Fighting words! Blue Jays’ Alex Manoah sends stern message to Yankees’ Gerrit Cole in wake of Aaron Judge incident

NEW YORK — There could be some in-game fireworks when the Yankees return to Toronto next month after Sunday’s in-gamee and post-game sideshows on Paul O’Neill Day at Yankee Stadium.

Too bad pitchers don’t get to hit anymore. Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah facing Yankees No. 1 starter Gerrit Cole, and vice versa would be entertaining.

After Sunday’s 4-2 Yankees win, a badly needed one for a club that’s been slumping for weeks, Manoah subtly challenged Cole to a fight.

When Manoah had drilled Aaron Judge in the right forearm in the fifth inning, Cole promptly charged out of the Yankees dugout and was headed toward the mound before being pulled back by a teammate with Judge waving for him to calm down.

Manoah’s post-game comments include a message to Cole, who was the Yankees starter and loser in Saturday’s game. The 6-foot-6, 285-pound right-hander thinks Cole, who stands 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, should have found a way to get to the mound instead of being held back between the dugout warning track and first-base foul line, near the car advertisement that is sprayed into the grass with white paint.

“I think if Gerrit wants to do something, he can walk past the Audi sign next time,” Manoah said.

Alrighty then.

Manoah’s comment didn’t make its way into the Yankees clubhouse until after Cole briefly talked to reporters at his locker. Cole said that he “wasn’t sure” if Manoah had hit Judge on purpose with the Yanks leading 2-1 and first base open after Andrew Benintendi’s one-out double.

“Aaron got hit and we’ve been dusted several times,” Cole said, explaining his reaction. “My heartbeat was going.”

Other players from both teams walked in front of their dugout, but Judge helped diffuse the situation by waving with his right hand for Cole and other Yankees to let it go.

“Just knowing the situation,” Judge said, “it’s a close game and at first you’re pissed. And I was pissed, but I didn’t need anybody getting thrown out or getting hit. So I was just kind of moving on.”

Before getting to that point, Judge and Manoah jawed at each other.

What was said.

“I’ll keep that between us,” Judge said.

Manoah claims that he wasn’t throwing at Judge, saying: “I looked at him and said, ‘Man, I’m not trying to do that.’ I think he understood that.”

Judge did understand that.

“It was the heat of the moment,” he said. “Nobody likes to get hit.”

Judge was in a good mood after the Yankees came out on top. Benintendi hit a two-run homer in the seventh off Blue Jays reliever Adam Cimber to break a 2-2 tie and the Yankees held on to win for just the fourth time in their last 16 games.

The Blue Jays still won the series 3-game-to-1, but they left town eight games behind the first-place Yankees in the AL East.

According to several Yankees, Cole’s reaction to Judge being hit helped fuel this victory.

“That was awesome,” Yankees starter Nestor Cortes said after a six-inning, one-run no-decision. “It fired us up. We never want to get hit and especially the best player in the world, so when that happens we’ve got to react and test the waters and see the reason behind it.”

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com.

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