Spencer Horwitz, George Springer homer as Blue Jays hold on for 7-6 win over Astros | Canada News Media
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Spencer Horwitz, George Springer homer as Blue Jays hold on for 7-6 win over Astros

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TORONTO – Spencer Horwitz loves the chess match of an at bat, especially doing it at the highest level of professional baseball.

Horwitz had a solo shot and George Springer followed that with a three-run homer as the Toronto Blue Jays held on for a 7-6 win over the Houston Astros on Tuesday. Horwitz is hitting .306 through 21 games with the Blue Jays after being called up from triple-A Buffalo on June 6.

As MLB pitchers have gotten to know his strengths and weaknesses as a hitter he’s had to make small tweaks to stay competitive each time he comes to the plate.

“That’s the enjoyment and the competitiveness that makes this game so great and that I enjoy so much,” said Horwitz. “The highs and lows, the in-betweens, it’s all part of it.”

Horwitz hit .256 with a home run and seven runs batted in over 15 games with Toronto in 2023. He started this season in Buffalo, where he hit .335 with a .456 on-base percentage in 57 games. He had four home runs, 38 RBIs and a triple-A best 22 doubles at the time of his call-up to the bigs.

In his brief time in the majors he’s learned that the work is never going to stop.

“You always think about ‘I want to get to the big leagues. I want to get to the big leagues,’ and I got a taste of it last year,” said Horwitz. “I had that feeling again in Buffalo this year that ‘I want to get back to the big leagues, I want to get back to the big leagues.’

“But not much changes (in the majors) besides the third deck and the stuffs a little harder and a little sharper.”

Justin Turner drove in a run with a single in the first inning and Addison Barger doubled home another in the fourth for Toronto (39-46).

Jose Berrios (8-6) went five innings, giving up five runs on five hits and two walks, striking out just one. Nate Pearson, Trevor Richards and Chad Green came out of the bullpen to preserve the win, although Richards gave up an unearned run.

“We won because they held the game right there,” said Berrios of Toronto’s relievers. “Tonight was a team win.”

Yordan Alvarez had a three-run homer to cap a five-run fifth for Houston (43-42). Cesar Salazar and Jose Altuve had RBI singles as part of that rally.

Spencer Arrighetti (4-7) gave up seven runs — six earned — on six hits and four walks over four innings. He struck out five. Relievers Luis Contreras and Seth Martinez combined for four scoreless innings.

Turner opened the scoring in the first when his flyball dropped in for a single. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., scored from second after walking and advancing a base on Arrighetti’s wild pitch.

Horwitz added to that lead in the third inning when he launched a 95.2 m.p.h. four-seam fastball from Arrighetti 377 feet into the deck above right field.

Guerrero followed Horwitz to the plate and hit a long double to centre field. Turner then drew a walk to get another Blue Jays runner on the bases.

That brought Springer up. He made no mistake on Arrighetti’s 94.5 m.p.h. four-seamer. Springer’s ninth homer of the season gave Toronto a commanding 5-0 lead.

The Blue Jays’ momentum carried into the fourth inning as Barger doubled off the wall in centre field to score Ernie Clement and move Alejandro Kirk to third. Kirk then ran home on a passed ball for a sizable 7-0 Blue Jays advantage.

Houston took a substantial chunk out of that lead in the next inning.

Salazar and Altuve hit back-to-back RBI singles to score Jon Singleton and Jeremy Pena, respectively. Alvarez then caught an 83.3 m.p.h. change-up from Berrios just inside the strike zone, to make it 7-5.

“He’s a smart hitter, a great hitter,” said Berrios of Alvarez. “He was thinking more ahead than me and he beat me.”

A pair of errors in the eighth cut Toronto’s lead down to a run. Alvarez led off the inning with a hit to Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette, who threw the ball way over Guerrero’s head at first. That allowed Alvarez to get to second. He then advanced to third when Richards’ pickoff attempt went into the outfield.

Jake Meyers then grounded out, with Alvarez easily running home on the play to make it 7-6.

IL-KF — The Blue Jays placed infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa on the 10-day injured list before the game with a left knee sprain. The move was retroactive to Monday after Kiner-Falefa hurt himself warming up. Middle infielder Leo Jimenez was recalled from triple-A Buffalo for his first-ever Major League Baseball game in a corresponding move.

ON DECK — Yusei Kikuchi (4-8) will take the mound as the Blue Jays continue their four-game series with the Astros.

Ronel Blanco (8-3) is scheduled to start for Houston.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 2, 2024.

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Third deer infected with chronic wasting disease in B.C.

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VICTORIA – A new case of chronic wasting disease, an incurable illness that has the potential to decimate deer populations, has been identified in British Columbia. 

The B.C. Ministry of Water, Land and Resource Stewardship says the discovery of the infection in a white-tailed deer hunted in the Kootenay region last month brings the total number of confirmed cases in the province to three, after two cases were confirmed in February. 

It says testing by a Canadian Food Inspection Agency lab confirmed the latest infection on Wednesday.

The ministry says the new case occurred within two kilometres of one of the earlier infections in a white-tailed deer near Cranbrook.

Wasting disease affects deer, elk, moose and caribou. It attacks their central nervous system and causes cell death in the brain.

The ministry says there is no treatment or vaccine and the disease is always fatal.

The ministry says there is no direct evidence the disease can be transmitted to humans, but Health Canada recommends people do not eat meat from an infected animal, since cooking is not able to destroy the abnormal protein that causes the illness. 

In July, the B.C. government introduced mandatory testing for the disease in deer, elk and moose killed in certain zones in the Kootenay region.

The first two cases identified in B.C. were a male mule deer killed by a hunter and a female white-tailed deer killed in a road accident.

Other steps included removing urban deer from Cranbrook and Kimberley.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024. 

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Northvolt says Quebec battery plant will proceed despite bankruptcy filing

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MONTREAL – Northvolt AB has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, but said the move will not jeopardize the manufacturer’s planned electric vehicle battery plant in Quebec — though hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars invested in the parent company could be lost.

Amid a sputtering global market for EVs, the Sweden-based outfit and several subsidiaries filed for a court-supervised reorganization of its debt and assets under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code.

However, Northvolt said its Canadian subsidiary is financed separately and “will continue to operate as usual outside of the Chapter 11 process.”

The Northvolt plant, dubbed Northvolt Six and slated for construction about 25 kilometres east of Montreal, amounts to a $7-billion undertaking that aims to churn out battery cells and cathode active material for electric vehicles.

“I see no reason today to think that we won’t do it as planned,” said Paolo Cerruti, Northvolt co-founder and CEO of Northvolt North America, which oversees the project, in an interview.

“Activity on the site is daily and very intense, and there are trucks every day and around 150 people working.”

Nonetheless, concerns around Northvolt’s financial solvency have raised questions about a project to which Quebec and Ottawa have pledged $2.4 billion in funding.

“This was not the desired scenario, no one is hiding it, we would have liked it to proceed differently,” said Quebec Economy Minister Christine Fréchette at a news conference Thursday.

The province granted Northvolt a $240-million secured loan to help buy the land for the plant in Quebec’s Montérégie region.

The government also invested $270 million in parent company Northvolt AB.

“If there’s an amount at risk, it’s this one,” Fréchette said. She noted that “we’ll have an idea of the future of this amount” only when the restructuring process wraps up.

The province has no intention of investing more money in Northvolt, the minister added.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the province’s pension fund manager, has also poured $200 million into the Swedish company.

In September, Northvolt announced it would shrink its operations in Europe and lay off 1,600 employees in Sweden, or about one-fifth of its workforce.

The company recently sold its site in Borlänge, Sweden, where it was poised to build a factory for cathode materials — metal oxides that comprise a key component of the lithium-ion batteries used in electric cars.

Last month, Cerruti suggested the company may have been overly ambitious, but said it had no intention of asking the provincial or federal governments for more money for its planned battery plant in southwest Quebec.

“Northvolt Six is an essential component of the company’s future and we remain fully committed to seeing it through,” he said in a statement Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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S&P/TSX composite index gains more than 350 points, U.S. stock markets also rise

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TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index gained more than 350 points Thursday in a broad rally led by energy and technology stocks, while U.S. markets also rose, led by a one-per-cent gain on the Dow. 

The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 354.22 points at 25,390.68.

In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 461.88 points at 43,870.35. The S&P 500 index was up 31.60 points at 5,948.71, while the Nasdaq composite was up 6.28 points at 18,972.42.

The Nasdaq lagged an otherwise decent day for Wall St., rising just 0.03 per cent as it was dragged down by Google parent Alphabet and some of its tech giant peers. 

The tech company’s stock fell 4.6 per cent after U.S. regulators asked a judge to break it up by forcing a sale of the Chrome web browser. 

Amazon shares traded down 2.2 per cent while Meta and Apple both moved lower as well. 

After a substantial run for major tech stocks this year, that kind of news “shakes people a bit,” said John Zechner, chairman and lead equity manager at J. Zechner Associates.

Meanwhile, semiconductor giant Nvidia saw its stock tick up modestly by 0.5 per cent after it reported earnings Wednesday evening.

The company yet again beat expectations for profit and revenue, and gave a better revenue forecast for the current quarter than expected. 

But expectations for Nvidia have been so high amid the optimism over artificial intelligence that even beating forecasts wasn’t enough to send its stock flying the way it has in previous quarters, said Zechner. 

Nvidia essentially caps earnings season in the U.S., with companies largely beating expectations, said Zechner — though those expectations weren’t exactly lofty for companies outside the tech and AI sphere, he added. 

The Dow led major U.S. markets as the post-election hopes for economic growth continued to fuel a broadening of market strength, said Zechner. 

There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, said Zechner, and there’s no guarantee he will do what he’s promised.

“There’s a lot of unknowns, but for now the markets seem to be assuming that whatever comes of this, the U.S. will continue to lead global growth,” he said. 

However, some of Trump’s promises — chief among them widespread tariffs on imports — have sparked bets that inflation may rear its head again.

The market has pared back its expectations for interest rate cuts as a result, said Zechner. 

“Nobody’s talking about a half-point cut, that’s for sure,” he said. 

The Canadian dollar traded for 71.63 cents US compared with 71.46 cents US on Wednesday.

The January crude oil contract was up US$1.35 at US$70.10 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up nine cents at US$3.48 per mmBTU.

The December gold contract was up US$23.20 at US$2,674.90 an ounce and the December copper contract was down three cents at US$4.13 a pound.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) 

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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