Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 32 | Braves Come Back in the 9th, Dodgers Bats Come Alive

Episode Date: October 7, 2019

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.

Today is Monday, October 7th, and the Dodgers bats came to life and the Braves rose from the dead. What's going on, everybody? Thank you for tuning in to talking baseball. My name is Jum boy, and I've got my co-host Jake coming you from Denver. We are actually recording this on Sunday night. It's currently 11.20 p.m. Eastern time, and the Dodgers, are up, but the game is not finalized. So give you some insight there.

I got to make an airport run tomorrow. So we're doing it tonight instead of tomorrow morning. This episode is sponsored by Joel Silva, which his name was silver for a while. But then they started getting super cute with it and just changed it to Silva. A Silva. Silva. Silva and gold.

Scotty Reed. Scotty with an I S-C-O-T-T-I I think that's a female Scotty No E on the end No E Scotty I don't know

I don't know good I'm happy for them Okay and Robert Brooks Yeah Bobby Brooks all day Bobby Brooks Brooks was here Those are our most recent Patreon supporters

Go to patreon.com slash John Boy Media You can be the next Patreon sponsor. It's $2 a month. helps us out a great deal as we grow and get everything rolling. And thank you to everyone that's been listening and leaving reviews. The numbers have been great as these playoffs roll on.

Jake, how are you doing? I'm good. James, I'm good. A big, big weekend of baseball, another good day of baseball. The NL got back into it. Braves Cardinals, man. It doesn't get much better than that. And yeah, yeah like like jimmy said and maybe we'll twist the open tomorrow if we do have a four run come back in the ninth if the nationals can keep it at four right now uh colorec just won the colorec soto round three battle again i love that and might oh yeah i mean it's it's ridiculous it kind

sucks it sucks pretty bad for sodo unless it gets them well i i mean like literally next year that can't happen so that that sucks for Soto um so yeah so uh yeah hunter strickland's in which and we're not a big hunter strickland i was just going to call him the human white flag that was a little rude but um yeah good day of n l baseball that uh uh appending something crazy in the ninth inning uh the cardinals and the braise is the story anyway so i think that's why that's why we're rolling in an airport trip, but we're, we hear. The Braves Cardinal, the National League, who actually, I was going to say the National League series have been better.

But if the Dodgers just hold on and win this, then I think Ray's Astros was the better game than this one, so it's kind of split. But the Braves Cardinal series has been the best of the four, right? Easily. Easily. Yeah. Yeah. And, yeah, I think Ray's have to win one.

They have to win their game three tomorrow. to, I think, enter the conversation. Because, I mean, hey, for half this game, Washington won. One inning, Washington, effing blew it, brah. Yeah, we'll get into that. We'll talk Braves first because it's, this is still going on. Do you have a burn? I don't have a burn.

I could, like, add lib one, but I don't have one. Add lib one. That would sounds fun. Okay. Unless you don't want to. No, I can. I mean, it'll be. be a little sloppy, but I don't know, maybe

maybe people like it. Maybe they'll just goddamn hate it. All right, cool. Those are the options. On your mark. Get set. Burn. Game three, we are in St. Louis, where the dirty birds take the field. No,

that's not right. The Cardinals host the Braves. We've got the old man, Adam Wayne Wright, as he tries to write the ship versus the Braves. And Mikey, that's Soroka. Oka, and what a pitchers do wow we have on our hands. Except, Jim, this is classic how this series is gone.

Second inning, we get the big old sack fly, call the carpenter if you need some help. Marcel the Shell, he scores. Jim, Soroka goes one hit through six. He ends up going seven innings pitch, two hits, only one earn run. But guess what? Adam Wainwright was better. 120 pitches out of the 38-year-old 7.2. shutout. We go to the ninth and can Carlos Martinez close it? We saw it in the first game. We

wondered if it mattered. Guess what, Jim, it did. The Pride of Vandy, handsome Dansby Swanson, RBI double, and then Adam David Duval strokes another one. Mr. Clutch of this playoffs, 3-1 Braves. Malanson can do it. Braves win. Three-one. Devastating. for the birds. Yeah, this is a great game. Soroka, the Young Gun versus Wayno. Soroka pitch is great. The one run was, like you said,

it was a hustle double, a little flare shot. Playoff baseball. Little flare shot, hustle double for Azuna. And then I think it was Yadi moved him over on a ground ball up the middle. And then Carpenter sack flied him in. And that was one nothing. And that took you all the way to the ninth inning.

And there was some big at back. along the way where Wainwright was just throwing the curve. I mean, it is the pitch he throws 100% of the time. That's not true. Russell Martin just took a 2-0 fastball from Strickland fucking deep. Well, now I'm glad I called him the human white flag because, yeah, that was a bomb. Holy call. Holy canoli.

Holy can nolly, huh? Holy mackerel. Yeah, that was a bomb. 2-0 bomb from Martin. So that Dodger series is over. Nothing for us to worry about. There's not going to be a seven-run. Tonight's game.

Tonight's game. Series may be over. So it's interesting now. I'm going to say it like it's a fact. Both favorites and road teams immediately take a game on the road. The Braves were the favorite. And when you really think about it, like after they're, after you split the first two games, you boil it down.

The Nats and the Cardinals were in three-game series where they had two home games. Like, they were in a better position almost, but they both lose the first game because the good rises to the top. And Carlos Martinez, what's his name? Closer. Do you get it right? Yeah. You're all over, babe. I said, and we both.

said make note that they got to him even though they didn't beat him in game one make note that they got to him because that's going to give them confidence going into the next time and man they tore him up like they were just sitting on his off speed and okay sorry couldn't get anything past them yeah the big decision was was with billy hamilton on third base as the tying run and two out, one more out, you win the game. Do you face McCann or do you walk McCann to get to Dansby Swanson, who's been talked about a lot on this podcast down the stretch of the season? They opt to walk McCann and face Dansby. I think it's the right move because McCann's a lefty and his and Martinez's slider plays into his swing and his slider plays better to righties. I believe

the you know the the the outside slider so i understand that move but he opened him up with like a change up or a flat slider right down the middle swanson crushed it like how can you throw that pitch after having the mound visit you took the time to say let's walk mccan and pitch of Swanson. Yaddy's up there. This is how we want to attack them. They make the game plan, and then that's the first pitch. Crazy bad. Yeah, and you're, when you

walk, when you intentionally walk McCann, what you are doing is you're putting your team in the best position to win. It's righty on righty. Danesby struggled since he came off the L. He showed signs towards the end, and he's,

he's been okay this series. He's been more I mean, he ends up three for four today. And McCann, I think it's kind of funny what we came into this game. We were looking forward to kind of the grisly veterans like Wainwright and McCann going at it and some of that stuff. McCann ends up 0 for three on the day. I mean, you second guess it in hindsight. It's a classic case of like, wow, that was, if Martinez had gotten Swanson out,

we'd be saying, wow, fantastic move. He didn't, and it looks terrible. I still think it's the right move, just the wrong result. You can make the right move and be wrong, and the result not be in your favor. Like, if I had to do it again, I think I'd do it again. I think the pitch is the problem. It's a terrible pitch.

It's the same thing. If they pitch to McCann and he rips one, they say, oh, should they have walked to McCann to get to Swanson? And if they, if they pitched to McCann and got him out, they'd say, yeah, they trusted his gun. guy. So it's almost damned if you do, damned if you don't. Good on Dansby. He has been a well-spoken topic on talking baseball for whatever reason. I think a slump in Vanderbilt got involved, but good for him. He's the hero. Well, Josh Donaldson's the hero. He's not the hero. Josh Donaldson

needs to be mentioned. Josh Donaldson in this whole situation, set, makes everything possible by hitting the lead off double. No, that's not why he's the hero. Go on. He's just because how much he was screaming in the dugout. Right. That makes him, he's the top storyline.

The yelling hero, they'll say. I mean, he got the most FaceTime. It's like Todd Frazier of the 2017 Yankees. Cameras were just all over Donaldson the entire time. Yeah, I mean, it's, Jim, used to film weddings. What the action is, you go to it, and that's Donaldson. It's a great cinema.

Yeah. That's fucking God. And then Dan's me with the pretty boy. Hell yeah. Such a hot boy. Then Duval, dude, comes up again. The pinch hit Homer against Flaherty game two or three? Two.

Two. Game two. and then this this he actually had to have a good at bat and he he hit another another like slider breaking ball went down and got it and just flipped it that's the big that's the game winning hit right there like Dansby's cool he tied the game but Duval gets the game winning hit so he's having a hell of a series yeah and I tweeted it I tweeted it during the seventh inning I think it hit the point where Wainwright was being so awesome and so fun and such, I mean, such just, he's already tied to St. Louis fans' hearts. This is kind of icing on the cake. What an incredible performance, a buck 20 pitches.

And meanwhile, the 14-year-old Soroka on the other side goes out in just straight shoves. Good for him. I'm glad, like we said before, it'll be good for baseball if this guy goes out and has a good playoff start because he's probably the most underrated or most unknown guy in the game. I mean, he's the best pitcher on the second best team in the National League and nobody knows who he is. So that was awesome. And yeah, I tweeted it during the seventh inning. Whoever loses this game is going to be absolutely devastated across the threshold. Like you can't point to Hunter Strickland.

You can't point to anyone. And at this point in the game, it's just daggers. And I mean, they did it in St. Louis. Good for the Braves. There was a couple of bats that stood out to be. I tweeted about him. Freddie Freeman was sitting curveball and getting curveballs from Wainwright and couldn't hit him. Treaded the Giff.

He took a fastball down the middle because he wasn't looking for a fastball. And he still couldn't hit him. The announcers were talking about it. Like, yeah, well, Wainwright's doing a real good. job of like keeping the break low. So even though he recognizes curve, he's going after it and it's too out of the zone to even like do anything with. But if you look at the swings, it's like, oh shit, he was sitting curve and still couldn't

do anything. And note I think is funny, Jim, and maybe I'll retweet it tomorrow morning if I can find it. I should be able to. But I tweeted out something, David Cohn, who calls the games, calls some of the games for the Yankees. If you're a baseball fan, you're familiar with Connie. He's a really great broadcaster. He's into analytics, but he's also like he gets being an athlete and competitor and a dude, and he's just pretty silly to go along with it. But he talked about the evolution of the strike zone

and how, I mean, if you think about those, you know, 90s Braves teams and you picture Maddox and Glaven just throwing basically as far off the plate as they can go testing the umpire to see how much to the edge they get. The strike zone isn't that way anymore because we have metrics. So the plate is kind of the plate now. The strike zone has now gone higher. And I think someone with Wainwright's curveball, I think when you started to see his career go downhill, it was because the strike zone was changing. And now with that high strike, he can start that curveball above your head. And it comes in at the letters and that's a strike. And that's like a dangerous pitch that was not called a strike for the past five years or so.

It's all vertical now, the strike zone. Yeah. Go watch the Carrie Wood. There's a documentary, like a little E60 typeish documentary on Carrie Wood's 18 strikeout game. And they talk about that. And there's an umpire in it who says like, well, before they started giving us the cue score, if a pitcher wanted to throw it in that spot and he was hitting that spot,

we gave him the strike, even though it was off the plate. That was just how it was. was and that carry wood game like he's got some and it's like can't even imagine that being called a strike now i mean it it they're and i you're you are the guy so i get scared when i say stuff like this but luckily we're too busy for it but you could put some side by side footage that would just be straight comical i mean glavin and maddox literally used to like they'd get a strike on the edge and then they'd go off another inch and they just they would just push and some umpires would be like, yeah, hitting the mitt straight three,

and it'd be like, what, dude? Yeah. That's not even close. But, yeah, man, Wainwright's performance today is just, I am so happy for both pitchers. Like, Adam Wainwright is winding down his career. He gets to go out with, and he's not done. I mean, Adam Wainwright might pitch another three years.

I have no idea. But 38-year-old Adam Wainwright gets to say he threw a buck 20 shutout innings in the playoffs. That's awesome. And Soroka gets on the board with that incredible start. So I'm happy for both of them. Just twirling it. Wainwright did put the team in trouble at one point.

He loaded the bases to Acuna and then Albies, I believe. Albies had his number today. They had to bring in Andrew Miller. Bases loaded one-run game versus Fred. Freddie Freeman. That was the biggest at bat. I said, hey, go get, go get your TVs on. Go watch us at bat. I thought it was going to be awesome. There's two pitches pop out. It was very boring at that. Big moment, very boring outcome. Unless you're, unless you're one fan base, 29 other fan bases, boring. Yeah. I mean, and I think my, my thought on that was, you know, Andrew Miller wasn't

great this year. He kind of hasn't bounced back from injury. But if you're a Cardinals fan, that was the exact batter you brought him in for. And he did it. So Andrew Miller's starting to make make up for some of that money he didn't get during the season. Good for him. Do you think it's a Brave series? I think it's going to go five. This is just screaming five.

I think both NL series are screaming five to me, to be honest. Well, this one, I just want it to go five because the games have been so fun. And, and yeah, I think. So here's my thing. Normally, if you're looking at a series like this that is, you know, incredible games back and forth, you know, St. Louis is at home again tomorrow and they're just a good baseball town back against the wall season on the line. Normally you look at that and you're like, you know, they're going to have everything. It's going game five. If you're the Braves, if you let it get to Game 5, you're letting Flaherty on the mound again. And yes, he made two mistakes, but he got his playoff start out of the way. And I don't think you want to see that guy in Game 5.

So I think Game 4 is going to be full tilt. You're not going to see the Braves kind of going like, if we win, that's nice. But if we lose, all right, we're going home for Game 5. you're going home, but so is Jack Flaherty. So I don't know, man. I'm tuned in that series. I don't think you can predict anymore. I think it's flip a coin.

I think if these teams played, this sounds so corny, but I genuinely believe it. If they played 100 games, a 51-49 brace. Okay, I'll say that. Holy smokes. Yeah. You're always going out on limbs.

I'm a limb guy. Those ones climbing a tree, stepped on a limb. it was a dead dead branch I fell filled with limbs what do you think about this series I haven't looked into the next couple games so who are the starters tomorrow

do you just say them we have let me get it four games tomorrow it's a lot of games right so it's going to be Eichael they have the three this

this series has gotten no ratings like they have the worst time. They've never been the premier game. And it's been the best games. That's, yeah. It ain't that baseball, huh? Dakota Hudson versus to be determined. It's got to be Kikell, right? You would think, yeah. So yeah, who knows? Unless, that short, that short rest. I mean, he's a hired gun, right? It's a one-year contract and it's a veteran. It's not like it's a young guy that you're risking something, you know? Yeah, go fuck

help of your career, Keiko. Yikes. Do it in the name of Atlanta. Well, and you know who is supposed to be Max Free, but they threw him in relief again, which was, all right, Atlanta. He's a reliever now. We didn't know that. We thought it was a one-time thing.

Then we were like, oh, wow, it's a two-time thing. And it's like, oh, he's a reliever now. Which I kind of like is Atlanta? No one's got good bullpens. Imagine how bad the bullpens are of the teams that didn't make the postseason. I mean, that's kind of the crazy. thing. I mean, and if you think one of the teams that got eliminated, Oakland, they had a bullpen they liked. And then who was the other, who was the N.O. Wildcard team? Who'd the Nats get? I'm

blanking. Huh? The Nats have. Not listening to me. No, the Nats have Doolittle. Who do they get? That's what you're a question. I can't think of it. Jeez. That's how locked in we've been to the baseball season. The Nationals' played the Brewers. And the Brewers had a, they kind of had a good bullpen. They have weird bullpins, a bunch of stodlers. But Brewer's game feels like forever ago. Feels absolutely forever ago. And yeah, I said it the other day. The Yankees, Yankees and the Rays are the only two teams that want to go to their bullpen right now.

That's true. All right, you want to talk about, you want to do a makeshift burn of the Dodgers game, which isn't even over yet? Let's just talk about it. Okay. Here we go. talking about the Dodgers. Do you do. Dodgers. Fine, we're just talking about Jake.

They finally erupted. Bellinger finally got his hits. This is kind of what I wanted to see in one of the first two games. It's not bad that it didn't happen yet. But this is what I was saying yesterday or earlier today on the last episode. Like the Dodgers kind of haven't dodgered yet. Like they kind of haven't flexed. And they did today.

