Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 29 | NLDS Game 1s | Dodgers & Cards Win

Episode Date: October 4, 2019

The Dodgers beat the Nationals. The Braves lost to the Cardinals. Acuna didn't run out of the box, the Braves bullpen blew It. The Nationals bullpen also blew It. We previewed the four games today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 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.

It's October 4th in the games one are done in the NLDS series. Dodgers take game one, Cardinals take game one. We got four coming up. Let's talk all about. What's going on, everybody? Thank you for joining us with another daily episode of Talking Baseball, a show. Talk about baseball. My name's John Boy, I got my co-host.

Jake with you. He's in Denver. I'm in New Jersey. Took in two games yesterday, Jake, about to take in four. Or today, our team is on the line today, so it's a little bit more nerve-wracking for us. It's calm, cool, comfortable for the first four games of the postseason. Now I got knots in my stomach and I'm not feeling well. Before I let you talk, this episode is brought to you by Sam Thompson,

Sebastian Green, Salvatore DeLuca. That's a jakey name, Salvatore de Luca. and then James Lancaster, which James, you messed it up because everyone was S-names today, so Sames, Seamus, the Irish name, except James Lancaster, very British sounding. Okay, you can talk now, Jake.

Hey, all right, those people are our patrons. Thanks for Seamus reaching out at the end there. Jim, you mentioned playoff knots and game one knots and nerves. Yet you come out here, Game one of the ALDS day, and you time that intro perfectly? Yeah, I'm getting good with my timing. I mean, that's spooky stuff. Spooky.

It is, that's Gavin Lux type stuff. Gavin Lux. What a name. It's a good name. Gavin Lux. That is a good name. We got a lot to talk about, guys. This is a crazy day.

This is the first crazy day. I'm doing a behind-the-scenes vlog all day, too, to post it to, you know, I was talking to, Billy who's working at John Boy Media now and with me in the room. And I was saying like I want to at least a picture in this room because when eventually we grow and I'm not working out of my office in my house anymore. I just want to remember it finally. And he's like, you should do a whole behind the scenes video. And I was like, you know what?

Friday's going to be crazy. It's going to be like four episodes we record or three. Yeah. Plus the games. And I was like, maybe I'll do it Friday. So we're doing it today. You're on it right now. Holy smokes. Yeah, that's exciting, man. And it's, I can't even wrap my mind around today yet. Obviously, Yankees stuff, because we are Yankees fans. Don't turn it off if this is your first step because we do a good job of getting rid of our bias with a couple jabs here and there. But yeah, and like yesterday's two games, you know, there was a while, it was like, wow, I'm six hours into baseball and now I'm standing up because I'm excited to watch.

Fernando Rodney pitch. So I can't even imagine when it's going to be hour 12 today where I'm going to be at mentally, spiritually and emotionally. But it's exciting. It's where we want to be. We're both wearing a lot of gray today. Do you think there's anything behind that? Yeah.

I got a Miller Light shirt on. I saw that. I don't know if I've seen you rock that bad boy. I think Katie got it at some of like she worked at a bar. And I think they handed out shirts at the bar. so she gave it to me because it's a large. And it's like a very comfortable shirt. So now I'm a rep, I rep Miller Light.

And if you happen to work for Miller Light and you want to tell your advertising department to reach out, we're fine with that. Yeah, otherwise I'll write, fuck, right atop the logo. Then I'll be a fuck Miller, a fuck Miller light shirt. Dude, you mentioned, you mentioned Fernando Rodney. Yes.

And I know that we have to get into the actual recaps of the games and stuff, but I was rooting, and I think, I don't care. I don't care who wins these games. I'm kind of getting the Joe Buck treatment on Twitter where everyone's telling me I'm biased against their team. I don't care. Sure. I just tweeting things that I find interesting.

Fernando Rodney, I was ready to make such a cool video of him walking to the mound in like the most don't give a fuck about anything away. And then striking out Ballinger and then striking out Muncie and then walking into the dugout. Problem was he didn't strike out Moncy. He gave up a bunch of runs and blew it. So I had to do a little different video that I posted. But yeah, what a treat he is.

And I just a little baseball emotion out there. Like Fernando Rodney, he's got the sideways cap. He's been pitching since 2002, I think. He's 42. And I just think it's funny because you were talking about how he had that no care look on his face. There was the clip of him leaving the bullpen. It looked like he was walking to, like, go pick up dog poop. I've never seen anyone less excited.

Jim, I think about- Got to fucking do this. Think about how much Fernando Rodney loves baseball. He's 42 years old, still out there grinding. In 95 on the gun, I need like four more years of Fernando Rodney. Maybe he's got the Corota effect. He doesn't love baseball. It's just all he knows.

And he doesn't want to go home to his family, so he just needs to play baseball every day. There's definitely a chance of that. Jim, I know we got to get into it, 30 seconds. how are you doing? Oh, I'm doing good. I'm doing good, man. I'm excited.

I woke up, had a bunch of coffee. I went to sleep. Well, I tried to go to sleep early last night, but I didn't. So I tried, though. Usually I don't even try. So I got a decent amount of sleep. I'm excited. Four games.

Yankees has me in a ball of nerves, like I said in the intro, but we'll get over it. There's a lot of storylines to talk about. So let's go into the recap of the two games. You ready? How are you doing? You want me to return that for you? No, I'm good, man. You're all over it.

I haven't had my Yankees nerves hit yet. That'll probably happen mid-episode, and it will either be great or terrible podcasting. Maybe the roster drops or just, there's going to be something that triggers it, and I'm going to, like, have a quick spasm on the air. Okay, great, excited. So the first game, Braves Cardinals,

excited for it, it's day game baseball. Are we going to get a good one? And then our dude, Michaelis, nerves. I'm telling you, first playoff game nerves have never been more real in my head michaelis then you got corbin game two um one of the wild card mania he got lit up right away there it's a theory that's like starting to really like work for me anyway i mean it's real it's uh it's something one one of the few things you've gathered for me this season that you're like wow jake that was actually good

stand over a six-foot putt with nothing on the line. You're out there by yourself and try to sink it. And then go try to sink a six-foot putt with all your buddies watching and $100 bucks on the line. Tell me which one's harder. Yeah. Because that's pressure, big. Pressure, nerves are all real.

Did you see- I did write a burn if you want it. Oh, you wrote a burn for this game? Yeah. Okay. I'll rip it quick. Rip it quick. Here we go.

Get it. Burn. St. Louis versus Atlanta with Dallas on the mind as Keikl bravely takes the pill versus I would walk 500 miles, Mickelis, Michaelis, in game one of the NLDS. Bottom one when you're playing video games, but you hit the Wong button. Tough inning for Colton as the Braves take a 1-0 lead. Top five, playoff small ball alert, Harry Bader. I had my doctor remove one of those.

He put St. Louis on the board. We're tied at ones into the six. be Ron Swanson with the two-run fielders choice of sorts. 3-1 Atlanta. Can the bullpen hold? Atlanta fans? Turn your ears up. Chris Martin comes out of the pin, but he's too cold to play with an oblique injury, and this would not be a thriller for his replacement. Luke Michael Jackson, Paul Good as Goldschmidt hits a moonball. It's 3-2. Need something fixed? Call the Carpenter as Matt hits an RBI single, and what a dart by Adam David Duval to peg the lead run at home.

Three's up top nine. Marcel the Shell. Ozuna drives in two down the line. Redemption, thy name is Colton. He drives in two down the other line. Seven three cards. Carlos Santana Martinez was not too smooth. Coming in for the save.

Ooh, Ron Acuna Cunia. He goes Yardsky and admires it like he did his single earlier. We'll talk about that. Freddie, free your mind. The rest will follow into the drink. Been there. 7-6 ball game, but Martina shuts the door after opening it up. Cards take game 1, 7-6 final.

Wow, a lot of musical references. Yeah, they were coming off the fingertips pretty good. Chris Martin too cold to play. Do you get that one? I got it. Because it was October, the weather's getting colder, and... getting chillier. He had an oblique strain, which is historically linked to colder weather.

Yeah. Or maybe it was the ban cold play. Tough to say. We'll never know. Yeah. All right. There's so many things to talk about in this game. Yeah.

Because Ocuna gave us a ton of storylines. First off, actual strategy, I thought the Braves, and when I say this, if you're a Braves fan, correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not deep into the weeds of your pen and usage and who's lengthened and stuff. Kichael, Shane Green, and Freed could have thrown more bullets. You got Flarity game two, and you got a terrible bullpen behind you. I know the Chris Martin injury. You cannot see that coming.

