Gerrit Cole struck out eight in 6 1/3 innings to best Aaron Nola as the New York Yankees beat the visiting Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 on Wednesday afternoon in frigid conditions.

Gleyber Torres continued his hot start with three hits, including a pair of RBI singles, as the Yankees won for the fourth time in six games. Torres also had two of New York’s three stolen bases.

Jose Trevino hit a two-run homer for the Yankees.

Cole (2-0) gave up a run on three hits. He exited after being charged with a violation for taking too long to throw a 3-2 pitch to Nick Castellanos, who was credited with a walk and scored on a bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Jake Cave off Jonathan Loaisiga.

Loaisiga allowed a single to Bryson Stott and loaded the bases by plunking Alec Bohm in the back. After Cave’s sacrifice fly, Loaisiga prevented the Phillies from tying it when pinch hitter Josh Harrison grounded out.

Kyle Schwarber homered for the second straight game for the Phillies.

Cole was also aided by the Phillies committing two outs on the bases. Trea Turner made the final out of the third by getting picked off. Darick Hall made the final out of the fourth when he was thrown out by right fielder Franchy Cordero trying to stretch his single into a double.

The game was played in 48 degrees and both teams saw players depart with injuries.

New York’s Josh Donaldson exited with a tight right hamstring after flying out in the second. Hall exited with a sprained right thumb following his at-bat in the fourth, and Philadelphia center fielder Brandon Marsh was a late scratch with a mild left ankle sprain.

Nola (0-1) allowed three runs and seven hits in six-plus innings. Nola struck out five and was lifted after Oswaldo Cabrera walked.

Two batters after Cabrera reached, Trevino lined a homer off Gregory Soto down the left field line to push the lead to 4-1.

After Schwarber lined a 1-2 changeup into the right field seats to draw the Phillies within 4-2, Loaisiga ended the eighth by quickly getting the final two outs. Clay Holmes struck out the side in the ninth for his first save.

–Field Level Media

Alex Call and Jeimer Candelario hit back-to-back homers opening the game, CJ Abrams, Victor Robles and Lane Thomas each had three of Washington’s 19 hits and the Nationals beat the Colorado Rockies 10-5 in Denver on Friday.

MacKenzie Gore tossed six solid innings and Dominic Smith, Keibert Ruiz, Joey Meneses and Luis Garcia had two hits for Washington. Garcia left the game in the sixth after grounding out to end the inning, appearing to sustain a leg injury.

Gore (2-0) allowed five hits and two walks while fanning six in his second straight win to open the season.

Ryan McMahon homered and Charlie Blackmon and Yonathan Daza had two hits each for Colorado.

Call hit the fourth pitch he saw from Jose Urena into the seats in left, his first of the season, and Candelario followed with his second home run of 2023 to put the Nationals ahead 2-0. Washington doubled its season total in homers with the two solo shots.

The Nationals added two more runs in the second inning. Garcia, Thomas and Abrams began the frame with singles to load the bases. Garcia came home on a one-out walk to Call, and a Candelario sacrifice fly drove in Thomas to make it 4-0.

Colorado got one back in the bottom of the inning on McMahon’s home run, his second on the year.

Washington extended its lead in the third after Urena retired the first two batters. Garcia singled, Thomas reached on an error and both scored on a triple by Abrams.

Urena (0-2) left after walking Robles. He allowed six runs, four earned, on seven hits in 2 2/3 innings. Urena walked three and fanned one.

The Rockies got a run in the fourth when Daza’s single to right brought home Elehuris Montero, but the Nationals answered in the fifth. Thomas singled and Abrams hit an RBI triple before scoring on Call’s sacrifice fly to make it 8-2.

Colorado rallied in the seventh to make it close. Two singles and Ezequiel Tovar’s double brought in a run. Another scored on a groundout, and the Rockies got within 8-5 on Kris Bryant’s RBI single. Bryant has hit safely in all eight games this season.

Washington responded with two in the eighth on RBI singles by Smith and Ruiz.

–Field Level Media

Brandon Woodruff and five relievers combined on a five-hitter as the Milwaukee Brewers extended their winning streak to six with a 4-0 victory over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night in the opener of the weekend series.

Woodruff (1-0), allowed four hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out four and walking two in an 84-pitch outing. Joel Payamps, Gus Varland, Hoby Milner and Matt Bush kept the Cardinals off the board until the ninth, when Bryse Wilson retired three straight to preserve the Brewers’ third shutout.

Milwaukee scored two in the third off Jack Flaherty (1-1), then added single runs in the sixth and seventh. Flaherty gave up two runs on four hits in five innings and walked six while striking out three.

