Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 47 | Astros Take Game 3 in DC

Episode Date: October 26, 2019

Astros Take Game 3 in DC. 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 Astros go to Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and they beat the Nationals. Road teams win. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to another episode of talking to baseball. We are through three games of the World Series of Major League Baseball, and we have a series. It could have went up three to nothing, and it would have been the ball. bit of a bummer, but it's two to one, and now anything can happen. The Astros come away with the victory like I thought they would.

Annie Ball versus Granky was kind of what we expected it to be in a way, I think. This episode's brought to you by our most recent Patreon supporters. Derek Stevens. Stephen Derricks. The odds of that are insane. Yeah. Be meeker. Hunter Hawkins. Wow.

Sounds like a stranger things thing. Hawkins Lab, hunters in the woods. Wow. Season 4, I think it might be that. Chance Broussard. Aaron Abling. Benjamin Reed. David Phillipich. That's cool.

Jeremy R. Lemron. Nelson Escobar. Nate Buchholz. Buchholz. Buckel. Uni Kim and Mitch Mard. Those are most recent Patreon supporters. Patreon.com slash John Boy Media.

Thank you very much. You can watch live with us. You can win a jersey each month and some other stuff. My name's John Boy, blah, blah, blah. Jake, how you doing? I'm good. I'm getting, I've never been a news guy. Yeah.

And, you know, when they play the World Series, they played on the main channel. so the local news came on after. The leading story is man creeps out neighborhood with the drone. And it's just a reporter standing there with the drone, talking about how this guy creeped out his neighborhood. And the problem is the guy that's flying the drone, hella creepy.

Crazy creepy. Yeah, so it's more like he's just creepy? Yeah, so the neighbors were looking for something and the day he got a drone, they were like, okay, we got to be able to do something with this. Finally, we get our chance to look into this guy's life. Let's band together on this one. So that's what's going on in literally the Denver news.

They led with that. Geez. But I'm doing well, man, and I am excited. You and I... I crashed a drone onto my neighbor's house once. At our core, we are baseball fans. And we did, we wanted this to either be full out ship pumping or a series. it's essentially a full-blown series.

We're going to get at least a game five, and the best pitcher in baseball this year will be pitching for Houston in that game five, and then if they can bring it back to Houston, it'd be Verlander. So I'm excited. It's a good series. This game, you're right?

Like, if you had to, if you had to gun to your head guess a game script coming into this game, you'd be like, okay, you know, Grinky locks in pretty good. Houston gets a couple hits against Danny Ball, and it rides out from there, and that's what it was. Do you know the way to San Jose?

Calf. West. I was going to say something else, but I forgot, so I went with that. Okay. What did you say before that last thing you said? Oh, I don't know. Potential game script. We were rooting for this.

Oh, yes. There's a game five. What you said is there's going to be a game five. Yeah. How excited are you that that means we're going to get the sports equinox? The speakwinnox. Speakwinox. Are you excited about that?

No. It's very rare, Jake. No. For anyone that doesn't know what that is, it's when all four major American sports will be played on the same day. Very rare. Football Sunday. You got an MLB game. You got the NBA and you got NHL.

All playing official games that matter. Very rare. If the Astros got swept, we wouldn't have got it. Oh, my God. I got to turn off the fucking news, dude. On my news, there's a guy that just pushed a woman into a train. They just show that on the fucking news. The news is fucked up.

Update. Don't watch the news. Listen to the podcast. I was just sitting here talking to you about the sports equinox, a fun sporting event. And on my TV, it was like a lunatic in the sun. in the subway station who pushed a woman into a train. Come on, get out of here with that. You sure wasn't a commercial for that new movie coming out

with the old people that are still doing stuff? Have you seen that? The Good Liar? No, it was news. It was a crazy guy. Okay. Well, go see The Good Liar in McClellan. Oh, he's great.

Anyways, what are we talking about? How excited you are for the sports. You can finally lay that parlay one game from each major sport. Yeah, that actually is kind of fun for the gamblers. No, man, I was getting worked the first five innings just watching an incredible Knicks comeback with the World Series, never mind if you throw football and hockey on top of it. Fine. You want to hear my behind the scenes?

I had a big battle with Snyder pretzels. You know those Snyder pretzel bits that are like this one's honey mustard and onion. they are the most addicting thing in the world so I kept them in the other room I just kept walking back and forth and this is my last handful this is my last handful

until literally in good cardio literally until we started doing this podcast I was going back and forth I guess we have to talk about the game eventually this was a long ass game nationally game

a lot of substitutions a lot of pen usage right how many pitchers pitched in this game at least three five on both sides no five and six 11 pitchers got into this game and jim we saw i mean in the yankee series and and some of these other games we've seen i mean the teams doing bullpen days even some of the wild card games we've seen more pitchers used and i think they were shorter games but this one just had long at bats it felt like every at bat they'd go oh two nibble for three pitches and then it's like

Here's the 3-2 pitch. Every pitch felt like a judge at bat. Besides Rendon, he was swinging first pitch. But the Astros had really good bets. He's trying to speed things up. Yeah, he's a nice guy. Let's burn it. Let's listen to your burn.

And then we'll get into things and the talking points and the gameplay and all that. Are you excited? You got to burn? Yeah. Okay. Well, first a word from a sponsor or two. And then Jake's burn. All right, Jake.

Lay it on us. One, two, three. Burn. Game three in the nation's capital is Anabal, the Anamol Sanchez, and the Nats try to go up three games to none against Houston, who hoped Zach could be their grinky to success. Top two, like when your dog gets excited, Reddick. RBI single, 1-0-Stroes.

Next inning, Michael Scarned Brantley, his things to threat level midnight with his RBI infield single. Two nothing, Houston after three. But those pesky gnats, Victor goes Ola Depot as Robles, hits an RBI triple one-run game until retweet, RBI single by Brantley, and then Robinson Chorinos, Robinson Chorinos, says,

let's do something fun on this bachelorette party, so he takes a pole dancing class. One run, home run, off the pole. You was solid. The pen was better. Astronauts take game three to make it a two-one series. Do you know, I didn't know that the Astros was short for astronauts? I knew for a guarantee that when I said astronauts at the end of that, you were either going to tell your tale of how you found out astronauts

or be shocked that it was the astronauts. When we were doing the pregame show, it is. It is. I'm not, we're positive that Astros is short for astronauts. Yeah, if you do all the Houston sports team like the Houston Rockets. Whoa. Yeah, they're a big NASA town. And the Texans?

Well, that's, okay. Well, when we were doing the Yankees pregame show and I said, what should I put on the bottom line? And you said it should be none of the Astros, no one on Houston is an astronaut. And I was like, whoa, that's what that is? I never pieced it together, which makes me think what did I think Astros meant? And I just never thought about it as anything besides a baseball player. If words sound good, you just accept it as a team. And like Houston Astros, you're like, yeah, sure.

That was a great, yeah. And I think I feel people used to link it because they had one of the more famous AstroTurf fields. So I feel like people kind of connected that mentally. there's a couple like fake connections but yeah and NASA astronauts dude blowing my mind man you're blowing my mind sorry Ishgabah that's a word

okay that sounds good slippery slope you know it cracks me up the Philadelphia Phillies that's one of the that's one of the most funniest what should we name the hill bit should we name the sports team from Philly fucking Phillies, okay.

A lot of lazy teams. I mean, imagine if it was the New York New Yorkers. New York Mets? You know, that would be like the Texas Texans. Houston Texans, yeah. Metropolitan's. Yeah, okay. Enough of that, Jake.

I just saw someone tweeted at me and someone said in the chat that like Anibald was tipping his pitches like Glassna was, but I didn't notice that or anything. but I'm interested. No, they talked about it on the broadcast. They said that Grinky might be tipping his pitches with his grunts. You can't react to a grunt fast enough. I know, but that's what they were talking about. You can't do that. That doesn't make any sense.

Anyway, Jake, Granky allowed 10 base runners in 4 and 2 thirds, and then it didn't push anything across. Like he got out of it They didn't get any hits with runners in scoring position But he got out of it It was weird I mean he had seven hits and three walks

He allowed 10 base runners in four and two thirds I mean the difference in this game Houston went four for ten with runners in scoring position And the nationals went 0 for 10 And it's It's kind of this sick game we play as fans Where it's like oh The boys can't get it done with runners

in scoring position. It's a game of odds, numbers, probability, and statistics. You know, you're, I'm, you and I both aren't geeks. Compliments to ourselves. We're not smart.

But you have to understand there's going to be nights in baseball when you go one for 12 with runners in scoring position. There's going to be nights where you go six for eight. Tonight was one of those nights that they just couldn't get the hit that that kind of got the crowd into it. And I know as you noted, I mean, the, the Nationals best rally was Baby Shark.

Yeah, Baby Shark's awesome. Well, the Nationals had a chance to win this game on an out. And I think this is the biggest talking point. But I don't know. I didn't watch any post games and I haven't talked to anyone. So it's my biggest talking point. Okay. Annabel Sanchez, you have a runner on third base. You have one out. He's the tying run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Granky's already come out. No, no, he hasn't. But Granky's at like 80 pitches. I don't know what an eyeball,

any ball's pitch count was at. But a fly ball ties the game. Yeah. And they roll the dice and they keep Sanchez out there. And he bunt out. I won't kill him for that because I think it's to hindsight 20-20. But I think it's fair to say that if they did pinch it, you could not kill them for that either. You could be like, well, you got to try to get that run in.

Yeah, it's a hindsight's 2020, right? And also think about what you just said about Grinky. Like, they were getting a lot of action on the basis. Yeah. So at this point of the game, they were like, hey, we're getting our opportunities. You know, we're a swing away from taking the lead and taking control of this game. if they knew that the bullpen was going to come in and shut them down this hard, yeah, I think they would have pinch hit there and maybe go to Tyson Ross a little earlier,

who he looked pretty good. But yeah, I don't know. I don't think you can fully play that game with the playoffs that Anabal Sanchez has been having so far. No, I don't think you can take him out there. Okay. I don't either. The result sucks. You have to have faith that.

your team can score another run against Cranky, like we're saying, and their bullpen. And your best chances of winning are with Annabal. Keep pitching because he's better than your bullpen if you have to go four plus innings with them. So I agree with you. But I think there's a lot of people that will be saying, you know, you pinch it, get that run, and it's different.

Yeah. I mean, there's a definite argument. And I think it's in hindsight, you'd look right at it. But, you know, if they take Anabal out then, maybe the Nationals bullpen gets rocked and they end up looking like fools. Yeah. Did Granky win you over this game at all? So I've got a weird thing going on here because you'll know this and the people that have

been listening to talking baseball. He cracks me up to a degree. We saw him earlier this season. There was a crazy double play where the pitcher covered first and Grinky looked incredible. and he's like a gold glover. He's won the silver slugger for a pitcher. He's this incredible baseball player, and it's his personality,

and, you know, there's some stuff you can't joke about with it, and there's anxiety and stuff. But, like, it looks like this guy loves playing baseball, but his dream is to play baseball with nobody watching. If there could not be a person in the stands, no media, know anything, that's his dream world. And yeah, man, I like him.

I'm not a huge fan of the grunting. When you have mics that can really pick up on that, that gets old pretty quick. But no, I like Grinky. I just think he's not the Zach Grinky. He used to be. Was he grunting really loud tonight? Not too, too bad, but I don't think they have good grunt mic set up. Like when the Yankees played Grinky, it was on the trade deadline and it was a day game.

And the crowd was a little more empty. And I mean, that was intense. Yeah, I posted a video of it. Just Granky grunts. Granky won me over today. And I loved all the stuff that Soto's been doing. I love the Soto Shuffle. I think it's entertainment.

Right. I mean, two at bats, Granky bested him with some fucking gusto and balls of his own. Yeah. So the first one that I'm talking about, he and Phil Hughes tweet, like Phil Hughes tweeted this out. Soto had a 3-1 count and Granky does like a very elaborate head shake. Like no, not throwing that.

Can't throw that to him. Can't throw that to him. And it was like a fake shakeoff to make Soto think he's shaking off the fastball. Soto takes the fastball right down the middle, 3-1. And you can see Soto like kind of like nod like, oh, okay, fuck. Yeah. All right, cool. You got me.

Touche old man. Tush. And then Granky. gets him out. And then later on, uh, he throws a ball, soda does a soda shuffle, squares him up, stares him up, stares right at him. And then he comes right up and in, doesn't hit him, but knocks him back. And I was like, okay, granky for a guy who like doesn't want anything, you know, cool. Speak for yourself on the mound. So granky kind of won me over. He doesn't last long, 95 pitches. He doesn't get out of the fifth, but, uh, they lost the cold start.

they lost the Verlander start, they win the Granky start. So how about that? Yeah, I mean, I'll give him credit. I mean, his last couple starts, he's had a little bit, Ben don't break. But hey, as long as you don't break, kudos to you. And yeah, huge, huge out by James to come in the game. And he got, I think that was Zimmerman in that at bad. That was a fun one in this game.

But yeah, man, Granky did enough. Hey, kudos to this Astros bullpen. I know coming into this playoffs, especially on the American League side, and I think this is what skewed us a little bit, Jim, is that the Yankees have had an incredible bullpen. They build their team around that. That was part of their formula.

Tampa Bay, they had a crazy bullpen. That's kind of part of their formula, and that's been part of their formula, that they'll basically go to any arm any time. even Oakland when they were in the wild card they were ready to bullpen that whole game if they needed to Houston for everything else around their bullpen is so flashy there's so many good guys in that lineup they have obviously the big guns starting pitchers that the bullpen gets overlooked but their bullpen is good um you know the story about the astros bullpen coming into this series and last series

was oh they don't have a lefty it's like well you know what when joe smith's thrown like that he's pretty good. Will Harris is earning himself a lot of money coming up this free agency. And Osuna's been really good for a while now, and he's still super young. So they've got dudes, and James probably has the most armed talent of any of those guys, but it's just a matter of reeling it in. So they've got a talented bullpen, but it's compared to the other parts of their team. It's not as flashy. Joe Smith, and I think we said this on the pregame show, which wasn't posted to the podcast app, if you're listening to on the podcast app, but we did go live on YouTube before this game.

So next time we do that, I don't know, subscribe to the YouTube channel and you can check us out. I said like, we were talking about who we liked and didn't like. And we said we were pretty much indifferent on Astro's bullpen. Not that we dislike anyone, but whatever. Joe Smith, it's cool. Yeah. He was the one guy before the game. I was like, well, I like that guy.

I like what he's doing. He comes in. He's got the kind of name you like. What? He's got the kind of name you like. Basic. Fundamental. Strikes out Zimmerman, strikes out Roblese,

Goem's grounds out. Looked good. All right, Jake. Braggman. Another old guy, by the way. I don't know if a lot of people know. Joe Smith's 35 and he's been doing it well for a while. Yeah, I've been saying.

298 ERA. I've been saying the age. Braggman goes 0 for 5. The top of the order, Springer gets two hits, Altuba gets two hits. Can we? We have to go back to Bregman. Intentional walk to Brantley to get to Bregman.

That's what I was bringing up. Al-Tuve got hit by the pitch and hit his shirt and they were like, nah, I just want to hit, which I love Al-Tuve. That was awesome. And then, yeah, intentionally walking Brantley to get to Bregman and then they just get them out. It's a tough series for Bregman. Team wins. Fernando Rodney.

42 years old. Love Rodney. And I'm sorry. He takes the bullpen car. Yes, I saw that. Obviously, I saw that. I mean, that is phenomenal. That might be why he's on the Nationals.

They give pitchers the option. Would you like to run out to the mound or take the bullpen car? And I'd love to see Fernando Rodney's face. I guarantee he doesn't answer with words. He just looks at the bullpen car and they kind of are intimidated. They're like, so the car and they just walks in. If the car's not there, there's a problem. Yeah.

I've got Fernando Rodden never talking. I think he's kind of silly. But dude, I don't know. And I sent a kind of a cheeky tweet. Oh, my God, you did? Some sour grapes from Yankee season. I saved it at the end a little bit because I spun it off on baseball. But, dude, I'm trying to think of any other MVP candidate that you

would potentially walk someone for to get to them. Slumps are tough. I mean, I mean, I don't think it takes away from his regular season MVP candidate, but I get what you're saying. You're not trying to diminish what he did in the regular season. You're just saying, but it's so bizarre that he's being walked. They're walking to get to him. Yeah, and I don't want to get into a whole, like, stature thing or anything like,

that but I don't know I think like that's part of it like if I'm trying to picture some of the old great hitters that have like recent years I mean Miguel Cabreras Albert Poulosses guys like that like even if they were in a big slump you just don't walk the guy in front of them to get to them and I don't know maybe it's more so speaks to the depth of the Houston team but I don't know I don't think we've seen anything really like that damn dude Bregman's having a tough series. What if they do it again? And he doesn't come through again.

Like, what if that's the strategy now? Before they were pitching around him because Gureel and Alvarez were slumping so hard. If now they're pitching around Brantley and the people in front of him to get to him, that's like a whole cycle of shit. The old baseball shit cycle. Like they didn't give him. him anything to hit and now they're excited to give himself to hit. His approach seems off.

I don't know if you've listened to Smoltee talk during Bregman's at Bats at all. And by the way, part of my Smoltee dislike that I'm finding out is the problem is Smoltey always favors the pitcher because he's a pitcher. It comes at it from a pitcher's point of view. So when your team's about to rally, he always takes the pitcher side and you're just like, come on, dude. Like, I can't do this. Anyways, Bregman, he's talked about his approach the whole time, and he says, Bregman, until he gets two strikes, he just looks middle in.

And I don't know enough. I haven't watched the full course of Alex Bregman's regular season at bats. But call me crazy, call me maybe, that feels like a regular season approach. If you get a fastball you can handle that's on the outside. out or half for strike one or strike two, maybe go with that. Yeah, I mean, Annibal's first at bat, he went four high fastballs. And Bregman took them all, I think. Two were balls, two or strikes, two to count. Then he drops a high off speed pitch, that like floater pitch, the butterfly.

And he swings and misses. And I'm like, they just worked all up in the count to Bregman. Like what? Yeah. It was pretty off. Like he wasn't, animal, Annyball wasn't scared to throw any of those. No.

And then that's not, not to make this a rip on Bregman, because he is one of the best players in the game. But fourth inning shot down the line. And he can't pick it. And that was, I think that was my baseball. That was a tough shot.

No, it was a tough play, but I'm telling you, I mean, what do you think, like Houston fans are saying? They're probably looking at that and they're like, regular season, Bregman gets that ball, man.

I don't think so. I don't think he ever gets that ball. That was a fucking rocket. Dude, how about Juan Soto bobbling that ball in left field? Wish and he babbled it. Well, I'm sure he missing it. But dude, it added maybe one second.

Like one Mississippi, two, like that's how long it added from not getting it initially to then running and getting it. And that allows Altuvae to go to third, which then allows. allows him to score on what should have been a ground out, but they bobbled that play anyway. But if he's at second, he doesn't score,

it's so the mistakes, like even though that was one added second, Al-Tube took advantage of it, and then it's an extra run, and that ends up being the winning run in this game. And it was incredible base running by El-Tube. It was all that was on his mind. He knew he was going to round second base.

Hard. And if he was going to round second base, If Soto fielded cleanly, he was going to plant his foot and turn back to the base. If Soto bobbled it, he was going to go to third. And Soto, a tough break, and it shows just like, it's a really sick sport. The ball just hugs the wall, which it never does. So the ball is, like, hiding under the padding and just rolls past Soto. So, yeah, Al-Tupe got in there easily.

I thought there was a chance that Al-Tupe was going to try to score for a second, just because he kept his speed going, and he's a little bit of. of a sick pup. But yeah. Dude, someone found Brandon Taubman's yearbook. Did you see this? No.

Want to hear his senior quote? Brandon Taubman's been fired by the Astros for yelling at a woman who he had had tips with prior because she stands up for domestic violence and he didn't like that. His senior yearbook quote is, if you can't ignore an insult, top it. If you can't top it, laugh it off. And if you can't laugh it off,

it's probably deserved. Like that's saying like it's just bizarre that his yearbook quote is like you deserve to be insulted if you can't find humor in the insult.

What's the quote that I want anyone that looks at this that I grew up with for the rest of their life to remember me as? Nailed it, Tobs. Now that's how the whole world knows you. What a bizarre, whatever. That's just so funny that, like, someone probably had his yearbook and was like, I wonder what its quote was. And it's like, oh, my God. It's talking about how people deserve to be insulted because they, and that's what he did. Okay.

whatever that guy sucks note the worst part of this postseason is what's playing the what would this score be if we were playing with regular season balls oh why so are you convinced they're not regular season balls now oh yeah i was convinced since the yankees game i just told you i needed to see more than like three games um i mean they're clearly different it's yeah it's it's almost bizarre and yeah i mean this game there is different points where i think it would have been like three games um i mean three, two. And then, I mean, even that Turner swing in the last inning, I don't know if that goes out, but it either hits the wall or goes out regular season.

It's just, it's one of the weirdest things. And I mean, it brings out disappointment in me in baseball because it's, I can't believe that the commissioner office would stand there and say, like, oh, we have no idea what's going on. Oh, okay. Cool. I truly don't think they know. I think it's bad that they're negligent.

I believe there's a chance they don't know, but I believe that's pathetic. Yeah, it's negligent that, like, they have no idea what. It's your sport. It's the main product of the sport. But maybe this will help them get it in control the rest of the way. It's the name of the sport. Baseball. It's the baseball.

That's interesting. What comes first, the name of the sport or the name of the item? Like a basketball? was named because they played with baskets and then a ball. And baseball is because they played with bases and a ball. So I don't think the sport's named after the ball. The ball's named after the sport. I think I disagree.

Well, it's called baseball. You'd have to write it out in words, though. And I don't think it's what anyone wants to hear more so. That's an offseason episode. If hockey was named the same one, way, what would it be called? Ice net? No, it would be puck something.

Ice puck? No, it would be puck first. Baseball, that's well. Puck net. Or no. No, it'd be ice puck. Ice puck, yeah. Be ice puck.

I mean, that's what I call it anyway, so I don't really see the difference. Yeah, but okay. Well, okay. Well, okay. Anything else that we need to talk about about this game before we move on to previewing game four? We could do more Fernando Rodney.

I forgot Matt Adams was on the Nationals. He's big. How about Ross getting two innings and not looking bad for the Nationals and a losing effort? Two innings of one hit. He gave up a couple that were hit pretty hard, but he looked good

and the manager said he believed in him. And yeah, that's kind of the National story. That's going to be the whole story for tomorrow, and I know we're going to get there in a second, but the Nationals didn't use any of their big bullpen guys. And bullpen usage is one of the stories of this playoffs. Howie Kendrick got benched for Estruble Cabrera because Ascrabbs had good numbers versus Grinky, and he gets one of the bigger hits. Howie Kendrick, who Ascrabbs played for, comes in and gets a pinch hit single.

So I'm sure Talking Nats could have some debates on that if they want. Trey Turner and a big at bat Hit a ball off his balls What else? That was fun They didn't show a replay of that So that's that's ridiculous

Eaton remains a pesky fuck Going the other way with balls I like that Zimmerman had his life Flash before his eyes It was very scary I thought he was honestly hurt I was like oh shit

Like what did he snap his Do you like You know when you tweak your neck real fast And it hurts Like did that happen to him What happened? The other thing that we should know I think he was

I think he was being dramatic to try to get the crowd in it. If you look, when he gets knocked down, he's on the ground. He knocks his helmet off his head, but like very casually. Like, I think he was trying to spark the crowd a little bit. And then when he saw the manager and the trainer coming out, he's like, oh, I went too far. I thought he just didn't want anything by his head because he thought he was going to get hit in the head. And you just needed, like, his head to breathe.

Like, oh, my God, get this off me. I need to be free of things from my head. but that was funny. Reddick made a really nice play in the corner. I think the other thing we have to mention about this game that if you're a Nationals fan listening, if you're an Astros fan listening, the ump was atrocious.

Yeah. And Joe Torrey puts the best up game three. I mean, for both sides. He just, he wasn't calling that inside the lefties outside, outside and down, or inside and down to lefties, outside and down the righties spot.

And it's a pretty important spot. Yeah. Like, yeah, and you, probably one of the most throwing two spots. Anabal, Anabal goes down 2 O, in account that he could have been up 02, and that was when the Astros got some of their runs.

I'm forgetting what at bat that was. I forget, but it was when Anibald asked him, like, where is it? No, he said the best, the best pitching line you could say, is that after, if an up misses two pitches, you say, okay, where was that one? Yeah, yeah. It was the top of the fifth inning. And it was a one-one count. And he calls there's two strikes thrown in a row, two in one, three-in-one.

And I'm so tired of the, well, he has to frame the pitches better. If that's your argument, like, that shouldn't matter. And that's an argument for robot umps and an electronic strike zone. if the umpire is dependent on how the catcher catches it and not where it crosses the plate, then we're in trouble here because like we're relying on something that we shouldn't be relying on. But yeah, that changes that count from 3-1, which he eventually walked him to a strikeout. Yeah. So I don't think he was bad.

I didn't think he specifically favored one team, but I thought he was bad all around. Yeah, it wasn't great. I don't know. I think the takeaway Soto Rendon got shut down for the most part. In the top three in the Astros lineup, Springer-Altoeve-Brandley, they get on base, I mean two for four, two for five, two for four, with two walks in there. So they basically get on base at a 500 clip this game.

And the Astros bullpen shoved. Yeah. Well, that brings us actually nicely into the preview. because tomorrow is a bullpen day for the Astros. But first, let's take a quick break. All right, Jake, they used a lot of the bullpen more than they probably wanted to. Like we said, Granky didn't get past the fourth inning. They do have your kitty or kitty or whatever as the starter tomorrow.

So they've announced that. And he said, you know, we did use a lot of guys, but we're just trying to get wins. They used a lot of arms, but James only gets one out. Peacock only gets one out, and Peacock's going to be a big plan for tomorrow, I believe. Harris probably not really available tomorrow unless they need to.

Smith is available. 1.2, though, so I don't know if he's going to be part of the main player. I don't know. Smith is there. As soon as there. He pitched the most today, basically, is what I'm saying. Will Harris. We'll see.

I mean, it's a bullpen day. You know how we did this with the Yankees, Jim. Bullpen day, you start counting backwards. I mean, they're going, okay, final three Osuna, Osuna Harris Smith, and they're saying, how do we get there? And they're hoping to get three out of Erkiti? Yeah, he threw 45 pitches against the Yankees, 2.2 innings. So, yeah, you're trying to get three out of Erkiti.

you're trying to get potentially two out of peacock if he's right. James will be out there again in the wild card. They actually did a good job. They mentioned this on the broadcast. Presley, man, you got to go out there and try to give them an inning. Well, yeah, I wonder if they can do it without them. I mean, they can, but I mean, it's cutting corners. I mean, he's been bad, Jake.

Yeah. in this I mean he played one he had one outing in this world series already if he comes in that's the nat's chance he's got a 1.2-444 ops against this postseason and a 18.90 era like he's been rather bad has he pitched an inning yet he hasn't pitched a clean inning he hasn't he hasn't he hasn't he hasn't gotten three outs in one game game yet. Yeah. And he's appeared in seven games?

54.1 regular season innings to the tune of a two-three-two ERA. Six sport. Seven games, he hasn't gotten three out yet in the game. So, I mean, I don't think, I think he's exiled. I don't know if he's going to be part of the plan. I would say they go, or Kitty for three, Peacock for two. That's five. You get James for one, Smith for one.

Well, that's like their best case out of those two guys. two. Yeah, okay. So let's, so let's do let's give them four. Four innings. Okay, we give Jose Or kitty and Peacock four innings. You got James for one. That's five. You got Joe Smith for one. That's six. Harris for one. That's seven. Osuna for one. That's eight. So yeah, maybe you do, you do need either you can go Harris for two. You can go Harrison Smith for one point one and one point two. There's ways for that to do it. Harris can't go two again. He could go one, but he can't go 1.2 again. Okay.

Did he go 1.2 tonight? Yeah. So I don't know. I mean, they have Rondone out there, who I don't think they've used him when he's up, but I mean, if you need a low pressure fourth inning or something like that. And it kind of, I think what's going to be interesting tomorrow

is kind of reverse of today. We were wondering when they were going to pull Granky. through his turn in the lineup. The Astros kind of are flexible. If they need to pull the pitcher for a hitter at any time, they'll do it. That's actually a great call. They, if, I mean, it could be after like one inning and they might be like, fuck it. Hey, it's the bottom of the, or the top of the third inning, top of the second inning.

Top two and they've got bases loaded no outs. You're going to really send the pitcher. up there? I don't think so. No outs, I maybe would, but one out, I think you definitely pinch it for him. And that's, uh, and it's kind of the reverse. So for the nationals, it's when's Corbyn? Because some of these lower leverage pitchers we're talking about for Houston, that could be your best chance to score, but you're at risk of pulling Corbyn too early. So that's going to be the game of chicken for Washington. Houston, yeah, that's kind of a really fun thing. My nerdy video game, I still play out of the park baseball. There's a world where I

basically tried a simulation where if you were a National League team and like you only had your pitchers go two, three innings and you had a pinch hitter every time because you're basically you're upgrading, you're hitting, and almost you're pitching to a degree. It kind of worked. It got really tedious and I quit like I do with most things. I was interested It's a good theory You need a deep bench You need a deep bench

You need a deep bench And you need versatile arms Yeah Who do you think is going to win I think the Nats will win this A rod had a hot take He said Whoever wins tomorrow

Wins the World Series That was my take before the game You said that about this game No I said that about tomorrow's game. I said I wanted to say it about this game, but I said if Houston won today, tomorrow's game is the winner. I thought you said it about today's game. No, I said I wanted to. I thought you have Houston winning the World Series now. If they win tomorrow. Okay. Probably, I agree with that. I don't care. I don't know. I think Nationals will win tomorrow. I don't think they

lose two in a row at home. Now Corbin versus a bullpen day. A lot of stuff doesn't add up. Yeah, I don't, hey, their bullpen day didn't add up in our head versus the Yankees, and they went out and won. I mean, it's kind of getting the clutch hits, attacking early. We've seen pretty much every playoff game have a lot determined by that. And, yeah, I don't know. I mean, the pressure is on Washington, because if they don't win tomorrow's game, you got Cole and Verlander waiting.

and it's like a bizarre oh hell you just wound up in. That would be a fun event if, like, you have to face those guys again. And like, Tom. Like Cole and Verlander are just fucking itching to redeem themselves. And then they come out and just like shut them down. Like, that would be kind of cool. And hey, you know, we've talked about this Houston bad guy persona, which has been multiplied by an.

actual bad guy. We originally were talking about Houston becoming the bad guy because if you're good for long enough, just a lot of people start to dislike your team, Golden State. And I tell you what, no, it's the ultimate bad guy move looking like you're hurt and then showing up for game five with your bad dudes again saying, uh-oh, we could close this out now if we want. So I don't know. Tomorrow's going to be really exciting. And the game's at noon, which is crazy. What was that? Tomorrow's game. Make sure you're ready.

It's at noon. Noon game. The old noon World Series game on Saturday. They decided they wanted to compete with the early college football games. Got to beat somebody. That's, ooh, wow, Dave Martinez. Oh, speaking of games at 8 o'clock. Speaking of Dave Martinez, Fox making him do an interview when he's got the opposing team

has a runner on third with less than with no outs and a one run ballgame and he's managing the game yeah fox audible like what the fuck are you doing yeah no one cares about those interviews anyway i can't believe there's still a thing that seems like some trial and error type shit where they would have done it for two years and then realized oh these aren't a value i think people like them i think you don't like them do you like them yeah they're talking to the manager in the game. You don't get anything from them. Sometimes you do. Most of the time you don't, but that's like any sports interview. Yeah. So like why need to do it? When they're in between innings and they show it to you a little

delayed, I don't mind that. Making them do it while the game is being played is ridiculous. Yeah, I guess that is fair. The delay between innings shouldn't, like that's, that's fine. That's fine. You don't need to do it while there's guys on base. And you saw a buck try to get out of there. Because he probably was like, this sucks. I don't want to do this. Yeah. Yeah, that was dumb.

Don't do that. Anyway, Corbyn versus Hukiti and the bullpen day. I got the Nats winning tomorrow going up 3 to 1. Are you ruined Astros just because that's more fun? I'm rooting. Like, Astros would be more fun. I agree with that, but I just feel like. Oh, I don't know if that's necessarily true.

I think Houston winning tomorrow might be less fun. Why is that? Because I mean you still got Cole and Verlander coming with their backs against the wall. But the Astros winning tomorrow gives us a better chance of a game seven, which is the most fun. I think I disagree. I think the bad man are ready to go. Like I think depending tomorrow's result, it's either Houston in six or Nats and seven. So if the Astros win, you have Nats and seven?

No. So if the Nats win... I have Nats in seven. Okay. And if the Astros win, you think it's a six-game series? Yep. I think the bad men are ready to go. Wow.

Interesting. Kind of have to wrap my brain around it. Saw it. Saw it live. Yeah. Trying to figure it out out. Well, we'll guess we'll wait and see. All right.

Thanks for hanging out with the guy. Thanks. Be a good game, right? Be a good game. That's what we're rooting for. Thanks for hanging out with us. We appreciate it. We'll see you Sunday morning.

We'll be reviewing game four and previewing game five. Thanks for hanging out with us again. All I'm going to say for rest of my life, I guess.