After making just three triple-A starts on his way to the major leagues, Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Alek Manoah was back in a Buffalo Bisons jersey on Saturday.
Pitching to Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen, Manoah threw 78 pitches — 48 for strikes — over 3.1 innings. He allowed eight hits and four runs while walking one batter and striking out four before being replaced by Troy Watson in the fourth inning.
The Bisons were facing the Rochester Red Wings, the triple-A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. The temperature at first pitch was around 6 C.
In his first rehab start of the year, Manoah allowed six earned runs over 1.2 innings with the low-A Dunedin Blue Jays, walking four and hitting one batter.
On Saturday in Buffalo, Manaoh tossed 39 fastballs, sitting 92.9 m.p.h. with the pitch, 18 sinkers, 17 sliders and four changeups. He generated eight total whiffs in the game and allowed five total hard-hit balls in the game.
Manoah ran into trouble in the third inning, allowing hits to the first three hitters of the inning, with an RBI double from Travis Blakenhorn bringing in the second run of the game. He limited the damage from there, allowing a sacrifice fly before retiring the final two Red Wings in the inning.
The six-foot-six hurler is rehabbing from shoulder soreness he initially felt in spring training. He is working to earn a spot back in the major leagues after a disappointing 2023 season that saw him demoted to the minors twice and post a 5.87 ERA over 87.1 innings with Toronto.
He was a Cy Young finalist and AL All-Star in 2022.
Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson also pitched in the game, entering for the Bisons in the fifth inning.
He allowed two hits and one earned run while getting two outs. He threw 18 pitches, 11 of them for strikes. Swanson appears to have been working on his splitter, as he threw 11 of them in his outing, compared to just five fastballs and two sliders.
