After another poor start on Monday against the Houston Astros, things can hardly get any worse for Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah.
Manoah, who started the evening with the lowest fWAR rating (minus-0.4) in the majors among 93 qualified starters, was hoping to finally make at least slight progress after failing in his previous start against the Milwaukee Brewers on March 31. May only lasted four innings. But even that ended up being wishful thinking.
Instead, the 2022 All-Star recorded the worst and shortest appearance of his major league career, throwing 38 pitches and giving up six earned runs while recording just one out. Toronto would lose 11-4.
With his former star in more than trouble, manager John Schneider didn’t rule out the future for the Blue Jays.
“Right now we’re not sitting here making plans for anything but doing whatever we can for him means using every resource we have, using the staff and using his teammates to help him in the process help,” said Schneider after the game. “When I say everything is on the table, yes, then everything is on the table. We’re just trying to help him get back to the pitcher caliber he was.”
Alek Manoah’s troubles continued Monday as he became involved very early in his start against the Houston Astros. (Getty Images)
Things quickly got out of hand in the first inning when the first pitch Manoah threw was thrown into right field by Houston’s Mauricio Dubon. Then Jeremy Peña executed a perfect bunt that stayed fair until the third line of base foul.
Despite Manoah’s best efforts to put the ball in foul territory, Peña’s colorful one-off sent two runners with zero outs when the ever-dangerous Yordan Alvarez came to the plate.
Finally, after Manoah fell 3-0 behind, Alvarez converted an eight-pitch shot into an RBI single when his line drive was deflected by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s glove and landed in flat right field. Though Alex Bregman flew into midfield — albeit at a flyout speed of 98.1 mph — things went downhill from there.
Kyle Tucker conceded the Astros’ second run of the night with a drive down the opposite field line, moving Alvarez into second place. While Manoah was 2-0 ahead of Jose Abreu, he followed up four balls in a row and loaded bases with just one out for Corey Julks.
Julks, who had just four home runs in his MLB career, ambushed a 94.2 mph two-seater by Manoah in the AB’s first pitch and hit a grand slam from 386 feet that gave Houston a 6-0 lead.
Manoah had the opportunity to right the ship again after a tremendous swing unloaded the bases. But after multiple strikers landed consecutive hits at more than 100mph, Schneider had no choice but to pull the hook on his struggling right-hander.
Blue Jays fans didn’t shy away from venting their displeasure as there was a handful of boos at Rogers Center as the 6-foot-tall hurler’s evening ended prematurely.
The 25-year-old’s final pitching line was far from pretty, allowing six runs from seven hits and a walk in just a third of an inning – becoming only the second Blue Jays pitcher to record such a terrifying performance .
After Monday’s miserable performance, Manoah’s ERA soared to 6.36 — the seventh-highest in the majors — over 58.0 innings in 13 starts. He also boasts an MLB high of 6.53 FIP and a 14.9% home run-to-fly ball ratio, which is by far the worst of his career.
Toronto is the only MLB team to field just five starters this season, but given Manoah’s never-ending troubles, that streak could soon be coming to an end.