[jksander]

June 23, 2026: Noah Schultz (5-3, 1.97 ERA, 91.1 IP, 114 K’s, 0.70 WHIP) pitched in game one against the Dodgers, and in his last four game he’s put up 37 strikeouts with 14 hits, ONE walk and just four earned runs! Tonight he faced off against Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5-3, 3.59 ERA, 62.2 IP, 62 K’s, 1.31 WHIP), and we got on the board instantly when Ha-seong Kim hit a leadoff homer in the top of the first! Meidroth hit a solo shot out of right in the top of the third to extend our lead, and Schultz had seven strikeouts in the first three innings as we stayed firmly in control. Brandon Valenzuela hit a two-run blast out of left in the top of the sixth to widen the margin to 4-0, but the Dodgers got on the board in the bottom of the inning with an RBI double by Teoscar Hernandez, and moments later Will Smith hit a two run blast out of right to get them back within a run. Jose Alvarado took over in the bottom of the seventh still leading 4-3, and in the top of the eighth Ha-Seong Kim hit an RBI single that drove in an insurance run for us. Meidroth hit a shot into right to drive in another pair and this one was back to a four-run advantage. Ryan Helsley came out to pitch in the bottom of the eighth and immediately gave up a solo homer to Freddy Freeman, but he got the next three (Ohtani, Hernandez and Tucker) via pop-flies, and we went into the top of the ninth leading convincingly by three runs. Ben Joyce closed it out in the bottom of the ninth, and after a strikeout and a groundout Tommy Edman hit a solo shot out of right to cut the lead to two. But Miguel Rojas struck out swinging and we won this one 7-5! Schultz improved to 6-3 with a 2.13 ERA, striking out 10 batters with five hits, no walks and three earned runs. Alvarado got a hold, his fifth, and Joyce saved his 10th game of the season with a hit, two strikeouts and a run. We outslugged them 15-7, led by Kim with three hits, two runs and two RBIs while Meidroth added three hits, a run and three RBIs.

June 24, 2026: We’re back for game two against the Dodgers, with Dave Rasmussen (2-3, 3.38 ERA, 69.1 IP, 72 K’s, 1.14 WHIP) pitching against Gavin Stone (3-1, 3.58 ERA, 37.2 IP, 35 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). The Dodgers got going in the bottom of the first with a leadoff homer from Alex Freeland, his eighth of the season, and two batters later Shohei Ohtani hit his 16th of the season to put them up 2-0. It stayed that way for an hour or so, and then we woke up in a huge way -- in the top of the fifth, Tauchman scored off an RBI flyball single by Brandon Valenzuela, and then Ha-seong Kim hit an RBI double to bring in Miguel Vargas, tying it up with just one out against us. Chase Meidroth then got us the lead with a two-run double, and a Cody Bellinger sac-fly made it a 5-2 ballgame midway through the inning! In the top of the sixth we added on a pair with a two-run homer by Yordys Valdes, his fifth of the year, and Jonathan Cannon came out to pitch in the bottom of the sixth with a five-run cushion. We piled on from there via a two-run single by Vargas in the seventh, and Heston Kjersted grounded out to drive in another in the eighth, giving us a 10-2 lead. Julian Merryweather took over in the bottom of that inning, and the rout was on from there ... we scored four more in the top of the ninth including a two-run double for Valdes, and Merryweather stayed in to close out the 14-2 blowout win! Rasmussen improved to 3-3 with a 3.39 ERA, allowing just four hits, a walk and two runs with three strikeouts in his five innings, and we outhit LA 16-4 ... Valdes is finally out of his slump, hitting twice tonight with three runs and four batted in as he got his average back above .200 batting ninth, while Chase Meidroth added three hits, two runs and three RBIs as well.
 
June 25, 2026: Dylan Cease (3-4, 3.36 ERA, 85.2 IP, 97 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) pitched against Roki Sasaki (5-3, 4.37 ERA, 82.1 IP, 94 K’s, 1.18 WHIP) in game three against the Dodgers in LA, and Mike Tauchman got us on the board in the top of the first with a walk that scored Chase Meidroth to put us up 1-0. Cease was on fire early, striking out the side in the bottom of the first, and Ha-seong Kim hit an RBI double in the top of the second to add on. Bellinger hit a solo homer in the third, his 17th of the season, but LA got on the board in the bottom of the inning thanks to an E3 error, James Outman scoring without a hit. Cease made it through five hitless innings, and we picked up another pair of runs in the top of the sixth thanks to singles by Sanchez and Meidroth ... but he had to come out in the bottom of the inning after having thrown 110 pitches -- Eduard Bazardo took over from him to start the inning, keeping them hitless as we flexed our infield defensive muscles. Jose Alvarado came out to pitch in the bottom of the eighth, and Ryan Helsley did the same in the ninth ... at which point he blew the shared no-no by letting Teoscar Hernandez hit a solo homer out of right to cut the lead to three. We got the win though, which is what counts, beating them 5-2 as we completed the road sweep! Cease improved to 4-4 with a five inning four walk, five strikeout effort -- just the one unearned run against him as his ERA improved to 3.18. We outhit the Dodgers 13-2, led by Bellinger with three hits, a run and an RBI, while Meidroth added two hits, a run and an RBI as well.

We had to catch a plane this evening to get to Houston for our next three-game road series -- the Astros are 36-41 and in fourth place in the AL West, but they’re coming off a 3-1 series win over the Angels, so they’re hoping to continue their home success against us as they finish a seven-game homestand. We, meanwhile, are now 44-30, fourteen games above .500 and leading the Central division by 4.5 games over Cleveland ... we’ve won seven of our last ten games, including the sweep against the Dodgers, and we’re gelling well enough as a team that people are really starting to take notice. This is no fluke, our White Sox are ready to compete!