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Joey Gallo keeps his cool, then blasts game-winning home run for Twins

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Twins were running low on position players and Joey Gallo knew it. So, when he was punched out for looking a low breaking ball in the seventh inning, the slugger kept his comments to home plate umpire Nic Lentz fairly subdued.“I wasn’t saying anything crazy,” he said. “I knew we were short guys.”Hence, hitting coach David Popkins was tossed and Gallo was available to hit in the ninth inning.Phew.Gallo hit a go-ahead, two-run homer run off Oakland’s flame-thrower Shintaro Fujinami, and Jhoan Duran survived a sketchy ninth for his 13th save as the Twins started the unofficial second half of their season with a 5-4 victory in front of an announced 7,923 at Oakland Coliseum.Gallo hit an 0-1, 100 mph fastball from Fujinami into the Budweiser seats in the right field bleachers to break a 3-3 tie and the Twins went on to snap a three-game losing skid, claw back to .500 and reclaim sole possession of first place in the American League Central.Cleveland started th...

WATCH: Massive wildfire grows to 3,000 acres in Riverside County

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

Firefighters are battling a large fast-moving wildfire that erupted in Moreno Valley on Friday.Named the “Rabbit Fire,” the brush fire is located near the intersection of Alessandro Boulevard and Jack Rabbit Trail, in the community of Lakeview. It was initially reported as 20 acres with a rapid rate of spread just shortly before 4 p.m. The flames later spread to around 600 acres by 6 p.m. before exploding to 1,500 acres around 7 p.m., Cal Fire officials confirmed. By 7:30 p.m., the fire grew to around 2,815 acres and by 11 p.m., the fire grew to 3,000 acres. Zero percent containment is reported so far.Located in a grass and brush-heavy area, a private ranch property is being threatened by the moving flames. Fire crews have surrounded the property with flame retardant.“All of a sudden, I see this puff of smoke come up and all chaos broke loose,” said Emmanuel Castro, a Moreno Valley resident. “The whole hill caught on fire then across the street and then it jumped to my lawn. My hors...

Oakland: 8-year-old boy gravely injured in I-580 shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

OAKLAND – An 8-year-old boy was gravely injured Friday night when gunfire erupted between two cars on an Oakland freeway, according to the California Highway Patrol.The commute-hour shooting happened around 6:20 p.m. on eastbound Interstate 880 near Harrison Street, CHP Officer Andrew Barclay told this news organization. Witnesses reported seeing the occupants of two vehicles shooting at one another.A third vehicle was caught in the crossfire and an 8-year-old passenger was struck by a bullet Barclay said.The driver pulled over at Grand Avenue, determined the boy had been shot and took him to Highland Hospital, Barclay said. The boy was later transferred to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland in grave condition.The suspects continued driving and had not been identified as of Friday, Barclay said. A description of the suspects and their vehicles was not immediately available.All lanes of eastbound I-580 were closed around 6:45 p.m. for an investigation, Barclay said.Anyone with ...

Joey Gallo hits a 2-run homer in the 9th to send the Twins past the Athletics, 5-4

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Joey Gallo could have lost his cool in the seventh after being called out on strikes as a pinch-hitter.Instead, he stayed ready.Gallo broke a tie with a two-run homer in the ninth inning and the Minnesota Twins snapped a three-game losing streak from before the All-Star break by beating the Oakland Athletics 5-4 on Friday night.“He did a good job of keeping it together and then going up there and being prepared to hit a 100 mph fastball,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He smoked it. He caught it right where he wanted to catch it. That’s a nice way to punctuate the beginning of the second half for Joey and for the team.” Donovan Solano led off the ninth with a double against Shintaro Fujinami (5-8) before Gallo connected for his team-leading 16th homer an out later.Griffin Jax (5-6) pitched a scoreless eighth for the victory and Jhoan Duran finished for his 13th save after allowing JJ Bleday’s RBI single and hitting Brent Rooker with a pitch.“T...

In pictures: Europe swelters as heatwave hits Continent

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

OPTICSHeatwave in Europe: In picturesManuele Valeri/EFE-EPASouthern Europe could see record-breaking temperatures in the next few days as a heatwave sweeps across much of the continent.Italy, Spain, France, Croatia and Turkey have all been affected by scorching temperatures. The Italian Meteorological Society has named the heatwave “Cerberus” after the three-headed dog that guarded the underworld in Greek mythology.The beginning of July marked the planet’s hottest week in recorded history. Last month was the warmest-ever June, and a study this week found that more than 60,000 Europeans died due to heat last summer.Cooling off at the Ada Ciganlija lake in Belgrade, Serbia | Andrej Cukic/EFE via EPAPeople cool off in a fountain during a hot summer day in Piazza di Spagna in Rome | Fabio Frustaci/EPA-EFEA man cools off in a fountain in Rome | Fabio Frustaci/EPA-EFEPeople cool off in a fountain at the Pantheon in Rome | Fabio Frustaci/EPA-EFE A ...

European Commission rebuffs calls to retract US antitrust hire

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

The European Commission said there are no grounds to reverse the choice of a U.S. professor for a sensitive competition post after four European Parliament groups called for the job pick to be retracted.Renew Europe, the European People’s Party, Socialists and Democrats and Greens sent a letter to Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on Friday, expressing “dismay” over the appointment of Fiona Scott Morton as chief competition economist this week. It is the first time a non-EU person has held such a senior Commission post.Commission spokesperson Dana Spinant told reporters on Friday that there is no good reason for the Commission to change course. “Following the recruitment process, the College endorsed the proposal to appoint this person to this position, the decision was made and we see no ground to reconsider,” she said.Lawmakers earlier told Vestager to “reverse the decision taken by the College” on July 11. “Though we recog...

One man killed, another injured in Pittsburg shooting

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

PITTSBURG — A shooting left one man dead and another seriously injured Friday afternoon in Pittsburg, police said.Officers were dispatched to the 2100 block of Crestview Lane around 5:10 p.m. for a report of a shooting, the Pittsburg Police Department said in a news release. Around the same time, a man pulled into the police department’s parking lot and summoned officers to his vehicle.The driver and his passenger were both suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, police said.Officers provided medical aid to the victims until paramedics arrived. Police said the passenger, a 24-year-old Antioch man, died of his injuries. The driver, a 21-year-old Antioch man, was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.Officers found evidence of a shooting in the 2100 block of Crestview Drive, police said.Anyone with information related to the case can contact the police department at 925-646-2441.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Oakland: 8-year-old...

Biden’s China diplomacy spree hits Republicans’ great wall of scorn

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

Beijing is about to get its third marquee visit from a top U.S. official in the span of a month. But for now, they’re mostly talking for the sake of talking.President Joe Biden’s climate envoy John Kerry will be in Beijing for four days of meetings starting Sunday — on the heels of recent visits by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. His task: Nudge the Chinese government to honor its commitments to reduce planet-warming methane emissions and “transition away from coal,” Kerry told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing Thursday. The first step to all that: simply restarting stalled climate talks.While Beijing continues to refuse to renew high-level military communications between the two countries, the visits by high-level officials show that Biden’s predicted “thaw” is happening at least in some areas.Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping declared meaningful results from Blinken’s trip last month. “The two s...

Europe still waiting on US to formally approve F-16 training

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

Nearly a dozen European countries that pledged this week to train Ukrainian pilots are still waiting on the U.S. to formally approve the program before instruction on American F-16 fighter jets can begin, according to U.S. and European officials involved in the discussions.A coalition of 11 nations, led by Denmark and the Netherlands, formally agreed to train Ukrainians to fly F-16s and potentially other fighter aircraft at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week. European officials have said they hope to begin the program in August in Denmark, and a training center will also be set up in Romania.But instruction on F-16s can’t actually start until the State Department formally signs off on the request to transfer instruction manuals, flight simulators and other materials associated with the jets — and that hasn’t happened yet.While President Joe Biden has promised to green-light the program, the formal request “is still being reviewed,” said Lt. Col. Garron Garn, a Pentagon...

Last-place Yankees’ bats, Carlos Rodón come up short in loss to Rockies to open second-half

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:45:03 GMT

DENVER — With a new hitting coach, mile-high altitude and an opposing starter with a 6.40 ERA working in their favor, the Yankees seemed primed for an offensive outburst at Coors Field on Friday.They scored two runs instead.Those came off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton, who laced a two-run, 455-foot homer off Colorado lefty Austin Gomber in the first inning. The blast started the Sean Casey era and the second half with a bang, but the tied for last place Yankees didn’t score again in a 7-2 loss to the last-place Rockies, who entered the game with the worst ERA in the National League.The Yankees had a chance to tack on more runs in the sixth, when Stanton led off with a bloop double. But Anthony Rizzo, Harrison Bader and Josh Donaldson all recorded outs as the Yankees’ offense continued to sputter like it did for much of the first half.Carlos Rodón, meanwhile, came up short in his second start for the Yankees. The southpaw totaled four hits, four earned runs, one...