Blue Jays manager John Schneider takes blame for mound visit mix-up
Nothing has seemed to go right for the Toronto Blue Jays this week, and perhaps there was no better proof of that than a sixth-inning mound visit during Saturday's game against the Baltimore Orioles.
With the game tied 2-2 and two outs in the top of the sixth, Blue Jays manager John Schneider made what seemed to be harmless walk to the mound for a chat with his starting pitcher, Alek Manoah. There was only one problem: His pitching coach, Pete Walker, had already made a visit earlier in the inning, which meant − per MLB rules − Manoah had to be replaced.
"I (expletive) up," Schneider admitted after the game. "But I think, regardless of my (expletive) up, it was the right time to get him out."
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It was just more bad luck for Manoah, who has had a forgettable start to the 2023 season. Yet, Manoah was in the middle of his best outing in nearly a month, having thrown 5 ⅔ and allowing two runs with five strikeouts. He had thrown 85 pitches, a total he has surpassed in seven of his first nine starts.
"There was just some silence," Manoah said of the visit. "I had known Pete had come out there. When he started asking me if I wanted to stay in the game, I was like, 'Well maybe Pete didn’t come out here?' I wasn’t sure."
The Blue Jays went on to lose Saturday's game despite holding a 5-2 lead after seven innings. It was their fifth loss in the past six games.
It's just been one of those weeks for Toronto, which traded jabs with the New York Yankees earlier in the week when − while batting − Aaron Judge appeared to peek into the Yankees dugout before launching a mammoth home run. The incident sparked controversy over the unwritten rules of the game and what constitutes cheating.