High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Final Out: Phillies Drop Series Opener To Braves

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Jack Fritz reacts to the Phillies' disappointing loss to the Braves on Tuesday night. 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

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Sponsored by Regency Furniture. Affordable never looks so good Jack Fritz hanging out with you here on this Tuesday night reacting to What feels like a May Tuesday night You know, maybe an April, May Kind of loss for the Phillies tonight And frankly, in my opinion

It was an avoidable loss 2-1-5, 5-9-2 94-94 is how you get in Leaving the ballpark. It was another great crowd. They said 37,000. It looked more packed than that, but I guess the upper bowl wasn't totally all

filled in. But regardless, a game in which I felt like they easily could have come out on top of and something that, for me, was a huge missed opportunity, felt like early season fills, and one that you will kind of look back and say they gave that one away.

2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94. It's the final out, Jack Fritz reacting to the fills losing 4-2 to the Braves tonight. And there's three things I want to get into tonight that immediately jump out to me off of that loss. Number one is that the offense early is not going to be talked enough about being one of the reasons why they lost that game tonight. I know that people pay attention to the decisions and at bats and things that happen in the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th because those are winning times. But you can lose ballgames early.

And especially when you're playing a team like the Braves who just seem to execute at an extremely high level, seem to always get back-breaking hits against you, have weapons coming out of the bullpen, have Spencer Strider on the mound, you've got to do the little things right if you're going to come out on top and you're going to win that game. And it felt like early, they just weren't locked in.

They weren't doing the necessary things. Felt like a little bit of lights bright in a big moment where they're like, all right, we're back, we're go time. And they came out and they let a golden opportunity early slip away. First and second in the first inning, didn't get that done. Bottom third, Marsh leads off the inning with a double. Schwarber gets him over. Runner on third base, less than two outs.

Got to get that run in. They don't. Bottom four, runners on first and second, no outs. Bang, double play. All of a sudden, momentum stopped. That is three times in the first four innings that they had multiple runners on base that they weren't able to break through and get it done. Now, Castellanos did give them a lead in the next inning, which is fine.

They went up 1-0. I get it. But they had Spencer Strider, a guy who had a 5.5 ERA, I think, in his last six, seven starts. Has not been the same kind of guy recently. They had him on the ropes. But when you don't capitalize, that's how he goes out and racks up 9Ks. And that's how he ends up being our player of the game, which is brought to you by South Jersey Gas.

Committed to providing safe, reliable, affordable natural gas. Make the switch at southjerseygas.com slash lovemyhome. Spencer Strider, he was great tonight, but I felt like the Phillies let him off the hook. I don't think he gets into that rhythm if the Phillies don't capitalize early, and that's usually what you have to do against great pitchers. And I don't really care, frankly,

what Spencer Strider's ERA is this year. He's a great pitcher. We know he's a great pitcher. He's an ace. And the old saying is, you better get to aces early. And the Phillies didn't do that. So the first thing that stuck out was that a lot of missed opportunities early that ended up costing them late against a great team. My second big takeaway, and a bit of wind is taken out of my sails here for Rob Thompson because of what he said post-game, but I'm not letting him completely off the hook. There was three things that really stuck out to me from Rob Thompson, and frankly, reasons why you can blame this loss on him. The first thing, and I know it's a minor thing, but frankly, I don't really care. Having three lefties at the bottom of a lineup is just stupid.

Like, going Clemens, Marsh, Schwarber, you don't have to do that. Like, you don't have to have three lefties at the bottom of the lineup. It allows for a situation like what happened in the bottom of the seventh where they can just bring in a lefty, and since you don't want to burn your bench guys there early because you want to save maybe Clemens for the ninth and Marsh for the ninth, and you're not going to take out Schwab, but regardless, you can't burn those guys there because you may want them in the ninth. It sets up a situation where all Snicker has to do is bring in a lefty and A.J. Minter

and good morning, good afternoon, good night. That's unnecessary from Rob Thompson. The Jeff Hoffman decision. Postgame, Rob Thompson said that Junior Marte, Matt Strom, and Jose Averado were down tonight. So really, the only two back-end options that you can trust on most nights that were available were Gregory Soto and Craig Kimbrell. With, obviously, Sir Anthony being hurt,

that's not a great spot to be in. So if I'm to believe that, which I do, what bothers me there is that if you know that's the situation, it's a 1-1 game, Rangers pitching really, really well, let him go. He's at 99 pitches. He's facing the bottom of the lineup, which gives you a better chance to win

that game. Ranger at 100 pitches and facing the bottom of the lineup or Jeff Hoffman in any kind of semi-high leverage situation. Jeff Hoffman's been pretty good. He's been a decent little find for this team, but I'm trusting my studs there, and I think that was a mistake by Rob Thompson.

Jose Averado, it's fine fine he's coming back from an injury I get wanting to manage his workload Matt Strom they need to manage his workload I have no problem with that like he has already exceeded the amount of innings he's pitched the last two seasons in freaking June so like I get that the Junior Marte thing who that's one that I can't really live with. He pitched three times last week. Once was last Monday. He pitched 13 pitches on Saturday and had a 1-2-3-9th on Sunday

with a day off yesterday. Junior Marte, I feel like, has become trustworthy out of nowhere in a way. He easily could have come into that game. Maybe it's a different story. But regardless, if I was ranking the options there, I'm going Ranger in that spot, trusting my guy, knowing that I have a limited bullpen, and saying, hey, we've got to push you tonight.

And if he goes out there and he gives it up, at least I'm going down with one of my studs. And then finally, same inning, pitching to Ronald Acuna with the base open, he had runners on second and third, one out. Just let him walk him. It sets up bases loaded. It sets up a forced play to all

bases. It's one out. You need a double play. It's the best chance to limit damage that inning. Who would you rather face? Ronald Acuna, who's probably the best player in the NL this year, or Ozzie Albies, who still could be a Phillies killer, but just play the percentages and give yourself a chance

to have a forced play at any single base and set up a double play. So that's three mistakes for me. Three mistakes by Rob Thompson. And the final thing that stuck out to me, and again, 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94 if you want to get in and react to a tough loss to the Braves tonight. The third thing that bothered me and why I think a lot of this game felt like May, which obviously bad managerial decisions, offense early,

bad runners in scoring position. They had like 11 hits again but were one for nine, I think, with runners in scoring position. But the final thing, just dumb baseball. Dumb baseball. And I hate it. I hate dumb baseball baseball more than because it's avoidable it's all avoidable schwarber bunting for no reason i mean it was the world series i mean like i think he has one less home run against lefties this year than righties like he's been fine against them it's just like you didn't have to buy in that

situation just just try to hit the ball out of the ballpark it's the one time where i don't want you to try to be like a little small ball hitter at some point um so that was dumb uh the price at bat in the bottom of the eighth was maybe the one of the most giveaway at bats i think i've seen like nick anderson's like all right i'll keep throwing the slider until you don't swing at it and he this last swing was like a 58 footer so keep throwing the slider until you don't swing at it. And his last swing was a 58-footer. So, that was annoying. And then obviously the big one, JT Rolimito getting thrown out at second base.

You're down three runs at that point. Getting to second does virtually nothing. You have to be smarter in that situation and realize we need base runners right now. We can't give away outs on the base pass. What makes matters worse is that Bryson Stott leads off the next inning with a double off of Eddie Rosario's glove.

Obviously, just a different pitcher. I get that. But still, give your guy a shot. Absolutely no need to try to take second base there. It was a frustrating night, and it felt like a big old missed opportunity. Linda is in New York. What's happening, Linda? Hi, dear.

How are you? And I agree with you, dear. But you know, we know the track record of the Phillies, right? You know what? But tremendously successful year they had last year. So we all are scratching our heads. It doesn't affect us too much that we're not going to give up hope. We know what we're doing, right?

And, you know, there were some times when they used to execute when they was in school or position. And I was like, when I heard about it, I said, wow, they're home. Because, you know, when they're home, they really do exceedingly well. So, you know, and I love those guys. And you were right. And thank you for having this opportunity for people like us. We love the families that are beyond yardage here and the fans who want to

come in and share their disappointment. But we know this is not the end of it. Well, not at all. I mean, they've been playing good baseball, and that's what makes it. Watch them bounce back, okay? They're going to do it. I mean, they've been playing good baseball, and that's what makes it. Watch them bounce back, okay? I believe they will. And I love the positivity to lead us off tonight, and I appreciate the call. And, yeah, like, I'm not – no one's proclaiming the season over.

Tonight was just annoying from the standpoint of, like, that's a game that they could have won. Like, it felt like an avoidable loss. And there was, like, little things that we just haven't seen them really do the last two weeks that started to creep back in. And it's frustrating when you see that stuff start to happen again for really no reason. Like that's just a lot of bad baseball,

bad decisions and poor execution on offense. You know, and that's more my frustration tonight. Not season's not over. You know, I feel like for a majority of that game, I felt like they looked like they were on the same playing field as the Braves, which is a good sign. But that's what makes it stink when they end up giving away a game late. 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94 on the other side.

What's your reaction? But also some positives I took from the night and more on one of the things that Rob Thompson said postgame that's going to be an issue until they fix it. What is it? We'll get to that and more of your phone calls coming up next here on the Final Out. Hey, fantasy football owners.

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We pitched to Ronald Acuna, and he made the Phillies pay. Instead of, you know, just putting on first base, creating a forced play at all bases, setting up a double play, letting that back in order, we're going to pitch to Ronald Acuna. What do you think happened? He blew the game open, 3-1, and they brought in Andrew Vasquez to face Matt Olsen and became a 4-1 game, and then whatever. We know the rest.

I thought that was a mistake by Rob Thompson in a game in which I thought he made a couple of them. And, you know, the offense, I think, cost him early. Rob Thompson cost him late. And dumb baseball felt like it was, you know, going all throughout the game. Either way, the Ron Acuna single up the middle is our Mike's Amazing play of the game. Presented by Mike's Amazing, the official mayo, mustard, and vegetable oil of the Phillies. Welcome on back. It is the final out.

Sponsored by Regency Furniture. Affordable. Never look so good. We got Padres versus the Giants tonight. Could really use the Giants to slow down here. The part that stinks about what, you know, they had eight and two in the last ten. They had won 13 of their last 15.

They got hot. But everyone else got hot around them, and that's increasingly frustrating. It's like, you know, they didn't even make up any ground because the Braves had like the same record during that time. So, you know, again, that's what makes tonight's loss. It stinks. It's June. There's a lot of games left, but that's a missed opportunity. We'll get to some positives here in a second and harp on one thing that Rob Thompson said. But first, let's go back to the phones and talk to Matt in Medford. What's happening, Matt?

Hey, Jack. I just want to say, first of all, I love the final out. I love High Hope so, so much. Thank you, brother. Yeah, I love them both. And you know, the bottom line, you made this point already, but this is a game we could have easily won. The Braves are a great team. We should have won this game. The Schwarzer font and the mistakes in the base path like JT,

it's just hard to lose that one when we could have won it. Well, it felt like the early season, and this is what got them to being six games under.500. Totally. What's annoying is that they hadn't been doing that. And yes, of course, you know they're playing against lesser competition on some of those games, but the Dodgers series they played pretty well.

The Dimeback series, I thought that was almost flawless. Had Cody Clemens hit a ball two feet to the left, we're talking about sweeping the Dimebacks in Arizona, which seems like an impossible task. That's what makes tonight a disappointment.

The season's not over. We get that. But that's one they could have had. And I'm worried about the anemic offense. I mean, I feel like all these past games we've won, it's only been about a run or two. And tonight we couldn't get it going, and I'm just worried about the offense kind of stalling.

It just hasn't been happening. So hopefully they can turn it around. I mean, there's two more games. So we'll see. Yeah. And I appreciate the call, Matt, and the kind words. Yeah. I mean, Saturday against Oakland was definitely disheartening.

Now, you didn't have Castellanos for both of those games because he's dealing with the runs. And I guess all he ate the last couple of days was bread. And he was able to go out there. He still got it. Listen, he just continued going on and had a good RBI and whatever. So we take that from Nick Castellanos. You know, it looked okay after having a couple days off, like three days off.

So he was actually one of my positives from tonight is that I thought he looked good. You know, had some opportunities early, didn't come through, He was actually one of my positives from tonight is that I thought he looked good. You know, had some opportunities early, didn't come through, but whatever. Like, still got the RBI late and didn't look completely lost. Like, sometimes I see with guys taking a couple days off. A couple other positives that I had from tonight is that obviously Ranger was great. Like, I thought Ranger was mostly better than Spencer Strider tonight.

Like, again, early in the game, the Phillies had Spencer Strider on the ropes. They weren't able to break through, and that was frustrating. But at the same time, like, the fact that I felt like I watched that game tonight and it sort of validated how we felt about Ranger for the last four or five starts, I think is a really positive thing. And it's just, you know, it's so hard not to trust Ranger with pretty much everything he got right now. He is efficient. He is around the strike zone.

He is still starting to strike out more batters. I think the pitch clock is working in his favor because he already works really quick. And he just looks totally poised, totally in control. And it's like almost not talked in. I think we love ranger suarez but it's almost not talked about enough that this guy's developing into a legit legit two for this team and while nola struggles they need him to step up um and he just continues to do it and he's just i can't say enough positive things about him and And that's why, you know, Rob Thompson over the weekend,

I thought it was an important moment on Friday night when he let Tywon Walker finish out that eighth inning. Sure, you're playing the A's, and it's a 4-1 game, and you'll take your chances on Tywon Walker working his way through that. But I felt like it was a big trust moment. And especially after his last start, he got pulled after five innings, and he wasn't happy about it. Rob Thompson said, okay,

well, I'm going to give you this opportunity. Go earn it. And he did. And I would have liked to see him, especially down three bullpen pitchers, give Ranger the opportunity to pitch that seventh inning. Let him go see what he can do against the bottom of the

lineup. I can guarantee you it's a better option than Jeff Hoffman. So either way, Ranger was great. And the other thing that I thought was important is that Marsh had three hits, and finally was hitting the ball hard again, and that looked closer to early season Marsh. He talked the other day about how he's kind of been in between pitches, he's been mad and he's been making adjustments and whatnot. So it looks like the adjustments are slowly starting to pay off. I don't think it's a coincidence that he's starting to play better as soon as Christian Pache comes back and is starting to make some headway. And there's been talk of maybe a full-on platoon in center field. Regardless, getting Brandon Marsh back closer to the player that we saw in

april may would be a a big thing uh and then one more thing we'll get to after we talk to dave in maryland what's happening dave jack tough one tonight just yeah just a lot of it was just confusing to watch at that point jt's base running error the bullpen decisions obviously you heard more about that after the game but like when you have situations like that and you knew coming into today that you had you were three guys down doesn't it make sense to send down covey and bring up a guy like baladi that you've trusted in the past like i i'm not mad at jeff offman he just he wasn't ready for that situation and he's been he's been fine it just yeah he wasn't ready for that you know a guy i'm not saying andrew

bilotti gets out of it but like you i just you play your best players and i think we talk about that with stott with left hand going against left-handed pitching and you know like you said ranger at 100 pitches you know he's giving up one run on one bad pitch the whole night and it will you know you just go with your best i think tomorrow they bounce back uh and you can put some money on bryce harper home run tomorrow yeah it feels like that dave and i appreciate the call um yeah it's like, you know, I thought Ranger's good. Give him the opportunity. The freaking, like, I guess Dylan Covey's here, and this is the only thing that makes sense in my head,

and I guess, like, logically it makes sense. But, like, I guess he's here for mop-up duty. Like, that's his role is like, hey, if we're down by a ton, guess what's here for mop-up duty. Like, that's his role is like, hey, if we're down by a ton, guess what? Your time to shine, buddy. Which is valuable in a sense. But it's basically human batting practice. And I understand that Nick Nelson is probably going to take that role and whatever.

But, like, Andrew Bilotti is a guy that was pitching in playoff games last year. And to completely just lose faith in that, like, Jeff Hoffman has been a nice find for them this year. But still, we're talking about a reclamation project coming into a 1-1 game in the seventh against the Braves. That's not a scenario that should happen. Now, my theory here, and it was a lot like what happened down in Washington, their final loss before they got hot, was when he brought in Connor Brogdon into a tie game after they just battled back from being down 7-0. He brought him into a tie game, or no, it was 6-0, 6-1, whatever. 7-1. They battled back. They made it 7-7. And he brought in Connor Brogdon.

And my theory was he brought him in because he had just gotten him warm in the inning before. And he didn't want to have him get hot and then just have to sit down. So, if he's already hot, just bring him into the game. Which is fine, I guess, but you're playing the freaking Braves, man. It's not the 80s. This isn't a game where you're totally going to bank on these guys coming back against whoever's in the opposing team's bullpen.

The Braves are good. The Braves are the best team in the National League this year. They're 21 games over.500 right now. Their run differential is over 100. I don't care if he just warmed up and you're worried about him starting and then going in. Just sit him down

and put Ranger in the game. Now, the one thing that when Rob Thompson's talking post-game about these guys that aren't available because they're monitoring workloads, that's the big issue with the bullpen game. Sure, right in front of your eyes is not the most pretty sight in the world when you have to go through a bullpen game,

but really it's the effect that it takes on the rest of the week and how that all plays out. I mean, this is all the guys they had to use on Saturday just to win a 3-2 game against the A's. And I know it wasn't extra innings, but Chris Sanchez, Matt Strom, Junior Marte, Gregory Soto, Jose Averado, Craig Kimbrell, Andrew Vasquez, Jeff Hoffman. Like, it's a ton of pitchers.

And when you're in a bullpen game where you're only expecting four innings from a starter at the most, like, that's going to come back and kill you. And it makes you have to sit out three of your top-ish guys in a division game against a team that you're trying to chase down for the division and other teams that you're trying to chase down for a wildcard spot. That's the problem with bullpen games. Sure, it stinks to have to sit there and watch them, but

it also stinks that it takes some guys out when your starter can only give you four innings. That's the problem with bullpen games. Either way, frustrating night all around. 2-1-5, 5-9-2, 94-94 on the other side. We will look ahead to tomorrow. We'll run through all your

phone calls before handing things off to Jody Mack. Dan Wilson, is Jody coming up next? Jody Mack coming up next. We'll get to him after the final segment here of the Final Out on Sports Radio 94 WIP. Welcome on back. It is the Final Out, sponsored by Regency Furniture Affordable. Never, ever looked so good. Jack Fritz, hanging out with you, reacting to a missed opportunity by the Phillies tonight.

And again, I mentioned this earlier, but I felt like a majority of the game, first six innings, I felt like the Phillies mostly outplayed the Braves. I felt like there was missed opportunities. I thought they would come back to bite them. But Ranger was great. They were getting close to hitting Spencer Strider. And then what separates great teams from good teams, I think the Phillies are a good team. There's no doubt about it. And for a month and a half stretch in October, November last year, they were a great team. But what consistently separates good from great is doing the little things,

playing smart baseball, and capitalizing on mistakes. And what the Braves, I feel like, consistently beat the Phillies at is the little things. When a runner's on second base, one out, if you're not doing damage on baseball, you're pulling it to the right side, you're getting them over to third, if you're not doing damage on a baseball, you're pulling it to the right side, you're getting them over to third, and you're finding a way to get them in.

You're not bunting. You're not bunting in the seventh inning with two outs for no freaking reason. What, do you think you're going to beat that out? Like you're going to surprise everyone? You're not getting thrown out at second base when you're already down three runs and you need base runners with Bryson Stock coming up on deck. It's just your manager is

pitching around their best hitter, letting him go to first base to set up a double play and set up a force to every bag. That's what's just, that's what has been so frustrating for the last couple years between the Braves and the Phillies. And yes, the postseason was great. It was awesome. Wouldn't trade it for the world. But what has separated, I believe, the Phillies and the Braves the last couple years,

