Manoah (shoulder) struck out four and was charged with four earned runs on eight hits and one walk over 3.1 innings in his second minor-league rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Syracuse.
Manoah was far from dominant Saturday, but he still took a big step forward while shifting his rehab assignment to a higher level of competition. In his first outing April 7 with Single-A Dunedin, Manoah retired only five of 16 batters while throwing just 26 strikes on 58 pitches, but he did a better job of finding the zone Saturday. He still spotted only 48 of his 78 pitches for strikes, though, so despite looking to be fully ramped up from a workload standpoint, Manoah will probably need to make further improvements with his command and control before he returns from the 15-day injured list and receives a look in Toronto's rotation. Yariel Rodriguez should stick around as the Blue Jays' No. 5 starting pitcher for the time being.