But even then, Chris Martin goes an inning, then you have two more to go, and the rest is not good. Now, also, I know Luke Jackson isn't as bad as he was because they didn't have to get any time to warm up. So it's, I know, I understand all that. But in retrospect, when you go Shane Green just for one and he looked good, freed just for one. I know you're trying to save him for game four, but hey, it's game one and Jack Flaherty's on the bump game two and you're in a close game.

And then Keikle was kind of starting to falter a little bit. They, they national leagueed him with that one run, no hard hit balls, but he wasn't getting his calls anymore. You left some good. bullets on the table in exchange for some bad ones, is how I would say. Yeah, and the Chris Martin thing is brutal because he was actually supposed to come in top, was it top eight. So if Chris Martin, and he's a really good pitcher.

I've got it in front of me right now. It's top eight. So they were going to go Martin to? So they were going to go Martin Malanson with Luke Jackson as their safety net. instead Luke Jackson, the safety net comes in. So you're right. It still is tough because, I mean, Jim, and maybe it's just we've seen more of them, but I think you mentioned those names.

And the Chris Martin story is awesome. He was putting stuff on shelves and now he's pitching and he's been really good, so I get that. I would have maybe had Shane Green as the safety net guy because Shane Green saved MLB games. And I don't know, maybe we're missing out on it and we're just using our eye test too much. I would trust Shane Green over Luke Jackson heading into this game. Well, Luke Jackson was their closer, and he closed a good amount of games. And then they got Shane Green to be the closer, and he kind of faltered and didn't get the job.

Right. And then Melanson kind of fell into it. Did Melanson, I don't know why I don't like him, but Melanson sucks. I know exactly why I don't like him. I'm just kind of anyone can be like, those are bad reasons. And I'd be like, well, shut up about it. Yeah, okay. And that's fine.

If anyone doesn't know what he came up. he came up as a Yankee and when he was a rookie he complained about how the Yankees used him out of the pen. It's like, dude, you just got called up. Shut up about it. Then they trade him. He's good somewhere. And then he goes to Boston, another pressure

packed like city and division and fan base and he just was terrible and needed to get out of there. Then he's good in like Pittsburgh. Then anytime he's in pressure situation, he's bad. And he looks just like Ray, the racist, for a member of the Titans. He can't happen.

Yeah. Can't have that. I mean, that's a bad combo. So, yeah, you do get to do a little bit of 20-20 hindsight. The Martin injury, I mean, it's brutal. And you've heard me give this speech many times, Jim, but I'm such a big believer in the like, every bullpen has their pecking order. And if you trade for a guy and you make your eighth inning guy struggling

and then he becomes your seventh inning guy, that guy becomes like a stud now. And vice versa. So Chris Martin coming out was brutal. And especially first pitch Goldschmidt hitting a ball 10 miles. Second pitch. He tried to throw off speed first. And then it was the first fastball. He just fucking cranked.

But you're absolutely right. I mean, when you have Keikl, who you basically brought in for this game, if you're going to use Max Fried out of the bullpen, who essentially when you put him in the bullpen, he becomes your best arm. He only threw 14 pitches, I think. Yeah, I think is 14. green only threw an inning too and it it you know hindsight's 20 20 we if chris martin came in and shoved we could be sitting here saying like wow that braves down to that that martin injury was fucking brutal yeah

we could be sitting here saying wow that brave bullpen really shoved and looked good now we're saying they're one of the bigger question marks of the playoffs the other storyline is a kunia who actually had a great game he had three hits a home run two rb i's a walk but the storyline is is that he turns a double into a single. He did this in the regular season. He got benched for it. We talked about it on talking baseball. I said, hey, good to have this happen now,

so it doesn't happen in the postseason. Hopefully everyone, like, learned from it. Jake, I didn't think this was that big of a deal. I thought when they interviewed the coach and everything, you'd get your typical kind of, we'll handle that behind closed doors. Hey, he had a great game for us. It's his first, you know, you know, those cookie cutter like kind of protecting your guy answers.

Yeah. Did you hear the interviews? Yeah, I did. They're bad. Like, Freddie Freeman was like, that's not a conversation you should have to have twice. You kind of beaten a dead horse there, and it's the postseason. This is important. And then his buddy, Albies, is like he can't do that.

Can't do that. And then the manager, Snitker, Snitker, said, some of the lines, we don't have enough guys to hand. handle that. Meaning like, because if he had more players, he might have benched him. I was like, oh, shit, they really don't like this. Like, this is a problem. So if the clubhouse had his back and was like, no, you know, he had a great game. We wish he got to second there.

We'll talk to him about it. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. But, you know, he's a star. That's what I expected them to say. They were all like, no, like their tone was very much, no, it's bullshit. And it shouldn't happen. So if you're Acuna, you kind of look at around the room. Like, fuck what the public says and what you and I say,

when your own guys in your own room are saying, dude, stop. That's that you're now letting down teammates. Because if the teammates had his back, it's different. And Acuna, Acuna didn't necessarily give the apology speech. He gave the like, oh, this kind of stuff happens. And it's like, oh, not for the other guys, Ronnie. I do, that interview with Acuna in New York, in the Bronx, he'd get fucking torn apart. I do always think the language barrier, like, I don't really know what he was saying or how he said it.

There's differences there. It comes off bad, but I won't really crush him for that. But the way his teammate spoke was pretty telling. Yeah, and you can't do that. And Jim, playoff baseball comes down to so many small things. I mean, the first Braves kind of. a rally was Donaldson fouls one off and it just goes on the other side of the netting. Yadir Molina is trying to catch it through the netting.

And then next pitch, he gets hit by the pitch and then Markechis hits a chopper and that's playoff baseball. So, you know, Akuna made two outs on the bases. He got caught stealing in the first, which I don't mind he's testing it out, but you're also testing out Yadir Malina, who this dude's been through a lot of rodeos, man. So, yeah, it's a tough look. and I'll say this for my guy, Ronnie, who I've been with him all year because he's so talented.

If you have that press conference like you just had, you better go out and play great, brother. And I mean, there's a chance he does. But I think it's tough that the two stories here are kind of the Braves. Because also, shout out to the Cardinals. We haven't given them enough love all year. They come out take game one with having Jack Flaherty in the hole for game two. and then going back for two home games after that. Huge by Michaelis to, like, get it together after the first inning.

Right? They only allowed three hits in the ends. They had dudes getting loose in the first in the pen. Yeah. Good for him. And then the whole pen did pretty good besides Martinez at the end, which is kind of the other storyline here. You know what?

Bader. I was kind of rough on Bader because he's been so awful offensively. And then he manufactures a run with his legs. Now, in the stat sheet, none of that's going to look. good on his averages and like that, but good for him. But Carlos Martinez comes in. He gives up the two-run home run to Acuna. And now I will say this.

Acuna celebrates that home run. And I love bat flipping and celebrations and stuff. And everyone has their own code, which is kind of weird. When you hit a meaningless home run down four and you cut the lead in half to two in the ninth after making a mistake earlier in the game, I think that's a time where you probably shouldn't pimp that home run. He very much plays the game like it's an individual feat. Yeah, a little bit, a little bit. And he's going to have to win some people over the rest of the series.

And like he still very much can. But you're right. I mean, it just looks so much better if you hit that home run, head down around the bases and tell your teammates you're up next, which Freddie Freeman was. And then when you hit the home run that takes the lead, go fucking nuts. Do Jose Batiste a bat flipping like, But you can't just, I mean, come on, dude.

It's a bad look. Anyway, bad look by Carlos Martinez, too, who, like, wanted to talk shit. And Yadi grabs him and puts them under his wing. Like, dude, we're not doing that. You kind of sucked. I think they're already out there, but I don't know them well. But any Carlos Martinez Yadi story that you know, please feel free to tweet at me. And the ones I don't know, I'm excited to find out in 10 years.

because one of them has had each other in a chokehold, and it's Yadi with Carlos in a chokehold. I mean, I think they're like brothers and friends, but it's happened. It's like Jorge Posada and El Ducke. They used to get in fist fights, but they were battery mates. They didn't want anyone else to catch them,

but they used to get in fist fights in the clubhouse. Oh, yeah. And I think the only other thing moving forward I have on this game is it was kind of, it was my final tweet about this game last. night. If you're the Braves, you have Flaherty on the mound, and if you break him, that's a huge momentum swing because he's the Cardinals' biggest weapon. If you're the Cardinals, you're sitting high off last night, and you're saying, man, if Flaherty shoves and we've got two at home,

like this is our series. Unfortunately, I think for the Braves fans and Acuna, is that if Flaherty shoves and they lose and they're down two-oh, and then they go on the road and they lose, and they get swept, the main storyline is Akuna. I don't think you can break that. So they need to win a game. And it's insane how quickly a storyline can turn on you. The young center fielder that was on pace for 40-40, young stud is now potentially, if they don't turn it around, going to be looked at as like a lackadaisical, selfish

player, and that's baseball. Yeah. And I want to counter anyone who's thinking this. because I saw like on my tweets and stuff, like they didn't lose the game because he didn't go to second. Yeah, that's two separate issues. It's still a problem. Yeah.

Just because murder exists doesn't mean that kidnapping is okay. Yeah. Well. That's not true. I read that enough. If you're like going to, if you're saving the kid from a bad situation, I don't know. Oh, a good kidnapping.

A good, a friendly kidnapping. Child Protective Services. I guess there's good murders too. if you murder back let's not go down there today Holy smokes Jake Speaking about a good Good murder Ooh Dodgers

Head up on the Nationals I don't even count it as It was a close game Because what happened was If you're beating the Nationals And they have to bring in The back end of their pen-ish You're gonna have a great time

You're going to pinch hit a rookie and he's going to hit a home run. Then Jock's going to come up and rock one. They scored two runs in the seven and two runs in the eighth, and I kind of don't count them. But good for them. I count them. You got to burn. All right, here we go.

On your mark. Get set. Burn. Across the country, Patrick Kurt Corbane in the Nats, Natitude teen spirit, face off with Walker Ferris Bueller, who did not take the day off. Top one, more like Walker Corbin as Patrick gives out four free passes. Dodgers put a one on the board in the first without a hit. Both starters would lock in as the only other run scored until the seventh was on a

Howie Kendrick Lamar error that really killed the Nats 5. 2-0, L.A., bottom seven like Jerry Gergich driving at top speed to his timeshare. Max Muncie. Two RBI single to open it up. In the 8th, Gavin Deluxe as he homers in his first postseason at bat. Wow. And the Dodgers prove they're not jockeying on you

as Peterson goes off the pole. Nats get dominated. Bueller's a stud. Dodgers win. Six-nothing. The off-the-pole shot was so cool. Very cool. It was kind of a meaningless home run, but just because it hit the foul pole, it's always cool.

because you see how much force they're actually hit with when they come to a halting stop. It's, I'd say a good equivalent would be a missed field goal at the end of the game. If the miss field goal just goes wide right, you're like, oh, missed it. If that miss field goal goes off the post, bring down the stadium. Real quick, Yankees roster got announced, do you want to hear the surprise? Get your reaction on it? Tyler Lyons. He did it

He made it Dude I went I went through his game log the other day And he's been like Okay after his first appearance I don't care I mean if he pitches we're in trouble So I don't care

Yeah we're either done really well Or really badly So Corbin had a ball of nerves In the first thing I didn't see it because the game's overlapped Which sucks But four walks in the first Is not good

And I believe he was still wild But someone saved him after after like a walk someone was went up there swinging i believe yeah pollock walk polick walk ballick walk and baseball is a sick sport so we've got a no contact first inning here jim pollock walk freeze struck out turner struck out so we've got two outs two strikeouts bellinger walk chris taylor walks and then munsey walks to walk in the run seeger grounds out to first oh yeah so i saw some tweets like what are you doing see Seeger. Why are you swinging at the second pitch? But he could be saying, well, he's probably going to

throw me a cookie because he just walked in a run. So whatever. Yeah, you just can't play that game. You want to play that game so bad, but try hitting a baseball. And if Seeger hit that second pitch down the line for a double, I bet you would have been fine with that. Yeah. Then Corbyn settled down. And then the fifth inning, he's got two outs. He walks Bellinger on a close three-two pitch. Chris Taylor singles on a hard ground ball. Rendon made that amazing stop. and then Muncie reaches on a fielding error by Harry Kendrick, which was right through the wickets. So the first two runs,

I sound like a Dodgers hater or whatever. The first two runs, like good on you by the Dodgers, but you were kind of gifted them in a way. Like a no contact run. It's good that you took your walks, and then at the end they have the home runs, but a little bit,

but I mean, if in the Yankees game tonight, the stadium's going nuts and a twins pitcher walks in a run, you're going to be like, oh, that Yankees environment. So a little love to the Dodgers there. Good environment, too. No, you're right. You're right.

