ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Bay native Jac Caglianone continued his hot June by homering twice and driving in three runs in the Kansas City Royals' 12-5 victory over the reeling Rays on Tuesday night.
Luinder Avila (3-3) allowed three hits and a run over five innings for Kansas City. He also struck out six batters before giving way to four Royals relief pitchers.
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Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez hits a two-RBI single during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan (18) reacts after giving up a two-run home run to Kansas City Royals' Jac Caglianone, not pictured, during the fifth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan throw during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Kansas City Royals' Nick Loftin (12) and Jac Caglianone (14) celebrate Caglianone's two-run home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken) CORRECTION: Corrects player at left to Nick Loftin, instead of Jac Caglianone.
Kansas City Royals' Jac Caglianone rounds the base after his two-run home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Tampa Bay's Shane McClanahan (6-5) gave up six runs over six innings, though four were unearned.
Caglianone hit a 443-foot solo home run in the first inning and a 416-foot two-run blast in the fifth for this third multihomer game this month. His nine homers in June are tied with the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz for the most in the American League.
Six home runs for Caglianone, who played before family and friends at the stadium where he grew up watching the Rays, have occurred in the past five games. Caglianone, the Royals' sixth-overall draft pick in 2024 out of Florida, has 14 homers on the season.
His homer in the fifth was part of a four-run inning that put the Royals ahead 6-2. They scored five more runs in the eighth and led 12-2 before Tampa Bay scored three runs in the ninth.
Nick Loftin went 4 for 5 with a homer and two RBIs for Kansas City, which had 14 hits.
The Rays dropped to three games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East. Tampa Bay, in the midst of a season-long 10-game homestand, has lost eight of its past 11.
Royals LHP Noah Cameron (4-4, 4.20) faces Rays RHP Griffin Jax (2-5, 3.67) on Wednesday in the second game of the three-game series.
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Kansas City Royals' Salvador Perez hits a two-RBI single during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan (18) reacts after giving up a two-run home run to Kansas City Royals' Jac Caglianone, not pictured, during the fifth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Shane McClanahan throw during the first inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Kansas City Royals' Nick Loftin (12) and Jac Caglianone (14) celebrate Caglianone's two-run home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken) CORRECTION: Corrects player at left to Nick Loftin, instead of Jac Caglianone.
Kansas City Royals' Jac Caglianone rounds the base after his two-run home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Tuesday, June 23, 2026, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Rescue teams raced Thursday to the areas hardest hit by a pair of powerful earthquakes that rocked Venezuela, killing at least 164 people, injuring nearly 1,000 and trapping many beneath collapsed buildings.
Wednesday evening’s 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes were among the strongest to strike Venezuela in more than a century and could be felt throughout the region. The country's main airport was damaged and closed, while buildings were evacuated in places as far away as Brazil’s Amazon, about 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.
Television broadcasts Thursday showed rescue workers using power tools to work their way into piles of rubble where buildings once stood. Panicked residents of the capital were sent pouring into the streets, and after the quakes many people walked among the debris searching for the missing among collapsed buildings and toppled electric poles.
Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who gave the latest death toll early Thursday, said authorities were shifting rescue teams from other parts of the country to La Guaira, which sits north of Caracas on the coast. Officials were trying to make the most of the daylight hours to speed up efforts to rescue people believed to remain trapped under the rubble, she said.
Footage on state TV showed three children, covered in dust but alive, pulled from the rubble in La Guaira state, which Rodríguez described as a “disaster zone” and one of the areas hardest hit by the quakes because of the large number of collapsed buildings.
“Dozens of buildings have collapsed there ... and we are currently carrying out intensive rescue operations to save lives,” Rodríguez said.
Video shared online appeared to show dozens of people, some lying on the ground and others on hospital beds, being treated outside a hospital in La Guaira.
While Venezuela sits near multiple fault lines, its position straddling the South American and Caribbean plates makes strong earthquakes much less common than in other parts of Latin America.
Rodríguez appealed to businesses to make heavy construction equipment available for rescue operations, adding that search and rescue teams certified by the United Nations were on their way to Venezuela.
During the quakes, people ran from swaying buildings in Caracas, many visibly shocked when they turned back to see destroyed walls that left furniture visible from the street. Columns of dust rose in two typically busy neighborhoods in the capital.
