KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When he struck out Houston’s Jake Meyers for the second out of the eighth inning Sunday afternoon, right-hander Jhoan Duran did the little hop on the mound he typically does to accentuate the moment.

There seemed this time to be a bit more spring in Duran’s step, possibly because it was a particularly nasty looking pitch, one he had never thrown before in a game: a sweeper.

Sweepers are a type of slider that “sweeps” across the strike zone at a typically slower speed than a traditional slider, which is supposed to have a tighter break.

Duran threw Meyers an 87.3 mph sweeper, per MLB Statcast, that had 11 inches of horizontal break and 41 inches of drop. Perhaps it was because he had no idea it was coming, but Meyers had no chance. Statcast did list Duran as throwing one sweeper in 2024, but it appeared to be mislabeled. This pitch wasn’t on any scouting report.

If he can repeat it, the sweeper would be an important addition to Duran’s arsenal, which includes a four-seam fastball (averaging 100 mph), a split-finger fastball, and a knuckle curve — which was Duran’s most effective pitch in 2024. Duran credited Twins teammates, including right-hander Justin Topa, with helping him to learn it.

Right-hander Pablo López throws a sweeper, and explained why Duran might benefit by adding a pitch against right-handed batters. Because of how Duran releases the ball, a sweeper is a more natural pitch to execute than others. It fits in well with his repertoire.

“I don’t think he’s ever tinkered or explored with anything going to the glove side,” López said. “It might have been time for him to give himself a power pitch to the glove side. I’m not surprised he’s done this. He can throw that pitch hard and with big, big movement.”

Duran’s four-seamer remains in the top percentile of fastest pitches in the league, but he was vulnerable against it in ‘24. An effective breaking pitch of this type could make his fastball more effective, too.

Everybody go long

Lopez said he was aware of the team’s need for the starting pitchers to go longer into games. Through the first nine games of the season, Twins starters were dead last in the league in innings pitched with 40. The best comparison, the Philadelphia Phillies, had thrown 53 1/3 innings in their nine games.

“That’s what we want,” López said. “I want to be the guy who is the best option the third time through the lineup.”

In the two previous games, Twins starters didn’t get any outs in the fifth. Manager Rocco Baldelli wants the Twins starters to go deeper, and says he expects them to, but he also uses tactics to win the game as it’s being played. If that means a quicker hook, so be it. But the bullpen won’t stand up forever to the stress of getting too much extra work, so the clock is ticking.

“We do need to run into a stretch at some point soon where we’re not running through [so many relievers],” Baldelli said. “And our starters are out there giving us the innings that they’re capable of giving us.”

Cole train runnin’

The Twins and López face left-hander Cole Ragans in game two of the series Tuesday. After AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and NL Cy Young Chris Sale, it’s possible that Ragans is the best lefty starter in the league.

“Every metric you can look at says so,” Twins catcher Ryan Jeffers said.

Ragans throws a 95-96 mph four-seamer and was effective with his changeup and curve in 2024. He posted a 1.88 ERA in four starts against the Twins a year ago.

“We see each other so many times, there aren’t a lot of secrets,” Ragans said. “They have a bunch of guys with a lot of power. It comes down to me executing my game plan, but it usually does come down to that.”

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By MICHELLE L. PRICE and LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is having early discussions about a grand military parade in the nation’s capital this summer, something that is a long-held dream of President Donald Trump.

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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that the administration had reached out to the city about holding a parade on June 14 that would stretch from Arlington, Virginia, where the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery are located, across the Potomac River and into Washington, D.C.

The Army is in early discussions about potentially adding a parade to the Army’s 250th birthday festival, which is being held June 14, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are ongoing and no decisions have been made.

June 14 is also Trump’s 79th birthday.

The White House in a statement said that “no military parade has been scheduled.”

The Army birthday festival, which has been in the planning stages for about two years, is to include an array of activities and displays on the National Mall, including Army Stryker armored vehicles, Humvees, helicopters and other equipment.

In a statement, Col. David Butler, an Army spokesman, said that “it’s too early to say yet whether or not we’re having a parade but we’re working with the White House as well as several government agencies to make the celebration a national level event.”

Trump in his first term proposed having a grand military parade in the U.S. after watching one in France on Bastille Day in 2017. Trump said after watching the two-hour procession along the famed Champs-Elysees that he wanted a grander one in Washington on Pennsylvania Avenue.

But the event never happened due to expected high costs, with one estimate of a $92 million price tag, and logistical hangups.

Trump in 2018 said in a post on the social media site then known as Twitter that he was canceling the event over costs and accused local politicians of price gouging.

“When asked to give us a price for holding a great celebratory military parade, they wanted a number so ridiculously high that I cancelled it,” he said in his post.

Bowser, speaking at a news conference Monday, said she didn’t know if the event was being “characterized as a military parade” but said military tanks rolling through the city’s streets “would not be good.”

“If military tanks were used, they should be accompanied with many millions of dollars to repair the roads,” she said.

Takis Karantonis, the chair of the Arlington County Board, said in a statement that Secret Service contacted the county on Friday “regarding the possibility of a military parade to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. Army, but no further details were offered.”

Karantonis said it was not clear what the scope of the parade would be but said, “I would hope the Federal Government remains sensitive to the pain and concerns of numerous active military and veteran residents, who have lost or might lose their jobs in recent federal decisions, as they reflect on how best to celebrate the Army’s anniversary.”

