The Yankees have redone their initial spin, but still rely heavily on their bullpen.
Even without Aroldis Chapman for the second game in a row, the aid corps helped the Yankees get their first win of the season, a 5-3 victory over Blue Jays on Saturday in the Bronx.
They got a second homer in so many games from Gary Sanchez and a two-race single from Jay Bruce, but were clinging to a two-race lead in the eighth inning when Darren O’Day allowed a pair of bloop singles to open the inning. .
O’Day recovered to get a couple of outs before coach Aaron Boone went to Chad Green for a four-out save. With two fired and two eliminated in that eighth inning, the right-hand man made Rowdy Tellez swing in a four places of 1 and 2 at 95 mph to preserve the advantage of two races.
Green finished ninth in the face of an announced 10,107 crowd at Yankee Stadium. Chapman will be back on Sunday after serving his two-game suspension by shooting close to the head of Mike Brosseau of the Rays last season.
The Yankees led 1-0 in the second. Gio Urshela hit a two-elimination single and went to third place on Clint Frazier’s double hinge to the left. DJ LeMahieu followed with a slow grounder to third place and Cavan Biggio’s shot took Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s foot out of the first base bag, resulting in an RBI single with Urshela.
Toronto drew their third game with the help of two strokes from Yankees holder Corey Kluber. A wild shot allowed Danny Jansen to reach third place and Jansen scored when Marcus Semien made the second and Sanchez’s shot went to the center of the field by mistake.
Kluber escaped problems at the start of fourth place. Guerrero and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit singles in a row and Randal Grichuk equalized twice before Jansen stopped to keep the game even.
Sanchez put the Yankees ahead again at the bottom of the entry when he started his second home run in as many games. After falling behind 0 and 2, Sanchez got the count back to 2 and 2 and then sent a kick to the left field seats for a 2-1 lead.
A single walk to Frazier and a single walk from LeMahieu took holder Ross Stripling out of the game in the fourth minute. Aaron Judge’s single in Tyler Chatwood carried the foundation for Aaron Hicks, whose hit in the infield led him to a race to make it 3-1.
Kluber immediately dropped out of a race in the fifth, allowing Semien an early homer. That ended his afternoon after more than four entries on his Yankees debut. He allowed two runs, one won, over four entries and launched 74 shots. After walking seven on his last two starts in spring training, the right-hand man walked three and hit another hitter on Saturday.
Jonathan Loaisiga came in and removed all six batters he faced, eliminating three.
The Yankees added some insurance at the bottom of the sixth. Rafael Dolis walked through the bases loaded with two eliminated before being replaced by Tim Mayza, who came in to face Bruce. Bruce fired a two-race single from the shallow left to extend the lead to 5-2.
Lucas Luetge, pitching in his first major league game since 2015, allowed a bloop hitting for Grichuk before the seventh. He also launched a couple of wild shots, which helped Grichuk to score on Semien’s grounder to reduce to 5-3.
In the eighth, O’Day came in and quickly allowed a pair of bloop strokes before taking Guerrero and flying to the left and Gurriel lining to the left, where Brett Gardner received. Green came in and won the defense.