Nationals sweep the Marlins

MIAMI (AP) — CJ Abrams hit a two-run homer and the Washington Nationals beat the Miami Marlins 7-2 on Monday night, completing a four-game sweep of the NL’s worst club in front of a season-low 6,376 fans at loanDepot Park.

The Marlins (6-24), who made the playoffs last season, have lost seven straight, their worst skid since opening the season 0-9.

Jake Irvin (2-2) allowed two runs on four hits in six innings, bouncing back from allowing 12 hits and six runs to the Los Angeles Dodgers in his previous start.

Ildemaro Vargas had two hits and an RBI for the Nationals, who swept Miami over four games for the first time since Sept. 18-21, 2014.

Marlins shortstop Tim Anderson exited after the third inning because of a mild left thumb sprain. Anderson and Call collided at second base when Call successfully slid into the bag for his double.

ORIOLES 2, YANKEES 0

BALTIMORE (AP) — Gunnar Henderson homered to lead off the first inning and Baltimore defeated New York Yankees in the opener of a four-game series.

Grayson Rodriguez threw 5 2/3 shutout innings for Baltimore, which won the first meeting of the season between the top two teams in the AL East.

New York left 10 men on base and was 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.

After fouling off the previous three pitches, Henderson lined a 2-2 knuckle-curve over the wall in right off Clarke Schmidt (2-1). It was Henderson’s 10th homer, tying the Los Angeles Angels’ Mike Trout for the major league lead.

It was enough of a cushion for Rodriguez (4-1), who matched a career high with 101 pitches while allowing at least one runner in each inning he worked. He allowed five hits and three walks while striking out three.

Rodriguez has not allowed a run in 12 career innings against the Yankees.

CUBS 3, METS 1

NEW YORK (AP) — Christopher Morel hit a two-run homer off Edwin Díaz to snap a ninth-inning tie and Chicago Cubs beat the New York Mets after being held hitless by Luis Severino into the eighth.

Dansby Swanson singled off Severino with nobody out in the eighth for Chicago’s first hit, putting runners at first and second following a leadoff walk to Michael Busch.

With runners at the corners and one out, pinch-hitter Nick Madrigal hit a broken-bat grounder to third baseman Joey Wendle, who had just entered for defense. Wendle easily could have thrown out Busch at the plate, cutting off the tying run. Instead, the veteran infielder made an ill-advised decision to try for an inning-ending double play. Madrigal beat the relay to first and the Cubs evened it 1-all.

Brandon Nimmo hit his 13th career leadoff homer for the Mets, but Jameson Taillon shut them down after that in a fast-moving pitchers’ duel that zipped by at a breakneck pace.

Taillon allowed four hits in 7 1/3 innings, throwing 57 of his 78 pitches for strikes.

Mark Leiter Jr. (1-1) got two outs for the win, and Héctor Neris worked around two walks in the ninth for his fourth save. With two runners aboard, he struck out pinch-hitters DJ Stewart and Brett Baty to end a game that took just 2 hours, 5 minutes.

Mike Tauchman doubled off Díaz (0-1) with one out in the ninth. One out later, Morel drove a 3-1 fastball to left-center for his fourth home run.

BLUE JAYS 6, ROYALS 5

TORONTO (AP) — Justin Turner hit two home runs, Danny Jansen added a solo homer and Toronto held on to beat Kansas City.

Turner hit a two-run home run in the first inning and had a leadoff homer in the third. It was the 16th multihomer game of his career.

Jansen also connected in the third, his second.

The Blue Jays scored more than five runs for the first time in 21 games, ending a streak that dated back to a 9-8 loss at Yankee Stadium on April 6.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Davis Schneider each drove in a run as Toronto won back-to-back games after losing the previous five.

Royals catcher Salvador Perez was scratched from the starting lineup because of a tight back but delivered a pinch-hit single with two out in the ninth. Dairon Blanco ran for Perez, who hit for DH Nelson Velázquez

RAYS 1, BREWERS 0

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ryan Pepiot and three relievers combined on a three-hit shutout and Tampa Bay withstood a ninth-inning comeback attempt to beat Milwaukee.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy was ejected in the ninth inning after arguing a call that prevented Milwaukee from scoring the apparent tying run.

The Brewers had runners on second and third with one out when a potential third strike to Jake Bauers got past catcher Ben Rortvedt for a wild pitch, enabling Bauers to reach first while Sal Frelick came home. But plate umpire Ryan Additon ruled Bauers had hit Rortvedt on the backswing, resulting in Bauers getting called out while Frelick had to stay at third.

After Jason Adam hit Rhys Hoskins with a pitch to load the bases, he struck out Blake Perkins to end the game and earn his first save in two opportunities.

It was the second day in a row a controversial ruling went against the Brewers in a game they lost. After the Brewers fell 15-5 to the New York Yankees on Sunday, crew chief Andy Fletcher acknowledged Aaron Judge should have been called for interference for his slide on a botched double-play attempt that sparked New York’s seven-run tiebreaking rally in the sixth inning.

TWINS 3, WHITE SOX 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Max Kepler had a tiebreaking RBI single in the ninth inning, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Chicago White Sox 3-2 on Monday night for their eighth straight win.

Byron Buxton doubled to lead off the ninth against John Brebbia (0-1). Kepler, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the sixth, then drove him in with a line-drive single to right.

Caleb Thielbar pitched out of a first-and-third jam in the ninth, striking out Korey Lee to end the game after walking Tommy Pham and giving up a two-out single to Robbie Grossman.

Joe Ryan threw six solid innings for the Twins. Coming off a win against the White Sox last week at Target Field, he gave up two runs and six hits.

Garrett Crochet pitched five innings for the White Sox, allowing two runs and five hits after dropping his previous three starts. The left-hander struck out seven and walked one.

Athletic 5, PIRATES 1

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Tyler Nevin homered for the second straight game and Oakland beat Pittsburgh.

Nevin added a single and a sacrifice fly as the A’s won for the fourth time in their last five games.

The Pirates had a season-low two hits while losing for the fifth time in six games.

Pittsburgh’s first game in Oakland since 2016 was played in front of 3,528 fans. The Athletics have announced plans to play at least the next three seasons in Sacramento while their new stadium in Las Vegas is built.

Oakland starter Joe Boyle (2-4) struggled with his command, throwing just 45 of his 91 pitches for strikes, but the right-hander limited Pittsburgh to one run and one hit in five innings with four strikeouts and four walks.

MARINERS 2, BRAVES 1

SEATTLE (AP) — Mitch Garver hit a two-run game-ending home run in the ninth inning to give Seattle a walk-off win over the Atlanta Braves on Monday night.

A game that was dominated by spectacular pitching from Atlanta starter Max Fried and Seattle starter Bryce Miller ended with Garver tossing his bat in front of home plate to celebrate the first walk-off home run of his career.

Jorge Polanco led off the ninth inning with a single on the first pitch from A.J. Minter. Garver worked the count to 3-2 and hit a cutter left in the middle of the plate by Minter (5-2) out to left field for his third homer of the season.

The late dramatics for Seattle took some of the spotlight away from the pitching efforts from Fried and Miler, both of whom pitched six no-hit innings.

REDS 5, PADRES 2

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Elly De La Cruz’s 443-foot home run into the bullpen sent a few Padres relievers scrambling out of the way, and Nick Lodolo combined with two relievers on a four-hitter and struck out 11 as the Cincinnati Reds beat San Diego 5-2 on Monday night.

The Reds retired 23 straight batters from the second inning into the ninth and had a combined one-hitter going into the final frame.

Lodolo (3-0) retired his final 18 batters after issuing consecutive walks to open the second inning. Fernando Cruz pitched a perfect eighth and Alex Díaz retired the first two batters of the ninth before Jake Cronenworth doubled and scored on Manny Machado’s single.

The Padres have lost a season-high five games, a streak that started Thursday when they blew a 9-4 lead in the eighth inning at Colorado and lost 10-9. They were swept during the weekend by the Philadelphia Phillies, who hit nine home runs.

DODGERS 8, DIAMONDBACKS 4

PHOENIX (AP) — Teoscar Hernández and Andy Pages both hit two-run doubles in a big fifth inning, Will Smith added a solo homer and Los Angeles Dodgers beat Arizona.

Pages finished with three RBIs, the second time he had that many in 12 career games. The 23-year-old rookie pushed his hitting streak to seven games and is batting .298 with an .846 OPS since his big league debut on April 16.

