Oakland’s Cristian Pache is waved home by third-base coach Darren Bush as he scored on a three-base error Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla. Scott Audette/Associated Press
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Cole Irvin pitched into the seventh inning, and the Oakland Athletics beat Tampa Bay 6-3 on Thursday to take three of four from the Rays,
Irvin (1-1) allowed three runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings as the rebuilding A’s, under new manager Mark Kotsay, improved to 4-3.
Brandon Lowe homered for the Rays.
Cristian Pache had a two-out RBI single with two on in the second and scored on the play to make it 3-0 when the Rays misplayed his hit to center. Left fielder Randy Arozarena was charged with an error after the ball deflected off him while he was sliding, and the ball eluded center fielder Kevin Kiermaier and ended up on the warning track.
Oakland scored 31 runs in the series.
Tampa Bay opened the second with three straight hits but scored only once on Manuel Margot’s single. Margot was thrown out trying to advance to second by right fielder Billy McKinney on Mike Zunino’s fly ball.
Irvin retired 14 batters in a row starting with Zunino’s double play. Harold Ramirez stopped the streak with a leadoff double in the seventh before Lowe ended the left-hander’s day with his two-run homer that cut the deficit to 6-3.
Dany Jiménez, the third Oakland reliever, worked the ninth for his first big league save.
MARINERS 5, WHITE SOX 1: Jared Kelenic hit a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the second inning, and Seattle stopped a four-game losing streak with a victory at Chicago.
Logan Gilbert (1-0) allowed an unearned run and four hits in five innings, and four pitchers followed with an inning each of hitless relief.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
BREWERS 5, CARDINALS 1: Brandon Woodruff threw five shutout innings, Omar Narvaez homered and doubled, and Milwaukee opened its home schedule with a victory over St. Louis.
Woodruff struck out two and allowed three hits and a walk to bounce back from an uncharacteristically poor performance in his first start – a 9-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
Woodruff threw 65 of his 89 pitches for strikes. He faced his only serious trouble in the third inning but got out of the bases-loaded jam by retiring Tyler O’Neill on a shallow fly to right.
The Brewers gave Woodruff an early lead by scoring four runs in the first three innings off Adam Wainwright (1-1).
MARLINS 4, PHILLIES 3: Sandy Alcantara allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings, Joey Wendle had two RBI and Miami won their its opener.
Garrett Cooper hit his first home run of the year, while Jesús Sánchez had two hits and an RBI for Miami.
PIRATES 9, NATIONALS 4: Bryan Reynolds hit a two-run homer, helping Pittsburgh overcome a three-run deficit to beat visiting Washington.
Daniel Vogelbach led off a game with a home run for the first time in the big leagues and matched his career high with four hits.
Reynolds tied the score 3-3 with a drive to right-center in a four-run third inning, and Kevin Newman hit a go-ahead, two-run double.
Rookie Roansy Contreras (1-0) pitched three scoreless innings of one-hit relief to win his first big league decision.
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