Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 31 | Astros & Yanks Both Go Up 2-0

Episode Date: October 6, 2019

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It is Sunday, and both American League Divisional Series are at a score of two games to none. Let's get into it. What's going on, everybody? Thank you for tuning in to another episode of talking baseball. We said we'd do them every day. We've been doing them every day. A little later today by accident. I apologize.

But my name's John Boy. I'm coming to you from New Jersey, and I have Jake with me. Denver who's going he's going handheld mic he took the mic off his stand said fuck it i'm going handheld so jake's so ready to go that's when you know wow he's ready to go it's a mood it's a mood i'm not i'm not going to lean in and talk to the mic the mic's coming to me today yeah you're going to hold it i'm going to hold that damn mike this episode of talking baseball is brought to you by Jared Gott. You gotta go.

Jason Dorn. Dorn, the people of Dorn. J. Dorn. I don't think of Game of Thrones. Love a Dornish woman. I think of Major League. Yeah, Roger. Roger Dorn.

Speaking of Roger, the next one is Ryan. Thayer. He's got W. And they make different sounds. Ryan. Your hands up in the Thayer. Thayer. Thayer is like A.R.

Oh, that's bad. Adam Hammer. Yep. Out of the bullpen every day. And Phil. What's Major League player? Coke. Oh.

You think it's Phil. I thought it was Phil Necro if he's still alive. Oh, he is. Cool. Are there any current Phil's in the major leagues? Phil Irvin and Phil Gosselin. Who's Phil Gosselin? I like big Phil Irvin. He's that big dude. He's that big dude on the Reds. Who's Phil Gosselin?

So maybe we're going to lose some street. He's got to be a reliever. Oh, no. Pinch hitter, second baseman, third baseman. Yeah, he was on the Phillies bench. this year. Good for him. Good for you, Phil Gosselin has played Major League Baseball from 2013 till now. Oh. It's impossible to know every player. Braves bench to the Diamondbacks bench, to the Pittsburgh bench, to the Texas bench, to the Sincey bench, to the Philly bench. Phil Gosselin, I love it. Good for him. All right. Those are a moment. as recent Patreon supporters, $2 a month. They get to hang out live with us while we record.

It's some other perks. It really helps us out. We appreciate it. Jake, only two games. Only two games to recap. Only two games to preview. A little lesser day than yesterday, which is madness. But tomorrow, Monday, will be madness again.

Again. How are you doing, Jim? I'm good. I haven't had my sip of coffee yet, so I'm going to do that at some point. It's a little hot. That'll wake me up a little bit. I'm a little tired. Talking yanks at night and talking baseball in the morning.

It's like, whoa. But no talking yanks tonight, so that eases that up. Yeah, I had my first, I entered it. It's a feeling. I don't know if I felt in a long time. Probably not since, probably not since opening day. I entered a baseball coma. I think people are very familiar with the football coma.

that first day of football, you watch seven hours of games, and you're like, whoa, where am I? That ninth inning of the Houston-Tampa game, it felt like the Wolf of Wall Street Kuelood scene. Like, I was on my couch, like, trying my hardest not to fall asleep. I was, I was like, raise either do it or don't, okay? Like, make this happen or get out of here. Like I was I guess I was kind of well I wouldn't say I'm fully with the Houston fans But I was just like come on let's let's not dick around and do this whole dance Like either put one in the boxes or end it

But it I mean that was an insane baseball game It was we got to talk a lot about it but yeah last night I was watching they dropped the new the latest peekie blinders season on me It's like come on I got to watch 12 hours of baseball every day And you're going to drop the new season of Piki Blinders on me in the middle So I actually went My noise screen was Picky Blinders

While I had the raise Houston on in the background And I was the same way I was tired I was like I want to go to sleep Either make magic happen or just get out Yeah But instead they just tickled us Tricked us

It was a tickle And I do want to reach out to our Houston fans Because it is well known We like the Yankees and there's some tension there. Because we know what this, everything that we've been building for, we are on path for it.

But, yeah, I was kind of, Yankee fans and their DS have not felt what Houston fans were feeling in that eighth and ninth inning yet. So I was feeling for them. No. The thing about Houston fans is, here we go. Well, I don't care about Houston fans.

They think that like we're a rivalry. I guess there's some, Yankee fans that think were a rivalry too. Like, I don't, like, Houston's good. They got a lot of guys that are really fun to root for. I hope they lose because I want the Yankees to beat them. But if you don't think, like, outside fans are impressed, crazy. Like, Cole was amazing to watch last night.

Jose Al Tuve is fantastic to watch. I go watch Jose L. Tuvei all the time. But then I have Houston fans tweeting at me and leaving comments like, Why do you hate Houston so much? I don't think I've ever said a bad word about their team. Yeah. Well, except that one guy, their head trainer. We found out his name.

His name is, I don't think, I didn't said nothing bad about him. He just looks like a trainer. He is a trainer. Right. His name's Trey, something. Which is a good name for Trey. Okay. And yeah, I think the rivalry thing is kind of interesting, and we'll see if they link up.

But there's, I think you have to look at it as, like, there's a new, I think there's a new thing in sports. it's like modern rivals. Like Golden State and Cleveland, they weren't rivals, but for those four years, they were. And I think if Yankees and Houston link up again, there's something there. Ohio State and Florida State, 2007 and 2008,

whatever years it was. I don't know what years was. All right. It's a great modern rival. And then, yeah, so early spoiler, if you're a raised fan or you're a twin. fan you might want to turn your ear holes off because the ALCS has been decided yeah yeah I think so do you have burns I've got burns all right let's burn which game do you want to do first

we've been doing them in chronological order so we can do that if we want yeah chronological order is how the whole world should work whoa don't jumble around my brain keep it in order here we go the Burns, Jake. Yeah. Are brought to you by, hopefully someone. Okay. Hopefully someone.

Here we go. On your mark. Get your set. Burn. Game two into Bronx as the Yankees try to get Randy, baby. Yeah, off a Dobnack and the Twins. And a very special Tanaka Tuesday this

Saturday for the Yankees. as Masahiro and the boys try to take full control of this series. Bottom one, Yanks flipped the twins, the bird, more so apparent as Edwin. He just hits, baby. RBI single, one nothing pinstripes. Bottom three, the Yankees ended the twins season. John Carlo, oh, so close. Just missed a grand slam.

It's a sack fly. That plates one. Claibur, as he has ice in his veins with an RBI single. then I'm sicker than your average. Gregorius. The hero this city deserves as the dark night sends one into the dark night, Grand Salami. And after Uncle Brett slaps a single, it's eight nothing Yankees after three.

And the other story of this game, Masa Hero Tanaka, he went all MC Hammer on the twins because they can't touch him. Five innings pitched, one earn runs, seven Ks. It's a route. Tank to Canley, to Vino, to Lions to Lausagna. Yanks win the game 8-2 and win the series two games to none. The Yankees the first team that got to throw just completely slop pitchers in the game? Yeah, I mean, I guess the other game that was close to a domination was the Dodgers game one, and they threw Joe Kelly at the end, who he wouldn't be their normal closer,

but he's not sloped for them. He's a guy that they need. need. No, like Tyler Lyons and Johnny La Zania are on a whole new level at the Yankees threw them out. So I think it's the first, first game that as a third party fan, just a real dud. Twins didn't give you anything. Depends what you think about the guys coming out of the Braves bullpen. Boi-o-o-o-o-ring.

Do it again. Better. Nice. Soundboard. Human soundboard. Oh. The twins threw Randy Dobnack. Yeah.

And this is not second guessing. This is always the dumbest decision ever. And twins fans are saying, well, who else was he going to throw? Like, you know, Paneda got hurt. Our starters got hurt. There's so many other things you could have done besides start Randy Dobnack, who has 28 innings pitched in his career. And only one of them was against the playoff team.

And he's never faced the Yankees or pitched in, Yankee Stadium or pitched in an environment that is so hostile in his life. Like, you could have opened with Brewster Gratterol or Sergio Romo, then giving it to Dobnack. You could have just started Odorizzi, who sure, he's a flyball pitcher, and the reason they didn't start him was because of that, but he might be a little well versed to start a postseason game at Yankee Stadium experience matters. It seems like a real dumb call.

I said it before, and I'll say it now when it didn't work. Yeah, I like saving Oda Rizzi for game three. I think that gives them their best chance to win a game in the series. You're absolutely right. I mean, Randy Dobnack and all the Uber stuff, we all know, Todd Frazier, Little League, yeah, yeah, yeah. The opener thing, I can't believe we didn't fully dive into this more because Domnack had been good for the twins.

You know, he had a really solid season. It was against a lot of bad teams, no sugar-coding. It had bad teams. And if you're going to use him, use him as the bulk guy. I mean, have Sergio Romo, who's got a ton of experience. Have Bruce Star Gratterol, who's got your best stuff and had your best inning of playoff baseball so far. Have them come in and face, you know,

LeMayhew, Judge, and Gardy, and maybe Stanton, or Edwin in that first inning, have them come in full relief mode to try to shut down the Yankees for one inning and try to stop the crowd for one inning, and you didn't do that. And that would be my biggest question as Twins fans, because you're right. At a certain point when you go down the line, Randy Dobnack would have had to give you a couple good innings in this baseball game. he was your best available option to throw him out he wasn't going to get through the Yankees top of the order twice and he didn't

so it's it's I don't know and maybe he's not comfortable coming out of the pin but he is because he's Randy Dobnack he doesn't get a vote so yeah it was it was a tough look and then that that third inning was just it's what you expect and Dedy the guy who struggling the guy that Yankees' analytics geeks are saying shouldn't be in there. What does he do? It's another huge postseason home run. One of the, and hey, correct us if I're wrong, talking Jake at John Boy, one of the cooler pimped home runs you'll ever see because he almost falls. He was going to do like a big whirly bird pimp and then he saves it and then he throws it.

