[jksander]

March 31, 2025: Jonathan Cannon pitched for us tonight as the weather continues to suck ... 38 degrees with the wind blowing out at 10 miles per hour, not exactly optimal weather for the 16,000 or so who showed up to see us play Minnesota, with Chris Paddack on the mound. We took the lead in the bottom of the second when Lenyn Sosa hit a sac-fly to left, Will Castro choosing not to try the throw to cut off Rojas who tagged up and scored from third. A walk and a wild pitch put us in position to score again with two outs, Michael A. Taylor walking the bases loaded, and Tauchman delivered big -- a slow-falling pop into right field, giving him time to reach first and drive in a run ... Vaughn walked in another, and we went into the top of the third leading 3-0! But they quickly got going in the top of the third -- with one out, Royce Lewis hit a single that drove in two runs, and we knew we weren’t going to be able to coast. Cannon got through the fourth still leading by a run, but he’d thrown 78 pitches and was looking gassed. Justin Dunn took over in the top of the fifth, and just like clockwork a double by Will Castro and a two-run homer by Matt Wellner erased what was left of our slim advantage. We tied it up in the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer out of center by Lenyn Sosa, and we brought out Mike Clevenger in the seventh to keep us on an even keel. Josh Anderson took over in the ninth, still tied at four each, and two batters in they’d retaken the lead, and Anderson melted down from there as we rushed to get another arm warmed ... a two-run homer by Byron Buxton capped it all off as they built a five run lead on two outs. Brandon Eisert got us the final out, but that was merely academic at that point. Minnesota won this one 9-4 and we fell to 1-3. Anderson gave up five hits and five runs with one strikeout while getting just two outs, and he took the loss, his ERA exploding to 32.40 ... ouch! They outhit us 10-7, most of it coming in that final rough inning. Josh Rojas led our offense with two hits and a run, while Sosa’s homer gave him a hit and a pair of RBIs, with a .308 average through our first four games.

April 1, 2025: Another clear, cold evening, and Ryan Weber took his first start of the year, facing Louie Varland in our second game against the Twins after last night’s ninth-inning meltdown. The 34-year-old is pretty much all control, no stuff, so it’s going to be interesting to see how he handles pitching for our team this year. He has five pitches, but can he keep teams confused enough when none of them top 90 miles an hour? Early signs were good, as he got through the first four innings with five strikeouts and one hit on 58 pitches, and his fifth inning was stellar -- flyout, ground out, ground out, all on six pitches ... but the cold weather and the wind blowing in were keeping us from getting much out of the infield either, and the game was still scoreless going into the top of the sixth. Weber stayed out and got us through his half of the inning unblemished, and with two outs in the bottom of the inning Luis Robert Jr. and Josh Rojas pulled off a double steal that got them to third and second respectively, with the count 2-2 on Teel ... but we were unable to score and the game went into the seventh inning still scoreless. With Penn Murfee warming up, Weber pitched to Royce Lewis and gave up a double, and Matt Wallner hit a double to drive him home and put them up 1-0, though Murfee then came out and kept Wallner stranded at third so we only trailed by one heading into the stretch. Shane Smith took over in the top of the eighth, and he did his job, but our bats simply couldn’t make anything happen. Clevenger got us through the ninth unscathed -- he’s now pitched 7.2 innings without a run, earned or otherwise, and has a 0.39 WHIP! -- and with two outs in the bottom of the ninth Brandon Drury got on base with a single into center. But Michael A. Taylor struck out swinging and we went down 1-0. Weber took the loss, getting through six innings with just three hits, six strikeouts and ONE earned run ... if our bats can’t give our pitchers enough run support to hold up a performance like that, it’s gonna be a long year. We actually outhit them 6-4, and they walked us six times to their three and we still couldn’t get anyone in to score. Michael A. Taylor had two hits and a walk, so he “led’ the offense for what that’s worth.

April 2, 2025: Sean Burke (0-1, 11.57 ERA, 4.2 IP, 5 K’s, 1.71 WHIP) got his second start of the season in our last of three against Minnesota, facing Joe Ryan (0-1, 12.00 ERA, 3.0 ERA, 3 K’s, 2.33 WHIP), a game no one expected to be any kind of pitcher’s duel. The weather was still cold (39 degrees), clear and windy (10 miles per hour blowing in from right), and we’re definitely looking forward to spring eventually arriving. Both pitchers were surprisingly locked in early, but Minnesota’s offense broke through in the top of the fourth when Carlos Correa hit an RBI single on two outs to put them in the lead 1-0. That’s when the next batter up, Trevar Larnach, gutted us with a wind-assisted three-run homer out of left to put us in a 4-0 hole. We then had to stop the game due to an icy 31-minute rain delay, and Burke pitched the final out to get us into the bottom of the fourth. Craig Kimbrel took over in the fifth, and with one out and two men on in the sixth Penn Murfee came out and got us out of the inning with just one of Kimbrel’s runs scoring. Our bullpen, already exhausted, got crushed the rest of the night ... we trailed 7-0 heading into the stretch, finally breaking through with a run in the bottom of the seventh when Josh Rojas hit an RBI double. But it didn’t matter, they beat us 7-1 anyway. Burke (0-2, 10.38 ERA) took the loss with a four inning effort with three hits, three strikeouts and four earned runs, and six bullpen arms got burned getting us the rest of the way. Kimbrel, with two walks, two strikeouts and two earned runs, has a 27.00 ERA through 1.1 innings over two appearances, and it’s looking like “Dirty Craig” may be on his last legs ... but then again, so is much of our bullpen. Somehow we managed to again outhit them 6-5, but we made next to nothing happen with the hits, and they outwalked us 4-1. Rojas had a hit and an RBI, and Luis Robert Jr. had a hit and a run, but Taylor hit three times to nowhere -- he’s now hitting .435, but has only batted in four runs.

Thus far through the relatively close lens of six games over two series, we’re already 1-5 and dead last in the division. We’re off tomorrow as we travel to play Detroit (4-2), followed by another day off on Monday before a three-game set in Cleveland (2-4). We’ll then return for series against Boston (4-3) and the Angels (4-3) here at Rate Field.