BOSTON – This was the full Alek Manoah experience, a tornado of energy and emotion tearing through Fenway Park on a steamy Saturday, triggering everything from alarm to rage over six gripping innings of work.
The gamut ran bailing on a pitch in the second inning and shaking out his right hand, to using indelicate language as he recommended that Franchy Cordero be seated after a strikeout in the sixth.
Unhappy that the all-star game sensation screamed in elation after getting Bobby Dalbec to end the frame, the Boston Red Sox voiced their displeasure and a few even began to emerge from the dugout to further the conversation.
Quickly, the Blue Jays funnelled their mountain-of-a-man off the field, order remained and they proceeded to lock down a 4-1 victory Saturday, their fifth in a row, improving them to 9-3 against the Red Sox this season.
What a ride.
The day after establishing new franchise records with 28 runs and 29 hits, the Blue Jays needed Manoah and the bullpen to be every bit as stingy as it was. RBI singles from Santiago Espinal and George Springer along with an Alejandro Kirk sacrifice fly in the third erased the deficit created by Bobby Dalbec’s solo shot in the second, and it was all pitching from there.
Manoah, fresh off of striking out the side during an epic all-star inning in which he was mic’d up, was front and centre in that regard, with all the inherent drama.
There were surely palpitating hearts in the Blue Jays’ baseball operations offices during the second inning, when Manoah wound up for a 2-0 pitch to Dalbec. His right arm came over the top, something seemed to give, flopping the ball into the ground. Afterwards he circled the ball slowly before picking it up, his right arm dangling as he spread his fingers wide, prompting interim manager John Schneider and trainer Jose Ministral to charge out.
After a brief conference, Manoah remained in the game. Four pitches later, Dalbec sent a slider over the Monster battled his way through the next four frames, including the fateful sixth.
Cordero appeared to be the first Red Sox player to take exception, staring out at Manoah and muttering something after swinging through a slider for the second out of the inning. When Manoah noticed, he glared back and told the DH to, and we’ll paraphrase here, go sit the funk down.
Cordero smirked as he returned to the dugout and the ill-will turned up a notch when he caught Dalbec looking to end the frame and shouted in celebration. Dalbec didn’t like that and said something, Manoah turned back and retorted and a few Red Sox stepped out of their dugout as Cavan Biggio guided him to the Blue Jays bench.
Nothing more developed, but given the stakes for both clubs, and that the Red Sox lost for the 12th time in their past 15 outings, the tensions shouldn’t be surprising.
Manoah’s fortitude, of course, is an increasingly integral part of the Blue Jays’ backbone, complementing the steady dominance he provides every fifth day. As Yusei Kikuchi works to rejoin the staff – interim manager John Schneider called the lefty’s five shutout innings during Friday’s rehab start at triple-A Buffalo “encouraging” – the combination of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Manoah gives GM Ross Atkins a front three comparable to any in baseball, with Ross Stripling providing dependable reliance behind them.
That gives Atkins the option of loading up the bullpen rather than trying to add both relief and rotation help ahead of the Aug. 2 trade deadline, although there’s certainly a path to the Blue Jays doing both. There is one school of thought that believes two high-end relievers are preferable to a starter, although the final verdict will also have to factor in what the market bears, too.
The Blue Jays bullpen held Saturday, particularly in the eighth, when Adam Cimber walked one and hit another, leaving two men on and two out for closer Jordan Romano, who got Dalbec to fly out to centre to preserve a 3-1 lead. After a Teoscar Hernandez double tacked on a fourth run in the ninth, Romano closed out the bottom half, easy peasy.
