Gore wins 1st start, Nimmo and McCutchen hit 1st homers for Rangers in blowout of Phillies

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Andrew McCutchen shrugged like Michael Jordan and offered a mock apology to a Phillies fan after he crossed the plate following his first home run with Texas.

Brandon Nimmo went deep, too — his first home run since he was traded to the Rangers only further flamed anger in the Phillies fans who voraciously booed the former New York Mets rival from his first at-bat of the three-game series to the last.

MacKenzie Gore tormented Philadelphia at his last stop, as well. He struck out 13 Phillies in his first start last season with Washington. Gore kept up his success against the Phillies in his first start with the Rangers, taking a no-hitter into the sixth and then escaping a jam later that inning when he fanned two-time NL MVP Bryce Harper with the bases loaded in an 8-3 win on Sunday.

First homers and a fantastic first start from Gore helped the Rangers take two of three from the NL East champion Phillies.

Oh, and for those Rangers fans keeping score at home, here's another first — the first series win under new Texas manager Skip Schumaker.

“It's just confirmation of what we think our offense is,” Schumaker said.

Nimmo got Texas' offense rolling when he took Phillies starter Jesús Luzardo (0-1) deep for a two-run shot in the second.

Nimmo has 11 home runs at Citizens Bank Park, his most in any visiting ballpark. He has 16 career homers against the Phillies, and their fans couldn't forget his go-ahead single in Game 1 of the 2024 National League Division Series that lifted the Mets to a win (they also won the series).

Phillies fans erupted in boos when Nimmo was introduced on opening day, and they never let up over the three games.

“I hear the boos when I go up there,” Nimmo said with a smile. “It's part of baseball. Part of baseball in the Northeast. It's good to know they still remember me. Even though they don't like me, I appreciate their passion for their team and the game. It's been a great atmosphere to play here.”

Phillies fans couldn't quite muster the same kind of vitriol for McCutchen, long known as one of baseball's good guys who latched on with the Rangers in spring training after a return to Pittsburgh failed to materialize.

McCutchen, who spent one season with the Phillies and was friendly with the trash-talking fan, hit a three-run homer in the fourth for a 5-0 lead. McCutchen also had an RBI single in the 10th inning a day earlier in the Rangers' 5-3 win.

McCutchen said while he was in town he socialized with his Philly sports-fan friend who told him, "`Stop hurting us.'”

“I was like, no, dude, I can't do that, I'm sorry,” McCutchen said with a laugh. “When I hit the homer, he was looking right at me. I was like, dude, I'm not sorry. It's a good exchange between me and him, but he's one of my guys.”

Gore is expected to be one of the key guys in Texas' rotation after he was traded for five prospects.

He gives the 2023 World Series champions a starter who should be able to help the front end of their rotation along with Jacob deGrom — a two-time NL Cy Young Award winner who was the American League Comeback Player of the Year in 2025 — and Nathan Eovaldi, who dealt with a rotator cuff strain and had surgery for a sports hernia after compiling a 1.73 ERA in 22 starts last season.

Gore struck out seven and tossed five hitless innings before his bid for Texas’ first no-hitter since Kenny Rogers threw a perfect game in 1994 was broken up by a leadoff infield single from Justin Crawford in the sixth.

The left-hander fanned Harper with the bases loaded in the sixth and left the game after he plunked Alec Bohm with a pitch to make it 6-1.

“That's a situation where we got ahead and we kind of wanted to put him away,” Gore said.

The 27-year-old Gore is 26-41 with a 4.19 ERA in four major league seasons, the past three with Washington. He was an NL All-Star last season, but he faded in the second half and ended up going 5-15 with a 4.17 ERA and a career-best 185 strikeouts in 30 appearances, all starts.

Gore has a 3.06 ERA (16 earned runs in 47 innings pitched) with 57 strikeouts across his last eight starts against the Phillies since the beginning of the 2024 season.

“I don't necessarily know if anybody is a great matchup against that lineup,” he said. “I think I just really understand what they're capable of doing. I know I kind of have to be at my best to have success against them.”

Harper heard boos after he struck out and he hit .091 with one RBI, one run and two walks in the opening series.

