Blue Jays starter Roy Halladay delivers a pitch during Friday night's game against the New York Yankees. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Roy Halladay tossed a complete-game two-hitter to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to a 5-0 win in their series opener against the New York Yankees on Friday night.

The victory in front of 43,078 fans at Rogers Centre was the fourth in a row for Toronto (46-47), which completed a three-game sweep of Baltimore on Thursday.

The Blue Jays now trail third-place New York (49-44) by three games in the American League East heading into their rematch on Saturday afternoon (CBC, 1 p.m. ET).

Getting 12 outs by way of ground balls, Halladay (11-6) required 113 pitches Friday to blow through the Yankees' hard-hitting, patient lineup for his 11th career shutout and major-league-leading seventh complete game of the season.

The all-star-bound right-hander struck out seven while walking one, with his only other blemishes a fourth-inning single by Alex Rodriguez and a ninth-inning double by Derek Jeter.

"He never throws the ball over the middle of the plate," marvelled Jeter. "If you face him four or five times a game, you might get one pitch over the plate. He goes corner to corner as good as any pitcher in the game.

"He's probably the best starter in baseball, I would think."

Sparkling play

Halladay's next action comes at Tuesday's all-star game at Yankee Stadium, with him and Cleveland's Cliff Lee the top candidates to start for the AL.

"It's not high on my priority list," Halladay said of starting. "It's just fun to be a part of and a tremendous honour."

Rod Barajas smacked a solo home run — his eighth — and Fredericton's Matt Stairs hit a two-run shot — his ninth — for the Jays.

Second baseman Marco Scutaro and shortstop John McDonald lent Halladay a hand with a sparkling play after MacDonald entered as a defensive replacement in the eighth. Ranging to his right, Scutaro collected Wilson Betemit's grounder and shovelled the ball with his glove to McDonald, who threw out Betemit to earn the second out of the inning and an appreciative grin from the stoic Halladay.

"I didn't know what he was doing to be honest with you," said Halladay. "It's a heads-up play, both of them, Johnny-Mac anticipating it, it's just a great play."

Rookie Joba Chamberlain (2-3) pitched well for the Yankees, allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out nine and walking none over 6 2/3 innings.

Rios out, Burnett bumped up

Halladay's performance was made more impressive by the fact it came in front of a depleted defence.

Toronto, already without Vernon Wells for four to six weeks due to a strained hamstring, had to make do without his replacement in centre field, Alex Rios. The Jays' regular right-fielder will miss the entire three-game series against the Yankees as he's home in Puerto Rico to be with his fiancée for the birth of their first child.

The Blue Jays also said Friday that right-hander A.J. Burnett will start Sunday's series finale (CBC, 1 p.m. ET) on three days' rest. Burnett, the subject of recent trade speculation, replaces reliever Brian Tallet, who was tabbed to start in place of the injured Dustin McGowan.

"People can think whatever they want to think, but he's pitching on Sunday which I think is good," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said.

"We have absolutely nothing going in the way of a trade. We're not looking to trade anybody right now and we have no conversations going with anybody in that regard."

Inglett shines

The Blue Jays got all the offence they'd need in the third inning, thanks to some sloppy play by New York after Adam Lind led off with a single.

Lind advanced to second on Chamberlain's wild pitch, and went to third when Yankees catcher Jorge Posada fielded Joe Inglett's bunt and whipped an ill-advised underhand toss to first. The throw sailed over the head of first baseman Betemit, but an alert Robinson Cano was there to back up the play and hold Lind at third.

Two batters later, Lyle Overbay ripped a high fastball into centre field to score Lind with the game's first run. Inglett hustled from first to third on the play, and scored when Stairs grounded into a fielder's choice.

Inglett later made a sparkling defensive play when he charged in from his left-field post to make a diving snare of Melky Cabrera's liner in the fifth.

Barajas made it 3-0 when he sent a meaty Chamberlain fastball over the wall in left-centre with two out in the sixth.

Stairs tacked on two more runs in the eighth against Billy Traber, sitting on a breaking ball from the Yankees reliever and sending it over the fence in right-centre to score Overbay.

Jeter supplied New York's lone offensive bright spot with one out in the ninth, dropping a ground-rule double into the right-field corner.

Bobby Abreu then did his best to wear out Halladay, finally going down swinging on the 12th pitch. Rodriguez wasn't so patient, lining the second pitch he saw to Overbay at first to end the game.

With files from the Canadian Press