DUNEDIN, Fla. - Aaron Sanchez set the goal to be in the Toronto Blue Jays 2016 starting rotation the moment they lost to Kansas City in last year's American League Championship Series.

In the five months since, he's been training hard to make that happen.

Sanchez worked out with teammate Marcus Stroman all off-season, bulking up his slender frame by adding 25 pounds of muscle. He's already noticed the fruits of that labour.

"My mechanics are a lot better than they were last year," Sanchez said after pitching two innings in Toronto's 4-4 tie with the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday, the Jays' spring home opener. "What I thought was right last year wasn't right.

"With the stability I've got through these workouts everything just comes more natural. I don't really have to think about it."

Sanchez pitched the third and fourth innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out three.

"I'm just overall (more stable) throughout my delivery," the 23-year-old said. "Where I thought things were going right last year they weren't and that's because I wasn't stable and strong enough to do that stuff."

Manager John Gibbons said Sanchez "looks like a big leaguer" with his new physique.

"He's turned into a man," Gibbons said. "He looks strong. If he feels that's a big part of it, it probably helps his balance and all that.

"He's only going to get better and better over the years. He looked good."

Second baseman Ryan Goins drove in two runs for Toronto (1-0-1) and Dwight Smith Jr. scored the tying run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the ninth. Smith's shoulder popped out of its socket as he dove home but Gibbons said that's happened to him before and he'll be fine.

Domonic Brown, facing his former team for the first time since being acquired by Toronto earlier this spring, drove in a run with a single off Philadelphia's Vincent Velasquez in the fourth.

R.A. Dickey threw 25 pitches, 14 for strikes, over the first two innings. The knuckleballer allowed one run on two hits and struck out one in his first game action since having off-season surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee.

"I was really pleased with the way my body felt," the 41-year-old said. "Right now it's not at all about results. It's much more about getting your body ready for the grind of a long season. Today was a big step forward in that regard.

"I felt very comfortable out there."

Jesse Chavez, who's also in the mix for Toronto's fifth starter spot, struck out two and walked one through the fifth and sixth frames.

"That's Jesse's game," Gibbons said. "Jesse was a power-guy, but he was scattered every now and then.

"Now he's polished. He's refined it. He can pick it apart pretty good. That's what makes him so good."

Cameron Rupp drove in a run off Dickey with a base hit in the second. Anthony Altherr hit a solo homer off Sanchez in the fourth, Peter Bourjos had an RBI triple off David Aardsma in the seventh and Andrew Knapp gave the Phillies (0-1-1) a 4-3 lead with a double off Ben Rowen in the top of the ninth.

Josh Donaldson, making his spring debut after sitting out Tuesday's game against the Phillies in Clearwater, Fla., had a base hit in his first at-bat.

Scott Diamond of Guelph, Ont., pitched a clean eighth for Toronto.