Manoah says letting down Blue Jays teammates toughest part of struggles

It doesn’t take that much analysis to realize that something is up with Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah.

The 2022 Cy Young finalist had perhaps the worst start of his pro career on Monday, getting just one out while giving up six runs to the Houston Astros in an eventual 11-4 blowout loss.

But in a season of disappointments for the third-year starter, Manoah admitted the toughest part about it all was that he felt like he wasn’t pulling his weight for his fellow Blue Jays.

“Letting my teammates down,” Manoah replied to reporters following Monday’s outing when asked what the toughest part of the season was for him.

Manoah tried to get a little bit of luck from the baseball gods early in his start on Monday, trying to blow a first-inning bunt off the bat of Houston’s Jeremy Pena foul on just the third pitch of the game.

Here's a video of Alek Manoah trying to blow a Jeremy Peña bunt foul.

Already having A Normal One here at Rogers Centre. #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/WgaWo3Bxpq

— Keegan Matheson (@KeeganMatheson) June 5, 2023

“A lot of things I’ve been working on didn’t even have a chance to really go out there and use. Just got to show up tomorrow and get ready for the next one,” Manoah added about Monday’s tough outing.

Manoah had a record of 16-7 with an ERA of 2.24 and 180 strikeouts in 31 appearances in 2022, while he is sporting a record of 1-7 with an ERA of 6.36 and 48 strikeouts in 13 appearances this season.

Toronto at least appears open to sending Manoah down to Triple-A for a stint, although they have yet to commit to anything in particular.

“As of now, we’re not sitting here making plans for anything, but doing everything we can do for him means using every resource that we have, using the staff and using his teammates to help him through it,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “When I say that everything is on the table, yeah, everything is. We’re just trying to help him get back to the calibre of pitcher that he was.”

For now, it seems like it’s mostly a matter of patience to try to let Manoah sort through his struggles, although that can be a challenge for a Toronto team looking to push themselves into a postseason spot this year. Toronto currently sits fourth in the American League East, some three games back of the New York Yankees for the league’s final wild card spot.

“The main focus is just do whatever we need to do to get him better,” added Schneider. “We’re talking about a really good pitcher who’s going through a little bit of a tough time. The cool thing about this team and organization is, yeah, we’re willing to do anything that we feel like we need to do to help you and players understand that, too. But as of now, though, no.”

Should the Blue Jays turn to him once again, Manoah’s next scheduled start is Saturday against the Minnesota Twins.

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