Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 46 | Nationals Win Big in Game 2

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

Nationals go up 2-0, taking both games on the road against Verlander and Cole. 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 are set to shock the world. They take game two in demanding fashion. Let's talk all about it. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to talking baseball. My name is John Boy. I'm coming to you from New Jersey. And I got my co-host, Jake, coming to you from Denver, rocking yellow-tinted glasses and a blue sweater.

And he's got hair on top of his head. Jake, how you doing? Pretty accurate description, James. I'm doing well, man. I'm ready to eat some crow. I'm enjoying it. I've got a lot of thoughts. Oh, wow.

Holy shit. Buckle up. Dude, I wrote down a couple notes. I'm like, I'm freaking, I'm loaded. And I'm literally loaded up and sipping the syrup. How many of your notes are spin zones and apologies to the Washington, D.C. crowd? None. None at all.

Okay, wow. I will not apologize. And I've even got compliments for myself from the Washington people. So your notes are just full of- Thank you. Your notes are just full of compliments? I just write down compliments to myself. No, man, there's so many storylines for this series

and for individual players that are just becoming so awesome. That's just really exciting. So, yeah, it was pretty wild. It's crazy. I mean, even just getting back in the box score this morning and seeing 12 to 3 and then looking at the fact that it was 2 to 2 into the 7. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Holy crap. AJ Hinch actually said a quote like, it was a good game in three terrible innings.

It wasn't like a terrible game, which is, you know, one inning can make or break your game. But I understand I kind of actually like, my initial reaction was like, shut up, Hinch. come on and then i was like you know what though once the game was out of hand who cares about those last runs like that and michael taylor home run and shit like i don't care right but i i think more importantly it's something that you and i have been harping on and if if people kind of haven't known what we've been saying but like every every baseball game has these little moments where an inch fair an inch foul or pitch off the plate or if you're alex bregman and inch off your glove I mean, it just changes a whole dynamic of the series.

And I think last night had a lot of those examples, too. I have, like, one scalding take to come away from yesterday. Oh, my God. I wish Adam Eaton was a likable dude off the field because his play on the field is exactly so likable. Right. Does all the Adam Eaton, because, I mean, I don't even fully know this, but I know you've been saying it for a little while.

It comes from his white socks days or what? Yeah. Todd Frazier said no one likes Adam Eaton. And Todd Frazier has a reputation for being one of the nicest guys in baseball. And you will never hear someone say anything bad about Todd Frazier. And then Ozzie Gehan also says like, yeah, no one likes Adam Eaton. And I think he's just like, I think he's just like a hardo. And then they got into like a little like Tiff and Haddhaven.

Adam Eaton said like, I've got a mortgage to pay off, dude. It's like, what? What? So anyway, but his play on the field, like, in the first inning, when he just slapped that pitch past Brighman down the third baseline, I was like, hell yes, Adam Eaton. Nice. I love, I love that approach. So I'm in a bind there.

That was the, that was the compliment I was going to give myself that I knew, that I knew you will have my back on, Jimmy. It said I'm the best. No, it's that I've been on the Adam Eaton Nationals trained from day one. I just thought he was the key to unlocking this offense. Trey Turner

won me over, and I've got a lot of stuff on Trey Turner too. But Adam Eaton was the guy in the top of that lineup that it was like, one of these things is not like the other. And that's not a shot at Adam Eaton, but Rendon, Soto. And I mean, Trey Turner doing his thing. Adam Eaton,

And when he's doing what he's doing, that unlocks the whole offense. Yeah. Someone in the Jeff, Jeff in the chat just said he's the Nats Gardner. And the MLB thinks that Gardner is this big, hardo, red ass. But he's actually the team jokester and prankster. And everyone loves him in the clubhouse. Yeah, I mean, they're talking on the field, I think. Yeah, I wish Gardner played like Eaton on the field.

postseason? Yeah. Well, that's tough. He had a great year. In the postseason, I said, Jake. Yeah, I know. I said the post season. You did.

Okay. Jeez. Wow. Strasberg is a story. There's a lot of stories. We have a burn. Oh, before we get into the burn, how do we want to handle, like, all this news?

The first off day of the World Series is a notorious news dump day. Right. Because you don't want to take away anything from a World Series game. So you wait till the first off day, which is today, Thursday. So we got the Mets hired Girardi. Ross is going to the Cubs. Padre has hired a guy named Tingler. Fucking that umpire, Drake, the only umpire with a beard,

said he was going to get a gun and start a Savile war if they impeached Trump. Eric, Eric Cooper, the amp passed away. And then you have the Tobman stuff with the Astros. They handled it terribly. So there's a lot going on. Right now, it sucks that the Rob Drake stuff there is, is terrible because Rob Drake looks like an idiot. Yeah, Eric Cooper stuff's terrible because someone passed away before they should have. And then the Tobman stuff's terrible because you got like sexism, you know, you got a lot of stuff going on the MLB.

It's all of it. Yeah. Yeah, they're like touching all the touchy topics. And then you have the Padres hiring a guy who has never really coached before. in the MLB. So do we want to talk about any of this today? No, it's for another time. It's World Series season. I'm sorry. I mean, the managers and stuff, that'll wait. I think that'll even be a fun episode. I think we can do some fun games off of that, like which managers we like the most. Yeah. The Houston stuff, I mean, we covered a little bit. It's obviously not really the voice of

this show, but it's awful. They slaughtered the whole thing. And I mean, maybe I'll throw some backhanded insults at them throughout episodes going forward. But I mentioned, you know, storylines and things we talked about a little bit, Jim, and I think there'd be some really good clips. I don't know if we want to sick work or bill on it, but you and I were talking about the Astros about to become the bad guys,

and with that assistant GM, they became the bad guys overnight. Dude, I wanted to tweet out, last night. I've been doing a lot of tweeting, and before I hit send, I delete it because I just, like, don't want to start that. And so many people don't understand, like, my tone anymore

because I have a lot of new followers. I wanted to tweet. What's the guy's name, Tobman? Tobman. I wanted to tweet out, I wonder if Tobman knows this is entirely his fault. Yeah. Like, does he know?

Yeah. But then there's even people that will listen to the show on YouTube. That will be like, do you really think it's thought? Yeah. And leave a stupid comment. So you can't,

you can't just fucking catering to dumb people every day of my life now. It sucks. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, Todman should be, you know,

he should be giving himself swirlies. He ruined the Astros. There was a couple, couple tweets out there that they were like, yeah, and you thought an assistant GM couldn't affect the team. Yeah, but no, I,

I truly do think that, A, I'll take a dig at myself. I talked about how the Astros, you know, they were the better team, and they went through the Yankees, so now they're going to go through this. And maybe there are some Yankees bias attached. But the Astros have been playing like they had my same attitude. Like they came out and they were just like, well, we're the Astros, we're at home, you know, roll damn tied.

Yeah, Verlander and Cole will do a thing and we'll get three runs and it'll be good. Yeah. And they kind of got straight embarrassed. So it'll be interesting to see if they can change the narrative, if there is a swing or a game or a moment that can happen. But right now, they are the bad guys and they're having a bad time. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaking of other tweets, you see I mobilized my followers to kindly tell John Heyman I had a scoot before him. I also tweeted that like five times and deleted it because I was like, I don't want to do this. And then I was like, I do though, because John Heyman's the worst. Yeah, no, we're done with Haman. I went to fully burn the bridge and then I pulled it back a little bit. Still not blocked by Haman, so he's a good friend of mine. But, yeah, he's awful. Yeah, if you follow John Haman on Twitter, unfollow him.

Or follow him for comedy's sake because it's just the dumbest. I think he's probably a good reporter off of Twitter, but he, like, has no idea of what you can and can't tweet as a reporter. So whatever. All right, you want to burn him? this game. I can burn this. Do we, uh, Patreon, Matt Turner? Oh yeah, Matt Turner's our sole newest Patreon joiner. Yeah, well, we're doing these shows every day. So it's, it's, uh, you know, hard to, to really reel them in. No, thank you, Matt Turner. We appreciate you. You go to patreon.com slash

johnboy media if you want to support $2 a month. We give away two jerseys each month. Um, and you get live access. Hayden's in here, bucks in here, boo box in here. Boo box in here. And Jeff's in here and Powerhouse. It's in here. All right, let's start with a quick break. And then we'll come back with Jake's Burn. All right. Here we go.

Jake World Series game No, Morrow 2. On your mark, get set. Burn. Game two of the 2019 World Series, the Nationals in the artist formerly known as the, asterisk Stephen Strasbourg try to go up two games to none versus the Astros and Justin I am the Verlander in H-Town top one rice rice baby Anthony Rendon the pride of the owls two RBIs for Tony two bags but bottom one I am sick of your natitude young lady

I don't want a brag man but Alex just hit a two run yacker to tie it two to two after one Strasbourg and Verlander went all John Taffer until the 7th because they shut it down. Until I'm thinking about getting a sporty motorcycle. Should I get a Honda, a Suzuki? Kurt Motors went out of the stadium. Three, two, Nats. Can they hold? They do much more than that.

Kendrick RBI infield single. Pregman. Always watch out for ass crabs as Drewble Cabrera RBI single. The Pride. of the Nats, Ryan Zimmerman, infield single, and a throwing error. Brackman. Nats put up a sixth spot in the seventh, a couple more late in the eighth and the ninth. Boogety, boogiety.

Strasbourg to Rodney, to Raney, to Grara. Nats win 12-3 and take the 2-0 lead back to the Capitol. It was looking like a really good game. Jake, the John Taffer. Usually go music, some actors. It's a lot of music, usually. throwing a bar rescue in there. Not bad.

Shut it down. Shut it down. I wanted to say to you something. Nice. And after that, I'll say many other things. That's kind of the format of the show. I say things to you. Don't give too much away.

Yeah, that's the formula right there. No, but I'm stalling right now as I try to remember the thing I wanted to say. Oh, Bregman. Bregman. Yeah. Breggman. What about him? Since that two-run home or sorry I sneezed during that burn.

Since last year's postseason. Right. You, on talking Yanks and now talking baseball and me, have marveled at Breggman's defense at third and how jealous we were that the Astros have that and how envious because it is such a fucking game changer. And the Yankees got Gio Rochella, who's top two. defensively third baseman can really do some wizardly stuff. Braggman is, but, but Geo does make like the innocent error every now and then

Bregman is like as solid as they come at third and he makes the craziest place. And it, it's brutal for him because he was having a bad series offensively. We, we Mark, note talked about it, how like he was taking a lot of walks, he wasn't getting a lot of hits. There was not a lot of extra base hits at all. So he finally comes through with the home run, um, crushes. that changeout from Strasbourg. Pimped it. I loved the Pimp job. I like Bregman. I like his

Fores thing. You know, I, Bregman is like Juan Soto to me. People hate them because they are so comfortable being themselves and playing the bad guy a little bit when they have to. So I like those guys. Yeah, that's a good call. Bregman's very much in his own skin. Like he's, this is who he would be if you saw him at a bar shooting pool, he'd be the same dude. That's, that's what I like about guys. Like, you're like, yeah. So anyway. when he hits that home run, I feel good for him because I'm like, okay, that's a monkey off his back. But now the storyline is the errors in that inning.

And the second one was a great stop. He should have ate the throw. Yeah. But it was just interesting that he finally came through offensively, and then the tables like the seesaw effect, like, well, this is what you get. So, but six sport. It's a six, but that's what it comes down to. It's one of the most solid, best, flashiest third baseman.

And that's, it's where I started. I mean, that, you know, the ball ended up in his glove kind of on that first play. It was basically a snow cone. Like, a most third baseman want to get there. It's like Bregman, Aronado Chapman. That's the other thing. Yeah. That's where that one inch is a different.

If that ball is one inch closer, I think it's in the pocket of his glove. He throws a second for the force out. If that ball is one inch further away, it probably goes past him and you're like, oh, look at the effort by Bregman. But he basically snow cones, it can't get it. That inning starts to unravel. And that's why he ends up forcing the throw later, because you're just trying to do anything to get off the field. And then if I remember correctly, if it was either that inning or the next inning, there was another, like, swinging bunt that he actually made a nice play on to end the inning. I think it was the same one.

And it's just like, man, if. If you don't think there's something as real as the baseball gods, you know, finding you when they want to, look at that inning. And I also want to note that if Bregman makes both of those plays, they're a spectacular place. We're like, holy shit, Bregman did it again. So it's hard to, like, blame him. You know what I mean?

It's hard to be like Bregman lost the inning because he didn't. They would have been in crazy plays. But Bregman usually makes those. Or not the second one. He usually, the second one, he should have eight. Yeah, I mean, he was trying to make up for one there. But, no, brutal. And, man, you know what the part that sucks the most for me with the Bregman plays?

Because that is going to be a big focus today, you know, Breggman. Well, A, Col Verlander getting beat back to back. That hasn't happened this season. But what's going to get overlooked so much, and they were trying to like bring it back in, but there's too many good storylines around it. Fucking Kurt Suzuki, dude. Kurt Suzuki tied 2-2 game.

It's been locked up that way since the first inning, and he catches a Verlanner high home run. He's got great numbers versus Verlander. Did you... Sorry. I was just going to say he's part of this storyline of falling in love with that we've talked about some of the old national guys. and you know this is something I do on baseball reference anyways,

but I mean, when you start thinking about some of the paths that these guys have been on and just written off and like Kurt Suzuki's first MLB season was 2007 on the A's, their DH that year was Mike Piazza. Like, it's insane. It's insane. Kurt Suzuki hits that home run that in theory, if the wheels don't fall off and if the Nationals bullpen would have held,

which, God, that was going to be so exciting. Rodney coming into that game. But the Nats took all the fun out of it and Bregman. How old is Ascrabbs? Ascrabbs, if I had to guess. He's a guy that feels and looks older than he is. I'd guess he's like 33. Crush it. He is 33.

One point Jake. Nice. So 33-year-old had three RBIs, 30-year-old had two RBIs, and Rendon's, what, 28? 29. 29, yeah. That's not that young. No.

They're an old team, and it's pretty cool that they're doing it. And Suzuki is, what, 3000? He was 23 in 2007, because that's something I know. 36. 36. I'm not good with my parents' middle's names, but I know that. What is your mom's middle name? Linda Karen.

