Media Today

[Rick Plant]

MLB roundup: Rays tie modern record at 13-0

Harold Ramirez's three-run double fueled a seven-run fifth inning as the host Tampa Bay Rays tied a modern-era major league record with their 13th straight win to start the season, bashing the Boston Red Sox 9-3 Thursday in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The 13 wins tied the record held by the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers and 1982 Atlanta Braves and also set a Rays mark for consecutive wins overall. Tampa Bay has outscored opponents 101-30 through the streak.

Ramirez went 3-for-4 with two doubles, three RBIs and a run. Brandon Lowe had two hits, including a home run, and Yandy Diaz also went deep for the Rays.

Rays starter Jeffrey Springs was removed after three-plus innings due to ulnar neuritis in his left arm. He struck out five and allowed one run on a homer by Red Sox outfielder Rob Refsnyder. Kevin Kelly (1-0) tossed 2 2/3 innings of one-run relief for his first major league win.

https://deadspin.com/mlb-roundup-rays-tie-modern-record-at-13-0-1850335873


Rays rally past Red Sox to improve to 13-0, tie modern MLB record



ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- After going unbeaten against four teams with losing records, the Tampa Bay Rays are headed to Toronto to try setting Major League Baseball's post-1900 record for consecutive wins at a season's start.

"We're a small-market team and people around the league not all the time have great things to say about us, but we play together," Manuel Margot said through a translator after the Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 9-3 Thursday for a 13-0 start.

Tampa Bay rallied in a seven-run fifth inning that Harold Ramirez began and capped with doubles, and the Rays matched the 13-win start of the 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1987 Milwaukee Brewers.

The only longer opening streak was 20-0 by the 1884 St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association. The Rays have won all but two of the games by four or more runs and have outscored opponents 101-30 with the most runs in the big leagues and the fewest allowed.

"When you do something like that you're playing really well," manager Kevin Cash said. "There's not one part of our game right now that we don't feel good about."

Playing before a crowd of 21,175, the largest at Tropicana Field since opening day, the Rays set a team record for winning streak at any point in a season by topping a 12-game run in June 2004. The streak includes series against Detroit, Washington and Oakland.

Boston, held to four hits, has lost 13 consecutive games at the Trop.

"They pitch when they need to pitch. They put the ball in play and they drive guys in," Christian Arroyo said.

Rays starter Jeffrey Springs left two pitches into the fourth inning with what the team said was ulnar neuritis, inflammation of the ulnar nerve that causes numbness or weakness. He was relieved after throwing a 79.8 mph changeup and a 83.5 mph to Justin Turner, then looking at his hand and elbow.

"The pitch prior, kind of just felt a little bit of something in the elbow, forearm area," Springs said. "It was kind of hard to pinpoint."

He said the sensation felt like a shock rather than pain and he planned to get imaging on Friday. Cash said Springs is likely to miss at least one start.

"Hopefully, it's just a nerve thing that kind of flared up," Springs said. "I didn't feel anything pop or anything like that."

Tampa Bay trailed 3-1 in the fifth against the Red Sox. Ramirez started the big rally with a double off Corey Kluber (0-3) and broke open the game with a three-run double against Richard Bleier.

Francisco Mejía cut the deficit with a run-scoring single and Brandon Lowe greeted Bleier with a tying RBI single.

Randy Arozarena singled for a 4-3 lead, Wander Franco was hit by a pitch and Margot dropped down a run-scoring bunt single.

"I noticed the third baseman, he was playing back," Margot said of Bobby Dalbec.

Ramirez then lined a double into the left-field corner for an 8-3 advantage.

"When Harold led off with a double, it sparked the lineup. It kind of let everyone breathe a little bit," Brandon Lowe said.

Lowe added a seventh-inning home run off Kutter Crawford, his fifth this season.

Yandy Díaz tied the score 1-1 in the first with his fourth this season for the Rays, who lead the major leagues with 32. Only the 2019 Seattle Mariners and 2000 St. Louis Cardinals with 33 each homered more through 13 games.

Kevin Kelly (1-0) pitched 2 2/3 innings for the win.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36180920/rays-rally-red-sox-improve-13-0-tie-modern-mlb-record

[Rick Plant]

Jury selection begins in historic Dominion defamation trial against Fox News
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/13/media/fox-news-dominion-trial-jury/index.html

[Rick Plant]

Germany ends nuclear era as last reactors power down



Germany will switch off its last three nuclear reactors on Saturday, exiting atomic power even as it seeks to wean itself off fossil fuels and manage an energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

While many Western countries are upping their investments in atomic energy to reduce their emissions, Germany is bringing an early end to its nuclear age.

Europe's largest economy has been looking to leave behind nuclear power since 2002, but the phase-out was accelerated by former chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

The exit decision was popular in a country with a powerful anti-nuclear movement, stoked by lingering fears of Cold War conflict and atomic disasters such as Chernobyl in Ukraine.

"The risks of nuclear power are ultimately unmanageable," said Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, who this week made a pilgrimage to the ill-fated Japanese plant ahead of a G7 meeting in the country.

But the challenge caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which put an end to cheap gas imports, and the need to quickly cut emissions has upped calls in Germany to delay the withdrawal from nuclear power.

'A mistake'

Initially planned for the end of 2022, Germany's nuclear exit has already had to be pushed back once.

As Russian gas supplies dwindled last year, officials in Berlin were left scrambling to find a way to keep the lights on, with a short extension agreed until mid-April.

Germany, the largest emitter in the European Union, also powered up some of its mothballed coal-fueled plants to cover the potential gap left by gas.

The perilous context has increased calls domestically to delay the nuclear exit.

Germany had to "expand the supply of energy and not restrict it any further" in light of potential shortages and high prices, the president of the German chambers of commerce Peter Adrian told the Rheinische Post daily.

The conservative leader of Bavaria Markus Soeder meanwhile told the Focus Online website that he wanted the plants to stay online and three more to be kept "in reserve".

Outside observers have been similarly irked by Germany's insistence on exiting nuclear while ramping up its coal usage, with climate activist Greta Thunberg in October slamming the move as "a mistake".

'Sooner or later'

At the Isar 2 complex in Bavaria, technicians will progressively shut down the reactor from 10:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Saturday, severing it from the grid for good.

By the end of the day, operators at the other two facilities, in northern Emsland and southwestern Neckarwestheim, will have taken their facilities offline as well.

The three final plants provided just six percent of Germany's energy last year, compared with 30.8 percent from all nuclear plants in 1997.

"Sooner or later" the reactors will start being dismantled, Economy Minister Robert Habeck told the Funke group ahead of the scheduled decommissioning, brushing aside the idea of an extension.

The government has the energy situation "under control", Habeck assured, having filled gas stores and built new infrastructure for the import of liquefied natural gas to bridge the gap left by Russian supplies.

Instead, the minister from the Green party, which was founded on opposition to nuclear power, is focused on getting Germany to produce 80 percent of its energy from renewables by 2030.

To this end, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for the installation of "four to five wind turbines a day" over the next few years -- a tall order given that just 551 were installed last year.

But the current rate of progress on renewables could well be too slow for Germany to meet its climate protection goals.

Despite planning to exit nuclear, Germany has not "pushed ahead enough with the expansion of renewables in the last 10 years", Simon Mueller from the Agora Energiewende think tank told AFP.

To build enough onshore wind capacity, according to Mueller, Germany now has to "pull out all the stops".

(AFP)

[Rick Plant]

The Webb Telescope Finally Shows Us Uranus' Glorious Rings

[Rick Plant]

Fox News Is on Trial, and So Are Falsehoods About 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/business/media/fox-news-dominion-trial.html

[Rick Plant]

Is Twitter finally dying?
Say goodbye to the old Twitter and hello to the new normal.
https://www.vox.com/technology/2023/4/15/23683554/twitter-dying-elon-musk-x-company

[Rick Plant]

Inmate escapes jail by impersonating cellmate who was due for release

An inmate at a Washington state jail strolled out of the facility Wednesday after he impersonated his cellmate who was due for release that day, the New York Post reported.

Brian Francisco Roman, 26, is still on the run.

The escape was made possible when a corrections officer went to his cell to fetch the inmate who was scheduled for release, but all three men, including Roman, were asleep.

"Deputies learned that when a corrections officer went to contact an inmate who was due to be released, all three inmates in the cell were asleep," a press release from the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office read. "When the corrections officer called for the inmate, Roman identified himself as that inmate and went with the corrections officer to be processed out of custody. Jail staff stated that Roman and the other inmate have similar physical features."

He was given his cellmate’s property and signed the discharge paperwork by forging his cellmate's name.

Roman was initially jailed on drug dealing charges.

https://nypost.com/2023/04/19/inmate-strolls-out-of-jail-by-impersonating-cellmate/

[Rick Plant]

Will Fox News change after Dominion defamation settlement?

Fox News has settled a defamation suit over its reporting of the 2020 presidential election, averting a trial involving one of the world's top media companies.

The network agreed to pay $787.5 to the voting machine company Dominion who argued its business was harmed by Fox spreading false claims the vote had been rigged against Donald Trump.

Watch: