TORONTO — So much for the Yankees having a nemesis.
Not anymore.
Nowadays, nothing can stop them, not even hot Blue Jays ace/past Yankees terror Alek Manoah. The Yankees finally got to the second-year righty on Saturday and rolled to a 4-0 blanking to make it nine in a row, 16 of 17 and 20 of 23.
All of that is hard to believe on so many levels.
The biggest hit of the game came courtesy of Aaron Hicks, who broke up a scoreless game with a two-out, three-run double in the fourth off Manoah.
The Yankees added a fourth run off Manoah in the sixth inning when Gleyber Torres doubled off Blue Jays left fielder Raimel Tapia’s glove and scored on a two-out hit by Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
After allowing one run over 12 innings in beating the Yanks twice earlier this season, Manoah was knocked out in the sixth this time having been lit up for four runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings. Coming in, the 6-foot-6 righty was 8-1 with a 1.67 ERA in 12 starts this season and 2-0 with a 1.52 ERA in four career starts against the Yanks.
For the season, the Yankees now a season-best 33 games over .500 at 49-16.
This club is crazy good.
One of the ingredients for Saturday win was an oldie but goodie, great starting pitching. All five starters have been tremendous this season and Jameson Taillon (8-1) kept it up going working 5 2/3 shutout innings of four-hit ball facing one of baseball’s toughest lineups.
The bullpen took the Yankees home from there. Michael King worked two shutout innings of relief, then Clay Holmes nailed down the final four outs pitching in a non-save situation.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone loaded his lineup with lefties hoping for a better result against Manoah, who has been much better this season against right-handed hitters. Facing five lefties counting two switch-hitters with Matt Carpenter and Marwin Gonzalez in the lineup, Manoah held the Yanks to one baserunner over the first three innings on a second-inning single by Anthony Rizzo, one of the lefties.
The Yankees broke though in the fourth with Rizzo starting a rally with a one-out walk and Torres following with a single to center. After Joey Gallo stuck out, Kiner-Falefa reached on an infield single to short that loaded them up and Hicks followed by lacing a 3-1 fastball that was left over the middle of the plate into the right-field corner. All three baserunners scored and the Yankees were on their way to winning again.
NOTABLE
— The Yankees have allowed one or no runs in 10 of their last 17 games since May 31.
— The Yanks improved to 36-3 when they score at least three runs.
— Carpenter was 0-for-4 with a strikeout leading off and playing third base. He’s now hitless in eight at-bats over two games since his two-homer, seven-RBI game last Sunday against the Cubs.
LOOKING AHEAD
Sunday: Yankees at Blue Jays, 1:37 p.m., YES & MLB Network. RHP Luis Severino (4-1, 2.80) vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi (2-3, 4.80).
Monday: Yankees at Rays, 7:10 p.m. YES. RHP Gerrit Cole (6-1, 3.33) vs. LHP Shane McClanahan (7-3, 1.84).
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Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected].
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism