Alek Manoah’s magic dies as Blue Jays bats fall silent in loss to Tigers

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Alek Manoah arrived in the Motor City hoping for more good times.

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He looked like the Alek Manoah of old in his previous two starts. Confident, intimidating, relentless and almost untouchable.

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Manoah did not allow an earned run during that 14-inning stretch.

Additionally, the Jays entered Game 2 of a four-game series in Detroit having finally found their rhythm at the plate.

No one, however, thought the Jays had turned the corner, nor was anyone suggesting that Manoah had finally and completely recovered from the struggles that had landed him in the lower levels of the minors.

There are, however, signs of encouragement on both fronts.

Then Friday came and concerns resurfaced in Toronto’s 6-2 loss.

Manoah lacked control and lasted just 4.2 innings, a stint that included two homers. and six points returned, four of which were earned.

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A two-out walk set the stage for a two-run bomb, ending Manoah’s day.

Signs of distress were visible in the fourth inning when the host Tigers put Manoah and the Jays on the ropes.

Even if Manoah had pitched like he did in starts against Minnesota and Tampa, the Jays had to call on their bats against a Detroit starter who had just been activated.

The Jays even allowed Daulton Varsho to take the lead in the game.

Believe it or not, the game started with the visitors recording two hits and two outs in the first at-bats of the evening.

When Justin Turner led off the seventh inning, it was Toronto’s fifth hit of the night.

Bad pitching, bad hitting, bad defense, it looked like a bad night and that’s exactly how it all played out.

The Jays avoided being shut out for the second time in four games by finding holes in the ninth inning on soft contact with two outs, prompting the Tigers to come closer.

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FIELD OF SCREAMING

To borrow a phrase from the iconic and inimitable Ed Whalen: “There was a malfunction at the junction. »

For the Jays, it happened in the half of the fourth.

It started on a shallow ball hit to left center, an area normally called no man’s land.

Varsho, who was on the left, and Kevin Kiermaier, who was in the center, headed for the ball.

Neither could find the trap because no one bothered to communicate.

It could have been worse if they had collided completely.

The official scorer accused Kiermaier of an error.

If Kiermaier had taken control of the situation, the game would have been fairly routine.

Varsho made a great ground catch to end the round on a backhand trap that saved two points.

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Varsho and Kiermaier each left the field in unison, likely discussing the mental error that occurred in the outfield.

For two players known for their defensive skills and high baseball IQ, it was inexcusable that the ball was allowed to hit the ground when it should have been caught.

FOLÂTRE)

He first drove into Manoah, then was tackled by the Jays starter, a turn of events that Colt Keith would happily accept.

When he took a pitch and drilled it into right field for a no-hitter in the second inning, it was Keith’s first career home run.

When Colt was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning, it happened during a three-run inning that featured all sorts of different plays and sequences.

Two points were undeserved.

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The Tigers were poised for even more runs during the inning, but Manoah dropped back, dug deep and showed his resilient edge by keeping the damage somewhat contained.

In four innings, Manoah’s pitch count reached 79, an indication of the damage that would soon be inflicted.

GO OLD SCHOOL

For those who missed it, the power went out at Comerica Park during the series opener Thursday, creating all kinds of havoc in a time when staying connected to the Internet is akin to breathing.

To review: no relay review until the end of the inning, no reading when applied to the radar gun, no access to iPads, while fans on both sides of the border had to cope to technical issues while watching from the comfort of their homes.

“Really weird,” Isiah Kiner-Falefa told reporters after Toronto’s victory. “It was quite refreshing. “When we found out what was going on, it was kind of old-fashioned baseball. These are your eyes. Your teammates have to talk and you have to rely on each other more, rather than just going out and looking at the screen and looking at the stats.

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“It was a flash from the past and it made us feel like a child.”

Imagine a professional athlete having to rely on basic instincts, imagine teammates forced to talk to each other instead of looking into a laptop.

For at least a few hours, it was old-fashioned baseball at its finest.

No such issues emerged Friday night as the return to normalcy occurred, the return to relying and relying on all the many numbers and reads that continue to drive the game.

Fans of another vintage no doubt appreciate the simpler times when baseball was much less complicated.

Those days are long gone and will never return.

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THE OLD SWITCHEROO

The host Tigers changed their weekend pitching plans, which originally called for right-hander Matt Manning to take the mound Friday.

Instead, Manning was optioned to Triple-A Toledo in the hours before the game’s first pitch.

The move paved the way for veteran right-hander Kenta Maeda to be reinstated from the injured list.

Maeda started Friday and allowed back-to-back hits, a double by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed by a single by Bo Bichette.

Vlad Jr. attempted to score on a hit ball to short right field, but was thrown out at home plate.

Vlad Jr. and Bichette combined to record four hits.

As for the soft-throwing Maeda, he held the Jays at bay to earn the victory.

The Tigers will start Reese Olson on Saturday and Casey Mize in the series finale on Sunday when first pitch is scheduled for 11:35 a.m.

Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikuchi are the projected starters for Toronto this weekend.

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