Manoah retires just 1 batter in latest rough outing for Blue Jays

Alek Manoah was a finalist for the Cy Young last season, with his wins (16) and ERA (2.24) each ranking third in the American League.

This season has been a completely different story.

Manoah has struggled from the start, and after his latest clunker — he retired just one of the nine Houston Astros batters he faced Monday night — some in the crowd of 23,982 at Rogers Centre showered him with boos.

“A lot of things I’ve been working on, I didn’t really have a chance to go out there and use that,” Manoah said after the shortest start of his career resulted in an 11-4 Toronto loss. “Just got to show up tomorrow and get ready for the next one.”

But when will that next one be?

Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters he “thinks” Manoah will make his next scheduled start but he indicated it’s not a certainty, either.

“When I say that everything is on the table, yeah, everything is,” Schneider said. “We’re just trying to help him get back to the caliber of pitcher that he was.”

Manoah (1-7) failed to get out of the first inning in his seventh straight losing decision. He allowed six runs on seven hits and walked one, while watching his ERA rise from 5.46 to 6.36.

Things were so bad that he appeared to try and blow a Jeremy Pena bunt down the third-base line foul in the first inning, and even that didn’t work.

The right-hander has given up 45 runs so far this season in 58 innings pitched. He allowed 55 runs in 196.2 innings last season.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.