Pinch hitter Lane Thomas’ run-scoring single with one out in the eighth inning broke a tie as the Kansas City Royals defeated the host Seattle Mariners 7-6 on Friday, overcoming a pair of two-run homers by Julio Rodriguez.

Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone went deep for the Royals, who won for just the fourth time in 16 road games this season. By taking the opener of a three-game series, Kansas City stopped a mini two-game skid.

Connor Joe and Randy Arozarena also homered for Seattle, which had won six of its previous seven games.

Royals reliever Daniel Lynch IV (1-0) got the victory despite allowing two runs in his lone inning. Lucas Erceg worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his eighth save of the season.

With the score tied at 6-all, Kansas City’s Salvador Perez led off the eighth with a double to left field, his second of the game. Perez advanced to third on Carter Jensen’s groundout and scored as Thomas hit a looping liner to right-center off Mariners reliever Jose A. Ferrer (0-1).

The Royals’ Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr. and Pasquantino began the game with singles, with Pasquantino driving in the opening run. Perez followed with a two-run double to right to make it 3-0. With two outs, Isaac Collins doubled off the glove of third baseman Leo Rivas, scoring Perez.

The Mariners’ halved their deficit in the bottom half of the frame. J.P. Crawford drew a leadoff walk, and an out later, Rodriguez went deep into the second deck in left field.

Seattle pulled within 4-3 in the fifth when Joe hit a leadoff homer to left.

Pasquantino led off the sixth with a liner off the facade of the second deck in right field. Two outs later, Caglianone hit a high drive that just cleared the fence in the right field corner to give the Royals a 6-3 advantage.

Arozarena went deep to right with one out in the bottom of the inning.

In the seventh, Crawford singled and Rodriguez homered to straightaway center with two outs to tie it at 6-all.

Both starting pitchers struggled to keep the ball in the yard.

Royals left-hander Cole Ragans went 5 1/3 innings and gave up four runs on four hits, including three homers. He walked three and struck out eight.

Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo struggled early, allowing four runs in the first inning, then settled down to retire 13 consecutive batters before giving up the two solo shots in the sixth. Woo went six innings and allowed six runs on seven hits, with no walks and two strikeouts.

–Field Level Media

LeBron James scored 18 of his 28 points in a runaway first half for the visiting Los Angeles Lakers, who cruised to a 98-78 victory over the Houston Rockets on Friday and claimed their Western Conference first-round playoff series in six games.

By virtue of the 4-2 series victory, the Lakers advance to the Western Conference semifinals and will travel to face the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder for Game 1 on Tuesday.

James added seven rebounds and eight assists to his ledger. Teammate Rui Hachimura put up 21 points, hitting 5 of 7 from the 3-point arc. Austin Reaves, who started for the first time in the series, added 15 points for the Lakers.

Undermined by turnovers throughout the series, the Lakers committed just 11 giveaways while limiting Houston to 35% shooting. Alperen Sengun paired 17 points with 11 rebounds for the Rockets, who played without leading scorer Kevin Durant for the fifth time in the series. Houston finished 5 of 28 (17.9%) from deep.

Raptors 112, Cavaliers 110 (OT)

RJ Barrett made a dramatic 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds left in overtime as Toronto defeated visiting Cleveland to force Game 7 of their first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

Barrett’s bucket from straight away hit the back of the rim, bounced high into the air and fell in between the mesh. Scottie Barnes had 25 points and 14 assists for the Raptors. Barrett finished with 24 points, as did Ja’Kobe Walter.

Evan Mobley had 26 points and 14 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who will play host to the deciding game on Sunday. Donovan Mitchell added 24 points, and James Harden had 16 points, nine assists and nine rebounds.

Pistons 93, Magic 79

Cade Cunningham scored 32 points as Detroit came back from a 24-point deficit to stun host Orlando and force a decisive Game 7 in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

The top-seeded Pistons began the fourth quarter on an 18-1 run to build an eight-point lead and ended up outscoring Orlando 55-19 in the second half. The eighth-seeded Magic missed 23 consecutive shots from the field during one stretch covering about 15 minutes in the second half.

Desmond Bane and Paolo Banchero each scored 17 points for Orlando, which was held to 12 points over the first 19 minutes of the second half as Detroit pulled ahead at 74-72 more than seven minutes to play after trailing by 22 at the half.

–Field Level Media

The visiting Buffalo Sabres scored two first-period goals and never trailed en route to a 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Friday, clinching their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in Game 6.

Alex Tuch and Mattias Samuelsson built a 2-0 lead in the opening frame before Zach Benson and Josh Norris added insurance tallies in the third as Buffalo advanced to the conference semifinals for the first time since 2007.

Tage Thompson and Rasmus Dahlin each dished out two assists while Alex Lyon made 25 saves for the Sabres, who won all three games played in Boston in the series.

David Pastrnak scored the lone goal and Jeremy Swayman stopped 22 shots in Boston’s losing effort.

Golden Knights 5, Mammoth 1

Mitch Marner scored two goals and had an assist as Vegas defeated Utah in Game 6 in Salt Lake City to win their first-round playoff series.

It was the sixth career three-point playoff game for Marner, tying his postseason high. Brett Howden scored a goal for the third straight game as Vegas advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the sixth time in its nine-year history. Carter Hart made 22 saves for the Golden Knights, who will face the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference semifinals.

Kailer Yamamoto scored a goal and Karel Vejmelka finished with 21 saves for Utah, which was playing its first playoff series since the franchise moved from Arizona in April 2024.

Lightning 1, Canadiens 0 (OT)

Gage Goncalves scored the overtime game-winning goal to give visiting Tampa Bay a season-saving win over Montreal on Friday and force Game 7.

The deciding game of their Eastern Conference first-round set will be Sunday in Tampa. That clash has quite the affair to top in entertainment value. A thrilling Game 6 finally came to a close when Goncalves buried a loose puck amidst a scramble at 9:03 of overtime for his first career playoff overtime winner.

Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy had struggled to find his form during this series but delivered his best performance with 30 saves to post his eighth career playoff shutout. Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes stopped 32 shots in a fantastic goaltending duel.

–Field Level Media