Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show - Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman light up Braves in Cubs' 8-4 win (Hour 1)

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

Leila Rahimi and Mark Grote opened their show by breaking down the Cubs' 8-4 win against the Braves on Wednesday at Wrigley Field. After that, they discussed how the Cubs are faced with the difficult task of fixing a struggling bullpen as the playoffs loom. Later, they discussed White Sox designated hitter Tommy Pham's successful pitch to general manager Chris Getz recently to get him activated and into the lineup Wednesday, when he hit a three-run homer in the team's loss to the Guardians.

Rahimi and Grody 10 to 2 on 104 3 The Score Rapper and long-time Packers fan Lil Wayne says he's done with watching NFL games Here's the message Wayne posted on X on Sunday afternoon Quote,

fake a if I can't respect the game when the refs can't rough the game I'm out on the NFL this year Wish for it to be an amazing season, wrong? I like your accent. Do we have the little Wayne dissing Bears head coach? Ben Johnson.

Yeah, so this is a song called Special Ops. Take your cold for the sheriff. Come on a bell for my flow at home. They taste like to smoke alone. How many sports songs when it's strictly a song about a team or a sport are actually good songs? No, I guess. Maybe I'm wrong. I guess someday we'll go all the way by Pearl Jam or Eddie Vedder, I guess, is okay.

Marlon Soar by Creed. That's good. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, what open. Yeah. So bad. Is that one of your go-to karaoke songs?

I bet it is, man. Okay, no more with the karaoke. I love karaoke. What about careless whisper by Wimp? How do we feel about that? For a karaoke song? Yeah. Oh, that's a great karaoke song.

I should have known bad I'd to cheat a friend. Waste the chest. I, the only karaoke song I ever remember having done was sweet style of mine. Aye, aye, aye. Show outing? Do we do a karaoke, a show karaoke outing? No. We live. We've seen karaoke. We do a lot of cool things together. Mark Grody, midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, The Score. What's up? We are broadcasting live for the Hyundai Studios.

Brought to you by your local Hyundai dealers. It's Rahimi and Grody on 1043. The score, a perfect open by Tyler Buterbaugh. Actually, I take away one, Butte, a hapute, because I heard Creed. That does not get me in the right headspace to hear Creed at any time in my day. Yeah. You know how I feel about this. I think Creed and Nickelback are different. Ah, oh, you like Nickelback?

Yep. Not Creed. Correct. It's okay. That's all right. I know, that's probably not actually, you know, it doesn't make sense, but to me it does. Understood. I get it.

I draw the line. It's just very, they're very close to one another, but I have a line. Because you have drank down to the bottom of every bottle. That's what it is. These five words in my head say, are we having fun yet? Nobody wants this this morning. Welcome into the show. Thanks for being with us.

We are open to you. There is a different. We could get more into that later on in the show. Layla and I always love talking music, but we got to get serious here. And like I said, we're open on the text line. When I say that, it's all relative, Layla. Why do we need to? We just have to get on task.

On task would be the right way to say that. We don't have to ever be serious. because it's sports. 312, 64, 67, keep those text messages coming, and every once in a while, we let a phone call through as well. 312, 644, 67, 67,

quite a night again for the Chicago Cubs. It's really day-to-day in these manic Cubs episodes, the day before the sky was falling, and then we got what we needed last night. Yet another Pete Crow Armstrong evening. The Cubs beat the Brave 8 to 4. they win the series against an excellent team. PCA 3 for 4 with two home runs and a triple.

He is up to 44 home runs on the season. 7th multi-homer game this year, 13th in his career. And he does get to sweet swinging again. Breaks Billy Williams' record for Cubs lefty home runs in a season. So the display, just when you think, okay, that's enough, PCA, you've done enough. It's great. You've won the MVP. And now it's like, is he going to hit 50 home runs this year?

Well, that's, that's it. It's now become the drive to perhaps 50. We're still watching the stolen bases. I'm still hoping he gets to 40. Doesn't matter. And by the way, you know, you know I'm watching. You know I'm watching the Kyle Schwerber PCA home run battle that is taking place. Schwabre with 45.

