Opening Day Recap
By Roberto Santiago
West Oakland, California - Gabe Tanner took the mound on Tuesday night in a familiar setting. The Oakland Ballers were at home in front of a record crowd, officially listed at 4,135. Jwalt had just performed his Ballers Anthem and Ysenia Martinez had given a rousing rendition of the national anthem including a flyover from the Memorial Squadron. When mayor Barbara Lee called out “Play Ball,” the evening became a pastiche of the Ballers 2025 championship homestand.
On this night however, the game did not go the Ballers way as ace Gabe Tanner found himself in unfamiliar territory.
Tanner (0-1) got into deep counts early in the game. He escaped with minimal damage in the first inning, getting a double play after giving up two hard hit balls to the first two batters that resulted in runners on the corners with no outs. Another twin-killing and a strikeout in the second gave the feeling Tanner was back in control. Not the case tonight. The visiting Missoula Paddleheads put up three more runs in the third courtesy of home runs from Nich Klemp and Will Bermudez.
The loss was Tanner’s first as a pro after going 9-0 for the Ballers in 2025. “I think Gabe knows you don’t get a W just by showing up, which is pretty much what he did last year,” offered Ballers manager Aaron Miles.
“There’s a lot that I was throwing right down the middle,” said Tanner. “I was trying to pick my corners. I was starting stuff in the zone and it was staying in the zone.”
The Ballers put together a couple of threats in the middle innings but like the fans in right field desperately trying to get the wave going without success, the Ballers couldn’t get enough people all the way around. After an anemic start, the home team batters started to drive the ball in the middle innings. With solo home runs by Jeter Ybarra in the fourth and Jake Allgeyer in the fifth, the Ballers had their best chance with the bases loaded in the fifth and two outs, down four runs. Ybarra hit a solid shot to left that sent the fielder racing for the wall. “If Jeter gets that ball an inch higher, it’s a different ballgame,” said Miles. Sans that inch, the ball was caught and the threat ended.
Defensive miscues and plain bad luck conspired to put the Ballers in a 9-2 hole by the seventh inning stretch. Miles wasn’t worried. “We turned four or five double plays. Usually when you turn that many, you win the game.” Just not on a night when you give up 16 hits and the other team is stealing bases while up 7 runs. “We’re a week into this thing,” said Miles of the defense, “if we were a week into a major league spring training, you’d have those same types of plays.”
Tanner was equally sanguine. Asked if this is really a title defense with the pressure that comes with it, or just another year and a fresh start, he leaned toward the latter. “It’s a new team and a new year,” he said “the best thing is we have the same coaches. We’re going to trust our philosophy.”
What about tomorrow? Any advice for his fellow B’s pitchers? “Start stuff in the zone and let it come out [of the zone]. This is a good hitting team.”
Trying to keep things light, Miles summed up the day, “It’s a big fan base out there tonight and they wanted to see a win. It’s a good thing [Tanner] had a bad game today and not the last time he pitched in front of a big crowd because that was a big one. But it’s still early.”
With that, 2025 is squarely in the rear view mirror and the marathon of the 2026 season has begun in Oakland.
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.
