BOSTON – This was the full Alek Manoah experience, a tornado of energy and emotion tearing through Fenway Park on a steamy Saturday, triggering everything from alarm to rage over six gripping innings of work.
The gamut ran bailing on a pitch in the second inning and shaking out his right hand, to using indelicate language as he recommended that Franchy Cordero be seated after a strikeout in the sixth.
Unhappy that the all-star game sensation screamed in elation after getting Bobby Dalbec to end the frame and glanced at their bench, the Boston Red Sox voiced their displeasure, received more suggestions that they recline, and a few of their players began to emerge from the dugout to further the conversation.
Quickly, the Blue Jays funnelled their mountain-of-a-man off the field, order remained and they proceeded to lock down a 4-1 victory Saturday, their fifth in a row, improving them to 9-3 against the Red Sox this season.
What a ride.
“Just competitive baseball, man,” Manoah said of fiery sixth-inning exchange. “It’s hot baseball, those guys are trying to do everything they can to win. We’re doing the same thing on our side. I was pretty fired up coming into the dugout and glad we were able to get the win.”
The day after establishing new franchise records with 28 runs and 29 hits, the Blue Jays needed Manoah and the bullpen to be every bit as stingy as they were. RBI singles from Santiago Espinal and George Springer along with an Alejandro Kirk sacrifice fly in the third erased the deficit created by Bobby Dalbec’s solo shot in the second, and it was all pitching from there.
Manoah, fresh off of striking out the side during an epic all-star inning in which he was mic’d up, was front and centre in that regard, with all the inherent drama.
There were surely palpitating hearts in the Blue Jays’ baseball operations offices during the second inning. Manoah wound up for a 2-0 pitch to Dalbec and as his right arm came over the top, something seemed to give, flopping the ball into the ground. Afterwards he circled the ball slowly before picking it up, his right arm dangling as he spread his fingers wide, prompting interim manager John Schneider and trainer Jose Ministral to charge out.
“The mound was a little gluey,” explained Manoah, who caught a spike and slipped. “I was just trying to regroup myself, get my breath back and just get back to pitching.”
After a brief conference, Manoah remained in the game. Four pitches later, Dalbec sent a slider over the Monster. Manoah battled his way through the next four frames, including the fateful sixth.
Cordero appeared to be the first Red Sox player to take exception, staring out at Manoah and muttering something after swinging through a slider for the second out of the inning. When Manoah noticed, he glared back and told the DH to, and we’ll paraphrase here, go sit the funk down.
Cordero smirked as he returned to the dugout and the ill-will turned up a notch when he caught Dalbec looking to end the frame and pounded his chest in celebration. Dalbec didn’t like that and said something, Manoah impolitely asked him to walk away, and a few Red Sox climbed out of their dugout as Cavan Biggio, alertly, guided the big man to the Blue Jays bench.
“I was just trying to get him in the dugout and try not to let nothing turn into something,” said Biggio, wisely aware that the benches cleared between the sides when they last met in Toronto after Nick Pivetta hit Alejandro Kirk. “Trying to keep momentum on our side and not give them any reason to get it on their side.”
Nothing more developed, but given the stakes for both clubs, and that the Red Sox lost for the 12th time in their past 15 outings, the tensions shouldn’t be surprising.
“We all know he’s an emotional guy,” said Schneider, who put his arm around Manoah in the dugout afterwards and chatted with him. “That’s what makes him elite – the way he competes. What I told him was outstanding effort today, way to empty the tank and just make sure that your emotion doesn’t get the best of you and doesn’t show up your opponent. But I couldn’t ask for much more out of him in that inning.”
Manoah’s fortitude, of course, is an increasingly integral part of the Blue Jays’ backbone, complementing the steady dominance he provides every fifth day.
