TORONTO (AP) — George Springer hit the 64th leadoff home run of his career, Kazuma Okamoto went deep for the first time in the majors and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Athletics 5-2 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.
Jesús Sánchez added a two-run homer, his first with Toronto. The defending American League champions swept 11 series last season, one fewer than Milwaukee and Seattle, which led the majors.
Max Muncy hit a two-run home run for the Athletics, one of five hits for the visitors.
Toronto’s Eric Lauer (1-0) allowed two runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked one and struck out nine.
Jeff Hoffman finished for his first save. Hoffman blew the save in Friday’s season opener when he allowed a game-tying home run to Shea Langeliers in the ninth inning.
Toronto pitchers combined to strike out 50 A’s batters over the weekend, a major league record for the most strikeouts in any team’s first three games of the season.
ROYALS 4, BRAVES 1
ATLANTA, (AP) — Seth Lugo pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings and Carter Jensen homered to lead Kansas City to a win over Atlanta.
Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino had RBI singles for the Royals, who blew a ninth-inning lead a day earlier and avoided a season-opening sweep. Witt had five hits in the series.
Jensen was 1 for 3 with two RBIs, adding a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to his solo home run in the fourth.
Lugo (1-0) gave up five hits, struck out three and walked none while throwing 55 of his 77 pitches for strikes. He did survive three deep fly balls with exit velocities all over 105 mph from Ronald Acuña Jr., Matt Olson and Michael Harris II that were caught up against the outfield wall.
Drake Baldwin hit a solo home run to right field with the Braves trailing 4-0 in the eighth inning.
Lucas Erceg picked up the save for the Royals with a scoreless ninth inning.
ORIOLES 8, TWINS 6
BALTIMORE, (AP) — Pete Alonso singled home the go-ahead run in the seventh inning, Tyler O’Neill hit a three-run homer and Baltimore beat Minnesota.
After the Twins bolted to a 4-0 lead against Orioles newcomer Shane Baz, Baltimore bounced back to win the deciding matchup of the season-opening, three-game series.
Alonso snapped a 5-all tie in the seventh with a soft single to center field off Mick Abel (0-1). It was Alonso’s first RBI with the Orioles since leaving the Mets in December as a free agent.
Adley Rustchman followed with a run-scoring double and Coby Mayo tacked on an RBI single.
Rico Garcia (1-0) got the last out in the seventh, Yennier Cano struck out Royce Lewis with the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth, and Ryan Helsley worked the ninth for his second save.
Obtained from Tampa Bay in an offseason trade, Baz struggled in his Baltimore debut just two days after signing a $68 million, five-year contract. The right-hander gave up four runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.
RANGERS 8, PHILLIES 3
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — MacKenzie Gore struck out seven in his Texas debut, and Brandon Nimmo and Andrew McCutchen both homered to lead the Rangers to a win over Philadelphia.
Gore made his first start for the Rangers after he was acquired from Washington in an offseason trade. He tossed five hitless innings before his bid for Texas’ first no-hitter since Kenny Rogers threw a perfect game in 1994 was broken up by a leadoff infield single from Justin Crawford in the sixth.
Gore (1-0) fanned Bryce Harper with the bases loaded in the sixth and left the game after he plunked Alec Bohm with a pitch to make it 6-1. The bullpen did the rest to help the Rangers take two of three from the NL East champion Phillies.
Nimmo, a former New York Mets outfielder who was booed all weekend, took Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo (0-1) deep for a two-run shot in the second. McCutchen, also in his first season with the Rangers, hit a three-run homer in the fourth for a 5-0 lead.
REDS 3, RED SOX 2
CINCINNATI (AP) — Eugenio Suarez hit a three-run home run and Cincinnati beat Boston to win its season-opening series.
Suarez’s homer, his first since rejoining the Reds this offseason, came on an 0-2 pitch from Greg Weissert with two runners aboard in the sixth to put Cincinnati ahead 3-2.
It was his 190th homer in a Reds uniform, one shy of Brandon Phillips for 12th on the franchise’s all-time list.
Wilyer Abreu went 6 for 13 for Boston in the three-game series with two home runs, two doubles, and four RBIs.
Connelly Early, 23, was the youngest pitcher to start one of the Red Sox’ first three games in a season since Jeff Sellers in 1987 and the youngest left-hander to do so since Billy Rohr in 1967.
Early pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts over 96 pitches.
MARLINS 4, ROCKIES 3
MIAMI (AP) — Owen Caissie hit a walk-off, two-run homer to give Miami a win over Colorado and complete a sweep of its season-opening series.
Javier Sanoja doubled with two outs in the ninth inning against Rockies reliever Victor Vodnik (0-1) before Caissie drilled a change-up from Vodnik over the wall in right field.
