ARLINGTON, Texas — Ty France and Luis Urías hit two-run homers, Luis Castillo pitched six solid innings and Seattle beat the Texas Rangers 4-3 on Thursday, taking 2 of 3 in the series and leaving in first place in the AL West.
Julio Rodríguez, leading off after shortstop J.P. Crawford went on the injured list with a right oblique strain, opened with a single and scored on France’s first homer of the season.
“It’s nice to get off to a good start here. Historically, last year, it was a tough go for us. But get a couple wins under our belt here, it’s a nice way to start the year,” France said. “We don’t have to prove anything. We’re a good baseball team.”
Andrew Heaney (0-3) retired the next 10 batters after France went deep until Dylan Moore, at shortstop in place of Crawford, led off the fifth with a double. Urías then homered to break a 2-2 tie.
Castillo (2-4) struck out six and walked two while allowing two runs and four hits. Andrés Muñoz, the third Seattle reliever, worked a perfect ninth for his third save in four chances.
Heaney also went six innings, with seven strikeouts and no walks. But he gave up the four runs on the two long balls.
PHILLIES 5, REDS 0: Bryce Harper homered in his return to the lineup following the birth of his third child, and Philadelphia won at Cincinnati for its second shutout win in splitting a four-game series.
Zack Wheeler (2-3) allowed one hit in six innings, a third-inning single by Santiago Espinal. He struck out eight and walked four, extending his scoreless steak to 131/3 innings.
Philadelphia has won 8 of 10 and leads the major leagues with five shutouts, one more than its total last season.
TWINS 6, WHITE SOX 3: Chicago dropped to 3-22, wasting a two-run lead and stretching its losing streak to a season-high seven as Edouard Julien hit two of Minnesota’s five solo home runs at Minneapolis.
Chicago matched Cincinnati in 2022, Detroit in 2003 and Washington in 1894 as teams that opened 3-22. Baltimore began 2-23 in 1988.
Julien and Ryan Jeffers homered off Michael Soroka in a three-run sixth inning, Julien homered again off John Brebbia in the seventh, and Carlos Santana and Jose Miranda went deep against Steven Wilson in the eighth.
BREWERS 7, PIRATES 5: Gary Sánchez hit a pinch-hit, two-run home run in the eighth inning to lift Milwaukee to a win at Pittsburgh and a series split.
Sánchez drove an 0-2 sinker at 101.9 mph from Aroldis Chapman (0-2) 371 feet to right with two outs, putting the Brewers ahead 6-5. Two of his three home runs came in this series, including Tuesday when he produced Milwaukee’s lone run in a 2-1 loss.
The Brewers have won 6 of 8 after taking the final two of the four-game series. The Pirates have lost 8 of 10 after an 11-5 start.
CUBS 3, ASTROS 1: Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking two-run homer for his first major league hit, and Chicago won at home to sweep Houston.
Nico Hoerner had three hits and Mike Tauchman went 1 for 1 with three walks as Chicago won for the fourth time in five games. Hayden Wesneski (2-0) pitched 21/3 perfect innings for the win in relief of Javier Assad.
Houston has lost a season-high five straight.
ROCKIES 10, PADRES 9: Elias Díaz capped Colorado’s six-run eighth inning with a tiebreaking RBI double against San Diego at Denver.
Elehuris Montero and Hunter Goodman homered for Colorado, which earned a split of the four-game series. Brenton Doyle and Brendan Rodgers each had three of the Rockies’ 14 hits.
DODGERS 2, NATIONALS 1: Yoshinobu Yamamoto pitched six shutout innings, and Los Angeles won at Washington to complete a three-game sweep.
Teoscar Hernández homered for the Dodgers, who matched a season high with four straight wins.
ROYALS 2, BLUE JAYS 1: Salvador Perez hit a two-run homer in the first inning, Cole Ragans held Toronto in check long enough for the rain to arrive, and Kansas City won at home in a game called after five innings and a long weather delay.
Ragans (1-2) allowed the lone Toronto run on three hits and three walks, striking out four.
NOTES
ROYALS: Kansas City placed right-hander Alec Marsh on the injured list after he took a 91 mph liner off his pitching elbow the previous night against the Blue Jays, putting what had been a breakout season on hold.
Marsh had not allowed a run when Addison Barger drilled a fastball at him with one out in the fifth inning Wednesday night. The ball ricocheted off Marsh’s elbow, closer to the forearm, so hard that it left an indentation of the laces.
DUSTY BAKER won the fourth Lifetime Achievement Award presented by Baseball Digest.
Willie Mays won the inaugural award in 2021, followed by Vin Scully in 2022 and Joe Torre last year.
ATHLETICS: Second baseman Zack Gelof was put on the 10-day injured list because of a strained left oblique.
Gelof was a late scratch from Wednesday’s game after feeling pain during his pregame routine and an MRI showed the low-grade strain. The IL move was retroactive to Wednesday.
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