Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Cubs rout Padres & White Sox are set to meet Guardians in a pivotal series (Hour 1)

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Dustin Rhoades discussed the Cubs' offensive explosion in a 23-3 win against the Padres on Wednesday afternoon at Wrigley Field. After that, they discussed Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson's heater, as he homered three times Wednesday. Swanson has 26 RBIs in the past 10 games, a franchise record. Later, they previewed the crucial White Sox-Guardians series.

The views and opinions of Laila Rahimi, Marshall Harris, and Mark Grotty 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 Grody may change at any time. It's just sports. Gay thanks. Bye.

Bye. Rahimi Harrison Grody. 10 to 2 on 104 3. The score. Chicago Cubs baseball is on the air from Wrigley Field in Chicago. It's a scorching summer day at the friendly confines. 91 degrees, and the Cubs are as hot as the weather looking for their fifth consecutive win. Sayya, with 12 homers for the year, hits a fly ball, left center field and deep.

This ball's got a chance. It's gone. Three-run Homer, Sayya, Suzuki, number 100 for his career. Deep drive to left off the bat of Dansby, Swamp. That is a long home run. And the Cubs lead 4 to nothing. A few moments later. And Danesby drives one in the air to center field.

It's well hit. Back goes Merrill to the wall. It's gone. Another home run for Danesby Swanson. And the Cubs take a commanding nine to nothing leave. But wait. Dish Blot. Here comes the two O.

Conforto hits a line. Line drive, deep left center field, Merrill looks up, it's in the basket. Two-run, home run, Michael Conforto. And it is now 15 to 2 Cubs over the Padres in the 6th. No, we're not done. Danesby Swanson the batter, hits a fly ball into deep left center. Back toward the wall, Grand Slam. Dansby Swanson with a grand slam to left.

He has three home runs. and eight runs batted in for the day. And the Cubs lead 22 to 3. Now the 3-2 to Taylor from Wix. Hit on the ground a short. Danesby Swanson makes the play. Cubs win the ball game. It's an easy one today.

23 to 3. They finish off a three-game sweep over San Diego. The Cubs have won five in a row. they have won nine of their last 10 and 15 of their last 19. Marshall Harris, Mark Grody, midday's 10 a.m. 2 on Chicago Sports Radio 1043, the score. Welcome on this holiday eve, or maybe you are already celebrating the 250th birthday of our nation. This is Brahimi Harrison Grody. On 1043, The Score, it is Lailahahimie and Dustin William Williams.

William Rhodes hanging out with me for the first hour of the show. Thank you, Justin. Thanks for letting me be here. Yeah, I might have already been heading back to the burbs and maybe opening up my first Mick Ultra of the long holiday weekend. Red, white and blue can, right? So we could celebrate that. You've got a big red, white and blue can that you're celebrating, what, tonight or tomorrow

night? Tomorrow night. Fresh Budweiser. That is. Yeah, we're doing a Budweiser bar crawl. I think I can call it that, where you can win Cubs and Cardinals tickets, big, big, deal at one of five different locations around town. We're going from Navy Pier to West Loop, and then all the way up, we'll end it at Gaslight on North Clark. We're going to start at the,

I think we're starting, I got to look, because there's five places. We're starting at Navy Pier, actually, at five o'clock. So it's Billy Goat Tavern, then it's Crossroads, Bar and Grill on West Madison at 540. So can we Seinfeld Frogger, our way from Navy Pier all the way to, Crossroads by 540. They gave us 20 minutes. So that's also the challenge. I hope you have a very good Uber driver or is Ryan Porth manning the 104-3 FM score vehicle. Okay.

So right city or right right city wrong zip code. Okay. Mitch Rosen is manning the-Mitch is zipping you around. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. So we joke that it's Mitchie shuffle practice where you're going to learn how to Irish goodbye. There you go.

