BALTIMORE -- The Oakland Athletics were not deterred by a six-game losing streak to open the season.

They were simply going to "Ride the Wave," a mantra the team embraced to get past the adversity.

Jed Lowrie hit a three-run homer and the Athletics won their 13th straight game, building a big lead early and beating the Baltimore Orioles 7-2 on a rainy Saturday night.

"You just go out there and grind on it," Oakland manager Bob Melvin said about the challenging conditions. "Play as long as you can until someone says it's no longer playable."

This is the third-longest winning streak in Oakland history. The A's won 14 straight in 1988 and set a then-American League record with 20 consecutive victories in 2002.

Cleveland broke that mark with 22 straight wins in 2017 -- Oakland's string is the longest in the majors since that Indians run.

The Athletics have outscored opponents 83-36 during their winning streak. Since the streak began on April 9, Oakland has led the MLB in runs, runs per game and homers. They lead the AL in both ERA and starting pitcher ERA.

Matt Olson and Mark Canha had two hits and two RBIs apiece for Oakland, which has won nine in a row against the Orioles dating to 2019.

"We knew as a team, especially after the first week, we were way better than that," shortstop Elvis Andrus said. "Big shoutout to the coaches and the manager to have no panicking, It would only take one game to get us going on. That's what happened. Everybody started feeling better, everybody started to relax a little bit. The pitchers have been amazing. I think they're a big reason why we started the winning streak. It's a lot of fun. We'll go day by day and see how long we can stretch this streak."

Chris Bassitt (2-2) weathered steady rain that fell at Camden Yards, allowing two runs and eight hits over six innings. He struck out eight and improved to 3-0 in four career starts against Baltimore.

"The hitters take a lot of pressure off the starters because of the amount of runs we're getting," Bassitt said. "I think it's a perfect mix of the hitters trusting the pitchers and the pitchers trusting the hitters."

The A's took a 1-0 lead in the first on a bloop single by Olson that scored Canha, who led off with a double against Wade LeBlanc (0-1).

LeBlanc made his first start of the season after five relief appearances.

"Just not being able to get the ball to my glove side," LeBlanc said. "That's kind of going to be the pitch that opens everything up for me, and unfortunately tonight it wasn't there from pretty much the get-go."

Oakland extended the lead to 4-0 on a two-run single by Canha and a double by Olson in the second that ended LeBlanc's night. The Orioles scored their first run on a double by Chance Sisco that deflected off first base and into the outfield.

Lowrie answered in the third with his homer over the right-field scoreboard off Tyler Wells, a Rule 5 pick.

"Jed, the story just keeps growing with him," Melvin said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Kyle Kirkwood loves the streets of St. Petersburg.

At the track where he made a victorious debut on the Road to Indy presented by Cooper Tires by winning his first USF2000 race and championship in 2018, Kirkwood added his maiden Indy Lights presented by Cooper Tires victory on Saturday.

Kirkwood bounced back from a difficult weekend at Barber Motorsports Park last week by leading home Andretti Autosport teammate Danial Frost by a little over a second.

David Malukas, who won one of the races last week at Barber, finished third for HMD Motorsports.

The first of two Indy Lights races for the weekend, the Indy Lights Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by Foundation Building Materials began with Kirkwood on pole courtesy of his first Indy Lights Cooper Tires Pole Award in qualifying on Friday.

He led the field into the heavy braking area at turn one, where outside front row starter Malukas locked up his brakes and slid a little wide, allowing Italian-Canadian Devlin DeFrancesco to sneak into second for Andretti Steinbrenner Autosport.

Kirkwood immediately put his head down and began to extend his advantage, leaving the rest to battle in his wake. Malukas began to heap the pressure on DeFrancesco, with Frost – who was clearly on a mission – hot on their heels.

A fine move to the inside under braking for turn one saw Frost slide past Malukas, who then fell victim to a late-braking move by yet another Andretti Autosport Dallara, that of New Yorker Robert Megennis, in turn four.

From hoping to challenge for the lead, Malukas suddenly found himself in sixth, only just ahead of another tussle between points leader Linus Lundqvist – who was making his street course debut – and Australian Alex Peroni, who exchanged positions on lap seven.

Ten laps later, Lundqvist’s attempt to redress the balance at turn one went badly awry as he left his braking far too late, cannoned into the Australian and spun. He resumed after a pit stop at the back of the field.

In the meantime, Malukas had managed to repass Megennis and begun to close on Frost, who in turn was chasing hard after DeFrancesco.

As Kirkwood moved clear to the tune of over four seconds, DeFrancesco’s hopes of wresting the championship lead turned sour as he misjudged his braking for the final corner and skated off into the barriers, necessitating a full-course caution.

Kirkwood’s hard-won advantage was erased in a flash, but the Floridian was unfazed. He quickly reasserted himself at the restart and even posted the fastest lap of the race just two circuits from the end to cement an accomplished victory – his 22nd on the three levels of the Road to Indy, now only two behind Spencer Pigot’s record tally.

“I got chills at the finish! This feels so good,” said Kirkwood of the victory. “It’s been a while since I’ve won in an open-wheel car, and we know we’re going to have momentum for the rest of the year. We had a great start, the tires came in really well, we got the initial gap and were able to maintain it. I was pushing pretty hard with Devlin because the last thing I wanted to do was let him get within 1.5 seconds so he could get on the push-to-pass.

“I was disappointed to see the yellow, especially with Devlin going out, because we could have had a one-two-three Andretti finish. And Danial had incredible pace on the restart, so I knew I had to do something, and I was all over the place trying to keep the rear tires under me,” Kirkwood continued. “It was close, but we were on rails.

“I learned so much about this track from my USF2000 and Indy Pro 2000 races: how the track evolves, how the layout works … they’ve done a nice job of keeping the layout the same, so I was able to take so much information from my years on the Road to Indy.”

Frost held off the advances of Malukas to finish second, with Megennis in fourth.

Peroni completed the top five, profiting from a late error by Denmark’s Benjamin Pedersen, who rejoined to finish 10th.

Last year’s winner of the Indy Pro 2000 Championship presented by Cooper Tires title, Sting Ray Robb, finished right on Peroni’s tail.

Robb’s effort earned him the Tilton Hard Charger Award after starting 12th.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Christian Brooks and the Exclusive Autosport team enjoyed a near perfect weekend on the streets of St. Petersburg.

The Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship sophomore claimed a pair of victories Saturday on the unforgiving 1.8-mile street circuit, jumping from fifth in the points table following the first two races of the season to an already sizable points lead.

Brooks, from Santa Clarita, Calif., was followed home in a scrappy race Saturday morning by Exclusive Autosport teammate Matt Round-Garrido. Barber Motorsports Park race winner Yuven Sundaramoorthy took third for Pabst Racing.

Brooks had to work much harder Saturday evening, overtaking Brazilian polesitter Kiko Porto soon after a late restart and holding on to take a narrow victory.

The podium was completed by Michael d’Orlando, who mounted an incredible comeback for Cape Motorsports following a frightening accident in the earlier race.

In the opening USF2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by Andersen RacePark race, Brooks made full use of his Cooper Tires Pole Award, earned Friday in qualifying, to hold off Round-Garrido and score an impressive one-two finish for the Canadian team.

Unfortunately, the race also was notable for a series of incidents which necessitated several full-course cautions, and even one red-flag stoppage.

The 26-car field managed to negotiate the tricky turn one relatively cleanly, with just one spinner who was able to rejoin, but there was carnage later in the lap, when six cars became entangled at turn seven.

The restart was no better, as New Yorkers and long-time karting buddies d’Orlando and Josh Green got together in Turn One , sending d’Orlando into a wild ride which ended with his car on its side.

