'He's got another gear': Manoah dominates Royals

TORONTO -- Alek Manoah's starts tend to follow the same script, all of which are written perfectly for the must-see showman.

He’ll typically give the Blue Jays seven innings and a win, this one 8-1 over the Royals, but always with some dramatic effect, dancing confidently out of a jam. It’s all done with a swagger that only great pitchers can pull off.

Manoah’s first half has been brilliant not just for his talent, but his remarkable consistency. It’s as if you took a workhorse from the 1980s, tuned up his pitches to match the modern game and dropped him into the Blue Jays’ rotation. The first-time All-Star is off to L.A. next, but his final outing before the break made a statement. Again.

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“He’s a beast,” said interim manager John Schneider. “That’s 10 wins tonight, and he’s got another gear with runners in scoring position when he runs into trouble. He’s definitely put his name out there as one of the top guys in the league, and he’s very deserving of an All-Star selection. You can count on a quality start every time he’s out there.”

Manoah needed just 86 pitches to get through seven innings of one-run ball, the Blue Jays choosing to lift him early with the break coming up and a heavy workload already under his belt this season. There are plenty of pitchers in baseball who can match Manoah’s talent and individual pitches, but there’s a separating factor here. It’s that extra gear Schneider mentions.

Whenever Manoah wants to, it seems like he can simply decide to elevate his game. In the NFL, that’s a great quarterback running the two-minute drill. In the NBA, it’s a great finisher with the final shot. In MLB, it’s a pitcher like Manoah finding the right pitch at the right time -- seemingly every time -- to escape danger with a smile.

“It’s his mindset,” Schneider said. “He’s a tremendous competitor who wants to be in there. He’s a tough guy to take out of a ballgame sometimes, as you guys know, but he clicks into a different gear and I think it’s really a credit to how he attacks every game and how much he wants to set his team up for success. He’s awesome.”

The win lowered Manoah’s ERA to 2.28 over 114 2/3 innings this season. He’s gone at least six innings in 15 of his 18 starts, which is something not nearly as common in baseball as it used to be. He’s a throwback mixed with the future.

Last season, as the breakout rookie who surprised the league, Manoah put up a 3.22 ERA over 20 starts. Even a repeat of that ERA would have been a significant accomplishment, given that the rest of the league was honing in on the hotshot rookie, but Manoah has never viewed this season that way.

Going back to Spring Training, Manoah has believed that the dreaded sophomore slump is the hitter’s problem, not his. Why should Manoah be at the disadvantage when he’s also had the opportunity to gather more information on the hitter?

In February and March, it sounded like a classic bit of Manoah philosophy, riffing like a heavyweight boxer after a big win. Now, though, it’s clear that he’s been right all along.

“I took what happened last year and I’m trying to build off of it,” Manoah said. “I’m not buying into any of the expectations or listening to any of the loud noises on the outside. I just continue to stay within myself and trust myself. I put in some good work this offseason, and I’ve been super blessed just to be able to come out here and attack every day."

The backdrop matters here, too. Manoah is a superstar on any team, but in a Blue Jays rotation that has battled injuries and inconsistencies, he’s been the savior at every turn. Hyun Jin Ryu is gone for the season. Yusei Kikuchi is on the IL. Kevin Gausman just missed almost two weeks. José Berríos has finally found himself, but that took until July.

The Blue Jays have been fortunate to weather those issues one at a time, for the most part, but it’s been Manoah sitting at the top of the rotation, a rock all along.

Sustaining success is far more difficult than finding it the first time in this league, but what has Manoah done through the first half of ’22 if not sustain? He’ll get his moment at the All-Star Game next week in L.A., where he expects to pitch, but if his second half is anything like this, our next conversation involves Manoah and the Cy Young Award race.