Analysis | Alek Manoah covers up a lot of errors, and the Jays beat the Angels again

ANAHEIM—Well, it certainly wasn’t pretty, but the Blue Jays will take it. After giving away a few wins earlier this season because of defensive lapses, they finally got one back on Friday night.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove home the go-ahead run in the ninth inning as the Jays overcame a sloppy night in the field to secure a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. A botched play by Angels right-fielder Juan Lagares helped make it happen.

Gurriel’s sharp liner to right shouldn’t have resulted in the winning run as Alejandro Kirk had yet to round third base by the time the ball reached Lagares’ glove. But after it bounced away, the Jays catcher was able to cruise home as Charlie Montoyo’s squad picked up its seventh win over the last 10 games.

“It was going to be hard for Kirk to score on that, but once I saw that he dropped the ball I knew we had a good chance right there,” Gurriel said through an interpreter after the game. “To come here and play an excellent team like the Angels, we made three errors, but to get a win like that is huge for us and hopefully we can continue playing like that and win the series.”

The Jays found themselves in another tight affair — their 19th one-run ball game of the season — but this was arguably a game that never should have been that close. The Jays had multiple runners on base in two of the first three innings and only came away with one run. After stringing three hits together with nobody out in the fourth, they were limited to just one more.

It’s a scene that has played out many times this season for a team that has ranked near the bottom of the league with runners in scoring position all year. Yet it didn’t cost them on Friday night, in part because right-hander Alek Manoah had another dominating performance and because there were so many opportunities throughout the game that coming through in just a few of them ended up being enough.

Gurriel hit an RBI double earlier in the game, while Matt Chapman chipped in with a pinch-hit RBI single. The Jays finished 5-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 12 men on base en route to the win.

“What a great win,” said Montoyo, whose team didn’t play in its 19th one-run game last season until Sept. 1. “We didn’t play great defence at the beginning, but Manoah battled and he made good pitches even though we didn’t play well behind him.”

Manoah struck out a season-high nine batters and had some of his best swing-and-miss stuff of the year, but he was forced to settle for a no-decision because of those defensive miscues and the lack of early offence.

Raimel Tapia, Bo Bichette and Gurriel were all charged with errors, which led to one unearned run but easily could have been much more if Manoah wasn’t on top of his game. The 24-year-old allowed three runs — two earned — while scattering seven hits and not issuing a walk.

Outings like this are what the Jays have come to expect from the six-foot-six, 285-pounder. He has yet to allow more than two earned runs in an outing this season and his 1.77 ERA ranks third among qualified MLB starters, trailing only New York Yankees lefty Nestor Cortes and Texas Rangers lefty Martín Pérez.

The only Jays pitcher in franchise history with a lower ERA through his first nine starts of a season was Dave Stieb (1.20) way back in 1983. Even more impressive is that Manoah’s 179 strikeouts through the first 29 games of his career are the most ever by a Jay, besting Juan Guzman’s 170 from 1991-92

Exactly one year to the day that Manoah made his big-league debut, the product of West Virginia is 14-3 with a 2.74 ERA and the Jays have won all but seven of his 29 starts. In a sport where no one can be perfect, Manoah has been about as flawless as it gets.

“I spoke to my mom this morning a little bit about it and reflected on the year that we’ve had,” said Manoah, whose record remained 5-1. “I’m super grateful, super blessed for everything we’ve been able to do and we’re excited about what’s to come.”

The ups and downs of Major League Baseball continue. The Jays went the first month of the season without losing a series. Then throughout much of May it seemed like they suffered one crushing loss after another.

The club’s morale wasn’t particularly high a couple of weeks ago, but it’s much different now; winning has a way of doing that. The Jays are now undefeated in their last four series, and they still have an outside shot at sweeping one of the league’s top teams with a couple more victories this weekend in sunny California.

Teams need a bit of luck to be good, and they also need to find ways to come through on nights when they aren’t at their best. That’s something the Jays weren’t doing much of in early May, but as the calendar moves toward June the script appears to be changing once again.

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