Alek Manoah’s Triple-A debut was insane
By Cam Lewis
2 years agoAlek Manoah’s last professional game came in August of 2019 for the Rookie League Vancouver Canadians.
After spending last summer at the Blue Jays’ Alternate Training Site, Manoah skipped pretty much the entire minor leagues and was placed on the Triple-A Bisons to start the 2021 season. If there was any worry Manoah wasn’t ready for this level of competition, he erased them in his debut.
Manoah went six innings scattered just two hits and collected a whopping 12 strikeouts. As impressive as Nate Pearson’s eight strikeouts were back on Tuesday, this was really something else.
Manoah was really good for the Blue Jays in spring training and he prompted a whole lot of “CALL HIM UP” sentiments from fans. I really don’t think he’s all that far away from contributing at the big-league level. We could see a Hyun Jin Ryu, Nate Pearson, Robbie Ray, Manoah, and Steven Matz starting rotation in a few months.
Some other minor-league stuff of note from Thursday…
- The Thunder-Bisons put up 10 runs on Boston’s Triple-A team and are now 3-0 on the season. There are a lot of guys hitting well on this team right now. Forrest Wall went 3-for-6, Rowdy Tellez went 2-for-3 with a couple of walks and a dinger, and Logan Warmoth was 1-for-4 with a homer. Everyone in the starting lineup tonight has a batting average of .300 or higher aside from Kevin Smith.
- Simeon Woods Richardson made his first start of the Double-A season for the Fisher Cats on Thursday afternoon. He went four innings, allowed three runs (one earned) on four hits and one walk while picking up eight strikeouts. This is a name to watch possibly jumping up to Triple-A if Manoah and Pearson are promoted.
- Finally, down in Dunedin, the Baby Blue Jays lost their third game in a row to start the year, but Orelvis Martinez smacked his first dinger of the season.
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