ST. LOUIS (AP) — Rafael Devers and Willy Adames hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning, and the streaking San Francisco Giants matched their season best with 18 hits Friday night during an 8-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
San Francisco, which has won five straight and 11 of 12, remained four games behind the New York Mets for the final National League wild card.
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San Francisco Giants' Jung Hoo Lee singles during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II is unable to catch a single by San Francisco Giants' Matt Chapman during the seventh inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael McGreevy adjusts his cap after giving up a solo home run to San Francisco Giants' Rafael Devers during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
San Francisco Giants' Rafael Devers, right, rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run off St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael McGreevy, left, during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
San Francisco Giants' Willy Adames watches his solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Carson Seymour (1-2), making his second career start, earned his first major league win. He didn’t give up a hit through his first four innings as the Giants built a 6-0 lead against Michael McGreevy (6-3).
Seymour ended up yielding one run and two hits in five innings, with one walk and two strikeouts.
Jimmy Crooks led off the fifth with a sharp grounder for a single, then scored on an RBI single by Victor Scott II for St. Louis’ first run. Iván Herrera added a solo homer in the eighth.
Jung Hoo Lee tied his career high with four hits, including an RBI triple, and scored twice for San Francisco. Patrick Bailey had three singles, and every Giants starter got at least one hit.
Tristan Beck pitched the final three innings for his third big league save and first this season.
Lee’s single started a four-run fourth as McGreevy lost for the first time in seven starts. He gave up six runs and nine hits in four innings.
After a fielding blunder on a popup to shallow center field allowed Matt Chapman to reach in the seventh, Lee followed with his 11th triple and then scored on Casey Schmitt’s single to make it 8-1.
Three pitches after Devers hit a 416-foot drive into the right-field bleachers, Adames sent a 401-foot homer just over the wall in left-center.
The Giants equaled their hit total from an Aug. 29 win against Baltimore.
In his 20th season, Giants RHP Justin Verlander (3-10, 4.29 ERA) tries to win at Busch Stadium for the first time Saturday against St. Louis RHP Andre Pallante (6-13, 5.38). Verlander’s only previous starts at Busch came during the 2006 World Series and the 2009 regular season.
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San Francisco Giants' Jung Hoo Lee singles during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Victor Scott II is unable to catch a single by San Francisco Giants' Matt Chapman during the seventh inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael McGreevy adjusts his cap after giving up a solo home run to San Francisco Giants' Rafael Devers during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
San Francisco Giants' Rafael Devers, right, rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run off St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Michael McGreevy, left, during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
San Francisco Giants' Willy Adames watches his solo home run during the first inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil.
The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump’s "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean,” she said.
U.S. Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized “without incident.”
Several U.S. government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship’s capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopters approaching the ship before hovering over the deck while armed troops dropped down by rope. At least nine people could be seen on the deck of the ship.
The Veronica is the sixth sanctioned tanker seized by U.S. forces as part of the effort by Trump’s administration to control the production, refining and global distribution of Venezuela’s oil products and the fourth since the U.S. ouster of Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro in a surprise nighttime raid almost two weeks ago.
The Veronica last transmitted its location on Jan. 3 as being at anchor off the coast of Aruba, just north of Venezuela’s main oil terminal. According to the data it transmitted at the time, the ship was partially filled with crude.
Days later, the Veronica became one of at least 16 tankers that left the Venezuelan coast in contravention of the quarantine that U.S. forces have set up to block sanctioned ships, according to Samir Madani, the co-founder of TankerTrackers.com. He said his organization used satellite imagery and surface-level photos to document the ship movements.
The ship is currently listed as flying the flag of Guyana and is considered part of the shadow fleet that moves cargoes of oil in violation of U.S. sanctions.
According to its registration data, the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, owned and managed by a company in Russia. In addition, a tanker with the same registration number previously sailed under the name Pegas and was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for being associated with a Russian company moving cargoes of illicit oil.
As with prior posts about such raids, Noem and the military framed the seizure as part of an effort to enforce the law. Noem argued that the multiple captures show that “there is no outrunning or escaping American justice.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House later Thursday, Noem declined to say how many sanctioned oil tankers the U.S. is tracking or whether the government is keeping tabs on freighters beyond the Caribbean Sea.
“I can’t speak to the specifics of the operation, although we are watching the entire shadow fleet and how they’re moving,” she told reporters.
But other officials in Trump's Republican administration have made clear they see the actions as a way to generate cash as they seek to rebuild Venezuela’s battered oil industry and restore its economy.
Trump met with executives from oil companies last week to discuss his goal of investing $100 billion in Venezuela to repair and upgrade its oil production and distribution. His administration has said it expects to sell at least 30 million to 50 million barrels of sanctioned Venezuelan oil.
Associated Press writer Ben Finley contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to show the Veronica is the fourth, not the third, tanker seized by U.S. forces since Maduro’s capture and the ship also has been known as the Gallileo, not the Galileo.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks with reporters at the White House, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks during a press conference, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at a news conference at Harry Reid International Airport, Nov. 22, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill, File)
