The Mercury News

Smoak. Blue Jays slam Yankees for win

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Justin Smoak hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth to rally Toronto past New York 7-4 on Sunday.

After connecting off reliever Tommy Kahnle in the seventh, Smoak brought the crowd of 29,091 to its feet with his second career slam, a drive against David Robertson (0-1).

Smoak went 3 for 4 with a walk and six RBIs as Toronto gained a series split, winning the final two games.

Smoak’s other grand slam also came against the Yankees, in 2015.

Tyler Clippard (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning, and Seung Hwan Oh finished for his first save. ASTROS 8, RANGERS 2 >> Gerrit Cole struck out 11 over seven innings in his Houston debut, and the defending champion Astros finished a solid opening weekend with a victory over Texas.

The hard-throwing right-hander, acquired in an offseason trade after he was the opening day starter for Pittsburgh last year, allowed two hits to help the Astros take three of four from their state rivals.

Carlos Correa doubled home two runs in the seventh, and AL MVP Jose Altuve had three hits to finish 9 for 16 in the series. Evan Gattis had three hits and three RBIs, including a pair of run-scoring doubles.

NATIONALS 6, REDS 5 >> Bryce Harper hit two home runs, leadoff man Adam Eaton capped his big opening series with a two-run drive and Washington beat Cincinnati for a three-game sweep under new manager Dave Martinez.

The Nationals are 3-0 for the fourth time in their history. They last swept an opening series in 2014.

Eaton returned from a knee injury that wiped out most of his 2017 season and figured prominentl­y in all three victories, going 8 for 13 with two doubles, two homers, five RBIs and six runs. MARINERS 5, INDIANS 4 >> Dee Gordon and Mitch Haniger homered, Mike Leake pitched seven strong innings and Seattle topped Cleveland.

Edwin Encarnacio­n went deep twice for the Indians, his 29th career multihomer game.

Gordon and Haniger connected in the seventh, when the Mariners broke a 2-all tie on the way to winning the series.

Gordon led off the seventh with a tiebreakin­g shot off Dan Otero (0-1). A few batters later, Haniger added a two-run drive off reliever Tyler Olson to give Seattle a 5-2 lead. They were the first runs Olson has allowed with Cleveland — last year he threw 20 scoreless innings in 30 appearance­s for the Indians.

TWINS 7, ORIOLES 0 >> Jose Berrios pitched a threehitte­r for his first career complete game, and Minnesota got two home runs from Brian Dozier in a rout of Baltimore.

Miguel Sano and Eduardo Escobar also connected for the Twins, who won two of three in the season-opening series.

CARDINALS 5, METS 1 >> Paul DeJong had the first multihomer game of his big league career, Luke Weaver held the Mets to one run in five innings and St. Louis avoided an opening three-game sweep.

DeJong went deep in the second inning, making him 3 for 3 with two homers in his career against Steven Matz (0-1). DeJong hit his second solo homer in the eighth against Jacob Rhame.

RED SOX 2, RAYS 1 >> Hector Velazquez continued a season-opening stretch of strong starting pitching by Boston, working into the sixth inning.

The first four Red Sox starters — Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello and Velazquez — combined to give up two runs over 24 innings.

MARLINS 6, CUBS 0 >> Dillon Peters threw six scoreless innings, Brian Anderson hit a three-run double to highlight a five-run fifth and Miami split its opening four-game series with Chicago. PIRATES 1, TIGERS 0, 1ST GAME; PIRATES 8, TIGERS 6, 2ND GAME >> Josh Harrison, Starling Marte and David Freese homered as Pittsburgh completed a doublehead­er sweep of Detroit.

The Pirates won the opener behind six no-hit innings from Trevor Williams (1-0), then took control of the second game with five runs in the fifth off Buck Farmer (0-1)

Pittsburgh swept the three-game, season-opening series against the rebuilding Tigers. The highlight of the day for Detroit was Miguel Cabrera’s first home run of the season, a solo shot in the second game.

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