Alek Manoah is still one of the hottest arms in baseball.

Toronto’s top young arm in the starting rotation got his fourth start of the season on Thursday against the Boston Red Sox, throwing a season-high seven innings of scoreless baseball while allowing three hits, walking three batters and striking out seven. His start was good enough to lift Toronto to its 13th victory of the season, and his fourth. This win is already a crucial one for his club as the Blue Jays trail the Yankees by a half-game for first in the American League East.

Manoah is off to one of the best starts in the AL thus far, and is tied for the major league lead in wins with four. His. 1.44 ERA ranks at No. 9 in the majors, while his 0.88 WHIP ties him for 11th.

He has played so well, in fact, that he is working his way into the AL Cy Young conversation. According to Sports Betting Dime, Manoah is the eighth most likely hurler to capture the 2022 Cy Young Award (given, of course, the small sample size). That puts him just behind Rays ace Shane McClanahan and Seattle’s Robbie Ray, the defending Cy Young winner from 2021.

WVU baseball ends eventful week with rout of No. 9 Texas Tech – The Gold and Blue Nation Podcast

WVU baseball faced its second top-10 opponent in Lubbock this weekend and returns to Morgantown with a win and two losses added to its record. The rocky three-game series capped off an eventful week for the Mountaineers which began with a big win in the Backyard Brawl at PNC Park. Ryan Decker and Sam Coniglio take you through the roller-coaster several days for "Mazey's Crazies, plus they take a look at the early-season exploits of Alek Manoah, the former WVU ace and the rising star of the Toronto Blue Jays. Subscribe on your preferred podcast platform to have future episodes delivered to you. Gold and Blue Nation is the local leader for Mountaineer sports news, producing comprehensive coverage on TV and online. Download the free Gold and Blue Nation app via your preferred app store so you’re never more than a touch away from our WVU sports reporting, highlights and archived shows. 

Manoah has picked up right where he left off after a breakout 2021 rookie campaign, in which he garnered All-Rookie Team honors from multiple publications. He finished his first season with a 9-2 record and a 3.22 ERA in 20 starts after making a quick ascension through Toronto’s farm system in 2020 and the early part of 2021.

The Florida product played three seasons for the Old Gold and Blue and was a key piece to the Mountaineers’ historic run to host an NCAA Regional in 2019. That season, he struck out 144 batsmen, which remains the single-season record at West Virginia.