But his OPS is only 870. PCAs is 9.56. How we doing? What it do. How are we doing? That's it. So just consider that part of it as well. Now, PCA's been caught stealing seven times because shoot or shoot.

What? But I don't care. And the strikeout numbers are remarkably different as well. Schwerber has 212 strikeouts. Is that tops in the league, by the way? No, because of our friend Colson Montgomery. Pretty close, though, right? Yeah, we could do the strikeout leaders in Major League Baseball.

And Colson's got some homers, as we know, and I'm worried about his health. I'm done to hear that at least it's not broken, according to an X-ray, his former. But PCA's only got 178 strikeouts. So that speaks to the OPS. You know me. I'm not this stat and only this stat matters. I'm like, okay, well, how do you balance them against each other? This is what is turning into, I think, I don't think it's a once in a lifetime thing.

I don't think it's a generational thing. But how do you describe the season that Pete Crow Armstrong is having relative to what we have seen? It is an MVP season, but is it more? special than that. And that's where I'm trying to get with this thought, is I'm trying to figure out how to compare it. I was thinking about this earlier, and we'll get even more into it later on in the show. There's no comp that I can think of in certainly with the Cubs. There's no comp for Pete Crowe Armstrong ever. And I'm going through all the guys who have had special seasons with the Cubs, MVP seasons, 40 home run guys, Billy Williams, obviously, and Derek Lee,

and Sammy Sosa and Andre Dawson. Like, whoever, you want to come up with. There's no comp, and the reason there's no comp is because there hasn't been a guy whose scouting report we didn't really know. Nobody knew that Pete Crow Armstrong was capable of hitting 30 home runs, which he did last year, let alone hitting 44 home runs. Like, I can't think of it. I don't even know if I could think of the comp in Major League Baseball. And maybe somebody has the answer to that. 312, 64, 64, 67, 67. A guy who we didn't think would be a, quote, home run hitter who became a home run. home run hit him. Yes, there are players like him who are 40-40 capable, who were five-tool players who

could do it all. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about a guy whose expectations we didn't understand that we didn't know. Like, I think there's only like one comp I could think in Chicago and it's not even baseball. It's basketball and it's Jimmy Butler. Because I didn't know, although he was a first-round pick, I didn't know Jimmy Butler was going to become a superstar or a star in the league. Like, that's the only one that came to my mind, Leila. there was a time where he was considered one of the more dominant talents. So I don't know. He was top 10. There was a time where Jimmy Butler was top 10 in the league.

Yeah, but I don't think we expected. I don't know. Maybe you did. Maybe you did coming out of Marquette. I think Jimmy Butler might be the comp here because the first round in the NBA is wide open after your first five players or so. And that's in a good draft. So I do think that that's a valid comparison. But yeah, this is one. And, you know, Javi Baez, I think we knew that he had potential. I think we didn't necessarily, but it was more of a tool set altogether. You know, I feel like he was more talked about coming up maybe. At Schwerber, we knew that he was a power hitter. That wasn't exactly a secret.

That was his potential. That's how he came on to the scene. So, yeah, I mean, even recent comms, like, if I go to the 2016 team and I try to think about it. But none was unexpected, though. Like Chris Bryant, it was not unexpected that he had. There were commercials from Red Bull about waiting for Chris Bryant's call-up. The secret was out. We all knew about that one.

There were no secrets on that Cubs team. And yeah, Javier Baez. And PCA didn't come out of nowhere. I mean, this was a highly touted prospect who people had heard about because we hear about hot shot prospects. But the capabilities were more like this guy has brilliant speed, a brilliant defensive tool. And we'll see about the hitting.

We'll see if he's just going to be. be a streaky guy. Nobody knew that he could do what he has done and that is put together this slug with the home runs and the RBIs. All right, I teased it in transition as we all try to figure out ways to talk about PCA and what we are seeing in real time. How about some real time talk from the Cubs broadcast from last night after he had hit a home run? Pat Hughes and Ron Kumer was Sayah Suzuki at the plate talking about trying to put in perspective what they have been seeing every day because nobody has a closer look at this man PCA than Pat Hughes and Ron Coomer right here on 104-3 the score.

