Blue Jays beaten in final opener at Yankee Stadium

In an iconic stadium where so many famous boxing battles have been held, Chien-Ming Wang did a fine impression of a punch-drunk fighter gamely hanging in for the win.

Keyed by a bases-loaded bobble of a seventh inning ground ball by Toronto's normally sure-handed Aaron Hill, the New York Yankees won the last opening day game ever at Yankee Stadium, 3-2, on Tuesday night.

Wang (1-0), who had trouble all around him in seven innings of six-hit ball, was helped by Toronto's inability to cash runners. The Jays were one-for-12 with runners in scoring position.

Joba Chamberlin pitched the eighth for New York, giving up a one-out walk to Alex Rios who stole second on a called third strike to Vernon Wells he thought was high, and a swinging strikeout of Frank Thomas.

Closer Mariano Rivera got the save with a three-up, three-down ninth.

Roy Halladay (0-1), who came into the game 7-1 in his last 11 starts against the Yankees, took the loss on seven innings of seven hit ball.

Game two in this rain-delayed series goes Wednesday night.

A-Rod cashes in

New York pushed the go-ahead run across in the seventh off Halladay.

With the bases loaded and one down, a grounder to the right side was bobbled by Hill who, lying on his stomach, was only able to flip the ball to David Eckstein at second for out number two. 

Rodriquez, who had singled to open the inning, scored the winner on the play.

Bombers open scoring

Yankees got on the board first in the bottom of the first after two quick outs. Bobby Abreu singled to right and last year's MVP, Rodriquez, put a double up the right field gap to score the runner for a 1-0 lead.

Thomas and Overbay opened the second with consecutive singles, Hill flied to right advancing the big DH to third and when Marco Scutaro grounded to first it brought home the tying run.

A couple of well-hit balls off Wang in the fourth could have produced at least a run had it not been for consecutive excellent defensive plays by centre-fielder Melky Cabrera.

He chased Overbay's drive down at the warning track going to his left, and then made a diving catch to his right off the next hitter, Hill.

Scutaro walked to open the fifth and then stole second again. One out later Toronto had runners at second and third. Shannon Stewart worked Wang to a full count before grounding to Rodriguez, driving home the go-ahead run at 2-1.

Wang got out of that inning by striking out Rios.

The Yankee starter began to find a groove in the middle innings, retiring six straight through six.

Doc gets early help

Halladay, meanwhile, used two double plays, a nice peg to get a stealing Jeter by catcher Greg Zaun and a solid effort up the middle by Eckstein to face a messy minimum 12 batters from the second through the fifth.

Cabrera, having already saved at least a run with two outstanding defensive plays, tied the game up in sixth with a home run that cleared the fence down the right field line by about six inches, just over the glove of a leaping Alex Rios.

It was his first homer in 163 at-bats.

Hill put another one into Cabrera's area in the seventh, but this time the centre-fielder could not get it with another dive to his right and it went for a double. One out later, Zaun advanced Hill to third but Rodriguez made a nice play on an Eckstein grounder to end the threat.

At that point, the Jays were one-for-11 with runners in scoring position and it was 2-2 into the seventh inning stretch.