Manoah shines but bullpen struggles in defeat 

MANCHESTER, N.H — The New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Double-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays, were defeated by the Portland Sea Dogs on Sunday night, falling 12-5 at Delta Dental Stadium and dropping the series to the Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red Sox.

In his Fisher Cats debut, starting right-hander Alek Manoah threw five strong innings, allowing one run on three hits and three walks while striking out 10 in a no-decision on 82 pitches (47 strikes). The 10 strikeouts recorded is a new season-high by a Fisher Cat.

The 2022 American League All-Star and Cy Young Award finalist gave up a run in the second but eventually settled down and struck out seven of his last 10 hitters faced, including striking out the side in the fourth. At one point, he retired nine in a row, eight via the strikeout.

While progressing through the minors, Manoah made six starts with High-A Vancouver in 2019 and three with Triple-A Buffalo in 2021 before eventually debuting with the Blue Jays. This was his first outing in a Fisher Cats uniform and at the Double-A level.

With Portland leading 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth, New Hampshire (1-4, 36-37) plated home four runs on an RBI single by Will Robertson, a bases loaded walk by Steward Berroa and a two-run single by Leo Jimenez to take a 5-2 lead.

Portland (4-1, 44-30) answered with three in the seventh as Red Sox top prospect Marcelo Mayer tied the score 5-5 on an RBI single to right-field.

The Sea Dogs erupted for seven runs in the eighth off left-hander Mason Fluharty (1-3) and right-hander T.J. Brock with Alex Binelas and Niko Kavadas both hitting homers, two of three hit by Portland on the night. Mayer, Kavadas and Binelas all had three RBI games.

Jimenez and Berroa led the way for the Fisher Cats with two RBIs each, including a solo homer by Berroa in the fifth, his fourth homer of the season. Orelvis Martinez, Trevor Schwecke and Rainer Nunez all collected two hits each with Nunez extending his hit streak to six consecutive games.

The Fisher Cats wrap up the home stand tomorrow night against the Sea Dogs at 7:05 pm. RHP Luis Quinones (3-1, 4.26 ERA) will get the start for New Hampshire against RHP Robert Kwiatkowski (0-0, 6.75 ERA) for Portland.

Promotions for tomorrow include one last Mega Blast Atlas Fireworks postgame show of the home stand.

Tickets are available at NHFisherCats.com, via email at [email protected], over the phone at (603) 641-2005, or in-person at the Fisher Cats box office at 1 Line Drive in Manchester.