In addition to going deep, Caissie doubled twice and batted 5 for 10 over the three-game set.
Sanoja, Otto López and Xavier Edwards had two hits each for the Marlins. Michael Petersen (1-0) got the win, throwing a perfect ninth.
The Rockies struck quickly against Marlins starter Max Meyer on Jordan Beck’s three-run double in the first.
Miami chipped away at the early deficit when López hit an RBI double in the first and Austin Slater added a sacrifice fly in the second.
PIRATES 4, METS 3
NEW YORK (AP) — Ryan O’Hearn had three hits and two RBIs, including a go-ahead single in the 10th inning, and Pittsburgh threw out the potential tying run at the plate to hold off the New York Mets for its first victory this season.
Henry Davis added a critical RBI single off New York reliever Richard Lovelady (1-1) with two outs in the 10th, and the Pirates got another home run from Brandon Lowe as they salvaged the series finale to avoid their first 0-3 start since 2015.
With the Mets trailing 4-2 and two runners aboard in the bottom of the 10th, Juan Soto drove an RBI double to deep left-center. Francisco Lindor tried to score the tying run from first base but was cut down on a relay from center fielder Oneil Cruz to shortstop Jared Triolo to Davis at the plate for the first out of the inning.
Soto advanced to third on Bo Bichette’s groundout before Jorge Polanco flied out to the right-field fence to end it.
ASTROS 9, ANGELS 7
HOUSTON (AP) — Isaac Paredes hit a tiebreaking two-RBI double with two outs in the eighth inning to help Houston to a win over the Los Angeles Angels despite a disappointing major league debut from starter Tatsuya Imai.
There were two outs in the eighth when the Angels intentionally walked Yordan Alvarez to give Houston runners at first and third. Alvarez stole second before Paredes hit a line drive off Drew Pomeranz (0-1) to put Houston on top 8-6.
Jose Altuve followed with a double to push the lead to 9-6.
Imai allowed three hits and four runs with four walks and four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings.
The Astros are banking on him to have a big year after signing the right-hander to a three-year, $54 million contract following a stellar career in Japan where he was a three-time All-Star in eight seasons with the Pacific League’s Seibu Lions.
BREWERS 9, WHITE SOX 7
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Christian Yelich hit a three-run homer off Seranthony Domínguez to cap a six-run rally in the eighth inning as Milwaukee completed a season-opening sweep by beating the Chicago White Sox.
Milwaukee fell behind 7-2 in the first three innings before coming all the way back. Yelich put the Brewers in front with his first career pinch-hit homer, a two-out shot on a 2-2 pitch.
Chicago’s Munetaka Murakami homered for a third straight game in a losing cause.
Murakami’s 375-foot drive off Brandon Sproat in the second inning made him the fourth player ever to homer in each of his first three career MLB games, according to Sportradar. The others were Trevor Story for Colorado in 2016, Kyle Lewis for Seattle in 2019 and Chase DeLauter for Cleveland this year.
The White Sox wasted a five-RBI performance from Colson Montgomery, who hit a first-inning grand slam. Everson Pereira also homered for the White Sox.
RAYS 11, CARDINALS 7
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yandy Díaz singled four times, doubled and drove in four runs, and Steven Matz notched the victory against his former team as Tampa Bay beat the Cardinals to avoid a season-opening sweep.
Jonathan Aranda added three hits and two RBIs, and Cedric Mullins also drove in two as the top three in the Rays’ lineup combined for nine hits and eight RBIs.
Díaz, Aranda and Mullins strung together consecutive two-out RBI doubles against Dustin May (0-1) in the fourth inning to push Tampa Bay’s lead to 6-1. The Rays tacked on three runs in the eighth off Matthew Pushard in his big league debut, and Díaz had an infield RBI single in the ninth to match his career best with five hits.
Jordan Walker, Nolan Gorman and Pedro Pagés homered for St. Louis.
NATIONALS 6, CUBS 3
CHICAGO (AP) — Joey Wiemer and Keibert Ruiz homered and Washington earned a season-opening series win with a victory over Chicago.
Jake Irvin (1-0) allowed two runs and three hits with seven strikeouts and a walk in five innings and Clayton Beeter, the last of four Washington relievers, worked a clean ninth for his first save. Washington took two of three in the series.
Alex Bregman hit two solo home runs — his first since joining the Cubs as a free agent — and Ian Happ added one.
Brady House and Daylen Lile hit consecutive two-out singles off Shota Imanaga (0-1) in the first and Wiemer followed with his second homer of the season to give Washington a 3-0 lead.
Imanaga also gave up Wiemer’s leadoff triple in the fourth, but stranded him there with three straight outs. Wiemer was 3 for 3 with a walk.
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