PAT GRAHAM
Associated Press

For all the things the Thompson Twins share — middle name, appetite for burgers, dynamic basketball skill sets — matching suits on draft night won’t be one of them.

Amen and Ausar Thompson are dressing for success in their own unique style as they prepare to go in their own separate directions for really the first time. The 6-foot-7 guards out of Overtime Elite are projected in the AP mock draft to be selected in the top 10 Thursday night in New York.

That means, barring a daring move by a team, they will wind up in different cities.

It’s a situation that’s still hard to fully fathom for the 20-year-olds from California. It’s also a situation that reveals another shared trait: Their sense of humor.

“We’ll just constantly text each other,” explained Amen, who’s the older twin by a minute.

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“But you don’t check your phone,” Ausar quickly countered.

“He’s lying,” Amen responded.

Kidding aside, their aim is to live up to their shared middle name of “XLNC” (pronounced excellence), which was bestowed on them to convey a sense of power.

“Just so with every time you’re saying their name, there’s that power behind it,” their dad, Troy, said. “Excellence, greatness — we always use all these power words and so do they, in their own expressions, so they’re always thinking on that high note.”

The Thompsons moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Florida when the twins were in eighth grade to enhance their basketball careers. The playmakers shined at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, leading the team to a state title. They received offers from several traditional Power Five basketball programs.

The twins took the road less traveled to the NBA draft by signing with Overtime Elite, a professional basketball league based in Atlanta that’s opening another door to the pros for talented young players.

It was a chance to focus on basketball full-time and build up their strength. They did, too, adding 25 pounds of muscle over their two-year tenure with the league. An opportunity at a paycheck, too — Overtime Elite, which launched in 2021, compensates players with annual salaries of at least $100,000.

Their first year, the twins played on different Overtime Elite teams.

This past season, they combined — and dominated.

Amen (rhymes with “a pen”) averaged 17.2 points, 9.2 assists and 7.2 rebounds in the playoffs to lead the City Reapers to the championship.

Not to be outdone, Ausar (rhymes with “a car”), had a postseason in which he averaged 21 points, 4.8 assists and 5.2 rebounds.

When it came time to vote for the league’s regular season MVP award, it was no surprise who voted for whom.

Ausar earned MVP (along with the postseason version, too).

“It would have been funny” if Ausar won by one vote, Amen joked. “I would’ve taken mine back.”

They enjoy teasing one another — and pushing each other. They’re always in the gym, hoisting up shots or working on their footwork. They’re competitive, too, whether it be in friendly games on the court or in the video game NBA 2K, where they’re in agreement — Ausar reigns supreme on the video-game controller in hoops.

Their go-to meal comes from In-N-Out Burger. Ausar prefers a double cheeseburger with lettuce and special sauce, maybe grilled onions. Amen likes the same, just hold the cheese.

Amen’s scouting report reads like this: Explosive athleticism, with exceptional court vision. Can break down defenders with his ball-handling skills and elite first step.

Ausar’s report: Essentially the same as his brother.

Ausar projects as more of a combo guard and Amen as a ball handler in the NBA. Amen is predicted to go fourth overall to Houston and Ausar sixth to Orlando.

Their dad saw a path to the twins being elite when they were around 8 and going against players three, sometimes four, years older.

“You knew that their forward trajectory was going to be fast, because they were already improving at such a high rate,” Troy said. “From here on, I just want to enjoy watching them continue to grow into this dream and just achieve the greatness they always talked about.”

They describe their bond as “twin telepathy,” which Ausar said comes in handy not only on the basketball floor but in life.

Don’t ask for specifics, though, because that’s top secret.

“It would be bad for the world if everybody knew how to do it. I just know where he’s going to be at all times,” Ausar said.

Leading into the draft, they’ve been traveling to work out for interested teams. In Portland, they met Damian Lillard. A year ago, they were introduced to Golden State Warriors great Stephen Curry at his camp.

“It’s super cool meeting them,” Ausar said.

Amen and Ausar said they’ve competed against many of the big names in the draft class with the exception of Victor Wembanyama, the French star who is expected to go No. 1 to the San Antonio Spurs.

The twins are bracing for the likely separation and distance between them. They’re even planning for the big moment when both meet on the same NBA court at a soon-to-be-determined spot.

“That,” Amen said, “is going to make for one cool picture.”

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How digital twins have evolved, with the help of geospatial data, to capture more complex environments than ever.

Contributed by Greg Milner

Weary travelers lost in San Francisco International Airport (SFO) can access a map of the facility on their cell phones. The map, built with geographic information system (GIS) technology, provides the information to get them where they need to go. But there’s much more to the map—it guides operations.

These additional layers, accessible to the people who run and maintain the airport, reveal the airport’s dazzling complexity. All 1.8 million square feet of the International Terminal are included. Every individual component—from the 15,000 doors to the 2,000 trees—is present and accounted for.

Peel back those layers and peek underground. You’ll find the 400 miles of labeled subsurface utilities, including water, electrical, and wastewater. The airport’s exteriors are pictured, gathered through lidar and other methods, seamlessly integrated into the GIS.

For operations detail, building information models (BIM) find their place on the map. Closets, walkways, plumbing—it’s all there, ready to aid in repairs or long-term projects. Informative GIS layers, such as the location of wireless access points, augment the detailed BIM information.

And this is just the static map information. Indoor tracking shows the position of critical equipment. Outside, the current locations of maintenance vehicles are revealed.

From the public version to the sensitive high-security layers, it’s all the same GIS-supported map. But it’s more than that. This is SFO in its entirety: the permanent parts, the semi-permanent, and those items are always on the move.

So let’s not call it a map. What SFO has built is a geospatial digital twin.

SFO’s digital twin includes a 3D viewer that gives personnel the details they need to perform maintenance and safeguard travelers, as well as an app to guide travelers through interior spaces.

The Evolution of Digital Twins

The concept of the digital twin is not new, although it has undergone radical alterations. The earliest digital twins appeared in the manufacturing world, as far back as the 1980s. They were a way to measure the performance of factory machinery and processes, down to the level of individual components.

Although helpful for understanding plant operations, the utilities of these early digital twins were limited. An analyst could note strengths and weaknesses in the system, and detect problems and bottlenecks, but would struggle to apprehend its totality.

Modern digital twins provide this totality, without compromising granularity. Just as the human body relies on the interconnection of systems such as the respiratory system and the cardiovascular system, complex systems in organizations function through constantly flowing interactions. A modern digital twin recognizes that interactions among systems are just as important as the individual systems themselves.

The Complex World As It Is

How does a geospatial digital twin create the conditions for this nuanced view?

First, by offering clarity of vision. From the time GIS first debuted over a half-century ago, the technology has pioneered the concept of digital twins.

The visual language of GIS is the map. Just as a paper map is, to varying degrees, “an analog twin,” many GIS-derived maps can be thought of as digital twins. GIS maps contain details about attributes, data can be traced to its source, and they transcend the static maps of the past.

GIS can produce realistic digital twins because the technology can now seamlessly integrate immersive 3D environments, including details obtained via drones and reality capture techniques.

Geospatial digital twins go further than 3D models by adding the dimension of time. Like the systems they mirror, digital twins evolve. By compiling information regarding the past and present, digital twins can be used to query what happened when and even what’s likely to happen based on past patterns. Advanced analytic techniques reveal trends and hotspots.

Prague, one of Europe’s fastest-growing cities, is using a digital twin to restore the connectivity of Florenc, a historic neighborhood, with the surrounding area and preserve its world heritage status.

No Two Twins Alike

As more people have grasped the potential power of geospatial digital twins, use cases have multiplied. It is now possible to speak of many categories of digital twin:

• Design and construction digital twins help manage complex infrastructure problems, while providing a through-line that connects the present with the future. In Brisbane, Australia, a digital twin aids in the construction of a new subway. The same twin also depicts areas above ground, so that the rail authority can track how the underground project impacts economic development above it. When the project is complete, the same twin will guide daily operations.
• Digital twins have become an indispensable tool for architects and urban planners. The technology helps them imagine and experiment with alternative scenarios without any disruptions to the real world. What would a proposed promenade look like, given current walking and pedestrian traffic in the region? How high should a bridge be, based on various climate change flooding scenarios?
• Digital twins of utilities networks provide a detailed physical view of systems that are often concealed from view. In the United Kingdom, the wireless provider Vodafone now uses a digital twin that covers 245,000 square kilometers of its network.
• Environmental digital twins have recently emerged as a way to understand ecosystems and how they function. Perhaps their most valuable attribute is the way they link natural systems with human-made systems, revealing how each affects the other.

The Common Denominators

The most exciting digital twin model to emerge in recent years attempts to combine all of the above into something that mirrors the complexity of entire cities, or even nations. Grenada, for example, has built an impressive country-level digital twin that helps the Caribbean nation understand and prepare for climate change.

The mirroring ability of digital twins can obscure qualities that are more prosaic, but no less powerful, than the ability to mirror dynamic systems.

Digital twins foster collaboration and communication. They provide a common view for stakeholders to understand how systems may evolve. And their visual intuitiveness is a way explain progress to communities, regulatory agencies, or anyone else who may be affected by evolving systems.

Finally, there is the power that has long made GIS an optimal way to organize spatial information.

The many data flows that comprise complex systems may originate from disparate sources. Oftentimes, the only thing these groups of data share is that they have a spatial component, a shared location. GIS-based digital twins honor this similarity while visually emphasizing it.

Geospatial digital twins offer something that approaches complete contextual awareness. By helping us visualize the cross-pollination of data flows, these digital twins connect abstract data with concrete experience. By answering the constantly shifting question of “where?”, geospatial digital twins offer the ultimate contextual understanding.

Learn more about how GIS creates digital twins of the natural and built environments.

This article originally appeared in the Esri Blog.

Greg Milner is a writer in the strategic content group at Esri, where he tells stories about how location intelligence is transforming our world and how we perceive it. A former magazine editor and political speechwriter, he is the author of the books “Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music” (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award) and “Pinpoint: How GPS Is Changing Technology, Culture, and Our Minds.”. 

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Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 22.05. until Sun, 28.05
***
Record last week: 2-4 (Agg: 27-26)
Running differential last week: -1 (Total: +42)
Stand: 1st Place in AL Central (1.0 GA)

Last week’s game results:

Game 48 | SF 4, MIN 1: Ober Faceplants, Bats Can’t Pick Up
Game 49 | SF 4, MIN 3: Offensive and bullpen together cause a brutal loss
Game 50 | MIN 7, SF 1: Twins avoid sweep in error-filled blowout
Game 51 | GOAL 3, MIN 1: The lineup falters again as the crisis continues
Game 52 | MIN 9, GOAL 7: Twins Ride Rookies, Willi Castro to the big win
Game 53 | GOAL 3, MIN 0: Another embarrassing offense non-appearance

NEWS & NOTICES

The Twins are playing really badly at the moment and it’s getting worse, not better.

While the past week could have been argued that poor referee calls and unlucky breaks were the key factors in losing multiple winnable games, the past week has been one of undeniably poor play from start to finish. Even Minnesota’s two wins weren’t particularly impressive, as both sleepy teams shot the ball around on Wednesday and the Twins almost blew a huge lead on Saturday.

They’ve got to start tackling it and they’ve got to stop wasting time because the Tigers under .500 are suddenly on their heels, a game behind them at the Central. It would be nice if the good news started to outweigh the bad health news, but we’re not there yet.

The stall begins Trevor Larnach‘s career unfortunately goes on; The outfielder is now on the injured list due to severe pneumonia. The former first-round draft pick’s last two seasons have been hampered by injuries as he seeks to finally establish himself in the big leagues. He has struggled to perform consistently for the Twins this year and will now be out for a while, which is particularly unfortunate for Larnach given how well his replacement has done in a short span of time.

HIGHLIGHTS

Let’s start there: Matt Waller provided a crucial jolt for this occupation. He delivered one of the best individual offensive performances by a Twins all season on Saturday when he went 4-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs while also shooting down a second-place runner with a laser beam throw. Wallner followed up with two walks 2-on-2 on Sunday and hit base in all eight plate appearances between the two games.

The organization’s reigning minor league player of the year finally showed his full potential on the MLB stage, and at a crucial time, though ironically he was selected for logistical reasons after Sunday’s game.

The struggling twins begged for someone to step in, and it was the newcomers and roleplayers who answered the call. Wallner was not alone at the weekend.

Edward Julien joined the fun on Saturday with three hits, including two doubles and a home run. Earlier in the week he went deep against San Francisco, notching four walks in his six starts. A few rookie mistakes on the field and down the base paths brought out Julien’s greatest strengths – namely, a disciplined plate approach and tremendous raw power on the other end, and particularly down the center left.

Also contributed to Saturday’s night run burst (almost all of which was needed). Willie Castrowho, even on the fringes of the squad, makes a powerful argument, with an impact that makes it, one might say, “disturbingly valuable”.

While the limitations of his game won’t stop anyone from considering him a star, as we’ve seen of late, Castro’s defensive versatility and ability to organize a powerful, powerful attack on the plate make him a solid asset to do with he is well positioned to weather some tough squad decisions ahead.

Much like the lineup, some key plays keep the bullpen afloat while others fail and languish. The rising star of unity is Brock Stewartwhose surprise rise to become virtually the most trusted builder on the team for a burgeoning relief corps was life-saving.

Stewart still has 14 appearances to charge and he pulled off his greatest high-stakes acrobatic performance to date on Saturday, averting disaster by recording three outs to stave off an inherited late threat against Toronto. That outing gave him the best WPA in the Twins bullpen (.86) despite starting nearly a month into the season.

Yes, Stewart’s WPA actually outperforms John Duran, but there is no doubt who is the king of this unit. While less unexpected, Duran’s continued dominance is the stable foundation that is keeping the Twins’ bullpen from collapsing. He notched four strikeouts over 1 ⅔ clean innings this past week, contributing to his illustrious footprint in the record books. He set a new franchise record Wednesday by hitting 104.6 MPH with his fastball and also unleashed multiple triple-digit splinter hits in the same game.

Now that it’s become routine, I almost have to remind myself from time to time: This isn’t normal. This is something special. Duran is an incredibly rare breed and while there is still a lot of room for improvement around him in the bullpen, you couldn’t ask for a better centerpiece.

LOWLIGHTS

As this line-up consistently exhibits a sense of explosiveness and power, it becomes increasingly difficult to see past the player who should be their beating heart. Byron Buxton shook off some renewed knee pain to start all six games last week and did hit a home run on Tuesday but was a net negative overall, finishing 4 of 25 with the following performance off his home run: three singles, no runs scored , no RBIs, no walks, 10 strikeouts.

We all know Buxton is a mixed bag player by nature and analyzing him in the middle of a downturn like this is bound to underestimate his worth. But that gets to the heart of the matter, which is that Buxton’s winning streak doesn’t outweigh his streaks to the extent the team needs. Yes, he leads the team’s positional players in Win Probability Added – a poor performance in this roster – thanks to some great moments, but all too often those moments feel like oases in a desert of surrounding emptiness.

Last week was a perfect example. Buxton hit the home run but otherwise delivered a barrage of outs, stranded runners and substandard bats. He looks like he’s guessing full force on almost every pitch with no plan or protocol in place.

What makes Buxton’s recent fainting even harder to bear is the increasing discomfort of his situation and the side effects that result.

As short-cuts continue on offense and mistakes mount defensively, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the elephant in the room: Addressing Buxton’s needs means the Twins field one of their best defensive players at DH every day while they, in turn, are forced to skip underperforming batsmen (ie Michael A Taylorwho went 2-on-19 with 12 strikeouts last week) and make tough defensive concessions like playing Castro in midfield or Julien at second base.

Unfortunately, the situation shows no signs of changing. By all accounts, the Twins feel this deal is the only way to keep Buxton on the field and that’s hard to dispute in the wake of another knee crisis.

Minnesota needs Buxton in the lineup, but they can get him there as long as he’s healthy. You just need him to get better and find a way to mitigate those terrible slumps, even if it means taking a physical break. The same goes for of course Carlos Correa, who himself apparently dodged an injury scare last week but continues not to click the plate despite being completely off balance. After a 1-4 on Sunday, his slash line sits at .216/.308/.392 and he’s on track to finish the season with a 1.2 fWAR, which would be lower than Gary Sanchez released in 2022.

On the pitching side, George Lopez has officially established itself as a major problem. His brilliant April, in which he conceded no earned runs, has given way to a terrible May, in which the right-hander allowed an 8.10 ERA and a 1.042 OPS. His troubles worsened over the past week, with López conceding defeat on Tuesday when he kicked off a two-run home run and on Saturday threatening to turn a lopsided win on its head by giving up three earned runs , but no outs from Der Ninth.

Unfortunately, López looks just as confused as he did in the second half for the Twins last year. His confidence has waned and his body language on the hill was alarming. If there is one positive result it’s that his speed and everything is fine suggesting the issues might be solvable but I’m not sure how anyone who has watched him as a twin would have any confidence at all can have in his mental strength.

Given the pivotal role López played in the design of this bullpen, its implosion would have dire consequences if it continued like this. Durán (again) cannot carry the entire burden alone.

TREND STORY

Reinforcements are on the way. The team announced this after the game on Sunday Max Kepler And Royce Lewis will rejoin the team this week in Houston, with Garlick and Wallner being relegated to make room. Polanco also seems close after training on the field alongside Kepler on Sunday.

Swapping Kepler for Wallner isn’t the most exciting move given how well Wallner did and how mediocre Kepler has been over the last 20 years, but there was a small selection. What’s exciting is the much-anticipated return of Lewis, who is claiming to be at 120 percent after hitting an absurd .333/.371/.727 slash line with four homers and 10 in eight games at Triple-A laid down RBIs.

The twins are in desperate need of a spark. It’s hard to imagine that there are many people better able to do this on more than one level, while not wanting to put too much pressure on the child.

LOOKING AHEAD

If the Twins don’t start playing better baseball soon, things will get ugly. They travel to Houston for a three-game series against the dynastic (albeit underperforming Astros) and then it’s back home where they play four games against the Guardians, who could still be the biggest threat in the division in the long run .

MONDAY 5/29: TWINS @ ASTROS – RHP JP France vs RHP Sonny Gray
TUESDAY 5/30: TWINS @ ASTROS – RHP Brandon Bielak vs. RHP Joe Ryan
WEDNESDAY 5/31: TWINS @ ASTROS – RHP Hunter Brown vs. RHP Louie Varland
THURSDAY 6/1: GUARDIANS @ TWINS – RHP Tanner Bibee vs. RHP Pablo Lopez
FRIDAY 6/2: GUARDIANS @ TWINS – RHP Hunter Gaddis vs. RHP Bailey Ober
SATURDAY 6/3: GUARDIANS @ TWINS – LHP Logan Allen vs RHP Sonny Gray
SUNDAY 6/4: GUARDIANS @ TWINS – RHP Cal Quantrill vs RHP Joe Ryan

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MINNEAPOLIS — Carlos Correa, while hoping to return this weekend, is unsure when he will next play after sitting out Tuesday night’s loss with a left heel bruise.

An MRI performed prior to the Twins’ 4-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants at Target Field revealed inflammation in the shortstop’s left heel. Correa said he made an odd move after rounding first base with a double in Monday’s loss.

After Tuesday’s treatment, Correa, who leads the Twins in innings played this season, all but ruled out the possibility of participating in Wednesday’s series finals as the Twins look to avoid a series win. The team has Thursday off and resumes their home game streak with a three-game streak against the Toronto Blue Jays beginning Friday.

“We’ll see how it wakes up (Wednesday),” Correa said. “It’s still too early to tell. But of course I remain optimistic. It’s a shame not being able to play. I want to be out there every day. But at the same time, I need to keep an eye on the long-term effects and make sure I feel a lot better than I do today. Because it wasn’t good enough to play today.”

On Tuesday, it was just the fifth game Correa missed from the team’s 49 games this season. He started Tuesday with 376 1/3 innings on the field, 59 more than the next closest twin, Michael A. Taylor.

But Correa knew he wasn’t going to play after waking up Monday night with more pain than he originally felt while beating San Francisco starter Sean Manaea in the fifth inning. With the Twins understaffed, Correa ended the final four innings in a loss to the Giants.

“It got worse and worse as the game went on,” said Correa. “And when I woke up today, it really hurt. Did an MRI, it shows inflammation and plantar fasciitis. Just go day by day. We have a day off ahead of us. …Hopefully I can be back out there with treatment and rest by the weekend.”

The injury comes at a time when the Twins are already shorthanded.

Earlier in the day, the Twins put outfielder Trevor Larnach on the injured list with pneumonia and recalled Matt Wallner, who had a hit and a run in St. Paul’s Triple-A loss earlier in the day. Larnach joins Jorge Polanco (left hamstring strain), Nick Gordon (fractured tibia) and Max Kepler (left hamstring strain) as the latest additions to the IL.

“It’s tough when you’re on the sidelines and the team is losing,” said Correa. “It’s not what I want. It’s not fun to be there. But I hope I can be out there. I hope we can get a win (Wednesday) and then I can be out there again at the weekend.”

Goes critical while the Giants get past the Twins

Sonny Gray went with two batters and hit a double in his last inning, the sixth. Jovani Moran and Brock Stewart then executed bases-loaded walks that helped San Francisco come back from a three-run deficit in a 4-3 win over the Twins.

Though the Twins escaped their frenzy with the lead in the sixth inning, it didn’t last long as Jorge López gifted a double and a two-run home run against Michael Conforto in the crucial seventh inning.

“It really sucks because we have a really good team,” said López, who was comforted by Taylor and Byron Buxton at his locker after the game. “We really don’t have to go through these (losses). But you know, you stay positive and hope that tomorrow we come back and get a win.”

The Twins’ loss was the team’s sixth in eight games, including their third one-run loss.

Part of the problem is a stagnant offense that continues to produce inconsistent results. Buxton hit a two-run home run on Alex Cobb and Taylor extended the lead with a solo shot against the Giants starter in the fifth inning. But that was all the twins could produce. The team only had one shot with a runner in goal position.

What makes the current phase all the more difficult is that the Twins could well be 6-2 in the same period. They lost two winnable games in Los Angeles and again in Anaheim and also led through the middle inning on Tuesday.

“It gets a little more painful when you’re in every game, you’re in control of almost every game when you go out and play the baseball that you’ve seen your team play before,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I’ve seen that we play really well in those exact situations and win a bunch of games in a row in exactly the same way. If you lose these games en masse, it bothers you. …These are games and they are all very winnable games. We owe it to ourselves to find a way.”

Maeda and Thielbar throw bullpens

Kenta Maeda’s fastball speed hit 88 mph during a bullpen session Tuesday, a number the right-hander was more than happy with. Maeda threw 35 shots and is scheduled for another bullpen action on Friday, which he hopes to head off to for rehab.

Since being placed on the injured list, Maeda’s main focus has been working on the mechanics, which he was struggling with prior to his injury. Maeda, who suffers from a right tricep strain, believes the improvement translates to a speed gain. Given that a regular bullpen session lacks any intensity, Maeda expects his speed to pick up once he gets back into the action. He hopes to be able to consistently throw 90mph on his return, a problem that surfaced before Maeda went to the IL on April 29th.

“Throwing 88-89 (mph) fastballs here and there is fine, but I’d like to keep the number consistently above 90,” Maeda said through an interpreter. “But it’s more about how my pitches feel, about feeling comfortable on the mound. Before I went to IL, I felt kind of uncomfortable. I think once that is corrected everything should be fine. … The most important factor is the actual delivery mechanics. Before I moved to IL and started pitching in the big leagues, I felt like something was wrong with my mechanics and it was taking up a lot of my mind instead of focusing on the actual batsmen. I would like to take the time to clean this up and once I do things should be fine and good results should be achieved.”

Maeda was not alone in the bullpen on Tuesday. Reliever Caleb Thielbar also threw and was also satisfied with his performance. Thielbar threw a speed in the 84–88 mph range while slowly recovering from an oblique strain.

The left-hander threw 25 shots and liked the intensity of his workout. Thielbar is also set to throw another bullpen on Saturday, after which the Twins will decide on his next move, most likely a rehab trip.

Baldelli also provided an update on Kepler being eligible to leave the IL but still building.

“I’m not sure about the rehab part of his plan, whether or not he’s going to do it,” Baldelli said. “But it’s been a little longer than we thought. … We weren’t expecting a hiatus that long, but he’s not ready at this point to be in full swing. He was still in constant pain.”

(Photo by Rocco Baldelli and Sonny Gray: Jesse Johnson / USA Today)

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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Michael Conforto doubled down to set off a slowly developing rally in the sixth inning and set the go for the two-run home run in the seventh inning for the San Francisco Giants, who defeated the Minnesota Twins Tuesday night by 4: 3 defeated for their seventh win in eight games.

Giants starter Alex Cobb (4-1) finished seven innings for the third time in four starts this month, deftly working on a two-run home run by Byron Buxton in the first inning and a solo shot by Michael Taylor in the fifth inning that secured the win gave the Twins a 3-0 lead.

The Giants dropped two runners in the scoring position in the third and fourth innings against Twins starter Sonny Gray, who hit the wall in the sixth inning by leading JD Davis to the start. Conforto hit a double in the left-center gap, Mitch Haniger walked to fill bases and that was it for Gray, who was the major league ERA leader at 1.82. He threw 105 pitches, two fewer than his season high.

Jovani Moran made the first two outs but Patrick Bailey walked in the first run to force. Brock Stewart walked in and did the same to pinch Bryce Johnson.

Then, as Jorge López (1-2) scored the seventh, Thairo Estrada took the lead with a brace and hit Conforto’s tenth home run of the season.

Camilo Doval threw a hit without a hit in the ninth inning, making it his 13th save in 14 attempts after a perfect eighth from Scott Alexander, in textbook succession after another outstanding turn from Cobb. The right-hander, who ranks fourth in ERA baseball with a 2.17, is 4-0 in his last seven starts. The Giants have won six of those games.

The Twins, who have finished first on the AL Central 53 of 55 days this season, lost for the sixth time in eight games.

Twins starting pitcher Kenta Maeda is expected to begin a rehab spell for a right tricep overload after another bullpen session later this week. He was placed on the injured list more than three weeks ago after his fastball speed dropped to a worrying 88mph on his comeback from Tommy John’s elbow surgery that sidelined him for the entire 2022 season.

“As for the number, I’d like to stay consistently above 90, but it’s more about the feel of my pitches, how comfortable I am on the hill,” Maeda said through his interpreter. “I felt kind of uncomfortable before I went to IL. I think once that is corrected everything should be fine.”

Giants: 1B LaMonte Wade was back in the lead after pinching his thumb and leaving Monday night’s game. … DH Joc Pederson missed his tenth straight game with a right-hand bruise. Manager Gabe Kapler said that rehab would soon be considered: “His grip is getting better.”

Gemini: SS Carlos Correa was on the bench with a bruised left heel. LF Trevor Larnach was on the injured list before the game with pneumonia. RF Max Kepler missed his tenth straight game with a left hamstring strain and coach Rocco Baldelli indicated he’s not close to a return just yet: “He’s still felt ongoing pain related to this for longer than we thought .”

Giants: RHP Anthony DeSclafani (3-3, 3.09 ERA) takes the mound Wednesday afternoon. He has not won in his last three starts.

Gemini: RHP Joe Ryan (6-1, 2.25 ERA) pitches in series finale. The San Francisco native has put up at least six innings in all nine starts and conceded five earned runs overall in his last five rounds.

Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, transcribed, or redistributed without permission.

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MINNEAPOLIS — Bailey Ober missed early. The Twins’ coaching staff also made some seemingly questionable decisions early on. And the Twins hitters? Well, they never got going.

The combination led to a homestand opening debacle Monday as the Twins lost 4-1 to the San Francisco Giants in front of a crowd of 16,627 at Target Field. Ober allowed four runs in the first inning, including a three-run home run, and the Twins were no match for the previously beatable Sean Manaea, who hit eight strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings. The Twins finished with just four goals in an uninspiring loss, their fifth in seven games.

“Crashing so early when we’re not really making a lot of runs can be tough,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “But you shouldn’t let that influence you in the future. On the mental side, to keep playing nine innings and giving yourself a chance to get back in the game, we still have work to do in that regard. We can say yes, a hit (here) or there and suddenly we have two or three runs on the board. That’s actually true. But talking about it is one thing. We need to go out there and do it. We just need more good bats. We get some, but just not enough.”

Although San Francisco only defeated the Twins 5-4, it was more than enough.

Ober started averaging just 2.1 walks per nine innings, a very good stat. He had four times as many strikeouts (28) as walks (seven) in 30 1/3 innings this season.

Still, Ober had little to no sense of the zone early on, running LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski on 13 squares early in the game. The San Francisco offense was not long in coming, as JD Davis hit a one-run double and followed Michael Conforto into the bullpen with a stunning three-run home run.

Just like that, the Twins were four runs behind.

Ober followed by leading Blake Sabol on 11 pitches, putting him in danger of being knocked out in the first inning. The right-hander managed to pull back the next three batsmen to end the inning, but not before throwing 39 pitches.

“Obviously, it’s definitely a bit of a drag,” Ober said. “I didn’t know how many pitches I was throwing until I was done with that inning. I looked at the scoreboard and realized how many I had thrown. But during the innings you’re just trying to run and pitch, get these guys out and limit as much damage as possible. … If I could do it again I’d re-run the first two guys and definitely try to get in the zone a lot better than I did.”

Ober recovered and knocked out 13 of the last 16 batsmen he faced, but the damage was done. Especially given the way the Twins hit.

Giants opener John Brebbia batted twice in a scoreless first inning and passed the baton to Manaea, who started with a 7.81 ERA in 27 2/3 innings. Manaea didn’t look like a 16-walk pitcher but effectively hit his pitches and overpowered the Twins.

While Baldelli hoped his team would slowly and surely erode San Francisco’s early lead, he never quite succeeded. The Twins had two players on board, with two outs to Byron Buxton in the third and fifth innings. But Buxton flew into the middle and landed in third to end those rallies.

The Twins had made the leadoff man in the second and fourth innings, but Manaea crushed those as well.

He limited the Twins to three hits and three walks in an 83-pitch attempt that his opponents weren’t sure they’d see after Manaea participated in a pregame bullpen.

“It’s not the way you’d ever want to start a ballgame, either from a (Ober’s) perspective or from a team perspective,” Baldelli said. “Again: It’s not like we’ve been going through every inning in silence and stuff like that. … (Kyle) Garlick hit the home run, but otherwise there wasn’t much going on with runners in goal position and things like that.”

While there wasn’t much action overall, Baldelli heated up the fanbase with a series of early moves that drastically changed the lineup. San Francisco uses several bulk pitchers including Manaea, Jakob Junis and Tristan Beck. As Brebbia Manaea gave way, Baldelli turned to his right-handers, resulting in newcomer Edouard Julien being removed before he could even strike.

Donovan Solano fought for Julien early in the second inning and Garlick scored for Alex Kirilloff in the third inning.

“When you start the game down 4-0 it really affects a lot of things,” said Baldelli. “But if you go down 4-0 and they bring in manaea, that tells you he’s going to pitch. Could they have knocked him out after an inning? Yes, but we didn’t think that would be the case if he made the game, and he made the game. After they took the lead, we had to get our guys in there.

“So it was definitely an unorthodox kind of play with the moves that we were doing, but Solano and Garlick pulled into that and did a pretty good job. Yes, it’s unusual, but our boys were prepared for what was to come. They knew it was an opening game and they knew it could be a strange game.”

As much anger as social media movements, Solano singled and walked twice in four trips, while Garlick hit a solo home run in the eighth inning for the only run and walked in three trips. The two represented five of the team’s eight players who reached the base.

• Before the game, the Twins saw Manaea go outfield for a pregame bullpen session. Initial reports indicated that the Giants’ left-hander threw up to 30 pitches during the practice session, which is the number pitchers typically throw between starts during their practice sessions. But after the game, Baldelli said Manaea only managed a “light bullpen” session and the Twins knew that didn’t eliminate him as San Francisco’s main option. From the Giants clubhouse, Manaea only threw eight to 10 pitches in a touch-and-feel session.

The Twins originally expected Manaea to pitch, so they released a lineup that had Solano starting before Joey Gallo. After Manaea’s session, the Twins revised their lineup, substituting Gallo for Solano and dropping Julien to fourth place (he was originally scheduled for the leadoff).

“We knew that (Manaea) would probably be an option,” Baldelli said. “If he throws the bullpen, don’t you think maybe? Secure. You might not think so, but you also look at who they have available and he’s certainly their best pick to pitch a lot of innings, basically. Is it also Beck? We knew he could throw a few innings too. But arrived at the end of the game? We knew it probably had something to do with Manaea.”

• Despite early moves, including the removal of one of the team’s hottest hitters (Kirilloff), several Twins said there had been no player complaints in the dugout and blamed the lack of questions on the coaching staff, who discussed their plan in the thoroughly communicated in the batsmen’s briefing on Monday. Several players were informed that despite starts, they might not sniff the plate depending on how San Francisco used its pitching team. One player said the squad had been conditioned by staff to anticipate substitutions due to the way the team’s strategy involves game-related decisions.

• Twins pitcher Tyler Mahle had successful surgery from Tommy John in Dallas, the team said.

(Photo by Bailey Ober: Jesse Johnson / USA Today)

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San Francisco Giants (22-24, 3rd in NL West) vs. Minnesota Twins (25-22, 1st in AL Central)

Minneapolis; Monday, 7:40 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABIES: Giants: Alex Cobb (3-1, 1.94 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 44 strikeouts); Gemini: Bailey Ober (3-0, 1.78 ERA, .96 WHIP, 28 strikeouts)

FANDUEL SPORTSBOOK MLB LINE: Twins -151, Giants +129; Over/Under is 9 runs

BOTTOM LINE: The San Francisco Giants will be looking to break their three-game deficit in a game against the Minnesota Twins.

Minnesota is 14-8 at home and 25-22 overall. The Twins are 4-9 in run-decided games.

San Francisco has a record of 7-13 away and 22-24 overall. The Giants have the seventh-ranked slugging percentage in the Netherlands at .411.

Monday’s game is the teams’ first meeting of the season.

TOP PERFORMER: Byron Buxton has nine homers, 25 walks and 21 RBI while batting .235 for the Twins. Kyle Farmer is at 15 of 39 with a double, two homers and nine RBI in his last 10 games.

Michael Conforto is sixth with the Giants with 10 extra base hits (two doubles and eight homers). Joc Pederson is 3-of-18 with a double, two homers, and three RBI in his last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Twins: 5-5, .272 batting average, 3.83 ERA, outperformed opponents by 21 runs

Giants: 6-4, .238 batting average, 3.62 ERA, outperformed opponents by five runs

INJURIES: Gemini: Byron Buxton: daily (leg), Jorge Polanco: 10-day IL (hamstring), Nick Gordon: 10-day IL (shin), Jorge Alcala: 15-day IL (forearm), max Kepler : 10-day IL (hamstring), Tyler Mahle: 60-day IL (arm), Caleb Thielbar: 15-day IL (oblique load), Kenta Maeda: 15-day IL (triceps), Gilberto Celestino: 60-Day IL (Thumb), Royce Lewis: 60-Day IL (Knee), Chris Paddack: 60-Day IL (Elbow)

Giants: Logan Webb: Day to Day (back), Ross Stripling: 15-day IL (back), Joey Bart: 10-day IL (groin), Heliot Ramos: 60-day IL (oblique), Joc Pederson : 10-day IL (hand), Austin Slater: 10-day IL (thigh), Roberto Perez: 60-day IL (shoulder), Luke Jackson: 60-day IL (elbow), Thomas Szapucki: 60 -Day IL (left). arm), Luis Gonzalez: 60-day IL (back)

The Associated Press created this story using technology and data provided by Sportradar by Data Skrive.

© Data Script. All rights reserved.

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ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Whenever Shohei Ohtani is on the mound, the Los Angeles Angels feel confident they can pull off a win.

Ohtani hit nine in six innings and Mickey Moniak hit his second big hit of the series with a two-run double in the seventh as the Angels beat the Minnesota Twins 4-2 on Sunday.

Alex Kirilloff hit a home run and Carlos Correa hit an RBI double for the Twins, who lost four balls out of six on their road trip through Southern California.

Ohtani didn’t come to a decision despite conceding just one run and two hits. It was the fourth time in ten starts this season that the two-way superstar had nine or more strikeouts.

“It was really good today,” said Angels manager Phil Nevin. “He’s had five wins and held us in every game. He gave up some runs when we took the lead but he seems to have gotten us to the finish line with that lead. He knows exactly when to call back.”

The Angels improved to 8-2 when Ohtani started and scored a three-game streak for the first time since early May. Ohtani leads the majors with a .142 opponent batting average and is third in strikeouts with 80.

Ohtani threw 99 shots against the Twins. Of his 62 hits, 22 were weak hits, which made up his best of the season.

“Getting the swings and misses is tremendous and better than getting fouled. So I’m doing my pitches and that’s a good sign,” Ohtani said through an interpreter.

Moniak, who netted a triple on Friday night, delivered a two-run double in the seventh to give the Angels a 3-1 lead. Pinch-hitter Matt Thaiss hit a leadoff walk to chase starter Pablo López (2-3) and Zach Neto followed with a double to Jorge López’s right to set up Moniak.

Moniak almost stole a home run from Kirilloff in the eighth round. He attempted to make a jump catch into the left stand after Kirilloff’s solo shot across the line, but the ball bounced out of his glove.

“I’ll take the game-winning goal all day,” said Moniak. “It’s good to get a series win in a day game.”

Chris Devenski (2-0) took the win and Carlos Estévez saved for the 12th time.

Correa scored the Twins’ first hit in the third inning. His right center double came from Joey Gallo, who came on board with a two-out walk.

The Angels equalized in the fourth game. Hunter Renfroe and Jared Walsh opened the inning with base hits before Gio Urshela’s sacrifice flight put Renfroe home.

AL Central leaders Minnesota was competitive in every game on the trip against the Dodgers and Angels but lost all in the late innings.

“When you lose a handful of tight ball games where you were either in the lead or you had clear chances – several clear chances – and you don’t capitalize on it, that’s hard to stomach,” said Twins manager Rocco Baldelli. “We’re close to playing full baseball games, but we’re not there yet.”

BACK TO FORM?

Sunday’s performance was more in line with what Ohtani showed earlier in the season when he conceded just two earned runs and eight hits in his first five starts.

The right-hander was 2-1 in his last four appearances but had given up 17 runs and 18 hits, including eight home runs.

“I was trying to control the home runs and not make them feel good on the plate. I was trying to make sure they weren’t making good swings,” Ohtani said of Sunday’s outing.

The only thing Ohtani wasn’t happy about was his three walks and also a hit batter.

TRAINING ROOM

Twins: DH Byron Buxton was given the day off after retiring from Saturday’s game with a strain in his right leg.

Angels: LHP Aaron Loup has been ruled out of injury list after missing 15 games with a left hamstring strain.

NEXT

Gemini: RHP Bailey Ober (3-0, 1.78 ERA) makes his third straight start against an interleague opponent in the opener of a three-game streak at home against San Francisco.

Angels: RHP Jaime Barria (1-1, 1.96 ERA) got his first start of the season in the opener of a three-game set against the Boston Red Sox. Barria has made 10 appearances outside of the bullpen.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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“We come from the North Pole. We are sent by Santa and he sends us here into town to cheer people up for Christmas,” explains Tree One.

“I’m looking for something that will give me the holiday spirit and these two are not on the charts,” shares passer-by Penelope.
The Tree Twins have been beautifying people’s vacations for the past five years. “We have a crazy connection with Christmas. We love the whole spirit of it, the looks, the lights, the energy, the positivity!”
Find out more about the Tree Twins’ vacation adventures from 2020 here.

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