Chase Meidroth stars as the White Sox beat the Dodgers 8-2 in matchup of division leaders

CHICAGO (AP) — Chase Meidroth had three hits and two RBIs, and the Chicago White Sox beat the depleted Los Angeles Dodgers 8-2 on Friday night in a matchup of division leaders.

Andrew Benintendi homered as Chicago improved to 19-3 in its last 22 home games. Miguel Vargas hit a tiebreaking RBI double, and Anthony Kay (6-1) struck out seven in five effective innings.

Los Angeles played without Shohei Ohtani, who was sidelined by left knee inflammation. Ohtani, who is batting .400 (8 for 20) with three homers and seven RBIs in his last five games, is day to day.

Santiago Espinal, who subbed for Ohtani at designated hitter, drove in two runs on an early single. Roki Sasaki (3-4) allowed seven runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings for the NL West leaders.

Chicago sent 11 batters to the plate while scoring seven times in the fifth, delighting a sellout crowd of 37,882 at Rate Field.

Vargas' opposite-field drive off the wall in right-center lifted the White Sox to a 3-2 lead. Back-to-back walks for Colson Montgomery and Braden Montgomery produced another run.

Meidroth then greeted Blake Treinen with a two-run single. One batter later, Tristan Peters tacked on a two-run triple for the surprising AL Central leaders.

Meidroth is batting .340 (16 for 47) during a 12-game hitting streak. He has reached base safely in 22 straight games.

Vargas had three hits against his former team. The infielder was traded from the Dodgers to the White Sox in July 2024.

Sasaki struck out four and walked three. The Japanese right-hander went 2-0 with a 1.48 ERA in his previous four starts.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-4, 2.68 ERA) starts for the Dodgers on Saturday, and fellow right-hander Sean Burke (3-3, 3.88 ERA) takes the mound for the White Sox.

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Chicago White Sox's Miguel Vargas hits a RBI double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Roki Sasaki exits the game during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

Los Angeles Dodgers' Roki Sasaki exits the game during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago White Sox, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

Chicago White Sox's Miguel Vargas (20) celebrates after hitting a RBI double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

Chicago White Sox's Chase Meidroth scores on Tristan Peters two run RBI triple during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Friday, June 12, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Melissa Tamez)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that a “swift and lethal kinetic” U.S. strike has killed Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, whom he called “the infamous leader” of the Tren de Aragua gang.

Tren de Aragua has been labeled by the United States as a terrorist organization. Guerrero Flores was charged in a New York federal court with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes, including lending support to terrorists in crimes that stretched more than a decade, authorities announced in December.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X that the strike occurred earlier in the week on a Tren de Aragua compound in Venezuela.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at the time that the gang is responsible for countless acts of violence, extortion and drug trafficking in North America, South America and Europe. Trump nominated Clayton on Thursday to be director of national intelligence.

The U.S. State Department had offered rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to Guerrero Flores’ arrest

In a post on his social media site, Trump wrote, “Tren de Aragua terrorists no longer have safe haven in Venezuela or anywhere else and, under my leadership, we will find these vicious murderers and drug lords anytime, anyplace, and send them to the depths of hell where they belong.” Trump's post referred to Guerrero Flores by his alias, “Niño Guerrero.”

The post also included unclassified video, shot from above, of a small building with a green roof exploding.

Hegseth said, “The operation underscores the shared U.S. and Venezuelan commitment to take the fight to narco-terrorists and deny them any safe haven in our hemisphere.”

Venezuela’s ministry of communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the operation.

Trump has taken a series of extraordinary actions against the gang, including a series of strikes on small boats his administration has accused of smuggling drugs to America. At least 207 people have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September.

Trump and administration officials have consistently blamed Tren de Aragua for being at the root of the violence and illicit drug dealing that plague some U.S. cities. The president spent months repeating the claim — contradicted by a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment — that Tren de Aragua had operated under Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s control. The U.S. whisked Maduro out of Venezuela to face U.S. drug charges in January.

Tren de Aragua originated more than a decade ago at an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals in Venezuela’s central state of Aragua. The gang has expanded in recent years as millions of Venezuelans migrated to other Latin American countries or the U.S. in search of better living conditions.

Guerrero Flores returned to the prison in Aragua for murder and other convictions in 2013, when Venezuela’s crisis began as corruption, mismanagement and a drop in crude prices wrecked the oil-dependent economy. Guerrero Flores and a few other inmates saw a profitable opportunity as the government neglected prisons.

They assumed control and administration of the prison, establishing a system that controlled the entire inmate population through force and extortion. Over time, they transformed the facility into a sort of city that included a zoo, baseball field, casino and restaurants. Guerrero Flores had his own lavish suite.

The size of the gang is unclear. Countries with large populations of Venezuelan migrants, including Peru and Colombia, have accused the group of being behind a spree of violence in the region. Still, unlike other criminal organizations from Colombia, Central America and Brazil, Tren de Aragua has no large-scale involvement in smuggling cocaine across international borders, according to InSight Crime, a think tank that tracks crime across Latin America.

In Venezuela, gang leaders have long been known to participate in various illegal activities, including gold mining.

Trump campaigned for a second term promising to crack down on immigration and crime. While polls show his favorability ratings have sagged on his handling of the economy, immigration remains Trump’s strongest issue, according to the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

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Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Mexico City contributed.

FILE - Soldiers raid the Tocorón Penitentiary Center, where the Tren de Aragua gang originated, in Tocorón, Venezuela, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

President Donald Trump is pictured during an event where he signs a proclamation about the fishing industry, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, June 11, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)