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.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.
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.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.
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.
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.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.
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.Josh Donaldson went 4-5 with a home run and pair of doubles, earning himself the Monster Bat award.