Morton bests former team

Charlie Morton was solid in his debut for the host Tampa Bay Rays, pitching five innings and striking out eight against his former team in a 4-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Friday night.

The 35-year-old righthander, two seasons removed from helping Houston win a World Series, allowed two runs and three hits in his first start since signing a $30 million, twoyear contract as a free agent.

Yandy Diaz lined a solo homer off Astros starter Gerrit Cole (0-1), who also yielded three unearned runs in the third, when shortstop Aledmys Diaz’s throwing error paved the way for Tampa Bay. Diaz has two errors in two games filling in for injured regular Carlos Correa.

Blue Jays 6, Tigers 0: Matt Shoemaker pitched seven sharp innings to win his Toronto debut and give Charlie Montoyo his first victory as a major-league manager.

DOMINICANS TOP INTERNATIONALS

There were more than 100 Dominican players in the major leagues on Opening Day, the first time a nation outside the U.S. reached the century mark.

Major League Baseball said that 251 of 882 players on rosters, injured lists and the restricted list were born outside of the United States. Among those, 102 were from the Dominican Republic. That comes to 11.6 percent, just behind the 11.7 percent record it set in 2007 with 99 of 849.

ELSEWHERE

Brewers: Reliever Corey Knebel says he will have Tommy John surgery and miss the season, a major setback for the NL Central champions. Knebel, 27, was 4-3 with 16 saves and a 3.58 ERA in 57 games last season.

Indians: Outfielder Cameron Maybin, who played for the Marlins last season agreed to a minorleague contract.

Wetteland indicted: A Texas grand jury indicted former World Series MVP pitcher John Wetteland on three counts of continuous sexual assault of a child. Wetteland is accused of making a child repeatedly perform a sex act.