Alek Manoah’s return to the big leagues went as well as he could have hoped.

After suffering control issues that crescendoed in a disastrous Florida Complex League start, the 2022 Cy Young finalist made his first start with the Blue Jays in over a month and delivered his first win since April.

The right-hander went six innings against the Tigers, allowing one run on five hits as the Blue Jays took a 12-2 win on Friday.

“I’ve been waiting for this outing for a long time,” Manoah told reporters in Detroit. “This feels great. I’m excited about the strides I’ve made over the last month and I’m looking forward to building off them.”

Most encouraging, Manoah didn’t walk a single batter.

“This is what we saw when he was working in Florida and [Double-A] New Hampshire,” Toronto manager John Schneider told reporters. “I’m really proud of the way he has handled this and the work he has put in to get back here.”

Manoah was sent down to rookie ball with a 6.36 ERA, which came as a result of poor control.

Then he allowed 11 earned runs over 2 2/3 innings in his start there.

A second rehab start in Double-A yielded better results, and Manoah seems to be well on the road to recovery.

“Dark secrets in the lab,” Schneider said. “It’s not a place where you just magically fix people, but it does give you an idea of where players were and where they are now.”

Manoah said he feels much better mentally after spending time in the minors.

“Sometimes you get caught up in looking at results, caught up in a bad cycle,” he said. “Wanting to do too much. Caring what everybody says. Caring about a lot of things that really don’t matter. So for me, it’s just day by day. One pitch at a time, one workout at a time. Day one, day two, day three, day four. Just focus on the task at hand and let everything fall into place.”