Dodgers Territory - Spicy Dodgers-Cubs Series Incoming, Rushing/Webb Drama Brewing?

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Alanna Rizzo, Katie Woo, and Clint Pasillas preview the Los Angeles Dodgers' series with the visiting Chicago Cubs. The Cubs come to LA with a target on their backs following manager Craig Counsell's comments about Shohei Ohtani and the two-way player rule being "unfair" to other teams (01:01). The hosts share their thoughts. (9:35) Also coming to Dodger Stadium is Cubs' outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, whose offseason comments about Dodgers fans ruffled a lot of feathers in LA. What kind of warm welcome will he receive this weekend? (17:50) The hosts also catch up on other headlines from the week on this Friday edition of Dodgers Territory! If you like your money, Mint Mobile is for you. Plans start at $15/month at MintMobile.com/Territory Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/FOUL #squarepod Check out DT merch at https://dodgersterritoryshop.com Support Guidry's Guardian at https://guidrysguardian.org Find Clint on YouTube at https://youtube.com/@alldodgers Follow Katie's work at The Athletic https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/katie-woo/  Subscribe to Dodgers Territory on YouTubeRate and review our podcast on Apple and SpotifySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Trust me, babe. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. I think the reason why it's become such a heavy topic is just because of who the Dodgers are as an organization. They are always going to invite controversy, skepticism, and scrutiny. And welcome to a Friday edition of Dodgers territory.

An non-initional episode, if you will, as we get ready to preview the upcoming series between the Dodgers and the Cubs. I am Alana Rizzo. That is Katie Wu and Clempasias. We are your host. Happy that you guys are here. Don't forget to like and subscribe as we try to make our way to 20,000 subs. It helps us out tremendously. We appreciate that very much. Anywhere you get your podcast. And of course, on YouTube, five stars, like, subscribe, all of the things. Okay. It is good to have Katie back with us. Of course, when we do post game, she is in the clubhouse. She is at the games. And we're happy to have her here to discuss the upcoming series. So let's get to it in the big ticket. All right. So guys, guys, Guys, a couple of the storylines coming into the series are nothing to do with the game. Let's talk a little bit about the Shohei Otani rule.

The Craig Council had some comments about it in terms of the Dodgers perhaps having an unfair advantage. Craig Counsel doesn't appear to be a fan of the rule where two-way players aren't counted against the 13-pitcher roster. And then there's one team that's allowed to carry basically one of both and that he gets special consideration, which is probably the most bizarre rule for one team. Katie Wu, what's bizarre is Shohei is a unique player and nobody had a problem with this when he was being buried in Anaheim. What's your takeaway?

You know, honestly, this is exactly what I told the guys on foul the other day. I was just concerned or confused, I guess, about the timing of this. It's not like this rule has been implemented yesterday. It's been around for several seasons. And again, we didn't hear much about it unless I'm misremembering things when Otani. was with Anaheim. But I think the reason why it's become such a heavy topic is just because of who the

Dodgers are as an organization. They are under so much scrutiny because they win back-to-back World Series champions. They spend a ton of money. So they are always going to invite controversy, skepticism, and scrutiny even more so than the 29 other teams just based on who they are as a club. That's why I think this is coming from more. I think no matter what the Dodgers do, it's a blessing and a curse. They're trending, they're talked about.

That's what happens when you're a dynasty in Major League Baseball. So I think there's more of a focus on the Otani rule right now simply just because he's a Dodger. I agree with you. And I also wanted to get your opinion on this as well, Clint, because CJ Nikowsky does a great job. I have a lot of respect for CJ. He covers the Atlanta Braves. And he is not saying that he is anti-Dodger. His question was he's anti-Rul.

And this is a major league baseball thing, right? This is not something that is a Dodger thing. This is a bullpen thing, or excuse me, a league thing. And Ken Rosenthal, even on foul territory just now, was basically saying, listen, this was a rule that was implemented in 2022. It was not a gift to the Dodgers by Major League Baseball. Every team with the means to do so, I'm not going to say all 29 others, but any team with the means to sign a Shohei Otani would have been given the benefit of this rule.

and they would have been able to carry that extra pitcher. They paid for the gift, if you will, in Ken's words, by signing him as a free agent. So are people making too much of a deal about this now? What is your opinion on this whole situation? Again, it's not the Dodgers. MLB allowed it. It definitely feels like all of a sudden it is way, way, way overblown. And it is amplified, like Katie is suggesting and saying it's amplified because

Shohei Otani is wearing a Dodger uniform. They sign up all the players, yada, yada. They're bad for baseball. And suddenly this is some sort of rule that is magically invented for the Dodgers, even though it predates Shohei Otani coming to Uniclo Field. It's very dumb. And you mentioned CJ Nakowski or Natowski, however you say his name. I'm bad and I apologize.

But I just feel like there's a lot of people who all of a sudden, a lot of really lazy takes about the whole situation. You can sign somebody who's a two-way player. You can let people become two-way players if they're good enough to do it. This is this is the league. We talked a little bit about this last night. I think it's a bunch of old, you know, old heads down in the minor leagues that kids are drafted. They have the ability to do both to hit and to pitch and play outfield or whatever it is. And they're told, no, you can't do that. You're never going to be show Hey, Otani. This is kind of the the league's fault for limiting these players. These are teams' fault for not putting themselves

in better positions to take advantage of this rule and get one free player when you're not really getting a free player. Let Michael Bush pitch. And there, you got yourself a two-way player on the cup. Let PCA pitch and he'll have a two-way player. I don't know. It's very dumb to me. Are we missing the mark here? Are we not focusing on the fact that there are not 100 Shohay Otani's out there. Like we're going to continue to run into situations where it's the first time for this. It's the first time for that. We ran into it when he was rehabbing and not pitching. Like how do you make sure that he's still available with your team to be the DH when he should be out on a rehab assignment? Well, it doesn't work. Showing Otani is a unique type of guy. Should that be

the bigger issue that it's not like there's a bunch of people that can do this. So there does have to be a unique rule for whatever team he was on. When he was on Anaheim, it was the same thing. Yeah, that's exactly it, right? And I saw some comments in the chat about how, oh, anyone could have signed Showy Otani. Well, about 25 teams probably couldn't have in terms of spending the money. So that makes it, I think, from another fan-based perspective, unfair.

But also, we have to be realistic at what we're watching. Showing Oatani is one of one. So there are going to be exceptions and specifications, and we've never seen this before. So baseball is also figuring it out in real time. I'm not saying that every single rule is perfect or that things aren't open to interpretation or maybe fixing or tweaking. And I can understand why other fan bases are like, this isn't fair. They get an extra pitcher.

I get it. But when you look at who Shohei Otani is and what he does and the fact that literally nobody else in baseball is doing it, I don't think it's crazy to have these specifications or these tweaks here that allow him to continue what he's doing. Now, if I'm a fan of the other teams, I'm annoyed. I'm mad. I'm like, well, the Dodgers get once again another advantage. But that's when it goes back to the Dodgers seeing more scrutiny.

It's getting more amplified just because of who they are as a franchise. So it's not a hot take by any means, but it's not a perfect situation. It's not going to be. This is what happens when you have the best baseball player will ever see doing things that we'll probably never see again in the league. The league has to adjust to the rules as well. And I think given what Otani is doing for the game of baseball, I don't see any qualms here in terms of the grand picture. Dave had some thoughts about this as well. We got some tape from Dave.

Let's go ahead and play that. Digest it. And we'll be right back. Does that something really you feel like that rules apply fairly in the way? Or what do you think about sort of how the rules kind of benefited you guys in the last couple of years? Well, the thing is, is that it certainly benefits us because we have the player. but that's something that regardless of any team that would have Otani would have that player. And, you know, we're more than willing to have other teams, you know, go out and find a player that can do both.

So he's an exception because he's an exceptional player. So, yeah, I mean, it's kind of, it is what it is. It is what it is. Dodgers signed him. Dodgers have them. And I don't know. I don't have. I don't know. I complain about this a lot already.

I think, I think this is the lesser of the, evils we're going to face or the Cubs will have to face while at Dodger Stadium. But Riz, any final thoughts on this? No, I mean, JT, former Dodger, one of my favorite Dodgers ever, he weighed in on this as well. And Justin Turner knows the game very well. I mean, David S.A., of course, tweeted earlier. I'd love to know the solution from those complaining about the Otani role. Well, Justin has a thought. The solution is to get rid of the 13 by 13 rule that teams structure their roster the way they want. You want to carry 20 pitchers at six position players. Knock yourself out. I mean, you know, maybe that's a solution. I don't know what the solution is. I just know that as Dave said,

he's an exceptional player, so he has an exceptional rule. And anybody that signed him would be the beneficiary of that rule, but they would also be the beneficiary of, as Katie alluded, the best player to play the game and probably somebody we will never see be replicated in terms of being able to do it on both sides of the ball. We're not talking Kiki Hernandez, Miguel Rojas, you know, Anthony Rizzo both sides of the ball. We're talking Shohei Otani, the domination on both sides of the ball. So I'm not certain what the answer is, but to your point, Clint, the other big story is that PCA is coming to Dodger Stadium for the first time since his offseason comments. And in case you forgot, guys, this is what Pete Crowe Armstrong said. I love Chicago more and more.

The people are great. They give a shit. They aren't just baseball fans who go to the game like Dodgers fans to take pictures in whatever, whatever, I do what I want. They're paying attention and they care. So thoughts, Katie, we'll be there tonight. Will PCA get booed? Yeah, probably. But isn't that what we want as baseball fans?

Don't we want more rivalries, more good teams? The Cubs are playing fantastic baseball right now. They've won nine straight. They're the hottest team in the league. And when you look at how the Dodgers have been able to kind of just breeze through the National League, don't you want more rivalries like this? We talked about the Cubs maybe being one of the bigger tests for the Dodgers this season. And everyone loves to have players that they hate.

And if you're a player that's hated by another fan base, it's usually because you're good. No one is griping about the 26th man on the roster. PCA's a star. He's a stud. And if he's going to say things to ignite some rivalry or to ignite some bad blood between the fan bases and the teams. Like, isn't that what we want as baseball enthusiasts? So, yeah, he's probably going to get booed, but it's good for baseball.

It's good for the course of the fan action throughout the season. And it just adds another element. I mean, I'm sure we'll get to another incident we had in San Francisco over the last week. But when you look at these teams and the rivalries and the players getting in on the fan bases, I like this stuff. There should be more of players being honest, for one. two, you're not supposed to like the other team's fans. The other teams fans aren't supposed to like you. I think PCA is an electric talent. He's fun to watch. And then he goes out and says stuff like this.

It's good for the game. More of it, please. Yeah, I appreciate it. I think it's going to be fun when he is heavily booed over the next three games and beyond. But where I think he really, he really screwed the pooch on this whole thing is when he doubled down and made it worse while hanging out with the boys at foul during spring training. Adding this, bringing up the whole Brian Stowe incident, and Riz, I think we all talked about this when it happened in the offseason or during spring training. But he said the fans, they go in phases.

I remember putting the Giants fan in a coma. It's something that stuck with me as a kid. Now we're going from, oh, fans aren't paying attention to now there's nasty stuff going on and they're violent people and just continuing this bull. shit rhetoric, Retherick, however you want to say. Anyways, that Dodger fans are bad people,

and they're the only fan base that have people that are going to beat you up and steal your milk money and all this kind of stuff. No, every fan base has dipshits and pricks and people that are looking to get to the stadium, imbibe a little too much, and start some shit.

It's not just Dodgers fans, and that's where I think this will linger on. He made it a little more personal in my opinion. I was going to say, I think that was a little bit more of a personal attack than just saying that Dodgers fans come late, they leave early, they go to take pictures. And I, you know, honestly, when I was an outsider, having not been covering the Dodgers as I was with as the sideline reporter, when I was coming in as a visiting team when I was with the Colorado Rockies, I almost, honestly, I almost didn't take the Dodger job because I didn't think I wanted to live in L.A. just because of this outside perspective that I had, and thank goodness I didn't listen to myself, because it's the best place I've ever lived. It's the most rewarding seven years of my professional career to this point.

The people are tremendous. And yes, there are jerks in every single fan base. What happened to that man at Dodgers Stadium? Those assholes should never be allowed. First of all, they should be in jail in prison. And they should certainly never be allowed to attend another baseball game or any public event for as long as they live. But remember Steve Bartman.

Has anybody, where is he? Where is he? You know, so it's not as if the Cubs fans are infallible. It's not as if Cubs fans are this perfect fan base that never do anything wrong. They're the minority. There are minority idiots in every single fan base that make it bad for everybody and paint this bad picture of the majority of fans. And that's just not how fan bases are.

There's jerks in every single one. But it's not as if the Cubs fan base is immune to being, mean to their own to their own fans i mean steve bartman arguably is the biggest cub fan and he's been absolutely ostracized so all right so um enough on that do you think bregman because you know sometimes we just can't forget right we can't forget about stuff that happened in 2017 i wanted that world series ring damn it um will he get booed Alex bregman louder than you think he gets more take is I think it's going to be PCA. I mean, they're going to be pretty equal, but I think it's going to be PCA.

I mean, this is Katie's first time experiencing all of this. What are your thought? It kind of thoughts to button this up, Wu. Yeah. I'm excited to really feel the, when you're covering a team for the first year, you rely on the fan base to tell you so much about what they care about. And I am excited to feel how much the Dodgers care about the Astros, Alex Bregman, that whole saga.

and I think I will definitely get maybe my first hand experience tonight. What PCA said, you just like, you guys said it, a little too personal, but it's still at the end of the day, it's rivalry stuff, it's different. It's just, you know, talking back and forth. The Astros and the Dodgers and what happened with all of that in the past, that is legit. Fans will never forget that, and I understand why. So, yeah, he's going to get food louder than Kyle, or not Kyle Tucker, excuse me.

He's going to get food louder. Not Kyle Tucker, he's not between that bad guys. They have PCA. Give him time. Give him time. Riz, any final thoughts on all of this? No, I love it. Let's make it a rivalry, but do it with class.

You can still show your fandom, but just do it with class. Show him that you're completely wrong. Show him that you're completely wrong that the Dodgers fans are legit and they're savvy. You know what? I'm sorry, but it is freaking hard to get to. Dodgers Stadium early. Okay. That's another thing, having not live there. And then, you know, we go to the park four hours before the game starts. But seven o'clock, first pitch, that's why no players live in the South Bay because it takes forever to get there.

If you live, the players are there, right? But the families would never be able to get there because of traffic. All right. Much more to come. We're going to preview the series between the Cubs and the Dodgers, but first a word from our friends at Fowell. People, life is expensive. So you should start looking at things that are unnecessarily expensive, like your phone bill, and say, is there a better option? MintMobile is a better option than if you have other companies, especially when you have kids like me and you have everybody and their brother on your family plan.

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first three months only than full-price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See MintMobil for details. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind, and now, got my own show. If you're tired or lazy takes, if you want honest conversations,

join us each week. Film Never Lies available on all TSN platforms in the IHeart Radio app. You're good, Tommy. I don't give a shit you feel good. There's four months' hits up there. It's been a while since we've been. had a mountain visit on the show here. But we've talked a lot about this series and all of the kind of ancillary things of the series. But Chicago Cubs are coming to Dodger Stadium to play

the Dodgers and they're going to do baseball and it's going to have meaningful impact on the season. And the Cubs are kind of pretty effing good to open the season so far. 16 and 9. They've won nine in a row. They're beating up on the Mets and Phillies if that means anything to anybody. But Katie, what are you kind of looking to see from the Dodgers in the series? Their first, I don't know, this kind of feels like the first real test, in my opinion for the Dodgers. What are you looking to see? Yeah, well, they're starting pitchings on a here. Four straight quality starts, starting with Justin Robleski at Coors and then your three potential or very early Sayan candidates going back to back to back, Yamamoto, Otani, Glass now.

And then two pitchers Friday and Saturday from the Dodgers that need to step it up a little bit. Emmett Sheehan and Roki Sasaki. So we'll see if that starting pitching trend can continue. But what I'm looking at more is the offense. We've seen Kyle Tucker drop to the cleanup spot. Freddie Freeman, he'll be in the two hole for the foreseeable future, Dave Roberts said. And the reason that Kyle Tucker was dropped down in the order was simply because, as Dave put it, he just didn't look comfortable.

And I think that was pretty clear over the last couple of weeks. Dave Roberts is not a manager who is like hastily making decisions. He likes very methodical. He gives his veterans a lot of chances. They've earned that in their careers. But it just got to a point over the last few days where Tucker, everything, it was the high swing rate, the high chase rate. He's laid on pitches in the zone. It's a culmination of things that are not Kyle Tucker.

So moving him down, cleanup spot, he was going to stay there for at least the next few weeks. That maybe will help the offense. Joey Otani's got to get it going too. And it's crazy because you look at his numbers and he has like a 850-ish OPS and you're like, okay, calm down. He's five homers. It's fine. But as we talked about, exceptional guy, exceptional talent, high expectations.

And he has said after his last start that it's fair to say he's not in a good spot. I think we've seen O'Tani kind of expand the zone lower. And it's really hard to do damages on pitches below the knees. So that's what I'm watching. Can O'Tani fine-tune his approach, straighten things out be a little bit more. collective with pitches in the zone and lay off the ones lower in the zone. It's not fair to lump this entire offense on Kyle Tucker and Shohei Otani, but they are being paid a significant amount of money to produce at the top of the order.

So let's get that going. Yeah, we were talking a little bit yesterday, Alana and I, after the Dodgers, finally won a baseball game against the Giants. And I think this is going to be a very good homestand for Shohei. He's been close. He's been very close. It looks like you mentioned he's chasing low a little bit more than you're used to seeing him chase and and also he's he's late on the fastball you don't see show hey be late on the fastball

for very long so i suggested yesterday don't be shocked if you see show hey out on the field taking bp today or tomorrow just to try to find something that works for him something that locks him in but i i think he's closer than than what we're seeing on the field with show hey when he locks it in all of a sudden he's going to rattle off like six homers in 10 games and we'll forget about this very, very short stretch where he looked pedestrian. No question. I think that we're going to look back at this in a few weeks from now and just laugh at ourselves, right? But again, when it is Shohei Otani, everything is much more magnified, right?

I mean, this guy is an unbelievable player. I don't know that there's any adjective left to describe what he's doing. But, of course, it's going to be magnified just based on who the guy is. A couple of other things, though, when you think about this week that was before we start this homestand with the Dodgers. Katie, you were there. You wrote about it in the athletic as you always do. Are we making too much out of the Dalton rushing Junghu Lee Logan Webb drama? And again, I like it because not only we talk about the rivalry and the juice of the game, but it is one of the oldest rivalries in the game. And it hasn't felt like it's been that big of a deal because it

has been with the exception of, what was it, 2003 when the Giants won 107? I can't remember. When they 1006. I mean, it hasn't really been a very even rivalry recently. That being said, is there going to be more to this? What was your opinion of it as you saw it literally unfolded in front of you? Yeah, Alana, I think you're spot on with the rivalry. The Giants and Dodgers, they hate each other.

It's a history of hating each other. And it's tapered off a little bit with the emergence of the Padres playing some good ball in the division. But at the end of the day, it's still Dodgers, Giants, one of the top rivalries of all time in baseball. And that's why I liked this so much. Look, the way that it was handled on Thursday, I don't think anyone was surprised to see Logan Webb,

staff ace, old school guy going to go protect his teammates. No one was surprised to see Dalton get drilled in the ribs there. I think if he was being honest, he probably wasn't surprised either. I also have no issue with the slide. I know Louisa Rye's called it dirty after that, but he went in hard trying to break up a double play. second base umpire junior valentine called them out immediately was like you can't slide like that you're out and each team kind of went their own way now do i expect this to be over and done with

that's that's hard to say uh i think dalton did a nice job trying to clean it up saying you know nothing against those guys hopefully the air is cleared to be fair i don't think when dalton was walking away into the dugout he realized that lee was in pain uh but the optics didn't look good and if you're like what the hell that's our guy don't do that But I really liked what Dave Roberts had to say after the game where he was like, yeah, you know, this was probably intentional. Again, Logan Webb, old school guy protecting his teammates, but said he had no issue with the execution of the pitch, the slide, called it good, hard-nosed baseball.

