ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Zach Neto delivered the first walk-off hit of his career in the 10th inning on Friday night, but it was the Los Angeles Angels shortstop’s improvisational play in the top of the inning that was most responsible for a 3-2 win over the Seattle Mariners.
Angels reliever Ryan Zeferjahn walked Cole Young to open the 10th, putting two on with no outs for Seattle leadoff man J.P. Crawford, who bunted a ball over the head of charging third baseman Kevin Newman.
Neto raced to his right, staying a few steps ahead of automatic runner Ben Williamson. He fielded the ball and flipped it with his glove hand to Zeferjahn, who barely kept his foot on the third-base bag for a forceout.
Zeferjahn then got Julio Rodríguez, who hit solo homers in the first and sixth innings, to fly out and struck out major league home run leader Cal Raleigh looking with a 99-mph fastball to preserve a 2-2 tie.
“We knew he wanted to get the bunt down, and when I saw it go over Newman’s head, I was just trying to make a play,” Neto said. “I knew I beat Williamson down the line, and it was just a matter of getting it out of my glove and in the direction of third base.”
Newman said he felt helpless when he saw Crawford’s bunt sail over his head. He figured the Mariners had just loaded the bases with no outs.
“That’s like the last scenario on your mind,” Newman said. “You’re ready to charge and come down and then to have a ball go up over your head … I mean, he put it in a really great spot. Thank God that Neto’s an athlete and Zef is an athlete, and they were able to make that play like that.”
Newman saw Neto charging toward the ball, but did he have any idea Zeferjahn went behind his back to cover third?
“No clue,” Newman said. “I saw Zach charging, and I’m like, ’OK, Zach’s got the play in front of him, so there’s no point in me going to third — I’ll just let him take it. And then I see him get the ball and flip it to Zef, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh, we got the out.’ Awesome.”
Zeferjahn, who improved to 6-3 with the win, said the play changed the whole complexion of the inning.
“I was struggling a little bit, and that gave me a little bit of confidence to go out there and get the next two guys,” Zeferjahn said. “That’s an unbelievable play by Zach. I think it won us the game.”
Logan O’Hoppe opened the bottom of the 10th with a fly ball to deep center that advanced Newman, the automatic runner, to third. LaMonte Wade Jr. walked, and Luis Rengifo grounded into a fielder’s choice, Newman getting tagged out in a rundown between third and home.
But Neto, with the crowd chanting his name, poked an opposite-field grounder off the glove of the diving Young at second base and into right field to cap his bobblehead night with a game-winning RBI single.
“Yeah, it was pretty special,” Neto said. “I think the baseball gods were on our side tonight.”
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Los Angeles Angels' Zach Neto, right, celebrates with teammates Nolan Schanuel, left, and Travis d'Arnaud after driving in the winning run during the tenth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners Friday, July 25, 2025, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Los Angeles Angels' Zach Neto runs to first base during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners Friday, July 25, 2025, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Two former attorneys and an aide who all worked on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign were scheduled to appear Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.
The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.
The hearing comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he can’t get a fair trial.
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The fight over California’s new congressional map designed to help Democrats flip congressional House seats will go to court Monday as a panel of federal judges considers whether the district boundaries approved by voters last month can be used in elections.
The hearing in Los Angeles sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight between the Trump administration and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who’s been eyeing a 2028 presidential run. The lawsuit asks a three-judge panel to grant a temporary restraining order by Dec. 19 — the date candidates can take the first official steps to run in the 2026 election.
Voters approved California’s new U.S. House map in November through Proposition 50. It’s designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats in the midterm elections next year. It was Newsom’s response to a Republican-led effort in Texas backed by President Donald Trump.
▶ Read more about California’s redistricting effort
Even though Republican Brian Jack is only a first-term congressman, he has become a regular in the Oval Office these days. As the top recruiter for his party’s House campaign team, the Georgia native is often reviewing polling and biographies of potential candidates with Trump.
Lauren Underwood, an Illinois congresswoman who does similar work for Democrats, has no such West Wing invitation. She is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue working the phones to identify and counsel candidates she hopes can erase Republicans’ slim House majority in November’s midterm elections.
Although they have little in common, both lawmakers were forged by the lessons of 2018, when Democrats flipped dozens of Republican-held seats to turn the rest of Trump’s first term into a political crucible. Underwood won her race that year, and Jack became responsible for dealing with the fallout when he became White House political director a few months later.
Underwood wants a repeat in 2026, and Jack is trying to stand in her way.
▶ Read more about Underwood and Jack
The Arizona Democrat is emerging as a crucial surrogate for a party desperately seeking to win back the Latino support that slipped in 2024 with the election of President Trump. His fall travels have included trips to New Jersey, Virginia and Florida, where he campaigned for Democrats who went on to win their elections. Strategists say Gallego is flexing his muscle as a rising star for the party while also laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential run despite not being a household name like California Gov. Gavin Newsom or U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
It’s a role Gallego is expected to continue next year, when Democrats hope to break Republicans’ hold on Congress and counter Trump’s agenda.
“Ruben Gallego is going to be our not-so-secret, secret weapon,” said Maria Cardona, a longtime Democratic operative and member of the Democratic National Committee.
Gallego is among the Democrats named as possible 2028 contenders who had the busiest travel calendar in 2025. He stumped for Democratic female candidates in New Jersey’s and Virginia’s gubernatorial races and Miami’s mayoral race.
▶ Read more about Gallego
Trump said Saturday that “there will be very serious retaliation” after two U.S. service members and one American civilian were killed in an attack in Syria that the United States blames on the Islamic State group.
“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” he said in a social media post.
The American president told reporters at the White House that Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was “devastated by what happened” and stressed that Syria was fighting alongside U.S. troops. Trump, in his post, said al-Sharaa was “extremely angry and disturbed by this attack.”
U.S. Central Command said three service members were also wounded in the ambush Saturday by a lone IS member in central Syria. Trump said the three “seem to be doing pretty well.” The U.S. military said the gunman was killed in the attack. Syrian officials said the attack wounded members of Syria’s security forces as well.
▶ Read more about the attack
Two former attorneys and an aide who all worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign were scheduled to appear Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.
The hearing on Monday comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who was joined by the other two defendants in his motion, alleged that the judge did not write a previous order issued in August declining to dismiss the case. Instead, he accused the father of the judge’s law clerk, who was a retired judge, of actually writing the opinion.
Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he can’t get a fair trial.
▶ Read more about the hearing
President Donald Trump talks to reporters as arrives on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, after attending the Army-Navy game. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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)
