Royals use rare long ball to defeat the Twins

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - The Kansas City Royals used home runs by Kyle Isbel and Isaac Collins, two hitters not known for their power, to defeat the Minnesota Twins 3-1 on an unseasonably warm day in front of a sellout crowd of 39,320 in Kansas City's home opener. The temperature at first pitch was 85 degrees.

In the first game at Kauffman Stadium since the Royals moved in the fences 8 to 10 feet, all four runs scored on home runs. However, all three home runs also would have been out with the old dimensions.

Kris Bubic (1-0) picked up the win for Kansas City. He allowed one run on two hits in six innings. John Schreiber pitched the ninth for his first save.

Simeon Woods Richardson (0-1) took the loss for the Twins.

REDS 2, PIRATES 0

CINCINNATI (AP) - Chase Burns allowed one hit in five innings for his first major league win, leading Cincinnati to a victory over Pittsburgh.

Burns (1-0) walked three and struck out seven, including Jared Triolo with two on and two outs in the fourth. Jose Franco retired five batters before leaving with two on. Graham Ashcraft struck out Henry Davis to end the seventh and fanned two more in a scoreless eighth. Conner Phillips walked Marcell Ozuna and Ryan O'Hearn before retiring three straight for his first career save.

Elly De La Cruz singled leading off the fourth against Braxton Ashcraft (0-1) for the Reds but was thrown out trying to steal second. Sal Stewart walked, took third on a single by Eugenio Suárez and scored on a sacrifice fly by Spencer Steer. Suárez scored on a triple by Will Benson to cap the scoring in a third straight win for Cincinnati.

Braxton Ashcraft (0-1) gave up two runs on four hits and four walks over six innings in his ninth career start. Isaac Mattson pitched the seventh and Justin Lawrence struck out the side in the eighth.

Stewart, the reigning NL player of the week, went 1 for 2 and walked twice. He is 8 for 12 at the plate through the first four games.

RANGERS 5, ORIOLES 2

BALTIMORE (AP) - Jack Leiter struck out eight in six strong innings and Jake Burger drove in two runs to lead Texas to a victory over Baltimore.

Leiter (1-0) had a stretch of five straight strikeouts and appeared to have a sixth for the second out in the fifth, but Colton Cowser won an ABS challenge on a called third strike and turned it into a base hit. Blaze Alexander singled and Gunnar Henderson had a two-out single to cut it to 4-2 before Leiter struck out Pete Alonso to end the inning with runners at the corners.

Leiter allowed five hits and a walk in leading Texas to its third straight win. Jakob Junis and Jalen Beeks each pitched a scoreless inning before Tyler Alexander struck out two in the ninth for his second save.

Brandon Nimmo singled leading off the game against Chris Bassitt (0-1) - making his first start for the Orioles - before scoring on a fielder's choice by Burger for a 1-0 lead.

Henderson hit his first home run of the season to tie it in the first.

WHITE SOX 9, MARLINS 4

MIAMI (AP) - Miguel Vargas hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high six runs, Austin Hays hammered a three-run shot and Chicago beat Miami for their first win this season.

Batting leadoff, Vargas drove in Everson Pereira with a single in the third inning. Hays' homer to right field quickly made it 4-0.

Vargas' slam in the fourth gave the White Sox an 8-0 cushion. Luisangel Acuña scored in the sixth on Vargas' sacrifice fly.

Tristan Peters and Pereira each had two hits for Chicago. Munetaka Murakami went 1 for 5 with a single, ending his home run streak at three games.

BRAVES 4, ATHLETICS 0

ATLANTA (AP) - The Braves scored three runs in the first inning off a double from Matt Olson and a single from Mauricio Dubón in a win over the Athletics on Monday night.

Mike Yastrzemski came in to relieve left fielder Eli White and hit a line drive triple to right field in the eighth inning. Dubón followed with a single to send him home.

Dubón, a two-time (2023, '25) Gold Glove-winning shortstop, came to the Braves in the offseason from a trade with the Astros.

Bryce Elder (1-0) pitched six innings and gave up five hits with five strikeouts and a walk.

CUBS 7, ANGELS 2

CHICAGO (AP) - Edward Cabrera was just about perfect in his debut with Chicago.

