Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 225 | Rays Win ALCS Game 1

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

The Tampa Bay Rays took a 2-1 win in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Houston Astros with Blake Snell on the bump. Jomboy, Jake, & Plouffe react and break down the game and what it will mean for the rest of the series. The guys also react live to the news of Rick Renteria's dismissal from the Chicago White Sox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to talking baseball. The American League Championship Series is underway. Game one happened, raise, Astros. Let's talk all about it. Hello and welcome to talk and baseball. Thank you very much for joining us. If you're new, if you're old, if you're in between, appreciate you.

Coming to you live from the Roosevelt Studios. In the Bronx. My name's Jimmy. I got Jake sitting right next to me. He's wearing a Roosevelt shirt, our favorite Roosevelt shirt. Got Trev in California and Bug Bug, dude behind the dish. Only one game to recap today,

so it's probably going to be a quicker episode than normal. It's the American League Championship Series. Game number one, Rays versus the Astros out in San Diego, Snell versus Framber. But first, Trev, how are you doing? As I expressed to you guys earlier, I had an all-time sports night.

It'll never, ever happen again in the history of my life. That makes any sense. Lakers win. My Seahawks come back in crazy fashion to win the game, and then the rays raised all over the Astros. It was an excellent night. It doesn't happen like that all the time. And specifically, all three of those having the same time,

never going to happen again. So I enjoyed this particular evening in 2020. Congrats to you. Was Arch happy for you? He was. He left before the game started, but we had a good little day yesterday. Nice little afternoon hangout session.

Okay. He did ask about you guys. He said, how are those two little idiots doing after the Yankees? What did he say? Oh, I mean, I said that. I made that part of it. He did ask how you guys were doing.

You said they're two little idiots And they're struggling with the Yankees last But I also love him Did you ask him where he's going in free agency? Well, he has a team option So he has to wait to see if the pirates Will pick that up Which is

Well, how much is it for? Why would they pick it up? They're like in a total rebuild It's an asset If it's the right of race Yeah, if they want to take him And try to trade him If they think he can do

Or something, you know What's the number? I don't remember the number. It's decent. It's not crazy. What did you make before taxes this year? You can look it up. We could look it up.

That's the crazy. I think the options for like 10. Did you tell him that you're like a hot competitor of the big Js and that you want to break his news now? When it comes down, I will have that news. Wow. All you Chris Archer fans. I'm sure it says here, I'll look it up right now.

It's 11. 11 million. He told me yesterday he's doesn't, he's leaning. They probably won't, but... That's my uneducated guest. The Trade Avenue is there, but... He'd have to be pretty good in the first half next year to make that worthwhile, and that's kind of a coin flip at this point.

I think in any other year, yes. They picked that up because $11 million for a starting pitcher, like, I know it sounds like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money, but for a starting pitcher, it's not. Not for a solid one. Well, patron in the chat, Harry Gonzalez, says that your sequence episode with Archer was... Dang.

Was so dope. Bang. Oh, thank you. So shout out. Really good. Shout out sequence, Trev's show. And shout out the patrons. And here are the most newest patrons.

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For anyone that listens to talking yanks, you know what's about. to happen. For anyone that listened to talking baseball last playoffs, you know what's about to happen. Trev, I don't think you know what's about to happen, but young Jakey here is about to burn the game. There were too many games starting in the beginning of the postseason. And now we're down to maybe one or two a night. We get special treats. So for anyone that didn't watch the game, Jake's going to let you know what happened. For anyone that did, he's going to remind you what happened because you forgot some things. So is everyone ready? Hope so.

Yes. All right. Here we go. On your mark. Get set. Burn, Jakey Byr. Game one of the American League Championship Series. The Rays can almost snell the World Series as Blake takes the bump for Tampaverse Framber alert.

The Houston Astros and Framber Valdez try not to go missing from this year's fall classic. Top one. I come to save the day. Mighty Mouse, Jose Altuve goes deep fly. It's one-nothing Houston. Top four, I'll take you to the Randy shop. Hey, Rosarena, awo. The Cuban Mookie Betts solo shot ties the game at one.

Snell didn't have his A-stuff, but battled through five innings. One earn-run, run, only two punchies. Meanwhile, Framber looked strong, but made one more mistake to Zanino. the Santa Maria RBI single all the way to left field six innings pitch to earn runs eight K's four walks from Valdez the rays deploy their B bullpen but it looks like an A plan by cash Snell to Curtis to Thompson to loop to Castillo no paredes for Houston even though anoli did his job raise take game one two one final no parade for Houston what is that is that the wordplay there.

Parades. But Anoli did his job. Yeah. Great job. I thought I was good. Jake does. It's a good way to get through the game. 2018,

2019. Jake did 162 of those both seasons every single Yankee game. That's very... A couple cop-out losses, but yeah. I liked it. I thought it was good. The Randy shit was great.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mighty Mouse. Good job, Jake. So, Trev, you got to... a lot of skin in this game. You're Ray's fan. Yeah.

What you, you, you, so obviously Jake and I have a ton of bias coming off the Yankees games where our hearts were fully on the line and every pitch mattered. But that game to me, for being so close, I never felt incredible intenseness. And I think it's because whenever that bubble was getting built, a double play just popped it right away. And it was like, oh, that's over. but the raise, this is a really good win for the raise. They didn't use Anderson.

They didn't use Fairbanks. Snell, I think, is the worst of their three starting pitchers, and they come away with a win. And Snell did not look great. He only had one strikeout, two strikeouts? Two strikeouts, which would have been as low on the season. So I think part of what you're saying is, I mean, Snell didn't have his best stuff,

and I think that's pretty obvious. And I think there is some credit to him, you know, he did get a couple timely double plays, but to get through five innings one earn run, only getting two strikeouts when, you know, you're Blake Snell, you're a guy that's had nine, eight Ks in a lot of games this season. There's something to that.

Yeah, Treve, we were shocked they sent Snell back out for the fifth. Can you hear us? I guess you go. When they sent him back out to face the top the third time, because I thought he looked pretty beat up or not sharp, but I think that's the no-off days, coming to effect. Like, we need five from you, Snell.

A hundred percent. That's exactly what it was. And you guys give Snell zero credit. Just gave him credit. Look what he's done in the playoffs. He's got a two eight seven in the playoffs. Five innings yesterday. Yes, six hits.

Only two strikeouts. He got the job done. The results are there. But you have to admit he didn't look like on his A game last night. I don't know. I would take that start. So would cash. Every single game you put Snell out there, you would take that start.

And like you said, you know, they didn't go to their A guys right away, which is, I don't, I don't know the reasoning behind that. But it worked out for them. And to your point, I think you're right. I think a lot of the times when there was huge pressure situations building up, like, Gurriel with bases loaded, first pitch, double play ground ball, Tucker back up the middle line drive, double play. Like, it just kind of went the raise way yesterday, and it went quickly. But there was some good at bat, Sunino hopping on the first pitch.

I don't even think that was a mistake from Framber. You know I love Framber. That was kind of a weird thing for me last night. Watching that guy pitch is so much fun. But kind of like rooting against him. I have nothing against Framber. He's not part of that 2017 team at all. So you can root for that guy and it be okay.

And I was last night. He pitched great. I thought that was just an all-around clean, fun baseball game. Framber. Raina Homer. There was some cool stuff that I'm going to be doing on sequence. about it, some different plays that Maldonado was trying to get. There was a shake that probably shouldn't have shook or maybe should have shook. But, I mean, I thought it was great.

Framber Valdez made a lot of fans last night. He was, you know, having good emotions on the mound, listed at 511-240, which means he's 510, 250. He's got an interesting little build to him. I'm getting excited for a 33-year-old chunk Framber Valdez in a few years who's just twer throwing it across his body. You know what I really... He dropped the Passin News. Passing news. Passing news. Passing.

Rick Rinterea fired by the White Sox. Good. Wow. Trevor? I was never a fan. Pluffy? That's tough. That's another manager that got the rebuild, but ain't going to get the build.

You might bring Kepler in. It happens a lot. Treve? A lot of young guys? Sam Fold. Sam Fold's getting a managerial drive this off. Danny Mendick? He does love me.

White Sox fans did not like Rentaria. No. Anyone saw how mismanaged he did the wild card. It wasn't good. There's probably more behind the scenes that we know, but. Good. Bringing someone fine. Let's bring it back to Framber because I do think this is a guy we can root for.

Yeah. I do. I love the body type. A couple of things I noticed about Frambrie yesterday. His hat and his glove are way too small for him. What's up with that? That's such a pitcher move, though. He's like, I don't use this shit anyway.

That's such a pitch. pitcher move and he made that behind the back snag baby so you see his glove is like a second baseman's glove and it's like has the kind of a trapeze open web maybe he came up as a second baseman I love that I was watching I was like why is his glove so little

Framber made a fan of Jake and I like not that we ever weren't the lefty second base yeah you don't see enough of them you don't see enough of him he probably rakes in BP oh he Framber hits bombs yes Rambor hits bombs now he made a fan out of me with his pitching and with how much he talks to himself on the mound.

How much he smiles. And then that behind the bag play was awesome. You want to talk about a, we talk about cash and we give him credit all the time. How he manages the bullpen and everything like that. Last night, I thought he made a mistake. You have Aaron Loop coming in to face

Brantley. He punks him right away. You got to face three batters. So he had Aaron Loop up there to face was it Altuve? it was he he hit brantley it's pregnant kreggman and korea sorry that doesn't seem like what you want when you have diego loose in the pen so like maybe it was a genius move because it ended up working out i guess because deigo got him out of that mess

but to me that was a mistake and i i don't i don't think we're going to be seeing that happen again maybe i guess it might have to happen over seven games but i think Cash is going to look back at that one and be like, I probably should have went with somebody different there. His reaction was hilarious. It is so mad. Good camera work by TBS there. You think he forgot there was a three-batter minimum rule?

I think the Ray's just Ray, man. I mean, look at, again, like, you know, Curtis, Thompson, and Loop, you know, you might know Aaron Loop, a guy that's been around the league for a while. I almost, like you were saying, Treve, I mean, he was pumping 95. Maybe the guns juiced up a little bit, and I think it is. but the race got these dudes, and the loop was crazy. I mean, eighth inning, when he does hit Brantley, you now have essentially the game winning runs up in Bregman and Correa.

You know, he punches Bregs pretty easily, and then he fights back in the Correa bat, but he walks him because he's got first base open after the wild pitch, which then brings up Tucker. Tucker goes first pitch on, and now it's base is hucked, one out and they go to Castillo first pitch double play ball and just like that the rays are out of it which they they had a couple they had a couple perfectly timed double plays which you know for how much we love and respect the raise you know you can't draw it up like that but it worked

out for them last night yeah do we lose trav for a little bit yep sent up a new one he'll be back We back. Then, as we wait for Trev, Jake, in the White Sox announcement tweet that they parted ways with Rentaria, they say Rentaria completed his fourth season as White Sox manager in 2020, leading to the Sox to a 583 record and a tie for second place in the American League Central. The White Sox lost their best of three AOL postseason wildcard series in a three game to the Oakland Athletics. In his four seasons at the helm, it was so weird that they snuck that line. in there.

It's just Seems like they're like This is why we fired them It's so weird to just put that line in there No one knows Good job, get out of town Could easily not be in there And just says he led them to the Wildcard series

In his four seasons at the helm He guided them to this combined record Kind of funny Seems like a little dick punch Probably is Yeah fired him. That's a pretty big dick, Is that our first managerial vacancy of 2021?

No, the Red Sox. Red Sox. And garden hire, like last week of the season. Oh, yeah. So we have three. There's three jobs at the moment. Roberts in a couple weeks. Renteria was also fired as Cubs manager in 2014.

I've won the World Series in 2016. Oh, I like that. Oh, so yeah, you have to do that as a good juju play. Ricky needed to go completely mismanaged the bullpen consistently down on that rough stretch towards the end of the season says patron X EXE edits. It was like you would be hard pressed to find someone over the last month that was like giving rentoria kudos. White Sox fans, casual analysis, anyone. It just sucks to be the rebuild manager and not the building manager.

and you wonder like, you know, is Hyde? Is this going to happen to Brandon Hyde with the Orioles if they ever flip the script? Did it just happen to, well, no, the tigers aren't there yet. The Royals have Mathini now? You got your guy, Mathini, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, for me it's tough. Did Tingler just do that, DeGrene?

Yeah, I guess so in the Padres. You wonder, again, we don't know all the writing on the wall stuff. With a firing like that, it makes you think even if they won the wild card set, they still were going to fire them. But, yeah, I mean, it's brutal. They won that first game. And then, like, Luis Robert, you know,

you're talking about Renteria's last month of managing. I think Luis Robert was so, so bad for the last month. And it's like, that's probably not on. hand. But that's the game. Lost Trev for a bit. So if there's an awkward cut there, that's what happened. But Trev, I wanted to tell you the loop situation. And Castillo, I kind of walked into this on the pregame show we did, is that I didn't think the Rays wanted to use any of their top three in this game and

still win, even if it was close. Anderson through 32 pitches in game five, Fairbanks through 40. So I think those guys were out. they were like, let's get a win without using these guys. They pushed Chanel for the extra inning. And Stowe was getting the results. I just didn't think the process was there. And he hasn't been great third time through.

And Loop, I think they were trying to get a clean inning out of him there. And then maybe they go to Castillo for the 9th. They didn't have anyone else up, right? I think he was up already. So he threw the least amount of pitches in game 5. So I'm guessing that's why Castillo was in the 9th. But when Loop hits him, and you have to go three more batters,

because that rule, then, you know, they had to bring Castillo in the ninth inning. But that's why I still think this is a great win for the race, because they didn't employ Anderson, they didn't employ Curtis. They got Glassnow and Morton ready to go. It's a good get-a-head win, where the Astros, Frammer's their best pitcher right now. So they lost the game one with their, and he gave them a good performance. Sixth innings pitch, two-urn runs, is good performance from a rookie in his first ALCS game. and then they went to their bullpen.

I like how Dusty do that. I like that he uses Anoli and treats a one-run deficit the same as he would treat a one-run lead. I like that because it's a little old-school these days, but also you trust your offense. And you say, hey, if you get us two runs, we'll hold him right here with our best guys.

But it's a little bit of a punch that they use their best guys, best starter. They didn't use Presley, right? Just Anoli. But he's their second best reliever. this postseason. Like Tyler and Brooks Riley. So,

bit of a punch by the race. All the double plays balls are crazy, though. Still? Am I crazy? I know he literally just got added on to the roster and was hurt most of the year. But Jose Alvarado seems to me like he fits more of the race plans, but maybe not the right time to bring him in in a one-run game.

So I could see that. I just, when Luke came in, there's really no offense to Luke. It's just that he just doesn't fit that Ray's bullpen mold. Maybe I have a little bit of resentment. I got designated for assignment by the Phillies for Aaron Loop when he had the trade deadline. Now we're talking. Maybe I hold some resentment.

But to me, like I said, he just doesn't fit that mold. But look, the job got done. Rays win the game. The Astros. I don't want to wake them up. but it feels like you win a big series, and then you have to come play the race. There might be a little bit of letdown from them here.

