Cole strikes out 11 in Houston debut as Astros beat Rangers
ARLINGTON, Texas – Must be nice to have a rotation so good that Gerrit Cole is the No. 4 starter.
Cole struck out 11 over seven innings in his Houston debut and the World Series champion Astros rolled to an 8-2 victory over the Texas Rangers Sunday to take three of four from their state rivals in the season-opening series.
The 2015 All-Star allowed two hits after teammate Lance McCullers Jr. struck out 10 in another easy Houston win Saturday. They followed a pair of Cy Young Award winners to the mound in Justin Verlander and Dallas Keuchel.
Cole started on opening day last year for Pittsburgh before an offseason trade to the Astros.
“This is obviously high-end stuff across the board,” Houston manager A.J. Hinch said. “Gerrit would have pitched opening day for a lot of teams, and to have him pitch the fourth game of the year is really indicative of the depth of this rotation.”
L.A. Angels 7, Oakland 4: Shohei Ohtani won his major league pitching debut, throwing three-hit ball over six innings and leading the Los Angeles Angels past the Oakland Athletics 7-4.
The two-way star from Japan took the mound three days after he was the designated hitter in the opener. Reaching the upper 90s mph with his fastball and showing a nifty splitter, Ohtani struck out six and retired 14 of his final 15 batters.
Seattle 5, Cleveland 4: Dee Gordon and Mitch Haniger homered, Mike Leake pitched seven strong innings and the Seattle Mariners beat the Cleveland Indians 5-4.
Edwin Encarnacion went deep twice for the Indians, his 29th career multihomer game.
Boston 2, Tampa Bay 1: Hector Velazquez continued a season-opening stretch of strong starting pitching by Boston, working into the sixth inning and leading the Red Sox over the Tampa Bay Rays 2-1.
Toronto 7, N.Y. Yankees 4: Justin Smoak hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning and a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth to rally the Toronto Blue Jays past the New York Yankees 7-4.
After connecting off reliever Tommy Kahnle in the seventh, Smoak brought the crowd of 29,091 to its feet with his second career slam, a drive against David Robertson (0-1).
Minnesota 7, Baltimore 0: Jose Berrios pitched a three-hitter for his first career complete game, and the Minnesota Twins got two home runs from Brian Dozier in a 7-0 rout of the Baltimore Orioles.
National League
Washington 6, Cincinnati 5: Bryce Harper hit two home runs, leadoff man Adam Eaton capped his big opening series with a two-run drive and the Washington Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-5 for a three-game sweep under new manager Dave Martinez.
The Nationals are 3-0 for the fourth time in their history. They last swept an opening series in 2014.
St. Louis 5, N.Y. Mets 1: Paul DeJong had the first multihomer game of his big league career, Luke Weaver held the Mets to one run in five innings and the St. Louis Cardinals beat New York 5-1 to avoid an opening three-game sweep.
Miami 6, Chicago Cubs 0: Dillon Peters threw six scoreless innings, Brian Anderson hit a three-run double to highlight a five-run fifth and the Miami Marlins beat the Chicago Cubs 6-0 to split their opening four-game series.