Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Bears are in a race to improve defense as they prepare to face Vikings (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 18, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote opened their show by discussing whether the Bears can improve their defensive performance against the Vikings on Sunday after its rough performance in the season opener. After that, they discussed the latest developments in injured cornerback Kyler Gordon's rehab of a calf injury. Later, they discussed the White Sox's 3-1 win against the Tigers on Thursday, which lifted Chicago into a first-place tie in the AL Central.

The hour is being brought to you by Menards. Save big money at Menards. Bears are going to kick ass. Yes, sir. You heard me, Tyler. 50 Burger, baby. On 104 3, The Score. I love that both Brian Flores, the defensive coordinator of the Vikings,

and Ben Johnson, the head coach of the Chicago Bears, have sort of accepted the duel that this game is going to be between those two masterminds for the Bears and Vikings this Sunday. Hey, you fired up? Not the usual downplaying, Leila, that we typically get where it's not. No, this is not just another game. These two coaches are both accepting their geniusness. Patrick, your genius is showing.

Babe, wake up. It's Ben Johnson versus Brian Flores. That's it. It's on. That's really what this is. Wake up. Wake up. Wake your ass up.

We better wake our tails up. Wake up. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hey, can we take that back now that it's not part of the morning show theme song anymore? System of a down belongs to everyone. Yes, it does. Because, Ray, you put that in initially, right?

Yeah, this is true. Every time I hear that, I get that jolt that you guys just heard. Like, that just runs through my body. See, that's the point. You've got to understand people's reverse triggers, the things that make them focus. I'm animals quarter-appointed sponsor. We don't use the D-R-U-M word. It's his trigger word.

Wake up! Yeah. This is truly two people at the elite levels of their coordinating game who respect each other's talents, their abilities, and then what they're going to do to make the other one just crumble. And I enjoy this at many levels. I got two words for you. Ben Johnson.

Brian Flores. Must see TV. Lila Rahini. Mark Grody. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio. 104.3. The score. I got two words for you.

Yes. There are actually two words. It's game week. It's Friday. Game week. It's a football Friday. That's three. Feels so good.

Specifically, you are listening to a four seasons heating, air conditioning, plumbing, sewer, and an electric football Friday presented by your local Ford dealers and advent, along with Layla Rahimi. I am Mark Grody. We are Rahimi and Grody. How are you, Leila? I can't stop laughing at this. Was it yesterday that I said you start to wear the same colors as your partner?

And then we come into work like this? Yeah, we were both wearing Rojo yesterday. That'd be red. And Layla said that. I'm like, okay, Layla, whatever. And then we both come in today wearing some form of mauve and or pink or violet. I would say you have salmon on. Salmon, yes.

I'm wearing my salmon polo and you are wearing. How would you characterize the color of the hoodie that you are wearing right now? Hot pink, that's right. Yep. Layla is a hot pink. It's a peloton hoodie. I still do my peloton. I love it.

I love it. We're open. If you need a code for 100 bucks off, I got you. Layla, do you feel better about the Bears defense at all this week as they prepare to go up against the Minnesota Vikings? A Vikings team, which last week did only have the Minnesota offense, even though they had a big number scoring wise. They had 239 total yards. From things that you have heard this week, the way you feel from what you saw from the Bears last week, do you feel any better heading into this game about the Bears defense than maybe you did last week?

I don't know how to feel about it. That's the thing. I don't know if what we saw was a mirage or if it's a actual proof. And then the other part of this is, does the quarterback matter for Minnesota? because Kyler Murray got upgraded on the practice report. So what are we led to believe there? Too limited? Yeah, does it matter?

