CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Twins added another pitcher to the mix on Monday. Now they have to figure out the best way to use him.

The Twins on Monday claimed veteran Cole Irvin off of waivers from the Baltimore Orioles, who had recently designated him for assignment. He is expected to join the team in Cleveland, at which point the Twins will need to make a move to add him to the 28-man roster.

Irvin has been used as both a starter and reliever this season in Baltimore, last starting on Aug. 27, and the Twins could opt to use him in either role.

“I could see him pitching in different roles for us,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I could see him sometimes giving us an inning or giving us five innings. I can’t tell you exactly when we’re going to use him and what that role will be in that first game. … But he’s definitely a guy that is versatile. He’s definitely a guy that has been through and experienced a lot of different things in the game.”

The lefty, who has pitched for parts of six seasons in the majors, had a 4.86 earned-run average this season with the Orioles across 107 1/3 innings.

Though Irvin was added to the organization too late to potentially help in the postseason, the Twins believe that he can help them down the stretch.

“When we made the claim, looking at our group, we were thinking how do we lengthen out what we already have?” president of baseball operations Derek Falvey said. “He’s a guy with starting experience and bullpen experience. He knows how to pitch in both roles. He has pitched in both roles. His makeup is really good. … It just gives us another option.”

The Twins of late have been rolling out a rotation with three rookie starters — Simeon Woods Richardson, Zebby Matthews and David Festa — along with veterans Pablo López and Bailey Ober.

As the trio of rookies pitch deep into September, they’re into territory where they’ve taken on a heavier workload than ever, surpassing the most number of innings they’ve ever thrown in a professional season. Lately, none have been working more than five innings.

“We’re going to have to talk to him and see what he’s really capable of before we can even assess what Cole’s role is going to be,” Baldelli said. “We have three young starters … who are going through September for the first time, too, and they’re guys that we’re going to have to find way to put in the right spots to succeed. We’ll assess over the next day or two.”

Larnach slowed by hamstring

As he carefully approached second base on Sunday after hitting a double, it was clear Trevor Larnach was slowed by something.

That something, Baldelli said, is hamstring soreness, which is preventing him from running at 100 percent. Larnach, who did not start on Monday with a left-hander on the mound, has not played in the outfield in a game since Sept. 10, but he has still been out there DHing for the Twins.

“It’s not affecting his swing,” Baldelli said. “A lot of the times if you know a guy is dealing with a muscle injury and it’s affecting his swing, you’re going to slow things down. You’re going to have to give him a little bit of time. He’s still putting really good at-bats together, having really good swings.”

Briefly

To make room on the 40-man roster for Irvin, the Twins designated Randy Dobnak for assignment. … The Twins promoted pitching prospects Marco Raya and Cory Lewis from Double-A to Triple-A, where they will get a brief taste of the highest level of the minor leagues before the Saints’ season ends on Sunday.

A new piece of artwork featuring the city of Cottage Grove was unveiled over the weekend.

The painting, by folk artist Eric Dowdle, has been turned into a puzzle and is available for purchase, city officials said.

A new painting by folk artist Eric Dowdle has been turned into a puzzle available for purchase at Cottage Grove City Hall. (Courtesy of the City of Cottage Grove)

City officials commissioned the $75,000 artwork “to capture the past and present of the community,” officials said in a statement. It was funded through the city’s Economic Development Authority.

Famous faces and places who shaped the community are featured in the painting, including Boondocks, The Rush, the Cottage View Drive-In theater, the Historic Furber Farm, Cedarhurst, the Strawberry Fest Ferris Wheel, Shepard Farm, the city’s Ice Arena and Mayor Myron Bailey and the rest of the Cottage Grove City Council.

Dowdle, who lives in Lindon, Utah, said he “gained a deep appreciation for the history, places and people of Cottage Grove … during the process of creating this painting. It was my goal to capture what makes it such a special place to live.”

Dowdle’s painting and a wooden puzzle showing Dowdle’s artwork will be displayed at Cottage Grove City Hall.

Puzzles are available to purchase at City Hall in 500- or 1,000-piece sets; the price is $28 and $30, respectively. The puzzle sales will help the city recover the cost of the painting, said City Administrator Jennifer Levitt.

Puzzles also can be purchased online at cottagegrovestore.com.

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By BARBARA ORTUTAY

Elon Musk has deleted a post on his social media platform X in which he said “no one is even trying to assassinate” President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump while he was playing golf.

Musk, who has nearly 200 million followers on the social media site he bought for $44 billion in 2022, has increasingly embraced conservative ideologies in recent years and endorsed Trump for president.