We're in the seventh inning and the pitch on the way driven in the air deep right field it's got a chance gone. Another home run for Pete is 44th of the year. over the 368 sign in right center. 44 homers, 105 runs batted in. And in tonight's game run, he has two homers and a triple. He is putting on a show. And the fans are loving it here at Wrigley.

And he just might become a unanimous MVP at the end of the I just don't know who else you would put up against that. Those numbers, I just don't. And, you know, we were talking about cycles, you know, so what about the cycle? Just keep going deep. That's all, you know. That's fine with most of us. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Wow. He's just got so much talent. I've been telling people, Ron, when, you know, people want to talk a little ball and ask about the Cubs. I say, when you've got a guy. Like Pete Crowe Armstrong, it allows your team to say anything is possible about this season. And it's not all Pete. I'm not saying that. There are a lot of other really good ballplayers and pitchers on this Cubs team.

But his talent is in that very special category. And here's the thing, Pat, I think we've all seen guys with exceptional talent. But it doesn't always show up in what he's. does his performance in the year. You know, he might have a great home run year, but something else is lacking. There's nothing lacking in his performance in any category from defense to offense anywhere. I mean, he's the best center fielder in baseball defensively. He's got a great arm. He's got 41. He's got 44 home runs now, and he's going to end up with 40 stolen bases before it's all said and done. Michael Bush cracks one in the air. Deep right.

Underfield, back goes Acuna, makes the catch shy of the track. Out number two. We're going to have to start checking Cubs records for most home runs by anybody in a single season. 44. How about this, Pat, the fifth time he has hit two or more home runs in a game since August 5th, the fifth time. It's the middle of September. It's the most homers ever by a left-handed batter in Cubs history. Surpassing the great Billy Williams in that category.

I know Sammy Sosa had some of the monstrous years. 66. I think Sammy had 60 or more, something like three years in a row. Yeah, 66 in 98, 64 in 2001, 63 in 1999. Hack Wilson hit 56, Pat, in 1930, and then, then Sosa hit 50 in the year 2000. Great stuff right there from Pat Hughes, Ron Kumer, and then you heard Zach Zadman chiming in there on 104-3,

the score last night. Layla, what did you make of what you just heard right there? I think I heard three very respected baseball minds in this city Marvel at somebody, so I'd better be present with this. And not just admire the moonshot, like what he had yesterday to right field. My goodness, the arc on that was ridiculous. but to understand the improvement arc. And there's a, I have, I have like some people who tweet at me,

even though my replies are closed because I live an unbothered life that way. But I will reply to you at times. And Matthew Rowe tweeted at me, when do the Cubs have to understand that the company underpaid PCA? And that's to the point where we're at with this. He has a good nose for news, by the way, Matthew. So, hey, Matthew. Thanks, Matt.

He does. People are good like that. But that's the point here is we went from, some people wondering, was the extension a lot of money? And baseball, the standard operating procedure in baseball said no because of his value at centerfield, the positional value of how good he is at center. Then came the hitting piece. And then you get to that question, which I don't blame me for asking in these moments.

Yeah, so good and well said by you. And yeah, I mean, if you having the texts are coming in here. And like I said, we'll take calls on it too. like if you could help us out with a comp for PCA, really in any of our Chicago sports. I'll even broaden it nationally in terms of a guy whose expectations we didn't know. We knew that PCA was brilliant with some of his tools, but this, I don't know that this was ever expected. 312, 644, 67, 67.

Yeah, we've gotten some text too. This is from Sean and Charlotte talking about Jimmy Butler. At Marquette, we'd see Jimmy at the bar and he'd say he was going in the first round. Even we were like, yeah, okay, Jimmy. Yeah, man. Jimmy told us, man, and he was, is a star. And every year that guy got better. So he was amazing and his incremental improvement with the Bulls and then elsewhere.

