[jksander]

July 13, 2026: We’d expected some nice sunny weather when we flew into Los Angeles, but instead we were greeted with clouds and a strong wind blowing in, with temps in the mid-60s for our first game against the Angels. Not great July weather for so-cal this time of year, but I guess it beats temps in the 90s and sweltering sun. Zac Gallen (10-2, 3.06 ERA, 109.0 IP, 91 K’s, 1.07 WHIP) started for us against Aaron Civale (5-1, 1 SV, 4.18 ERA, 66.2 IP, 61 K’s, 1.30 WHIP), and we took a quick lead when Cody Bellinger hit an RBI single to drive in a run in the top of the first. Gary Sanchez hit a solo blast out of left that added on in the top of the second, and moments later Yordys Valdes, hitting in the one spot today, hit an RBI single to drive in another! Incredibly, early in the top of the fourth inning RAIN started to fall ... in LA, in July! ... a misty drizzle that sparkled in the bright stadium lights as Lipcius got on base with a leadoff single. Moments later they grazed Meidroth on the shoulder to load the bases, but we left them that way and went into the bottom of the inning still up 3-0. Tauchman scored off a single by Colson Montgomery in the top of the fifth to extend our lead to four runs, and Gallen lasted through the eighth inning before looking like he’d broken a sweat at all. Tauchman hit an RBI single to pile on in the ninth, and Sam Burke came out for the bottom of the inning leading by five, getting two strikeouts and a flyball to left as we crushed the Angels 5-0. Gallen dominated the game, pitching eight innings with four hits, no walks, no runs and 12 strikeouts, and Burke improved his ERA to 4.35 ... he hasn’t given up a run, earned or otherwise, in ten days, a stretch covering six innings over four appearances! We outhit the Angels 13-4, led by the red-hot swing of Brooks Lee, who had three hits, a walk and a run scored ... the 25-year-old is hitting .342 this year as a defensive backup, with ten doubles, a triple and a homer through 76 at-bats in 30 appearances.

July 14, 2026: Our number one pick, Grady Emerson, accepted his $12 million bonus this morning, so he took his place on our ACL team. This evening we played our second game against the Angels, and the skies were clear this time around, though it was still crisp and cool out. Jonathan Cannon (2-0, 3 SV, 3.00 ERA, 45.0 IP, 41 K’s, 1.11 WHIP) got the start, facing Reid Detmers (4-7, 5.08 ERA, 79.2 IP, 101 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). Cody Bellinger got us going with a three-run blast out of right in the top of the third, his 20th homer of the season, and seconds later Ceddanne Rafaela hit a solo shot to center-right, his ninth, to give us a 4-0 lead! With the bases loaded in the top of the fourth a sac-fly by Ha-seong Kim added another run, and the rout was on ... Kjerstad batted in two more with a single, and with two outs Rafaela hit a screaming double down the left field line to drive in two more! Tauchman batted him home with a single to put us up 10-0, and they looked completely gutted when they finally got to come back up to hit. They did get on the board, however -- a two-run blast out of right by Zach Neto got the fans who had stuck around onto their feet, cutting our lead to eight, and in the bottom of the fifth Neto hit another, a two-run blast again out of right to get them within six. In the top of the sixth we extended the lead with an RBI single by Tauchman that was coupled with an E7 throwing error, and with runners in scoring position Andre Lipcius added on another pair with a single into right. The Angels were in meltdown mode by that point, as Jack Kochanowicz beaned Montgomery and Kim back to back, loading the bags ... but they got out of the inning with us up 13-4, avoiding abject destruction. Merryweather took over for us in the bottom of the sixth with the commanding lead, and a three-run homer by Lipcius in the top of the seventh put the nails in with a vengeance. Ryan Weber pitched in the bottom of the ninth as a mop-up guy, and the Angels loaded the bases on two outs but couldn’t get anything in ... we won with ease 16-4, and so far they’ve shown zero fight against us as their season seems to be melting away. Jonathan Cannon improved to 3-0 with a 3.42 ERA, lasting five innings with five hits, a walk, six strikeouts and four earned runs, but our bullpen shut them out as we outhit them 16-10! Ceddanne Rafaela hit three times for three runs and three RBIs, while Andre Lipcius added two hits, a walk, two runs and five RBIs alongside Heston Kjerstad, who hit three times with three runs and two batted in.
 
July 15, 2026: It’s our last day playing the Angels in LA, and we have Noah Schultz (8-4, 2.15 ERA, 113.0 IP, 136 K’s, 0.79 WHIP) pitching against Caden Dana (7-4, 1 SV, 2.79 ERA, 58.0 IP, 60 K’s, 1.22 WHIP). In the first two games we’d had our way with the Angels, outscoring them 21-4, and tonight we got off to a quick start again, taking the lead in the top of the second with an RBI single by Tauchman. Moments later we had the bases loaded, one out, with Yordys Valdez at the plate ... he hit one into shallow center, driving in a run to keep them loaded, and Ha-seong Kim hit a sac-fly into left that drove in a third! The Angels got on the board with a sac-fly in the bottom of the fourth by Andrew Vaughn, but we held our lead and Shane Smith took over for Schultz in the bottom of the sixth still leading 3-1. In the bottom of the seventh the Angels got another run back, this time off an RBI double by Daz Cameron, and we brought out Helsley in the bottom of the eighth to try and hold it. But the Angels tied it up with a solo homer on two outs by Nolan Schanuel, and this one was definitely trending in the home-team’s direction. They shut us down in the ninth, so we went to Sean Burke in the bottom of the inning, and just like that this one was headed for extra innings tied 3-3. In the top of the 10th we loaded the bases with no outs, but they used a lot of defensive guile to get out of the jam and nobody scored. Noah Syndergaard took over in the bottom of the inning, and he got one out before the Angels pounced, Luis Arraez hitting a walk-off single to score Scott Kingery as they took the 4-3 win. Syndergaard took the loss, falling to 4-3 with a 6.18 ERA, though the run was unearned. We outhit them 10-5, but they were hungrier down the stretch, and we couldn’t score after the second inning volley. Valenzuela hit three times with a run scored, and Tauchman added two hits, a run and an RBI.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak, so we’ll take our 56-36 record onward to Minnesota where we’ll face the 42-50 Twins for four games as we draw closer to the All Star break. Matt Canterino and Miguel Vargas will start rehab assignments today, and we hope to have both back on the roster when we come back from the break, though we’re 20 games over .500 so we don’t have to rush anyone to come back too quickly.