NEW YORK – A.J. Burnett overpowered the New York Yankees on a nippy night in the Bronx, and Vernon Wells hit a two-run homer off Mike Mussina in the Toronto Blue Jays’ 5-2 victory Wednesday night.

Alex Rodriguez hit his first home run of the season, a two-run shot that chased Burnett with none out in the seventh. But the hard-throwing right-hander buzzed through New York’s potent lineup to that point, and the Blue Jays’ bullpen closed it out.

The Yankees tried to rally in the ninth, opening the inning with consecutive singles before Jeremy Accardo struck out Rodriguez and retired Jason Giambi on a deep fly. Robinson Cano flied out to end it.

Indians 7, White Sox 2

CLEVELAND – Fausto Carmona pitched seven innings in his season debut and Grady Sizemore had three RBIs for Cleveland.

With his signature sinker dipping and dancing away from Chicago’s hitters, Carmona allowed one run and four singles. He got 16 of his 21 outs on grounders, struck out four and kept Jim Thome in the park, something Indians’ ace C.C. Sabathia couldn’t do in the opener.

Thome, who homered twice off Sabathia on Monday, grounded into two of Chicago’s three double plays and flied to right – the only fair ball hit into the air against Carmona.

Asdrubal Cabrera had three hits and two RBIs for Cleveland, which made the most of four walks by White Sox starter Javier Vazquez (0-1).

Royals 4, Tigers 0

DETROIT – Brian Bannister (1-0) allowed two singles in seven innings, combining with Leo Nunez and Joakim Soria on a three-hitter – three singles by Edgar Renteria.

Kansas City is 2-0 for the second time in 28 years. The Royals won their first nine games in 2003 en route to their only winning season since 1993.

Detroit’s heralded offense has scored four runs in 20 innings.

Angels 1, Twins 0

MINNEAPOLIS – Joe Saunders threw eight shutout innings and Howie Kendrick came home on a wild pitch in the seventh for Los Angeles.

The left-handed Saunders sailed through his first start with only four hits and one walk allowed. He struck out three and got 14 groundball outs, including three double plays.

Orioles 9, Rays 6

BALTIMORE – Aubrey Huff drove in four runs to rally Baltimore past Tampa Bay in front of the smallest crowd in Camden Yards history.

Huff hit a two-run homer to pull the Orioles to 6-5 in the sixth inning, then doubled in two runs in the eighth to put Baltimore ahead.

for the first time.

Huff was jeered during the opener on Monday and again on Wednesday because of derogatory comments he made about the city of Baltimore on a syndicated radio show during the offseason. But the booing subsided after his home run, and the fans applauded after Huff’s double in the gap off Al Reyes (0-1) in the eighth.

Jamie Walker (1-0) struck out the side in the eighth and George Sherrill worked the ninth to earn the save in his Baltimore debut.

Cliff Floyd and Carlos Pena homered for the Rays.