Pirates continue hot start beat Orioles 3-2
Pittsburgh Pirates’ Edward Olivares (38) celebrates after hitting a walk-off fielder’s choice off Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Yennier Cano, driving in two runs during the ninth inning of a baseball game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, April 7, 2024. The Pirates won 3-2. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson made a diving stop near second base on Edward Oliveras’ grounder in a try for a game-ending double play, then threw wildly past first for an error as two runs scored and gave the Pittsburgh Pirates a 3-2 victory on Sunday.
With the wild win, the Pirates improved to 8-2 for the first time since 2018.
Baltimore led 2-1 when the Pirates loaded the bases on Yennier Cano (1-1) on singles by Ke’Bryan Hayes and Jack Suwinski followed by Connor Joe’s walk.
Rowdy Tellez hit a soft grounder to first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, and umpire Dan Iassogna ruled Hayes beat his throw home only for the call to be changed to a forceout in a video review.
ATHLETICS 7, TIGERS 1
DETROIT (AP) — Zack Gelof had four hits, including a three-run homer, and drove in four runs to help Oakland beat Detroit.
Gelof hit an RBI triple in the first and scored on JJ Bleday’s single. He connected for his first homer of the season in the second against Jack Flaherty. He also had two singles.
Abraham Toro had two hits, scored twice and drove in a run for Oakland, which collected two wins in the three-game series.
Oakland starter Joe Boyle (1-1) struck out six while pitching five scoreless innings of two-hit ball. Boyle has recorded two of his three career victories against the Tigers.
Riley Greene hit his third homer for Detroit in the eighth inning. Flaherty (0-1) was charged with six runs and nine hits in six innings.
METS 3, REDS 1
CINCINNATI (AP) — Francisco Lindor hit a home run and ended an 0-for-24 skid as New York beat Cincinnati.
Sean Manaea (1-0) had another strong outing for the Mets. He lowered his earned-run average to 0.82 after allowing one run and three hits in five innings. He walked two and struck out six.
Lindor was 1 for 31 this season coming into the game. It was the third-longest hitless streak of his career.
Lindor doubled in the first inning, advanced to third on an infield hit and scored on a fielding error.
A pair of bunt singles loaded the bases in the second and Brandon Nimmo was hit by a pitch to force home the second run.
The Mets had 10 baserunners in the first three innings, but only scored two runs.
ROYALS 5, WHITE SOX 3
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — MJ Melendez hit his third home run of the series, a two-run drive in a three-run seventh inning as Kansas City rallied to beat Chicago for a four-game sweep.
Chicago ended a 19-inning scoreless streak in the fourth and led 3-0 in the fifth before Hunter Renroe’s two-run homer off starter Garrett Crochet.
Melendez hit a two-run homer in the sixth off Deivi García (0-2) for a 4-3 lead, his third go-ahead hit of the series. Melendez flipped hit bat in triumph.
He had a go-ahead, eight-inning single on Friday and a tiebreaking, seventh-inning homer on Saturday.
BRAVES 5, DIAMONDBACKS 2
ATLANTA (AP) — Michael Harris II hit a go-ahead homer in the fourth inning, left-hander Chris Sale gave Atlanta’s rotation a boost in his first home start, and the Braves beat Arizona to cap a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks.
The Braves hit three homers. Matt Olson led off the second with a solo shot and Austin Riley added a two-run blast in the eighth.
Sale (1-0), acquired from the Boston Red Sox in an offseason trade for Vaughn Grissom, allowed two runs on four hits with no walks in 5 1/3 innings. Atlanta relied on its bats and bullpen in comeback wins in the first two games of the series following poor starts by Spencer Strider and Max Fried.
NATIONALS 3, PHILLIES 2
WASHINGTON (AP) — MacKenzie Gore pitched five-hit ball into the sixth inning, and Washington beat Philadelphia to avoid a series sweep.
Lane Thomas stole three bases and scored the go-ahead run as Washington stopped a three-game slide. Thomas, Joey Meneses and Ildemaro Vargas each had two hits.
Gore (1-0) allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings to defeat Philadelphia for the first time in six career outings against the Phillies.
YANKEES 8, BLUE JAYS 3
NEW YORK (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton hit a loud tiebreaking grand slam in the third inning, and New York beat Toronto for their eighth win in 10 games to start the season.
Stanton gave the Yankees a 5-1 lead by with a 417-foot drive off Bowden Francis (0-2) that clanked against the facing of an advertisement below the second deck in left field. Stanton fell behind 0-2 in the count before turning on a 2-2 inside fastball and driving the ball 110.6 mph for his 11th career slam, his first since September 2022. He took a couple steps as he watched the ball, then flipped his bat.
Stanton also homered Saturday in a three-hit game that followed a 3-for-24 start.
The Yankees have won their first three series and are off to their best 10-game start since 2020.
BREWERS 12, MARINERS 4
MILWAUKEE (AP) — William Contreras hit two home runs, Willy Adames also homered and Milwaukee pounded Seattle.
Contreras finished with four hits and five RBIs. He hit his first homer off Seattle starter Emerson Hancock (1-1) in the second inning and connected on his second two-run shot off third baseman Josh Rojas, who pitched the eighth.
The Brewers had 14 hits. Colin Rea (2-0) went six innings and allowed seven hits, including RBI singles by Jorge Polanco and Rojas.
Adames’ home run off the left-field foul pole highlighted a four-run fourth inning and chased Hancock, a 24-year-old right hander making his fifth-career major league start.
Hancock allowed eight runs on 11 hits with six strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings.
MARLINS 10, CARDINALS 3
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Miami ended their team-record nine-game losing streak starting the season when Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Nick Gordon hit three-run homers in a six-run first inning that lifted them over St. Louis.
Miami had been the first team to start 0-9 since Atlanta and Minnesota in 2016. The Marlins avoided becoming the first team to lose its first 10 games since the 2002 Chicago White Sox began 0-11.
Max Meyer (1-0), a 25-year-old right-hander, got his first major league win in his fourth start and appearance. Meyer allowed one run and three hits in six innings, striking out three and walking one.
He had Tommy John surgery on Aug. 9, 2022, and returned to a major league mound this April 1, when he pitched five innings without a decision against the Los Angeles Angels.
RAYS 3, ROCKIES 2
DENVER (AP) — Ryan Pepiot struck out a career-high 11 batters in six shutout innings, and Tampa Bay held on to beat Colorado.
Pepiot (1-1), who came to the Rays in an offseason trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers that sent Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot to L.A., topped his previous high of nine strikeouts which came at Coors Field on Sept. 26 of last season when he threw six innings in relief.
He struggled in his Rays debut, allowing six runs to Texas in 5 2/3 innings on Monday. However, he was sharp against the Rockies.
Pepiot threw 38 of his first 51 pitches for strikes and kept Colorado hitters off balance Sunday. He allowed three hits and didn’t walk a batter to help the Rays take two of the three games in Denver.
GIANTS 3, PADRES 2
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Matt Chapman drove in two runs, including a go-ahead single in the eighth inning that led San Francisco over San Diego for their first series win this season.
San Diego led 2-0 before Chapman’s RBI groundout in the sixth on a potential inning-inning, double-play grounder to Jake Cronenworth. The first baseman stepped on the base, then threw to second only for the ball to bounce off the glove of shortstop Ha-Seong Kim, who had cut in front of the bag. That ended the Giants’ 14-inning scoreless streak.
Wilmer Flores singled with one out in the eighth off Jhony Brito, Jorge Soler singled and Michael Conforto hit a run-scoring grounder. Confoto followed with an opposite-field single to right that scored Soler standing up.
Brito (0-2) allowed a pair of unearned runs in his second decision since San Diego acquired him from the New York Yankees in the Juan Soto trade.
Camilo Doval allowed a two-out single to Jackson Merrill, then struck out Luis Campuasano for his first save after tying for the NL lead with 39 last year.
RED SOX 12, ANGELS 2
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Reese McGuire drove in five runs, Tyler O’Neill hit his third home run of the series and Boston finished off an opening 10-game trip with a victory over Los Angeles.
Tanner Houck (2-0) allowed four hits in six shutout innings and struck out seven. The right-hander became the first Boston pitcher to go at least six innings and record seven or more strikeouts in each of his first two outings of a season.
David Hamilton and Rafael Devers also homered for Boston, which went 7-3 on the trip and opens at home on Tuesday against Baltimore.
Angels slugger Mike Trout averted a shutout in the eighth inning with his fourth homer of the season, a solo shot.
McGuire had a three-run homer in the sixth that extended Boston’s lead to 7-0. He also drove in runs with a grounder in the eighth and base hit in the ninth.
CUBS 8, DODGERS 1
CHICAGO (AP) — Cody Bellinger homered against his former team, Shota Imanaga threw four shutout innings in a rain-shortened start, and Chicago beat Los Angeles.
Imanaga was lifted after the game resumed following a weather delay of nearly three hours. The left-hander allowed two singles, struck out three and walked none, giving him 10 scoreless innings over his first two big league starts.
The Cubs won for the sixth time in seven games. They took two of three in a weekend set that showcased four of the majors’ top Japanese players.
Shohei Ohtani doubled in Mookie Betts in the eighth to account for the Dodgers’ only run. Ohtani also hit a two-out triple in the sixth, but Freddie Freeman bounced to third for the final out of the inning.
Yency Almonte (1-0) struck out two in a scoreless inning for the victory against his former team. Daniel Palencia worked three innings for his first career save.
ASTROS 3, RANGERS 1
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Right-hander Ronel Blanco followed his no-hitter with one-hit ball over six scoreless innings, and Houston beat Texas.
Six nights after throwing a no-hitter at home against Toronto in his first start of the season, Blanco held the World Series champs without a hit until Adolis García grounded a clean single up the middle with two outs in the sixth. Blanco (2-0) then retired Evan Carter on an inning-ending fly ball and was done after 90 pitches.
Yordan Alvarez hit a three-run homer for the Astros, his shot in the third coming right after Dane Dunning (1-1) had issued consecutive walks. It was the third homer of the season for Alvarez.
Rafael Montero was already warming up in the bullpen while Blanco was pitching in the sixth. Montero then pitched the seventh, and Ryan Pressly got three outs. Josh Hader handled the ninth on his 30th birthday for his first save since joining the Astros in free agency on a $95 million, five-year contract.
García drew a one-out walk from Hader, advanced on a wild pitch, and stopped Houston’s bid for its third shutout this season when he scored on Justin Foscue’s pinch-hit single for his first big league hit.
TWINS VS. GUARDIANS, PPD.
Minnesota announced the game against Cleveland has been postponed due to inclement weather and will be made up as part of a split doubleheader on Friday, August 9 at 1:10 p.m.