[jksander]

May 13, 2025: Trevor Bauer (0-3, 6.75 ERA, 24.0 IP, 26 K’s, 1.58 WHIP) got the start in game one against Cincinnati at Great American Ball Park, facing Nick Martinez (2-3, 3.00 ERA, 48.0 IP, 38 K’s, 1.10 WHIP). Michael A. Taylor led off with a homer in the top of the second to give us an early lead, and in the top of the third we added on when Meidroth scored off a groundout by Vargas, giving us a 2-0 advantage in hostile territory. We added on three more in the top of the sixth, and Bauer had a phenomenal start, getting us through the sixth with a 5-0 lead. Justin Dunn came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh and Penn Murfee in the eighth, but Murfee struggled ... with one out and loaded bases, Martin Perez took over in an attempt to put out the growing fire. Two of Murfee’s runs scored off a single by Christian Encarnacion-Strand, but we got out of the inning still leading by three, and Eisert came out for the ninth inning. He finally proved he is human, as Matt McLain hit a two-run double that drove in a pair to cut our lead to one, and with two outs Jeimer Candelario hit a two-run homer out of center to gut us 6-5. Eisert wound up with his second blwon save and his first loss, falling to 0-1 with a 3.27 ERA thanks to four hits and four runs off 22 pitches with two outs. Because of the ninth-inning meltdown, Bauer lost his chance at a win after a stellar six inning effort where he had just four hits, two walks and six strikeouts without a run against him ... his ERA improved to 5.40 as he seems to be settling into his role here. Each team had 12 hits, ours led by Taylor, who hit three times with two runs and three RBIs, and by Meidroth who added three hits, a run and an RBI.

May 14, 2025: Today was nasty, with rain and low clouds, wind blowing in from center at a pretty brisk clip. Yu Darvish (5-2, 3.70 ERA, 48.2 IP, 38 K’s, 1.21 WHIP) pitched against Andrew Abbott (1-4, 7.93 ERA, 36.1 IP, 34 K’s, 1.79 WHIP) who has been on a cold stretch lately. Cincinnati wasted no time, as Spencer Steer hit a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first to give them a 1-0 lead, but Meidroth hit himself one in the top of the third to tie it up! Mike Clevinger took over on the mound in the bottom of the sixth, and we were still tied after the stretch, Shane Smith coming out with two outs and Cooper Bowman on first, getting us out of the inning with a strikeout after Bowman stole second and got stranded. We brought out Jonathan Cannon with one out and men on first and second in the bottom of the eighth, and he struck out Jake Fraley and got TJ Friedl to ground out to first, keeping us tied into the top of the ninth. Unable to score, Cannon (and solid infield defense) got us through the bottom of the inning and into extras, with the rain having held off to allow a hell of a game!

With Grenier on second to start the inning, Otto Lopez hit a shot into right field for a quick pop-out, but Grenier was able to advance to third ... Chase Meidroth walked, and rather than let him hit, they walked Tauchman too to load the bags ... setting up Miguel Vargas to hit a GRAND SLAM out of center, and fans started throwing trash on the field, they had to pause the action when Gallo, heading to the plate, almost got hit by a beer can! Gallo grounded out to first, and after a walk by Teel, Austin Slater popped out to third, bringing out Craig Kimbrel to finish things off. But the insanity wasn’t over. In the bottom of the inning, with one out, Elly De La Cruz hit a three-run slam out of right to cut our lead to one, but Kimbrel pitched like he’d been there before, getting two outs to get us out of there with a 5-4 upset win!

Jonathan Cannon got the win, improving to 1-4 with a 4.46 ERA, pitching 1.2 innings with just two strikeouts, no baserunners. The 24-year-old hasn’t been happy that he’s had to play out of the bullpen, but he came through in a pinch tonight. Darvish only lasted five innings, but he had just four hits, a walk, five strikeouts and a run against him, and we won despite them outhitting us 8-5. Vargas only took one hit to get us the four runs that won this game, so it’s all about persistence.

May 15, 2025: It’s hard to believe that All Star voting starts tomorrow, but it has definitely been an eventful season for our White Sox, as we now have a 15-28 record and wins in seven of our last ten games, including last night’s thriller here in Ohio. We’re three weeks away from the draft combine, seven weeks away from the draft itself, and baseball’s just heating up!

Today we played our final game of this series in Cincinnati, with Noah Syndergaard (2-2, 2.84 ERA, 44.1 IP, 27 K’s, 1.17 WHIP) going up against Nick Lodolo (2-1, 5.98 ERA, 40.2 IP, 41 K’s, 1.57 WHIP). We scored first, going up in the top of the first with an RBI single by Vargas, and Kyle Teel batted in two more with a single on two outs. But they got it all back in the bottom of the second with a three-run homer by Cooper Bowman, and with two outs Syndergaard gave up another, a two-run blast by Spencer Steer, digging us a 5-3 hole in an epic meltdown. But we had nothing to lose, and let Cincinnati think they had us whipped ... top of the fourth, with one out, they walked Taylor and Grenier, Taylor advancing to third on a pop-out by Lopez. That’s when Cayden Meidroth dropped a bloop single into left, driving in Taylor for a run while advancing Grenier to third, cutting the deficit to one as we went into the bottom of the inning. Syndergaard settled in and got us through the fifth, and he got three outs in the sixth with just seven pitches thrown, keeping the score unchanged ... and with two outs in the top of the seventh we tied it up with a solo blast by Miguel Vargas, taking the lead back just moments later when Gallo hit one the opposite way to put us up 6-5!
 
Jonathan Cannon took over after the stretch and got through the seventh with ease, but his first batter in the eighth, Spencer Steer, hammered one out of left to tie it up with his second homer of the game. Clevinger took over from there and got three quick outs, and Meidroth wound up leading off in the ninth by reaching on an E6 error, taking second in the chaos. They intentionally walked Tauchman, and with two outs they did the same with Teel to load the bases ... but we couldn’t get a run in, so Clevinger held firm and got us into extra innings with three more quick outs. With one out in the top of the 10th, Slater advanced from second with a wild pitch on one out, and they walked Grenier, setting Otto Lopez up perfectly to knock a run in with a single into right to give us the lead. Clevinger struck out TJ Friedl in the bottom of the inning and then we brought out Eisert, who got two quick outs and we escaped with yet another HUGE overtime win, beating the Reds 7-6 to take the series with a 10th inning win! Clevinger improved to 4-1 with a 1.50 ERA, lasting 2.1 innings with four strikeouts and no baserunners, while Eisert saved his ninth game with two critical outs to avoid scoring the ghost runner. Syndergaard recovered well from the rough second inning, finishing with six innings and five hits, a walk, five strikeouts and five earned runs. We outhit Cincinnati 11-6, led by Vargas who hit three times with two runs and two RBIs.

With the two out of three wins in Cincinnati, we’ve improved to 16-28, and will face the 17-27 Cubs with a chance to suddenly be the best team currently in the Windy City, for what that’s worth. Even better, we’re only six games behind the fourth place Tigers, when a few weeks ago we’d looked like complete Central Division goners.