TORONTO — This is what it should look like when a team vying for a wild card spot faces what is essentially a triple-A club.
One night after a surprising loss to the underdog last-place Kansas City Royals, the Blue Jays (48-43) stormed back with an 8-1 run behind a strong start by Alec Manoa and three hits by Teoscar Hernandez and Matt Chapman.
The Royals (36-53) traveled to Toronto without 10 players — including outfielders Andrew Benintendi, Michael A. Taylor and Kyle Isbell — who did not meet Canadian requirements for a COVID-19 vaccination. Five different players made their major league debuts for the Royals already in this series, so a second straight loss for the Blue Jays wasn’t going to look good. Especially in the week the club sacked their manager.
That’s not a problem, though, and the team now has a chance to improve to 4-1 under new bench boss John Schneider with wins on Saturday and Sunday heading into the All-Star break.
“They came out and hit us yesterday, so to respond with a nice win today is huge,” said Matt Chapman, whose fifth-inning shot to the second deck in left field extended the Blue Jays’ lead to 7-1, more than enough support for dominant Manoa.
The sophomore right-hander, headed to next week’s All-Star Game in Los Angeles, outscored Royals hitters for his seven innings of work with a slider that induced nine whiffs on 23 pitches. He struck out six, allowing just four hits and one run on 86 total pitches.
“He’s a beast,” Schneider said. “He definitely put his name out there as one of the best guys in the league and is very, very deserving of the All-Star selection. You can count on a quality start every time he’s out there.”
The only damage against Manoa (10-4) came in the fifth frame when his errant slider hit Ryan O’Hearn, who turned around and scored on Nicky Lopez’s single to center field. After meeting with pitching coach Pete Walker, he decided to retire the next two hitters with a strikeout and a groundout. He is now up to 114.2 innings on the season, third in the American League. Manoa reached that number in just 18 starts and averaged over six innings per outing. Last year, after being called up to the majors in late May, Manoa posted 111.2 innings in 20 starts.
“He’s a workhorse,” Schneider said. “He has been since he got here. And he just keeps doing it.”
“It was a good first half with some good learning experiences and definitely good games to help build good momentum going into the second half,” said Manoa, who cited his routine and offseason work as reasons he’s been able to stay consistent .
“The biggest thing is to have good, fast innings and let our offense get back out there and do what they do. Like tonight. Being able to go 7-1 feels pretty good. Just keep attacking and let that attack work.
That lead was built up early when the Blue Jays hitters jumped on veteran Royals starter Zack Greinke (3-6), who was making his 503rd career big league start, tying him for 46th on the all-time list . Teoscar Hernandez led off the second inning with a bloop double to right field and advanced to third on Chapman’s single before scoring into center field off the bat of Raimel Tapia. The next inning, Hernandez deposited an 87-mph shot from Greinke over the center-field fence for a three-run homer to extend the lead to 4-0. The ball traveled 416 feet, igniting the crowd of 26,422 at Rogers Centre.
Chapman added to the festivities when he hit his 15th home run of the season — one of his three hits on the night — in the fifth inning and said after the game that he was starting to see results from the extra work he’s put into his swing with the Blue Jays hitting coach Guillermo Martinez and hitting strategist Dave Hudgens over the past few days.
“Just trying to use my legs a little bit,” Chapman said. “It’s easy to lose track of things over the course of a season. So I’m just trying to get that feeling back from using my legs. When I use the earth, good things certainly happen. I’m just trying to prepare myself to help this team in the second half.”
The third baseman entered the day with a .218/.295/.413 slash line in 84 games this year — a far cry from the production he showed during his first three campaigns in Oakland.
“I wasn’t happy with what I was doing at the plate,” he said. “I feel like I can really help this team if I’m right. So I was ready to make a change. It’s nothing too drastic — just kind of getting that feeling back in my legs, being able to drive the ball to all parts of the field.
“I know I’m a better than .220 hitter.”
Improved production from Chapman would be welcome for the Blue Jays as they enter the second half next week. However, there are currently two games left before they get there. And while Friday night offered plenty of positives for the Blue Jays, the way they’ve played over the past month proved nothing is guaranteed — even if it’s against a bunch of players better suited for the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers.
“We have to finish the next two games before we get to the All-Star break,” Chapman said. “Every game is obviously important and going into the All-Star break with three straight wins would be huge. But obviously we are not looking to tomorrow.
“We have to win tomorrow … Everything matters at this point.”
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