Blue Jays spoil Yankees’ home opener with 3-0 victory

NEW YORK (AP) — Pinch-hitter Ernie Clement had a tiebreaking solo home run off Caleb Ferguson leading off the seventh inning, and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Yankees 3-0 Friday in New York’s home opener.

Juan Soto went 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts in his pinstripes debut, slamming his bat and helmet after making the final out of the eighth.

He bowed to fans in right field in the top of the first and was greeted with a standing ovation when he came to the plate in the bottom half. Soto is in a 1-for-16 slide after a 9-for-17 start.

Marcus Stroman matched Yusei Kikuchi with shutout ball before the bullpens took over.

Clement, a 28-year-old who appeared in just 35 major league games over the previous two seasons, drove the second pitch from Ferguson (0-1) into the left-field seats for his first career pinch homer.

BRAVES 6, ARIZONA 5, 10 INNINGS

ATLANTA (AP) — Travis d’Arnaud singled off the left-field wall to drive home the winning run in the 10th inning and Atlanta, who scored twice in the ninth, rallied late to beat Arizona.

The hit by d’Arnaud off Scott McCough (0-2) knocked in pinch-runner Forrest Wall from second base. Wall scored easily as d’Arnaud began celebrating after rounding first.

The Braves trailed 5-3 before scoring two runs off Kevin Ginkel in the ninth. Matt Olson’s double drove in Austin Riley, who reached on shortstop Blaze Alexander’s fielding error. Pinch-hitter Jarred Kelenic’s bloop double to shallow left field drove in Olson to tie the game.

Olson also homered for Atlanta.

Pierce Johnson (2-0) pitched a scoreless 10th for Atlanta.

CUBS 9, DODGERS 7

CHICAGO (AP) — Seiya Suzuki had three RBIs and Michael Busch homered against his former team, helping the Chicago Cubs beat Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Dansby Swanson also connected as Chicago earned its fifth consecutive win after dropping its first two games of the season. Ian Happ added a key two-run triple on a windy, sun-splashed afternoon, and Nick Madrigal had two hits.

Suzuki got the better of Ohtani in the opener of a weekend series that features four of the majors’ best Japanese players. Ohtani hit a two-run homer in his first career game at Wrigley Field, but Suzuki lined a two-run double during Chicago’s five-run second and a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Teoscar Hernández had three hits and four RBIs for Los Angeles, which had won four in a row and six of seven overall. Freddie Freeman walked three times and scored three runs in the Dodgers’ first true road game of the season.

Los Angeles right-hander Bobby Miller (1-1) was tagged for five runs and four hits in 1 2/3 innings on his 25th birthday. Miller grew up in McHenry, Illinois, about 50 miles northwest of Chicago.

RANGERS 10, ASTROS 2

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Adolis García homered and drove in four runs, Texas left-hander Cody Bradford allowed only two singles pitching into the eighth inning and World Series champion Texas beat Houston in the first meeting of the instate rivals since last year in the American League Championship Series.

The Rangers led 5-0 in the second after Garcia’s three-run shot, his AL-leading fourth homer in seven games this season. He pushed his RBI total to 10 with a two-out single that made it 7-0 in the fifth, an inning before Marcus Semien also hit a three-run homer.

Semien had three hits and walked twice for the Rangers, who finished with 16 hits and six walks.

Jose Altuve led off the game with a single, and the Astros didn’t have another hit until Jeremy Peña’s two-out single in the eighth. That was the last batter faced by Bradford (1-0), who struck out four and walked none.

Houston had won eight consecutive games at Globe Life Field, including three ALCS games in a series when the visiting team won all seven games. The Astros also swept a three-game series last September, outscoring Texas 39-10 and homering 16 times.

PHILLIES 4, NATIONALS 0

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bryce Harper, still hearing boos at Nationals Park all these years later, doubled twice and singled in a run to back Aaron Nola’s 5 2/3 scoreless innings, helping Philadelphia beat Washington.

Another former player for the Nationals, Kyle Schwarber, contributed a two-run single in the second inning for the visitors.

Nola (1-1) allowed a pair of hits in the third inning and a total of four walks and otherwise was in command after allowing six earned runs in his first start of the season — so his ERA went way down, from 14.54 to 5.40.

Washington’s batters had zero hits after the third in front of a crowd announced at 21,374.

ORIOLES 5, PIRATES 2

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Ryan O’Hearn, Gunnar Henderson and Cedric Mullins homered, Grayson Rodriguez pitched 6 1/3 strong innings and Baltimore beat Pittsburgh to spoil a their home opener that was played through occasional snow flurries.

Rodriguez (2-0) gave up solo homers to Oneil Cruz and Jared Triolo among six hits. He struck out seven and walked two in a matchup with fellow 22-year-old Jared Jones.

Jones (1-1) allowed two runs on six hits in six innings with seven strikeouts and two walks in his second career start. He struck out 10 in 5 2/3 innings against Miami last Saturday.

Jones has induced 43 swings and misses, the most in a pitcher’s first two starts since Major League Baseball started tracking pitches in 2008.

While the game was never delayed, snow, sleet and rain fell intermittently at chilly PNC Park.

Baltimore improved to 5-2. Pittsburgh has lost two of three after a 5-0 start.

GIANTS 3, PADRES 2

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Thairo Estrada doubled home Matt Chapman for the winning run with one out in the ninth inning, and San Francisco gave new manager Bob Melvin a win in their home opener against his former franchise by beating San Diego.

Standing on second base, Estrada threw his arms into the air and pumped his arm when Chapman slid safely into home and beat the throw. It was Estrada’s second career game-winning RBI and first since Aug. 14, 2022, against the Pirates.

Enyel De Los Santos (0-1) replaced Wandy Peralta and plunked Chapman. Estrada then hit an 0-1 fastball into left-center.

Camilo Doval (1-0) worked out of a jam for the win. He allowed a one-out single in the ninth to Jake Cronenworth, who advanced on a passed ball before Manny Machado walked. But Doval escaped by striking out Ha-Seong Kim and Jurickson Profar.

Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a go-ahead single in the third inning but Chapman evened the game at 2-all with an RBI groundout in the sixth.

TIGERS 5, ATHLETICS 4

DETROIT (AP) — Gio Urshela’s two-out double in the eighth inning brought in the go-ahead run and Detroit defeated Oakland in their home opener.

Matt Vierling and Mark Canha hit solo homers for Detroit. Spencer Torkelson doubled twice, scored two runs and drove in another for the Tigers, who are off to a 6-1 start.

Detroit starter Tarik Skubal gave up four runs and struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings. Jason Foley (2-0) got the win with a scoreless inning of relief and Alex Lange got the last out to record his first save.

Brent Rooker and Abraham Toro homered for the A’s, who have lost seven of eight to open their final season in Oakland.

After Oakland tied the game at 4-all with two runs in the seventh, Urshela delivered his decisive double off Lucas Erceg (0-1) to bring in Torkelson, who led off with a double.

ROCKIES 10, RAYS 7

DENVER (AP) — Ryan McMahon hit a walk-off grand slam after committing an error in the ninth inning that allowed Tampa to score the go-ahead run, and Colorado rallied for a victory in their home opener.

McMahon sent the first pitch he saw from reliever Jason Adam over the fence in right-center to set off a roar from the sellout crowd at Coors Field.

After leading 6-2 in the ninth, the Rockies let the Rays take a 7-6 lead as Ben Rortvedt scored the tiebreaking run when McMahon made a throw in the dirt from third base that converted first baseman Kris Bryant couldn’t scoop.

McMahon made up for that in a big way with his first homer of the season, propelling the Rockies to their second win in front of 48,399 fans on a sun-splashed afternoon. Colorado improved to 17-13 in home openers at Coors Field since the hitter-friendly park opened in 1995.

Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks (0-1) walked the first three hitters to start the ninth before giving way to Adam, who promptly struck out Bryant. That set the stage for McMahon.

Jalen Beeks (1-0) earned the win by finishing off the top of the ninth.

METS 3, REDS 2

CINCINNATI (AP) — Edwin Díaz pitched out of trouble in the ninth inning to earn his first save since October 2022, and the New York Mets held off Cincinnati.

Jeff McNeil hit his first home run of the season and Jose Quintana provided a solid start as the Mets won their second straight one-run game after opening 0-5.

New York avoided its first 0-6 start since 1963 by scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth to beat Detroit 2-1 in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader. The Mets were hitless through seven inning in that game.

New York had the bases loaded with one out in both the fifth and seventh. But all the Mets could muster were two runs, one on a sacrifice fly and another on a fielding error.

The Reds squandered a bases-loaded chance in the seventh when Brooks Raley threw a called third strike past Elly De La Cruz to end the threat.

ROYALS 2, WHITE SOX 1

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — MJ Melendez broke an eighth-inning tie with a single to help Kansas City beat the Chicago White Sox.

With one out, Melendez hit a soft liner to left off Michael Kopech (0-1) to score pinch-runner Dairon Blanco.

Chris Stratton (1-0) worked a scoreless eighth for the victory, and James McArthur got a game-ending double-play grounder for his first save.

The Royals jumped opened the scoring in the first inning on the first of Salvador Pérez’s three hits, a two-out RBI double off the wall in center. Pérez is tied for the American League lead with nine RBIs.

Gavin Sheets tied it with a leadoff homer in the second, lifting starter Brady Singer’s slider 391 feet down the line in right.

After the homer, Singer retired the next 15 hitters consecutively on 48 pitches, striking out four and getting nine ground balls. He faced two more than the minimum in completing 6 1/3 innings, while allowing a run on two hits and one walk with four strikeouts. Royals starters lead the majors with seven quality starts.