NEW YORK — Carlos Beltran hit two of New York’s five solo homers in the first three innings off an ineffective Chris Young, and Aroldis Chapman allowed a run in his Yankees debut before closing out a 6-3 victory over the slumping Kansas City Royals on Monday night.
Brian McCann, Brett Gardner and Aaron Hicks also went deep to help the Yankees win the opener of a four-game series against the defending World Series champions.
Alex Gordon and Eric Hosmer homered for the Royals, who have lost 10 of 13.
Ivan Nova gave the Yankees a good effort in his first start of the season, pitching in place of injured lefty CC Sabathia.
Nova was pulled after 81 pitches – one out short of qualifying for a win – but New York’s fortified bullpen held Kansas City at bay.
Chapman, a four-time All-Star with a fastball that often exceeds 100 mph, was eligible to pitch for the first time with the Yankees after serving a 29-game suspension under baseball’s new domestic violence policy. The left-hander from Cuba was obtained from Cincinnati for four prospects in December.
He entered to a warm ovation with a 6-2 lead in the ninth and drew gasps from the crowd by firing his first two pitches at 100 mph, both strikes. Chapman struck out his first two batters before pinch-hitter Paulo Orlando doubled to deep center field and scored on a sharp single by Alcides Escobar.
ASTROS 7, INDIANS 1: Jose Altuve had three RBI and Colby Rasmus added two as Houston jumped on Corey Kluber for five runs in the third and cruised to a win at home.
Kluber (2-4), coming off the second shutout of his career in his last outing against the Tigers, was chased after just 22/3 innings. He entered with a 1.48 ERA in five career appearances against the Astros, and had allowed just five earned runs in 301/3 innings against them.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
REDS 3, PIRATES 2: Tucker Barnhart hit the last of Cincinnati’s three solo homers off Jonathon Niese, and Reds relievers threw three scoreless innings – a rarity for the major leagues’ worst bullpen – to close out a win at home.
MARLINS 4, BREWERS 1: Jose Fernandez (4-2) pitched well enough to overcome a teammate’s home run that was negated due to a baserunning blunder in a win at Miami.
With the game scoreless in the second inning, a home run by J.T. Realmuto was negated when he passed baserunning teammate Marcell Ozuna after rounding first base, costing Miami a run.
INTERLEAGUE
NATIONALS 5, TIGERS 4: Moments after Bryce Harper was ejected from the dugout, pinch-hitter Clint Robinson hit a game-ending homer to give Washington a comeback win at home.
As he joined his teammates in racing to the plate to greet Robinson for a celebration, Harper yelled something in the direction of umpire Brian Knight.
Moments earlier, Knight had pointed toward the dugout and signaled Harper’s ejection after the batter before Robinson, Danny Espinosa, was called out on strikes.
Then Robinson connected with a 1-0 pitch from Mark Lowe (1-2) to end it.
The Nationals ended their four-game losing streak and extended the Tigers’ skid to seven consecutive losses.
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