“It started off gently and then gradually grew, and in the end, we all had to leave our houses, go outside and gather together,” Caracas resident Hector Ricci said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the first earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.2, hit west of Moron on the Caribbean coast, about 170 kilometers (105 miles) west of Caracas. It had a depth of 22 kilometers (about 14 miles). Just a minute later, USGS reported a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake, with a depth of 10 kilometers (about 6 miles) and an epicenter 16 kilometers (10 miles) southwest of Moron.
Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello urged people to remain outside as aftershocks could further damage structures, and many people stayed on the streets for hours, some sitting on the ground hugging pets as dust gathered around them. In downtown Caracas, hundreds of people spent the night huddled around parks, parking lots and other open spaces. Authorities warned against returning to homes with structural damage.
“We were afraid the buildings would collapse on us,” said María Cristina Díaz, a 41-year-old janitor. “My mother, my daughter and I were cold. We didn’t sleep a wink; but I didn’t want to spend the night alone at home after that terrible earthquake.”
“It was awful. We cried, we screamed. Thankfully, we’re alive,” she added.
Díaz and her family rushed to Plaza Candelaria in downtown Caracas because it’s one of the few open areas near her home.
Parts of the capital lost power and cellphone coverage, and the earthquakes damaged and closed Simón Bolívar International Airport, the country’s main airport, Rodríguez said.
In Caracas, subway services were suspended and natural gas shut off, she said. Classes will also be canceled for several days, and the Ministry of Education said some school buildings would be used as shelters and donation centers.
On Thursday morning, scores of people in Venezuela and abroad struggled to contact family members. Families began posting missing-person fliers with photos of loved ones, while others shared handwritten lists of names as they searched for those still unaccounted for.
Also on Thursday, the U.N. human rights mission in Venezuela called on the government to lift local restrictions on social media.
“In the coming hours and days, timely access to reliable information and communication channels will be essential for the protection of the lives, safety, and well-being of the population,” the mission said in a statement.
In August 2024, then President Nicolás Maduro ordered X blocked in an attempt to suppress the exchange of information among those who rejected his claim of victory in the July presidential elections.
Rodríguez declared a state of emergency in an address to the nation late Wednesday. She said the government was creating a $200 million reconstruction fund for hospitals and homes damaged by the earthquakes, and had instructed the economy and finance ministers to oversee the effort.
Offers of help poured in from countries around the world.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States is “immediately deploying search and rescue teams, medical resources, and humanitarian assistance to Venezuela.”
“We will have a whole government response,” Rubio said Thursday in Bahrain. “It will be big. It will be fast. It will be effective.”
He added that one of the runways at Caracas’ international airport was cracked in the earthquake, making landing aircraft there difficult.
Rodríguez — who became acting president after an American military operation captured her predecessor, Nicolás and brought him to the U.S. to stand trial — thanked U.S. President Donald Trump. She said in an X post later that she spoke with Rubio by phone without sharing details. She also expressed thanks to the leaders of various nations who have sent messages of support and offers of help.
Ecuador ordered the delivery of humanitarian aid, and Rodríguez said Qatar, Mexico and El Salvador had already sent rescue personnel.
“We send you all our solidarity and our prayers. Stay strong, Venezuela,” El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, once diametrically opposed to Venezuela’s government, wrote in a post on X.
Garcia Cano reported from Bogota, Colombia. Associated Press writers Megan Janetsky and Anna-Catherine Brigida in Mexico City, Danica Coto and San Juan, Clara Preve in Buenos Aires; Astrid Suarez in Bogota, Colombia; Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo; Cristina Fuentes in Madrid; and Maria Teresa Hernandez in Beijing contributed to this report.
Patients lie outside a hospital evacuated after it was damaged in an earthquake in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)
People camp on a sports court following an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, June 25, 2026 (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)
Rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, June 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Rescue workers search through the rubble after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Javier Campos)
People stay outside their homes after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
People sleep outside their homes following an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, June 25, 2026 (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)
A boy comforts his mother after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Pedro Mattey)
A man holding a dog cries after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Javier Campos)
Rescue workers search through the rubble after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 24, 2026.(AP Photo/Javier Campos)
Rescue workers search through the rubble of a collapsed building after earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
Rescue worker carry an injured man after an earthquake in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