Cabrera pitched six crisp innings against the Los Angeles. The right-hander struck out five while throwing 80 pitches in the opener of a three-game series, 49 for strikes.

The Cubs had a 6-0 lead going into the seventh inning.

Cabrera, who turns 28 on April 13, was acquired in a January trade with Miami for outfielder Owen Caissie and infield prospects Cristian Hernandez and Edgardo De Leon. Caissie is 5 for 13 with a homer and four RBIs in his first four games with the Marlins.

Wearing custom Cubs-themed cleats, the 6-foot-5 Cabrera allowed two baserunners in his first start of the year. Yoán Moncada walked with one out in the second, and Nolan Schanuel singled to right in the fourth.

RAYS 3, BREWERS 2

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Nick Fortes hit a tiebreaking two-out double off Trevor Megill in the ninth inning as Tampa Bay edged Milwaukee.

Milwaukee took its first loss after opening the season with a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox.

Megill (0-1) retired the first two batters he faced and had a 1-2 count on Jonny DeLuca before walking him. Fortes sent a first-pitch fastball into the gap in right-center to bring home DeLuca.

Ian Seymour hit Sal Frelick with a pitch to start the bottom of the ninth before retiring the next two batters. Kevin Kelly picked up his first save by getting Blake Perkins to ground out.

All the runs before the ninth came on homers.

Yandy Díaz continued his blistering start by leading off the game by sending a 1-2 pitch from Kyle Harrison over the left-field wall. Díaz, who also singled in the second, is 12 for 20 this season.

ROCKIES 14, BLUE JAYS 5

TORONTO (AP) - Troy Johnston hit a two-run homer, Ezequiel Tovar had three hits and three RBIs, and Colorado Rockies won for the first time this season by routing Toronto.

After losing three straight one-run games in a weekend sweep at Miami, Colorado thumped the previously undefeated Blue Jays to avoid the first 0-4 start in team history. The Rockies are 2-11 all-time in Toronto.

Braxton Fulford also homered as Colorado finished with 17 hits. The Rockies had 19 hits in three games at Miami.

George Springer, Kazuma Okamota and Andrés Giménez each hit a solo homer for the AL champion Blue Jays. Davis Schneider added a two-run drive.

METS 4, CARDINALS 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) - Bo Bichette had a hit and drove in two runs, sparking New York to a victory over St. Louis.

Clay Holmes (1-0) pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks. He struck out five.

Devin Williams, a St. Louis native, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his first save.

Carson Benge and Jorge Polanco each had two hits for the Mets. New York banged out 10 hits but stranded 11 runners.

Kyle Leahy (0-1) pitched into the sixth inning in his second career MLB start and first at Busch Stadium. Leahy gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks. He moved from the bullpen this year after starting the final game of 2025.

Alec Burleson had two hits, raising his average to .400, with an RBI. Nolan Gorman hit a solo home run after hitting one Sunday for St. Louis.

ASTROS 8, RED SOX 1

HOUSTON (AP) - Lance McCullers Jr. pitched seven innings for the first time since 2022 and Jose Altuve hit two of Houston's four home runs to help the Astros beat Boston.

McCullers (1-0), who missed the 2023 and '24 seasons with injuries, allowed four hits and a run with nine strikeouts in his season debut. The home crowd gave the longtime Astro a nice ovation as he left the mound after his best start in years.

Altuve, who tied a career high with four hits, had solo shots in the seventh and eighth innings for his 15th career multi-homer game. Yordan Alvarez had a two-run home run and Brice Matthews also homered as Houston won a third straight game after dropping its first two.

The Astros led by one when Altuve singled to open Houston's third before Alvarez sent his soaring shot into the second deck in right field to push the lead to 3-0.

Boston starter Ranger Suárez had retired six in a row when Matthews homered to left-center field to start the fifth and leave the Astros up 4-0.

Wilyer Abreu had two hits and drove in a run for the Red Sox, who have dropped three in a row since winning their opener.

NATIONALS 13, PHILLIES 2

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Seven Washington batters had at least two hits, including Joey Wiemer, who tied a Major League Record for most consecutive plate appearances to reach base to start a season and the Nationals defeated Philadelphia.

