NEW YORK – Lourdes Gurriel Jr. made an impressive major league debut with two hits and three RBIs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees 8-5 Friday night.
Teoscar Hernandez homered and drove in three runs and Yangervis Solarte also connected for the Blue Jays, who have won nine of their last 11 games.
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton broke a 50 at-bat homerless slump with his fourth shot of the season, a drive that put New York ahead 4-2 in the third.
Gurriel was called up from Double-A New Hampshire, where the second baseman was batting .347. The 24-year-old brother of Houston first Yuli Gurriel hit a two-run single in the fourth that gave Toronto a 5-4 lead, then had an RBI single in the fifth that put the Blue Jays ahead to stay at 6-5.
Gurriel signed a seven-year, $22 million deal in November 2016 after defecting the previous February from the Cuban team that was participating in Caribbean World Series in the Dominican Republic.
Toronto starter Marco Estrada (2-1) weaved in and out of trouble over five innings. He was charged with five runs and seven hits, three of them home runs.