Blue Jays’ Horwitz hammers first homer of the season off foul pole

Watch as Toronto Blue Jays’ Spencer Horwitz rips a homer off the foul pole in right field for his first round-tripper of the season to help extend his team’s lead over the Cleveland Guardians.

PITTSBURGH — Yandy Díaz hit a home run off the first pitch from Paul Skenes on Sunday before leading off a two-run eighth inning with a single, sparking a win for Tampa Bay over Pittsburgh.

Díaz opened the first inning by driving Skenes’ near 100 m.p.h. first-pitch fastball off the right-field foul pole. He was 3-for-4 with two hits off Skenes, stretching his hit streak to 16 games.

Colin Holderman (3-1) replaced Skenes for the eighth, giving up the single to Díaz followed by another from Josh Lowe. José Caballero, running for Díaz, scored on Randy Arozarena’s sacrifice fly to put the Rays ahead 2-1 before Richie Palacios added another run with an RBI single.

Kevin Kelly (2-0) got the final two outs of the seventh for the Rays, who took two of three from the Pirates. Pete Fairbanks retired the side in order with one strikeout in the ninth inning for his 11th save.

Skenes, a 22-year-old right-hander drafted first overall by Pittsburgh in 2023, struck out eight and allowed one run and six hits with one walk in a season-high seven innings. He has 61 strikeouts in his first eight appearances in the majors, the seventh most since at least 1901 and the most since Masahiro Tanaka (66) in 2014.

ASTROS 8, ORIOLES 1

HOUSTON — Framber Valdez pitched seven solid innings and Jeremy Peña and Yainer Diaz had th