MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Kody Clemens and Brooks Lee had RBI singles in the seventh inning and the Minnesota Twins beat the Atlanta Braves 6-4 on Wednesday to sweep the three-game series.
Clemens drove in three runs and Kaelen Culpepper added three hits for Minnesota.
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Minnesota Twins' Kaelen Culpepper (12) celebrates after hitting a single during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Atlanta Braves starting pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver stands on the mound after loading the bases during the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins' Kaelen Culpepper (12) celebrates after hitting a single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Atlanta Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. loses control of the ball while throwing after fielding a single hit by Minnesota Twins' Luke Keaschall during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins Kody Clemens hits a two-run double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Yoendrys Gómez earned his third save in as many games and 20th of the season with a 1-2-3 ninth. A.J. Minter (2-2) got the last two outs of the seventh inning and Jeff Hoffman struck out three batters in the eighth.
With the game tied at 4, Josh Bell doubled off Victor Mederos (2-1) with one out in the seventh inning and Clemens followed with an RBI single against Dylan Lee. Brooks Lee singled two batters later to score Clemens.
Ronald Acuña Jr., Lane Thomas and Ozzie Albies had RBIs for Atlanta.
The Braves have scored 15 runs in losing five of six games, including 4-2 on Monday and 4-1 on Tuesday. They are 8 for 43 with runners in scoring position in that span.
Manager Walt Weiss was ejected for arguing a check swing in the eighth.
AJ Smith-Shawver, recalled Tuesday from Triple-A Gwinnett, made his second start of the season for Atlanta. He allowed five hits and four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings, including a two-run double by Clemens as part of a three-run fifth for a 4-1 Twins lead.
Atlanta had three straight singles to start the sixth against Kody Funderburk. Each man scored, the last on a Tommy Nance balk, to tie the game.
Looking for his first win in seven starts, Twins starter Taj Bradley gave up two hits and one run in five innings while striking out seven. He needed 16 pitches to get through two innings, but at least 20 in each of the next three, including 31 in the fifth.
Braves: RHP Grant Holmes (7-5, 3.82 ERA) starts Thursday in Chicago. The White Sox are starting LHP Anthony Kay (9-5, 4.01).
Twins: Open a three-game series Friday in San Diego with LHP Connor Prielipp (3-6, 5.34) on the hill. The Padres have not announced a starter.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
Minnesota Twins' Kaelen Culpepper (12) celebrates after hitting a single during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Atlanta Braves starting pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver stands on the mound after loading the bases during the third inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins' Kaelen Culpepper (12) celebrates after hitting a single during the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Atlanta Braves right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr. loses control of the ball while throwing after fielding a single hit by Minnesota Twins' Luke Keaschall during the fifth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Minnesota Twins Kody Clemens hits a two-run double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump played White House tour guide on Wednesday, showing off the helipad he is building on the lawn before leaning over to autograph a piece of it and bragging about the ballroom he's rushing to complete despite legal challenges.
Trump gushed for several uninterrupted minutes about granite being laid and said the chopper landing area would leave visiting foreign leaders “very impressed” — including Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is coming next month.
At times, he sounded almost like a construction manager, singing the praises of granite over asphalt in painstaking detail and noting for reporters he brought out for the show that the stone could withstand 35,000 pounds per square inch of pressure.
“That's stone that, if you took a hammer and you started hammering right now — all day long — you wouldn't see a mark on it, literally, that's the kind of power it is,” Trump said, at times straining to be heard over the thrum of ongoing work behind him.
The president also revealed for the first time that he has replaced the walkway from the White House's diplomatic entrance along with a portion of the asphalt driveway around the South Lawn with white granite.
“One thing I know how to do is build,” he said, asserting that asphalt is “not appropriate for a great house, or a great place like the White House.” He said that, had he instead merely used “really powerful concrete," it would have supported ”just a tiny fraction of that in terms of strength.”
The president is called upon to fill many roles as president, but embraces none with as much zeal as managing various building projects to mold the White House and large swatches of Washington in his own image, seeming happiest recalling his days as a real estate developer.
Trump also likes to show off his handiwork and having the White House press pool on hand at all times gives him a readymade audience. Last year, he made an appearance on the roof of the briefing room to survey a future work site, and earlier this summer, he took reporters for a closer look at the ballroom construction site.
It suggests Trump remains focused on such projects, even as his war in Iran nears the six-month mark, his approval ratings sink with just 2 1/2 months to go before critical midterm elections, and as voters are increasingly worried about a weakening economy.
Trump drove home just how important the construction projects are to him, calling the work “very exciting.”
“This will be here long after we’re gone,” Trump said of the projects. “No matter what happens with the world.”
But whether it will endure after he leaves office remains to be seen. Trump once suggested that his refurbishing of the Lincoln Memorial’s Reflecting Pool would last a century, only for the paint to fade and its liner to peel away in chunks just days after it was laid.
The president has increasingly insisted that the $400 million ballroom will add security to the White House and include things like anti-drone technology. His administration even unsuccessfully sought $1 billion in congressional funding to make military improvements to the structure.
“This will be the greatest military complex slash ballroom anywhere in the world,” he said.
Trump also scoffed at court orders seeking to block its construction without congressional approval, saying work is continuing regardless and predicting that the Supreme Court will eventually side with him and allow the project to be completed.
The president found time to talk again about one of his favorite subjects of late — grass — and praised at length Scotts-Miracle Gro. The company's former CEO is a Trump supporter, and it donated $1 million to repair the grass on the White House lawn after it was damaged by Trump's UFC fight marking his 80th birthday in June and by the helipad construction.
At one point on Wednesday, Trump signed the back of one of the granite stones that was marked “Donald Trump 45-47 president” for the occasion. Its front is shaped like an eagle and will be laid into the helipad's presidential seal once work is completed.
“I thought this would be a little different kind of a news conference,” the president said. “We were going to sign this privately and just put it in. I said, ‘This is something I think the press should see,’ and I hope you liked it.”
Trump had some of the construction workers sign the granite, too, and joked about leaving it upside-down so that his signature would be visible for future generations.
“Nice job, fellas,” he told the workers. “Does anybody know the word media?”
Trump also confirmed Wednesday that he'd delayed ongoing work on the helipad to ensure the project could be regraded to lay flatter.
He said that the granite used “has a million-year life” and predicted that it “will never break. It will never leak. It will never do anything" — which would mark a departure from the problem-plagued Reflecting Pool project.
“Nature is stronger than what the human can produce,” Trump said of the granite. “It’s really pretty amazing.”
Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump signs a stone outside the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington, at the construction site of the new helicopter landing zone on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Workers build a helipad on the South Lawn of the White House, left, and continue construction on the new White House ballroom, right, as seen from the Washington Monument, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Workers continue construction on the new White House ballroom, as seen from the Washington Monument, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks outside the White House, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, in Washington, at the construction site of the new helicopter landing zone on the South Lawn of the White House. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump speaks on the South Lawn of the White House at the construction site of the new helicopter landing zone, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2026, seen from the Washington Monument in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
