Game #21 Preview: Manoah vs Cole

After taking the opener, the Blue Jays will look to win the series today, in a matchup of Aces in the heart of the Bronx. Today’s game against the Yankees is set to get underway at 1:05 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Alek Manoah will go for the Jays, looking to find himself in the place he made his Major League debut. In now four career starts at Yankee Stadium, Manoah is 2-0 with a 1.52 ERA across 23.2 innings. He has allowed just 12 hits in those innings with 26 strikeouts, but the 11 walks kind of balances out that dominance.

It’s the walks that are really depleting any chance of dominance this year for Manoah. Manoah is currently tied for third in all of baseball with 15 walks allowed this season. That has led to his 6.98 ERA and nearly identical 7.02 FIP. Add in the 2 bean balls, and he has allowed more free baserunners than he has strikeouts over his 19.1 innings, a very unsustainable pace. And on top of all of that, he has allowed home runs at over twice the rate as the rest of his career. Something is very much wrong with him, and hopefully he can start to correct it today.

Yankees’ Starter

Yankee Ace Gerrit Cole is off to an incredible start to the season, looking like the pitcher he was prior to the spider tack ban nearly two years ago. Cole has made four starts this year, and he enters play today with a 4-0 record over 28.1 innings, a 0.95 ERA and a 1.93 FIP. Perhaps the biggest difference between this year and last is that so far this year he has yet to allow a home run, while last year he led the American League in home runs allowed with 33.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Birthday boy Kevin Kiermaier gets the day off.

Santiago Espinal gets the start at 2B against a righty, although he is 3-8 in his career against Cole.

Yankees’ Lineup

Jose Trevino is back behind the plate after Kyle Higashioka did the catching yesterday.

DJ LeMahieu gets the day off.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Nico Hoerner went 4-5 with a home run and 4 RBI, taking home the Monster Bat award. He helped the Cubs on the offensive side of things in their 13-0 rout of the Dodgers.

Brandon Lowe hit a 2-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 9th, completing the Rays’ comeback from being down 7-4 to give them the 8-7 win over the White Sox. For Lowe efforts, he gets the WPA King trophy with a .595 mark.

There were five different pitchers yesterday who threw at least 7 shutout innings yesterday, with the best among them being Drew Smyly. Smyly was perfect through 7 innings, but opened the 8th inning losing his perfect game bid in one of the most ridiculous ways possible.

But still, 7.2 shutout innings on 1 hit, no walks and 10 strikeouts is a pretty easy way to get the Pitcher of the Day award. And when your team also beats the Dodgers 13-0, it’s a pretty easy way to get the win.

Find the Link

Find the link between Alek Manoah and the first guy he’ll face this afternoon.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant