Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Cubs break out of offensive slump to avoid getting swept by Pirates (Hour 1)

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Marshall Harris opened their show by breaking down the Cubs' come-from-behind 7-6 win against the Pirates on Sunday. After that, they pondered how much the Cubs can rely on right-hander Ben Brown. Later, they reacted to the news that the White Sox are calling up top pitching prospect Noah Schultz, who will start and make his MLB debut Tuesday.

The score! This hour is brought to you by Vesectomy Clinics of Chicago. The views and opinions of Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grody should not be taken too seriously. Especially when they give advice. Do not take Marshall's analogies, literally. Especially when it comes to Russell Dorsey. The sports thoughts of Rahimi Harrison Grotie may change it anytime. It's just sports.

Gay, thanks. Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 1043, The score. Ironically. because this is the second straight year in which Tiger Woods has not participated in the Masters. It is Tiger Woods that is the only one that can still stop. How would he do that, Mark? I read this story this morning, and I was laughing in my hotel room, even the headline.

Tiger Woods pissed off Rory McElroy's white Farragica stole with frequent late-night texts. Not to her. Let me be clear. to Tiger. McDonald's. Just go to work. Tiger was used to text Rory McElroy in the middle of the night. Hey, what's going on, man?

According to a new book on McElroy. McElroy's wife, Erica Stoll, reportedly took issue with the interruption as they tried to sleep. Who are you talking to? It's Jake from State Farm. Sounds like a really good deal. Jake from State Farm at 3 in the morning? Who is this? It's Jake from State Farm.

What are you wearing Jake from State Farm? Cackies. She sounds. Well, she's a guy, so... I will say, the U-Up text. This is a different... You-up. This is a different umbrella that he's under.

Well, I want to hear all about how you two met. Oh, it's just an online dating app. Not much to it. Just text, text, send. Next thing you know, she's right here next to me. What's too late? You guys tell me, what's too late to get a text from a friend?

Because I don't think there is a limit. Well, my D&D goes out at 11, but then I'll just reply later. But you can't... Do you do not disturb type? You got to answer his text, Tiger Woods? I'm sure let's text him back tomorrow. What?

No, no, no, that's great. You got to text him back right now. If you call me and I answer, cool. If I don't, my phone is never on vibrate. It is never on ring. If I see it, I see it. If I don't, I'll hit you back. So Tiger Woods calls you.

He's up, and you're not. So if it's a you up, you're not up. Yeah, I'm not up. If I'm up, no, but if I'm up, I'm answering. I'm cool. I learned a while back that if I don't text 911, people will not return my calls. But now people always return my calls because they think that something horrible has happened.

Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, The Score. Please don't text 911 unless you mean it. Don't listen to Michael Scott. This is Rahimi Harrison Grody on 1043, The Score. We are back from Vegas and with you on this. Monday. Thank you for joining us. And I think we have to begin where we ended. Kind of like the hangover, but in reverse. Except maybe I was a little hungover when I embarked on my flight yesterday. Oh, you stayed out later than me on Saturday, right? Evergreen. I stayed out later than you.

Well, everybody stays out later than me to be fair. You don't even need the words in Vegas. You don't even need Saturday. That's just how it goes. We had a great time. We had a lot of fun. mantis. Grotty got to see the mantis. Like I said, Ray nearly got captured by a woman with a feather boa and not much else on. That happened.

We saved Ray. It was like a lifetime movie. But in the meantime, we were all trying to figure out how to consume the Cubs game on the score, of course. And pregame on a Sunday game when you're trying to salvage this series against the pirates. When you lost the

first two games, the discussion surrounding Michael Bush, because as we know, the Cubs team wasn't hitting, but it was in the ways that we saw them not hit successfully. Runners in scoring position numbers for the entire city, both the White Sox and the Cubs were atrocious over the weekend. And that's just another indication. You talked about it a lot, Marshall, in the two days that we had on air Friday and Saturday. And it was proving us correct in that, and that heartbreaker of a game in extras on Saturday afternoon. So as I'm leaving Vegas, absorbing,

the atmosphere and a woman who is listening to a woman in a bathroom having a much worse morning that I could ever have. There's a lot of coughing, violent coughing. You could hear her in the airport in the concourse. I thought you made at the hotel, but you're at the airport. No, no, no. There were, but that's the point is you could hear it. Like I was sitting at a gate and this guy was sitting next to me. We were cackling. That's unfortunate. It was really like we were, we were to the point where we were just cackling. And people kept looking over at me. And I was like, oh, don't look at me. That's not me doing this.

I'm trying to listen to the Cubs pregame. And that's when I heard this exchange between intrepid reporter Elise Minnaker and Craig Counsel, who had decided to give Michael Bush initially a day off because he was 0 for 30. We talked to Michael Bush before the game. Obviously, he's been struggling at the play just your decision to give him a day off and what you're looking for him to get out of it. Yeah, I mean, this is just trying. trying to give a reset to a player that's a really good hitter, that's probably just a mental

break a little bit. You know, there's, he's just got stuck a little bit and, you know, is not having any success and not getting any results. And I think sometimes just a day where you're not in the lineup and you can go in the cage and work and not know that, not prepare for a game that day, but prepare to kind of like make things better here is helpful and put you at ease. He's available to play and there's a good chance that you're going to see him, you know, later in a game.

How do you decide the timing of those usually pretty good about it? Well, he's old for 30. It's also early. There's a righty and he's old for 30. I don't know. I'm just asking like how. And I'm telling you, he's old for 30. Simple as that.

I mean, that's a, it's just a, it's, you can, you can see there's a lot of line drives in there, but it's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, You get to a place of playing every day for a week and not producing, and not having any results, and it wears on you. It wears on you mentally as much as anything. This swing has been kind of low maintenance. He's been so consistent. Is there anything you're seen within?

Is it bats or anything that stands out? I mean, nothing stands out. I mean, I think you got, you get into like some, I think what I've seen is that, When you go into their bats and they feel mechanical, that's when you need a break. You know what I mean? And that's what everybody's got their own mechanics. But when you get into the box, you kind of get rid of them.

And when they become the central thought of you're at bats, then that's when that's when that's when the kind of the trouble happens. April 1st, Layla, April 1st, today is the 13th. Yesterday was the 12th, by the way. April 1st was the last time that Michael Bush had gotten a base hit. It was a two-hit day. This is not in April Fool's. And it was not April Fool's. but I understand everything Craig Counsel was saying there

because you could say what you want about how he's quote-unquote looked at the plate, everything else. But at the end of the day, when you go hitless for 30 straight at bats, sometimes you just need a blow. And I love the foreshadowing there before the game. You'll probably see him later in the game. Right.

And he had a plan and that's hard to go from everyday hitting to then trying to see if you mix it up with having him as a pinch hitter. Now Michael Bush is no stranger to not being an everyday player this time last year. We were talking about how he was being platoon, even as the cleanup hitter. He was being platoon. But then I thought that we had moved past it based on his playoffs. That was enough for me to say, this guy needs to be in your everyday lineup. But when you're over 30, something had to change.

And unfortunately, it wasn't quite as much as he goes, they go, the Cubs. But it wasn't an indication of how this team, offensively has struggled. So he ends up coming in in a pinch-it situation. Matt Shaw was at first base and Bush comes through singles in the bottom of the eighth inning. And also thanks to an error, you know, put your opposing team in a position to not succeed. And that brings around, say, Suzuki. And it helps the Cubs get to that bottom of the ninth to walk it off and at least get one game from this series with the pirates. It's not two out of three, but your job is on that day is to try to in that one, and at least that's what happened.

And not just one game to, you know, stop the sweep, which would have been the first sweep at the hands of the pirates since 2019, and the first sweep at Wrigley since 2017 for the buckles. But understand this. First place team against the first place pirates. Even after you beat them, they are in first place. Now, the great news. You're in first place.

The words of two chains. The philosopher of our time. Even though the Cubs are in last place, and I know it was a rough weekend for Cubs fans to have to watch that happen at Wrigley, you're just two games back to the division lead. Everything is fine in terms of you've been good enough to just kind of hang around amid some really bad news with your starting pitching.

And also, one of your best players, arguably your best player in last year's playoffs, having the most horrible start to the season you can imagine. And it's not just him. It's a lot of guys right now who are off to bad starts from a hitting perspective for the Cubs. credit to Scott Merkin, another great philosopher of our time, the White Sox writer for MLB.com, who at 240 yesterday, pointed out that the Cubs and White Sox

were a combined one for 40 with runners in scoring position over their respective weekend series. So that means the Cubs had the one hit between the two teams at that point, because the Cubs were one for 23 with runners in scoring position through the first two games of their series. That's rough. It was bad. But you know what this reminds me, Leila, and I want to make sure, because Craig Counsel knows. You could hear from his answers and also by the displayed results of, you know, getting the walk-off win. But 162 is a freaking grind.

It is a grind that most sports don't understand because it's one thing to even play 82 game season like the NBA and the NHL. It's one thing to play the 17 games with the violence that the NFL brings. but to go 162 and to get very few days off over the course of six months for Major League Baseball teams, you're going to have stretches like this. It just becomes painfully obvious that things aren't going your way when it happens at the beginning of a season, although they're just a game under 500. They're hanging around and they have not played great baseball, but they're hanging around. Well, yeah, because good teams do that.

In baseball, there is a linear relationship a lot of times, too. You're getting what you're paying for to some extent. Now, that's, we've said this before. Here are the pirates who are, you know, a lot of people's hipster, sexy pick to try to win the Central. And I see why, given the improvement and given the maturation of Paul Skeens. And O'Neill Cruz decided to pick this series to play like a baller in center field, had a great sliding catch on Friday, if you guys recall. But all of that said, this is a Cubs team that is supposed to produce more.

We know that. And when it gets to O for 30, what I thought was really interesting about the rhetorical, from Craig counsel was that we talk a lot about hard hit ball rate and how that affects this team. And I think it is a good measurement. Jordan Bastion did a lot of good work on it too. He said entering Saturday, the Cubs had a 44.2% hard hit rate as a team. That was good enough for fourth in the majors. Is their offense fourth in the majors? No, it is not. And the team's 8.7% barrel rate per stack cast was tied for the seventh highest in baseball. Well, we know that they weren't the seventh best often, so we understand, you may be making a contact, but you're hitting

them where they are instead of hitting them where they ain't. Craig, counsel in that conversation did not use that as an excuse. I'm not saying Bash and Denny's just doing his job providing good stats for us. But a lot of times we say that. We're like, oh, they're hitting the ball well. This is a hard hit ball rate. He's like, no, he's out for 30. We're going to mix it up. And then he helped him be one of the heroes. No, for sure, you look at what my Michael Bush was able to do. And let me tell you something. Craig Counsel sounds a little bit, not tired, but certainly grindy.

He sounds grindy at a time where you'd hope you're settling into your offense and you're getting, you know, say Suzuki back. Don't forget about that this weekend. You're hoping now that you've got your pieces in your lineup, you're going to put some stuff together. And immediately now the lineup gets shaken up. I don't expect to see Michael Bush play today. You know why?

Because Christopher Sanchez is on the freaking mound for the Phillies today. I don't know if you heard. He's left-handed and throws. nasty stuff. Well, and you know who else needs to do better against lefties? The team. So this isn't just a Michael Bush issue. Sounds like a 2025 callback to the first half of last season to me. Well, and when you say Craig counsel sounds grindy, that's the kind of discussion you typically hear in like in August. Right. You know, like dog days of summer. And that's not where this is. the adage that 574 brings up on our text line at 312 644-67 is the truth you cannot win the division in April you just don't want to lose it

and you and I have seen a lot of teams lose a division in April but they kid they're not doing that right now the other part of this is do you feel any better knowing that the nationals weren't just a bugaboo to the Cubs did you see them sweep the brewers the nationals swept the breweres So one of the things that I love about this baseball season already is we're two weeks in and we've seen a little bit of a sample size now where we can say, hey, this is about what, you know, because some people will tell you, oh, it's not the NFL. You can't be looking at every game like it's life or death. It's only April.

Then why are you watching the games at all if it's only April? Just put your sleep mask on. But my point is if it's a 162 game schedule and we're, you know, 15, 16 games in, I think that's a large enough sample size to get some indications and some indicators of where baseball is headed. One of the things I love, Leila, is that there are three teams right now that have double-digit wins. Three teams.

Yeah. The three teams, that's all. Out of 30 teams, everybody else has between six and nine wins. I love a degree of parity that baseball is showing us this season that we have not necessarily seen. Like the Rockies and the White Sox don't have two and three wins, you know? who one of the three teams is. Well, it's the Dodgers. And then... Padres. And the other one, okay, a little different in the Braves. Well, but the Braves are finally healthier.

Correct. Compared to what they start off last year. They also already have a plus 46 run differential. They have been smoking fools. Yes. A bit of a buzz saw to start the year for the Braves. But my point is, even if you're a last place team like the Cubs or the White Sox, the Cubs are two games out of first place. The White Sox are three games out of first place. You just got to, as the text are pointed out, just hang around. If you're if you're going through some things with, you know, Kate Horton, Matthew Boyd, not being around, just hang around for a while. I'm not even there.

I'm not a standings person yet. I'm not a standings person for a while. For me, it's more of how are you taking series? How are you getting your outs? Are you taking two or three against teams you should be? And you were supposed to do that over the weekend and it didn't happen. So that gives you an indication. But then do I feel better knowing that the Nats at least aren't just frustrating to the

Cubs, that was the first sweep of the Brewers since 2011 for the Nationals and their first sweep in Milwaukee since 2006. That's a note for me. So you're saying, thank you, Washington. That's what you're really saying. Well, or at least you know it's not as dire as you may have thought when it came to the Joey Weimer show. If you told me, hey, by the way, we'll be more than two weeks in the season and the

Brewers and Cubs will be, you know, the bottom of the National League Central. My first question would be like, well, how far back are they? And that's what gives me pause to not get too caught up in the fact that the standings exist, but it's not something that you should be terribly concerned about. Everybody has their units of measurement. Right. You know, for you, that's your unit of measurement. For me, it's how are you doing in respective series, at least early.

7-3 is correct. The Brewers did start bad last year. And then they had the greatest month ever. So that was August for them. But I don't necessarily know that you're going to see a swing like that happen again. to replicate that would be a baseball wild oddity, not just even an oddity. But this is very much a work in progress as we're seeing. The fact that I talk about Matt Shaw at first base, you know, even Saturday,

we were on ahead of the game on Saturday from Stadium Swim and Circom Marshall. But I was even surprised to see some of the decisions are still very interesting and I feel like working it out. You know, Caleb Thielbar struggled on Friday and then unfortunately was part of a fielding issue that costs the game for the Cubs on Saturday. I don't know that I would have brought him in two days in a row after that. He was laboring in that outing that he had on Friday. And he is older. I'm sorry, it's just how this goes.

But, you know, maybe that was time for him to get a day off Craig Counsel. I said, no, you're coming in. Maybe it's a mojo thing. But this is still very much a tinkering and trying to figure out who this team is going to be this year. We've made a lot out of the injuries to the starting rotation, Kate Horton out for the year. Matthew Boyd's going to have some time. with his bicep. But the bullpen has had its own list of injuries to start a season that you would rather not

see. And so the Thielbar thing made sense to me because who else does Craig Counsel trust down there? Right. If you really want to go through it and who's healthy enough to actually pitch. And for Thielbar, I think because of just how atrocious his Friday appearance was, getting him back on the horse seemed like the right idea. And he had a chance to get out of that any. There are a couple positives for me from yesterday's game in particular.

Okay. And I say that knowing that there was a grand slam early and things look pretty bad when you're down five to nothing. But if the wind is going to help the pirates, then you also want the wind to help the Cubs. And yesterday it actually did. We saw homers from Danesby Swanson and Mosei's by Astero's. And enough productive outs like with the Bregman's Sacrifice Fly. And then the hits that I mentioned late in the game from not just Michael Bush, but the also, of course, Carson Kelly to help as the hero.

You know, if that's what you want to see. Yeah, if the weather's going to help one team, better sure help the home team. If you told me that the Cubs were going to be down 5-0 and you don't have to say if, the Cubs were down 5-0 and I asked the question to Ray and Mark as we're getting ready to go to the airport. I was like, do you really think the Cubs can score six runs? I was like, that's not even the question, actually. Do you think with seven innings left the Cubs can score more runs than the Brewers, or excuse me, not Brewer's team, then a

Pirates team that has already put up six and, like, can you stop them from scoring more runs? And with that bullpen, the way you described it, the way James and Tyone was pitching, giving up multiple home runs to Brennan Lowe, I was like, I can't see it. But you know what? Craig showed me the vision. He showed me. Craig's vision?

Yeah. Is it like Ben's vision? Does it get a sponsorship? Like, how does this work? You know what? The man used every position player on his roster to get the win. Well, and on the other side of things, the White Sox used nine pitchers yesterday. Well, we'll talk about that later. We will talk about that at 1045.

Coming up next, you mentioned it, Marshall, this isn't just an issue when it comes to you're starting pitching. You're trying to figure out who's in your circle of trust. You're also trying to figure out where you need to put other people who have multiple skill sets. Ben Brown is one of them. So he was on hit and run yesterday,

and we asked the question next. We'll listen to Ben Brown. How much can the Cubs rely? on him in this time of neat. We'll examine next. network. That is Pat Hughes on the call. You know him well. This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043 The Score. And the Pirates and Cubs series not only had a bit of a wild twist in turn, as we saw, but it also featured a lot of people. And one of them who is getting his fair share of

opportunities is Ben Brown. Ben Brown can be a reliever. That is what his current role is, but we know that I think at some point the Cubs would still like him to be a potential starter for them. He's got that skill set. He just hasn't had a third pitch that has worked well for him. He's been working on a sinker most recently. He was on hit and run yesterday morning talking about what he's been working up on the most leading up to the season. I think what we were able to see is a difference between this year and last year. I'm making big pitches when I have to.

I'm not, you know, the bad things are just a little bit less bad. you know, a face and a good hitter with runners the first and second. I'm trusting my new pitches. The singer is just huge for me against right-hand hitters. And at the same time, they're still a runner on, you know, third base with two outs, and I'm still making pitches to gather any of no runs. You know, it's like the little things. It's a little, these aren't, this isn't a big physical change.

Obviously, there was some physical stuff that went on in the off-season, but there was some fish design stuff. But I think you look at these little things that I'm doing just a little bit better at the margins if I was able to maybe do these last year as my year as ballooned as it was, probably not. So, no, it's been really encouraging. But, yeah, I think a lot of this just in what's in between the years, you know, and how you're able to just kind of limit damage

and control your intensity levels. And it's been really fun. And I think his most reason outing was his best of the year, two winnings against the Pirates on Saturday, gave it just two hits, had one walk and three strikeouts, no one runs to his name. Yeah, I think what's impressive about the way he's been able to come into this season is understanding it's a different type of role. He's been multiple innings every time that he's taken the hill in all five games, and he's not gone less than two innings.

And it's got me wondering, because we saw him go two innings the last three times, three and a third the first two times. Is he going to have to be this Colin Ray-style pitcher while Colin Ray is in the rotation, or will there be another means? and then you would hope that once Matthew Boyd comes back, that race shifts back to that sixth man. If that's the case, now you've got some flexibility, if you're correct counsel. Right now, the flexibility ain't there. Yeah, you need Ben Brown.

You need Ben Brown to perform. You need him to progress. And Ben is a guy who will tell you how the sausage is made. I remember last year, especially when he talked about how the first inning really would set him back. And if he struggled in that first inning or he would explain that even if he got the ship wrong, right in innings two through whatever that the first inning set him back in such a way that

was a problem. So to hear him speak like this when it comes to his new role, it's encouraging. I know he had the three and a third against the Angels as well to start the year, but to me it's another thing to be able to replicate a similar performance later on. You know, you come out of the gate strong because that's typically how you want to see guys go. But for me, this last this last outing on Saturday, whether it's more conducive to hitting. I just feel like we were in a better place to watch a more accurate version of him.

The thing you need to understand is Ben Brown is going to be so key to this team, however you want to chalk it up going forward. We know what the bullpen looks like on day one versus the final day, or day one, and what you hope is day one of the playoffs, right? Regular season versus playoffs. And if Ben Brown's on that,

playoff roster, that means they're in a good spot. That means he's had a very good year. If he's not, you have to wonder, well, what went wrong with Ben Brown? Like you said, they have higher hopes for him and his role on this team going forward than what he's in right this second. And there are some pitchers who can use only two pitches and maybe they throw the fastball a bunch of different ways. They can give it some armside run.

They can pick and choose their spots depending on who's at the play to righty or a lefty. But in Ben Brown's case, the third pitch is. crucial, and right now that is a sinker. But it might be surprising as to where the idea for having a sinker came from. Listen to what he said on hit and run about who had been working with him. Yeah, well, the first two months before I didn't do off him now, which guy is pushing me, I mean, the way that he trains, he's ridiculous. I haven't really met anyone bigger, stronger than him ever. I mean, just the way he gets after it. A similar story, he's struggling. his first couple years in the big leagues.

And then you obviously saw what happened in New York, just becoming a closure. And I was a, you know, three-year contract starter. It's a big deal. But, yeah, so, yeah, he challenged my thoughts. I think that was the biggest thing that started, you know, Tarlov's, he's pushing me just to think different about my career, about who I am. And then once we got into the pitch design process, it was, I mean, it was special.

It's just, it's me, him, a catcher, an attraction. And sometimes I don't even having a catcher. And we're just, we're going through stuff. We're learning how things work. We're trying new things. And I'm just so incredibly grateful for play. And it was definitely something out of this world that got us together. And I'm just super blessed that I got to work with him.

And he's still is huge for me. Even now, you know, I still chat with him pretty regularly. and I'm really thankful for him. And it's exciting to see what he's doing over there too. He's selling the ball well. Yeah. And when he says Clay, he means Clay Holmes, the starting pitcher for the Mets. That is not exactly where I expected Ben Brown to come up with something.

But that's the point when players can hear another ear, you know, whether it's Alex Bregman for the team or whether it's Clay Holmes, the Yankees, Mets, and Pirates pitcher who's helping Ben Brown. This is an unlikely source, but it seems to be productive. last year and in previous seasons he's thrown his four seamer over half the time right and it's a good pitch but this is the big leagues and you need a little variety to spice things up and so while he was throwing his curveball 40% of the time last year and that number's not dipped much 37.4% the fact that this change up stays where it is which is not much almost never 3.4% of the time and you add this sinker which is now 17.5% of the time it could be

what unlocks him as a guy who can go deeper into games. And when I say deeper, that means the potential to be a starting pitcher. And that's really what people have been waiting for this whole time talking about Ben Brown. Well, and that's the thing. You know, you said the change up and then you mentioned the percentage. Yeah, you can have a third pitch. But if you don't want to throw the third pitch. Is it really?

