That was in the moments following the Toronto Blue Jays’ 9-6 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, which snapped a five-game winning streak, ended an eight-game road winning streak and, you may have heard, a bit of a test. The entirety of this week’s series at Camden Yards was rather emotional, it has to be said, from Kevin Gausman’s hot start and confrontation with umpire Jeff Nelson in the first game of Monday’s doubleheader, to Bo Bichette’s night at back- half after the Orioles trade. starters four minutes before the first pitch until the end of Wednesday’s game. And as if scripted, there was Manoah, the fiery, belligerent 24-year-old, the guy who leads the American League in hits, the guy who challenged Gerrit Cole to step up and make his day a few weeks ago, lined up until he start the finale. September ball; Two clubs are fighting for a place in the playoffs. a series the night before fresh in everyone’s mind. As a baseball fan, you watch months upon months of pedestrian, sloppy, dogged games for moments like this. So does Manoah. Every early afternoon in the weight room, every halftime start, every hand care session, every pregame routine that begins an hour before first pitch, walking slowly toward the field in his big blue jacket, a bag of bands and heavy balls dangling from his right arm, that bright red glove on his left, and a football wedged under his arm. He does everything for games like this so he can get on a big stage and bust his ass like he did Wednesday, working eight innings of three-hit, one-game ball in a 4-1 Blue Jays win over the Orioles . Manoah had it all. A four-hitter who sits at 94 mph and drives up to 97. A sinker who produced seven whiffs in 14 swings. A slider that landed at the plate on both righties and lefties when he wasn’t using it to hit balls. A changeup that didn’t need much, but he threw enough to keep the six Orioles hitting left-handed against him in mind. He struck out five, walked just one, got eight strikeouts on the ground and seven through the air. He picked up speed as the night wore on, throwing nine of his hardest pitches in the fourth inning or later, and four of them in the sixth. It was this dude. He had to navigate rocky waters early as Anthony Santander hit a two-pitch knee slider to right for a single in the first. One pitch later, Ryan Mountcastle launched a 101.1-mph grounder under the glove of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and into the right-field corner, where it rattled enough to put Santander in. A five-pitch Gunnar Henderson walk followed, prompting a rare first-pitch visit from Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker. After that brief rebuild, Manoah got Kyle Stowers to strike out on three pitches, starting a streak of 14 straight. That brought Manoah into the sixth when Adley Rutschman took a 2-2 count into the right field gap for a double. Undeterred, Manoah quickly drove Santander away chasing a change before working his way back to edge Mountcastle with a pair of heaters played with early count sliders. And off he went, jogging off the mound. The seventh was a breeze, and as Manoah took the hit for the eighth sitting on 90 pitches, the look in his eyes was the same as it had been in the Blue Jays dugout the night before. He blew Rougned Odor straight and didn’t even see the ball land in Matt Chapman’s glove. Two pitches later, he threw Jorge Mateo out to center and walked off the back of the mound as if he had struck him out. In the very next race, he chased Cedric Mullins into first place and didn’t miss a beat crossing the bag to claim his 24th place himself. Back in the Blue Jays dugout, his manager, John Schneider, came over for a brief chat, and Manoah took a front-row seat on the top step as player after player and manager after manager came to pat him on the back. If the Blue Jays were up by three, he could have come back for the ninth. But Jordan Romano is one of the best players in baseball, so there’s no point getting cute. And he went three up, three down to earn his 31st save of the season. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays got an early second inning from Orioles starter Tyler Wells as Lourdes Gurriel Jr. beat out a pitch in the first to avoid a double play. That brought up Alejandro Kirk, who led off the inning with a single of his own. But Gurriel’s effort proved costly, as he clumsily hit first base with his left foot and the hitter landed beyond the bag with a serious upset. The outfielder remained down for quite some time before walking off the field under his own power. The Blue Jays are describing Gurriel’s injury as a left hamstring strain, which isn’t saying much. It will be a situation to watch in the coming days. The Blue Jays tacked on three more runs in the fifth, stringing together three singles and two walks while taking advantage of a Rutschman throwing error on a missed pick-off attempt by Kirk at first base. If you enjoy watching Manoah play in big games like these, get used to it. As things stand, the big right-hander is likely to face nothing but divisional opponents playing for a postseason berth between now and the postseason. The Blue Jays are looking to get Manoa on four days’ rest Monday in the first of a five-game set at Rogers Center against the Tampa Bay Rays, passing up an opportunity to use Thursday’s day off to give him an extra day between outings. If the Blue Jays go that route, they will line up Manoa to pitch next weekend at home against the Orioles during the club’s Sept. 22-25 series at Tropicana Field, and into the three-game set to be hosted by the Blue Jays. the New York Yankees for near the end of the month. So make it Rays, Orioles, Rays, Yankees, and possibly the Orioles again during Toronto’s final series of the season, if it’s a follow-up. If it’s not, and the Blue Jays’ postseason fate is already secure, Manoah’s next outing would have to wait until, oh, only the Wild Card round. Either way, Manoah will take the mound for meaningful high-leverage games against strong competition every time between now and the offseason. By taking three of four from the Orioles this week, the Blue Jays pushed their closest competition for the AL’s third wild card spot to 4.5 games back. They gained slight ground on the Tampa Bay Rays (1.5 games up) and Seattle Mariners (a half-game ahead) in the wild-card standings, in part because they played one more game than any team did over three days. And they stayed within striking distance of the York Yankees for an AL East lead that was getting closer to the game. He can’t gain ground on Thursday’s day off, but Friday presents an attractive opportunity to keep piling up wins as the club travels south for a three-game set with the 59-76 Texas Rangers. The Blue Jays will send Ross Stripling and Kevin Gausman to the mound for the first two games, but have yet to announce a starter for Sunday’s finale. There are two different ways one could go. The club may choose to do something similar to what it did in Pittsburgh last weekend when Trevor Richards started and gave way to a procession of six relievers behind him. This is the preferred option. But he could also call up a starter from triple-A Buffalo — likely Thomas Hatch, since Casey Lawrence can’t remember that right after being selected Monday — depending on how much his bullpen is used Friday and Saturday. Complicating matters is the lack of a day following the Rangers streak. Instead, the club will face a crucial five-game set in four days with the Rays at Rogers Center starting Monday. That series includes a Tuesday doubleheader, and much of the club’s planning is focused on having enough pitching to cover those 18 innings. It’s not a point a team in the thick of intense play ever wants to be in. After a rough outing Tuesday, Mitch White was optioned to triple-A Buffalo Wednesday, allowing the Blue Jays to bolster an overused bullpen with Zach Pop. But White will remain with the club as it travels to Texas this weekend and will likely be added back to the roster as the 29th man for Tuesday’s doubleheader. He could play that day and then return to the fold once his 15 days of selection are up on September 21. But let’s not get too early. The rotation machinations the Blue Jays will be working between now and this time next week will be quite complex. Meanwhile, the club is drawing up its plans to get its best hands in its most important games. That means Manoah vs. the Rays next week, vs. those same Orioles after that, and the Rays again from there. Then it’s the Yankees before maybe the Orioles again. And if he continues to play the way he is, it would only be the biggest stage of his life after that.
