Mike

Mike Trout said Friday he is unlikely to participate in the All-Star home run derby in Philadelphia because of his strained right hamstring.

Trout expects to return from the injury in plenty of time to play in the July 14 All-Star Game, but it likely will prevent the Angels center fielder from joining the home run-hitting contest the night before.

“They asked me when we were in Sacramento [last weekend], but I probably won’t do it,” Trout said before the Angels’ game against the Athletics. “It would have been cool to do it, but the injury kind of threw things off.”

Trout, a three-time American League MVP and 11-time All-Star, has turned down numerous invitations to participate in the derby because he felt the high volume of maximum-effort swings the event requires would throw him off at the plate.

He always maintained that he would take part in the derby at least once before he retires, and this seemed to be the year to do it, with All-Star Game festivities in Citizens Bank Park about 45 miles north of his hometown of Millville, N.J.

Trout, who’s among American League leaders with 17 homers, fueled more speculation that he would participate in the derby last weekend when he told USA Today that he was “considering” it.

But Trout, placed on the 10-day injured list on June 18, had a change of heart over the last week.

“When it came out that the All-Star Game was in Philly, I thought it definitely would have been cool to do,” said Trout, who ranks second behind New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge in All-Star voting for AL outfielders. “Then I hurt my leg, so I’m leaning toward not doing it.”

SACRAMENTO — Angels outfielder Mike Trout is back on the injured list.

The team announced before Thursday night’s 5-0 loss to the Athletics that the 11-time All-Star was put on the 10-day IL due to a right hamstring strain. The Angels recalled infielder Christian Moore from Triple-A Salt Lake among a flurry of moves.

Injuries have hindered Trout for much of this decade. Since winning his third AL MVP award in 2019, Trout has played more than 82 games in a season just twice — 119 in 2022 and 130 in 2025.

The 34-year-old Trout had played in 74 of 75 games this year in a resurgent season. He’s batting .234 with an .866 OPS, 17 homers, 36 RBIs and seven steals.

He entered Thursday with an AL-leading 54 runs, a total that was tied for second in the majors behind Washington’s James Wood. Trout’s 66 walks also ranked second in the big leagues, behind the Athletics’ Nick Kurtz.

Trout had the second-highest vote count of any AL outfielder in the All-Star Game balloting totals that were released this week. He grew up near Philadelphia, where this year’s All-Star Game will take place next month.

The injury to Trout created an opportunity for Moore, who was hitting .333 with a .468 on-base percentage, nine homers, 45 RBIs and 10 steals in 51 games at Salt Lake while playing second base, third base and the outfield.

Moore hit .198 with a .284 on-base percentage, seven homers, 16 RBIs and three steals in 53 games with the Angels last season.

In other moves, the Angels recalled right-hander Ryan Johnson from double-A Rocket City, released left-hander Drew Pomeranz and optioned right-hander Brett Kerry and catcher Logan Porter to Salt Lake.

In Thursday’s game, Gage Jump gave up one hit over seven innings, and Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom hit back-to-back homers in a five-run first for the Athletics.

The first six A’s batters got hits off Johnson, who was recalled before the game.

PHOENIX — Mike Trout hit a two-run home run and an RBI double for the Angels in a 7-0 shutout of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday night.

Trout’s 436-foot two-run shot to center came in the fifth inning and gave the Angels a 5-0 lead, and his sixth-inning double drove in Denzer Guzman.

Reid Detmers (3-5) worked seven innings for the Angels, giving up no runs and three hits while striking out three. He has given up three or fewer earned runs in each of his past five outings and nine of his last 10.

Wade Meckler hit an RBI single in the second to get the Angels on the board first, followed by a solo home run by Zach Neto in the third. Donovan Walton hit an RBI single in the fourth and a ground-rule double in the eighth to bring Logan O’Hoppe across.

The Angels combined for 14 hits, paced by O’Hoppe’s three-for-four night.

Adrian Del Castillo got the first hit of the game for the Diamondbacks in the third inning. Ketel Marte and Geraldo Perdomo both singled in the sixth, and Corbin Carroll had a one-out infield base hit in the ninth. Arizona went 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position and stranded five baserunners.

Kirby Yates and Chase Silseth combined for two scoreless innings of relief to close out the game.

Merrill Kelly (5-6) gave up 11 hits and six earned runs in 5 1/3 innings for Arizona. He struck out four and walked one.

June 17 (UPI) — Rep. Mike Collins was projected Tuesday night to win Georgia’s Republican Senate primary runoff, defeating former football coach Derek Dooley as voters cast ballots in contests across the country.

The Collins-Dooley race was the highest-profile race on a primary night.

President Donald Trump has loomed large over November’s midterm elections, encouraging GOP-led states to redraw congressional maps, warning of impeachment and investigations if Democrats win control of the House and endorsing candidates who align with his agenda.

The Georgia Senate runoff drew national attention as a race that could help decide control of the Senate and test Trump’s influence in a battleground state.

Collins of Georgia’s 10th Congressional District ran with Trump’s endorsement, while Dooley had the support of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

With all 159 localities reporting, Collins had secured 55.5% of the vote to Dooley’s 44.4%, according to unofficial results from the office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Collins, speaking to supporters Tuesday night, projected an image of GOP unity, stating he had spoken with both Dooley, thanking him for running a “spirited campaign,” and Kemp “for his leadership and his friendship over the years.”

“We’re going to have some robust primaries out there. Sometimes, we got some strong disagreements, but I can tell you we stand united around one mission,” he said to applause.

“That’s right. And y’all know what the mission is: Is to put a Republican in that seat and get rid of that Jon Ossoff in November.”

Ossoff, a Democrat, won the Senate seat in 2021, flipping control of the chamber from the Republicans.

In his victory speech, Collins attacked Ossoff for voting in favor of President Joe Biden‘s landmark Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan as well as voting against banning transgender athletes from competing in female-segregated sports.

Following Collins’ victory, Ossoff attacked him on social media, calling him a “notorious bigot, antisemite and extremist” who is being investigated by the House Committee on Ethics for illegal misuse of tax dollars.

“Collins, who is only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman, voted to double health insurance premiums for more than a million Georgians, for the Iran War and for the Trump tariffs,” he said in a statement.

Dooley conceded defeat.

“While tonight didn’t go our way, I want you to know that I’ll continue to be in this fight,” he said on social media.

“No matter who you voted for or what you believe, one thing we all can agree on is Jon Ossoff does not represent our Georgia values. In November, we’re sending him to the bench!”

Trump endorsed Collins on Friday after early voting ended, while Kemp endorsed Dooley in August.

But Tuesday night was not a clean sweep for Trump-backed candidates in Georgia. Rick Jackson, the billionaire founder of Jackson Healthcare, was poised to defeat Trump-endorsed Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in the GOP governor runoff race.

According to unofficial results, Jackson had secured 52.65% of the vote share to Jones’ 47%.

The Georgia governor’s mansion is up for grabs as Kemp, a Republican, has been term limited. He faced Democrat Stacy Abrams in the last two gubernatorial elections.

Jones had won 38% of the vote in the primary election last month. Jackson received 32% of the vote. The runoff was scheduled as neither candidate surpassed the 50% threshold needed to win the GOP nomination outright.

Joe Fisher contributed reporting.

PHOENIX — Pavin Smith hit a tiebreaking, solo homer off the right-field foul pole, Ryne Nelson threw seven quality innings, and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Angels 4-3 on Monday night.

Smith broke a 2-2 tie in the seventh when he launched his first homer in nearly a calendar year. The veteran first baseman — who came into the game with a .103 batting average — has spent most of this season on the injured list after surgery to remove bone chips in his left elbow.

Geraldo Perdomo added an RBI double later in the seventh that made it 4-2. Paul Sewald gave up a solo homer to Donovan Walton with two outs in the ninth but struck out Oswald Peraza to earn his 18th save in 19 chances.

Nelson (3-5) gave up two runs, scattering nine hits and striking out five. The right-hander has thrown at least seven innings in five of his last seven starts.

Angels slugger Mike Trout hit his 16th homer, an opposite-field shot, to tie the score 2-2 in the fifth. It was the three-time MVP’s 420th career home run.

Walbert Ureña (4-5) threw seven innings for the Angels, giving up four runs (three earned).

The Angels (29-44) grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first on Jo Adell’s double down the right-field line that brought home Trout. The Diamondbacks (37-35) tied it in the bottom half on Gabriel Moreno’s single.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. returned to Arizona’s lineup after missing roughly three weeks because of a strained left hamstring. He had an RBI single in the fourth.

Up next: The Diamondbacks throw RHP Merrill Kelly (5-5, 5.46 ERA), while the Angels counter with LHP Reid Detmers (2-5, 4.00) on Tuesday.

Jose Siri hit a game-winning single in the 10th inning, Mike Trout and Logan O’Hoppe homered, and the Angels beat the Houston Astros 3-2 on Wednesday night.

Angels starter Reid Detmers retired his first 15 batters before Shay Whitcomb homered leading off the sixth. Chase Silseth replaced Detmers to begin the eighth and gave up a leadoff homer to Cam Smith that tied it 2-all.

Houston nearly took the lead in the ninth. Yordan Alvarez singled with two out and Christian Walker followed with a double that appeared to score Alvarez. But the Angels challenged the safe call at home plate and it was overturned following a replay review.

Bryan Abreu (2-3) came on for the Astros in the 10th and pinch-hitter Donovan Walton hit a leadoff single that moved automatic runner Nick Madrigal from second to third. Siri, facing one of his former teams, then hit an 0-2 pitch to left field to drive in Madrigal.

Ryan Zeferjahn (3-3) worked a scoreless inning for the win.

Trout launched his 15th homer to open the scoring in the first, and O’Hoppe’s drive with two out in the fifth made it 2-0.

Peter Lambert gave up two runs and five hits with six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings for Houston.

Detmers permitted only one hit over seven innings. He struck out nine and walked none. The left-hander is third in the American League with 97 strikeouts and has given up three or fewer earned runs in eight of his last nine starts.

Alvarez extended his on-base streak to 17 games.

Mike Trout hit a two-run homer, Nolan Schanuel added an RBI double and the Angels clinched a series win with a 5-2 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.

Zach Neto walked to open the bottom of the first inning before Trout launched his 13th home run over the center-field wall for a 2-0 lead. Neto scored again in the fifth on Schanuel’s double to make it 3-1.

Schanuel exited after his hit with left calf tightness. Vaughn Grissom took over at first base.

Oswald Peraza added insurance in the eighth with a two-run single.

Walbert Ureña (2-4) threw five innings, yielding one run and five hits while striking out six. Kirby Yates earned his first save of the season by pitching a hitless ninth.

Nathan Eovaldi (5-5) gave up three runs and five hits in seven innings while striking out six for the Rangers.

Ezequiel Duran hit a sacrifice fly in the second for Texas’ first run, and Kyle Higashioka added his third homer in the seventh on a 395-foot shot to center.

The Angels had more hits (eight) than strikeouts (six) for the second consecutive game and have won two in a row for the first time since May 5-6.

Burnley interim manager Mike Jackson is pleased with the way his side kept themselves in the game in their 1-0 defeat at Arsenal and is unhappy Kai Havertz was not sent off in the second half.

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 1-0 Burnley

Available to UK users only.

The Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini saga has been forever subtly immortalized in a Chargers schedule release video.

It seemed inevitable that the Chargers’ social media team would poke fun at the NFL’s biggest offseason story, and they did just that Thursday in their 2026 schedule release video.

In the Halo-themed video, the Chargers made a couple references to the ongoing drama when revealing their Thanksgiving weekend game against the New England Patriots. A sign with the words “Next Photo Dump 1 Mile” was in the video as was a pop-up notification from the New York Post, which broke the story about the Patriots coach and the former Athletic reporter. You can watch the video here:

This isn’t surprising. The Chargers’ last game was a playoff loss to Vrabel’s Patriots, so nothing short of an edict from the NFL probably would have stopped the franchise’s social media team from referencing the Vrabel-Russini controversy.

And when “Inside the NBA” put Vrabel and Russini in a “Gone Fishing” mock photo earlier this month, it probably sent some NFL social media teams into a frenzy. If ESPN, which is 10% owned by the NFL, can get away with that, why couldn’t they?

It’s good the NFL isn’t as buttoned up as it used to be regarding its public image, although it’s probably wishing this story would go away.

IN the weeks before we lost The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson on June 11 last year, he had two special visitors. 

They were the group’s surviving founder members, his first cousin Mike Love, and his best friend from college, Al Jardine. 

It was their chance to say goodbye to the man who, above anyone, brought “good vibrations” to the world and created their 1966 magnum opus Pet Sounds. 

First to venture up the drive at Brian’s Beverly Hills mansion for one last time was Jardine.  

“I last saw him at the very end,” he says. “I came up to the house and he just pointed at me. 

“He said, ‘You started the band’, and I went, ‘Wait, come on, Brian, I’m sure you had a little something to do with it!’ 

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“He was very direct at times — he could be very unfiltered — but I think our friendship meant a lot to him. 

“He was always my best friend, right from when we started out.” 

Despite Brian’s well-documented struggles with mental health, Jardine insists that his old buddy never lost his passion for music. 

“His reputation remains solid,” he adds, before supplying an answer to his own question: “What’s the term? Legend.  

“His work will be appreciated for centuries to come. He had his own style. Just listen to his arrangements and his chord changes — they’re just so unusual.  

“His brother Dennis actually said it first, ‘Brian is The Beach Boys’. He created our sound and, as Mike Love would say, he heard things we couldn’t hear.” 

Of his last visit to Brian, Love says: “A couple of weeks before he passed away, I was able to go and see him. 

“We had a great time. We sang together, actually, which was a lot of fun.” 

Love leads the latest incarnation of The Beach Boys, keeping their songs alive in concert, including Pet Sounds classics God Only Knows, Wouldn’t It Be Nice and Sloop John B.  

“Brian’s still with us every night in that music,” he affirms 

If Brian, younger brothers Carl and Dennis, Mike and Al started out by singing about surfing, girls and open-top cars in the California sun, it was the elder Wilson sibling who took things to the next level with Pet Sounds. 

A themed song cycle employing pioneering production techniques, sublime harmonies, divine melodies and darker, soul-searching lyrics, it is regarded as Brian’s masterpiece.

He had been impressed with The Beatles’ sonic adventures on Rubber Soul — now he was pushing The Beach Boys to raise the bar higher, in turn inspiring their chart rivals to make Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. 

Paul McCartney maintains that God Only Knows is his favourite song and that Pet Sounds is among his top three albums.  

He once enthused: “The musical invention on that is, like, ‘Wow!’  

“I just thought, ‘Oh dear me, this is THE album of all time, what the hell are we gonna do?’” 

To mark its 60th anniversary, The Pet Sounds Sessions — including demos, alternate takes and outtakes — are receiving digital, CD and vinyl editions. They feature a host of a cappella tracks shining the spotlight on the breathtaking harmonies.  

Which is why I’m speaking to Brian’s bandmates via video calls that seem entirely appropriate for singers who epitomise California’s sunny beach vibes.  

As we’re connected, Love, 85, reports that he’s “driving down the Pacific Coast Highway outside of Malibu”. 

In a separate call, Jardine, 83, is sitting in his solarium under clear blue skies in Monterey, gateway to the rugged Big Sur coastal region. 

First, Love gives me insights into his Beach Boys journey, leading up to the groundbreaking Pet Sounds.  

His mother Glee was the sister of Murry Wilson, father of Brian, Carl and Dennis, “so every holiday — Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Fourth of July — and birthday was celebrated with music. 

“When Brian and I were teens, we’d get together and sing or listen to the radio, hearing groups like The Everly Brothers.” 

When they formed The Beach Boys, the clean-cut image involving surfing, sun and girls was, he says, “environmental because we lived a few miles from the sea”. 

Love continues: “We would often go to the beach for family outings. There, you’d find people who dressed a certain way, talked a certain way and had a certain attitude.  

“They were the surfers who inspired our first song, Surfin’ [released in 1961].” 

As to whether The Beach Boys joined the craze, he adds: “Dennis, Al and I had surfboards but we weren’t the greatest athletes. We appreciated it though, and we gave it a shot. 

“I’m not sure Brian ever tried it. He could only hear out of one ear and didn’t have much balance. You need all the balance you can get when you’re surfing.” 

Love recalls how he would “sit down at the piano with Brian while he figured out chord progressions, tempos and melodies.  

“I felt it was up to me to come up with lyrics and sing lead on songs we were working on together such as Surfin’ USA, I Get Around and Fun Fun Fun.” 

Jardine, who currently fronts The Pet Sounds Band of ace Brian Wilson associates, also casts his mind back to the early days but is interrupted by “actual pet sounds”. 

“Hang on a second, we have a little dog outside and he’s barking — I gotta shut him up,” he reports.  

When calm returns, I ask Jardine how he came to form a band with three brothers and their cousin in 1961.  

He answers: “Well, Brian and I were classmates in high school but didn’t really know each other. 

“We were on the football team — he was quarterback and I was full back. He would call the plays, either pitching the ball to me or somebody else. 

“But we didn’t interact until we went to college. I’d heard him in concert and, in our second year, I bumped into him on campus and said, ‘We gotta start a band’.  

“We walked over to the music room and started playing music for each other.  

“I’d already been in a folk group and, when he heard me sing, he realised I had a gift. 

“Then he said, ‘I’ve got my little brothers and my cousin, Mike. I’ll introduce you to them. I rented instruments from a local music store but we didn’t know how to express ourselves at first, so we just sang a cappella. 

“Once we finally got around the piano, we were off and running. 

“I soon realised that Brian was a fine-tuned instrument. He had a great voice, a great knack for composition and already had a duet thing going on with Mike.” 

As for the surfer image, Jardine credits Dennis Wilson, the family rebel who played the drums. He says: “Dennis was a surfer and the rest of us were land lovers. He taught me how to surf but I sank like a stone. 

“But surfing was the craze so we put lyrics to our first song and called it Surfin’.” 

In 1964, Brian dropped the bombshell that he was stepping back from touring to concentrate on studio work.  

Love provides this insight into his cousin’s state of mind: “Brian wasn’t comfortable on the road — he got nervous and unhappy. He missed home and he missed the studio. 

“It was a drag to see him leave the live group but it was in his best interests.” 

Afforded fewer distractions, Brian applied himself to Pet Sounds and, in tandem with it, the sophisticated sonic miracle Good Vibrations — a standalone hit deemed not a good fit for the album. 

This period coincided with his experiments with LSD and marijuana.  

He once stated that drugs helped him achieve a deeper level of creativity but later expressed regrets over the damage to his mental health. 

Because of the complexity, Brian needed longer than usual to finish Pet Sounds so The Beach Boys released a stopgap party album, yielding one of their biggest hits, Barbara Ann. 

Then, after a tour of Japan in January 1966, with Bruce Johnston taking Brian’s place, Carl, Dennis, Mike, Al and Bruce returned for the momentous sessions.  

In their absence, Brian had employed lyricist Tony Asher and crack session musicians the Wrecking Crew, including, among many, Glen Campbell on guitar and banjo. 

Love says: “The tracks Brian had done were completely amazing. Our main job was to finish them vocally and we worked very hard.” 

One of the songs was God Only Knows, which he says was “sung so beautifully by my cousin Carl”. 

“We lost him many years ago to lung cancer. For concerts these days, my son Christian sings lead.” 

So what was Carl like? “He was our musical director on stage and the most proficient musician in the group,” replies Love. 

Jardine adds: “Carl could knock it out of the park. He was right in the centre of our harmonies with Mike’s baritone below and me higher, with Brian higher still.” 

And what about Dennis, who had a wild reputation and later befriended cult leader and killer Charles Manson? 

Love says: “He lived a dangerous life because of the alcohol and drugs he got involved with. He died [from drowning] in 1983.” 

Jardine adds: “Dennis was our Keith Moon. Oh boy, all he had to do was just stand up on stage and the crowd would go nuts.” 

It was self-confessed folkie Jardine who brought Bahamian sea shanty Sloop John B to Brian. He says: “I was a Kingston Trio fan. They were big Capitol Records guys, same label as us, and they wore striped shirts.  

“Learning all their songs was my musical training. When the time came to start The Beach Boys, I went out and bought striped shirts for us. 

“Sloop John B was my idea. I said, ‘Brian, if we add one major and one minor chord, it’ll sound like us instead of The Kingston Trio’. 

“He put it to good use. It became Pet Sounds’ lead single. Capitol always wanted a hit to sell an album.” 

Recalling the sessions, Jardine says that Brian’s abilities had been “growing exponentially” while they’d been away. 

“In spite of our jet lag, we were in the studio the day after we got home from Japan. We were extremely impressed with Brian’s arrangements. 

“People forget that he was a masterful producer. He knew the language. He could go into a studio and the studio became an instrument for him.” 

That said, it wasn’t all plain sailing, as Jardine explains: “Mike didn’t like the lyrics on some songs so he insisted on changing a couple around.  

“He thought a song called Hang On To Your Ego was too sophisticated for our crowd so he changed it to I Know There’s An Answer.” 

The story of Pet Sounds wouldn’t be complete without mention of the album title and cover shot of the boys among the goats at San Diego Zoo. Love says: “Brian didn’t know what to call the album.

“At the end [of final track Caroline, No], you hear a train going by and dogs are barking.  

“Those were Brian and [first wife] Marilyn’s dogs. So I said, ‘Why don’t we call it Pet Sounds? It was a double entendre, of course — and it stuck.” 

Jardine picks up the story of the photo shoot: “It was a total mystery to me.  

“We had to drive to San Diego, which was 200 miles away. We had our own zoo in Los Angeles, for God’s sake!” 

The resulting album cover has a quaint charm but it’s not exactly up there with Sgt Pepper’s iconic Peter Blake design. 

Love smiles at the memory and says: “I was in India at the Maharishi’s place when Paul McCartney and I had a conversation one night. 

“He was saying, ‘Mike, you ought to take more care with your album covers’. 

“So I told him, ‘Paul, you’re absolutely right.

We should’. 

“But we always felt that what went into the sleeve was more important than the cover itself.” 

And speaking of goats, to many including Macca, Pet Sounds is the GOAT. 

THE BEACH BOYS 

The Pet Sounds Session Highlights 

★★★★★

Mike Trout, Jorge Soler and Zach Neto hit home runs, Ryan Zeferjahn worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning and the Angels held on for a 4-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night.

Zeferjahn hit a batter and walked two in the ninth before retiring Edgar Quero on a groundout for his first save this season and his third in 10 career opportunities. The right-hander struck out rookie home run leader Munetaka Murakami — tied with the Yankees’ Aaron Judge at 14 — with a runner on first to get the final out in the eighth.

Trout hit his 11th homer of the season and the 415th of his career with one out in the first off Erick Fedde (0-4) after Chicago scored two runs off Sam Aldegheri in the top half.

Soler followed with his eighth homer one out later to tie it 2-2.

Neto homered for the first time since April 10, a tiebreaking two-out shot in the fifth for his sixth of the season. Trout walked for the second time before scoring from first on a double by Nolan Schanuel to make it 4-2 and chase Fedde. Trout reached base four times with a single in the eighth.

Neto ended an 0-for-23 slump with a third-inning single before getting picked off.

Chase Meidroth hit his second homer leading off the seventh against Sam Bachman to get Chicago within 4-3. Both Colson Montgomery and Miguel Vargas extended their on-base streaks to 18 games for the Sox.

José Fermin (1-1) pitched a scoreless fifth for the win. Aldegheri gave up two runs on four hits in four innings in his sixth career start.

Fedde yielded four runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings.

The top four hitters in the Angels’ lineup drove in a run for the first time since June 18, 2021, against the Tigers.

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson has lamented he would like to preside over a “normal Congress,” but the chamber the Republican is leading is anything but.

All-night sessions. Hours of dead zones with no action on the floor. Legislation being written on the fly, behind closed doors. Sudden votes scheduled. Spectacular failures. And, as happened this week, stunning turnarounds in which the House actually passes bills.

“Sometimes it’s an ugly process, sometimes it’s a long process,” Johnson said after House passage of a bipartisan bill to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, ending the longest agency shutdown in history. “But we got it done.”

Republicans, who face an uphill climb this election year to keep hold of their paper-thin House majority, appear at times as if they are still learning on the job, years after having returned to power in 2022, while they are also about to ask voters in November to rehire them for another term.

This week’s starts and stops — for example, five hours of delay as Johnson huddled behind closed doors to salvage his agenda, then a sudden vote tally near 11 p.m. — would typically have been the kind of situation that shocked the political and procedural senses. Now, it’s just another Wednesday.

Or two weeks ago, when a routine House Rules Committee hearing ended up becoming a midnight forum to debut a just-produced 14-page bill to revise a surveillance bill, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, before it was rushed to the floor for a 2 a.m. vote. It failed.

“House Republicans have shown again that they can’t govern,” said Rep. Ted Lieu of California, part of Democratic leadership.

“They routinely pass bills to the Senate that are way too extreme, then it ends up that we have all these floor session days where we’re just doing nothing,” he said.

House GOP’s slim majority makes leader’s job challenging

Johnson, who took over for the ousted Kevin McCarthy more than two years ago, is presiding over one of the slimmest House majorities in modern times, leaving him no room to spare if he’s trying to pass legislation on party-line votes, without Democrats.

The speaker is juggling not only President Trump’s priorities but also those of the various factions that make up his majority, from the conservative House Freedom Caucus to what remains of the GOP’s more pragmatic conservatives.

And Johnson’s own future is always in question, after Republicans chased other speakers, including McCarthy, John Boehner and Newt Gingrich, to early exits.

Last year Johnson, of Louisiana, led passage of the party’s signature achievement, a big bill of tax breaks and safety net cuts, which Trump signed into law. At the time, he quipped about the difficulty of getting it over the finish line.

“I do so deeply desire to have just a normal Congress,” the speaker said in July.

“But it doesn’t happen anymore,” he said. “Our way is to plow through and get it done.”

What’s ahead as House GOP tries to stay in power

Ahead of the fall elections, Johnson and other Republican lawmakers have discussed an agenda that includes the promise of another GOP-only budget package like the tax cuts bill that they could push through the House and the Senate, without Democratic votes.

Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said Thursday that he expects “the centerpiece” of that package “will be supporting our troops” with more than $100 billion in funding for the war against Iran as well as money to replenish defense munitions and other Pentagon-related needs.

Despite the turbulent week in the House, Arrington said what they’re calling “Budget reconciliation 3.0” should be the “next order of business.”

Yet GOP lawmakers may decide it’s better to skip the hard work of legislating, and the dramatic upheavals that tend to come with it, and hit the campaign trail to win over voters instead.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House GOP’s campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, acknowledged that trying to pass legislation with such a tight majority “can be rough. It’s ugly.”

“I’d be fine with letting us go home and campaign,” Hudson said. “But we’ve got a lot of important work still to do.”

Some of Johnson’s most ardent sparring partners, those most conservative Republican lawmakers, turned their blame for the messy process not on Johnson’s leadership but on their own GOP allies across the Capitol in the Senate, who often dismiss the House’s work.

“Yeah, sometimes, it gets a little tense,” said Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. “But we’re still getting stuff done. We’re sending it over to the Senate. So we look forward to them doing their job.”

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press.

Mike Trout homered, Nolan Schanuel homered and hit a three-run double and Jose Soriano worked five shutout innings as the Angels beat the Toronto Blue Jays 7-3 on Wednesday to avoid a series sweep.

Trout’s eighth homer of the season was a 428-foot solo shot in the bottom of the fifth. That hit tied the 34-year-old Trout with the late Garret Anderson for the Angels’ franchise record of 796 extra-base hits. Anderson died last week of an acute necrotizing pancreatitis at the age of 53.

Soriano, who is 5-0, gave up three hits and struck out five in five innings before leaving with a 3-0 lead. He lowered his ERA to an MLB-leading 0.24. The 27-year-old right-hander is the first MLB pitcher since 1900 to allow no more than one run in the first six starts of a season, and he has the lowest ERA (with a minimum of 30 innings pitched) through a pitcher’s first six starts of a season since 1913, when earned runs became official in both leagues.

Despite his impressive outing, Soriano did not figure in the decision after the Blue Jays rallied in the seventh. Ernie Clement’s RBI single with two out cut the deficit to 3-1. Toronto then capitalized on a walk, an error and an RBI double by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., tying the game at 3.

The Angels countered in the bottom half. Schanuel, who hit a solo homer in the fourth, hit a three-run double to left that gave the Angels a 6-3 lead. They added another run on Hunter Renfroe’s RBI single.

Brent Suter (1-1) struck out two and worked a scoreless seventh for the win. Tommy Nance (0-2) allowed two runs in 1 1/3 innings and took the loss.

Mike Vrabel doesn’t want to be a distraction.

The New England Patriots coach knows that much of the chatter around his team in recent weeks has nothing to do with the reigning AFC champions’ offseason workouts or their plans for the NFL draft later this week.

Instead, it’s been about a “personal and private matter” that Vrabel decided to address at the top of his news conference Tuesday in Foxborough, Mass. Although he didn’t specify, the second-year Patriots coach seemed to be referring to photos recently published by the New York Post’s Page Six of him and Dianna Russini, who was at the time a reporter for the Athletic, interacting at an Arizona resort.

The photos appear to show Russini and Vrabel — both married to other people — holding hands, hugging and sitting in a hot tub and a swimming pool. In the April 7 article that accompanied the photos, Russini and Vrabel gave statements denying that anything inappropriate was happening between them.

In his first public comments since the article was published, Vrabel did not mention Russini or the photos. Instead, Vrabel spoke about how he has handled the situation and what his family, the team and the fan base can expect from him “going forward.”

“I’ve had some difficult conversations with people that I care about — my family, the organization, the coaches, the players,” Vrabel said. “Those have been positive and productive. We believe in order to be successful on and off the field, you have to make good decisions. That includes me; that starts with me.

“We never want our actions to negatively affect the team. We never want to be the cause of the distraction. These are comments and questions that I’ve answered for the team and with the team. We’ll keep those private and to ourselves.

“I care deeply about this football team and am excited to coach it. I also know that I’m going to attack each day with humility and focus. And what I can promise you is that my family, this organization, the team, the staff, the coaches, everybody, our fans, most importantly, will get the best version of me going forward.”

A Patriots spokesman said team officials have no plans to address the issue further. The NFL has indicated it is not investigating the matter.

In the Page Six article, Athletic executive editor Steven Ginsberg expressed full support for Russini and said the photos “are misleading and lack essential context.” Days later, however, the New York Times, owner of the Athletic, reported that the digital sports outlet would conduct an investigation.

On April 14, Russini submitted her letter of resignation to the Athletic, then posted it on X. In it, Russini states she has “no interest in submitting to a public inquiry that has already caused far more damage than I am willing to accept.”

“This media frenzy is hurtling forward without regard for the review process The Athletic is trying to complete,” Russini wrote. “It continues to escalate, fueled by repeated leaks. … Rather than allowing this to continue, I have decided to step aside now — before my current contract expires on June 30. I do so not because I accept the narrative that has been constructed around this episode, but because I refuse to lend it further oxygen or to let it define me or my career.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

NEW YORK — Mike Trout hit his fifth homer of the series and the Angels overcame a homer by Aaron Judge in their 11-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday afternoon for a four-game split.

Trout, who recently made a mechanical adjustment, went six for 16 with five homers and nine RBIs in the series. Trout hit his latest homer with one out in the seventh inning when he sent a 2-2 slider from reliever Angel Chivilli about halfway up the left field bleachers for a 7-4 lead.

Trout homered in his fifth straight game at Yankee Stadium and became the fourth to hit five homers in a series against the Yankees. The others were Jimmie Foxx (1933), Darrell Evans (1985) and George Bell (1990), according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.

Trout’s latest homer contributed to a rare loss for the Yankees when Judge and Giancarlo Stanton homer in the same game. Including the postseason, New York is 53-8 when the duo both connect.

Jo Adell added a grand slam in the eighth for the Angels, who lead the AL with 32 homers.

Judge hit his 89th career first-inning homer and Stanton hit a two-run shot to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the fourth before the Angels scored four runs in the sixth off Max Fried (2-1) and Fernando Cruz. Ben Rice also homered in the sixth.

Trout walked three times and scored the tying run in a four-run sixth on a double by former Yankee Oswald Peraza, who also hit a two-run homer in the first.

Vaughn Grissom hit a go-ahead RBI single, and Josh Lowe hit a two-run single for a 6-3 lead.

The Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games and Fried gave up five runs and three hits in 5 1/3 innings. Manager Aaron Boone was ejected for the first time this season after New York batted in the eighth.

Brent Suter opened the game and went two-plus innings. Sam Aldegheri (1-0) gave up a run in 1 2/3 innings.