Yeah, 773 says the approach 180 Pete has made has pretty much unseen before in baseball. This is from 773. At points, he looked like he could be the next Javi Baez, a guy who comes out of the dugout swinging. and pitches a foot off the plate. Pete taking walks and cutting down on case this fast while improving power numbers is nothing short of a miracle. And that's, are we not sitting with this enough

like Pat and Ron did? Oh, man, let's do it. 312, 644, 67, 67. What are we seeing and do you have a comp for PCA in baseball, really in sports as well? We'll get into some other things too. Alex Bragman had a hell of a night too. I mean, it's just amazing.

so did show done. We'll also, if we had time, get in some things from Craig counsel in regards to the bullpen. Things got a little sketchy late in the game. Ray Diaz and Tyler Buterbaugh are our producers today. Connor O'Donnell, Max Curtis, Jacob Studs, and Cody Westerland are running the videos, and we appreciate them. It is Rahimi and Grody on 1043, The Score. Rihini and Grotie. Vinnie, how you doing, man? Welcome back to the score. I always love coming on here. I'm telling you, it feels like I'm getting another opportunity at the big league level, right?

And I know you guys use that as a bump. I get a lot of flack for that. Radio stations in Wisconsin, and they're saying, why are you saying that you feel like you're in the big league when you go on the Chicago radio station? This is the big league, the big time. You, sir, have just earned yourself some bears.

I don't know if I want any of those. I don't know if I should thank you or not. Midday, 10 a.m. to 2 on the score. And now the 2-2-fish. Bouncing ball at first. This is going to do it. Bush goes to Zeppertan. In time.

The Cubs win the ball game. It goes three to one. The Cubs win it by a score of eight to four. And the Cubs start to congratulate one another on another victory and a series. Got a little sweaty in the ninth inning, didn't it? Cubs still hold on to win. Eight four over the Braves. As it heard right here on 104, 3, the score.

You are absolutely listening to Rahimi and Grody. and we are open for you some good text messages coming through 312, 644, 67. We'll get to that ninth inning and some stuff that Craig Counsel said yesterday on the score in regards to the bullpen. But we've been trying to figure out what the comp is for PCA, whether a CUB, whether anybody in Major League Baseball, relative to mystery expectations, the power, the slug that PCA has shown that we didn't know that he necessarily had. 312, 64, 64, 67, 67. One, Leila, you pointed out, was, and it's an interesting one. Going back to Sandberg, that'd be Ryan Sandberg.

Oh, yeah, this is a text from 630. Correct, where he hit 15 home runs in his first 300 games plus, not as dramatic as PCA, but the standard to show the power was never expected. That's pretty good. Now, the only difference I think with Ryan Sandberg is that Sandberg looked like, a guy who could hit the ball out of the park. Like Sandberg, big, strong dude and was, and I know

he was a Hall of Fame second baseman, but this guy came up, he was a third basement, like a little secret. He was a third basement for the Cubs in his first year and very good at third base. So he was a big stacked kind of guy who you looked at and say, yeah, he could probably hit home runs

in an era where you're told to hit line drives. 815 says not a true comp, more of a comment, but did we expect Arieta to put the kind of numbers he did when he joined the Cubs, or did he well exceed expectations? That's a really good question. Because I knew they knew that Areetta was going to benefit from a change of scenery, but I didn't know if it were to this extent.

And then another 630, I would disagree that no one expected this from PCA. His first year in the minors, he had 20 home runs and 46 extra base hits, over only 432 base hits. Yeah, but that's the minor leagues. Like, Elo Jimenez bet at 375 in the minors at AAA. Like it doesn't mean it translates to the big league level in the same way. And given how PCA looked at the big league level, I think that's why this became such a surprise.

Even earlier this season, earlier this season, he didn't look this way. Yeah. And the questions were when he came out of the minors, can he hit? I mean, I remember talking to people, talking to guests on the score about Pete Carr Armstrong, and the scouting report was always the same. Oh, this guy is he's got the best center field you've ever seen. He's going to be the best center field of the Cubs have once he's with the team. he could steal every base.

Not sure about the hit tool. They've got to catch up a little bit. So the expectations just weren't there early on for the hit tool and especially the slug. Well, and even Jed Hoyer. Jed Hoyer said earlier in the season that we just have to accept that this is who he is. And he was talking about inconsistent hitting at that point. Well, I hope you're also happily accepting this version. Something tells me they are.

Correct. And also, by the way, not to be outdone. How about Alex Bregman's day? Alex Bregman, not just with the extra base hits, but going three for four with four RBIs. Do you know he's up to 32 doubles on the season now? You love doubles. I do. 26th home run of the year he hit in the game in the fourth inning.

32 doubles had a triple in the game, so he was on cycle watch. But here's the other part of that is I'm going, wait a second, if you've hit 32 doubles, where's that putting you among the stat leaders in baseball? Okay, well, 11th. he's 11th right now. He's tied with Freddie Freeman and Michael Harris with 32 doubles, Gabriel Romano and Sedan Rafael Raffella from Boston. Okay, so that's not terrible either.

That's pretty good. I mean, that's an interesting list of hitters. Alec Berluson, Williore, Abrae, Rafael Devers, Brian Reynolds, Brandon Nemo for Texas. I know you got to keep an eye on the Rangers now.

Terang! 34. And then Luis Arias, 33. Bregman's turnaround this year is almost as incredible and maybe unprecedented as what we've seen PCA do this year. I mean, there was a time where Bregman was sort of left for dead this year. And now every time he comes up to the plate, I'm like, man, this guy, the approach is real and the approach is fantastic. Layla, what were you thinking last night in the ninth inning?

I was thinking I still had to watch a game because no lead is safe. We were all there. I was like, can I change the channel now? This is a blowout right here. I'm all sportsed out for the night. Can I change the channel? But no, in the ninth inning, Ryan Rawlinson is put into the game, get its big lead. It's got to be a weird feeling when you have that kind of cushion, walked a couple of guys.

And so, Craig's like, ah, crap. Now I got to go out there and get them. And it's Zephyrjohn. Here comes Ryan Zephyrjohn, gives up an RBI double, eventually gave up an RBI ground out, and then Zeperjohn got out of it. but the bullpen continues to be a conundrum and a concern. And look, I mean, we're not like this. That wasn't the story of the game.

But I think it leads pretty well into something we heard yesterday on the score with Spiegel and Holmes to do a great job every time they get the chance to talk to the manager of the Cubs. Craig Counsel, a great interview yesterday. And what really piqued our interest was Lawrence asking counsel this question regarding the state of the bullpen. I'm curious on how much experimentation can you do to try and find the right mix in the bullpen when you're also trying to make sure that you've got home field in the first round of the playoffs. Yeah, I mean, you can call whatever you want. We're just trying to win baseball games.

So you can come up a lot of different phrases for it. We're just trying to win baseball games. That's it. We don't, the home field thing is not, it's like that, how does that happen? We win baseball games. You know, so it's, it's, we're at a point where we're doing everything we can to win every game. We're not going to put pitchers in the game that are, we're not going to put players out there that aren't able, like health-wise. But other than that, we're going to push guys at this point in the year, for sure.

And we're just trying to win every game. He said three different things there. Am I crazy for thinking that? What did you hear? I heard somebody, I heard, well, somebody, I heard Craig Counsel say that he's trying to figure it out, but then, He's got to push guys, which can cost you wins, as we've seen. And then you are going to respect health. But in doing some of this, you are gambling with a winner of loss.

I don't know why that's hard to defend here. Yeah. Or at least illustrate. Right. When you push guys, that means you might have them give up runs. And if it's lose the battle, win the ward. I've said this before about him. I don't necessarily know that you're doing either.

and I wonder if you're acting like you had a lead in the division that never existed at times. You don't have this cushion. You have to be at this point in time now. That does mean you have to overuse some arms probably more than you'd like. But pushing somebody, I get that that's what's happening. But where are the winning games supposed to come? It's September 17th. When does that come to fruition?