This is what a rivalry baseball series should look like. I'm not advocating for anyone to get hurt, obviously. But the way that things went about, you could clearly say the unwritten rules coming into play. And I know it's a little different because the division. doesn't play each other as much as it used to. But this is good for Dodgers, Giants. Tony Vitello said he's going to come out here playing a more scrappy kind of baseball.

And let's see how the Dodgers respond. I thought Dalton Rushing has done a nice job in making himself public enemy number one across the NL West so far. Let's keep it up. Why not? Let's make baseball fun. I tell you what, Dalton Rushing has a dog in him.

He's got some dog in him. And I didn't know about it really because he has kind of been under the radar. They haven't used him as much, obviously, certainly when Austin was still around. But now he's kind of catapulted himself into a bigger role. And the personality is starting to show a little bit more. And it's funny, too, because when asked several years ago who you would want in a cage match, everybody said Austin Barnes.

Everybody said Sam, right? And that's Chase Settley's nickname for Austin Barnes was Sam. And I feel like Dalton Rushing has that same kind of dog in him. And I like that. And he's showing that he has been afforded more playing time. And there's a reason why. I mean, he's playing well. He's taking advantage of the opportunities, obviously.

He's a young kid, but he's, you know, he's seven home runs already, you guys. I don't know that on April 24th, I would have thought Dalton rushing would have been one of the team's leaders in terms of home run production for this club, especially since he doesn't get to play every single day. Old school baseball, though, I love it. I mean, I'm much older than a lot of you. Shut up. But I love the old school baseball. And you know who else likes that slide that Dalton Rushing had until Luis to rise?

And I didn't talk to him about it, but Chase freaking Utley. Because that's the type of slide that it should be allowed in baseball. I'm not suggesting that anybody get hurt. I don't like that, of course. But that whole thing, remember back in the day when Chase Utley slid into Tehada and I said that it was a clean slide.

And then I wanted MLB security to go with me to New York because I felt like I was going to get murdered the second I walked off the bus in New York. I'm not about all that that came along. Oh, my gosh. That was insanity. I was like, I'm dead. I'm dead. And, you know, we were in the postseason, obviously,

against the Mets at that time. So the point is, you know, it's a hard-nosed baseball play. It's old school baseball. Dalton rushing is showing that he's got that dog in him. And I love it. I love it for the rivalry. I love it for the game.

It should matter between these two teams because it always has and it hasn't for a while. All right. How about this? We're giving Tanner Scott some more flowers, Clint and Katie. With the fact that Edwin Diaz is on the IL, Tanner Scott is going to have to emerge again as the guy. Katie, what's been to talk about that? I mean, you know, what can you say about what Dave said about it

and moving forward? Even if, you know, if Tanner can't go because of usage, who's next man up? One thing that is made very clear is Tanner Scott has zero interest in talking about last season. And when you are a reliever, especially now when he's going to be counted on to fill that role that he wasn't able to do last season, you need that type of mentality. And so far, so good. You look at the numbers here for Tanner Scott.

He's just been really, really effective. And the biggest thing he said makes it sound very simple is he stopped throwing pitches middle-middle. I think he said yesterday, middle-middle-middle is terrible. Anyone in the big leagues can hit middle-middle-middle. So he's in a nice job of keeping balls out of the heart of the zone. And the results have really, I think, made him one of the most reliable relievers for the Dodgers right up there with Alex Vessia so far this season. And we know Edwin Diaz, unfortunate, going to be out for at least three months. And the Dodgers aren't going to name a closer in his absence.

They're going closer by committee. Same thing as they did last year. But Dave Roberts said Tanner Scott's in line to get the majority of those looks. And we saw on Thursday first stage situation since Edwin Diaz went down. Tanner Scott comes in three up three days. down ball game. And we asked Dave Roberts after the game where his confidence level is with Tanner and he right away said very high. And he said the reason that he says that is because you can see in the demeanor the way Tanner Scott comes out and takes the mound, how he's executing

pitch after pitch. It's just a different guy. And Tanner, a man, a few words essentially said the same. It's like, I'm ready whenever they need me to. Doesn't matter if it's coming the seventh, eighth, ninth. I'm going to go in and I'm going to get the job done. And he has so far. Now where things get a little tricky and where we're going to have to start analyzing strategy and matchups is I think for a lot of these guys, Bessia trying and N. Scott to an extent, they've seen this early success because they've been able to match up with lanes because when Diaz was available, Dave Roberts had the luxury of knowing that no matter what the ninth looked like, Diaz was going to get it and he was able to work backwards from games and match up based on leverage, lane,

opposition and really put those guys in the best position to succeed. He's not going to have the opportunity to do that. We saw this in Wednesday's game. Otani's out at 91 pitches. I understand why he was taken out even though he was cruising. And the bottom part of the Giants order is due up two lefties and a switch hitter, that switch hitter being Patrick Bailey, who came into that at bat with a 350 OPS on the season. That's a lane for Vessia or Tanner Scott. But because Dave Roberts has to save them for the eighth or ninth. He throws in Jack Dreyer, and I don't think Jack Dreyer's season is going to be defined by one pitch, but a poorly located slider ends up deciding the game.

Now Dave Roberts is second guessing, should I have used one of those guys in the seventh in a lane that was much lower leverage? Maybe we don't have a different outcome in that game. That's where things are going to get a little tricky for Dave and pitching coach Mark Pryor. They're going to have to play the matchups and kind of roll the dice each time, hoping that the lane that they need doesn't come up at a different time with a pitcher they've already used. Yeah, it feels to me like this is a team.

They just need one more guy that they could rely on, one more guy that could step up and kind of fill that role that Tanner Scott and the early part of the season has filled really nice, being the swing man, fireman, guy who could plug in and get outs in any situation, whether it's inherited runners. He's been great or starting a clean inning. But if he is going to be that guy getting the lion's share, somebody else needs to step up and help out around him. And so far, okay, I guess.

I don't know. We'll move on. We're going long already. So why don't we throw it another break. Then we'll come back. We're going to talk about a dog. And then we've got to talk about the fact that the Dodgers have some company atop the NL West.

So we'll be right back. Support for today's episode comes from Square, and they've got big news during Square's bi-annual releases event. They launched a wave of innovative new tools to help local businesses run faster, smarter, and more profitably. Square is awesome around Orlando, where AJ and I live. We go to the farmer's markets around town. I go to the one near Lake Eola.

It's awesome. I use Square to pay with my phone. I get the receipt right away. It's great. And so many businesses, not just small businesses, uses so many restaurants and businesses I walk into, not only in Orlando, but all over the country. Have these, and you just use your credit card,

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square.com slash go slash F-O-UL. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind and now got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week. Film Never Lies available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. All right, guys, appreciate you.

Let me talk about a dog. This is Didi. Didi is an eight-month-old Aussie mix. He was owner surrendered. His owners just gave up and they were going to send him to a high-kill shelter and we stepped in because the foster said yes. So he is now being

fostered in Santa Clarita, California. As I mentioned, he is eight months old. We are going to get him neutered at our cost as soon as it is healthy to do so. We got to make sure he's of age. He's definitely going through a little bit of separation anxiety, but we're setting him up with a trainer. He's a good boy. He gets along with other dogs.

Seems to be a little fearful of men right now. We believe he was abused by a man. So he's following around his foster grandma a lot. Loves grandma, loves grandma. His name is Didi because it means a younger brother in Chinese, He is living with a Chinese foster family, and he has two foster pups that are older than him. So if you're interested in learning more about Didi, he's not quite ready for adoption yet. But if you're interested in learning more about him, check out Gidreysgarden.org.

And we could always use donations to help with his upcoming neuter and his training costs. So thank you so much. Let's get D.D.A. home. All right, baseball thought for the road. As Clint mentioned before the break, Katie, the daughters enter the day tied with the friars for first place in the National League West. They're both, I believe, at what, 17 and 8 or something like that, 16 and 8? How real do you believe the Padres are? 17 and 8, there we go.

