Imagine for a moment, if you will, an enactment of the phrase “taking candy from a baby.” Now, imagine it taken a step further, and the candy-taker then plays keep-away from the baby. That scene is what Sean Manaea’s 14-inning no-hit streak, which runs across three games and breaks a franchise record, looked like, with (very good) hitters playing the part of the baby, and hits playing the part of the candy.
Sean Manaea and destiny might be colliding for good this time
Saturday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at, you guessed it, Sean Manaea and destiny.
Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images
Exactly seven days ago, Manaea withheld hits from baseball’s hottest team for a full game. The Red Sox were on a merry eight-game win streak before he dealt them only their third loss all season. Friday, six days later against the Astros, he skipped no beats and took no names, delivering three more innings of no-hit stuff. Astros hitters greeted Manaea with waving bats, as he struck out seven across seven-innings. Manaea’s night ended with four-hits and one-run allowed, leaving his season ERA at 1.03. Houston doesn’t have as many wins to show for it, but they have scored only 11 fewer runs than Boston and sit just behind them in fWAR in team batting. Essentially, these are some big babies Manaea has toyed with.
Manaea is only 26 years old in his third season in the majors. Blossoming with this kind of performance is quite a way to do it, even for a second-round draft pick who quickly slotted himself at the top of Kansas City’s prospect pool. He proved himself capable of streaks of dominance, breaking the Cape Cod strikeout record in 2013 with 145 in 121 innings. The dominance, maybe due in part to nagging injury, would slink off as consistently as it appeared, though. His debut season and sophomore year followed that pattern. The promise he showed in 2016, finishing with a 1.19 WHIP and a 3.86 ERA, looked diluted in 2017, it turned out, due to side-effects from new ADD medication.
The velocity Manaea lost in 2017 seems to be back, and Eno Sarris noted at the Athletic just before his no-hitter that he was showing much better command of his changeup and slider this season. Manaea looks like he’s turned his promise into fulfillment. Hopefully, he can take that and keep running.
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