High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Jack reacts to another disappointing Aaron Nola start

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

Jack Fritz goes through his three big takes from the Phillies 8-4 loss to the Marlins and recaps a rough night for Aaron Nola. Presented by Miller Lite. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome on in. It is the final out here on Sports Radio 94 WIP 215592. 9494 is how you get in and react. You're leaving the ballgame. I know there was 58,000 hot dogs consumed at the game tonight. So obviously another good crowd tonight. Really good crowd. On hand down at Citizens Bank Park for what was a frustrating game. And a game that I felt like the Phillies could have easily won. Welcome on in. The final out sponsored by Regency Furniture.

Affordable never looks so good. Jack Fritz hanging out with you here on this Tuesday evening. And it was a frustrating one. And I tell you what, there's no – well, there's a lot of baseball cliches that are true. But one of them ises that are true, but one of them is certainly your momentum is only as long as the game the next day or something along those lines. Got to be honest, not the best cliche guy.

Sometimes I get them right. Sometimes I get them wrong. I'm not Jalen Hurts. I'm just a guy. But momentum doesn't really last that long in baseball, it feels like. It can be gone like that. And there was nothing more vintage than the Phillies having 20 hits last night, putting up 15 runs, having the fan base collectively breathe a long sigh of relief,

and then come out tonight and do the stuff that had frustrated us early in this season and it was a lot back to what we had seen so far this season obviously some good but one of those games that I felt like they had I felt like they could have gone ahead, and really I felt like they let it slip away more than I felt like the Marlins came in here and took that game. 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94. If you're leaving the ballpark, we'd love to talk to you, get your reactions, get your takeaways from what you saw down at Citizens Bank Park tonight.

My three big takes from the game tonight. My first big take is that the dumb baseball has to stop. You know, I don't know who has to go in there and shake these guys up and say, stop trying to do too much. But someone's got to do it. And I know it's not Rob Thompson's MO of being the boisterous, tough guy, you know, going to really get into someone. It hasn't generally been his personality. There have been times last year where he did it, and it was like,

that's refreshing because it felt like Joe Girardi never did that. This is one of those times where the manager's got to do something about it. already never did that. This is one of those times where the manager's got to do something about it. You know, with Reese Hoskins being out, that other kind of vocal leader in the locker room isn't there, you know? And I know Reese has been around, but it's just different when you're not playing and I didn't see him in the dugout tonight. So, like, he's there, but he's not there. Kyle Schwarber has made too many mistakes on the base pass for anyone to kind of take seriously at this point. I mean, he got thrown out twice the other day against the Reds.

So, you know, when you look at how this team is made up and you look at the leadership council here, you're like, Schwarber's a great leader. I think he's the Kelsey of this team. But he's made a lot of mistakes. And this is not a knock on these guys, but I think JT is quiet. Trey Turner just got here. Cassianos is, is kind of,

you know, to himself, I feel like. And then you have the young guys in bone, Marsh and Scott. And it's like, they're not, that's not their role.

So it's one of those things where given the amount of mistakes that they have made on the base pass, the manager and, and Rob Thompson's got to do something about it. Whether it's pulling a guy out of a game or getting into it in the dugout, tough coaching is not a bad thing. I know everyone's afraid of it, but these guys are professionals. There's been eight base running mistakes so far, and the season's a week and a half old.

This comes down to lack of focus. These guys have played baseball their entire lives. They know they can't get thrown out on the bases. They know that these situations can't happen. They're not little leaguers. I think some tough coaching needs to happen, and it's on Rob Thompson at this point. And we know the big game, or the big moment in this game, where it happened.

Crowd is into the game late. Lozardo is on the ropes. Bryson Stott is at the dish, and Bryson Stott has been great so far. But when something like this happens, he needs to be criticized. Three balls, two strikes, runners go, the pitch, swung on, line to left field, that's falling, it's a base hit. It'll be picked up by Dana Cruz, two runs are going to score. And Stott around the bag at first, too far,

and Gene Segura backpicks him off the bag at first, and that is going to end the inning. Another runner thrown out on the bases as Gene Segura gets his old double play partner at first who had just driven in two runs.

That's my Mike's Amazing play of the game presented by Mike's Amazing, the official mayo, mustard and vegetable oil of the Phillies because it's amazing how this continues to happen. That is such a key moment in the game. You had a tough inning the inning before. Aaron Ola kind of blows up a little bit.

You have Jesus Lizardo, who is just dominant all night long on the ropes. Bryson Stott has been unbelievable so far this year. Had another multi-hit game tonight, and it has done a great job. He makes it a 4-3 game and then gets immediately picked off first base by Gene Segura. Like, that can't happen. It's amazingly bad. Sometimes the amazing play is positive.

That is amazingly bad. And that is yet another out that has been caused on the base pass. Dumb baseball has to stop. Bryce Harper's not in the lineup. Reese Hoskins is in the lineup. Your bullpen's not particularly pitching well. Like, you are down two of your starters. Your starters haven't been locked down so far.

These kind of dumb things cannot continue. But that wasn't it. The stop play was not smart baseball. But next inning, Brandon Marsh walks, Kyle Schwarber walks, JT is up. You're getting some momentum back. It's now a 5-3 game. First pitch swinging after a walk. Double play. And the Marlins are out of the inning. And another exhale moment. You keep letting the Marlins off the hook when you can take back all the momentum.

It's 5-3 in the eighth. You know, we've talked about the dumb baseball on the hitting side, on the base running side. The pitching was a part of this as well. We'll get to Aaron Nolan in a second. But top eight, it's a 5-3 game. Andrew Bilotti is in, who has been pretty locked down so far. But he had two straight two-strike mistakes.

And it goes from a 5-3 game to a 7-3 game, eventually an 8-3 game. And you let it slip away. And they totally and completely let it slip away. And they totally and completely let tonight slip away. Take number one is that the dumb baseball has to stop from the base running to situational hitting to situational pitching. That is three key aspects to winning that they are not doing at their best right now. And when you're down the injuries they are, it can't happen. My second big take is that this is just who Aaron Nola is. And it's so difficult to have an Aaron Nola discussion in modern baseball

because the most simplest, most boiled down reality with Aaron Nola is, is that he's a very good pitcher that you just never trust. It's as simple as that. Aaron Nola is a very good pitcher. We know that. We know that he's going to get on a run here, and he's going to end the season with a low whip. He's going to strike out a ton of guys,

but there's still that feeling in your gut that when you need him, he's going to let you down. And it's okay to admit that. The Aaron Nola thing is frustrating for me because it's like, we all see it. We see that he's very good, but we don't have to go so, and honestly, it's both sides.

The one side of he's trash, get rid of him, he's not an ace, whatever, he's a three, I think is insane. The side of, no, he actually really is an ace, look at his strikeout numbers, he's dominant, pay him $200 million, I think is also insane. This is who he is. Tonight was a vintage Aaron Nola start. Like, they've lost his last six outings. I know some of that's playoffs, big games, whatever, but last six outings. Win-loss record, we know that it's pretty much been taken out of the game. But when you are an ace or a 1A, you've got to be a stopper at some point.

Tonight, he's rolling along, and it's like, the cutter's looking good. Fastball location is pretty good. But the thing that consistently comes up with Aaron Nola, which is my number one complaint, is that when things get tough,

it feels like it snowballs rather than it stops. It feels like runner scores from second base on a single off the middle. Well, we got to let the next runner come in as well. And there's just too much of that snowballing. And the one disadvantage of the pitch clock for a guy like Nola is that he is one of those guys that when runners get on base, everything slows down for him. And he wants to slow it down. And he wants to take his time. And he wants to take his time. And he wants

to think about executing pitches. Well, that's not the reality of the current sport. So, he's got to figure that out. I know it's outside of his comfort zone, but that's something that has to be addressed. And that's the thing that ultimately feels like always holds back Aaron Nola

is that it just snowballs. And there's no stopping there. Tonight was vintage and it's disappointing for a game in which I believe the Phillies should have won. They were going against the 29th ranked offense in baseball so far and their 1B came up short. Aaron Nola was not good enough tonight and it was yet another start where he's rolling along, rolling along, rolling along, and bang, things go wrong. It snowballs. It turns into an avalanche. And all of a sudden, it's a 4-0 ballgame.

That's my second big take. But my third big take is obviously all hope is not lost. I did have one big positive tonight is that the offense continues to put you in a position to succeed. The offense, they had nine more hits tonight. They had a ton of hits last night. I know they only scored three runs. But they are putting themselves in positions to break through. They had multiple breakthrough options tonight.

They just didn't get the job done. Sometimes that's baseball. But Bryson Stott, eight multi-hit games, 11 straight to begin the season. He is developing into just an absolute stud for this team. I thought Nick Castellanos looked good again. Just continues to look more confident. Looks like he can actually do some damage when attacking baseballs.

And Brandon Marsh got inserted into the game late, walked, and got a hit. Like, has to play more. And I think that as we go along here, Brandon Marsh is going to continue to develop into your everyday center fielder. My one negative, well, there's a couple negatives on offense, but one that is sticking in my craw here a little bit, and I love Trey Turner, and he's had a lot of hits. He's bat number 300, but I mean, a lot of times tonight, it was like first pitch swinging for no reason. You are the leadoff hitter, and I know you're trying to get that big home run and have your

first Philly Citizens bank park moment, but you gotta breathe. You gotta calm down. There's a lot of just trying to jump the pitcher rather than letting him come to you a little bit. So, um, you know,

a lot of weak fly balls, the center field, if it's not your night, at least work the pitcher a little bit. So, uh, that's my one frustration with, with,

with Trey Turner after the night. But other than that, um, he has been as good as advertised so far. And I think he's just pressing a little bit to get his first home run. 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94. My three big takes from tonight. The dumb baseball is driving me insane.

It's got to stop. The base running stuff is insane. Aaron Nola, this is who he is. And we can admit two things. He's very good and you never really fully trust him. My final big take is that the offense continues to put you in position to succeed.

Where are you at after this game tonight? Rob is in the Northeast. What's happening, Robbie? Yo, I want to meet the genius who decided to say, hey, let's do three theme nights on one night. It was freaking crazy down there. What, they had Dollar Dog Night?

They had other things? They had Dollar Dog Night, Red Ghost Greek, and the College Series night, and it was, the lines were horrendous. As much as horrendous as Noah's pitching tonight, let's be honest. Yeah, I mean, listen. Wasn't the college series like before the game, though?

Or did it trickle over into the actual game? It trickled into 400 level, felt like the 700 level tonight. It was a hot mess. Did you get hit with any hot dogs late in the game there, Rob? No, no, no, I didn't. I'm glad you were able to make it out alive. So you're worried about Noah? Yeah, you know, it's a little concerning.

I understand. I have faith in him. I want to have faith in him. He's our ace. But when our ace can't make it through the game, and this goes back to Rob's press conference. He said tonight, the fact of he saw Aaron struggling, let him keep going because his pitch count wasn't high enough to pull him out.

And then he goes back to the pitch count and says, eh, you know what, time to pull him. The bleeding, like you said, it's a snowball attack. The bleeding just kept, you know, the wound kept bleeding and you couldn't stop it. It stopped. Yeah, I mean, and it was vintage in a way. And my, I have this internal discussion with myself when we talk about pulling guys who are your top-of-the-line starters early in a game where it's not totally out of hand.

Because on one hand, it's like, yeah, we all see that this is snowballing and whatnot, and we'd love to bring in someone to put an end to it. And yeah, believe me, if it's a playoff game, you want to do that. But I guess where I largely fall on it is that in April, I need to see Aaron Nola work his way through that, work his way through the pitch clock, work his way through runners on base and having to kind of speed himself up and getting used to that stuff. It sucks to lose a game like that.

It really does, especially a game that I felt like they could have won. But if I'm Rob Thompson, I also need Aaron Nola to be able to pitch through stuff like that. And when you're talking about Wheeler and you're talking about Nola specifically, I know they pitched a ton of innings last year, but they also need to give you length. And you do have to put faith in your guys that they can go out there

and execute and get a job done. Putting faith in your players is something Rob Thompson has done all throughout. And, you know, I think that this idea of pull pitchers as soon as things start going wrong, I don't think is the right strategy. It probably costs them the night. I'm fully disclosing that. But at the same time,

it's early in the season, and these guys have to learn to pitch through that with the pitch clock and the new rules and all that. 215-592-9494. On the other side, we'll get to all of your calls, but also two big pieces of injury news that should help this team sooner rather than later. What are they? We'll get into that on the other side here on the final hour on Sports Radio 94 WIP. Welcome back. Final hour here on Sports Radio 94 WIP.

215-592-9494. If you're leaving the ballpark and want to get in. It was a frustrating night down at the ballpark. And it was one of those games where, and I felt it all throughout. I felt like they gave away the game Sunday against the Reds. And I felt like they gave this game away. There was moments in this game where they had momentum a little bit. You felt it kind of building.

And bang, a dumb baseball play would kind of take over. I think that's been the biggest takeaway from this season so far is there's been a lot of dumb baseball. A ton of runners thrown out on base. Bryson Stott, who has been unbelievable this year, and he admitted postgame tonight. He's like, it's being aggressive, not being stupid.

And that's exactly what's been kind of the M.O. of this team since they returned home. The best way for me to describe it is that I guess it looks like they got in front of the home crowd and they were like, oh, this is fun again. And I want to put on a show for the

home fans. And I want it to feel like October again. And I love that. I love that, but it comes at a price of trying to be overaggressive and trying to be too much. I look at Turner. I think he's trying to do too much of the plate right now where it's like, let the game come to you. You're Trey Turner. We paid you $300 million for a reason. Like the, the, the little base running things. It's like, you don't have to try to take a ton of extra bases to try to get a rise out of the crowd. You've got

to play smarter here. There's just been little instances. They had dumb pitching tonight from Aaron Nola who, again, where it's like every time, he's just such a interesting case study,

Aaron Nola, because he's really good. Anyone that thinks he's trash has just such a it's just an interesting case study Aaron Nola because he's really good like anyone that thinks he's trash has no idea what they're talking about guy was fourth in Cy Young last year he is consistently one of the best strike to walk out or strike out to walk out ratio guys in baseball he takes down a ton of innings he's very valuable but like there's this thing where when one run scores it feels like here comes a couple other ones it like the the big out the the momentum stopping out more often than not doesn't feel like we get it like he can get on rolls he can throw a complete game he can he can do he can strike out 10 like he did against the mets a couple years ago and it's like oh my gosh

this guy's insane but then there's so many games like tonight where all of a sudden bang fifth inning here's full runs opening day bang fifth inning here's five runs and he's just with the new pitch clock I know he likes to slow things down he's got to figure it out to where he can get into a rhythm here with the new rules because they're not going away. But two good pieces of injury news from earlier today. Ranger Suarez, according to Rob Thompson for the game, apparently looked excellent in his bullpen. And it'll decide tomorrow the next steps that they want to go with for Ranger. Obviously, he's going to have to pitch in some minor league games,

but it seems like he hasn't had a setback. So you bring back Ranger, it lengthens out the rotation. It gives you a guy that I feel like when he's fully healthy and his arm's back, gives you a good solid six innings on most nights. And obviously has nights where he can just go nine and the game will be over in two hours. Like, I think the pitch clock is just going to be so good for Ranger because he's just going to get it. The batter's probably not going to be fully locked in, ready to go, bang. You know, he's going to be in and out of the innings like that.

So I think Ranger obviously coming back is going to be a major, major lift for this team. And a big question then becomes what do you do with Matt Strom, who has been great so far, but they signed him to be a reliever. And you look at the bullpen right now, who do you trust down there? Obviously, you trust Jose Alvarado. I would love to trust Bellotti. I would love to trust Soto.

I would love to trust Kimbrell. I don't think I'm ever going to trust Kimbrell, but he's an active leader in saves. Sir Anthony I would love to trust, but he's been up and down this year. Like, it's really just Alvarado, and then you kind of don't know what you're getting on a night-in, night-out basis from the rest of the relievers. You add Matt Straum to the mix, he can go multi-innings, he can go one inning. So, I just think his stuff translates better to the bullpen rather than like a Bailey Falter.

I don't think, like Bailey Falter's not going to the bullpen and 90 is going to be 95 all of a sudden. You know, Bailey Falter's kind of just a starter. So I know Matt Strom is a darling of the fan base right now, and I'm with you. I love Matt Strom. But I think he's going to go back to the bullpen, help that kind of unit out, hopefully settle everyone down

and Ranger getting back and going Wheeler, Nola, Walker slash Ranger and then Bailey Falk here's your five, everything starts to make sense here and we'll see what happens with Andrew Painter, he picked up a baseball the other day which is obviously a very, very good

sign and the other big piece of injury news today that is just massive is Bryce Harper hit on the field again today. And Rob Thompson said before the game that if there was a minor league game, he felt like he could hit in it today, which is just absurd. And now he needs to be cleared for sliding, although apparently Tucker Bagley before the game, what was the term that Rob Thompson used there?

The modified sliding? Yeah, the modified sliding. I guess it's sliding practice. It sounded like yoga. He made it sound like he was just in the outfield, like stretching on his knees. Yeah, I'm pretty sure he knows how to slide. I mean, he's been a baseball player for a long time.

I mean, Tucker does it before every producing shift. So, I mean, it was just another day for Tucker. He knew exactly what modified sliding is. But that's the next big hurdle. I know people are like, well, tell him not to slide. It's not how it works. Like, first off, it's definitely not in Bryce Harper's DNA to not be aggressive in going from first to second.

Do you think he misses not being able to run over the catcher? Oh, for sure. Like, he kind of missed that whole part of his career. You know what's so funny, too, Tucker? About, like, you know, people are freaking out about the base running thing. I mean, Bryce isn't going to help there. I mean, Bryce has been a terrible... For as great as Bryce is, as amazing as Bryce is,

just atrocious on the base path. If you had told me they had eight base running mistakes this early in the season, I would have thought, wow, Harper came back early. Yeah, he's back. He's back. So the aggressive nature has definitely bit Bryce Harper in the season, I would have thought, wow, Harper came back early. Yeah, he's back. He's back. So the aggressive nature has definitely bit Bryce Harper in the past. But it's not even just sliding into second base or sliding into third. The big one for me is actually sliding back into first base on any pickoff attempts.

So I know there's probably people out there that are like, well, just don't slide. Well, that's not possible. So this is baseball. So that's not possible. So this is baseball, you know? Um, so that's big. And just in looking how it seems like the lineup is starting to shake out here. When Bryce comes back, this is what I would roll out there. Uh, most nights. And I know they're all worried about the, uh, the lefty starter or whatever. I'm not. But I would roll out a lineup of this. Stott, Turner, Harper,

Boehm, Schwarber, Castellanos, JT, Marsh, Sosa. It lengthens it all out. I know it's shocking to see JT hitting that low, but finally we're starting to get closer to where we were before the Reese

injury, where it was going to be Boehm hitting seven, or one of these guys hitting seven. Like, someone has to hit there. Like, I'm sorry. And JT, very good player. He could bat five one day. He could bat six one day. He could bat four one day, whatever.

Like, they're all interchangeable. But I just think that the way things are kind of trending here, I think Boehm is just going to continue to be a force and be towards the top of the lineup. Schwarber is someone you got to have in run producing situations. I continue to buy into Castellanos, so I need him up there. And JT will get hot, so who knows? But the first three of Stott, Turner, Harper is something that I think would pay dividends for this team. And just in watching Trey Turner through two weeks, I know we assigned him to be the leadoff hitter because he's fast,

but I just think that he's got it. Tonight was a perfect example of the Trey Turner leadoff thing being a bit of an issue because you have Jesus Lazard on the mound and he swings first pitch, one out. And then Schwarber strikes it on three pitches and he swings first pitch one out and then uh Schwarber strikes it on three pitches and you're you're four pitches into the game and your three hitters already up and and Jesus Lizardo hasn't even uh broken a sweat yet so uh I would like to see a little bit more uh you know discipline from from Dre Turner and you know I understand being aggressive when

I jump on pitchers but has to be to be a good, solid mix there. John is in Hazleton. What's happening, John? What's going on, buddy? I got three things real quick. First of all, you're 100% accurate with Noah. He's a good pitcher. He's no ace.

I'm sick of these delusional Phillies fans who argue he's an ace. He's not an ace. The snowball inning, as you said, is why he's not an ace, in my opinion. He's a very good two low end one. And that's fine. That's fine. But he wants ace money. I won't be mad if he's going with the under

there. That's just me. But let me get to my two other points. Second, Philly Robb has to go in there and get on them about the dumb base running mistakes. That has to stop. That has to stop. And the third thing is, for a team with World Series and aspirations, the slop is coming

out of that bullpen right now. Other than Alvarado, everybody else is suspect. Kimbrell makes me nervous every time. Soto has been up and down. Belotti was good until tonight. I think this is the first run he gave up all year.

