ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Rookie Taj Bradley won his third consecutive start to begin his big league career and the Tampa Bay Rays set a modern era MLB record with their 14th consecutive home win to begin a season, beating the Houston Astros 8-3 on Monday night.

Tampa Bay had shared the mark dating to 1901 with the 2009 Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Rays are 20-3 overall. Only the 1911 Detroit Tigers and 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers had better starts at 21-2 since 1901.

The 22-year-old Bradley (3-0) allowed three runs and four hits with six strikeouts and no walks in five innings. In 15 1/3 innings this season, the right-hander has struck out 23 and waked two.

Rays shortstop Wander Franco had four hits and made an outstanding recovery catch on Martín Maldonado’s fifth-inning foul ball down the left-field line when he overran the ball but was able to make the grab with his bare hand.

Alex Bregman and Jeremy Peña homered for the Astros, who had a four-game winning streak halted. Mauricio Dubón extended his hitting streak to 18 games.

BLUE JAYS 5, WHITE SOX 2: Chris Bassitt pitched 6 1/3 innings before leaving because of a sore lower back, Cavan Biggio hit a three-run home run and Toronto  beat visiting Chicago.

Bassitt (3-2) called Manager John Schneider and the trainer to the mound in the seventh after bouncing his first pitch to Luis Robert Jr. Zach Pop came on and finished the inning.

Robert made a spectacular catch in center field to take a home run away from Toronto slugger Matt Chapman, but little else went right for the struggling White Sox. Chicago has lost five straight, 10 of 12 and 13 of 17.

Bassitt signed a three-year, $63 million contract with Toronto last December. He allowed two runs and three hits to win back-to-back starts for the first time with the Blue Jays.

TWINS 6, YANKEES 1:  Sonny Gray pitched seven scoreless innings and Joey Gallo homered as the two former Yankees helped Minnesota beat visiting New York.

Jorge Polanco added two hits and three RBI for Minnesota. Polanco has hit safely in all four games this season after his start was delayed due to left knee inflammation in the spring.

The Twins have won three of the first five meetings with their longtime nemesis this year. The Yankees are 100-41 against Minnesota in the regular season since 2002, the best record for any team versus one opponent during that span.

New York is also 16-2 against the Twins in the postseason during that stretch.

Gray (3-0) gave up three hits and struck out eight, dropping his ERA to a big league-best 0.62. The veteran right-hander, who went 15-16 with a 4.51 ERA in parts of two seasons for New York, has allowed two runs in 29 innings this season with 34 strikeouts.

Rookie right-hander Jhony Brito (2-2) had another tough outing against the Twins, allowing three runs on three hits and three walks. He threw 80 pitches in just 2 2/3 innings after he had his worst start against Minnesota in New York on April 13, giving up seven runs while getting just two outs.

The Yankees, who split the four-game series in New York with the Twins, were coming off their first series loss of the season at home against Toronto over the weekend.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

BRAVES 11, MARLINS 0: Spencer Strider took a no-hitter into the eighth inning and struck out 13 as Atlanta snapped a four-game skid, hitting five home runs in beating visiting Miami.

Fans booed when Jean Segura singled to left field to end Strider’s no-hit bid with one out in the eighth, and Jon Berti followed with a single. But the right-hander fanned the next two batters to finish his dominant outing with a flourish.

Strider had a perfect game going until Gold Glove first baseman Matt Olson made a fielding error on a leadoff grounder by Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the seventh.

Sam Hilliard homered twice, and Sean Murphy, Eddie Rosario and Austin Riley also connected as the Braves avoided their first five-game losing streak since September 2017, when they ended the season with six straight defeats.

INTERLEAGUE

ROCKIES 6, GUARDIANS 0: Austin Gomber bounced back from a hideous start to get his first win, Jurickson Profar drove in three runs and visiting Colorado won for just the second time in 13 games.

Gomber (1-4) held the Guardians to three singles — all by Steven Kwan — in five scoreless innings. The left-hander was pounded for nine runs and nine hits in just two innings in a loss to Pittsburgh on April 19.

REDS 7, RANGERS 6: TJ Friedl drove in the Winning run with a ninth-inning single and host Cincinnati snapped a six-game losing streak.

José Leclerc (0-1) walked Jonathan India to lead off the ninth. India went to second on a Will Smith wild pitch and scored on Friedl’s single to right.

The Reds came back from a 5-1 third-inning deficit and tied the game in the eighth on back-to-back bases-loaded walks to Henry Ramos and Nick Senzel by Leclerc.

TIGERS 4, BREWERS 2: Nick Maton had a three-run homer and Matthew Boyd pitched effectively for five innings to lead Detroit Tigers to a win at Milwaukee.

Boyd (1-1) allowed two runs on five hits in five innings, striking out eight and walking one as the Brewers lost consecutive games for the first time this season.

NOTES

ATHLETICS: Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred says he feels “sorry for the fans in Oakland” about the Athletics’ plans to relocate to Las Vegas but denies claims by Oakland’s mayor that the franchise used negotiations with the city as leverage.

Manfred discussed the plans during a meeting with the Associated Press Sports Editors, adding that he believes the last-place A’s can field a more competitive team in Nevada.

The franchise announced last week it has signed a binding agreement to purchase land for a new retractable roof ballpark close to the Las Vegas Strip after being unable to construct a new venue in the Bay Area. The A’s had been trying to escape the run-down Oakland Coliseum for years, exploring options in Fremont and San Jose before shifting focus to Oakland’s waterfront.

After the A’s announced the land purchase, Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said in a statement that she was disappointed the A’s didn’t negotiate with the city as a “true partner.”

“It is clear to me that the A’s have no intention of staying in Oakland and have simply been using this process to try to extract a better deal out of Las Vegas,” she said.

Manfred refuted that, saying owner John Fisher negotiated exclusively with Oakland from 2014-21 before beginning to look elsewhere.

“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland. I really do,” he said. “But for the city of Oakland to point fingers at John Fisher, it’s not fair.

“We have shown an unbelievable commitment to the fans in Oakland by exhausting every possible opportunity to try to get something done in Oakland,” he added. “Unfortunately, the government doesn’t seem to have the will to get it done.”

The A’s will work with Nevada and Clark County on a public-private partnership to fund the new stadium with a seating capacity of 30,000 to 35,000. The team hopes to break ground by next year and move to their new home by 2027.

The timeline for Oakland’s move remains uncertain, Manfred said. The A’s lease at the Coliseum expires after the 2024 season, and there’s been discussion of the A’s temporarily playing at the home of their Triple-A affiliate, the Las Vegas Aviators. Manfred said he did believe it was feasible schedule-wise to have the A’s and their top minor league team share a ballpark.

A year after finishing last in the American League, the A’s have the worst record in baseball at 4-18. They also opened the season with the sport’s lowest payroll at $58 million.

Fueled in part by Billy Beane’s Moneyball strategies, Oakland has made the postseason in 11 of the past 24 seasons despite modest payrolls. The A’s have also finished last in the AL West four of the past eight seasons, raising concerns in Las Vegas that fans may be inheriting a cellar dweller.

Manfred believes the relocation could improve the on-field product, pointing to what the front office has previously accomplished despite lesser resources than other clubs.

“Their attendance has never been outstanding, let’s put it that way,” he said.

“To me, it ought to be all positive on the competitive front,” he added. “You got really smart baseball operations people. You got owners that want to win, and I think Las Vegas will present a real revenue enhancing opportunity. So I think you’re going to have a good product.”

Manfred has previously said that expansion to 32 teams will be a serious consideration once the A’s and Tampa Bay Rays resolve their long-running stadium woes. He said Monday that he is hopeful about the Rays finding a resolution that keeps them in the Tampa area and reiterated that expansion would then be up for discussion.

Several cities have already begun planning for potential bids to add teams, including Nashville, Charlotte, Montreal, Portland and Salt Lake City. Manfred acknowledged that “Nashville is on everybody’s list.” He also said that while he’s eager to grow the game in Mexico, but he’s “never been close to the idea of Mexico as an expansion opportunity.”

ASTROS: Slugger Yordan Alvarez has returned to Houston with neck discomfort, Manager Dusty Baker announced before Monday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

He said Alvarez has had the problem for about a week.

“We decided to send him to go get examined,” Baker said. “Hopefully it’s not too bad. So, we’ll see.”

Baker is hopeful that Alvarez can avoid going on the injured list.

Alvarez is hitting .253 with six homers and 27 RBI. He hit late go-ahead homers in the first two games of the Astros’ weekend sweep of the Atlanta Braves. Alvarez, who has eight multi-RBI games, added a tying two-run single in the eighth inning of Sunday’s series finale.