Matt Olson, Dominic Smith and Mauricio Dubon on Thursday hit solo homers, and Reynaldo Lopez gave up one run over five innings as the Atlanta Braves coasted to a 17-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the opener of a four-game series.
The Braves broke it open with an eight-run fifth inning, sending 12 batters to plate to take a 10-1 lead. Austin Riley and Michael Harris II had two-run doubles, while Ozzie Albies brought home two more with a single.
It was a frustrating inning for the Diamondbacks — partly thanks to technology.
Photo: Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images
Ryne Nelson walked three batters, including Ronald Acuna Jr, which forced in a run. The right-hander had a potential strike three to Albies overturned by a challenge, turning it into a walk. A potential inning-ending double play was also overturned when Drake Baldwin was ruled safe at first.
On top of that, 10-time Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado made a costly error, leading to five unearned runs for Nelson.
Nelson (0-1) made it just 4-2/3 innings, giving up seven runs, but only two were earned. He walked three and struck out three.
Lopez (1-0) gave up four hits and a walk while striking out three. Olson finished with three hits and three RBIs.
Arizona had their three-game winning streak snapped. Jordan Lawlar hit a solo homer in the third, which was his first career long ball in 126 career plate appearances.
Diamondbacks catcher James McCann pitched the ninth inning, giving up five runs on seven hits, including a two-run homer to Jorge Mateo.
In Kansas City, Missouri, Taj Bradley pitched six innings of five-hit ball and Minnesota homered three times in the ninth inning to break open a close game as the Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 to avoid a three-game series sweep.
Bradley (1-0) struck out three and walked one while outdueling Cole Ragans (0-2), helping the Twins improve to 2-0 with him on the mound. Minnesota were winless in their other four games on a season-opening six-game trip to Baltimore and Kansas City.
Kody Clemens scored on an error by five-time Gold Glove-winning catcher Salvador Perez in the second inning and Byron Buxton added a sacrifice fly off John Schreiber in the eighth, before the Twins teed off against Royals reliever Steven Cruz in the ninth.
Matt Wallner began the barrage with his homer to left, Clemens followed two batters later with his first of the season and Josh Bell gave the Twins their first back-to-back homers since July last year with his shot off Cruz to right field.
The only offense for Kansas City came in the eighth inning, when Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr put runners on the corners with back-to-back singles, and Vinnie Pasquantino hit a sacrifice fly, but after Perez grounded into a fielder’s choice, Twins reliever Taylor Rogers struck out Jac Caglianone with a sweeper out of the zone to leave the tying run on second base.
The meager offense came one a day after the Royals piled up 13 runs in a win over the Twins.
Ragans bounced back nicely from a dismal opening day in Atlanta, when the 2024 All-Star surrendered three homers in a 6-0 loss to the Braves. The Royals’ left-hander went six innings and allowed four hits and a walk while striking out eight.
In San Francisco, rookie catcher Daniel Susac went three for three with a walk in his first major league start as the Giants rolled over the New York Mets 7-2.
The younger brother of former Giants catcher Andrew Susac singled in his first two at-bats off David Peterson (0-1), then drew a walk and singled off Sean Manaea.
Rafael Devers homered and Casey Schmitt went three for three with a walk and an RBI for the Giants, who had 13 hits overall and handed the Mets their third straight loss.
Robbie Ray (1-1) gave up two runs and three hits in 5-1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
Former Mets reliever Blade Tidwell worked three scoreless innings to earn his first major league save.
Yu Yao-hsing on Tuesday nabbed Taiwan’s only goal in the final round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, as they fell 3-1 to Sri Lanka at Taipei Municipal Stadium. Early goals from Sri Lanka in the first half left Taiwan struggling to get on the board, and Christopher Tiao’s own goal at 53 minutes sealed the team’s fate in the third round of qualifiers. While acknowledging that the defeat, Taiwan’s sixth in Group D, was disappointing, head coach Matt Ross said he saw reasons to stay positive about the team’s development. “There were lots of positive signs in terms of the
Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
INDIGESTION: Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup for a third consecutive time after a 4-1 defeat to Bosnia on penalties in a loss Gattuso said was ‘difficult to digest’ Coach Graham Arnold on Tuesday challenged his players to “shock the world” after Iraq became the 48th and final team to qualify for the FIFA World Cup with a nerve-shredding 2-1 win over Bolivia in an intercontinental playoff in Mexico, as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, the Czech Republic, Sweden and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) also secured their places at the finals. Iraq, whose preparations were disrupted by the war in the Middle East, sealed their first appearance at the finals in 40 years and are to play in Group I against France, Senegal and Norway. Goals from Ali al-Hamadi
Teng Kai-wei, the only Taiwanese player on an opening-day roster in this year’s Major League Baseball (MLB) season, took his first win of the year with the Houston Astros in his season debut. Teng entered in relief in the top of the fifth inning against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday, with the Astros trailing 5-0. He pitched 2-1/3 scoreless innings with two strikeouts, as Houston scored 11 runs during his outing to snatch an 11-9 comeback victory. The win is the Astros’ first of the season and the third of Teng’s MLB career. “It’s my first time pitching for the Astros, so
RSS