But I mean, just domination. If you've seen it, there was a lot of discussion. Did you think that was foul? or was he about to do the biggest pimp job ever, then stopped halfway? It's the latter. He confirmed it. He knew it was gone.

He was about to wind up and fucking wing the bat with his left hand. And then halfway through was like, nah, nah, nah, nah, no, no, no. It's just the twins. It's just around one. We're good. This isn't a surprise. So it's awesome.

And the other story, and I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the other story from this game is Tanaka. He's a monster in the postseason. He's now 35 innings to the tune of a 154 ERA. His ERA did go up after the five innings pitch, one, earn run. So he'll try to bounce back from that. But Tanaka is a proven postseason stud.

He's a regular season stud, too. If you want to, you could take out two of Masahiro Tanaka starts, and his season looks incredible. And yeah, you could do that with a lot of guys. I get it. but he wasn't all-star this year. The London start kind of screwed him, and he fell on the sword one game.

But Tanaka, you know, when people were questioning this Yankees' rotation and being like, well, Masa-iro Tanaka's got a four-five ERA. That doesn't matter. He's been there. He had to change his splitter grip, Jim. I know you were deep into that for a little while because you're a big tank guy, but he's a stud.

Well, it's just a story of the new baseballs with the new things. he refused to change his splitter grip because he had the same splitter grip for a decade you've been pitching with the same group. It worked. It'd been working. And it had worked for a decade to make him one of the best out pitches. I think in 2017 his splitter was the best out pitch,

2018, sorry, 2018. Best swing and miss stuff. And then he just completely lost it. And he was hesitant to change the grip because that's all he'd done forever. Yeah. And then what happened was the Yankees hitting or Yankees pitching coach went and found a ball from 2018 and had him hold it and then had him hold the new one.

And that's when the light bulb went off and was like, wow, okay. I really do need to adjust for the new balls. So now his grip has a lot more laces in it than it did before. It's kind of interesting story. It really is, especially if you're a pitching geek or if you're just a baseball person. But Tanaka, Tanaka does his thing. they kick it to Canely and out of Vino, who have been a little mad recently for the Yanks, but they come in and they look solid.

And then, yeah, like you said, I mean, this was the first time we've seen kind of not guys that teams would go to in the bullpen. I mean, these are the last two guys on the Yankees roster, basically, in Lions and Lazzania, and they finish the game. So, yeah, I mean, if you're Minnesota, you're in a tough place right now, you're going to have to mix things up a little bit. You are going home. We did this a little bit on talking Yanks,

but you're going home. Rocco Baldelli's saying like, hey, they held serve. It's our turn to hold serve at home. You have Oda Rizzy, who I think is the guy you'd probably trust the most in a playoff game. If you're the raise, he's, you know, he's been around since 2012. He had a lot of solid years for Tampa. I'm trying to see, is he pitched in the play.

postseason before? I don't think so. But he's a guy that's been around the block before. This isn't a shot at Berrios or anything, but he's just been doing it for longer. So I don't know. I think they give a fight on tomorrow. If they want to do it with the state of their bullpen right now, they're going to have to have a big lead. They need like a four-run lead with going into the seventh. think to win that game, which I don't know if they can do that. The last time the Yankees faced Oter Rizzi, he went four innings pitch, 10 hits,

nine earn runs. Not a great sign. Yeah, we'll see. We will see. I hope that it goes in three. Maybe the twins win one at home. I don't see the twins doing a miraculous comeback here. No, no.

And hey, I try to say that like holding back bias. If you listen to MLB Network or any of the time, talking heads on the internet network. They've been ruthless to the twins. More ruthless than I've been, and I've been pretty hard on them. Yeah. And it's, yeah, it's, it's, it's,

it was a tough matchup for them, not that Houston would have been a better one. But yeah, the twin, the ALEs of two-team league. If you heard me at the end of the burn, say Yankees win the Series 2-0. That wasn't, that wasn't an error like I made yesterday when I was talking about Annabelle Sanchez on the Braves. That was, that was just the,

coffee going through my system. It's, sorry Twins fans. We apologize. We apologize, but it's, A.L's a two-team league this year. The other storyline coming out of this game that's still going on my phone, at least, is people are upset that the Yankee fans chanted Uber at the Randy Dobnack, which every now and then, you just reminded how much people suck. Yeah.

turning it into like such a bigger thing. 2019. Crazy. You know what I keep getting? And this is what I was something I'd like to change the narrative on. Keep getting like all the rich Yankee fans making fun of a guy who needs a second job. I don't think you could be any more wrong about the people that are watching Yankees games in the bleachers and the box seats in the outfield. Yeah.

