Rookie Arcia off to historic start for Angels
ANAHEIM: Francisco Arcia doubled twice, homered and drove in six runs to lead the Los Angeles Angels to an 11-5 win over the Seattle Mariners on Saturday night.
It was just Arcia’s second major league game after spending the past 11 years in the minor leagues. In his major league debut on Thursday, the 28-year-old catcher went 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs, but he topped that performance on Saturday.
Arcia set a major league record with 10 RBIs in his first two major league games.
The Angels had plenty of offence to go around, totaling 13 hits, including Mike Trout’s 29th home run of the season off Felix Hernandez in the first inning.
Lucas Duda hit a towering two-run homer off Luis Severino as Kansas City cruised past New York 10-5 in the opener of a day-night doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.
Duda ended Severino’s fourth straight rough outing by hitting a high fly ball that carried 345 feet over the right field fence to give the Royals a 6-0 lead in the fifth inning.
Severino (14-4) continued his recent struggles and was unable to get his 15th win on his third attempt. In a season-low 4 1/3 innings, he allowed six runs on eight hits.
Aaron Hicks lofted the tie-breaking sacrifice fly to cap an eighth-inning comeback for New York’s 5-4 victory, which salvaged a split of the doubleheader with visiting Kansas City.
The Royals put themselves in position to earn a sweep by scoring single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to take a 4-3 lead. But Greg Bird tied the game with a lead-off homer in the bottom of the eighth against Brian Flynn (2-2), who then gave up a double to Neil Walker.
Glenn Sparkman entered and allowed a bunt single to Austin Romine before walking pinch hitter Gleyber Torres to load the bases. Walker then scored easily on Hicks’ fly ball to left field.
JD Martinez hit his major-leagueleading 32nd home run of the season and Eduardo Nunez tripled, doubled and drove in two runs to lead a 14-hit attack as hosts Boston crushed Minnesota 10-4.
Jackie Bradley Jr had a two-run triple, and five batters each had two hits for Boston, who improved to 12-2 in their last 14 games at Fenway Park and 36-14 at home overall this season.
Rick Porcello (13-4) picked up the victory despite giving up four runs on five hits in just 5 2/3 innings. Rafael Devers left the game in the eighth inning with a hamstring injury and is expected to be placed on the disabled list by the Red Sox for the second time this month.