Another Mega-Star Commit To Blue Jays….
It was another rough night for the Tigers on Thursday, as the Blue Jays put the bats to Detroit in the series opener. Though the game was tied at one heading into the seventh, thanks to a solo home run from Toronto’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the Jays would score eight runs over the final three innings. Two-run dingers from Daulton Varsho and Vladimir Gurrero Jr. helped send Canada’s team to a 9-1 win.
The Tigers had another rough night on Thursday, as the Blue Jays dominated Detroit in the series opener. Though the game was tied at one entering the seventh inning, Toronto’s Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a solo home run, and the Jays scored eight runs over the next three frames. Daulton Varsho and Vladimir Gurrero Jr. each hit two home runs as Canada won 9-1.
The pitcher was slated to have an MRI in Toronto on the team’s Thursday off day, after which he and the team would know what they were dealing with.
Baseball players and fans understand that the Blue Jays’ three-word evaluation of hard-luck starter Alek Manoah on Wednesday was an encouraging one.
Throw out the best-case scenario until additional information is available, then hold your breath and hope that the huge right-hander, who was just getting back into shape, will not be out for long. Unfortunately, any time elbow is mentioned in an injury update for a pitcher, and your manager emerges from the dugout as swiftly as John Schneider did at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, there are serious issues.
Manoah, who lasted only 1.2 innings in the Jays’ final 3-1 victory over the White Sox, was slated to have an MRI in Toronto during the team’s Thursday off-day, at which point the pitcher and the team would know what they were dealing with.
It speaks to those travails that Manoah was trying to pitch through something that had started to bother him in his most recent start against the Tigers. But after treatment and some work between those starts, Manoah and the team felt he was ready to go. In hindsight, perhaps the discomfort was a warning sign, but the competitor in Manoah clearly wanted to build on the first true signs of momentum in form that he had enjoyed since the 2022 season.
Beyond the health of an arm central to their rotation, which is of paramount concern at this point, it’s another challenge heaped on the Jays in what so far has been a season of them.
