ANAHEIM, Calif. — Carlos Correa hit a tie-breaking, two-run homer in the ninth inning and the Houston Astros split a short series against the AL West rival Los Angeles Angels with a 4-2 victory Tuesday.

Kyle Tucker and Aledmys Diaz hit back-to-back homers in the second inning for the Astros, who went an impressive 5-1 on their six-game trip to start the season amid the incessant booing and jeering they’ll hear indefinitely as fans react to their sign-stealing scandal in the 2017 and 2018 seasons.

After starting pitchers Zack Greinke and Dylan Bundy traded strong innings early, Yordan Alvarez singled in the ninth off new Angels closer Raisel Iglesias (1-1).

Correa then drove a liner off the low video board above the right-field wall at Angel Stadium for his first homer of the season.

Mike Trout hit a 464-foot homer in the first inning and Shohei Ohtani had two hits, but the Angels dropped to 4-2 and failed to match the best six-game start in franchise history.

Ryan Pressly (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings for Houston, getting Justin Upton to ground into a game-ending double play.

TIGERS 4, TWINS 3: Akil Baddoo added another big hit in this charmed start to his big league career, lining an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Detroit a win at home.

Baddoo made his debut Sunday and homered on the first pitch thrown to him. Then he hit a grand slam in a 15-6 loss to the Twins on Monday. The rookie entered Tuesday’s game as a pinch runner, stayed in to the play the outfield and ended it with a hit to right off Hansel Robles (0-1).

The 22-year-old Baddoo was taken by the Tigers from the Twins last December in the Rule 5 draft of players left off 40-man rosters. A second-round draft choice by Minnesota in 2016, Baddoo had never played above Class A until this year, and was a career .249 hitter in four minor league seasons – there were no games in the minors last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nelson Cruz and Byron Buxton homered for the Twins, who rallied from a 3-1 deficit.

Gregory Soto (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings for Detroit, and the Tigers scored in their half of the 10th.

Harold Castro began the inning on second base as the automatic runner and advanced to third on Jeimer Candelario’s groundout. Robles struck out Wilson Ramos and intentionally walked Robbie Grossman before Baddoo came up.

The Twins had runners on first and third with nobody out in the 10th, but Soto struck out Max Kepler, and Buxton followed with a grounder to third. Candelario threw home in time to get Jorge Polanco – the second Minnesota hitter thrown out at home on the day.

Soto then struck out pinch-hitter Andrelton Simmons.

YANKEES 7, ORIOLES 2: Gerrit Cole struck out 13 and walked none over seven scoreless innings in his most dominant start since joining the New York Yankees, overwhelming the visiting Baltimore Orioles 7-2 for his first win this season.

Cole (1-0) allowed four hits, three of them singles, in the type of the performance that showed why the Yankees made him baseball’s highest-paid pitcher in December 2019 with a $324 million, nine-year contract.

Jay Bruce backed him with his first Yankees home run, a solo shot in the second off Dean Kremer (0-1), and Aaron Judge added a three-run homer in the eighth.

New York has won a team-record 12 straight home games against the Orioles since May 2019, outscoring Baltimore 76-28. It moved above .500 for first time this year at 3-2.

RANGERS 7, BLUE JAYS 4: Nate Lowe homered twice and padded his franchise record for RBI to start the season with four more, leading Texas Rover visiting Toronto.

Lowe was the first Texas player to go deep in front of the home fans at Globe Life Field, lining a two-run shot into the Toronto bullpen in left-center field for a 2-1 lead in the first inning.

Ronald Guzman and Jonah Heim also went deep for the Rangers in their first four-homer game in their year-old ballpark. It was also the first six-homer game in the regular season, with Toronto’s Bo Bichette connecting twice.

There were 18,585 fans a day after the Rangers welcomed 38,238 for their home opener, becoming the first major American pro sports team to fill a stadium since the coronavirus shutdown of sports more than a year ago. Texas opened the $1.2 billion retractable roof stadium last season, when fans weren’t allowed in during the regular season.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

NATIONALS 6, BRAVES 5: Juan Soto drove in the winning run with a single on a 3-0 pitch in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting coronavirus-depleted Washington  to a comeback victory at home after waiting five days to start their season.

Lefty reliever Will Smith entered for the ninth and promptly gave up a single to new leadoff hitter Victor Robles, then hit Trea Turner with a pitch. That brought up Soto, the 2020 NL batting champion who went into this pivotal at-bat 0 for 4.

But Soto delivered a line drive to center field, then tossed his red helmet high in the air before being mobbed by teammates who sprinted from the home dugout to meet him near second base, jumping and shouting and dousing him with water.

Because of a COVID-19 outbreak – four players tested positive; seven were forced into quarantine after potentially being exposed – Washington’s first four scheduled games were scrapped, including three at home against the Mets, followed by Monday against the Braves.

Smyly allowed two earned runs in six innings.
Kyle Finnegan replaced Scherzer in the seventh and Acuna made it 5-4 with a fielder’s choice chopper up the middle.
But Washington loaded the bases in the eighth against A.J. Minter, and Andrew Stevenson – starting in left field for Kyle Schwarber, part of the IL contingent – made it 5-all with an RBI infield single that went off third baseman Austin Riley’s glove.

REDS 14, PIRATES 1: Tyler Naquin homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs, helping host Cincinnati win its fourth straight.

Rookie Jonathan India had three hits and four RBI in Cincinnati’s latest offensive outburst. Tucker Barnhart and Nick Senzel also had three hits apiece.

The Reds set a franchise record with 46 runs in their first five games. The 1895 and 1976 teams scored 44 runs through five games.

METS 8, PHILLIES 4: Marcus Stroman tossed six sharp innings in his first start since 2019, Dominic Smith and Pete Alonso each hit a two-run homer and visiting New York got its first win of the season.

Didi Gregorius hit a solo homer for Philadelphia, which sought its first 5-0 start since 1915.

After sitting out last year due to COVID-19 concerns, Stroman (1-0) didn’t miss a step. He allowed one run and three hits before giving way to a bullpen that wasted Jacob deGrom’s masterful performance a night earlier.

The Mets opened their season Monday after a three-game series at Washington was postponed because of a coronavirus breakout among the Nationals.

CARDINALS 4, MARLINS 2: Yadier Molina hit a tie-breaking sacrifice fly off former batterymate Sandy Alcantara to cap a three-run rally in the sixth inning that sent St. Louis to a win at Miami.

Dylan Carson hit his second homer of the season for an insurance run in the ninth.

BREWERS 4, CUBS 0: Freddy Peralta pitched five sharp innings, Travis Shaw hit a three-run homer and Milwaukee won at Chicago.

Peralta (1-0) struck out eight and walked four. Kris Bryant doubled in the fourth for Chicago’s only hit of the game.

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