Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back homers two pitches apart, part of seven consecutive hits by the Yankees in the third inning off ambushed Mariners starter Aaron Harang on Thursday night, helping the Yankees cruise to a 6-1 win to begin a 10-game West Coast swing.

Traded to the Yankees last July after a career’s worth of accomplishments with the Mariners, Ichiro Suzuki returned to Seattle for Thursday’s series opener between the clubs, content with how both teams have benefited since the deal.

Zack Greinke returned to form and Yasiel Puig hit his first Major League grand slam on Thursday night as the Dodgers beat the Braves, 5-0, in Los Angeles.

D.J. Peterson, a college third baseman out of New Mexico, was the 12th overall pick by the Mariners. Little brother Dustin, a shortstop from Gilbert (Ariz.) High School, went to the Padres in the second round at pick No. 50.

One night after ending a franchise-record 11-game home losing streak, the Royals defeated the Minnesota Twins, 7-3, to take the series.

Adam Rosales hit a solo home run, the A’s fourth of the night, to beat the White Sox, 5-4, in 10 innings on Thursday night at U.S. Cellular Field. Yoenis Cespedes hit two homers and Josh Reddick added one.

Houston made sure the drama of the First-Year Player Draft remained at a maximum Thursday, when it managed to shield the identity of the top pick until the last possible moment.

Major League Baseball has followed up its most diverse draft in two decades with a fitting encore. Seven African-Americans were drafted in the first round in 2012, the most since 1992, and six more players of African-American descent were drafted in the first round Thursday.

In his 19th walk-off hit with the Red Sox, including the postseason, David Ortiz sent the first pitch he saw from Michael Kirkman over the right-field wall for a three-run homer to break a ninth-inning tie, giving his club a 6-3 victory Thursday night in the rubber match against the Rangers.

In the midst of the First-Year Player Draft, the Cardinals used four rookie pitchers and knocked around the D-backs with five home runs and a season-high 17 hits for a dominating 12-8 victory in front of a sold-out crowd of 43,798 at Busch Stadium on Thursday night.

The Astros had two years to do a vast amount of homework on Stanford pitcher Mark Appel, whom the club considered taking with the top overall pick last year. After passing up Appel and taking Puerto Rican shortstop Carlos Correa with the No. 1 overall pick in 2012, the Astros didn’t want to let him go this time.

View pick-by-selections of first two rounds and two Competitive Balance rounds of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft.

Dominic Smith and J.P. Crawford are products of Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) initiatives, and now the close friends are on the path to becoming National League rivals.

Jason Collins, who recently took the historic step of being the first openly male gay active professional athlete in any of the four major American sports, threw out the first pitch at Fenway Park before the Red Sox played the Rangers on Thursday.

It was another day, another quality outing by Tigers starter Max Scherzer. This time, however, the offense provided some run support in a 5-2 victory over the Rays to get Scherzer a win that narrowly evaded him in his last start.

With an 0-1 count in the bottom of the second in Wednesday’s 8-6, 10-inning loss to the Cubs, Angels left fielder J.B. Shuck thought he hit his first Major League home run, but it was later ruled a foul ball by replay.

Yasiel Puig’s third day in the big leagues was spent seeing how the other half live. The Dodgers’ rookie sensation went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and Clayton Kershaw was outpitched by Jason Marquis in a 6-2 loss to the Padres on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.