With Adam Lind driving in four runs to back eight stellar innings from Marcus Stroman, the Toronto Blue Jays opened a three-game series with the New York Yankees by producing an 8-3 rout at Rogers Centre.
Stroman (4-2) yielded just three hits and a walk while striking out seven in the rookie's longest -- and most impressive start of his young career. His only blemish came on a Mark Teixeira solo homer in the fourth inning.
Even with regulars Jose Bautista and Brett Lawrie out of the lineup, the Blue Jays gave Stroman more than enough support by abusing New York's Chase Whitley for seven runs over the first two innings, with Lind delivering a three-run homer and an RBI single to lead the way.
Dioner Navarro added two hits and two RBI and Melky Cabrera finished 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored for Toronto, which had dropped five of its last six and were swept by the Yankees in New York a week ago.
Whitley (3-1) lasted 3 1/3 innings, surrendering eight runs on 11 hits and three walks in his worst performance of the season.
Stroman threw 98 pitches in only 3 2/3 innings in losing to the Yankees last Tuesday, but was much more economical and efficient in this start. The right- hander set down 11 of the first 12 New York batters before Teixeira got a hold of an 0-2 changeup for the Yankees' lone highlight until the ninth inning.
He was working with a comfortable 7-0 lead at that point, however, after Whitley gave up hits to nine of the first 13 Toronto hitters and 10 overall through two very rough innings.
He escaped with just one run allowed in the first, when Lind followed a Cabrera double with an RBI single to right center. Juan Francisco, Munenori Kawasaki and Anthony Gose smacked consecutive base hits to begin the bottom of the second, though, opening the floodgates for a six-run frame.
Francisco scored on Jose Reyes' fielder's choice grounder and Cabrera found a hole with a base hit that plated Kawasaki for a 3-0 advantage. Lind then crushed a slider that landed well clear of the wall in straightway center to tack on three more runs.
Toronto wasn't finished, as Edwin Encarnacion singled and raced home on a Navarro double to increase the margin to 7-0.
Whitley got through the third without any trouble, but walked Lind and Encarnacion in succession in the fourth. That set up another Blue Jays' run when Navarro later laced a single to center.
Stroman allowed just two baserunners after Teixeira's blast, permitting a walk to Brett Gardner in the sixth and a single to Ichiro Suzuki in the eighth.
The Yankees did reach Chad Jenkins for a pair of runs in the ninth, with Yangervis Solarte recording an RBI single and Kelly Johnson knocking in one with a two-out double.
[SportsNetwork.com]
