Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - 49 | Gerrit Cole Shuts Down The Nats in Game 5

Episode Date: October 28, 2019

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It is talking baseball. The Astros take a three to two lead. Garrett Cole shuts him down. Joe Ross. He did his best. What's going on? Everybody, welcome back to talking baseball. Thank you for stopping in. We are close to ending our daily World Series episodes. We are potentially one game away. Scary times. No more baseball games to be played. Let's not talk about that yet. We had one played last night. The Astros beat the Nationals. They went to the Capitol, and they took three games from the home team. The nerve of them. The guts. My name's John Boy. I'm coming from New Jersey.

I got my co-os, Jake. He's in Denver. He's wearing an I-Love baseball shirt. Seen on Colorado Rockies star pitcher Tim Melville. And this episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by our most recent Patreon subscriber, supporter, whose handle is J.P.K.501, but has chosen to go by Chode Masterson. So thank you, JPEC, aka Chode Masterson, for being our one patron that's signed up yesterday. $2 a month. We appreciate the support. Thank you, Chode.

Jake, how are you? you're doing doing well jimmy yeah we're uh we're up we're up to an elimination game uh could be the end of baseball as you're saying i'm wearing my i love baseball shirt leave a review that says i love baseball just in case we have i love baseball shirts available in every team's colors shop dot john more media dot com go check them out um yeah man uh you know what what are we five and o on the road this series. I know you, you've got to be pretty stoked to use that fun fact on Yankee fans all of next year for the hubbub that goes into home field advantage. I'll use it on right now. Hey, Yankee fans, you're dumb. Go win the games. And we haven't, I think it's the first time we've seen

the first five games go to the road team since 1996, a fond year for some Yankee fans. What are you? Fucking reading the Almanac or something? Oh, sorry I prep, bro. You're over here throwing on Jorge Posada hats? This isn't Jorge Pasada. It's actually, I'm actually wearing it. It's a guy that played in the 60s. Okay, who is it then?

Let's hear their name for the fans. It's Willie Pasada. Willie Pasada also wore 20. Yes. For the Yanks, because those are Yankee colors. Well, debatable. Well, no. No, it's not.

The Washington Skylarks also wore this color. Okay, Willie Posada of the Washington Skylocks. There's no way the Buick Skylock. Yeah, man, I'm excited. Depositraction. Depositraction. My cousin Vinny, good flick out of theaters soon. sponsoring this episode.

Yeah, it's true. Okay. Make your point. Astros. Astros. They're going to win the World Series. No. Double back pedal. You don't think the Astros are going to win the World Series.

No, I think they are and the whole Astros domination thing I talked about. But I'll say this. I mean, we've been getting lost in a lot of the starting pitching matchup and talking about Cole and Verland or the bad guys waiting. I mean, just on a pitcher level, like if you had to pick one guy for, game six, would you pick Verlander or Strasbourg? Oh, Strasbourg. I picked Strasbourg over Verlander in game two.

Right. So I don't know. And, you know, maybe Max Scherzer, if they could somehow pull out game six, Scher could be there for seven. So there's still a potential fun twist of the series. But Houston's offense is now clicking on multiple levels and Washington's offense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't like that they only had four hits and two of them came from Soto?

Well, I wouldn't say I loved that. I would say, I mean, they had what, three, three runs in the homestands, something like that. I think they got outscored, uh, ah, moly, I always forget this stuff. I think it's like 207 to 3 or something like that. 207 to 3. It's looking like 19 to 3. But yeah, man, they, uh, they score 7. 13 runs in the first two, and then they score three runs in the next three.

That are Keating start. I mean, you heard everyone in the stadium saying, you're kidding me, you're kidding me. That's the one that's haunting them right now. But hey, you win the next game with Strasbourg on the mound, and then you just say, oh, well, the road team wins every game, so we're about to win the World Series. Yeah, patterns are patterns, and the road teams win games. Stop. Yeah.

Say that again for the people that didn't hear it. Patterns are patterns. Hoo. Yeah. Buried in there. Remember that one. Damn. It's good stuff.

I was going to say it's normally a baseball podcast, but it's kind of just a life podcast. Yeah, yeah. I divvy out some life advice. Thanks, Willie Posada. Yeah. Shout out. Shout out.

Did you have a burn for this game? Oh, yeah. Do you want to burn it? Do you want to wait a little bit? I mean, your call. If we want to dive into the patterns thing a little more, be interesting to see what we could get out of that. You want to talk about the boobs now or later?

Yes. Oh, wow. Yeah. Creep much? Okay. Okay. All right, we're going to go into the burns. First, a quick word from a sponsor.

Do you like drinking coffee? Try this coffee. That was the commercial. Okay. Here's another one. Ready set. Locked up at two games a piece. A big game five in D.C.

As Garrett Cole Calhoun tries to scrap his way to a W versus Mad Max. Oh, shit. Shurs are scratched. It comes to Joe Ross, the boss. Welcome to the biggest game of your life, kid. Top two, Michael Yorden Alvarez, jumpman's one to left center, gives Houston the 2-0 lead. Top 4.

Correa takes a close 02 pitch, then crushes a hanging 2-2 slider, slides it into left field seats, and now it's 4-0-0-0-3-throes. Bottom 7. This is America. Childish Bambino, Juan Soto, goes solo, hoping to light a spark for the Nats. It's 4-1, but a Yulee Guriel RBI single, followed by a George Springer. He goes all Buzz Aldrin with a moonball of his own. Cole was nasty.

The Nats highlights were a fan taking a ball off the chest and a pair of ladies showing theirs. Houston A. Nats won as Houston brings it back with a chance to win the World Series. Well, Child is Scambino, huh? Huh? Yeah. A little Glover for the boys. Donald Glover, because Juan Soto's nickname is Childish Bambo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. How old do you think Donald Glover is? 34. 36. Oh, wow. He looks good. He's in good shape, yeah, good for you. Yo, he's got a movie before he got famous.

and it's it opens up and you're like this is sucky huh like what the hell is this and then me and Brad were watching and as it goes on it's really funny I think you'd enjoy it

if I find out the name of it I'll let you know yeah let uh if you find out the name of it then let me know that's what I just said yeah but it's a pattern

okay it might be called party dudes no Sounds like my type of movie I don't know what it was called It was funny though Okay They were like solving a crime

I believe it It's so big time It sounds like you don't believe me at all Hey how about that dude who took the ball off the chest Holding the Bud Lights He's gonna get a Bud Light ad Yeah They uh Bud Light would

Tweet it at him and stuff like that on Twitter And well It kind of deserves it, man. Yeah. Double tall boys takes a home run ball off the chest and still snags it. Still made the play. That's pretty impressive. Some of you're like, well, he definitely spilled beer later on.

Like, no, he gently placed the beers on the ground, but there is some up shoot. Come on. The guy's a hero. Yeah. Taking the ball off the chest is awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's literally full Billy, not Billy Madison. uh the hockey one or yeah billy man no no happy gilmore happy gilmore

jeez yeah i'm dumb sorry willie pasada do you think uh zach campbell should change his style go no glove only cast him with his chest on multiple levels yes this guy just changed the game uh i'll let you and zach figure it out on your own okay cool we will update can't find name of the movie that Donald Glover was in at all. How about the baseball? The baseball game? Yeah.

I thought we were going to talk about the girls that flashed their boobs. Can. That was kind of wild. She's banned for life now. Did you see her Instagram? She's just a habitual boob flasher. Yeah. It's genius.

They pinned her as like the ringleader. Like on the MLB, it was like you're in trouble for exposing your And coercing others. And coercing others. Like shots fired at the second girl that flashed. Basically told her she was a mindless drone. Like you only did this because she coerced you. You have no thoughts of your own.

Yeah, I mean, maybe girl number two is actually a baseball fan. Like I think Julia Rose wanted to be banned. Oh, yeah. That was her end game. Oh, mystery team. That's the name of the movie. Mystery team. Got it.

I can now walk away from that happily. All right. Do you think that they sat in those seats all the way up until the seventh. inning? Like they were like the seventh innings when we do it. No. Okay. No. I think they went up there to flash the camera knowing they get kick out of the game. Cool. And we've finalized that conversation. Disgust. Shurser having to get scratch sucks. We were so excited for Cole versus Scherzer.

We did a whole, our whole episode yesterday was how excited we were. They were both going to empty the tank, go 120 if they needed to. It was going to be awesome. them and then I don't know I feel bad for Scherzer because no one knows what pain players are in so there's going to be assholes that think he could have to pitch through it you have to trust I don't think so I think Scherzer his reputation precedes him in the best way possible I didn't see anyone questioning him because he's the biggest psycho known in baseball I saw some people but I think they were just flippantly throwing out like pussy but I mean you have to trust him that he can't throw if he doesn't throw yeah

But I think it's bizarre. But anyone with an actual human, a human opinion or their actual face in their profile. Nobody actually questions Sirzer. And if he, if he's, like, good for game seven, like, I don't even understand how that works. But the old switcheroo, man. They knew Strasberg is going to win game six because he's the best World Series pitcher ever. So they just saved Scher for game seven. Oh, wow.

But they knew Scher wouldn't go along with it on his own. He wouldn't pull himself from. game five for game seven on his own so they sent someone in the middle of the night to beat the shit out of them okay it's a let's put that in the theory bucket yeah it's the only buckets i ever use that's what the oh that's the only buckets you ever use i'm full of them i walk around stepping in them i think yeah and we'll put this in another theory bucket that they were like hey cole's really good and might fucking beat sherser so let's punt this we'll just we'll just do the road team patterns game.

They'll burn coal in game five. We have Scherzer arrested for game seven. Yeah, we're trying to get off pattern talk is all. Oh, I didn't know. I thought the pattern was pattern talk. Scherzer's press conference, did you watch it when he was talking? I tried to watch it, but he was talking so slow that I was like, oh, my God, I can't listen to you.

I never heard Scher like talk before. I think he was sad, though, about not being able to pitch in the World Series. So it'll be interesting if he can go. game seven if there is a game seven i do like i thought it was going to be over game six for sure but now you've got this whole strasberg can beat verlander and then and then it's granky versus maybe scherzer game seven and i'm in i'm in love with that idea yeah it's it's a really fun idea it's it's tough to wrap the head around just because i mean all of washington's bats are kind of dead.

And like Houston, their lineup had thinned out, but now the depth of their lineup is going. Jordan Alvarez with the big game. Their catchers are doing things. Gueriel looks good. So that's the thing. I mean, Strausberg would have to put up, you know, we started this postseason with the asterisk.

He had a couple good playoff starts. Now he's proved that he's bona fide. Awesome. This would be some serious punctuation if in game six, he could literally shut them down and bring it to seven. Because right now, and I saw it was, well, it wasn't the anniversary of this the other day, but I saw it going around Twitter and it is really good baseball. But if Houston loses game six, I mean, their ass is in the jackpot.

Right now, the Nats ass is in the jackpot big time. Yeah. But yeah, the Nats can still flip this script with one game with their, one of the best postseason pitchers in history. So it's exciting for that. I still think we need to talk about this game. a little bit before we do. Yeah, you keep getting ahead of yourself.

I wanted to clap for AJ Hinch and the Astros. Okay. All right, hold on. Let me put my coffee cup down. Alvarez gets the start. And it proved fruitful. So good job by Alvarez for coming through when they put the trust in them. And good job for them for putting the trust in him,

give him the start because he didn't start the game before, right? And I don't think he started game three. No. So this was his first start in the National League games where he has to play the outfield. And boy, oh, boy, did it work? Yeah, he gets, and there's like a line drive that was hit right at him at one point. I wonder if Joe Ross maybe has some, well, maybe they were planning on doing it anyways, because, I mean, Scherzer is as tough as it gets,

but I wonder if Joe Ross has some tough splits. How about, hey, Joe Ross deserves a couple claps, too. That was a pretty brutal ask, huh? Yeah, and the coolest moment of the game for me was Nationals fans cheering for Joe Ross as he took the mound. Did you see that? As he was walking from bullpen to warm up and everything, they gave him a standing ovation,

which is just kind of the cool human element of being a fan where, like, you can put aside how disappointed you are with Scherzer not being able to pitch. And you might be crushed because now you're like, what the fuck? Like deep down inside Nationals fans, they didn't have faith that Joe Ross could out pitch Garrett Cole. But they knew that, hey, if he's going to,

he's going to need the fans behind him. And then they all get on their feet and clap for him. I mean, that's the wholesome part of sports that we all love. So I thought that was really cool. And then, yeah, man, two home run balls, really, two pitches. Yeah, the beauty of sports. Yeah, and I'm just back to Alvarez. It looks like Joe Ross has pretty big splits.

I don't know if it was factored in before or after Scherzer, but yeah, lefties hit 303 with an 856 OPS against Ross, where Riteys were 239. 667 OPS. So that definitely seems like it was a factor in Alvarez playing and did pay off. And yeah, man, it's tough because the Yorden Alvarez home run was a pretty good pitch. Dude just drove it to left center. And it's good for baseball in general because Yorin Alvarez was having an awful playoffs that he shows baseball why he's one of the future big names in the game.

I mean, he broke records and stuff this year. And then, yeah, I mean, the Correa one's brutal. And I don't know if we want to do the whole umpire stuff, but, you know, he throws an absolute pitchers pitch that had a 50, 50 chance of being called, depending on the catcher's reaction. And he doesn't get it. And then he hangs a pitch, two pitches later, whatever it was. And it's gone.

We still hung the pitch. So, but I... Right. Yeah, I want to be, like, delicate because Astros fans are so sensitive already. the Nationals did not lose this game because of the umpire. No, and Ryan Zimmerman did the veteran thing after the game. He goes, we didn't lose to the umpires. We lost scare coal.

Yeah. I mean, it's not no one, anyone trying to say that is wrong. That being said, Lance Parksdale put on a fucking display of immaturity and terribleness behind the plate last night. Yeah. It's a clinic of, I mean, the personality. you, for all my umpires listening, the personality you need to be an umpire is kind of a weird one. You're someone that wants to be so entrenched in the game you love, but also like hated by pretty

much everyone around it, unless you do a perfect, perfect job, which is impossible. And you kind of have to be power hungry because you have to be in control of these like celebrities. And, Yeah, I mean, Barksdale, he was letting the reactions of the players dictate the calls, and that's like worst case scenario. That's about as bad as it gets. Like if an ump just misses a call because they miss it, you say, okay, you're human. If an ump starts missing or changing calls because of players' reactions,

it's like, dude, this isn't even baseball anymore. If anyone doesn't know that, I posted it and like you can hear the ump's, say something like you're taking off on me and gome's like oh it's my fault it's my fault yeah and it's like that's just not how it should work someone replied said imagine who was i don't know who was pitching that i don't think it was ross anymore was it rainy i think it was rainy it was like you know your whole career is built up being able to get that pitch in that spot and you fucking nail it at a big moment and the um just goes nah Like, come on.

Come on. Anyway, you know who else was really stupid me, Jake? I didn't watermark that video I edited. I edited it really well. I was very happy with it. I didn't watermark it. It's got 645,000 views. And I already saw it ripped and shared on other accounts without our watermark.

It's in such a rush to get it out. But yeah, Lance Barkdale. There will be no recourse for that. The Robles one was even worse. No, they're both bad. I don't, they're both bad. Like, well, right down the middle than the Robles one. Yeah, it's, um, people say like it's getting worse.

I don't think it's getting worse. I think it's just getting highlighted how emotionally it's been. Like, can you imagine in the 60s 70s? Like, umps probably were fucking 10 times worse. Yeah. If you showed up in um, the, I mean, when we were in literally little, league, the thing was like, hey, don't show up the ump because they'll call the next pitch anywhere a strike. Like, you hear ex-players talk about that on broadcast. Like, oh man,

if you ever showed up an up like that, it didn't matter where the next pitch was. Like, imagine if Twitter was around then? And that's what it is. Everything's just amplified more because baseball started figuring out social media. You're a good example of it. That, I mean, yeah, it's just people are seeing it now. And, yeah, they need a better solution. And I don't know if it's going to be eventually challenging pitches. You know, the big robo-umps talk. They don't have robo-umps perfected yet.

So I don't know what the solution is going to be. They will have them perfected at one point. And I don't. And people love saying, you think it's easy. You go do it. I don't think it's easy. No. I think it's too.

That's the problem. I think it's impossible for a human umpire to consistently call. balls and strikes. I think it's too hard. That's the opposite. Like, I don't think any human can do it. But humans can call the calls last night. That was just Lance Barkdale being a dickhead. Right. He started making it his own game. And yeah, the, yeah, I don't know. I think the Robles one is a little more pathetic when Zimmerman walks on that pitch, but better before it. And then Cole goes four inches outside of that. And then he calls. it just because Roblese starts going down the line.

It's like, dude, nobody wants to see this. And it's, yeah, it's a problem. And that's, I had a tweet from mid-year that went fairly viral. It was just like, hey, there's going to be a call. I mean, look what we're talking about right now. So far, the talking points of this baseball game are boobs, the ball going off the Bud Lightman's chest, and the umpires. And that sucks.

And you're in Alvarez. We have talked about that, but I don't think that's, That's not the national conversation. When the national conversation talks about this baseball game, the baseball is going to come last. And Garrett Cole's performance shouldn't be last. And Jordan Alvarez shouldn't be last. Carlos Correa having the tied for the shortstop record for home runs in World Series.

George Springer having the third most home runs by a non-Yankies player in the World Series. I got stats and shit, bro. Yeah, okay, buff. We're reading your almanac, Biff, Buff. Buff, Biff. Thanks. Wow. Freudian slip.

Yeah. How about it? No, Cole doesn't deserve to be talked about. Dude only had nine strikeouts. He's a bump. Yeah, that's true. Yeah.

Strikeout 10 people, Cole. That's kind of your thing. Double-digit strikeouts. If you don't get that, everyone thinks you're a loser. It's a bad outing. Jeez. I mean, Cole's good.

Did you see, like, the curve he was throwing? Yeah. Defied gravity. Yeah. Yeah, he, like, shouldn't, it shouldn't be, you shouldn't be able to do that. He's filthy, man, and he, like, he doesn't even use those pitches a lot because his fastball's so good. They were like, yeah, he's really, he decided to go with the off speed this game. And it's like, oh, my God.

That sucks. That's what he said in his post game. His post games are pretty interesting because he's, like, kind of really honest. And he has, like, a memory of every pitch. But he said, yeah, we kind of realized, you know, that's kind of. Kind of the better game plan there is just go curb ball more. Yeah. It's like, oh, easy enough.

I think he's going to get paid pretty well. Yeah, someone said something on the broadcast. Like, he's going to set records. And it's like, obviously. Right. You know, everyone sets a record every offseason. Pretty much. That's like how it works.

Yeah, I mean, there is a lull there for a little bit. bit like after because there was a while where like the A Rod and Zito contracts were like these terrible albatrosses that teams kind of reeled it in a little bit I still think but now we're back and I still think the top free agent always sets the market like Cole's going to get more than Corbyn and Corbyn got more than the big guy before him like it's just like how kind of money works kind of but yeah he's going to get a lot of money it's really good and he's probably it's unfair the fan base that he goes to will not be kind because what cold did this season is not repeatable it's a near perfect season from start to finish the the regular season and then to do it

in the postseason i mean it might be you would have to look back through the anals of history would your favorite hobby. But I'm sure there's others that compare. But it's a near perfect season from a starting pitcher. Like if he duplicates this, that's amazing. Yeah, and it's, I mean, it becomes less about the regular season because an impressive regular season and impressive regular season, if wherever Garrett Cole goes and he's this Garrett Cole in the postseason

or the team goes on to win a world series, I think the fan base cares about that. And, you know, obviously personality and stuff ties in. But, you know, C.C. Sabathia, he signed a giant contract with the Yankees. He wins that World Series in his first year. And I don't know. He's beloved by the fan base forever. So, yeah, Garrett Cole is going to get paid paid.

And he, I don't know, he's going to be, I'm expecting him not to be necessarily regular season stats this good. But you should expect the arm talent and everything to be that special for a few more years. How about our boy Joe Smith coming in? Married or dating Allie LaForest? Did you hear that? Really? Yeah. How do you do that?

I don't know. I think they probably went on a date. And I don't know. From there, they kind of just hit it off, I guess. Good for him. Yeah. Was she covering baseball? Is that how they met?

I don't know. Oh, she got her big thing with the March Madness. I remember that's when she like came onto the scene. Everyone was like, who is this talented woman? Well, you forget that she won Miss Teen USA in 2005. I did forget that. You know what I forgot? How big a fan of you are of Miss Teen USA.

Oh, yeah. It doesn't get out of my sights. Yeah, Joe Smith, man, he's having an incredible play. playoffs. Again, another one of the old guys that we've been talking about. And there is something, so I hate and love sidewinders. Okay. Because, A, it sucks. They suck to hit against. They're kind of a nightmare and you're just like, okay, the ball's going every which way. A lot of sidewiner's don't have good control. Joe Smith's kind of been putting on a sidewiner clinic this postseason, so that's been cool.

The part I love about sidewiner's is that's, like, the dudes that love baseball the most, man. That's digging deep into the barrel of tricks. It's them, knuckleballers. It's like you are on your last baseball lifeline looking for a way to stay in the game. And Joe Smith's done it for, I don't know, 13 years now, whatever it is. So, yeah, and you saw him and Hinch have the weird baseball embrace slash stare each other in the eyes. Did you see that? I did not see that.

Sounds nice. It was intense, man. Like, it looked like it was going to be the big, like, I don't know, manager player hug. Like, dude, can you believe it? This is awesome. But Hinch just kept his arms like this on Joe Smith's shoulders. And they, like, talked for a while, almost like nose to nose. I was feeling it.

You were into it? You Hinch was like, you know, this is my second and last game part of this organization. and I want you to come to the Mets with me. Did you hear the new bombshell Mets rumor? No, I block them out. What is it? A-Rod. Who started that, Marchand?

I'm not sure. A-Rod and the Will Pons were seen out to dinner the other night. Dude, A-Rod, big fan of yours. I think you're a great baseball mind. I do not think you'd be good manager. Well, no, it just blows my mind. Can we talk for a second? I love open forum.

I'm still hunting around the internet trying to find how Alia LaForest and Joe Smith met. You're Alex Rodriguez. You're Jalo's fiancé. You're like a lifestyle person now. You show up at different events. You're doing stuff with J-Lo. You're doing A-Rod stuff. You're basically wherever you want to be when you're.

you want to be. If you're a MLB manager, you're like trapped for 80% of the year. Like no way Arod would take a managerial job. The only way would be if he's crazy enough to think he has to prove himself, which Aeron has always thought his whole life. So there is a chance because of the Arod factor. But I don't know, man. Like why? It doesn't add up. I mean, I mean, my initial reaction was a belly laugh and if it's real, I will make a bigger belly laugh. Oh my God. I mean, I don't want to say mean things about Arod because I feel like there's a possibility we can work with him in the future.

He follows us on Instagram and stuff, but like, come on. He's the biggest preparation guy in the world ever. Yeah, but he preps like how to talk. Right. It's like when Wayne Gretzky tried to manage. It's like, hey, man, you don't really understand, like, how it feels to not be the one percent of talent. Yeah. Some of us can't just go do that.

Right. It's a little difference or whatever. Smith and LaForest met in 2011 when LaForest was working with Fox 8 in Cleveland, and he was pitching on the Indians. Wow. So there you go. and he had a 50% chance of getting Huntington's disease, and they do a lot of charity work together. They're active in that community.

Yes. So now we can put that to rest. Finally. Finally. How about Turner Eaton Rendon going 0-4-11? It's not good. And Cole said, you know, the bottom of the order, his eyes light up.

He was like, God, I had that battle with Zimmerman. I know I didn't really have to attack him because I wasn't going to give in to Robles and Gomes. And it's like, yeah, shots fired, Robles and Gomes. I mean, and even look at what he did to Zimmerman with a couple of those pitches. Like, that was brutal. Yeah, and I think it's the new kind of what to watch for in the series.

A, whoever Houston's rolling out at catchers doing their job, I think that might be one of the funny things. You know, you and I have had some good conversations about catching platoons and how it kind of sucks for a baseball team if you have a catching platoon. Houston's shown an example of an awesome one right now because I think the numbers with Maldonado paired with Cole are incredible. And when both of them hit, it looks really well. So, yeah, I mean, if you're,

If you're the Nats man, this day off is more than welcome. It's almost exactly what we said after game two of the World Series like Houston. All right, you take your day off, you collect your breath, and then you go in and do your thing. The Nats are telling themselves the same thing right now. Collect your breath, move on. Go beat Verlander. Have to.

Easy as that. Easy as that. Jake, breaking news, Larry Rothschild, no longer the answer. Yankees pitching coach. Yeah. Do you think he's going to go to the Phillies? Yeah. Yes.

Hang out with Gerardy and Topper again. Who's there, Areietta? Jake Arenda is in Philadelphia. Aaron Nola. That's crazy. Yankee fans are going to rejoice. Dave Robertson. All right.

Anything else about this game? I mean, the late runs I don't really care about, again. I've said that multiple times. but it was Hudson. So actually, you know what? That's actually bad. Yeah, maybe that is something to pen in there. Like, oh, yeah, that's a, they will need him if they have the lead in the next game.

And again, unless Strausberg does something special, which he's capable of. Yeah, they got to Hudson. And again, he had him pitched in a couple of days. Doolittle gave up a hit in a walk, but he doesn't give up any runs. Rainy somewhat settled down. for them. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, Houston, yeah, I don't know. Like Springer, Correa, a lot of these guys, Altuvae's got a chance to set the playoff hit record for one playoff. Like, this Houston team is on the cusp of being viewed as a crazy special team.

And I don't know, Washington still has a little chance to play spoiler. Yeah, I mean, but what you said earlier in the show is like when Houston's got their depth thrown like maldonato reach base twice Karea had two RBIs and obviously a big hit Albrez had three hits Griel two hits Bregman didn't do anything but whatever

at Grandslam yesterday you can rest a little bit Brantley didn't have a hit but you didn't get a walk but like yeah look at that's the middle of the 6-7-8 kind of we're on base a lot and Springer so I mean they got a lot going right right now yeah And I mean, right now, I mean, Kendrick has the one hit yesterday, but he hasn't really been a threat.

Trey Turner is starting to have what looks like a brutal series. He needs to do something and quick. Robles hasn't really done anything. So, yeah, right now there's a lot of holes in the Nationals lineup and pretty much none in Houston's. All right, let's take a quick break, and then we'll talk about a little. We've already done it a lot, but this game six. Do do do do do

Do Game six, Jake Back in Houston Off day Let's the bullpen arms Rest a little bit When they did have You know

Hudson just went 1.2 Game before It allows him the rest And at Strasbourg You know I was just Kept telling myself It's Verlander

In an elimination game I think he's lost Every elimination game That he's pitched He's lost The last five starts In the World Series Anyway

But like he had to chance to eliminate the Yankees they beat him and i believe when that happens someone said verlander hasn't won a potential elimination game yet which is kind of bizarre and kind of just cherry picking a weird stat because he's still verlander but strasburg has been better than him and right that's like facts yeah i mean it's it's it's big facts i mean verlander um okay so let's do verlander career in the World Series, six starts. He's 0 and 5 with a 573 ERA. That's 33 innings pitched. And yeah, it's a small sample size. If you want to do the analytical stuff on that, blah, blah, blah. And I mean this postseason, his first start against Tampa Bay, he dominated. He was seven

innings pitched, one hit, three walks, eight strikeouts. Since then, he hasn't been full Verlander. His last four starts all in the playoffs. He's one in three, or the team is one and three, excuse me. He's 0 and 3, 23.1 innings of 5-4 ERA. So he really hasn't been the Justin Verlander that we all know. And hey, maybe if you wanted to put a Houston spin zone on this, let's say Justin Verlander has had, hey, maybe I'm not the Justin Verlander that I have been the past couple years.

You know, maybe this is his swan song, and he just fully empties the tank in what could be, you know, one of his best memories ever. On the other side of it, Strasbourg, dude, he's 47 career playoff innings, a 134 ERA, 64 strikeouts and 47 innings. He's been nothing short of dominant in the playoffs to the... I mean, it's historic at this point.

So, yeah, I mean, if you're Washington, like, you're hurting right now because you just lost three games at home and you got dominated. But it's not like you're reaching for stuff to believe in. Like, it would be shocking to no one if Steven Strasbourg goes out and pitches seven-inning shutout. Yeah, it'd be cool. Would you be shocked if the Astros put up like a seven-spot in the first inning? It's been a seven-spot, yes. Patterns, patterns, Jake. patterns.

Elimination games, big innings in the first. Yeah, you said that. You were eyeing that for the Yankees, too, and that didn't happen. Yeah, but this is National League. That pattern got broken. Well, one of the teams is for sure. That's what I'm saying. The nationals have to allow it to happen.

But one of them is not. Jake, it's a pattern. The Cardinals did it to the Braves, right? Can you let me tell you the pattern? The Cardinals did it. The Cardinals did it to the Braves. Then it got done to the Braves. The Nationals did it to the Cardinals.

Now does it get done to the Nationals? Does a fucking pattern? No. It won't. If it does, you have to eat a fucking big bug. I'm fine with that. I'm more than fine with that. That's normally the plan anyways.

And yeah, so this is a flashback to game two. Psychedelic flashback. Flashback. Both teams scored two runs in the first last time. That would be the only run Houston got in till the ninth where they hit that electric home run down 12 to 2 and they did the lights and the train and everything um but yeah i i don't know i mean not going to do my first inning spiel if you don't know i mean read a book about it eat your own bugs um they they need something out of

turn turn turn turner seemed like he was he was having a really good playoffs until this series um and rendon's been a little quiet um so yeah i mean the first First inning is going to be important. Rendon got him last time. And then if you remember, Bregman hit that change up that Strasbourg left for a home run into the Crawford boxes that kind of sparked him. So that's kind of the must-watch stuff in the first inning. You think Strasbourg opens him up first pitch change up? Have to.

Yeah. Have to. Show him you ain't scared. Buck Johnson says he's happy because it sounds like you're back on the bandwagon. Never been on the bandwagon. Never. It might be attacking the bandwagon. I might be the opposite of the bandwagon.

No, you're rooting for the nationals in game six. Big time rooting for the nationals. So are you? Yeah, I'm on the bandwagon for game six. Oh, you can't just jump on and off a bandwagon. That's exhausting. We talked about how you'd never be able to get on a bandwagon with your little legs. No, the Velcroes.

The Velcroes. My biggest thing. This is the biggest thing I need, Jim. Yeah. Better life? The Nationals, dugout, needs to be electric. They need to bring their own speakers and play Baby Shark in the dugout. You need the glasses on the guys.

You need everyone being silly. Like Dave Martinez, I saw his press conference after the game, and he kind of gave like a little bit of the tough guy coach, like, yeah, we know what we have to do and we're going to win and we're going to do it. Which, you know, you have to because you're the manager. but I don't know my my pregame Dave Martinez speech would be like yo guys we got here being having fun and being silly and being the weird old guys like that that dugout needs to be electric and you know they the part of the reason they haven't been is because they've scored

three runs over the past three games so they need something to spark them ideally earlier or maybe it's not maybe they throw Kurt Suzuki back there and he can get a big hit and make it the Suzuki World Series, but they need anything. I do like the road team just constantly winning. Game 7, just give me a game 7. That's all I've asked for. All I've asked for, people say who you want to win the World Series. I say, I'm rooting for extra innings in game 7.

Wow. Yeah. It's a bold ask. It's a big ask. It's a big ask. And I'm rooting who, so yesterday we did like, who did we want the heroes to be in game, game five. Right.

We didn't have Alvarez even as an option. Like we wanted Al-Tube to be a hero. Alvarez and Cole, but we knew Cole would do that. Yeah. Soto did have two hits, did have a home run. Who needs to come up big versus Verlander? Who came up big last game versus Verlander? That's what I was telling you.

Turner had a walk, Eaton, Singled, and then Rendon had the double that scored two. So that's how they got to him in the first. and then such a first in the game with him yeah it's that's what it's been and then Suzuki got him that was so yeah you have to play Suzuki

he's got the numbers versus Verlander so yeah big team Suzuki big team Suzuki big team Suzuki and Eaton was just slapping Verlander around he got two hits two RBI's two runs yeah that was that was the big inning

you know that was the Breggman inning ass crap He had the nice hit. All right. So now one of these pitchers better not get scratched. That's my least one. Yeah, I think we're okay on that. Well, you don't know.

I think. That's why I said that. No one can ever predict death or injuries. You can kind of predict injuries, but that feels like a wormhole for another time. Sometimes you can predict death too. Yeah. You get to a certain point.

So we'll take away that whole quote then. Okay. Erase it. Strike it. Strike that. Reverse it. I just hope we get a pitcher's duel. That's what we're rooting for in this one.

Yeah. Yeah. Tough break. To get the DH back, that's cool. So who does that help? The DH coming back into play. Helps Kendrick. He can play there, right?

And it helps now that fucking Yurdon's hot. You put Reddick back in right field for his defense and Yuron at D.H. Yep. Yeah. Helps both teams. It just adds a hitter. So that's good. Yeah, I mean, we're talking about the part of the national success.

It felt like they had the lineup depth. It felt like Robles had become a second leadoff hitter. You had Astruble Cabrera, who's been playing really well for them towards the bottom of their lineup. So if you're the nationals, that's what you're telling yourself. If you're the Astros, you're saying it big time favors us because Alvarez is back. He's going to rake. And, you know, you can have some elite defense in the outfield. And, yeah.

Yeah. All right. Routing for a game seven or the Astros to score seven plus in the first because I like patterns. Patterns. Patterns, baby, patterns. We'll be back Wednesday morning to recap game six. Thanks for hanging out with us. We'll see you then.

Goodbye. Jake, last word. Too late.