TORONTO — With the Yankees’ universe bewildered by Masahiro Tanaka’s pitching problems, Gary Sanchez, Aaron Hicks and CC Sabathia combined to push the so-called staff ace Masahiro Tanaka out of the spotlight for nine innings Thursday night.
Sanchez homered twice, Hick drove in a career-high six runs and Sabathia pitched into the seventh inning to lead the Yankees to a 12-2 victory over the Blue Jays in front of 37,222 at Rogers Centre.
“To me he hasn’t caught fire yet,’’ manager Joe Girardi said of Sanchez, who clubbed 20 homers in the final two months last year but had just four coming into the game and missed three-plus weeks in April and May with a right biceps injury.