Reds left-hander Brandon Finnegan pitched 6-2/3 hitless innings before allowing a single to David Ross, but Addison Russell hit a three-run home run as Chicago roughed up Cincinnati’s bullpen in a 5-3 victory on Monday night in the Cubs’ home opener.
Ross’ single started a two-run rally, with Jason Heyward cutting the Cubs’ deficit to 3-2 with a bases-loaded single off Tony Cingrani.
In the eighth, Cingrani (0-1) walked Ben Zobrist with one out and hit Jorge Soler. Russell then drove Jumbo Diaz’s first pitch out to left-center, whipping the packed crowd into a frenzy and sending the Cubs to their sixth victory in seven games, matching their best start since 1998.
Photo: AP
Jon Lester pitched six innings, allowing three runs and five hits.
In Boston, Chris Davis hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer off new closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning and drove in five runs, carrying Baltimore to a 9-7 win over the Red Sox in David Ortiz’s final home opener.
Kimbrel (0-1), the All-Star reliever acquired in an off-season trade from San Diego, entered with the score 6-6. He walked Caleb Joseph with one out and Manny Machado with two outs, then gave up Davis’ home run to center.
Photo: AFP
The Orioles improved to 6-0 and remain the lone unbeaten team in the major leagues.
In Houston, Collin McHugh bounced back from the shortest start of his career by pitching seven scoreless innings, while Colby Rasmus hit a two-run homer as the Astros won their home opener over Kansas City 8-2.
Carlos Correa had three hits and two RBIs for Houston, Jose Altuve had three hits and rookie Tyler White added a pair of hits for his fourth multi-hit game this year.
McHugh (1-1) allowed eight hits and struck out four to bounce back from his previous start, in which he allowed six runs and walked two in 1/3 innings of a 16-6 loss to the Yankees.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo Stanton homered to cap a seven-run second inning against Steven Matz as Miami handed the touted rookie his first regular-season loss, 10-3.
Marcell Ozuna homered and doubled to break out of an early slump, while Adeiny Hechavarria had three RBIs from the No. 8 spot in the lineup. By the sixth inning, every Marlins starting position player had a hit and scored a run.
Mike Trout hit his first home run of the season, while Nick Tropeano pitched five scoreless innings in his season debut as Los Angeles beat Oakland and ace Sonny Gray 4-1.
Trout struck out looking twice, but homered on the first pitch he saw from Gray in the sixth.
Minnesota dropped to 0-7 with a 4-1 loss in their home opener against the Chicago White Sox. It is the worst start for the franchise since the original Washington Senators lost their first 13 games in 1904, according to STATS.
In other games, Max Scherzer and the Nationals beat the visiting Atlanta Braves 6-4, Detroit’s Justin Verlander allowed seven runs and 10 hits in 4-1/3 innings as the Tigers lost 7-4 at home to the Pirates, Texas won 7-3 in Seattle, San Diego won 4-3 in Philadelphia’s home opener, and St Louis breezed past Milwaukee 10-1, with Jeremy Hazelbaker going four for four with a triple, double and a sacrifice fly.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but