Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - MLB's Craziest Playoff Scenarios!

Episode Date: September 4, 2026

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Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball, September 4th, and the grind is here. Playoff races, show, hey, may I burn the bridges that light the way? Let's talk ball. Derek Lowe. Graham Pauley. To ground out to second. Nice game, though. Hello, and welcome to Talk in Baseball presented by Fanatics.

Sports and Casino. I am Jake Storelli. That is Trevor Plouf. Rob Choracco's producing. Dalton has assembled a sheet. I don't know. Maybe we get Quinn back in here, Wally Pipham. Here we go, Coach.

I know you're excited about some tiebreakers. I'm road-dogging it right now. The standings are- every time, I know we've been doing this for months, but every time I genuinely open up the AL standings, I'm shocked. It's like, okay, so the Blue Jays might get to defend their crown, like the Texas Rangers.

And watch out for Houston, but it's an NL Friday, coach. How are you? I'm doing great, Jake. I agree with you on the standings. It's just, Pop, I'm going to lay down some stuff later on the episode that's going to help us understand everything. I wish you'd stop talking so much crap about Dalton Feeley, my guy. Oh.

When we start our new content series of mixing energy drinks of protein shakes, Look out, dude. Look out. We're going to be stars and leave your ass behind. How about that? That's fine. I'm actually in a Dalton-Feeley area. Dalton-Feeley went to SUNY Cortland,

coaching some football, some school. And yeah, my sister lives like a town over. So I'm in a pretty, I'm in a weird Airbnb, staying with my mom and my new dad gym number two. And, but I have great news for you. I have been banged up since floor ball. I mentioned there's an intercostal rib injury. My knees are killed.

This morning was the first day I was able to do some push-ups. So little poppy's back. I'm like a dog. If I don't let the energy out, I start kind of losing it a little bit. That was huge for me. So I'm excited. I'm excited, bro. And we're here.

We're here. September 4th. Did you take the Epsom salt bath like I suggested? I did not. Oh, come on. Wasn't going to run out and get some Epsom salt. And my bath could use a cleaning that I wasn't ready for before that, especially with the rib injury.

So good news. I got the apartment cleaning appointment on the books, which is just nice to get into September, October. We're not on the schedule with that yet, Pop. Is Shohei okay? No, I don't think so. No, I mean, Dave Roberts doing interviews about it before and after. No, I don't have the regular cleaning.

My apart, it's New York City-ish, dude. They charge like way too much, but it's in the building. Like, it's their service. So I can't bring in and out. Anyways. Let's do some National League baseball. And it starts with the NL Central rivalry that is the Cubbies in the Brewers, the Craig Council.

the Aramis Ramirez Bowl. And it started out with the Cubby saying, we're not done yet. Franchise high. It's a franchise that's played a lot of games, Trep. Nine home runs in the game. Harrison, tough. But Clay Holmes has been special for them.

So you know what the Brewers did? They won the next two games by hanging up nine runs on them. And it looked like the Cubs got to Mizz and they were going to win. And could the Cubs rally? No, the Brewers take those middle two games. They end up having to salvage a set with all of Chicago sports royalty cheering on their guy, PCA. Some of the young Chicago athletes, there's a little F&F going on.

We'll talk about that. The Phillies take two out of three from Dalton's Diamondbacks. They take the first two games. Have you seen what Aaron Nola and Baby Jesus Lazzardo have done recently? They've been dominant. So has Bryce Harper four hits in that second game. The Snake Salvation. with a three-hit bullpen day out dueling the brilliant Andrew Painter,

who's had a nice month of baseball for them. Check out where the snakes are in Trev's standing. The Cardinals, what's dead may never die? The Cardinals take two out of three from the Dodgers on the road. I think they hit their over on their win total in the year, important to some. You know it was Ramon Ureus. You know it was Thomas Sejisi. The only game the Dodgers win.

It's a walk-off two-run double by Teaster getting grouchy. Mookie, get those legs going. Scoopal kind of gets hit. What is going on in L.A. right now? The Reds take two out of three from San Diego. The Padres win that first king. It's Mike King, Mike King, with the dominant outing. Bogie shows up.

But then it's Sinci the rest of the way. How's your Juan Brito? Okay, Trevi, JJ Bladay and the boys, get it done, winning two out of three from San Diego. Uh-oh. Baltimore, what is you doing, baby? The Rockies take two out of tree, including the final game where the Rocks walk it off in 11 innings, because you know it was T.J. Rumfield and Brett Sullivan, Zach Veen got involved. I can't have it, Baltimore.

Can't have. What happens if Colton Couser doesn't rob that Homer in the first game? Just felt my rib. Pirates take two out of three from the San Francisco Giants. And that's kind of obvious. What's not obvious, Logan Webvers, Paul Skeens, get ready for this pitcher's duel. It's 13 to 12 in that first game. Pirates get the win.

Giants end up winning an extras in that second game. And then the pirates take the set. Jake Mangum, mega madness. A little bunt. O'Neill Cruz is everywhere. Your final series, two games, Braves Nats. They split them. Four run Nats inning in the first,

knocks it around. And then Atlanta only allows two hits as they score nine. That's what happened in the National League. I mean, you're incredible, Bob. This is like the Blue Jays going down into Buffalo and playing in that AAA stadium, still taking care of the business. My goodness.

have the standings. You want them? Need it. Thomas a J.C. We'll start out east where Atlanta has a four-game lead over the Phillies and aren't they playing a four-game set this weekend? Uh-oh. Oh my goodness. Phillies 79 and 61, Atlanta, 83 and 57.

The Marlins, Grand Pauley's Marlins. 71 and 70s still hanging in there. We'll talk about the wild card in a bit. 67 and 75 for the Nats, 63 and 77, the third worst record in all of the National League for Jolly Olive and Jerry Blevins, New York. They've been playing good lately, though, guys.

Yeah. Nick Moribito. Nice hit. Triple down the line, double down line. Anyways, Milwaukee. An eight game lead over the Chicago Cubs, 87 and 54 for them, 79 and 62. I agree with the F or F energy in Chicago right now.

I agree with that. I lean one way. I can tell you which way. 70 and 71 for the Cardinals, 69 and 72 for the Pirates, 67 and 73 for the Cincinnati Reds and out west. 9 and a half game lead for the Dodgers. They're 83 and 57.

The Diamondback, 74 and 67, a half game up on the Padres who are 73 and 67. Giants, 58 and 83, Rockies, 54 and 86. As of today, the Phillies would have the number one spot only by half a game over the Cubs for those first two wild card spots. And the Diamondbacks right now, a half game lead over the Padres for the third and final wildcard spot. And I'll mention Miami because they're over 500. They are three games back. There's some interesting stuff going on.

We'll talk about the tiebreakers later. People. Those are the standings in the National League. This episode is sponsored by Shopify. Our merch store has grown a lot. Licensed MLB gear for teams all across the league. We got new drops. There's so many shirts.

Go check them out. And hey, Shopify has become essential for how it connects those products to our people. Google, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, the shop at. And now Chap-G-PT. That's right. So however you, operator navigate, that's how you get the product to the people. The first one where a product can be complete and purchased inside AI combo.

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Tiebreaker Trev yeah, if it were today, a little snakes, snakes, Dodgers. Snakes, uh, they're tied with the Braves right now. Do the Dodgers have the tiebreaker over the Braves? I have to look that up.

You're my tiebreaker guy. I don't. It's not the time of the show yet. The Braves have it. Remember, they swept the Dodgers last week? I'm going to tell everyone that later. Okay. Sorry, sorry for stomping on your toes. Pay me to stomp on something else.

Let's talk some N.O. Central. It's two of my favorite teams, the Milwaukee Brewers, who have been the best team in baseball, basically start to finish and maybe going back to a year and a half ago, at least regular season, a team in L.A. would remind you. They go to Chicago, and the Cubbies put it, on them. Again, when you do anything historic and it comes to the Cubs franchise history, that's pretty special. Nine home runs. Cubs hit 62 homers in August. That's an NL record for a calendar

month. So it's like, okay, these Cubbies who have turned it back on after having a weird season, remember the 10 game win streaks, the 10 game lost streaks, the Cubs have established themselves. We're wondering if they could get near Milwaukee and make it a kind of conversation. The final three games, Milwaukee kind of reminds them, no. And I, man, the Cubs jump out to a lead in that second game, three nothing. Here come the Brew Crew. The Cubs come back and knock around Mizorowski and it's like, who, we got the bad man. Guess what the Brewers answer, because that's just what they do. So the Cubs, they end up splitting four, which normally in a series, we're like, we can't get too lost in that. But these are two of the NL power,

our power teams. And the brewers, I honestly walked away more impressed with them just because, yeah, they got punched in the nose. They're doing 16 games in 16 days. And they kind of answered the bell in Chicago. Yeah, I mean, I want to say I would love to see this postseason series. And I think that it still rings true. But I agree.

I think I'm a little bit more impressed with what Milwaukee was able to do here. But again, I think come playoff time, this would be a great series. I mean, you mentioned some of the talking points. First off, yeah, Cubs just go bananas first game. That's going to happen from time to time. I guess it's never happened. So what am I saying? The nine homers.

Bregman gets three. Counsel and I agree on position players pitching. He had a quote at the end of the game. The position player stuff gets a little ridiculous at the end there. I agree. Great. I don't know what you do about it. Bregman likes it.

Three homers. That's nice for him. My guy, Bragg, he should have sent the text. I did not. You're right about getting to Mizorowski. You put up five. runs in four innings against Mizorowski you feel like hey like this is our chance to take them

down instead the Brewers bats get hot they score nine back to back games oh there's look at that bomb Andrew Vaughn just freaking lobbing it up there what is we doing baby you know I hate that but then if you're the Cubs you're like all right we were down to one

in the series we got game four who but PCA who didn't have a run driven in against the Brewers all season series goes Big Fly in his second of bat against a combo that got him his first to bat he's got his boys in the

front row which is pretty sick I'm not going to lie and that's all it took two runs there they ended up winning the game two to one so I don't know man Gosman looked great Logan Henderson looked great in that last game this is

I think now I'm not going to say it's my favorite matchup of the playoffs because I think there might be some other ones but it's up there obviously this would be electric Yeah, I just did with Jolly Olive, because he's back working again after taking a summer, a summer seesta, I guess. If I renew my vows, can I take five weeks off? We were doing best playoff matchups you want to see.

And obviously, like, any division rival kind of wins that, whether it's Yank's socks, Cubs, Brewers, you know, even Dodgers, snakes, Padres. but yeah, this one has a little extra juice going back through the past couple years if they can end up lining up. Bryce Terang, RBI squeeze bunt, what can't he do? And then, yeah, I would say for these two teams, I think the story is going to become, because these two teams are in the dance. It's how are they going to line up their pitching? Kyle Harrison, the V-Los down, and he's been getting knocked around recently, while Logan Henderson continues to shine for Milwaukee's special stuff.

And then the Cubs, man, is a really fun one that, you know, I had a Cubs fan kind of call me out the other day because they were like, who starts game one? And you got, you know, Matthew Boyd has been there with the Cubs for the past couple years and he can give you a nice outing. Gossman has kind of been the guy for Toronto and he comes over and he looks great. Clay Holmes has been the best one. and then I know Cubs fans don't want to hear me say it.

Shoda has one of the lowest heartbeats I've ever seen, and before his last start, he had been pitching really well. Now, you need the ball to stop flying out of Wrigley like it has been, if you want that. But there are going to be some interesting conversations in Chicago how they're going to line up their wild card. Are you a game two most important guy in the wild card series? Like your best starter goes game two?

I think it depends the team I'm playing. I'm interested in that. Kind of know, like for me with the Cubs, I would have to know more about how the bullpen's looking because I also know, like, Clay would be more comfortable doing that. So if I could almost have Clay in the pen for game one, and if we can win, like maybe roll him out in the seventh

and see where that gets me. But that's the thing. It's fully open board. And Craig Counsel might be a guy we talk a lot about in the coming weeks. It doesn't seem like they're going to be able to line up pitching. They're pretty much guaranteed a playoffs, but if they want to host the wild card round, I mean, they're a half game back of the Phillies right now.

So they'd have to, they're going to compete until the end of the year. So you're really not going to be able necessarily to line up your pitching the way that you want to. I would say second game goes to, if I have it on my roster, if there's like a question between two guys. It's the guy that's pitching the playoffs before. Like, I need, I need you to be able to handle that situation because you're either trying to close it out or trying to salvage the season. And I think that's

just, I mean, that's you can't put like a rookie in that situation, in my opinion. I agree. So you guys got to figure out with Cam Schittler, although he's not a rookie and he's been there and he kind of has a slow heartbeat. Yeah, easy with that. I'm just, let the record show, Trev brought that up.

And man, if you're a Chicago sports, fan PCA Caleb Busellis like the the boys are just absolutely bob it is I mean it's Chicago's version of me Claussen staff just L.A. legends no no I was going to bring it

who are your Minnesota wild guys Perisi Parisi Perisi send the text Trev what's Perisi up to? He just looks like Joe Mauer that's all he's a nice guy actually really enjoys that is Walker Jenkins

me Kyle Rudolf Harrison Smith. See, people like that, Trev. Us sports nerds who were busy watching sports while you were still playing. We like that. Christian Ponder. We were friends for like a second. Wow.

Let's do some Philly snakes because Trev, as of today, those are two playoff teams. And we're going to keep doing this dance with the Diamondbacks and the Padres. The Phillies take the first two, their story. dominant what their starting pitching has now turned into is Philly's starting pitching like we thought that before the year and now they fully arrived. I mean the best ERA in August, Andrew Painter's emergence. And then on the other side, and I'm saving Bryce Harper for later. So tread carefully, coach. And yeah, a snake's, you should have seen Dalton Feeley like ran over to my desk and was like, the Diamondbacks won a bullpen game.

It felt like he saw a lunar eclipse or some shit. He's been a Diamondbacks bullpen truth through the entire year, which is great for him. You know your team better than we know your team. That's how we say these things here. You know, there's some people out there that maybe I know their team better. Anyways, yes, this team has gone absolutely nuts. We're talking about Andrew Painter and Nola, what they've been able to do. Just go look at what the record's been through August.

I mean, this team has gotten on a heater. They're playing. They're the hottest team in baseball right now. you know, chance to sweep the dimebacks, but end up getting shut up by the bullpen. This has the Cattel Marte return, a lot of booze there. I don't know if I mentioned it on this show, or maybe it was baseball today.

I got a text from a prominent ex-player that said that we should give some grace to Cotel-Marté because he made a bad decision, but there was something big behind it. I don't know. Take that for what you will. go, Phillies go, man. They're hitting their

absolute stride. And the debacks, I don't want to spoil. I got more D-BAC stuff coming later. Really? Because at the end of the year, the set with the Padres is going to be fantastic.

Philly's rotation, I mentioned, since August 1st, a 2-8 E-R-A. So whoever touches the bump for them is basically a Cy Young 4. That, man, it's the Philly.

team we get excited about. And yeah, I got some Harper coming, so let's keep it moving. Trev, Cardinals, Dodgers, the Cardinals, do you raise your hand? Yeah, you know what? We have to mention this. I had this mark that I wanted to talk about it. Debeck's obviously, you know, holding onto a very slim lead. Corbyn Carroll has not been performing last 15 games, slash line not very good.

And like the lower back is an issue. is something that if you're a Devex fan, obviously you're watching very, very intently. Yes, yes, one of the best. We talk about it. Every all J.M. Trev, my Cardinals, Ali Marmal's Cardinals, head out to L.A., and they, DGAF. They're not going to let this season die. They go out.

They take the first two games. Your guy said, J.C., Josh Baez is new. that the Dodgers end up salvaging the set. I mean, we could be talking about something very different. And man, the show hey stuff, what I know Chris Rose is normally your press conference guy, but watching Dave Roberts talked about it was definitely a very different tone of what's going on with show hey. And again, man, I know you're worried about me stomping on tiebreaker stuff, but if one of those top three NL teams is going to end up in a three-game wild card set,

And it's the way this sport works, dude, I wouldn't want to be doing that, especially if I'm defending a potential three Pete. Yeah, I mean, the Dodgers fans will say we did it last year. And so we're ready for anything. This is a team that you can put in any scenario. And like, I understand where they are in the standings and where they've been since like the break. But again, they also went through that last year. They did not like July and August were not good for the Dodgers last year. and then they went, I believe it was 15 and 10 in September.

They had to go to the wild card and everything turned out fine. So this is almost mirroring last year. Now, the only difference is, yeah, we're talking about a Shohei injury right now where he has not been himself at the plate. He's not been able to pitch. And so that's, first of all, snaps for PCA. You just, I mean, you won the MVP. The only way he wasn't going to is if, is Shohei had a bangor,

of a September and it doesn't seem like that's going to happen. So our good friend, Pete Crowe Armstrong, who, you know, check their receipt people. Whose USA jersey did I buy before the year for WBC? It's PCA. Don't be telling me I'm not rooting for this guy. I hate the internet sometimes. Sorry.

They need to get showay healthy. I don't know if we see show hay pitch anymore, bro. Like that's a serious conversation. Now, it's his lead, it's his plant leg. It says left leg. So, like, if you're talking, do you want a 50% hitter and pitcher, or do you want 100% DH? I think you just picked the 100% DH with what you have in the rotation without

Shohei. Now, do you want him to do both? Sure, but I don't think, I don't know, man. The way they're talking about this injury, I don't know if it's going to be possible come October. It's very interesting. I agree with you on the start. I think you need to make sure Shohei the hit.

hitter is ready to go. And it's where we also get a little unfair, because, again, I don't know how banged up he is. I know he is banged up, but like, it's also baseball that literally every hitter will go through ups and downs that it's tough to say sometimes with him. But yeah, the Dodgers are playing for more that his health does have to become a priority. And you can also, again, their depth, if you do have to IL him, well, it's not like they're guaranteed to lose. Like they still got enough guys on that.

Will Smith just came back who is kind of the default best catcher in baseball they've just been without. So I think that is going to be the biggest conversation in Dodgerland because, yeah, they have Yamamoto. They have Scoobel who gives up a career high 10 hits all singles. I'm certain. Singles might be back coach, Trev. I know that sounds really dumb.

singles might be back in baseball. And yeah, all of that while juggling, I would really, I don't care that I'm the Dodgers. I don't care that we beat the Reds in a wild card set last year. I'm trying to dodge that wild card, man, because baseball's a silly sport. They played the Reds in the Wild Card last year. I'd block that for my memory.

Okay. So did the Reds. Singles are back because we figured out that, hey, if we, it's hard to hit extra, base hits. If we somehow get on first base and with the new disengagement rule and the bigger bases that are encouraging stolen bases, if we can get to second base that way, it's the same as a double. And then I got a fast guy on second base that can score on a base hit. Wow.

And why do we want Scott? Am I the Brewers right now? Am I the baseball hops? Why do we want Scott Haddeberg, Trev? Because he gets on base. As he gets on base. Yeah. People just turn off the show. Go, go, Go cards, go. Rob, I might need you to double check this.

I think their season over under was 69 and a half, and they just won their 70th game. So matters to some might matter to none. Yeah, 70 and 71, man. On the year. Some Sejacy. Their four games back. I didn't mention them in the NL Wildcar,

but there they are. Some Sejacy coming later. Please. Reds, Pods, Trev. I think sadly this can be high and tight, although Padre fans might be okay with it. They win that first game. Fernando has another two homer game.

Ethan Salas is up, the youngest catcher in a big league game since Pudge Rodriguez, which I'll get old on everyone. If you guys don't know, you young bloods don't know, Pudge was... They don't, dude. I've asked my youth team, if you know Pudge Rodriguez, and they didn't know. They shouldn't know who he was, but he was just that,

guy, bro. Maybe, listen to Travis Scott Sikko mode. That was Pudge Rodriguez. Anyways, Casey Mies struggling. Padres struggling. Padres have lost seven of their last nine coach. Yeah, it's interesting what's going on here.

I mean, you look at this series and you, you kind of get, you don't get blanked by the Reds, but, you know, Tatease is kind of putting a lot of this out there. They score three runs. the last two games. They are an interesting team to watch, man. I feel like when I watch the Padres, I'm either watching the best team in the league

or I'm scratching my head and saying, what's going on here? Would love, you talk about a playoff matchup. I think my number one would be Dodgers, Padres. How do you feel about that? I get it. I obviously get it. It feels a little rude to like the Diamondbacks

who have won a World Series and might have Corbyn Burns back and stay in that same division. But I obviously understand why you'd say that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. Padres 1 in 5 road trip, Tampa and Sinti. Padres and Snakes have their remaining opponents

have the same winning percentage the rest of the way. Reds, you're not going to get a lot of love going forward. Nick Lodolo with his first six-inning start in a while that I don't know. Hopefully you can find some wins going into next year, but tough. Yeah. You know, this is a runners and scoring position thing in this series. Game two, they went 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

And then the Reds bullpen in game three really held them down. Hitless over the final three and two-thirds inning. So 12 straight outs to end it. Emilio in his pagan ways. What do you want from Orioles rocks, Trev? I kind of hit it through the way through this. This was a step away from being a rock pile sweep as well. we're talking about an Orioles team

supposedly competing for the AL, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, and first of all, I think we're going to go back to that Kouser catch, you know, at the end of the year and say that might have, that might have been the catch of the year. I know we got some Joe Adele stuff. You have three in that game. Is that right?

Three in that game. That's insane. But this one to walk it off is just awesome. People say you can't walk off on the road. Well, check this out. I truly consider that a walkoff, don't you? Yeah. Yeah.

No, I think that should count. Maybe when you start tracking that. And how often has that happened where, like, literally you took the ball away from a game-winning Homer? And Jake McCarthy is like, dude, I'm having my best season of my career. What are you doing? Anyways, I think, I think Rockies deserve a little bit of love here. T.J. Rumsfield, what he's been able to do. He's got to be in some sort of NL Rookie of the Year talk.

My guy, Mickey Moniac, he got on in an air. and then he hits the two-run Homer in that second game. I don't know, man. Zach Dean, pinch hit, game tying double in the ninth in that, in game three. I don't know. Rockies can be fun at sometimes. Orioles right there, right there. 19 of their last 22 games to finish off the year are teams like within the postseason

on. So get ready, birds. Giants, pirates, both kind of out of it. Pirates, just enough fight. They've won five of their last six series after coming out of the break really slowly. O'Neill Cruz is back. And since his return, he's been bawling. Nick Gonzalez, the most by most hits by a pirate's right-handed batterer since Starling Marte in 2019.

Did you know? And Mason Montgomery, we see the light bulb go off with guys. And it's a lot easier when you throw a hunch from the left side. But he's becoming a dude for them. So again, probably more of a next year story. but yeah when I saw the pirates earlier this season and everyone was like oh their bullpen stinks i'm like dude their bullpen has absolute like stuff in it they walk a lot of people and they are over the plate too much but like there is a chance that they end up like having like uh

i don't say a dominant bullpen but the stuff is there i said that a long time ago he's an example um of this i don't know if you've seen like raffaille devers overall numbers of late? Are you joking? Really good. I bring them up every episode. I don't listen to you very often when we do a show. They're online with like career numbers. And so like it's so funny when these guys sign these deals and like and people just like

maybe maybe tune me out a little bit, but he's making 30 million bucks. Started next year. It's like 33. Then it goes down to 31 at the end of his career. Like if you put up 30 and 100 every year like the way Raphael Devers does, it's like, That's kind of worth it. Like, we're not looking at this contract being like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe he's making it. Like, he's producing along the lines of those numbers. For my San Francisco Giants fans that listen that are looking to get a tweet out that bangs,

if you remember, Willie Adomas hit 30 homers last year, and it was the first Giants player to hit 30 homers since it was Bonds, right? That was the fun fact. Well, he only hit 30. So Devers is the first player to hit over 30 homers. since Barry Bonds. Fire. That's how you use words.

Fire. People. I love Devers. If they're willing to trade him, a smart team, that he can hit. Today's episode is sponsored by Gusto. Every baseball team has a front office so players can focus on the game. Gusto does that for small business owners. Gusto is an online payroll and benefit software built for small businesses.

