Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4: Brett Gardner homered and CC Sabathia worked six solid innings as visiting New York took the rubber match of a three-game series from Toronto.

Kelly Johnson added a two-run double and Yangervis Solarte contributed an RBI double for the Yankees while Sabathia (1-1) was charged with four runs on seven hits while striking out six. Two relievers bridged the gap to David Robertson, who navigated around a pair of base runners in the ninth for his second save.

Melky Cabrera homered for the third straight game against his former team and Erik Kratz singled in two for the Blue Jays. Drew Hutchison (1-1) lasted only 3 1/3 innings and was charged with all six runs on six hits and three walks.

New York wasted little time getting to Hutchison and pushed across three runs in the first on Jacoby Ellsbury’s RBI groundout and Johnson’s double to the center-field wall. Toronto got one back when Cabrera led off the bottom of the first with a homer but the Yankees tacked on three more in the fourth on Solarte’s ground-rule double and Gardner’s two-run shot to right.

Sabathia had retired 16 of the previous 17 batters before running into trouble with two outs in the sixth. A pair of singles set up Dioner Navarro’s RBI double and Kratz followed with a two-run single to center before Sabathia got Brett Lawrie to fly out ending the inning.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Yankees SS Derek Jeter (3,220) singled in the sixth to move past Paul Molitor for eighth place on the all-time hits list. … Ellsbury was dropped from his usual leadoff spot in the lineup to the No. 3 hole and went 1-for-5 with an RBI. … Toronto manager John Gibbons challenged a safe call on a stolen base in the sixth and the call was confirmed, dropping Gibbons to 0-for-2 on challenges and 0-for-5 going back to spring training.