“Not the start we wanted to have (this) weekend,” Harper said, “but we'll get there.”

No one in the home dugout wants to get booed only three games into the season. But it was the sound of a successful series for the Rangers.

"It's totally OK they don't like me," Nimmo said.

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Texas Rangers pitcher MacKenzie Gore throws in the first inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)

Texas Rangers' Andrew McCutchen, center, celebrates his three run home run with Jake Burger (21) Corey Seager (5) in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)

Texas Rangers' Andrew McCutchen tips his hat at home after hitting a three run home run in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)

Texas Rangers' Brandon Nimmo, right, celebrates his two run homer with Wyatt Langford (36) in the third inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)

Texas Rangers' Brandon Nimmo celebrates his two run homer in the third inning of a baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Sunday, March 29, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Laurence Kesterson)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan announced Sunday that it will soon host talks between the U.S. and Iran, though there was no immediate word from Washington or Tehran, and it was unclear whether discussions on the monthlong war would be direct or indirect.

"Pakistan is very happy that both Iran and the U.S. have expressed their confidence in Pakistan to facilitate the talks. Pakistan will be honored to host and facilitate meaningful talks between the two sides in the coming days,” Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said after top diplomats from Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia met in Islamabad.

Pakistan later said the diplomats had departed for their home countries. The talks were originally scheduled to continue Monday.

Pakistan's foreign ministry did not answer questions, and Iran’s mission to the United Nations declined to comment.

Islamabad has emerged as a mediator, having relatively good ties with Washington and Tehran, after what Pakistani officials call weeks of quiet diplomacy.

Earlier, Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, dismissed the talks in Pakistan as a cover after some 2,500 U.S. Marines trained in amphibious landings arrived in the Middle East. He said Iranian forces were “waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,” according to state media.

Iran also threatened to attack homes of U.S. and Israeli “commanders and political officials” in the region. A spokesperson for the Iranian military's joint command, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, cited the “targeting of residential homes of the Iranian people in various cities” and other “malicious actions,” state media reported.

“We don’t know at what moment our homes could be targeted,” said Razzak Saghir al-Mousawi, 71, describing relentless airstrikes as Iranians crossing into Iraq urged the United States to end the war. “I am definitely afraid.”

Meanwhile in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military will widen its invasion of Lebanon, expanding the “existing security strip” in that country’s south while targeting the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group. No details were released.

Over 1 million Lebanese have been displaced in the war. One of them, Mohammad Doghman, called Israel “an expansionist state.”

The war has threatened global supplies of oil, natural gas and fertilizer and disrupted air travel. Iran’s grip on the strategic Strait of Hormuz has shaken markets and prices. Now the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels ' entry into the war could threaten shipping on another crucial waterway, the Bab el-Mandeb strait to the Red Sea.

An Associated Press video shot shortly before midnight showed a huge plume of black smoke rising from a large fire in Tehran, following strikes in Iran’s capital. Earlier Sunday night, Israel’s military said that over the past 24 hours its fighter jets had dropped more than 120 munitions in Tehran, targeting sites used for weapons research, development and production. Around the same time, Iran’s state television said power was back in areas of Tehran that had experienced outages after attacks on electricity facilities.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in the war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that triggered Iranian attacks against Israel and U.S. military assets and other sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states. The war continues on the digital front as well.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said the meetings in Pakistan are aimed at opening a “direct dialogue” between the U.S. and Iran, which have largely communicated through mediators. The war began with U.S. and Israeli strikes during indirect talks. Pakistan said the foreign ministers met Sunday without U.S. or Israeli participation.

Iranian officials have rejected a U.S. 15-point “action list” as a framework for a possible peace deal and publicly dismissed the idea of negotiating under pressure. But Iran’s state broadcaster has reported that Tehran drafted its own five-point proposal reportedly calling for a halt to killing Iranian officials, guarantees against future attacks, reparations and Iran’s “exercise of sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.”

Iran has eased some restrictions on commercial ships in the strait, agreeing late Saturday to allow 20 more Pakistani-flagged vessels to pass through. It "sends a clear signal that Iran remains open for business with the world, provided the United States abandons coercion,” said Asif Durrani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Iran.

