TORONTO — In the afternoon, we were reminded that even a mighty baseball juggernaut like the 2018 Yankees can be splashed with ice-cold water, forced to ponder just how frail the game — and, more importantly, the players who play the game — can be.

Then, at night, there was Old Man Sabathia — ageless, timeless, chugging right along — toying with Toronto Blue Jays, making the pitching of a baseball seem as effortless as blinking. Every now and again a player is blessed with a rare combination of skill, heart and adaptability, with just enough luck to keep his arm in one piece, too.

“He was as good as we’ve ever seen him,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of CC Sabathia and the seven-inning, three-hit, two-run gem he turned in to anchor a 7-2 Yankees win at Rogers Centre, “and that’s saying something.”

The deeper Sabathia gets into this career, especially this phase of his career, the more remarkable his story gets. He didn’t face one batter in scoring position all night. Going back to the start of last season, in 17 games following a Yankees loss, he is 10-0 with a 2.71 ERA.

He is a month and a half shy of his 38th birthday and in no way resembles the pitcher he was when he was 28. Except in one vital way: he still figures out how to beat you more often than not.

“All you have to do is make sure you get back in the dugout as quick as you can,” Sabathia said, “because these guys are going to score some runs for you eventually.”

Sabathia’s timing couldn’t have been better, either. All you need to do is walk into a major league clubhouse, take a few steps, and you’re bound to bump into someone who’s received, at one time or another, with one body part or another, the kind of news so devastating that it shakes you to your core.

The way Jordan Montgomery was, no doubt, shaken to his core when his most recent MRI came back with ominous news Tuesday, when he was placed on Dr. Christopher Ahmad’s docket Thursday morning for Tommy John surgery. Sabathia is something of an outlier in modern baseball, a pitcher whose meal ticket may have eroded some over time and use but has never betrayed him.

“It’s frustrating,” Domingo German said, “because the first thing you think about is that your career could be over. And you feel sad about that.”

German is a Tommy John survivor. He missed all of 2015 to the procedure and his career was very much thrown into peril as a result: the Yankees non-tendered him so they could remove him from the 40-man roster, then brought him back. He has pitched credibly as a stopgap for Montgomery, but the first part of bringing the business side of the game back into this story is to state the obvious:

For now, he is more than a stopgap.

For now, he is a permanent member of the Yankees’ rotation.

Next man up, and so forth.

“I need to continue to take advantage of this opportunity,” German said, solemnly, the empathy for a teammate etched all over him. “I need to help this team win some games.”

Said Boone about the current state of his starting rotation: “We feel good about the five we have.”

Left unsaid is what was abundantly clear anyway, and would have been even if Montgomery hadn’t started to feel poorly after a couple of sessions of throwing off flat ground, before slipping into the MRI tube: that five will be augmented sometime, somehow, by someone — Cole Hamels being the most obvious candidate.

The Yankees are the Yankees, after all, as Boone said, “It is a 24/7/365 situation for us, and [GM Brian Cashman] is always looking to put our organization in the greatest possible place.”

It is a chore that becomes a little trickier now. It was always going to be fascinating to watch Cashman — after a couple of years dipping his toe in the water of roster rebuilder — resume the far most comfortable position of trying to build a champion on the run. The Yankees haven’t exactly been bashful in promoting just how strong and deep their farm system has gotten, teeming with prospects that were always going to at least be starting elements in any trade talk.

But the price of poker just went up significantly.

Sabathia’s regular bouts of brilliance won’t change that part of the game. They’re just a pleasure to watch. Especially on days when the harsher realities intrude on even the juggernaut of all juggernauts.