Junis carries no-hitter into seventh; Royals rout Mariners

ROYALS 10, MARINERS 0

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jakob Junis carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, the Royals scored more runs than they had in their last six games combined, and Kansas City routed the Seattle Mariners 10-0 on Monday night.

Junis (2-0) hit three batters and walked two, but the quick-working right-hander did not allow a hit until Daniel Vogelbach’s grounder up the middle with one out in the seventh.

Junis finished up the inning without any more trouble, running his scoreless streak to 14 innings to start the season. He was given a standing ovation when his night was done by the announced crowd of 12,324, most of whom promptly filed out with temperatures just above freezing.

By that point, everybody in the Royals lineup but Drew Butera had scored off Marco Gonzales (1-1) and the Seattle bullpen — and all the catcher had done was drive in a couple of runs.

Mike Moustakas homered in the eighth off infielder Taylor Motter as Seattle saved its ’pen.

Gonzalez allowed four runs, eight hits and a walk for the Mariners while retiring seven batters, and reliever Casey Lawrence promptly

allowed five more runs while getting five more outs.

Kansas City’s offensive outburst on a cold, blustery night came out of nowhere. The club had been held to a single run in four of its previous five games, and two runs in the other. The Royals hadn’t scored more than three runs in a game since a season-opening 14-7 loss to the White Sox.

They had three runs in the first inning alone Monday night.

They tacked on another in the third before a five-spot in the fifth, a half-inning that lasted so long it was a wonder Junis didn’t cool off — or freeze entirely — while sitting in the dugout.

Instead, he trotted back out and worked a four-pitch sixth inning that lasted about 2 minutes in real time. And after he finally yielded a single to Vogelbach in the seventh, Junis struck out Guillermo Heredia and got Ichiro Suzuki to fly out to cap his dominant performance.

Seattle finished with two hits and left five runners on base.

RAYS 5, WHITE SOX 4 Mallex Smith matched a career-high with four hits, Joey Wendle hit his first homer and the Tampa Bay Rays stopped an eight-game losing streak by hanging on to beat the Chicago White Sox. A bullpen that blew late leads in two of the three games at Boston last weekend got the job done after a shaky start by Chris Archer (1-0). Alex Colome escaped a second-and-third jam in the ninth by getting three straight groundouts, retiring Leury Garcia on a game-ending bouncer to first.

INDIANS 2, TIGERS 0 Corey Kluber struck out 13, pitching two-hit ball for eight innings and leading the Cleveland Indians past the Detroit Tigers. The temperature at first pitch was 33 degrees, one above Progressive Field’s record low set Sunday. There were flurries before the game and again in the seventh inning, resulted in a crowd of 9,843. Kluber (1-1) gave up singles to Victor Martinez in the second and Nicholas Castellanos in the fourth. The reigning AL Cy Young winner walked one and threw 103 pitches in recording the 40th double-figure strikeout game of his career. Andrew Miller worked the ninth for his first save of the season, getting Miguel Cabrera on a game-ending double play.

BLUE JAYS 7, ORIOLES 1 Steve Pearce homered in a third successive game, Josh Donaldson tacked on a ninth-inning grand slam and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Baltimore Orioles before 7,915 fans, the lowest paid crowd in Camden Yards history. Gametime temperature was 44 degrees, and a slight mist made the conditions

even more miserable. That contributed to a dubious attendance record at the 27-year-old ballpark that had held since April 12, 2010, when 9,129 showed up for a game between the Orioles and Tampa Bay. ASTROS 2, TWINS 0 Justin Verlander struck out nine over seven dominant innings, Carlos Correa had two hits and scored twice and the Houston Astros beat the Minnesota Twins. Verlander (2-0) was in control throughout on a chilly night with a first-pitch temperature of 35 degrees. The right-hander gave up three hits and walked one while helping the reigning World Series champions match their best 11-game start by going 9-2.

ANGELS 8, RANGERS 3 Albert Pujols hit his 616th career homer, Martin Maldonado had two RBI singles along with an evasive move to score a run and the Los Angeles Angels extended their best start in more than three decades with a win at Texas. The Angels are 8-3 for the first time since 1987, and fourth time in franchise history. Shohei Ohtani, the rookie two-way standout who was chosen AL Player of the Week, didn’t play a day after striking out 12 in seven scoreless innings against Oakland. Pujols led off the fourth with a line shot just inside the pole in left, his second homer this season. He later added a single for his 2,981st career hit.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

NATIONALS 2, BRAVES 0 Max Scherzer stole the first base of his professional career and allowed only two singles in his fifth big league shutout, and the Nationals ended a five-game losing skid while getting back to .500 with a victory over the Atlanta Braves. Scherzer (21), the winner of the past two NL Cy Young Awards, did not let the Braves push a runner beyond first base. Kurt Suzuki got a hit in the second, and Nick Markakis did in the fifth, but neither advanced.

PHILLIES 6, REDS 5 Pinch-hitter Nick Williams hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift the Philadelphia Phillies to a victory over the Cincinnati Reds. Scott Kingery homered for the first time in his career and Rhys Hoskins also went deep for the Phillies. Tucker Barnhart hit a two-run homer for the Reds. Williams drove one deep into the right-center field seats off Kevin Quackenbush (0-1) for his first career pinch-hit homer.

METS 4, MARLINS 2 Noah Syndergaard allowed one earned run in six innings and the New York Mets won their sixth consecutive game by beating the Miami Marlins to match the best start in team history. The winning streak is the Mets’ longest since September 2016, and they improved to 8-1. Jeurys Familia escaped a jam to pitch a scoreless ninth and earn his fifth save, most in the majors. He gave up a single and double before striking out Miguel Rojas and Starlin Castro for the victory. PADRES 7, ROCKIES 6 Pitcher Clayton Richard homered into the second deck at Coors Field and the San Diego Padres weathered Carlos Gonzalez’s disputed home run to beat the Colorado Rockies. Richard connected for his third career homer as part of a five-run fourth inning, driving the first pitch he saw from Jon Gray (1-2) above the Rockies bullpen in right-center. Carlos Asuaje followed Richard with a home run, the second time this season the Padres have gone deep in successive at-bats. BREWERS 5, CARDINALS 4 In his St. Louis debut, Greg Holland walked four batters in the 10th inning and forced home the go-ahead run that gave the Milwaukee Brewers a win over the Cardinals. The 32-year-old Holland, who tied for the NL lead with 41 saves for Colorado last season, was signed as a free agent on opening day. He pitched two innings at Class A before joining the Cardinals earlier in the day.