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Tyler Wade of the New York Yankees hits a two-run double against the Toronto Blue Jays on March 30, 2018.Tom Szczerbowski

Masahiro Tanaka pitched six stellar innings and Tyler Wade hit a two-run double as the New York Yankees defeated the Blue Jays 4-2 on Friday, handing Toronto back-to-back losses to start the season.

Tanaka (1-0) struck out eight, including four in a row over the third and fourth innings, and allowed one run on three hits. The right-hander threw 79 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Brandon Drury drove in a pair for the Yankees (2-0) and Didi Gregorius was 2 for 3 with a triple, double and a walk.

Randal Grichuk went deep off Tanaka for his first hit as a Blue Jay and Yangervis Solarte drove in a run with a double off Aroldis Chapman in the ninth.

Aaron Sanchez (0-2) shouldered the loss, allowing four runs on eight hits with four walks and two strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings.

Sanchez kept the Yankees power duo of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in check over their first three at-bats. Judge, the AL rookie of the year last season, grounded into two double plays and flied out while Stanton, the 2017 NL MVP, had two ground outs and a strikeout.

Stanton homered twice in his Yankees debut Thursday.

Drury hit a two-out double to right field in the second inning to score Gary Sanchez for a 1-0 New York lead.

But Grichuk replied in the bottom of the inning, sending the first pitch he saw into the centre-field seats to tie the game. It was Grichuk's second home run at Rogers Centre – he hit his first career homer here off Mark Buehrle in 2014 with St. Louis.

Drury gave New York a 2-1 lead, driving in Gregorius with a single in the fourth inning, and Wade ended Sanchez's night in the sixth with a two-out, two-run double to make it 4-1. Sanchez had walked two batters in the inning.

Solarte, starting at third base in place of all-star Josh Donaldson, made an impressive defensive play in his Blue Jays debut. The 30-year-old fired a grounder to catcher Russell Martin in the second inning, cutting down Gregorius at the plate and preventing a run. Solarte also started a double play in the fifth on a ground ball from Judge, erasing a lead-off walk to Brett Gardner.

General manager Ross Atkins said before the game that Donaldson would DH until his "dead arm phase" subsides. The all-star third baseman was affected by weak throws across the diamond in the season opener Thursday.

Donaldson was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts Friday.

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