Yankees silence Blue Jays' sizzling offence to grab bounce-back victory

Aaron Hicks hit a go-ahead two-run homer and made a jumping catch in his first left-field start in four years, leading the New York Yankees over the Toronto Blue Jays 4-0 on Tuesday night in New York.

New York scored first for the first time in five games this season when Hicks drove a 2-0 slider from Yusei Kikuchi (0-1) into the right-centre field seats in the second inning, Hicks' first home run since last April 30.

"I hit it well but I didn't think it was going to go out," Hicks said. "I thought I might be able to get it off the wall or at least be able to have a sacrifice fly."

Hicks, who didn't play after May 12 last year because of wrist injury that needed surgery, had not started in left since Sept. 29, 2017.

With two outs and none on in the second, the Yankees moved second baseman Gleyber Torres to near the left-field line with Matt Chapman at the plate as part of a four-man outfield that saw Hicks stationed in left-centre.

Hicks took a step in and made a slight jump for the catch.

"Just my first route, it was kind of shaky in the beginning, but once I started to get a little bit more comfortable out there, it was all right, " Hicks said. "The four-man outfield kind of messed me up but overall, I felt like it was pretty good."

"About gave me a heart attack there," manager Aaron Boone said with a laugh. "The four-man worked well there because we were well-positioned, but I think he misread it and turned it into a good catch to hang on."

'Fun to compete against them'

Cortes allowed three hits in 4 1/3 innings, struck out five and walked none. The fastest of his 72 pitches was 93.6 mph.

"It's fun to compete against them," Cortes said. "They're really good hitters. I respect them and I just go out there and do a job."

Clay Holmes (1-0) followed with 1 2/3 hitless innings, Miguel Castro worked around a two-hit error in the seventh and Jonathan Loaisiga needed one pitch to retire Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to strand two in the eighth.

Aroldis Chapman, throwing at up to 100.8 mph, struck out two in the ninth.

Giancarlo Stanton hit a 116.2 mph sacrifice fly in the eighth.

Kikuchi, making his Blue Jays debut after signing a $36 million US, three-year contract, gave up three runs — two earned — and five hits in 3 1/3 innings.

"Obviously I would have liked to go deeper in the ballgame," Kikuchi said through a translator. "I feel like I fell behind in the count often early but for the most part I just feel like I wanted go deeper in the ballgame."

Left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. made a leaping catch on Aaron Judge in front of the fence after Josh Donaldson opened the game with a walk. Donaldson was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Teoscar Hernandez's one-hop throw on Anthony Rizzo's double.