The announced crowd of 36,783 fans started rising to its feet and getting loud during Jose Altuve’s ninth-inning at-bat. Already, the Houston Astros’ nine-time All-Star had struck out four times.

Near the end of what turned out to be a 5-2 loss to Houston during the Twins’ home opener at Target Field, Minnesota pitchers were looking to do something never done before to Altuve — strike him out five times in a game.

“First time I haven’t been able to hear the PitchCom out there, so that was kind of new,” Twins reliever Darren McCaughan said. “I think it just kind of locks me in.”

On the seventh pitch of their duel, McCaughan, who pitched the final two innings of Thursday’s game, caught Altuve looking, giving him a rare, undesirable platinum sombrero.

Twins starter Joe Ryan started the job, getting Altuve to chase a pitch out of the zone for the first out of the game. He got him swinging again in the third and once more in the fifth on another pitch out of the zone. Reliever Jorge Alcala was responsible for Altuve’s fourth strikeout of the game, getting him in the seventh inning on a 98.7 mph fastball.

Altuve, for reference, isn’t particularly strikeout prone. He’s now in his 16th season and just once has he fanned more than 100 times in a season, making the Twins’ feat even more impressive.

“I figured the crowd was going crazy for a reason,” McCaughan said. “I saw him strike out a few times. I didn’t know the exact number on it, but yeah, I was seeing him swing and miss when I was sitting down in the bullpen.”

Cruz returns

Rocco Baldelli doesn’t often catch ceremonial first pitches, that job often falling to someone else. But on Thursday, in the minutes before the opener, the manager squatted down behind home plate to receive a pitch from Nelson Cruz.

Cruz, who played for the Twins for parts of three seasons between 2019-21, bounced the ball, after which Baldelli embraced his former player. He retired after the 2023 season and now is a special advisor for baseball pperations for Major League Baseball.

“It was like having an uncle who happened to be one of the five best hitters in the world,” Baldelli said. “There’s a lot to look towards when you look towards Nelson Cruz’s locker. When you’re looking for him, you’re not just looking for the designated hitter — you’re looking for someone that’s going to show you the way, that’s going to do it the right way.”

Briefly

After an off day on Friday, Bailey Ober will take the ball on Saturday, looking to move past a tough start to the season in which he gave up eight runs in less than three innings pitched. He will be opposed by Astros starter Spencer Arrighetti. … The Twins have lost consecutive home openers for the first time since the 2015-16 seasons.

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A Mexican national was given a two-year federal prison term for dealing large amounts of fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine as part of a drug cartel cell that used a South St. Paul residence as a stash house.

Court documents say an investigation began in September 2022 into a local operation that sold drugs on behalf of Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, which U.S. prosecutors say “is arguably the most prolific and most violent cartel in Mexico today.”

Mario Alberto Velarde-Carrera (Courtesy of the Dakota County Sheriff’s Office)

As part of the investigation, Mario Alberto Velarde-Carrera sold the three drugs to undercover agents between late 2022 and February 2023, according to court documents.

A Dakota County Drug Task Force agent that had been watching Velarde-Carrera “caught (Velarde-Carrera) in the act of trying to move much of the substances from one of their stash locations” on Feb. 15, 2023, federal prosecutors say.

When Velarde-Carrera left the home in the 200 block of 11th Avenue North, he was pulled over by an officer who “had probable cause to arrest based on prior drug-related criminal activity involving large amounts of controlled substances in Dakota County,” according to a March 2023 criminal complaint filed in state court.

A K-9 dog detected drugs in Velarde-Carrera’s car, which was then searched. In a bag, authorities found more than 3½ pounds of fentanyl powder, 5 pounds of meth and a pound of heroin, the charges say.

Nearly four additional pounds of meth were seized after a search warrant was executed at the house.

In an interview with authorities, Velarde-Carrera admitted to selling drugs and that he was “working with ‘someone’ in Mexico,” federal documents say.

Velarde-Carrera was a part of the first cell of the distribution side of the local operation that was dismantled in February 2023, according to federal prosecutors.

Supporting the cartel

Velarde-Carrera was initially charged in Dakota County District Court with three counts of aggravated controlled substance in the first-degree. The Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office picked up the case in May 2023, charging him with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin. He pleaded guilty to the charge the following October.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Allen Slaughter Jr. wrote in a presentencing memorandum that Velarde-Carrera traveled from Mexico to “distribute drugs and make money” in Minnesota, where he relocated in November 2022. He previously had relocated to California from Mexico, where his parents, four siblings and wife still live.

