WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jhoan Duran did something no Twins pitcher had done since 2009, and the closer didn’t even realize it until his wife, Aida, let him know.

Duran was named the American League Reliever of the Month for May on Tuesday, joining Joe Nathan as the only relievers in Twins history to win the award. Nathan did it three times, the last coming in June 2009.

“I’ve never had anything like that,” Duran said. “It’s good for the team, too. I know it’s a long time.”

Duran earned the recognition after a month in which he went 4-1 with a 0.60 earned-run average. He gave up one run in 15 innings and converted seven of the eight save opportunities he was given. The right-hander struck out 20 in his 15 appearances and walked five.

But was it the best month of his career or just the first time he’d been honored? That’s up for debate.

“It’s the first time I’ve won that, so maybe it’s the best month I’ve (ever) had,” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t see my numbers.”If he did, he would recognize just how good they are.

The impressive month was a continuation of a dominant season for Duran who, entering Tuesday night’s play, had a 0.99 ERA across 27 1/3 innings.

“He has been awesome. He has been pitching great. He has been doing his job just at a very high level all year long,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “When you can get a reliever in this league to get recognized for something, cause they get almost no recognition, they’re a huge part of any winning environment. … He never really is looking for recognition, but it’s great that he’s getting it.”

Buxton ‘s back

Byron Buxton was putting together a pretty good month of May himself before he collided with teammate Carlos Correa in Baltimore on May 15. At the point of his concussion, Buxton was hitting .313 with a 1.018 OPS and four home runs and 10 runs batted in 13 over games in May.

He ended up missing two weeks, but now that he’s back and hitting well, he’s willing to admit that he was a little nervous that it might take some time to get his feel back at the plate.

The sample size is small, but it doesn’t seem to have.

In his first three games since returning from the injured list, Buxton has six hits. Monday, he drove in five runs in the Twins’ win over the Athletics.

“Might not show it, but just having that thought of (it) taking a couple games to get your swing back,” Buxton said. “That’s kind of the thought when you miss 11 games, 12 games. Then you start getting the creeps (of) do I need to go on a rehab assignment, see pitching? And so it was more about trusting who I am and knowing I did everything I was supposed to do to prepare myself for returning.”

Briefly

Zebby Matthews will take the ball on Wednesday. Matthews is coming off the longest start of his career in which he threw seven innings, the last six of which were dominant after giving up four runs in the first inning.

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St. Paul Academy took its first step toward a potential four-peat Tuesday, as the top seed downed Minnewaska 7-0 in the Class A team state quarterfinals at Reed Sweatt Family Tennis Center in Minneapolis.

The Spartans didn’t drop a set across the seven matches, losing no more than three games in any one set. No. 1 singles player Winston Arvidson was convincing in his victory, winning 6-1, 6-0.

St. Paul Academy will meet fifth-seeded Breck at 8 a.m. Wednesday in the semifinals after the Mustangs swept fourth-seeded Southwest Christian in that quarterfinal.

Breck was the last team to win a state title prior to this Spartans’ run. The Mustangs claimed the crown in 2021.

Rochester Lourdes and Rock Ridge will square off in the other semifinal.

The title match is set for 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Class 2A

Mounds View advanced to Wednesday’s semifinals via a 5-2 win over Elk River on Tuesday at Baseline Tennis Center on the U campus.

Awaiting the fourth-seeded Mustangs is a monumental challenge.

Mounds View will take on two-time defending champion Wayzata at 8 a.m. back at the U. The Trojans breezed through the quarters by sweeping Sartell, 7-0.

Mounds View won all four singles matches against Elk River, with only No. 1 singles requiring a third set, as Soren Swenson rallied to win a super tiebreak after dropping the first set to Aaron Zoubek.

The Mustangs also won at No. 3 doubles to clinch the match.

Second-seeded Edina will meet third-seeded Rochester Mayo in the other semifinal. Rochester Mayo beat Eagan 5-2 in Tuesday’s quarterfinal. Carter Michaels and Jack Gustafson won singles matches for the Wildcats.

A 68-year-old Mahtomedi man told the court Tuesday that he thought he was going to die when two men jumped and robbed him of more than $38,000 cash as he arrived home from a casino.

He had just returned from Treasure Island Resort & Casino one early December morning in 2023 when a red pickup pulled up to his residence in the 700 block of Griffin Court.

Shawn Eric Lewis Jr. and another man got out and “vigorously kicked and punched my head, and my body felt as though they were going to kill me,” the victim said in a statement read in Washington County District Court by Assistant County Attorney Richard Podvin.

Shawn Eric Lewis Jr. (Courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

During the attack, the victim’s girlfriend and her niece came out outside. One of them pointed a gun at the women and said, “You two (expletive) better get back inside or I will kill you both,” the girlfriend told the court.

Lewis Jr. was among five men, including his father, who were charged in the robbery. In January, he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery after reaching a plea deal with the prosecution that included dismissing two other charges at Tuesday’s sentencing.

Judge Siv Mjanger followed the plea deal and gave the 38-year-old from Bloomington the agreed-upon 58-month prison sentence, which is the low end of state sentencing guidelines for the offense.

Mjanger denied a downward departure request from Lewis Jr.’s attorney, Chris Zipko, who argued that his client was not brought into the robbery until the end when he was in a dire situation with his fentanyl addiction that was “off the charts” at the time. Zipko said Lewis has completed drug treatment programs while jailed the past year and a half.

In handing down the sentence, Mjanger said the attack and robbery was “an intentional, very, very violent act that could have ended his life. So although I recognize your addiction, I acknowledge it, and I acknowledge your desire to change your life. It is an explanation, but it’s not an excuse for the behavior.”

Cases against the other men remain pending in court.

