Scott Miller, a former Twins beat reporter for the Pioneer Press who went on to become one of the nation’s pre-eminent baseball writers, died Saturday after a long illness. He was 62.

Miller came to Minnesota from the Los Angeles Times. He covered the Twins for six seasons, 1994-99, before leaving St. Paul to become the national baseball reporter for CBS Sports’ website.

“Heartbroken to share: Baseball lost a giant,” USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, a longtime friend, posted on X. “Scott Miller was a brilliant writer and an even better human.”

Through the years, Miller’s byline appeared in the New York Times and Bleacher Report. He was a frequent contributor to MLB Radio on satellite, and for several years he made regular appearances on television broadcasts for the San Diego Padres.

Miller also wrote two books about baseball: “Ninety Percent Mental” and “Skipper: Why Baseball Managers Matter and Always Will.”

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Saturday that the U.S. military struck three sites in Iran, directly joining Israel ’s effort to decapitate the country’s nuclear program in a risky gambit to weaken a longtime foe amid Tehran’s threat of reprisals that could spark a wider regional conflict.

The decision to directly involve the U.S. comes after more than a week of strikes by Israel on Iran that have moved to systematically eradicate the country’s air defenses and offensive missile capabilities, while damaging its nuclear enrichment facilities. But U.S. and Israeli officials have said that American stealth bombers and a 30,000-lb. bunker buster bomb they alone can carry offered the best chance of destroying heavily-fortified sites connected to the Iranian nuclear program buried deep underground.

“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan,” Trump said in a post on social media. “All planes are now outside of Iran air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. All planes are safely on their way home.”

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Trump said B-2 stealth bombers were used but did not specify which types of bombs were dropped. The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation.

The strikes are a perilous decision for the U.S. as Iran has pledged to retaliate if it joined the Israeli assault, and for Trump personally, having won the White House on the promise of keeping America out of costly foreign conflicts and scoffed at the value of American interventionism.

Trump told reporters on Friday that he was not interested in sending ground forces into Iran. He had previously indicated that he would make a final choice over the course of two weeks, a timeline that seemed drawn out as the situation was evolving quickly.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday the United States that strikes targeting the Islamic Republic will “result in irreparable damage for them.” And Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei declared “any American intervention would be a recipe for an all-out war in the region.”

Trump has vowed that he would not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and he had initially hoped that the threat of force would bring the country’s leaders to give up its nuclear program peacefully.

Israel ’s military said Saturday it was preparing for the possibility of a lengthy war, while Iran’s foreign minister warned before the U.S. attack that American military involvement “would be very, very dangerous for everyone.”

The prospect of a wider war threatened, too. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said they would resume attacks on U.S. vessels in the Red Sea if the Trump administration joins Israel’s military campaign. The Houthis paused such attacks in May under a deal with the U.S.

The U.S. ambassador to Israel announced the U.S. had begun “assisted departure flights,” the first from Israel since the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

But Trump appears to have made the calculation — at the prodding of Israeli officials and many Republican lawmakers — that Israel’s operation had softened the ground and presented a perhaps unparalleled opportunity to set back Iran’s nuclear program, perhaps permanently.

The Israelis say their offensive has already crippled Iran’s air defenses, allowing them to already significantly degrade multiple Iranian nuclear sites.

But to destroy the Fordo nuclear fuel enrichment plant, Israel has appealed to Trump for U.S. bunker-busting bombs, the 30,000-pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, which uses its weight and sheer kinetic force to reach deeply buried targets and then explode. The penetrator is currently only delivered by the B-2 stealth bomber, which is only found in the American arsenal.

The bomb carries a conventional warhead, and is believed to be able to penetrate about 200 feet (61 meters) below the surface before exploding, and the bombs can be dropped one after another, effectively drilling deeper and deeper with each successive blast.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed that Iran is producing highly enriched uranium at Fordo, raising the possibility that nuclear material could be released into the area if the GBU-57 A/B were used to hit the facility.

Previous Israeli strikes at another Iranian nuclear site, Natanz, on a centrifuge site have caused contamination only at the site itself, not the surrounding area, the IAEA has said.

Trump’s decision for direct U.S. military intervention comes after his administration made an unsuccessful two-month push — including with high-level, direct negotiations with the Iranians — aimed at persuading Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

For months, Trump said he was dedicated to a diplomatic push to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions. And he twice — in April and again in late May — persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off on military action against Iran and give diplomacy more time.

The U.S. in recent days has been shifting military aircraft and warships into and around the Middle East to protect Israel and U.S. bases from Iranian attacks.

All the while, Trump has gone from publicly expressing hope that the moment could be a “second chance” for Iran to make a deal to delivering explicit threats on Khamenei and making calls for Tehran’s unconditional surrender.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” Trump said in a social media posting. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”

The military showdown with Iran comes seven years after Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Obama-administration brokered agreement in 2018, calling it the “worst deal ever.”

The 2015 deal, signed by Iran, U.S. and other world powers, created a long-term, comprehensive nuclear agreement that limited Tehran’s enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Trump decried the Obama-era deal for giving Iran too much in return for too little, because the agreement did not cover Iran’s non-nuclear malign behavior.

Trump has bristled at criticism from some of his MAGA faithful, including conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, who have suggested that further U.S. involvement would be a betrayal to supporters who were drawn to his promise to end U.S. involvement in expensive and endless wars.

Rising reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Mehmet Guzel in Istanbul; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Samy Magdy in Cairo; Matthew Lee and Josh Boak in Washington, D.C.; and Farnoush Amiri and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed to this report.

Rather than conduct his postgame interview at a podium like starting pitchers normally do, Simeon Woods Richardson spoke to reporters in front of his locker, sitting on the floor.

Why?

After pitching through an Extreme Heat Warning — it was 89 degrees at first pitch and the temperature kept climbing into the afternoon — Woods Richardson was dealing with some cramping.

“It felt like I was back at home (in Houston) in 105 degrees weather,” Woods Richardson said. “My jersey was soaked, everything was soaked. … First inning took a little while, but as the game went on, I’d say I got progressively better.”

Coming off a start in which he needed just 53 pitches to completely shut down the Houston Astros in five innings, Woods Richardson — who was not particularly helped by his defense in the early innings — issued a couple of walks and allowed four hits in his first two innings of work.

It took 52 pitches to get through those innings, by which point the Brewers had scored four of their nine runs in a 9-0 win over the Twins on Saturday afternoon at Target Field. But then he settled in, did not allow another hit and worked six innings.

“I think everything kind of got better as the game went on,” he said. “I started hitting my stride in the third inning. I was like, ‘OK, now we’re getting somewhere.’ But, yeah, those first two innings, it took a little time to get going. (I was) missing the strike zone with pretty much every single one of my pitches.”

Woods Richardson was even given the opportunity to face the lineup the third time through, a rarity for him as the Twins have typically lifted him early. He handled that opportunity well, too, and finished his day by retiring 13 of the last 14 batters he faced.

The starter began the season in the major leagues but was demoted in mid-May with a 5.02 earned-run average at the time. With injuries to Pablo López and Zebby Matthews, he re-entered the rotation earlier this month.

“He gave us six innings when we needed it,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “First couple innings, I think what happened was he didn’t have the feel for the breaking balls that he was looking for and he ended up having to throw a bunch of fastballs. … He found those pitches. He competed well.”

Larnach out again

Trevor Larnach was scratched from the lineup on Friday, a day after being hit by a pitch by Reds pitcher Nick Martinez. He remained out of the lineup on Saturday when the Twins faced left-hander Jose Quintana, but Baldelli said Larnach’s right hand was improving and he thought the outfielder might be available to help late in Saturday’s game if needed.

Larnach did not wind up appearing in the game.

“(Friday) it was still bothering him pretty good,” Baldelli said. “And then he woke up the next day, showed up and it was a little swollen and sore and he really wasn’t able to swing the way he needed to. So, he’s getting treatment.”

Briefly

The Twins will send David Festa to the mound on Sunday against the Brewers. Festa gave up four runs — two earned — in his last start, which lasted just 3⅔ innings. … Emmanuel Rodriguez, one of the Twins’ top prospects, began a rehab assignment on Saturday in the Florida Complex League. Rodriguez has been out all of June with a hip injury. … Brewers left fielder Isaac Collins, who hails from Maple Grove, finished the day 2 for 4 with two runs scored and three RBIs on Saturday.

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DULUTH — To supplement his running career, 31-year-old Joel Reichow works about 25 hours a week selling shoes at Fleet Feet in Minneapolis. Inside the store where he has worked the past seven years is a poster of Grandma’s Marathon legends Dick Beardsley and Garry Bjorklund.

Reichow took a picture in front of the poster this week and posted it to Instagram ahead of his first full marathon along Minnesota’s North Shore.

He even cut his mustache as a tribute to them for the pic.

“Celebrating Grandma’s Marathon week with an epic throwback pic of Minnesota legends Dick Beardsley and Garry Bjorklund battling it out at Grandma’s in 1981!” Reichow posted on Instagram. “I’ve raced the Garry Bjorklund Half a few times, but this weekend will be my first time doing the full there! Hopefully, we can make some magic happen!”

The White Bear Lake resident sure did make some magic in his first attempt at running Grandma’s Marathon. He traversed the North Shore from Two Harbors to Canal Park in Duluth in 2 hours, 11 minutes, 58 seconds, to become just the fourth Minnesotan to win the men’s title in the state’s oldest and largest marathon.

Reichow is the first American to win the men’s marathon since Chris Raabe of Sauk Rapids, Minn., in 2009 and only the second American to win the men’s race in the last 30 years.

A member of Minnesota Distance Elite, Reichow is the first man or woman to win both the full and half marathons. He won the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon in 2023 and came in fourth a year ago in the 13.1-mile race.

Dakotah Popehn — an Olympian and two-time Grandma’s Marathon women’s champion — again fell just short of becoming the first to claim that honor Saturday when she took second in the Bjorklund to Annie Frisbie for the second consecutive summer.

“This was my goal. I wanted to chase it. Dream big,” Reichow said of winning Grandma’s on Saturday. “I knew there was a lot of good people. I just needed to play smart.

“I would have loved to chase the record (2:09:06), but it was a little muggy today. I think we were kind of on that pace early with the surges, but probably by 10K it was pretty obvious we weren’t going to chase that.”

Bjorklund and Beardsley both won Grandma’s Marathon twice between 1977-82, when five of the first six winners in Grandma’s Marathon history were Americans. Americans won 11 of the first 19 Grandma’s Marathons between 1977 and 1995, with Bjorklund winning the first in 1977.

Kenyans had won 10 straight Grandma’s Marathon men’s titles coming into the 49th running, and 38-year-old Sammy Rotich — who has finished in the top 10 twice, including second in 2022 — led the race at Lemon Drop Hill. Reichow reeled Rotich in on London Road and opened up what would finally be a 46-second difference at the finish line.

In addition to Rotich, Reichow bested two Grandma’s Marathon Hall of Famers — five-time champion Elisha Barno and two-time champ/event record holder Dominic Ondoro. Both failed to finish the race Saturday, with Ondoro dropping out late after being part of a large lead pack at the midway point.

“I knew it was going to be hard, I knew it was going to hurt, but I thought it was within my means,” Reichow said of winning Saturday. “You can’t race scared. You have to trust yourself.”

On the women’s side, Lilian Chebii of Kenya has run just two marathons in her life. The 31-year-old finished as runner-up in her first marathon in 2024, taking second at the Nairobi City Marathon in 2:28:29.

On Saturday in Duluth, she got a win in her second shot at the 26.2-mile distance, winning the Grandma’s Marathon women’s title in 2:25:14, beating the rest of the field by two minutes.

In the wheelchair division, Luis Francisco Sanclemente won his second consecutive Grandma’s Marathon in 1:26:02. Vanessa Cristina de Souza, a two-time Paralympian from Brazil, won the women’s wheelchair division in 1:39:55.

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