Manoah Dominates Red Sox in Triple-A Debut

_2019 first round pick strikes out 12 in 10-1 Bisons rout

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BOX SCORE

(Trenton, NJ) – A lot of eyes were on *Alek Manoah *on Thursday night at Trenton Thunder Ballpark as the big righty readied for his Bisons debut in the third game of the new season. The scouting reports told quite a story of the 11th overall pick in the 2019 draft, but there wasn’t much of a professional body of work because he only made six starts with Vancouver shortly after getting drafted. He quickly threw any questions out the window, controlling the Red Sox over six innings while tying a Bisons modern record by striking out 12 in his debut. Aside from that, the Herd offense was also on point, producing 17 hits and three more home runs for the second straight night as they rolled to a 10-1 win to take the first three games of the series.

Manoah fittingly started his night with a strikeout before hitting Jeter Downs *with a pitch to put the Sox infielder aboard. But he wiped him out with a shifty pickoff move before fanning *Connor Wong *to retire the side. The early run support arrived in the second when the Herd immediately loaded the bases against *Daniel Gossett *thanks to a *Kevin Smith *walk and singles by *Josh Palacios *and *Cullen Large. On the first pitch he saw of the season, second baseman *Christian Colon *lifted a flyball to left for a 1-0 lead.

Three more runs came across in the third when *Forrest Wall *doubled into the right field corner for his second hit of the night. On the next pitch, *Breyvic Valera *brought him home with a single, and *Rowdy Tellez *tacked on two more with a high drive off the batter’s eye for a 4-0 advantage. The offense was far from finished, but it hardly mattered the way Manoah was throwing.

With three strikeouts in both the third and fourth, Manoah came out for the fifth with just one hit allowed on an infield single by Jonathan Arauz. Two more punchouts brought him to 10, and then he finished his night with two more punchouts for good measure to tie a franchise record shared by rotation-mate Jacob Waguespack.

On the first pitch of the sixth inning, Logan Warmoth *went deep off *Caleb Simpson *for his second home run in as many nights to make it 5-0. The Sox got a run back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from left fielder *Cesar Puello, but the Herd were relentless in the home half. They sent all nine to the plate and prompted a pitching change, getting a two-run bomb from Colon and a hard run-scoring double from Tellez as part of a four-run inning.

The tenth and final run came home in the eighth when catcher *Juan Graterol *doubled home Large to ensure that all nine in the lineup reached base at least twice. There were six multi-hit efforts and three multi-RBI efforts on a night the Bisons swatted three home runs once again to improve to 3-0. Through the first three games, Thunder pitchers have accumulated 41 strikeouts while the offense has tipped the scales in both runs (21-4) and hits (36-14).

The Bisons and Red Sox continue their six-game series at Trenton Thunder Ballpark on Friday, May 7 at 7:00 PM. Pregame radio coverage with Gregg Caserta *and Trenton Baseball Hall of Famer *Dave Schofield begins at 6:30 PM on 920 ESPN New Jersey.

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The Trenton Thunder have drawn over 10 million fans over 28 years and have won the three major awards that Minor League Baseball teams can win; the Johnson Trophy for the "Nation's Best Franchise" (2005), the Larry MacPhail Trophy for Outstanding Club Promotion (2003) and the Bob Frietas Award for Long-Term Success (1998, given by Baseball America). The team has given back over $7.5 million worth of goods, services, and monetary donations through Trenton Thunder Charities, under the Grand Slam We Care Foundation umbrella. The Thunder can be found online at trentonthunder.com, facebook.com/trentonthunder, twitter.com/trentonthunder, and on youtube.com/AATrentonThunder.