Stanton homer turns boos to cheers

NEW YORK » Giancarlo Stanton turned boos to cheers with his first Yankee Stadium home run in pinstripes, an emphatic go-ahead drive in the first inning Wednesday that led New York over the Tampa Bay Rays 7-2 to complete a two-game sweep.

Stanton turned on a high slider from Blake Snell (0-1), driving the ball 458 feet to left field at 117.9 mph for a two-run homer with the hardest-hit ball in the major leagues so for this young season.

Acquired from Miami in December, the major league home run champion was booed a day earlier when he struck out a career-worst five times in the Yankees’ home opener.

Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez also hit two-run homers as the Bronx Bombers lived up to their nickname. Judge connected off reliever Matt Andriese, the pitcher

who gave up a home run to Judge in the slugger’s first big league at-bat in August 2016. Sanchez’s drive ended an 0-for-17 slide.

Luis Severino (2-0) allowed two runs and five hits with seven strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings, the longest outing by a New York starter this year. The Yankees improved to 4-2 under new manager Aaron Boone and won their 11th straight home series against the Rays.

Tampa Bay has lost five straight games since beating Boston in its opener and is off to its worst start since 2011.

Stanton (59), Judge (52) and Sanchez (33) combined for 144 home runs last season. Their bats were quiet Tuesday, when Didi Gregorius had eight RBIs in New York’s 11-4 win.

It was considerably warmer than a day earlier, but the game’s start was delayed 1 hour, 32 minutes by rain. Sun finally broke out in the middle innings.

C.J. Cron put the Rays ahead in the first when he lined an RBI double to left that got past Stanton, who didn’t cover much ground. Second baseman Ronald Torreyes saved a run with an inning-ending over-the shoulder grab of Wilson Ramos’ pop into short right.