Milwaukee took a 2-0 lead in the third. Christian Yelich walked and Jesse Winker singled. Yelich took third as Willy Adames reached on a fielder’s choice and Rowdy Tellez followed with a sacrifice fly to the warning track in left.

William Contreras and Garrett Mitchell followed with consecutive singles to make it 2-0. Brian Anderson walked to load the bases. Rookie Brice Turang barely missed his second grand slam with a drive just outside the right-field foul pole, but then bounced to third to end the inning.

Milwaukee made it 3-0 in the sixth. The Brewers loaded the bases with consecutive one-out singles by Anderson, Turnang and Joey Wiemer — two of which were infield dribblers. Yelich followed with an RBI groundout to first.

Adames opened the seventh with his first homer of the season to make it 4-0.

Woodruff benefited from several key defensive plays. The Cardinals loaded the bases with one out in fourth on three singles, but Willson Contreras bounced into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.

Woodruff retired the first eight batters before Tommy Edman drew a two-out walk in the third, but Edman was thrown out trying to steal second.

–Field Level Media

Xander Bogaerts rolled a single through the right side of the infield to drive home Trent Grisham in the sixth inning Friday night, lifting the visiting San Diego Padres to a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

San Diego’s bullpen held the Braves scoreless over the final 4 1/3 innings with Brent Honeywell (1-0) earning the win and Josh Hader picking up his second save on his 29th birthday, snapping Atlanta’s four-game winning streak.

Hader struck out Matt Olson before Austin Riley singled for his third hit of the game while reaching base for the sixth straight plate appearance. Hader then struck out Ozzie Albies and got Sean Murphy to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the game.

Grisham walked to open the sixth against Braves reliever Michael Tonkin (0-1). He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Jose Azocar and scored when Bogaerts leaned out to punch a hit through the right side.

The Padres built a 3-0 lead in the first two innings against Braves rookie left-hander Jared Shuster, who was recalled from Triple-A to make his second major league start.

Juan Soto drew a one-out walk and eventually scored on a double by Nelson Cruz, who finished with three hits. Manny Machado, who singled, scored when Shuster, who also struggled with command in the first inning of his debut, issued back-to-back walks to Ha-Seong Kim and Austin Nola.

Azocar singled to open the second, stole second, moved to third on a fly out and scored on Cruz’s infield single.

The Braves tied the game with three runs in the third. Marcell Ozuna opened with a homer to left-center off Padres starter Nick Martinez. It was Ozuna’s second homer in eight career at-bats against Martinez.

Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson then drew back-to-back, one-out walks and advanced on a double steal. Riley singled home Acuna and Olson scored on a wild pitch to tie the game.

The Padres regained the lead in the fifth. Machado opened the inning with a double off Shuster, moved to third on a Cruz single and scored when Jake Cronenworth greeted Tonkin with a sacrifice fly to left.

But the Braves tied the game in their half of the inning on a bases-loaded, two-out walk drawn by Murphy off Martinez.

The starting pitchers finished with similar lines. Shuster allowed four runs on six hits and four walks with four strikeouts in four innings. Martinez also gave up four runs on four hits and five walks with four strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings.

–Field Level Media

Isaac Paredes’ grand slam highlighted a six-run second inning, and the Tampa Bay Rays homered five times to improve to 7-0 with a 9-5 victory over the visiting Oakland Athletics on Friday night in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Harold Ramirez, Manuel Margot, Christian Bethancourt and Wander Franco each clubbed solo home runs, while Paredes added two singles for Tampa Bay, which is off to the majors’ best start since Baltimore went 7-0 in 2016. The Rays have outscored their opponents 53-18, and won each by at least four runs — the first team since the 1884 St. Louis Maroons did so in their first 13 games.

Rookie Ryan Noda and Shea Langeliers (two hits) each homered and Aledmys Diaz had two hits with an RBI for Oakland, which has been outscored 50-27 while losing five of its first seven.

Athletics starter Ken Waldichuk (0-2) yielded eight runs on eight hits, including four homers, in three innings.

Oakland opened the scoring in the second against Rays starter Zach Eflin (2-0) on Jace Peterson’s RBI single to center field. However, Ramon Laureano (two hits) was thrown out at the plate by Jose Siri on the play.

Tampa Bay broke out in its half of the second. Ramirez led off with an opposite-field homer to right. Waldichuk then yielded three walks and a single to the next four batters, giving the Rays a 2-1 lead.

Then, after Yandy Diaz and Franco struck out, Paredes cleared the bases by taking a hanging breaking ball just over the left-field fence.

