[jksander]

June 26, 2026: Zac Gallen (9-1, 2.81 ERA, 93.0 IP, 83 K’s, 1.05 WHIP) pitched against Alex Cobb (4-6, 2.02 ERA, 62.1 IP, 43 K’s, 1.04 WHIP) in game one against the Astros, and he’s a perfect 5-0 since being traded to our team back in early May from the Reds. Cody Bellinger hit an RBI double in the top of the first to put us up 1-0, but the Astros tied it up in the bottom of the third with an RBI single from Mauricio Dubon. In the bottom of the sixth Jose Altuve hit an RBI double that scored Yandy Diaz from second, giving the Astros a 2-1 lead. Jose Alvarado took over for Gallen on the mound in the bottom of the seventh, and in the top of the eighth we tied it up with a Ha-seong Kim triple that scored Yordys Valdes! Kjerstad hit an RBI single to push us into the lead, and we brought out Jonathan Cannon for the bottom of the inning as we worked to hold on. He easily handled their top hitters, notching two K’s and a groundout, and Ben Joyce took the ball in the bottom of the ninth. Unfortunately he let Isaac Paredes hit into a fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners, and Jeremy Peña grounded out to score Altuve from third ... tie game. We should have had the out we needed to get into extra innings, but Pedro Leon reached on an E6 throwing error, letting Paredes score from second as they walked it off 4-3. Absolutely brutal! Gallen had lasted six innings with seven hits, a walk, a strikeout and two runs, and Cannon picked up his third hold of the year. But Ben Joyce blew his fourth save and took the loss, falling to 6-4 with a 5.64 ERA ... he has ten saves this year, but we need to be able to trust him in games like this. Each team had eight hits tonight, ours led by Kim who had two hits, a run and an RBI.

June 27, 2026: Sean Burke (4-4, 4.52 ERA, 65.2 IP, 70 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) pitched against Luis Castillo (8-4, 4.20 ERA, 81.1 IP, 81 K’s, 1.34 WHIP) in game two, and they got going in the bottom of the first with a lead-off triple by Jake McCarthy, scoring off a sac-fly by Yandy Diaz to take the early lead. But we tied it up in the top of the second with an RBI double by Ceddanne Rafaela and Tauchman hit himself an RBI double immediately after that put us into the lead! Miguel Vargas hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 3-1, but he had to be pulled from the game with a pulled hamstring -- that’s going to cost him at least two or three weeks to recover. The game continued with Bellinger on first and Joshua Mears in at right field, and we added on in the top of the third when Kjerstad hit an RBI single to make it a three-run lead, and we took full control in the fourth when Ha-seong Kim hit a three-run homer (his fifth of the year) to give us a 7-1 lead midway through the inning. A sac-fly by Brice Matthews got the Astros back within five runs, but Burke had himself a quality start Bellinger hit a solo homer in the top of the seventh to send us into the stretch leading by six! Noah Syndergaard took over from there, and he pitched the remainder of the way, no-hitting his way to a three-inning save as we won 8-2. Burke had himself six innings with two hits, a walk, five strikeouts and two earned runs, but Syndergaard earned his first save of the year on 42 pitches, walking just one batter as his ERA improved to 6.32. We outhit them 12-2, led by Bellinger with two hits, a walk, a run and an RBI, while Bobby Valenzuela had two hits, a walk and a run and Ha-sueng Kim added his three RBIs off his homer.
 
June 28, 2026: Noah Schultz (6-3, 2.13 ERA, 97.1 IP, 124 K’s, 0.71 WHIP) got the start against Houston’s Christian Javier (2-4, 1 SV, 5.65 ERA, 57.1 IP, 45 K’s, 1.53 WHIP) in the third game of the series, and this one turned into a surprising pitcher’s duel. Schultz didn’t have his best stuff but made up for it off soft contact, until the bottom of the fifth, when a double by Yandy Diaz drove in a pair to put the Astros up 2-0. Jose Altuve hit an RBI single to add on, and we went into the top of the sixth trailing by three. Julian Merryweather took over for Schultz in the bottom of the sixth, and they added on in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run homer for Diaz. Eduard Bazardo took over with two outs and Yainer Diaz on first, getting the final out but sending us into the top of the eighth in a five-run hole we weren’t getting out of. They’d beat us 5-0, and we lost the series two games to one as a result. Schultz took the loss, falling to 6-4 in a game he allowed seven hits and three runs while only striking out three, his worst strikeout performance since April 19th ... snapping a streak of three wins in a row, eight quality starts in a row and five consecutive games with nine or more K’s. They outhit us 10-5, and we wasted Kjerstad, who hit three times but couldn’t get anywhere.

We’re off tomorrow, and then play the Yankees (42-36, 2nd AL East) and Brewers (35-43, 4th NL Central) for three each here at home to get us through the Independence Day weekend. We’ll then have three on the road against the Cardinals (38-40, 2nd NL Central), a three-game home set against Kansas City (40-39, 3rd AL Central) and then three against the Angels (36-42, 5th AL West) in LA and four in Minnesota (36-42, 4th AL Central) before the All Star break finally gives us a breather. We’re currently 45-32 and have held our 4.5 game lead over Cleveland as we near the season’s midpoint.

June 30, 2026: We’re now fourth overall in the latest power rankings in the entire league, which is incredible considering where we were just two years ago. Drew Rasmussen (3-3, 3.39 ERA, 74.1 IP, 75 K’s, 1.13 WHIP) pitched in game one against the Yankees, facing Clarke Schmidt (1-3, 7.17 ERA, 21.1 IP, 25 K’s, 1.50 WHIP) in front of 37,000 White Sox fans, which is also stunning considering where this fanbase has been. The Yankees took the lead first, scoring off a double by Aaron Judge to go up 1-0 with two outs in the top of the third, and they added on with a solo homer in the top of the fourth by Trent Grisham, his 11th four-bagger of the season. We got on the board in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single by Yordys Valdes to get back within a run, trailing 2-1, but Rasmussen stayed out too long ... in the top of the sixth with one out and a man on first, J.T. Realmuto hit a two-run homer (his third of the year) to give them a more commanding three-run advantage. Merryweather took over, but it didn’t matter ... we gave them another run before escaping the inning trailing 5-1, and we looked gassed. The Yanks added on a run in the top of the eighth off a sac-fly by Luke Raley, but we got back into the game in a big way in the bottom of the eighth when Ceddanne Rafaela hit a three-run homer, his seventh of the year, out of right to get us back within two! We’d get two more runners on base but were unable to score, so Ryan Helsley came out to pitch in the top of the ninth in hopes that we could stay in contention. He got three quick outs, including swinging strikeouts by Aaron Judge and Jasson Dominguez, and we came up in the bottom of the inning with an actual shot! With one out they hit Meidroth with a pitch, putting him on base, but we weren’t able to do anything once he got there ... Heston Kjerstad grounded into a U6-3 double play and it was over, a 6-4 loss. Rasmussen took the hit, falling to 3-4 with a 3.50 ERA, allowing six hits, a walk and four runs (three earned) with seven K’s in his 5.1 innings, while we were outhit 11-7 by the Yankees. Rafaela’s three-run homer was our main source of offense and it nearly got us there, but we’d done too much damage to claw all the way back.

We finished the month of June with a 16-9 record for the month, which proved our 19-10 record in May wasn’t a fluke. Now we’re heading into the month of July in the enviable position as the division leader, so we’ll have our work cut out for us as other teams in our division take chase and we have to maintain distance. It’s been a long time since we’ve had to do anything of the sort, so I’m hopeful that our lineup can meet the challenge. We’re the second best defensive team in the AL with a +20.4 zone rating (3rd), and our team ERA is second in the league, thanks to our starters’ excellent 3.21 ERA. The bullpen still remains a work in progress, but we’ve struck out 746 batters this year against just 216 walks, while our players have gotten on base at a .326 clip (3rd), striking out 622 times against 301 walks. As for our new owner, Justin Ishbia, he’s currently delighted over our on-field success, which so far has kept him from nitpicking too much, though he keeps reminding me about the bullpen ERA being in the bottom third of the league. I keep pointing out that we’re 12th in the league now instead of 14th, and he’s agreed that there’s no reason for us to shake anything up as long as we’re winning. But if we stumble I’m sure he and his bean-counting private equity co-conspirators will be on us in a flash.

One thing he’s definitely come around about is the performance of Yordys Valdes. Though he’s been fighting his way out of that hitting slump, he’s still batted in 25 runs playing in the nine-spot, with two doubles and five homers ... but his performance on defense has been beyond reproach, a +7.4 zone rating, a 1.098 EFF rating, and only FIVE errors all season, enough to give him nearly a full game in WAR. He’s the kind of personality that doesn’t rock the boat, and he’s content with his role ... and at age 24, he still has another year after this one at league minimum, and should be arb-controlled through 2031 when he’ll be just shy of age 30. If he can keep improving on the defensive side, he’s got a lock on the role as far as I’m concerned, whether he can consistently hit or not.