Wiemer legged out an infield single in the first inning and had a base hit up the middle in the fourth, tying a record by reaching base 10 consecutive times to start the season, set by Toronto's Carlos Delgado in 2002.

Wiemer's first hit was originally called out by first base umpire Marvin Hudson, but was overturned after a challenge by the Nationals. Phillies manager Rob Thomson was ejected by Hudson after the video review for arguing that the play should have still ended the inning because even though Hudson called Wiemer out, the Phillies continued the play and threw the ball home where catcher Rafael Marchán tagged Drew Millas who was trying to score from second on the play.

Finally Wiemer's streak ended in the fifth inning when he grounded out.

The Nationals rapped out 17 hits, mostly dink-and-dunk singles as they only had three doubles and none of their hits exceed 100 mph, according to StatCast.

José Tena led the team with three hits and Luis García Jr. drove in three runs.

GIANTS 3, PADRES 2

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Harrison Bader connected against Walker Buehler for San Francisco's first home run this season and the Giants held off a late rally by San Diego to give rookie manager Tony Vitello his first victory, 3-2 on Monday night.

Ryan Walker was one strike from closing a two-hit shutout when he allowed a two-run homer to Jackson Merrill. Walker then got Xander Bogaerts to ground out to finish the combined three-hitter for a save.

Vitello, hired from the University of Tennessee despite no professional playing or coaching experience, and the Giants had a miserable opening series. They were outscored 13-1 by the New York Yankees in a three-game sweep, becoming the 11th team to score no more than one run over the initial three games of a season. They matched a franchise record Saturday by reaching 20 innings without scoring to begin the season before finally getting a run in the third inning of a 3-1 loss.

The Giants were also the only team without a home run this year until Bader drove a 1-2 pitch from Buehler (0-1) off the facade of the second deck in left field leading off the third.

MARINERS 2, YANKEES 1

SEATTLE (AP) - Cal Raleigh hit a walk-off RBI single down the right-field line as Seattle beat the New York.

Raleigh, who was not in Seattle's starting lineup after starting the season 2 for 15 with 10 strikeouts, came through when he ripped a cutter from Yankees reliever Paul Blackburn (0-1). It was Raleigh's second RBI of the season.

The Mariners jumped in front 1-0 on a broken-bat single by second baseman Cole Young off starter Ryan Weathers, who tossed 4 ⅓ innings of one-run ball. Seattle starter Luis Castillo kept New York scoreless across his six innings of work and recorded his 1,500th career strikeout.

Castillo did not get the win, though, as the Yankees evened the score in the top of the seventh when Amed Rosario came off the bench to deliver a sacrifice fly off Seattle reliever Eduard Bazardo. Matt Brash (1-0) and the rest of the Mariners' bullpen kept the Yankees bats quiet the rest of the way and set the stage for Raleigh's late-game heroics.

GUARDIANS 4, DODGERS 2

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Parker Messick tossed six scoreless innings and Cleveland broke the game open with three runs in the seventh inning to beat Los Angeles, spoiling the two-time World Series champions' perfect start.

The Dodgers were 3-0 after rallying in every game of their opening series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. They nearly pulled it off again, scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth off closer Cade Smith, who had two wild pitches.

But their offense mostly went cold, with Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman combining to go 3-for-16.

Betts' RBI double and Freeman's RBI groundout in the ninth were the Dodgers' only runs.

Messick (1-0) allowed five runs and struck out five.

DIAMONDBACKS 9, TIGERS 6

PHOENIX (AP) - Corbin Carroll hit a three-run homer and had four RBIs, Michael Soroka became the fourth pitcher in Arizona history to throw an immaculate inning and the Diamondbacks roughed up three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander in his return to Detroit.

The Diamondbacks won their home opener after getting swept at Dodger Stadium in their first series of the season.

The 28-year-old Soroka (1-0) gave up four hits over five scoreless innings - and the fifth was a gem. The right-hander struck out Javier Báez, Kerry Carpenter and Gleyber Torres on nine straight pitches, blowing a 95 mph fastball past Torres on the ninth one to tie a career high with 10 strikeouts.

The 43-year-old Verlander gave up five runs on six hits and two walks over 3 2/3 innings. The big blow came in the second when Carroll connected for his first homer of the season.