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• MLB: Witt has 2 home runs, 5 RBIs as Royals win 7th straight

  Bobby Witt homered to cap a nine-run first inning and finished with four hits, two home runs and five RBIs as the Kansas City Royals routed the Houston Astros 12-3 for their seventh consecutive victory on Thursday.

  Vinnie Pasquantino added three hits and three RBIs and Maikel Garcia knocked in two runs for the Royals, who completed a perfect seven-game homestand. It’s just the third time in franchise history they’ve played at least seven games on a homestand without a loss. The other two came in 1988 and 1985.

  Kansas City sent 15 men to the plate in the first inning and tied a club record with 11 hits. The Royals batted around in an inning for the second straight game.

  Hunter Brown recorded just two outs and allowed nine runs and 11 hits.

  Houston gave up 24 runs in the final two games of the series and dropped to 4-10. It is the Astros’ worst 14-game start since also opening 4-10 in 2013.

  Sears, Athletics 1-hit Rangers

  JP Sears pitched no-hit ball into the seventh inning and the Oakland Athletics combined on a 1-hitter in a 1-0 win over the Texas Rangers.

  Sears allowed leadoff walks in the first, second and fifth innings before Adolis Garcia ended his no-hit bid with a one-out single in the seventh on an 0-2 pitch.

  Sears struck out five, including 2023 World Series MVP Corey Seager three times.

  Austin Adams got the final two outs of the seventh and Lucas Erceg and Mason Miller each worked one inning to finish the one-hitter.

  Cowser hits 2 homers as Orioles sweep

  Rookie Colton Cowser capped a stellar series with his first two career home runs and four RBIs as the Baltimore Orioles rallied for a 9-4 win in 10 innings to complete a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox.

  Gunnar Henderson opened the 10th with a two-run homer off Isaiah Campbell and Cedric Mullins singled home a run before Cowser drilled a 3-0 pitch over the wall in right field for a three-run shot.

  Cowser, who hit his first career homer in the fifth inning, went 6 for 13 with two home runs and 10 RBIs in the three-game set.

  Orioles prospect Jackson Holliday scored two runs but went 0 for 4 for the second straight game.

• MLB: Red-hot Mariners hit 7 homers in rout of Royals on Saturday

  Teoscar Hernandez hit two of the Seattle Mariners’ franchise record-tying seven home runs in a 15-2 drubbing of the Kansas City Royals.

  Hernandez hit a grand slam as part of a seven-run third inning and belted a 446-foot shot off infielder Matt Duffy in the eighth.

  Josh Rojas, Mike Ford, Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh and Cade Marlowe also homered as the Mariners improved to 10-1 in their last 11 games and remained tied with Texas atop the AL West.

  Seattle hit seven home runs in a game for the fifth time, also done in 2002, 1999, 1996 and 1985.

  Logan Gilbert didn’t need all the offense as he limited the Royals to one run and two hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven to win his sixth straight decision.

  The Mariners broke open the game with three home runs and seven run off 15-game loser Jordan Lyles in the third inning.

  Rojas led off with a home run, Hernandez connected for his third career grand slam and Ford’s two-run blast made it 7-0.

  Rodgriguez’s fifth-inning solo homer made him just the second player in history with at least 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in his first two seasons.

  The other is Atlanta Braves outfielder Ronald Acuna Jr., who totaled 67 homers and 53 steals over his first two seasons in 2018 and 2019.

   

  Reds get help from balk to cool Diamondbacks

  TJ Friedl scored the go-ahead run in the 11th inning on a balk and the Cincinnati Reds pulled out a wild 8-7 win to end the Arizona Diamondbacks’ six-game winning streak.

  Arizona trailed 7-4 in the 10th but rallied for three runs, helped by an error from Reds second baseman Matt McLain. Christian Walker’s sacrifice fly tied it at 7.

  Cincinnati closer Alexis Diaz suffered just his second blown save of the season, though all three runs were unearned.

  Arizona’s Paul Sewald failed to protect a 4-2 lead in the ninth, as Tyler Stephenson doubled home a run before Friedl singled and McLain knocked in the tying run with a soft groundout.

   

  Brewers edge Padres for seventh straight win

  William Contreras delivered a two-run double in a five-run fifth inning as the Milwaukee Brewers held off the San Diego Padres, 5-4 for their seventh consecutive victory.

  Mark Canha, Brice Turang and Andruw Monasterio opened the fifth with three straight singles.

  With one run already home, the Brewers pulled off a double steal and an errant throw by catcher Luis Campusano produced another run. After Christian Yelich walked, Contreras doubled down the left-field line to make it 4-1.

  Freddy Peralta struck out nine in 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs to improve to 5-0 in five starts this month.

• Ohtani and Trout hit back-to-back homers in Angels win, Toronto's Gausman dominates Yankees

  Superstar duo Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout made their presence felt on Sunday as they hit back-to-back home runs in the Los Angeles Angels' 4-3 home win against the Kansas City Royals.

  Despite coming into the contest with the second-worst record in the majors (4-16), the Royals struck first through an opening-inning home run from young outfielder M.J. Melendez.

  The Angels tied things up before the end of the first inning after Trout's double put Taylor Ward on third base, setting up Ohtani for the sacrifice fly.

  Neither team scored in the next four frames as Angels starter Reid Detmers and Royals pitcher Jordan Lyles kept things tight, but the runs started to flow again in the sixth.

  Vinnie Pasquantino gave Kansas City a 2-1 lead with his solo home run, signalling the end of Detmers' day, before Lyles had a rotten finish to his six innings.

  Lyles threw a total of nine pitches in the sixth. The very first was hit 376 feet to left-field by lead-off batter Ward, before Trout followed with a 389-foot blast to center field three pitches later. Ohtani made it three in a row five pitches after that, launching a curveball 415 feet to center for the biggest of the bunch.

  Top Royals youngster Bobby Witt Jr tried to drag his side back into it with his own solo homer an inning later, but Carlos Estevez was able to secure his third save of the season to pull the Angels' record even at 11-11.

  It was the fifth home run of the season for both Ohtani and Trout, leaving them tied for 17th on the major league leaderboard.

  Gausman guts the Yankees

  Toronto Blue Jays ace Kevin Gausman pitched his best start of the young season in a 5-1 road victory over the New York Yankees.

  Gausman made it through seven complete innings in 103 pitches, allowing only three hits and no walks to go with 11 strikeouts. The Yankees' only run would come from a consolation solo shot from Anthony Rizzo in the ninth inning.

  For the Blue Jays, 24-year-old franchise star Vladimir Guerrero Jr connected on his fifth home run of the season, opening the scoring with a two-run bomb in the sixth inning. His batting average of .341 is eighth-highest in the majors, and his 29 total hits is tied for the sixth-most.

  Yoshida stars for the Red Sox

  AL Rookie of the Year contender and top international signing from the offseason Masataka Yoshida was the star of the show in the Boston Red Sox's 12-5 come-from-behind victory against the Milwaukee Brewers.

  After signing a five-year, $90million free agent deal to come over from Japan's Orix Buffaloes, the 29-year-old Yoshida had his first game-changing performance for his new team, becoming the first Red Sox player since David Ortiz in 2008 to hit two home runs in the same inning.

  The left-fielder, who starred for Japan in March's World Baseball Classic, hit a solo home run early in the eighth inning to give the Red Sox a 5-4 lead, and eight batters later he stepped up again and hit a 407-foot grand slam to make it 12-4. Brewers third baseman Brian Anderson also hit two home runs of his own.