Rangers land Dodgers’ Ortiz as hitting coach

Dodgers co-assistant hitting coach Luis Ortiz was hired by the Texas Rangers as hitting coach.

Ortiz joins the coaching staff of manager Chris Woodward, who was the Dodgers’ third base coach the last three seasons and was hired by the Rangers this month.

Ortiz is the fifth significant personnel loss for the Dodgers, following Woodward, general manager Farhan Zaidi, hitting coach Turner Ward and game-planning/communications coach Danny Lehmann. —Jorge Castillo

Alex Cora, a rookie manager who led the Boston Red Sox to a franchiserecord 108 regular-season victories and a World Series title, was rewarded with a contract extension that includes an additional guaranteed year through the 2021 season.

Cora was second to Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics in voting for American League manager of the year.

Versatile infielder Erik Gonzalez was traded by the Cleveland Indians to the Pittsburgh Pirates as part of a five-player swap.

Cleveland sent Gonzalez, who appeared in 81 games for the AL Central champions, and right-handers Tahnaj Thomas and Dante Mendoza to the Pirates for outfielder Jordan Luplow and infielder Max Moroff.

Gonzalez batted .265 with one home run and 16 runs batted in last season.

Luplow appeared in 64 games over the last two seasons with the Pirates.

Moroff has split the last three seasons between triple-A Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.

Takuya Kai hit a go-ahead double against Dan Otero in the eighth inning, capping a rally from a four-run deficit that led Japan over the MLB All-Stars 6-5 at Nagoya, Japan, and clinched the six-game exhibition series 4-1.

Japan tied the score with a fourrun seventh inning against Hector Velazquez.