And then at the end, man, who are those pitchers that came in? Yeah. Well, we had Fernando Rodney, who stole the show. But before him. Before him, it was, they went Corbyn to Rainey. Rainy. And then Rodney and then Strickland at the end. They've really got Doolittle, Hudson, and that's it.

And like Doolittle and Hudson are kind of awash. So I don't know, man. Strasbourg is going to have to go off tonight. Yeah, I mean, and the Nationals formula is Strasbourg for seven and then match up Doolittle and Hudson. Yeah. That's it. Otherwise, they're fucked.

And maybe Fernando Rock. You have anything else on the Dodgers game? Gavin Lux with a pinch hit home run in the World Series. In the first playoff game ever, that's awesome for him. Um, the only other, the only other drum that I've been really being, well, A, Juan Soto, uh, enjoy Adam Colorek, because you're going to see him every game. Yeah. That sucks. Yep. Um, and then I'll say the other thing and I, I, I've been hammering the drum on this. It's my key for the Nats. Um, well, it used to be a dual key. It used to be Trey Turner and Adam Eaton. Because Jim, I was doing this whole thing, like maybe move Soto up to the two. Um, um, well, it used to be a dual key. Um, two hole so you get them more at bats, but it really makes the depth of that Nationals lineup too shallow. So I think Adam Eaton is really the key. I'm bought in on Trey Turner. I see why he's so special. He's got a lot of skills. He's been giving great at bats. If Adam Eaton could put it together,

he had a nice walk yesterday. They could use a little more from him, but they just, they need to set up Rendon and Soto because that's how they're going to score runs. You think Kendrick should stay in? I mean, two errors. Oh, I'm benching him. I know his bat is. and good, but you've got Ryan Zimmerman, a guy who's like a face of the franchise. And that defense at first last night was just unacceptable. And I mean, even if it's just a one game and Zimmerman goes 0 for four, but he plays a solid first base, then you tell, howie Kendrick, like, we need that, man, because that's unacceptable.

Yeah. All righty. Let's, uh, we'll take a quick break before we come back for the preview of the four games today. All right. What's up? We're back. Four games today, Jake. Yeah.

Four. Count them. One, two, three, four. I don't want to drag this episode out forever. So we're going to just kind of go quickly. The first game. Let's bang. Let's bang out.

Oh, you want to go in actual time schedule? Yeah, it's go in order. Okay. I like that. The first game is raised versus the Astros. Glass. Now versus Verlander. I mean, we both are hammer and the asteros.

I think they're just better. Glass now I saw him get nervous in a game against the Yankees. He was just like, not nervous. Nerves is not the right word. I apologize. He was juiced. Juiced. He was too high-up.

Like as juiced as you can be. He was like shaken and like crazy twitching. Baines in his neck. Yeah. So we'll see how Glassnow comes out because, I mean, if they rock him. in the first. Or if there's like an error made behind him or a call doesn't go his way, I'd be interesting to see how that plays out.

Verlander's a rock. I expect seven strong out of Verlander. Yeah, and I think, Jim, something you mentioned there that I think is a big what to watch for here is that the pitching matchups are a ton of fun. If these young guys can bring it, this, if you like good pitching, this series is going to be a blast. but like you said, like an error or a ball that kicks off a glove or an infield single or something like that, if that happens against the Astros, like Verlander, whoever it is, says, all right, well, now I'm going to have to strike you out.

The race, your mindset just being new is like, oh, crap, like infield single and now Yorden Alvarez is up. And I think that's going to be big. If the rays can dodge those moments, they're going to give them a game because the rays have this, what do I want to call it, like a steel house of cards with their pitching in their bullpen. Like, it's piece by piece and it's a lot of impressive pieces, but if one thing goes wrong, the house of cards is broken. Yeah.

