[jksander]

May 2, 2025: We’re almost a fifth of the way through the season, and Trevor Bauer (0-2, 7.56 ERA, 14.2 IP, 15 K’s, 1.64 WHIP) took the mound to face A’s pitcher J.P. Sears (1-1, 5.79 ERA, 23.1 IP, 21 K’s, 1.54 WHIP). They hammered us from the start, a three-run homer by Lawrence Butler setting the stage as they led 3-0 midway through the first. We got on the board in the bottom of the second when Vargas scored off an RBI single by Drury, but Shea Langeliers hit a solo shot to get it back in the top of the third. Bauer’s night came to an end with two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the fourth, as Justin Dunn came out to put out the flames. Striking out Brent Rooker to get us into the bottom of the inning still trailing 4-1. Kimbrel came out in the top of the sixth and pitched around a baserunner to keep us within three, and Clevinger took over in the seventh. Despite three errors in the later innings, we kept the score within three runs, but our bats were hesistant all night. Shane Smith got us through the ninth, and we’d gone six innings without letting them extend their lead, but we looked limp in the end and never gave them any fight, losing 4-1. Bauer took the loss and fell to 0-3 with a 7.85 ERA, allowing seven hits, a walk, four runs (three earned) and striking out five ... he’s playing below replacement level at this point, but really so has most of our team. They outhit us 11-9, with Drury’s hit and RBI being our lone spark.

We’ve claimed second baseman Otto Lopez off waivers from the Marlins, the 26-year-old defensive sparkplug having hit .318 with three doubles in very limited time off the Marlins bench. We’ve waived / DFA’d Brandon Drury to make room for him on our roster, and he’ll be competing with Lenyn Sosa for playing time as the two alternate starts.

May 3, 2025: Yu Darvish (4-2, 3.79 ERA, 35.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.23 WHIP) started against Luis Severino (1-3, 6.91 ERA, 28.2 IP, 29 K’s, 1.81 WHIP) in game two, and we took the lead in the bottom of the first with an RBI single by Starling Marte to go up 1-0. Davrish looked damned nice through four innings, and his reappearance in Chicago after five years has drawn a great deal of interest including some Cubs fans we’ve seen coming out to watch him pitch. But our bats weren’t giving him a lot of cushion. He came out for the top of the sixth still leading by one run, and having thrown just 58 pitches, with just three hits against four strikeouts (no walks), so he had plenty of rope. But he walked Gio Urshela to start the inning, and with two outs, Lawrence Butler hit an RBI double to bat in the tying run, and the next batter, Brent Rooker, hit an RBI single to drive Butler home, elminating the lead just like that. We tied it back up when Marte hit another RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, and Craig Kimbrel took over for Darvish in the top of the seventh, striking out two and getting Jacob Wilson to ground out to first, sending us into the stretch still tied 2-2. Shane Smith took over in the top of the eighth, keeping it tied as we did our best to will our offense forward. Jonathan Cannon took over in the ninth with the score unchanged, and he got us into the bottom of the inning with a chance to walk this off ... Jorge Alfaro took a leadoff walk, and incredibly Grenier was able to stay patient and walk himself, pushing Alfaro into scoring position! But our next three batters went down, two whiffing and Tauchman popping out to left so we were stuck going into extra innings.

They hit a two-run homer to start the top of the 10th, drawing groans from our home fans, but in the bottom of the inning Miguel Vaughn took a leadoff walk to join Tauchman on base ... and with one out, Austin Slater joined them, loading the bases! And with two outs, Jorge Alfaro hit a weak line drive through the gap, the ball rolling around the outfield as two runs scored, tying this game again as Michael A. Taylor advanced to third! Grenier struck out swinging, but almost made it safely to first on a passed ball, but instead this one was headed for the 11th, with Clevinger coming out to pitch. With one out, Zack Gelof hit a sac-fly that scored their ghost runner, Shea Langeliers, from third, and we came up to hit trailing by one with Grenier on second. They walked Otto Lopez and Chase Meidroth, but Tauchman hit into a 6-2-3 double play, pushing Lopez to third and Meidroth to second ... Vargas came up to the plate in a tense situation, and with the count full he struck out swinging. Game over, the A’s win this one 5-4 in another stinging heartbreaker. Darvish pitched six innings with four hits, one walk, four strikeouts and two earned runs, and Kimbrel, Smith and Cannon got us into extra innings, where Clevinger wound up being the sacrificial lamb ... he allowed two walks, struck out a battter and gave up the unearned game-winning run, which meant he fell to 1-1 with a 1.32 ERA. They outhit us 7-6, our offense led by Starling Marte who had two hits and two RBIs.
 
May 4, 2025: Noah Syndergaard (1-1, 3.62 ERA, 32.1 IP, 20 K’s, 1.18 WHIP) got the start in our final game against The Baseball Team Formerly Known As Oakland, pitching against Mitch Spence (0-2, 3.82 ERA, 30.2 IP, 27 K’s, 1.43 WHIP). He got two quick outs in the top of the first but then let Brent Rooker hit one out of left field to put them on the board, his ninth homer of the season. But we answered in the bottom of the first with a two-run blast by Chase Meidroth, his first of the year, and an RBI double by Austin Slater in the bottom of the second helped us extend the lead! Michel A. Taylor added an RBI single moments later and we went into the top of the third leading 4-1! We’d add five more runs in the bottom of the fourth as we batted around, and Syndergaard got through six innings before we brought out Penn Murfee with the score 11-1 in our favor. Murfee got two outs but allowed a pair of runs to score for the A’s, and we went to Martin Perez with a runner on first as we tried to avoid a meltdown. He got us out of the inning and through the eighth as well, and Justin Dunn came out for the ninth with an eight-run lead to just get us out of here ... he got three quick outs and we won this one in an 11-3 blowout! Syndergaard improved to 2-1 with a 3.29 ERA, allowing just four hits, a walk, a strikeout and a run in his six innings of work. We outhit them 13-7, led by Otto Lopez who hit three times with two runs and an RBI in the leadoff spot, while Meidroth added two hits, two runs and three RBIs including his homer. Lopez has hit .444 in his first two games with us, and has brought his average up to .355 with five doubles on the season as a whole.

We were glad to get out of here quickly this evening, as we have to be in Kansas City tomorrow to be ready for a four game series against the 24-11 Royals, who lead our division already by five games over Minnesota and Detroit. We’re now 9-25 and more than 14 games back, on pace for just 43 wins ... not the pace we were hoping for as we try to put last year’s misery behind us.