The Oakland Ballers have been taking their swings against the Modesto Roadsters at Raimondi Park in Oakland on Wed Aug 19, 2026 (photo by the Oakland Baller’s)
(IT’S ROUND AND COMES IN A SQUARE BOX)
Monday, August 24, 2026
By Lewis Rubman
OAKLAND–The Ballers bused north from Long Beach, where they finally had won a second half game and series, against the first half champion Coast, no less. But this successful leap from the frying pan took them to the fire that is—or was—Modesto, both for its torrid temperatures and the Roadsters 27-3 second half record, which had earned them the top spot in the new half season.
Who’d a thunk it? On Tuesday the 18th, the Ballers held the nearly invincible Roadsters scoreless for 7-2/3 innings. Starting pitcher Hunter Day allowed five hits and a walk to the 25 batters he faced and punched out a half a dozen of them. His successor, Nathan Darden, took over with one man down and two on base and preserved the shut out. But a lead off full count walk to Lucas Terilli, followed by Max Handron’s ground out to second and Osiris Johnson’s fly out to deep center put Terilli 90 feet from home with two outs. Darden got ahead of Tyler Williams with two straight strikes, but his third offering went into the dirt and got by Jared Collura, a wild pitch that brought Terilli home with the game’s only tally. The B’s outhit their hosts, six to five, but only one Oaklander advanced beyond second base, leaving the team winless against Modesto in the second half of the season.
Oakland Ballers (18-15,37-42) 000 000 000 0 6 0
Modesto Roadsters (28-3,55-24) 000 000 010 1 5 0
Winning pitcher: Johan Castillo (1-0) Losing pitcher: Nathan Darden (0-1)
Save: Bridger Holmes (1)
Time: 2:22 Attendance: 823
The next day, in a game of reversal, the Ballers damn near pulled defeat out of the jaws of victory. What could go wrong? After all, Esai Santos broke his 0-20 with a 416 foot homer in the fifth, T.J. Rogers went yard with a 422 foot four bagger in the fourth, and Tristan Moore out slugged both of them with a 440 foot fence clearer in the seventh. New Woodmen Field might be pitcher friendly, but the Bs’ batters weren’t, even though the league’s home run leader, Jeter Ibarra, still hadn’t hit one since August 6. It was thanks to Modesto’s resurgence from a 9-1 deficit in the bottom of the eighth (and 10-4 in the bottom of the ninth) that Oakland’s 10-7 win felt more like a loss. Let’s take a look at the line score before speculating a bit more on that feeling of disappointment.
Oakland Ballers (19-16,38-42) 400 120 111 10 14 0
Modesto Roadsters (28-4,55-25) 010 000 033 7 8 0
Winning pitcher: Christian Díaz (1-0) Losing pitcher: Ethan Rake (0-1) Save: Julio Rosario (1)
Time: 3:10 Attendance: 1,236
Another reason for the bad taste this win left in Ballerdom’s collective mouth was Reed Butz’s performance. It was the southpaw’s scheduled bull pen day, and it seemed an elegant way to combine his routine with a win preserving cameo appearance. It was an ugly cameo, lasting 2/3 of an inning in which he allowed three runs, all earned, on a pair of hits and another pair of walks. His pitch count reached 42, 25 of which counted as strikes, which doesn’t mean real life strikes but called and swinging strikes plus the number of times the batter makes contact. Entering the game with a six run lead, he bequeathed his replacement, the off again, on again, off again Julio Rosario, a save situation, which he successfully converted for the first time this season. Butz would get tagged for eight earned runs in three innings by Modesto when, four days later, he next started for Oakland.
The Ballers’ ambiguous win ended with some angry words from one-time Baller fan favorite and current Roadster manager J.T. Snow. Seemingly as a result of those remarks, he did not manage the game on Thursday the twentieth. There was no official announcement of disciplinary action.
Oakland’s Thursday triumph was unambiguous.
Oakland Ballers (17-16,39-42) 100 060 150 14 15 1
Modesto Roadsters (28-5,55-26) 000 100 010 2 6 2
Winning pitcher: David Thomas (1-0) Losing pitcher: Jonah Jenkins (0-1)
Time: 2:58 Attendance: 1,161
It was a tight 1-1 contest for four innings until the top of the fifth, when the Ballers jumped all over Jonah Jenkins, who had held the Yuba-Sutter Freebirds scoreless over six innings in his last start six days earlier. It also had been a while—five days, to be specific— since Jeter Ybarra had hit his team record tying thirty-first dinger. This evening, his fence clearing bullet to right was the blow in the top of the fifth that broke a 1-1 tie and sparked the Bs’ six run outburst, sending Modesto on the road to ruin.
The slugging first sacker wasn’t the only Baller to put dents in the Roadsters’s bodywork. Mitchell Sanford went three for five with a double and two RBI; Logan Johnstone, two for six with a double and a homer, each of which drove in a run; Jaden Collura went two for three, including a solo home run. One of Jake Allgeyer’s two hits went for two bases. This night’s performance was to be Allgeyer’s last as a Baller; the next day he was traded to the Lake County DockHounds of the American Association to enable him to be closer to his family.
David Thomas threw 90 pitches over seven innings of five hit, one run baseball. The run was earned. He struck out nine and issued one free pass. The Roadsters’ other tally came off of Valek Cisneros in his one inning, the eighth, stint on the mound. James Pazdera, making his Ballers debut, closed the game with a three up, three down, ninth.
The mystery of Snow’s status was somewhat resolved when the teams resumed play in Oakland on Friday the twenty-first. The PA speaker boomed that the Modesto lineup was “as announced by manager J.T. Snow.”
Modesto Roadsters (28-6,55-27) 000 204 000 6 7 1
Oakland Ballers (18-16,40-42) 001 152 00x 10 14 3
Winning pitcher: Ren Abe Arias (2-3) Losing pitcher: Devyn Hernández (6-2)
For once, Oakland’s starting pitcher, Ren Abe Arias, didn’t come close to hurling a complete game. He lasted only 5-2/3 innings, and in them he allowed six runs. Five of them were unearned. That and the 3 in the line score’s E column will give you an idea of the shoddiness of the Ballers’ defense.
The most costly of these fielding flaws came in the the top of the fourth. With one out and runners on first and second, Modesto catcher Hayden Dunhurst hit a sharp grounder to second.
Esai Santos’s errant toss to shortstop T.J. Rogers turned a tailor made inning ending twin killing into an unearned run as the runner on third crossed the plate. Kingston Liniak’s sacrifice fly brought in another misbegotten tally..
The afternoon encounter on Saturday August 22 was topsy turvy, oxymoronic, overload loaded with peripeteia—you name it, high brow, low brow, intermediate—everything was its own mirror image. Even the Ballers’ slugging first baseman, Jeter Ibarra, in a move designed to find a defensive replacement for Allgeyer, played third base; rookie Joey Winters took over Ibarra’s usual spot at first. Both hit home runs. For Ibarra, it was his thirty-third; for Winters, his first. He was, after all, making his professional baseball debut.
The raw numbers of the line score illustrate the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that some of the sellout crowd enjoyed, while others would have seen if they hadn’t given up in despair and left some time around the singing of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.:
Modesto Roadsters (28-7,55-28) 017 301 000 12 15 2
Oakland Ballers (19-16,41-42) 021 100 063 13 11 1
Winning pitcher: Tyler Bates (2-0) Losing pitcher: Bridger Holmes (0-1)
Time: 3:24 Attendance: 4,135
In a final reversal, J.T. Snow, who had been suspended for arguing at the end of Wednesday’s game, served his suspension on Thursday, and returned to work on Friday, was ejected in the bottom of the ninth on this Saturday, for arguing. I think he had good reason to be incensed. Home plate umpire Memo Rodríguez’s call of catcher’s interference on Dunhurst with Johnstone at bat and first base ump Robert Headley’s safe call on O’Sullivan looked at least dubious to me. Let’s review the events of he Ballers’ bizarre and exhilarating finale in an attempt to understand the context and significance of those decisions.
With the Roadsters leading 12-10, Bridger Holmes came in to relieve Aaron Moreno. Holmes was Modesto’s fifth pitcher of the evening. Collura led off with a walk. Winters pushed him up 90 feet with a single to right and then gave way to T.J. Rogers, who pinch ran for the debutant. Brendan O’Sullivan attempted to drop a sacrifice bunt. Dunhurst fielded the ball and threw to firs.O’Sullivan was ruled safe, incendiary event # 1. Rogers, meanwhile hustled over to third; Bryce Cannon threw across the diamond to Max Hadron at the hot corner. His throw seemed to beat Rogers to the bag, but Hadron dropped the ball. Rogers ran home, and the Ballers now trailed by one. Immediately following this, Rodríguez awarded Johnstone first by virtue of catcher’s interference, incendiary event #2. Santos walked on an eight pitch full count, enabling Rogers to trot home and keeping the bases loaded. Then the mighty Ybarra struck out looking. The count on Blythe went to 0-2 before he took four consecutive balls to force in O’Sullivan with the winning run. Holmes was charged with the loss.
That made it five straight wins over the Roadsters.
The surrealists had a slogan that went “A throw of the dice won’t abolish chance.” I don’t know what that means, but I’m fairly sure that it applies to the series’ grand finale at Raimondi Field on Sunday the twenty fourth.
This time it was the visitors who won with late action heroics, specifically three-run round trippers by Tyler Williams and Bryce Canon, both off the problematic Julio Rosario.
If you don’t suffer from vertigo, cast an eye on this line score:
Modesto Roadsters (29-7,56-28) 450 030 006 18 16 2
Oakland Ballmers (19-17,41-43) 203 023 211 14 13 0
Winning pitcher: Johan Castillo (6-1) Losing pitcher: Julio Rosario (0-1)
Time: 3:45 Attendance: 2,667
Miles’ Militia has six challenging games scheduled for the coming week. The first three, August 25-27 are against the Missoula PaddleHeads (currently 25-11, four games behind Modesto in the second half standings, and 49-34 overall, good for fourth place but trailing the Billings Mustangs by a full ten games). All of those games are scheduled to start at 6:35. Long Beach will coast into the East Bay on Friday, August 28. The games against them will start at 6:35, 4:35, and 1:05, the usual for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at 20th and Wood.
There will be some enticing giveaways and pregame attractions.
—August 25 (vs. Missoula PaddleHeads): Possum Power Play theme, celebrating the Bay Area’s new hockey team, the Possums, with squeezeable pucks for the first 750 attendees.
—August 26 (vs. Missoula PaddleHeads): Oakland School for the Arts Night featuring an Aaron Miles Bobblehead giveaway for the first 750 fans;
—August 27 (vs. Missoula PaddleHeads): Too $hort Takeover theme with a Too $hort pin. giveaway for the customary 750 people through the gate.
—August 28 (vs. Long Beach Coast): Island Night, honoring island culture from Hawaii to Alameda.
—August 29 (vs. Long Beach Coast): Car Show pregame event and album release concert;
—August 30 (vs. Long Beach Coast): Fan Appreciation Day.
After that, Ballers fans will have to find some distraction in Major League Baseball. Just as long as it doesn’t take place in West Sacramento …