Yeah. I think I'm pretty decent at it, but nobody's as going to. as Mitch. Nobody is as good as Mitch. Nope. So it's Billy Go Tavern. Then it's Crossroads Bar and Grill. Then it's the rabbit hole on North Wells.

The Reveler on North Damon at 7 and Gaslight on North Clark at 740. So yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to it. It's a good way to get your holiday weekend going. But yeah, my friends are like, oh, what are your plans for Friday? And I'm like, well, I have this. I'm like, I'm like, I'm working. And they're like, oh, what are you doing the show? And I'm like, no, I have a bar crawl.

And they're like, that's not work, Leila. And that's just one of those days for us. But not, it's not. It's not. It's not being outside and like cutting lawns or tarring roofs and the, you know, heat dome that's covering us still. It's a commitment. That's a good way to put it.

Yeah, a commitment. Yeah, so hang out with me. I'll give you a little more details. They're also on our Twitter and they're on the score page and the score Instagram. And Dustin, the reason you're like, thank you for having me. And I'm always happy to talk cubs with you. I'm a loyal listener to the pregame show. Thank you.

So hopefully you're not up that early. Maybe you're using that rewind feature, but I appreciate it. I'm a 6 a.m. Rise or not five. But I will say that I did not expect. Like if you were giving me the score, and I mentioned this earlier, we had great fans over at Gallagher Way yesterday. I bet. And the estimate I had was like, okay, maybe another 9 to 7 game.

You know, I could see that happening. We knew the win was going to be a factor. I did not expect 23 to 3. No. And by the way, Colin Ray on his birthday to go out and yet again be the guy. Happy 36th birthday to Colin Ray gets out of two bases loaded jam. You just mentioned the 23 runs the Cubs put up. So the Padres, who might be the second or third most disappointing team in the National League this year,

clearly behind the Mets would be number one, right? Yeah. With a bullet, they're number one. I just don't know if the fan base in San Diego is good enough to be that upset. But they've got a lot of big name people on that team, and their owner doesn't shy away from spending the Do Rehmi. so they have been just horrifically bad

and obviously every time the Padres come to town you've got the Tatis Jr. thing, his connection to the White Sox. Of course. So you always have to reference that. The many machado sweep stakes that the Cubs were partially in.

The point is that Colin Ray was pitching in the same conditions that the Padres pitchers were pitching in. So they didn't like roll over a dome over Wrigley Field and try to mess with the weather. It was hot, it was humid. What, Wrigley Field wins,

that Twitter account showed wind gus of almost 20 plus miles an hour. You guys were there live. Maybe your tent was flickering a little bit in the wind. Yeah, we put up a partition to just block from the sun. We figured out how to construct an apartment over a Gallagher way after all the shows we did last year. And we did have, we did have a side partition because poor Marshall, his computer wouldn't even work in the sun when it hits on that side of Gallagher way. He was on the outside closest to the home plate entrance. Gotcha. And at some points, the wind was so strong that the partition was blowing apart.

We got it figured out. But yeah, you're right. The win was an absolute factor. But you know, Dustin, you're so right to bring up the fact that it wasn't just a factor for the winning team. You know what I go back to is that series almost, it was a year ago. It was the late June Seattle series when they were just an absolute offensive buzzsaw. And they came in and they did not stop it wriggly and it was hot. It was steamy.

The wind was blowing. And everybody talked about how good Seattle was in the weather. Well, the Cubs were hitting in the same. weather and they didn't have the same luck then and we did not see that in this series they swept that thing with a bullet man yeah that was awesome they needed that but it's amazing at the end of may they were really struggling and if you would have told me that when we woke up on june 30th they were 10 games over 500 but still five and a half behind the brewers I would have said no so as well as the cubs have been playing the brewers just don't

stop. They just don't lose. It's an amazing story up there. And they're almost, not quite yet with me, I'd love to hear what others think. They're not quite the team I dislike the most in the National League Central. That is still the Cardinals. They are coming to Wrigley this weekend. I don't like their fans. I like a lot of other things about St. Louis. It's a fine place to visit for a weekend. They're not the best fans in baseball. No, no, they're not the best fans. I don't like their fans. I agree. I agree with you on that. I still dislike them more than the brewers because they're a longer rival.

