[jksander]

May 23, 2025: Sean Burke (2-5, 4.53 ERA, 45.2 IP, 48 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) has been hot lately after a slow start, and tonight he faced off against Texas’ Nathan Eovaldi (3-3, 3.31 ERA, 51.2 IP, 55 K’s, 1.28 WHIP). Miguel Vargas hit an RBI double to put us up 1-0 in the bottom of the first, and with two outs in the bottom of the second Otto Lopez hit an RBI single to add on a run, giving us a little more cushion. Texas got on the board in the top of the third with a groundout to first by Corey Seager scoring Kyle Higashioka from third, but we got Jake Burger to strike out swinging, leaving another runner stranded at third as our lead held. Burke doesn’t have great endurance, but he got through the first five innings tonight with the lead still under our control, and Clevinger took over in the sixth ... but he wrenched his shoulder and had to come out after 11 pitches, replaced by Shane Smith with two outs and nobody on. The injury does not look serious, he’ll just be day to day for the next few ... but his sudden exit was jarring. Our offense came out with real fight in the bottom of the inning, adding on three runs with a Vargas slam, and Smith got us through the remainder of the night with a stellar bullpen performance as we held tough to win 5-1! Burke improved to 3-5 with a 4.26 ERA after five innings with two hits, four walks, three strikeouts and an earned run, but Smith was the clear hero of the game ... he pitched for 3.1 innings, earning his second save of the season, allowing two hits, with two walks being his only baserunners. He now has a 4.00 ERA through 27 innings over 22 appearances. We outhit Texas’ power lineup 8-4, led by Vargas who hit twice with a run and four RBIs.

May 24, 2025: Trevor Bauer (0-4, 5.66 ERA, 35.0 IP, 37 K’s, 1.49 WHIP) pitched in game two, taking on Kumar Rocker (4-0, 4.06 ERA, 51.0 IP, 50 K’s, 1.18 WHIP). Texas took the lead in the top of the second with a two-run homer by Josh Smith, but we got one back in the bottom of the inning when Cadyn Grenier hit an RBI single, and in the bottom of the third we took the lead with a two-run homer by Vargas, with Gallo hitting right behind him for a solo homer of his own. Leading 4-2, and with Bauer on a tear, we held our ground firmly from there. Justin Dunn took over with one out and Josh Smith on first in the top of the seventh, still leading by the pair, but that’s when our wheels fell off ..Martin Pere. he loaded the bases and Evan Carter hit a two-run double to tie it up, and Kimbrel had to come out to stop the bleeding with runners in scoring position. He walked Seager, and we got Leody Taveras out trying to score off a wild pitch ... a grounder to short by Berger and a solid throw by Grenier to first got us out of the inning with the score tied 4-4. Martin Perez came out in the eighth, and he completed our collapse, giving up an RBI double to Kyle Langford with no outs, though he got three quick outs to avoid anyone else scoring. Jonathan Cannon came out with one out in the ninth, getting Joc Pederson to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to bring us back up for one last shot. With two outs, Chase Meidroth hit an RBI triple to get within 90 feet of tying this one, and they walked Tauchman, but Vargas grounded out to first and ended this as a 6-5 loss. Bauer lasted 6.1 innings with two hits, four walks, seven strikeouts and three earned runs, and the bullpen had a rough night from there despite the fact that we outhit them 7-6. Vargas led the way with a hit, a run and two RBIs thanks to his homer, but he wasn’t able to pull a rabbit out of his hat in the ninth.

May 25, 2025: Yu Darvish (5-2, 3.62 ERA, 59.2 IP, 48 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) faced Cody Bradford (4-1, 2.59 ERA, 29 K’s, 0.77 WHIP) in our final home game of the month and the last of this Texas series. After three relatively quiet innings, Darvish gave up a leadoff homer to Leody Taveras in the top of the fourth to put Texas in the lead. But we hit back hard in the bottom of the inning ... leadoff double by Tauchman, a walk for Vargas, a one-out single by Kyle Teel to load the bases, and then Austin Slater blew the roof off the stands when he hit a grand salami out of center to put us up 4-1 -- the 32 year old is hitting just .191, but he has five homers and 15 RBIs! Darvish got us into the stretch with the margin unchanged, and in the bottom of the inning Tauchman hit a two-run homer to extend our lead to five runs. Shane Smith took over in the top of the eighth, and in the top of the ninth Wyatt Langford hit a solo shot out of center to get the Rangers back within four, but Smith got us through the rest of the inning without letting them close the gap -- we won 6-2 and took the series two games to one, improving our record to 21-32! Darvish got his second win since joining our team, pitching seven innings with two hits, 10 strikeouts against one walk, and one earned run, and we outhit them 11-4! Tauchman had two hits, two runs and two RBIs, and Austin Slater had two hits and his grand slam for four RBIs.

Tomorrow we’ll be in New York to play the Mets (27-26, 2nd NL East) for three, and then after a day off and a flight to Baltimore we’ll have three games against the Orioles (19-34, 5th AL East) to get us into June.With two weeks before the draft combine, we’re really starting to feel this season heating up! So far in May we’ve gone 13-10, putting some distance between us and our 8-22 start, but there’s a long way to go if we want to consider our team “competitive” even within our weak division.