Matt Duffy has good numbers versus Verlander in a very small sample size, four for eight. Duffman. I'll take that off Verlander. no extra base hits. And I think what's funny, it was pretty the Yandi Diaz thing, how impressive he was in that wild card game. It's all righties for Houston.

So I don't even know if Yondi's getting the start today. You're probably going to see G-Man or maybe one of the Lao guys, Lao Lo. Yeah. What was the other one? Austin Meadows has a home run off Verlander, so that's fun. A lot of people do this year, though.

Oh, my final raise note, I mean, Houston has them outmatched in the field. I mean, the players, it's Austin Meadows, and that's kind of it. But I'd love to see Austin Meadows introduce himself to the national stage because he's really good, really good. Keirmeier's got 12 played appearances against Verlander. How many hits do you think he has? Zero. One. Yeah, I could see one in-field single.

All right. Next up, Cardinals versus Braves. We got Jack Flerty versus Fultenevich. Fulte versus Flerty. I mean, Flaherty might have nerves. The Braves have to win this game. The first inning is everything. Because like you said, all the bad shine on Acuna with the top of their lineup, they showed it in that last inning.

Like, you're not going to get through the top of that lineup four times. You're just not. And I think they need to come out. And your best chance on Flaherty is that first inning. His first inning of playoff. Yeah. Yeah. First inning of playoff baseball.

Acuna, the lights are on you, dude. You'll be the first batter of the game. You need to do something special. No, probably a warmer. I mean, there's a good chance. Like, that's how talented the dude is. But get on base, give Albies, give Freddie, give Donaldson a chance. And if you can beat Flaherty, you can kind of, you've neutralized this series just a little bit.

Flaherty's been amazing. We've been talking about him nonstop on this show because he's deserved it. He's not, like I said this yesterday, he's not like Verlander in my mind. Like he's not a lock for seven strong innings right now. I would not be surprised either way. He's not a lock right now. We could be saying a very different thing tomorrow morning. Oh, if he comes out today with nerves of steel and does what he does,

then I'm like, oh shit, he's going to be a problem the rest of the way. But I got to get this first start to see what he's working with. Him and Walker Bueller are fighting for the torch from Verlander. Dude, Walker Bueller's so fun to watch. Yeah. And the little things... He just throws himself at you. The little things that Bueller does, too, are special.

Like when he covered first, like, it was one of the speedsters, and he just... I think it was Turner, who was one of the fast. The fastest guys in the lead, and there's a dribbler to first. Justin Turner is one of the fastest guys in the league? Trey Turner, Jim. And he toasted him to first. But, yeah, Walker Bueller was so impressive last night.

But, yeah, Braves, you just have basically get to Flaherty in the first. And, I mean, do they need something special from Fulte? Because it's not like they can piece it together. Yeah, they need some meanings out of him. Damn. And he's like the fourth guy. in that rotation pretty much. Hey, Fulte, be a hero.

Do it. Do it. We're rooting for Fulte today. The 7 o'clock start. Yankees versus twins, Jake, my stomachs and knots. I'm nervous. I don't get to be an innocent bystander who can poke fun and enjoy both sides of the baseball.

I will be nervous as hell. It's Paxton versus Berrios. Berrios has a terrible history versus the Yankees. And at the stadium, he was young. you didn't see the Yankees this year. Paxton has been really good, 10 and 0 down the stretch. It's his first playoff start, and that has me a little word.

Like I'm the same way with Paxton as I am Jack Flaherty. I need to see the first inning get successfully completed. So that, like, you just kind of in there. And I mean, James, the better comparison over Flaherty is probably Patrick Corbyn, who those were two guys that were on the Yankees radar. They traded for Paxton instead of shoveling money for Patrick Corbyn. No offense, Patrick. Got to save that money.

Yeah, I mean, this will sound like a cop-out, especially after what I just said about the last game. But first inning, Paxton was an issue for three-quarters of the season. The dude was like the worst first-inning pitcher around baseball, never mind playoff nerves, never mind how good the twins are versus lefties. There's some stuff there. If Paxton shoves in the first inning, we're blind Yankee fans anyways, when do we want to be?

