In the bottom of the fifth inning Sunday in Yankee Stadium, Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah hit Yankees superstar Aaron Judge with a pitch. First base was open and it was a 1-0 count, causing some speculation from the Yankees' side that Manoah hit Judge on purpose instead of just pitching around him.
Gerrit Cole -- who started for the Yankees Saturday -- seemed to be the most angry.
Aaron Judge had words for Alek Manoah and Gerrit Cole was quick to come out of the dugout pic.twitter.com/KnUDe0gjMh
— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 21, 2022
From that video, it looks pretty obvious that Manoah and Judge cleared the air before play continued and Manoah indicated as much after the game.
Alek Manoah on his exchange with Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole’s reaction: pic.twitter.com/NIYE9mfmj8
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) August 21, 2022
Of course, the juiciest part of the situation would be Manoah saying "I think if Gerrit wants to do something, he can walk past the Audi sign next time." The Yankees have Audi logos painted in the grass between the dugouts and each foul line, so it's an easy reference to decode.
The Yankees were able to hold on for victory Sunday, marking their only win of the four-game series. They are now 5-14 in August, but they pushed their AL East lead back up to eight games over both the Blue Jays and Rays. The lead was once 15 1/2 games and has shrunk considerably as the Yankees have struggled for over a month.
For those curious, the Blue Jays and Yankees have three games left against one another, Sept. 26-28 in Toronto. Hopefully Manoah and Cole line up and face each other. That would be fun.
