Bryce Harper connects for a solo home run during the first inning on Tuesday, the first of three on the night after opening the season 0-for-11.
Chris Szagola | AP photo
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PHILADELPHIA — Bryce Harper homered for his first three hits of the season, including a grand slam, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-4 on Tuesday night.
Brandon Marsh also connected for Philadelphia, which bounced back nicely after dropping the series opener on Monday. Spencer Turnbull struck out seven in five effective innings.
Harper went 0 for 11 with a walk while playing in three of the Phillies’ first four games, but he broke out in a big way against the Reds.
The two-time NL MVP hit a solo shot in the first and fourth innings against Graham Ashcraft. He capped Philadelphia’s five-run seventh against Brent Suter with his seventh career grand slam.
It was Harper’s second career three-homer game and his 26th multihomer game overall. He finished with a career-best six RBIs.
It was the first time a Phillies player hit three home runs in a game at Citizens Bank Park since Jayson Werth on May 16, 2008, against Toronto.
The 31-year-old Harper drove a 1-2 cut fastball from Graham Ashcraft deep to center in the first. The 420-foot solo shot had an exit velocity of 107.7 mph.
He came up again in the fourth and hit another solo shot to right. The 367-foot homer on the first pitch of the at-bat gave Harper 1,000 career runs.
Harper’s grand slam — a 422-foot shot to right-center on a full-count sinker from Brent Suter — lifted the Phillies to an 8-1 lead.
Harper was hampered by back tightness at the end of spring training, possibly contributing to his slow start. He is in his first full season playing first base after reconstructive elbow surgery forced him to move from right field.
He tumbled into a photographer’s well on Saturday and then rested during Sunday’s 5-4 win over Atlanta.
The Phillies said it was a scheduled day off, but after the game manager Rob Thomson said Harper was sore. Thomson was noncommittal about playing Harper on Tuesday night, concerned about the weather forecast, but he kept the slugger in the lineup.
ANGELS 3, MARLINS 1
MIAMI — Tyler Anderson pitched seven scoreless innings, Aaron Hicks homered and Los Angeles sent Miami to the worst start in franchise history.
Anderson (1-0) scattered four hits, walked two and struck out five. The left-hander was lifted after 83 pitches.
Hicks’ solo blast in the fourth put the Angels ahead 1-0. He drove a fastball from Miami starter Jesús Luzardo inside the foul pole in right for his first homer with Los Angeles.
The Angels increased their lead on run-scoring singles from Hicks and Taylor Ward in the sixth.
Bryan De La Cruz homered in the ninth inning for the Marlins, who lost their sixth straight game to start the season.
Luzardo (0-1) gave up three runs and four hits, walked two and struck out five over 5 1/3 innings.
BREWERS 3, TWINS 2
MILWAUKEE — Jackson Chourio singled in a run in his first American Family Field plate appearance, Christian Yelich homered and Milwaukee beat Minnesota to open a season with four straight wins for the first time since 2006.
Chourio stepped to the plate with the bases loaded in the third inning after consecutive one-out singles by Rhys Hoskins, Oliver Dunn and Brice Turang. The 20-year-old followed with an RBI single into shallow right field.
Chourio, who signed an $82 million, eight-year contract in the offseason before making his big league debut, is hitting .400 (6 for 15).
Home after a three-game sweep at the New York Mets, the Brewers never trailed in front of a sellout crowd of 41,659 that saved its biggest cheers for the introduction of Bob Uecker as he began his 54th season of broadcasting Brewers baseball.
Turang went 2 for 3 with an RBI single, improving his batting average to .500 (7 for 14).
RAYS 5, RANGERS 2
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Zach Eflin took a shutout into the seventh inning, Isaac Paredes hit a three-run homer in a four-run fifth and Tampa Bay beat Texas.
Eflin (1-1) allowed three of his five hits and lone run in the seventh, then was removed after Jonah Heim’s one-out RBI single. Heim also had a two-out run-scoring single in the ninth off Pete Fairbanks, who retired Leody Tavares on a game-ending flyout with with two on.
Tampa Bay has a home run and stolen base in each of its first six games, matching Cleveland in 1998 as the only teams since 1901 to accomplish the feat.