Baseball

TAMPA, Fla.

NEW YORK (AP) — Mark Vientos hit his first homer of the season to spark a four-run second inning, and the New York Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Ryan O'Hearn hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in the third inning and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-2 on Thursday night for their first series win in six tries this season.

NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred met this week at the White House with President Donald Trump. “President Trump is a longtime fan of baseball," MLB said in a statement Thursday.

ATLANTA (AP) — The Atlanta Braves, looking to boost their struggling offense, recalled outfielder Alex Verdugo and optioned outfielder Bryan De La Cruz to Triple-A Gwinnett on Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — Darryl Strawberry says Major League Baseball needs to focus on developing and marketing the game within the inner cities in order for the percentage of Black players to rise substantially.

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Soderstrom hit his major league-leading ninth home run, helping the Athletics to an 8-0 win Thursday and a three-game sweep of the struggling Chicago White Sox.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cristopher Sánchez struck out a career-high 12 over seven innings, and the Philadelphia Phillies scored five runs in the first as they beat the San Francisco Giants 6-4 on Thursday for a four-game split.

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Los Angeles Angels signed reliever Héctor Neris to a minor league contract and assigned him Thursday to their team in the Arizona Complex League.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Oneil Cruz hit a leadoff home run, Andrew Heaney pitched 7 1/3 innings and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Washington Nationals 1-0 on Thursday. Cruz hit a grand slam in Wednesday’s 6-1 win and has four home runs this season.