NEW YORK – Jay Bruce celebrated his 34th birthday by collecting his first hit and RBIs in a Yankees uniform, which his new club achieved a 5-3 victory over the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Bruce delivered a two-run flyhalf Tim Mayza in the sixth innings, helping the Bombers pull away for their first win of the young season, and Gary Sánchez scored for the second time in as many games, joining Elston Howard (1963) as the only Yankees catchers to beat in their first two games of a season.
Corey Kluber kept Toronto in his Yankees debut with two runs (one earned) and five strokes over four plus innings. The two-time winner of the Cy Young Award followed three walks, a striking batsman and a wild field, hitting five in a 74-point effort. After chasing Marcus Semien’s solo homer Kluber, Jonathan Loaisiga was strong with relief and retired all six of the batsmen he faced and hit three.
New York scored three runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 overs against starting pitcher Ross Stripling of Toronto. DJ LeMahieu scored a running list in the second inning in the second innings, and Sánchez launched a 365-foot line to the left-field seats in the fourth series. Aaron Hicks also knocked in a run with a base-laden innings in the fourth, a run that charged Stripling.