While he has removed posts in the past, Musk has also kept up and even doubled down on other such inflammatory comments. Last week, he made a joke about impregnating Taylor Swift after the singer posted an endorsement for Harris.

Early Monday, after taking down the post about the apparent Trump assassination, the 53-year-old billionaire wrote on the platform: “Well, one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”

The original post was in response to DogeDesigner, one of the 700 accounts that Musk follows, who asked: “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”

Musk’s reply was quickly condemned by many X users, and “DeportElonMusk” began trending on X on Monday morning.

“Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about,” said White House spokesperson Andrew Bates in response to Musk’s post. “This rhetoric is irresponsible.”

The Tesla CEO has previously posted conspiracy theories and feuded with world leaders and politicians. X is currently banned in Brazil amid a dustup between Musk and a Brazilian Supreme Court judge over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

He’s also received criticism in the past for what critics said were posts encouraging violence.

Last month, for instance, the British government called on Musk to act responsibly after he used X to unleash a barrage of posts that officials said risked inflaming violent unrest gripping the country.

Musk said when he bought the platform then known as Twitter that protecting free speech — not money — was his motivation because, as he put it, “having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”

Sarah Kreps, director of Cornell University’s Tech Policy Institute, noted that Musk has long been trying to “push the boundaries of free speech, in part by engaging in impulsive, unfiltered comments on a range of political topics.”

——

Associated Press Writer Chris Megerian contributed to this story from Washington.

The Gophers’ running game averaged less than three yards per carry across the opening two games this season. That continued with 2.7 yards per rush on 13 carries into the second half against Nevada on Saturday.

Then tailback Darius Taylor burst out on a rollicking 80-yard touchdown run to put the final points on a 27-0 win at Huntington Bank Stadium. Minnesota continued to get more consistent chunks of yardage on the ground after Taylor’s explosive play and finished the final nonconference game with 195 yards on 32 carries (6.1 per rush).

“Those are body blows, body blows, body blows, body blows and boom! There is a knockout punch,” head coach P.J. Fleck said postgame.

The Gophers (2-1) will face a heavyweight rush defense when Iowa (2-1) comes to Minneapolis for a primetime edition of the battle for Floyd of Rosedale on Saturday night. The Hawkeyes are sixth in the nation, allowing 2.06 yards per carry this season.

Fleck has pointed out that nonconference opponents have been putting extra defenders in the box to stop the U’s run game, which has been making it more difficult to get more yardage on a consistent basis.

“I don’t think it’s ever as bad as you think or as good as you think. … There are nine guys down in the box,” Fleck said Monday about Nevada. “I think people in the run game sometimes think every time you run the ball you should get 12 yards. Not in today’s day and age. Not all the time.

“It’s being willing to stick with the run game over and over and over. That allows a lot of things to happen in the pass game.”

With quarterback Max Brosmer’s ability to orchestrate a short and quick-hitting passing game, Minnesota has been able to establish the pass and then run it. “Throw to run,” Fleck has repeated this season.

Minnesota has run the ball on 56 percent of total plays this season, down 6 percent from last year.

When it comes to the offensive line, Fleck has said this year’s team reminds him of the 2019 season, when they used a larger variety of linemen, especially early on in the year. This season, the Gophers have used three different starting combinations at right guard and right tackle through three games.

“They have to be consistent,” Fleck said about needs from the O-line going into Iowa. “They have to do a great job of communicating. They have to play hard-nosed football. They do. It’s not that they don’t; they do. They play extremely hard as we continue to go through this and mold it together. We just have to continue to have the consistency there that we know the guys can have.”

Against North Carolina, Quinn Carroll started at right guard and Martes Lewis at right tackle. For Rhode Island, they flipped to Lewis at guard, Carroll at tackle, but Ashton Beers replaced Lewis midway through the game. For Nevada, it was Beers at guard, Carroll at tackle.

The other three first-team lineman have remained constant: left tackle Aireontae Ersery, left guard Tyler Cooper and center Greg Johnson.

“I thought the leadership has gotten tangibly and consistently growing in that group: Quinn and ‘Tae, Coop and Greg — everybody on that O-line — they did an amazing job staying together,” Brosmer said. “They know that ultimately they want to put a perfect product on the field, but everyone knows that being perfect isn’t obtainable. We want to get close to perfect.”

Minnesota Gophers quarterback Max Brosmer (16) passes the ball against the Nevada Wolf Pack in the first quarter of an NCAA football game at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis on Saturday, Sept., 14, 2024. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

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