Aaron Judge homered twice leading to the Yankees kicking off this week’s four-game set in Toronto with a 7-4 win. The Jays were hampered by another poor start from Alek Manoah, who set a career-high in walks for a game with seven. Toronto was able to string together some runs late, but the deficit was too much to overcome.

Despite his best start of the season coming against the Yankees a few weeks ago, Alek Manoah had another rough go of it this evening. An ongoing issue for Manoah reared its ugly head once again, as he walked seven batters tonight. Aaron Judge homered in the first inning off of Manoah, marking the second career hit against the young righty (both home runs). Willie Calhoun hit a two-run home run just three batters after Judge, and the Jays were in an easy 3-0 hole.

Although tossing a couple of scoreless frames, the Yankees would score another two runs off of Manoah in the fourth inning, an inning that included three of Manoah’s seven walks. John Schneider let Manoah go into the fifth inning in hopes that he would figure something out with a few more reps. Unfortunately, Manoah walked two more batters to open the inning, and that would end the night for him.

His final line: 4.0+ IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 7 BB, and 3 K’s.

While Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen was seen launching nukes into the left field seats pregame, the Blue Jays bats were seen doing quite the opposite for much of the ballgame, struggling to get much of any groove going. Former Blue Jay (believe it or not) Jimmy Cordero and bulk man Jhony Brito dealt with very minimal noise through seven innings; Toronto had only three hits in that time frame, including nine at-bats that lasted three pitches or fewer. Not to say that Toronto wasn’t competing, but anything they put in play was finding a Yankee glove.

The Blue Jays had an inspiring rally going in the 8th inning, aided by a Gleyber Torres error and some hustle plays from Kevin Kiermaier and George Springer. The Blue Jays had five total hits in the inning, and were able to trim four runs off of New York’s lead. Although they didn’t complete the comeback, they did force the Yankees to use one of their high-leverage arms in Michael King.

One odd thing to note from the Blue Jays broadcast that came about tonight: Dan Shulman and Buck Martinez spent several minutes discussing apparent footage of Judge looking towards his first base coach or dugout during an at-bat in the eighth inning. These were quick side-eye glances that occurred moments before the pitch. In the same at-bat, Judge obliterated a home run off of Jay Jackson, drawing some suspicion as to whether Alejandro Kirk or Jackson had been tipping pitches or not. Moments after, it became some good discourse on Twitter!

The Jays used four relievers tonight, so it would be nice to get an extended outing from Kevin Gausman tomorrow evening. He’ll be facing Domingo German, who gave up a couple of home runs back on April 21st against these Blue Jays.