Rays continue dominance over Yankees
The Tampa Bay Rays keep finding ways to frustrate the New York Yankees.
Austin Meadows and Randy Arozarena homered off Domingo Germán, helping the Rays extend their mastery over their AL East rivals with a 4-0 victory on Saturday.
The Rays have won 10 of 12 regular-season games between the teams since the start of 2020. Tampa Bay also eliminated the Yankees from last year’s playoffs in a fivegame series that went the distance.
Six Tampa Bay pitchers combined to limit the Yankees to five hits, with an injury-riddled bullpen delivering a strong performance after starter Chris Archer departed with a forearm injury that landed him on the 10-day injured list.
Meadows got things rolling for the Rays with a solo homer in the first inning, his third of the season.
Arozarena, a rookie who keyed the Rays’ run to the World Series with a breakout postseason, hit a 420-foot solo shot in the third inning for a 4-0 lead.
Andrew Kittredge (2-0) worked 1M innings to get the win, replacing Archer when the starter exited with right lateral forearm tightness after allowing three hits and striking out four in 2L innings.
Mariners 4, Twins 3 — Mitch Haniger homered and hit the go-ahead sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, giving the Seattle Mariners a victory over the Minnesota Twins.
All three of Minnesota’s losses this season have come in the 10th, with the bullpen struggling with baseball’s new-as-of-2020 rule that starts each extra inning with a runner on second base.
Taylor Rogers (0-1) picked up Braden Bishop’s bunt in front of the mound, but he couldn’t get a clean grip and held off on a throw as a precaution. Haniger hit a oneout fly deep enough to left for Trammell to come home.
Athletics 7, Astros 3 — Ramón Laureano hit a tworun homer, rookie Seth Brown connected for his first big league home run and the Oakland Athletics beat the Houston Astros.
The Astros won the opener 6-2 on Thursday night to give them five straight victories over the A’s after a four-game sweep to start the season.
Indians 11, Tigers 3 — Aaron Civale allowed just three hits while dominating over 7M innings and was backed by five home runs, including Jordan Luplow’s three-run shot, as Cleveland pounded Detroit.
Luplow narrowly missed a second three-run homer, settling for a two-run double to finish with a career-high five RBIs.
Franmil Reyes hit his third homer in two days, Roberto Pérez and Andrés Giménez each added a two-run homer and César Hernández had a solo shot.
Civale (2-0), who beat the Tigers in his season debut a week ago, gave up two singles and faced the minimum through six innings before Robbie Grossman homered off him in the seventh.
National League
Giants 4, Rockies 3 — Brandon Crawford delivered the decisive hit for a second straight day, connecting for a three-run homer in the sixth inning as the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies.
Ben Bowden (0-2) relieved Chi Chi González and surrendered consecutive walks to Alex Dickerson and pinchhitter Wilmer Flores before Crawford’s second homer of the season.
Ryan McMahon had put the Rockies ahead 3-1 with a two-run homer in the fifth.
Marlins 3, Mets 0 — Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a stunning homer off an otherwise dominant Jacob deGrom, Trevor Rogers beat the two-time Cy Young Award winner for the second time and Miami blanked New York.
DeGrom matched a career best with 14 strikeouts over eight innings, Rogers fanned 10 in six and the teams combined for 28 overall.
Brewers 9, Cardinals 5 — Avisaíl García homered, doubled and drove in five runs as the Milwaukee Brewers beat St. Louis, ending the Cardinals’ four-game win streak.
Keston Hiura hit a threerun homer that capped a fiverun burst in the seventh inning that made it 8-2.
García’s two-run homer off Carlos Martínez gave Milwaukee a 3-0 lead in the fifth.
Pirates 8, Cubs 2 — Mitch Keller pitched five efficient innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates used an early burst to chase Zach Davies in a win over the Chicago Cubs.
Phil Evans hit his teamhigh third homer as the Pirates ended a six-game losing streak.
Keller (1-1) bounced back from a rough 2021 debut by allowing one run. The 25year-old, who has struggled with his command since spring training started, struck out seven and walked just one.
Braves 5, Phillies 4 — Freddie Freeman hit a two-run homer and drove in the goahead run with a grounder in the seventh inning to help Atlanta beat Philadelphia.
The Braves, who opened the season with four consecutive losses, have recovered with a four-game winning streak.
Sean Newcomb (1-0) had strikeouts on four of his six outs in relief of Ian Anderson. The right-hander yielded four runs in 5 1/3 innings and gave up homers to Andrew McCutchen in the fifth and Bryce Harper in the sixth.