MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Simeon Woods Richardson pitched six shutout innings of one-hit ball and the Minnesota Twins scored twice in the seventh to beat the Seattle Mariners 3-1 on Monday night in the opener of their four-game series.
Minnesota rebounded quickly after its 12-game winning streak was snapped Sunday with a 9-2 loss to Boston.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Simeon Woods Richardson pitched six shutout innings of one-hit ball and the Minnesota Twins scored twice in the seventh to beat the Seattle Mariners 3-1 on Monday night in the opener of their four-game series.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo delivers during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Seattle Mariners starter Luis Castillo walks back to the dugout after a pitching change during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Seattle Mariners' Josh Rojas looks toward the home plate umpire after being called out on strikes to end the top of the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins' Carlos Correa hits an RBI-double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson delivers during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Woods Richardson struck out a career-high eight and walked just one in his fifth major league start. He whiffed five of his first six batters and had seven strikeouts through three innings, outpitching Mariners All-Star Luis Castillo. The only hit Woods Richardson permitted was a leadoff single by Mitch Garver in the third.
“He’s been pitching really well. Today, he was phenomenal,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s just a pretty incredible start, and he’s matching up against one of the best pitchers in the game. That can affect people sometimes, when you’re watching the other guy on the other side of the field who does it all a lot and is putting up zeros, too. It didn’t put him off one bit.”
Seattle loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh but pushed across only one run against reliever Griffin Jax (3-2). Garver’s sacrifice fly plated Jorge Polanco to tie it 1-all before Luke Raley struck out to end the inning.
Castillo (3-5) allowed three runs in 6 2/3 innings and struck out seven. The right-hander, who won his previous three starts, didn't give up a hit until the fifth.
“He has a great name in this league. He’s a competitor, throws strikes, gives his team the best chance to win,” Woods Richardson said. "So, it’s always fun to go toe-to-toe with somebody like that.”
Minnesota's offense put together two runs in the seventh to reclaim the lead for good. Carlos Correa's second double of the game helped set up the go-ahead run, as he eventually came around to score on Christian Vázquez's sacrifice fly off Castillo for a 2-1 lead. Manuel Margot added an RBI single to make it 3-1.
“He’s a top-of-the-rotation starter and he had all his pitches working today,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said of Castillo. “They were just able to put a rally together against him late in the ballgame and it was one of those games where it was going to come down to that, who gets a big hit, who can put it together, and Correa had two big hits tonight, no question about that.”
Twins closer Jhoan Duran pitched the eighth, striking out Julio Rodríguez on three pitches to end the inning. Caleb Thielbar tossed a scoreless ninth for his third save.
POLANCO RETURNS
After spending 10 years with the Twins, Polanco made his first trip to Target Field as a visitor.
Polanco debuted with the Twins in 2014 and was traded to Seattle after the 2024 season. He was an All-Star in 2019 and helped Minnesota end its playoff drought last season.
“A lot of emotions,” Polanco said pregame. “I spent a lot of time here. It’s definitely great coming back here, so I feel pretty good.”
The Twins played Polanco's old walk-up music as he received a standing ovation before his first at-bat.
UP NEXT
RHP Emerson Hancock (3-3, 4.75 ERA) takes the mound for Seattle in the second game of the series Tuesday. He gave up five runs in a loss to Atlanta last time out. Minnesota counters with RHP Bailey Ober (3-1, 4.55), who has won his last three starts for the Twins.
This story has been corrected to indicate that all three runs Castillo allowed were earned.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
Seattle Mariners starter Luis Castillo, center, leaves the mound during a pitching change in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo delivers during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Seattle Mariners starter Luis Castillo walks back to the dugout after a pitching change during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Seattle Mariners' Josh Rojas looks toward the home plate umpire after being called out on strikes to end the top of the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Luis Castillo delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins' Carlos Correa hits an RBI-double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Simeon Woods Richardson delivers during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is set to execute its first inmate in 13 years after an unintended pause because the state could not obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.
Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, is scheduled to die just after 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia prison. He was convicted of the 1997 killing of a clerk who could not get the safe open at a convenience store in Greenville.
