The Yankees and Blue Jays have developed a rivalry over the past few seasons since Toronto put itself back into contention. That timeline lines up with the arrival of starter Alek Manoah, who made his major league debut at Yankee Stadium late in 2021.
Last year, Manoah put together a stellar season, finishing third in Cy Young voting with a 2.24 ERA over 31 starts. The Toronto ace has been no stranger to trash talk, and he took some shots at Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole in the offseason.
“He cheated,” Manoah said, on Serge Ibaka’s How Hungry Are You?. “He used a lot of sticky stuff to make his pitches better, and he kinda got called out on it.”
That quote came after a down year for Cole, as his 3.50 ERA was his highest since totaling an ERA over 4.00 with the Pirates in 2017.
On Saturday, Manoah takes the mound vs. New York for the first time, with Cole opposing him for the Yankees. Ahead of the matchup, Manoah was asked whether he regrets his words about Cole, and the righty had a succinct answer.
“No,” he said, via Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. “Not at all.”
Manoah is off to a slow start this season as he has totaled a 6.98 ERA in his first four starts. Cole, meanwhile, has dominated the competition so far with a 0.95 ERA in his first four starts of the year.