And if you're not confident in it, you're still trying anyway. Is it really? It doesn't end well, as we've seen. No. And that's been a part of this too is perhaps, you know, from Clay Holmes, who he's worked with, really fun story and a great discussion, just guys talking ball. You know, you get to this concept of maybe being able to use the sinker and have it work for you. And there are times where I feel like already this season, you're going to be a little more hesitant to mix it in,

which is what we've seen. So that's been my goal with Ben Brown is it's one thing to have a third pitch, but you've got to want to throw it. And you have to feel confident enough in it to be able to do so at a big league level. And it's going to take time, right? It's not something, and we saw that obviously his first appearance of the season. You're like, oh, here we go again with Ben Brown. But Craig Counsel's been steady in giving him opportunities, and the leverage has increased of when he has to give him opportunities

because of the shortage of bullpen arms that Craig Counsel can depend on. Because you look at all these guys who have been called up, and it's like slowly working them in in lower leverage situations just to see what they have, right? But Ben Brown has gone from a guy who was, okay, we think he can be important to, he has to be important. Well, and that's it, right? Is that especially your biggest test of whether or not you like what you're doing is coming in this series against the Phillies. And then it's the Mets. And then you have the Phillies again for four.

Then it's the Dodgers from three and the Padres for three. That doesn't sound like a pitcher-friendly schedule that you just threw at me. Citizens Bank Park, Marshall Harris could tap the ball and it's going to fly out to right field. Taparoo. It might get to first base. I don't have much power. I'll be honest. A big league hitter.

How many balls you've seen fly out to right field in Philly over your years? Very many. Thousands? Well, think about Tommy, Howard, Utley, Mashers. and now Schwabber Mashers. You can square one up there and have it a go far.

The ball travels well at Citizens Bank Park. Now, is it going to be as good as the wind helping everybody out yesterday that I'm not sure? But we get to find out quickly, right? Because again, you're done with the Phillies.

You're done with the Phillies in April. The bad news is you got to see the Phillies twice in April. Well, it's kind of like how last year they faced the entire NL West in the first six weeks. of the season. Out of the gate.

And in this case, you've got the Phillies and then the NLS. Yay. And the two teams that you just mentioned who have double-digit wins. Out of three have double-digit wins. This is a good Monday programming note for everyone listening as well. Pre-game on the score for Cubs and Phillies is 505. So nice and early for you for your Cubs baseball today. Oh, those afternoon kids have a short show, do they?

They got a shorty over there on Speaks and Holmes. A little bit. They've had a lot of shorties lately. We got the two on Friday and Saturday at the pool, which for us was 1045 Pacific time. It was nice and early. I will not lie. I do like the idea of brunch and baseball together. That Vegas, they don't observe the daylight saving time because they got a lot of daylight.

So that's what ended up happening. I want to give a shout out to our crew today, by the way. And you've been texting us 312-644-67-67 is our number. You can also find us on video. we're at The Score Chicago, both on YouTube and on Twitch, twitch.tv.tv slash The Score Chicago, where our Twitch mob is up and they are chatting. They're using emotes. We got a lot of symbols like subscriber and 30-year score and all that stuff. I feel like it's a robust Twitch chat today. So you can join the show within a show there. Additionally, we also have our video team. It is Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerland. Ray Diaz, Tyler Bueberball are our producers and Brandon Fryer helps as well. rocking his Chicago sky gear because the draft is tonight. I feel like before we went to Vegas and then after we came back, the sky have a completely different team.

It's been a facelift of sorts. Or maybe they just got a complete makeover. It's like a team lift. They jumped on a plane. Team lift. They jumped on a plane. Maybe they headed to Miami got some work done. Something along those lines.

Yeah. Or if you, if you've ever been to Turkey and maybe you need some new follicles, replenished on top of your head. A lot of people are doing that. Same vibes. If you go to Turkey, I highly recommend the coffee. If you're allowed to have it. I don't know what the caffeine situation is there

if you get a procedure done. But Turkish coffee is essentially jet fuel. And by essentially, I mean, essentially. I'm just letting you know that makeovers are in style. And a lot of women are applauding men for also taking their makeover seriously. Well, you know, we're not here to get. keep and it's nice when people chat about things, which is what we do here every day. We broadcast live from the score Hyundai Studios brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers.

When we have breaking news on the score, it is sponsored by IDOT. Speeding in a work zone is a no win. Mind the signs. Avoid the fines. We have something fun coming up. Is it fun? Yes. Noah Schultz days tomorrow. You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to tell you exactly how I found out the Noah Schultz. Shultz news and what the response was to my response and how that went down. I think you should because I think we got an update on your response to the response to the response. We got a response three times over. Okay. Let's play a little back and forth, a little foosball, if you will, with the responses. Also, I'm very glad personally because I joke that this was the wait for Noah Shultz and Hagen Smith Invitational.

Well, thanks, guys. I didn't have to wait very long. We'll do that next. Lela Rahimi, Marshall Harris, Mark Grody. Rahimi Harrison Grody on 104 3, the score. Now the fastball by Schultz and his ninth strikeout of the game. He is not allowed a base runner since Bernal reached on the drop throw at first base with two outs in the first inning. That is courtesy of Charlotte Knights TV.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. And it's here. I was hoping to see this happen this season. I did not think it was going to happen this soon. Noah Schultz, the Oswego East product, is going to be called up and is expected to pitch tomorrow. This is welcome news for a team that needed starting pitching help badly. You know what they need more than starting pitching help?

They need hitting help. They're dead last in baseball and pretty much every major category. Oh, yes, I do. be equally bad. No, no, it's, it's more. Since you brought it up, like, do I think it's more, let me, let me give you this stat because. It's all a problem in the words of Johnson. No, I don't, see, here's the thing. I don't think it is all a problem. And here's why. We're so focused on what happened at the start of the season where things were just absolutely terrible. Heading into yesterday, in which Grant Taylor, by the way, pitched two scoreless innings to start

the game yesterday. White Sox pitch. again. White-sized pitching in their last nine games when you look at either the starter or the guy who came in after Grant Taylor, who would be the bulk guy, a 1.27 ERA, best in Major League Baseball, period. A 0.93-12 strikeout to walk stretch. And during that stretch, by the way, they were three and six in those nine games, which tells me they need hitters. So going back to what we said before the break, I'll tell you how I found out the news. Your friend and mine, your co-worker in mine, Mark Grody comes up to me as we're getting ready for dinner.

In Vegas. In Vegas. And says, Marshall, did you hear the news? It's like, what, what's up? It's like, Noah Schultz is getting called up. And I think he thought I was going to be really, really excited. And I, the first thing I said to him was like, I think, right? You're sitting next to me, right?

This was at dinner at night two, at what's the name of the restaurant that we're at? Adiamo. And Diamo. The Italian Steakhouse. Also where Layla spotted Doug Flutty, by the way. I saw Doug Flutty. And then we all saw Doug Flutie. I had to...

Well, Marshall, you missed Doug Flutie. I had to scoot. I had to scoot past him, past the host stand. And I was like, I'm sorry. And he was wearing a cool, like, banana leaf print shirt. It was well done. And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, guy who's shirt I like, oh, my God, it's Doug Flutty. I'm pretty sure he heard me yell the name to our table because he walked by and stared

at us like we had six heads each. But Doug Flutty was there and Noah Schultz. It was a very star-studded dinner. And so Ray is sitting next to me and Mark tells me this. And the first thing I say is like, oh, where's he going to hit? How are you not? Noah Schultz and Hagen Smith are two of the most appreciated and just biggest symbols of White Sox fans looking forward to the season.

Like we haven't had, I haven't been this excited about a prospect call-up. since I want to say Michael Kopeck. Hey, Grody was very surprised in Marshall's reaction as well. I did. This is a sign of hope. Like there's a prospect that you're excited about that you want to see. You've been watching him for years. And he finally gets called up because they realize this isn't okay. What's gone on with the starting pitching.

And by the grace of God, it's an actual pitcher, six foot nine, who you think is going to be a big deal in baseball, ultimately in his career. And you're not happy about it. Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong, Leila. I understand what Noah Schultz represents. We haven't had something like this in a really long time. But let me give you the context of this.

This is right after, I think, a rain-delayed game in which the socks had lost to the Royals by an identical score of the day before. You know what that score was? Two-nothing. As in, they didn't score any runs for a second straight game. So that's where my brain was when this news was given to me. I was like, let me know what Sam Antanachi.

gets a call up. That was my next thing I said to Grotie. Well, according to Ken Rosenthal, it might be soon. He wrote that today. According to Bruce Levine, according to Ken Rosenthal, Bruce said this at noon yesterday. White Sox have not decided to bring up infield or outfield or Sam Antenoshy. And there had been a bunch of reports that he was coming up tomorrow. Which didn't make any sense to me because it's the 14th and you got to wait till the 15th to get him up without getting the year's service time. Well, Bruce said they've discussed it when insider said, nothing in motion as of yet for him. Charlotte's off today, correct?

Not sure about the Charlotte schedule. I can tell you that the White Sox are off today before starting a series with those Tampa Bay race. But I haven't even It's been years since I've cared about the Charlotte Night's schedule.