Oakland got a run back on Noda’s homer in the third, but in the bottom of the frame, Margot drilled Waldichuk’s offering into the left-center field seats. Two batters later, Bethancourt went deep to right-center for an 8-2 Rays’ lead.

Eflin allowed nine hits but limited Oakland to three runs, striking out seven without a walk in six innings.

Meanwhile, Oakland’s Adam Oller yielded Franco’s eighth-inning homer, and one other hit, over five strong relief innings.

–Field Level Media

Salvador Perez belted the 224th home run of his career, Vinnie Pasquantino hit his first of the season and the Kansas City Royals opened a six-game trip with a 3-1 victory Friday afternoon, spoiling the San Francisco Giants’ home opener.

Nicky Lopez added an RBI single and right-hander Brad Keller (1-1) threw 5 2/3 innings of one-run, three-hit ball, helping the Royals snap a three-game losing streak with just their second win of the season.

Alex Cobb (0-1) was the hard-luck loser for the Giants after holding the Royals to two runs on seven hits in seven innings. He struck out six and didn’t walk a batter.

After a run-scoring single by Blake Sabol had offset Lopez’s RBI hit in the second, Pasquantino gave the Royals the lead for good with his blast to right field leading off the fourth. The homer was just the Royals’ sixth of the season.

Perez’s homer, also his first of the year, came with two outs in the eighth off Giants reliever Taylor Rogers and provided an insurance run for the Kansas City bullpen, which took over after Keller was pulled two outs into the sixth.

He walked three and struck out three in his victorious outing.

Ryan Yarbrough, Aroldis Chapman and Scott Barlow combined for 3 1/3 innings of two-hit, shutout relief to secure the win. Barlow was credited with his first save of the season.

The Giants got the potential tying runs on the bases in the ninth against Barlow on a leadoff triple by Joc Pederson and Brandon Crawford’s two-out walk. But Barlow struck out Sabol to end it.

Pasquantino also walked and singled for the Royals, who out-hit the Giants 9-5. The visitors had no extra-base hits other than the home runs.

Pederson’s triple was the only extra-base hit for the Giants, who had opened the season with 15 home runs in their first six games, all of which had been on the road.

San Francisco has alternated losses and wins in each of its seven outings this season.

–Field Level Media

Bryan Reynolds drove in six runs on a home run and a triple and the Pittsburgh Pirates rode a five-run fifth inning to win their home opener 13-9 over the Chicago White Sox on Friday.

Carlos Santana also homered for Pittsburgh. Ji Hwan Bae, Ke’Bryan Hayes and Connor Joe each had an RBI double, and Oneil Cruz and Jason Delay hit RBI singles for the Pirates.

Pittsburgh starter Rich Hill allowed seven runs and eight hits in four innings. Dauri Moreta (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings and Wil Crowe got a three-inning save.

Luis Robert Jr. hit a pair of two-run homers and an RBI single, and Jake Burger and Oscar Colas also homered for the White Sox.

Chicago starter Lucas Giolito gave up seven runs and 12 hits in four innings. Jake Diekman (0-1) gave up four runs in one-third of an inning.

The White Sox took a 1-0 lead in the first when Tim Anderson doubled and scored on Andrew Vaughn’s groundout.

Santana tied it with his second homer, to right, in the second. Joe doubled and scored on Bae’s double to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.

In the third, Anderson singled ahead of Robert’s third homer, to center, to make it 3-2. Yoan Moncada then singled before Burger’s blast to left center, his first of the season, making it 5-2.

In the Pittsburgh third, Reynolds singled, went to second on Andrew McCutchen’s single and scored on Hayes’ double to cut it to 5-3.

Bae led off the bottom of the fourth with a bunt single, went to third on Delay’s single and scored on Cruz’s single to make it 5-4. Reynolds followed with a homer to center for a 7-5 lead.

The White Sox tied it in the fifth when Anderson singled before Robert homered to right.

In the bottom of the fifth against Diekman, Joe doubled, Bae singled and Delay put Pittsburgh ahead 8-7 with an RBI single. Cruz walked to load the bases.

After Jimmy Lambert replaced Diekman, Reynolds tripled to clear the bases and came home on second baseman Elvis Andrus’ fielding error, pushing it to 12-7.

Joe added an RBI double in the eighth. Colas homered and Robert hit an RBI single for Chicago in the ninth before Crowe got the final outs.

–Field Level Media

Kyle Farmer drove in the winning run with a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Minnesota Twins rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Houston Astros on Friday afternoon in Minneapolis.

Farmer grounded a 1-1 fastball by Houston reliever Ryne Stanek (1-1) up the middle against a drawn-in infield to drive in Trevor Larnach for his second career walk-off hit and first since 2017.

The Twins, who snapped a two-game losing streak, were trailing 2-1 entering the bottom of the 10th with Byron Buxton at second as the designated runner. After Buxton advanced to third on Stanek’s wild pitch, Larnach walked and Jose Miranda then lined a single to right to drive in Buxton with tying run.

Larnach and Miranda both advanced on a wild pitch to Donovan Solano, who was then intentionally walked to load the bases and set the stage for Farmer’s game-winning hit.

Miranda finished 3-for-5 with an RBI, Solano and Buxton each had two hits and scored a run, and Michael Taylor had a double among two hits for the Twins. Jorge Lopez (1-0) picked up the win.

Mauricio Dubon went 2-for-4 with a double, an RBI and run scored, and Kyle Tucker also had a double for Houston, which had a six-game win streak against Minnesota snapped.

Houston took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Dubon led off with a double to right, was sacrificed to third by Martin Maldonado and scored one out later on Alex Bregman’s single.

Minnesota, which left the bases loaded in the fourth and wasted Taylor’s leadoff double in the fifth, tied it, 1-1, in the sixth. Solano singled with one out, went to second on Farmer’s single, advanced to third on a fielder’s choice by Nick Gordon and then scored on a wild pitch by Astros reliever Bryan Abreu.

David Hensley began the 10th as the designated runner at second and advanced to third on a groundout to second by Chas McCormick. With the infield in, Dubon then bounced a grounder into the hole and under the glove of shortstop Carlos Correa to drive in Hensley and give Houston a 2-1 lead.

Twins starter Sonny Gray struck out a career-high 13 batters before departing after seven innings. Gray allowed one run on four hits, walked one and threw 98 pitches, 61 for strikes. The 13 strikeouts were the most by a Twins pitcher since Francisco Liriano struck out 15 on July 13, 2012.

Gray, who struck out the side in both the fourth and fifth innings and struck out five in a row during one stretch, became the fifth pitcher since 2017 to strike out at least 12 Astros in a game, joining Shohei Ohtani (twice), Trevor Bauer, Gerrit Cole and Lance Lynn.

–Field Level Media

Julio Rodriguez hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth to lift the Seattle Mariners to a 5-3 victory over the host Cleveland Guardians on Friday.

Rodriguez went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run, while J.P. Crawford went 2-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs for the Mariners, who won for just the second time in their past seven games.

Josh Naylor went 2-for-4 and Josh Bell and Myles Straw each had RBI singles for the Guardians.

Trailing 3-2, the Mariners took the lead for good in the sixth.

After Kolten Wong struck out, Jarred Kelenic doubled and took third on a wild pitch, and Cooper Hummel struck out. But Crawford followed with a double to center that scored Kelenic, causing starter Aaron Civale to be relieved by Nick Sandlin.

Seven pitches later, Rodriguez blasted a two-run shot over the left-center fence for a 5-3 lead.

While Seattle starter Logan Gilbert wasn’t sharp, allowing three runs on six hits with six strikeouts and two walks in just four innings, the Mariners’ bullpen was outstanding for the final five innings.

Penn Murfee, Trevor Gott, Matt Brash, Andres Munoz and Paul Sewald allowed a combined one hit the rest of the way to go along with seven strikeouts and a walk. Murfee (1-1) picked up the win by pitching a scoreless fifth, while Sewald pitched a perfect ninth inning for his first save of the season.

Civale (1-1) allowed four runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and a walk in 5 2/3 innings.

After the Guardians took a 1-0 lead in the first inning following Gilbert’s wild pitch with the bases loaded that scored Amed Rosario, Cleveland doubled its advantage in the third inning on Bell’s run-scoring single to right.

Cleveland pushed its lead to 3-0 in the fourth when Andres Gimenez scored on Straw’s single to left.

Seattle pulled to within 3-2 in its next at-bat on Crawford’s RBI double and Ty France’s run-scoring single.

–Field Level Media

Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell missed Friday’s 5-2 loss to the host Philadelphia Phillies after undergoing a minor medical procedure.

The team didn’t disclose the nature of the procedure. Bell is slated to return for Saturday’s game.

Bench coach Freddie Benavides served as acting manager for Friday’s game and fell to 5-4 as a fill-in for the Reds. Benavides, who turned 57 on Friday, went 5-2 as the interim manager in 2019 when Bell was suspended and was 0-1 during another suspension in 2020.

“Unfortunately David had to go home today, so always have to be ready no matter what the situation is, whether he gets kicked out of a game and you have to take it on,” Benavides told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “You have to prepare like you’re managing.”

Bell is in his fifth season with the Reds and has a 254-298 record.

–Field Level Media