It’s time for Alek Manoah to get back on track.

At least, I sure hope so.

This year has been far from what anyone has wanted from The Big Man as he appears to have completely lost his game. We all pondered in the offseason how much the pitch clock would impact pitchers, and we’re starting to see some of those affects.

IL trips appear to be up in pitchers with elbow injuries climbing year-over-year. For the overwhelming majority of the arms in the league, they’ve all seemed to get in line with the new pace of play. One guy who still seems to struggle with hit, however, it Manoah.

He seems to be a guy who liked that extra time because he was able to use it to prepare himself, and try to throw off batters. After all, he was an All-Star last season.

But this year he’s all over the place. His ERA has skyrocketed. His command is lost and his walks are up three times over last season. He’s allowing double the home runs as last year, and he’s nearly allowing a walk or hit more every inning.

It’s not to say he can’t find his game. In fact, tonight could be a great chance to do so as he takes the mound against an impotent Milwaukee Brewers offence that has scored the sixth-fewest runs per game. They also strike out and whiff at the fifth-worst rate of any team in the bigs, so the opportunity is here for Manoah to dial it in and find his stuff.

Now, the question is: can he seize the moment?

First pitch: 7:07 p.m. EST

Weather: 28C. 11 KM/H NNE winds in Toronto.

Toronto Blue Jays: 29-26, 9.5 GB, 3.5 WCGB, +25DIFF.

Milwaukee Brewers: 28-26, – GB, – WCGB, -26 DIFF.

Moneyline: TOR -161; MIL +137.

TOR: Alek Manoah RHP — 1-5, 11 GS, 5.53 ERA, 6.15 FIP, 1.789 WHIP, 7.7 K/9, -0.7 WAR.

MIL: Julio Teheran RHP — 0-1, 1 GS, 1.80 ERA, 1.89 FIP, 1.000 WHIP, 9.0 K/9, 0.2 WAR.

Tune into the latest edition of Blue Jays Nation Radio as the crew talks about the Jays’ latest series against the Minnesota Twins.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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