Manoah, offense dominant in eighth straight Jays win

Jays: 8, White Sox: 3

Alek Manoah was incredible. All in all, on Lou Gehrig day, he went 7.2 innings, and gave up 3 runs, striking out five and walking only one. He kept the White Sox off the board completely until the 8th, when two singles and a double scored two runs, then a third scored after Adam Cimber replaced him.

The White Sox led off the game with back to back singles, but nothing hit hard. One was a ball that bounced out of Bradley Zimmer’s glove after he caught it, and the second was a soft hit straight over third base Matt Chapman couldn’t transfer quickly enough. Manoah issued a two out walk to load the bases, but got a strikeout to end the inning. The White Sox would not have another batter reach until the 7th.

After all the base traffic in the first inning, the second and third were much quieter. Manoah continued to dominate over the White Sox in the fourth, retiring his 8th, 9th and 10th batters in the row. Then in the fifth, he retired his 11th, 12th and 13th in a row, the 13th of which was helped out by a wicked throw by Bichette, and Vladdy’s ability to do the splits at first.

In the sixth, stop me if you’ve heard this, but Manoah retired his 14th, 15th, and 16th batters in a row. And as mentioned above, he pitched seven scoreless before finally tiring in the 8th. Cimber got the last out of the 8th after allowing his last inherited runner to score.

Trent Thornton pitched around a walk in the ninth for a (finally) stress free win.

On the other side, Johnny Cueto pitched well for Chicago. He went 6 innings, and gave up 4 runs (3 earned), striking out five Blue Jays and walking none. However, once he left, the Jays got down to business and scored enough runs to put a one run win way out of sight, looking much like the lethal offense we were all expecting them to be. Every Blue Jay starter had at least one hit or one walk.

The Jays managed only a single by Alejandro Kirk in the first two innings. In the third, while Pat and Dan were talking about the importance of good defense, lead off man Ramiel Tapia stretched a single into a double, then an errant throw allowed him to advance to third. Zimmer was hit by a pitch, putting runners on the corner with no outs. The Jays managed to put the first run up on the board, but on an Espinal double play.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Jays managed only a two out double by Kirk, but in the fifth, they scored their second run. Matt Chapman left off with a single, then Tapia hit into a fielders choice, and Espinal doubled home Tapia from first. 2-0 Jays.

In the bottom of the sixth Vladimir Guerrero Jr doubled to start the inning, and Teoscar Hernandez put the Jays up 4-0 with a homer into the Jays bullpen.

The Jays had some base traffic against Tanner Banks in the seventh, on a one out Bradley Zimmer walk followed by a Santiago Espinal single, but Bo and Vladdy couldn’t score them.

The eighth was exciting. Hernandez led off with a double against White Sox reliever Reynaldo Lopez, Kirk walked, then Biggio doubled, scoring Teoscar. Matt Chapman who was up next got hit on his shoulder, then on his head by the deflected ball to load the bases. New pitcher Aaron Bummer was sent in, and he got Gurriel Jr hit a ball to the short stop, forcing Kirk out at home. He also got Zimmer to strike out, but Santiago Espinal tagged on to the Jays lead with a two run single.

Bo Bichette greeted the third pitcher of the inning, Jimmy Lambert, with a RBI single to give the Jays lead strong enough that they didn’t have to use Jordan Romano.

Of which:

Jays of the Day: Manoah (+0.311 WPA), and let’s go ahead and give one to the entire Jays offense
Wasn’t your day Jays: None!

Tomorrow, the Jays will take on a depleted due to injuries, illness and vaccine restrictions Twins team. Yusei Kikuchi will face Chi Chi Gonzalez, who has yet to pitch in the majors this year, at the normal 7:07pm ET.