HOUSTON (AP) — Pablo López pitched seven strong innings and Trevor Larnach hit a two-run homer to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 6-1 win over the Houston Astros on Friday night.

“He pitched great and he had a pretty good changeup today,” manager Rocco Baldelli said of López. “He attacked with his fastball really well and I think he threw enough good offspeed pitches to get what he was looking for.”

Carlos Santana added a solo home run and Willi Castro tripled to help the Twins to their fourth victory in five games.

López (5-5) allowed six hits and a run with six strikeouts as he tied his longest start of the season. He bounced back after three tough starts during which he gave up a combined 25 hits and 16 runs.

“The last couple of games were a little rough (and) the box score (said) things that you never want to see as a starting pitcher,” he said. “But it’s just a testament to staying true to the process, not wanting to change too much and simplifying things.”

Alex Bregman went deep in the third inning for his third home run in four games, but the Astros couldn’t do much else on offense in their fourth loss in five games.

Castro’s triple opened the third before Jose Miranda walked. There was one out in the inning when Carlos Correa’s double to right field scored Castro to make it 1-0. Miranda scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Kirilloff to put Minnesota up 2-0.

Bregman cut the lead to 1 when he sent Lopez’s first pitch of the fourth inning off the foul pole in left field.

Castro walked with no outs in the fifth before Larnach made it 4-1 with his shot to left-center field off Ronel Blanco (5-1) with one out.

Max Kepler was hit by a pitch to start the sixth and moved to third on a double by Ryan Jeffers. Kepler scored on a groundout by Manuel Margot to extend the lead to 5-1.

Santana’s home run off Alex Speas made it 6-1 in the eighth.

Blanco, who threw a no-hitter in his season debut, allowed three hits and four runs while walking three in 4 2/3 innings for his first loss.

“He had the stuff to take us deep into the game,” manager Joe Espada said. “It was just one of those nights where their offense did a nice job of executing and staying in the game and getting some hits.”

Trainer’s room

Twins: 3B Royce Lewis (severe quadriceps strain) went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in his fifth rehabilitation start for Triple-A St. Paul on Friday. Baldelli wouldn’t say when he expected him to come off the injured list, but said it wouldn’t be this weekend.

Up next

Houston LHP Framber Valdez (3-3, 4.34 ERA) opposes Joe Ryan (4-3, 2.96) when the series continues Saturday.

The Minneapolis police officer fatally shot Thursday became the third Minnesota officer killed by gunfire this year, the most in more than 40 years.

The homicide of officer Jamal Mitchell happened at a time of increased assaults on officers in the state. A Minneapolis officer was also wounded in Thursday’s shooting, at least the third Minnesota officer to be injured by gunfire this year.

On average, 388 officers were assaulted each year in Minnesota in the decade up to 2019. There were an average of 1,065 officers assaulted annually between 2020 and last year, according to statistics maintained by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Most of the assaults resulted in minor or no injuries, but some officers paid the ultimate sacrifice.

“We know that attacks on police officers are on the rise in Minnesota and across the country,” Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said early Friday. “Jamal just happened to be the latest victim of this senseless and troubling trend. It’s become too easy to attack our police and it needs to stop”

From left, Minneapolis police officer Jamal Mitchell, Burnsville police officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth. (Courtesy of the Minneapolis Police Department and the city of Burnsville)

A gunman opened fire in February in Burnsville, killing Burnsville police officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, who were both 27, and Burnsville firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth, 40. Another Burnsville police officer was wounded.

The last time three officers were killed by gunfire in Minnesota in a single year was 1982, according to information from the national Officer Down Memorial Page. That year, Roseville officer Bruce Russell, Oakdale officer Richard Walton and Wayzata Sgt. James Anderson died in separate incidents.

On Aug. 26, 1994, two St. Paul officers — Ron Ryan Jr. and Timothy Jones — were killed by the same man.

Prior to the Burnsville shootings, Pope County Sheriff’s Deputy Josh Owen was fatally shot last year and Red Lake Nation Police Officer Ryan Bialke was killed by gunfire in 2021. Before then, a Minnesota law enforcement officer hadn’t died in a shooting homicide since 2015.

There have been other fatal shootings of law enforcement recently in the region — an Algona, Iowa, officer in September, a Fargo, N.D., officer in July, and three officers in western Wisconsin on two days in April and May 2023.

Other shootings have injured officers

In St. Paul, a man shot and wounded a police officer in the ankle in December, a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy was hurt by shrapnel when someone shot at him with a rifle in March, and a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy was shot and injured in an exchange of gunfire in April.

The MN 100 Club, a nonprofit organization that provides emergency financial assistance to first responders or their families if they’re killed or critically injured in the line of duty, provided more than $230,000 last year to families of 14 Minnesota first responders.

“We have given over $250,000 to 10 first responders and their families already in 2024, far exceeding any amount our club has ever given,” said club treasurer Bill Kozlak. “Sadly, it’s a reflection of the ever-increasing danger first responders face.”

Around the U.S., 22 officers have been killed by gunfire this year, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP). That was the cause of death in 49 deaths of law enforcement officers last year, 66 officers in both 2021 and 2022, and 52 officers in 2020.

