TORONTO – The Yankees crunched the numbers ahead of their first meeting this season with the Blue Jays, deciding an opener would give them their best shot at shutting down Toronto’s mighty roster. The plan worked perfectly.
The judge hit a first-inning homer against Alek Manoah, then took Jay Jackson deep in the eighth – a 462-foot blast to center field that immediately followed the ejection of Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who disputed balls and strikes with the plate umpire. Clint Vondrak.
Only Babe Ruth (68), Mickey Mantle (46), Lou Gehrig (43) and Joe DiMaggio (35) have more multihomer games in a Yankees uniform than Judge.
New York flipped the script on what appeared to be a pitch lag, hitting Manoah for five runs on six hits and seven walks over four innings as Cordero and Brito cruised.
While Manoah served up first-inning outbursts to Judge and Calhoun, Cordero retired all six batters he faced. Brito took over for the third inning and pitched five scoreless innings before Toronto finally broke through for four runs (one earned) in the eighth. Brito faced the minimum until Kevin Kiermaier doubled with two outs in the sixth.
Kyle Higashioka contributed an RBI single and Judge worked a goal-laden walk in the fourth against Manoah. Newly named American League Player of the Week Anthony Rizzo added two-time reliever Tim Mayza in the sixth.