Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Alek Manoah struggled in his first start at Triple-A, allowing three earned runs on two hits, three walks and a hit batter in an inning and two thirds with the Buffalo Bisons.

The 27-year-old is recovering from elbow surgery completed in June of 2024 that has kept him off the major-league mound for over a year.

This marked Manoah's fourth start in the minor leagues since July, with the imposing 6-foot-6 righty making a start each at Rookie Ball, Single-A and Double-A before Wednesday's start with the Bisons.

Manoah's fastball velocity, which has historically hovered around 93mph in the big leagues, averaged around 91 in this start in Buffalo.

He mixed in his sinker, fastball, changeup and slider throughout the outing, but struggled with command from the beginning.

Manoah finished his brief outing having thrown 49 pitches - 27 of which were strikes - and struck out one batter on the day.

The Blue Jays would be boosted by a return to form for Manoah, whose last full season in the majors in 2022 resulted in a third-place finish in AL Cy Young voting behind a 2.24 earned-run average with 180 strikeouts in 196.2 innings pitched.

Toronto continues a three-game set against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday, entering action with the top record in the American League at 70-50 and 4.5 games ahead of the Boston Red Sox for the AL East division lead.