As he looks to carry forward momentum from the strongest outing of his young career, Toronto Blue Jays starter Alek Manoah will have to wait one more day.
With Thursday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles postponed due to weather, Manoah will now start Friday when the Blue Jays open a three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. He’ll be followed in Toronto’s rotation by Ross Stripling on Saturday and Robbie Ray on Sunday, as the club looks to hit the all-star break with a successful series against the team directly above them in the American League East standings.
That Manoah will be facing the same lineup he dominated over seven scoreless innings his last time out is either a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. Rays hitters had no answer for the 23-year-old rookie last week, as Manoah ran up 10 strikeouts with 20 swinging strikes, allowing only two singles, a double, and a walk. Of course, Tampa’s hitters and advance scouts will now be more familiar with him and have had the benefit of a week to prepare for round two, setting up an intriguing matchup Friday night in St. Petersburg.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays could be adding further bullpen reinforcements during this weekend’s series after Ryan Borucki threw a clean inning in a triple-A rehab outing Wednesday night. Pitching in a game for the first time since suffering a forearm strain two months ago, Borucki threw nine pitches to three batters, earning a ground ball, a fly ball, and a strikeout.
Now, the Blue Jays must decide whether Borucki is ready to return to big-league competition or if the left-hander needs one more rehab appearance, which would all but certainly push his activation back to after the all-star break.
“The feedback I got today was that he felt good. He feels good today. And then we’re going to see what the next step is going to be,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said before Thursday’s postponement. “There’s a chance he’s going to be activated for the weekend. There’s a chance that he throws another inning in Trenton. So, we’ll see.”
Montoyo said he wouldn’t hesitate to use Borucki in leverage spots as soon as he’s activated, although he’d prefer to ease him back into the pressure of late-game situations. Prior to his injury, Borucki was often used with the Blue Jays either leading or trailing by a thin margin, facing anywhere from three to six batters.
Blue Jays Newsletter
Montoyo does have more trusted relief options to turn to now than in recent weeks, after the Blue Jays acquired Adam Cimber and Trevor Richards in a pair of floor-bolstering trades. Still, a manager can only script so much and is forever at the mercy of game flow.
“Hopefully we play high leverage the whole rest of the year,” Montoyo said. “The easiest thing would be to put [Borucki] in an easy spot. But that doesn’t happen very often. So, we’ll see. It depends what they say about how he threw. I know yesterday was really good. So, we’ll see.”
One Blue Jays reliever who’s likely to pitch this weekend regardless of leverage is closer Jordan Romano. The right-hander has made only one appearance this month — five days ago in a non-save situation — and Montoyo will likely endeavour to get him some game exposure ahead of the all-star break to stay sharp.
“If you ever see him when there’s not high leverage, it’s because he needs work,” Montoyo said.
