NEW YORK _ On the eve of his third Opening Day, Aaron Judge spelled out his and his teammates' hopes for Thursday afternoon.
"Every game's important, especially Opening Day," he said Wednesday. "You want to start off with a bang."
Luke Voit helped the Yankees do exactly that, his long three-run homer off the glass overhanging Monument Park in the first inning sparked a 7-2 victory over the expected-to-be-lousy Orioles on a crisp, sunny Thursday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd of 46,928 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees, getting a solid start from Masahiro Tanaka, finally a winner in his fourth season-opening start, won on Opening Day a second straight season after losing six straight from 2012-17.
Voit, a phenomenon late last season who engaged in a neck-and-neck battle for the starting first base job with Greg Bird this spring, drove in four runs, also getting hit with a pitch with the bases loaded.
Both players made the Opening Day roster because Aaron Hicks started the season on the injured list and Bird's day started rough. Starting at first _ Voit was the DH _ Bird struck out his first three times and heard boos after the first one. The lefty-swinging Bird did homer in the eighth off left-hander Paul Fry to make it 7-2.
Tanaka, 0-2 with a 9.49 ERA in his previous three Opening Day starts from 2015-17, allowed two runs (one earned) and six hits over 52/3 innings. He struck out five and did not walk a batter.
Brooklyn native Adam Ottavino, signed as a free agent, entered with a runner on second in the sixth and struck out Rio Ruiz to end the inning. The right-hander then struck out two of three in the seventh.
Judge went 2 for 3, singling in his first two at-bats, with two walks and three runs. All nine Yankees reached base at least once.
After Tanaka got through a scoreless top of the first _ Jonathan Villar, after singling, was hit by a Trey Mancini grounder for the final out _ the Yankees went to work in the bottom half against Orioles right-hander Andrew Cashner.
Judge, coming off a spring in which he produced a 1.394 OPS, lined a first-pitch fastball to right. Giancarlo Stanton, who had a 1.063 OPS in the spring, followed with a single to right.
Up stepped Voit, himself coming off a good spring (a .943 OPS), who slammed a 3-and-1 slider into the netting overhanging Monument Park, the three-run blast getting the Yankees off and running.
Tanaka provided a 12-pitch shutdown inning, striking out the side.
The Yankees loaded the bases with none out in the third but only came up with one run to make it 4-0 when Miguel Andujar grounded into a double play.
The Orioles didn't get their first runner in scoring position, and run, until the fourth. With two outs, Mancini sent a grounder down the third-base line that had Andujar ranging into foul territory to field it. He made a strong throw but Bird, instead of coming off the bag to field it, tried to hold the bag and stretch, the ball skipping past him. The error, charged to Andujar, put Mancini on second. Ruiz's single to center made it 4-1.
The Yankees opened it up in the fifth. Cashner, who allowed six runs, six hits and four runs over four innings, walked Brett Gardner and Judge back-to-back and first-year Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde brought on righty Mike Wright to face Stanton, who walked to load the bases. Wright fell behind Voit 1-and-0, then hit him on the left arm to force in Gardner. Andujar's sacrifice fly to left scored Judge to make it 6-1.