You know, that's the other part of this. I feel like I get what Brad Biggs was doing because as much as we and the hot take machine, as Danny likes to call it, the take industrial complex, the NFL watchers, as much as we've been excited about Ben Johnson versus Brian Flores, the other side of it is Kevin O'Connell, who was coach of the year, 24 against

Dennis Allen, who's the former head coach, long time with the Saints, and he has been the Bears D.C. now. And that battle matters too. The concern is, does it matter more than the Bears' offense overcoming whatever Brian Flores is throwing at them? And I think that that's

a very valid question in all of this, so much so that I wonder if the quarterback even matters if it's Wins or Kyler Murray. Murray is more mobile. We know that. But we saw Wins execute the offense to a very nice level in their comeback win last week over the Packers. There is an area that I will continue to be concerned about this week, and it's pretty

obvious, the secondary. Jalen Johnson and Tyreek Stevenson and the matchups that they will have this week against the very talented Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, who was their version of Colson Loveland last week, because I think he was just targeted a couple times. I don't think he got his hand on a football, but we know he's had some huge games against the Bears. We know how talented he is. So I think it is probably obvious that that's still going to be an area of concern.

We'll get to that to Jalen here in a second. The area that I do feel like will improve is the linebackers, for a couple of reasons. The linebackers were bad last week for the Bears, specifically T.J. Edwards and Devin Bush. Yeah, they weren't making enough tackles at all. I mean, you said it. Like when you look at the numbers, when Dylan Thineman, God bless him, has double-digit tackles. That's not a good sign.

In his debut. Right. His NFL debut. And I love the sound tackling of Dylan Theoneman. I thought that that was really good. And I have high hopes for Dylan Theanman. It was nice that he made the plays that came his way. You had to do that.

But these are two good linebackers. Like T.J. Edwards and Devin Bush both had good camps. I thought they both had good pre-season. So I think that there is enough evidence to suggest that those two guys will have a better game. I have not lost faith in those two linebackers at this point. But let's get to the Jaylon Johnson part of this. Because we've been asking the questions all week. One of the questions that I've been asking, I know you as well, Leila, is for Jalen Johnson, is this a physical thing or is it a mental thing or just guessing wrong? And most of the experts that we had on

and that I'd read about said when they looked at the tape, Patrick Manley, Clay Harbor, that it was more of not a physical thing necessarily, that it was guessing wrong or being in the wrong spot, the mental part of the game. Take a listen to what Jalen Johnson said earlier this week when he discussed the defensive performance from week one against the Panthers. I would just say not sharp. Just started with myself as well. I know I was I wasn't on my game. I wasn't into it how I needed to be mentally physically, and I think it kind of just trickled throughout the defense. I think at times we showed up and made plays,

but I think overall we left a lot of plays out there to be made. We weren't clean and precise, I would say, in the run game, gave them too many explosives in the passing game. But just overall, I think we just weren't on our game, but I know I'm confident that we'll get back to it. It was funny, in the pre-show meeting when we listened to that, Ray Diaz popped up and he was alerted about the mental part of the game, and he should be that he said he wasn't ready mentally.

I was more freaked out when he said that he didn't feel good physically out there. And I don't know if there was a follow-up to it, but that's what I heard from him almost every time I was in the locker room post-game last year. I didn't feel good physically. Well, that's it. That's exactly what you didn't want to hear. Also, we were hoping for a healthy Jalen Johnson. So if that's the case, this doesn't work as well as they wanted it to.

They're already injured. they already decided to trade away Jervon Dexter off the defensive line they're depending on their secondary to help encourage some sack production out of the defensive line here you can't afford to have this happen what you really can't afford to have happen

are question marks like this what is anybody going to do if you have Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison on the other side you're going to go after Jalen Johnson right you're going to go after who you think might be the weakest link Are you going to run a bunch of crossing patterns and make them run all over the field?

Are you going to make Tyreek Stevenson guess again and put a double move on them and watch them fall down? These are concerning questions out of veterans. Jalen Coker had 138 yards. And Jalen Coker might be maybe he's poised for a breakout season. Justin Jefferson greater than Jalen Coker. Jordan Addison, greater than Jalen Coker, I would argue. And the combination is greater than Jalen Coker and Teteroa McMillan. And I know that that was the plan.

It was pretty obvious, at least through the first three quarters, that the goal was to limit Tedaroa McMillan's targets. But that left open another dude. And we've seen that happen with the Vikings where Addison becomes the guy. That's the whole point of having that one-two punch. If you're a cover corner and you're taking away half of the field, what's the other half that's left? Does somebody eat off of that?

But when you're a cover corner who's supposed to take away half of the field and you can't, what are we working with here? And this is a question that needs to be answered. Or at least addressed. And you don't have necessarily the amount of personnel you want to to fully be able to. It was interesting, too, listening to Herb Howard during his Bears hit. I think he talked about it with us yesterday. Yeah, he did.

He talked about the possibility. Like maybe eventually we see Malik Mohamed step in on the outside for Tyreek Stevenson. So there are some things that are in the mix in terms of like real maneuver. to help make this defense better. Dennis Allen also meeting with the media yesterday, and he addressed, as difficult it was, to get answers out of him yesterday, the number of miss tackles from week one. I think, you know, if you go throughout the National Football League in week one, the tackling usually is not up to standard. You know, as I saw some of these other games throughout the league. You know, you see a lot of mistackles. I think part of that is a product of,

you know, not very much tackling going on in the preseason. And so you look at like you do everything else, all right, why does a mistackle occur? And more often, it is a fundamental technique flaw. You know, guys, you know, not taking proper angles. guys not doing a good job of coming to balance, guys lunging and leaving their feet instead of running through the tackle. I mean, I think those are things that you see, you know, early on in the season. I was a little surprised at some of the tackling and that, you know,

that really, I thought we were a pretty good tackling team throughout the course of the preseason. It didn't show up as well as I would have liked to against Carolina. So that's, again, another one of those things that we're looking to improve. Bears defense coordinator, Dennis Allen, right there. They were, they were a pretty good tackling team from what I saw in the preseason in the times that I was out at camp and they were actually allowed to tackle. But it was alarming, especially early in the game. There was a play early on where Dylan Thineman and Tyreek Stevenson

whiffed on back-to-back attempts to tackle. And there's nothing more frustrating than that. When you have a guy, unless it's a high degree of difficulty tackle, which they were not, that's very frustrating. It is. And I do wonder, allowed how much the weather in Carolina played into that. Will we see a different version more crisp with the weather being more crisp here? You're going to be okay with that crisp, cool weather? I felt that walking into it. I don't like it, but the football players do, and that's what matters here.

So will that be affected? What was it like a hundred and, it kept on going up, I felt like from the Christina Pink report that it was 160 degrees on the turf and it was like 400 degrees by the fourth quarter on the turf. But I will say is somebody who's had shoes. melt on a turf. Like, it's, it's not fun to be on an artificial surface. Yeah, they get gummy. The souls get gummy.

And you're like, what the heck happened? We've had, like, we've had, especially in Austin when we had like 100 days over 100, yeah, your shoes will suffer. You will pay the price. You got to be ready. They're doing sidelines, man. Nobody's looking out for you. You got to have your own.

You got to be prepared. I remember. Well, I mean, I was filming. I had like a big-ass TV camera and stuff. Yeah, I had the all for one. The big boy camera. Yeah, my job was to film practice. But the point is, the temperature is measured in the shade.

And it's an ambient temperature. It's not radiating off of an artificial surface. So I do think that might have played into it. It doesn't really matter, though. The other team is expected to tackle two. And neither team did well. That's true. You're talking about a team that gave up 478 yards in the bears and 552 in the Panthers.

Thank goodness for the Colts who gave up 506 or else 31 and 32 would be Bears and Panthers. Defenses are not quite locked in yet. I mean, while we're at the Minnesota defense allowed 419 last week, in a win. Yes, your NFC North is well represented at the bottom of the defensive yards allowed. Yeah, it is truly sorting itself out, man. I love that we're getting into the division this early, though. Like at NFC North, important game.

By the way, against a Vikings team. which has won six in a row at Soldier Field. Just something to think about kids when we're doing our picks here. That means that the Vikings or the Bears have not beaten the Vikings. Would that make it 2019? Would that make my math right? That they haven't won? The Bears have not beaten the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier since 2019.

What in the hell is going on with the Bears against the Vikings? I'm just saying. Well, I mean, part of it was they had a bad team. And then last year, that was the J.J. McCarthy comeback that led to him getting offensive player of the week. 21 points in the fourth quarter they scored. And you're excited about it starting in week two. Well, that year it started in week one. That's true. It did.

We got a text here. Yes. 312-644-67 is our number, 417. The two of you must have talked ahead of time about your choice and colors that you're going to wear shirts today. I can assure you we did not. Our goal is to look cute on the daily. Mine isn't. Not anymore. I did that for years. I'm done. Nope. Okay. All right. I will carry the mantle of cuteness. Yeah, it's your job to look hot now. That is true. Should I pop my collar? Do you think that would be hot? No, no. Please no. No. I know we're going to see the All-American Rejects later, but that doesn't mean we bring it all back. I'm not putting on a double polo again. I'm not popping my collar with said double polo. I'm not pairing it with American Eagle khakis again, okay? I've been through that in my life. Do I need to, by the way, what, okay, while we're doing, because we'll talk more Riot Fest

in our closing segment of the show today. What should I, should, do I need to bring an umbrella, a slicker? Do I need a jacket tonight? I don't think, I don't think umbrellas that shows like that are allowed. Like, you can't always bring umbrellas into weapons, right? Correct, yeah. Okay, so is it going to get chilly? Do I need to, should I wear shorts?

I need help, Leila, you're my life coach. So there's this app on your phone. It says weather. Yeah, but there's this Leila sitting right here who could just tell me these things. Why don't you just tell me the name of the movie you want to see? Welcome to movie phone. Also, yeah, if you look at the weather app, more importantly on Sunday, right now, mine says 90% chance of rain. Tonight?

Sunday. Oh, Sunday. Oh, okay. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Wake up! Yes. Wake up!

Thank you. Thank you. I needed that. I does say that the rain is subsiding, though, around the noon hour. So that's good, friends. Yeah. On Sunday. But, you know, it also said originally.

originally they were supposed to rate a bunch today. I could go for a fun rain game at Solderfield. I'll be in the press box. I'll be protected. Fun rain game, like slide on your belly into the end zone like Superman? How about, yeah, like Justin Fields in the first game against San Francisco, the Matt Iberflus.

Did you forget about those moments that we had together, guys? With the Matt Iberfluse moments. Yeah, and remember how we're, oh my God, the TV reports. Oh, everybody's like, the hits principle is valid. It's coming into focus. It's all good. I'm going to repeat the team talking points. Here's how they won this game.

It felt good that day. I'll tell you what, man. I'm a reporter. Can't come up with my own idea. I lost a phone. I lost a phone that day. You did? Yeah, because it was like, it was pouring.

Like, I was the side. I was there on the sidelines. I was there. You weren't. And I lost the phone. Didn't lose it. It got damaged by the rain. Yeah.

You lost a lot of good men out there. The company was nice enough to buy me a new phone. If I can give you any advice, it is to manually back up your phone. I know. Claims to work. I'm here to tell you. And this is why. Manually back up your phone. Layla is a life coach.

And sometimes she accepts that for me. And sometimes she says, you look it up. I lost four years of information because I didn't manually back up because the cloud didn't work. And I'm not here for you to tell me why it didn't work. I come from a long line of electrical engineers. Just manually back up your phone. And then you have to be like, hey, sorry, lost your number. Who is this texting me right now?

Thank you to our producers. Ray Tia's and Tyler Buterbaugh. The cloud doesn't always work. Our video producers are Connor O'Donnell, Max Curtis, Jacob Stutz, and the scorechicago.com editor is Cody Westerland. She's Layla Rahimi. I'm Mark Grody. Coming up next, we'll talk about Kyler Gordon

because there was some Bears, Players' testimonials on the North Shore yesterday that we must discuss next on Rahimi and Grody on 1043, the score. Look how hot I look here. Rahimi and Grody, slashback. What's been your message to Kyle Gordon? Get healthy. Are we just going to all Riot Fest return music today?

I'm going to throw a little in here. Yep. Saturday. Tool. Do it in the XRT voice. Oh, man. It's coming on Saturday. It is tool.

Hell yeah. It's Rahimi and Grotie. I'm 104-3 the score. Grotie's going to end up in the mosh pit. I've been a threat. I've never seen Tool. I was a threat to see them when they were at the United Center. Then I decided at the last second I didn't want to go.

So I think I will take in some tool tomorrow. I think I remember you and I are having that conversation. Yeah. Like then you were thinking about it and then you decided against it. Right. Because I am one of those people who like when I go to concerts that I really want to go to, I either go by myself or I go with somebody who is absolutely completely in line with me who is about the music and wants to watch it and it enjoys it as much as I do because you don't want to have to be distracted during a concert. So I often will go myself.

That's why tonight I'm going with you and my guy Fez because you guys are about the music, man. Yeah. And a lot of my concert friends are at other concerts. Like they're either at the Solt Shed or they're at the Vic to see Gary Clark Jr. or I'm like, oh, I just. I got to my concert friends too late. So she's settling for us. That's what's going on here. That's what she just said. I would have brought them as well.

And then my other, my riot fist friend who I went with last year, she also had a phone casualty this week and has to work well into the weekend because she's got like a deadline hit. So yeah. Ray, Ray, he's going to be in the house too. Hopefully we'll see you stumbling around out there.

Absolutely. That'll be great. I'll let's get into this. There is a new chapter to the Kyler Gordon saga when last we heard, about Kyler Gordon through the NFL network, and ESPN, I guess, Ian Rappaport was saying that he was working out with a private trainer, was away from the facility, and there were positive vibes. At least that's what Rappaport was providing it. Some optimism here.

Some optimism here. Whatever the hell that meant. Right. Despite him being away from the facility, which clearly has been a controversial hot topic with the bears and here on the radio and on the score. And I'll add that Rappaport did. say that he would return a few weeks into the season. Where is your source? That was part of that report.

Right. So, yeah. Michael Reisdorf is always on time with that question. And frankly, is all of us. Let's hear what the latest is, though, because Herb Howard, our Bears reporter, was on the afternoon show yesterday, Spiegel and Holmes, and had this little doozy at the end of his reports. I talked to several guys in the locker room, Roma Dunezay, Jade Walker, among them, who, who, without

prompt brought up Kyla Gordon. They told me one, he was in the building today. Now, I didn't see him. He said he was in the building earlier today. They all talk about, you know, when he comes back, he's going to be a problem. There is not a single person in their locker room.

One, who doesn't love Kyler Gordon as a teammate, and two, does not think he's coming back to play football for this team. They talked about when he comes back. Roma Dunezay said he is one of one, absolutely unique in a way that nobody else can kind of replicate the way Kyler is able to play when he's on the field.

The health is what it is, and they got to get him back. But they all are really, really excited to get him back. And I think when he's able to get back, he's certainly going to be a useful, useful piece and add to that secondary. Also saw Kobe Bryant in the locker room today. His first time I've personally seen him in the locker room since he was hurt. He was still on his cruises and not quite ready to go yet.

But I joke with him, said, look like you ready to get out on the field, man. He had a smile and he seems to be in good spirits. But that was the first time I saw him today. This is good news, to be honest with you, that if the players are giving unprompted testimonials about Kyler Gordon, and I'm not saying this means Kyler Gordon's coming back and he's going to play in week three, but to apparently have the support of your team is massive because that was questionable, I thought, that they could have been like, what the hell is this guy doing?

