DETROIT (AP) — Josh Smith’s pinch-hit double in the top of the ninth drove home the winning run and the Texas Rangers beat the error-prone Detroit Tigers 5-4 on Wednesday.
With one out, Ezequiel Duran singled, went to second on an error by first baseman Spencer Torkelson and scored on Smith’s clutch hit to right-center field.
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DETROIT (AP) — Josh Smith’s pinch-hit double in the top of the ninth drove home the winning run and the Texas Rangers beat the error-prone Detroit Tigers 5-4 on Wednesday.
Detroit Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter (30) hits a home run against the Texas Rangers in the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers pitcher Dane Dunning throws against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers' Kerry Carpenter celebrates his home run against the Texas Rangers in the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers second base Colt Keith loses his helmet running out a single against the Texas Rangers in the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers' Jonah Heim hits a two-run single against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers outfielder Adolis García, right, questions if his hit was a home run off the outfield fence as Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Báez (28) looks on in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. Garcia was credited with a double. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers' Corey Seager celebrates scoring against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
“I was trying to be aggressive. The two guys in front of me did a good job getting on base,’” Smith said. “You try not to put too much pressure on yourself in that situation.”
Kirby Yates (2-0) got the final four outs, striking out the side in the ninth, to get the win. Detroit’s Shelby Miller (3-1) took the loss as the Tigers committed three errors, leading to two unearned runs.
”‘We didn’t play clean,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “That’s not always recognizable on the scoreboard with errors, but today it was, and they took advantage. They didn’t let us get away with it. In a one-run game, everything matters.”
The first came in the opening inning, when leadoff hitter Marcus Semien reached on a throwing error by starter Tarik Skubal and scored on Adolis Garcia’s sacrifice fly, the first of his two RBIs.
Kerry Carpenter tied it for Detroit in the second with his third homer of the season.
It stayed that way until the top of the sixth, when fielding woes got Detroit in trouble again.
Semien reached on an error by Colt Keith. Corey Seager singled, and with one out, Garcia doubled, scoring Semien. Jonah Heim then singled, scoring Seager and Garcia.
“Jonah battled up there,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “He didn’t hit it real hard, but placed it well. We needed those timely hits.”
In the bottom of the inning, Torkelson doubled and scored on a throwing error by Semien. Parker Meadows homered in the seventh.
The Tigers tied it in the eighth. Matt Vierling singled with one out, went to second on a ground out and scored on a single by Javier Baez.
Mark Canha walked in the ninth for Detroit, but was stranded.
Dane Dunning started and worked five innings for Texas, who used four relief pitchers.
"A gutty effort,” Bochy said of Dunning's outing. “He was not with his best stuff and his command, but he made pitches when he had to. He found a way to get through it.”
Skubal went 6 1/3 innings for the Tigers.
Texas (10-9) avoided dropping below .500 for the first time since Bochy took over as manager in 2023.
UP NEXT
Rangers RHP Jack Leiter (0-0) will make his major league debut Thursday in the finale of the series at Comerica Park. Leiter was the Rangers’ top pick in the 2021 draft (No. 2 overall). Kenta Maeda (0-1, 6.00 ERA) will start for Detroit.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal throws against the Texas Rangers in the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers outfielder Kerry Carpenter (30) hits a home run against the Texas Rangers in the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers pitcher Dane Dunning throws against the Detroit Tigers in the first inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers' Kerry Carpenter celebrates his home run against the Texas Rangers in the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Detroit Tigers second base Colt Keith loses his helmet running out a single against the Texas Rangers in the second inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers' Jonah Heim hits a two-run single against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers outfielder Adolis García, right, questions if his hit was a home run off the outfield fence as Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Báez (28) looks on in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. Garcia was credited with a double. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Texas Rangers' Corey Seager celebrates scoring against the Detroit Tigers in the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was held in contempt of court Tuesday and fined $9,000 for repeatedly violating a gag order that barred him from making public statements about witnesses, jurors and some others connected to his New York hush money case. And if he does it again, the judge warned, he could be jailed.
Prosecutors had alleged 10 violations, but New York Judge Juan M. Merchan found there were nine. Trump stared down at the table in front of him as the judge read the ruling, frowning slightly.
It was a stinging rebuke of the Republican former president’s insistence that he was exercising his free speech rights and a reminder that he’s a criminal defendant subject to the harsh realities of trial procedure. The judge’s suggestion that he may jail the former president signaled that Trump’s already precarious legal standing could further spiral depending on his behavior during the trial.
