Ugly Marcus Stroman start sinks Yankees in loss to Blue Jays

About half an hour before the first pitch of a game that had been delayed by rain, a rainbow emerged from the clouds hovering above Yankee Stadium.

When the beauty left The Bronx, ugliness invaded.

In an eventful game that saw a rare benching, a comeback and too many mistakes, arguably the most concerning development for the Yankees was Marcus Stroman getting knocked around again in an 8-5, series-opening loss to the Blue Jays in front of 44,883 on Friday.

Gleyber Torres did not hustle on a blast off the left-field wall, a 363-foot single that cost the Yankees a run and appeared to cost Torres the middle and late innings of the game.

The Yankees wasted the third-farthest home run of Aaron Judge’s career and a 10-hit outburst.

Their comeback attempt, with a three-run fifth inning that brought them into arm’s reach, was not enough because Stroman already had buried them too deep.

Aaron Boone’s group (65-46) could not keep up the momentum from a five-out-of-six road trip and dug too big a hole before the third inning even was complete — a frame that Stroman would not escape.

The right-hander was charged with seven runs in an outing in which he recorded eight outs.

Alarms are going off around the 33-year-old, whose results and velocity have declined.

Stroman, whose first season in pinstripes started so well, has watched his ERA swell from 2.60 to 4.10 in his past 10 starts.

Since June began, he has allowed 33 earned runs in 47 innings (6.31 ERA), a midseason downturn that is troublesome not just because of the results but because of the stuff.

He relies more on craft than gas, but Stroman still needs some heat to succeed. A four-seamer that averaged 90 mph this season was down to 88.8 mph Friday.

His average slider had fallen from 85.4 mph to 83.9 mph.

It is possible that Stroman’s routine (and execution) could have been affected by a game delayed about an hour and a half.

However it happened, it got out of hand quickly.

The Blue Jays sent seven men to the plate in the first, a steady stream of hard hits turning into three runs.

The blows were a grounded Vladimir Guerrero Jr. RBI single (against an infield that was playing in) and an Ernie Clement two-run double off the left-field wall.

Two innings later, four out of six Toronto hitters reached, including RBI singles from Spencer Hortwitz and Clement.

Stroman might have gotten out of the inning with a double play, when Davis Schneider hit a soft, one-hopped liner to Ben Rice, but the fledgling first baseman took a few steps toward first — where base-runner Clement was hung up — before pivoting and throwing to second, a misplay that ensured only one out was recorded on the play.

Following a walk, Stroman was pulled after 64 pitches and with the bases loaded and two outs.

In came Michael Tonkin, who served up a two-run single to Brian Serven that made it 7-2.

The Yankees never led in a game in which Judge crushed a 477-foot, two-run homer deep into the left-field seats in the first inning, his deepest blast since his rookie campaign in 2017 and his 40th homer of the season.

His company in launching 40 homers in three different seasons as a Yankee: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle.

That would be the best moment of the night for the Yankees because disappointment, in different forms, followed.

In what has been a trying contract season, Torres turned a positive moment into a significant negative.

He smacked a second-inning shot off the left-field wall and watched its flight for several steps and only reached first base.

Two batters later, Anthony Volpe doubled into the right-field corner in a play that ended with Torres — from first base — getting thrown out at home.

Torres remained in the game for the next inning but was replaced by Oswaldo Cabrera to start the fourth in what appeared to be a delayed benching.

The Yankees clawed back into the game in the fifth, when Volpe (3-for-4) smacked a two-run shot and Austin Wells’ single scored Juan Soto.

But with the tying runs on base, Giancarlo Stanton popped out before Jazz Chisholm Jr., making his home debut, struck out.

Chisholm (0-for-4) whiffed again to end the seventh inning with Stanton on second base in a game the Yankees left seven on.

If there was a bright side to Chisholm’s poor day, there were plenty of other Yankees who had poorer days.