Blue Jays' Alek Manoah: Gives up eight hits in rehab start

Manoah (shoulder) struck out four and was charged with four earned runs on eight hits and one walk over 3.1 innings in his second minor-league rehab start Saturday with Triple-A Syracuse.

Manoah was far from dominant Saturday, but he still took a big step forward while shifting his rehab assignment to a higher level of competition. In his first outing April 7 with Single-A Dunedin, Manoah retired only five of 16 batters while throwing just 26 strikes on 58 pitches, but he did a better job of finding the zone Saturday. He still spotted only 48 of his 78 pitches for strikes, though, so despite looking to be fully ramped up from a workload standpoint, Manoah will probably need to make further improvements with his command and control before he returns from the 15-day injured list and receives a look in Toronto's rotation. Yariel Rodriguez should stick around as the Blue Jays' No. 5 starting pitcher for the time being.