[jksander]

July 16, 2026: Dylan Cease (4-4, 3.24 ERA, 108.1 IP, 125 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) pitched against Pablo Lopez (4-6, 3.75 ERA, 103.1 IP, 95 K’s, 1.08 WHIP) in game one against the Twins, and Minnesota broke through in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single by Danny Jansen to take a 1-0 lead. Cease was pitching on short rest and got an out in the fifth, but we weren’t willing to push him any further and brought out Syndergaard with nobody on. He got one out, and then leadoff hitter Luke Keaschall slammed one out of left to extend the Minnesota lead to two. They kept hitting, Byron Buxton adding on with an RBI single, and we were in a 3-0 hole heading into the top of the sixth. We got on the board in the top of the sixth, with an RBI double by Meidroth, and Julian Merryweather took the ball in the bottom of the inning. We got another run back in the top of the seventh when Andre Lipcius reached first on an E6 error, scoring Tauchman from third, and Jose Alvarado came out to pitch after the stretch, striking out the side to keep us firmly in this one! Ryan Helsley took the ball with two outs and a man on second in the bottom of the eighth, and he got us into the top of the ninth with a chance to rally. But they brought out their closer, Jhoan Duran, the man with 23 saves and a reputation as THE lockdown closer of our division ... and it didn’t matter! Cody Bellinger hit his 21st homer, a solo shot out of left that almost went into the upper deck, and just like that we were tied 3-3! Unable to get the lead, we brought out Ben Joyce in a bid for back-to-back extra innings games, and he did the job with two fly-outs and a strikeout ... bring on the 10th! Too bad we had no offensive pop left in us ... they shut us down in the top of the 10th and in the bottom of the inning Matt Wallner singled and after a swinging strike by Buxton, Carlos Correa stole home on an E2 error and we lost our second in a row by a 4-3 margin. Joyce took the loss, falling to 6-5 with a 4.78 ERA, allowing a hit and an unearned run with one strikeout ... they outhit us 11-8, Bellinger leading our offense with two hits, a run and an RBI.

Greg Wygant, our third round pick this year, accepted his $950,000 bonus and will join our Arizona rookie league, but he’s looking good enough out of high school that it is very possible he could be in Kannapolis by next season with our single-A team.

July 17, 2026: Zac Gallen (11-2, 2.85 ERA, 117.0 IP, 103 K’s, 1.03 WHIP) started against Joe Musgrove (4-9, 4.55 ERA, 89.0 IP, 75 K’s, 1.42 WHIP) in game two of this four game set, and this time we took the lead in the top of the first off an RBI double by Brandon Valenzuela. But the lead only lasted us until the bottom of the fifth, when Edouard Julien grounded out to first, driving home Matt Wallner to tie us up 1-1. We got the lead back in the top of the sixth when Brandon Valenzuela hit into a fielder’s choice, making it to first safely when they couldn’t pick Chase Meidroth off at home plate. Colson Montgomery hit his first major league homer in the top of the ninth to add some insurance, and Ben Joyce took over for Gallen in the bottom of the inning, pitching around two baserunners to help us clinch the 3-1 victory! Gallen was incredible, lasting eight innings with three hits, one walk, one earned run and nine strikeouts, throwing 100 pitches on four days’ rest! Joyce saved his 15th game of the year, and we outhit the Twins 8-5, led by Montgomery who had two hits, a run and an RBI, while Meidroth notched two hits and two runs.

Matéo Perret, our second rounder, accepted his $1.6 million bonus and is now headed to our Dominican rookie team. We’re still waiting for our 4th and 6th rounders to sign on the dotted line.
 
July 18, 2026: Ryan Weber (1-3, 2 SV, 25.0 IP, 14 K’s, 1.56 WHIP) got the start out of the bullpen this afternoon in game three against the Twins, and we were hoping he could at least get through the lineup once against their starter Louie Varland (3-6, 4.78 ERA, 81.0 IP, 68 K’s, 1.25 WHIP). He wound up getting us through the third, and in the top of the fourth Brandon Valenzuela hit a solo homer, his 10th of the year, over the center field wall to put us up 1-0! Weber got us two outs in the fourth and then we went to the pen, bringing out Sean Burke, who got us out of the inning still leading by a run. In the top of the fifth Mike Tauchman hit a two-run double to extend our lead, and Eduard Bazardo took the ball at the start of the sixth inning still leading by three. The Twins got on the board in the bottom of the sixth with a solo homer by Joc Pederson, but we got it back quickly in the seventh off a Tauchman RBI single, and a wild pitch scored another, sending us into the stretch leading 5-1. Julian Merryweather got the ball from Bazardo with two outs and men on first and second in the bottom of the seventh, getting a flyout off the bat of Jacob Stallings to send us into the eighth still leading by four. We added on a run in the top of the ninth, and with the lead at five we kept Merryweather out to finish the game ... he pitched around a single baserunner and shut them down, completing the 6-1 blowout win! Burke got the win, improving to 8-4 with a 4.24 ERA by giving us 1.1 innings with a walk and two K’s, while Bazardo then lasted 1.2 innings with three hits, five strikeouts and an earned run for his 11th hold of the year. Merryweather picked up a three-inning save, allowing three hits and nothing else as we got through the bullpen game in style. Our bats were potent, outhitting them 15-9, led by Tauchman who had three hits and four runs batted in, while Kjerstad set him up well with three hits and three runs scored himself.

We have one game remaining before the All Star break, and we definitely need the rest time for our pitching staff ... but we’re continuing to stun the baseball world by being one of the most consistently good teams in the league this year.

We have five players who have made this year’s All Star game!

- SP Noah Schultz (8-4, 2.14 ERA, 118.0 IP, 0.78 WHIP, 10.8 K/9, 4.0 WAR)
- RP Eduard Bazardo (5-0, 2.42 ERA, 48.1 IP, 0.97 WHIP, 8.2 K/9, 0.3 WAR)
- C Brandon Valenzuela (.290/.373/.490, 259 AB, 10 HR, 137 wRC+, 3.8 WAR)
- LF Heston Kjerstad (.337/.399/.512, 246 AB, 10 HR, 147 wRC+, 2.5 WAR)
- RF Cody Bellinger (.299/.355/.544, 344 AB, 21 HR, 8 SB, 142 wRC+, 3.4 WAR)

Willie Perez, our fifth round draft pick, signed his contract and accepted his $750,000 signing bonus. The 21-year-old is currently hitting .180 for West Virginia in the MLB Draft League, and will then likely go in August to Kannapolis, our single-A team in the Carolina league to finish out this year.

July 19, 2026: Jonathan Cannon (3-0, 3.42 ERA, 50.0 IP, 47 K’s, 1.12 WHIP) pitched against Joe Ryan (2-5, 4.59 ERA, 100.0 IP, 86 K’s, 1.09 WHIP) in our final game against the Twins. They outhit us in the early goings, but neither team was able to get any scoring on the board, until the top of the fifth when Bellinger hit a solo shot out of left for his 22nd dinger of the season, giving us a 1-0 lead. Heston Kjerstad hit a three-run blast to just about the same spot in the top of the sixth to extend our lead by four, and by the time they got out of the inning we held a firm grip on a 6-0 lead. Noah Syndergaard took over in the bottom of the inning and Shane Smith came out with two outs and a man on in the bottom of the eighth, at which point the Twins were able to get on the board with an RBI single from Matt Wellner. It didn’t matter, we held tough to win easily 6-1 and we’ll head into the All Star break with a 59-37 record! Jonathan Cannon improved to 4-0 with a 3.11 ERA, allowing six hits with a walk and a strikeout through five shutout innings. We wound up matching them on hits with 10 each, led by Bellinger who had three hits, two runs and an RBI ... that gets him up to .305 ahead of his All Star appearance!