Game #60 Preview: Bradish vs Manoah

The Blue Jays return home to welcome the Baltimore Orioles to the Rogers Centre, the first time the Jays will face the Orioles this season, 60 games into it. Gametime tonight is the standard 7:07 ET start.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Alek Manoah gets the ball for the Jays, making his 12th start of the year. He has been fantastic so far in 2022, coming into play today with a 7-1 record and a 1.81 ERA. His 7 wins are tied for second in the Majors, just behind Justin Verlander’s 8, which he picked up last night. That 1.81 ERA is third best in the Majors, and tops the American League. Manoah has been amazing all year, and hopefully can keep it up against the Orioles today (and the Yankees on Saturday when I get to watch him in person!).

Orioles’ Starter

The Orioles will go with rookie Kyle Bradish, who will be making his ninth start of the season and the ninth start of his career. So far for him the results have not been good, coming into today with a 1-3 record and a 6.45 ERA. His 5.98 FIP paints a similar picture, which is thanks to a horrible home run rate off him. In 37.2 innings, he has allowed 10 home runs already, a rate of 2.39 per 9 innings, the second highest rate among all 161 pitchers in baseball with at least 30 innings. If this sounds familiar, this is pretty much the same writeup I gave for Beau Brieske on Saturday, before he dominated the Jays for 5.2 innings. Hopefully they’ve learned something from that horrible loss.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Alejandro Kirk is going to be behind the plate catching Manoah today. It’ll be interesting to see if the Jays opt to give Moreno time at DH, or if they’ll just give him a rest day after catching the last two games and then likely be back in there again tomorrow. I’d guess a rest day for him.

Cavan Biggio had another big day yesterday with a pair of doubles, and is now hitting .306/.457/.444 (164 wRC+) since being called back up. He has gotten his season wRC+ up to 99, and is looking like a bat you want in the lineup against every single righty. Biggio’s return has also ignited Raimel Tapia, who is hitting .333/.355/.600 (167 wRC+) in 31 PA since May 27. Nearly everyone on the team has been hitting well though, as the team is hitting .309/.384/.532 (158 wRC+) since May 27.

Orioles’ Lineup

With the Orioles coming into Toronto for the first time this year, we’re going to find out who on the team isn’t vaccinated. There are already comments out there that there will be multiple players, but nothing has been announced yet.

As a whole, the Orioles aren’t hitting overly well, coming into play with a collective line of .232/.302/.376 (92 wRC+). They’re right in the middle of the pack in home runs (61) and stolen bases (31), as well as doubles (98) and triples (9). However, that isn’t turning into runs, as they come into play 6th from the bottom scoring just 4.03 runs per game.

They have found some fortune on the injury front, with starting third baseman Ramón Urías being the only position player currently on the IL.

The trio of Austin Hays (135 wRC+), Trey Mancini (131 wRC+) and Anthony Santander (118 wRC+) are the only ones hitting noticeably above league average, although guys like Ryan Mountcastle and Cedric Mullins are certainly capable of a lot more. With those 5, along with MLB’s top prospect Adley Rutschman, the Orioles have a pretty strong top 6 in their lineup.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Matt Carpenter went 3-4 with a pair of home runs and a double, driving in 7 runs to pick up the Monster Bat award. His big day helped his Yankees walk all over the Cubs 18-4, helping them to the sweep with a combined score of 28-5.

John King pitched the 9th and 10th innings yesterday, putting up zeroes both times and pushing the game further into extras. In doing so, King is our WPA King with a .435 mark. His Rangers eventually beat the White Sox 8-6 after 12 innings.

Robbie Ray threw easily his best start of the season yesterday, making it through 7 shutout innings with just 3 hits and a walk, striking out 4 and picking up the Pitcher of the Day award. Unfortunately, the Red Sox pitchers also kept the Mariners off the board, and the Red Sox beat Ray’s Mariners 2-0.

Find the Link

Find the link between Austin Hays and Socrates Brito.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant