Mead hits 1st homer of the season and Rays beat Tigers 7-5 to avoid the 3-game sweep

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla, (AP) — Curtis Mead hit his first home run of the season and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Detroit Tigers 7-5 on Wednesay night to avoid a three-game sweep.

Ben Rortvedt collected his second RBI of the game with a single and scored on Mead's two-run drive off Will Vest (1-1) that put the Rays ahead for good in the sixth inning. It was Mead's first homer since Sept. 22.

Tampa Bay had lost three in row and five of seven.

“Awesome, for sure,” Rortvedt said. “Especially losing the first two games, our backs are against the wall. Really trying to come out with a win as we go into the off day. This is huge for us.”

The Tigers completed a six-game trip at 4-2 and are 10-4 on the road this season.

'Well, the series win is nice," Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said, “We’re’re happy with the road trip. It doesn’t end well. But keeping things in perspective, we’re doing some good things and we’re winning series, which is key. You want to get greedy when you have the chance to sweep. They came up bigger in the big moments and won the game.”

After trailing by three early, Detroit took a 5-4 lead in the sixth on Buddy Kennedy's run-scoring single and Javier Báez's 600th career RBI that came on a double against Chris Devenski (1-1).

Jason Adam went two perfect innings before Garrett Cleavinger worked the ninth to get his second save in as many chances.

“That’s the beauty of baseball, you have a rough night or whatever you get to go back out,” Adam said. “I’d take this team over any other team in the league over the long run.”

Mark Canha picked up his fourth and fifth RBIs in the series with a fifth-inning single off former Tigers' left-hander Tyler Alexander that got the Tigers within 4-3.

Alexander allowed two runs and three hits in four innngs. He went 11-23 in 120 games, including 43 starts, with the Tigers from 2019-23.

“I’ve stayed away from him this series because I don’t want to like him this series," Hinch said with a smile before the game. “I’ll love him tomorrow.”

Canha’s two-out hit came after right fielder Amed Rosario grabbed Riley Greene’s drive to the warning track and held onto the ball after colliding with center fielder Randy Arozarena.

Rortvedt had an RBI double in a three-run third off Jack Flaherty as the Rays took a 4-1 lead. Flaherty gave up four runs and seven hits over five innings.

Arozarena, mired in a 9 for 77 (.117) slide in April entering the game, pulled Tampa Bay even at 1 with his first homer since March 31 in the first inning. The 2023 All-Star has three homers this season and is hitting .158 after going 1 for 4 with three strikeouts.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rays: CF Jose Siri missed the game to get treatment for a kidney stone. He is expected back for the upcoming series at the Chicago White Sox.

UP NEXT

Tigers: RHP Reese Olson (0-3, 3.80 ERA) faces Kansas City on Friday night.

Rays: Have not announced their start for Friday night’s game against the White Sox.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Detroit Tigers' Jake Rogers (34) scores around Tampa Bay Rays catcher Ben Rortvedt on a two-run single by Mark Canha during the fifth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Curtis Mead, right, celebrates with Ben Rortvedt after Mead hit a two-run home run off Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Will Vest during the sixth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Ben Rortvedt celebrates his RBI single off Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Will Vest during the sixth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Harold Ramirez celebrates after his single off Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty during the fourth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Detroit Tigers' Mark Canha lines a two-run single off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Tyler Alexander during the fifth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Detroit Tigers shortstop Javier Baez can't reacha single by Tampa Bay Rays' Isaac Paredes during the third inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Tyler Alexander delivers to the Detroit Tigers during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Detroit Tigers third baseman Matt Vierling fields a ground ball by Tampa Bay Rays' Isaac Paredes and throws him out at first base during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Randy Arozarena reacts after his solo home run off Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Detroit Tigers' Riley Greene lines a single off Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shawn Armstrong during the first inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Rays' Curtis Mead, of Australia, center, celebrates in the dugout after his two-run home run off Detroit Tigers relief pitcher Will Vest during the sixth inning of a baseball game Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Saing Chhoeun was locked out of his Charlotte, North Carolina, home on Monday as law enforcement with high-powered rifles descended into his yard and garage, using a car as a shield as they were met with a shower of gunfire from the direction of his neighbor's house.

As bullets flew just feet away, Chhoeun took out his phone and started live-streaming the standoff between officials and a man wanted for possession of a firearm by an ex-felon and fleeing to elude.

By the end of the ordeal, five people including four officers and the shooter were dead and more injured in the deadliest single-day incident for U.S. law enforcement since 2016.

The deadly shootout also illustrated how smartphone-wielding bystanders don't always run for cover when bullets start to fly. Increasingly, they look to livestream their perspective of the attack. Experts say the reaction reflects the new role that bystanders play in the age of smartphones.

“It’s become sort of a social norm," said Karen North, a digital social media professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg.

