Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 33 | Yankees Advance, Rays Stay Alive & NLDS are going to Game 5

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

The Rays, Nationals and Cardinals avoid elimination. The Twins do not.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is October 8th and yesterday there were four potential elimination games. Only one elimination. Let's get into it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of talking baseball. The games keep rolling. Four more yesterday. That'll be the most amount of baseball games played in a single day until the first day of spring training.

But things move on. The race fendom. off elimination. Both National League series are going to a game five, and the Yankees have their way with the twins. This episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by Peter McKee. Dante Gizzy. That's a fun name.

I used to work with a Gizzy. I wonder if that's connected. Giz? You just call him Giz. That sounds like you just call it. You call him Gizzy. Yeah, you can't audible off that. Drake?

No last name. So is there Drake in MLB? It's Oliver Drake. That's the reliever for Tampa. I thought it was Drake LaRoche. It could be Drake LaRoche, but it's not. It's awesome. Ruining that White Sox Clubhouse one day at a time.

Yeah. And Jordan Chevalier. It's fun. Someone DMed me. And they were so happy that we got their name right. They're like, no one ever gets my name right. It was Sal Morale. And it's like, all right, thanks, sell, but also kind of back off for trying our damn best, okay?

No, we got his name right. No, I'm saying, but that's a backhanded compliment. He's like, you guys get every name wrong. Can you believe you got mine right? No, he was saying no one gets his right. Like you said teachers, employees, no one. He was outside of the scope. Gotcha.

Yeah. It was a straight up compliment. He was blown away. Wow. Yeah. Good piez-on. I get that. Yeah.

My name's John Boy. What up? I'm in New Jersey. I got Jake. He's in Denver. It is noon on Tuesday. There's only one game today, and I was up until 3 a.m. doing talking to yanks yesterday. So this is a little later release. We apologize. But it's only one game. So there's not that big of a rush. So we can all, we're all fine. I actually, Jake, I needed the sleep so bad. I slept pretty well. I've been crushing peekie blinders. I got 15 minutes left of the season. I had to pause it to record this. That's dedication, yeah. And I'm taking the day off today after we do this and before the race game. So I'm taking those five hours or so off. And I'm going to go get like a massage with Katie.

I'm really excited. Hello. Yeah. Big days. It feels like fall here. I was like, let's go apple picking. Let's get massages or let's go see Joker, the movie. She chose massages.

Might be able to mix another one in. I want to go see Joker. That's got me spinning. You know I'm not a big. movie guy but I that's that's on my two movies a year I'm going to go see in theaters if I if I had to pick that's got to be one of them I'll probably go to like the Friday matinee by myself on my birthday. The movie podcast that we have on John Boy Media that I was on for years is reviewing Joker and

they wanted me because I'm excited for Joker they wanted me to go see it and come on I was like I don't know this has been a crazy schedule for us but maybe I can do it. So check out six-packed cinema if you haven't. All right. Were you able to watch all four games? I wasn't able to watch the Rays one, so when we get into it, I'm really going to lean on your burn to find out.

So, yeah, it was kind of funny because we were talking about the vaunted four-day baseball schedule, kind of the NCAA bracket comparison. The Rays, I mean, they jumped out to an 8-1 lead, so it's like, okay, like Houston's good, but this one's over. Like, the Rays literally have too many pitchers. that they can't give up seven runs to tie this game, even if they wanted to.

So that tapped out. And then, I mean, the St. Louis Atlanta game felt like the story of the day, because that game was just incredible. I mean, baseball doesn't get too much better than that. And the Yankees, you know, it happened. Everyone kind of saw it coming. And then, I mean, the Nats really ran away with it. And I don't know.

I think the story was the race sneaking it out, but it happened so quick that it wasn't like, it wasn't like it's 3-1 in the ninth inning. Can the race fend off Houston? Like that moment never happened. So it was a lot of baseball. I think there was definitely, you could miss some moments and survive. And that St. Louis Atlanta game. I mean, that kind of stole the show midday.

Yeah, if anyone didn't see, Jake and I actually went live for the ninth inning and the 10th inning on YouTube. It was pretty fun. That series is the best series. It's amazing. We'll see what game five looks like. I mean, it's kind of like I have fake money in the pop, but I'm banking on a legendary Nats Dodgers game five because that's what I was hoping to be the best series.

Right now, Atlanta and St. Louis are handing it to them because that's just been incredible baseball. It's been wild. All right, you have Burns. Let's go chronologically through. Okay. Are you ready? Yeah, Houston, Tampa.

Houston versus Tampa in the trap. On you mark. Get set. Burn. Potential sweep as we head to Tampa as Zach Ephron Grinky and the Stroes. Hope to leave the raise in their ace. Charlie Morton feeling salty. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

Top one. Play the music. Jose Al Tuvee. Jose Al Tuvee. Little man with a lot of pop 1-0-0-0-Stroes at the drop. Little rhyme. Well, J.P. Ray's, it stayed pretty quiet at the drop.

JP-Rays fans. You guys had a solid turnout. Proud of you guys. Bottom two, let's get platinum. Kevin Kiermeyer, three-run, yabababit-ding-dong, three-to-one raise, and they were just getting going. Gee, man, as Choi goes deep, Should he get low, low, low, low as Brandon goes yard.

Austin clears the Meadows with a two RBI double and a cap it off. Tommy keeps it all in the family. Eight one raise after four. Yulee Gurriel would drive in a couple late, but so would the raise and a Willie Adama's homer. Rays get one at home 10-3 final. I'm happy they got one at home. And I will say this, from the highlights I saw and everything I heard, the trope had a great turnout and was a great atmosphere so in my face it was it was a great crowd yeah

i was gonna i thought about messenger messaging or tweeting at you and then i remembered you were doing an airport run and you you were juggling different balls but yeah the trop had a had a crowd um and that's i think we figured out the secret if you want a baseball team in tampa play all the games midday on on on a weekday monday weekday Make the raise cool by making them like a skip class. Oh boy. Hello. You there?

I'm here. Make the rays cool by making them. Make the raise cool by making them like a skip day. Like you leave work or you leave school, go to the raise game. That might make them more appealing. Yeah, ditch day. Go see the raise. Because right now the night thing ain't work in Tampa.

Jack Granky gets lit up. 3.2 innings pitch, 5 hits, 6 earned runs. Kiermire does the big damage on him in the beginning. Kiermire is not a good offensive baseball player. I mean, I don't, he's a professional baseball player who's had a lot of at-bat. So I'm not trying to say that rudely. He's not the threat. Granky's not looking.

Is it fair to say, though, like Kiermire, he never looks like just dead meat at the plate. Is that fair? No, he doesn't look like Jackie Bradley Jr. sometimes you're like, oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah. And I, Keirmeier knows. He's like, I'm not a great hitter. He's, he hits a point in at bat where he's like, hey, just stay tough, put something in play because I'm one of the fastest guys in the league. But yeah, man, he caught a, he caught a change up from Grinky that was kind of middle down and he tossed it. And Keirmeyer, I mean, is Keirmeier, like, the heart and soul of the team?

Is that weird to say? Do they have a heart and soul of the team? I don't, I mean, I don't know. I think you'd have to ask a race fan, that dynamic. Yeah. But this is a big weak link in the arm. Granky's supposed to be the nuke. That's what we said at the trade deadline.

And this was a bad performance. Yeah, I don't. I have some, like, takes. We're not a big take podcast. Have you been listening to us for a while, you know that. Because it's 2019 and people kind of like logic with a little bit of humor. Huh, talking baseball. But I'm kind of aggressive on Granky, man.

His postseason history of late has not been good. His last three starts. So this one versus Tampa, a 3.2 inning, six earn run, three homers given up. And then he had two starts in 2017. five innings pitch, three earn runs against the Dodgers. You'll take that. But then he's 3.2, 4 earn runs against Colorado. And in that good Dodgers start, he had five walks.

So I'm kind of out on playoff Grinky right now. And I also think there's a little bit of a mentality thing. And I know this kind of gets tricky with Grinke because he's had some anxiety and some mental stuff. So I'm not taking an attack at that. But I do think there's genuinely something to Zach Grinky on basically every baseball team he's ever been on, except maybe those Dodgers teams, has been the best pitcher by a mile. And now, like we're saying that, yeah, at the trade deadline, it was like,

wow, Houston does this. I don't know. Like, I just feel his mentality being the third starter. I don't know. I think that does mess with the pitcher a little bit. And, hey, maybe this is blatant Yankees bias, and I'm just hoping that's a little bit. And I'm just hoping that's a what happens in the ALCS. Yeah, we're talking ourselves into it. Yeah, there's definitely a chance of that. I won't lie. But I think there is a little bit of merit to what I'm saying.

That being said, Zach Rinkie's next outing, he could go seven shutout double-digit K's, and I wouldn't be shocked. Yeah. But, you know, he's not Verlander and Cole. No, that's the bigger, that's the bigger takeaway. Versaac Grinky, he's a good starter, but you have a chance. I mean, if we saw what Colin Verlander have done, and, you know, the Rays don't have necessarily the elite of elite lineups,

but, I mean, they just got mowed down, moed down. Well, then they brought in Miley, who's been awful, right? And he was bad. Yeah, and that's the thing. And, well, we'll talk about the Tampa Houston game later. Houston in a seven game set, I mean, depending, how much they have to use Miley in that bullpen. And hey, I mean...

Dude, Wade Miley came in. He went double, double walk. In a seven game set, you can get four starts out of Verlander and Cole. Sure. If you break them once, I mean, I think he got a good chance. If you break them twice, I mean, Miley looks bad. We'll see if Granky can turn it around. But, yeah, Wade Miley's in a bad place right now,

that the numbers out of this series that'll come from the Houston bullpen are going to look ugly. Yeah. Maybe that's also in comparison to their starters, but... We'll preview this game at the end after we've done recap, but good for the race

and good for their fans. They've got to win at home. You know how much money that gets them that they cannot spend on their team? Yeah. I hope so. What are they charging for race playoff ticket? Well, I found out that the team split the gate. Did you know that?

I didn't know that. Yeah, so the MLB teams, they straight up 50-50 split the gate, but the Rays get all concessions, parking, you know, drinks, all that extra stuff. The Rays get all the straight profit to them. I want to look up tickets to this game. Is that rude? No. What do you think the cheapest seat in the houses?

50 bucks. Let's see. Tampa. Yeah, Stubhub has 50. So with taxes, but those are seats one through three, upper box 305 if you're trying to go. Nice. That's cool. And that's like secondary prices and all that.

I've had so much, I'm still getting so many tweets about the damn Uber chant. And everyone keeps telling me the rich Yankee fans. I'm like, they're not rich. A bunch of blue collar workers who love baseball. and save up to go to a game. Yeah. Shut up. All right, let's do game two.

Game two, this is the best game of the day. So we're going ATL St. Louis. Yeah, you ready? Yeah. On your mark. Get it. Burr. Atlanta trying to finish off the cards in St. Louis,

Daniel Radcliffe Hudson, tries to perform some magic against Dallas Keikl, and in the first inning, the fighting cards lean on their massive varieties. Goldschmidt and Ozuna go yard work in the first. It's 2-0-S-T-L. Atlanta would tack one on on an Albi-Sack fly. Remember that name. Speaking of remember that name, Marcel the show, Ozuna, so nice he does it twice. Two homers in an elimination game, that's free Anheiser Bush for the rest of your life in St. Louis. But in the fifth, the mighty Braves, it tastes just like Dansby. Swanson scores on some fishy defense by Maddie Carp at third.

And then remember Albies? Two-run moonshot from the little fella. Four to three Braves. We're into the eighth now. Two outs. Yaddy, he bloops when it's off the top of Freeman's glove. Goldie will score. We're locked up at fours.

And we're going to X. And speaking of never buying a beer in St. Louis, Molina does it again. Sack fly, bat throw, bat throw. We're going to game five. Cards win, 5-4 final. Man, like I said, we were live for the end of this game, but it feels like a fucking blur for some reason. I'm so excited it's going to game five.

I found myself just rooting for whatever team was down or if it was tied, whatever team just like whatever made the moment better is what I was rooting for and we got it like a lot of the times uh I feel bad for Tehran at the end there because he gets thrown in that's kind of a weird storyline on its own but I mean Yadi's the story but Ozuna's going to get overlooked because the dude had two home runs yeah I Ozun will get some love a two home or day in St. Louis they'll remember that for a while But Yadi is the story. Tying run and go ahead RBI. Yeah.

Hey, each got two runs, right? Yaddy, I will say this about Tehran. You're right, he's in a tough spot. He was the injury replacement. He didn't think he'd be playing this series. Here he is in extras. The one thing that I did see is actually from our buddy, Craig Calcutera, who does NBC sports baseball.

He said the one thing that was kind of tough is that Yadi is a known first pitch swinger. Yeah. So they threw an inside fastball, which Yadi's just looking to get a ball in the air to try to hit a sack fly. And so you almost, that first pitch, you kind of have to dirt that or put it somewhere where Yadi can't reach because he wants that first pitch. Well, but just, well, we'll focus on that up back because, I mean, that's a really good

call. like why would you put something in the zone when a sack fly wins the game? And when we were live, they showed them the scorebub. that Yadi was like 0 for 15 against Tehran. Yeah, he was one for 15. One for 15. And I looked up the E-Chat bat and they were all line out, fly out, deep fly ball, deep fly ball. So I was like, well, that one for 15 doesn't mean shit because all he needs is a good out.

And then to put it in the zone right there. It's the same thing with like the Dansby Swanson pitch when you intention, when the cards intentionally walked to McCann to get to Dansby. and then just opened them up right middle zone like these guys want to swing so the that there's a whole lot about yadi bat throwing or throwing the bat and then doing the like throat slash do you care i think it's awesome um i enjoy it throat slash is a tough one just because i mean there are kids in there and stuff it's like not a good thing like there's never like i don't know like there's it's And maybe it's New York bias, but there's fun in the Uber thing. Like you've been saying, you have one fact about the guy. He's pitching in the game. You're going to say something about it. So the Yankee fans chant a little bit.

The old throat slash is kind of a little past where sports are supposed to be. All right. So we're on opposite sides. I don't care. But if you're there with your kid who idolizes Yadi Molina, you're going to have your little kid running around the backyard for weeks just slashing people's throats. That's funny. We're a little bit.

We're a little bit opposite because I love the throat slosh. That's just straight out of like wrestling. It's just I'm the bad guy. Fucking done. I don't mind that. The bat throw like into the outfield. That was like that's where my mom kicked in in my head. I was like, that's dangerous, dude.

There's people. There's people out there. Yeah. I think we're flipped on that. I do. I only saw that main angle because yeah, I was trying to picture. Okay.

He hits the sack fly. I'm picturing, I mean, Akuna's in center. He's going to left field near Deval just to check out the throw. Was the right fielder anywhere near there? I'm assuming no. Shame on TBS or ever had this game for not showing us a wide angle of that bat flip. I wonder if anyone has, like, footage of it from their iPhone on Twitter. If anyone has seen full footage of that, please tweet it at me at John Boy underscore.

Yeah. Because, yeah, with that, you're right. And I do get that a little bit. did have that thought. I was like, wait, if Yadir Malina's right past first base thrown his bat, that's, that's there. I mean, it had to go pretty far. I'm assuming it's not a story because they weren't there. I mean, but I don't know. But yeah, I mean, I like that. I think bat toss generation where people try to find the new bat toss. We saw the Didi falling over himself the other day. Gincarlo had the walk bat toss, Yadi with the throw.

the Bryce, I mean, Bryce Harper's Home Run Derby he won. I mean, people remember the bat toss is like the exclamation point. And so the yacht Batista is the biggest from Toronto. Oh, yeah. But I mean the Yadi Bat toss will be remembered forever. It's a bat fling. It's like

in a bat flinging contest. I like it. I don't care. It's all fun. Like it's all a storyline. I understand why if you're a Braves fan, you'd be like fuck that guy. And why if you're a Cardinals fan, you say fuck that. Like, that's in the nature of rivalries as well. So it's all fun to me. I tweet out the GIFs.

I tweet out the Gifts and my replies just get lit up by people on either sides of it. So I'm just stuck seeing like I was in this. These two guys were talking about Carlos Martinez and Yadi like for about an hour. In my replies, I was like, damn, this blows. You guys are too far invested as a simple baffling. Throat slash. That's the passion, baby. Yeah, I get it.

A lot of people saying the throat slash was in response to Akuna, because after Akuna makes the last out, he does it across his chest like Braves, you know? So it's a little different, but whatever. Yeah, that was a throat slash. Yadis was a throat slash. Yes. Akuna's is across the chest.

Right. Yeah, I don't think those are, if someone thinks Yadi was doing that as a shot at Akuna, that's just trying to fabricate something. Oh, that's my entire timeline. Oh yeah, but I know that's if I was a Braves fan, I'd probably be doing the same thing because that's what you do to psych yourself up. Yeah. And like I said, everyone has their own personal lines on what they like and don't like in these celebrating things.

And I'm not going to say, you know, everyone has to abide by where it falls in my brain because that would be crazy. But if you win the game, you can do whatever you want. That's why I said like when Akuna hit that game time, that home run that didn't even tie the game. or you just cut a four run deficit, do two run deficit. That was like, dude, you can't celebrate that in my head. Like, come on. Like, there's a lot more to go. If you win the game, do whatever you want.

Have fun. But that's just me. I don't care. Yeah. You got anything else? I mean, Keiko kind of got, he got smacked around right away. Yeah, I mean, the two homers in the first. And then, yeah, he gets pulled after 3.1.

and they go to Luke Jackson, which is always exciting times on Twitter. And on the field, he looked pretty solid for the most part. Yeah, Shane Green looked really good. They pushed him for 1.2. The only run he gives up is the one that goes off the top of Freddie Freeman's glove that if that ball gets caught, what are we saying right now?

That was awkward at first base because Yadi was so giddy, dude. He was like, you could, he was like smiling and you could hear it standing right next to Freddie Freeman, who's so mad. Because if it was an inch, he had an inch longer glove, he makes that, you know, or just like a slightly better vertical or whatever you want to think in your head. And they're standing next to each other. And Yaddi's just like, ha, ha, ha, ha. And Freeman's so mad. And, yeah, and that was, uh, and yeah, Yadi, I think Yadi was, I'm not saying he made an extra effort to make sure Freddie heard his excitement,

but he was okay with Freddie knowing he was excited about his Ripper single that drove in the run. I think the other story that's kind of getting buried here is this series has been a lot about bad bullpins. I mean, Carlos Martinez, the Braves, pretty much everyone. We had some really good bullpen stuff throughout this game. the Cardinals, they go, they go what? 5.1 shutout out of their bullpen. That's pretty impressive. We didn't really think we'd see that this series.

And like I said, with the Braves, I mean, Shane Green, if an inch difference from Freddie Freeman, we could have had the Braves kind of close out this series with their bullpen. So going to be a good game five, huh? If this doesn't go the Braves way in game five, you can look to that Chris Martin injury and the trickle-down effect, and it's pretty strong. Yeah.

So that's a bummer. Whatever, whichever team loses this series can point at five different things and say we should have won the series. Yeah, but that, I mean, Tehran's only on the roster because he's there. Luke Jackson gives up a lot of runs in the first game because he didn't, you know, have a, he didn't know, it was a weird warm-up situation, and then they run at a bullpen arms with Martin gone. So that injury really, like, messed up two games kind of. Yeah. I don't know. I think if you're a Braves fan, you can't think like that, just because, I don't know.

He's essentially been out since game one. You've kind of had to adapt. It's a piece of your team. But, I mean, Chris Martin could have had a bad postseason. It's not like he's a postseason stud, you know? Yeah, I mean, I don't, Braves fans, I don't, whatever they think, I think that it's a change to the dynamic of the bullpen greatly. Yeah. All right, let's move on to the third game, Yankees versus Twins. On you mark. Get set. Burn.

A potential elimination game three in Minnesota as the twins and Jake sucks over. to Rizzi versus Luis Severino and the Yankees as they have the target on their backs in mini. Top two, you know what keeps you warm on those chilly Minneapolis nights. Glebe bombs, Glebe bombs. The kid kicks off the scoring with a solo shot. One nothing, Yanks. Sorry, man.

Heard your wife was sleeping with the gardener. Brett slaps an RBI single to make it two nil pinstripes. Outside of that, the pitching held. Sevy goes shut out. for four. It's still 2-0 until top seven. It's a twin-killing, and I'm not talking double plays. D.D. Gregorius, the twin killer, RBI single, stretches the lead to three. Eddie Money, Rosario, puts Minnesota on the board with a solo shot, but Cameron Mabon is going to take me home tonight, a solo shot of his own, the dagger by the defensive replacement. Two Ds, two I's, two RBIs, the Gregorius, the Gregorius B.I,

scores Torres. Sevy to Canley to Otto to the goose, Chad Green to Britain to Chapy. Yanks win 5-1 sweep the Series 3-0, advance to the ALCS. If you haven't watched this game, go watch like the defensive highlights. I know everyone hates the Yankees.

There was like, there was four plays where the twins hit it on the screws. I think they had six balls over, or they had nine balls hit over 100 miles per hour and seven of them went for outs. The Yankees defense, I'd never seen it so good. It was crazy.

It was crazy. And I felt bad for the twins because they were hitting the ball hard. Yeah, there's a, I think the judge highlight was circulating pretty well. So no drove one. It was a bullet to right field. And what was getting people beef in in the replies was that they said,

Judge was the only guy that can catch that. There's other really good defensive right fielders. Don't get us wrong. Mookie Betts is incredible. There's a lot of guys that can play a really good right field. Aaron Judge's 6-7 frame was a big factor in him catching that ball because it was a dart and it was full extension. That was incredible.

Glaber made two great plays. And then in the ninth, the Yankees tried to push Chapman for more than one inning, which they hadn't done since middle of the season, I think. What were they saying? June? And so Chapman comes out and they get a little rally on. They get two guys on base. A liner up the middle, just a bullet.

And if you like shortstop play, Diti is full extension, stabs it. And you just see and feel the Minnesota crowd because they were looking for anything. They were looking for that moment where the throat pulls the first baseman off the bag and you get an extra base runner. They were waiting for that one play so bad. And every time it was there, it just never happened. The Yankees just never let it happen. We were talking about the shots of the stadium when they were going around the crowd.

And it was devastating. It was devastating. There was no hope. No hope. The twins had bases loaded no outs in the second inning with a chance to break it open. Yeah. Sano up. Who was after Sano?

Arise and then Cave, no. Let me get in there. Sano was definitely the first batter, and he's, he had a really tough series. He was just overmatched by everyone's slider. He went one for 12 with like eight runners left in days. And maybe it turns into a growth thing for him. I know, you know, young Aaron Judge, young Gary Sanchez, those guys had big slider problems that they've kind of grown from a little bit.

was Sineau, Marwin, and Cave. So he gets Sono to pop out with a good battle, Severino does with bases loaded no outs, strikes out Marwin and then strikes out Cave. For me, that was kind of the game. That was kind of like, okay, got through that. Sevi was a bit shakier than I'd want him to be. He couldn't really control his fastball.

We've seen this from Severino a lot, Yankee fans. He gets too amped up. And it's kind of a bummer. Yeah. And it's tough because there's some mental gymnastics we have to do with this Severino as Yankee fans, because I mean his pitch count, I think 83 is the most pitches he's thrown. That got him through four innings. So again, we'll see if they maybe try to push that.

Or if he does have a couple clean frames, maybe he can get you the five or six. But the Yankees still believe in their bullpen to a degree. The confidence in Canely and out of vino isn't where it used to be. At the same time, the confidence in Chad Green is up. and even I think Britain. They just believe he can twirl it and do his thing. And yeah, for the twins, Oda Rizzy, I mean, gave you everything he asked for, five innings pitch, two earn runs.

Their bullpen just couldn't do it. And, you know, you do mention Chris Martin with the Braves and how, you know, changing the pecking order in the bullpen that is a factor. You know, they even tried to bring in Taylor Rogers their closer earlier in this one. Yanks still got one off of them. there was no fear factor out of the bullpen for the twins. And they just, they, they didn't have enough, they didn't have enough arms at all. No, I mean, well, it's not like their bats did anything.

The Yankees held them to seven runs over three games and two home runs, three home runs for the team that hit the most home runs. Was it three? two in the first game and then the solo here? I think so. I think so. I believe so. Yeah. Yeah.

So twins went into the playoffs as the weakest team, and they sure exited as the weakest team that made the playoffs. Yeah. Only team that gets swept, and I mean they've got that playoff streak now, which is totally a thing and that kind of sucks. Arise, if you're a, baseball person who's looking to learn some new players.

Arise their young infielder. He hit in the 300s this season. He was questionable coming into this series with an ankle thing. He tore it up. He hit 334 in the regular season in 92 games, 326 at bats. He's kind of got this old school Rod Karoo approach. And they were saying that on the broadcast. And I was like, guys, let's go easy with the Rod Karu comparison.

but he does. He's really hunched over. He's kind of got one of those old school like Carew Tony Gwyn approaches. I think those guys are going to be more popular going forward because infields and teams are going to give you singles. And I think if you have an approach like that and can handle the bat well, I mean, you can casually hit 320. Yeah. Well, you know, the game corrects itself.

And I think we're starting to see that and people are waiting for it. It's kind of a bigger conversation. I remember they were asking Rob Manfred and stuff about making the shift illegal and doing all this stuff. And he said, usually the game corrects itself. It hasn't yet, but we still think it may. And I think with guys like Marron Gonzalez, DJ, or I's, and some more guys that are going to come up, I think you're right. Like this for a little bit, this will be the way to get hits. And a lot of guys will say, why don't I just do that?

Yeah, I would love if one. one of the smaller market teams just went out and got a bunch of these guys and were just a fucking nightmare to play because you had a bunch of guys that could just slap it around like that. Maybe that's the old man and me talking a little bit. But yeah, and Jim, I had one thing because my big thing that I was kind of on this series was that Oda Rizzy at home gave them their best chance to win a game, which I think we agree on, and I mean best chance is best chance. It's however you want to look at it. But at the same time, if the twins had any hope any hope to actually try to win this series

Berrios and Oda Rizzi had to be super special by saving Oter Rizzi for game three you're only getting one start out of them so I kind of came off that a little bit just because it's like all right like in our heads because we had been putting down the twins it kind of made sense because like all right this is your chance to get one

don't pin me in there I thought it was dumb from the get-go Well, but you do think Oderizzi at home was their best chance to win a game. Out of the three, I would have never put Oder. I would have never done the pitching how they did. I said that from the jump. When they announced. Right. When they announced Dobnack and not Oter Rizzi for game two, that was an automatic sweep.

I mean, you saw my face. You were like, you said the twins still might get one. And I was just like, no. Right. Okay, so you're Rocco Baldelli. How would you have lined up their pitching? I would have done Oterizzi or Berrios one or two. without a doubt.

You have to win games right away. And conceding game two to have a better shot at game three is just a losing mentality. Right, but then what are you doing game three? You figure it out. Hopefully you got to win and then you probably, I would have gone

like I would have gotten an opener to Dobnack or pieced it together a little bit more. Dobnack starting a game at Yankee Stadium is the dumbest manager of decision this postseason. Yeah. and pushing Oterizzi. I can't get over it. It's so stupid.

Yeah, I mean, we did the whole opener thing, but I mean, either way, they were outgunned. So I think it's arguing over nothing. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Yankees move on. They're the first team to advance. I thought a lot of teams were going to advance, but everyone else fended off elimination besides the twins. Yankees celebrated their building.

And then they went to a bar afterwards. Did they? Yeah, there was some picks. Oh. Cool. All right. Next game. I don't really know much about this game either.

I was watching, but it wasn't like inputting. Yeah. All right, here we go. On your mark. Get set. Burn. Mad Max Scherzer in a do-or-die-die game versus the Dodgers as they tried a rich Netflix and chill on a winning flight home from the Capitol.

Turner turns on one in the first. It's a solo shot 1-0-0 Dodgers. Uh-oh, how would the Nats respond with their backs against the wall? Anthony Bordane-R-Done has no reservations as he drives in two on a sack fly in an RBI single, two-one-nats, and then the chiropractor. Ryan Zimmerman with the backbreaker, three-run yacker for the Nats legend, kind of a dream postseason for him. Scherzer's the story, seven innings pitch, one earn run,

7Ks. Rendon tax on an insurance run Doolittle in Hudson hold 6-1 Nats. We're going to game 5. Oh, Scherzer an elimination game. Scherzer was pretty good. Grandma could hit him.

Oh, yeah. For sure. She could bunt off him. All day. All day. Turner got Scher right away, which was kind of interesting because we kind of said, like, hey, watch out. He's got good numbers against him. But then that was all really it.

Yeah. I mean, the Nats have, or excuse me, the Dodgers have five hits total. One of those comes off Hudson late. Yeah, Scher locks in. When he finds his change up, it's kind of awesome to watch. I mean, all of his pitches are awesome to watch, but his change up gives me the shivers. and Zimmerman, man, Ryan Zimmerman didn't have, well, I mean, he's getting older. He had some huge, huge seasons in his past, but this year he was kind of like Howie Kendrick outplayed him essentially for the first base job as Drewbel Cabrera had been playing really well. He had a negative war this year in 52 games. And now in the postseason, he has the giant shattered bat single that helped them win the

wild card game and now he has this and it's uh i mean it's i was going to say it's what makes baseball special but it's what makes sports special i mean having a guy like this two years removed from a 36 homer 108 rbi season now he's 34 six homers 27 rbis he's a role player if that and he's had two giant moments and one game to play one game to play it's awesome man do you I want to talk about the next matchup, but I know we're going to preview it because I'm excited for it. But this was never really like in doubt, right?

I mean, once, well, I guess once that fifth inning happened in the big Zimmerman home run, it's six to one. And they went, they had Scherzer still on the mound at that point for two more innings. Then they go Doolittle and Hudson, who are there two guys out of the bullpen, they still somewhat have faith in? Yeah.

And they get the job done. Doolittle is my best friend, so that's really good. Yeah, I think, you know, from Rendon ties it in the third. And, you know, there's a couple innings there where it's like, I think both teams you're trying your hardest, do your best. You know that. But you're kind of looking for that, like, oh, God, is there going to be a booted ball?

The throw that pulls the first basement off, like I've been saying. then Rendon gets the RBI single. You have a 2-1 lead. It's in your building. Scherzer's on the bump. And then Zimmerman basically ended it there. You think I'm just, I'm happy for Zimmerman. Kendrick got to start as well at second.

So like he didn't even get moved off. But like Ken, I was going to say Kendrick kind of like was messing up. But he's still still getting the game. He got two hits too. And Zimmerman gets two hits as well. Two, two for four. I think, yeah, I mean, you kind of have to start Zimmerman just because that's how the world works.

As Drewbel Cabrera, who had been so hot for them, him and Kendrick are probably the debate at second base. I'd have to look into their numbers versus Bueller. But maybe we'll talk about that on the next episode of Talking Baseball. Is there anything else about this game that we need to do? The Dodgers, Bellinger, he got another hit. So I think that's over with now. He's got three hits in his last two games.

Good for Bellinger to shake that because when it was 0 for 12, it was getting loud or whatever. Oh, yeah. Starting to, but he turned it fine. Jock Peterson goes O for four. Monsie goes O for four. That's like a tough task. Good job by Scherzer going after those guys.

And then Rich Hill walked everyone. Yeah, Rich. No offense to Rich Hill, but, and it's the company. company you keep a little bit. I mean, Bueller, Kershaw, Ryu, Rich Hill. When you see Rich Hill out there, if you're the Nats, you're pretty excited. Yeah. Yeah. We got into a preview the one game coming up.

Preview. Preview. Preview. Preview. Someone said they hate the transition song on YouTube, and I just want to let you know that I love it. And I think sometimes there's not ads. it's weird. Hopefully eventually there's a bunch. Anyway. One game. One game, Jake, tonight.

Crazy. This is how it will be going forward a lot with them when we get into the Cs, but it's just Rays versus Astros trying to stave off elimination again. Who's the pitching? It's opener versus Verlander? Yeah, Diego Castillo will open for the Rays versus Justin Verlander, who is technically on short rest.

things like that in the playoffs don't matter to Justin Verlander, but you'd say that about another pitcher, so I guess I'll mention it. I'm excited, man. I don't know. I think the rays are going to make this ugly. Like, you know, I like to link things to other sports. I think the rays are going to do the equivalent of, you know, the small team that's rushing it. You know, they're going to use the Army or Navy offense where they run the triple option

and try to sneak out first downs and control. the ball and just hope that Houston can't get it going. The first inning, we've pointed to every playoff game because the first inning sets the tone and the game path and all of that. Diego Castillo, like, he needs to be clean. If Houston gets to Diego Castillo, they're saying, okay, Verlander on the bump, whatever chump they bring out of the bullpen, we don't care, we'll get to them. if Diego Castillo gets them, you've been in these opener games as a Yankees fan.

It's just frustrating. Yeah. If they pass the baton like three times on you, it just starts to wear on you. You're like, oh, my God, every guy's do they bring out. It's going to fucking work. This is annoying. And you just get the one brutal matchup. Like they bring in the tough lefty against Brantley.

And you're like, well, Brantley doesn't have a chance. They bring in this guy. Verlander, on the other hand, is so fucking good. Let me read to you what Verlander did to them in game one. Sure. Walked Austin Meadows. That's a great start. Double play ball.

Strike out Choi. Diaz fly ball, low, low, foul fly ball, darno, ground out. One, two, three, one, two, three, third inning. Wendell K, Kirmir fly out, Adamas fly out, another one, two, three inning. In the fourth inning, Meadows popped out, fam flied out. He walked G. Mann, Choi, bases loaded, and then Yandi Diaz grounded out. So four batters that inning. They're improved.

And the fifth inning, they let off with a single, then three outs, two strikeouts. So another four innings. And then in the sixth inning, one, two, three, strikeout walk, ground ball double play. And in the seventh, he struck out the side. I mean, he gave up one hit, Jake. Since joining Houston, he has nine starts, 10 games. They're eight and two in those games. 61 innings pitched,

61 innings pitched 34 hits. A 251 ERA, opponents are hitting 164 to the tune of a 0.510 OPS. So basically the worst hitter on your team, he makes everyone. You expect more of the same? Like, I wouldn't expect him to go one hit through seven, but I expect Verlander to go through seven innings and the worst damage, I would say, is three runs.

Like, that would be my worst start prediction for Verland. Yeah, you're not trying to get runs off of Verlander. You're trying to get him out of the game. Like, literally best case, best case. is the race we're having a special day up and down the lineup. You get Verlander out after six. He's going seven. The key is to not let him go eight or nine, to be honest.

Because the second he comes out of the game, you get momentum. You truly do. You see someone who's not Justin Verlander and you're ready to go. I don't know. Yeah, you hope to get like two solo shots or maybe a solo shot and then a small ball run. and then hope you're pitching holds and if you need something, you can get their bullpen.

But it's a tough ask. You know who the Ray's best hitters have been? The Ray's best hitters have been. Has G-Man been good? He has a good on base percentage, but he's only got one hit, one hit and three walks. Who's doing it for the race?

Willie Adomis has four hits and seven at bats with two walks. And one of the four hits was a home run. Another one was a double. So Willie Adomas has been doing it. And Matt Duffy, well, he only played one game. Tommy Fan has four hits and 12 at bats. And Austin Meadows has three.

So it's really Adomis fan. Meadows have been getting it done consistently. And then you have Keirmeyer with the big RBI. Yeah. And in game three, I mean, everyone got invited to the party except Travis Darnow. But yeah, Duffy Meadows, fam, Choi Garcia, Lao, Kiermeier and Adamas all had hits. And Willie Adamas, man, he was a guy that he was kind of a Yankee killer for a little bit.

Young guy, he was a big prospect. He's still 24. He had, and, you know, a juke's ball era, we did this the other day, that 20 home runs aren't that impressive. I'll say this, 20 home runs from a 24-year-old shortstop still holds something. And that's what Willie Adamas did in this regular season, and now in the postseason, he's bringing it. So, um, slick Willie Adomas. Slick Willie. Slick Willie.

You got anything else to watch out for here? I mean, Presley and has been bad out of their bullpen. I don't know how much they're really going to use him. Will Harris is going to be, I mean, I think he's up in the packing. order, right? He's got a lot of postseason experience with them too. Yeah, he's, he's the one that came in and relieved after Ozuna, after Ozuna couldn't close the other day. So there's, we're, we're a Matt Ozuna outing and a good Will Harris outing away from like controversy in Houston. Yeah. I mean, Harris has a lot of experience. He was,

yeah, he was on the team in 2017. He was on the team in 2015 when they were, had some playoff games. He's been around, which is kind of weird because you don't think of him as like a guy. I don't really know him that well. You still holding out for the TROP to get involved? Oh, yeah, always. Yeah. Always. Nothing got nothing happened.

Now they're the one game at night. A lot of more eyes on their TV on TV screens. So yeah, we need a catwalk shot. And Jimmy, Ray's fans, the ones that are listening, and rightfully so, should be mad at us. because he basically just got mentioned for a second in the burn. Charlie Morton, the only run he gives up is a solo shot to El Tuva in the first. Five innings pitch, nine Ks against his former crew. So I guess kind of missed that before.

And my favorite pitch ninja of the year so far, Charlie Morton's scissor action, it's the latest scissor I've seen on two pitches. I don't, I think it's a glitch. I think there's some frames missing in the two seamer. Like I don't think that's the real movement. Right? No, but I honestly, like sometimes I'll be recording games and I'll make GIFs,

but it will have a jumpy action like that and I won't post it because it's, if I go frame by frame, it's clearly there's a frame missing that makes it look like that. So like, it's still amazing without the glitch, but that's... The fact that there's a chance that it's not missing a frame, though. I think that says something. I'd put a hundred bucks that it is. All right.

Like, as a guy who makes pitching gifts as well, I would throw down a ton of money that there's something a little off with how much. That two seamer picks up speed as it moves left to right, which is just. Two seam fastball. Not how physics works. But it's still amazing that they cross each other. Yeah, that says enough about it.

Coles was cool with his three pitches. Yeah. That was pretty cool. All right. I think that ends this one. We'll be back tomorrow to recap the rays and Astros, whatever happens tonight, and then talk about the two upcoming game fives, which is awesome. We had two wild card games.

Now we got two more elimination games coming up or, you know, Game 7 feels. NL playoffs, man. We got a bit spoiled. I wonder what's the most. I mean, I'm sure there's been more than just. two in the DSs before. If the raise somehow win today, we are spoiled. Yeah, that's five out of seven game sevens.

That's crazy. Yeah. All right. Thank you guys. We will be back tomorrow. Appreciate it. If you want to leave a five-star rating and review on iTunes, that would be fantastic.

If not, just keep coming back and listening.