Like that is the most working class people of working. There's anyone that understands the necessity of a second job. It's the people in the bleachers and the box seats at Yankee Stadium who live in New York City. You couldn't be as weird that I didn't know that people think of Yankees. Like I know the press seat, the box seats, but like bleacher creatures as rich eliteist. You can be fucking kidding me. It's a bunch of, it's a bunch of. It's a bunch of drunk blue collar workers.

Go on. Yeah. No, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's supposed to be ball busting in good fun. It ties into pay minor league players, pays into just people not like in the Yankees. It's, you know, if you want to come at it from a different angle, you have a slot to come in. And whenever that's open to people, they're going to. Yeah. So offensive.

Really? Yeah. They just chanted the one thing they knew about the guy. Bob Costs, dude, and then Big Poppy was even meaner on the post game show. He goes, the twins should go get the twins. Well, the starter they got from Uber didn't work. They should go to Target to get a game three starter. That's what Big Poppy said.

Right. Are we going to cancel Big Poppy now? Like jokes aren't allowed anymore. Jesus Christ. It's a good joke by Poppy. It's tough. And I mean, at the same time, hey, you know, if you're someone, let's, It's like, oh, Randy Dobnack didn't ask for this.

He came out before the game and he said, the louder the crowd, the more I like it. Yeah, and he's probably going to put Uber on the back of his players weekend jersey. Yeah, I mean, it's funny. At the end of the day, people can make anything an issue if they want to. All right, let's burn the Astros race game, which was a lot more intense than the Yankees twins. And this one's brought to you by. If we didn't have an ad there, it's brought to you by Jake's, but here we go.

On my butt. On your mark. Get set. Burn. Game two of the Orange Bowl is defending AL-Sy Young winner, Blake, what's that, Snell? As the Rays try to work out any runs off future A.L.S.I. Young winner, Garrett Cole World, can't get enough.

Snell looked really good and only made one mistake, and mistake is loosely used when it's a solo shot to Alex Bregman. Snell and the Ray's biggest problem? 2011 MLB number one overall pick Garrett Allen Cole. He went all Clint Capella on Tampa with 15 punchouts for Houston, seventh player in playoff history with 15 or more strikeouts in a game. Impressive, Martine Maldonado and Carlos Corre. with the Geico insurance runs. Houston would roll. Time out.

Those pesky rays. Top eight. Tying run on base, the Yandy man can't. Osuna strikes out Diaz. Top nine. Base is loaded with rays and no outs. Puckle up. Avicale Garcia into the fielder's choice.

Run for an out. Houston will take it. Another walk. Base is loaded. Osuna's yanked, Will the thrill Harris. Huge strikeout of Travis, who looked like he had darn no idea what was going on.

Kiermeyer grounds out. Tampa puts a scare on him late, but Houston wins 3-1 final. Who? I think the raids are going to get a game. I clearly don't think they're going to win, but these games have been closer. And Cole, I mean, Cole's very, very good.

So no one is shocked by this line by Garrett Cole. But it is like top tier. even for Derek Cole. Like amazing out. Yeah, I mean, 15Ks. Yeah. And it was a 1-0-0-0 going into the 7th, and then 2-0-0 going into the 8th.

So, like, despite that, then they had bases loaded, no-outs. If the race were to come through, I mean, I couldn't even imagine wasting a Cole start like that. And same with Verlander yesterday, or it was close against. So, like, the rays are there.

They're playing with them. The twins aren't playing with. the Yankees. The Rays are playing with the Astros. The Astros are much better. The Rays have clearly established themselves of the third best team in the AAL. And if

LOW or Lowe doesn't drop that ball in game one, then you have like a four to two game in game one. And it's been closer. Now the Astros are the better team, up and down the board. But their hitters have been held to bay like a little

bit, kind of enough. and Osuna's a problem. Yeah, I mean, the raise pitching has never been the issue. Like you said, you take out that error yesterday. That game looks a lot better. And, I mean, even with yesterday's game. But yeah, I mean, and when you go through that Ray's lineup and you compare it to Houston, there's kind of this like, oh, my moment.

Tampa just doesn't have the same caliber of sticks. This isn't a shot at Tampa. Houston's an incredible team. But again, they were there in the, eight and the ninth and yeah you're a bloop doubled down the line away from like you know Tampa stole one in Houston which would be insane um it will be interesting to see game three at the drop I think there's something to the idea that like grinky's really good but he's not where col and verlander are right now um he's definitely the weakest link and i don't know just going back to

Tampa, we'll see what that stadium is looking like, and we'll see if the oddities of the trop get involved. But you're right. I think, like, I think Tampa will be the favorite in game three to win the game, or at least a toss-up, Vegas-wise. So who's pitching for Tampa in game three? So game three will be, let me get off Jake O'Rizzie's page. He used to pitch for Tampa.

