NEW YORK — The New York Yankees opened a four-game series with a 5-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.
Hiroki Kuroda (3-1) allowed three runs and six hits through six innings, but it was almost as if he pitched in two different games. He gave up all the runs in the opening two innings when Edwin Encarnacion and Brett Lawrie hit home runs.
“Early on all of my pitches weren’t there, especially my off-speed and sinkerball,” Kuroda said through an interpreter. “All I thought about pitch-by-pitch (was) just hang in there and I’ll be able to overcome this adversity.”
Encarnacion and Lawrie both smashed Kuroda’s sinker, but from that point on, the veteran right-hander crafted a solid start.
“I felt off in terms of my mechanics, so I was trying to fix it, consciously try to fix it and the other part was to make sure my heart was there and be strong,” Kuroda said. “I don’t think I was able adjust really well but Cervy’s (catcher Francisco Cervelli) game-calling and everything I was able to put up a good (outing).”
Kuroda found his mechanics and began mowing down the Blue Jays in a manner similar to his previous two starts, when he allowed one run and eight hits with 12 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings.
“It says a lot because he really didn’t have a whole lot tonight,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I don’t think he threw a good slider until the last pitch in the third inning and then he started to find it a little bit. He didn’t have his sinker tonight. He didn’t have his good off-speed for the most part. He seemed to find his slider at the end of the third and found a way to gut it through six innings without giving any more runs after the second.
“You can look at performances and you can see a guy dominate and give you a complete game or eight innings and he gives up one run but this might be his best performance of the year.”
After Lawrie’s home run leading off the second, Kuroda allowed just two baserunners the rest of the way. He gave up a two-out double to Munenori Kawaski in the second, and Maicer Izturis reached on a two-out error in the fourth, and that was it.
“Considering how it started early on, I think I was able to put together a decent outing,” Kuroda said. “That’s pretty much big for me.”
“I think he was taking a little more time and throwing pitches down,” Cervelli said. “I started calling a lot more breaking balls too. I always say he’s a warrior.”
Blue Jays left-hander Mark Buehrle (1-1) lost his seventh straight decision to New York ,spanning 10 starts, as he allowed five runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Buehrle gave up a season-worst three home runs. Former Blue Jay Vernon Wells hit a solo shot in the second, Robinson Cano hit a three-run home run in the third and Francisco Cervelli added a solo blast in the fourth.
“I went fastball in and got it in and he hit it out,” Buehrle said. “He’s a great hitter and I think that’s why this game is going to frustrate you at times. You make pitches and they get hits and before that two infield hits and then a home run. It changes the game.
“At the time I got it in there, I threw it where I wanted to. He just hit it.”
The loss dropped Toronto to 9-14, its seventh loss in 10 games and 18th in its last 23 visits to New York.
NOTES: New York INF Kevin Youkilis sat out with a back injury, and he is considered day-to-day. Youkilis has not played since last Saturday in Toronto, and the Yankees were hoping to get him back, but he was unable to get through a workout in the batting cage. “He’s just not ready,” Girardi said. “I thought it would be today. So hopefully it’s tomorrow. We’ll just go day by day.” … Toronto 1B/DH Adam Lind was placed on paternity leave, and RHP Brad Lincoln was recalled from Triple-A Buffalo. … Bautista played his first game at Yankee Stadium since suffering a freak wrist injury last July while fouling a pitch of against RHP David Robertson.