How many games do you have to gamble with before you get the wins that you're expecting to get out of some of these guys? Right, and we saw exactly how important home field is last year with the adrenaline that was flowing through Wrigley Field against the Padres last year. And then obviously not having home field against the Milwaukee Brewers and losing that series. This segment with Rahimi and Grotie on 1043, the score is brought to you by almost free teeth.com save on dental implants today. You can hear him scrambling. That's a frustrated manager right there, trying to figure out. the bullpen. There is nothing more frustrating and perhaps

even unexplainable about bullpens and the volatility that exists. We all want to know that is it something mechanical, is it something velocity-wise? Is there something wrong? Is it mental? Is it confidence? And nobody really knows including the manager. So that's

the frustration that I heard with him right there, that he can't explain it. And he has to. He has to experiment. The experimentation, like that's where I will give Craig a little bit of support is he's got no choice. Like if we just saw him marching the same guys out there all the time, which to some degree he is doing, there are different things he has to experiment with, with putting Edward Cabrera

out there as long as he did. And it even said during that interview yesterday, it wasn't ideal. He didn't necessarily want to put Cabrera in in a dirty situation as he did. He would have preferred a clean inning, maybe not as gone as long. So Craig admitted that that wasn't ideal. And he also told the guys, too, he was trying to compare it to the Cubs offense earlier in the year, which was excruciating for a while where every single day we were talking about risk and runners in scoring positions say, hey, they got through their slump. It's different with the bullpen because there are guys in bullpens who never ever recover, unlike hitters who typically recover. Well, and that's it is that I understand the concept when you have nothing but time.

but they're not at that point right now. And we were laughing because yesterday we all started going through watching the game, you know, the bullpen. I'm like, well, these are our guys. My circle of trust is Aaron Savali and Ryan Rawlinson. And then he, you know, pushing Zephyr, John,

well, you put him in a relatively lower leverage situation and you still let him throw the ninth. So I get that part. I get that some of that is not going to be as pretty. But I do wonder, how much can how much risk can you take on this side when you're at this point in the calendar and i do get concerned about the fillies and home field of course i don't know i don't know why that's such a far-fetched thought it's not it's it's like you and i could hit a home run at citizens bank

park if the conditions were favorable which is good for the cubs though because the cubs hit bombs and obviously philadelphia does too so they also give up the 10-9s they also give up the most bombs i didn't see showed did showed a give up a home run last night? No we don't think no no no how about that a clean Shoda game Shota was really good last night Shoda was great and he was fired up

you could tell he he had some emotional moments in the game that were valuable to him so that was also fun to watch two straight good performances he did give up a home run in the performance previous to that was the blowout game that you guys went to right wasn't Shota pitching that day for you and Ray yeah I believe it was I'll fill in the blank for you guys and it's okay because we didn't care because the Cubs

scored 12 runs so you guys We're still stunted by Orkidi because that was the last time you guys went to a game. You guys deserved that game. Orkid used some magical spell. He lulled the entire ballpark to sleep. We don't know if it really was Jose Akirti. No, we don't. I mean, we really don't.

That was the guy he got to fill in for him. To this day. The MF Doom. MF Doom. Rikidi. MF Doom Rikidi. It's such a, it takes so many steps to understand the reference. I love it.

Where is, is Riquity has even claimed by anybody? we should keep an eye on him through the years. We are on our kitty watch. Okay, yeah. I don't know that he's been scooped yet. But yeah, Shoda, I love, like, like we've seen this line a lot of times in Shota's career, especially his rookie year. And then we see little glimpses of it, too, where high strikeout number, low walks, eight strikeouts, zero walks.

Now, those have not been coming as furiously as they once did. But that is, to some degree, a vintage Shota Ibnaga performance when he's, is good. Yeah, he throws a lot of strikes. And when he's, when he's got the command and the split duplicates arm slot with that fastball, then he's working. That's how you know, he's in a, he's in the zone and he was yesterday. That's a good point too by the top texture. Oh, yes, Wrigley Field famously known for not having 20 mile per hour wins to push the game out of the outfield. Oh, yeah? Go back and look at how many times the wind was blowing in this season. And you tell me, because we hear about it from the ball players all the time. Ray, how many times that

you produce Cubs pre-impose game where this is discussed? Absolutely, all the time. And Craig Counsel himself has brought this up as well. I mean, that's basic knowledge. We're here for actual knowledge. No, but I think the point, like when I think about that, it's like this could be, and I get it like as it gets colder, you're not going to have those days. We've seen many excruciatingly cold playoff days where you're like, oh my God,

is anybody going to have your buy as home run. Thank you very much. It's one to nothing and the Cubs win. Somebody had to get the ball over the wall. But I like, I kind of like where the texture is going because, boy, what a blast of a series that could be if we do get the wind blowing out at Wrigleyfield and Citizens Bank Park is what Citizens Bank Park is. I actually kind of, I can't wait for a series, a Cubs Philly series. That would be a blast. I can't wait for the one in CBP. I can't wait for the one here.