The race eventually ended under yellow, with the two Exclusive cars chased home by Sundaramoorthy, who had run third early on, then fell as far as sixth before working his way back to finish on the podium.

New Zealand Formula Ford 1600 champion Billy Frazier kept his nose clean to finish fourth ahead of Porto in the first race of the day.

Rookie Grant Palmer capped a memorable race for Exclusive Autosport by rising from 25th on the grid to 13th to snag the Tilton Hard Charger Award.

Porto capitalized perfectly on having won the Cooper Tires Pole Award during a second qualifying session on Friday by leading confidently at the start of Saturday evening’s USF2000 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg presented by Andersen Interior Contracting.

Coincidentally, he and Brooks had shared the laurels during USF2000’s most recent visit to the Florida streets at the end of last season, each capturing their maiden series victory.

Porto was intent upon securing his second win and seemed set to do so, despite the best efforts of Brooks, who remained apparently tied to his rear wing for most of a thrilling 20-lap race.

Round-Garrido and d’Orlando led the chase until Myles Rowe appeared on the scene following a couple of incisive passes.

Sadly, Rowe lost a couple of places when an attempt to pass Round-Garrido at turn one went awry, and three corners later he left his braking a tad too late and inadvertently tipped an innocent Sundaramoorthy into the wall.

Rowe also was eliminated in the incident which brought out the full-course caution.

Brooks took full advantage of the restart by pressuring Porto into a mistake at turn one.

Brooks slipped through as the Brazilian ran wide, then held off a late charge to win by just .3581 of a second in the back half of the doubleheader.

“This is the best weekend of my life. It’s unbelievable, after such a tough weekend at Barber, to be the points leader and a back-to-back winner,” said Brooks. “I can’t thank everyone at Exclusive Autosport enough, the car was on rails the entire weekend. It was a great first race with my teammate Matt – when you have a guy like that behind you, you can’t make any mistakes, and to bring home a one-two finish was great.

“In the second race, it was such a relief to get by Kiko. He’s such a fast driver and not an easy guy to pass, so I wasn’t sure I would be able to,” Brooks continued. “But coming back from that yellow, that was the best restart I’ve ever done and I was able to take advantage of a little mistake he made. I was in the right place at the right time, and the car was amazing. It’s my third win at St. Pete and I think having experience here really helps my confidence. I know where to punch off on the restarts, the gap I need going into Turn One, how cold the tires are and how much I can push.

“The car was so good, I don’t think anyone had anything for us today.”

Round-Garrido looked set for another podium until d’Orlando pulled off a textbook pass at turn one on the final lap to secure his first top-three finish of the season.

Californian Prescott Campbell arrived in Florida as the points leader and ended what was a disappointing weekend on an up-tick by working his way from 16th to ninth in race two Saturday, garnering the Tilton Hard Charger Award.

TALLADEGA, Ala. – Jeb Burton was singing in the rain Saturday at Talladega Superspeedway, after the 28-year-old Halifax, Va., native earned his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win in a rain-shortened Ag Pro 300.

Burton wrested the top spot from his younger cousin, Harrison Burton, on lap 82 and never gave up command after that at the 2.66-mile superspeedway en route to the breakthrough triumph.

He was out front when the fourth and final yellow flag of the day was called for a seven-car crash off the exit of turn two, then celebrated as the skies opened up a few moments later and soaked the race track.

With sunset at 7:22 p.m. CT and a window of daylight too narrow to attempt track drying efforts, NASCAR officials declared the race official with 90 of 113 laps complete, after the field was brought down pit road and stopped.

That left Burton and the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team with a maiden Xfinity Series triumph, nearly eight years after the lone NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of his career.

It was the third straight Talladega win for Matt Kaulig’s team, which swept last year’s pair of Xfinity Series events at the largest track on the schedule with driver Justin Haley.

“Unbelievable, man,” said Jeb Burton, the son of 2002 Daytona 500 winner Ward Burton. “It’s been a tough road to get to this point. Just an unbelievable race team. Today we had Mother Nature on our side, but we had a fast car anyway. We ran up front all day … and were up front at the right time.