Karen. Karen. So I go to Carol in HR. Yeah. 2 to 2. I was like, damn, this is like a repeat of the Yankees Astro series. Yankees took game one, and then it's tied at two going later into the game.

But what was Verlander's miles per hour at? Because the fastball that Suzuki hit was 94. Yeah. So I didn't know if he, I didn't know if that was like a get-me-over fastball. If he has naturally been slowing down the miles per hours as the game went on, if he was never up to full-gear-gear-lander miles-fours. When that home run hit and I was like, oh, it was 94,

I was mad at myself for not paying attention to how fast as fastball was all game. Yeah. Because, yeah, I feel like he was floating around 95. Let me see if I can... Howie Kendrick. It looks like he was a little below. Estrebel Cabrera, 94-94, Zimmerman.

I guess we didn't see him dial it up, and maybe that is part of the story, because he has been sitting kind of around 94-95, but if he still needs one, you can see him put a 97 up there. It looks like he had a 96 in the 5th, but again, like I'm very much hunting these out at this point. And yeah, it's so nuts with Baseball.

baseball because like, you know what, the Astros could turn it on with one switch and they could be that dominant Astros team that we thought we were going to see this series. Like seven games is a long time in baseball if it goes that far. Um, but I, I teased you a little bit with this, Jim, and I, I don't know if we brought this to talking baseball or if this was just on talking yanks, but there was a bad storyline with the Astros team. Never mind all the like real life bad stuff that came out. But, you know, Garrett Cole's going to be a free agent. Justin Verlander isn't the spring chicken he used to be.

I mean, we saw that road start on short rest in Tampa. We're talking about his miles per hour right now. Zach Grinky makes a lot of money, and he's old too. So there's a world where, you know, if the Astros do go down this series, it's like, okay, Cole's gone. I don't think there's even a discussion he's coming back to Houston. Verlander, I mean, is he aging? And more so is he just not Justin Verlander that's blinded us for the past two years.

And Grinky, I mean, he's good, but it's kind of Zach Grinky. Like, we haven't been scared of him this postseason. He's also getting older. Big start for him coming up. They're, I think they'll be fine. They have Springer, like their hitters are great. and they clearly are fine with paying money to go get pitching. I think they'll be in on Cole, but I don't think they land Cole, but we'll see.

But the Burlander thing's crazy, man, and it just sucks because obviously Verlander's still very good pitcher, but he's not a sure thing for the last two seasons, a sure thing. Still going to win the Cy Young and all that. But Katie Sharp had a really good tweet. I think Cole might get him. Yeah, well, I'm supposed to say one of them is still going to win it. despite this. Katie Sharp had a really good tweet that Bubac is sharing with me in the chat.

I saw yesterday, but Astros lost back-to-back games, started by Justin Verler and Garen Cole twice. April 2nd and 3rd at Texas and June 18th and 19 in Cincinnati. It never happened in Houston. So this is the first time all season, Verlander and Cole lost back-to-back games in Houston. It's crazy. It's crazy to think that it's crazy to think that that happened. I mean, really.

Like, I don't know how I was saying. Like, if you're a Houston fan, you're sitting pretty. You're sitting so pretty. Slap in the face. Alvarez gets out of his slump still. I mean, I don't know. What else? What are the other talking points here besides?

So I got. Strasbourg, we haven't mentioned him at all. We need to mention Strasbourg. Yeah, Strasbourg locks in again. The formerly known as the asterisk. Dude's one of the best postseason starting pitchers of all time. It was not a knock on Strasbourg. It was just...

It was just... He just didn't have enough games. Now he has more than enough games. He and his beard are the real deal. If you like small sample size and playoffs start stuff, Justin Verlander is now 0 and 5 in World Series starts. I hate that stuff. Yeah, it's a tight sample,

but it's what we got. For six World Series starts in Justin Verlander, it's not what you'd expect. And that's why they're... What's his like? like ERA and stuff because like winning I think it's in the five Well that's bad

Yeah So it's I mean it's a real thing It's it I mean don't get me wrong I'm one of the kings of chopping up stats And that sucks especially everything else around Verlander But I mean it's He has a 5753 ERA and 33 innings in the world series Want to know a little secret?

Sure This dude Jose Altuve Yes Is so good Yeah. I think, I mean, I've said this. I don't know if I said it on this show, I had to. He is the head of the snake for me.

Yeah. And I think he was injured last playoffs. He was playing on like a bum leg or I don't know if it was a leg. Last year. Last year as a whole, yeah. But especially in the playoffs. If he wasn't, I think they beat the Red Sox. I think he is dynamite in the playoffs.

He's so fun to watch. You had three hits yesterday, Jake. Yeah. He's so good. Yeah. He's great. And yeah, you and I think we did this on there. I mean, I think Springer, and they lose yesterday, Springer does nothing.

