For all of the well-deserved pregame hype about the Twins facing Pittsburgh ace Paul Skenes on Friday, manager Rocco Baldelli admitted that in meeting with his hitters, they didn’t burn incense, light candles or take any other extreme measures in order to coax a hit or two against the dominant righty.

The challenge of facing Skenes — who earlier this month became the first Pirate ever selected to the All-Star Game in each of his first two major league seasons — is the same for every player that steps into the batters box.

“I can’t tell you they’re that much different,” Baldelli said of the pregame hitters meeting prior to facing Skenes. “If there was some secret plan that was reasonably obvious to anyone on Earth, we would probably know about it, and any team…every team would probably be focusing on that. There is no overriding plan that you know has a high level of success. You have to go in there and win a lot of individual at-bats and individual pitches.”

Still, with Twins All-Star right-hander Joe Ryan headed to the mound to start the game and a big crowd on hand, Baldelli acknowledged that these kinds of head-to-head matchups, on a warm summer night, with Minnesota battling for a wild card spot, are the type of games that bring fans out to the park or have them tuning into the TV broadcast.

“Those types of days can be an enjoyable spectacle. They’re the types of matchups that get people talking a lot, they get people excited, they get people in this building and in this clubhouse excited, and hopefully a lot of our fans at home are going to enjoy watching some good baseball and very well-pitched games,” he said. “So, I think that’s what it’s about. And probably one of the more you know…it doesn’t happen every day. Like, you’ve got to take advantage of the opportunities that you have to watch great players out there. And when you see two pitchers like this matchup, it should be must-see TV.”

Confidence boost from Cubs series

The Twins fell short of a sweep in the three-game series with Chicago earlier in the week. But with the Cubs coming to Minnesota on an offensive tear, holding the visitors to one run in the series opener, and two runs in the second game, was chalked up as a confidence booster for the defense and pitching staff.

With a huge contingent of Cubs fans at Target Field for all three games, keeping the visiting fans mostly quiet was a nice bonus.

“That’s a really good team with a really tough lineup, and to take two of three from them just shows how good our team can be when we play to our potential,” said Twins reliever Danny Coulombe, who pitched 2/3 of an inning in each of the wins. “It was kind of crazy to see so much blue. Obviously the Cubs travel great, but it was a really fun week.”

Metrodome memories for McCutchen

While he has spent the bulk of his career in the National League and has not been a rival of the Twins, Pirates slugger Andrew McCutchen has some good memories of summer trips to Minnesota. In 2014, when the All-Star Game was at Target Field, he represented Pittsburgh, and he came into Friday’s game with a dozen career home runs in Minneapolis.

McCutchen’s first career home run was hit on June 17, 2009, off Twins ace Francisco Liriano at the Metrodome, in the final season the Twins played indoor baseball.

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By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department and FBI are struggling to contain the fallout and appease the demands of far-right conservative personalities and influential members of President Donald Trump’s base after the administration’s decision this week to withhold records from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

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The move, which included the acknowledgment that one particular sought-after document never existed in the first place, sparked a contentious conversation between Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino at the White House earlier this week — threatening to shatter relations between the two law enforcement leaders. It centered in part on a news story by a conservative outlet that described divisions between the FBI and the Justice Department.

The cascade of disappointment and disbelief arising from the refusal to disclose additional, much-hyped records from the Epstein investigation lays bare the struggles of FBI and Justice Department leaders to resolve the conspiracy theories and amped-up expectations that they themselves had stoked with claims of a cover-up and hidden evidence. Infuriated by the failure of officials to unlock, as promised, the secrets of the so-called “deep state,” Trump supporters on the far right have grown restless and even demanded change at the top.

Tensions that simmered for months boiled over on Monday when the Justice Department and FBI issued a two-page statement saying that they had concluded that Epstein did not possess a “client list,” even though Bondi had intimated in February that such a document was sitting on her desk. The statement also said that they had decided against releasing any additional records from the investigation.

The department did disclose a video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself in jail, but even that raised eyebrows of conspiracy theorists because of a missing minute in the recording.

It was hardly the first time that Trump administration officials have failed to fulfill their pledge to deliver the evidence they expected.

In February, conservative influencers were invited to the White House and provided with binders marked “The Epstein Files: Phase 1” and “Declassified” that contained documents that had largely already been in the public domain.

After the first release fell flat, Bondi said officials were poring over a “truckload” of previously withheld evidence she said had been handed over by the FBI.

But after a months-long review of evidence in the government’s possession, the Justice Department determined in the memo Monday that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo says. The department noted that much of the material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and “only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial.”

The Trump administration had hoped that that statement would be the final word on the saga, with Trump chiding a reporter who asked Bondi about the Epstein case at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

But Bondi and Bongino had a contentious exchange the following day at the White House, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private conversation.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, listens as President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, July 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Part of the clash centered on a story from NewsNation, a right-leaning news organization, that cited a “source close to the White House” as saying the FBI would have released the Epstein files months ago if it could have done so on its own. The story included statements from Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel refuting the premise, but not Bongino.

The news publication Axios was first to describe the conversation.

Blanche sought to stem the fallout Friday with a social media post in which he said he had worked closely with Patel and Bongino on the Epstein matter and the joint memo.

“All of us signed off on the contents of the memo and the conclusions stated in the memo. The suggestion by anyone that there was any daylight between the FBI and DOJ leadership on this memo’s composition and release is patently false,” he wrote on X.

Also, Friday, far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is close to Trump, posted on X that she was told that Bongino was “seriously thinking about resigning” and had taken the day off to contemplate his future. Bongino is normally an active presence on social media but has been silent since Wednesday.