Brogdon, you never know what you're going to get. If they're going to really go where we want them to go, I think they're going to need at least two more arms in that bullpen. Well, the thing for me, John, and I appreciate the call, is on one hand

I agree with you. On one hand, they have a lot of high wire acts back there where it's like soto is a perfect example where it's like he can go one two three and strike on the side and think wow that's awesome or it could kind of blow up in his face a little bit the thing is is that yeah they can go out and and and make some you know some bullpen acquisition here or there. But there is enough talent there where they should be able to right the ship

here. When Matt Strom gets back out there, it gives them another weapon. I still believe in the upside of this bullpen. They just got to get on a bit of a roll here. I think this bullpen is more talented than last year's bullpen. I thought last year's bullpen, for the most part, was pretty good. Unfortunately, bullpens are just volatile.

They're up and down. So it's been frustrating. They're walking more guys. It feels like it's been a lot of two strike, you know, taking advantage of pitchers or taking advantage of hitters, you know, and it hasn't been totally locked down. But there's some good pitchers out there that I think that will get in a role here and should do more good than bad. 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94. Rolling into the final segment before handing things off to Jody Mack. We will look ahead to tomorrow. A big game, obviously.

You want to win this series. We'll preview that before handing things off to Jody Mack here on the final out on Sports Radio 94 WIP. Welcome back. It's the final out here on Sports Radio 94 WIP. 215-592-9494. Say you get in. Jack Fredditt's hanging out with you, reacting to a tough Phil's loss

down at Citizens Bank Park tonight. Let's get to the player of the game brought to you by South Jersey Gas, committed to providing safe, reliable, affordable natural gas. Make the switch at southjerseygas.com slash lovemyhome. And there's no one else to go with here than Luis Sarris. I mean, hits for the cycle, and I'm one of those people. If you know me, you know how passionate I am about seeing a Philly hit for the cycle so it can officially erase David Bell from the Phillies record book.

But I have to sit here yet again and watch someone else hit for the cycle and ruin my night. And I tell you what, that kid, I don't even know, I feel like, am I allowed to use the term kid when talking about another 20-something-year-old? I'm pretty sure. I think if you're a dad, you do it that's true tucker um and i do exude just so many dad vibes right now um but man that dude can hit and listen you want to talk about a big take he's gonna hit

400 i'm just telling you right now he's gonna hit for a 400 uh for the first time since ted williams if he plays the Phillies, he might hit 500. But, man, what a player. I don't know you could get him out. Anytime you fool him, he just spits on it. If you try to bust him in, he bangs it down the right field line. I mean, the guy is just a – it's obviously soul-crushing to see him do it to your team but if he wasn't playing the phillies like it is nice to see a a throwback like high average you know can pop a

home run out every once in a while but for the most part it's just like taking what the pitch is giving you giving to you getting on base hitting the baseball hitting it hard like it just he's a treat. He's going to hurt the Phillies for a long time, as will Jesus Lozardo, who was very good tonight. He ran into trouble in that inning when the Phillies kind of bailed him out, but he was dominant before that.

As someone that has him plus $10,000 for Cy Young, it was a good start to the game with the three runs kind of putting a damper on it. Tomorrow, though, the Phillies face another hard thrower in Edward Cabrera. Now, he is not as polished as Lizardo and Alcantara are. And the thing about him is that stuff really good, stuff pops but six and

seven walks each in his first two starts he's not going nine innings by the way he's not going super deep in the game so the Phils will have to be patient tomorrow just work them, he'll probably give you a couple and then take advantage of his mistakes

so Edward Cabrera very very good, but a bit all over the place. And then Zach Wheeler on the mound for the Phillies. And, you know, I don't want to raise red flags about Zach Wheeler, but I definitely do – like my antenna is up about the velocity. Last two starts seems like fourth, fifth inning, Velo goes down to about 94, 95. The Zach Wheeler that we saw in the World Series, the Zach Wheeler that we saw through a lot of last year,

97, 98 carries it through the sixth, seventh inning and getting you through starts rather than two starts. So, you know, that's something to monitor here. Now, hopefully it's just early season ramping back up, and in a month from now, this won't be a concern. But, you know, it's something to watch tomorrow. When he gets into the fifth inning, does that velo start to dip a little bit? If it does, more cause for concern.

If it doesn't, hopefully that means that he is ramping back up to getting back to Zach Wheeler that we've seen for so long here. Let's go to Kashmir, our guy in Potsdam. How's it going, buddy? What's going on, Jack? Obviously, I'm a little upset after this game. I'm not going to lie. I'm not going to lie.

