Offense has been an issue for the Saints early in the 2024 season, illustrated by the fact that they entered the game with a team batting average of .186, last among the 20 teams in the International League.

But there were signs of life in that area Tuesday afternoon at CHS Field. After trailing 6-0 early, the Saints battled back to have the potential winning run at the plate in the ninth inning before falling 9-7 to the Iowa Cubs.

Catcher/designated hitter Jair Camargo did his best to try to bring the Saints all the way back. He hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning and added a two-run double in the ninth. He has been one of the few Saints hitters who have had any extended success so far this season.

The 24-year-old Camargo said he learned a lot from playing at the Triple-A level last season, which gave him confidence that he could get off to a good start this season and keep it going.

“I went back to Columbia in the offseason and worked a lot on my swing position,” he said. “I worked on the adjustments I wanted to make at the plate, and thank God it’s showing up.”

Camargo is hitting in the middle of the Saints’ lineup, and has shown signs that he can hit for a good average while also providing power.

“I want to be in the big leagues,” he said, “but right now this is my big leagues. I want to show them that I’m able to do it, and do it consistently. I’m trying to be the same guy every day.”

Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said he has been impressed — dating back to last season — with what he has seen from Camargo in all aspects of his game.

“He had a slow start last year,” Gardenhire said, “but in the second half of the season he was probably the best catcher in the league. This year, he’s come in and done a really nice job. He’s been a leader for us in the clubhouse, he’s swinging the bat well, he plays great defense and he works with the pitchers.

“He does everything you want a catcher to do.”

The day started as though the Saints were going to get blown out by the Cubs. Wisconsin native Caleb Boushley, signed by the Twins as a minor-league free agent in the offseason, was roughed up in his second start for the Saints. After limiting Nashville to one run on two hits in 5 2/3 innings in his debut, the 30-year-old Boushley allowed six runs in the first two innings, including three home runs.

But Gardenhire stuck with him, and Boushley pitched into the fifth, with the Saints trailing 7-4. The Saints were held hitless through the first three innings before hitting three home runs in the fourth. Michael Helman and Yunior Severino hit their first of the season, with Camargo getting his second.

Severino, one of the Saints’ bright spots last season after joining the team from Double-A Wichita, was hitless in 24 at-bats on the season, including 12 strikeouts, before homering.

The Saints were held to three hits until the ninth, when they collected three more. The game ended with Camargo on second base representing the tying run.

Briefly

— Left-handed starter Brent Headrick, who made 14 relief appearances for the Twins last season,  is expected to miss four to six weeks due to a left forearm strain.

— Reliever Caleb Thielbar, on rehab assignment from the Twins as he recovers from a left hamstring strain, pitched the sixth inning, allowing one hit and one walk. He was followed by Josh Staumont, also on rehab assignment (left calf strain), who pitched one inning, allowing a walk.

By ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge presiding over the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump granted a request by prosecutors on Tuesday aimed at protecting the identities of potential government witnesses.

But U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon refused to categorically block witness statements from being disclosed, saying there was no basis for such a “sweeping” and “blanket” restriction on their inclusion in pretrial motions.

The 24-page order centers on a dispute between special counsel Jack Smith’s team and lawyers for Trump over how much information about witnesses and their statements could be made public ahead of trial. The disagreement, which had been pending for weeks, was one of many that had piled up before Cannon and had slowed the pace of the case against Trump — one of four prosecutions he is confronting.

The case remains without a firm trial date, though both sides have said they could be ready this summer. Cannon, who earlier faced blistering criticism over her decision to grant Trump’s request for an independent arbiter to review documents obtained during an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, made clear her continued skepticism of the government’s theory of prosecution, saying Tuesday that the case raised “still-developing and somewhat muddled questions.”

In reconsidering an earlier order and siding with prosecutors on the protection of witness identities, Cannon likely averted a dramatic exacerbation of tensions with Smith’s team, which last week called a separate order from the judge “fundamentally flawed.”

The issue surfaced in January when defense lawyers filed in partially unredacted form a motion that sought to require prosecutors to turn over a trove of documents that they said would bolster their claim that the Biden administration had sought to “weaponize” the government in charging Trump.

Defense lawyers asked permission to file the motion, which included as attachments information that they had obtained from prosecutors, in mostly unredacted form. But prosecutors objected to unsealing the motion to the extent that it would reveal the identity of any potential government witness.

Cannon then granted the defense request for the motion and its exhibits to be filed in unredacted form as long as the personal identifying information of witnesses remained sealed. Smith’s team asked her to reconsider, saying that witnesses could be exposed to threats and harassments if publicly identified.

In agreeing Tuesday for the witness names to remain redacted, she wrote, “Although the record is clear that the Special Counsel could have, and should have, raised its current arguments previously, the Court elects, upon a full review of those newly raised arguments, to reconsider its prior Order.”

Still, the order was not a complete win for prosecutors.

Cannon rejected a request by Smith’s team to seal from pretrial motions the substance of all witness statements, with the exception of information that could be used to identify witnesses.

“As for legal authority, the cases cited in the Special Counsel’s papers do not lend support to this sweeping request; nor do they appear to have been offered as such,” Cannon wrote. “And based on the Court’s independent research, granting this request would be unprecedented: the Court cannot locate any case — high-profile or otherwise — in which a court has authorized anything remotely similar to the sweeping relief sought here.”

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety has named the inaugural director of its new Murdered and Missing Black Women and Girls Office, which is billed as the first of its kind in the nation.

Kaleena Burkes spent nearly seven years working with the state’s Guardian ad Litem Board, where she led organizational development by implementing racial equity and advocacy initiatives. She also implemented training for state employees with the goal of improving outcomes for families and children involved in juvenile and family courts.

Burkes “has what is needed to use proven analytics to start this important office” and “a much-needed, empathetic soul, ready to bring solutions and attention” to the new office, said DPS Commissioner Bob Jacobson, in a statement.

Burkes holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in criminal justice from the University of Alabama and a doctorate in criminology from Florida State University. She is a former research associate with the Robina Institute of Criminal Law and Criminal Justice at the University of Minnesota Law School.

Legislation to establish the Murdered and Missing Black Women and Girls Office was signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz last year with the goal of addressing “systemic barriers that perpetuate the disparate violence that Black women experience,” said DPS, in a written statement.

Black women are three times more likely to be killed than their white counterparts, and Black women make up 7 percent of the population in Minnesota but 40 percent of domestic violence victims.

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