TORONTO _ Quite a start to Giancarlo Stanton's Yankees career.
A pretty good one overall for the Yankees, too.
With their fearsome collection of right-handed hitters performing as advertised, led by two Stanton bombs, and Luis Severino honoring the Cy Young expectations many have set for him this season, the Yankees rolled past the Blue Jays, 6-1, in their season-opener in front of a sellout crowd of 48,115 at Rogers Centre.
The victory snapped a streak of six straight Opening Day losses for the Yankees.
Stanton, who hit 59 homers en route to winning the NL MVP last season with the Marlins, lined the second pitch he saw from left-hander J.A. Happ for an opposite-field two-run homer. He sent one into orbit to center off former Yankee Tyler Clippard in the ninth to make it 6-1, finishing the day 3-for-5 with four RBIs.
Aaron Judge, hitting second, went 2-for-4 with a walk and a double and Gary Sanchez, hitting cleanup, went 1-for-5 with a double.
Leadoff man Brett Gardner, robbed of hits twice earlier in the game, homered in the seventh.
The offense, which produced 11 hits, including four doubles, overshadowed Severino to a degree. The 24-year-old, coming off a 2017 in which he finished third in AL Cy Young voting, allowed one hit and three walks over 52/3 shutout innings. Severino struck out seven.
The Yankees pounced early.
Gardner led off with a liner to left, where Curtis Granderson, the former Yankee and Met, dropped it for an error. Judge struck out swinging but Stanton rifled a 91-mph fastball to right. The home run, Stanton's fourth in four career games in this building, left his bat at 117.3 mph, the hardest homer to the opposite field ever tracked by Statcast, according to MLB.com.
Severino responded, striking out Toronto leadoff man Devon Travis with a 100-mph fastball, then getting Josh Donaldson to ground weakly to first. Severino momentarily lost his command, walking Justin Smoak and Granderson, but struck out Kendrys Morales swinging at a slider to end the inning.
That was the start of a stretch of eight straight retired for Severino, who did not allow a hit until Granderson's one-out single in the fourth. Severino's error on a pickoff throw put Granderson at second but that would be all as Morales flied to left and Randal Grichuk grounded to second.
The Yankees added on in the fifth. After Judge walked with one out, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons called on right-hander John Axford to face Stanton, who roped a 96-mph fastball into the gap in left-center, scoring Judge from first to make it 3-0. Sanchez followed with a laser to just about the same spot, his double bringing in Stanton to make it 4-0.
Gardner skied a homer to right off righty Danny Barnes in the seventh to make it 5-0.
Chad Green, who came on with a runner on and two outs in the sixth, struck out three over 11/3 innings.
Dellin Betances allowed a first-pitch homer to Kevin Pillar, off a 96-mph fastball, to lead off the eighth that made it 5-1.
