14 Jul 2024

Carlos Santana’s home run helps lift Twins to win, makes personal history

by admin | posted in: News | 0

SAN FRANCISCO — Carlos Santana lifted his arm and pointed up towards the sky near the beginning of his trot around the bases.

He had just hit a home run that barely stayed fair in left field, and it was one that was both very meaningful in the game and for him personally.

Santana’s home run gave the Twins the lead back and provided what would be the game-winning run in their 4-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday evening.

It was also his first career home run at Oracle Park, the final current ballpark that the veteran had yet to hit a longball at. He is now believed to be one of just three current players to have hit a home run at all 30 stadiums, joining Giancarlo Stanton and Manny Machado in accomplishing the feat.

It’s a milestone that Santana, who recently played in his 2,000th game, was well aware he was chasing, and it was part of a day in which he reached base four times.

The Twins, shorthanded with Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Jose Miranda all banged up on the bench, had scored the first two runs in the fourth inning with Ryan Jeffers coming around to score on a Matt Wallner double and Wallner touching home on a passed ball.

But that lead wouldn’t hold.

The Giants, who nearly took a lead on a three-run home run in the first inning that was just foul, grabbed a run on Mike Yastrzemski’s slow groundball, which found a hole through the left side of the infield in the fourth.

They grabbed one more an inning later off Simeon Woods Richardson, with a run coming around to score after a ball deflected off his glove and subsequently out of the reach of second baseman Brooks Lee and into the outfield, tying the game.

But shortly after, Santana’s history-making home run put the Twins back on top, and they’d grab an insurance run in the top of the ninth to help take the second game of the series.

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14 Jul 2024

Carlos Correa scratched, plunging Twins catcher Christian Vázquez into third base duties

by admin | posted in: News | 0

SAN FRANCISCO — Christian Vázquez is known to take ground balls at third base from time to time, keeping his glove sharp there in the unlikely scenario that he is ever needed to man the hot corner.

That day came on Saturday.

Shortstop Carlos Correa was scratched shortly before the game with a right heel contusion, and with Jose Miranda dealing with low back tightness and Kyle Farmer landing on the injured list on Friday, the Twins were thin on infield options.

Willi Castro was originally supposed to play second with Brooks Lee at third, but when Correa was taken out of the starting lineup, Castro shifted to short and Lee to second, leaving Vázquez at third for his first career start.

Coming into Saturday, he had made 11 appearances there — including once this season already — across 19 1/3 innings, but never a start. The last time he started at the position before Saturday was Sept. 3, 2009.

“I bet you he could do it, and we’ll see him over there probably at some point over 162,” manager Rocco Baldelli said in March. “I would actually say it’s more than likely that he goes over there to third base at some point in some game for some reason. But he’s got good infield traits.”

Miranda, meanwhile, missed his second straight game after his back locked up on him pregame on Friday.

Baldelli said Friday night that they were not looking at it as “some sort of long-term major issue.” On Saturday morning, he said Miranda still hadn’t started swinging.

“Really we only found out about this before the game (Friday), so in some ways, we’re still kind of reading just exactly where he’s at and what he might be capable of,” Baldelli said.

Keaschall steps in

Lee was supposed to playing in the Futures Game, featured amongst the best prospects in Minor League Baseball.

Instead, Lee, now is 10 games into his major league career, off to as productive start of a start as the Twins could have hoped for, and so he was replaced on the roster by Luke Keaschall, who went 0 for 1 in the Futures Game on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.

Keaschall, drafted by the Twins in the second round last season, is very worthy of the honor, hitting .327 with a .945 OPS across Class-A Advanced and Double-A this season. He has 102 hits in 84 games, including 11 home runs and 21 doubles.

The 21-year-old, who is currently ranked as the Twins’ No. 5 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has primarily played a mix of second base and center field this season.

“The way he’s wired, he walks away from you and you think ‘That guy’s going to play in the big leagues.’ Because he’s free-minded, he doesn’t have a lot of clutter in his brain, he’s fearless, he can handle failure,” Twins vice president of amateur scouting Sean Johnson said. “Just a tough kid who’s also super humble. But on the field he’s an animal.”

Briefly

Chris Paddack will take the ball on Sunday in the final game of the first half. He will be opposed by Blake Snell, who won the National League Cy Young Award last season, but is 0-3 with a 7.85 earned-run average, sandwiched around two stints on the injured list. The two were rotation-mates for the 2021 San Diego Padres.

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14 Jul 2024

Shock and relief cross party lines as past and present leaders react to shooting at Trump rally

by admin | posted in: Politics | 0

By Gary Fields, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic leaders, past and present, expressed shock Saturday night following the news that gunfire had broken out during a Donald Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania — and relief that the former president had survived the attack.

Notable officials, including former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, praised the fast action of the Secret Service and expressed gratitude that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee appeared to be OK.

“As one whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know firsthand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society. I thank God that former President Trump is safe,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “As we learn more details about this horrifying incident, let us pray that all those in attendance at the former President’s rally today are unharmed.”’

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Pelosi’s husband was bludgeoned with a hammer in 2022 by a man who broke into their home.

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., said he had spoken to his father on the phone and “he is in great spirits.” “He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him,” Trump Jr. said in a statement.

Obama, Trump’s immediate predecessor in the White House, shared the views of others who have held the presidency, writing on social media: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy. Although we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics. Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.”

President Joe Biden said: “There’s no place in America for this type of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick.”

Bush praised the Secret Service for their “speedy response” to the violence. “Laura and I are grateful that President Trump is safe following the cowardly attack on his life,” Bush wrote on X.

Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, blasted the violence in his home state.

“I am appalled and condemn in the strongest terms this violence in Butler,” he wrote on X. “I extend my condolences to those injured and wish a speedy and full recovery for Mr. Trump.”

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The crowd reacts after shots were fired at republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump’s rally on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A campaign rally site for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is empty and littered with debris Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)