I mean, remember, I mean, the brewers used to play in the American League. Yes, yeah, that was the old Bud Seelig special. And then we saw the Astros later switch from the NL to the AL. I do agree with you, Dustin. Like the Cardinals series is all important, especially after just the egg they laid the last time they got to face them. Absolutely. We were so hype for that series. And it did not deliver.

But wasn't it around this time last year? And I know we're up against it. I'm going to be the bad on-air host. Hell yeah, Dustin. This is your time now. Push the break. He's the captain now. Wasn't it right around the 4th of July when the Cardinals were in town and the Cubs

absolutely bombed them? There was some big home run, some big grand slams. I think it might have been actually on the 4th of July at Wrigley Field. Double-digit runs on the 4th of July last year. They absolutely clobbered them. So let's hope they can duplicate that. I remember that because it was a Friday game on 4th of July and they were in the special edition, right blue.

Blues hoodie uniforms. I want to say Patrick Wisdom might have had a big day that day, might have had a Grand Slam. That was that baby T. Baby T, we got to open up that box for Baby T. Was that the 2023 one you were talking about with that? Patrick Wisdom, that's two years ago, right? No, that was two years ago. But the one last year, last year was the Cardinals.

It was Michael Bush. Michael Bush was. Michael Bush, Carson Kelly, and there was someone else. They had like a big three that. To the internet. I've got it right here. Oh, hell yeah, Tyler. July 4th last year.

11-3, 8 home runs, a franchise record. Michael Bush had three, three home runs. PCA 2, Suzuki, Conforto, and Swanson, or not Conforto, I don't know why that says that, but PCA hit 2 and Suzuki and Swanson also added in on the phone. Because AI is weird and conflate stuff with games. It can't separate all the game info sometimes. It's true. Disclaimer, I did put 2025.

No, no, you did, but I'm saying AI sees it all as the same. It doesn't know how to differentiate between games like that. That's why you, a human, is still superior right now because you don't have that bad of a game differentiation setup. Our hour, by the way, is brought to you by Cars for Kids. You just heard Dustin Rhodes. Tyler Ferengal and Ray Diaz are our producers today. Dustin is helping out for this hour. We are looking forward to talking more baseball with him.

We got to get into a special segment next, studying Dansby Swanson. In the meantime, this is Rahimi Harris and Grotie. We broadcast live from our score Hyundai Studios, brought to you by your local Huntsby. day dealers. Breaking news on the score is sponsored by IDOT. Running late, speeding will not save you time. No need to speed. It's not a game. Peter Jurich, our intern is helping us out as well. And we are on Twitch.witch.tv.tv.tv.tv.tv.tv.tv.tv.com.com. dot TV slash the score Chicago YouTube 2. Dustin is waving to you. You can see him now. Special guest host. Our Twitch mob is up and chatting. Our video producers are Connor O'Donnell, Jacob Stutz, Max Curtis, and Cody Westerlin working hard for you every day. So we'll get into yet another Dan's Bee game. It's great to talk about. We'll examine what we can about what the changes have been. He sounds like he's not ready to talk about it, but we are. So we'll do it next.

Harris and Grody. I don't want to break time. I want to yell a motion. Can we handle more Anthony Herron? Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. Dansby Swanson the batter, hits a fly ball and a deep left center. Back toward the wall, Grand Slam. Dansby Swanson with a grand slam to left.

He has three home runs. And eight runs batted in for the day. And the Cubs lead 22 to 3. It's just not a real score. No, it's not a real score. That is courtesy of the Cubs Radio Network. Pat Hughes, Ron Coomer, Zach Seidman, the crew. You know them well.

This is Rahimi Harrison Grotie. Dustin William, William Rhodes, of the morning show is in the house for this hour because I wanted him to talk about baseball with me, and he obliged. Thanks for letting me hang out for a couple more minutes. with you guys. And I'm just going to go for it. I love that Dan Sby Swanson has found his swing again. And I know that's something we're going to talk about. But we just heard the Grand Slam.

Pat did a great job. It's great to have Pat back. Zach did a nice job. Always does a nice job. It's always best when the whole crew, all three of them are there. It's a great radio call that we get to have right here on 104. Three of the score. Absolutely. But that grand slam, as far as his baseball card, I don't think should count. Because if you watch the video, the backup catcher or the catcher of the Padres is the field position playing.

And I know that really aggravates Pat Hughes. He hates position. Yes, he hates that. Ozzie does too, by the way. And I agree with it as well. He's leaning back. It was almost like wiffle ball or bad softball or throwing it to a little kid.

Dansby's up there like he's going to hit a softball or its home run derby. He pops that thing. That should not, it should count in the score of the game because that's the game. But I don't know that if that's his first and only three home run game, I'm not so sure you want to have that as your first three run, home run game over that pitcher. That's all I'm saying. Which may be why he was a little more reticent after the game.

It wasn't like he was here to like take the flowers and the sash and the crown and wave to the crowd. He wasn't like that. Yeah, Rodolfo Duran the cat. pitcher pitching at that point. So maybe, you know, he's like that. I could see him not wanting to take full credit for that because of the nature of the situation. Correct. However. It went out of the park. It went out of the park. What was the last time we got to talk about this team scoring runs like this? You still did the work to get there. And with the way the pitching staff is beat up, this is what you have to do, right? You have to, you have to put as many runs across the plate.

Listen, what was it the other night? The Cubs had a nice lead and all of a sudden... Nine to three. Yeah. And all of a sudden it was nine to six or nine to seven. That was the final. They hung on to win that game. So it's really never over.

But when it's 23 to three or 22 or 19, and again, you can't take everybody out of the game, right? Because Ian Hap had been removed from the game at that point. Yeah. And the Padres had been removed from the game. Yeah, the Padres had done a lot of substitutions too. But you only have so many people available too. Exactly. Right. So you had to leave. Again, and I guess I can see it both ways. I'm just talking about from the back of the baseball card. If that was his first three home run game, might need a little asterisk.

I think you're right to give that the appropriate context. And we don't do that enough. So that's beyond fair. But in the meantime, we know what we're seeing. This goes back to June 17th. That's against the Rockies. there's discussion, Dustin, about him, Dansby Swanson, going over the iPad with John Maley and Tently. This is a guy who also, I think we forget this, prior to him coming here when he was with the Atlanta Braves, the year that the Braves won the World Series, they talked about how during the season,

in the middle of the season somewhere around July, they were not happy with the way the Enfield was playing. So they and Ron Washington, who was at the time in charge of the infield, decided to adjust. And Dan Spees got that on his resume. the we're not happy with this. We're going to do something about we're going to adjust.

And then we saw what happened. It paid off in tenfold for them. They won the World Series. That's enough of a resume. So we know he's capable of making these in-season adjustments. Hitting is a little more difficult. You know, infield alignment is a group project. But since June 17th, he has hit 366 with nine home runs and 29 RBIs.

He had the 11 RBI day. as we know against the Mets, but this is not a flash in the pan. Oh, no. I mean, listen, he is really good. I understood why about two and a half weeks ago, most people wanted him to take a couple days off. Right.

I mean, myself included. But the problem was, and I believe he said it to Mully and Haw, Jed Hoyer talked about the backbone of this team is the defense. And that really upset a lot of good Cub fans, that you're going to go out there and say, this team is built on defense, defense, defense. Well, then you can't take Danesby Swanson out because he is arguably the second best

defender on that team behind PCA. He's your best infield defender. Now, don't get me wrong. It's either him or Nico. Nico's very good as well. But Swanson, I think, has touched better as far as a defensive, defensive player. I agree with that. And we forget about the fact that, you know, you and I both know that there were a couple

of years where definitively and purposefully this team was built to win two to one ball games. Absolutely. And acquiring Dan Sby Swanson was part of that. Is that how you would in modern baseball? I don't think so. Probably not, no. But that is, I see why they hold that position so dear and why that is so important.

It's why they extended PCA. It wasn't the bat necessarily. It was his center field defense. Right. You can't, that's not, I don't think you can teach that kind of defense. Those are God-given abilities. You can, to your point about placement, strategy, knowing, okay, this is the way we're going to approach the hitter.

So I might shade a little bit that way. might shade a little bit this way. Based on the runners, I'll play a little bit farther in, I'll play a little bit far, that kind of stuff. But there are catches that he makes that, you know, they have those probabilities where, you know, 95% of the time that is a hit. And he takes those hits away. That's it.

He does. And that's how it turns into defensive runs, saves. That how it turns into wins about replacement. And Dansby, his credit, I think has really made the adjustment. Now, if you talk to Dansby, he doesn't sound like he wants to bring it up as much. So we're going to hear from Craig counsel as far as what he's seen out of Dansby during this stretch. Yeah, I mean, I don't, you know, we never have it figured out. We never have baseball figured out.

And, you know, I think this tells you that. You think, you know, a guy is probably, he probably went through the roughest patch of his career. And on the other side, that is the best stretch of his career. You figured out. I don't think, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think Danesby could explain. it to either. But, you know, I think it's the same thing as say it. Like, now, I think moving four days, we just try to try to keep it, keep it rolling as long as you can because he's impacting the game. He's impacted so many games the last 10 days in a major way. So it's been

great. It's been fun to watch. That's great. Counselor. Baseball coverage on the score is presented by Xfinity. Score the most reliable Wi-Fi. One price, five years guaranteed. Xfinity, imagine that. Dustin, why do I feel like this is an episode of all shucks with Pat Murphy when I heard Craig Counsel say that? Do they just not want to talk about the adjustments that have been made yet? Because it's not just as simple as math is happening and this is all just happening to him at the plate. Well, you get a lot of the Craig's famous lines. Like, if you were going to create like a soundboard of like drops that we play here on the score. A rotation.

That's baseball. Like, you know, you're going to have good days. You're going to have bad days. If we could figure it all out, then why would you need me, Craig Counsel, the $8 million, year skipper of your Chicago Cubs. But they also maybe don't want to give away the secret sauce. Yeah. And that's okay.

Like your KFC really protects that recipe, right? It's like, you know, locked down. But what, you know, you might know one or two, but we're not going to give you all 11. Now, he has been. This is baseball, unfortunately. He's been working his rear end off. And it's nice to see it pays off. And that's kind of big picture, big life, right?

If you work hard, eventually you're going to get out of your rut. But you got to keep going. It's not going to happen in a day. It's not going to happen in 48 hours. It's not the karate kid where the montage happens and then suddenly you're able to win the All Valley Championship. Love those movies, though, Leela. I love the karate kid. It taught us too much, though. We can't just montage our way into this. I mean, who hasn't tried to do that kick. The crane? The crane. We all have.

Who hasn't, you know, and then, you know, sweep the leg. You got a problem with that, right? I mean, these are classics. I mean, Cobra Kai. I know they tried to make Cobra Kai sound like it was misunderstood, but I think we'd all know what Cobra Kai was about. Oh, everybody who went to a halfway middle-sized or bigger. high school news from Cobra Chi types. Now, now, did I, you know, my ordering sweep the leg and say the Packers? Maybe. You know, maybe, but not for everybody. So our friend Jesse Rogers did have this quote.

And he says, here's Danesby Swanson late last night on working with hitting coach John Maley more recently. Really good stuff. So I want you to hear this, Dustin. He says, I think the one thing that he's really done for me personally is just like I'm always best when I'm just convicted in something. So this kind of goes back to the karate kid idea. or I believe in something in he, meaning Maley, is just really, really been on me in a good way of

just walking me through it, coaching me, not coaching me hard, but like holding me to a higher standard and just kind of creating an avenue of like work that I can believe in. You can go into the cage and you can try to fix your swing. If you go to the driving range, you can go there and try to fix your swing. It's also nice to be able to get to the point where you're like, I'm not in there trying to fix anything. I'm in there trying to groove my swing to repeat. the same good thing every time.

So muscle memory, something else you'll hear from golfers, right? Muscle memory. And similarly in pitching, repeatable mechanics, right? So there's a couple more here from this quote to Jesse. And it starts to just show up in game because you're just doing the same right thing over and over and over and over again. And so essentially that that's what he's done for me. I mean, I straight up asked him.

I was like, dude, I may be 32. I may be close to 10 years. And when he says, I mean service time, which is a big. deal in baseball. I may have had a lot of success in this game, but I still like being coached. I still sometimes like having my handheld and walk through with, and he was just the one that has been doing it for me lately. But all the hitting guys, they've also been awesome and positive and consistent and supportive. And I think they've all put their heads together and kind of just like said, hey, this is what we are going to do. And males, John Mayley, was just the one that was

able to kind of relay the message to get through it to me, and it's obviously made such a difference. Good reporting. Excellent. To be able to get that kind of info. John Maley gets a lot of love from his hitters. I've heard Nico on the station talk about John Maley quite a bit. If you've been watching the Love at Reunion stuff, there's an episode with John Maley that's can't miss, you know, Marquis re-showing those episodes. You're right about that. I worked with John in Houston. Okay. And same thing. You know, Jose Al-Tuvae definitely credits him with becoming who he was as a hitter. You saw the progress there out of that team.

There's a reason he's got such a good reputation in baseball. But it is curious to me that Dansby doesn't necessarily need, hey, this is not a leg kick. This is not a toe tap. It's what I'm telling myself. And that sounds like what's happening here a bit. Absolutely. And he's just repeating to what we just spoke about. He's repeating what he's been doing.

And it sounds like Maley reinforced to him, you just got to keep doing it's, you know, keep doing what you're doing. Let's not really change too much up and you'll work your way out of it. And that's why it's 162, right? That's why it's 162 games. And you need that in this sport to really figure out what you got. Now, Dustin's Price, I'm bribing him with iced tea from Starbucks to stay another segment. Yum. That's Dustin William, William Rhodes, our morning show producer here on Rahimi Harris and Grotie.

and Dustin's hanging out with the first hour with us today talking a little baseball, which I certainly enjoy. We'll get Dustin to talk about the White Sox, what you do in the pregame show? People only think you do Cubs, but I know that's not true. No, I've got thoughts on the Sox. There's a massive series coming up against the Guardian, so I want to get Dustin's thoughts on it next.

I know, I know they lost, but come on. This is what it's all about. And then we'll talk with Dustin for another segment, and then Chuck Swirsky is set to join us at 11. So thanks for hanging with us today, and Rahimi Harrison Grotie on the score. Rahimi Harrison Grody. That sounds so crazy.

104. 3 the score. Wow, I like that. Midday's 10 to 2 on 104 3, the score. And now four in their part. Chopper over the middle. This could do it. Henderson on the move.

Britt Montgomery is retired. It's a final on this Wednesday afternoon. The White Sox fall in the finale, six to one against the Orioles. That is courtesy of, I'm CHSN. That is John Schrefin, Steve Stone on the call. This is Rahimi Harris and Grotie. And Dustin Rhodes filling in for this hour. Happy to talk baseball with Dustin. You know him from producing Mully and Ha every morning. So thanks, Dustin. Thanks for asking Layla. Nice to be here for a little bit

longer before Chuck Swersky comes in. Yeah. It puts me on my way. It's a Rahimian company type of show. Layla and friends. Leland and friends. Dustin is, Dustin knows the joke I'm making. I'm pushing it. So yes, okay, unfortunately for the Sox, they couldn't get the sweep in Baltimore. They lose to the Orioles by final of 6 to 1. And I think you made the appropriate observation as well that they faced a noted, I don't know if you call him a Sox killer, but he's definitely a Sox nuisance in Dean Kramer. That guy can deal against this White Sox team. He can deal indeed.

