Alek Manoah Responds to Gerrit Cole's Outburst for Plunking Aaron Judge

The former Mountaineer isn't backing down.

Tempers flared for a few moments in the bottom of the 5th inning between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees on Sunday when former WVU pitcher Alek Manoah hit Aaron Judge with a sinker that ran too far inside, striking Judge just above the elbow.

Judge wasn't all that happy, but his teammate Gerrit Cole, came out of the dugout and on to the field to voice his displeasure with Manoah.

Aaron Judge had words for Alek Manoah and Gerrit Cole was quick to come out of the dugout pic.twitter.com/KnUDe0gjMh

— Talkin' Yanks (@TalkinYanks) August 21, 2022

Manoah walked over to Judge on his way to first base and told him that there was no intent behind it.

"[I've] been struggling with my sinker for about five, six starts now," Manoah explained after the game. "I made a pitch and it obviously hit Judge. I looked at him, said, 'Man, you know, I'm not trying to do that.'

"[Judge] looked at me and he's like, 'That's two.' In the first inning, I did mistakenly throw one up there as well. But obviously, in a situation like that, I'm trying to minimize baserunners. So I told him, 'I'm not trying to do that.'"

When asked about Cole exchanging a few words with him, Manoah responded with an invitation to Cole to come out a little further if he has any issues in the future. 

"I think [Judge] understood that. And I think if Gerrit wants to do something, he can walk past the Audi sign next time."

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