[jksander]

June 19, 2026: We’re on the road in Texas, facing our first of three at Globe Life Field, and Dylan Cease (3-4, 3.28 ERA, 79.2 IP, 88 K’s, 1.10 WHIP) took the mound against Jon Gray (3-6, 5.04 ERA, 64.1 IP, 64 K’s, 1.23 WHIP), under clear skies with the roof open! Texas took the lead in the bottom of the second with a three-run homer by Ezequiel Duran, but we got on the board in the top of the third with a leadoff homer by Miguel Vargas, stalling their momentum a bit. In the top of the fourth, Vargas hit an RBI single on two outs to drive in our second run of the game, but we left the bases loaded and could have used that opportunity to take control of the game. In the top of the fourth we made up for it, however, when Cody Bellinger homered on one out, driving in three runs to put us ahead 5-3! Julian Merryweather came out to pitch in the bottom of the seventh still leading by two, and he immediately gave up a leadoff homer to Jose Trevino ... with one out and men on first and second, we brought out Jose Alvarado to put out the fire, but after catching a runner stealing third, he gave up a two-run homer to Corey Seager and just like that the Rangers were back up by a 6-5 margin. Eduard Bazardo took over in the eighth, pitching a clean inning, In the top of the ninth Vargas hit his second homer of the game, his second leadoff homer of the game, and that tied this thing up at 6-all! With one out, Yordys Valdes took a walk and brought up the top of our lineup, but we couldn’t get the lead, so Bazardo came back out in the bottom of the inning trying to hold on for extra innings -- he pitched around a single by Seager to do just that, and we were headed to extra innings yet again.

They intentionally walked Kjerstad, sending him to first behind Meidroth the pinch-runner at second. With two outs, Tauchman hit a shot into left, Meidroth scoring off a bad throw to home to put us up a run ... Vargas hit a shot into center, driving in another pair, and Ben Joyce came out in the bottom of the inning ready to end this one ... except he walked Ben Rice and then let Josh Jung hit a three-run blast out of center to tie the damned game, and we went into the 11th frustrated at the blown opportunity. Pinch-runner Brandon Valenzuela made it to third off a sac-fly by Valdes, and they walked Kim to give us runners on the corners. We took the lead off a sac-fly by Meidroth that scored our 10th run of the game, and Kjerstad kept the game going with a single into right that pushed Kim to third, but Bellinger grounded out to first ... we’d take a one-run lead into the bottom of the inning. Jonathan Cannon came out to pitch, with Texas’ fastest baserunner (Evan Carter) on second. Leody Taveras popped one straight to Cannon for our first out, and Wally Langford popped out to shallow left, too shallow for Carter to make a move on third ... that brought up Corey Seager for all the marbles, and an intentional walk kept his bat from doing damage. Adolis Garcia popped one out to deep left, and we escaped with an absolutely bonkers 10-9 win in 11 innings! Ben Joyce improved to 6-3 despite blowing his third save, allowing a hit, a walk and three runs (two earned) along with one strikeout in his inning, while Cannon saved his second game and brought his ERA down to 3.86 through 35 innings. They outhit us 12-11, but we made ours count, as Miguel Vargas had an exceptional night: four hits with two runs and five RBIs thanks to two homers, giving him 11 on the season.

June 20, 2026: Zac Gallen (9-1, 2.86 ERA, 88.0 IP, 77 K’s, 1.02 WHIP) is having one of the best pitching starts in the entire American League, and tonight he faced off against Cody Bradford (5-5, 4.12 ERA, 74.1 IP, 66 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) on the road in game two against the Rangers. Texas took the lead in the bottom of the second with an RBI double by Jose Trevino that scored Christian Walker from first, and Bradford was unhittable through five innings, with just two walks ... giving us absolutely nothing to work with. Gallen kept it a one run game through the bottom of the fifth, and we FINALLY got a hit in the top of the sixth with a single into right by Ha-seong Kim on one out, but he got nowhere. Ryan Helsley took the ball for us in the bottom of the sixth and he gave us two good innings, Ryan Weber taking over for him in the bottom of the eighth still trailing by the one run. With two outs, Jose Trevino singled in another run for the Rangers, and we came up to hit in the ninth trailing now by a pair in a game that seemed to have a much wider gulf. But Chase Meidroth hit a solo homer out of left off Kumar Rocker’s third pitch of the night! With two outs, Ceddanne Rafaela walked, bringing up Tauchman, but he’s been slumping ... we brought out Brooks Lee to sub for him, and with the count full he slammed one into right field, bouncing it off the wall as he doubled in the tying run! But it wasn’t to be our night ... Weber gave up a two-run homer to Corey Seager in the bottom of the ninth and we lost this one 4-2. Weber took the loss, falling to 1-3 with a 7.31 ERA, allowing three hits, a walk and three runs with one strikeout in his 1.1 innings. But we were outhit 11-3, so valliant effort in the ninth nonwithstanding we were outclassed in this one. Lee had a hit and an RBI and Meidroth added a hit, a run and an RBI, but for the most part our offense took the night off.

June 21, 2026: Sean Burke (4-3, 4.15 ERA, 60.2 IP, 66 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) pitched in game three, facing Framber Valdez (5-4, 3.86 ERA, 77.0 IP, 80 K’s, 1.17 WHIP). We loaded the bases on two outs with a walk by Ceddanne Rafaela in the top of the first, but Tauchman continued to slump, grounding out to first to end the frame scoreless. We took the lead in the top of the second with a groundout to first by Valdes that scored Miguel Vargas from third, but the Rangers tied it with an RBI double by Seager in the bottom of the fourth and he scored the go-ahead moments later off a single by Adolis Garcia. They added on with an RBI double by Leody Tavares in the bottom of the fifth, and in a fielder’s choice attempt at home we failed miserably as Evan Carter was easily safe for their fourth run. A sac-fly by Seager added on, and they held a convincing 5-1 lead as we came up to hit in the sixth. Noah Syndergaard took over in the bottom of the sixth, the Rangers adding on a run each in the sixth and seventh to take a commanding six-run lead into the top of the eighth. We loaded the bases with one out in the top of the eighth, and with two outs Miguel Vargas walked in a run to cut the lead to five. Ryan Weber took over in a mop-up role in the bottom of the inning, and he kept the game from getting more out of control than it already was ... but we went down quietly, losing this one 7-2. Burke took the loss, falling to 4-4 with a 4.52 ERA thanks to five innings with four hits, three walks, five runs and four strikeouts. We were outhit again 8-7, Vargas leading the way with two hits, a walk, a run and an RBI.

The loss dropped us to 41-30 as we head out to LA to face the 47-25 Dodgers in a three-game set.