They've got to be happy. I'm not like clicking their heels. but they won a road series. And that had not happened in, what, eight consecutive tries? Yeah, it was May 1st through the third against San Diego, who we just saw. Padres, who are now the punching bag of Chicago baseball teams. So they got to feel good about that. But this upcoming four-game series is more important than sweeping the Orioles.

Yes, the Orioles are obviously an American League team, but it's more important to win these games in that division. So this is absolutely monumental. And I believe the White Sox gave a couple guys a day off. yesterday, right? They did not necessarily have their best starting lineup going yesterday. They had a little bit of a day game after a night game situation. So your lineup was Antenachi Vargas, but Intendi Montgomery Gonzalez. So that kind of shows you how high he was in the lineup there. And then it's Midroth, Peter, Acuna, so he was at sure. And then Romo, Dromo, Romo was

catching. So that gives you an indication. So listen, because you want all hands on deck starting tonight. I mean, it's a four-game series on the road. You have your ace. going. You've got your best lefty going Friday night. And you've got to do whatever you can. I think the bare minimum, you've got to split. Four game series are no fun. Yeah. It's because here's a thing. In a four game series, you know you're what, 99% likely to not get a sweep. That's not even on the table. Correct. But I agree with you. The first thing I... Unless you're playing the Mets. Yeah, there it is. And that is true. But when you see this, I thought the same thing, Dustin. I thought when I looked at this ahead of

after what they just did against Baltimore, I'm like, well, you got to ask for a split. That was my first thought when I saw the four game set, even on the road, where progressive field can be so much fun for the home crowd. Cleveland is starting to heat up as we know. But this is an excellent chance when you got your stopper

on the mound tonight in Davis Martin. He's all-star caliber starting pitcher, but this is almost like a playoff game feel to me. So you now have the socks, have a one-game lead over them. You're at their place.

You've been playing above your skis. They're ahead of schedule, for sure. How about outperforming? You know how we always talk about Jed who you're saying outperforming expectations? Well, that's what the socks are doing. Nobody had these. Nobody had these. Even the direst, hardest white socks fan would not have expected this to have happened.

And they're actually, they're a likable bunch. Absolutely. They're more likable than the last team that was put together that was supposed to do something, you know, the old, you know, remind me after the parade, that line that will live in infamy that never happened. It did not. Did not happen. That group was not as likable as this group is, in my opinion. No, I agree with you because there were a lot of expectations placed on those individual players. Yoamancato was one of the top five prospects in baseball, you know, as part of that Chris Sale trade, for example. Tim Anderson was a polarizing figure to some, loved him here, of course.

I can't believe how the bottom... We've got a bobblehead of him if you're watching. Poor T.A. lost his hand here. Right in the middle of the council here. And I can't, I just can't believe that he's not in baseball right now. That's the part that makes it so hard. Eloy Jimenez had a cup of coffee with the race. The Blue Jays earlier this season.

Yeah, he was with the raise as well. But these are guys that we thought were going to hit, potentially five more players. You know, maybe not for a career, but at least a year or two. and that core fell apart so quickly. And then this group of players, it really is a whole performance. You know, it's an up and down the lineup effort right now without Mune.

And without Mune. Yes. And without, and he's already gotten to the point where they were hoping he might be back. At this point, the way they're playing, I wonder if now you just... Take your time. You just wait until after the All-Star game and make sure he is,

I don't believe in 110%. There's only 100%. Make sure he's 100%. Right. I think the way you're playing right now, unless the bottom drops out, something terrible happens, like you get swept by the Guardians, you could wait on him coming back until after the All-Star game. And at that point, he should be 100%. You know what I was thinking about.

