MIAMI (AP) — Miguel Vargas hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high six runs, Austin Hays hammered a three-run shot and the Chicago White Sox beat the Miami Marlins 9-4 on Monday night for their first win this season.
Batting leadoff, Vargas drove in Everson Pereira with a single in the third inning. Hays' homer to right field quickly made it 4-0.
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Miami Marlins starting pitcher Chris Paddack aims a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox Munetaka Murakami (5) runs after hitting a single during the third inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox Luisangel Acuna (0) celebrates after scoring in the sixth inning during a baseball game against the Miami Marlins Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas (20) and left fielder Austin Hays (21) celebrate after defeating the Miami Marlins during a baseball game Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox Miguel Vargas (20) hits a single to left field during the third inning of baseball game against the Miami Marlins Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Vargas' slam in the fourth gave the White Sox an 8-0 cushion. Luisangel Acuña scored in the sixth on Vargas' sacrifice fly.
Tristan Peters and Pereira each had two hits for Chicago. Munetaka Murakami went 1 for 5 with a single, ending his home run streak at three games.
Davis Martin (1-0) allowed three runs and five hits in five innings with six strikeouts and two walks. Sean Newcomb fanned five in 2 2/3 innings of relief, and Jordan Hicks got four outs for his first save with Chicago.
Liam Hicks homered and knocked in three runs for Miami. He got the Marlins (3-1) on the board with a two-run shot in the fourth and added an RBI single in the eighth. Jakob Marsee had a run-scoring single in the fifth.
Miami starter Chris Paddack (0-1) pitched four innings, giving up eight runs and eight hits on 79 pitches. He struck out six and walked none.
Chicago RHP Erick Fedde (4-13, 5.49 ERA) starts Tuesday night against RHP Janson Junk (6-4, 4.17) in the middle game of the series.
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Miami Marlins starting pitcher Chris Paddack aims a pitch during the first inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox Munetaka Murakami (5) runs after hitting a single during the third inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox Luisangel Acuna (0) celebrates after scoring in the sixth inning during a baseball game against the Miami Marlins Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas (20) and left fielder Austin Hays (21) celebrate after defeating the Miami Marlins during a baseball game Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
Chicago White Sox Miguel Vargas (20) hits a single to left field during the third inning of baseball game against the Miami Marlins Monday, March 30, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea on Thursday unveiled a new facility to produce nuclear bomb fuels, with leader Kim Jong Un announcing plans to bolster the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.”
The official Korean Central News Agency said the facility used “more sophisticated technology” but didn't provide further details, such as where it is located and when it began its operation. State media photos showed what appeared to be a large centrifuge hall, indicating the plant is likely used to enrich weapons-grade uranium.
The disclosure of the new factory is in line with Kim's repeated vows to expand its nuclear weapons program to cope with what he called escalating U.S.-led military threats.
KCNA said Kim visited the nuclear facility on Wednesday to learn about its operation indices and its long-term production plan.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying the urgency for bolstering up the country's nuclear war deterrent, both in quality and quantity, has grown because of confrontations with “the most ferocious enemies,” an apparent reference to the United States and South Korea. Kim cited other unspecified threats and crises as a need to boost North Korea's nuclear capability, it said.
Kim claimed that North Korea's weapons-grade nuclear materials production capacity has more than doubled compared with five years ago, according to KCNA. There are virtually no ways to independently verify his claim.
After a meeting at the facility, Kim said that he and other top officials “confirmed the order of priority for implementing the ambitious future plan designed to beef up our state’s nuclear forces at an exponential rate,” KCNA said.
KCNA photos showed Kim walking through narrow aisles lined with dense rows of silver tubes and pipes, in what appeared to be a centrifuge hall. Another image showed him speaking with senior officials in a meeting room, where a blurred graphic depicting a cone-shaped object was spread across a table. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the graphic showed a warhead design.
The facility's revelation came less than two years after North Korea unveiled another covert uranium-enrichment plant in September 2024, in its first public disclosure of such a facility since showing one at the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex to visiting American scholars in 2010.
Kim delivered a similar message during his visit to that facility in 2024, calling for an increase in the number of centrifuges to “exponentially” expand the country’s nuclear arsenal and urging the development of more advanced centrifuge systems.
Last September, South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said that North Korea was operating a total of four uranium enrichment facilities including the Yongbyon complex, and that they were running everyday.
Nuclear weapons can be built using either highly enriched uranium or plutonium, and North Korea has facilities to produce both at Yongbyon.
North Korea has focused on enlarging and modernizing its nuclear arsenal since Kim's high-stakes diplomacy with U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. Kim has since rebuffed U.S. and South Korean offers to restart diplomacy.
In April, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi told reporters that his agency had confirmed “a rapid increase” in activities at nuclear facilities in North Korea.
FILE - In this photo provided by the North Korean government, its leader Kim Jong Un delivers a speech during a session of the Supreme People's Assembly at parliament in Pyongyang, North Korea, on March 23, 2026. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP, File)