Merchan wrote that he is “keenly aware of, and protective of,” Trump’s First Amendment rights, “particularly given his candidacy for the office of President of the United States.”
“It is critically important that defendant’s legitimate free speech rights not be curtailed, that he be able to fully campaign for the office which he seeks and that he be able to respond and defend himself against political attacks,” Merchan wrote.
Still, he warned that the court would not tolerate "willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”
With that statement, the judge drew nearer the specter of Trump becoming the first former president of the United States behind bars.
Trump is used to having constant access to his social media bullhorn to slam opponents and speak his mind. After he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Trump launched his own platform, where his posts wouldn’t be blocked or restricted. And he has long tried to distance himself from controversial messages he’s amplified to his millions of followers by insisting they’re “only retweets.”
But he does have experience with gag orders, which were also imposed in his civil fraud trial. After he was found to have violated those orders, he paid more than $15,000 in fines.
Tuesday's ruling came at the start of the second week of testimony in the historic case, in which Manhattan prosecutors argue Trump and his associates took part in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign by purchasing and then burying seamy stories. The payouts went to a doorman with a torrid yarn; former Playboy model Karen McDougal, who had accusations of an affair; and to porn performer Stormy Daniels, who alleged a sexual encounter with Trump. He has pleaded not guilty and says the stories are all fake.
Trump was ordered to pay the gag-order fine by the close of business Friday and must remove seven offending posts from his Truth Social account and two from his campaign website by 2:15 p.m. EDT Tuesday. The judge is also weighing other alleged gag-order violations by Trump and will hear arguments Thursday. He also announced that he will halt the trial on May 17 to allow Trump to attend his son Barron's high school graduation.
Of the 10 posts, the one Merchan ruled was not a violation came on April 10, a post referring to witnesses Michael Cohen and Daniels as “sleaze bags." Merchan said Trump’s contention that he was responding to previous posts by Cohen “is sufficient to give” him pause on whether the post was a violation.
Among those he found to be violations, Merchan ruled that a Trump post quoting Fox News host Jesse Watters’ claim that liberal activists were lying to infiltrate the jury “constitutes a clear violation” of the gag order. Merchan noted that the words contained within the quotation marks in Trump’s April 17 post misstated what Watters actually said.
Merchan cautioned that the gag order “not be used as a sword instead of a shield by potential witnesses” and that if people who are protected by the order, like Cohen, continue to attack Trump “it becomes apparent” they don’t need the gag order’s protection.
Cohen, Trump’s former attorney, has said he will refrain from commenting about Trump until after he testifies at the trial. On Tuesday, he said in a text message to The Associated Press: “The imposed fine is irrelevant. Judge Merchan’s decision elucidates that this behavior will not be tolerated and that no one is above the law."
In other developments, testimony resumed Tuesday with Gary Farro, a banker who helped Cohen open accounts, including one that Cohen used to buy Daniels' silence. She alleged a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, which he denies. Jurors also heard from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in their negotiations with the National Enquirer and Cohen.
Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection with the hush money payments. The detailed evidence on business transactions and bank accounts is setting the stage for testimony from Cohen, who went to federal prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations and other crimes.
Jurors have also heard from Trump's longtime executive assistant, Rhona Graff, who recounted that she recalled once seeing Daniels at Trump's office suite in Trump Tower and figured she was a potential contestant for one of Trump’s “Apprentice”-brand shows.
Last week, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker laid out how he agreed to serve as the Trump campaign's “eyes and ears” by helping to squelch unflattering rumors and claims about Trump and women. Pecker described how he paid $180,000 to scoop up and sit on stories.
Trump's attorneys have suggested that he was engaged in an effort to protect his name and his family — not to influence the outcome of the presidential election.
The trial — the first of Trump's four criminal cases to come before a jury — is expected to last for another month or more. And with every moment Trump is in court, he's growing increasingly frustrated while the November election moves ever closer.
For his part, Trump has been campaigning in his off-hours, but he is required to be in court when it is in session, four days a week. Outside the courtroom Tuesday, he again criticized the case.
“This is a case that should have never been brought,” he said.
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (Eduardo Munoz/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump awaits the start of proceedings at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, Pool)
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Eric Trump listens as his father, former President Donald Trump, talks with the media outside Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump arrives at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
Former President Donald Trump appears at Manhattan criminal court before his trial in New York, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Justin Lane/Pool Photo via AP)
