Alex Kirilloff slugs 3-run homer in the 8th, leads Twins past Rangers 5-3 for 4th straight victory

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Alex Kirilloff hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead the Minnesota Twins to a 5-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday.

Kirilloff, who also hit a go-ahead home run in the Twins’ series-opening victory over the World Series champions on Friday night, drove a 1-0 pitch from David Robertson (2-2) into the bullpen in left-center, helping Minnesota win its fourth straight game.

After a 7-for-59 skid dropped his batting average to .202, Kirilloff has rallied the past eight days, going 5 for 16 with three home runs.

“Knowing how much he’s been working and certainly been showing signs of coming out of it, for him to deliver the big one there in the eighth was huge, off a really good pitcher,” Twins bench coach Jace Tingler said.

It was just the second multi-hit game of the season for Kirilloff, who also singled and scored leading off the seventh inning.

“Sticking with the process has been the biggest thing — showing up every day ready to work,” Kirilloff said of his recent struggles. “Let it come naturally, but at the same time, try to figure out what the adjustment is. It’s kind of been a balance.”

Cole Sands (2-0) pitched two perfect innings to earn the victory. Jhoan Duran worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his sixth save.

Ezequiel Duran homered and threw a runner out at the plate and starter Michael Lorenzen pitched six strong innings for the Rangers, who have lost six straight and 12 of their last 14 games.

Lorenzen gave up one run on three hits over six innings. It was his seventh consecutive start with at least six innings pitched, tied for the longest such streak in the major leagues this season. However, he is winless in his last six starts.

The game turned when Lorenzen was pulled after warming up for the seventh inning, having suffered a cramp in his lower right leg.

“It’s frustrating. I felt like I ambushed the bullpen, and I hate putting the bullpen in that situation,” said Lorenzen, who lobbied manager Bruce Bochy to stay in the game. His arguments fell on deaf ears.

“He wanted to try, but the risk versus reward there — we’ve lost enough starters,” said Bochy, whose team has six starting pitchers on the injured list. “I don’t want him altering his delivery and then something happens.”

Trailing 3-1, the Twins started a rally with a single and a walk against reliever Jesus Tinoco.

Robertson then came on and walked Edouard Julien to load the bases with one out. Carlos Correa’s sacrifice fly made it 3-2 before left fielder Duran cut down Carlos Santana trying to score on Jose Miranda’s single to temporarily preserve the lead.

The Twins struck first, scoring on a bases-loaded walk in the first inning. The Rangers tied it in the fourth when Corey Seager led off with a single and scored on Adolis García’s one-out double against Twins starter Chris Paddack.

Duran hit his first homer of the season to break the tie in the fifth inning, and Leody Taveras’ RBI double in the sixth extended the Texas lead to 3-1.

But Lorenzen's cramp changed the Rangers' plan for closing out the game. Robertson, who began the day with a 2.28 ERA, had to warm up quickly and enter the game early when Tinoco struggled in relief of Lorenzen.

“We had our guy out there. He’s been so good,” Bochy said of Robertson. “We had to bring him in in the seventh. That didn’t help things out. I didn’t really want to do that, but once we got in a jam there, you want your guy out there. We’re trying to win a ballgame. But it got away from us.”

UP NEXT

Twins RHP Pablo López (4-4, 4.72) will try to bounce back from his worst start of the season, when he gave up seven earned runs in five innings in a 12-3 loss to the Nationals on May 20. The Rangers have not named a starter.

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Texas Rangers starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen delivers during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Saturday, May 25, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Texas Rangers' Ezequiel Duran celebrates after crossing home plate after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Saturday, May 25, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Chris Paddack (20) delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, May 25, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen delivers during the second inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Saturday, May 25, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Twins' Alex Kirilloff, center, celebrates with Max Kepler (26) after hitting a three-run home run during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers, Saturday, May 25, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

Minnesota Twins' Carlos Santana, right, is tagged out by Texas Rangers catcher Jonah Heim, left, to end the bottom of the seventh inning of a baseball game Saturday, May 25, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

MOSCOW (AP) — The espionage trial in Russia of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will begin on June 26 and will be held behind closed doors, a statement from the court that will hear the case said Monday.

Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, has been behind bars since his March 2023 arrest and faces 20 years in prison if convicted.

The trial is to be held in the Sverdlovsky Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, Russia's fourth-largest city, where he was arrested. Gershkovich has since been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) to the west.

The court said trial will be closed to the public, as is usual in espionage cases.

Gershkovich, 32, is accused of “gathering secret information” on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a facility that produces and repairs military equipment, the Prosecutor General’s office said last week in the first details of the accusations against him.

The reporter, his employer and the U.S. government have denied the allegations, and Washington designated him as wrongfully detained.

Russia’s Federal Security Service alleged that Gershkovich was acting on U.S. orders to collect state secrets but provided no evidence to back up the accusations.

“Evan has done nothing wrong. He should never have been arrested in the first place. Journalism is not a crime,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week. “The charges against him are false. And the Russian government knows that they’re false. He should be released immediately.”

The Biden administration has sought to negotiate Gershkovich's release, but Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow would consider a prisoner swap only after a trial verdict.

Uralvagonzavod, a state tank and railroad car factory in the city of Nizhny Tagil, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Yekaterinburg, became known in 2011-12 as a bedrock of support for President Vladimir Putin.

Plant foreman Igor Kholmanskih appeared on Putin’s annual phone-in program in December 2011 and denounced mass protests occurring in Moscow at the time as a threat to “stability,” proposing that he and his colleagues travel to the Russian capital to help suppress the unrest. A week later, Putin appointed Kholmanskikh to be his envoy in the region.

Putin has said he believes a deal could be reached to free Gershkovich, hinting he would be open to swapping him for a Russian national imprisoned in Germany. That appeared to be Vadim Krasikov, who is serving a life sentence for the 2019 killing in Berlin of a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent.

Asked by The Associated Press about Gershkovich, Putin said the U.S. is “taking energetic steps” to secure his release. He told international news agencies at an economic forum in St. Petersburg in early June that any such releases “aren’t decided via mass media” but through a “discreet, calm and professional approach.”

“And they certainly should be decided only on the basis of reciprocity,” he added, in an allusion to a potential prisoner swap.

Gershkovich was the first U.S. journalist taken into custody on espionage charges since Nicholas Daniloff in 1986 at the height of the Cold War. Gershkovich’s arrest shocked foreign journalists in Russia, even though the country had enacted increasingly repressive laws on freedom of speech after sending troops into Ukraine.

The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, Gershkovich is fluent in Russian and moved to the country in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times newspaper before being hired by the Journal in 2022.

U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy, who regularly visited Gershkovich in prison and attended his court hearings, has called the charges against him “fiction” and said that Russia is “using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.”

The trial of a US reporter charged with espionage in Russia is to begin June 26

The trial of a US reporter charged with espionage in Russia is to begin June 26

FILE - Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich stands in a glass cage in a courtroom at the First Appeals Court of General Jurisdiction in Moscow, Russia, April 23, 2024. Gershkovich, who has been jailed for over a year in Russia on espionage charges, will stand trial in the city of Yekaterinburg, authorities said Thursday June 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)