They're off today. I care a little bit about the Charlotte Night's schedule because you keep up with what's going on. But my point is, I'm caring because I want to see who's getting called up. Yes. Like,

it's that part of it. Like, this is, this is a good time. This is a time of hope. Like, I, this is a prospect

that I've been wanting to see for years be here. I am excited about Noah Schultz. The other part of that context is, all Noah Schultz getting called up does is remind me of players past. I did mention Koppak. Garrett Crochet. Dillon Cise.

Oh, you're hurt. You're hurt. We can go down the line of, Marshall. Well, Gare Crochet, that was a, he, that was 20, too. He got drafted in 2020 and then ended up, you know, ultimately being a part of this early. My overriding point is that when these guys that we get so excited about with the White Sox in particular get called up, you're starting a clock that is not a favorable clock because it is the clock in which these guys end up getting moved.

And I, they get moved because they. they don't develop enough around them or sign enough for agents to fill in the gaps. I understand that. But it's not their fault. They still have value. No, no, no, no. They have value. But when we get to the point where a guy like this gets called up and you're excited

because he's going to be part of a playoff push because he won't be moved and he's going to be a guy who could pitch in for the White Sox for a decade, that's when I'll get excited to the level that apparently everyone else around me was excited. So do you understand? You don't think Sam Antanachi? can't get flipped? Oh, no, of course he can get flipped. But he's a guy who, offensively, if you get him up,

you know, we did this question about when will the White Sox pay someone $100 million? You don't have to pay a hitter like that. Sam Antanachi's not getting paid $100 million. He's a guy who's going to cost a reasonable amount of money to keep in your organization, buy out the Arb years if you want to, if you even need to.

Like, that's a different story. Well, but that's it, though, as you've talked about guys, getting called up to only get flipped. And Sam Antanachi helps an offense that's struggling. But in theory, don't you think he can get moved to? Yeah, he can move down the road, but it wouldn't be the same effect because no one's getting as excited about Sam Antonacci and his overall effect on the White

Sox organization as Noah Schultz is. That's to your point. You haven't been caring about Charlotte Knights games. And Sam Antanachi's been there the whole time. You weren't worried about when is Sam Antanachi getting called up. but you were with Noah Schultz, Hagen Smith, these guys with arms specifically, the White Sox aren't going to pay to keep the arms like they will to keep bats. I mean, I remember I was watching everything in Charlotte because I wanted to see what

Eloy Jimenez was doing when he was batting 375 and you were watching that schedule to see if that was the day he was going to get called up. And I felt that way about a bunch of the White Sox prospects. We had the shirt like, trust the prospects. And I hadn't felt the same way about it until recently. until that was the same feeling I had when I saw that he was getting called up. Like, God, good. A hundred losses isn't acceptable enough this year.

I'm not saying you get to 81, but something had to be done. And for them to be able to call up a big name prospect for that reason is a good thing. It's not just about guys who have earned it, like a Tim Elko last year. And he did earn it. But this is a different deal. 630, Marshall's a web blanket. Let's be excited about Schultz being called up. Again, I am excited about Shultz been called up.

Again, I am excited about Schultz being called up. I'm just not as excited as everyone else because I would like Schultz to be able to get, I don't know, that overrated stat next to his name, a W. I would like to have him a chance to some offense. I would like the sucks to not use nine pitchers in a game. Nine. Your son was absent nine times. And yeah, three, two, three, you're right.

Eloy did just get called up for Toronto. The Blue Jays of all things. That's not exactly an easy roster to make. Ake? They're after a rough start, though. Yeah, there were a lot of injuries. That's not the point. The point is I'm now keeping an eye on the Charlotte Night's schedule for personal baseball reasons.

Yeah, the Charlotte Knights, I've not ever realized this as I'm looking at the schedule. They're like your favorite barbershop or beauty shop. Every Monday they're off. Are they really? Yeah, I didn't realize that part of it. At least this year, maybe it's a schedule quirk. No, it looks like I'm going through the whole thing. Every Monday they're off.

I think that's a Meyer League thing in general now. Yeah, I didn't realize. the LA teams are doing. They have more consistency in their schedule. My hair stylist is off on Mondays. That is not a day where you can go. So welcome Noah Schultz. I think this is a big deal.

And especially with him being a local guy, it was a big deal when the socks drafted him in 2022. And I'm nice to see this. I'm happy to see something nice happening. I am nice to see happening thing. I am also excited to see something nice happening. I would also like some offense to be nice and happening. And then the best part is,

Yeah, nice and happening offense. That's what we request. We know it when we see it. Next right here, I'm Rahimi Harrison Grotie on 1043, the score. You might have missed it last night because I don't blame you. There were not a ton of reasons to watch the Bulls and Mavericks game, but Billy Donovan's post-game press conference was. I think we now have a better understanding of whether or not he's even coming back.

Let's listen together. Next.