And I think the Nats are dumb. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but why bring Corbyn in? They didn't listen to us. They had the exact same idea we did, except we had it with Scherzer, but they went the safe route,

which was use Corbyn here, and then they have a fully rested Scherzer for game four at home, and then they have a fully rested Strasbourg for game five, potentially in L.A. Yeah, but I would have done that with Corbyn as the starter because Scherzer has already proven he can come out of the pen. Unless his arm wasn't feeling good, because he doesn't usually bounce back that quick,

and that's a lot to ask. If it was straight up, we'd rather Scherzer and Strasbourg game four and five. They punted game three with, not punted, but they went Corbyn out of it. I would have went Scherzer out of the pen. He's done it.

He proves he done it. Corbyn never done it. and he got lit up. Like they didn't just nationally small ball. I'm like they lit them up. Yeah. And I mean, it turns into a hindsight thing.

And Patrick Corbin had two outs and two strikes. And then he just completely blew up. His curveball. He just started hanging him. Yeah. Like crazy. But I mean, he got as far as you could without doing it. Yeah.

And I don't know. I mean, maybe the Nats came into this game saying, hey, we got one in L.A. You know, we're playing with a little bit of house money. We can end this series with Scherzer and Strasbourg. You know, Scher hasn't necessarily been Scherzer except in his relief appearance inning. It's tough.

You had a lead in this game. Annabal Sanchez, what a performance. Talk about all the love I'm given to Adam Wainwright for those yakers. How about Anabal throwing 71 mile per hour change up curveball ephuses up there and making the Dodgers look silly? It was so cool. The announcers were like, there's another one. He did it again. It was awesome. And it is official. Dodgers win 10-4, so we timed it well. Anabal was awesome. Ryu, he was okay. He's not the guy that screams N-L-E-R-A champion in the playoffs.

Riu settled down. I mean, he gave up the two runs early. It was like the hit, and then Soto got him. And then he had four scoreless after that. And I believe he only, I believe he came out because his turn in the order came up again. I mean, he only had, he only had 74 pitches. They were just kind of done with him. He, I mean, five innings pitch, four.

four hits, two runs, two walks, three Ks. Well, his spot in the order came up with two on. Right. In a two to one game. So, I mean, he didn't get taken out because he was starting to look bad on the mound. It was just, we need a hitter up here. It's the National League. It's NFL baseball, baby.

And it worked out because I think that's the inning. They scored all their runs. Yes, they scored seven runs that inning. So it was a pretty good decision to take him out of the game there. So I think Ryu's good. I think if you're a Dodgers fan, you're happy with Ryu. The home run sucked, but he settled down after that. And if the Dodgers were up, 5-0-4-0,

I think Ryu stays in the game and probably gives you another two good innings. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have that same belief in Rio. I don't think he looked that good. Yeah, I mean, again, we're one Corbyn slider away from saying a very different narrative, but that didn't happen. And Dodgers have the huge inning. Corby, I don't think you can, if you bring him in this series,

I think he's like a Lugie. I think he'd be a Game 5, like Bellinger, Muncie, Lugie, because otherwise you can't really use him. But I don't know. If you're a Nationals fan, you're still sitting up straight. You've got a game at home with Scherzer on the mound. That's all you can ask. And then you have Strasbourg if you can win that game.

They have to win the next game by rule. That is technically the rule of what will happen in a five-game series. That Russell Martin bomb might have been the dagger. You know, what's Hunter Strickland's numbers look like? Off Hunter Strickland. That's like getting the last guy in the Yankees bullpen. You wouldn't care about that at all. It's Russell Martin, though, and it's just like,

our bad's better than you are bad. So in your face. Yikes, double. just losing both fan bases with one swing. I love it. Yeah, that's how you got to do it, Jake. You can't be biased here. So Hunter Strickland, in his postseason numbers,

he's going to have like a 20-year-ray. Yeah. Big bad. Was he ever teammates with Harper, or did they not collide at all? Harper and Hunter Strickland, they traded for him this year, right? He was a deadline grab.

Yeah, so they weren't, because they had that beef, like four-year-s beef. which outed Hunter Strickland as one of the bigger losers in MLB. He thought carrying a four-year grudge people would think it was like, cool. Yeah. Are you still mad about that? You're badass. All right.

I just looked up Russell Martin's stats because you made me feel bad about saying he's bad, but he's a 667 OPS and a 79 OPS plus. So he's bad. He's a veteran catcher. That's why he's out there. He's not being asked to hit bomb. I'm hitting a home run off Hunter Strickland didn't end this series. That's what you said.

Oh, I think it's the dagger. No, it's not even close. Yeah, because, because like you and I, that game wasn't officially won. It was like, hey, we may get a rally, get some people on base in the ninth inning. You can do something. And then Russell Martin hits a two-run bomb, four-run lead becomes a six-run lead. And you're thinking, okay, well, we officially just lost this. fucking game and we're probably going to lose another one dagger.

Not even close. Full disagree. I love it. Although hope went out of everyone's eyes. That's a solo shot off of Tyler Lyons yesterday and the series being over. You're not taking in, you just ignored everything I said about how they had hope for the ninth inning and then he took all that hope away. They didn't have hope. Oh, they did.

Actually, I think Nationals fans have zero hope ever. This game, this was bonus points for the Nationals. They told themselves, we have Scher and Strasbourg, lined up, fully rested. We can go get this. That's what they're thinking. What if it got Russell Martin's bat hot? He hits another home run tomorrow. Then you have to apologize to Russell Martin and say he's a quality hitter.

Russell Martin's a hard one. Because that means he had a really good NLDS. Russell Martin was the one guy that on the Yankees where I was like, this doesn't fit. Yeah. You don't. This isn't a good fit. He like fighting umpires and shit.

I was like, get out of here, Russell Martin. Sounds like you and Russell Martin have some stuff. You guys got to iron out. He's like an Adam eating type. Yeah. Yeah.

He's a hardo. Let's move on. To the next part of the show in which we preview the games coming up. All right, Jake, we got four games set coming up again. Are you excited or are you daunted by this? Monday, four games? It's a lot. Because I want to watch all of them, man.

I'm juiced up. Get the ale back in it. I'm very interested in the NL series. I mean, to me, it seems like they're both going five. I could be very wrong about that, especially after the Russell Martin Dagger. I'm starting to change all my thoughts on that series. But, yeah, I'm excited. It's a full day of baseball.

It's going to be the last – it's kind of like the NCAA tournament. Like, you go into that first weekend of the NCAA tournament, and the first day kicks off, and you're like, this is insane. You're watching 15-seed Colgate play Duke. You're rooting your head off. Then kind of by the middle of the day Friday, you're like, oh, yo, I picked 11-seed St. John's to get the upset. Like, what times that game on? And it's like, dude, they played yesterday.

You missed it. And you're like, oh, there's too much basketball going on. Tomorrow's the last day where it's going to be like, okay, 15 hours of baseball might be a little too much. So I'm still going to try to appreciate it, but it's going to be a lot. For us, the Yankees play last at 840. And that's when, like, I need to actually have some energy conserved in my body. Because, man, that takes a lot out of me.

The first game is Astros Rays, which is actually the best first game. It's a nice little intro platter. It's the best news for the Rays, too. Yeah, well, it's MLB is smart because just don't put the drop on TV. They shouldn't, they should be radio only this game. Who, tired John Boy, sending a lot of daggers. They're starting to call you John Boy Martin. No, they haven't.

Noodle just said that. Noodle's not a day. Noodle's such a they, bro. No. Just got a haircut. He looks awful. gross. Why does he look so awful? Why'd you get him a bad haircut? So dog groomers are a mess, man, and like golden doodles are still new, so they don't fully know how to groom them. And so like,

if they get a little knotted, they have to shave him. So we knew that. He started to get like a couple knots behind his ears. So they had to shave him. But they left the toll tail bushy. Oh, that's terrible. So he's completely shaved with a fox tail. I'll send you a picture. I mean, you're going to laugh out loud. He looks pathetic. That's a tough look for noodle. But it's like, I just don't know what's going through the groomer's head. Like, how could you think, unless we asked for that, how could you think we want that? That's true.

Like, you made an odd assumption that I wanted a completely shaved dog with the bushiest of bushy tails. Yeah. Maybe she doesn't do tails. Maybe the groomers, like, no tails here. I'm sending you the pick. I should be delivered shortly. Okay. Anyway, the Ray's game is Charlie Morton

versus Zach Granky. Really good pitching matchup. A lefty pitcher. So that means Yandi Diaz comes back into play. Granky's lefty, right? Nope. Why do I think that? Why do I think that?

I don't know because he's fucking weird. Yeah, just because he's weird. I think he's a lefty. Zach Grinke is the best right-handed lefty in the league. IMO. That's true. She has press commerce. He said like three words.

Yeah, dude. That's where like, and I, again, like, I know Zach has had some mental stuff. Your dog looks for big. When you do that, you're doing it to yourself. When you go out of your ways to answer questions that acute and quick and like non-answers, you're now mentally going out of your way to do that. And like you're making it more of a thing. I think it's funny.

I mean, I think he's doing it. And he's, I think he's a little more self-war than people give him credit for. I think it's funny. He, like, crossed the line for me. Like, it's, it's Greg Popovich. Like, Popovich, it used to be cool and cute. And now it's like, oh, dude, just like, it's okay to answer just a question normally once. Yeah, Popovich has gotten rude.

That's the problem. Right. Your dog looks ridiculous My dog looks ridiculous Like you almost can't give me that dog How come you didn't say like Can you finish I didn't pick them up

Does Jess like it Like it's a yes and no thing He's embarrassed He should be Damn Who do you think? You think the raise I think the rays are going to sneak out a win

I do too Elimination game, the first elimination game for the race Coming off an off day allows them to be all hands on deck Right? Snells out and that's probably it So we may see a ton of pitching changes Anytime there's a jam You got to bring in a specialist like the raise

But that might not be a great thing either Like that I could see that being problematic If Charlie Morton's having a good start Into the fifth inning And then the first sign of trouble they pull him for, you know, one of these guys in the Ray's bullpen who's good, but they're not proven, and that could be it. So I think that's a double-edged sword for the race.

I'm just saying an all-hands-on-deck race team is pretty good. I don't think they can do it two games, yet alone three games in a row, but I think they may be able to sneak one out tomorrow. And the other thing that I would say, and I think you're almost talking me down a little bit on the raise, we thought they were. were going to do that in the wild card game, they kind of let Charlie Morton go. They believe in Charlie Morton. Yeah, the A's were doing absolutely nothing, though. And it's Charlie Morton's former teams. The TROP is going to be a weird midday Monday playoff environment. I do think you should

believe the Rays are the favorites in this game. If Charlie Morton looks like Charlie Morton, the Rays are at home and they have a little energy from that slash the Rayser at home and Houston doesn't have energy from that. I think the rays are the favorite. But in an elimination game and potential sweep to a team as good as Houston, I think, and maybe we need to find a term for it, Jim, but the, uh-oh factor or the,

if one thing goes wrong for Tampa, it's done. They're on thin ice. If someone boots a ball in the first inning, like, that's it. Mm-hmm. There's no coming back. So Tampa, if Tampa plays their game and it's clean and Morton looks all right, I think they are the favorites in this game because playoff Granke doesn't do much for me. You have to be perfect.

I don't think they have to be perfect. They just have to be clean. Astros can win this easily as well. It's a coin flip for me, but the other games haven't been coin flips. So that's the closest odds. Rays need some, they need early energy and they can't have a slip on the ice moment to start the game. And I'm still rooting for a crazy catwalk shot. And chaos from the trope.

Stop the drop. Hashtag. The next one we got is the Braves versus the Cardinals, the three o'clock game. Dakota Hudson's getting the start for the Cardinals unless they audible. And then we think it's going to be Kikl. Maybe they've set it on maybe I can find a report. Get the Google up. Dakota Hudson, interesting.

I mean, a young guy, 25, a 335 ERA. I'll say this, Jim, and this is going to worry you. Led the National League in walks, 86 walks, and 174 innings. That's not good. And playoff baseball, that's the number. not good. Snit was not ready to announce a game four starter, but the fact that they aren't saying it's Tehran provides reason to believe they'll go with Keikl.

But based on a three game three outcome, Tehran or Keikle on short rest are the most likely for game four. When asked about the possibility of going with Tomlin, Snit said there is a chance it could be a bullpen game. Do they have a bullpen? What's that even mean? Yeah, you don't have a bullpen. How do you bullpen day without a bullpen game?

For me, I mean, maybe you throw someone out there for one inning, but it's got to be Keikle because you're not going to use Keikle in game five. So you're going to go down not using him. And I mean, this is a classic case. I mean, Keikle's a veteran. He's a sinker baller. You hear all the old rumors like, actually, sinker ballers, when they're a little tired, they pitch better, man. It's actually really good baseball talk. I think next time I'm at a random bar watching a game, there's a guy with like a nice moving two-stop.

Seamer. I'm just going to bump him and be like, oh, he's getting better action later in the game because his arm's tired. They'll just look over and be like, stop talking to me, please. Please shut up. You have to use Keiko tomorrow, right? Yeah, according to Trey XIV, he says start Max Fried. I mean, you're using him. I'm okay with them opening with Max Fried, I guess. He's pitched in every game.

Him and Melanson. Him and Malanson. Pitching every game. That's awesome. You rooting for the Braves or are you rooting for Game 5? Obviously, I'm rooting for Game 5. I think I'm rooting for Game 5. I will say this.

As you saw on this show, I became a supporter of the Baby Braves. So I think there's just a little bottom part of my heart that's rooting for them. But no, I mean, I'm rooting for baseball. I think that Game 5, I mean, Game 5 flarity would be awesome to see. So I am ruined for that. Do you think Dakota Hudson's face the Braves this year? He has once back in May six innings pitched, 6.1 innings pitched, 2 earned runs.

I got to say, Jim, I'm in Cardinal fans at Talking Jake, reach out and correct me. But I've got to say, if I'm a Cardinals fan, I think I'm worried about Dakota Hudson. Oh, his leash is going to be incredibly short. but again like out of that St. Louis pin can they piece together if he does have a short leash are they going to be able to piece together six innings seven innings yeah i don't know maybe that's that's the question they'll try they will try their hardest and do their best um and maybe i'm not giving hudson enough love uh since mid august Dakota hudson has actually been Pretty good. Last nine starts, 53.1 innings to a 186 ERA. So I am being a little bit of an asshole.

The walks are still concerning. I mean, even in that time period, two games with five walks and another game with four walks. And as we've seen with playoff baseball, like, that's a rally. Dude, the walk is a rally quote. I love it. All right. Next game. Dodgers, Nats. You got this series over. Yeah, Dodgers are just going to win this one. You know Max Scherzer's pitching, right? Yeah, so. Can't emphasize that enough.

You know Walker Bueller's pitching? Walker Bueller. He's not pitching. Rich Hale's pitching. So. Dick Mountain. Yeah, dude, Max Scherzer, they blew it. This should have been, Scher should have come out in the pen.

You made a plan. Yeah, last episode. I made a plan that was too, you like too much. Yeah. And now they didn't do your plan, and I'm mad at them. It's fair. I mean, Scherzer was in a elimination game, and he didn't really have a great outing already this week.

Yeah. So it's redemption time for Scher. Let's see what his stats are versus the Dodgers. If I pull them up and they're bad, what are you going to say? Are you going this season or life? Or what are you looking for? I'll do this season first. Okay.

You think he made a start against them? Maybe they played what, six games? Seven games. One start, seven innings pitched, two and runs, seven strikeouts. I don't know. I just think you're getting too zoomed out away from like Scherzer's their guy. I mean, elimination game at home. That Max Scherzer is who you want on the bump.

I want to root for Scherzer because he's a psychopath. and I love him. And I don't really like Rich Hill that much because he's a psychopath and he kind of weirds me out. Right. He's a weirdo. He's not a psychopath. Yeah. I agree. Shurs are a straight psychotic. Dude, that gift that came out the other day

and I know there's a lot of them now, but that one in the wild card game where he's he's just, he's winding up and he's like, you're fucking mine. You're fucking mine. Yeah. Whoa, dude. Fucking mine, motherfucker.

You're fucking mine. Dude, I wouldn't want to pitch against you. that like if i'm being honest you're like yo can we call in not a psychopath we're just playing baseball here bud and i think it's pretty funny because we we critique two-way mackay on the raise

because he's a hardo but like if you're as much as a hardo as sherser no he's that good two air mackay's a sad sack he's not a hardo he's like he's like frumpy i mean there's definitely anger there yeah but it's like anger because things aren't going his way.

Scherzer is intense. McKay's not intense. I don't know what it. There's a difference. I don't know how to use words to explain the difference. But Scherzer is awesome. All right. How many Dodgers have hit home runs?

Uh-oh. Justin Turner is three for six versus Scher with two home runs. Jack Peterson has a home run off of him. Corey Seeger has a home run off of him. A.J. Pollack has a home run off of him. Max Muncie has a home run off of him. I think it was Pierzinski, um,

calling one of the playoffs games because they were talking about Bregman. And they said that, um, the two guys that stand the closest to the plate are Bregman and Turner. And they said that Turner, he has the open stance. He's baiting you to throw in there because he wants you to try to come in and turn on it. They were like,

Bregman's just a sick pup. Bregman can just somehow hit that ball and we don't really get it. But, yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to bet against Scherzer if they somehow, if Scher can only go like six innings, it's over. But I think Max is going to be out there until the eighth. Right. I had something I was going to say, but I forgot now.

That's all right. Rich Hill doesn't give me much faith. Didn't he, wasn't he injured? He came back and he pitched one inning and then he got injured again. Like how much has he pitched this season of late? More like Rich Chill, what he's been doing. Rich Hill's been around since 2005. Dude, so he made Rich Hill made a start.

He got pulled in the first because he was injured. Then he pitched two innings. They were good. Then three innings. So, I mean, he's not stretched out at all. he's thrown 50 pitches in his last outing. And that's what I'm saying. I mean, what, the Dodgers are going to try to do a bullpen day?

Their bullpen day sucks. You're going Rich Hill and Bullpen Day over Scherzer back against the wall at home. This is going five. It's going to be Walker Bueller versus Strasbourg in L.A., and it's going to be awesome. If the Dodgers win tomorrow, can everyone clip that audio of Jake and then tweet it at At your dumb dumb. It's this new Twitter account I'm making to rival Freezing Cold Takes. It's at You're a Dum Dum.

Freezing Cold Jakes. Freezing Cold Jakes, yeah. That works. Yeah. Freezing Cold Jakes. I like that. Thank you. Ryan Zimmerman, two homers off of Rich Hill.

So watch. Oh, and you got to start him anyways because how about fucking Howie Kendrick? What are you doing? It's the base running thing this time? So bad. He's made a lot of errors. One of the worst, like, I'm, and again, I guess I don't have my worst base running documented in front of me, but. I mean, bring up Jorge Posada's life.

Right. Now, Jorge Posada's highlight reel, but this is playoff, like Jorge Posada knew he was a bad base runner, that in a playoff game, he's going to just say, like, nope, I can't tag up. I don't know how to run. Howie Kendra. gets on the base and is like, all right, can I have to tag up? I'm bluffing.

No, I'll go. He was the most dead meat I've seen in a while. The most, yeah. I missed it, so I don't even know what happened. Can you tell me? Oh, that's bad, man. So it was the base is loaded. No outs in the sixth.

Nats bring in Arias out of the bullpen. Fly ball to right. It's going to sack, fly, score, run. They throw home with it. Kendrick was on second. And he starts running to third. If he goes to third straight up, he was just going to get in easy. But he stops.

He starts going back to second. And then he runs to third again. And he was just in the middle of the base pass. And they were looking at him like, what are you doing? So it went bases loaded, no outs to run her on first. They got to run two outs. That sounds bad. Yeah.

So with those stats against Rich Hill, you have to go Zimmerman. Have to. And then the last game of the day, Yankees, twins. It's Jake Oterizzi versus Luis Safferino. Louis Severino is kind of the best arm talent on the Yanks. He's looked good since coming back, but still hesitant. Like Tanaka, I was like, hey, Tanaka's going to be good. Severino, very interested.

First inning, if he's throwing gas and filth, I'll be pumped up. Oterizzi, did you hear these quotes? Jake. No, give me some quotes. Rocco Baldelli's... Oh, the weird quotes? Rocco Baldelli said the Yankees are going to see a different Jake Oterizzy. Yeah, I thought you meant Jake Oterizzy talking.

But yeah, that was one of the weirdest quotes I've heard. I think he's going to throw a lot of off-speed pitches, not a lot of fastballs or a lot of... Like, what? What does he mean? Throwing lefty? I don't know. I think we're going to see the same odorsi and you're just trying to bluff us

because if if odorsi was going to come out with a new style or something then why would you let the yanks know or does he just mean like mentally oh they're going to see a new guy than they saw last time I don't know what that quote means I guess I had to hear how he said it

it was an odd quote you're going to see a different guy well hey we haven't seen him in the playoffs yet yeah and I don't know I think if you're Rocco Baldelli the twins are clearly outmatched at this point. We joked about this a little bit, but we were saying, what do you say on the flight? I don't know.

I think he's just looking for anything, man. Anything. And I get it. I get it. He's got to attack the zone with fastballs. I mean, it's kind of has to. You just have to throw strikes. If it's a curveball change-up, slide, or fast.

You just have to throw strikes because you can't you can't walk eight guys and expect to beat the Yankees. No. I think the Yankees will win this game. Do you think Severino is a question mark at all? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Because he's still on his fourth outing.

Yeah. I'm not, I'm not full confidence. If I see like a couple pitches, then I'll be full confidence. Do you think this game's going to be tight or a shit show? Shit show. Okay. Both ways? No.

Okay. I think the Yanks win big. I'm so biased though, so. Right. But I said that I've, everything I've said about this series I've said with the same bias and it's all come true. Yeah, if you're the twins. I guess it's kind of what I said about the race. You're just, you're playing your game waiting.

You're living in fear of that, oh, no, moment that if you give the Yankees an extra out or you boot a ball and the Yankees get an extra at bat, you're just living in fear of that because that could be the end of your season. Here are the Yankees that have a home run off O'Dorizzi. Edwin, Brett Gardner, Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Glaber, Torres. Dede has a double and a triple. Six guys.

Out of the nine. Used to be in the division for a while, to be fair. I don't think that comes into the... The only person with a lot of at-bats against him is Gardner and Connoisseon. All the rest are... Not a lot. Just saying there's a lot of history of the Yankees beating Oterizzi. So maybe that's why Baldelli's trying to let everyone know he's going to be a new guy.

He's not going to be the Oder's... Rizzi that gave up 10 hits and 6 earned runs earlier this year, all right? It was nine earned runs. It's bad. Yaps. And the Yankees are running out the same lineup again. So that's the only insight we know. Boone was like, yeah, we'll run it back because, of course, why would we change it?

We've scored 18 runs. It's scored 18 runs. So that's the nightcap. I think that the middle games will be the best games and the National League games will be the best games. Uh, you think, you think the Houston, Tampa game's going to be good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just going to be not fun to watch. Gotcha.

That game could be, a game could go extras and it'd be a drag. So if it's a great baseball game and the TROP doesn't get involved at all, you're still not going to be able to shake the Trap? Huh, you got to look at the Trap. It's ugly. Okay. That's fair. That's fair.

That's what I was asking. It's like aesthetically displeasing. Yeah. There's no dirt in the infield. They make fake crowd noise. It's turf and it's just unfun. I've never enjoyed watching a game there, no matter what happens. Yeah.

I feel like there's going to be a funny moment 20 years from now where some kids like they're looking at highlights from the old Astrodome and they'll be like, whoa, they played baseball on that. And then it'll be like, you know, 1985. and then they'll look at highlights from the race from 2019 and they'll be like, wait, wait, wait, wait. Everyone else has retractable roofs and gorgeous fields and you guys are playing on a rubber ball?

Someone got so mad at me. They were like, if they didn't have a roof, no one would go. So just shut the fuck up. I was like, oh, because they're the only stadium with the roof. Dumbies. Yeah. No, I'm with the roof stands. Yeah. I got a mean DM today. You know me. I'm not a burn bridges guy, but you know what?

If you're a Tampa fan that defends not going to the games because Tampa has a roof, I'm a come at you. I'm a knock you out. Wait, if they say I don't go to the games because they have a roof? Yes. They don't go because of traffic because it's in a terrible location. And it's a terrible place. Baby. Who the hell would go out of their way to go there?

Dude, I got a real mean tweet. Mean tweet to wrap it up. I like this. Yeah. I said, is starting Randy Dobnack the worst managerial decision? And I was a fair question. I think it's the worst manager decision this postseason. And this kid DM'd me and he said,

please attempt to hit him, you fat Jewish fuck. Wow. And I said, I'm not Jewish. nor could I hit Randy Dobnack because I suck at baseball so what's your point? I mean, you could if you got to bunt and get the guy over.

I could bunt off Dobnack. Yeah, I was going to say. I could bunt. If you got to do your job, I am so excited when we do bunting off of pro players because I think you're going to have a rude awakening. All I want to do,

I don't want to bunt off pro players. I want to catch. I want to strap on the gear and catch some pitchers. So are you coming off that you can bunt a professional pitcher? Was this a conversation we had? Oh, yes, many times. You've said you with confidence think you could bunt a professional pitcher. I think if I'm remembering the conversation,

it had to be fast balls. I mean, I don't, but I'll even allow that because I still think you're in crazy trouble because they're 94 and they move, dude. Last fastball you tried to bunt was 70 and straight as an arrow. And it was the easiest thing I ever did. Yes, agree. Okay.

Set it up. Let's go to a... We'll set it up. We're going to go somewhere in November where we can do that. I might meet up with Melville again soon. Maybe he'll throw some apples at me. Can you let him know that I think I'm going to chant his bar. every cute name, Adam?

I didn't, but I can. Okay, cool. All right, that ends the show. Thank you guys very much for tuning in four games tomorrow. We will be back to recap them all and preview whatever. Huge. Next. How many, it's possible that all four series can end tomorrow.

Houston wins, Braves win, Dodgers win, Yankees win, DS is over. Possible all four series could not end tomorrow. Another possibility. Two possibilities. Probably going to be somewhere in the middle. Some can end. How many do you think end out of the four? I say...

Ooh, this is fun. I say three. I'm going two, and I think it's both AL games, but I'm going to assume I get one wrong. So what's your guess? So it's two, but I'm going to guess one of the NL games goes, but right now I'm saying both AL. I have Dodgers and Yankees ending the other two, not.

But also. You just said five series, so. The Braves and Cardinals is not going to end the other three will. Okay. But I want the raise to win. That Dodgers Rich Hill Bullpen Day, you're going to die on that mountain. I hope you're right. Now I'm rooting for you.

That game's over. That's my God. People may not watch. Shurzer, an elimination game, might as well have my grandmother. Have her do what? Bunt. Wrap it up.

Grandma Bunts, five-star review. She couldn't bunt, dude. She could. No, no, no, no. Maybe she, like, a mega nice bonk cake. It'd be a first baseline bun. See you guys.