MLB Game Preview - NY Yankees at Toronto

Fri Mar 30, 2018 7:07 PM EDT

TORONTO -- Giancarlo Stanton made a first impression as a New York Yankee that will be hard to forget.

The designated hitter hit a two-run homer in his first at-bat as a Yankee in the first inning on Opening Day Thursday afternoon against Toronto Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ.

"It's good to get that first one out of the way early, you can stop worrying about it," Stanton said. "It was a great day. We got 10-plus hits (11), they only got two hits, so it was a good day overall."

Stanton added a homer in the ninth inning against Tyler Clippard as he went 3-for-5 with a double in New York' 6-1 victory. Yankees starter Luis Severino beat the Blue Jays for the first time in his career, allowing one hit, three walks and no runs in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out seven and now is 1-3 in his career against Toronto.

The Blue Jays will send out right-hander Aaron Sanchez in the second game of the four-game series Friday night to cool off Stanton, who was acquired in the offseason in a trade with the Miami Marlins.

The New York starter will be right-hander Masahiro Tanaka.

Yankees first-year manager Aaron Boone said before the game that he thought Stanton would have a good game. "I think we've seen over the last week, I felt like his at-bats, his timing as I've talked about a lot with him, I felt like he was really starting to find that good timing. We've seen a couple of homers late in spring from him and I felt all today that every pitch it just seemed like he was in a really good place. When he gets on time, he's deadly like that."

The Yankees lineup has been a difficult one for pitchers to work through so it could be a difficult series for the Blue Jays.

"It's tough, we knew that," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "It was tough to go through them before Stanton showed up. He came to town here with Miami a few years go and he put on a pretty good show. You've got to pitch him tough, you can get him out if you pitch him tough. But they can also burn a time or two and it's a pretty long lineup."

There was some concern for the Blue Jays with weak throws by third baseman Josh Donaldson, who struggled with a shoulder issue during spring training.

"Obviously, he was off today," Gibbons said. "He said really his arm just kind of feels dead, not injured. ... We don't think it' a big deal."

Tanaka will be pitching on six days' rest. He made his final spring training start March 23 against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one earned run in 5 2/3 innings (five hits, no walks, six strikeouts and one home run).

In four official spring training starts, Tanaka was 0-3 with a 7.24 ERA covering 13 2/3 innings.

He was 13-12 with a 4.74 ERA in 30 starts in 2017 and was 3-1 with a 4.20 ERA in five starts against the Blue Jays.

He is 9-4 with a 2.95 ERA in 15 career starts against Toronto, allowing one earned run or no earned runs in seven of those starts.

He is 2-2 with a 3.68 ERA in six starts at the Rogers Centre.

Sanchez was limited last season to eight starts because of a recurring blister problem. He was 1-3 with a 4.25 ERA.

He had a good spring training, however, and seems poised to return to the form that gave him the best ERA among starting pitchers in the American League at 3.00 in 2016. In five official spring training games this year, including four starts, he was 2-2 with a 3.06 ERA.

He is 2-2 with a 2.40 ERA in 13 outings, including three starts, in his career against the Yankees. He did not face them last season.

He must find a way to deal with Stanton, who now has five homers in four career games at the Rogers Centre.

When Stanton was asked what he likes about the Rogers Centre, he said, "The dimensions."