Irvin baffles Rays

Cole Irvin pitched into the seventh inning,and the Oakland Athletics beat Tampa Bay 6-3 Thursday to take three of four from the Rays,

Irvin allowed three runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings

as the rebuilding A’s under new manager Mark Kotsay

improved to 4-3. Two of the runs off Irvin were in his final inning.

Brandon Lowe homered for the Rays.

Cristian Pache had a twoout RBI single with two on in the second and scored on the play to make it 3-0 after the Rays misplayed his hit to center. Left fielder Randy Arozarena was charged with an error after the ball deflected off him while he was sliding, and the ball eluded center fielder Kevin Kiermaier and ended up on the warning track.

Oakland scored 31 runs during the series.

Mariners 5, White Sox 1 — Jared Kelenic hit a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the second inning, and Seattle stopped its fourgame losing streak with a victory over Chicago at a windy Guaranteed Rate Field where popups became adventures.

Chicago scored in the fifth after Adam Engel’s two-out popup was blown from the middle of the infield into foul territory behind third base and dropped. Engel then reached second when his popup to the first-base side came back and kicked off the mitt of catcher Cal Raleigh in front of the plate for an error.

Jake Burger followed with a popup over the mound that drifted to the left side and fell for an RBI single, bouncing off the arms of shortstop J.P. Crawford, who tried for a basket catch with his back to the plate on the infield dirt.

Logan Gilbert allowed an unearned run and four hits in five innings, and four pitchers followed with an inning each of hitless relief.

National League

Brewers 5, Cardinals 1 — Brandon Woodruff threw five shutout innings, Omar Narváez homered and doubled, and Milwaukee opened its home schedule with a victory over St. Louis.

Woodruff struck out two and allowed three hits and a walk to bounce back from an uncharacteristically poor performance in his first start, a 9-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs.

The Brewers gave Woodruff an early lead by scoring four runs in the first three innings off Adam Wainwright.

Marlins 4, Phillies 3 — Sandy Alcantara allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings, Joey Wendle had two RBI and Miami won its home opener, downing Philadelphia.

Garrett Cooper hit his first home run of the year, while Jesús Sánchez had two hits and an RBI for Miami.

Alcantara gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked one.

Pirates 9, Nationals 4 — Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run home run after settling his arbitration case with a $13.5 million, two-year contract, helping Pittsburgh overcome a three-run deficit to beat Washington.

Daniel Vogelbach led off a game with a home run for the first time in the big leagues and matched his career high with four hits.