DJ LeMahieu's walk-off pinch-hit single gives Yankees win over Blue Jays

The kindling for an explosive Saturday afternoon in the Bronx had more than been set.

There was Vladimir Guerrero Jr. staring down Greg Weissert on Friday night after getting hit by a pitch in the ninth inning. The staredown was something Anthony Rizzo took exception to, nearly causing the benches to clear.

Then there was Saturday’s pitching matchup of Gerrit Cole vs. Alek Manoah, ace righthanders who aren’t fans of each other. After the benches did clear in a game last August, Manoah all but made a physical threat against Cole during a postgame meeting with reporters. During a late November appearance on Sportsnet, Manoah called Cole “the worst cheater in baseball history,” a reference to his past when it comes to alleged use of sticky substances on baseballs.   

Then Cole hit Santiago Espinal with a pitch in the second inning Saturday, knocking him out of the game.

Throw in that the Yankees and Blue Jays — two teams expected to contend for the AL East crown all season long — don’t especially like each other, and an incident of some sort seemed all but predictable Saturday.  

Instead, it was all about the baseball and it was supremely entertaining, with the Yankees earning a 3-2 victory on a walk-off single by pinch hitter DJ LeMahieu with none out in the ninth inning to send most of those in an engaged-throughout Stadium crowd of 43,223 home happy.

“Pretty electric environment for an April game,” Aaron Boone said after his team improved to 13-8 and dropped the Blue Jays to 12-9.

Rizzo led off the bottom of the ninth with a double off the leftfield wall against  Jordan Romano, with Isiah Kiner-Falefa pinch running for him, and Gleyber Torres reached on an infield single in the hole at short. An alert Kiner-Falefa took third on the play as third baseman Matt Chapman pursued Torres’ grounder along with shortstop Bo Bichette, who fielded it, and Romano was late covering the base.

 After Willie Calhoun walked, LeMahieu, pinch hitting for Franchy Cordero and facing a five-man infield, hit a ground smash to left for the game-winner.

“It’s definitely not my comfort zone,” LeMahieu said of pinch hitting.  “But as I saw the inning happening, I was ready.”

Rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe snapped a scoreless tie with two outs in the eighth, launching a two-run homer to rightfield on a first-pitch, 95-mph fastball from righthander Yimi Garcia. Prodded by Boone, bench coach Carlos Mendoza and a few of his teammates, Volpe took the curtain call demanded by the crowd. It was another career first for the infielder, whom Cole called a “stud.”

“To have one, that’s pretty cool,” Volpe said of the curtain call.  

But Wandy Peralta experienced a rare hiccup in the ninth, allowing a leadoff walk to Alejandro Kirk and a tying homer by pinch hitter Danny Jansen.

Before all of the late-inning action, the afternoon had been all about standout pitching from both sides.  

Manoah, who came in 1-1 with a 6.98 ERA, was the best he’s been this season, allowing two hits and a walk in seven scoreless innings. He struck out five.

Cole, whose record remained at 4-0 as he did not get a decision, allowed four hits and two walks in 5 2/3 innings in which he struck out four. He extended his scoreless-innings streak to 20 2/3 and dropped his ERA from 0.95 to 0.79.

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“It’s tough,” a drained-sounding Cole said of the matchup against the Blue Jays. “Those guys, man, they’re tough. They grind, they don’t give a pitch up, they’re shifty. And obviously Alek was on his game today. He threw tremendous.”

Cole pitched out of a jam in the first inning after allowing a single by George Springer and a one-out double by Guerrero. He then went to 3-and-0 on Matt Chapman, who entered the game hitting .380. Six pitches later, Cole had strikeouts of Chapman and Daulton Varsho to get out of the inning.

Manoah pitched out of a second-and-third, one-out jam in the third by striking out Volpe and getting Aaron Judge to ground out.

Cole, after a visit from Boone, stayed in the game to face  Varsho with a runner at first and two outs in the sixth. Varsho singled to put runners at first and third, and righthander Ron Marinaccio came on to face Alejandro Kirk.  Varsho stole second and Marinaccio walked Kirk to load the bases but got Brandon Belt to fly to center.

“I would have liked to get deeper,” Cole said. “But I felt like Toronto just didn’t let me get deep. They were able to spoil some good pitches, avoid the swing-and-miss in certain situations. So I did feel like I faded a little bit but I gave it everything I had.”