ROYAL OAK –  The Allen Park Cabrini Monarchs claimed their second consecutive Catholic High School League St. Anne Division championship with a 4-1 win over the Wixom St. Catherine of Siena Academy Stars on Saturday afternoon.

After what had been a pretty even first half that ended with Cabrini leading 1-0, the Monarchs would go on to dominate the second half. Senior Carly Roth would double Cabrini’s lead just over 11 minutes into the second half when she fired a free kick that beat the wall and rocketed into the left side of the net to make it 2-0. Roth would score again with 21:17 remaining in the game. Paityn Hawes drove a corner kick towards the back side, and Roth headed it back the way it came and just inside the right post to make it 3-0.

The Stars would fight back almost immediately with Joanna Namel notching her program record 33rd goal of the season with a volley from inside the penalty area, to get Wixom St. Catherine back within two goals barely a minute after Roth’s second goal.

But Carbini was able to reassert themselves, get control of the game, and put the finishing touches on the win. Madi Smith’s 30-yard rocket with 9:13 to play provided the final margin and took any lingering drama out of the match, restoring Cabrini’s three-goal advantage, 4-1.

“The first half, we were going against the wind. The second half, we had the wind helping us,” Monarchs head coach Tony Pizzo said. “The girls came to play. They were hungry, so I’m happy about that. That’s for sure,’ he added.

The first half had been just as offensive, but without the goals. The teams actually combined for more shots on goal in the first half than they did in the second half, but the only first half goal came from Hawes who juggled a ball in tight, got her first shot saved, but quickly got her own rebound and scored past the goalkeeper who was still off balance from the first save.

Wixom St. Catherine probably should have had a goal in the first half. Between hitting the crossbar with a freekick just 90 seconds into the game and then coming up short on a breakaway late, thanks to a terrific save by Monarchs goalie Bella Perez, the Stars had plenty of chances to score in the first half. But they could not find a goal in the opening half and went into the break down 1-0 despite having a slight edge in shots on goal and a couple of glorious chances.

“When we get those chances and we don’t capitalize, it definitely helps the other team gain confidence too. They were already playing well, and then for us to miss those chances, it kind of gave the other team a boost and knocked our confidence down just a little bit,” Stars head coach Aaron Roy said.

With the win, Allen Park Cabrini goes back-to-back in the CHSL St. Anne Division for the first time in school history. In fact, these are the first two CHSL titles for the Monarchs.

“It feels good. I’m excited. I’m proud of us. I’m proud of our team. We really pushed ourselves in the second half especially because it was getting close there. But overall, I felt that our team did really good,” Roth said.  “It’s my last year here as a senior, so it’s kind of good to leave a legacy for the next couple of years,” she added.

Photos of Allen Park Cabrini vs. Wixom St. Catherine in a CHSL St. Anne Tournament final

Cabrini (10-2-1) opens the state tournament on Wednesday when they host Marine City Cardinal Mooney to open district play. The Monarchs are the district hosts.

Wixom St. Catherine (8-3-2) earned a first round bye and will face the winner of Dearborn Henry Ford Academy and Dearborn Advanced Tech Academy on May 28 in a district semifinal.

"The players came in here and did everything that we worked on to prepare for this game. I’m proud of my players. I’m not leaving here feeling like we played a bad game. There are a couple of bad bounces here and there that just went the other team’s way, and we prepare for districts now,” Roy said.

Allen Park Cabrini defeated Wixom St. Catherine 4-1 in the CHSL St. Anne Division Tournament final played on Saturday, May 17, 2025.

ROYAL OAK – The host Royal Oak Shrine Knights won their first Catholic High School League championship since 2019, claiming the Cardinal Division title with a 3-2 win over the Ann Arbor Greenhills Gryphons in Saturday afternoon’s final.

All the scoring came in the first half. Shrine got things started just 1:12 into the game when Isobel Malcolm’s corner kick deflected through to the far side where Jo Mitroff pounced on it and banged it in, giving the Knights an early lead. With just under 21 minutes to play in the first half, the Knights converted another Malcolm corner. This time it was Molly Salerno finding the net with a quick shot amid the scramble in front of goal.

“The last couple of weeks, we’ve worked on corners and set plays, and trying to finish our opportunities, so it pays off when you score goals,” Shrine head coach Mark Soma said.

At that point, the long shots would start going in for both teams. Cate Alumkal  scored a pair of rockets from about 30 yards out sandwiched around a 40-yard spinning chip shot for Malcolm that handcuffed the Gryphons’ goalie and bounced its way into the net. By the end of the half, the teams had combined for five goals and nearly 20 total shots.

However, after all the offense in the first half, it would be the defenses that dominated the second 40 minutes. The defenses tightened up considerably, and neither team came close to scoring again as the teams combined for just two shots on goal – both by the Knights – in the second half.

“It was a grind. I think the other team played well, and we played well. It could have gone either way, and I think we just took more opportunities than they did,” Soma said.

The win both clinched the Cardinal Division Championship and avenged a loss to the Gryphons earlier this month.

Photos of Royal Oak Shrine vs. Ann Arbor Greenhills in a CHSL Cardinal Tournament final

“It feels really good. We lost to them a couple of games ago, 3-1. So this definitely showed what we’re capable of,” Malcolm said. “We haven’t won Catholic League in a while, so it feels really good to finally bring home a Catholic League Championship for our school,” she added.

“It’s important for these girls to have their own identity that they’re Catholic League (Champs) and we can go into states with a positive momentum,” Soma said.

Royal Oak Shrine is now 12-3-2 on the year. The Knights will host a district this year. Having earned a first round bye, Royal Oak Shrine will await the winner of Clawson and Southfield Christian. That game is scheduled for May 28

Royal Oak Shrine defeated Ann Arbor Greenhills 3-2 to win the CHSL Cardinal Division Tournament final match played on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at Shrine.

Reno 911 came to Detroit and brought a ton of humor with them. Thomas Lennon and Cedric Yarbrough are at Motor City Comic Con this weekend. They stayed in character for their interview with Brad Galli

INTERVIEW: Star Wars actor Ahmed Best is feeling a warm reception at Motor City Comic Con.

The man who played Jar Jar Binks, and wielded a lightsaber in The Mandalorian called Star Wars fans family. He talked with Brad Galli in Novi.

INTERVIEW: Temuera Morrison loves seeing so many Star Wars fans dressed like Jango Fett and Boba Fett at Motor City Comic Con.

Morrison talked with Brad Galli about his first meeting with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, and why a series of head nods sealed the deal for him to return as Fett.

Actress Malin Akerman is spending the weekend with fans at Motor City Comic Con.

She held a Watchmen Q&A Friday night. Ackerman talked with Brad Galli about Couples Retreat, and why the cast (and location!) would have her immediately signing up for a sequel

An explosion tore through a fertility clinic in the upscale California city of Palm Springs late Saturday morning, leaving one person believed to be the suspect dead in an attack the FBI characterized as terrorism.

A burned-out vehicle was seen in the parking lot behind the clinic after the blast, which caved in the building's roof, sprayed debris across a five-lane road and shattered windows in businesses blocks away. The clinic was closed for the weekend, and the doctor who leads it told The Associated Press its staffers were safe.

Make no mistake: This is an intentional act of terrorism, Akil Davis, the head of the FBIs Los Angeles field office, told an evening news conference. He declined to say how authorities reached that conclusion.

A law enforcement official said investigators recovered an AK-47-style rifle from the scene. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Authorities were still working to confirm the identity of the person killed, Davis said. Four people were hurt, but authorities provided no details on the severity of those injuries, how they occurred or where. Davis said law enforcement was also looking into the possibility that the explosion was livestreamed.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | Pakistani man faces new terrorism charge in plot to assassinate a US politician

The act was being investigated as a possible car explosion, according to two other law enforcement officials briefed on the matter who insisted on anonymity to discuss preliminary information from an ongoing investigation.

One of the officials told AP that investigators believe the person who died was likely the person who set off the explosion, but they cautioned that the investigation was still in its early stages.

The blast gutted the American Reproductive Centers fertility clinic, in a single-story building along a five-lane street lined with palm trees. Dr. Maher Abdallah, who leads the clinic, told AP in a phone interview that the explosion damaged the practices office space, where it conducts consultations with patients. The clinic's IVF lab and stored embryos are offsite and were not damaged.

Thank God today happened to be a day that we have no patients," Abdallah said.

Palm Springs Mayor Pro Tem Naomi Soto called the clinic a place of hope.

This is a building that people go to to start or expand their families, she said. We acknowledge their pain and concern across the community for the patients and staff."

Rhino Williams, 47, said he was chatting with customers at a hotel restaurant he helps manage just over a block away when he heard a huge boom. Everything rattled, Williams said, and he sprinted to the scene to see if anyone needed help.

Williams covered his nose with his shirt as he smelled burning plastic and rubber. He said he saw a building had blown out into the street, with bricks and debris scattered everywhere, and he spotted a cars front axle on fire in the parking lot.

He said it was the only car in the lot. He ran into the building, calling out and peering behind the counter to see if anyone was inside. He did not hear a response and did not see anyone behind the counter.

Williams then ran around to check on other buildings. Multiple windows of the neighboring liquor store were also blown out, he said. Once he saw authorities arrive, he headed back to the hotel.

Steven Michael Chacon was in his car preparing to turn into a hospital across the street from the clinic when felt and heard a massive boom as the building was torn apart, sending a massive plume of black smoke into the air. Not knowing what happened, he exited his car to flee the scene. Glass was all over the ground.

I got out of my car and then people started screaming, there were people bloody, there was glass everywhere, he said.

Palm Springs, about a two-hour drive east of Los Angeles, is known for upscale resorts, golf courses and a history of celebrity residents.

Among those investigating were investigators, bomb technicians and an evidence response team from the FBI as well as investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The Trump administration condemned the attack.

The Trump administration understands that women and mothers are the heartbeat of America, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. Violence against a fertility clinic is unforgivable.

A Mexican navy ship hit the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday during a promotional tour in New York City, the top of its mast brushing the iconic span as it sailed through the East River.

Eyewitness video of the collision that was posted online showed the mast of the ship, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag, scraping the underneath of the bridge. The vessel then drifted toward the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from shore.

The Mexican navy said in a post on the social platform X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in an accident with the Brooklyn Bridge that prevented it from continuing its voyage.

It added that the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, which were providing assistance.

RELATED STORY | One year after Baltimore disaster, bridges are only getting worse

The Secretary of the Navy renews its commitment to the safety of personnel, transparency in its operations and excellent training for future officers of the Mexican Armada, it said in Spanish.

The Cuauhtemoc is a vessel that sails at the end of classes at the Mexican naval military school to finish cadets' training.

This year it left the Mexican port of Acapulco, on the Pacific coast, on April 6 with 277 people onboard, the Navy said then.

The ship was scheduled to visit 22 ports in 15 nations, including Kingston, Jamaica; Havana, Cuba; Cozumel, Mexico; and New York.

It had also planned to go to Reykjavik, Iceland; Bordeaux, Saint Malo and Dunkirk, France; and Aberdeen, Scotland, among others, for a total of 254 days 170 at sea and 84 in port.

Sean Astin is spending time at Motor City Comic Con, meeting fans of the Goonies, Stranger Things, Rudy, Lord of the Rings, and so many of his great roles. He talked with Brad Galli at the show.

ROYAL OAK – The Bloomfield Hills Marian Mustangs claimed their sixth CHSL Bishop Division Championship in the last decade with a 3-0 win over the Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood Cranes Saturday morning.

The Mustangs nearly opened the scoring barely a minute into the game, only to have the goal called back for offsides. Led by the efforts of Sophia Baldwin, Kendall Pankoff and Carola Gorlier, Cranbrook fought their way into the game. The two best chances for the Cranes came back-to-back near the midway point of the period. But the Cranes could not get either one on frame despite some glorious looks, and Marian finally got on the board moments later when Bella Musachio got a clean look at the other end and buried it into the back of the net for a 1-0 Mustangs lead.

The wind was blowing hard all game, and in the second half, Marian got the wind at their back and took full advantage.

“We’ve faced that wind probably two or three times this season already, and the wind is not a factor if you are a team that likes to play the ball on the floor (the ground) as we do,” Marian head coach Danny Price said. “We like to move the ball on the floor, so really it didn’t bother us. We just had to get through the first half without conceding, and with the wind at our back in the second half I always felt confident that we could flourish, and we did that in the second half.”

Indeed, after a first half that saw the Cranes dangerous offensively at times, Cranbrook struggled to create any sustained offensive threat in the second half. Marian took advantage to dominate possession even more than they had in the first half, and the Mustangs made sure to convert a pair of chances to put the game out of reach. Nia Bordogna scored both second half goals for the Mustangs – a 35-yard strike followed barely three minutes later by a 20-yard blast from just outside the penalty area that went in off the right post. That made it 3-0 and gave the Mustangs all the margin they would need.

The win was also a little bit of payback for the Mustangs who were knocked out of last year’s playoffs by Cranbrook in the semifinals.

“It feels amazing. We worked so hard up to this point just practicing and putting in the work, lots of running, lots of discipline. So it feels really good that it paid off, especially against a team that we have a small rivalry between,” junior co-captain Clair Dauer said.

“I’m really happy. I’m happy for my staff. I wouldn’t be able to do this without them,” Price said. “I’m happy for the players. They were absolutely tremendous today. But we talked about that last year, getting beat in the semifinal to Cranbrook and how that motivation and discipline would play in today. So now, we sort of righted that wrong from last year, and now we want to go all the way to states and go back to the Division 2 final.” He added that, “It was a complete team performance.”

Photo gallery of Cranbrook-Kingswood vs. Marian in a CHSL Bishop Tournament championship

For Cranbrook, it is their second straight loss in the Bishop Division Final in their first two years in the division.

“In these games, you always have a chance. You always will have one just kind of bouncing around and hope to finish it. But hats off to Mairan, they’ve got some great players over there, good coaches, and they make us better,” Cranes head coach David Brown said. “But it just didn’t go our way. We didn’t get the bounces we wanted, didn’t get the finishes we wanted, but just to play in this game and represent the Catholic League was good,” he added.

Both teams will now turn their attention to the playoffs. Marian (14-2-1) earned a first round by and will have to wait to see who they play in the district semifinals.  It could be Cranbrook (3-8-2) who will play Walled Lake Western this Wednesday with the winner advancing to play Marian the following week.

“Nothing is easy this time of year. Everything is hard, so we’ve just got to play our best and hope for the best,” Brown said.

Bloomfield Hills Marian defeated Cranbrook-Kingswood 3-0 to win the CHSL Bishop Division league tournament played on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at Royal Oak Shrine.

By STEPHEN WHYNO
The Associated Press

BALTIMORE — Journalism jostled with horses down the stretch, shrugged off the contact, burst through the lane and came from behind to win the 150th running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

The odds-on favorite was bumped by Goal Oriented near the quarter pole, and it looked like another second-place finish was coming two weeks after being the runner-up to Sovereignty in the Kentucky Derby. Journalism instead ran right by Gosger to give trainer Michael McCarthy his second win in a Triple Crown race.

“A lot of bouncing around there,” McCarthy said. “When I saw that, I kind of resigned myself to the fact it was another fantastic effort and maybe come up a little bit short. But it just goes to show the testament that this horse has. Couldn’t be prouder of him.”

Gosger was second by a half-length. Sandman was third and Bob Baffert-trained Goal Oriented fourth. Journalism went 1 3/16 miles in 1:55.37.

Umberto Rispoli became the first jockey from Italy to win any of the Triple Crown races.

“When I crossed the wire, the first things that comes up to my mind, it’s all of the 20 years of my career that pass in front of me,” Rispoli said. “I had to wait so long to be on a champion like that.”

Journalism handled the adversity and thrived on a warm day that dried out the track after torrential rain fell at Pimlico Race Course for much of the past week. Those conditions suited him better than the slop at Churchill Downs in the Derby

“This victory symbolizes so much about life,” co-owner Aaron Wellman said. “It took guts for Umberto Rispoli to power his way through a seemingly impossible hole getting side-swiped and threading the needle and powering on through. And it took guts from an incredible horse to somehow will his way to victory.”

Journalism paid $4 to win, $2.80 to place and $2.40 to show.

“He’s a remarkable horse,” Baffert said of Journalism. “I wanted to be on the lead and was behind horses. I knew (Goal Oriented) was intimidated. He’s never run that way. He ran well, but he’s still too green for that.”

Sovereignty did not take part after his owners and trainer Bill Mott decided to skip the Preakness, citing the two-week turnaround, and aimed for the Belmont on June 7. That made this a fifth time in seven years that the Preakness, for various reasons, was contested without a Triple Crown bid at stake.

But Journalism staked his claim for 3-year-old horse of the year by winning the $2 million American classic race run at the old Pimlico Race Course for the last time before it’s torn down and rebuilt. While work went on around him before the postrace news conference, Wellman asked, “Are they already tearing this place down?”

Not yet, and not before Journalism could add a memorable chapter by squeezing through the space he had to win.

“I still can’t realize what this horse did,” Rispoli said. “It’s all about him. It’s a pleasure and privilege to ride a horse like him.”

The Preakness is set to be held at nearby Laurel Park, between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., next year before a planned return to the new Pimlico in 2027. McCarthy raved about the history at the place known as “Old Hilltop” and still remembers where he was when Sunday Silence beat Easy Goer at the wire in 1989 in a fashion similar to how Journalism won this time.

“Things kind of come full circle,” McCarthy said. “I’m sad to see this place go, but we’ll try to get back here next year, whichever locale it’s at.”

Journalism is the first horse to win the Preakness after running in the Kentucky Derby since Mark Casse-trained War of Will in 2019. He is the first Derby runner-up to follow that up by winning the Preakness since Exaggerator in 2016.

Only two others from the 19 in the Derby participated in the Preakness: Casse’s Sandman and fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas’ American Promise, who did not have the same positive response as Journalism.

“The best horse won,” Lukas said. “He finished beautifully.”

Lukas, the 89-year-old who has saddled the most horses in Preakness history, referred to McCarthy once this week as “the new guy.” This was just McCarthy’s second, and he’s 2 for 2 after Rombauer sprung the upset as an 11-1 long shot in 2021.

This one was more emotional, with McCarthy and his wife still displaced from their home by the Southern California wildfires.

“We’ll get back there,” McCarthy said. “Everybody will get back there. We’ll rebuild. This is for Altadena.”

Metro Detroit drivers received welcome news as I-696 westbound from I-75 to the Lodge reopened Saturday, two days earlier than expected.

The highway portion had been closed for a week to allow crews to safely demolish the Church Street Plaza Bridge.

"Thank God they did it in the time they said they would, it's always pretty good when they can meet their time tables," said Dillon Samona.

Samona, who owns a convenience store on 10 Mile near I-696, expressed relief at the early reopening.

"I don't got to take the lodge and M-10, I can just hop on 696 and get home," Samona said.

The closure was originally scheduled to last until Monday, May 19, but crews completed the work ahead of schedule, allowing the highway to reopen Saturday afternoon.

Oak Park resident Robert Charleston said dealing with the detours had been challenging.

"Well, I'm glad they're ahead of schedule that makes it easy. I'll let my granddaughter know who I take to school to Pepper at 8:30 and won't have to detour," Charleston said.

"It's just a headache, traffic jam first thing in the morning," he said.

Diane Cross from the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) explained they were able to reopen the highway earlier because the bridge demolition proceeded smoothly.

"We've been very fortunate. All of our safety set ups. Everything worked in place to make sure nobody got hurt. There was no debris, no one was injured. There was no real problems," Cross said.

While I-696 westbound has reopened, portions of I-696 eastbound remain closed for construction and will stay closed for two years.

Cross noted this is part of a multi-million dollar project to restore I-696.

"In the last few years, we've been working on the West end of it from 275 out to Lahser so in the course of 10 years, we will have rebuilt all of 696 and that really is quite an investment to southeast Michigan, to Oakland County for the rebuilding of that roadway," Cross said.

According to MDOT, there may be other closures involving I-696 westbound in the future, but they won't be as lengthy as this recent closure.

The Michigan Panthers stayed hot and secured a spot in the UFL playoffs.

Behind a three-touchdown performance from backup quarterback Danny Etling, the Panthers rolled past the Houston Roughnecks, 30-18, on Saturday at TDECU Stadium in Houston.

The Panthers led 14-12 at halftime before they pulled away in the third quarter. On a third-and-16, Etling found receiver Devin Ross down the right sideline for a 35-yard touchdown to make it a nine-point game.

On Houston’s ensuing possession, cornerback Keni-H Lovely (Western Michigan) jumped the route on a quick screen pass and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown to extend the lead to 27-12 with 4:15 left in the third.

The Panthers thwarted any thought of a comeback by forcing a pair of turnovers in the fourth quarter — one on a fourth-down stop in the red zone and another on a fumble recovery.

Kicker B.T. Potter tacked on a 52-yard field goal to make it 30-12 with 5:21 remaining before the Roughnecks (3-5) scored in the closing seconds.

Etling finished 14-for-22 passing with 167 yards. He threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to receiver Malik Turner in the first quarter and a 1-yarder to receiver Samson Nacua in the second quarter. Nacua’s score was set up by an 88-yard punt return by Xavier Malone.

Roughnecks quarterback Jalan McClendon completed 30 of 50 passes for 316 yards, two touchdowns and the pick-six. Houston outgained Michigan by a considerable margin, 441-254, but went 1-for-3 in the red zone and lost the turnover battle (2-0).

The Panthers will travel to Alabama to face the Birmingham Stallions on May 24 before hosting the Roughnecks in the regular-season finale at Ford Field on May 31. Kickoff for both games is slated for 3 p.m.

After that, it’s on to the playoffs, where the winners of the two conference championship games will advance to the UFL Championship on June 14.

Yellowstone National Park officials trapped and euthanized an 11-year-old male grizzly bear on Wednesday after it consistently sought out human food in developed areas of the park.

The bear, weighing approximately 400 pounds, had overturned multiple large, bear-resistant dumpsters and accessed human food and trash at popular locations, including Old Faithful, the Nez Perce Picnic Area, and the Midway Geyser Basin parking lot.

The bear developed a strategy to flip over 800-pound dumpsters and uproot smaller bear-resistant trash cans from their concrete bases to obtain human food and garbage, the National Park Service said.. Due to these actions, the bear became increasingly food-conditioned and posed a safety risk to visitors in one of Yellowstone's busiest areas. The decision to kill the bear was made in the interest of public safety and to prevent other bears from becoming habituated to human food, officials said.

The last instance of a grizzly bear being euthanized as part of a management action in Yellowstone occurred in September 2017, when a bear was killed for damaging tents and accessing food at backcountry campsites near Heart Lake.

Its unfortunate that this bear began regularly seeking out garbage and was able to defeat the parks bear-resistant infrastructure, said Kerry Gunther, a bear management biologist at Yellowstone. We go to great lengths to protect bears and prevent them from becoming conditioned to human food. But occasionally, a bear outsmarts us or overcomes our defenses. When that happens, we sometimes have to remove the bear from the population to protect visitors and property.

Yellowstone's bear management plan includes the installation of bear-resistant food storage lockers in all campgrounds, food storage devices in backcountry campsites, and bear-resistant garbage cans and dumpsters. Park officials remind visitors that utilizing these bear safety measures is crucial for ensuring public safety and preventing wildlife from developing dangerous habits.

Scripps News Group in Montana.

TORONTO – In the dugout before the game Friday, manager AJ Hinch was asked about reliever Beau Brieske. Specifically, he was asked how close he thought Brieske might be to the reliever he relied on so often in leverage at the end of last season.

“I think he’s that guy now,” Hinch said. “I have not treated him any differently. We’re not trying to be something we used to be. Our pitch mix in the back end of the bullpen has been pretty good. It’s a tough back of the bullpen to crack.

Once again, Hinch can envision the ninth before the first pitch of the game is thrown.

Brieske, who hadn’t pitched in a save situation since March 28 in Los Angeles, was indeed summoned in the ninth inning to close out the Tigers’ 5-4 win over the Blue Jays.

Before the game, Hinch had told Will Vest that he was down for the night. He’d thrown three high-leverage innings, 50 pitches, in back-to-back wins against the Red Sox Tuesday and Wednesday.

“We took it out of Will’s hands,” Hinch said. “I’m sure he wanted to pitch. He was doing his normal routine to throw. But we have to see the long road, here. We ask a lot out of the pen. We have to make decisions going into games as much as we have to make decisions in games.”

It also served as a much-needed boost for Brieske, who has battled through an ankle injury since early in spring training and recently, like several Tigers, has been stricken with a flu bug.

“It’s been tough,” Brieske said before the game. “From trying to feel good and trying to pitch good, just a culmination of not feeling good about either. I’ve seen some glimpses, for sure.”

Before Friday, Brieske had pitched 5.1 innings in five outings since coming back off the injured list and allowed four runs, three earned and two home runs.

His outing Tuesday in the 11th inning against the Red Sox was a good illustration of what he’s been dealing with. Inheriting the free runner in a 7-7 game, he struck out Rafael Devers, freezing him with a changeup. He got Alex Bregman to fly out to left.

Then he threw a first-pitch sinker to Kristian Campbell, 97.1 mph dotted down and in.

“It was the exact pitch I wanted to throw,” Brieske said. “Most often, you make a good pitch, you know, you get your result. If he’d just got a base hit, a single, I would’ve been like, ‘That’s a good swing.’

“But that it went out of the park, it was like, ‘Wow, fantastic swing.’ But hey, it gave us the opportunity for our best win of the year (smiles).”

Brieske’s stuff was electric Friday night. His sinker hit 98 mph and sat 97 with an elite average spin rate of 2,587 rpm. His four-seam was zipping, too, 96-97 mph, 2,581 rpm.

His changeup, coming in at 91 mph, had 14 inches of horizonal movement.

But even with that, things got tense. He got the first two outs quickly, then Myles Straw dropped a sinking liner in front of a diving Javier Baez in center and Michael Stefanic lined a two-strike single to left.

He had to bat down a comebacker from pinch-hitter Ernie Clement to end the game.

“I need to zoom out and look at the bigger picture,” Brieske said before the game. “And not dwell on how things are right now. It’s been a little bit of a battle, just kind of fighting myself.

“Sometimes it’s bad execution. Sometimes I feel like I executed well and gotten beat.”

The full Beau Brieske, which was in full force during the Tigers’ run into the playoffs last season when he was escaping one tight mess after another, hasn’t been there yet in 2025.

But it’s coming.

“I don’t feel I’ve been at my best yet,” Brieske said. “It’s hard for me to say that. I just haven’t done the things that I know I can do, the things I have done in the past. I don’t feel I’ve been there yet.”

The ankle injury has been a straight-up nuisance for him. It was his right ankle on his drive leg off the mound. It happened early in spring and then he tweaked it again in Minnesota, which put him on the IL.

Then, when he came back from that, his energy got sapped with the flu.

“It’s part of a long baseball season, part of the ups and downs of a season,” he said. “It’s been frustrating. It’s been kind of an uphill battle for me physically.”

The ankle is healthy now; his mechanics, not so much.

“It’s getting to the point where I’m trying to get the bad habits out of my mechanics that I learned throwing and trying to compensate (for the ankle pain),” he said. “Now it’s about trying to get my feel back. I know what feels right, but it’s how consistent can I do it.

“That’s why I know it will come back. When I feel like myself and I’m executing at the level I can, with the stuff I have, eventually it’s going to even itself out.”

All in all, Brieske said, it’s been a pretty good perspective-builder for him.

“I was coming in from the offseason and man I was feeling so good,” he said. “I was moving exactly how I wanted, building on how I was throwing at the end of last year. And I came in and, there goes the ankle.”

That’s all in the rearview now, though. He’s pushed through the darkest parts.

“I don’t feel bad for myself, it’s just the hand I was dealt,” he said. “Like, what am I going to do? It’s not a pity party. No one feels bad for you. Can you get it done or not? Sometimes it’s not a perfectly clean transition. Sometimes it’s not a perfect process.

“What helps me is to zoom out and look at the bigger picture. What can I do to not worry so much about how things are going right now. It’s a long season.”

Getting the call in the ninth inning of a one-run game and getting the job done was a good kickstart.

The Trump administration will allow the sale of forced-reset triggers, which make semiautomatic rifles fire more rapidly, with the federal government ending a ban as part of a settlement that also requires it to return seized devices.

The agreement announced Friday by the Justice Department resolves a series of cases over the aftermarket trigger that the government had previously argued qualify as machine guns under federal law. The settlement is a dramatic shift in Second Amendment policy under the Republican administration, which has signaled it may undo many of the regulations that the previous administration of Democratic President Joe Biden had fought to keep in place in an effort to curb gun violence.

This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.

Gun control advocates said the settlement would worsen gun violence.

RELATED STORY | Father of Parkland shooting victim believes every school should have threat assessments

The Trump administration has just effectively legalized machine guns. Lives will be lost because of his actions, said Vanessa Gonzalez, vice president of government and political affairs at GIFFORDS, a gun control group.

There had been several legal battles over forced-reset triggers, which replace the typical trigger on an AR-15-style rifle. The government for years had argued they are essentially illegal machine gun conversion devices because constant finger pressure on the triggers will keep a rifle firing essentially like an automatic.

The deal announced Friday was between the Justice Department and Rare Breed Triggers, which was previously represented by David Warrington, Trumps current White House counsel. Rare Breed Triggers argued that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was wrong in its classification and ignored demands to stop selling the triggers before being sued by the Biden administration.

This victory is a landmark moment in the fight against unchecked government overreach, Lawrence DeMonico, the group's president, said in a statement. The ATF and DOJ tried to silence and bury us not because we broke the law, but because I refused to bend to the will of a tyrannical administration.

Under the settlement, Rare Breed Triggers has agreed not to develop such devices to be used on handguns, according to the Justice Department. The settlement requires the ATF to return triggers that it had seized or that owners had voluntarily surrendered to the government.

RELATED STORY | Supreme Court upholds rule requiring more regulations for 'ghost guns'