Brown, Yankees record 6-2 victory over Indians

The Blue Jays outlasted the Pirates 6-5.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
TAMPA, Fla. -- Kevin Brown had the type of outing the Yankees expected him to make when they signed him.
Brown allowed one run and three hits during a 90-pitch outing in the New York Yankees' 6-2 win over the Cleveland Indians on Monday night.
"He was pretty explosive early, and I thought when he really stayed within himself and got the ball down, he was hard to deal with for the hitters," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.
Brown sailed through the first before two errors helped push his pitch count up in the second inning. He struck five and walked two.
"It's a progression," Brown said. "There are things to improve upon."
Brown struck out the side in the first before the Indians scored once in the second on Jose Hernandez's RBI single. The Yankees committed a pair of errors during the second -- one each by second baseman Tony Womack and third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
Brown threw 30 pitches in the second. He worked out of jam with two outs in the third by retiring Josh Bard on a grounder.
Brown retired the Indians in order in the fourth and allowed a two-out single in the fifth to Aaron Boone.
The Yankees took a 3-1 lead in the third on run-scoring singles by Gary Sheffield, Ruben Sierra and Hideki Matsui.
Jason Giambi, who has been working on hitting to the opposite-field, tripled to left-center with one out in the fifth. He scored on Sierra's single to make it 4-1.
Sheffield hit an RBI double, and Damian Rolls had a sacrifice fly during a two-run sixth that put the Yankees up 6-1.
Cleveland's Grady Sizemore had an run-scoring single in the seventh.
Blue Jays 6, Pirates 5
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Rain limited Blue Jays opening day starter Roy Halladay to one inning Monday. That was plenty long enough for the Pirates.
Halladay struck out two in a dominating first inning -- and, it would prove, his last -- and the Blue Jays rallied from three runs down to beat the Pirates 6-5 in a rain-delayed game.
Reed Johnson's base hit against a pulled-in infield scored the winning run in the ninth. Orlando Hudson and Gabe Gross each hit two-run homers for Toronto.
Hudson's two-run drive in the first was off Kip Wells, who hadn't pitched against major league hitters since March 10 because of right forearm stiffness. Unlike Halladay, Wells returned after a 55-minute rain delay to pitch another inning, working a scoreless second.
Tike Redman went 3-for-5 and had a two-run double in a four-run Pirates second that included Daryle Ward's solo homer against Matt Whiteside. The Blue Jays' final four relievers -- Adrian Burnside, Mike Nannini, Pete Walker and Miguel Batista -- combined for five shutout innings.
Batista, Toronto's closer, walked three and hit a batter in the ninth but escaped without allowing any scoring.
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