Major League Baseball is planning to play regular-season games in South Korea for the first time, with the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers expected to open the 2024 season there, according to multiple reports Sunday.

The San Diego Union-Tribune and ESPN reported that the National League West rivals would likely play a two-game set in South Korea. The Athletic reported the Padres and Dodgers were on the “short list” of clubs that could be chosen for the trip.

MLB would target late March, allowing the teams to return to the Pacific Time Zone and reset themselves before resuming the regular season.

The Padres have one Korean player, starting infielder Ha-Seong Kim. Every Padres game is televised live in South Korea as fans there want to follow Kim, according to the Union-Tribune.

The Padres recently returned from playing the first two MLB games in Mexico City, splitting the set against the San Francisco Giants. The franchise played the league’s first regular-season games anywhere outside the U.S. and Canada in 1996, when they took two of three games against the New York Mets in Monterrey, Mexico.

Other regular-season MLB games have been contested in Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom. The league will make its second trip to London in June when the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals play two games there.

–Field Level Media

Whit Merrifield homered and drove in four runs Sunday as the visiting Toronto Blue Jays completed a three-game series sweep with a 10-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Daulton Varsho and Kevin Kiermaier also had home runs, and Danny Jansen drove in two runs for the Blue Jays. Brandon Belt went 3-for-4 with two runs.

Toronto starter Yusei Kikuchi (5-0) pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing four hits and two walks with three strikeouts.

Carlos Santana had an RBI single for the Pirates, whose losing streak reached seven games.

Pittsburgh starter Roansy Contreras (3-3) allowed five runs and nine hits in five innings, with four strikeouts and three walks.

In the first, Bo Bichette hit a one-out single to right and Varsho moved Bichette to third with a double to the corner in right. After Matt Chapman struck out, Belt walked to load the bases. Merrifield reached on what was ruled an infield hit to second baseman Mark Mathias, whose throw to first was a little high. That brought in Bichette for a 1-0 Toronto lead.

In the third, Chapman singled to left with one out and advanced to second on Belt’s single to center. Merrifield followed with his homer to left, his first, to boost it to 4-0.

Toronto added another in the fifth. Chapman walked, Belt doubled to the wall in center and, an out later, Jansen’s dribbler groundout drove in Chapman for a 5-0 lead.

Against Yimi Garcia in the eighth, Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes singled up the middle and went to third on Connor Joe’s double to right-center one out later. Santana broke up the shutout by driving Hayes home with a single to left to make it 5-1.

In the ninth, Bichette singled ahead of Varsho’s fifth homer, a shot to right that bounced into the Allegheny River, to increase the margin to 7-1. Jansen added an RBI double later in the inning, followed by Kiermaier’s second homer of the year, to right, to make it a 10-1 blowout.

The start of the game was delayed about 90 minutes because of rain.

–Field Level Media

The Miami Marlins scored the tiebreaking run on a 14th-inning balk — overcoming Sandy Alcantara blowing a two-run lead in the ninth — to snap a five-game losing streak with Sunday’s 5-4 road win over the Chicago Cubs.

Each team scored a run in the 10th and 13th innings. Then, with Garrett Hampson on third base in the 14th, Chicago’s Adbert Alzolay (1-2) was called for a balk by home-plate umpire Alan Porter to bring the eventual winning run home. Andrew Nardi kept the Cubs scoreless in the bottom of the 14th, and Miami won its first game in May to improve to 11-0 in one-run contests.

Chicago was down 2-0 entering the ninth against reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Alcantara, who was looking for his second complete game of the season. However, Ian Happ (two hits) singled with one out and scored on Cody Bellinger’s double into the left-field gap. Bellinger (two hits) then scored on Eric Hosmer’s RBI single off Alcantara, who exited after allowing nine hits while striking out nine without a walk on 113 pitches.

Chicago got a third straight strong effort from starter Hayden Wesneski, who allowed only five hits, including Yuli Gurriel’s fifth-inning solo homer, and fanned six without a walk through six innings. Miami added a run in the eighth on an RBI single from ex-Cub Jorge Soler.

However, Marlins manager Skip Schumacher opted to stay with Alcantara, who tossed a three-hit complete game during a 1-0 victory over Minnesota on April 4, but he was unable to keep the Cubs down one last time.

