[jksander]

August 18, 2025: Sean Burke (5-11, 4.21 ERA, 113.1 IP, 119 K’s, 1.35 WHIP) pitched against the Braves’ Grant Holmes (9-4, 4.12 ERA, 118.0 IP, 125 K’s, 1.22 WHIP) who has been on a cold stretch that he’s only now starting to come out of. Atlanta didn’t waste a lot of time, taking the lead in the bottom of the first off a one-out solo homer by Matt Olson. Austin Riley hit an RBI double to add on, giving them a 2-0 advantage after one. Burke had to come out of the game with two outs and two men on in the bottom of the fourth, with Atlanta leading 6-1, and the remainder of the game was a blur of Atlanta hitting, Atlanta scoring, White Sox cowering. They creamed us 10-1, outhitting us 15-4 as we were completely dominated. Burke had eight hits and six earned runs in 3.2 innings, walking two and striking out four as he lost his 12th game of the season. Miguel Vargas had a hit, a walk, a run and an RBI to lead our meager offense.

August 19, 2025: Brandon Pfaadt (8-11, 4.51 ERA, 147.2 IP, 159 K’s, 1.20 WHIP) pitched in game two, facing Spencer Strider (10-5, 2.69 ERA, 117.0 IP, 169 K’s, 0.97 WHIP). This one turned into a real pitching duel, with neither team getting much of a foothold early on. Pfaadt got us through six scoreless innings, and in the top of the seventh we broke through with a solo homer by Miguel Vargas to take a 1-0 lead heading into the stretch! Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the bottom of the inning, and he pitched around a pair of baserunners to keep our slim lead. Noah Syndergaard took over in the eighth, still leading by one run, and he couldn’t hold it ... with one out Marcell Ozuna hit an RBI single, Austin Riley coming all the way from first to third in the chaos, but we were able to get into the top of the ninth still tied at 1-1. Of course we went down three strikeouts in a row to continue our offensive woes, so Kimbrel came out in the ninth to try and get us into extras. He was successful, setting them down quietly in the ninth on just six pitches, and in the top of the tenth Vargas and Gallo each walked, giving us loaded bases with Austin Slater, our free-runner, on third. Brandon Lee hit a sac-fly on one out to drive home Slater for a one-run lead, and Starling Marte hit one into right field, driving in another with a single! With a two-run lead in hand, Kimbrel came out confidently and was able to strike out Michael Harris II and Jarred Kelenic swinging, getting Ronald Acuna Jr to ground out harmlessly to first as we stunned the Braves 3-1 in 10 innings. Kimbrel pitched two innings with three strikeouts and nobody getting on base, improving his record to 2-3 with a 6.19 ERA through 52.1 innings. The Braves outhit us 8-4, but Vargas made things happen on the basepaths with a hit, a walk, two runs and an RBI as we manufactured a win out of whole cloth.

August 20, 2025: Yu Darvish (9-9, 4.03 ERA, 129.2 IP, 120 K’s, 1.28 WHIP) is officially on a cold streak, but he’s got the ball tonight in game three against Chris Sale (9-6, 3.44 ERA, 162.0 IP, 186 K’s, 1.07 WHIP). But Darvish came out strong tonight, striking out their first three batters swinging, and in the top of the second we took the lead off an RBI double by Brandon Valenzuela to go up 1-0! Darvish then let Austin Riley hit a weak single, walked Marcell Ozuna, and then struck out Jarred Kelenic, Sean Murphy and Orlando Arcia to get us into the third unscathed! Miguel Vargas hit an RBI double in the top of the third to extend our lead, and Lenyn Sosa hit another RBI double in the fourth to give us a 3-0 advantage! In the top of the fifth we got another RBI double, this time from Joey Gallo, and Darvish got us through the bottom of the inning safely, Shane Smith taking the ball for the bottom of the sixth with our lead at 4-0. Penn Murfee got us through the seventh, and Martin Perez came out in the eighth, letting the Braves get on the board with a solo homer by Matt Olson with one out, though he got two quick outs to end the inning with us still leading by three runs. We left nothing to chance, however ... Michael A. Taylor hit an RBI single to get that run back, and with two outs against us, Brooks Lee hit a three-run double to extend our lead to seven runs! Perez gave up another one-out solo homer, this time to Kelenic in the bottom of the ninth, but he shut them down from there and we won 8-2, stealing the series from the Braves as their fans looked on in disgust. Yu Darvish got the win, allowing just two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in his five innings. Even better, we outhit them 11-6, including SIX DOUBLES ... Brooks Lee led the way with two hits, two walks, two runs and three RBIs.

We’re off tomorrow, and will then close out the month at home, with three against the Twins (70-58, 1st AL Central), three against the Royals (66-62, 3rd AL Central) and four against the Yankees (74-53, 1st AL East). We’ll then open the month of September with four on the road at Minnesota, followed by three games in Detroit (60-69, 4th AL Central). Beyond that, our only other games left against the division will be on the road September 12-14 against Cleveland (66-61, 2nd AL Central). That’s sixteen divisional games left ... we’re sitting at 54-73, well out of any wildcard hopes, but we’d love to play spoiler in what has turned into an incredible divisional race between Minnesota, Cleveland and Kansas City, the three teams being within four games of each other and all in legit playoff contention whether as division leaders or wildcard contenders.