Humans always have had trouble defining the responsibilities of a bystander in a crisis situation, North said. It’s not always safe to intervene, as with the situation in Charlotte, and people can feel helpless when they’re doing nothing. Social media has provided a third option.

The "new responsibility of the bystander” in the digital era is to take a record of what happened on their phones, she said.

“It used to be, ‘If you see something, say something,'" North said. "Now, it’s, ‘If you see something, start recording.’”

Chhoeun had been about to leave for work when U.S. marshals blocked his driveway and he was forced to huddle for safety in his garage, his keys in the ignition of his truck. He crouched by the door knocking for his son to let him in with one hand and recording with the other.

Chhoeun said he never would have risked his life to shoot a video if he hadn't been locked outside. But since he was, he thought: “I might just live it, you know, get everybody the world to see also that I’ve witnessed that. I didn’t see that coming.”

Rissa Reign, a youth coordinator who lives in the neighborhood, said she was cleaning her house when she heard gunfire and walked out to find out what was happening.

She began recording when she heard sirens, thinking she would share the video to Charlit, a Facebook group with 62,000 members where residents post about news and events. She had no idea how serious the situation had become until a SWAT vehicle pulled up behind her.

“Once we were out there, it was, ’Oh, no. This is an active situation,'” she said. “And the next thing you know, you’re in the middle of something way bigger than what you thought.”

Reign saw livestreaming as a way to keep the community informed, she said.

“Seeing that really puts things in perspective and lets you know that is really real, not just reading it or hearing about it in the news," she said of the live stream video. "When you really see it, you can, you know, you know that it’s real.”

Mary Angela Bock, a media professor at the University of Texas at Austin, said there are many reasons why someone might pull out their phone in a situation like the one in Charlotte. There are always going to be people who try to shoot videos because of a human attraction to violence or to catch someone in an embarrassing situation.

“There are also good reasons for good people to respectfully, from a safe distance, record police activity, or any kind of government activity for the sake of citizenship: to bear witness on behalf of other citizens, to bear witness on behalf of the community,” she said. “We’re all in this together.”

Bock, who studies people who film law enforcement, said police leaders often will say to her that they support the idea of respectfully distanced citizen video because it creates more evidence. But that is sometimes easier said than done on the ground during a crisis situation.

“Police officers will often talk about how, and this is true, video doesn’t always show the whole story. Video has to start and stop. Somebody might not have been there in the beginning, somebody might not see the whole thing. One perspective is not the whole perspective,” she said.

“Which is why I advocate to people to respectfully record from a distance because the more perspectives, the better when we triangulate. When we have more than one view of a scene, we have a better idea of what happened," Bock said.

Numerous federal appeals courts have affirmed the right to record police work in public.

Stephen Dubovsky, professor emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York at Buffalo, said for someone in that situation, connecting with others through livestreaming might give them a sense of safety.

“You go out there and you might be at risk, but you’re looking at it through your phone," he said. "You're looking at it through the video, you’re one step detached from it.”

In Chhoeun’s video, two agents can be seen sheltering behind a vehicle. Another agent is shown by a fence in his yard, dropping to the ground as what appear to be bullets spray the area around him.

"It was so, so sad for law enforcement," he said. "I know they are not choosing to die on my backyard, but just do their job. And that’s what happened to them, left their family behind."

Willingham reported from Charleston, West Virginia.

Debris surrounds a home, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, where a shootout between a suspect and officers occurred on Monday, in Charlotte, N.C. Police say a shootout that killed four law enforcement officers and wounded four others began as officers approached the home to serve a warrant for a felon wanted for possessing a firearm. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

People take photos of a home, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, where a shootout between a suspect and officers occurred on Monday, in Charlotte, N.C. Police say a shootout that killed four law enforcement officers and wounded four others began as officers approached the home to serve a warrant for a felon wanted for possessing a firearm. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

A Charlotte Mecklenburg police officer walks carrying a gun in the neighborhood where a shooting took place in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, April 29, 2024. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says officers from the U.S. Marshals Task Force were carrying out an investigation Monday afternoon in a suburban neighborhood when they came under gunfire. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department officers walk in the neighborhood where a shooting took place in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, April 29, 2024. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says officers from the U.S. Marshals Task Force were carrying out an investigation Monday afternoon in a suburban neighborhood when they came under gunfire. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)

Multiple law enforcement vehicles respond in the neighborhood where several officers on a task force trying to serve a warrant were shot in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, April 29, 2024. (Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez/The Charlotte Observer via AP)

A Charlotte Mecklenburg police officer carries a gun as he walks in the neighborhood where an officer-involved shooting took place in Charlotte, N.C., Monday, April 29, 2024. Police in North Carolina say numerous law enforcement officers conducting a task force operation have been struck by gunfire in Charlotte. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond)