OverDrive - Hosmer on the Blue Jays and Dodgers' battle, Ohtani's spotlight and Toronto's turnaround search

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Former MLB Infielder and World Series Champion Eric Hosmer joins to discuss the headlines around the Blue Jays and Dodgers in the World Series, the 18-inning defeat for the Blue Jays, Shohei Ohtani's exceptional performance and if he gets walked, Shane Bieber on the mound, the mindset for the Blue Jays and more.

Alpine News Network is here live with one of our superheroes. People sometimes ask, sure, you can consolidate people's debts using telekinesis, but what else can you do? As if changing lives isn't enough. Well, I can also use my power to make it rain hot dogs. It's still not as cool as consolidating debts into one easy payment, though. Own your home, need a loan, Alpine Credits can help. Alpine credits, where homeowners get approved.

Fisraeliscence 12-616. joining us here the Maple Toyota Hotline. Here's World Series champ. Former MLB, there he is, Eric Cosmer. What's up, Eric? How we doing, fellas? I'm not going to lie. I made it to about 13, 14, and I had to punt early. I had to get first in line at the carpool this morning for school.

I couldn't make it 18. I don't blame you. I don't blame you. So when you woke up this morning and you checked your phone, were you surprised, based on what you saw 13, 14 innings, that it's a Freddie Freeman walkoff in the 18th to pull it off for the Dodgers? So I got the situation where my three-year-old, he's sleeping in bed with us now. So I, late night, I got the phone with the headphones, and I'm watching the games there.

And I woke up in the middle of the night, and I see Freddie doing the post-game interview. And I figured it had to have been in 12 to 13. And then when I go back to watch tape this morning, 18 innings. And what a thriller. I mean, just crazy. Teams all postseason long, the ALCS, especially Toronto and Seattle, and now the World Series. These guys are leaving it all out there. And I mean, baseball, it's a great time of year, obviously, because of the postseason,

but baseball is not disappointing one bit. No, it's not. It's not. And, like, I don't know if you're a believer in momentum. I don't know if you're a believer in, you know, the mentality of a team leaving the clubhouse after a loss like that last night. But what do you think the Blue Jays are thinking and feeling as they arrive back at Dodgers Stadium for game four tonight?

Well, the good thing about Toronto, man, from the outside looking in, I mean, they've got their veteran leadership, don't get me wrong, but they seem like a young, energetic group that rallies around stuff like this. I mean, George Springer, it seems like he has that dugout loose and relaxed. He sets a tone at the leadoff spot. So it's a situation where, you know, the 162 game season, you find any little thing to motivate you and get you going. So this is a situation where I think they're going to rely on guys like Springer, even if he's not in the lineup to just motivate the group, get them going before the game, hopefully get out to a good start. and I think the goal for those boys

is just get the series back to Toronto just like last series, last ALCS against Seattle, anything could happen at the Roger Center, so that should be the goal. Eric, what did you think of the Jays deciding to pitch to Otani in the 7th? Man, that's a situation where it's like Sir Anthony Dominguez, I understand that you're as confident in yourself

and in your stuff as you can possibly be 97 and 99. You got natural cut, you got natural sink, three true fastballs above 98 miles an hour. But you have to recognize Shohayotani and just understand he's on another level. You can't be egotistic and try and take on that battle. You have to respect how good he is. And if he's hot, you have to respect him even more. And we've seen his last six, seven at bats at home, he is hot, even his misses before

that. So that was tough, man. That's a tough way to blow the lead, especially that late in the game. is so tiny the greatest player of all time in your opinion yeah there's no question i mean uh you know not only statistically but he has his moments in the postseason i mean i hate to say this tonight but like on this show especially i love you boys but man you just feel like he's on the mount tonight and you almost feel like there's going to be another moment because he's that special of a talent and he never disappoints you know there's always guys that we call the chosen one so

to speak and it's always like the moment just finds them and he always just delivers in that moment he certainly is certainly is the chosen one and he's lived up to every every single expectation he had coming over here yeah that's the incredible thing like and it sucks if you're an angels fan because you're like this could have been us if we just put a team around him right like he's got the clutch gene that's the amazing thing he's doing it in the playoffs the second straight world series everything he's underpaid if we think about it now right I mean he's 700 million dollars and it's like man what a bargain that was huh no kidding yeah they've made all their money back already but eric what do you think he'll be feeling like today 18 in a game now

like he was it five times uh four intentional than one but yes and then the fifth was still like he's still in the game like do you think there'll be any after effect for him pitching today uh you know he's just a freak and it's not happening yeah like i've seen this morning a lot of people have been like, oh, he got on nine times, he ran to bases, but like he stole the one time, you know, he hit the double, maybe the first to third, but like, these guys are world-class athletes, so I don't think that's too taxing on his body. I think he should be, you know, kind of motivated in his own way to go out and get him, you know, at least seven innings, six, seven innings, because I know the Dodgers, you know, they used a lot of guys,

they only went an inning or two innings where like an inning in a third, whatever it was, short appearances. But I think his goal tonight on the pitching style, should be to get them as much length as possible. And, you know, again, both teams used everything they had yesterday, especially Toronto. I think Toronto is going to really count on Bassett tonight coming out, especially for some length. Yeah, well, exactly. And prior to that, it's going to be Shane Bieber. And Bieber, you know, in the previous two rounds had pitched game three.

They flipped him with Scherzer because, you know, he hasn't looked great, two of his three starts. So, you know, let's presume Showe has his A stuff. Like, let's just get to that point. show he's going to give him like six innings tonight and be lights out how much pressure does that put on beaver to try to match it and how much faith do you have in Shane Bieber in doing that tonight yeah that's definitely you know that's a pressure situation and i think that's where it's going to be a piggyback situation to where Bieber goes as long as he can go and then even if someone's got to come up one of those middle relief guys and kind of clean up an

inning and then they're going to go to bass it for as long as they can so i think there's pressure on both guys but just in general man i think you know you're in at dodger stadium the place is rocking now and i think after last night's game they have a lot of momentum so you got to find a way to take back that momentum which you can in seven game series but you know the jays are going to have to really try and get it going early and that's so much harder or easier said than done because of how taxing last night was and those guys you know they're pretty much all banged up at this point well speaking of banged up we saw george springer leave the game is he is he hour to hour is that that is the latest report i don't know what i don't know why

what that is. Hour to hour. They're going to decide every hour. But, Eric, you saw him get hurt. And let's say it's his oblique. Can you swing with that? Like, have you ever had anything like that? No, but I know, like, those are even coming back from those, once you're fully

recovered, guys are hesitant to pull the trigger. So if he did something to the oblique, man, I think it's hard for him to come back, especially generate the torque he wants. It's that backside. That's going to be tough, man. I know these guys are grinders, and they play through stuff, but there's being hurt and there's being injured, and I think that's something that you just physically can't really do

or perform the way you want to perform. With Eric Hosmer. So we were talking about Beaver matching Otani on the mound. Vladi would be the matchup in terms of trying to match Otani at the plate. And, you know, Vladdy's been so dialed in this whole month. He's been phenomenal, yet he still does not have an extra base hit through three games in the World Series. What are you seeing out of Vladi's at basketball?

What are you seeing out of the way that Dodgers are pitching to him that makes you either believe he's going to break out tonight or maybe makes you believe this could continue and it's going to have to be someone else that steps up for the Jays? Yeah, to me, the right-handers, you know, it seems like they're attacking Vladdy's back foot. You know, a lot of splitters to the back foot, a lot of low-and-in sinkers at 97.

So that's a tough mix because think about it, if you're seeing a splitter at 88, as a hitter you've got to wait to the last possible second and try and drive that ball to right center field, and then it's a complete opposite when it's that 98-mile-hour sinker low in it at your back foot. You've got to react as quick as possible. So Vladie's kind of in between right now, which is a hard mix.

And at the same time, you know, it stinks now because these guys are banged up and Vladie's essentially the only healthy one in that lineup. So I think they're just not going to pitch to Vladie. It's going to be treat this every single pitch like it's an O2 pitch. Chase, don't let him beat us because we would much rather take on Kirk, He had the big swing last night. He's got to be exhausted. But I think in result of these injuries, they're not going to let Vladie beat him.

They're just not going to pitch to him. And I think that's kind of the result in this first couple games. If you look at the sequencing, they're just treating every single pitch like it's an 02, just throw it as low as you can to that back foot and get him to chase. Yeah, it's concerning because I think you're right. If Springer doesn't go tonight, that's a huge bat out of the lineup. Bichette is at 60%, maybe. You know, and he has not, he hasn't hit for power.

He squibbed a couple of balls, you know, that have found, gaps. He's got on base a couple times, but he's not at 100%. You mentioned Kirk. They pulled them from the game last night, I think based on exhaustion. I don't know. Will Smith kept going. It might have been speed, but Heinem is not exactly Ricky Henderson. So I don't know exactly what the plan was there. So you're right. I mean, I guess you're banking on Ernie Clement continuing to do what he's been doing. Nathan Lucas, Addison Barger. You know, it's tough because the Dodgers, if it's not Shohei and you're going to pitch around him, that's going to come alive.

some point. Like, Mookie hasn't done much through three games. You've got to believe he's going to have a moment. Freeman had one last night. Smith is clutch. Muncie's clutch. Like, how did the Jays keep up if Vladie's going to be pitched around? Yeah, and I think, like you said, Mookie, you know, he knows, he knows now pretty much after the first inning, which we might even see history and see Shohay get walked intentionally the first out of the bottom of the first. So Mookie knows that besides that first inning, he's going to come up in some big situations tonight. So I think Buki, the competitor, he's one of those guys chosen like we talked about earlier. You know, he knows that situation is going to come see him. But to me, this was

the big difference in, you know, the Dodgers and why there's so much better than everybody else is because the depth. I mean, when you look at some of the moves Toronto made last night from the offensive end, you know, they mentioned, or we mentioned they took out Kirk. When Barger came out of the game, when Bichick got hurt and Springer, they just took Bichette out. The depth really showed up and I mean Toronto's lineup late in the game there it was like man if they don't you know if flaty doesn't get this done I don't see the spot where it's going to happen so that's the situation where that big market really showed up for the Dodgers and that money they spent because the depth I mean they had the depth for days on the position player's side

and it showed up in the bullpen as well they had some uncharacteristic low performances from some guys can we just talk about that a second are they actually going to intentionally walk him to start the game like do you think that's actually going to happen you think it's the right play Yeah, like, is that a good idea? Yeah, I probably would set the tone immediately. Just say you're, like, putting a guy on base to start a game. Just stop. Would it shock you if you hit a home run?

The first pitch he starts on a rally to start. Eric, I don't know. I'm walking them, man. I'm walking them immediately. At this point in time, this point, nothing surprises me. You know what I mean? But I guess if they did it last night in the seventh inning, I don't know if it was tied or up one.

I mean, I don't know. They'll be, I'll definitely be glued to the TV to see if it happens. Yeah, they're up. five, four in the seventh inning. I think you've got to go after him to start the game. Yeah? Yeah. All right.

Maybe you go after him the first time. He hits a home run. Then you walk him. Right? You let him get one home run in and then you start walking him. Good game plan. Yeah. It's wild playing.

I mean, that's the level of respect this guy Otani has is they're walking him in these situations and he's got a Hall of Famer behind him in Mookie bets and another one in Freddie Freeman to follow. Like this guy is just on another level. Yeah, it's crazy. It is. And it's L.A. And you've played there, I'm sure, a bunch in your

career it's got to be wild playing like mary hart didn't move for four hours last night her husband that's her husband he seemed like he was with it too like mary didn't move at at any point the whole game man that's got to be so strange seeing mary heart just basically a statue she's so dialed in she loves the the dodgers so much and like she doesn't move the whole game dialed absolutely dialed in for all 18 last night i mean incredible that's probably the second best performance besides Otani. Yes, it was Otani and then Mary Hart. Magic made it through the whole game. I think Beaver was there the whole night.

Although he might have tapped out early. I don't know, I don't know Bieber. I mean, you can't blame you guys for tapping out early, man. Yeah, that was star-studded last night there. That was. It's going to be crazy, I'm sure again tonight. We'll see. All right, Eric, always appreciate it. Enjoy the games tonight.

All right, fellas. Just get it back to the Roger Center. Remember, just get it back to the Rogers Center. That's the plan. That's the plan. There he is. World Series champ. Eric Hosmer, great And as always, we appreciate you doing this. Introducing Brian Adams Radio on IHard Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. Join me for an insider look on a wild ride

to 40 years of global rock and roll. Brian Adams Radio. Now available on the free IHart Radio app. Or ask your smart speaker to play Brian Adams Radio on IHart Radio. Who's ready to rock? Kids want to rock Thank you.