In 1982, the year three officers were fatally shot in Minnesota, 98 officers were killed by gunfire around the U.S., according to ODMP. In 1994, when Ryan and Jones were killed in St. Paul, 87 officers were fatally shot across the nation.

The last time a Minneapolis officer was shot and killed in the line of duty was Melissa Schmidt in 2002; she was one of 60 officers fatally shot around the country that year.

“It’s a really hard job and it’s really hard with lots of guns on the street,” Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday night. “And it’s really hard if those folks can’t feel us unified behind them to make sure that we’re providing every single thing” for them to do their jobs “to protect all of us, but to protect themselves. Their families deserve to know they’re coming home.”

Late Thursday night, two St. Paul officers were injured when they responded to a domestic call in a Dayton’s Bluff apartment building. They tried to arrest a 37-year-old man for interference with a 911 call, but he grabbed an officer’s Taser and tried to grab the officer’s gun, according to charges filed Friday. Officers struggled with the man, and one officer suffered a broken leg and another suffered a cut to his elbow.

The Ramsey County attorney’s office charged the man with attempt to disarm a peace officer and two counts of assaulting a peace officer.

“There has been a massive increase in assaults on police officers,” said St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry on Friday. “The events of the last 24 hours in Minneapolis illustrate this at its very worst. … The police officers in this state will never fail to answer the calls for help. We need to stand with them, now more than ever.”

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DULUTH – Amy Klobuchar is once again Democrats’ choice the carry the party’s banner as its candidate for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press)

In what was largely an evening on Friday promoting DFL legislative accomplishments, Klobuchar, seeking her fourth Senate term, captured the vast majority of delegates. She will either face navy veteran and businessman Joe Fraser or Royce White, a far-right podcaster and former professional basketball player, in November’s election.

In her acceptance speech, Klobuchar highlighted Democrats’ work supporting unions, voter access, infrastructure, climate change, gun control and abortion.

“Together we have made Minnesota a better place,” Klobuchar told delegates. Klobuchar began her first term as senator in 2007.

Klobuchar also took aim at Republicans Friday, calling them “peddlers of lies,” and condemned the movement built by former President Donald Trump, the likely nominee of the Republican Party for 2024.

Nomination

In her speech, she also spoke about her experience walking through the U.S. Capitol building following the Jan. 6 riot, an act led by Trump supporters upset over unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. The events of the day led to five deaths in 36 hours and hundreds of arrests.

“We made sure that when the public woke up in the morning that yes, democracy prevailed,” she said.

Klobuchar was nominated Friday evening by Minnesota Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, with a resounding second by the majority of the delegates gathered at the DFL State Convention in Duluth.

An attempt to nominate another candidate failed to reach a seconded motion by 25% of the delegates. A majority of delegates also failed to approve an official count of delegate votes on the issue.

“At this pivotal moment, Amy is standing up to monopolies and to extremists trying to take away rights away from women in Minnesota, and the DFL is proud to endorse her for reelection,” DFL Party Chair Ken Martin wrote in a news release.

Minnesota’s other senator, Tina Smith, touted her colleague’s bipartisan work in the Senate on Friday in Duluth.

“She’s not messing around ya’ll, she gets stuff done,” Smith said.

Campaign strategy

The mood in Duluth Friday is decidedly different than the Republican State Convention earlier this month.

There were lots of cheers and claps for DFL politicians and issues compared to mostly arguing during the GOP’s first convention day, where the focus was on who was a legitimate delegate.

In addition to Klobuchar’s endorsement, a DFL campaign strategy took shape Friday.

DFLers will lean towards touting their legislative successes, including securing abortion rights and free school meals for children, while also contrasting the differences between Democrats and a Republican Party largely controlled by Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

Trump, freshly convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to actress Stormy Daniels, was a main target for DFLers Friday.

DFL Party Chair Ken Martin laid into the former President during his opening convention speech, calling Trump’s movement “authoritarian.”

“For me, it’s about two competing visions about how you govern,” Martin told Forum News Service, adding that Trump and Republicans had their time in power and “frittered it away on culture wars and going after people.”

“When we’ve had power in this state, what we’ve done is actually tried to deliver on the critical needs that Minnesotans are facing,” he said.

The fact that Republicans have not held a statewide political office since former Gov. Tim Pawlenty left office in 2011 is a sign that the state has not signed on to what Republicans have been selling, according to Martin.

Loss of support in Greater Minnesota

DFL legislators have led two of the last legislative sessions by thin margins where several campaign promises, like legalizing an amount of marijuana and providing paid leave for workers, were delivered, though voting trends over the last decade have shown a loss of support in Greater Minnesota.

However, Republicans continue their infighting, often between old-guard Republicans and die-hard Trump supporters, and polling data suggests the Presidential election is mathematically a toss-up at this point.

While there is disagreement among Democrats, Martin called on party members to unite in the face of a MAGA movement he called “scary.”

Trump was a main target for DFLers Friday.

Attorney General Keith Ellison also condemned Trump during a speech at Friday’s convention.

“His philosophy is not welcome around here,” Ellison told the crowd.

On Saturday delegates and party leaders are expected to discuss and vote on 113 resolutions, some of which have been highly charged across the nation, like the war in Gaza, and in Minnesota, like the conflict between union miners and environmentalists.

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