Offense quiet again as Yankees shut out by Blue Jays

For all the talk after the first two games about the Yankees’ new-look, much-improved 2022 offense, four games into the season, it resembles the much-disparaged 2021 group.

After Monday night’s 3-0 loss to the Blue Jays in front of 26,211 chilled and irritated fans at the Stadium, the comparisons looked this way:

The Yankees (2-2) have been outscored 14-13. The 2021 Yankees, also 2-2 after four games and on their way to a 5-10 start that had general manager Brian Cashman calling the team “unwatchable” at times, outscored the opposition 15-9.

They were held to two hits entering the ninth inning Monday and wound up being outhit 10-4.

How irritated were the fans?

After Aaron Judge struck out in the eighth against sidearmer Adam Cimber, the outfielder, far and away the most popular Yankee, heard boos on his way back to the dugout.

“It’s not rare,” Judge said with a smile. “I’ve been hearing it since ’16. It’s nothing new. Nothing new.”

The Yankees were shut down by 24-year-old righthander Alek Manoah, who allowed one hit and four walks in six innings in which he struck out seven. He did not allow a hit after Joey Gallo’s one-out single in the second, improving to 2-0 with a 1.53 ERA in three career starts against the Yankees.

“He’s been tough on us every time we’ve seen him,” Aaron Boone said. “He’s had our number to this point.”

Said Anthony Rizzo, who worked a third-inning walk: “He’s got three pitches he can locate, and he was locating them.”

Three relievers from a Toronto bullpen that was among the worst in baseball last year completed the shutout. Gallo led off the ninth against Jordan Romano with his second line-drive single, but Gleyber Torres grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. Aaron Hicks singled and Kyle Higashioka struck out.

The Yankees went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight.

Jameson Taillon, making his season debut, did a reasonably good job of holding down the Blue Jays, who hit seven homers and had 20 runs and 28 hits in their season-opening three-game series against the Rangers at Rogers Centre. Taillon, coming off ankle surgery last October, allowed two runs and five hits, including a two-run homer by George Springer, in five innings. The righthander struck out six and did not walk a batter.

“J-Mo threw the ball well,” Boone said. “Overall, I thought J-Mo mixed pitches well. I thought his fastball had good life up in the strike zone. The slider’s a better pitch for him now. Really pitch-efficient. A good start against obviously a really good offense. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get anything [for] him.”

The Blue Jays (3-1) got on the board in the third. Santiago Espinal, one of the lesser-talked-about Blue Jays whom Toronto evaluators have been super-excited about since spring training, singled with one out. Springer, a 2017 Astro who heard some “you’re a cheater” chants as he stepped in, rifled a 0-and-1 slider down the leftfield line for his second homer and a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees nearly rallied in the bottom half. Higashioka got ahead 3-and-1 but popped to short. Marwin Gonzalez worked a four-pitch walk and, after DJ LeMahieu struck out, Rizzo and Judge walked to load the bases. Giancarlo Stanton hit a broken-bat grounder into the hole at short, but Bo Bichette fielded the ball near the outfield grass and fired to first to easily retire Stanton, with Vlad Guerrero Jr. making a nice stretch.

The Yankees’ relievers continued to perform well, allowing one run in four innings to lower the bullpen ERA to 1.19 in 22 2⁄3 innings, but the Jays tacked on in the seventh against Michael King. Espinal sliced a two-out single and Springer lined an RBI double to right-center.

Trevor Richards replaced Manoah in the seventh, allowed a leadoff single by Torres and walked Hicks. Higashioka then was robbed of a hit when Teoscar Hernandez made a sliding catch of his liner to right.

In came Cimber to face pinch hitter Josh Donaldson, who scalded one back up the middle. Second baseman Espinal made a nice stop and started an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play, with Bichette making a neat pirouette before firing to first.

“You’ve got to be on your game to shut this lineup out,” Taillon said. “It’s not going to happen much this year, I don’t think. Hats off to them, they played some really good defense throughout the game.”

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.