Owens’ last-ditch appeals have been repeatedly denied, including by a federal court Friday morning. Owens has also petitioned for a stay of execution from the U.S. Supreme Court. South Carolina's governor and corrections director swiftly filed a reply, stating the high court should reject Owens' petition. The filing said nothing is exceptional about his case.
The scheduled 6 p.m. time of the execution passed as state officials awaited a decision from the high court.
His last chance to avoid death is for Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his sentence to life in prison.
McMaster said he will follow historical tradition and announce his decision minutes before the lethal injection begins when prison officials call him and the state attorney general to make sure there is no reason to delay the execution. The former prosecutor promised to review Owens’ clemency petition but has said he tends to trust prosecutors and juries.
Owens may be the first of several inmates to die in the state's death chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution. Five other inmates are out of appeals and the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way to hold an execution every five weeks.
South Carolina first tried to add the firing squad to restart executions after its supply of lethal injection drugs expired and no company was willing to publicly sell them more. But the state had to pass a shield law keeping the drug supplier and much of the protocol for executions secret to be able to reopen the death chamber.
To carry out executions, the state switched from a three-drug method to a new protocol of using just the sedative pentobarbital. The new process is similar to how the federal government kills inmates, according to state prison officials.
South Carolina law allows condemned inmates to choose lethal injection, the new firing squad or the electric chair built in 1912. Owens allowed his lawyer to choose how he died, saying he felt if he made the choice he would be a party to his own death and his religious beliefs denounce suicide.
Owens changed his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah while in prison but court and prison records continue to refer to him as Owens.
Owens was convicted of killing Irene Graves in 1999. Prosecutors said he fired a shot into the head of the single mother of three who worked three jobs when she said she couldn't open the store's safe.
But hanging over his case is another killing: After his conviction, but before he was sentenced in Graves’ killing, Owens fatally attacked a fellow jail inmate, Christopher Lee.
Owens gave a detailed confession about how he stabbed Lee, burned his eyes, choked and stomped him, ending by saying he did it “because I was wrongly convicted of murder,” according to the written account of an investigator.
That confession was read to each jury and judge who went on to sentence Owens to death. Owens had two different death sentences overturned on appeal only to end up back on death row.
Owens was charged with murder in Lee's death but was never tried. Prosecutors dropped the charges with the right to restore them in 2019 around the time Owens ran out of regular appeals.
In his final appeal, Owens' lawyers said prosecutors never presented scientific evidence that Owens pulled the trigger when Graves was killed and the chief evidence against him was a co-defendant who pleaded guilty and testified that Owens was the killer.
Owens’ attorneys provided a sworn statement two days before the execution from Steven Golden saying Owens was not in the store, contradicting his trial testimony. Prosecutors said other friends of Owens and his former girlfriend testified that he bragged about killing the clerk.
“South Carolina is on the verge of executing a man for a crime he did not commit. We will continue to advocate for Mr. Owens,” attorney Gerald “Bo” King said in a statement.
Owens' lawyers also said he was just 19 when the killing happened and that he had suffered brain damage from physical and sexual violence while in a juvenile prison.
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty plans a vigil outside the prison about 90 minutes before Owens is scheduled to die.
South Carolina’s last execution was in May 2011. It took a decade of wrangling in the Legislature — first adding the firing squad as a method and later passing a shield law — to get capital punishment restarted.
South Carolina has put 43 inmates to death since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, it was carrying out an average of three executions a year. Only nine states have put more inmates to death.
But since the unintentional execution pause, South Carolina’s death row population has dwindled. The state had 63 condemned inmates in early 2011. It had 32 when Friday started. About 20 inmates have been taken off death row and received different prison sentences after successful appeals. Others have died of natural causes.
Rev. Hillary Taylor protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
A demonstrators protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Jesse Motte, right, protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
Rev. Hillary Taylor protests the planned execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. Owens is set to be the first person to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
South Carolina prepares for first execution in 13 years
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty Executive Director Rev. Hillary Taylor speaks at a news conference before delivering petitions to stop the execution of Freddie Owens at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, S.C., Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)
South Carolina prepares for first execution in 13 years