And he goes underrated. He had that hard hit ball that Turner picked. Oh, my God. And yeah, that's, so this spins into one of my theories. Well, A, there's so many storylines. Give us some of your notes already. Yeah, dude. I'm about to roll.

So stay with me. So A, we've got the old guys in just this old team, right? We've already done this. I have a question. Sure. Do you have like bullet pointed notes or are they long notes? Bullet points. Okay.

So can you like, once we get into the bullet points, let me know. You give me one bullet point. I'm going to respond with the drop. Okay. Okay. Okay. So this is one of the bigger overlying ones. Just all the old guys on the team.

But like Kurt Suzuki, they interviewed him after the game. Tom Verduci, which, A, if you like good comedy, watch Tom Verduci do an interview. Okay. It's the most dramatic thing you'll ever see. But so they interviewed Kurt Suzuki, and he goes, yeah, you know, we're this kind of group of older guys, you know, Los Viejos. And he looks at Tom Verducci like he just said the punchline of a hilarious joke.

And Ferducci didn't even respond. And then Kurt Suzuki goes, and yeah, we played a good game, blah, blah, blah. But it's just, like, that's part of this team, that they're kind of old guys that aren't, like, hilarious. Like, it's the whole baby shark thing. Car accident, because that joke was a car accident. Okay. They have a dad vibe to them. We said this earlier.

Like, they're having so much fun, but it's old man fun. Yeah. Like, howie-Zusuky. And Eaton doing the car thing. Doing the race car, yeah. is such like a, like, that's not cool. But it's cool because it's so uncool. Yes.

And again, I- No 20-year-old is watching that thinking like, damn, those guys are cool. Yeah, that's badass. It's dad, it's dad humor. Baby shark, all that. And he turned, I can't emphasize this enough. He looks at Verducci and he goes,

Los Viejos, and there's a pause. And Verducci's like, that's not even a joke. And Kurt Suzuki's like, okay, yeah, You're right. That's not funny at all. Okay. So that's part of the recurring old guy storyline. And part of that storyline that this is a generic one. But, you know, it's Kurt Suzuki, Howie Kendrick. Like how many teams, Fernando Rodney, how many teams passed on these guys this offseason? Because it's the new age of baseball where it's like, am I going to really sign Kurt Suzuki? Or should I just give our 24-year-old AAA catcher a shot for less money?

Like there's so much money, so much of that around baseball this year that I think that's the thing. All right. Secondary follow-up. I mentioned this when I was talking about the Yankees starting pitching after Tanaka shoved. When I talked about the nationals, we both said that like these teams are similar, but it just seemed like the Astros were better in every aspect. Like they're starting pitching. I guess that one was kind of a coin flip, but you lean Colin Verlander because they're Cole and Verlander.

And it just seems like all these guys have a little fuck you to them that are like, no, we are just as good. That Soto dude is the most special dude on the field. Rendon, he's not a fake MVP. He's just his own guy. And Trey Turner's just as good. And Adam Eat and an angry guy. So I think there's that.

Okay. That one is going to be thunder, a storm of anger. Okay. Yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Really throwing you at these, huh? Yeah, no.

You're throwing, all right. So this one is the silliest and I think the most fun one I have. Okay. Didn't say it yet. Prepping. Anthony Rendon. Yeah. We need to talk about this fucking guy.

Yeah. A, the ice in his vein stuff is just unbelievable. How relaxed he looks is ridiculous. B, there's an Anthony Rendon day in Houston From being on Because he was on Rice and he grew up in Houston Like he's a Houston guy So he's going against like his city

And he's doing it which A, that's cool But B, this is what I think you like So I was trying to figure out Rendon Yeah I was like who is this dude? He's a monk Speaking of playing incredible defense at third base. The plays he's been making are unbelievable, never mind what he's doing with the bat. Anthony Rendon, and this ties into the Astros just being slightly better than the Nats,

Anthony Rendon is the second best player on your Little League team. Are you with me? I need more. Okay. So I feel like the second best kid on the Little League team, he's like, I don't know, he like really talented, but it almost seems like he doesn't care. And he's just like he's smooth and he's good. He's like never rushed. Like it's never like, oh, let me make that crazy play, but if I'm forced to, I'll make it.

And it just seems like he's that dude. And like almost having Soto and having Harper there for the previous years, like he likes that. Like he's there to do his thing if you want to give the attention to the other guys, but he's just calm, cool, collected at all times. And he has this look like he doesn't care, but he really does. And he's awesome. So on the outside, he's like a monk.

But on the inside, you think he's like this. Not fully, but I know you want to use that sound. Yeah, I won't poop, poo. That's just our best sound. But dude, you go up and, up. up and down the team and there's just, dude, Ryan Zimmerman, are you kidding me? Know what the look Ryan Zimmerman has on his face? That I was once the number one pick for this team.

I was the future of this team. And the look on his- First got to hit a home run in the World Series for the team. That look you see on his face of like focus and deep breathing, I think is like a young Ryan Zimmerman being like, oh, I'm going to be the future of this franchise. We're going to win titles. they're going to retire my jersey

and then that kind of passed him and now he's here and he's like holy shit like I am not blowing this like that's the look on his face and dude it's just it's everywhere Strausburg he used to be a phenom then he kind of got overlooked

and almost like disliked by baseball Scherzer this is his chance to win a world series that's the generic one Soto the most special dude in the game now it's it's unreal real. Yeah, it is.

And all of this could go to shit if the Astros turn it on for a couple games. Astros have to win game three. Yeah. Must win. Granky and a must win. Yes. You think they can? Absolutely.

Is Corbyn going? No, they're going Anabal, then Corbyn. Anibal? Anibal. I hope Anibal. Wow, Anibol versus Granky. That's kind of a fun matchup. Yeah, dude.

And that's, well, what's the top, what's the hardest pitch thrown there? Like 93, maybe? Yeah, Grinky turns one up with a big grunt. What else is there on game, too? Because maybe we kick it before. Verlander threw the ball at his own foot. And that was really funny. That was pretty wild.

Yeah. Really nice play. Really nice play. Damn, like got in the way. Verlander, the entire game didn't, he wasn't throwing like the fuck you fastballs he wasn't I never like because I he's my favorite pitcher to watch right that's not a Yankee I mean if he was he'd be my favorite pitcher to watch when on right like I still like

watching Burlander on more than watching Cole just because he just has this bravado about him right we're like I'm gonna open you up with high fastballs and then you're gonna be sitting off speed and I'm just gonna throw a fastball right down middle middle and you're not going to hit it it's like so he's my favorite pitcher to watch and i didn't ever get that feeling and astros fans are are anything you say about the astros they think you hate their team so i was excited to like show them like right no i love verlander and make some gifts but we never really got that performance it never felt like oh this is verlander's game even though he did pitch good up i mean he had six innings two earned runs and all that but

It just never felt like that for me. I mean, little things, and some people could argue this isn't a little thing, he opened up with a four-pitch walk. It's only the third time in his career he's ever done that. Well, I mean, and I say this not because I care, but because it's close to fact, they re-upped a lot of pine tar after that. You could see Therinos come out in his shin pad.

Did you see that? There was before and after. No. His shin pad was just fucking lintar. loaded up and then his chest protector was loaded up and the back of his glove was loaded up. It was like the scene in like major league where like they got like three different kinds of goops all over them. And and I don't care. I do think I don't care. I do think MLB what Trevor Bauer were saying like firmly say it's allowed and put a bit of pine tar behind the mound

just like the Rosenbag. But this limbo area where everyone's like, are they going to call them out? You know, like, is annoying. Because clearly no one cares. Right. Paxton was using it the same way Verlender was when the Yankees played. It was on their hats. But I love looking for it. And like, yeah, they geared up afterwards.

It was pretty funny. Either way, and I mean, he gives up two runs that inning. But either way, don't open up with a four-pitch walk, which I don't think he'd done since, like, 2009 or something like that. Really? Yeah. It's insane. And again, that's the other part of this.

And, you know, I'm starting to, that whole speech you heard me going a couple minutes ago was me starting to write the Nationals World Series DVD. The other side of this is the Astros. Cole loses his winning streak. Verlander and Cole hadn't been beaten back to back. You know, they had, didn't they lose a lead last game? And that was the first time they lost a two nothing plus lead. I think they were 52 and O or something like that.

If you're the Astros, they hadn't intentionally walked anyone all year, and then they walked Soto, and then that inning goes off. The Astros have a lot of stuff like caving in on them right now. I mean, it's tough times for Houston, but they're feeling what we felt a little bit. Yeah. Enough time to win, though. I mean, if you win tonight.

Absolutely. You're fine. But who are they going to go to in game four? Bullpen day? Or Kidney? Bullpen Day, peacock, bullpen. And then it would be Corbyn? And then it would be Corbyn game four, yeah.

Hard to put it any other way. Nationals are sitting pretty. Yeah, but it's, it's, and I think this is the whole mantra about how, how quickly a series can turn. So say the Astros come out, Grinky has a great performance, the offense brings it they win game three,

that game four becomes the next teeter point. Because if the Astros can find a way to win that bullpen day, which, spoiler, they did against the Yankees, now you're getting back to Cole and Verlander. So a series can turn quick. This game three, we've talked about the importance of a game three. Yeah, I mean, the Nats can drive the stake. Let's take a quick break.

I want to talk about game three a little more. All right, game three, Jake. We won't have an episode tomorrow on Friday. Enjoy your Fridays. We'll have one on Saturday morning, recapping the Friday game. Game three, it's a must win for Houston, and everyone knows that.

It is Granky versus Anni Ball. Anibal Sanchez. Anibal Sanchez had a no-hitter against the Cardinals for a long time. Two older guys again. first world series game in Washington, D.C. ever. I expect a good turnout and a fun crowd. I'm excited about that. We'll see.

The Nationals fans, they emote hard. We've learned that. They're either like the most miserable crowd or so into it. There's very much in between, which is cool. Yeah, they interviewed Dave Martinez after the game. Scott Van Pelt did. And like Dave Martinez, it wasn't a corny, Scott Van Pelt, because he's from, like, the D.C. area. He's a fan of a lot of those teams.

And he was like, Scott Van Pelt's like, man, that city's going nuts. Like, you know, it's not a joke. Like, the wild card game was intense. That the clinching game was intense. He's like, what do you think the environment's going to be like for game three in the Capitol? And Dave Martinez got like genuinely emotional. He was like, yo, these people have been going crazy. I mean, he ended up saying the generic stuff that you expect a manager to say.

But yeah, man, that place is going to be nuts. Like, there's a chance. I mean, Houston could roll. By the way, Annabal Sanchez's rookie year, 2006, Florida Marlins. Who was his manager on that team, Jim? Joe Gerrari. Joe Girardi, who just made the news recently. one manager of the year that year

It's a Not in 06 They had a losing record But I think after that Didn't he only manage the Marlins for one season He took 2007 off Went to the Yes network Then 2008

He was the Yankees manager But yeah He didn't win the manager The year that year though I thought he did Well now I got to click that but yeah Anabal Sanchez and Grinky

two two just old like I don't know it's kind of it'll be interesting to see Zach Grinky's first year was in 2004 holy smokes

yes he won manager of the year in 2006 he only managed him on this for one year it was that year and it was a big deal because he won manager of the year and then didn't come back because he didn't like management and they brought in Jack Buchan How did he win manager of the year?

Because I think the Marlins were trying to lose And he was good And he was fired after the season. George Rory won manager of the year in 2016 Then was let go He was one game away from the World Series in 2017 And then was let go Tough times.

Damn Good luck, Phillies I think it'll be a good fit out there Good God. Should be the Girardi course. He'll come in, he'll be good, and then he'll wear the players out three, four years,

and I'll move on. Yeah. Y'all, you know, he's got a Topper, Rob Thompson, as his bench coach. So that's like nice. Topper. Where are you at with Grinky? Well, Grinky has seen the Nationals,

which is kind of interesting, right? Because he was in the National League for a while. So I was trying to see if he saw him this year. And let me see. Let me see if you faced them this year. I'm not really that down on Granky. Yeah, he had one start against them. 7.1 innings pitched.

Two hits, zero earned runs. Damn, back on June 13th. Nationals lineup was Trey Turner, Adam Eaton, Rendon, Soto, Suzuki, Parra, Dozer, Roblese. Not bad. I mean, you got a lot guys there. Yeah. That's pretty cool.

Trying to see if anyone's good numbers versus him. And Suzuki does. Ask Crabs does. Rendon. Wow. One for 12. Ooh. We also got Granky hitting.

Right. Which is fun. I actually, I have like, some faith in Granky here. Is there, is there a discussion that, like if this was talking Stroes, I feel like Yorden Alvarez would be a talking point. You can't, you don't start him in the field, right?

You still roll with Guriel and then you bring him in to pinch hit at some point. Yeah. Yeah, you have to. Granky's career batting average is 225. Got a career 600 OPS, nine home runs. Not bad.

He had three home... What? Grinky hit three home runs in this season. It's a beast. That's pretty cool. Do you think Zach Grinky still remembers anything Jason Grimsley taught him from that 04 Royals team he was on? No, I do not. I don't think he remembers Jason Grimsley at all.

I think he made a cognitive effort to never remember Jason Grimsley. Joe Randa had the second highest war on that team, the Joker. So there's some 2019 themes. One of the home runs Granky hit was off of Adam Warren. Bomber. No, I think the question here is, with Bullpen Day being the Astro strategy in game four, and with these being must wins, right?

How many at bats do they let Granky get because they need him to eat innings to save some bullpen for game four. So if it's close in the fifth inning and the pitching spot comes up with some men on base, do they pinch hit Granky to try and drive those in with Alvarez? And then you have to use four innings of bullpen when that's kind of your strategy for the next day. So how long does Granky last in this game and how many at bats does he get and all that shit is kind of going to be interesting to me? Yeah, that will be interesting to watch. And for the Astros, I, I think something they have going in their favor because they're known as this analytical team

is that I don't know if you saw the Hinch interview after the game, but he basically answered it very Houston analytically and Hinchly, if you will. He was just like, yeah, I mean, the game happened. He basically looked at it as like a probability and statistics program. He's like, yeah, you know, they're a good team. They played their game. We played our game. We have to go to Houston and win.

And, yeah, it'll be interesting to see, you know, what rumors come from that Houston flight. If the team was really focused, if they stayed loose, if someone gave a speech. They had a players-only meeting. Do you know that? Oh, yeah. Verlander and Altuvae let it.

And according to someone, they said everything that needed to be said, which I'm sure was, we're a good team. This is nothing. We just got to start blah, blah, and blah. Don't lose faith. Let's go get him. Did you see when I threw the ball at my leg?

Zach Grinky was talking about, you know, him and Benito San Diego's relationship from the 04 royal season. Oh, he's a big Benito fan. Like they have... Nobody bring up Jason Grimsley. Yeah, yeah. No, him and Benito, they have like one story together. Like, yeah, me and Benito, we went to the 7-11 ones. We saw some shit.

I like that. That's all. That's all. They never hung out again, but, like, one time. It was like, oh. Tony Graffinino was on that team. No, but nobody fucking liked Tony Graffinito, Jake. Everyone like Tony Graffinino.

Are you kidding me? Yeah, that's probably true. Where are you at with this series? Like, do you think the Nats are going to win? Yes, I do. Is that a dumb question? Um, I mean, come on. Yeah, I think the Nats are going to win the series.

Yeah, it's just funny to say. They took a Verlander game, they took a Cole game. You know, we all, you and I thought, you were very much thought that Astros would win this series. I was like, I think it's going to be a close series. I think the games are going to be close, but I think the Astros win it. National stun the world. Nationals fans had faith. Nats here.

And right now they've won me over. Sure. I'll flip flop in the breeze. If the Astros win the next two, you might get a different answer. I don't give a fuck. Yeah. And that's what you and I laugh because, you know, it's not a prediction game. Because this game will, this game will chew you out and spit you out pretty quick.

Anabal Sanchez almost threw a no-hitter last round. And, but yeah, I mean, the Astros, game three is a must win. That's pretty obvious. That's not hot takey. But I'll tell you what, if they do win game three, the pressure goes right back to the Nationals, which is insane. Yeah, I wanted to disagree with you, but yeah, if they win game three, and then they're bullpen dang, game four, and the Nats have Corbyn,

the pressure's on the Nationals to win game four. Like, you have to win. Yeah. Yeah, interesting. All right, do you have anything else to say? Do you want to tell people about your glasses? I don't think so. You opened up the show with that, oddly enough.

Did you have a good day yesterday? We had a day off. Love, love to my Nats fans. I was Knicks' day yesterday, man. Nick's opening night. Oh, yeah, if you're a Knicks fan, go listen to Talking Nix. They lost, a real shocker. They actually played a good game for a little bit.

And then they, in the fourth quarter, they let the Spurs go on a 14-0 run. Well, that's bad. Bad strategy by them. No, I'm good. I want to love to the Nats, man. I love what's going on there. I know I was tough on them. Houston was rolling.

But yeah, the Nats are fun, man. There's good vibe. Lindsay Adler, who covers the Yankees for the Athletic, she was watching the game with her grandparents, and she said something kind of silly, and then someone replied and was like, who are they rooting for? And she goes, well, they're Giants fans,

but Grandma loves the vibe of this Nats team. And I was like, yeah. A bunch of dad jokes. Yeah, absolutely. The Nats are not... Do you think MLB is upset because the Nats aren't catering to the young audience? That image of Strasbourg being hugged by Sanchez and Para

and he's kind of got the classic like, man, I don't really love hugs, but I'm loving this. Yeah, and then Scherzer came in at the end. Yeah. And everyone was having a blast. He's a weirdo, man. He's grade A weirdo. Do you see him running?

outside the stadium before the game. Yeah, do you just see when they show him in the dug-on? He's just like staring. He's an interesting fella. He's a weirdo. I like him. I like him. Big fan.

Good. All right. I'm rooting for the Astros game three. Series-wise, it would be cool. It's either that or Nats just dump truck them. Nah, I don't want that. I want a series. But you're right.

Watch Verlander and Cole get a second shot. Yeah. Cole was looking sad in the dead night yesterday. Yeah. Dude, he hasn't lost since May. Yeah. Me neither, if we're being, like, real honest. Yeah, that's fair.

I haven't lost since, like, I don't know, a long time. Are we counting your softball games? That's what I was going back to. And that's like 2017. Yeah. So, and that was pretty good. Because you were on the bump for a lot of those, too. Oh, yeah.

I was on the bump, yeah. They'd shoot the middle. I fucking dare you. Make a hell of a play. I would love if you tried to shoot the middle right now. Yeah. Old guy shoots the middle. I'll fucking pick it off, throw him.

I was like, so sorry, so sorry. I'm like, oh, I fucking, I loved it. Shoot the middle again. He loved it. Yeah. That ends the show. Thanks for hanging out with us. We'll be back Saturday morning to recap game three and preview game four.

And Jake is going to, you'll see.