CLEVELAND (AP) – Juan Soto hit a three-run homer and Cody Poteet pitched six solid innings in his debut for New York as the Yankees won 8-2 to sweep a doubleheader on Saturday over the Cleveland Guardians and continue one of the strongest starts in their storied history.
New York took the opener, 3-2.
The Yankees are 12-3 for the seventh time and first since 2003, when they made one of their 40 trips to the World Series. They’re 8-1 on the road.
Soto, acquired by the club in an offseason trade from San Diego to put New York back on top, connected in the fourth off Triston McKenzie (1-2), who struggled from the outset and walked six in four innings.
Poteet (1-0) allowed one run and six hits while picking up his first win since 2021 – 1,056 days ago – with Miami. The 29-year-old did not pitch in the majors last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2022.
He signed a contract in January with New York to add pitching depth after the Yankees traded some of it away in the deal for Soto.
One of the few bright spots for Cleveland was Estevan Florial, who homered in the fifth inning to help avert a shutout. Florial was once rated New York’s top prospect before the club traded him to the Guardians in December.
Josh Naylor also homered in Game 2 for the Guardians, who are 1-9 in their last five doubleheaders.
Already down 3-0 following Anthony Volpe’s RBI single, McKenzie grooved a 3-0 fastball that Soto pounded over the wall in center for his third homer with New York.
In the opener, the Yankees got a two-run homer from Oswaldo Cabrera and survived a scary ninth inning by closer Clay Holmes to improve to 5-0 in one-run games.
New York starter Clarke Schmidt (1-0) allowed one run over five-plus innings before manager Aaron Boone turned to his solid bullpen.
Caleb Ferguson pitched one inning, Ian Hamilton went two and Boone brought in Holmes, who gave up a double to Ramon Laureano – a shot into a stiff wind off Lake Erie.
“April in Cleveland helped us out there a little bit,” Boone said, smiling.
Red Sox 7, Angels 2
Triston Casas hit a long two-run homer in a four-run first inning and the Boston Red Sox cleaned up their season-long defensive problems for their first home victory of the season.
Masataka Yoshida added two RBI singles for the Red Sox. They opened 0-4 at home while committing eight errors that led to nine unearned runs. For the season, they made 14 accounting for 15 unearned.
But Saturday, they were clean in the field, including a nice play up-the-middle by shortstop David Hamilton that led to a force out. The game ended with a nifty 6-4-3 double play.
Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer – the 8,999th in club history – for the Angels, who beat Boston 7-0 in the series opener Friday. Slugger Mike Trout went 0 for 4 with a strikeout.
Wearing their City Connect uniforms that pay tribute to the Boston Marathon’s finish-line colors with bright yellow jerseys and powder blue hats for the second straight game, the Red Sox broke ahead with the four-run first against Griffin Canning (0-2).
Yoshida had an RBI single before Casas belted a drive estimated at 429 feet over the Angels’ bullpen, making it 3-0. When he got into the dugout after trotting around the bases, someone draped a B.A.A. 5K medal around his neck. Red Sox manager Alex Cora ran the race in the morning.
Cora said afterward that it was his medal.
“That caught me by surprise, actually. I didn’t know we had that,” Casas said. “I don’t know how long that’s going to stick. I don’t know if that’s just a marathon thing for two days or if we’re going to keep riding it out. I’ll try to at least put it on (today).”
Casas felt it’s one of the deeper balls he’s hit.
“That was a big swing for us,” Cora said.
Royals 11, Mets 7
Salvador Perez hit his milestone 250th homer and Bobby Witt Jr. scored four times to lead Kansas City.
Perez, who won the 2015 World Series MVP when Kansas City beat the Mets in five games, laced a two-run single in the second before hitting a replay-aided two-run homer in the fourth. He was originally credited with an RBI double when Brandon Nimmo got a piece of the ball as he crashed into the left-center-field wall, but the Royals challenged and a review showed the ball rolled over the orange home-run line.
“Means a lot – super exciting, especially (in) the win,” Perez said. “Hopefully many more.”
Perez is the sixth Venezuela-born player to hit 250 homers as well as the 12th primary catcher in big league history to do so.
“It’s special for us – everybody that gets to witness this, day in and day out, the fans in Kansas City have seen it for 13 years now,” second-year Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “Just to be here everyday and watch somebody like him, as professional as he is, continue to rack up those accolades is really special.”
The four-run game was the second of the week for Witt, who also scored four times in Thursday’s 13-3 win over the Houston Astros. He just missed scoring a fifth run in the sixth inning Saturday, when Nimmo robbed him of a three-run homer with a leaping catch at the right-center-field wall. Nick Loftin collected a career-high three RBIs for Kansas City improved to 10-5 for just the seventh time in franchise history.