The FBI did not respond to a request seeking comment and the White House sought in a statement to minimize any tensions.

“President Trump has assembled a highly qualified and experienced law and order team dedicated to protecting Americans, holding criminals accountable, and delivering justice to victims,” said spokesman Harrison Fields. “This work is being carried out seamlessly and with unity. Any attempt to sow division within this team is baseless and distracts from the real progress being made in restoring public safety and pursuing justice for all.”

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this report.

By STEVE KARNOWSKI

The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers’ pocketbooks.

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The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens.

The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state’s outsize role in the national economy.

“It is one thing if California passes laws that affects its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution,” U.S. Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement Thursday. “Thankfully, President Trump is standing up against this overreach.”

Egg prices soared last year and earlier this year due in large part to bird flu, which has forced producers to destroy nearly 175 million birds since early 2022. But prices have come down sharply recently. While the Trump administration claims credit for that, seasonal factors are also important. Avian influenza, which is spread by wild birds, tends to spike during the spring and fall migrations and drop in summer.

“Pointing fingers won’t change the fact that it is the President’s economic policies that have been destructive,” the California Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. “We’ll see him in court.”

The average national price for a dozen Grade A eggs declined to $5.12 in April and $4.55 in May after reaching a record $6.23 in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the May price was still 68.5% higher than a year earlier.

“Trump’s back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a social media post.

The federal complaint alleges that California contributed to the rise in egg prices with regulations that forced farmers across the country to adopt more expensive production practices. The lawsuit also asserts that it is the federal government’s legal prerogative to regulate egg production. So it seeks to permanently block enforcement of the California regulations that flowed from the two ballot measures.

“Americans across the country have suffered the consequences of liberal policies causing massive inflation for everyday items like eggs,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will use the full extent of federal law to ensure that American families are free from oppressive regulatory burdens and restore American prosperity.”

While 2018’s Proposition 12 also banned the sale of pork and veal in California from animals raised in cages that don’t meet minimum size requirements, the lawsuit only focuses on the state’s egg rules.

Humane World for Animals, which was named the Humane Society of the United States when it spearheaded the passage of Proposition 12, says avian influenza and other factors drove up egg prices, not animal welfare laws. And it says much of the U.S. egg industry went cage-free anyway because of demand from consumers who don’t want eggs from hens confined to tiny spaces.

“California has prohibited the sale of cruelly produced eggs for more than a decade — law that has been upheld by courts at every level, including the Supreme Court. Blaming 2025 egg prices on these established animal welfare standards shows that this case is about pure politics, not constitutional law,” Sara Amundson, president of the Humane World Action Fund, said in a statement.

The American Egg Board, which represents the industry, said Friday that it will monitor the progress of the lawsuit while continuing to comply with California’s laws, and that it appreciates Rollins’ efforts to support farmers in their fight against bird flu and to stabilize the egg supply.

“Egg farmers have been both responsive and responsible in meeting changing demand for cage-free eggs, while supporting all types of egg production, and continuing to provide options in the egg case for consumers,” the board said in a statement.

By AMANDA SWINHART and KIMBERLEE KRUESI

SUTTON, Vt. (AP) — Communities in rural parts of Vermont on Friday woke up once again to damaged homes and washed-out roads due to heavy rainfall and flash flooding, making it the third consecutive summer that severe floods have inundated parts of the state.

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Up to 5 inches of rain fell in just a few hours on Thursday, prompting rapid flooding as local waterways began to swell, said Robert Haynes, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Burlington office.

Nearly 20 homes were cut off in the small town of Sutton as a local brook quickly rose from its banks and surrounded buildings, Fire Chief Kyle Seymour said. His crews were called out to help rescue people from two homes, which required help from swift-water rescue teams called in from neighboring communities.

“This was an incredibly strong, quick-moving localized heavy water,” Seymour said. “It overwhelmed all of our road culverts, all of our streams, all of our rivers. But the actual weather event lasted three hours, with the bulk of the rain concentrated within one hour.”

Though the severity of the storms wasn’t as widespread compared to the past two years, local officials were still surveying the extent of the damage Friday morning and shaking their heads that they were dealing with flood recovery for three years in a row.

“When I started seeing the reporters saying it wasn’t going to be that bad, I didn’t believe it,” Seymour said, adding that at least one member of his crew has contemplated retiring after experiencing such repeated flood emergencies.

Michelle Tanner stood Friday on what used to be her driveway, dismayed that for the third time her property was washed out by flooding. She and her family have lived in Sutton for 25 years and want to continue doing so, but fear what another flood might do.

“We don’t know if the house will make it again,” Tanner said. “We’ll see what happens. We don’t want to start all over, though I guess we are.”

Tanner’s daughter, Tanika Allard, said taking in the flood damage once again made her tear up.

“This year by far did the worst amount of damage with the least amount of rain, which didn’t make a whole lot of sense,” she said.

According to the National Weather Service, Vermont’s experience with floods can be traced to both ongoing climate change and the state’s mountainous geography. Greater rainfall and increased moisture availability have made the state’s steep terrain more susceptible to flooding.

Elsewhere in Vermont, heavy winds blew off a significant portion of a high school’s roof in Addison County.

Meanwhile, flash flooding also occurred in Massachusetts on Thursday after rains dumped more than 7 inches of rain in some areas. Some businesses were flooded in the town of Weymouth, which saw the bulk of the rain and flooding while commuters faced delays as highways and streets south of Boston flooded.

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.