NEW YORK — Pierson Ohl admits he was initially “a little skeptical” when he was introduced to a new plan shortly into his minor league season that would shorten him up — pitching generally three to four innings rather than the length of a typical start — and have him out on the mound every four days.

“There’s some good marketing going on. Like, ‘Hey, you’re going to throw harder, you’re going to punch more guys out. You might even throw more than starters,” Ohl said. “It’s a learning curve.” But his body soon adapted and, eventually, the new plan got him to the big leagues, following in the path of Travis Adams, who reached the majors about a month earlier.

Adams suffered the loss as the Twins fell 9-1 to the New York Yankees on Tuesday night in the Bronx in a game in which the Twins collected just one hit, but the two newly-minted major leaguers are proof that the Twins’ plan has been working.

Since the deadline, Adams has made a pair of starts and pitched once in relief. He lasted just 2 1/3 innings on Tuesday, chased early after giving up a pair of home runs — a solo shot to Aaron Judge in the first inning and a three-run blast to Anthony Volpe an inning later.

Ohl has pitched three times since the deadline, making one start and appearing twice in relief. His outings have lasted up to three innings and have come on the same every-four-days schedule that he has become accustomed to.

The Twins introduced the concept to a handful of minor leaguers this year, believing it would benefit them. Now that Adams and Ohl have reached the major league level, they plan to continue it with the pair of rookies — at least for the time being.

“It’s gone as well as you could’ve imagined that it could go. And once you take them off of the four-day schedule, it’d be … near-impossible to get them back on the four-day schedule,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “You might as well just keep them going.”

Ohl had a 2.17 earned-run average across three different levels while in the minor leagues. His strikeouts, indeed, went up. His WHIP (Walks and Hits Per Innings Pitched) went down. Adams, in a mix of starting and relieving, had a 3.68 ERA at Triple-A St. Paul this year and was one of the Saints’ most effective pitchers.

The Twins have newly-acquired starters Taj Bradley and Mick Abel pitching in Triple-A and, at some point, are expecting both Simeon Woods Richardson and Pablo López to return from the injured list. But for now, they have plenty of innings to be pitched, and Ohl and Adams have benefitted from that — and seemingly will continue to, every four days.

“We have a lot of innings to cover. We have two out of five days where we’re running bullpen days,” Baldelli said. “Let’s keep these guys built out in the best fashion we can, and then we’ll see what September looks like. Maybe we keep it going through the rest of the year, and maybe we alter it in some way. But I see no reason or benefit to really altering it in the near term.”

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Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday night in the special election for the Ward 4 seat on the St. Paul City Council, though results were not expected until later in the night.

Ward 4 is in northwestern St. Paul and includes all or part of five neighborhoods: Hamline-Midway, Merriam Park, St. Anthony Park, and parts of Macalester-Groveland and Como.

Former city council member Mitra Jalali vacated the seat in March. Mayor Melvin Carter appointed Matt Privratsky to fill the seat until the special election.

The candidates

Here’s who was on the ballot:

• Chauntyll Allen, a member of the St. Paul school board and a leader of Black Lives Matter Twin Cities.

• Molly Coleman, founder of progressive court reform nonprofit People’s Parity Project.

• Cole Hanson, a statewide online education coordinator who teaches nutrition to recipients of federal food assistance who is endorsed by the Twin Cities Democratic Socialists of America.

• Carolyn Will, founder of CW Marketing and Communications, a former TV newscaster and opponent of the city’s proposed Summit Avenue bikeway.

The winner of the special election will take the seat and represent Ward 4 through the November 2028 election.

Ranked-choice vote

Under St. Paul’s ranked-choice voting system, voters were able to rank candidates in order of preference. There was no primary election.

The race is officially nonpartisan, and the St. Paul Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party did not make any endorsements this summer as it works to rebuild itself.

A winner could emerge late Tuesday. However, if no candidate wins an absolute majority on election night — 50% plus one of the vote — election officials will begin a reallocation process.

St. Paul voters rank candidates by choice on their ballots.

If one candidate gets a simple majority, they win. But if there’s no clear winner, officials will eliminate the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and award votes to the second choice listed on the ballot. This process is repeated until one candidate has 50% support.

If reallocation is needed, the process is tentatively scheduled for Friday, Aug. 15, according to Ramsey County spokesman Casper Hill.

At the polls

Residents at the polls Tuesday named a variety of local issues on their minds this year, including affordable housing, bike lanes, road quality and property taxes.

Como resident Jeanne Baumann said she wanted more affordable accommodations for unhoused people in the city instead of “giant apartment buildings that they can’t afford.”

Hamline-Midway resident Annie Kuhn said she was concerned with rising housing costs and property taxes when ranking candidates.

“My one kid is probably going to be able to buy a house; the other one probably never, ever will,” Kuhn said. “It’s just ridiculous that housing costs have spiraled so much.”

Val Woelfel, who has lived in the Hamline-Midway neighborhood for 30 years, said one of her voting priorities was city development issues, such as the vacant CVS on the corner of Snelling and University avenues “sucking the energy out of the neighborhood.”

Bike lanes, road quality

Como resident Karen Lenander said she prioritized candidates who opposed cutting down trees in historic neighborhoods to create more bike paths.

Como resident Gary Grave agreed, saying city bike paths “are used four months out of the year and then block traffic.”

Merriam Park resident Dylan Brooks said road quality was a top issue.

“City council can help increase patrolling for police, then also they control how road maintenance is managed,” Brooks said. “So those are kind of the two biggest things that I looked at.”

Compromise, getting things done

Merriam Park resident Jeff Fugina said he wants a moderate viewpoint to the council, which he believes has “drifted way to one side in recent years.”

