Last Updated on October 29, 2023 at 11:53 am by Michael Bennington
March 29th, 2018 Recap – Yankees hold the Blue Jays to 2 hits
TORONTO —Giancarlo Stanton felt like he was a rookie again
Stanton got off to a great start with the Yankees. He hit the hardest home run to the opposite field since Major League Baseball started keeping track of exit velocity in 2015. He also hit an RBI double and a second home run into the party deck in center field in the ninth. Stanton’s four runs batted in helped the Yankees beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-1 on Thursday. This was Aaron Boone’s first game as a professional manager, and it was also his first win.
“My biggest challenge, I told myself, was going to be to be calm,” Stanton said. “You want to get the first one out of the way and then you can relax.
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When Stanton went back to the dugout after hitting his second home run, no one talked to him, except for the head trainer, Steven Donohue. So Stanton gave imaginary hands a high five.
Stanton is the first Yankee since Joe Pepitone in 1963 to hit two home runs on the first day of the season. He is the seventh Yankee overall to do so.
Stanton is the first Yankee since Joe Pepitone in 1963 to hit two home runs on the first day of the season. He is the seventh Yankee overall to do so.
“Every pitch, it just seemed like he was in a really good place,” Boone said.
Stanton was hit by a ball from J.A. Happ (0-1) then hit a two-run drive to the right that went 426 feet and 117.3 miles per hour.
Stanton led the major leagues with 59 home runs and was named the NL MVP. He was then traded from Derek Jeter’s salary-cutting Miami Marlins to the resurgent New York Yankees, where he will play with AL Rookie of the Year Aaron Judge. Last year, the Yankees were just one win away from making it to the World Series. Stanton became the first player since Judge two years ago to hit a home run in his first at-bat with the Yankees.
Stanton hit a double off of John Axford in the fifth inning and a home run of 434 feet off of Tyler Clippard in the ninth.
The Yankees won their first game since 2011 because Luis Severino (1-0) pitched 5 2/3 innings without letting any runs score.
In the seventh, Brett Gardner hit a home run off Danny Barnes to start the game. Judge hit a single, a double, and a walk to help New York win its first game on the road since 2006 when it beat Oakland.
Since he stopped being a player at the end of the 2009 season, Boone had been a TV analyst. After losing Game 7 of the AL Championship Series to Houston, New York decided it needed a new approach and fired Joe Girardi.
After giving up two walks in the first, Severino got a visit from his pitching coach, Larry Rothschild. However, Severino got out of the jam by striking out Kendrys Morales.
In 4 2/3 innings, Happ (1-0) gave up three runs, two of which were earned. He also gave up four hits. Kevin Pillar homered on Dellin Betances’ first pitch in the eighth. Betances and Aroldis Chapman got the last six batters to go down in a row.
The Blue Jays have lost their first seven home games in a row. This is the longest losing streak in the team’s history. For a first game, Toronto’s two hits were low.
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RHP Masahiro Tanaka is 9-4 against Toronto and has a 2.95 ERA in 15 starts against them.
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