PTI - Takeaways from Guardians Win

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the Guardians, the Red Sox, and the Yankees. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows, and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.esPN.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. Pardon the interruption, but I'm Mike Wilbon. It's apparently International Day of Older Persons, Tony. How you celebrate?

I'm Tony Kornheiser. I took myself to the spa for a good dusting. What, do they have, like, a duster in a spa? Yeah. I missed that. Yeah, it's sort of like running through a car wash. Oh, okay, just dry. They, you know, they dust you because you're moldy.

Some lemon plan. Yeah, a little bit of that, a little bit of that, yeah. You know, and then there's a big fan. It works, Seth. We'll sign up for that. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today's episode, the Red Sox beat the Yankees. Shohei Homers twice.

And Steve Young joins us for five good minutes. But we begin again today with the Tigers and the Guardians. The Tigers needed a win to advance, and they had a chance until the bottom of the eighth when the Guardians put up five. Went on to win 6-1. This sets up a winner-take-all tomorrow afternoon. Wilbon, what does your take away from this one?

Well, Tony, it's again pitching. I know there are other dynamics in this game that we'll get to him. Yesterday, it was sco-o-o-s-o-o-o-soo. Scoobel today, Bybee got him into the fifth. He went four and two thirds. He gave up one earned, five hits, but one earned. And then you get these relief pictures,

five Guardians' relief pictures. I thought you hated that. Give up two hits. I thought you wanted starters to go to the seventh and eight. I do, but I don't like bullpen days. Oh, okay. This was not a bullpen day. It became.

It became a bullpen. But Bybee goes out there. He starts, the capable guy. Yeah. And they depend on him. And he goes, he gets him at least into the, fifth, and then they go with the relievers. It's still pitching October baseball.

Those games yesterday sort of led into the beginning of this game. I know it got out of hand with the home runs at Cleveland hit. Yeah. But 3-1, 3-1, 2-1, you know, three of the games yesterday and now... Here's what I would say about this game. This is exactly the way the series should play out. It should be one-to-one. There should be a winner-take-all game between these two teams.

And you get... What happened today was you get the big bang home run. in the bottom of the eighth, and you say to yourself, okay, that's all we're going to get. We've got to see, do we have a closer? All we need is three outs. Can we exhale at some point? But then they get more runs, more home runs, more runs.

So then it becomes very, very easy. The difference between this game and the game before yesterday's game was that the pitching, the scuba pitching, and all of that lasted longer into the game. But to me, this is sort of the way this series is supposed to go. Because I know you don't want to hear this that it's regional, even though I think it's regional, but you get the sense that you're sort of in a loop.

This is the eighth game we've seen with these two teams in... I was fine with this series. I don't want to see it right away. I didn't want to see it in the first round, but we got it in the first round. Let me go to one play because it changes the game. Okay, I know what you're going to get to. This is the throw to third base.

I'd say one-one game, and the Tigers are going to third base, and a run is going to score. It's going to be 2-1. You're going to have a man on third in a 2-1 game with two outs or one out, whatever it is. And there's a replay of the slide. And the player slides, and his right hand

is going to be safe on the base, but it doesn't hit the base. His left hand hits the base. The tag is put on him. After watching the replay, they reversed the call, which was a safe call. Did you change your mind? No, I thought it was out all along.

I thought it was out all along. They reversed that, and they take away the run. So now instead of a 2-1 game or maybe more, it's 1-1, and Cleveland is still in the game. Let me ask you one other things. thing. There's a bigger issue than that one play. How are you on three straight games, all three

games in one city? How are you on that? You earned it. You earn it. I mean, especially if you're in the same division. You beat that team, you win it. You earn it. And Cleveland overtook. I'm good with that. I'm good with that. I'm certainly good with that in this year. Of course you. You overtook. Because you got the Cubs that way. So you earn it. Yeah.

Sort of. Let's move to last night's playoff games. Beginning with Boston's 3-1 win over to Yanks. Red Sox starter, Garret Crochet struck out 11, and at one point retired 17 straight Yankees. For his part, New York's Max Fried held Boston Squalers through six and a third, but the floodgates opened after Aaron Boone pulled, freed, his ace, in favor of a shaky bullpen. We knew it was shaky.

Tony, are you crediting Crochet for the socks when, or you blaming Boone for the quick hook? Yeah, and you have a sandwich. I'm going to talk for a while. I'm crediting Crochet. It's great. Crochet goes out there. He throws a career high, 117 pitches. He gives up a home run in the second inning and nothing else.

And he strikes out 11. Had Tarrick Scoobel not pitched earlier in the day and done the same thing, allowed one run, go deep in the game and strike out 14, we'd only be talking about Crochet. And by the way, that's a tough vote for A.L. Saw Young. It is. That's really hard. So now, why am I, I'm supposed to blame Boone because he took out free? I thought it was too quick in real time.

What did? Okay. No, I did. I'm going to tell you this. I thought in the fourth inning and the fifth inning, they began to get to freed a little bit, though not on the scoreboard. I thought the last pitch he threw, which resulted in that three, one out at first base, I thought that ball was hit very hard.

I had no problem in the moment going to the bullpen, except it's a 437 ERA. Look, that reliever spit the bit. That, that's okay. If you stay with free. Max Fried is going to spit the bit. If you stay with free, he's thrown 102 pitches. If you leave him in for 10 more pitches, he's got the most. He's pitched all year.

I guess you could do it. I'm just saying I had no problem at the time. That's not the play of the game. That's not what matters. What matters is in the bottom of the ninth. The Yankees get... Load them up. Base is loaded.

With how many out, Mike? Load them up. With nobody out. And they don't score. They're also facing one of the great closers of all time. Now 53 years old. But yeah, okay. What was his last pitch?

Okay. A hundred one. All right. Okay. So Stanton gets up and strikes out. Do you think about pinch hitting for him and putting a contact hitter up there? I don't know. Then you have the fly to right field and you hold the runner third.

You got to go. First of all, the throw is up the line. He went. It's on contact. The throw is up the line. He didn't go. He held back. He could have scored.

The important thing is to get the runner from second to third because that's a fine run. That's a trying run. It is you want to get that runner over. I talked like crazy. You did. But I don't blame Broom for that. This is a I-95 series. These are your teams.

Let me go back to one thing. Let's go back to Max Fried. We just talked about this with Crochet. He went 117. I know that wasn't a career high. 117 was a career high. As much as a career high for Corchette. As much as I like Bybee getting into the fifth,

Crochet going 117. Yes. You got to leave Freed out there. I don't know. I don't know that two hard hit balls are going to get me, and I'm not a guy who criticizes Booney. I love Booney. moment. Did you think he went too soon?

Yes. At that moment, I did not. Because Wrighties are coming up. But especially the guy you got out there, your opposite number. You know Crochet is going to stay out there, and the Red Sox are not going to remove him and go to the pen. But Wrighties are coming up. Do you want lefty, righty? No, you don't. Not to me. Not to me. We stay with baseball. Baseball's

great at this point of time. We go to last night's late game, where the Dodgers hit five home runs. They buried the Reds, 10 to 5. Both Shoah Atani and Teaska Hernandez hit two home runs. Shohei set the tone. by hitting a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first inning. Blake Snow won seven innings.

That's the most he's ever gone in postseason play. Wilbaum, what did last night's results say to you? The Dodgers are just so much better. It didn't say anything that we didn't think yesterday. We talked about who among the Dodgers and the Yankees was vulnerable. We both said the Yankees. Well, it played out, and then that was no game. That's right.

I know. I was going to call you except I know when it got to five-nothing. You were night-night-night, Steph Curry. Absolutely. That's right. That's right. So I didn't even bother. And I decided to go to the WNBA game, which had some juice to it because that game didn't.

Because Shohei walks up there, tight end that he is. Beast. And he hits it out. And the second, you said to me the first home run was going to go. No, the second home run had to go travel further. It was Ruthian. And he does this. And when he's in the leadoff position, it can be demoralizing for the opponent.

And Cincinnati's not good enough. No, that's my takeaway. So this is the only series. If you asked me to bet on one series that I thought would go two, this was the series, this one that I would have bet on. Because I think that the Dodgers are demonstrably better in almost every way than Cincinnati. I'm happy Cincinnati's zero. Happy for Terry Francon.

But this is the end of the road for them. I'll just give you a couple of numbers here. Dodgers won 93 games this year. Cincinnati won 883. Dodgers have three hitters who hit 25 and more home runs. And they got two guys who hit 20 or more. That's total of five. Cincinnati's got a 21 and a 22.

The Dodgers have five regulars who hit at least 270. Cincinnati doesn't have any. The offensive circumstance here is... They go out every year and they both trade for sign and develop. They do all of it. And here's their roster. The end of that game, their bullpen in two winnings, allowed three runs and four walks. You cannot do that.

They can't have four walls. They do. The Dodger and the Yankees both have some bullpen issues as we look at those series. Yeah. So, yeah, but the Dodgers know, this is, we both love to see Terry Francona in a position where he's in the post season. But they're going night night soon, too, for the whole series. Yeah, the Dodgers. The Dodgers are.

Let me just say this. If the Dodgers even go three, the panic in the streets of L.A. They should be amazing. Well, we don't. Neither of us think it's going on through. Let's take a break. Coming up, can the Giants teach. Jackson Dart to avoid so many hits we will ask Steve Young.

We'll also ask him why Turf Toe has such a hugely negative impact on quarterbacks. I love this baseball because I watch the team that can't do this, right? A team that won like six. Baseball's great. Because we're not going to talk about Jerry Jones every day on this show. We're not doing that on this show. You turn elsewhere and get... Pardon the interruption is presented by the refreshing taste of twisted tea, hard iced tea.

Please drink responsibly. Part of Happy Hour. Welcome back to Pardon the Interruption, presented by Twisted Tea, hard iced tea. Part of Happy Hour. We have some NFL questions for our great friend and the man whose spiral I tightened up in a one-on-one session in the summer of 1987. Wow. Hall of Fame quarterback, Steve Young.

Let's start with Jackson Dart. He seemed to bring a different dimension to the Giants, but he got hit 25 times, Steve. six sacks, nine more hits in the pocket, and ten times on runs. Can you teach a young quarterback how not to take hits? Yeah, don't play. That is the first. But the thing about young quarterbacks is their mind is clearer because it hasn't been the first offseason when the coaches just pour stuff on to a quarterback,

especially if they're going to play a lot. And that's when things get really confusing. So he's got a purity of his game right now where it's like, look, just go with your instinct. go with what you know. And it's kind of a fake it till you make it kind of an environment where you don't really know what you're doing, but you know enough. And so then it becomes, okay, how much do I put myself at risk? And I don't think a young quarterback does a great job of navigating that. It takes time to realize that you want to play for a long time and how to get to the ground

and what's worth it and what's not worth it. And when you're young, you're like, everything's worth it. Like, I'm just, I'm in. And I think that's the danger of a young player, especially a dynamic player like Jackson, who has now the excitement of the city. He's walking around today, downtown in Manhattan, walking. Yeah, you're the man, Jackson, you're the king. You know, it's like, oh, yeah, I got to do more of that. So it's a, it's a tender walk right now with a young quarterback. Steve, Brock Purdy has been hampered by turf toe and is now out, been declared out for the upcoming game. Of course, you know what Joe Burrow is out for forever in a day with a toe injury. I don't remember you missing time with an injured toe, but take

us through this and what it does to a quarterback, a toe injury. Yeah, I mean, it's the ligament of the big toe. And if you think about, like, if you're, he's right, he so it's on his right foot. And that's the, that's the plant foot. That's, think about standing on your heel off of your toes and trying to jump. You can't even get air. So the whole throw is really through your right big toe if you want to think about that way. And so in that, so for Brock, you saw him last week. He had to stay off of it. So what you do is you start your throwing motion. You can't, again with your toes, so you come over the top like a catapult, right?

And then all of a sudden, the throws are high. They're not as crisp, and it's like you have to manage. Now, look, you know people play hurt all the time. So you manage it. You have to figure it out. But you know that like your thumb on a throwing hand, the big toe and the thumb are kind of related in how much drama there is in trying to overcome an injury like that. Your Niners face the Rams tomorrow night.

And Puka Nakua has 42 catches. through four games. I know he's in the wrong jersey now, but he was in the jersey you guys shared at one point, both BYU, you guys, what are you seeing in Puka Nakua that makes him so effective? And how does he just burst on like this, basically in a season plus?

Yeah, it's crazy, right? Because it's the subtleties of Puka. He's a big boy. Like, he's a big man. Like, he's somebody that he's up against people he's maybe 15, 20 pounds heavier than, but yet has the subtlety of movement that usually the smaller guys can catch up

or they can overwhelm you with speed or change a direction. But Puka is so smooth that he's running routes and they're late. Even though they might be slightly faster, they're late to Puka. And he has hands that are like Jerry Rice. Like if it's near, I have it.

It's mine. And I'm going to, and there's like he, like a vacuum almost. So to me, Puka is that person that I think a lot of people overlooked because you can't really understand it until he's on the field. And when you watch him, he kind of defies the eye. And it's his size and how smooth he is that kind of fools you.

And all of a sudden, he's in the end zone. And I think he's going to have a career like none other. He's amazing. He's dominant in, you know, as a second or 30-year guy, he's a dominant right receiver right now. Steve, we will get you out of here on this. The chiefs have gone from 0 and 2 now to 2 and 2. You played on a Niners team that was so good for so long. Do you always assume you'll be good, or are there times when you have doubts?

You get used to having, you know, Jim Nance and Tony Romo come in on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. You get used to being the game of the week. You get used to every game is important. You get used to every buddy you play is their homecoming game, where they're, it's like super focused and fired up and super motivated. You get weird comments from defenders that say, I'm going to hit him harder this week. You know, and so you just, you get used to all of that focus. And that builds a muscle and a muscle that doesn't just go away.

Now, what happens, Tony, to your point, there's an ebb and flow, especially in free agency, is an ebb and flow every year of who you have. But one thing is for sure, if you consistency and ownership of a focus of being great, which the hunts are, you have a coach that is as an innovative and re-encompassing and reinvents himself over and over and over again continuously, never gets old in Andy Reid. There's that consistency of message, of values, of who you are.

And then you build a locker room like it. You can take changeover. And I don't think it's doubt necessarily. You say, do you have doubts? You just have some ebbs and flows of excellence. And you have to kind of work through them. And I think that they've done that through the years. And that's the great teams.

You know, the Eagles have done that. The 49ers have done that. The Rams are doing it. Like there's teams that have kind of gone. through the machinations of it all. And because of the values and what I told you as the kind of underpinnings of foundation, it's never goes away.

You can still build off of it, especially when you have the best quarterback in football, by the way. Yeah, I was going to say you need to mention the homes at some point. Thank you, Steve, as always. Appreciate you, Steve. Okay, see, boys. Let's take one last break. Still to come, the Browns make a change at quarterback.

And the fever and aces go to OT in game five. So which are sportswriters for a million years. We learned something when we talk to Steve Young. Every time. Yeah. I told you, I did that when I was flying to San Francisco. I was going to live. I don't ever think I can learn anymore.

I think I know everything. And I don't. No, you're not that. Pardon the interruption is presented by the refreshing taste of twisted tea, hard iced tea. Please drink responsibly. Part of Happy Hour. Happy time, people. Happy 33rd birthday, Zander Bogart.