Joey Wendle, activated off the injured list earlier in the day, hit an RBI triple for Miami in the top of the 10th. The Cubs responded with Nico Hoerner’s RBI single. Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit a sacrifice fly to put the Marlins up 4-3 in the 13th but Happ drove in Hoerner to tie it again.

Steven Okert (1-0) allowed that run in the 13th but picked up the win for Miami.

Rookie Matt Mervis and Nick Madrigal also had two hits for the Cubs, who took two out of three in the series following a 1-6 road trip to Miami and Washington.

In terms of innings, this is the longest major league game played thus far in 2023.

–Field Level Media

Paul Goldschmidt hit three homers and drove in four runs as the St. Louis Cardinals snapped their eight-game losing streak with a 12-6 victory over the visiting Detroit Tigers.

Brendan Donovan hit a three-run homer for the Cardinals and Lars Nootbaar drove in two runs.

Cardinals starting pitcher Steven Matz allowed one run on five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out two without a walk. Reliever JoJo Romero (1-0) earned his first career victory.

Jake Rogers hit a grand slam and Spencer Torkelson also hit a home run for the Tigers, whose five-game winning streak came to a halt.

Tigers starting pitcher Alex Faedo allowed three runs (two earned) on three hits in 4 2/3 innings. Reliever Mason Englert (1-2) took the loss, allowing five runs — though only one was earned — on three hits while recording just one out.

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead on Goldschmidt’s first-inning homer, then they extended their lead to 2-0 in the second inning on Tommy Edman’s sacrifice fly.

Goldschmidt made it 3-0 with his third-inning solo homer, then Torkelson cut the Detroit deficit to 3-1 with his fourth-inning blast.

The Tigers moved ahead 6-3 in the sixth inning against relievers James Naile and Romero. Torkelson hit a one-out single immediately after Matz departed, took second when Eric Haase reached on an Edman error, then scored on Miguel Cabrera’s single.

Romero came on and walked Zach McKinstry to load the bases to set the stage for Rogers’ second career grand slam.

The Cardinals surged ahead 10-6 in their half of the inning. Goldschmidt hit a leadoff single and Nolan Gorman was hit by a pitch — then they executed a double steal after Englert relieved Tyler Alexander. Goldschmidt scored on a Nolan Arenado grounder past shortstop Javier Baez, which was ruled an error. With two outs Donovan hit his three-run blast to put the Cardinals up 7-6.

Carlson then hit a single, Edman reached on an error by Nick Maton and Andrew Knizner hit an RBI double to dispatch Englert. Nootbaar followed with a two-run single off Tyler Holton, capping a wild inning that saw 12 combined runs between the teams.

The Cardinals made it 12-6 in the eighth inning when Knizner hit another double and Goldschmidt smacked a two-homer — for the third three-homer game of his career.

–Field Level Media

Salvador Perez homered and Ryan Yarbrough won a start for the first time since August 2021 as the host Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics 5-1, salvaging the final game of the weekend series.

It was a painful victory for Yarbrough (1-4), who was struck on the left cheek by Ryan Noda’s line drive in the sixth inning on a ball with an exit velocity measured at 106 mph. Yarbrough was helped off the field and the Royals said he was “alert” and undergoing further testing.

Yarbrough allowed one run on three hits over 5 2/3 innings, his longest start since July last year with the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the longest start by a Royals pitcher since Brady Singer threw six innings against Arizona April 25.

Kansas City snapped a three-game slide, winning for just the third time in 19 home games.

Perez had three of Kansas City’s nine hits and scored three runs. He has hit safely in 10 of 11 games, batting .429 (18-for-42) with five homers.

Perez opened the scoring in the first drilling a two-out solo blast 462 feet to left-center. He turned around a 100-mph fastball by rookie Mason Miller (0-2), who allowed his first career home run, snapping a 10 1/3-inning hitless streak.

Miller finished six innings, surrendering two runs on five hits and one walk while fanning five.

The A’s tied the game in the fourth as Brent Rooker was hit by a pitch and stole second — the first of his career — and scored on Ramon Laureano’s infield hit. Royals second baseman Michael Massey knocked down the slicing liner, deflecting it to Bobby Witt Jr., whose short-hop throw to the plate escaped catcher Perez.

The Royals retook the lead in the bottom half on Maikel Garcia’s two-out RBI single, scoring Perez. Garcia has hit safely in all six games since his May 2 recall from Triple-A Omaha.