The controlled buys by undercover agents “were only snapshots into this conspiracy — just select days of an ongoing process in support of the CJNG cartel,”  Slaughter wrote in the memo. “They are however emblematic of (Velarde-Carrera’s) involvement (albeit brief) in these activities.”

Velarde-Carrera’s sentence, handed down Monday by U.S. District Judge Michael Davis in Minneapolis, includes five years of supervised release following incarceration. Velarde-Carrera was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

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Earlier this month, a U.S.-Mexican dual national and co-founder of the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion was sentenced in the District of Columbia to life in prison for his role in a major drug trafficking conspiracy.

According to court documents, Ruben Oseguera-Gonzalez, known as El Menchito, 34, led the cartel for nearly seven years in Mexico and oversaw the importation of “multi-tonnage quantities” of drugs into the U.S. A judge also ordered him forfeit more than $6 billion of drug trafficking proceeds.

“Gonzalez was one of the first contributors to the fentanyl epidemic in the United States, pledging to ‘do it big’ and build an empire from counterfeit oxycontin pills laced with fentanyl,” prosecutors said in a March 7 statement.

By LISA MASCARO

WASHINGTON (AP) — After a long wait, the Senate is launching action on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” of tax breaks and spending cuts at a risky moment for the U.S. and global economy.

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More than a month after House Republicans surprised Washington by advancing their framework for Trump’s tax breaks and spending cuts package, Senate Republicans voted Thursday to start working on their version. The 52-48 vote sets the stage for back-to-back Senate all-nighters spilling into Friday and the weekend.

But work on the multitrillion-dollar package is coming as markets at home and abroad are on edge in the aftermath Trump’s vast tariffs scheme, complicating an already difficult political and procedural undertaking.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., opened the chamber Thursday saying they were expected to begin “as soon as today” embarking on what they hope will become the GOP’s signature domestic policy package.

Trump says he’s on board and Republicans, in control of Congress, are eager to show the party is making progress toward delivering on their campaign promises. After that, it’s still long weeks, if not months, to go toward a final product.

Democrats, as the minority party, don’t have the votes to stop the GOP plan. But they intend to use the procedural tools available to prolong the process. Democrats argue that Republicans are focusing on tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of the programs and services millions of Americans rely on for help with health care, child care, school lunches and other everyday needs.

“They’re mean, they’re nasty, they’re uncaring,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said about the Republicans.

Senate Democrats are ready to spend the night and day ahead with floor debates over potential GOP cuts to Medicaid, veterans programs, DOGE cuts and the impact of Trump’s tariffs. “We, tonight and tomorrow, are going to show just who they are,” Schumer said.

Fundamental to the Senate package is making sure Trump’s first-term tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year, are continued and made a permanent fixture of the tax code. The senators also will consider adding Trump’s proposed tax cuts on tipped wages, Social Security income and others.

The Senate package also would bolster border security funds by some $175 billion to carry out Trump’s mass deportation campaign, which is running short of cash, and it would add national security funds for the Pentagon — all priorities the Senate GOP tucked into an earlier version that was panned by House Republicans.

What’s unclear is how it will all be paid for, since Republican deficit hawks typically require spending offsets to help defray the lost tax revenue and avoid piling onto the nation’s $36 trillion debt load.

While House Republicans approved their package with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, the Senate Republicans are taking a different tack.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is making the case that since the existing Trump tax breaks are the current policy, they are not considered new, and do not need to be offset with reductions in spending — an approach Democrats compare to “going nuclear” with the normal rules. Democrats are vowing to put the strategy to the test before the Senate parliamentarian.

Instead, Senate Republicans are considering offsets mostly for any new Trump tax breaks. Raising alarms from the most conservative budget hawks, the senators have set a floor of about $4 billion in budget reductions to health and other programs — a fraction of the package’s expected $4 trillion-plus price tag for tax breaks.

GOP leaders are assuring the deficit hawks within their own ranks that the legislation says the cuts can rise to as much as $2 trillion.

After an expected Friday night vote-a-rama, with dozens of amendments being offered to the package, the senators are planning to stay into Saturday if needed to take a final vote to approve it, sending it to the House for action.

