Game #110 Preview: Manoah vs Bradish

After missing a lot of opportunities and losing yesterday, the Blue Jays will look to right the ship and take the second game of their three game set against the Orioles. Today’s game is once again set to get underway at 7:05 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Alek Manoah will be tasked with getting the Jays back in the win column for just the second time since his last start. He’s now 12-5 with a 2.45 ERA over 21 starts and 132 innings. Only 8 pitchers in all of baseball are averaging more than his nearly 6.1 innings per start, and with the Jays’ bullpen being overworked in that Twins’ series, a longer start would certainly be welcomed.

Manoah faced the Orioles when they were in Toronto back on June 13, and had one of his most dominating outings of the year. He pitched just 6 innings, being pulled after 86 pitches in a 10-0 shutout. But he didn’t allow any runs on just 1 hit and 1 walk while striking out 7.

Orioles’ Starter

Kyle Bradish will get the start for the Orioles, with the rookie making his 13th start of the season. Through 56.1 innings, he is 1-4 with a 6.55 ERA. His FIP doesn’t offer a whole lot more hope, coming in at 5.15. While he has been getting strikeouts and limiting his walks to league average, it’s the home runs that are hurting them, with only 6 pitchers who have more than 50 innings this year allowing them at a greater rate.

Bradish faced off against Manoah back on June 13, and as you can see from the above score, things did not go well for Bradish. He gave up a trio of singles in the first inning, but just 1 run. A double and a single got the Jays their second run off him in the third inning. The Jays added a walk and a couple more singles in the fifth to knock him out of the game, with all 3 of those runners and more coming in to score. Bradish’s final line was 4.1 innings, allowing 5 runs on 9 hits, walked 1 and struck out 3 while managing to at least keep the ball in the yard. He was helped by double plays in the second and fourth innings, both off the bat of Raimel Tapia.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Judging by the above results, maybe Tapia shouldn’t be starting in this one. I would imagine he’ll be in there like normal against a righty though, probably once again patrolling the more spacious left field. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was on the bench yesterday, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the Jays try to keep him away from the sure-to-be-problematic new dimensions and just have him DH today.

Alejandro Kirk will be behind the plate catching Manoah today, so Danny Jansen will be on the bench. I’d include Santiago Espinal and reserves Otto Lopez and Bradley Zimmer with him.

Orioles’ Lineup

The Orioles do run a bit of a platoon in a couple positions, so the guys who sat yesterday against the lefty Kikuchi will be in there today against the righty Manoah. That means Rougned Odor will be in the infield somewhere, and Terrin Vavra will be in the lineup, probably at DH. Tyler Nevin, who came out of the game early yesterday, doesn’t normally start against righties, so he’ll be on the bench anyway, and Ryan Mckenna will be the right handed bats on the bench against Manoah. The left handed bat of newcomer Brett Phillips may also find his way into the lineup.

The Orioles launched four home runs yesterday, not much of a surprise in a game started by Kikuchi and saw 2 innings of relief work from Trent Thornton. But the trio of Austin Hays, Anthony Santander and obviously Ryan Mountcastle all getting home runs in the same game off the Jays isn’t surprising. All three do much better against the Jays than they do normally.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Josh Donaldson went 4-5 with a home run and pair of doubles, earning himself the Monster Bat award. He was one of the few big hitters for the Yankees, as they beat up the Mariners 9-4.

José Suarez threw 7 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8, just good enough to edge out Zac Gallen for Pitcher of the Day honours. Suarez also gets the WPA King trophy, thanks to pitching in a 1-0 game most of the night. His WPA on the day was .478, once again narrowly edging out Gallen who had a .457 mark. Suarez ended up with the win for the Angels, as they held on to beat the Athletics 1-0.

Find the Link

Find the link between Anthony Santander and Rio Ruiz.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant