Baseball: Gardner’s solo home run gives New York 3-2 victory

New York: Brett Gardner hit a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to give New York a 3-2 victory over Tampa Bay, spoiling the impressive major league debut of Rays top pitching prospect Blake Snell.

Gardner singled home the tying run in the seventh and then connected on a 3-1 pitch from Erasmo Ramirez (4-1) two innings later, pointing toward the Yankees’ dugout as he trotted to first base and the ball soared into the second deck in right field.

Andrew Miller (1-0) worked a scoreless inning for the win, getting a double-play grounder to end the ninth.

Japan’s Masahiro Tanaka gave New York seven quality innings opposite Snell, perhaps baseball’s premier pitching prospect. The slim left-hander permitted one run and two hits in five innings, striking out six and walking one.

In Washington, Tanner Roark struck out a career-high 15 and allowed only two hits over seven innings in a dominating performance that carried the Washington Nationals past the Minnesota Twins 2-0 Saturday.

Roark and a trio of relievers combined to fan 18, the most by Washington since its arrival from Montreal in 2005.

Roark (2-2) twice struck out the side and fanned at least two in four other innings. It was only the second time in 52 career starts that the right-hander reached double digits in strikeouts - the other was on July 6, 2014, when he fanned 11 at San Diego.

Jonathan Papelbon got three outs to complete the combined two-hitter and earn his seventh save.

Ryan Zimmerman drove in two runs and Bryce Harper had a pair of doubles for the Nationals, whose 13-4 start under new manager Dusty Baker matches the 1981 Expos and 2012 Nats for the best in franchise history.