Ooh, you know, I don't know if they're going to be, I think it'd be great for the division if the Padres and the Dodgers are trading blows atop the NL West all season long. But I'm not sure. And to be fair, I haven't watched a ton of Padres baseball. So grant me some slack on this. I always feel like we don't know where a team is at, really. until they've been punched in the mouth. And I don't think the Padres or the Dodgers really

have been punched in the mouth yet this season. So it's hard for me to say, is this sustainable? I think the Dodgers are always gonna get the benefit of the doubt because of what they've done over the last two seasons. But the Padres have shown in the same time that they're pretty scrappy and they're gonna win and they have a fan base that really cares.

Pecco Park is an intimidating place to play at, especially for Dodgers because there is such a strong rivalry there. I would love this again for the division if they're trading blows again at the top. But it's hard for me to say if any of that's sustainable because they haven't really had a significant setback yet. And we learned so much about teams based on how they respond. That's why I've kind of been on the Cubs

because they've had so many injuries, Cade Horton, Tommy John, they don't have their closer right now. They don't have Justin Steele back yet and they're still finding ways to win. We'll see how the Padres do when they get their first test. Same with the Dodgers. You can kind of say that the Diaz was a big blow.

I would agree with that. But I still don't think that either team has really gotten the true gut punch yet, so we'll see. Just looking over here at the calendar for the Padres, they have played the Rockies a whole bunch. They have played the Anaheim Angels. They have played the Boston Red Sox, the Pirates, a bunch of teams that aren't necessarily great.

What you got? Doesn't matter. That's the schedule they were given. You have to win those games. You have to win those games, right? We're talking more about it if they lose to the Rockies, which by the way, didn't the Rockies take two or three from the Dodgers? Yeah, but I'm just saying.

Dodgers Rockies is different. Dodgers played dumb when they're in Colorado. It doesn't matter. I know you hate coursefield. I get it. But the point is it's not their fault that that's who would. It all evens out, right? They're going to play these tougher teams.

I mean, look at how right we were and wrong we were about the Phillies and the Mets. So like you play the schedule that you're given. And I do believe that it will all even itself out. I tried to get this quote that Ned Coletti always used to say, and I'm texting him, and of course, he's not texting me back in a timely fashion because the man probably has a life and is busy. But he always used to say something to the effect of, like, you know, the season is too long for other teams against the Dodgers. Like, you can have spurts where you're not playing well like we did in Colorado and in San Francisco,

but over the course of 162, the talent is just too great that the Dodgers have against other team. So I believe the Dodgers are a stronger team than the Padres, but it all matters at the end of the season when who is healthy and who's playing the best ball at the same at the right time, not the same time, the right time. What I'm saying with that calendar so far, it's a little bit of fools gold, in my opinion, that 17 and 8 for the Padres. And yeah, they're winning the baseball games. A couple of them. The Dodgers didn't win against the Rockies. They have won, what are we at, of the games that they have played the Rockies, it's fools gold right now.

I will, like Katie said, I will start to believe a little bit more when they actually face a real test. And Diamondbacks have been decent. They got them coming up, and then the Cubs go to Petco. So there's a little bit of some competition for the first time for the Padres.

But it's weird. Being tied for first at this point, you know, I don't like it. I hate it. I don't like it. Better than at the end of the year. better than my pet house

yeah at least we're not in the outhouse well guys that is a Friday edition appreciate people showing up people showed up showed out here for a Friday edition poorly announced edition of Dodgers territory

Dodgers sweep Dodgers take two or three what are you thinking two or three two or three two or three I think that's fair I think that's fair I'm a show-ha enthusiast

so I'm assuming he's going to win that Sunday game. He's Mike in this house. If you guys want the Dodgers is sweet, you got to hit that subscribe button. You got to get that like button, all that kind of stuff. Go check out a Dodger Territory Shop.com. Get yourself some swag. There's a whole bunch of stuff in there.

And hey, become a member here on YouTube. We're going to eventually get drunk in front of our friends or maybe have a couple of drinks. We will have happy hour shows down the road. 399 to become a member, support us here on the show. That's about it. I'm running out of music. see you guys.

All right, guys. I'm part of the weekend. Bye. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the 4th.

You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, the Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve

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