In December of 2022, Bogart signed a huge free agent deal with the Padres for $280 million over 11 years and left the Red Sox where he had been a four-time All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger at Short and a member of two World Series champions. Bogarts went to the Padres as a shortstop as Fernando Tatis Jr., the former shortstop, moved to the outfield. Bogart's has not been as successful in San Diego as he was in Boston, no All-Star Games, no Silver Sluggers, and he's been hurt by injuries. In 2004, Bogarts played in only 111 games. This year he played in 136, batted 263 with 11 homers and 53 RBI, and he got two hits yesterday against your Cups. Talk about what he hasn't done yet.

The one team I think that Dodgers would not want to see advance and have to meet them would be the Padres. And Bogart's is in the lineup that includes those guys you mentioned, Mani Machado and Tetis. I know you're not impressed with that lineup. Not as much as you. Not as much as you. I'm impressed with you.

Doesn't compare to me to the Phillies. Happy anniversary, Matt Holliday. On this day, 18 years ago, Holiday scored the winning run for the Rockies to take the NL Wild Card Cardi-Braker game over the Padres in 13 innings. Replays showed that Padres catcher Michael Barrett blocked the plate from Holliday's hand, but umpire Tim McClellan did not have access to review and called Holiday Safe. The Rockies went all the way to the World Series where they were swept by Boston. Holiday won a World Series in 2011 with the Cardinals was a seven.

seven-time All-star, a four-time silver slugger, and a career, 29-9 hitter. Now he's better known as the father of Jackson, the Oriole's second baseman, and Ethan, who was just drafted fourth overall by Colorado. In the holiday, a Cardinal to you? Yes, eight years with the Cardinals, six years, though, in Colorado. Too me. It was the disparity that I thought. 299 hit.

299. It did not realize that. That's right at it, man. Happy trails to the Indiana fever. It took overtime in the fifth and final game of the season. series, but the Las Vegas Aces finally eliminated the underdog fever last night, 107 to 98. Indiana's Odyssey Sims scored 10 of her 27 points in the fourth to force overtime after the fever loss Kelsey Mitchell to injury and Alea Boston to foul trouble.

Vegas was led by Asia Wilson's 35 and Jackie Young's 32, but it was Chelsea Gray's nine overtime points that helped seal the Aces' third trip to the WMBA finals in four years. Vegas meets Phoenix in game one on Friday. We're going to have plenty of time to celebrate Vegas, which deserves it, has earned it. But today, let me celebrate Stephanie White. She's got nobody out there. No. People are injured and in and they're sitting on the bench and street clothes, and they keep playing.

What a great coach and staff she's got and is. That league fires every coach. You don't fire her. You do not fire her. By the way, that game should have awakened you last night. It's a great game. For the fever with no roster to push them into overtime, In Vegas? Come on now.

Let's go to the big finish. The Browns are benching Joe Flacko. They're starting rookie Dylan Gabriel at quarterback. Does that make sense to you? I don't have space for the Browns. They're just irrelevant. I don't have consideration. Brian Snitka will not return as Braves and manager.

You're not surprised. No, they finished 10 games under 500, and I expected this at the end of the season. Not in the middle of the season. Seth Curry is joining Steph Curry on the Warriors. Do you like that? Some numbers. Seth Curry, 43.3% 3-point shooter career.

Brother Steph, 42.3, huh? Yeah, who do you want? Guess that? Who do you want? If you put them both on the table, who do you want? Can we give Seth some love? Who do you pick? The Rockies dismissed GM Bill Schmidt after 119 lost season.

Does that make sense? Yeah, come on. Who do you pick? Who do you pick? I'm just thinking you give him some love. I did. Who do you pick? Last one, Gail Monfis.

More fees. He will retire at the end of the time. In the 2026 season, are you sad? I thought he was gone like seven years ago. He's 39. Yeah. Look on, man. We're out of time.

We'll try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Cornynheim. I'm Mike LeBahn. Same time tomorrow, knuckleheads. Tony, Seth Curry should have been on the Warriors. Why the Warriors just now getting to bring in Little Brawra, he's got a better three-point shooting. Who would you take?

Who would you take? Steph. BTI.