Why does this guy get to stay out of the buildings? Does he love football? Does he not? and to have the play like it's checking a box it's not i'm not going to like read into this and celebrate the return of kailer gordon but i am going to check a box and say that is that is terrific to here especially since they offered that to herb howard and i understand that but here's the other side of it and we didn't get into this because brad biggs has more information than we can possibly have to discuss even in four and a half hour radio shows every day

because that's brad biggs he's elite but this was a red flag to me when I was reading his 10 things on Monday. Point number five, maybe it's overstating things to say the bears have turned to a last resort in allowing Kyler Gordon to rehabilitate his calf injury away from the team. So that's how much can change in a few days. But here's where I'm concerned about who he's working with. So Biggs says he reached out to Montel Fleming, known as for Dr. Moe on Instagram, who is working with Gordon on body alignment and injury prevention in order for the

cornerback to be activated from the pup list so he can get onto the field after missing the off-season program, training camp, and preseason. Fleming answers the phone saying Dr. Moe, and he goes by foot, Dr. Moe. By the way, he's not a medical doctor. What? So the branding, and I'm saying this respecting actual orthopedic doctors that I've worked with when I've gotten injured, and the ones we talk to, like Brian Cole, who works over at Rush. You know, He's the team doctor for the bears, or for the bulls rather, and the white socks. So he says he's foot, Dr. Mo. He was introduced to Gordon by Jalen Johnson, with whom Fleming his work since the 2021 season.

Jalen Johnson, who still talks about how he's not completely healthy. Jalen Johnson, who had a groin tear off of his body last year, that Jalen Johnson? Oh, you guys have been working together since 2021? quote, it was Fleming who reached out to Johnson after viewing his Instagram account. I noticed some disfunctions that were going on with Jalen just by looking at pictures based off how he stands, how his foot angle was, and how it was placed in the picture, seeing how he was leaning on one side of his body overcompensating. What? I reached out to him through Instagram and the rest is history. We had one session and I became a full-time specialist for six years.

All I've had in my life is right knee bursitis. And when I went to team rehab, and I definitely paid for them, this is not an ad. Versaitis. Which is common. It happens, especially, you know, the older you get. And if you've been working out on a regular basis, they didn't care about how I stood. They cared about how I moved. And when I worked with the Cubs orthopedic doctor at the time, they took x-rays to make sure something wasn't wrong.

And then they told me about how I had a strength imbalance and I needed to work other muscles. so that way the movement was more form aligned. If your knee collapses in, should you be working more quad and glute to compensate for your IT and hamstring working more? That type of thing. You know, we've talked a lot about Jalen Brunton, who his wife is a physical therapist.

The University of Illinois, by the way, is an incredibly good physical therapy school. Like, we are blessed to have as many of those people in our city working right now. And I say this understanding, like, for example, Ozzie Tripillo, if you believe that he's been at the facility following the Bears' instructions.

You know, is ahead of schedule. Standing is one thing. Moving is another. How many of us have been standing one way or another? That doesn't mean you're stuck in that position for a long time. It's a still frame. Like guys roll up into my DMs all the time giving me advice. Do you think I take it?

Oh, yeah? So Johnson says the work he does with Fleming focuses on maintaining explosive movements. That's really the biggest thing Johnson said. Once your body's aligned and powerful everything else, kind of takes place. I do a lot of body alignment and then body activation and make sure everything is firing and make sure there's not anything that's overcompensating or firing and everything is primed to go. So that part sounds a lot like what I said. Really it is just learning how to activate before practice, how to activate before games to get your body ready to go. A lot of times that's where

injuries come in for guys not prepping their body beforehand and not being ready for or their body is overcompensating. That's where soft tissue injuries come from. Perhaps, but that doesn't mean that this guy who says he's a doctor and has maybe had some luck with people. And And also says he works with a chiropractor, by the way, and that's another discussion that I think is a lightning rod for point, counterpoint, and for debate. All of this comes together in a way that makes me wonder, is this the best advice?

Especially when we just heard the quote from Jalen in our previous segment? Yeah, and we don't know that he necessarily, Jalen Johnson, was saying he's still injured, and we'll just take it for what it is. He said he didn't feel good mentally or physically, and that could just mean he was out physicaled by the opponent. So I don't know if he was saying. I don't know if there was a follow-up necessarily. Does it help at all that Fleming said he is working in tandem with an actual doctor?

Dr. Michael Risher, Reisher, a chiropractor to get Gordon cleared to return. I'll just read a few more lines here. This is again from Biggs's point number five. And Biggs quotes a lot more. So if you want to read it, there's a lot there. Yeah, there's a lot here that we're not going to get to, obviously. but Fleming said his work with Gordon began March 12th of this year, and they'll be continuing through the season as he travels from Kansas City, Missouri

weekly to work with Johnson, also defensive back. Cam Lewis, by the way, Cam Lewis on Tuesdays through Thursdays. And the final thing, I guess is the optimistic one. Kyler right now, for Dr. Moe, has been very, has a very strong support system around him. Again, this is from Biggs, making sure that his head is staying on straight. as he's still staying disciplined and focused for this season, Fleming said. He's not in a depressed state. He's joyful. He's happy.

He's really happy now because he doesn't feel some of the pains that he did just a few weeks ago. Michael and I are really doing our very best, very best to make sure that Kyler gets back as expeditiously as possible. How far out is Gordon from actual football activity? Kyler will be back very soon, Fleming said, and again, all of this written by big. in the trip. Flipping isn't a doctor. No, he is not. But he's working with a doctor

with a chiropractor. But you're right. The skepticism is warranted for somebody like him and the results haven't been there for any of the players that we know he's worked with, at least the ones that you pointed out.

And I'm sorry, Jalen isn't the resume here. Jalen has also had a lot of injury problems. We have not seen him back yet. If they're working with somebody who isn't helping, when there are so many other qualified people in the city who can't. And Brad is right. It's pretty common for this to take place.

But what's not common is for you to be chronically injured over things that are not chronic injuries. And that's where the problem is. It's all a problem. It is all a problem. Brad did quote John Fox in one of his hits on Peyton and Ha. Did you guys hear that? I did hear that. I don't remember what it was in regard.

Oh, no. He said that. He said it's all a problem. Right. But I don't remember what was all of the things. Well, they asked something about the defense probably. And then he quoted John Fox very jovialy, which was. which was awesome.

It was spot on by Brad Biggs, who will be on our pregame show this Sunday, as he will be each and every week, which is absolutely awesome. Olin'NCruits Patrick Manley and Gabe Ramirez. She is Leila Rahimi, hot pink, Leila. I am just merely salmon, Sam and Mark Grody, but I am cute as hell.

Coming up next, Mutataka Murakami breaks out of his slump to power the White Sox past the Tigers, putting them back in first place, in the America League Central. Let's talk about the White Sox next on Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score. Rahimi and Grody, midday, 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. Last night was about relief for the White Sox in many different ways,

is we'll welcome you back into Rahimi and Grotie on 104-3, the score. Relief that Munataka Morikami. hit a three-run homer in the first inning with two outs, traveled 423 feet on a 95-mile-per-hour sinker that didn't sink. His first hit in five games, a relief that the White Sox won the game, 3-1, Magic Number 7, back in first place, a tie for first place, but they own the tiebreaker, so you can add on to that. And a relief because you got a great relief last night out of the bullpen.

Grant Taylor, a seven-out save. and Hicks were good enough. Hudson getting four outs in the game. Hicks was good as well. So deep breath for the White Sox in a lot of ways last night, Lela. Yeah, the way they lost those other two games to Cleveland were definitely a concern. The 76 ball game was bad and then losing the third game of that rubber match where you really could have put things away. You could have won that series and that would have made this a lot better. And it's not easy. And you mentioned this when the previous.

series with these two teams has resulted in a bunch of sweeps in the Tigers and the White Sox. History would dictate that that might not be a good thing for the Sox right now given how they've played. But in the meantime, what we needed to see more than anything in the last month and a half outside of just wins

was production out of Muni. And for him to get a home run, that's absolutely huge. The splits are still not great. His splits against lefties right now, 1,85. That's what he's batting. That's the average. Pretty bad.

You'd think it would be remarkably better against Ritees. Yeah. Not really. 2.13. Ooh. That's just the way it's been for him lately, man. I mean, like, he did get back to striking out after the whole run. The league adjusted him, but it was still enough to make a difference.

