[jksander]

August 15, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-8, 3.62 ERA, 126.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) says he’s ready to go and our pitching coaches concur, so he started today against Shane Bieber (2-2, 5.31 ERA, 40.2 IP, 37 K’s, 1.48 WHIP) who was traded from Cleveland on July 26. But Darvish almost immediately gave up an RBI double to Bobby Witt Jr in the first inning, and it went pretty much like last time ... loaded bags on one out? Check. RBI single from MJ Melendez to add on a run? Check. On two outs he let Michael Massey hit a single that drove in two more, and we were in a 4-0 hole after one inning, though this time Darvish was at 23 pitches, not 60. He gave up another run on two outs in the third, and we tried to give him the fourth inning so we could preserve our bullpen but he gave up back to back doubles and a run, exiting the game for Syndergaard without getting a single out. He’ll get the rest of the season to try and work out his kinks, but it’s looking more and more like he’s hanging on to his career by a thread, and we’re the ones who will be stuck eating upwards of $46 million if he doesn’t see the light himself -- though at least we got Valenzuela in that same deal. Syndergaard had a thankless job, entering the fourth inning with no outs while trailing 6-0, with a runner in scoring position. He gave up a two-run homer to Bobby Witt Jr on his first pitch of the night, and that summed up the rest of our game entirely. We wound up burning through six pitchers tonight, and all it got us was a 12-4 blowout loss. Darvish took the loss, of course, allowing 10 hits, two walks and seven earned runs with no strikeouts, and he’s now 5-8 since joining our team ... not great results. We were outhit 15-8, our offense led by Bobby Valenzuela, who hit a two-run double in the top of the seventh.

August 16, 2025: Noah Schultz (6-2, 2.67 ERA, 67.1 IP, 65 K’s, 0.95 WHIP) faced off against Angel Zerpa (2-2, 2 SV, 4.59 ERA, 49.0 IP, 42 K’s, 1.29 WHIP) in game two against the Royals, and they got on the board in the bottom of the first with a sac-fly by Vinnie Pasquantino. Nelson Vasquez hit a two-run homer to add on in the bottom of the fourth, and our batters continued to hardly be able to hit the broad side of a barn. Another run scored off a wild pitch, and with Pasquantino on second and one out we had to bring out Penn Murfee trailing 4-0. He got us through that inning and the sixth and seventh as well, and Shane Smith took over in the eighth, getting us into the top of the ninth trailing by four with no hope at all. But we saw sparks at the start of the inning, with a leadoff walk for Slater, a single for Vargas and then another walk by Gallo to load the bags, no outs! Michael A. Taylor took the count full and then walked in a run, getting us on the board as the Royals started to look pained. But Brooks Lee and Starling Marte struck out swinging, and Brandon Valenzuela then did the same but looking ... and we lost this one 4-1, squandering a really great opportunity against a tough road opponent. Schultz took the loss, falling to 6-3 with a 3.01 ERA thanks to 4.1 innings with eight hits, a walk, two strikeouts and four earned runs. They outhit us 11-5, Miguel Vargas leading our offense with two hits to nowhere, while Talor walked in our only run.

Otto Lopez suffered a setback in his recovery from an elbow injury while already on the IL, and will now miss at least two more weeks. He will then likely spend the rest of his season rehabbing in the minors, so his major league season will end with a .315 average, 20 doubles, a dozen stolen bases and 2.3 WAR, as he batted in 32 runs for us.
 
August 17, 2025: Ryan Weber (6-7, 3.88 ERA, 116.0 IP, 70 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) started against Michael Wacha (8-12, 4.16 ERA, 145.1 IP, 122 K’s, 1.38 WHIP) in our final game of the series against the Royals. They took the lead in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Salvador Perez, and Noah Syndergaard took over in the bottom of the sixth still trailing by that one run. Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the eighth, keeping us in the game ... but our bats failed again and we lost 1-0, proving to be incable of even the most rudimentary of offense. Weber fell to 6-8, lasting five innings with five hits, a walk, a strikeout and a run, and our two bullpen arms lasted three innings combined with two strikeouts and no baserunners. But in a game where we held them to five hits, we managed three, and even with two walks added were unable to make anything of it. Meidroth had two hits, and that’s about all I can say as we endured the sweep and fell to twenty games below .500 at 52-72.

We’ve got no choice but to drag our asses back to the airport, because tomorrow we start a three-game set against the 80-45 Braves, carrying a three-game losing streak with us that seems destined to expand while playing the second-best team in the majors (only the 86-38 Dodgers are better, with their Kajillion-dollar roster and all).