What Brett Gardner said to Yankees after Aaron Boone's 1st win

TORONTO -- It felt all about Giancarlo Stanton.

The new Yankees slugger rocked two home runs and doubled in his first game in pinstripes en route to a 6-1 victory over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre on Thursday on Opening Day.

But it was Aaron Boone's first win as Yankees manager, too, and Boone spoke to the team following it.

Left fielder -- one of the de facto clubhouse leaders -- spoke to the group, too, according to reliever Dellin Betances.

"It was just exciting," Betances said of Gardner's words to the team. "Skippers first win. (Gardner's) excited. Him saying to just keep thing going and congrats on that first victory."

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Gardner, 34, is the longest-tenured Yankee, joining the organization when the team picked him in the third round of the 2005 draft out of the College of Charleston.

Only Betances (2006 draft), catcher Austin Romine (2007 draft) and starting pitcher CC Sabathia (signed in 2009) have similar seniority.

After the game, Boone was all smiles.

"I thought our at-bat quality throughout the game was really strong," he said. (Giancarlo) having a special day. Lot of good things out there. It's definitely fun to do it for real and get off on a good note."

AUSTIN FINE

Yankees first baseman Tyler Austin was pulled from the game in the sixth inning. But Boone said Austin was fine. Boone said the plan was to put Tyler Wade at second base and shift Neil Walker to first base for defensive reasons.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.

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