As Yusei Kikuchi works to rejoin the staff – Schneider called the lefty’s five shutout innings during Friday’s rehab start at triple-A Buffalo “encouraging” – the combination of Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Manoah gives GM Ross Atkins a front three comparable to any in baseball, with Ross Stripling providing dependable reliance behind them.
That gives Atkins the option of loading up the bullpen rather than trying to add both relief and rotation help ahead of the Aug. 2 trade deadline, although there’s certainly a path to the Blue Jays doing both. There is one school of thought that believes two high-end relievers are preferable to a starter, although the final verdict will also have to factor in what the market bears, too.
The Blue Jays bullpen held Saturday, particularly in the eighth, when Adam Cimber walked one and hit another, leaving two men on and two out for closer Jordan Romano, who got Dalbec to fly out to centre to preserve a 3-1 lead. After a Teoscar Hernandez double tacked on a fourth run in the ninth, Romano closed out the bottom half, easy-peasy.
“With where he was in terms of rest and how we felt about those matchups,” Schneider said of asking Romano to get more than three outs for the second time this year, “it was the perfect time to do it.”
As it so often has this season, securing a third consecutive Blue Jays series win all started with Manoah.
“He brings a little bit of extra emotion,” Schneider says of how Manoah’s vibe rubs off on the rest of the club. “A little bit of extra, ‘Here we go, we’re here,’ like he says. It’s easy to get up for a game when he’s on the mound, for sure.”
Added Biggio: “He’s the ultimate competitor. Love having him out there.”
For a number of reasons beyond the obvious, opponents won’t feel the same way, another intriguing part of the same wild ride.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps will begin their post-season campaign with a play-in game against the Timbers in Portland on Wednesday.
The ‘Caps (13-13-8) ended the regular season with a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake on Saturday and finished eighth in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference standings.
The eighth and ninth spots from each conference meet in a play-in game this week, with the winner going on to face the No. 1 seed in the first round of the playoffs.
Each eighth-place team was set to host the play-in game, but Vancouver announced Friday that its home stadium, B.C. Place, is not available, so the club will cede home-field advantage to Portland (12-11-11), the ninth-place team.
The ‘Caps and Timbers split their three-game series during regular-season play, with each side taking a win, a loss and a draw.
The first round of the MLS playoffs is set to begin next weekend.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2024.
SANDY, Utah (AP) — Diego Luna scored a tying goal in the 73rd minute and Real Salt Lake added another on an own goal for a 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night to set a single-season club record for points.
Real Salt Lake (16-7-11) secured the No. 3 spot in the Western Conference and will face Minnesota in the first round of the Major League Soccer playoffs. RSL reached 59 points this season, topping the 2012 team with 57.
Vancouver (13-13-8) will play the Portland Timbers on Wednesday in a wild-card game for a chance to play top-seeded LAFC.
Luna settled a long cross from Braian Ojeda before taking four touches to slot home a shot inside the far post for his eighth goal of the season.
RSL went ahead in the 83rd when Vancouver goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer misplayed a lofted ball that rolled into the back of the net.
Vancouver midfielder Ryan Gauld opened the scoring in the 58th to become the first player in club history to produce multiple seasons with at least 10 goals and 10 assists.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Juan Soto’s arrival last winter was supposed to be that move that pushed the New York Yankees back to the top.
They’re one step away.
Soto hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 10th inning and the Yankees advanced to their 41st World Series — and first in 15 years — by beating the Cleveland Guardians 5-2 in Game 5 of the AL Championship Series on Saturday night.
Baseball’s biggest brand is going back to October’s main stage.
Soto, who was acquired in a seven-player trade from San Diego in December, pushed the Bronx Bombers into position with one big swing.
This was why he came, for this moment and for so many more.
“We’re right where we belong,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, who pulled off the deal for Soto.
The Yankees will try to win their 28th title against either the New York Mets or Los Angeles Dodgers. Game 6 of the NL Championship Series is on Sunday at Dodger Stadium.
