Jose Miranda zipped past Joe Mauer and into a tie with Tony Oliva — as well as Mickey Hatcher and Todd Walker — and then into a place all his own on Friday.

Miranda hit a single, home run, double and a single in his first four plate-appearances against the Houston Astros to become the first Twins player to ever hit safely in 10 consecutive at-bats.

Playing as the designated hitter in a game that wasn’t finished before this edition of the Pioneer Press went to press, Miranda tied Joe Mauer with his eighth straight hit when his solo home run just inside the foul pole in left field tied the game 3-3 in the bottom of the third.

Miranda then tied the club record with a double into the left field corner that scored Manuel Margot to give the Twins a 4-3 lead in the fifth.

Oliva, Hatcher and Walker each hit safely in nine consecutive at-bats. The record is tracked for at-bats, but Miranda did it in 10 straight plate appearances, as well.

Oliva, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, hit safely in nine straight at-bats Sept. 8-9, 1967. Hatcher did it 27-28, 1985, and Walked did it July 24-25, 1989.

In the seventh inning, he singled to break the record, then scored from second on a single by Max Kepler. Since his last at-bat on July 3, Miranda was 10 for 10 with six runs scored and five RBIs.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last player with hits in 10 straight plate appearances was Corey Dickerson for the St. Louis Cardinals from Aug. 23-25, 2022.

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After yet another unbeaten regular season, the Minnesota Aurora entered this week’s USL W League playoffs feeling they had unfinished business. After all, after the previous two seasons, Minnesota was left without a championship.

The Aurora will come away from this season feeling unfulfilled, too.

Minnesota lost 2-1 to Indy Eleven on the road Friday afternoon, ending its season in the opening game of the playoffs.

Aurora’s Katelyn Duong scored in the 66th minute to tie the game, but Indy Eleven got a goal from Natalie Mitchell in the 83rd minute to put the game away. Taylor Kane was in goal for the Aurora.

Three seasons into its existence, Minnesota has lost a round earlier each year.

After a 11-0-1 record in 2022, Aurora won two playoff games before losing to Tormenta FC in the championship game. After a 12-0-0 record in 2023, Aurora won one playoff game before falling to Indy Eleven in the quarterfinals.

This season, Minnesota was 10-0-2 in the regular season and lost to Indy Eleven (7-1-2 regular season) for the second straight year in the playoffs.

Aurora lost by a goal after having a plus-55 goal differential in its 12 regular-season matches.

“Historical context is not in the present,” first-year coach Colette Montgomery Montgomery said earlier this week on facing Indy Eleven. “We’ve scouted them and know what they do well. We lock in on what to do and bring our game to them. Hopefully we get that unfinished business finished.”

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A man who pleaded guilty to assault in a shooting that injured three people in a home in St. Paul’s Highland Park was sentenced to a seven-year prison term.

Glenn Everett Graddy (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Corrections)

Officers responded to the shooting about 4 p.m. on June 17, 2022, on Otto Avenue off Interstate 35E and Chatsworth Street. A 45-year-old was shot in the back of his neck, a 35-year-old woman was wounded in the leg and a 30-year-old had gunshot wounds to her elbow and buttocks.

One of the victims told police he was visiting a friend at the residence when a man he knew by a nickname entered the house with a man he didn’t know, according to the criminal complaint. Suddenly, the man he didn’t know shot him.

Another victim said someone kicked open the door to the house and started shooting.

It wasn’t a random encounter, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors initially charged Glenn Everett Graddy, now 44, of St. Paul, with three counts of attempted murder. The county attorney’s office said they tried to contact the three victims but weren’t able to reach them.

A first-degree assault charge was added and a plea deal was reached, in which Graddy pleaded guilty to assault, the other charges were dismissed and he received a seven-year sentence last week.

The court found in 2022 that Graddy wasn’t competent to proceed due to mental illness. He was civilly committed, after which a judge said in 2023 that Graddy was competent to move forward with the case.

Graddy has credit for about one year and eight months already served in custody in the case, according to a court record.

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There was good, if not definitive news, regarding a pair of right-handed relievers the Twins were counting on not just to pitch this season, but pitch well.

Brock Stewart, who has been lights-out when he pitches, had a successful live bullpen session before Friday night’s game against the Houston Astros at Target Field and appears close to a rehab assignment.

Justin Topa, who has yet to pitch for Minnesota since being acquired in the deal that sent Jorge Polanco to Seattle in January, will throw a bullpen Saturday morning and said his injured left knee feels better since getting a platelet-rich plasma injection in mid-May.

Topa, who was diagnosed with a partial tear in his patella tendon, had the PRP injection his first attempt at rehab was unsuccessful. Last season in Seattle, he had a 2.61 earned-run average and 1.145 WHIP in 75 innings pitched.

Topa, 33, doesn’t appear all that close to pitching with the Twins, but closer.

“It’s been feeling really good up to this point,” Topa said Friday.

Stewart, 32, seems closer.

Since being promoted to the big-league club last season, he is 2-0 with an 0.61 ERA and 1.073 WHIP for the Twins. Last year, he was limited to 29 appearances because of elbow soreness. He started this with 13⅓ scoreless innings but hasn’t pitched since April 29 because of tendinitis in his right shoulder.

Stewart, however, threw 20 pitches to live hitters before Friday night’s game and came off the mound feeling good, even if he did plunk Kyle Farmer on the shoulder.

“He said it’s all good, but it’s not all good,” Stewart said. “I don’t need to be hitting my teammates.”

The good news is his velocity was up between 95 and 96 mph, up from 90 to 92 mph his first time back on a mound. Before being hurt, Stewart was averaging 97 mph on his four-seamer and sinker, and hitting 98 and 100 on the radar.
“Hopefully, it will keep ticking up to where it was,” he said Friday. “At the end of the day, I just want to be healthy and help the team, and I think I can help the team if I’m 95, 96. Obviously, 99 to 100, that would be great, but I just want to be able to pitch and then the next day come in here and be ready to pitch again.”

That would be great for the Twins, whose plans for this season featured Stewart and Topa playing big roles in the bullpen.

Manager Rocco Baldelli said he didn’t know what Twins trainer Nick Paparesta and pitching coach Pete Maki had in mind for Stewart before adding, “But he’s going on a rehab assignment at some point. When that is, I don’t have at the moment.”

“We’re going to have him continue throwing at a high level,” the manager continued. “We’re going to have to like what we see. He’s going to have to face some hitters in a live-game situation. And then we’ll hopefully be able to bring him back. I think we’re getting towards that point, but I can’t tell you when he’s pitching.”