“We’ve been building and building and building, and I feel like I’ve kind of been the weak link the last couple of races, and I need to clean some things up,” added Burton, who led three times for 21 laps. “Just the momentum — that’s what I needed … but I want to win races. I told them (Kaulig Racing) that I wanted to come there and hang banners, and we have a chance to hang one after today. Just thankful and happy for this today.

“Doing the burnouts was nice … no smoke, obviously, because it was so wet … but that was cool.”

Saturday made Jeb Burton the fourth first-time winner in eight Xfinity Series races this year. It was also the first Xfinity Series race to be shortened by weather since June 9, 2018 at Michigan Int’l Speedway.

The first two 25-lap stages Saturday ran without incident. Haley won the first stage and Noah Gragson topped the second stage, but it was after that where the intensity picked up and things got crazy.

A lap-76 spin by Josh Berry, who had a right-rear tire going down, forced a yellow flag in the middle of a cycle of green-flag pit stops. It set up a restart with 34 laps left under threatening skies.

When the green flag waved to start the final run, Harrison Burton got a push to the lead from Jeb Burton, but the No. 20 Toyota was only out front for two circuits before Harrison opened the door for Jeb to pounce.

Once Jeb Burton got out front, he was in control when Joe Graf Jr. slid up the track with a flat tire on lap 85, turning Michael Annett down the track into traffic and leading to a pileup that collected Ty Dillon, Brandon Jones and others in its wake.

Enough rain to soak the entire track began falling five laps later, ending the race 23 laps short of its scheduled 300-mile distance.

Xfinity Series point leader Austin Cindric, who led five times for a race-high 24 laps Saturday, ended the day as the runner-up. A.J. Allmendinger, Riley Herbst and Ryan Sieg closed the top five.

Sixth through 10th were Gragson, who collected his second-straight $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus, Brandon Brown, Haley, Myatt Snider and Harrison Burton, who faded back to 10th after being shuffled out just before the final caution.

While Gragson was pleased to take home the cash again, he was disappointed at not having a chance to contend for the victory in the closing laps due to the weather that moved into the area.

“A hundred thousand dollars is a big deal for us,” Gragson said. “This is two times in a row. It’s pretty cool to be able to do that, but, man, I wanted to race for the win. … A hundred thousand’s nice, but I race for wins. It is what it is. It’s ‘Dega, baby.”

The NASCAR Xfinity Series season continues May 8 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway during NASCAR Throwback Weekend at the 1.366-mile, egg-shaped oval. Brandon Jones is the defending track winner.

To view complete race results, advance to the next page.

AVONDALE, La. – Wyndham Clark was born in Denver, went to college at the University of Oregon and now lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and hasn’t had much experience with the teeming wildlife at TPC Louisiana, but his decision to wade into alligator-infested waters during the third round of the Zurich Classic still made him justifiably nervous.

Clark’s tee shot at the par-4 16^th hole trickled into the shallow water of a hazard and he removed his shoes and rolled up his pants to play his approach.

“The first thing that went through my mind was snakes because I had to take my shoes off. There's snakes in Louisiana, so I thought about the snakes,” Clark said. “Then I was like, well, there's alligators all over this golf course right now, and it's also one of the ponds where there's big ones. I definitely thought about it.

“I got in quick, and within probably 15 seconds of being in there I pulled the trigger just in case because I knew my partner was going to make par, and then I pulled off a great shot.”

Clark’s approached landed 15 feet from the pin and he two-putted for a par that impressed his partner, Erik van Rooyen. “I’m happy I have a teammate who is willing to risk one of his limbs for me,” van Rooyen joked.

Clark, whose golf shirt and hat were left covered in mud following his recovery at the 16^thhole, and van Rooyen shot a 9-under 63 in the four-ball (better-ball) session to move into an early tie for fourth place.