Which is why I thought he would be fine handling Yankee Stadium. And Jim, this is, it's Charlie Morton. It's Morton versus Grinky. So Morton's got the advantage there, actually. On the season stats, Morton's been better, right? Morton's been better. And I don't know. I mean, they are going to be favored in game three.

Do with that what you want. Again, a George Springer. It's also a weird environment. Like, I don't blame the Astros for. You know what I'm hoping for? Oh, I forgot I was hoping for this. I don't know if we said this publicly or it was just you and I having a conversation. Remember how my one wish was don't let the raise host the wildcard game?

Right. So my new wish is my second one is the Yankees go all the way. Two is there's a fucking game altering. Yes. Catwalk shot. Yeah. That brings it to the forefront of the national sports world. and MLB has to answer for it.

Like, what the fuck are we doing? That's my number two wish in the postseason right now. Like a walk. Remember, Clint Fraser hit a walk-off home run for the Yankees, but it hit a catwalk and then was caught in the outfield, so it didn't count. But it was 100%. It hit worse than a catwalk, Jim.

It hit speakers that hang over the field to pump noise in to make it sound like a major league stadium. Because they don't have fans, so they hang speakers to make crowd noise. Yeah. This is not a joke, by the way. there's anyone that's like, oh, these Yankees guys are ball busting. Yeah, the rays hang speakers from the ceiling to pump in noise.

No, that's real, folks. Those are facts. Yeah, that's real. It was very much real. So, yeah, it's my number one wish, a game-altering catwalk or speaker shot. So I'm excited. I am now excited for the games in the trap. I'm excited.

I'd like to see the rays have some good energy because I know it's a small fan. base and they don't have a ton to root for. But, I mean, that is about as brutal as it gets in baseball, having a face Verlander and Cole. And like, hey, the Yankees are going to do this in probably a week and I'm not going to ask for sympathy. But for the first seven innings, you basically know, like, we're not going to take this game over. Like, it's not like, like, hey, let's get a couple guys on, get a couple three-run shots and win this game. It's like, no, let's kill for a run. So, and, and hey, shout out to Tampa for, for putting together rallies in the eighth inning

and the ninth inning when that was their only shot. Yeah, shout out to them. I was trying to find, trying to find Morton and Granky's stats because they're both 35 years old, but Granky's put together like a much better career. But my, my thing's messing up on me, so. Yeah, we'll get it on, we'll get it on tomorrow's show. that would be the smarter time to do it. Right?

But now I have it up. And Granky's ERA has been better than Morton's. That's what I was afraid of. I thought I spoke out of turn where I said Morton's been better than Granky. Granky just doesn't come up on top list because he did two. He did the NL than the A.L. Right. So I did speak out of turn.

Granky's season has been more impressive than Morton's in a way. in a way in every way that I judge seasons so they both started the same amount of games Jake 33 and then Granky pitched more innings to a better ERA

so therefore in my brain all I care about is how many innings did you pitch and how many runs did you let up so Granky's been better National League bruh oh yeah better results national league

pitchers and DHS Little different NL, NL West and AL East. IMO. IMO. Anything else from this race game? Are you worried about Osuna? Gives up, that's someone on base, like his whip's been pretty bad his last seven or eight games. I think it's at least, on average, almost one person gets on.

It's never good when your closer has to hand you the ball. Yeah, and they did bring him in for the last. out of the eighth and he got that and that was the most important out he needed to get. So, yeah, I mean, you just have to treat him. Like, I know Osuna's, you know, a really a good closer, but this is playoff baseball. And they did the right thing. I mean, if they dug their heels in and said, Osuna, you got to, this is your game, they would have lost.

Yeah. They would have very much lost. So the fact that Harris could come in, who I was kind of tougher on the other day, because he doesn't have a ton of experience, and this is his only season. He comes in and does the job. The Darno at bad, I made a joke in the burn, but it was really good. 3-2, fouling off pitches. Darno's a tough out when he's locked in.

So, I mean, good on Harris for coming in. You wonder if that becomes a conversation in Houston land. Because, yeah, I think if you're Houston right now, the board is open. You're going to give Osuna the 9th when you can. But you're going to want one guy available because you might have to bail him out. Yeah. Yeah, you have that safety net, which you don't usually want with a closer. And you might not necessarily get if you have to pull Grinky in like the fifth or the sixth.

Yeah. All right. That ends the recap portion of the show. Let's get into the preview. You got two games today, Jake. Two games today. We got Dodgers versus the Nationals. They're still playing.

Yeah. Cardinals and Braves. Both series tied one game apiece. Both in new venues today. Sunday night, national audience. Who was the first game? Who got prime time? Dodgers had to just for time slot reasons.

