American League

Royals 7, Twins 1

Edinson Volquez is quickly proving his breakthrough season of a year ago was no fluke.

The Royals right-hander held down the Twins for seven innings Monday night, and Kansas City's opportunistic offense took advantage of a series of Minnesota miscues in a victory.

"It feels good because the way I'm pitching, I'm carrying over everything," said Volquez, who went 13-7 with a 3.04 ERA for Pittsburgh. "Just trying to do what I did last year."

Royals manager Ned Yost said that pitching coach Dave Eiland has been working on mechanics with Volquez (2-1) that have allowed him to pitch even better than he did with the Pirates. He only allowed five hits and a walk while striking out five against Minnesota.

"We've been talking about him since he first got here," Yost said. "We felt last year was a big year for him. He really turned the corner with his mechanics on some things."

Alcides Escobar returned from a sprained knee to score a run Monday night, and Kendrys Morales and Paulo Orlando drove in a pair each as the Royals finally figured out Kyle Gibson.

Their nemesis gave up four runs in five-plus innings after beating the Royals the first four times he faced them. Gibson (1-2) was dominant last week in a 3-1 victory at Target Field.

"Gibby didn't have his best command, four walks and a couple of wild pitches," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "He was struggling with his feel for off-speed pitches. His last start he had a good slider and changeup. Tonight he had to battle with his fastball.

"He didn't give up a lot of hits, but had a lot of base runners with the base on balls."

Gibson also didn't have the kind of defense that Kansas City has behind him.

After first baseman Eric Hosmer threw the ball away trying to start a double play in the second inning — helping to contribute to Minnesota's only run — he was on the receiving end of a double-play relay to end the threat. Alex Gordon also made a diving catch in left field, and Mike Moustakas made a couple of difficult plays at third base look routine.

The Royals left the bases loaded against Gibson in the second, but they evened the score in the third. Escobar doubled to lead off the inning, went to third on Moustakas's groundout, then trotted home easily when Gibson's pitch in the dirt got away from catcher Kurt Suzuki.

The score remained deadlocked until the sixth, when the Twins' Oswaldo Arcia dropped a slicing liner from Moustakas in left field. Hosmer worked a full-count walk, and Morales hit a double down the left-field line to give Kansas City its first lead of the game.

Hosmer scored moments later on a wild pitch by reliever Blaine Boyer, and Perez added a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1 through six innings.

Morales added an insurance run in the eighth when the Twins lost track of a pop fly in shallow right field, and Orlando's two-run triple moments later put things out of reach.

Kelvin Herrera breezed through the eighth inning in relief of Volquez, and former Phillies closer Ryan Madson handled the ninth inning to wrap up the win.

Athletics 6, Angels 3

Stephen Vogt hit a go-ahead three-run homer, Marcus Semien also went deep against Matt Shoemaker and Oakland beat Los Angeles in the opener of a four-game series.

Oakland right-hander Kendall Graveman was staked to a 5-3 lead in his third major league start, but lasted just three-plus innings. Manager Bob Melvin pulled him after he walked Erick Aybar and C.J. Cron to open the fourth and ran his pitch count up to 73.

Dan Otero (1-1) retired the next three batters and gave up just one hit over a career-high four innings. He has not allowed a run in 13 career appearances against the Angels, spanning 19 2-3 innings.

Tyler Clippard got the last three outs for his first American League save and 35th of his career.

Shoemaker (2-1) threw 68 pitches in three-plus innings, giving up five runs and seven hits.

Astros 7, Mariners 5

Luis Valbuena hit a pair of solo home runs, including a go-ahead eighth-inning shot, to give Houston a victory over Seattle.

Valbuena, who started the scoring with a blast in the first inning, opened the eighth with a homer to right on 1-1 pitch from Danny Farquhar (0-1). It was his fifth this season.

It was the first home run allowed by a Mariners reliever this season. Jed Lowrie added an RBI single in the inning.

Colby Rasmus also had his second home run on a 2-0 pitch from starter Hisashi Iwakuma in the fifth.

Tony Sipp (1-0), who worked the seventh and eighth, picked up the victory.

White Sox 4, Indians 3

Melky Cabrera capped Chicago's four-run ninth inning with an RBI single off Cody Allen, sending the White Sox to a victory over Cleveland.

Six consecutive batters reached safely before Cabrera drove a fastball into left-center for his first game-ending hit since he signed with Chicago over the winter. Alexei Ramirez doubled home two runs and Gordon Beckham had a tying RBI single.

David Robertson (1-0) worked a perfect ninth for his first win with the White Sox. Allen (0-2) recorded just one out in his first blown save in four chances.

Chicago had managed just four hits before the big finish.

Trevor Bauer pitched seven sparkling innings for Cleveland, which has dropped seven of nine. Ryan Raburn and Brett Hayes homered, and Michael Brantley had an RBI double.

National League

Cubs 5, Pirates 2

Kris Bryant turned his tiebreaking two-run double into a Little League homer with some heads-up baserunng, and the star rookie had three hits and three RBIs Monday night to lead Chicago to a victory over Pittsburgh.

Bryant’s double off the base of the left-center field fence in the seventh inning snapped a 1-all tie. He scored on the play when advanced to third base on the throw home, and he raced across the plate when catcher Francisco Cervelli missed the throw for an error.

Bryant, who tied the game with an RBI single in the fifth, is 6 for 14 (.429) with four RBIs in four games since his much-anticipated callup from Triple-A Iowa on Friday. He was a spring training sensation, hitting nine home runs in 40 at-bats for the Cubs.

Jake Arrieta (2-1) allowed only one run and three hits in seven innings for the win while striking out seven and walking none.

Reds 6, Brewers 1

Anthony Desclafani pitched eight shutout innings and Zach Cozart and Joey Votto homered as Cincinnati beat Milwaukee.

Desclafani (2-0) held Milwaukee hitless until Adam Lind’s double with two outs in the fourth. Hector Gomez’s fifth-inning single was the only other hit off Desclafani, who struck out five and ran his scoreless innings streak to 15.

Desclafani and Milwaukee starter Wily Peralta (0-2) were locked in a scoreless battle through five innings. The Reds got to Peralta in the sixth. Brayan Pena drove in the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly and Cozart followed with a three-run homer.

Votto added a two-run homer in the seventh off Peralta, who allowed six runs and eight hits over seven innings.

Ryan Braun homered with one out in the ninth for the Brewers.

Padres 14, Rockies 3

Matt Kemp had three hits and four RBIs and San Diego scored nine runs in the first two innings of a rout of Colorado.

Derek Norris had three of San Diego's 17 hits, Will Venable homered and Odrisamer Despaigne got his first major league hit to help the Padres win for the fifth time in six games.

For the second time this season every Padres starter got a hit, including Despaigne (2-0), who led off the third with a single. It was more than enough for the Cuban right-hander, who allowed just two runs on six hits in 6 2-3 innings

Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa struggled in his 2015 debut, lasting two innings. The left-hander missed the first two weeks of the season with a left groin strain and was activated from the disabled list before the game.