LeMahieu lifts Yankees over Blue Jays after Manoah fires 7 scoreless innings

The latest clash between Gerrit Cole and Alek Manoah morphed into the newest chapter in Anthony Volpe's storybook start.

Volpe hit a two-run homer in the eighth off Yimi Garcia and pinch-hitter Danny Jansen hit a two-run homer in the ninth against Wandy Peralta after a leadoff walk to Alejandro Kirk. Anthony Rizzo doubled off Jordan Romano (2-1) starting the bottom half.

Intrigue began even before the first pitch. Just as Cole was about to start the game, he was forced to wait, crouching behind the mound as Manoah and Kirk slowly walked from the Blue Jays bullpen down the left-field line to the dugout.

"Didn't notice," Cole said.

Manoah gave up two hits in seven innings with five strikeouts and one walk, dropping his ERA from 6.98 to 5.13.

"Kind of old-school baseball," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. "It was who was going to blink first and, really, neither one of them did."

'Gerrit Cole cheated'

Last Aug. 21, Manoah threw an inside pitch early in the game that went near Yankees star Aaron Judge, then hit Judge on the arm guard above the left elbow. Judge glanced at Manoah as Cole started yelling and a few other Yankees came over the dugout railing. Cole was intercepted by bench coach Carlos Mendoza before reaching the umpires.

"I think if Gerrit wants to do something, he can walk past the Audi sign next time," Manoah said, referring to the advertisement stenciled on the grass between the Yankees dugout and first-base line.

Neither Cole nor Manoah addressed their past Saturday, though Cole praised Manoah's performance.

"Obviously, Alek was on his game today," Cole said. "He threw tremendous."

"Like I've said all weekend, we're not facing each other — I'm not getting in the box against him, he's not getting in the box against me," Manoah said.

Volpe homered one pitch after Oswald Peraza singled for the Yankees' third hit. After racing around the bases, the 5-foot-9 Volpe leaped to bash forearms with on-deck hitter, 6-foot-7 Aaron Judge.

Garcia and Kirk called time to go over their signals, which gave the 22-year-old Volpe a chance to emerge from the dugout for a curtain call.

"It was pretty crazy," Volpe said. "I didn't really know what was going on. I didn't want to assume to go out or anything like that. Once I got told to do it, it was pretty cool."

Jansen hit his first pinch homer and the first tying homer for the Blue Jays in the ninth inning or later since John Mayberry Jr.'s on Sept. 14, 2014.

Jimmy Cordero (1-0) got George Springer to hit into an inning-ending double play in the top of the ninth for his first win since 2020. New York improved to 11-0 this year when facing a series loss.

Espinal exits after hit by pitch

Blue Jays infielder Santiago Espinal exited in the second inning after he was hit on the right wrist with a Cole fastball.

Per the Blue Jays, Espinal was removed from the game with a right wrist contusion and is undergoing further evaluation.

Espinal, 28, is batting just .114 with one homer and four RBI in 13 games this season.

An all-star last season, Espinal is hitting .273 with 10 homers and 78 RBI in 266 career games with the Blue Jays.