Shohei Ohtani had two singles, a walk and an RBI for the Dodgers, who have won seven of their past eight.

Arizona cut the margin to 6-4 in the fifth. Eugenio Suárez had an RBI single, Randal Grichuk hit a sacrifice fly and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. came home on a wild pitch.

ANGELS 6, PHILLIES 5

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Ehire Adrianza and Mike Trout scored on a wild pitch and throwing error in the seventh inning as the Los Angeles Angels rallied from an early three-run deficit to beat Philadelphia and snap a four-game losing streak.

Adrianza had two hits and drove in a run, and Jo Adell homered as the Angels won on manager Ron Washington’s 72nd birthday.

Alec Bohm extended his hitting streak to 13 games and drove in three runs for the Phillies, who snapped their five-game winning streak.

Five Angels’ pitchers held the Phillies to six hits, but also walked nine. Adam Cimber (2-0) got out of a bases-loaded jam in the seventh when he got Brandon Marsh to ground out to end the inning.

Carlos Estévez picked up his fifth save in six opportunities despite allowing one run in the ninth. Trea Turner scored on Bohm’s sacrifice fly, but Estévez struck out Marsh for the final out with the tying run at second.

Washington Nationals' Jacob Young hits a single during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

In an isolated part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters known as the 12th-floor “bubble,” chief Anne Milgram made an unusual request of top deputies summoned in March for what she called the “Marijuana Meeting”: Nobody could take notes.

Over the next half hour, she broke the news that the Biden administration would soon be issuing a long-awaited order reclassifying pot as a less-dangerous drug, a major hurdle toward federal legalization that DEA has long resisted. And Milgram went on to reveal another twist, according to two people familiar with the private meeting who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, that the process normally steered by the DEA had been taken over by the U.S. Justice Department and the action would not be signed by her but by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Milgram didn't give aides a reason for the unprecedented omission and neither she nor the DEA has explained since. But it unfolded this past week exactly as laid out in that meeting two months ago, with the most significant drug policy change in 50 years launched without the support of the nation’s premier narcotics agency.

“DEA has not yet made a determination as to its views of the appropriate schedule for marijuana,” reads a sentence tucked 13 pages into Garland’s 92-page order last Thursday outlining the Biden administration proposal to shift pot from its current Schedule I alongside heroin and LSD to the less tightly regulated Schedule III with such drugs as ketamine and some anabolic steroids.

Internal records accompanying the order indicate the DEA sent a memo to the Justice Department in late January seeking additional scientific input to determine whether marijuana has an accepted medical use, a key requirement for reclassification. But those concerns were overruled by Justice Department attorneys, who deemed the DEA’s criteria “impermissibly narrow.”

Several current and former DEA officials told the AP they believe politics may be at play, contending the Justice Department is moving forward with the marijuana reclassification because President Joe Biden wants to use the issue to woo voters in his re-election campaign and wasn’t willing to give the DEA time for more studies that likely would have dragged beyond Election Day.

Those officials also noted that while the Controlled Substances Act grants the attorney general responsibility for regulating the sale of dangerous drugs, federal law still delegates the authority to classify drugs to the DEA administrator.

“It’s crystal clear to me that the Justice Department hijacked the rescheduling process, placing politics above public safety,” said Derek Maltz, a retired agent who once headed the DEA’s Special Operations Division. “If there’s scientific evidence to support this decision, then so be it. But you’ve got to let the scientists evaluate it.”

Former DEA Administrator Tim Shea said the striking absence of Milgram’s sign-off suggests she was backing “the DEA professionals.”

“If she had supported it she would have signed it and sent it in,” said Shea, who served in the Trump administration. “DEA was opposed to this and the politics entered and overruled them. It’s demoralizing. Everybody from the agents in the streets to the leadership in DEA knows the dangers this brings.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment but Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre previously said Biden was committed to fulfilling a 2020 campaign promise. “He said no person, no American who possesses marijuana should go to jail. It is affecting communities across the country, including communities of color.”

Justice Department attorneys defended Garland’s decision to proceed without Milgram’s backing, saying in a separate memo that the action was prompted by “sharply different views” between DEA and the Department of Health and Human Services. The HHS last year recommended reclassifying marijuana, deeming it less risky to public health than cocaine, heroin and oxycodone, and effective in treating anorexia, pain and other ailments.

