Pirates hit 2 homers off Holmes and blank Mets 4-0 to prevent 3-game sweep
NEW YORK (AP) — Matt Gorski and Jared Triolo each connected for a two-run homer off New York Mets starter Clay Holmes, and the Pittsburgh Pirates finally mustered some offense in a 4-0 victory Wednesday night at rainy Citi Field.
Five pitchers combined on a six-hitter as the last-place Pirates (15-29) won for the fourth time in 17 games to prevent a series sweep. They're 3-3 under Don Kelly, promoted from bench coach to manager when Derek Shelton was fired last week.
Rookie right-hander Chase Shugart (2-3) tossed 2 1/3 innings in relief of wild starter Bailey Falter for his second career win. It was the fourth shutout this year for Pittsburgh, which has gone a franchise-record 20 games in a row without scoring more than four runs.
With slugger Juan Soto getting his first night off this season, the NL East-leading Mets were blanked for the second time. Next stop, a weekend Subway Series against the crosstown-rival Yankees — with both New York teams in first place.
Facing his original major league club, Holmes (5-2) gave up homers to Gorski with rain falling in the second and then Triolo in the fifth. The converted reliever had won three straight starts and five consecutive decisions.
The first pitch was delayed 15 minutes because of wet weather.
Pittsburgh center fielder Oneil Cruz missed his fourth straight game with lower back tightness. He remains day-to-day but is getting a lot better, Kelly said. Key moments
Falter walked four of his first 10 batters and five overall in 3 2/3 innings. But he left the bases loaded by striking out Luis Torrens in the first. Shugart entered with the bags full again in the fourth and retired Jose Azocar to end the inning. Key stat
Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds, a two-time All-Star with a $106.75 million contract, is mired in an 0-for-21 slump. He has two hits in his last 45 at-bats, dropping his season average to .194. Up next
Pirates: Following a day off, Pittsburgh opens a three-game series in Philadelphia with LHP Andrew Heaney (2-3, 3.15 ERA) on the mound Friday night against Phillies LHP Ranger Suárez (1-0, 5.91).
Mets: RHP Tylor Megill (3-3, 3.10 ERA) pitches Friday night at Yankee Stadium against LHP Carlos Rodón (4-3, 3.29).
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The complainant at the centre of the Hockey Canada sexual assault case has 'come a long way,' lawyer Rob Talach says, from the young woman he took on as a client to sue the sports organization and players in 2022, sparking a national uproar and ultimately leading to criminal charges. The woman known to the public only as E.M. due to a publication ban on her identity alleged in graphic testimony earlier this year at the players' criminal trial that she was sexually assaulted by members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team in a room at the Delta Armouries hotel in London, Ont. in the early hours of June 19, 2018, when she was 20 years old. She faced intense cross-examination over seven days by five defence lawyers, all dissecting the events of that night and attacking her version, probing how much alcohol she drank, what she said to friends when, and whether she made up her allegations because she had cheated on her boyfriend, who is now her fiancé. Talach, who no longer represents E.M., thought his former client did well. 'The timid, quiet woman that I met as a client in the beginning clearly has grown in strength and confidence,' he told the Star in an interview. Former members of Canada's 2018 World Juniors hockey team, left to right, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Carter Hart as they individually arrived to court in London, in April. 'She faced top-notch criminal defence lawyers. She was poked and prodded on everything she said, thought, or offered as evidence. From the young lady that I first met, I think she's come a long way. 'Though the cross-examination was difficult and uncomfortable, I wouldn't suggest that it destroyed her. I think it gave her a chance to stand her ground and share her piece.' After hearing nearly eight weeks of evidence and legal arguments from April to June, Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is set to deliver Thursday her verdicts in the matter of former world juniors and NHL players Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, and Cal Foote. She could acquit or convict all of them, or deliver a mix of findings. It's a case that captured the country's attention and led to a reckoning about the handling of sexual misconduct in professional sports, and one that observers say helped to educate the public on what consent l ooks like in a sexual encounter. Regardless of what the judge decides, Talach believes the case will have made an impact. 'I think if guilty, it's hailed as a victory for survivors and a lesson for hockey culture,' Talach said. 'If it's a not-guilty verdict ... it was still a process for the accused, and I think it was a deep moment of reflection for Canadians with respect to our national sport.' The facts of the case are now well known. The world juniors were in London in 2018 to attend the Hockey Canada Foundation's annual Gala & Golf fundraising event and to receive their rings for winning the championship. After the gala on June 18, a number of players went out to Jack's Bar, where McLeod met E.M. and she returned to his room at the Delta where they had consensual sex. But other players began showing up in the room afterward, some prompted by a text McLeod sent to a group chat about a '3 way.' E.M. testified that the men laid a bedsheet on the floor and asked her to fondle herself, obtained oral sex from her while she was slapped and spat on, and engaged in vaginal intercourse. A screenshot of a group chat involving members of Canada's 2018 world junior championship team, including a text from Michael McLeod inviting his teammates to his hotel room for a three-way. The Crown has alleged that McLeod had intercourse with E.M. a second time in the hotel room's bathroom; that Formenton separately had intercourse with her in the bathroom; that McLeod, Hart and Dubé obtained oral sex from her; that Dubé slapped her naked buttocks, and that Foote did the splits over her head while she was lying on the ground and his genitals 'grazed' her face — all without her consent. The five men are charged with sexual assault, while McLeod faces a second charge of being a party to a sexual assault, for allegedly encouraging his teammates to engage in sexual activity with E.M. when he knew she wasn't consenting. While she never said no nor physically resisted, E.M. testified she felt numb and that her mind went on 'autopilot' as she engaged in the sexual activity as a way of protecting herself in a room full of men she didn't know while she was drunk and naked; she would later tell police and prosecutors she took on the 'persona' of a 'porn star' as a coping mechanism . 'I didn't know these men at all, I didn't know how they would react if I did try to say no or try to leave,' she testified. 'My mind just kind of shut down and let my body do what it thought it needed to do to keep me safe.' The Crown's case for sexual assault 'does not look the way it often does in the movies or on television,' prosecutors said in their closing arguments in June. 'The reality of what happened to E.M. is more nuanced. But it is equally a sexual assault, because she did not voluntarily agree to the sexual activity that took place in that room.' The players, meanwhile, maintained that E.M. was repeatedly demanding to have sex with men in the room and was becoming upset when few of them took her up on her offers. It's a version that some o f the accused players told London police when they first investigated in 2018, and which other players not charged with any wrongdoing offered up at trial when they testified for the Crown. 'She said, 'Can one of you guys come over and f--- me?'' former world junior Tyler Steenbergen testified in May . 'I feel like everyone was just kind of in shock that she had said that.' A photo of room 209 at the Delta Armouries hotel in London, Ont., marked up by Carter Hart during his testimony, depicting player Cal Foote doing the splits over the complainant on a bedsheet on the floor on June 19, 2018, as well as the positions of other players. McLeod, Formenton, and Dubé maintained that their sexual contact with E.M. was consensual when they spoke to London police in 2018, though Dubé didn't mention the slapping. Hart, the only pla yer t o testify in his own defence, said he asked for a 'blowie, meaning blowjob,' and that E.M. said 'yeah' or 'sure' before moving toward him and helping to take off his pants. Foote's lawyer said that the splits were a popular 'party trick' her client was known to do, but she argued there was no credible evidence showing he did the splits over E.M. without his pants and that his genitals touched her. 'There's not a lot of dispute around what went on physically in that room, and I don't think that's what a lot of parents are signing up their kids to learn in junior hockey,' Talach said. The first call to London police on June 19, 2018, came from E.M.'s mother, who found her daughter crying in the bathroom, struggling to explain what had happened. E.M.'s mother's partner called Hockey Canada, who forwarded the allegations to police. E.M. herself initially went back and forth on whether she wanted to see criminal charges laid, telling police at one point that she didn't want McLeod to get into trouble, but she also 'didn't want this happening to another girl either.' Police declined to lay charges in February 2019 after an eight-month investigation that included three interviews with E.M., reviewing surveillance and other video evidence, and interviewing most of the players now on trial. A composite image of London police Det. Steve Newton's handwritten notes on the complainant's comments during a June 26, 2018, photo-identification interview. Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton are all on trial for sexual assault. As the Star first re ported last May , the lead detective at the time had doubts about E.M.'s claim that she was too intoxicated to consent, after viewing footage of her walking unaided in heels up and down the hotel lobby stairs. And he wondered in his report whether she had been an 'active participant' in the hotel room, particularly after McLeod's lawyer shared two videos McLeod had taken of E.M. in the room. In one of them, she said: 'It was all consensual.' But everything changed in the spring of 2022, when TSN reported that Hockey Canada had quickly settled, for an undisclosed sum, E.M.'s $3.5-million sexual assault lawsuit against the organization and eight unnamed John Doe players. The public backlash was fierce, as sponsors began pulling out and Hockey Canada executives were called to testify before Parliament. And it also led to the revelation by the Globe and Mail that Hockey Canada had been using a fund partly made up of players' registration fees to pay millions of dollars to respond to sexual assault allegations. 'Parents across the country are losing faith or have lost faith in Hockey Canada,' then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in 2022. 'Certainly, politicians here in Ottawa have lost faith in Hockey Canada.' The growing scandal put pressure on London police too, prompting them to reopen their investigation and ultimately deciding they had grounds to lay criminal charges against the five players. At a packed news conference announcing the charges in early 2024, London police chief Thai Truong apologized to E.M. for the time it had taken to get to that point. Parents across the country are losing faith or have lost faith in Hockey Canada E.M. herself was actually 'quit e upset' when she was told police were reopening the case, court heard this year, with the lead detective testifying she felt she was 'opening up some wounds' that E.M. had been trying to close. The defence at trial argued that, after being told by police in 2019 of the 'deficiencies' in her version of events, E.M. and her lawyers cooked up a new 'terror narrative' — that she went along with everything in the room because she was scared — as part of her lawsuit, and it's that version that she then offered up in court at the criminal trial. Talach said he doesn't know what led Hockey Canada to quickly settle. (The players hadn't been told of the organization's intention, or even that a claim had been filed.) 'It obviously signalled an interest in Hockey Canada dealing with this quickly; now is that because they're fair and just individuals? Maybe,' he said. 'Is that because they knew there's a lot of this in their world and they don't want to highlight it, like what's happened to the church and the scouts? Maybe.' London police chose not to re-interview E.M. as part of their reopened probe, with lead detective Lyndsey Ryan testifying she felt it would be re-traumatizing . What police did have in 2022 was a new written statement shared by E.M. outlining her allegations, a statement she had also sent to a separate investigation being done by Hockey Canada . At trial, E.M. acknowledged under cross-examination by the defence that the statement contained errors, but blamed her civil lawyers — Talach — who helped draft it. 'I think with the passage of time and the level of scrutiny on the facts, the picture may have become more focused, but the best was done with what was had at the time,' Talach told the Star. Carroccia will undoubtedly be delivering her verdicts to a packed courtroom Thursday morning, while supporters are expected to rally outside the courthouse, just as they did during E.M.'s testimony in the spring. It was not supposed to be like this; the five players would long ago have learned their fates but for the fact that not one, but two juries had to be dismissed by Carroccia, causing the case to finish as a judge-alone trial. The first jury was sent home after having only heard the Crown's opening statement and brief testimony from a police detective, after a juror reported an encounter with Formenton's lawyer Hilary Dudding over the lunch break, though there were conflicting reports over what was said. The second jury was discharged two days after E.M. had completed her testimony , when a juror reported that 'multiple jurors' felt that Dudding and co-counsel Daniel Brown were mocking them, something the lawyers strenuously denied. Michael McLeod films a selfie video with the complainant on the dance floor inside Jack's Bar. While a jury verdict typically comes much quicker, the benefit of a judge-alone trial is that the judge provides detailed reasons for their decision. The courtroom where it will happen is the largest at the London courthouse, and was previously used for the infamous Bandidos murder trial, in which six men were convicted in the mass slaying of eight men connected to the biker gang in 2006. During the Hockey Canada trial, the multiple prisoner's boxes along one side of the room remained empty, as the accused players, who are all out of custody, each sat at a table with their legal teams. In the publi c gallery, McLeod's parents sat in the centre of the front row each day of the trial; Hart's mother and Dubé's relatives were also often in attendance. A series of text messages between Michael McLeod and the complainant after she alleges he and four other members of the Canadian world junior hockey team sexually assaulted her in a London hotel room. E.M. was beamed into the courtroom via CCTV from a different room at the courthouse during her testimony, while the courtroom's background was blurred on the screen so that she couldn't see the players. Court documents reveal that while she was scared and anxious, E.M. initially believed she might be able to testify in person. But after sitting in the witness box during a tour of the courthouse before the trial, she began to cry. This prompted the Crown to ask that she testify remotely, an application that wasn't challenged by the defence. 'While E.M. would tell the truth regardless of mode of testimony, testifying in the courtroom in front of the accused would potentially prevent her from providing a complete account of the allegations,' according to an affidavit filed in January by the Crown from London police Const. Amanda Corsaut, who had interviewed E.M. this year. 'She has not seen any of the five defendants since the alleged events occurred. She is scared that they may be angry. E.M. worries it may be re-traumatizing for her to see them and testify in front of them.' As the Star first reported in May , Meaghan Cunningham, the province's lead sexual assault prosecutor as chair of the Crown office's sexual violence advisory group, warned E.M. last year that it was 'not a really, really strong case,' but that a conviction was possible. She said that while most news articles from 2022 'accept as true what is in your statement of claim' from the lawsuit, the public's view of the case could shift by the end of the trial. I think Canada has probably grown a bit as a nation There is a 'real possibility that the current perception of what happened could change,' Cunningham said, according to notes from a meeting with E.M. Talach said he believes E.M. went through with it all due to wanting a mix of accountability, healing, and prevention. And her actions motivated the public to push for change. 'Regardless of the outcome, I think Canada has probably grown a bit as a nation,' he said. 'And hockey has had to sit up and take notice of some important issues that we'll continue to discuss.'
Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
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Who are Indiana football breakout players for 2025? A 'freak,' a transfer and a bunch on defense
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At Big Ten media days, three of IU's top returners — Kamara, Fisher and Sarratt — identified players on their side of the ball with the biggest breakout potential: Indiana football linebacker Rolijah Hardy is a 'freak' Fisher's answer is the same as it was at the end of last season when he anticipated a bright future for fellow linebacker Rolijah Hardy, one of the only true freshman on the team last year to have a prominent role outside of special teams. Hardy remains attached at the hip to Fisher as he eyes replacing Jailin Walker in the starting lineup for the Hoosiers. 'He's developing really well, mentally, his mindset has shifted from being that young guy to leading the room, which is really good going forward,' Fisher said. 'I think the game has slowed down for him." The part of his game that didn't need any work was his elite physical tools. 'He's a freak,' Fisher said. 'He can run, he can jump, he can lift. Everything you want from a linebacker, he can do physically.' Hardy was a multi-sport athlete at Lakeland (Florida) High School who earned All-State honors in basketball. Fisher can attest that Hardy hasn't lost a step on the hardwood. 'Bro is pretty good,' Fisher said, with a laugh. 'We did a three-on-three last year, and he stole the show." Indiana football receiver Makai Jackson ready to flip the switch Makai Jackson didn't get to show what he was capable of during spring camp thanks to a lingering hamstring, but his teammate said it's only a matter of time before he makes his presence felt in Bloomington. 'I know what he can do,' Sarratt said. 'I've seen it with my eyes. He's looked great in the summer, and his body been keeping up." Jackson earned third-team All-Sun Belt honors in 2024 with 46 catches for 745 yards (16.2 yards per catch) and five touchdowns. He closed out the season with back-to-back 100-yard performances against James Madison and Georgia Southern. He landed at Appalachian State after spending playing alongside Sarratt as a freshman for St. Frances (Pennsylvania). He's a big play threat — he had 12 catches of 20 yards or more through the air (tied for sixth in the FBS) for 419 yards last season — capable of playing at outside receiver and in the slot. "He's a gamer, once he get in that game or the ball gets in his hands, the switch flips,' Sarratt said. Indiana football defensive end Mikail Kamara surrounded by impact players Kamara cheated a little bit, but he rattled off a long list of breakout candidates on the defensive line that included both underclassmen and veteran transfers. 'I feel like anyone on our defensive line could do it,' Kamara said. He started by hyping up sophomore Mario Landino, a former 3-star signee out of Emmaus High School in Pennsylvania. He got his feet wet last year — he had six tackles, one forced fumble, seven quarterback pressures while playing 140 snaps as a true freshman. 'I'm expecting huge strides from him,' Kamara said. 'He put on about 20 pounds, he's still twitchy and still looks really good.' Indiana has a wide-open competition at the defensive end spot opposite Kamara with Landino competing for playing time with fellow sophomore Daniel Ndukwe and spring transfers Kellan Wyatt and Stephen Daley. Wyatt and Daley hit the ground running while taking part in IU's summer workouts. "They have acclimated really well,' Kamara said. 'I know once we get to camp I'll show them a little bit more specifics as far as the scheme and how they can manipulate what we got going on. Just raw talent? Stephen is a freak, he's athletic, just crazy. Kellan is sharp up top, he can really move well, he's quick and fast. I'm excited to have a good three-man rotation." Kamara is also excited about IU's new duo at defensive tackle, Hosea Wheeler and Tyrique Tucker, who are looking to replace James Carpenter and CJ West. Tucker backed up Carpenter going back to their days at James Madison while Wheeler was a dominant run stuffer last season for Western Kentucky. 'Tyrique, he played a lot of games last year, I expect a lot out of him,' Kamara said. 'Hosea transferred in from WKU, and works his butt off. I just feel it could be a different guy on any given day (making plays).'