Nick Pratto clubbed a two-run double as the Royals added three eighth-inning insurance runs.

Three Kansas City relievers finished with 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Royals pitchers permitted just four singles, the fewest hits allowed since a 10-1 win April 12 against the Texas Rangers.

–Field Level Media

Kris Bryant and Brenton Doyle each homered and finished with three RBIs Sunday afternoon for the visiting Colorado Rockies, who beat the New York Mets 13-6 in the rubber game of a three-game series.

The Rockies have won six of seven, while the Mets have dropped 11 of 14.

Bryant had a game-tying RBI single in the third and hit a two-run homer in the fifth. Doyle laced a two-run homer — his first in the majors – later in the seven-run inning and added an RBI single in the seventh.

Randal Grichuk hit a first-inning solo homer while Jurickson Profar had an RBI double in the third. The Rockies’ seven-run fifth inning also included a two-run double by Ezequiel Tovar and a run-scoring single by Austin Wynns.

Colorado added two runs in the ninth when Wynns had a sacrifice fly and Doyle scored on a wild pitch.

Doyle finished with three hits while Bryant, Profar, Tovar and Alan Trejo had two hits apiece. Every starter except C.J. Cron had at least one hit for the Rockies.

Brent Suter (1-0), the second of six pitchers for the Rockies, earned the win after giving up one run on three hits and no walks with three strikeouts over 1 2/3 innings.

Jeff McNeil had three hits and two RBIs while Brett Baty hit a two-run single in the opening inning for the Mets. Luis Guillorme (2-for-4) had a fifth-inning RBI single while Daniel Vogelbach hit a solo homer in the seventh.

Jimmy Yacabonis (2-1) took the loss after giving up five runs on three hits and two walks in just one-third of an inning in the fifth.

Rockies starter Ryan Feltner allowed four runs on four hits and six walks while striking out three over 3 1/3 innings. Mets starter Joey Lucchesi gave up three runs on four hits and three walks while striking out four over four innings.

–Field Level Media

The Miami Marlins activated Joey Wendle from the 10-day injured list on Sunday after the infielder missed slightly more than a month.

Wendle strained a right intercostal muscle and placed on the IL on April 4. He last played on April 2.

Wendle, 33, was hitless in eight at-bats over four games before being placed on the injured list.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said the plan is for Wendle to be the team’s starting shortstop. But he was not in the starting lineup for Sunday’s game against the Chicago Cubs.

Wendle is in his second season with the Marlins after playing for the Tampa Bay Rays from 2018-21. He has a .270 career average with 30 homers, 199 RBIs and 54 steals in 541 career games.

In 2021, Wendle was an All-Star for the Rays while hitting a career-best 11 homers.

Miami optioned infielder Xavier Edwards to Triple-A Jacksonville in a corresponding move. Edwards went 1-for-6 while playing in his first three major league games.

–Field Level Media

Isaac Paredes had an RBI single with one out in the 10th inning to lift the Tampa Bay Rays to an 8-7 win against the New York Yankees in the rubber game of their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Paredes hit an opposite-field line drive to right off Albert Abreu (1-1) to score Brandon Lowe from second base.

Jose Siri and Christian Bethancourt homered for Tampa Bay, which came back from a 6-0 deficit.

Harrison Bader homered, tripled, singled and scored three runs for New York. Anthony Rizzo also went deep.

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole breezed through four innings before giving up two runs in the fifth and four in the sixth to blow the six-run lead. Cole gave up six runs (five earned) and eight hits, striking out six and walking two in his five-plus innings.

Aaron Hicks began the 10th inning on second base for the Yankees, but was tagged out in a rundown between home and third for the second out. Rays reliever Garrett Cleavinger injured his leg during the play and was replaced by Jalen Beeks (1-2), who struck out Rizzo to end the scoreless frame.

Javy Guerra pitched a scoreless first inning for the Rays before Josh Fleming followed with five innings of relief. He allowed six runs and seven hits while walking four and striking out one.

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead on a solo homer by Rizzo in the third inning, followed by a two-run shot from Bader to make it 3-0.

Hicks and Gleyber Torres had RBI doubles in the fourth to stretch the lead to 5-0.

Bader led off the fifth with a triple and later scored to make it 6-0.

Siri went deep in the fifth to trim the lead to 6-1. The inning continued with Wander Franco’s infield single and an ensuing throwing error that made it 6-2.

Harold Ramirez and Paredes delivered back-to-back doubles in the sixth to make it 6-3.

The Yankees left Cole in the game after he walked Manuel Margot to put the tying run aboard. Bethancourt followed with a three-run homer to tie the game 6-6 and end Cole’s day.

Jimmy Cordero came in and walked Siri, who eventually scored on a groundout to give Tampa Bay a 7-6 lead.

Bader led off the seventh with a single and came around to score on Jose Trevino’s grounder to tie the score 7-7.

–Field Level Media

Cal Quantrill shook off unusual home struggles this season and returned to form on Sunday, flirting with a no-hitter and pitching the Cleveland Guardians to a 2-0 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins.

Quantrill had been pretty much a sure thing for the Cleveland Guardians throughout his career when pitching at home until 2023. He had a 15-0 record in 45 appearances at home since joining the Guardians in 2020 before losing his first two home starts this season.

But the Quantrill of old returned, and the right-hander had a no-hitter into the seventh inning by inducing 11 ground-ball outs during that stretch, before Alex Kirilloff broke up the gem with two out in the seventh by rifling a single through the infield into right field. Quantrill walked the next hitter, Joey Gallo, but then struck out Jose Miranda to end his outing.

The Guardians, who came into the game having scored three runs or fewer in 20 games — tied for the most in the majors with the Miami Marlins — needed Quantrill’s sterling effort. Cleveland has scored four or more runs only 13 times, including Saturday’s 4-3 win against the Twins.

But Cleveland opened this game with three straight singles off Minnesota right-hander Joe Ryan, who was leading the major leagues with a 0.77 WHIP entering the game.

Jose Ramirez delivered the third of those hits, with his single to right scoring Steven Kwan, then Ramirez later came across to score for a 2-0 lead on Josh Bell’s RBI single.

Meanwhile, Quantrill was only in trouble once in the early going, loading the bases in the top of the second by plunking Byron Buxton and walking consecutive batters with nobody out. But he got Miranda to pop out to shortstop, then induced an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play by Nick Gordon, and stomped off the mound pumping his fist.

Quantrill (2-2) gave up just the one hit in his seven frames, striking out four and walking three while throwing 58 of 95 pitches for strikes.

Ryan (5-1) gave up two runs and eight hits over six innings with four strikeouts without walking a batter.

James Karinchak worked around a walk to Christian Vazquez to pitch a scoreless eighth for Cleveland. Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase gave up a walk but otherwise retired the Twins for his MLB-leading 12th save.

–Field Level Media

Kyle Schwarber broke out of a slump by collecting two hits to help the Philadelphia Phillies end a six-game losing streak by beating the visiting Boston Red Sox 6-1 Sunday.

Schwarber had a two-run home run and an RBI single for the Phillies, who ended Boston’s winning streak at eight games. His fourth-inning single ended an 0-for-21 drought and was Schwarber’s first hit since he homered against the Dodgers last Monday.

Taijuan Walker (3-2) went six innings to earn the win. Walker entered the game with a 6.91 ERA but held Boston to one run on three hits and struck out six without a walk. Matt Strahm struck out three in two scoreless innings to pick up his first save.

Triston Casas hit his fourth home run of the season for the Red Sox, who scored at least five runs in each game during their eight-game winning streak.

Boston starter Tanner Houck (3-2) took the loss after he allowed three runs on five hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.

Schwarber’s home run came against left-handed reliever Richard Bleier in the bottom of the sixth and extended Philadelphia’s lead to 4-1. Schwarber was the first batter Bleier faced after Houck exited the mound.

Schwarber batted fifth in the order Sunday after hitting leadoff for Philadelphia’s previous four games. He was 0-for-19 with seven strikeouts in those four contests.

The Phillies scored twice in the bottom of the fourth, when back-to-back singles and a walk loaded the bases. Bryson Stott gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead when he scored from third on a fielder’s choice by Nick Castellanos, and then Bryce Harper doubled the lead when he scored from second on Schwarber’s single.

The Red Sox got on the scoreboard when Casas hit a solo home run to center in the top of the fifth.

Philadelphia capped the scoring on J.T. Realmuto’s two-run single in the eighth.

Boston’s Masataka Yoshida extended his hitting streak to 16 games with a single in the first, before getting picked off. He had two of Boston’s five hits.

–Field Level Media