Blue Jays: Manoah pitches a gem and the playoff dreams are still alive

The Toronto Blue Jays were in a do-or-die situation yesterday and walked away winners, keeping their playoff hopes alive with just one game left in the regular season.

The Jays entered their game yesterday one game back of the Boston Red Sox for the second spot in the Wild Card standings. A loss to the Orioles yesterday would put the Blue Jays out of playoff contention, especially since the Red Sox won their game against the Washington Nationals as well.

The club entrusted the start in right-hander Alek Manoah, the Blue Jays front runner for the internal Rookie of the Year award. Manoah has been a beast all season and while it may have been a risk to give a rookie the start, his track record was enough proof that he could handle the pressure in front of the home crowd.

Manoah would live up to the situation, pitching seven innings while allowing only one earned run, one hit, one walk, one hit batter, and ten strikeouts on his way to earning the win before handing off the reigns to Ross Stripling, who finished the game. The 2019 first-round draft pick was dominant on the mound, using his fastball and off-speed pitches well and keeping the Orioles off-balance throughout the entire outing.

The Blue Jays won their game yesterday against the Baltimore Orioles and kept their playoff hopes alive heading into the last game of the season.

Even with the Florida product throwing well, the Blue Jays bats came alive against Baltimore’s top arm in John Means, tagging him for six earned runs off of seven hits with three home runs. They would put up a 10 spot on the board, with George Springer leading the charge with a 4 for 5 outing with one home run and three RBI while Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Teoscar Hernandez, Danny Jansen, and Bo Bichette also added a home run of their own.

Santiago Espinal added three hits to the parade and Jansen continued his strong presence in the batter’s box with two hits of his own. The only three players who did not collect a knock yesterday were Marcus Semien, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and Randal Grichuk, otherwise, the rest of the lineup had a pretty good evening.

The Blue Jays will need to continue this hot streak into today as they need to win in order to keep their playoff hopes alive. There are quite a few different scenarios that could happen if the Red Sox, Yankees, or Seattle Mariners lose/win but the Jays need to win no matter what, otherwise they do not make the Wild Card.