Oh, is that what we call it CBP? The cool kids call it CBP. And that's just what they called it in Philly. What's it? You know with CBP, yeah, you know me. Oh, you got an impersonation on that as well? No, no. I know. No, I know. I know. I know. The Lil Wayne impression was top-notch. Yeah, that was really good. That was good. Go check out Buterbos open if you want to hear the Ray Diaz.

Actually, it's up on Instagram, too, on the score. Coming up next, the White Sox head help from an unlikely hero last night before their eventual 6-3 loss to the Guardians, whether Layla wanted to see it or not. He hit a big home run yesterday. Oh, I'll admit he's, and now I'm wondering if I should put him in the lineup today. That's how I feel about it. Layla's come a long way, folks. No, no, no.

The process was still flawed. Talk about volatility. My goodness. We're all day to day. It's Rahimi and Grotie on 1043, the score. Rahimi and Grotie. Midday's 10 a.m. to 2 on Chicago Sports Radio, 1043, the score. Now another big spot for Tommy Pham.

He launches to left field way back and gone. Welcome back to the White Sox. Tommy fam. Courtesy of ESPN. We know that much. It's Rahimi and Grotia on 104. I just forgot the guy's name because he did a bunch of White Sox. Mike, Mike.

Oh, Mike Monaco. Mike Monaco, that's it. I got you. I like Mike. He's a nice guy. Yeah, just because it's an unfamiliar voice to White Sox fans. Yeah, the game was on ESPN yesterday. The Guardians beat the White Sox 6 to 3.

And there was Tommy Fam in the fifth, the three-run bomb off Young and Talonsid Parker Messick to, at the time, turned the game around for the good, made it 3-2, White Sox, a first pitch curve. Tommy FAMM's first hit of the year. And just to take you guys back a little bit when we found out the news that Tommy FAM was batting forth, Lela lost her mind. And I kind of went with the, sometimes you've got to get crazy because bad things

happened the night before. I've seen it before. You just do wacky things to a lineup. You put your reserves in. You do a Phil Jackson and do a complete line change or whatever the case may be. So I supported it. You mentioned Joe Madden, too. I mentioned Joe Madden as well.

Did I characterize that properly, that you just, you were not here for it. You didn't want to see it. You were hate watching. You were kind of rooting against him, too, quite frankly. I thought it was unsurious because, let me get this straight. Because you were on the elevator with Chris Gatz, you get A off of the injured list, and then B, you're in the lineup, and then see your batting cleanup. That's a lot of things.

That's a lot of things for what was literally. an elevator pitch. And then not only that, but they were so obsessed with having you on the team, even though you didn't have a hit to your name. Did you know on the ESPN bio right now, Tommy Fam is still in a Mets uniform in the picture? That happens, though.

That's how seriously they take Tommy Fam on the White Sox. You were hilarious because... But I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. You can just say this stuff. You just talked your way. You elevator pitched your way into the lineup and your batting cleanup, and then you hit a home run in your second AB. Right.

Amazing. All of that is wild. It's all true. You were hilarious. Sox still lost the game, by the way, unfortunately. The socks got a one-out triple in the first inning from Randall Gritchick. And Miguel Vargas then strikes out, but you were still blaming FAM. You're like, fam. I'm like, Layla, no, that's Vargas is the one that's supposed to come through.

You were wanting him to fail. Vargas has done more for the White Sox this year. That's true. So we had this little battle going on And it was playful and we were having fun with it I don't know if Layla was I think she was legit pissed off It's because it's you just were like I think I could do this today And they're like okay guy

What don't give me don't tell me about your front office Don't tell me about analytics Don't tell me about who you're employing Don't even tell me about what it takes to earn a spot in the lineup When you could just be like I should come off the injured list And you should put me in the lineup and I'll back clean up Even though I haven't had to hit this season

I will say Does all of that make sense in a playoff race? Okay. I did dismiss that a little bit yesterday, but I was probably wrong to because as it turns out in that interview with Jesse Rogers, Jesse Rogers doing great job getting really good access, getting to talk to him, talking to fam in game after he had hit the home run, admitting that the trainers wanted him to wait a couple days. They're like, no, we don't want you to come in. So we're in studio yesterday.

Elevator pitch, gold. We're watching the game in our peripheral. We've got Clay Harbor in studio. We're not wanting to divert from the bears, and it's not even great form to divert from the bears. But there we were. Here's our live reaction, talking bears, and watching in our peripheral vision

on one of our screens here in the score studios, Tommy Pham hit a home run. Now you have the background. Here's as big play by the White Sox right there, man. Laila's been talking about fam all day. You can put your negativity away. Unbelievable. I'm sorry.

That is unbelievable. Sucks take the lead against the guardians. She's a crushing fan and this guy. Because it was ridiculous. He's like, I think I could play today. Oh my God. Oh, my word. Okay, so here's this.

Sorry, we just broke a bunch of rules. That was yesterday. And even after that, it was so funny because Clay's like, Layla, it's over. It's over. It happened. He hit a three-run homer. You can't take it back now.

You can't be angry anymore. No, I mean, I still can't. because if I'm sitting on the bench like Sam Antonacci, and yes, I understand he took a bad route to the ball in the game before, I'm still wondering why it's not okay for me to be in the lineup and he is. Somebody else isn't in the lineup when that guy's in the lineup. But do you think it should be in the lineup today? Yeah.

So I do have a, I do stick by the rule. And Will Venable was on the Padres when I learned it. Bud Black, his former manager always said, you know, typically, when you hit a home run, you should be in the line. the next day. So how does that play out today? Standing by for a lineup. And yeah, what an interesting year. It looks like an Eric Fetty, Framber Valdez starting situation tonight against Detroit. It's been all sweeps in this series. The White Sox swept Detroit in August and May. The Tigers turned a trick on the White Sox sweeping them in June.

So you've got the recency bias with the socks having done well against them. the last time, obviously more on the line for the White Sox. But yeah, four game series here starting tonight against the tigues. 6.30 on our text line has the right attitude here. Right in old Getzi at the urinal yesterday. I will be managing the squad tonight. That's it. What we've just learned is that you can elevate elevator pitch your way to Chris Gett.

You want to know the weaknesses. You know how I felt about this with Dan. If I really wanted something on the show, I'd just phrase it in a catchy hand. headline and Dan couldn't say no. So you just really have to find out the reverse trigger with people, the thing that makes them say yes. It worked, though. The elevator pitch

worked. Who are we elevator pitching for Chris gets? What can we do? Like, what's our next project as a team? Bring back Rikidi and start him tonight. That's what it is. Put Rikidi, have him open the game. You can't have a White Sox game without an opener,

right? At least A1.5 gets me on this. Antinachi out was about the most egregious part of that lineup. Outside of Midroth, he's the only one on the team that's hitting everything lately. And Betty was out too. That's my point. It's not like there were people who were actually consistently hitting, who weren't looking

for their literal first hit of the season on September 16th. Yeah, White Sox did leave a lot on the table yesterday. They were opportunities. Yeah, they left the bases loaded in the fourth inning. There were issues again with the White Sox offense, but there are

10 games to go for the White Sox. They They are a half game back of Cleveland. Against whom they do have the tiebreaker. That's huge. We don't have any funny stuff if it comes down to that. And they are in the third wildcard position right now. One up on the Texas Rangers. What's up, Ranger?

And 1.5 up on the Toronto Blue Jays. So that is the White Sox story. Are we ready to take a deep breath here on what was, I thought, an explosive hour of baseball? And talk bears. Are you ready? Are you prepared to talk about? I think we should talk about Ben Johnson versus Brian Flores because there's all sorts of gold coming back and forth from Minnesota and Chicago.

The football junkies are fired up for this matchup and we should be too. Can Drew Thorpe find Gets when he's out to dinner? Says the 708. Everyone, just elevator pitch to Gets. You guys are found the weakness. You're on your game. It's Rahimi and Grotie talking bears next on 104.3, the score.