Manoah, Guerrero power Blue Jays to 11-1 rout of Orioles

TORONTO (AP) — Alek Manoah pitched six shutout innings to extend his streak to 12, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homered and had three RBIs, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles 11-1 Monday night.

Santiago Espinal had two hits and drove in three runs as the Blue Jays pounded out a season-high 19 hits, including seven in a seven-run fifth inning.

Manoah (8-1) has won three straight starts and four consecutive decisions. He pitched six scoreless innings to beat the Royals in his previous start on June 7 at Kansas City.

“I thought I threw the ball well,” Manoah said. “I was able to attack the zone, I was able to kind of keep them off balance. I had the sinker, some good changeups in there, too, four-seamer and slider.”

Toronto is 25-7 in Manoah’s 32 career starts. He’s 10-0 with a 1.99 ERA in 15 career home starts.

Guerrero led off the eighth with his 15th home run, a 432-foot drive off right-hander Rico Garcia.

A win at Kansas City on Sunday gave the Orioles back-to-back victories for the first time since May 22-23, but Baltimore never came close to winning three straight for the second time this season.

Manoah allowed one hit, Jorge Mateo’s leadoff single in the third. He walked one and struck out seven.

“He’s been doing this all year,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.

Manoah lowered his ERA to 1.67 after his fourth scoreless outing of 2022.

“He gets tougher when he has to, makes a big pitch when he has to,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said of Manoah. “That’s why, right now, he’s probably one of the best pitchers in baseball, because he does that, he limits the damage.”

Toronto’s George Springer singled and scored on Alejandro Kirk’s two-out hit in the first, then doubled and scored on Guerrero’s base hit in the third.

Five straight Blue Jays players had two-out hits off Logan Gillaspie in the fifth, including two-run singles by Espinal and Raimel Tapia.

Promoted from Triple-A Norfolk earlier Monday to make his major league debut, Orioles outfield prospect Kyle Stower drove in Baltimore’s run with an RBI double off Julian Merryweather in the seventh. The hit was the first of Stower’s career.

Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish (1-4) allowed five runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings, extending his winless streak to six starts. He walked one and struck out three.

“I don’t think I made too many mistakes today, but they still took advantage of balls that just caught the corners,” Bradish said. “Really good team, really good hitters.”

KIND OF BLUE

Manoah is the seventh big league pitcher since 1901 to win at least 17 of his first 20 career decisions as a starter (17-3), and the first since Vida Blue went 17-3 from 1969 to 1971.

STARTING STRONG

Blue Jays starting pitchers are 5-1 with a 1.19 ERA in Toronto’s past seven games.

CHALLENGING

Baltimore challenged after Trey Mancini appeared to ground out weakly in the sixth. After a lengthy review, the umpires ruled that Mancini had been hit by Manoah’s two-strike pitch but did not hold up his swing, meaning he had struck out. It meant the Orioles won their challenge, but didn’t get a baserunner.

“I stopped the play out there because I couldn’t hear exactly what was said,” Hyde explained. “I could hear that it hit him, I didn’t hear that he swung on it all the way through. Unfortunately, it’s a punch-out. Nothing changed.”

NEW LEATHER

Guerrero had to grab a new glove from the dugout in the ninth after a throw from Espinal at third base tore the webbing of his first baseman’s mitt.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: Merryweather was replaced by Adam Cimber in the seventh after he felt discomfort in his left side. Montoyo said Merryweather will have an MRI Tuesday. … 3B Matt Chapman (left wrist) took batting practice, but was held out of the lineup for the third straight game.

ROSTER MOVES

Baltimore added Stowers and Garcia as substitute players from Triple-A Norfolk and put OF Anthony Santander and LHP Keegan Akin on the restricted list. … INF Chris Owings cleared waivers and was released.

UP NEXT

Orioles RHP Jordan Lyles (3-5, 4.97) starts Tuesday against Blue Jays LHP Yusei Kikuchi (2-2, 4.44). Lyles is 2-4 with a 6.69 ERA on the road this season.

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