The American League (AL) East-leading Tampa Bay Rays extended their winning streak after topping the Philadelphia Phillies 6-2.
Mike Zunino and Brett Phillips homered for the Rays, who won for the 15th time in 16 games after recording their fourth successive victory on Sunday.
Zunino hit his 12th home run in the second inning, while birthday boy Phillips homered in a two-run fifth at home to the Phillies in St Petersburg, Florida.
"There's a lot of things going our way," Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. "We'd like to think we're creating some of those things.
"Guys are taking advantage of opportunities whether it's at the plate, off the mound or defensively. Anytime you go on a run like this team has been on, you've got to do a lot of things right."
The Rays (34-20) are a game ahead of the idle Boston Red Sox (32-20) in the AL East.
Giolito fuels White Sox
Lucas Giolito struck out 12 batters as the high-flying Chicago White Sox beat the lowly Baltimore Orioles 2-1. Giolito allowed a run, three hits and three walks in seven innings for the AL Central-leading White Sox, who have won six of seven games.
The Milwaukee Brewers blanked the Washington Nationals 3-0 after Brandon Woodruff outpitched Max Scherzer. The Brewers celebrated a fourth consecutive win behind Woodruff's 10 strikeouts and two hits across seven innings as he finished with a 1.27 ERA. Nationals ace Scherzer struck out 10 and gave up two hits in six innings.
Giants jump on Kershaw
It was a tough outing for Clayton Kershaw, whose Los Angeles Dodgers lost 5-4 to rivals the San Francisco Giants. The Giants got on top of Dodgers ace Kershaw after scoring three runs in the first inning thanks to Mauricio Dubon's home run. Kershaw conceded another home run in the third inning. The World Series champion allowed seven hits, five runs, three walks and two homers across six innings.
The Orioles – who have been swept in four successive series – are in a hole after matching their worst skid since 2009 following a 13th consecutive defeat. Baltimore's longest losing streak stands at 21 in 1988.
Pujols doing his thing
Future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols hit his third home run since joining the Dodgers and 670th of his illustrious career. Pujols went deep in the ninth.
Sunday's results
Colorado Rockies 4-3 Pittsburgh Pirates
Milwaukee Brewers 3-0 Washington Nationals
Detroit Tigers 6-2 New York Yankees
Tampa Bay Rays 6-2 Philadelphia Phillies
Toronto Blue Jays 4-1 Cleveland Indians
Cleveland Indians 6-5 Toronto Blue Jays
Chicago White Sox 3-1 Baltimore Orioles
Kansas City Royals 6-3 Minnesota Twins
Houston Astros 7-4 San Diego Padres
Cincinnati Reds 5-1 Chicago Cubs
Los Angeles Angels 4-2 Oakland Athletics
San Francisco Giants 5-4 Los Angeles Dodgers
Arizona Diamondbacks 9-2 St Louis Cardinals
Seattle Mariners 4-2 Texas Rangers
Boston Red Sox-Miami Marlins (postponed)
Atlanta Braves-New York Mets (postponed)
Mets at Diamondbacks
The New York Mets (25-20) will visit the slumping Arizona Diamondbacks (19-35) on Monday. Mets ace Jacob deGrom will take to the mound against a Diamondbacks team who have lost 13 consecutive games. Merrill Kelly starts for Arizona.
Arsenal's Saka lands first Premier League Player of the Month award
Bukayo Saka has been named the Premier League's Player of the Month for the first time, scooping the prize after helping leaders Arsenal win all four of their games in the competition in March.
Saka hit three goals and added two assists in four appearances during the month as Arsenal posted wins over Everton, Bournemouth, Fulham and Crystal Palace.
Only Manchester City's Erling Haaland (33) and Tottenham's Harry Kane (23) have been involved in more Premier League goals than Saka this season (22).
The 21-year-old – considered a candidate to be named player of the season – is the only player to reach double figures for both goals (12) and assists (10) in the competition this term.
Having helped Arsenal establish an eight-point lead over City as the Gunners chase their first league title since 2004, Saka also scored with a stunning long-range strike as England beat Ukraine 2-0 in the international break.
Saka saw off competition from Alexander Isak, Alexis Mac Allister, Tyrone Mings, Mohamed Salah and Arsenal team-mate Leandro Trossard to win the Premier League award.
He becomes the second Arsenal star to land the monthly prize this campaign, after Martin Odegaard was named the best player across November and December either side of the World Cup break.
Rybakina matches Serena Williams aces feat and follows in footsteps of Graf
Elena Rybakina moved one win away from completing the 'Sunshine Double' and did so on the back of a serving feat last achieved by Serena Williams almost seven years ago.
Reigning Wimbledon champion Rybakina battled past Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals of the Miami Open, scoring a 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 win to book a clash with Petra Kvitova or Sorana Cirstea in the title match.
In doing so, Rybakina set up the chance of sealing an Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back double, a feat that only four women have pulled off before: Steffi Graf (1994, 1996), Kim Clijsters (2005), Victoria Azarenka (2016) and Iga Swiatek (2022).
She also becomes just the sixth woman to appear in the finals of the Australian Open, Indian Wells and Miami in the same year after Monica Seles (1991), Graf (1994), Lindsay Davenport (2000), Martina Hingis (2000) and Maria Sharapova (2012).
The Williams accomplishment that Rybakina has matched stands as testament to the Kazakhstani player's serving prowess.
She has served at least 10 aces in each of her five matches in Miami, and Williams at Wimbledon in 2016 was the last player from the WTA Tour to serve 10-plus aces in five matches in a single tournament.
Rybakina lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the Australian Open final in January but has put that behind her and enjoyed a stellar March. She beat Swiatek in the Indian Wells semi-finals before toppling Sabalenka in the final, and now another chance of a trophy awaits.
Discussing the challenge of completing the hard-court US double, Rybakina said: "It's really difficult, and because of different conditions in these two weeks by the matches you could see that it's much more difficult for me here than even in Indian Wells.
"It's just the finals, still close but the same time far. The Sunshine Double, I try my best, and hopefully I can make it. I didn't expect to be in the final. I knew that it was going to be very tough from the beginning, from the first match. And it was, actually. First two matches was really tough."
She came through dicey three-setters against Anna Kalinskaya and Paula Badosa before kicking on, winning in straight sets against Elise Mertens, Martina Trevisan and Pegula.
"Actually, the whole two weeks were really tough," Rybakina said after seeing off Pegula late on Thursday. "I'm happy to be in another final."
With her runs in Indian Wells and Miami, the Russian-born 23-year-old has already won 13 main-draw matches at WTA 1000 level in 2023, matching her personal best for an entire season, achieved last year.
Ohtani calls own pitches, beats clock, Ks 10, allows no runs... and loses
Los Angeles Angels reliever Aaron Loup was embarrassed to inflict an unwanted MLB first on team-mate Shohei Ohtani despite his latest superstar showing.
The Angels lost 2-1 to the Oakland Athletics on Opening Day, but they had led 1-0 through Ohtani's six innings, in which he sent down 10 strikeouts.
Loup then came in for what he described as "probably the most embarrassing outing of my career".
It was the first time since at least 1901 a pitcher's team had lost on Opening Day after he had 10 Ks and no runs allowed. They had previously been 25-0 in such circumstances.
Ohtani's performance was all the more remarkable as he called his own pitches, using the recently approved PitchCom, in response to the introduction of the pitch clock.
An early mix-up required catcher Logan O'Hoppe to ask Ohtani to re-enter the code in the device, which was soon ditched for the remainder of the first inning.
All went smoothly thereafter, though, and O'Hoppe said: "He probably could have been more unhittable if we had PitchCom in the first inning."
So quickly did the two-way sensation master the new process, Ohtani was regularly keying in his pitch before the pitch clock had even begun.
He explained the nature of a visit from home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson at the end of the fifth inning, saying: "He told me I was pitching a little early – before the batter was in the box."
The A's scarcely threatened to disrupt Ohtani's shutout, and he had the answer when they did.
With only one out and runners on second and third in the fourth inning, he struck out Jesus Aguilar and Ramon Laureano in quick succession.
Mike Trout reflected: "That sequence right there... he went from dominant to unhittable."
Ultimately, however, it was not enough, with Ohtani himself restricted to only one hit as a batter, a single in the same fourth inning.
"We got a lot of guys on base, got a few guys in scoring position, but we just lacked that one big hit," Ohtani said. "Obviously we want to score more."
Manager Phil Nevin added: "We're going to score more runs, I'm not worried about that. It's just opening night. Baseball gets weird sometimes."
Mar 28, 2023 NBA
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
