Dodgers’ offense wakes up to shut out Giants
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Chris Taylor scored twice, including the Los Angeles Dodgers’ first run of the season, and right-hander Kenta Maeda provided his team’s third straight strong pitching outing, lifting the defending National League champs to a 5-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants in LA on Saturday night.
On a night when the Dodgers received their NL championship rings in a pregame ceremony, the club finally demonstrated a pennant-worthy offense with timely hitting against Giants starter Derek Holland, who was hoping to begin San Francisco’s third consecutive shutout.
The Dodgers’ scoring drought lasted just three batters into its 19th inning, as Taylor opened the game with a walk, took third on a double by Enrique Hernandez and scored on Yasiel Puig’s sacrifice fly.
Maeda (1-0) was pulled after throwing 90 pitches in five shutout innings. He allowed five hits and one walk and struck out 10. Holland (0-1), making his first start for the Giants, struggled through five innings, allowing five runs (three earned), three hits and three walks.
Blue Jays 5, Yankees 3
Yangervis Solarte led off the bottom of the eighth inning by hitting the tie-breaking home run as host Toronto beat New York.
Solarte snapped a 3-3 deadlock when he drove a 2-0 97-mph fastball well over the center field fence off Dellin Betances (0-1). Kevin Pillar also stole three bases on Betances in the eighth and scored Toronto’s fifth run on a straight steal of home. Betances allowed four stolen bases.
Justin Smoak had three hits, including an RBI single and run-scoring double off CC Sabathia. Luke Maile added an RBI single as the Blue Jays avoided their first 0-3 start since the 2004 season.
Cubs 10, Marlins 6 (10)
Ben Zobrist stroked a tie-breaking single and Kris Bryant followed with a three-run double to lead visiting Chicago over Miami.
It was the second straight extra-inning game in the series. Neither starting pitcher earned a decision. Yu Darvish, making his Cubs debut after signing a six-year, $126 million contract in the offseason, lasted just 41/3 innings, allowing five hits, two walks and five runs.
Marlins starter Odrisamer Despaigne, who pitched in relief late Friday night and got the win in that 17-inning marathon, came back and lasted five innings, allowing six hits, two walks and five runs (four earned).
Red Sox 3, Rays 2
Rick Porcello hurled 51/3 innings of onerun ball and Xander Bogaerts hit a solo home run and had two RBIs as Boston beat host Tampa Bay.
Porcello (1-0) allowed six hits and a walk while striking out four for the Red Sox, whose starters have given up only one run and struck out 18 batters over the first 181/3 innings in the first three games of the season.
Bogaerts added an RBI double, his fifth of the year, and finished 3-for-4 to raise his early-season batting average to .667. J.D. Martinez went 2-for-4, his first hits in a Red Sox uniform, with a run scored.
Nationals 13, Reds 7
Adam Eaton went 5-for-5 with a home run, three RBIs and four runs scored and Brian Goodwin hit a grand slam as visiting Washington defeated Cincinnati.
Matt Adams and Trea Turner also homered for Washington. Adams’ homer gave Washington a lead it never lost, and Eaton banged out two doubles, two singles plus a solo homer during the first five-hit game of his career. The Goodwin grand slam came in the ninth off of Kevin Quackenbush.
Washington starter Stephen Strasburg (1-0) went 61/3 innings and allowed three runs (one earned) on eight hits.
Mets 6, Cardinals 2
Todd Frazier collected three RBIs and gave New York a lead it would never relinquish with a two-run double in the first inning in a win over visiting St. Louis.
The Mets got on the board with one out in the first against Cardinals right hander Michael Wacha (0-1), who gave up a leadoff double to Asdrubal Cabrera and walked Yoenis Cespedes before giving up Frazier’s double.
Cabrera had three hits, including an eighth-inning RBI double, while Cespedes and Travis d’Arnaud each hit solo homers for the Mets, who improved to 2-0 for the first time since 2013. Jacob deGrom (1-0), the only member of the Mets’ rotation to escape injury last year, earned the win after allowing one run on four hits and one walk while striking out seven over 52/3 innings.
Indians 6, Mariners 5
Yonder Alonso stunned his former teammates with a first-inning grand slam, giving Cleveland more than enough offense on the road against Seattle.
Andrew Miller pitched out of jams in the seventh and eighth innings, preserving a one-run lead, and closer Cody Allen worked a perfect ninth inning for his first save, getting the Indians even with the Mariners after a 2-1 loss on Opening Day.
Alonso, who signed with Cleveland as a free agent in the offseason after finishing 2017 with the Mariners, came through with his first home run as an Indian and the third grand slam of his career following a double by Jason Kipnis and two-out walks to Edwin Encarnacion and Rajai Davis.
Astros 9, Rangers 3
Lance McCullers Jr. scattered four hits and allowed two runs in 51/3 innings on the mound and Carlos Correa had a tworun home run among his four hits as Houston rolled past host Texas.
Reigning AL MVP Jose Altuve also had four hits for the Astros. McCullers (1-0) mostly baffled the Rangers, striking out 10, walking just one and surviving two hot shots up the middle.
Texas starter Matt Moore (0-1), one of the Rangers’ handful of offseason pitching acquisitions, took the loss and was lifted after four innings of work in which he allowed four runs (all earned) on seven hits with six strikeouts and no walks.
Brewers 7, Padres 3
Newcomer outfielders Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain combined for eight hits, four runs scored and four RBIs and third baseman Travis Shaw added three RBIs as visiting Milwaukee beat San Diego.
Yelich, whom the Brewers acquired from Florida in a trade during the offseason, went 5-for-5 with a double, three runs scored and two RBIs. It was the second fivehit game of Yelich’s career.
Cain, a free-agent signee, was 3-for-4 with a stolen base, a run scored and three RBIs. Cain was 8-for-14 with three doubles and three stolen bases in his first series back as a Brewer. Shaw was 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs
Braves 15, Phillies 2
Ryan Flaherty came back to haunt his former team, posting his second career four-hit game to pace Atlanta to a home win over Philadelphia.
Flaherty, signed as a free agent this spring after being released by Philadelphia, was 4-for-5 with two doubles and scored four runs.
The Braves pounded out 19 hits, and each starting position player had at least one hit. Ender Inciarte had three hits and four RBIs, and Nick Markakis, Freddie Freeman, Preston Tucker, Dansby Swanson and Chris Stewart each had two hits.
Angels 8, Athletics 3
Zack Cozart and Mike Trout provided a formidable 1-2 punch at the top of the lineup, leading the way for Los Angeles on the road over Oakland.
Cozart doubled, tripled, scored twice and drove in two from the leadoff spot, while No. 2 hitter Trout doubled twice, singled, scored twice and drove in two. In all, the Angels had 12 hits, seven of which went for extra bases.
Angels starter Matt Shoemaker (1-0) got the win and was stellar through five innings before losing his command in the sixth. In the seventh, the A’s sent the potential tying run to the plate. But Angels reliever Jim Johnson, a former Athletic, struck out Matt Olson looking with the bases loaded to end the threat. (Reuters)