Though Bowser was more matter-of-fact in her remarks Monday, the District of Columbia had publicly mocked the idea of a military parade during Trump’s first term.

The D.C. Council’s official account on X said in a January 2019 post about winter weather that schools and government offices would still open on time, but then added: “The Giant Tank Parade: Still cancelled.”

Months later, in June 2019, the account posted a Defense Department memo to show that the military opposed using tanks on city streets.

The latest parade plans were first reported by Washington City Paper on Sunday.

Associated Press writer Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Trump administration to use an 18th century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants, but said they must get a court hearing before they are taken from the United States.

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In a bitterly divided decision, the court said the administration must give Venezuelans who it claims are gang members “reasonable time” to go to court.

But the conservative majority said the legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington courtroom.

In dissent, the three liberal justices said the administration has sought to avoid judicial review in this case and the court “now rewards the government for its behavior.” Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined portions of the dissent.

The justices acted on the administration’s emergency appeal after the federal appeals court in Washington left in place an order temporarily prohibiting deportations of the migrants accused of being gang members under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act.

“For all the rhetoric of the dissents,” the court wrote in an unsigned opinion, the high court order confirms “that the detainees subject to removal orders under the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to challenge their removal.”

The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts.

Attorney General Pam Bondi called the court’s ruling “a landmark victory for the rule of law.”

“An activist judge in Washington, DC does not have the jurisdiction to seize control of President Trump’s authority to conduct foreign policy and keep the American people safe,” Bondi wrote in a social media post.

The original order blocking the deportations to El Salvador was issued by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, the chief judge at the federal courthouse in Washington.

President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportation of hundreds of people under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force.

Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas, hours after the proclamation was made public and as immigration authorities were shepherding hundreds of migrants to waiting airplanes.

Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on deportations and also ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. That did not happen. The judge held a hearing last week over whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around. The administration has invoked a “ state secrets privilege ” and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations.

Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”

Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals is asking a lower court to consider once again whether to release police video from the arrest of state Sen. Nicole Mitchell for suspected first-degree burglary last April.

Conservative news website Alpha News filed a court action last year seeking the release of body and dash camera footage captured by police as they found Mitchell in her estranged stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home last April.

The group argued that Mitchell and her attorneys made public statements that contradicted the police account of her arrest and that there was a “strong public interest and benefit in knowing about the truth related to criminal charges against a sitting State Senator.”

Becker County Judge Gretchen Thilmony ruled that Mitchell’s rights as a person accused of a crime outweighed public interest in her case and did not release arrest videos.

But in a Monday ruling, a panel of three appeals court judges said the lower court needed to consider the broader public benefit that could come from releasing a video tied to a case involving an elected official.

District court must reevaluate request

The ruling written by Appeals Court Judge Elizabeth Bentley did not take any position on whether it would be in the public interest to release the video, but now the district court must reevaluate Alpha News’ request.

Mitchell, a DFL senator from Woodbury, is scheduled to go to trial for a first-degree burglary charge after the 2025 regular legislative session ends in May. The trial was originally scheduled for January, but under state law, legislators can delay their trials until the conclusion of business at the state Capitol.

The arrest came after police responded to a break-in call in the early morning hours of April 22, 2024, and found the senator in her stepmother’s home. Mitchell said she was trying to retrieve her father’s ashes and other sentimental items and that her stepmother suffers from dementia.

“Clearly I’m not good at this,” Mitchell allegedly told officers, later adding she knew “she did something bad.”

Sen. Nicole Mitchell (Courtesy of the Becker County Sheriff’s Office)

In ethics complaints, Senate Republicans have questioned contradictions between Mitchell’s account of events and those outlined in the charges. Alpha News argued the contradictions warranted the release of the body camera videos.

After her release from jail, Mitchell made a post on social media where she said she entered the house to check on her stepmother, who had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

The stepmother had obtained a restraining order against Mitchell and told multiple media outlets that she fears her stepdaughter. Mitchell claimed her stepmother suffers from “paranoia” because of her condition.

“The release of the body camera footage is essential to provide clarity about the events of April 22, 2024,” Republican Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson said in a statement. “The public deserves transparency and accountability, and I hope the court will stand with them in that pursuit. Legislators must be held to a higher standard, not shielded from consequences because of the office they hold.”

Mitchell now faces two felony charges in connection with the break-in, where prosecutors allege the senator used a crowbar to pry open a basement window. Prosecutors filed a burglary tools charge in February, nearly 10 months after Mitchell’s arrest on a first-degree burglary charge.

Mitchell’s attorney: Release could jeopardize due process

In a statement on the appeals court decision, Mitchell’s defense attorney. Bruce Ringstrom Jr. said releasing body camera footage could create a jury selection problem with the trial set to begin in just two months.

“The judge presiding over the criminal case has already ordered that video coverage of the trial is allowed,” he said in an email. “Release of the evidence before the criminal trial jeopardizes due process.”

Mitchell, a first-term senator and former broadcast meteorologist who is a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, was elected in 2022 and is in the third year of her four-year term. She is scheduled to face election again until 2026.

Despite calls from fellow DFLers to resign, Mitchell has said she won’t leave office. Repeated efforts by minority Senate Republicans to remove her from office have failed as they would require significant levels of support from Democrats.

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