And I know this is a sock segment, but you're here and you kind of know how my brain works. I wonder if the All-Star break is coming at a bad time for both the White Sox and the Cubs. It's a great point, Laila. It's a great point because I think the day's off, a day off is okay. but it's a long break. You want to stay hot and what both of these teams are doing right now?

Think about the fact that we had a 22-run performance by the White Sox last week to be followed up with a 23-run performance here by the Cubs. Right. I mean, you would have never thought that.

These are the blessings. These are the good times. It's great to be a Chicago baseball fan. Yeah. How many other teams have two teams in the top 10 of the power rankings? If you go to the big cities. You know, the Yankees are in there.

You can't say the Angels. Yeah, the Yankees are in there, but the Mets are. Right. The Dodgers are obviously in there, but the Angels are not. We'll go down to Florida, okay? They've got multiple teams. The Rays are in there, but the Marlins are not. Yeah, and that's different.

You know, it's kind of like, that's kind of a similar scenario to like Cardinals and Royals, you know, when it's interstate like that. So that's a little bit different situation. No, these are good times. And I know that we hold everybody to high standards, but there's a reason. Yeah, it's Chicago, right? At Chicago, they should be held to high standards. Amen. Anthony Kay may be the wild card in this. Like, if Anthony Kay pitches on Friday. He's got to bounce back. Not the greatest of his outings the last time out.

Sean Burke did a nice job. His last outing, he's set to go Saturday, and then it's Eric Fetty on Sunday. And Fetty was okay the other night? He was. Right, okay? It was the same opener combination that worked again. You might see that same. If it works. Why not run it back out?

But Anthony K may be your X factor this weekend to me, because if he's, He has a good outing. If he goes, I'm not going to say a quality start. Let's give him five. Are you feeling better about the series split that you and I talked about? Absolutely. I am too. He may be out of all the players that we know, he may be the ex-backer.

But it really all starts tonight. Like I think it. Absolutely. I'm talking this up as a stopper. I chuck it up as a good year. I like to say the must-win statement games kind of thing. It's definitely not a must-win, but I think it's a statement game. When you have your stopper or your ace on the hill on the road with a one game leading the division,

a week out of the All-Star break, like, all right, let's go. The time is now. Let's see what everybody's got. You're right, because if you drop the game with your stopper, I'm like already chalking it up as the W, but you're right, if you, Dustin is being the coach here. If you don't have this game, then your split is like a real tricky. It can put a little, you know, bad mindset in the rest of the team, the rest of the way. So, like, they should be pumped.

They should be pumped. I expect like a playoff atmosphere. If you are one of those people, which I am not, that claim to be a Chicago sports fan, I am a Cubs fan. And I pay attention to the Sox because this is what I do for work. But if I did not do this for work, I would not be a Sox fan.

I think you are either a Cubs or a Sox. But if you are one of those, I'm a Chicago sports fan. Tonight's your night. Because the Cubs have the day off and first place is on the line in the AL Central with the Ace. So pay attention. Get behind him, Chicago.

You heard the man. That is the command of Dustin William Rhodes, who was kind enough to sit in for this hour on Rahini and Garrison Grody. I mean, you're welcome to hang if you want. We've bribed you with iced tea. Well, this show has had three co-hosts at the same time. We do three-man weave all the time. Yeah, that is, it's the more the merrier.

You know that. Everybody's welcome to hang out with us on the midday show. Chuck Swirsky is set to come in next. And we will talk to Mike Florio, the creator and editor in chief of pro football talk because the NFL news never sleeps. Destino, thanks again for coming in. Thanks for inviting me. And yeah, you got a lot of compliments on the text line. So they're shocking. Chuck Swirsky and Mike Florio next.