it's not really been talent on the field. I think the Phillies and the Braves are very similar talent-wise. Now, the Braves are much better at getting guys to their farm system, bringing them up, having them be majorly ready. The Phillies buy their talent, mostly. But what separates them is the little things. And when people talk to me about how important analytics are, and I'm very pro-analytics,

but when it comes to winning baseball and it comes to winning more than just regular season baseball games, which I believe teams like the Yankees try to do is like, well, home runs are going to lead to regular season wins. Okay. Well, what happens in the postseason? Why do you come up short every single postseason? You can't do the little things. And what the Braves, I feel like have done better than any other team in baseball the last couple of years is they always seem to do the little things. And what the Braves, I feel like, have done better than any other team in baseball the last couple years is they always seem to do the little things right. I guarantee you

if in the first four innings they had runners on first and second in the first, they had a double and a runner on third with less than one out in the third, and in the bottom of the fourth they had runners on first and second, no outs, and the ground's a double play. I guarantee you

if the Braves are in those situations, they come out with more than one run that didn't happen until the fifth inning. And that's the frustrating part about tonight. Joe is in Churchville. What's happening, Joe? First off, I just wanted to say that

I'm agreed with you about your Ranger points. I think the Phillies have a really fast trigger on their starter sometimes, especially with Ranger, and knowing that it's going into a bullpen game, it bothers me that there doesn't

seem to be more trust in Ranger. So I'm going to conclude that point there. Yeah, and it's interesting because two thoughts on that. One, if they're still worried about injury and workload, I get it from that standpoint, but it's been five or six starts right now. I mean, like, he should be capable of pitching more than 100 pitches if you have to push a guy, especially if you're down guys in the bullpen.

So that frustrates me. And what does frustrate me is that I think he has been trusting his starters more. Like Tywon Walker went eight innings the other night. There's a couple instances the last couple weeks where I felt like he's left a starter in an inning before he usually would. And tonight it felt like a moment where, hey, man, that's the bottom of the lineup. Let Ranger go kind of navigate them and see what he's got. It's certainly going to be a better option than Jeff Hoffman.

Absolutely. That was definitely a frustration point tonight, Joe. I think your point on fundamentals, one thing that also strikes me, maybe it's the way that I'm watching it, not 100% sure, but

the sense that I get as I watch these players go up the bat, they always seem to be wanting to play hero ball, and they always seem to be wanting to be the one that's going to drive in a home run or drive in the two, three-run homer, whereas all they really need to do is just get on base, and getting on base will prevent some of the situations where you leave two runners hanging at the end of the inning.

The first half of the game, they seemed to be playing for that hero ball when they didn't need to. Right, and I appreciate the call, Joe. And I think tonight, that's definitely a fair thing to say.

But part of what makes tonight frustrating is that I felt like for the last two weeks, they haven't really been doing that. First two months of the year, April, May, yeah, a lot of hero ball, a lot of trying to do too much, a lot of we were in the World Series last year, let's go have that kind of fun again. And then that turned, I believe, into panic of like,

oh bleep, we're under 500. We're kind of struggling here again. Tonight felt more reverting back to that than what we've seen the last couple of weeks that have gotten them back to being four games over 500. So I'm not going to give up on that. I think maybe it was just

a big night. They wanted to go out and prove to the baseball world that they are back. They got a little over-ancy. It happens. I'm not writing an obituary on the season. It was just a frustrating thing to experience. Kevin is in Newtown

Square. What's happening, Kev? Hi, Jack. I'm on 95. Haven't moved in 30 minutes. I'm sorry. You're going north,. Listen, I'm on 95, haven't moved in 30 minutes. Oh, my gosh, man. I'm sorry. You going north, I guess? I'm going south, I think.

So, you know, I don't understand why we're bringing Jeff Hoffman in in that situation. I mean, we have a bullpen, you know, one day's rest. I'm taking anyone over Jeff Hoffman, honestly. whereas I'm taking anyone over Jeff Hoffman, honestly. Yeah, well, and Thompson talks postgame, and he said that Alvarado, Strom, and Marte weren't available. But my point of contention with that is, first off, Marte should have been fine. That's ridiculous.

My point of contention is just leave Ranger out there. It's the bottom of the lineup. Ranger's only at 99 pitches. I watched Paul Skeens on LSU throw 120 pitches the other night. He's a college kid. I think Ranger could go out and navigate the bottom of the Braves order, and it gives you at least a better chance to win than Jeff Hoffman. My theory is, Kevin, is that he had him warmed up in the bullpen.

He didn't want to start him and sit him down, and then maybe have to warm him up later. So he just said, let's bring him in. That's what he did with Brogdon and Washington. And that's what I think he did tonight. Jack, I got one more point. I think, where's Mick Abel? Where's Griff McGarry? We need something to get excited about. We need one of our prospects

to come up here and throw a couple innings. I mean, if they're in the bullpen, so be it. I want to get excited about something here. We need some hype. All right, Kevin. I appreciate the call. I've been advocating for weeks to bring up Griffin McGarry.

Nick Abel, I'm fine with not bringing up. He's in AA. He's 21. His ERA is over 5. He's exciting. There's some stuff there that you like, but no. Griffin McGarry is a guy that I would bring up. He was not great his last start, but I think his stuff plays.

He's 23. He's had good numbers at AA. The Braves are starting a guy tomorrow in Smith-Shava that they brought him up from AAA, and he's coming up, and he's making a little bit of a difference. I don't know why Griff is not at AAA at least, just to see what you got. He's got some control issues. I totally understand that.

But right now, I'm watching mostly bullpen games at the start of the week. Now, Chris Sanchez was good on Saturday. Maybe he gets on a little bit of a roll here. At least he's not Dylan Covey. I mean, that's our baseline here. At least it's not Dylan Covey. I mean, that's our baseline here. At least he's not Dylan Covey. But the Griff thing, I do want to see them eventually start, you know,

amping up his workload and seeing if he can come up and help this team out because they basically just need to tread water for the next month with the bullpen slash fifth starter spot. And, I mean, they've been hesitant to move up Griff, but we'll see. Either way, I definitely would start to think about that. Tomorrow we got Aaron Nola on the mound versus, again, Smith Schauber. You know, he's only made, I think, three starts. He pitched into the sixth.

His last start against the Rockies allowed three. Not a huge strikeout pitcher. But you know the Braves and their young pitchers. It feels like they all come up and are usually pretty good, He pitched into the six. His last start against the Rockies allowed three. Not a huge strikeout pitcher. But you know the Braves and their young pitchers. It feels like they all come up and are usually pretty good besides like Dylan Dodd. And then Aaron Nola. And the funny part about Nola's struggles is that the last couple years, it's always been Truist Park that has been a house of horrors for Aaron Nola.

He's been good against the Braves at home. I mean, the Braves at Citizens Bank Park, it feels like he's a different pitcher. And the part that stinks about that Diamondback start, and yes, there's parts of it that were absolutely vintage. The Marte home run was vintage. His numbers out of the stretch, batters are hitting 300 off of Aaron Nola out of the stretch.

Meanwhile, his ERA out of the lineup is like 1.9. So like totally different pitcher. But what stinks about that Diamondback start is that I thought he was really good. Like he struck out nine, he was rolling. It was just that one inning, and the one inning was also aided by Kyle Schwarber booting a ball on left, which led to a ground ball

that should have been a double play ball. They couldn't turn two of them, really. And the inning just spiraled out of control, which it feels like a lot of innings have spiraled out of control for Aaron Nola this year. So either way, big start. Tonight was a tough loss. You would like your ace to bounce back tomorrow

and give a solid outing and continue, honestly, this run that the Philly starting staff has been on in June. I think their ERA in June is under two. It's been a really good run for the Philly starting staff. We'd like to see Aaron Nola join the party. Either way, that's going to do it for me. Dan Wilson produced the final out tonight. I will be

back tomorrow for the final out. Also, Markson Reese, we will be leading you into the game, getting you set. Aaron Nola, Smith-Shauver, a big game for the Phils. Aaron Nola on the mound, which I know makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. That's going to do it for me. Thanks for hanging out here on the Final Out. Jody Maxx got you next.

He'll take you through the rest of the night here on WIP.