NEW YORK — About 30 minutes prior to Friday’s first pitch, Spencer Arrighetti walked slowly out to left field at Yankee Stadium, just as a starter would. Once there, he went through his typical pre-start warm-up routine. Stretching, long toss, mentally locking in.

But as the bottom of the first inning began, he wasn’t on the game mound. He was on the one in the bullpen, throwing warm-up pitches while Mason Fluharty, an opener, threw ones that count.

That’s how the Toronto Blue Jays opted to begin another bullpen game — a common, oft-successful strategy for the club over the last several seasons — starting its best left-handed reliever against a New York Yankees team that regularly stacks left-handed hitters atop its lineup.

But Yankees manager Aaron Boone had a counterpunch waiting, writing out a batting order he hadn’t used all season that began with a string of right-handed hitters — Paul Goldschmidt, Amed Rosario, and Heliot Ramos. George Lombard Jr — another righty — lurked in the five-hole behind Ben Rice, putting Fluharty in an awfully disadvantageous position.

Goldschmidt flew out ambushing Fluharty’s first pitch of the game, but Rosario walked on four pitches and was immediately replaced with the left-handed hitting Jazz Chisholm Jr. at first base. Fluharty got a groundball hit too softly for a double play out of Ramos, but promptly walked the lone lefty in the string — Rice — on five pitches before being lifted.

Point Boone. Toronto’s opener faced 75 per cent of his hitters with a platoon disadvantage and walked a pair while its bulk arm was forced to begin his night with two runners on. The cost for the Yankees was burning a bench spot; but the Blue Jays burned a leverage left-hander in........

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