Eovaldi, Seager lead Rangers to a 4-1 victory over the Rays
Nathan Eovaldi struck out eight in seven shutout innings. Corey Seager homered and the Texas Rangers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 on Wednesday.
Eovaldi (1-0) scattered four hits and walked one, throwing 103 pitches. After going 5-0 during the Rangers' postseason run to last year's World Series title, the 34-year-old right-hander has allowed two runs in 13 innings this season for a 1.38 ERA.
Seager broke a scoreless tie with a leadoff homer in the sixth off Aaron Civale (1-1) and Josh Smith added a two-run single during a three-run ninth against Garrett Cleavinger.
Struggling Rangers reliever Jose Leclerc gave up an RBI single to Harold Ramírez in the ninth. After José Caballero hit a flyout to the warning track with two on, Curtis Mead hit a gameending comebacker. ASTROS 8, BLUE JAYS 0 » Yordan Alvarez homered twice and matched his career high with four hits, Cristian Javier and four relievers combined on a one-hitter and Houston routed Toronto. Javier (1-0) allowed the only hit and pitched five innings. Seth Martinez, Rafael Montero, Tayler Scott and Dylan Coleman worked an inning each.
It's the second game in the series where the Blue Jays were shut out after Ronel Blanco threw the 17th no-hitter in franchise history in a 10-0 victory Monday night.
It was a breakout night for Alvarez, who entered Wednesday having hit just three singles in the first six games. It was the 16th career multi-homer game for the Cuban and the sixth time he's had four hits.
TWINS 7, BREWERS 3 » Jackson Chourios became the youngest player in six years to hit a home run but it wasn't enough for Milwaukee, who lost to Minnesota, as Ryan Jeffers hit a tiebreaking three-run drive to cap a five-run seventh inning.
Rhys Hoskins also went deep for the Brewers, who lost their first game after a 4-0 start.
Minnesota's Alex Kiriloff went 4 for 4 with two singles, a double and a triple. Jeffers had four RBIs for the Twins. Chourio led off the fifth by connecting on Daniel Duarte's 1-1 slider for a 402-foot drive.
RED SOX 1, ATHLETICS 0 » Nick Pivetta combined with four relievers on Boston's second shutout of the series, Enmanuel Valdéz hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning and the Red Sox beat Oakland to complete a threegame sweep.
Jarren Duran went 4 for 4 and raised his batting average to .393.
GUARDIANS 8, MARINERS 0 » Logan Allen scattered four hits over 6 2/3 shutout innings, Steven Kwan had three hits and scored three times in his first three atbats, and Cleveland continued their hot start with a win over the Seattle.
The Guardians continued to thump opposing pitchers, battering Seattle starter George Kirby for a careerhigh eight earned runs, although he wasn't helped by his defense. But Cleveland hit the ball hard against
Kirby and stacked together three big innings to take its second straight series.
PADRES 3, CARDINALS 2 » Kyle Higashioka caught two baserunners stealing and homered in the same inning to help Joe Musgrove and San Diego beat the St. Louis and avoid a threegame sweep.
Higashioka became the fifth catcher since 1961 to catch multiple runners stealing and hit a home run in the same inning.
Musgrove (1-1) held the Cardinals to one run and five hits in six innings, with seven strikeouts and one walk.
YANKEES 6, DIAMONDBACKS 5, 11 INNINGS » Aaron Judge hit his first home run of the season and added an RBI double in a two-run 11th inning, boosting New York over Arizona.
Alex Verdugo broke a 2-2 tie in the 10th with his first Yankees home run, a tworun drive off Kevin Ginkel. Arizona tied the score in the bottom half off Clay Holmes (1-0), helped by shortstop Anthony Volpe's throwing error.
With runners at the corners in the 11th following Gleyber Torres' single, Scott McGough (0-1) balked in the go-ahead run when he failed to come to a set position with Juan Soto at the plate. After Soto flied out, Judge lined a double for a two-run lead.
ORIOLES 4, ROYALS 3 » James McCann had a two-out, tworun single in the ninth inning and Baltimore emerged from a five-hour rain delay to beat Kansas City.
It was 3-2 in the ninth when Royals closer Will Smith (0-2) walked Ryan
Mountcastle and gave up a single to Anthony Santander. After a sacrifice bunt, an intentional walk to load the bases and a strikeout, McCann lined a single into left to end it.
NATIONALS 5, PIRATES 3 » Joey Gallo emphatically ended an 0-for-12 seasonopening drought with an upper-deck homer that traveled 447 feet and two other hits, and Washington beat Pittsburgh.
Luis García Jr. doubled three times to tie a Nationals record and scored twice, CJ Abrams had a pair of RBIs, and Trevor Williams (1-0) allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings on a rainy evening.
REDS 4, PHILLIES 1 » Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Elly De La Cruz had RBI doubles, Frankie Montas pitched 5 2/3 innings and Cincinnati beat Philadelphia after a long rain delay.
The game was originally scheduled for the afternoon, but the start was pushed back three hours because of heavy rain in the forecast. Then the teams waited out an additional delay of 3 hour, 55-minutes — the second-longest stoppage in the 20-year history of Citizens Bank Park.
CUBS 9, ROCKIES 8 » Seiya Suzuki homered in his second straight game and drove in four runs and Chicago regrouped to beat Colorado after blowing a six-run lead. The Cubs looked as if they were on their way to another easy win with an 8-2 lead in the sixth after outscoring the Rockies by a combined 17-2 in the first two games. Colorado made a big push, scoring a run in the seventh and five in the eighth to tie it.