Blue Jays takeaways: Alek Manoah makes White Sox sweat, and the home team wins in a cloud of dust

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 23/08/2021 (1522 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 2-1 win over the White Sox at The Rogers Centre on Monday night:

The Blue Jays didn’t shake off their woes with runners in scoring position in beating the AL Central-leading White Sox to open a four-game series, but they didn’t have to.

After an embarrassing 1-for-31 in RISPy situations in their weekend series loss to Detroit, the Jays went hitless in their first five trips with runners in scoring position on Monday night before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. lined a 3-and-0 pitch into centre field for a two-out RBI single in the sixth that tied the game 1-1.

After stranding a one-out double in the seventh, the Jays got a leadoff single from Reese McGuire in the eighth and Breyvic Valera came in to run. Former Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel wild-pitched Valera to second while striking out Bo Bichette, giving the Jays another chance with a runner in scoring position. Valera moved to third on a ground out by Marcus Semien and Guerrero was intentionally walked, so Teoscar Hernández had the chance for a big two-out hit.

He didn’t need it.

Kimbrel got ahead of Hernández 0-and-2, then threw a fastball that was nowhere near anything. Valera scored what proved to be the winning run in a cloud of dust at the plate.

Amazingly, the Jays have split their last four games despite being a combined 2-for-41 with runners in scoring position over that span.

• Heat check: Alek Manoah is a big dude, and on a humid and steamy Toronto evening he was drenched in a manner that would have made Duane Ward proud. Soaking through his jersey to the point where it was an entirely different blue than the rest of his uniform, the rookie righty hammered his way through six innings, holding the Sox to just one run.

He navigated through a night in which he walked three and hit two more, minimizing hard contact to the extreme. Manoah allowed only one “hard-hit” ball (exit velocity of 95 m.p.h. or higher) over his first five innings of work, and that was turned into a double-play.

With 95 pitches under his belt through five shutout innings, Manoah came back out for the sixth in a show of both confidence in him from manager Charlie Montoyo and an understanding of what the skipper has to choose from in his bullpen at the moment.

The 23-year-old, who has said in the past that he’s built to throw well over 100 pitches, gave up back-to-back ground-ball singles with a runner on to allow the game’s first run to score, but Montoyo let him work out of the jam and he did, popping up each of the next two hitters to strand a pair of runners.

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In the first four games of this homestand, Jays starters have allowed a total of three runs over 27 innings of work, for an ERA of 1.00.

• Rules check: With a runner on first and nobody out in the bottom of the eighth inning, Bichette appeared to swing and miss at a 1-and-2 pitch, but the ball bounced past White Sox catcher Seby Zavala. As the ball rolled toward the backstop, Bichette took off for first base and the runner, Valera, took second.

Bichette, of course, was out, as a batter isn’t allowed to take first base on a dropped third strike when first base is occupied at the time of the pitch, but it was academic since home plate umpire James Hoye ruled the pitch was fouled off.

The next pitch was wild as well, and Bichette swung and missed and again took off for first base. Zavala threw to first, even though Bichette was already out, and Bo tripped over first base as he sprinted down the line and landed in a heap. Whether Bichette knew he was out whether he beat the throw to first or not is one thing, but the bigger thing is that Zavala didn’t know. The worst thing that can happen to the runner there is that he gets hurt, which is very unlikely despite the fact that it almost happened. The worst thing that can happen to the defence is that the catcher throws the ball away, allowing the lead runner to advance an extra 90 feet and maybe even score.

White Sox manager Tony La Russa was in Zavala’s ear more than once Monday night before that happened. He might also want to get his young catcher a rulebook.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness