Game 11 Recap: Oakland Is Just Getting Started
Tanner Goes Streaking, Davis Drewek Returns to the B’s
By Roberto Santiago and Joe Horton
@ Darrell Lavin Photography
WEST OAKLAND—Gabe Tanner didn’t suffer a single loss for the Ballers in 2025, leading a group that had the best ERA in the Pioneer League. It’s been a much slower start this season, but Tanner (2-1) is again stepping up to lead the staff. He looked to put together a second consecutive strong outing on Saturday against the RedPocket Mobiles. After a lead-off walk to Gianni Horvat, Tanner retired the side in the first, signaling good stuff for the home team. Tanner married his fastball with his braking pitches, offering hitters a buffet of swing and miss opportunities. In all, Tanner struck out seven Mobiles and had a quality start going through seven innings.
Esai Santos again started at second base after making six starts in right field and one at DH to start the year. Santos joined the Ballers in 2025 as an infielder before settling in as the everyday right fielder in June. On Santos’s ability to play multiple positions, manager Aaron Miles said, “Esai is a very key player in our lineup versatility. You play the hot hand.”
Santos provided an early spark on Sunday, with a home run in the bottom of the first. Noah Blythe added a solo shot in the bottom of the second and the Ballers were on their way to a family-style meal at the dish. Six different Ballers had an RBI, including Nick Leehey, who pinch hit for Santos in the bottom of the sixth and produced a sacrifice fly. “Leehey will play second tomorrow, or maybe third.” said Miles, “The all need days off from time to time.”
The Ballers were cruising until the seventh, when Tanner started to fray a little. Pitching into the seventh represented the team’s longest outing by a starter this season, besting C.J. Blowers’s six innings the night before. RedPocket’s Josiah Chavez homered (again!) to bring the Mobiles within three runs at 7-4. Nick Poss got the run back in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single that plated Blythe. In the top of the eighth, Tanner allowed the first two batters to reach, including an RBI double by Justin Johnson who advanced to third on a wild pitch and came home on a sac fly to cut the lead to two. Jake Tirk relieved Tanner and got the final out of the inning. Tirk came back out for the ninth, allowing two walks while recording two outs. Langston Burkett (1-0), who got the win on Saturday after a scoreless inning in relief, came on to record his first save of 2026.
That was the scene inside the park, but our do-it-all editor Joe Horton was also on the case, covering the game from afar.
ALEXANDER VALLEY—You’ve seen the commercials where the guy—it’s always a guy—is trying to watch his favorite sportsballteam game from a wedding. Will he get caught? Will his untimely cheering knock over the cake before it’s cut? The joke is some version of bro how could they schedule a wedding during the season…brought to you by Online Gambling App Today or the new Ford F-950.
Let’s just say that the dulcet tones of Tyler and Gareth were intermingling with some toasts as the sun set on the terraced vines of the Alexander Valley. Let’s just say I was joyed for the couple and overjoyed by an 8-6 win. And as the slanting postcard glow sun made pictures perfect and also hats at dinner acceptable, out came the green B’s cap and the questions from fellow revelers: You like baseball? What does the B stand for? How long have they been around? Are they any good?
While I hope to have converted a few new fans in wine country, to the last question in particular, it helps to have a lead almost all afternoon, doesn’t it? It feels good to peek beneath the tablecloth at a phone putting up crooked numbers in the home inning boxes. It feels good to have a pitcher go seven innings. It feels good that players new and returning are contributing in equal measure. It feels good to win a series and win back-to-back games for the first time this season.
In full reporter mode while the first dance opened the dance floor, I asked Esai Santos over chat if it feels like the team is turning a corner.
“I wouldn’t say we are turning a corner yet but it’s nice to get back in the win column and keep working to stack quality games together.”
And what about his own recent success at the plate?
“Just trying to be consistent in my preparation, see the ball well,” he said, and, like the team overall, “keep stacking quality at bats.”
During the cake cutting, I wrote Gabe Tanner to ask how this long outing felt. “Settling in is the name of my game and I’m glad things worked in my favor and really trusted the plan with my pitching coach Jim [Dedrick].”
I asked if this felt like he was turning a corner. "Felt great having my stuff and the improving on things I’ve been working on,” he wrote. “Oakland is just getting started.”
It felt like he was answering the questions of my table, good old Table 2, who ate all of the ravioli and chicken and steak (family style my ass). In this third season, with so much already accomplished, your B’s are starting to feel like your Ballers with a lot more good stuff to come.
Roberto’s Odds and Ends:
Close-Up Magic: Tremayne Cobb saw something from the Mobiles pitcher after Poss followed the Blythe home run in the second with a single of his own. Cobb relayed the information to on-deck batter T.J. McKenzie with a series of gestures and nods.
Esai Santos unleashed a new celebration of sorts, loudly cawing like a bird after Jake Allgeyer’s single in the bottom of the fifth.
A fan asked if I thought home runs were up this year. In the first 11 games at Raimondi each season the teams combined to hit 45 home runs in 2024, 22 in 2024 and a whopping 61 this season. Yes. Home runs are up this year.
This is how we Drewek! The Ballers lineup is about to become even more versatile with the return of 2025 standout Davis Drewek. This-Is-How-We-Drewek slashed .291/.422/.578 with 19 home runs for Oakland last year while providing solid defense in the outfield. His highlight moment was a tone-setting home run robbery of the very first Idaho Falls batter in the top of the first of Game Three of the championship series.
Photos from Dawn Pieper and Darrell Lavin Photography.
Roberto Santiago is a third generation Berkeley boy currently raising the fourth generation. Roberto’s writing has appeared in Latina, Parents, and various online outlets. A lifelong baseball fan, Roberto worked briefly with the Boston Red Sox and once hit an RBI single off Spaceman Lee on a 2-2 changeup. It was his only at bat ever in a real baseball game. Find him on Instagram.
Joe Horton is the editor of Dispatches from Raimondi.