In the third consecutive tight game in three nights at Progressive Field, Austin Wells walked with one out in the 10th and Alex Verdugo followed with a grounder to Guardians second baseman Andrés Giménez, whose soft toss to the bag was dropped by rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio for an error.
Hunter Gaddis struck out Gleyber Torres and had Soto in a 1-2 count before New York’s stylish outfielder sent a shot over the wall in center. Soto danced down the first-base line and paused to celebrate with his teammates before circling the bases.
“I was just saying to myself, `You’re all over that guy. You’re all over that guy. He ain’t got anything,’” said Soto, who moved alongside his manager, Aaron Boone, as the only New York players to homer in an extra-inning, series-clinching win.
Luke Weaver got the final three outs with Lane Thomas flying out for the last one, which was caught by Soto.
“We get to play for a world championship,” Boone said. “That’s pretty sweet.”
The 25-year-old Soto is eligible for free agency this winter, and Yankees fans chanted “Re-sign Soto!” during the postgame festivities. He’s expected to get a contract upwards of $600 million, and his heroics in Game 5 may have raised his price.
Giancarlo Stanton hit a two-run homer and was named ALCS MVP as the Yankees took care of the Guardians in five games. It wasn’t easy.
New York won the first two at Yankee Stadium without much fanfare or any major drama. However, it was a different story in Cleveland as all three games at Progressive Field were nail-biters.
The Guardians rallied to win Game 3 on two, two-run homers in their last two at-bats, and the Yankees held on to win Game 4 after blowing a four-run lead.
“This was a rollercoaster and we were able to just keep punching back,” Stanton said. “We know there’s much more work to do and it’s only uphill from here and we got to get it done.”
Cleveland just didn’t have enough and a surprising season under first-year manager Stephen Vogt ended just short of a World Series. The franchise remains without a title since 1948, baseball’s current longest drought.
“There’s only one team that gets to win the last game of the year, and unfortunately it’s not going to be us,” Vogt said. “But we accomplished a lot as a group. We got better. We worked extremely hard. I couldn’t be more proud of this group. We just didn’t get quite as far as we wanted to.”
The Yankees are back in the World Series, back where their fans expect them to be every year.
The club’s 82-80, fourth-place finish in the AL East last season led to some “soul searching as an organization” during the winter, according to Boone, who has been widely criticized but is one of just three managers to take New York to playoffs in six of his first seven seasons.
While the team’s core stayed mostly intact, getting Soto in a blockbuster trade on Dec. 7 — New York sent five players to San Diego for the three-time All-Star — accelerated the team returning to title contender.
“That was a good day,” Boone said with a laugh before the game.
Stanton’s 446-foot rocket into the left-field bleachers tied it at 2 in the sixth and chased Tanner Bibee, who had struck out New York’s dangerous DH in his first two at-bats and held the Yankees scoreless for the first five innings.
It was Stanton’s fourth homer in this series — his third in three days — and his 16th in the postseason, moving him into fourth place on the club’s career list behind Bernie Williams (22), Derek Jeter (20) and Mickey Mantle (18).
Before the game, Boone was asked what makes Stanton so good.
“He can hit it harder than anyone, first of all,” Boone said. “So there’s the physical nature of what he does that’s different than just about everyone in the world.”
But Boone went on to compliment Stanton’s discipline at the plate, “his approach, his process, how he studies guys.”
“There’s something that he does when he gets familiarity with people on top of being very physically gifted,” Boone said.
The Guardians took a 2-0 lead in the fifth off Carlos Rodón on Steven Kwan’s RBI single with two outs. But Cleveland missed a big chance for more, leaving the bases loaded when Lane Thomas grounded out on the first pitch to him from Mark Leiter Jr.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Yankees: LHP Nestor Cortes (elbow strain) had another successful live batting practice session. The reliever remains on track to join the Yankees on their World Series roster. Boone said Cortes would throw again early next week. Cortes went 9-10 with a 3.77 ERA in 30 starts.
