[jksander]

March 27, 2025: Someone in the marketing department did a good job, as nearly 36,000 fans showed up at Rate Field for the season’s first pitch ... but would they stick around? Houston quickly took the lead in the top of the first with a sac-fly by Yanier Diaz, and an RBI single by Christian Walker added on, giving them a 2-0 lead midway through the first. We got a run back with two outs in the bottom of the first when Josh Rojas hit an RBI single, so at least we knew they couldn’t shut us out, but Jeremy Peña hit a solo homer out of right in the top of the second and Altuve followed him with one out of left to pile quickly on. Jake Meyers hit one out of left in the top of the fourth, and the rout was on. Burke got two outs for us in the fifth and then gave up yet another longball, this time by Yanier Diaz, and with us in a 6-1 hole we went to the bullpen to bring out Justin Dunn. But Houston kept hammering us with home runs, and you could see the fans streaming out of the ballpark even before the stretch. Kyle Teel gave the fans a little to cheer about when he hit a two-run homer himself in the bottom of the seventh to get us back within four, and Sosa sparked a rally with a two-out triple in the bottom of the ninth, scoring off an RBI single by Michael A. Taylor. Mike Tauchman walked the bases loaded moments later, and the remaining fans were on their feet ... Andrew Vaughn came up to the plate, bases loaded and trailing by three runs, two outs against us and the game in his hands. But he struck out swinging and Houston took this one 7-4.

Sean Burke took the loss, allowing five hits, three walks, five strikeouts and six earned runs in just 4.2 innings of work. Looking at bright spots, Mike Clevenger, who came in with two outs in the fifth, got us four outs with just a single hit, and Shane Smith pitched the last two innings with a hit and two strikeouts ... and we outhit them 9-8, though we gave up FIVE HOMERS to five different players. You can’t make up for that. Chase Meidroth had three hits, a walk and a run to lead the offense, while Teel’s homer gave him two runs batted in via his only hit of the night.

We’re off tomorrow and will then play two in a row against the Astros to finish the series.
 
March 29, 2025: Martin Perez faced off against Hunter Brown in our second game of the Houston series, under clear skies ... but with a stiff breeze making the 46-degree temperatures feel significantly cooler for the 20,000 fans who showed up for the early afternoon first pitch. Jose Altuve hit a three-run homer in the top of the second to crack this one open, and Perez was NOT up to the challenge of keeping it from growing worse. With the bases loaded in the top of the third with just one out, and Perez at nearly 60 pitches, we had to start warming a long reliever in the bullpen. Jake Meyers hit a two-out, two-run double, and a sixth run scored off a wild pitch, but Perez got through the inning. Josh Dunn took over in the top of the fourth trailing 6-0, and he got just one out before giving up an RBI double to Yordan Alvarez ... and then straining his hamstring and having to come out of the game for Mike Clevenger. From there, down seven and not even midway through the fourth, it became a matter of just getting out of the game without gutting the bullpen.

Clevenger was impresive, getting us through the top of the sixth without anyone scoring, and then this place went insane ... bottom of the sixth, on two outs, Kyle Teel singled to load the bases. Lenyn Sosa singled in Vaughn and Rojas to get us on the board, and Michael A. Taylor then slammed a three-run homer into left field, pulling us within two! Still on two outs, they walked Chase Meidroth, and then Mike Tauchman took his turn hitting one out of the park, driving two more to tie this game at 7-7 as we headed into the seventh inning! Clevenger got two outs and then Penn Murphee came out with no one on base, giving up a base hit but keeping them from scoring as we went into the stretch still tied. Houston got the lead back in the top of the eighth with a homer out of left by Chas McCormick, and Meyers hit a homer immediately after to extend it to a two-run lead. With one out and Altuve on second, Tyler Gilbert took over and he should have had us out of there without any further incident, but an E7 error allowed Altuve to slide safely in for Houston’s 10th run of the day. That took the wind out of our sails completely, and we went on to lose the game 11-7.

Penn Murphee took the loss, getting his two outs but allowing four hits and three runs before doing so. It was ugly, and it’s going to take him a while to get enough bullpen time to take the sting out of all those runs ... but it was Perez’s terrible start that set us up to fail ... six earned runs with four hits, five walks and just one strikeout through three innings. We knew our pitching was gonna be rough, but coming back from down 7-0 to tie it up and then lose by four is brutal no matter how you stress it. They only outhit us 12-11, led by Teel with three hits and a run and by Tauchman with two hits, a run and two RBIs. But we couldn’t get over the hump.

March 30, 2025: Noah Syndergaard pitched his first game for us today, after spending all of last year unsigned, as the 32-year-old hopes to show he can still make things work in this league based on his control alone. He faced Spencer Arrighetti, and it was even colder today than yesterday, with an even stiffer wind. Houston took the lead in the top of the second off an RBI double by Chas McCormick on two outs, but Arrighetti -- who still hadn’t given up a hit -- got pulled with two outs and two men on because he’d hit 85 pitches with six strikeouts and four walks. Rafael Montero struck out Lenyn Sosa to keep us from scoring, but we went into the top of the fifth just trailing 1-0, and Syndergaard’s control looked every bit as good as advertised early on. He got us through the sixth inning safely, and in the bottom of the sixth with two outs and men on first and second, Lenyn Sosa hit a blistering drive into left field, driving home Miguel Vargas from second to tie the score at 1-1!

Penn Murfee got us through the seventh, but in the bottom of the seventh Chase Meidroth strained his oblique sliding into second and had to be pulled from the game. Lacking a proper backup, we brought Brandon Drury in to pinch-run and take over at shortstop out of desperation ... they hit Tauchman with a pitch and then walked Vaughn, giving us the perfect situation to score and build up a lead. With two outs, Miguel Vargas did just that, hitting a three-run triple to put us into the lead 4-1 ... now could we hold it? Craig Kimbrel came out of the pen in the top of the eighth, and he immediately walked three batters to load the f---ing bases, so we brought out Justin Anderson hoping for a miracle performance in a high leverage spot. It didn’t happen ... Yordan Alvarez batted in two runs with a single, pushing Ben Gamel over to third, and Yainer Diaz tied it with an RBI single. STILL no outs.

That’s when I blacked out ... or to be honest, when Isaac Paredes walked in the go-ahead for Houston and we STILL had no outs. That’s when, with arms warming in the bullpen, Anderson got three quick outs to end things, once the damage had been right-and-properly done. Shane Smith got us through the ninth inning, and then we managed to somehow tie it up again thanks to an RBI double by Miguel Vargas in the bottom of the ninth with two outs! Kyle Teel then came through with a clutch single, driving in the go-ahead as we stunned Houston 6-5!

What a crazy game THAT was ...

Give Syndegaard credit, he did everything you could ask of a starter in this day and age, lasting six innings with four hits, four strikeouts and just one earned run. But thanks to Kimbrel’s three walks in the eighth, and Anderson’s blown save (two hits, two walks, two strikeouts, one run) we had to dig deep to survive. Shane Smith, in his third consecutive bullpen game, improved to 1-0 with a 2.25 ERA, just a walk and a strikeout against him. We out hit Houston 8-7, and out-WALKED them 11-5, led by Vargas who hit three times for two runs and four batted in.

No time to celebrate, we’ve got the 1-1 Twins coming in from Minnesota for our first divisional matchup of the season.