But I got to say, I mean, I'm starting to get really worried about this game. I'm not going to lie. I got to say, I mean, I'm starting to get really worried about this baseball team, man. I really am. I'm getting worried. It's the base running mistakes. The bullpen isn't nearly as good as I thought they were going to be. I get it's early in the season.

I get that. However, you know what they always say. You can't win. You can't win a pennant in April. However, you can damn sure lose it. And, I mean, right now, 4-8, when the teams you played, you know, the Reds and the Texas Rangers and the Miami Marlins, not exactly baseball's cream of the crop. Well, no.

But I think the Rangers have more talent than a lot of people give them credit for. The Marlins, I know they're 29th in scoring or 29th in offense heading into tonight, but, you know, Jesus Lizardo, also, you've got to say, was pretty good tonight. Obviously, you want Noel to match him. But I understand.

Tomorrow is obviously one of those games where if you keep taking two or three, you can't totally crush them. Like, they should have swept the Reds. Blowing that game on Sunday was frustrating. They took two or three. And hopefully they can do the same tomorrow. But, yeah, you know, they are kind of right in the ship here. And I talked about it a lot last week.

The next five series are going to be massive. They have Reds, Marlins, Reds, White Sox, Rockies. You know, you've got to take advantage of those teams. Yeah, and the only thing is, I mean, the White Sox, they're not nearly as bad. I mean, especially if we have to face Dylan See, who is another top right-hander. And we always have problems out in Colorado.

We just always have problems out in Colorado. We can never win in Colorado, ever. Never happens. It is funny, but I agree with you. It's been one of those houses of horrors for them. I'm just worried that having these early games, that we're having these early games, and if it takes us, like, what?

If it takes us a month or two to kind of get on our footing like it did last year, like we didn't start playing real baseball until June. And let's be honest, you know, it was like, you know, we fired Girardi and I get that. But like you said, we're not going to be firing Rob Thompson May 31st. It's not going to happen. We're not firing him right after Memorial Day, Jack. We're going to keep him the entire year.

And so what's going to be that move that kind of kicks this team back into gear and says, oh, my God, oh, crap, we've got to get going here. We've got to start playing. And guess what? You know what you have in May and June? You have the Mets. You have the Astros. You have the Blue Jays.

Yeah. The schedule's a hell of a lot tougher this year. So, I mean, it's not like they're going to have these get right games in June where they can win off nine, 10 straight. It's not going to happen. I just, I don't want to get down to this. I don't want to get down to this. We're going to be 22 and 29 again.

And then we're going to be like, Oh no, what do we do? I mean, it's just, I can't, I'm sorry. I'm worried. I'm panicking about the baseball team. You know what? I'm panicking. I mean, it's just I can't. I'm sorry. I'm panicking about this baseball team. You know what? I'm panicking. I really am. They're not that bad, Cash.

I appreciate the call. We don't need to slam the panic button because they lost the game. They probably should have won tonight. You know, like, all right. They've had a tough start to the season. I understand that. The Mets are 6-6. The Pirates are 7-4.

The Cubs are 6-4. The Diamondbacks are 7-4. Like, you know, there's some things early. The Dodgers are 6-5. The Padres are 7-5. Like, you know, water is going to find its level. And, you know and I don't think we need to do the sky is falling thing

early in the season. I understand. Tonight was frustrating. I get that. The bullpen, I think, is causing some concern for people. I just continue to believe that there are good pitchers down there that will eventually right the ship. I need Wheeler and Nola to start giving

them more length. Tywin Walker has to get back to being Tyler Walker a little bit. And Ranger and Harper coming back is just going to do wonders for this team. And especially Harper, when you add him back to an offense that has as many hits as they have had so far this year, I just think it's only going to get better from there, especially with the leaps you've seen from Marsh, Stott, and Alec Baum.

You add Bryce Harper into the rest of that lineup, and bang, this thing kind of turns into a really, really deep and good lineup. That's going to do it for me tonight. Jody Mack has got you next here on Sports Radio 94 WIP. Marks and Reese tomorrow will lead you into

Philly's Marlins. You know, take two or three. We don't have to say big game must win. Can't lose, but continue to pile up series wins at this point of the season. And I will have you for the final out tomorrow night. Tucker Bagley produced the program here tonight and Jody Max got you next here on sports radio,

94 WIP.