The House and Senate will ultimately need to merge their frameworks into a final product, expected in May, but House Speaker Mike Johnson’s intention to have it all wrapped up by Memorial Day could prove optimistic.

The political environment is uncertain, and the public’s appetite for steep budget cuts is being tested in real time, with Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency headed by billionaire Elon Musk blazing through federal offices, firing thousands of workers and shuttering long-running government mainstays — from scientific research projects on diseases to educational services for schoolchildren to offices that help with Social Security, tax filing and the weather.

At the same time, the staunchest fiscal conservatives in both the House and Senate, many aligned with the Freedom Caucus, are pushing for even more cuts.

Trump told senators publicly and privately this week he would have their backs, particularly when it comes to standing up for the spending reductions. At a White House announcing the tariffs Wednesday, Trump said the Senate plan had his “complete and total support.”

The president’s steep tariffs threw the global economy into a tailspin Thursday, with stocks down around the world, the U.S. markets leading the way.

Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

By MOLLY QUELL and MICHELE NOVAGA

LISSE, Netherlands (AP) — Nestled among tulip fields not far from Amsterdam, the world-famous Keukenhof garden has opened for the spring, welcoming camera-wielding visitors to its increasingly selfie-friendly grounds.

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On a sunny day, the paths, park benches and cafes are crowded with tourists taking photos and selfies with one of the Netherlands’ most iconic products — the tulip. Those kinds of pics, posted on social media, are what drew Austrian lawyer Daniel Magnus.

“Whenever you see the kind of pictures which were taken from an influencer, they make something with you. You get a new impression of new locations, traditions, people and so on …. You want also to be there,” Magnus told The Associated Press.

Magnus had just finished taking his own photos on a small boat, staged in one of the park’s canals for visitors to take their own Instagrammable images.

Staff plant and nurture a staggering 7 million flower bulbs to ensure visitors who flock to the Keukenhof from around the world all get to see a vibrant spectacle during the just eight weeks the garden is open.

In recent years, the garden has increasingly catered to the public’s thirst for social media content and created spaces where guests are encouraged to pose.

Selfie spots include flower archways, pink velvet couches and another Dutch classic – oversized wooden clogs.

The Keukenhof’s own social media channels have some suggestions about the best locations and the Dutch tourism board even advises on how to get the perfect tulip selfie.

“Make your image come alive and place the subject of your photo slightly off-centre. This will make your photo look more dynamic,” the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions says.

The Keukenhof garden’s more than 1 million expected visitors don’t need too much encouragement to snap pics among the tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and myriad other flowers. The blossoms are meticulously handplanted throughout its manicured lawns by a small army of gardeners.

An employee plants tulips at the Keukenhof flower garden in Lisse, Netherlands, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Molly Quell)

“There’s always something blooming. I think that’s the reason why everyone is happy. There’s also always something to see,” gardener Patrick van Dijk told the AP.

Not everyone is always happy with tourists taking photos. Some flower farmers have put up signs and barriers to deter aspiring influencers from trampling tulips in nearby fields.

Italian tulips

Tulip fields have started becoming a popular draw elsewhere in Europe. Dutchman Edwin Koeman, who comes from a family of tulip bulb traders, started growing the flowers after moving to an area north of Milan with his family.

“The land here is good. It’s more the climate which is very different to Holland,” Koeman said in an interview on his field in the small Italian town of Arese. “Here, the winter is a bit shorter, we have more sunshine. But for our work, it’s good because it rains just enough in the winter and in the spring. And now in the spring, most of the time it’s sunny, so people like to come to our field.”

Last year, his field had a record of 50,000 visitors, many enjoying the chance to pick tulips themselves to fill their baskets. They’ve started arriving this year and, on April 1, Viola Guidi was among those picking through Koeman’s field.

“Every year I come here together with my friends, even several times,” she said. “Usually we have to hurry, because the best flowers are all picked within a few weeks. We managed to come close to the opening, a week later. This time it worked out really well for me. It’s beautiful.”

Italy grows 43 million tulips, exporting almost one-third of them, according to Nada Forbici, national coordinator of the Coldiretti floriculture council. Exports are aimed mainly at northern Europe, especially Netherlands, she said.

Novaga reported from Arese, Italy.