Hamline-Midway resident Eric Gustafson said he didn’t feel like the policy positions of the four candidates were vastly different, and he voted for candidates he thought best understood the “slow process” of implementing new policy.

“If I was looking at one thing or another, it was how I thought they would work to get things done,” he said.

Kathryn Kovalenko contributed to this story.

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Two primary elections took place in the Twin Cities metro on Tuesday — a special primary for the seat of late state Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and a primary for White Bear Lake mayor.

Polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, and former Brooklyn Park City Council member Xp Lee had 59% of the vote in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary for House District 34B. All precincts were reporting before 9 p.m.

As of 9 p.m., it wasn’t yet clear who had prevailed in the White Bear Lake mayoral primary.

House District 34B

Three DFL candidates competed for their party’s nomination in the primary election for House District 34B, a district that includes Brooklyn Center as well as parts of Champlin and Coon Rapids.

District 34B has been vacant since June after the assassination of Hortman, the former House speaker, and her husband, Mark, inside their Brooklyn Park home.

Lee, Erickson Saye and Christian Eriksen appeared on the ballot.

Lee will face Republican Ruth Bittner in the special election on Sept. 16.

The House is currently split 67-66 with the Republicans at a one-seat advantage. If a DFLer wins Hortman’s former seat, the House will return to a 67-67 tie.

White Bear Lake mayor

Three candidates are competing to replace White Bear Lake Mayor Dan Louismet, who won office in 2021 and is not running for reelection.

White Bear Lake’s mayor is a nonpartisan position. The purpose of the primary is to narrow the field to two candidates, who will face each other in the general election on Nov. 5.

Candidates in the White Bear Lake race include Mary Nicklawske, Matthew Schoenthaler and Stephen Laliberte.

More special primaries ahead

More special primaries are scheduled later this month: on Aug. 26, Senate District 47, which centers around Woodbury, and Senate District 29, which is northwest of Minneapolis and includes parts of Wright, Meeker and Hennepin counties.

The District 47 seat became vacant last month after the burglary conviction of Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, and the District 26 seat was vacant after the unexpected death of Sen. Bruce Anderson, R-Buffalo.

District 47 will likely see a DFL primary between state Rep. Amanda Hemmingsen-Jaeger, DFL-Woodbury, and state Rep. Ethan Cha, DFL-Woodbury. Only one Republican has filed to run so far: Dwight Dourau, meaning there will be no contest for the nomination.

Meanwhile, District 29 is likely to see a GOP primary. Republicans Rachel Davis, Michael Holmstrom Jr. and Bradley Kurtz have filed to run. Only one DFLer has filed to run so far, according to the Minnesota secretary of state: Louis McNutt.

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NEW YORK — For the past two and a half seasons, the Twins have committed themselves to a nearly-even timeshare behind the plate, alternating starts between Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vázquez.

The duo’s impressive streak of starting every game behind the plate since the beginning of the 2023 season came to an abrupt, unexpected end over the weekend after Vázquez developed an infection in his shoulder that led to a hospitalization and a procedure to clean it out.

With Vázquez out indefinitely, Jeffers will see an expanded opportunity. It comes at a good time as the 28-year-old, who in his sixth season in the majors, says he feels “probably the best I’ve felt in the big leagues,” at the plate.

“I just feel so under control,” Jeffers said. “There were times last year where I was hitting a ton of homers, but I felt like I happened to run into a ball. Now it feels like there’s so much more … ability to consistently put the barrel on the ball. It just feels a lot better.”

Coming into Tuesday’s game against the New York Yankees, the catcher was hitting .366 with a .909 OPS over his last 25 games. Within that stretch, he had a 12-game hitting streak, which came to an end on Monday night in New York.

Though he’s far off last year’s home run total — he hit a career-high 21 last season and entered Tuesday’s game with eight — Jeffers has upped his walk rate and slightly cut his strikeout rate.

Almost across the board, Jeffers’ offensive numbers are up, something he attributes to a mechanical tweak plus his mechanics putting him in the right spot to where he can be more focused on his play and the execution of it rather than trying to figure out the mechanics themselves.

“I feel really good,” he said. “I obviously want more homers. But this is by far the best offensive year that I’ve had, especially the underlying numbers. I’m doing everything the best I’ve done in my career.”

And he’ll have even more of an opportunity to show that with Vázquez sidelined. Jeffers will catch “most of the games,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. He’s also receiving at-bats as the Twins’ designated hitter, as he did on Tuesday.

“There’s no formula here,” Baldelli said. “Ryan’s going to get a lot of time behind the plate, and it’ll be a good thing for him pushing his body. The mentality of preparing to catch every day is something he has only had in small spurts over the last few years. It’ll be good for him.”

Gasper starts

With Matt Wallner’s return from the paternity list — he welcomed his first child, a daughter named Elliotte Bryn over the weekend — the Twins optioned catcher Jhonny Pereda back to Triple-A. Pereda was called up on Aug. 8 and did not appear in a game.

With the move, the Twins are committing — for the time being, at least — to Mickey Gasper as their back-up catcher. Gasper caught his first full major league game on Sunday and started again on Tuesday.

“I think he did a good job receiving, and his pitch calling was good,” Baldelli said. “I think he handled the responsibilities well. … He’s got some experience behind the dish. He’s caught a bunch at Triple-A. Now he catches here.”

Briefly

Commissioner Rob Manfred visited the Twins’ clubhouse pregame, holding a meeting with the players. … Twins rookie Luke Keaschall spent his Tuesday at the MLB Network studios in Secaucus, N.J. … The Twins signed 28-year-old left-handed pitcher Génesis Cabrera to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A.  Cabrera has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons and has pitched for the New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates this season.

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