AVONDALE, La. – It was the best $18 that Marc Leishman has ever spent.

Prior to Saturday’s third round, the Australian marched to the first tee at TPC Louisiana wearing a “mullet” wig with “The Mullet Song” by Jay Powell echoing across the property.

“I was thinking about hitting the first tee shot with [the wig on], but it was way too windy. There was no way I could have done it,” Leishman said.

“Now you know how I feel,” Smith laughed.

Leishman is teamed with Cameron Smith, who sports arguably the PGA Tour’s most recognizable mullet, and said he ordered the wig last week on Amazon, “I was expecting to have to pay a lot more for it actually, but I was committed to do that,” he laughed.

Although he wanted to surprise Smith on the first tee with the wig he decided against it because “he was afraid that I'd be in stitches,” Smith said. The stunt seemed to keep the Australian duo loose on Day 3 at the Zurich Classic.

The team combined for six birdies through nine holes and finished the day with a 9-under 63 for share of second place and were just a stroke behind front-runners Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel.

Although the wig, and walk-up music, were a big hit for the team and the fans, Leishman said he likely won’t put on a repeat performance to start the fourth round. “[We need to] concentrate on that first tee shot,” he said.

Eleven Serie A clubs have called for AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus to face consequences for their involvement in the failed European Super League project.

AS Roma, Torino, Bologna, Genoa, Sampdoria, Sassuolo, Spezia, Benevento, Crotone, Parma and Cagliari co-signed a letter addressed to league president Paolo Dal Pino, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

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The letter calls for an urgent meeting of the 20 Serie A clubs to "analyse the serious acts implemented by Juventus, AC Milan, Inter Milan and their administrators, and the relative consequences".

The three clubs are said to have "developed and approved the project by acting in secret" with "evident and serious damage" for Italian football.

"Furthermore, to date the same clubs have not yet formally communicated their withdrawal from the project, evidence of a possible and unacceptable relaunch of its creation," the letter added.

The Super League project was announced on Sunday but fell apart within three days as most of the founding members pulled out amid a fierce backlash from fans, governing bodies and politicians.

Zinedine Zidane has denied that Real Madrid are out of the La Liga title race after their 0-0 draw with Real Betis -- but defender Dani Carvajal admitted the result was a "step backwards" in the battle for the trophy.

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Madrid looked tired in the goalless draw on Saturday night which left them two points behind leaders Atletico Madrid, who have a game in hand, and three points ahead of Barcelona, who have played two games fewer.

"No, I don't think [the league is getting away]," Zidane told Movistar. "They're two points dropped for us, but I don't think so. We have to keep going, we tried, we clearly lacked something in attack. We were good defensively but we missed something with the ball. I don't think the league is over."

Three of Real Madrid's last four matches in all competitions have ended 0-0, including La Liga games with Getafe and Betis which saw them drop four points in the title race.

"I don't think so," Zidane said, when asked if Barca and Atletico -- who play away at Villarreal and Athletic Bilbao on Sunday -- would win all of their remaining games. "If it's like that, we won't win La Liga... But I don't think so, the rest are the same as us. I don't think they'll win every game. Let's hope not."

Full-back Dani Carvajal -- who has just returned from his latest injury setback in a stop-start season -- sounded a more pessimistic note.

"It's a step backwards in the fight for the title," he said. "In the last third we weren't sharp, we lacked a bit of hunger... It's a draw that leaves us further from the top, but there are five games and 15 points left, and we'll see what happens."

"Today was an opportunity to sleep tonight as leaders and put pressure on Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, and we haven't done it," he added. "We feel like an important opportunity has gotten away from us."

More positive news for Real Madrid was the return from injury of Eden Hazard, who came on for the last 15 minutes to make his first appearance in six weeks.

"He did well, he played with spark and energy," Zidane said. "The most important thing was that he didn't feel any discomfort and that's what happened."

Madrid host Chelsea on Tuesday night in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal at the Alfredo di Stefano stadium.