HHS concluded in part that “although abuse of marijuana produces clear evidence of a risk to public health, that risk is relatively lower than” that posed by other drugs.

The DEA balked at those findings and Garland’s order cites at least 10 times when the drug agency requested additional information before blessing HHS’ medical findings. It did not respond to AP questions seeking further comment.

The Justice Department didn't comment on internal differences but in a statement said that the proposal was “consistent with the scientific and medical determinations of HHS."

The dissonance within the federal government underscores the continuing debate over the risks posed by cannabis, even as 38 states have legalized medical marijuana and 24 have legalized its recreational use. All the while, more voters — 70% of adults, according to a Gallup poll last fall — support legalization, the highest level yet recorded by the polling firm.

“The argument that marijuana is as dangerous as fentanyl, cocaine and meth is laughable,” said Matthew C. Zorn, a Houston-based attorney who writes a newsletter on cannabis regulation. “The DEA isn’t where most Americans are. They’re standing on the wrong side of history.”

But even HHS’ National Institute on Drug Abuse has come out with statements in apparent conflict with HHS’ recommendation to reclassify pot, saying the potency of marijuana has been steadily increasing over the years, resulting in higher numbers of emergency room visits to treat a wide range of physical and mental effects, from breathing problems and mental impairment to hallucinations and paranoia.

“Whether smoking or otherwise consuming marijuana has therapeutic benefits that outweigh its health risks is still an open question that science has not resolved,” Nora Volkow, a neuroscientist who leads NIDA, is currently quoted as saying on the institute’s website. A NIDA spokesperson said rescheduling would facilitate research more into the drug.

The NIDA last performed a medical evaluation of marijuana in 2015 — a year before the Obama administration's DEA rejected a similar request to reschedule the drug.

This time, after Biden ordered a review of the drug’s status in 2022, HHS adopted new criteria to reach its rescheduling conclusion, taking into account the states that have already legalized medical marijuana.

The rescheduling move, first reported by the AP last month, faces a potentially lengthy process. The DEA, which is not bound by HHS' medical determinations at this point, will take public comment on the rescheduling plan before a review by an administrative judge and the publishing of a final rule. Federal prosecutions involving marijuana are already exceedingly rare but a Schedule III classification would still make pot a controlled substance subject to rules and regulations

For her part, Milgram has said little about her stance on marijuana and was not asked about it during her confirmation. When she took the helm of the agency in 2021, she privately told colleagues she considered the legalization debate a distraction from the far more serious fentanyl crisis, according to one of the people who spoke to the AP.

Milgram is known for a progressive, data-driven approach to law enforcement dating to her days as the Democratic attorney general of New Jersey. When the state’s governor, a close ally, signed a bill in 2010 making the state the 14th to make marijuana legal for medical purposes, she said only that the legislation was “workable.”

This past week, she was similarly opaque in a three-sentence announcement to DEA employees obtained by the AP.

“As required,” she wrote, “the DEA will post this notice and all attachments on our website.”

Goodman reported from Miami, Mustian from New York. AP Writer Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed.

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

FILE - Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during a news conference at Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, March 21, 2024. The Biden administration’s push to reclassify marijuana as a less-dangerous drug is going forward without the support of the nation’s premier narcotics agency. Newly released government records show the Drug Enforcement Administration requested more information on supporting science to reclassify marijuana but the Justice Department decided to move ahead without the drug agency’s signoff — an unprecedented omission. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

FILE - An indoor cannabis farm in Gardena, Calif., is seen, Aug. 15, 2019. The Biden administration’s push to reclassify marijuana as a less-dangerous drug is going forward without the support of the nation’s premier narcotics agency. Newly released government records show the Drug Enforcement Administration requested more information on supporting science to reclassify marijuana but the Justice Department decided to move ahead without the drug agency’s signoff — an unprecedented omission. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)

FILE - DEA Administrator Anne Milgram speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, April 14, 2023. The Biden administration’s push to reclassify marijuana as a less-dangerous drug is going forward without the support of the nation’s premier narcotics agency. Newly released government records show the Drug Enforcement Administration requested more information on supporting science to reclassify marijuana but the Justice Department decided to move ahead without the drug agency’s signoff — an unprecedented omission. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)