[jksander]

July 21, 2025: Ryan Weber (4-6, 4.10 ERA, 94.1 IP, 62 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) pitched in game one against the Rays, facing Ryan Pepiot (8-4, 3.09 ERA, 116.1 IP, 118 K’s, 1.10 WHIP). And he did well until, two outs in the third, Yandy Diaz hits a ground ball into left to drive in a run for Tampa. But our bats woke up in the fourth, or at least Teel’s did ... he hit a three-run blast out of right to shoot us into the lead, which gave Weber the confidence he needed to lock in. Tauchman started the fifth with an RBI single, and Gallo scored off a sac-fly by Slater to extend the lead to 5-1, and Weber got two outs in the sixth before being replaced with no one on base by Jonathan Cannon. We tacked on three more in the top of the seventh, and we shut them down easily to win 8-1! Weber got the win, improving to 5-6 with a 3.96 ERA thanks to 5.2 innings with four hits, a walk, a strikeout and a run ... not flashy, but he got it done! Cannon went 1.2 innings with a hit and a walk, and Brandon Eisert pitched 1.2 innings with no baserunners, striking out two as we outhit the Rays 9-5. Kyle Teel was 3-3 with a walk, two runs and four RBIs, easily earning Player of the Game honors.

July 22, 2025: Martin Perez (5-5, 1 SV, 5.12 ERA, 63.1 IP, 41 K’s, 1.52 WHIP) pitched against Shane McClanahan (5-6, 4.53 ERA, 107.1 IP, 120 K’s, 1.41 WHIP) in game two against Tampa, and again they struck first, an RBI triple by Jonny DeLuca putting them up 1-0 with two outs in the bottom of the second. But we tied it in the top of the third with an RBI double by Meidroth, and Starling Marte singled in the go-ahead, Meidroth scoring from third to put us up 2-1. With one out in the bottom of the fifth Kameron Misner hit a solo homer out of left, his sixth of the year, to tie it up, but Perez got the outs we needed to avoid giving them a lead, and Penn Murfee came out to pitch in the sixth. Yandy Diaz hit a towering homer over the center field wall with one out in the bottom of the sixth, but Gallo had one in his back pocket that he unleashed in the seventh to send us into the stretch tied 3-3. Merryweather came out with one out and a man on second to get us out of a tight spot in the bottom of the seventh, doing the job on just five pitches! He got through the eighth with just 11 more thrown, keeping us in this one and showing why I traded for him. We weren’t able to get anyone across in the ninth, so Ozzie Guillen kept Merryweather on the mound in the bottom of the inning -- a questionable decision in retrospect, as with just one out and men on first and second he then brought out Noah Syndergaard, who suddenly had to face a high pressure situation that could have been avoided. He got one out by pop-fly to center, but was not lucky the second time around -- Ben Rortveldt came out and slugged a three-run homer over the wall in right to walk it off, in a game we could have won. Merryweather took the loss, pitching two innings with a hit, a walk, a strikeout and two earned runs, and we were outhit 8-7, Gallo leading the way with a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI and his 14th homer of the season.

July 23, 2025: Yu Darvish (8-6, 3.75 ERA, 112.2 IP, 109 K’s, 1.19 WHIP) started our final game in Tampa, facing Taj Bradley (4-7, 4.45 ERA, 113.1 IP, 131 K’s, 1.39 WHIP). After four and a half innings of neutral duelling between the two pitchers, Darvish blinked first in the bottom of the fifth and Jose Caballero got on base with a single that drove in the first run of the game for the Rays. Kimbrel took over in the botom of the sixth, still trailing 1-0, and immediately Brandon Lowe hit a solo homer out of right to add on. Jonathan Cannon came out to pitch in the seventh, and Tampa added an RBI single by Caballero with two outs to make it a three-run lead. A two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth sealed it for good, as our bats put up absolutely no fight in the 5-0 loss. Darvish pitched five innings with four hits, two walks and four strikeouts, taking the loss, and we were outhit 9-3 ... you can’t win if you don’t score any runs at all, no matter what your pitchers do. Joey Gallo was our only player to get on base twice, with a hit and a walk.

Next up we head back to Chicago where we’ll play the Cubs (54-48, 2nd NL Central) for three and the Phillies (50-52, 3rd NL Central) for three, with an off day for the final day of the month which will be the official trade deadline. At this point in the season we’re definitely not buyers, but we’re performing better than expected on the field ... I don’t want to overreact with big “seller” moves if they’re not going to help us significantly in the very near future.

July 24, 2025: Ryan Reich, our second rounder in this year’s draft, accepted his bonus of $75,000 and will continue playing in the MLB Draft League for the Trenton Thunder, after which he’ll be moved to the South Atlantic League to play for our A+ Winston Salem Dash. The Draft League will finish playing in mid-August.