TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Shane Baz pitched six shutout innings to end his eight-game losing streak and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Seattle Mariners 10-2 on Monday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Nick Fortes hit an early three-run homer and scored three times. Tristan Gray also went deep and Yandy Díaz had a two-run double for the Rays (68-69), who moved within 4 1/2 games of the Mariners for the last American League playoff spot.
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Seattle Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo (58) delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays' Nick Fortes, right, celebrates his three-run home run off Seattle Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo with Richie Palacios, left, during the second inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays' Nick Fortes runs the bases after his three-run home run off Seattle Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo during the second inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane Baz delivers to the Seattle Mariners during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Seattle holds a 1 1/2-game lead over Texas for the third and final wild card.
Junior Caminero went 3 for 4 with two RBI singles. Jake Mangum also had three of Tampa Bay's 13 hits at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Mariners starter Luis Castillo (8-8) allowed five runs and six hits in four innings.
Baz (9-11) scattered five hits and two walks while striking out six to earn his first win since June 26.
Fortes’ flyball over the right-center wall in the second had Dominic Canzone reaching to try and bring it back. Canzone protested he lost his glove in the process, but after a replay review, Fortes had a three-run homer and the Rays had a lead they did not relinquish.
Pinch-hitter Leo Rivas connected for a two-run shot in the Seattle ninth, his first major league homer.
Baz found himself in a jam in the sixth after Randy Arozarena and Cal Raleigh opened the inning with back-to-back singles. Baz coaxed a flyout from Julio Rodríguez, a harmless grounder to first from Josh Naylor and got out of the inning by striking out Eugenio Suárez.
Baz's losing streak was the longest of his career.
Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen (10-5, 2.64 ERA) faces RHP Bryan Woo (12-7, 2.95) when the series continues Tuesday night.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Seattle Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo (58) delivers to the Tampa Bay Rays during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays' Nick Fortes, right, celebrates his three-run home run off Seattle Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo with Richie Palacios, left, during the second inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays' Nick Fortes runs the bases after his three-run home run off Seattle Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo during the second inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane Baz delivers to the Seattle Mariners during the first inning of a baseball game Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)
Cumberland, Md. (AP) — Three members of the Zizians, a cultlike group linked to six deaths across the U.S., were granted permission Friday to work together in preparation for their upcoming trial on trespassing, weapons and drug charges.
Jack LaSota, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank are among a group of young, highly intelligent computer scientists drawn together by radical beliefs about veganism, gender identity and artificial intelligence.
Authorities have described LaSota, a transgender woman known as Ziz, as the apparent leader of the “extremist group." Since 2022, Zizians have been tied to the death of one of their own during an attack on a California landlord, the landlord’s subsequent killing, the deaths of Zajko’s parents in Pennsylvania, and a highway shootout in Vermont that left another member and a U.S. Border Patrol agent dead.
LaSota, Zajko and Blank were arrested in February after a property owner said he found them living in box trucks on his land in Frostburg, Maryland. Zajko was charged in Vermont with lying on her application to buy the gun used to kill agent David Maland in January 2025, while LaSota faces separate federal charges of being an armed fugitive.
On her way into the courthouse Friday, LaSota accused prosecutors of pressuring the trio to commit perjury by accepting plea deals and said, “They're violating our speedy trial rights.” Friday's hearing was supposed to include discussions of the trio's motions to dismiss the charges and logistics of the trial that begins Feb. 9. Much of the agenda was postponed until Jan. 30 after Zajko indicated a desire to fire her attorney.
Earlier, Allegany County Circuit Court Judge Michael Twigg agreed to allow the trio to work together on their defense. Since their arrest, LaSota and Blank have been allowed to meet, but Zajko was kept apart in what she described as “absurdly difficult circumstances.”
When the prosecutor told the judge he had reason to believe the three had already been communicating amongst themselves, LaSota interjected, “In the car ride here!”
“We should be able to talk to each other without being recorded and without fear of our notes being intercepted," LaSota said.
“We're adults. We have work to do, and we want to do our work," Zajko said.
At one point, all three spoke up in support of each other.
“I repudiate any notion of protecting me from our codefendants,” LaSota said.
“I do, too,” said Zajko.
“As do I,” Blank said.
In the Vermont case, prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Zizians member Teresa Youngblut, who has pleaded not guilty to murder for her alleged involvement in the shootout. Though she initially faced lesser charges, President Donald Trump's administration had signaled early on that more serious charges were coming as part of its push for more federal executions.
At the time of the shooting, authorities had been watching Youngblut and her companion, Felix Bauckholt, for several days after a Vermont hotel employee reported seeing them carrying guns and wearing black tactical gear. She is accused of opening fire on border agents who pulled the car over on Interstate 91. An agent fired back, killing Bauckholt and wounding Youngblut.
Two other members of the Zizians group are awaiting trial in connection with the 2022 attack on a landlord in California that left another member dead. Zajko has been called a person of interest in the deaths of her parents later that year, and another member of the group is charged with killing the landlord three days before the Vermont shooting.
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Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire.
In this image from video, Michelle Zajko, who is associated with a cultlike group known as Zizians that is linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
In this image from video, Daniel Blank, who is associated with a cultlike group known as Zizians that is linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
In this image from video, Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, who is at the center of a cultlike group known as Zizians and linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
In this image from video, Jack LaSota, also known as Ziz, who is at the center of a cultlike group known as Zizians and linked to several deaths across the U.S., is escorted into court for a pretrial hearing on trespassing, gun and drug charges in Cumberland, Md., Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Scolforo)
