Gustavo Chacin made a strong first start, Jason Phillips hit a tiebreaking double and B.J. Ryan got his second save, leading the Toronto Blue Jays over the Minnesota Twins 6-3 Thursday.
Chacin (1-0) allowed three runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one. The left-hander went 13-9 with a 3.72 ERA in his rookie season.
Ryan, signed to a US$47 million, five-year contract -- the richest ever for a reliever -- entered in the ninth to loud cheers. He walked one and struck out one.
Lyle Overbay tripled and hit an RBI single for the Blue Jays, who took two of three in the opening series. Despite all the offseason additions to Toronto's roster, attendance was just 16,221.
Carlos Silva (0-1) allowed six runs -- five earned -- and five hits in 5 2-3 innings. Silva walked two -- his first game with more than one walk since Sept. 26, 2004 at Cleveland, a span of 28 starts.
Shannon Stewart led off the first with a double, advanced to second on a bunt and scored on Torii Hunter's RBI grounder, but Overbay's RBI single and Shea Hillenbrand's sacrifice fly gave Toronto a 2-1 lead in the fourth.
Tigers 10, Rangers 6
At Arlington, Texas, knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (0-1) allowed six home runs, tying the post-1900 major league record in Texas' loss to Detroit.
Five of the homers were solo shots. The only major league pitcher to give up more homers was Charlie Sweeney of the St. Louis Maroons, who allowed seven at the Detroit Wolverines in an American Association game on June 12, 1886.
Magglio Ordonez and Chris Shelton both homered twice for the Tigers, who hit seven in all and raised their total to a major league-leading 15 in three games. Dickey gave up eight hits, only two of which weren't homers, and seven runs.
Devil Rays 2, Orioles 0
At Baltimore, Mark Hendrickson pitched a three-hitter and Tampa Bay won its first game for rookie manager Joe Maddon.
Mariners 6, Athletics 2
At Seattle, Gil Meche put together another strong outing for a Seattle starter, and Carl Everett hit his first homer with the Mariners in a win Oakland.
Everett's two-run homer was part of a three-run second inning that was all the offense Meche needed. The right-hander pitched into the sixth, allowing just two runs and four hits, as the Mariners won their third straight.
Seattle's bullpen allowed just one hit in 3 2-3 innings. J.J. Putz retired all four batters that he faced for his first save, striking out the side in the ninth.
Barry Bonds drew two intentional walks, struck out and grounded weakly to first Thursday in the San Francisco Giants' home opener, a 6-4 win over the Atlanta Braves.
Pedro Feliz hit a bases-clearing double off the wall in left-center in a six-run third and Ray Durham added a two-run single in the inning.
Bonds, in pursuit of Major League Baseball's career home run record, stepped into the batter's box in the bottom of the first inning to roaring cheers and a standing ovation from his hometown fans.
The reaction came after he played only 14 games last year because of a knee injury and was a key figure in a much-publicized federal doping investigation. Thurday's game was Bonds' first before a home crowd since a book was published that included the latest in a series of doping allegations.
Cardinals 4, Phillies 2
In Philadelphia, Jimmy Rollins saw his 38-game hitting streak end going 0-for-4 in the Phillies' loss to St. Louis.
After finishing with a 36-game hitting streak last year, Rollins kept up his pursuit of Joe DiMaggio's MLB record 56-game streak with hits in his first two games this season.
But he was hitless in three tries against Jason Marquis -- he's 3-for-25 against him -- and one at-bat against Josh Hancock.
Reds 6, Pirates 5
At Cincinnati, Adam Dunn hit a 479-foot homer and followed with a disputed tiebreaking single in the eighth inning for the Reds.
Pittsburgh fell to 0-4 for the first time since 1994 and only the seventh time in franchise history.
Manager Jim Tracy was ejected by crew chief Gary Darling after arguing Dunn's RBI single, which was initially ruled an out.
Dunn's solo shot in the sixth off John Grabow landed on a concourse by the smokestacks in center field.
Mike Gonzalez (0-1) allowed one runs and three hits in one inning for Pittsburgh. Joe Randa and Ryan Doumit homered for the Pirates.
Former Pirate Rick White (1-0) got the win and David Weathers pitched the ninth for his second save in two chances.
Diamondbacks 12, Rockies 5
At Denver, Miguel Batista matched a career high with 11 strikeouts in seven strong innings to win his first start since 2004, leading Arizona past Colorado.
The 35-year-old Batista walked two and allowed two runs and four hits. He won for the first time as a starter since beating the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 29, 2004.
Chris Snyder homered and tied a career high with five RBIs and Jeff DaVanon had three RBIs. Chad Tracy had a home run and three hits.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite