Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 45 | Nationals Take Game 1 of the World Series

Episode Date: October 23, 2019

Juan Soto stepped into the spotlight and shined bright. A couple small breaks helped keep the Astros at bay. Nats take game 1. 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.

The Nationals take game one of the World Series. The Astros lose game one of the seven games set for the second time. Let's dive in. What's going on, everybody? Thank you for joining us talking baseball in which we will talk about the World Series, the first ever World Series game review in Talking Baseball history. Wow, iconic moment. Remember this forever.

my name's John Boy, I'm coming to you from New Jersey. I got my co-os, Jake, coming to you from Denver. He's wearing a nice red vest and a backwards white dad hat, and he's nodding his head, and he's got so much to say about this game. But first, we got to give it up to Luis Robles, Larry Litchie Jr., and Jonas Huasperg, Jonas Weisberg. Those are our most recent Patreon supporters. They're bringing you this show.

We appreciate them. We appreciate you. Jakey Bear, how you doing? Thanks, Yonith. I'm doing good. Well, this isn't my first World Series episode of Talking Baseball. I did something, 1993. It wasn't the same format.

Yeah. You were three years old? I did talk in baseball. You were four years old. This is me and my dog Max Yeah, you were talks baseball But oh without that war May he rest in peace

Uh, nah He ate deer The neighbors hunted deer and brought it home He ate some of the deer Because they left it out Died of Lyme disease Max did

Yeah Deer's got him Got it from the deer So I'm doing pretty good I mean great game Great baseball It was a good game I'm pretty happy with game

the game. A lot of the stars came to the forefront, which I like. Um, and I think that Soto dude might be special. I know it's a hot take. I was my, but that dude's special. I know it's, I know it's the most obvious thing to say, but that was like the one thing I said this morning in the preview. Like, I think Juan Soto's about to become a superstar. Like that's the only thing. If anyone seems like they're made for the big stage, it's that fucker who gets into the batters box and acts like It's like there's no cameras. Like how he acts in the batters box is how normal people act in the bathroom mirror when Noah's home. And they're like, how silly can I get?

He acts like if you were facing your best friend playing baseball and acting silly. Yes. Like that's something you do. Yeah. Like if I was doing wiffleball and I was trying to go like max cocky against you, that's what I'd look like. And he, uh, he's a special dude. And if you're a Nats fan and you work with people who aren't Nats fans, or if you're a baseball person who works with a casual baseball person,

I mean, that's the song of the day is Soto special. I mean, just a different kind of special. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot to talk about. Do you, where did you watch the game? I think maybe we'll get into that. I watched the first two innings at a place called Spot Bar in Denver.

It's called Spot Bar in Denver? It's called Spot Bar. Okay, it's called Spot Bar. I was going to say. It's called Spot Bar. It's in Denver. Yeah. I watched it with our good friend Nick.

Some people know him as the mailman. I turned 30 two weeks ago. Yep. and I still haven't renewed my license. So spot bar is kind of a hole in the wall, so I thought they'd be cool about it. Spoiler, they weren't. So I went to have a beer with my buddy.

They would not serve me a beer because my license is expired. So then we came back to my apartment and we watched the rest of the game. If you didn't look so young, you could probably pass that test. Yeah, if I didn't look like I was an old 15, like things would be good.

I will, dude, I meant to text you this like three times today. Did you wear that sweater vest and backwards hat combo to the bar? I don't want to talk about it. I look like the kid from Big Daddy. Yes. I almost texted you. I almost texted you three times today because Jimmy, and this is kind of funny,

and it shows how much we love baseball. My acne during the Yankees playoff run was the worst it's been in so long. Jimmy, I web-m-deed. like what is acne associated with? Because I was like, okay, maybe I'm a little more stressed out because the yanks are in the playoffs, but it's not this bad. A week later, not even a week, four days,

acne is fine, clear as my face has been. Yeah. Well, I still can't believe that you are dressed like a 10-year-old from like 1999. You can go to the bar like that. Yeah, I'm trying to spin it my own way. We can't serve you. No.

I think if you had your... Yeah, even if you have a... Yeah, even if you have a legal ID, we're not serving you. You know who can't get served? Juan Soto. Juan Soto. Juan Soto. He's, uh, no alcohol for him in America. In other countries, he's totally cool.

No, I've, I've been watching their celebrations after the DS and the CS. And if the Nats come close to winning the series, I'm reporting him for underage drinking. Yeah, that's fair. Fair. Yeah. I mean, we'll be like the people that watch golf and they report like infractions from home. That's what baseball needs. That is what they.

More police, more couch police. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a burn for this game? I do. All right. Let's get into that after a word from a quick sponsor. All right, Jakey.

Jakey Burns on your mark. Get set. Burn. Burn. Game one of the World Series, the Nationals. Natitude and Mad Max Scher versus Jason Garrett Cole as the Astros try to cowboy their way to their second World Series in three years. Bottom one, you lay, you lie, double L-Tuvain Springer score. Two-nothing Astros.

She's a man, baby, yeah. Zimmerman, a solo. shot and then Juan Soto goes Han Solo in theater soon tied at twos. Adam eats in a run. Soto doubles his pleasure doubles the runs to RBI double. It's five two Nats. George Jerry Springer announces he is the father with a solo homer and an RBI double in the eighth. But the stroze go Apollo 13 as they crash into game one. Scherzer to Corbyn to Rainey to Hudson to do a little Nat Steel Game 1 54 final

Do a little Nice Jake I have bad news for you The chat just brought it to my attention This is awful It's fine Juan Soto turns 21 Before game 4

October 25th Yeah so by the time the World Series is over He's legal Oh but I still have material from them From the CS and the DSS Oh okay okay okay Well that's actually bad news for game three. Soto's going to be hammered. He's going to be so hung over. Yeah.

He's going to show up with like a fifth of Jack just like hang. You have a flask in his back pocket and like, nah, it's cool. I'm 21 now. I know the story so played out and this is like a corny thing. But end of the day when Juan Soto's, you know, 68 and lives in a condo outside of Miami and he's retired. And they go around the table and they go, hey, that was your 21st birthday. Oh, dude, went out to Club Live, blackout, threw up in the bathroom. Best night of my life. Soto.

Dude, game three of the world series, two for three with a walk. And they're like, okay, fuck you. Yeah. That's rude. What was your 21st birthday like? What was mine? We went to that shitty bar, right? I forget.

Yeah. What was the rugby bar? Oh, were they had penny beers? Yeah. Mollies or maggies or some Irish name. Damn, I forget the name. Rose. Yeah, that was our... Something Rose.

Something Rose. That was our 21st birthday spot because it sucks so bad. So we went there just to like black out and watch someone throw up on themselves. Good times. Yeah. Good times. I have this game, Jake. Yeah.

This game, I... I said this to you before. There's all these little things that are, I kind of don't want to do like a little breakdown on it, but I'm going to be away from my computer all day tomorrow. Sure. So I were recording tonight. But like the little things that add up.

And there's a lot of them. I don't know how you want to go through the game. But Josh Reddick gets catchers interference, but they don't call it. It's clear as day. It's absolutely ridiculous that that's not a review. Why would that be on the list of not a reviewable? I want to go back in time

and put me in the office and the meeting when they decided what's a reviewable play and what's not because how did they not vote catchers interference? Like there's so many cameras locked in to that specific area of gameplay. It's not like you're not going to have angles. You're going to have the most amount of angles. It's so stupid. I don't understand how they said that wasn't reviewed.

doable but that goes from it goes from one out with two on flip it to the top of the order instead it's two outs because reddick flies out afterwards which is also that sucks like he could have he he it wasn't like it was a base hit they fucked up and he was out he still had a chance to get a hit right he didn't so that's a little side thing but it goes from uh to two out with one on instead of two on with one out, which is a much different inning. And you can't say that for sure this would happen or for sure that would happen. But that's kind of a little moment that's playing big when you think about this. Yeah, and I feel like we're going to bounce in and out of different things here

because there's so many moving parts, NL and AL. And that's kind of where I want to start is that, you know, and I'll send a quick apology to all Nats for. fans, A, my bad for ignoring how special Juan Soto is, B, Adam Ean, who I've been on all playoffs, I kind of wrote him off this series. He had a huge game and a big at bat. And I think something else that's hard to quantify is that, yes, a lot of the National League teams aren't going to have the big DH that bats fourth or fifth, and he's a big part of their lineup. But something that's kind of a double effect is, A, they get a hitter for the pitcher.

which is big, but B, someone like Victor Robles, who he's normally the eighth hitter, and all he sees is shit when he's at the plate, when he gets a real chance at it, he's like an ideal ninth batter. Like, that dude can set the table and send it back. And I think that's kind of what we saw from this Nationals lineup today was their depth surprised me. And I think it was a little bit of, A, you get the DH, you get to put Kendrick at DH, ass crabs in the field, Zimmerman at first, with Robles sliding down to the nine hole and it made that lineup just look differently than I've normally seen it in my head

because there's no pitcher. Yeah. Hey, how about that? Yeah, Robles going from eighth hole in front of the pitcher where you see nothing because they're just pitching around you to get to the pitcher versus being nine hole and now you're seeing a lot of pitches because they don't want to turn over the lineup. What a different like mindset that is for that guy.

Right? You can be the table seter. where before you're almost just like, do my best not to fuck up. And if I take a walk, I've almost fucked up. And the other thing that I don't want to say I was on pregame, but I was hoping it was a cool thing. How about Ryan Zimmerman? Your team goes down to nothing in Houston.

Here comes old man Zim with the solo bomb shot. That was a big part in changing this whole game. Oh, instantly. And I mean, he's dipped into the fountain of, youth in its state. But I will say this, the nationals kind of in this game, they defied everything that was supposed to happen. So when the Astros score in the first inning, they're almost unbeatable.

If the Astros jumped to a 2-0 lead, I believe they were 27-0 or 27-2. Something like that. Something like that. I think the second number is an O. I think they were undefeated if they had a 2-0 lead. And so they did have a 2-0 lead. and they lost. Garrett Cole hadn't lost a game since, like, May of 2007,

and he gets the loss today. Like, there was a lot of stuff where the nationals kind of said, hey, fuck you, mainstream media and talking Jake, we're in this thing. So shots fired right at your face. And I, like, totally get that, you know. I don't know. And I think, so there are two things I didn't fact.

in fully before the game. I mentioned the fact that they haven't won a World Series, and when I was saying that, I mean, there's a chance at a magic factor with this team. And it is still game one. I think the Astros are still the favorites. But I will say this, man, the nationals are playing really good baseball. If you go back into the regular season, they won their last eight baseball games. They beat the Brewers. They beat the Dodgers three out of five in a great series. And then they sweep the Cardinals. I mean, the Nationals are on kind of a crazy run right now.

So what's that? 9 plus 4 is 13 plus 3 is 16. They're 16 and 2. Now they're 17 and 2 in their last 19. I mean, we are not a math pod. We're more of a mod pod and a cron pod. But I think I just crush that math. I think it's 17 and 2.

That's what I said. Nice. Yeah, cron pod then. Yeah. Nailed it. So that's crazy. They're 17 and 2 in their last 19 games. 17 and 2 in their last 19. Sodo's a special dude. And yeah, the other thing, and I mean, Houston's licking their chops. I mean, yes, they got to Cole, which is unbelievable. I mean, literally hasn't been done since May.

But when you get Scherzer out after five innings, I know they had Corbyn for this game. But I don't know that Astros were still licking their chops. they had a couple opportunities. I mean, that line drive by Brantley is a couple more feet towards the line. We're probably telling a different story. But that's, you mentioned the little things in a game can mean so much. I mean, that Brantley thing might not even technically be a little thing. But if it goes three feet to the left, are we telling a different story?

I don't know. Yeah. I mean, the other little thing is Springer not getting to third on what should have been a triple. And, I mean, the next at bat, Altuve does. line out to Adam Eaton and you can't play this game but we're going to play it. But you know what it is? You play this game and then you always say you can't, but you do it. You know, he would have, that would have been the tying run.

That whole base running by Tucker and then Roblois in center field, that was a shit show. Yeah, and you know what? I think you'll be a little surprised that I'm kind of dipping out on that because I think every side of the base running is kind of right, except George Springer. Wait, but why would he tag at second? Because it went off that guy's glove. If Eaton catches that ball, which it went off his glove, we're saying, that's really good base running by Tucker to tag up there.

Not a lot of players would have done that. So I get it, and he still scores. He still scores. Hold on. There's going to be two outs if it's caught, right? No. Yes. Let me see.

Hold on. No, no, no, no. Fly out. Yes, it's going to be the second out if it's caught. Yeah. So getting to third means nothing. I mean, getting to third means. We're talking about George Springer not getting a third right now.

If Kyle Tucker doesn't get to third. And there's a pass ball. Pass ball is a good play. But you're not taught to tag up on that play. You're taught to be three-fourths of the way. because if Adam Eaton makes that catch, who cares about you can just stay on second. You're in scoring position for the next guy if he gets a single.

If he doesn't, then you're taught to be three-fourths of the way because it's going to be the second out. And then you score and you clear room for Springer to get third. Yeah, I don't know. I think I'm, again, I'm in a different area there. I think you're probably supposed to go halfway. And if Eaton catches that ball, it would have been a really special catch, which it was close to,

still have a chance of tagging up. I mean, either way it's moot. And this is why I said I don't care about it because I think both sides of the argument are right. Either way, he scored. And B, if it was caught, he would have been in his best position to advance. So I think it's a moot argument.

Well, Springer could have got the third if he didn't go back. He slowed, like Springer slowed himself down. Well, Springer also did a Sosa hop and didn't spring out of the box. I know, but he also slowed. It's more of a Springer situation than a tugger situation. Well, if you watch the wide angle,

he also slowed him down a little bit. where he waited for him. Because they were, I mean, think about it when you, like, picture it. He was still at second when it hit. Springer was in between second, first, and second. Yeah. I mean, Tucker scored. And then Tucker tagging on the Robles catch was even weirder.

He would have been dead to rights that second if Robles just threw it to second. Right. But again, that's almost, I mean, Robles is 22 and he, you talk about happy feet when an outfielder catch. It's a ball. Holy smokes. Robles turned that into a circus really quick, and then he makes the throw to the wrong base. Tucker ends up looking great.

Well, no, but did you see the replay? Like, Tucker didn't mean to tag up. Right, but it worked out. But two weird base running. Maybe he played with a little house money tonight, but it worked. I know, but it's too, like, bad base running plays that worked out. That tag up from first to second and him not running full speed

and then kind of looking around like, wait, what just happened? is bizarre. Yeah. Hey man, it worked out. And that's kind of what matters this time of year. I mean, I'm just still bizarre baseball.

If it comes back at a later game in the series and he makes a guffaw, you'd be like, oh, yeah, look how lucky he was there. For now, he looks like a genius on the Robles throw. And the other play ended up working out. He doesn't look like a genius if you watch the replay, and he, like, doesn't really know what happened. He gets second base, man. It worked out.

It's still like... It worked out. That's why I said I didn't want to do this because at the end of the day, there is no argument against Tucker right now. Both of his plays worked. Yeah, but you can still talk about it. Like if he sprints and tags up and sprints right away and then it works out, he looks like a genius. But the replay, when he was looking around like, wait, what? It's like he thought Robles dropped the ball or something.

Yeah. It was weird. It's weird. Did he pinch run? Or was he? He pinched. He got a single. Pinch it.

Yo, how about Alvarez getting on base three times? And that's the other funny part about this, Jim. And you and I were more locked into the Yankee series, obviously, and not to be rude to the other people. I mean, we watched the NLCS, but it clearly became a sweep, and there's a couple ugly innings there. But that's what I said that was funny. I mean, Yule Gureel, he hits the two RBI double in the first inning.

and now in his last two playoff games, he has the three-run homer, a two-run RBI double, when he was dead in the water, the whole Yankees series. Jordan Alvarez, he ends up doing the same thing where it's like, okay, is this guy a threat again and the guy that was one of the more special rookies we've ever seen? And yeah, that's how quickly a series can turn. He walked and then he got a hit, then he got a hit.

Then Alvarez had one of the bigger at-bats of the game. Bases loaded with two outs versus Hudson, and Hudson gets them on three pitches, just elevates the fastball 02. That was pretty, I thought that was going to be a cool at bat that I could do a breakdown for or something like that. But Alvarez went down pretty easily. Yeah, Hudson roasted him after not looking his best out there.

And yeah, I think, and Jim, this is funny. And I know the people that have been listening hardcore to talking baseball, you and I with Tanner Rainey. We saw that first appearance from him this playoffs and were like, oh, this guy's not playoff ready. And then we kind of lost our sights on him a little bit. and it's like, okay, he's had a couple good appearances. This guy has good stuff.

Maybe he's locked in. And now Tanna Rainey's a huge question mark again. He comes in, point one, he gives up a hit, and he gives up two walks in a home run. I mean, Tanner Rainey went from, and you heard it on the broadcast. They were like, oh, this guy's been an X factor out of their bullpen. Now, one game ago, Jordan Alvarez couldn't be trusted, and Tana Rani was an X factor. now it's vice versa. Yeah, but Rainey, he looked like he was pitching to the Astros in the same manner

that the twins pitched to the Yankees where he was just scared to throw Braggman anything in the zone. And he was just hoping they'd chase his off speed that was like just dipping underneath the strike zone. And they just didn't care. No, dude, we're not going to swing at that. And he just kept diblin. But did you see how red his face was? I said they should go put some ice cubes in his hat. He looked like.

He was making me hot. He was pitching like a guy that gave up a lead-up homer to George Springer. That's how he pitched the rest of the time. Springer thinking he got a second one. Yeah, it's not a great look. Juan Soto with the Opos shot off of Cole. Appos shot hit the train. The appo track shot.

Yeah, it's, I mean, technically that kid, and he's a kid, like hasn't developed his full muscles yet. No. No. It's fucking bizarre. And Jim, there's so many little baseball things. I know I'm getting into gym mode a little bit, but that's when I'm at my most passionate. He got mowed down his first at bat.

Your first World Series at bat, you're a kid. I think Cole went three fastballs to mow him down to end that inning that looked like it had a rally going. Yeah, it was three straight fastballs after, you know, I mean, Turner Reach and then he stole and then the bunt pop out, which we can talk about that in a second. But three fastballs from Garrett Cole, one, two, three, you're out. He comes up the next step bat and he goes,

Apo job, an absolute moonshot. A lot of guys don't have pull power that deep. Second pitch, he gets another fastball. And, yeah, it's where baseball gets romantic. and it's where you get curious too because you hear guys talk stories about Manny Ramirez and some of the special hitters and there are stories out there that Manny Ramirez

used to have like bad swings at pitches to set up pitchers for later. And like I'm not necessarily given Soto credit for that yet but when you caught one of the best four-seem fastballs opposite field for 420, he's a special dude. Dude, and then that's that home run, sets up the next at bat in the fifth inning when he comes up with two on because Cole didn't want to give him a fastball. He went slider, curve, curve, slider, change up slider. He didn't give

him a fastball in the hole up bat. It goes to three, two, and he hasn't seen a fastball, and Soto knows that, and Soto knows why crushed his fastball last that bat, so he's probably not throwing one. And he sat on that, that slider, and just drove it, Oppo again, and gets two more RBIs. So that, I mean, he went all fastballs and he struck out. Then he sits the fastball and he fucking moon shots one. Then he comes back and Cole's giving him all off speed and he adapts. It's pretty impressive. I like how much he changes his approach with two strikes. And it's just fun. It's funny slash awesome to watch him and Rendon back to back. You get the young, emotional 20-year-old who, I mean, just around every turn this postseason, he'll prove you wrong.

And then Rendon comes up and there's guys that pretend to be cool. Rendon is like the king of cool. Does that dude have a pulse? He's incredibly calm. So was Springer, though. Dude, did you see that picture I tweeted of Springer? I'm not sure. Can you pull it up?

he looks like a video game character he looks like he doesn't have a pulse and he's 2D and it's fucking weird I don't even have it loaded yet but I kind of know what you're talking about yeah I tweeted it out

it's uh I like was just scrubbing through the footage trying to find like something interesting I guess and then I was like whoa and then I called employee bill over and I was like, he looks like a video game, doesn't he? Did you see it?

Yeah, I'm looking at it now. He's, uh, yeah, man, him, I mean, you kind of nailed it with Springer. There is like a video game vibe that it's like, what's, what's even going on here? Rendon, like, there's athletes that in pressure situations, they tell themselves like, hey, just got to breathe, be calm, be myself, and you see them looking like that. I mean, Rendon, he looks like he fouled off a two. 2-0 whiffleball pitch for every pitch. Yeah, 2-0-wiffball pitch for every pitch. Throwing whiffball is 2-0, huh?

Well, in a wiffle ball game, yeah, you throw it every pitch. Every pitch you throw a wiffball. Yeah. Yeah. You want to talk about the starters at all before we move on? Like Scher, Scherzor looked like he was emptying the tank on every pitch to me, which I think is kind of how he always looks anyway. Yeah.

It's kind of just how he goes about. life we didn't get any foaming from the mouth crazy sherser uh the pitch count got up there quick they bring in corbin i don't know what you were your what was your impression of shirzer today i mean shirzer yes he empties the tank on every pitch um i think it's again one of those weird things like you and i watch shirzer highlights so we'll see him here and there um if this is normal shirzer then yeah i guess he bounces back in five days and we'll see him again I think one of the interesting themes that I want to look over at the end of this postseason is how many times are these pitchers being okay with giving a walk instead of giving a hit or a chance to hit?

Because Scherzer ends up with three walks today. And, you know, that adds to his pitch count a little bit, but he never gave up the big blow. And his team scored five runs off Carrick Cole, the dude who hasn't lost since May, I believe. So, hey, he did his job. He emptied the tank. If you told the nationals coming into this game, Scherzer was only going to give you five. I think national fans get real worried, but he did what he did to limit their scoring. Yeah, and then when Rainey could only go 0.1 and he put two on,

and he has to go to Hudson in the seventh inning, he did not look thrilled about that in the dugout. Also, Hudson in a jam in the seventh inning. And, you know, Rainey gets credited with the run. Hudson gets credited with the run. He does get out of the bases loaded jam. But that's a taxing day one for their bullpen. That's a taxing day one for the Nats bullpen, which isn't a strength anyway.

Doolittle looked good. He goes 1.1. So they were able to split it between Hudson and Doolittle. But you need, you need Strasberg to kind of give everyone a break. Like, you don't want to use Hudson and Doolittle every game. you might have to, but like, you really don't want to give rainy innings. And that's like bringing Corbyn out kind of, they want to use the three starters, Hudson and Doottson and Do Little.

That's what they want to do. Yeah, and I think it's a little bit of something that could be really deflating to Washington in the series if they use Hudson and do little and they don't get a win. Like, yes. If they have to use them tomorrow and they walk away with a win, I mean, Houston is celebrating to the moon because they would have gone 2 and O in Houston. And I mean, if they use their guys, who cares? But yeah, if they were to go and it's a similar story tomorrow,

but Hudson or Doolittle can't hold, that would be a tough break for the Nats. And I want to give kudos to the Nats, man, because Hudson, playoff baseball speaks to you differently. And you watch a guy get the final outs to a game and you're like, all right, well, that's, that's the guy I'm going to war with. Hudson earned that in kind of the Dodgers series. And for them to go Hudson first because they get him in that lane and then to close it out with Doolittle, kudos to them.

Yeah. And then on the Astro side, Cole went seven, five earned runs, which is crazy. Six strikeouts, only six. I don't really know what was going on with Cole. Like a couple curveballs, he just couldn't really get going. But I couldn't pick up like exactly like what was happening. I mean, Soto rocked a fastball. I don't know.

Did you some scrappy at bats? I just think, and I touched on this a little bit this morning, but I was in way too negative of Natsville. Again, I owe them apology. And Jim, I'm going to resort back to it because you've heard me say it multiple times. I think Adam Eaton is a huge piece to how this team operates. I think Trey Turner is a solid ball player. Rendon is going to be a top three MVP guy.

Soto is special. You've heard me say that five times this podcast. When Adam Eaton gives you two for four from that two hole, and Rendon and Soto are just full-blown threats to you, I think that changes the whole dynamic of this Nationals team. Because, again, when you go through the box score, I mean, Zimmerman has the solo shot, but the rest of that lineup doesn't do too, too much. I mean, you get a couple, you get a hit from ass crabs, a hit from Roblaze.

And, you know, I did my Roblaze as more of a table setter for the top again. But I don't know. I mean, if Adam Eaton has a good game, just think about how that changes, how you have to navigate this lineup with guys on base for Rendon and Soto every time. I mean, that's a mess. Yeah. Yeah. And he's a little fucker anyway.

If he made that catch, that would have been amazing. Yeah. We've been pretty wild. All right. Let's move forward to the game two little preview session. All right. Game two tomorrow, Strasberg versus Verlander. Jake, Astros are still a favorite in this series, correct?

I believe so. I'd have to double check with Vaguer. but I believe so. In your brain? Yeah. I just think, you know, Astros still, they don't technically have home field, but if it goes six or seven, it's in Houston. And I mean, I'll give Washington credit for getting five off Garrett Cole, but I don't think like, oh, they got them once. They're going to get them again. That's not exactly how this works. I think it's going to be, this needed to happen for it to be a good series. I said yesterday that I think Strasbourg and Verlander is a toss-up.

I thought Cole had the upper hand on Scherzer. He didn't. I mean, would I be shocked if we're talking after tomorrow's game? And it's like, wow, Strasbourg was incredible. Washington got enough off Verlander. Like, no. And that's what makes baseball awesome. Yeah, I'm kind of a toss-up.

I think the Nats still are the first. favorite because you can't react too much to just one game um i mean yankees won the yankees took game one so you can't do that much and like houston's really good they'll find a way they almost came back in this one like they had bases loaded they had a couple really close breaks that would have that would have tied this or went you know their way but the gnats were able to hang on but strasberg verlander man verlander needs a good outing verlander You know what, actually, I think more pressures on Strasbourg. And that's a little different than I, than I think, I think more pressures on Strasbourg because of the bullpen situation.

And because, because Scherzer only went five, like, Strasbourg has to go seven, man. Yeah. And there's, I mean, there's not much of a reason to believe he won it. You know, it would be a blessing. What's that? If, if shot, it, it wouldn't be all that. bad if the nationals got blown up. Nationals are better off getting beat by five than getting beat by two.

Yeah. Because like you said, if they use Doolittle and Hudson in a losing effort, that fucks them. Yeah. And, yeah, I mean, Houston, they don't use Osuna today. And again, we'll see how much of this reliever rest thing becomes. a thing in and of itself. I think George Springer, coming to life is a big story.

Altovae still looks solid. Same with Brantley. Bregman, man. Breggman's in an interesting spot. You already know this, Jim, but in the Yankee series, he got walked a ton. He had a 423 OBP, but he had a 645 OPS.

He only had three hits in six games in the Yankee series. And yes, he got pitched around a lot. Tonight, he goes 0 for four. He has a walk. But three strikeouts, too. I mean, Bregman, you're a dude that your fans are yelling at the table. Trout doesn't deserve the MVP. He's got to find his way in pretty quickly.

Yeah, it might actually help him that Yuley's getting hot behind him. He might see some pitches now. Yeah. You know, the Yankees straight up just pitched around him. man, he was credit to him for being very patient. He's got a 435 on base percentage in this postseason so far. So, I mean, that's good. And it's hard to hit when they're not giving you pitches in the zone.

So I kind of get it. But if Yuley starts hitting and Yuley's been jumping these fastballs, man, they're weird ass swings. Yeah, he's getting inside the ball. But, like, players don't get inside the balls that he's getting. It's crazy. And then to put him over the fence or to the fence, it's nuts. So Yuley getting hot may actually help break.

And then that helps the Astros incredibly. And then if Alvarez got some fucking confidence under himself now because he got two hits and a walk and a little anger because he struck out with the bases loaded, I don't know. Astros might be in a good spot offensively. Yeah. You got to see a hit from Brugman. Like even if they're pitching around you, the team and the fans need a little bit of wood on the ball. Yeah, man, I mean, it's just tomorrow's exciting. Looking Strasberg Verlander, it's kind of a,

it almost flips the script a little bit. Garrett Cole, the guy who had the special season against Max Scherzer, the three-time Sy Young Award winner. Now it's flipped. It's old man Verlander versus Strausberg, who was the Young Prodigy, and now is kind of rebuilding that with his playoff statistics so far. It's kind of a fun flip.

The game's at eight tomorrow, right? I made a lot of plans. I'm hoping, scheduling around an 8 o'clock start. 8.07. Hey, oh, because I'm going to New York City spending the day looking at apartments. And I was like, I just knew back by 8, but I never checked to make sure it was 8 o'clock. Never checked. So that's good.

I'm excited. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I think that about covers it, right? We're good. I'm going to go to sleep. It's 1 a.m.

I got to leave for New York City tomorrow morning. Got anything else? Are you hot? I don't. I don't think so. No, I'm not too hot. I'm a little warm. I'm warm.

Again, kudos to the Nats for taking this game. Yanks did the same thing. I'm not going to draw a full comparison there. But game one in Houston's no joke, especially after the layoff. And you could have talks about that. Good for Houston for owning it. And again, if you run into any baseball fan, Soto, special. This is so much different than what the Yankees did.

The Yankees beat Granky and the Penn. They beat Cole and came back from being down to nothing. I mean, this is a much bigger. And they beat Cole. Yeah, they beat Cole. Cole didn't beat himself. So this is a much, much more emphasis goes into this than what the Yankees did in game one. Yeah.

We'll see if it carries. I mean, Burlander deals tomorrow and it's a wash. But it's still good. You want to win one on the road. They lost home field advantage already again. We'll see what they bring in Washington, D.C. D.C. D.C.

All right. Thank you guys for hanging out with us. Thank you for listening. Thank you for commenting and subscribing and rating and reviewing and being part of it. Thank you for telling Jake that he sucks all of it. time and we'll see you later.