There is something to be said for pitching against perfect strangers. Just ask Yankees lefty J.A. Happ, who remained perfect in pinstripes, going to 4-0. But he had to do so against some old friends, his former Toronto teammates.

“It was strange, I can admit that,” said Happ, who worked 5 ¹/₃ innings, surrendering seven hits and two earned runs while striking out eight in the Yankees’ 10-2 destruction of Toronto on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. “I think I’d prefer not knowing the opposition the way that I know those guys, but we got through it and had a big first inning, which helped.”

The first inning started not so swell for Happ, who came over at the trade deadline. After two were out, Randal Grichuk slammed a solo homer to left on a 3-0 pitch. Two singles followed. It looked like it could be a long day.

And it was. For the Blue Jays. The Yankees countered with a six-run first and Happ exhaled and sailed to the sixth. He admitted he needed an inning to adjust.

“Maybe. I probably knew Randal was going to swing on a 3-0 pitch. I probably should have executed a little bit better there,” Happ (14-6) said. “But trying to stay aggressive and I was able to settle in.”

And pitch the way he has — like a winner — since the Yankees acquired him to beef up an at-times creaky rotation.

“Good,” was manager Aaron Boone’s initial assessment of Happ’s effort. “Gives up the homer in the first there. Throws a number of pitches and then just kind of settled in. They were up there aggressively swinging against him knowing that he’s pounding the strike zone, knowing he’s throwing a lot of heaters. Obviously they know him a little bit so they were aggressive with him that first inning.”

So much for friendship.

“Once we got him that lead in the bottom of the first, he kind of took it from there and gave us a solid outing,” Boone said.

Catcher Kyle Higashioka caught Happ for the first time and believed the Jays were trying to take advantage of their knowledge of his stuff.

“He had a lot of life on the fastball, was working the cutter well in and backdoor to righties,” Higashioka said. “It’s a weird dynamic. You never know which guys are going to try to cheat to pitches because they know him. … A couple times we probably overthought some things, but it was a good outing.”