Jays need Manoah to be Manoah

What has to happen for the Blue Jays to beat Seattle in Friday’s wildcard series opener? Here are three keys to victory:

Manoah being Manoah

Alek Manoah was the best pitcher in the game over the final month of the season, winning American League pitcher of the month by posting a minuscule 0.88 ERA over six September starts and holding opponents to a .162 batting average.

The right-hander’s 2.24 ERA for the season was fourth in the major leagues, and he led the Jays with 16 wins despite getting less support than any other Jays’ starter at just 4.1 runs per game.

The 24-year-old, in his first full season in the majors, has thrown at least six innings in each of his last eight starts and has allowed more than one earned run only once. More of the same would suit the Jays just fine.

Keeping the ball in the park

The Mariners can play long ball almost as well as the Jays, belting 197 homers this season to Toronto’s 200.

Seattle has used the timely home run to propel them to several wins down the stretch — 162 of those round-trippers came with the game tied or within one run. When the Mariners swept four games from the Jays in Seattle in July, three of the wins came thanks to go-ahead multiple-run homers in the seventh inning or later.

Third baseman Eugenio Suarez led the team with 31 homers — one fewer than the Jays’ leader, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. — and was followed by rookie Julio Rodriguez’s 28 and Cal Raleigh’s 27.

Manoah has made 11 starts since the beginning of August and hasn’t been taken deep in nine of them.

Carrying on

It’s as simple as the Jays continuing to play as well as they have played since they left Seattle. John Schneider took over from Charlie Montoyo two days later and, since then, the Jays have gone 46-28. Only the Houston Astros and Cleveland Guardians have been better in the American League, and only by two games. The Jays finished with a flourish, going 31-16 and they won the opening game in 10 of the last 11 series they played.

Getting an early lead would be a swell idea, too, to keep a strong Mariners bullpen from having too much of a hand in deciding things. That’s something that has been a strength of the Jays down the stretch: They’ve scored first in 14 of their last 18 games.

All they have to do is keep doing the things they’ve been doing, although in the playoffs that’s way more difficult than it sounds.