‘Stalked us’

According to the criminal complaints, the attack happened about 2:15 a.m. Dec. 10, 2023, in the 700 block of Griffin Court. After the men left in the pickup truck, the victim took after them in his own vehicle.

He pulled over and met up with a sheriff’s deputy, while other law enforcement officers pursued and eventually stopped the suspects’ pickup truck near the intersection of Minnesota 36 and White Bear Avenue.

The driver was identified as Deangelo Romaine Jacox, while Lewis Jr. and Tristin Tyler Jacox-Mann were the passengers.

MnDOT highway camera footage showed a red SUV following the victim as he pursued the suspects on Highway 36. Lewis Jr. is the registered owner of the SUV, according to the complaint against him.

The victim later told police that he ran into Philip William Davids Sr., a man he knew from his prior gambling, while at the casino on Dec. 9. He said he believed Davids was following him that night, so he went to the bathroom to try to lose him. Davids followed him into the bathroom and struck up a conversation.

When he left the bathroom, he saw Davids make a phone call. When he left the casino, he saw Davids trying to catch up to him, according to the complaints.

Investigators discovered through analyzing cellphones that Jacox-Mann and Shawn Eric Lewis Sr. had made 20 calls to each other in the hours leading up to and shortly after the robbery.

“Additionally, during the pursuit of the three suspects by law enforcement, Jacox-Mann and (Lewis Sr.) were engaged in additional phone calls,” the complaints state.

The victim also told investigators he previously had seen the red SUV while at a Festival Foods near his home, and that it followed him home.

“Your Honor, the individuals associated with this crime stalked us for over a month before this guy punched and kicked and beat a 68-year-old senior citizen,” the man’s girlfriend told Judge Mjanger on Tuesday in a statement read by the prosecutor.

‘I was like a prey’

The attack victim and his girlfriend sat in the back of the courtroom gallery during the sentencing.

Afterward, the man limped out of the courtroom. In an interview, he said he has multiple health issues from the attack.

“Headaches … my knees are all gone,” he said, then asked not to be identified adding that he remains fearful.

He said law enforcement was able to retrieve the cash stolen from him.

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“But let’s go back to that night,” he said. “I was like a prey. They came out of the vehicle and man, it was like horses out of the gate.”

In October, Jacox, 33, of Coon Rapids, pleaded guilty to fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 15.

Jacox-Mann, 35, of Golden Valley, is awaiting a July jury trial on charges of aiding and abetting first- and second-degree robbery and aiding and abetting threats of violence.

Lewis Sr., 53, of Minneapolis, pleaded guilty this month to aiding and abetting first-degree robbery and is scheduled to be sentenced July 21.

Davids Sr., 61, of Chisago City, faces the same charge and has a next hearing set for Sept. 26.

By SUMAN NAISHADHAM

MADRID (AP) — Spain ‘s government wanted to send a message last month with its crackdown on Airbnb: that the Spanish economy and its housing market are not a “free for all” that value profits over the rule of law, a minister told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

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The government ordered Airbnb to remove almost 66,000 holiday rentals from the platform which it said had violated local rules by failing to list license numbers, listing the wrong license number or not specifying the apartment’s owner. Airbnb is appealing the move.

Spain is one of the world’s most visited countries. Last year, the Southern European nation of 49 million received a record 94 million international visitors.

But a housing affordability problem that is particularly acute in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona has led to growing antagonism against short-term holiday rentals. Airbnb is perhaps the best-known and most visible actor.

The Spanish government says the two are related: the rise of Airbnb and other short-term rental companies, and rising rents and housing costs.

“Obviously there is a correlation between these two facts,” Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told the AP. “It’s not a linear relation, it’s not the only factor affecting it, there are many others, but it is obviously one of the elements that is contributing.”

A recent Bank of Spain report said the country has a shortfall of 450,000 homes. In the tourist hot spots of the Canary and Balearic Islands, half the housing stock is tourist accommodations or properties owned by nonresidents, the report said.

“Tourism is for sure a vital part of the Spanish economy. It’s a strategic and very important sector. But as in every other economic activity, it must be conducted in a sustainable way,” Bustinduy said. “It cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people. Their right to housing, but also their right to well-being.”

The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Homemade signs including one that read “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods” at a recent march in Madrid point to the growing anger.

“A balance must be found between the constitutional rights of the Spanish people and economic activities in general,” Bustinduy said.

Regional governments in Spain are also tackling the issue. Last year, Barcelona announced a plan to close down all of the 10,000 apartments licensed in the city as short-term rentals by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents.

Airbnb said that while its appeal goes through the courts, no holiday rentals would be immediately taken down from the site.

In response to Spain’s order, Airbnb has said the platform connects property owners with renters but it doesn’t have oversight obligations, even though it requires hosts to show that they are compliant with local laws.

Bustinduy said Spain’s recent action reflects a desire in Spain, but also elsewhere, to hold tech companies like Airbnb to account.

“There is a battle going on about accountability and about responsibility,” Bustinduy said. “The digital nature of these extraordinarily powerful multinational corporations must not be an excuse to fail to comply with democratically established regulations.”

Bustinduy, who belongs to the governing coalition’s left-wing Sumar party, dismissed the idea that the Spanish government’s action toward Airbnb could discourage some tourists from visiting.

“It will encourage longer stays, it will encourage responsible tourism and it will preserve everything that we have in this wonderful country which is the reason why so many people want to come here,” he said.

The minister also took a shot at low-cost airlines. Spain has pushed against allowing such airlines to charge passengers for hand baggage. Last year, it fined five budget airlines, including RyanAir and easyJet, a total of $179 million for charging for hand luggage.

“The principle behind these actions is always the same: preserving consumer rights,” Bustinduy said. “Powerful corporations, no matter how large, have to adapt their business models to existing regulations.”

Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona, Spain.