It was still the deciding hit in the ball game. And the Sox defense, pleasantly surprisingly, held on enough. And Eric Fetty did enough, got the job done in order for them to get the win. Yeah, defense was really good, except for. Luis Anhele Acuna in the ninth inning when his error allowed a couple of runners on, but they end up getting out of it. And it was like the socks were playing a dangerous game throughout that game. Really, the tigers were as well.

The socks ended up one for 12 with runners in scoring positions. So this weird offensive slump thing that's been going on for the White Sox persists. And good on the, again, on Fetty and the White Sox bullpen. And like every time you looked up watching the game last night, there's runners on first and second, runners on second and third. The Tigers themselves were 0 for nine with runners in scoring position. But perhaps the biggest news that came out of the ball game yesterday, and it's not shocking news, but it is jarring from a perspective of what you were hoping for.

Luis Castillo is going to the bullpen, ladies and gentlemen, and that is a bomb for the White Sox at the trade deadline. And yeah, you have to do something different with him. You give him the old Edward Cabrera treatment. You invested in this guy. You brought him in as the star piece at the trade deadline. And he's at one good game. And now they're going to expect them to go out there and pitch out of the bullpen. So that I thought was the biggest news to come out of the day.

Well, aside from the win. Well, yeah, I guess that would probably qualify as the biggest news. But those haven't come in a premium recently. And also, I did think it was, I do think it's cool. understand why people, if you didn't observe this time or you weren't watching as many games as a lot of us during the Tim Anderson era, you might not see why it was important to a lot of people. But Taney and Herber at the game last night, I know they had a great time. I went to the Sky game. I was there for a soundoff event. They do really cool custom sweaters, cardigans, knitwear, that type of thing.

Is that what you're wearing right now? This is an Adidas Peloton. I wore my Sky Cardigan last night. Gotcha. But I would have gone if I hadn't had the sound off. event, which I had a lot of fun at, but I know those guys were having a really good time. And it meant a lot for people that we know, like Ryan McGuffie, for example, the fills in on our shows a lot to support Tim Anderson. He was a big part of my career being here, his career arc and how he came up and then him earning the batting title. And I do think it's important to say earn rather than win.

I do think that matters. Rick Rinterea had a message for him. You know, poor Ricky's been through a lot with Chicago baseball and how many times he's been let go for other managers in this town, but he still cared enough to record a message. And I think it was the right thing to do, bring back the Southside Jersey and for Tim Anderson, who I feel like was part of the, he was the face of this team for a long time. And it wasn't a time that relatively speaking looked like a major point of White Sox history, but he still mattered to the people who cared in that ballpark. And that's a special relationship.

It was a great job by the White Sox to do something like that. I mean, obviously, this This is not a guy who is going to go down in any Hall of Fame or anything like that, but he was a good White Sox and the Sox did the right thing with him. And he was true. I don't think we're going to have time to get to it today. But I took in the entire pregame with him, before the game, the scrum with the reporters. And he was just terrific. Great questions from the White Sox beat about his time here.

Some real questions to him, you know, in regards to just feeling looser now and not having to feel that intensity of actually being a player. I love when teams do stuff like that with guys like Tim Anderson. So yeah, great on the White Sox to do what they did yesterday. They get the win. And now we score – I mean, the White Sox will be looking at the Toronto, Texas game tonight. The Sox own the tiebreaker over both of those teams. Houston and Baltimore in the picture, the White Sox do not own the tiebreaker against those.

But just keep on winning games, the White Sox should. And they do own the tiebreaker against the White Sox. against the Cleveland Guardians. And David Sandlin going again tonight. Let's see if he can be perfect again for five plus innings. I mean, that's more than any other expectation for the White Sox starters right now. It seems like if you can get through four and change, you're good to go. And amen, let's get back to some bears.

And specifically, coming up next, our first official appearance with our guy, Adam Hogue of the Hogan John's podcast and of CHGO. We'll talk Bears and Vikings with him next here on Rahimi and Grody on 1043, the score.