An adviser to the United Arab Emirates, Anwar Gargash, called for any settlement to the war to include “clear guarantees” that Iranian attacks on neighbors will not be repeated. He said Iran's government has become “the main threat” to Persian Gulf security, and called for compensation for attacks on civilian infrastructure.

Iran warned of escalation after Israeli airstrikes hit several universities, including ones that Israel claimed were used for nuclear research and development. Concerns over Iran's nuclear program are at the heart of tensions.

The paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Iran would consider Israeli universities and branches of U.S. universities in the region “legitimate targets” unless offered safety assurances for Iranian universities, state media reported.

“If the U.S. government wants its universities in the region spared, it should condemn the bombardment” of Iranian universities by midday Monday, the Guard said.

U.S. colleges have campuses in Qatar and the UAE, including Georgetown, New York and Northwestern universities. The American University of Beirut and the Lebanese American University, also in Beirut, moved classes online and called it a precautionary measure.

Iran's Foreign Ministry has said dozens of universities and research centers have been hit, including the Iran University of Science and Technology and Isfahan University of Technology.

Both sides in the war have threatened to attack civilian facilities, which critics have warned could be a war crime.

In Lebanon, officials said more than 1,200 people have been killed. There were fears of more deaths after Netanyahu, speaking on a visit to northern Israel, announced the expanded invasion. Hezbollah “still has residual capability to fire rockets at us," he said.

Iranian authorities say more than 1,900 people have been killed in the Islamic Republic, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel.

In Iraq, where Iranian-supported militia groups have entered the conflict, 80 members of the security forces have died.

In Gulf states, 20 people have been killed. Four have been killed in the occupied West Bank.

Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in the war.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Anna from Lowville, New York. Contributing were Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Samya Kullab in Basra, Iraq; Ali Sharafeddine in Beirut; and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles.

Displaced people who fled Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sit inside tents used as shelters as a rainbow breaks through the rain in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Residents gather near a public bomb shelter after receiving a message alerting about an incoming missile launched from Iran, in Beersheba, southern Israel Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Members of the Basij paramilitary force stand at a checkpoint in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Women sit in front of a mosque around the traditional grand bazaar of Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

This image from video provided by U.S. Central Command shows U.S. Sailors and Marines aboard USS Tripoli (LHA 7) arriving in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, March 27, 2026. (U.S. Central Command via AP)

Members of the Basij paramilitary force stand at a checkpoint in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Carrying her belongings a woman crosses the Shalamcheh border crossing between Iran and Iraq, near Basra, Iraq, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

People who arrived from Iran cross the Shalamcheh border crossing between Iran and Iraq, near Basra, Iraq, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Mourners chant slogans as they carry the coffins of Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV correspondent Ali Shoeib, Al-Mayadeen TV reporter Fatima Ftouni and cameraman Ali Ftouni, who were killed Saturday in an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon, during their funeral procession at a temporary cemetery in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

In this photo, released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from left, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan attend a meeting to discuss Middle East war, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

In this photo, released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, left, shakes hand with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, prior to their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

In this photo released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from left, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan walk prior to their meeting to discuss the Middle East war, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

A Croatian naval vessel sails by as USS Gerald R. Ford arrives to the port of Split, Croatia, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Tom Dubravec)

Residents inspect their home after it was struck by an Iranian missile in Eshtaol, central Israel, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

In this photo released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, center, walks toward his car upon arrival to attend a meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

In this photo released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, left, meets with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

In this photo released by the Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, left, shakes hands with Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar prior to their meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, March 29, 2026. (Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs via AP)

The mother of Jawad Younes,11, who was killed on Friday in an Israeli airstrike, mourns over his body during a funeral procession in Saksakiyeh village, south Lebanon, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Residents carry personal belongings as they leave a building damaged in a missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, early Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Maya Levin)

Abed Driss, displaced with his family from Beirut's southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, holds up his son Benin, 3 months, next to a tent used as a shelter in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

People donate money following a call by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to support Iran and Lebanon during the war with the U.S. and Israel, Friday, March 27, 2026, in Babylon, Iraq. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

A first responder assists an injured boy following a strike that hit a residential building amid the U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sajad Safari)