They got to show me something tonight. They got to show some fight tonight. Yeah. Kiermire and Springer, both caught on the bases. A little center field action, that's fun. Yeah, man, it's weird looking back at this box score. I mean, Rays left nine on base, Houston less 10 on base. I don't know.

Rays get through it. They have to use Castillo, who goes 1.2 with 17 pitches because of the big first pitch double play. It's just Ray's baseball. You're right. That feeling of seeing Aaron Loop coming into that situation almost doesn't feel right. But the Rays find a way. And now they're set up pretty good for today.

I mean, they could go Charlie Morton to their two good guys if they want. I think Thompson is going to be a problem this season. series. We've talked about, you know, seeing guys and seeing pitchers. Thompson throws absolute funk. I think it's the fifth lowest release point in Major League Baseball. So I think Springer, Altuve, Bregman, Correa, get used to seeing him. And he's not just like a sidewiner. Like, he throws 93 from down there, which normally, you know, if someone throws from there, it's like, ah, 86 with movement. Like, no, this dude, this dude hucks it. I think he's going. going to be a problem. And yeah,

Ray's, it felt like it wasn't the raise A effort. It felt like a B minus effort and they still got a nice win. It felt like a hangover performance from the raise and they still won. But look, you know, I got to say sorry to Luke because you look at his numbers. I mean, he... Nice career.

Now, I'm just saying this year in particular, too, in 2020 here with 252, he was in 24 games, 25 innings pitched. I mean, he's been doing it. So I guess I could see why you know, that situation makes sense. But it doesn't if they want to throw their A starters they're not using Loop there you're fair to say that They used him in the just a weird time to bring him they didn't use them in the ALCS or ALDS against the Yankees at all

They kind of bashed lefties so you're not going to throw a lesser left out there They used him once in the divisional series against Toronto I think they're up big and he gave up He gave up a hit to his first batter Joe Panic got the next two out and then they pulled them right after the three minute batter minimum came out so that might be the story here with loop if They are up by four or more. They'll probably throw them against some lefties again and be like, go get us three outs, please. And Trev, I mean, it's one of your things. I mean, it's not like the race we're making this up.

I'm sure coming into this game, they said, hey, if we have a nice Brantley spot. And I was trying to say this on the live stream, but I didn't know the best way to do it. But I guess with Aaron Lute being a veteran, like, hey, go get Brantley. You know, try to get Bregman and Correa don't lose the game. and then if you get to Kyle Tucker, that's another lefty for you. He ends up there. He doesn't do a great job. And yeah, I mean, I wouldn't expect to see Loopy back in this

until, you know, probably raise game three or four bullpen day. Do you miss anything? I don't think so. I don't think so at all. I think we covered it. Quentin, did we miss anything from Houston? It's funny. Framber got a fan in me.

Yeah, it's funny looking back at the box score. I mean, Framber led on eight base running. Snell lit on eight base runners and it just didn't feel that way. It felt like Snell was always fighting and Framber only had one or two innings where he was really wrestling. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I think if you're Houston, this kind of was supposed to be your game, Curtis Thompson Loop, I mean, that's the, honestly with the raise injuries this year, that's like their C squad. I mean, no Chaz Roe, no Oliver Drake.

like, you know, this raised team might really get the ball rolling. Any complaints from the umpire, Trev? Manny, Mani back there? You like Mani? I do like Mani. He's a nice guy. I didn't really see anything. I was like, oh, wow, nothing came to mind, which is a good thing.

He was consistent. He called one high on Altovae, but then he called one high on Reddick. And then he didn't call low pitch for Snow, and then he didn't call it for Framber. and those were, they both had big reactions from the batter and the pitcher, and I think they happened on both sides. I didn't see that umpire report. But I thought he had a consistent zone.

I thought some of the outside pitches I would have called and he didn't. And then Snell just kept trying to hammer that inside fastball and could not get it where he wanted it to go. As long as he's as consistent as a player, that's all you want. You know, I have one game in particular. I always remember in my head. It was against the race, David Price pitching against us. and Ted Barrett was behind the plate.

And Price kept trying to go in, kept trying to go in. And it was off. But, you know, not by a lot. It was a ball, maybe a ball and a half off inside, but Ted would not flinch on it, man. And that's big bad David Price out there. And if you continuously hit the spot, most of the time an umpires going to start to open up a little bit.

But he, you could hear him talking. I think Benji Molina was the catcher at the time. who's also steal, he used to steal so many strikes. You tell him Benji, Benji, I'm not going to give it to him. That pitches off. He's got to get more over the plate. And like, that's what you want. Whether it's, you want it to be in the strike zone, obviously.

Like, stay in the strike zone. I get that. But if you're out of the strike zone, but you're consistent with it, like a team can live with that. As long as it's not egregious. So yeah, consistency is the biggest part. I thought mani did a pretty good job last night. I think the only other thing people are really talking about is Manny Margo,

just missing a couple home runs from the talking baseball homer drafts. A lot of people were tweeting about that. Many more go had the best at bat of the day and they just ended up walking him, which was a good call. Batlin. Did anyone take a Rosaraine? Did you end up taking them, Jim? You took him. I think you took him. I wasn't allowed to. You already took them.

Oh, I took Altuve, so I'm on the board. Oh, okay. Thank. Yeah, I tried to take him, but I had already taken him. On a serious note, the raise tried to push a button and it did not work, Hunter Renfro. Oh, for four, four punchies, swinging over a lot of Frambi curve balls. I don't mind that getting somebody into a game, get him some of a bat, so when you do need him to come in and he does have to get in a bat, at least that's not his first at bat. You know what I mean?

Like kind of they put him right in the middle of the lineup, like kind of wedged him in between some people. Hey, go get some bat, see what you do. He didn't do anything. But now he has that force strikeout sucks, but at least he got in the box and got some sight right there. You know, he's, you know, what does that call when you get your gun ready? get benched for the rest of the series. What's that? Who's usually out there?

Well, they d-h to Rosarena. Oh, and he's usually in left. So you can put him out there. I mean, I think, you know, this was a hangover game for the race. They won it. Brandon Lowe, got to get it going. Well, he got to hit. Framber threw it away, and he has to keep the ball.

You think that's gone too mainstream? I think that's gone too mainstream. stream now. It's like the silent treatment. Like it's in, no more. It's overdone. I'm still fine. They fake throw the first person's hit, like in the stands. That's allowed if it's done by an elderly person in the dugout. It's just,

it's kind of tired. Like if the guy in the dugout who fake throws the ball into the crowd is 60 plus trainer, staff guy or like old bench coach, still funny. Because when you're 60 plus, you're allowed to only make corny jokes. A good one to do, and I've seen this done before. for is after the game. You have the ball.

Usually the clubby will write on it, like what it is. Like, so-and-so's first hit. Here's the date and the pitcher it's against, whatever. I've seen this happen a couple times, and I think it's funny every time. You have a different ball. It's not the actual one. They spell the guy's name wrong or they'll like smear it. Like, oh, shoot.

Like when I was writing it, it's smeared. And the guy's like, oh, man, this is like a keepsake. It's all fucked up. But then they give him the real one. At least that one's good. Got to pretend. Got to pretend nice for a minute. Oh, thanks.

Smeared my ball. The spelling the name wrong is really funny because guys are like, come on there. Damn it. All right. I think that's all. Only one game. We got two games coming up. Pre-game show starts soon.

You still like the raise in the series, everyone? Vegas up them huge after the game. They're minus 375 for the series now. Yeah, I think it was pretty important for the Astros to win the first. Framber game. And that's why I picked him yesterday and they didn't do it. Almost, though. Just damn double plays.

All right. We'll see you tomorrow. Recap in games two of the ALCS and game one of the NLCS. Goodbye. Farewell. Thanks for hanging out with us. Got too much shit to do that.