Former WVU Pitchers Means, Manoah to Face Each Other Saturday
October 01, 2021 03:44 PM | Baseball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A little West Virginia University history is going to be made tomorrow afternoon when the Baltimore Orioles face the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto.Two former Mountaineer pitchers will be squaring off against each other when left-hander John Means takes the hill for Baltimore, while right-hander Alek Manoah will be pitching for Toronto.
Means, who pitched a no-hitter earlier this season, is currently 6-8 with a 3.70 earned run average in 25 starts for the last-place Orioles. Means won 12 games two years ago and was named to the American League All-Star Team that season.
Manoah has been one of baseball's top rookie pitchers with an 8-2 record and a 3.35 earned run average in 19 starts this season for the contending Blue Jays, just a game back of the Seattle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox for the final wild card spot in the playoffs.
Toronto has just three games remaining with Baltimore to conclude the regular season.
Saturday will mark only the second Major League Game this year to feature starting pitchers from the same college, as well as just the fourth time in the last two years. Three of the four instances involve Big 12 teams (Oklahoma twice and West Virginia once), incidentally. Florida is the other school to do so.
However, this is not the first time two West Virginia University pitchers appeared in the same game. That happened on Sept. 17, 2007 when Steve Kline came out of the bullpen for the St. Louis Cardinals and Dustin Nippert pitched in relief for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Members of the Mountaineer baseball coaching staff are planning to drive to Toronto to watch Saturday's game, which is set to begin at 3:07 p.m.
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