NEW YORK – Jay Bruce celebrated his 34th birthday by collecting his first hit and RBI’s in a Yankees uniform, leading his new club to a 5-3 victory over the Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Bruce delivered a two-run single off reliever Tim Mayza in the sixth inning, helping the Bombers leave for their first win of the young season, and Gary Sánchez homered for the second time in as many games to join Elston Howard (1963) as the only Yankees-catchers to homer in their first two games of a season.
Corey Kluber held Toronto to two runs (one earned) and five hits in over four innings in his Yankees-debut. The two-time Cy Young Award-winner navigated three walks, a hit by pitch and a wild pitch, and struckout five batters in an attempt of 74 pitches. After Marcus Semien’s solo-homer chased Kluber, Jonathan Loaisiga was strong in relief, retired all six batters he faced and struckout three batters.
New York scored three runs and seven hits in 3 1/3 innings against Toronto-starter Ross Stripling. DJ LeMahieu hit a runscoring infield-single in the second inning, Sánchez launched a 365-foot line drive to the left field seats in the fourth. Aaron Hicks also batted in a run with a basesloaded infield-single in the fourth, one run ended up off Stripling.