AROUND THE HORN

Angels: Angels reliever Ty Buttrey has retired from baseball, saying he’s lost his affection for the game. “I just wanted to prove everyone wrong,” the 28-yearold posted on social media Saturday. “As time went on baseball became more of a business and less of a game. I couldn’t help but notice my love and passion for this game started to diminish. I always thought baseball was a cool job. I also knew that same job paid extremely well. What young kid doesn’t want a cool job that pays well?” The right-hander was one of the key pieces of the Angels’ bullpen the past three seasons, but he struggled with control problems during spring training and was optioned to the team’s alternate training site. His 115 appearances from 201820 were fourth on the team among pitchers, and he was 8-11 with a 4.30 ERA. Astros: Astros just keep sluggin’ through all those boos. Yordan Álvarez hit a three-run homer and the Astros earned a third straight win against the rival Oakland Athletics, 9-1 on Saturday. “It feels great coming out of the gates swinging the bats like that,” Álvarez said. The Astros have outscored the A’s 26-7 in three games against the defending AL West champion A’s, who were eliminated by the Astros in a four-game AL Divsion Series last fall. Lance McCullers Jr. (1-0) did his part, too. The Houston right-hander struck out seven and walked three in five innings, allowing two hits and one run. Reds: Nick Castellanos stood over, flexed and jawed at Cardinals pitcher Jake Woodford after scoring, setting off a series of scuffles that included relievers shoving in the outfield as the Reds beat the Cardinals 9-6 Saturday. Castellanos, who homered on opening day and hopped out of the box before tossing his bat, was plunked by Woodford with two outs and none on in the fourth. Castellanos retrieved the ball and offered to toss it back to Woodford before flipping it out of play. A wild pitch soon sent Castellanos scampering home from third and he scored with a headfirst slide for a 7-2 lead as he bumped into Woodford, who took the throw from catcher Yadier Molina at the plate. As Castellanos began walking away, Molina rushed up and tapped him from behind, and the benches and bullpens emptied in a wild scene. There was more pushing and shoving before order seemed to be restored. But as relief pitchers for both teams were heading back to their bullpens, they tangled in the outfield. Castellanos was the only player ejected. Aristides Aquino replaced Castellanos and led off the sixth inning with a home run.

Royals: Michael A. Taylor homered and drove in three runs for the second straight game, leading the Kansas City Royals over the Texas Rangers 11-4 Saturday. Released by Washington after hitting .196 last season, Taylor is off to a sensational start for Kansas City. After getting three hits and throwing out two runners at the plate from center field in a 14-10 win on opening day, Taylor came back with a home run and double as the Royals improved to 2-0. Tigers: Julio Teheran pitched through trouble in his Detroit debut, and the Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians 5-2 on Saturday. For a second straight game, Detroit scored two runs in the first and led the rest of the way. Willi Castro hit an RBI triple off Zach Plesac (0-1) and came home on Miguel Cabrera’s groundout.