Phillies' Harper breaks out by belting three home runs
Bryce Harper homered for his first three hits of the season, including a grand slam, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the visiting Cincinnati Reds 9-4 on Tuesday night.
Brandon Marsh also connected for Philadelphia, which bounced back nicely after dropping the series opener on Monday. Spencer Turnbull struck out seven in five innings.
Harper went 0 for 11 with a walk while playing in three of the Phillies' first four games, but he broke out in a big way.
The two-time NL MVP hit a solo shot in the first and fourth innings against Graham Ashcraft. He capped Philadelphia's fiverun seventh against Brent Suter with his seventh career grand slam, a 422-foot drive to right-center.
It was Harper's second career three-homer game and his 26th multihomer game overall. He finished with a career-best six RBIs. BREWERS 3, TWINS 2 >> Jackson Chourio singled in a run in his first American Family Field plate appearance, Christian Yelich homered and Milwaukee beat Minnesota to open a season with four straight wins for the first time since 2006.
Home after a three-game sweep at the New York Mets, the Brewers never trailed in front of a sellout crowd of 41,659 that saved its biggest cheers for the introduction of Bob Uecker as he began his 54th season of broadcasting Brewers baseball at age 90. BLUE JAYS 2, ASTROS 1 >> Davis Schneider's tworun homer off closer Josh Hader with two outs in the ninth inning lifted Toronto at Houston.
It looked like the Blue Jays were going to be shut out for a second straight night after Ronel Blanco threw the first no-hitter of the season in Houston's 10-0 win Monday.
They had troubled stringing hits together all night and trailed 1-0 entering the ninth.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled starting the inning, but Bo Bichette grounded into a double play. Hader (0-2) walked Justin Turner to bring up Schneider, whose soaring shot sailed to center field to put the Blue Jays on top 2-1.
Toronto starter José Berríos yielded six hits and one run in six innings.
Jose Altuve's homer in the fourth was all the offense the Astros could muster. ROYALS 4, ORIOLES 1 >> Alec Marsh pitched seven innings of two-hit ball, Maikel Garcia drove in three runs and visiting Kansas City defeated Baltimore.
Marsh (1-0) turned in the best performance of his budding career, dominating the defending AL East champions. He struck out five, walked one and retired the side in order five times.
As a rookie in 2023, the right-handed Marsh lost his first eight decisions before finishing 3-9 with a 5.69 ERA.
RAYS 5, RANGERS 2 >> Zach Eflin took a shutout into the seventh inning, Isaac Paredes hit a three-run homer in a four-run fifth and Tampa Bay won at home over Texas.
Eflin (1-1) allowed three of his five hits and the lone run in the seventh, then was removed after Jonah Heim's one-out RBI single. Heim also had a two-out run-scoring single in the ninth off Pete Fairbanks, who retired Leody Tavares on a game-ending flyout with with two on.
Tampa Bay has a home run and stolen base in each of its first six games, matching Cleveland in 1998 as the only teams since 1901 to accomplish the feat.