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Yankees get to Dickey early before Jays rally

Beltran leads offense, but bullpen has trouble against AL East hosts

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The Blue Jays erupted for eight runs in the fifth inning en route to a 10-6 victory over the Yankees on Wednesday afternoon at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium.

Third baseman Brett Lawrie led the way on offense with a solo home run and an RBI double. Melky Cabrera had a three-hit afternoon with two RBIs while Jose Bautista had a pair of singles in the victory.

The Yankees roughed up R.A. Dickey for six runs over just three innings. Dickey allowed seven hits, four walks and struck out just two in his final outing of the spring.

Dickey openly admitted before the game his start was scheduled to be brief and he was going to work on a few specific things.

"Today was not a day about results for me," said Dickey, who finished the spring with a 5.79 ERA. "Ideally it would be great if you could get out of there with some clean innings, but what was paramount for me was exercising my arm in a way where I felt good.

"I was able to use a large range of velocities and I mixed in pitches that I would never throw during the regular season to put it in their head that might be another weapon I might use on them later. I did exactly what I wanted to do."

The Yankees' rally started in the first with a walk by Derek Jeter, which came just before Carlos Beltran, Alfonso Soriano and Kelly Johnson recorded three consecutive singles for an early 2-0 lead. The production continued in the second as Dean Anna and Beltran had a pair of RBI doubles. Soriano later added a sacrifice fly.

Lawrie opened the scoring for the Blue Jays in the second inning with his second homer of the spring. Edwin Encarnacion later added an RBI single before Toronto put together an extended rally in the fifth. Cabrera had two RBIs in the bat-around inning, which included a single and a double.

Yankees right-hander Chris Leroux was charged with two runs on five hits over his three innings. Left-hander Fred Lewis was charged with two runs and right-hander Preston Claiborne was charged with six runs during the eight-run fifth.

Up next: CC Sabathia (2-1, 1.59 ERA) will make his fifth and final start of the spring on Thursday, tuning up for his Opening Day assignment by facing the Pirates at 1:05 p.m. ET in Bradenton, Fla. Pittsburgh counters with right-hander Stolmy Pimentel (1-0, 3.86 ERA) in a game that will be available live on MLB.TV.

Gregor Chisholm is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, North of the Border, and follow him on Twitter @gregorMLB.
Read More: New York Yankees, Derek Jeter, Preston Claiborne, Chris Leroux, Carlos Beltran