hits and 7 walks while striking out 25 batters. All four of his starts have been quite strong, going at least 6 innings each time and allowing 2 or fewer runs.

Manoah opened up his season in New York facing these same Yankees. He was quite dominant then, working 6 shutout innings. He allowed just 1 hit, a second inning single to Joey Gallo, but did surrender 4 walks while striking out 7. For the third time in his career in that start, he made the Yankees look uncomfortable.

Interestingly, despite this being the fourth time Manoah will be facing the Yankees in his short career, it will be the first time doing so outside of Yankee Stadium.

Yankees’ Starter

Jameson Taillon will get the ball for the Yankees, also making his fifth start of the year. Through his first 19.1 innings, he is 1-1 with a 3.26 ERA. His biggest win of the season so far is allowing just 2 walks, although he’s always been good at limiting walks, just nowhere near this rate. His 17 strikeouts and 3 home runs so far both come in at rates worse than his career numbers, so there is a bit of a tradeoff, but his 3.80 FIP is pretty much right in line with his 3.76 career mark.

Taillon went head to head against Manoah and the Blue Jays back on April 11, and had a solid start. He worked through 5 innings, still his longest start of the season, allowing 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks, striking out 6. Both of the Jays’ runs came on a home run by George Springer.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Cavan Biggio was back on the bench today, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him activated and in the lineup today.

Alejandro Kirk got the start at DH yesterday, but with Manoah on the mound, he will be back behind the plate today.

Zack Collins hasn’t played since the first game of the Houston series on Friday, but with both of the above situations, it doesn’t seem overly likely he’s starting today either. But he has been struggling lately, hitless in his last 10 plate appearances, with a walk and bean ball, but also 7 strikeouts.

Bo Bichette picked up his first double in yesterday’s game since getting doubles in back to back games to close out the first Yankees’ series of the season. After hitting 30 doubles last year, he now has just 3 so far in 2022.

Yankees’ Lineup

Joey Gallo was on the bench yesterday with a groin strain, his second straight missed game. The Yankees may look to keep him off the turf and get him some DH reps if he’s not 100%.

Kyle Higashioka got the day off from catching yesterday. His last few starts have come against lefties and it looks like he may have fallen into a platoon with Jose Trevino. If that’s the case, then Trevino will start again today while Higashioka would get the start tomorrow against the left handed Kikuchi.

Giancarlo Stanton has started 3 of his last 4 games in RF, and after making a great leaping catch at the wall yesterday, he doesn’t look so bad out there. He always was a good fielder when healthy, so it shouldn’t be too surprising to see him make good plays, but he has certainly lost a lot of speed over the last few years.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Yesterday saw just 8 games (16 teams), and it was one of the worst offensive days in recent baseball history.

That makes finding a Monster Bat a little bit challenging, but we’ll give the award to David Peralta, who went 3-4 with a home run and 3 RBI. He helped his Diamondbacks to the 5-4 win over the Marlins, the highest scoring game of the day.

Gleyber Torres, with his two run home run early and his RBI single in the top of the 9th, gets the WPA King trophy. His WPA total on the day was .545 in the Yankees 3-2 win over the Jays.

Dylan Cease dominated the Angels on his way to the Pitcher of the Day award. He threw 7 shutout innings, allowing just 1 hit and a bean ball while striking out 11 batters. He also got the win, as his White Sox beat the Angels 3-0.

Find the Link

Find the link between Giancarlo Stanton and Justin Upton (although now that Upton is a free agent, he may not be considered “active” for much longer).

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant