Majors’ youngest player homers in his first start

Juan Soto, the youngest player in the majors at 19, hit a three-run homer in his first career start as the Nationals defeated the San Diego Padres 10-2 on Monday in Washington.

Mark Reynolds had two solo home runs for the Nationals, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Bryce Harper had a homer and an RBI double.

Soto’s drive highlighted a five-run second inning for Washington. The promising outfielder, who played for three minor league teams this season, hit the first pitch from Robbie Erlin (1-3) over the Nationals bullpen in left-center field. Soto also singled.

Soto’s homer traveled an estimated 442 feet at Nationals Park. He earned a standing ovation from the crowd and the teenager responded by taking a curtain call. Per Baseball-Reference.com, Soto became the first teenager to hit a home run in a major league game since Harper on Sept. 30, 2012. YANKEES 10, RANGERS 5 >> Gleyber Torres hit two of the four Yankees homers off Bartolo Colon, and New York won to deny the Texas starter a milestone victory only three days before his 45th birthday. Aaron Judge and Neil Walker also went deep against Colon. Colon (2-2) allowed six runs and eight hits in 5 1/3 innings in his 178th career loss and remained one win short of matching Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marchial’s 243 victories, the most by a player born in the Dominican Republic. CARDINALS 6, ROYALS 0 >> Miles Mikolas (6-0) pitched a fourhitter for his first career shutout and Tyler O’Neill homered for the third straight game and drove in four runs to lead St. Louis. Mikolas needed just 109 pitches to remain unbeaten and struck out a career-high nine. PHILLIES 3, BRAVES 0 >> Nick Pivetta (4-2) struck out seven over seven innings, and Nick Williams and Aaron Altherr each homered to lead Philadelphia.