Yeah, Dodgers, Nats have the 745 stuff. Start. Braves St. Louis have the four Eastern Time start. And yeah, Jim, and this is, we're doing this in a little silly way. And I'm sure you could guess it if you really wanted. But we've got some good pitching matchups that right now, as of right this moment, you don't know who it is, right? I haven't like looked it up now. Right. I'm sure you could guess it, but we'll just dive in because they are fun. They're very, very, very. very fun. Well, the Braves are throwing Soroka. Braves are thrown Soroka. The kid, the Canadian club, uh, really, arguably the best player you don't know. Like Jack Flaherty could also play that card, but his second half was so good people know him. Jim, look at Soroka's game logs and he

might be your favorite pitcher in baseball. I've already done falling in love with Soroka. He only has one start that doesn't meet the John Boy requirement. Yeah. No, he's an amazing. Uno. He's the only picture I've seen with only one. And Jim, he's going against the old warrior, Adam Wainwright, who's just been through so many battles for this St. Louis franchise. I mean, it's just, it's a classic battle, the young guy versus the old guy. Carpenter had a really nice bounce back season. Soroka's definitely the younger, better player at this point,

but it's playoff baseball. And, I mean, like, I lean Wainwright just because he's done it. Soroka has, I mean, he is 22 years old. 22 going on 15. Yeah. So he's in an opposing stadium.

I think that actually helps with the nerves sometimes. Yeah. Depends. Depends what the stadiums are, I guess. I think it helps that he got to see a couple games for going. I think that helps more. But he is young. He has been so good.

Has he faced, I'm trying to see. Has he faced the Cardinals this year, Jake? Los Cardinals. It looks like he faced them in May. Twice. He went seven shutout. Yeah, he went and faced him twice in May. Six-innings.

pitched one earned run seven innings pitched zero earned runs let's see who popped him in the in the first one but yeah dude he's been i mean mike saroca go look at him if you haven't heard of him if you know how to look at game logs or you enjoy that stuff his is so impressive matt carpenter hit an rbi single after goldschmidt reached on catcher's interference that's how they scored the one run off Seroca this season. Wow. And yeah, he was, he's a top 25 prospect heading into this season. And that's the only curious thing that I don't know enough about Jim. It looks like he got hurt probably 2017 or 2018, and he only threw about 60

innings across Major League and Minor League ball last year. He's already at the 170, 174 threshold of Major League innings. So I'm interested to see if his arm still has the same life. I mean, he's a kid and he's going to be juiced up, so I'm sure he does. But yeah, I mean, Soroka, his game log, you know, we're starting to beat the dead horse a little bit. But it's about it. He only gave up five earn run once. And then I think he gave up four earn runs like three times, and that's it.

So like if you need a guy to shove for five, six innings, which the Braves, actually need more than that. Seroca is a awesome dude to have out there. And I'm rooting for the kid because I don't want to walk away and be like, ooh, that kid was shook. He throws a two-seamer or a sinker, a majority of the time, which I think is fun. Like his four-seam fastball, he only throws 18% of the time. So it's all about that cross-action on his sinker and then slider, kind of like out ofino, but out of, but a starting pitcher.

and I think he just attacks the zone and comes at you. And let's, we could talk about the kid for a while, but I want to go to Wainwright. This is going to be his 13th career playoff start, his 25th career playoff appearance. He's got a 303 career playoff ERA, more strikeouts than innings pitch. He's obviously a different dude than when he was finishing top three in the Cy Young from 2010 till 24. 14. Kind of funny, this is just some Jake stuff that I like, but he came off of his big, like, I got paid contract, and his contract was $2 million this year after making $20 million for about five years before that. But Wainwright, he's had a really solid season, a 419 ERA

over 171 innings. He's not the same dominator that he used to be. But I mean, if I'm St. Louis, I believe in this guy, like 100%. He's another guy that throws movement over power. Like his curveball, he throws majority of the time. He's always been a curveball guy. And then he's got a sinker and a cutter. Like his four-seen fastball is 14% of the time. So this is a lot of finesse pitching out of these two.

And Wayne O's 38 now. So, yeah, I mean, literally Adam Wainwright, 38. You've seen him in the Major League. since 2005. Soroka, I think, was eight years old. You'll probably hear that on the broadcast for sure. And Soroka is 22. And he looks, I look young.

I will more often, I will always admit that. Soroka. Soroka is a Little League jersey away from being like, oh, look at, here's the one six foot kid at the Little League World Series. Wainwright versus the Braves, Jake. McCann, Freeman, Markakis. Joyce,

uh, all Deval all have double-digit played appearances. No home runs out of that crew. Uh, Markakis has really good stats. Five hits and nine at bats with two walks. So 636 on base percentage against Waino. And I don't know if this is an actual what to watch for because there's so many good

young guys in this game, but I'm going to be watching all the Wainwright-McCann at bats, all the Wainwright-Marcaquis. like these old dogs that this could be their last rodeo. Like those are going to be some gnarly at bats that they're going to laugh at over some beers five years from now and be like, what were we doing? Akuna's fucking incredible. McCann can barely move. But those are going to be a lot of fun.

Yeah. Who do you like winning this game? Honestly, I'm, and this could go away, as you well know, in the first inning. But I believe in Soroka, man. I really do. I think he's due for a little coming out party. I think the Braves lined up their rotation this way for a reason so that they could go to St. Louis and have a chance.

I like it. And I think Ronald is also on a little bit of a fuck you tour himself. Like he came out, he got looked at badly in that first game, and then he kind of calmly sat there and was like, he knows what he has to do now. So I think I'm going braves, but after one inning, I need two batters that I can audible that

because if Soroka has a bad two batters, I'm instantly St. Louis. Cardinals have a big baseball crowd, so their home crowd should be able to pump a lot of energy. They'll be rowdy. And the kind of old dog factor with Wayno and the nostalgic factor with that crowd going crazy. I kind of like that.

I think if they can punch Soroka, in the mouth early, they might be able to ride that till the end. And Jim, they might not have to punch Soroka. If they could get them out by the seventh inning, two innings of Braves bullpen versus that St. Louis crowd. I mean, that sounds like three runs at least. But I don't know. I believe in the Braves lineup against Wayne Wright.

All right. Next game, the nightcap is Dodgers versus Nationals. Dodgers win game one. Nats win game two. they fly way across the country back to Washington, D.C. That crowd is going to be so pumped up to not have a do or die game. The wild card would do or die, edge of their seats. Now they get like a game with some breathing room.

Not a ton because a five game set and it's now a best of three. But I think they're going to be a little more like amped up and less depressed as they were in the wild card. And it's Ryu versus Sanchez? So, yeah, it was just announced like 10 minutes ago that Anabal, not Scher, will be starting game three because there was a lot of rumors. Scherzor came out in relief in the last game. It was his throw day. Anabal has been really solid for them.

I mean, talk about another guy that's been around the block a lot. I would be interested to see, and Jim, this is, This is just strictly Jake. This isn't that something I've read? But all right. So you throw Anibal Sanchez because it's not a do-or-die game and you're lined up with Scherzer at home tomorrow, right? Mm-hmm.

Do you think there's a world? Yes. Annabal Sanchez goes out there. He's thrown pretty well, but he's only going to make it five. He's going to give you five innings, one-earned run. He's going to Tanaka you. You're the Nationals. You have, let's say you're lead in the game three to one.

Hell 4 to 1. You got a nice lead. Okay. Is there any chance that you tell Scher, hey, let's go get this one? And you have him come out of the bullpen for a couple innings. Yeah, I think they're all hands on deck. And I think Scherzer's probably coming to him and saying,

let me go get this. Let me go get this. Because he's a psycho. And then, yeah, I mean, you, you, you, you, you tuck Corbyn in game four and you have Strausberg Scherzer ready for game five. That's on my brain jumped there immediately. I don't know if it's an option. At the same time having Scherzorzzzberg lined up for four and five.

That's exactly what you want as the Nationals. Yeah, I think that sounds better. But I think if they have a chance to go get this game today, they don't have the bullpen to do it. And they know that. So I think either Corbyn or Schrozener go tomorrow. It wouldn't be It'd be Corbin

Corbyn pitch game one Okay Yeah then you could do it But that's such a weird role For Scher now to be in twice And like he doesn't get to start a game It's a weird role But if it wins you games

And maybe Corbin's in this role But I think you say I think you go into this game You say hey if Anibal gets us Where he gets us Let's have Scher's ready to go To win the game almost and then you have Corbyn for game four

and you have Strausberg for five with Scherzer available again. I don't know. I actually love it. I actually love it. You've won me over. It depends where Max's head at. And at the same time,

if Annable goes out there today and he doesn't have the lead, yeah, you just bullpen, you hope something happens. And then you have Scherzer, Strasberg, and Corbyn ready for the final two games. So that's my head's there. That could be totally off, but it makes a ton of sense. It does. I kind of like it. You won me over. And then for the Dodgers, Jim, it's Ryu season.

And I have a fun fact for you. What's your fun fact, James? Ryu and Anabal Sanchez squared up once this season. Ooh, I know you like that. What do you think the outcome was? Zero, zero tie. Dodgers won four to two. Ryu went six point two innings with one earned run.

And on a ball went seven innings with one earned run. Ryu, man. His season only had one blemish, basically, a three-game stretch there where he wasn't good. Outside of that, he's got the lowest ERA in the National League. I was talking about how I was impressed the Braves have Soroka go in game three. Here's Ryu, the guy that was leader in the clubhouse for the Cy Young up until about five weeks ago. So, yeah, I mean, where are you at with Ryu, Jim? I'm good with him.

I like him. He has another outing against the Nationals that he went eight innings pitched, one hit. So, I mean, he's got some film to look back on and kind of feel like, okay, I did this right. I mean, it's up to the Nationals to make the adjustments. But he's looked pretty good against them. I mean, what is that? That was basically 14.2 innings pitched of one-run ball. Yeah.

His postseason numbers aren't super impressive. 35 innings pitched 4-1-1-ERA and 7 starts. They're not bad. Last year he got torched in the NLCS by Milwaukee and in the World Series he got torched by Boston. In the DS last year he had a really good start against the Braves. So interesting to see. I think I don't know.

He's had three good postseason starts and four not great. Yeah, I'd love to hear from Braves fans. Like, are you confident or is it going to be kind of almost the Soroka thing I said, except with a veteran? Like after one inning, could Dodger fans tell me like, oh, yeah, Ryu's going to be seven shutout today or are they going to be like he's not going to make it to the fifth? One national has a home run against for you. If you guess it correctly,

I will look you in the eye and say great guess. Steven Straussberg. You're an idiot. Randon. Antonio, Rendon. Two doubles, one hit in 11 played appearances. 273 batting average. Nothing else doing this is going to be a pitcher's door

You think so I think both of them are The National League You got you got Soroka and Wayno You got Ryu I mean if any is the weak link It's Sanchez Yeah

But we'll see Because The Dodgers What's your gut telling you Jim Dude I love your Shurs are playing So like, I'm kind of on the nationals now. Need a lead. You need the lead.

And then you can go to Scherzer with Strasberg and Corbyn for games four and five. And then it's like, all right, Max, you were a weird role in the DS. But that's because we needed you in the wild card. It set you up funky for the DS. If we win, you're our game one starter for the CS because you'll be on rest. It's fucking awesome plan. And I think, I think last year's Red Sox changed baseball. Baseball, man. I really, I really do. Just because I, for years, like, if you told a starting pitcher,

you told Max Scherzer three years ago, hey, we might need you out of the pen today. I think he'd tell you to go fuck yourself. Well, usually it's just extra innings games, you know, like Husina and 03. Right. But it's not like in the nine inning plan. The Dodgers haven't scored many runs, man. They, I mean, yeah. Okay. So actually they have, but I said this the other day, because those four are against the National's terrible bullpen. Right. Rainy. Rodney.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't really count. Rainy and Rodney and then Hunter Strickland coming in who's got nothing. So like, I know it's a little tough, but the Dodgers offense hasn't blown a game open against good pitching. It's only been two games,

so it's a little unfair to say that. Oh, but Jim, I think Annabal Sanchez on the mound. This isn't Scher, this isn't Strausberg, this isn't Riu, this isn't, this isn't Soroka, this is Anabal Sanchez. You've got Cody Bellinger, Max Muncie. It is time for those big lefties and the Dodgers to put up. Today's the day.

Today's your only chance. Yeah, and then what runs are the Dodgers scoring game two? They had, they had. Muncie got Doolittle. Yeah, and they, the first other run was like a Beatty Bady single jock double Turner sack

fly against six inning Straussberg okay I would like the Dodgers to erupt okay because like there's supposed to be this high octane team and good offense

and against a good like against a starting pitcher but we'll see that's why they haven't done it yet. I mean, and Bellinger's hitless. That's my storyline. I had some Dodgers fans reach out and they were like,

no, no, no, no, no. We're very worried about Bellinger. Yeah. Like this is, we're like one more hitless game away from it being a huge plot line. Yeah, today's the day. Today's the day. Yeah. Cool.

I think that's everything. Thank you guys for tuning in. We'll be back tomorrow with another episode to recap. these two National League games. And then Monday's another wild day with four games. Preview and four. Damn. That's not,

you got to be closing thoughts, Jake? You still like baseball? Love baseball. I really love baseball. I will, I said this yesterday. I was hoping to,

like, watch just 10 minutes of college football just to go away. Didn't it happen? So I need, hopefully I can watch, like, the final drive of an NFL game. And I think that'll level me off just a little bit.

It's kind of interesting because you and I are coming at this from a weird perspective because we're doing a ton of work and like got to watch the games. Then we got to talk about the games every day. And we're like, hey, dude, once we're out of the divisional series, it kind of gets a lot easier because there's only. Yeah. There's only two series going on, maybe one game a night. Like how often do they double up in the CS? Like not once or twice. It's probably like every other.

Yeah. And then after that. the World Series. But yeah, we're, we're in the grind. We appreciate everyone that's listening and in it with us. So thank you. Stick around. Leave a five-star rating and review. If you would like, that would be, uh, consider it. We appreciate it. They do more than, they do more than you think and we hate asking for them. Go baseball. See you tomorrow.