[jksander]

June 2, 2025: With a week of home games scheduled, we really could use a good stretch of play from our team. Ryan Weber (2-5, 3.21 ERA, 53.1 IP, 35 K’s, 1.24 WHIP) started against Detroit’s Tarik Skubal (4-3, 3.38 ERA, 74.2 IP, 85 K’s, 1.19 WHIP). Detroit took the lead in the top of the second with a solo homer by Parker Meadows, and they added on in the top of the third with an RBI single by Riley Greene. But Cadyn Grenier hit a two-run double in the bottom of the fourth to tie it up, and he hit an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth to give us a 3-2 lead! Craig Kimbrel came out to pitch in the top of the seventh, and Shane Smith took over in the eighth, giving Detroit back the run with a solo homer by Kerry Carpenter to tie it back up 3-3. But Austin Slater put us back into the lead in the bottom of the eighth with a solo homer, and Brandon Eisert had a quick ninth inning to close it out, finishing by getting Jake Rogers to ground into a 6-2-3 double play as we held tough to win 4-3 in Ozzie Guillen’s first game as a manager! Smith wound up with his first blown save, but improved to 2-3 with a 5.03 ERA, while Eisert saved his 11th game of the season with two hits, a walk and a strikeout. Each team had nine hits, ours led by Slater who had three hits, a walk, two runs and an RBI, while Grenier had two hits, a walk and three RBIs.

OOC: Ozzie Guillen has moved Noah Syndegaard (3-3, 3.48 ERA, 67.1 IP 44 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) into a setup role, and will be running a rotation of Darvish, Clevinger, Bauer, Burke and Weber. I’m not sure how Clevinger, who has played 28 games so far out of the bullpen, will handle being a starter considering his weak stuff and 40 stamina, but he has a 4-2 record and a 1.31 ERA with 36 K’s and a 0.92 WHIP so I’ll trust Ozzie’s judgment -- it’s what we’re paying him $1.5 million a year through 2029 to handle.

June 3, 2025: Sean Burke (3-6, 4.31 ERA, 54.1 IP, 57 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) started our second game against Detroit, facing Jack Flaherty (2-7, 7.47 ERA, 53.0 IP, 71 K’s, 1.64 WHIP). We took the lead in the bottom of the second off an RBI single by Otto Lopez, and a Mike Tauchman solo homer in the third gave us a 2-0 advantage! Michael A. Taylor hit a two-run triple in the fifth to extend the lead to four runs, and Jonathan Cannon took over with no outs and a runner on first in the top of the sixth. Detroit got on the board in the top of the seventh with an RBI single by Kerry Carpenter, and Matt Vierling hit a solo homer to cut our lead to two in the top of the eighth. But Eisert handled business in the ninth and we were able to win once again, this time by a 4-2 margin. Burke got the win, improving to 4-0 with a 3.94 ERA thanks to five innings with three hits, three walks and six strikeouts, and Eisert got his ERA down to 2.45 with his 12th save. We were again matched on hits, seven against seven, and Lopez led the way with a hit, two walks and an RBI, while Tauchman popped his eighth homer of the season.
 
June 4, 2025: Trevor Bauer (0-5, 5.44 ERA, 46.1 IP, 48 K’s, 1.49 WHIP) pitched against Tyler Holton (5-2, 2.53 ERA, 64.0 IP, 58 K’s, 0.92 WHIP) in game three against the Tigers. Jorge Alfaro hit a solo homer for us in the bottom of the second, but Detroit was having none of it ... in the top of the third they hammered us for seven runs, including three-run homers by Gleyber Torres Parker Meadows, driving Bauer out of the game with NO OUTS, just two complete innings -- the experiment with him back in the majors may now be over. Detroit spent the rest of the game adding on runs, and we lost this one badly 11-2. Bauer allowed six hits and seven runs in two innings with three walks and a single strikeout, falling to 0-6 with a 6.52 ERA, and we were outhit 13-8, Grenier leading the way with two hits and an RBI.

I’ve decided to release Trevor Bauer, and in turn promoted 21-year-old rookie phenom Noah Schultz to the majors, where Guillen plans to slot him into the #3 spot in the rotation. Through 11 starts at AAA Charlotte, Schultz has gone 5-4 with a 4.32 ERA and 83 K’s through 58.1 innings, good for a 1.18 WHIP and 1.9 WAR.

June 5, 2025: Yu Darvish (7-2, 3.10 ERA, 72.2 IP, 68 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) pitched against Reese Olson (4-2, 3.42 ERA, 71.0 IP, 62 K’s, 1.30 WHIP) in our final game of the four-game set against the Tigers, and we took a quick lead in the bottom of the first with a sac-fly by Kyle Teel which scored Otto Lopez from third. Detroit tied us up in the top of the fourth with a solo homer by Riley Greene, but Grenier answered with one of his own in the bottom of the inning to put us back on top 2-1. We broke it open in the bottom of the fifth with four more runs scoring, including a two-run single by Chase Meidroth, amd we were dominant from there as we stumped the Tigers 8-2 ... the Ozzie Guillen era opens with a 3-1 series win! Yu Darvish allowed three hits and a run with a walk and four strikeouts in his 5.1 innings, giving him the win, and we outhit the Tigers 12-5, led by Teel who had three hits and two runs batted in.

We’ll take a 25-38 record into the series against the Royals, who currently lead our division by four and a half games over Cleveland, the Royals’ record sitting at 37-26. We’re just two days away from the start of the draft combine, and just five weeks away from the draft itself.