TORONTO — The Yankees smashed a lot of records ahead of their first meeting of the season with the Blue Jays, and decided that the opener would offer them the best chance to neutralize a powerful Toronto lineup. The plan worked perfectly.
Judge hit a homer in the first inning off Alec Manoah, then took Jay Jackson deep in the eighth—a 462-foot blast to center field that followed the ejection of Yankees coach Aaron Boone, who argued for balls and strikes by home plate umpire Clint Vondrak.
Only Babe Ruth (68), Mickey Mantle (46), Lou Gehrig (43) and Joe DiMaggio (35) have more home runs in a Yankees uniform than Judge.
New York turned the script on what appeared to be a pitch mismatch, beating Manoa with five runs on six hits and seven walks over four innings as Cordero and Prieto pitched.
While Manoah had sent out first-inning blasts to Judge and Calhoun, Cordero retired all six batters he faced. Brito took over in the third inning and went through five scoreless innings before Toronto finally holed up four runs (two earned) in the eighth. Brito faced the bottom line until Kevin Kiermayer doubled him two out for sixth.
Kyle Higashioka contributed an RBI single and Judge made a bases-loaded walk in Manoah’s fourth run. After being named the MLS Most Valuable Player, Anthony Rizzo added two goals from scorer Tim Maesa in the sixth.
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