If Paxton shoves in the first inning, the game is over. I'm not saying that. I think the twins are going to come out swinging for home runs. Obviously, they hit the most in the league. But this Yankees team hit the second most home runs, but they don't, it's not home run or bust with them. They kind of play to the short porch. They make that swing.

you do that you find yourself getting a lot of singles and doubles anyway because you're kind of going the other way with pitches so you got like judge who says swing for home runs but you got lamehue or shella gardner even glaber will give you a good at bat that's not homerunner glaver glaber gets one home run swinging at bat but i'm but i'm saying it from a standpoint i think the twins and i think they should be their strategy in the first inning should just be home run let's fucking hit a thousand foot million foot home run to ryehs to ryehs and back in the Pakistan's world, where I think the Yankees might be a bit more settled in their approaches.

And try to quiet down the stadium. Yeah, and I think what you're saying, the control of the zone has been the Yankees model all year. Hey, I mean, twins, if Berrios can find it, it'll be interesting. And this used to be a thing last year, Jimmy. We haven't seen it too much this year, but it could be interesting in this series. A one-run lead might be the worst thing for either team

that's down one because every hitter will go into Homer mode to try to tie it up instead of that, like get on base. Let's get a rally going. Kind of extra inning rules. Yeah. The last game is the Dodgers versus the Nationals. Game two, Strasbourg versus Kershaw. Good matchup.

Now, Kershaw, this is a good game. Pressures on Strasbourg because he doesn't have a bullpen behind him and his team is down one nothing. and they're on the road. Kershaw actually comes in. He doesn't have to be the dude. Maybe that will help him out. He does not have to be the dude because Walker Bueller's that dude.

So Strasbourg, I think all the pressure's on him to go seven strong. Yeah, I think you have to. It's kind of not a discussion. Strausberg has to give them seven to give Hudson and do little a chance, however that matches up. It's so different than the Yankees. Like, Paxton, if he goes seven strong, it's like two winnings of bonus points.

Like they, Boone has said like, no, we're using our bullpen no matter what. Yeah. Yeah, and I thought that was interesting, Jimmy,

the other day and I, I think I phrased it pretty well because I said this could matter or this could mean literally nothing. There's only two teams that want to go to their bullpen in the playoffs left. There's eight teams.

The only two that are excited to bring someone out of the bullpen are the Yankees in the race. And I just think it's funny in this era of baseball and relief pitching and everything that now we're at this stage of the playoffs. All of the NL teams are pretty shook. The only team you can make an argument for is the Astros, but Presley's taking a step back. Their guys are kind of unproven in the playoffs, and you're taking the ball from Verlander and Cole, more importantly. So I just think

that's, it's interesting. You got anything else you want to talk about? I don't know, man. I'm excited. This is, it's going to be a long day, the best kind of long day. No, no what I just got excited for. There's going to be a moment today when we're, it's like probably the eighth inning of the Yankees game. And we're going to think of something from the Astros Rays game and be like,

that was today. Oh, I mean, after the Yankees play, we have to record our talking Yanx recap while the Dodgers and Nationals are playing and then they're going to be playing. Yeah. So, sorry, follow a log on Twitter. Twitter at talking Jake at John Boy underscore. I'm like giffing these games and covering them the same way I do every Yankees game.

Today will be a little harder. But it was funny because someone, like a lot of people, Jake, that don't, they follow me, but they don't watch Yankees games. They're like, dude, you're getting these gifts up so fast. How are you doing that? And I was like, oh, you don't. They probably see all the Yankees gifts that don't realize that they're within like. Welcome to the Thunderdome, bitch.

Yeah. everyone's like, how do you do it? I'm like, oh, I sit at my desk. I don't have a life and I work really hard. Yeah, that was, well, A, I wanted to give a quick thank you because the numbers for the podcast and for everything are awesome, so thank everyone. And B, I went to my, my girlfriend gave a speech thing at her work,

and I went, I was doing good boyfriend stuff for once in my life. And a couple of the people know me and they know the baseball stuff. And they were like, they're like, so, you. Are you going to be able to go to any of the Yankees games? And it's like, no, it doesn't really work like that. I got five DMs yesterday. What games are you going to? I said, no, I work those games.

Yeah. You follow me. Yeah. You got to know that I can't go. Or whatever. All right. Look like a coder. Thank you guys very much for listening.

Thanks for watching. Thanks for being supportive. Spread the word. Enjoy it. I hope all your teams win besides you, twins fans. Boom.