[jksander]

April 25, 2025: We’re back to the top of the rotation for the series against the Angels, with Sean Burke (0-4, 5.57 ERA, 21.0 IP, 22 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) hoping to get his mojo back against Tyler Anderson (1-1, 5.56 ERA, 22.2 IP, 21 K’s, 1.41 WHIP). The Angels took the lead in the bottom of the third with a two-out RBI single by Mike Trout, but Burke avoided outright disaster with the bases loaded moments later when Jo Adell popped out to center. We loaded the bases in the top of the fifth with no outs, and Miguel Vargas walked in the tying run when they kept Anderson out for too long ... with no outs and the bases loaded they went to the bullpen, and with one out Tauchman walked in the go-ahead run! Unfortunately for Burke, he was at 81 pitches as we came out for the bottom of the fifth, with Kimbrel and Perez warming in the pen. But he got two quick outs while those arms warmed, and we let him pitch to Jorge Soler with a chance to qualify for the win. Soler popped out harmlessly to center as he completed that inning, his night coming to an end after throwing 91 pitches but with our lead still at 2-1. We brought Mike Clevinger out in the top of the sixth, still leading by a run, Clevinger gave up a fastball to Tim Anderson with one out in the bottom of the seventh, blowing his save and tying the score at 2-2 when the ball went out of right field and deep into the lower deck. Shane Smith took over with clear bases, got the second out, and then gave up a single to Luis Rengifo, walked Jorge Solar, and then let Mike Trout hammer a double into left that scored two and dug us a nice hole. Kimbrel came out with two outs and the bases loaded, and the wheels fell completely off as Mickey Moniak hit a three-run triple to turn this into a rout. He scored off a wild pitch, and we trailed 8-2 when Kimbrel finally got that last goddamned out. Penn Murfee pitched the bottom of the eighth without incident, but it didn’t matter ... we had no pop left in our bats and we lost this one by the same margin.

Burke had a great night after a rough third inning, finishing with five innings and three hits, two walks, six strikeouts and one earned run ... but didn’t get a win. Instead, Clevinger blew the save and Smith took the loss, allowing two hits, three walks and five earned runs while getting just one out. Smith had been solid all year, but that one inning blows his ERA up to 5.19 now through 14 appearances over 17.1 innings. Ouch! We matched them on hits, 9-9 ... Meidroth led the team with three to nowhere, and Vargas gave us our only real pop, with a hit, two walks and an RBI.

TRADE ALERT: We made a deal with the San Diego Padres, sending Andrew Benintendi (who comes off the IL in a few days and will be ready for a rehab assignment after breaking his hand during spring training) and center fielder Luis Robert Jr to the Padres in exchange for Yu Darvish and a prospect package including 25-year-old first baseman Tirso Ornelas, 24-year-old catcher Brandon Valenzuela and 24-year-old power-hitting left fielder Joshua Mears! We’re going to be retaining 30% of Benintendi’s remaining contract, but even then our money still will be improving by just over $5 million, even with Darvish’s four year contract that includes $67 million remaining to be paid out through 2028. Our main focus has to be on the draft and upcoming offseason, at which point we should have well over $100 million in cap space to start finding pieces for the rebuild. We are promoting Dominic Fletcher from AAA Charlotte to cover center field the rest of the year as a backup for Michael A. Taylor, and are demoting reliever Tyler Gilbert to make room for Darvish, who will take Jonathan Cannon’s place in the rotation, with Cannon moving into a spot starter / emergency high leverage position in the bullpen.

April 26, 2025: Fan interest has been piqued by our recent trade, as fans seem to understand our move to offload Benintendi and Luis Robert Jr ... and though his contract is a big one, folks seem to be excited to see Yu Darvish in a White Sox uniform (he’ll pitch in the final game of this road series). This afternoon Trevor Bauer (0-1, 5.91 ERA, 10.2 IP, 10 K’s, 1.31 WHIP) started against Reid Detmers (2-2, 4.76 ERA, 28.1 IP, 28 K’s, 1.62 WHIP). The Angels took the lead in the bottom of the first with an RBI single by Logan O’Hoppe that drove in two runs, and moments later Taylor Ward hit a two-run homer into right that made it 4-0 Angels. Martin Perez took over in the bottom of the fifth trailing 6-0, and he gave up three quick runs to put us down far enough we knew we’d never get out. Cadyn Grenier got us on the board with a run scored off a groundout by Starling Marte, and Miguel Vargas got us another with an RBI single, and with two outs and Trout on second in the bottom of the sixth we brought out Justin Dunn who let Trout score off an RBI by O’Hoppe to give the Angels a double digit run total. Kimbrel took over in the seventh and Cannon in the eighth, the Angels piling on plenty in that final innning, and we went on to lose badly 12-2. Bauer fell to 0-2 with a 7.98 ERA, allowing nine hits, a walk and six earned runs while striking out five, but we were outhit 17-5 so this game was out of control pretty much as soon as it started. Grenier and Dominic Fletcher had a hit and a run each to lead the offense, for what it was worth.
 
April 27, 2025: Yu Darvish (4-1, 3.64 ERA, 29.2 IP, 25 K’s, 1.25 WHIP) made his first start with our White Sox today, facing Jose Quijada (1-1, 4.91 ERA, 11.0 IP, 11 K’s, 1.64 WHIP). As has been their usual M.O., the Angels got out to a quick start, taking the lead with an RBI single by Taylor Ward in the bottom of the first, and they added on with an RBI double by Kevin Newman and an RBI single by Luis Rengifo in the bottom of the second to lead 3-0 heading into the third inning. But we got on the board in the top of the fifth with a two-run blast out of right by Joey Gallo, his second of the season, and Darvish had a quality start, with Clevinger taking over after the seventh inning stretch, still trailing 3-2., and he kept it that way through the bottom of the eighth. We had an opening in the top of the ninth, with two outs and runners on first and second as Michael A. Taylor took a walk to load the bags! That brought up Joey Gallo .... who struck out swinging. Game over, Angels sweep with a 3-2 victory. Opportunities don’t come gift wrapped any better than that one. Darvish lasted six innings with seven hits, four strikeouts and three earned runs, but took the loss and fell to 4-2 with a 3.79 ERA. They outhit us 9-3, but Gallo’s homer had kept us in it ... he just didn’t have another good hit in him. He still led the team with a hit, a run and two RBIs.

We’re off tomorrow for travel, and will then have three games against Milwaukee (17-12, 1st NL Central) and three against the Athletics (14-14, 3rd AL West) here in Chicago. Our record now stands at 7-21, dead last in the league, and we’re riding a five-game losing streak.