MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa had to be helped off the field after injuring his right ankle when Pittsburgh's Tommy Pham slid into him at second base.
Pham was trying to get to second on his liner off the wall in right field in the seventh inning of the Twins' 2-1 victory Friday night. Right fielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr.'s throw beat Pham, whose batting helmet made contact with Correa's lower leg.
Correa rolled over and stayed on the ground before leaving the game. Brooks Lee moved from second base to shortstop to replace Correa. The team said Correa had a mild ankle sprain.
The 30-year-old Correa is already in his 11th big league season and has been a mainstay at shortstop for the Twins since signing as a free agent in 2022. He missed about half of last season with a concussion and a plantar fascia injury, the latter of which kept him from playing in the All-Star Game after he was chosen for the third time.
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Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa (4) leaves a baseball game after sustaining an injury during the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Friday, July 11, 2025, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Pittsburgh Pirates' Tommy Pham, bottomleft, is tagged out by Minnesota Twins shortstop Carlos Correa, top left, during the seventh inning of a baseball game Friday, July 11, 2025, in Minneapolis. Correa was injured on the play. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday met with family members of two Iowa National Guard members and a U.S. civilian who were killed in an attack in the Syrian desert.
The meeting was held at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware before the remains of the deceased were transferred to their families. Trump was joining the families and top administration and military officials to watch the so-called dignified transfer of the remains.
The solemn dignified transfer ritual honors U.S. service members killed in action. Trump, who traveled to Dover several times in his first term, once described it as “the toughest thing I have to do” as president.
The two guardsmen killed in Syria on Saturday were Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, 25, of Des Moines, and Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, 29, of Marshalltown, according to the U.S. Army. Both were members of the 1st Squadron, 113th Cavalry Regiment, and have been hailed as heroes by the Iowa National Guard.
Torres-Tovar's and Howard’s families were at Dover for the return of their remains, alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, members of Iowa’s congressional delegation and leaders of the Iowa National Guard. Their remains will be taken to Iowa after the transfer.
A U.S. civilian working as an interpreter, identified Tuesday as Ayad Mansoor Sakat, of Macomb, Michigan, was also killed. Three other members of the Iowa National Guard were injured in the attack. The Pentagon has not identified them.
They were among hundreds of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
There is no formal role for a president at a dignified transfer other than to watch in silence, with all thoughts about what happened in the past and what is happening at Dover kept to himself for the moment. There is no speaking by any of the dignitaries who attend, with the only words coming from the military officials who direct the highly choreographed transfers.
Trump arrived without first lady Melania Trump, who had been scheduled to accompany him, according to the president's public schedule. Her office declined to elaborate, with spokesperson Nick Clemens saying the first lady "was not able to attend today.”
During the process at Dover, transfer cases draped with the American flag that hold the soldiers' remains are carried from the belly of a hulking C-17 military aircraft to a waiting vehicle under the watchful eyes of grieving family members. The vehicle then transports the remains to the mortuary facility at the base, where the fallen are prepared for burial at their final resting places.
Howard's stepfather, Jeffrey Bunn, has said Howard “loved what he was doing and would be the first in and last out.” He said Howard had wanted to be a soldier since he was a boy.
In a social media post, Bunn, who is chief of the Tama, Iowa, police department, said Howard was a loving husband and an “amazing man of faith.” He said Howard’s brother, a staff sergeant in the Iowa National Guard, would escort “Nate” back to Iowa.
Torres-Tovar was remembered as a “very positive” family-oriented person who always put others first, according to fellow Guard members who were deployed with him and issued a statement to the local TV broadcast station WOI.
Dina Qiryaqoz, the daughter of the civilian interpreter who was killed, said Wednesday in a statement that her father worked for the U.S. Army during the invasion of Iraq from 2003 to 2007. Sakat is survived by his wife and four adult children.
The interpreter was from Bakhdida, Iraq, a small Catholic village southeast of Mosul, and the family immigrated to the U.S. in 2007 on a special visa, Qiryaqoz said. At the time of his death, Sakat was employed as an independent contractor for Virginia-based Valiant Integrated Services.
Sakat's family was still struggling to believe that he is gone. “He was a devoted father and husband, a courageous interpreter and a man who believed deeply in the mission he served,” Qiryaqoz said.
Trump told reporters over the weekend that he was mourning the deaths. He vowed retaliation. The most recent instance of U.S. service members killed in action was in January 2024, when three American troops died in a drone attack in Jordan.
Saturday's deadly attack followed a rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria, bringing the former pariah state into a U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group.
Trump has forged a relationship with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the onetime leader of an Islamic insurgent group who led the ouster of former President Bashar Assad.
Trump, who met with al-Sharaa last month at the White House, said Monday that the attack had nothing to do with the Syrian leader, who Trump said was “devastated by what happened.”
During his first term, Trump visited Dover in 2017 to honor a U.S. Navy SEAL killed during a raid in Yemen, in 2019 for two Army officers whose helicopter crashed in Afghanistan, and in 2020 for two Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan when a person dressed in an Afghan army uniform opened fire.
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Associated Press writers Konstantin Toropin and Darlene Superville in Washington, Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Washington, en route to Baltimore to attend the Army-Navy football game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
This undated combo photo created with images released by the Iowa National Guard shows Sgts. William Nathaniel Howard, left, and Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar. (Iowa National Guard via AP)