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Get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll at gusto.com slash talking. Guso.com slash talking. Let's do some American League baseball coach. Speaking of tiebreakers, stop it, Jake. The Houston Astros and the Chicago White Sox, the two division leaders teed it up for four. And H-town, Funky Town, City where the top drop,

City with the Purple Tree. Kelsey Wingert's hometown. The Houston Astros take three out of four because you know Nelson Velasquez's fingerprints were all over it. man, if Houston gets any pitching or any outfield help, they win games. And that's what happened in that last game. Dalton Varshow and Hunter Brown showing up.

Hayden Wisniewski. They take three out of four from the Chicago White Sox in this game. Some tiebreaker stuff there. I can't talk about it, people. The Seattle Mariners took two out of three from the Boston beans. And that first one, there's magic in the air in the Commonwealth. They win in 10, the late comeback. Roman Anthony showing up in box scores.

So is the Mick, Mickey Gasper. But at Seattle, the rest of the way, Lazzaro Montez, how's your debut? Randy can't stop. And you know, Dominic Canzon saw Roman Anthony and said, watch this guy. Seattle takes two out of three. The Toronto Blue Jays very alive, very alive. Guard dogs. They win the first game because Gavin Williams is the best pitcher in baseball we don't talk about.

How's your 13 ponches for the big guy? But it's Blue Jays the rest of the way. Vladito Trev, circle this one. Three run Homer, five RBI game while Dylan C's pursues the Cy Young Award. And then they win the set on that final day, Ernie Clement, late. Twins take two out of three, 11 runs, 15. runs, but those Detroit Motor City kiddies score 11 and 12 innings. Treb's going to talk about it and be kind of excited.

Raising Mets played, and the Mets take two out of three. The second half Mets, 23 and 20 since the All-Star break. How about Robert Stock? First Major League Baseball win in seven years. I'll snap for that. Freddie Peralta with a strong raise start. And Brett Bady and Nick Morabito. Oh!

haven't seen us in the same room. They get it done in the deciding game. Yankees take two out of three from the halos. After their worst loss of the season in that first game, they come back with some late rallies. Spencer Jones causing a lot of action. Cam Schlittler, Cy Young, him and Dylan C's chasing it, and Yanks get that final game in extras.

Otherwise, we would have been mad. Rangers take two out of three from the athletics. They're still a big part of this season. man, they win the first two. DeGrom with one of his best starts of the season. Justin Fosk, you and forget you, too. Corey Seeger's back and hitting homers. Athletics win that final game.

And your last American League series, it's obviously the Miami Marlins. Not dead yet. Graham Pauley driving in runs. You heard that at the start of the show. Royals, they salvage a series in that final game because Carter Jensen is having a special young catching season. That's what happened in the American League. Did you just use your Trump voice to talk about the Blue Jays?

Uh, controversial in some circles. Hey, can I say something? Yeah, let's go. Katie Perry's boyfriend? What, back off. Why? Are you going after Katie Perry? No, I mean, I, it's none of my business.

Or American sweetheart? Is that what you're saying? Kind of, she's an American sweetheart. Get you a miracle out of here. There's so many pop stars that are Canadian, you just never know, dude. Kate McCrae, Canadian. That's true. Drake, that's true.

Canadian. Seems like she likes. Tate McCray seems to be following a lot of hockey. Do you have the standings? I do have the standings. Just don't talk about pop culture. Okay. Don't do that, okay.

Done. Out of the episodes. We'll start out east where the Tampa Bay raise. The lead is down to three, my people. They kind of have the tiebreaker. There's four games left. No, there's four games left. You guys can still get it, I believe.

I'm mentally living that way. I'm mentally living that way. Okay. 83 and 57 for the raise, the Yankees, a beautiful 80 and 60. I like round numbers like that. 76 and 65 for the Red Sox 70 and 71 for the Blue Jays in 69 and 72 for Baltimore

in the central three game lead for the White Sox at 73 and 67. That's over the Cleveland Guardian. who are an even 70 and 70. My twins, 67 and 73. Detroit, 64 and 75. And the Royals, kind of making it close down there at the bottom. 63 and 78.

Out West, of course. The inevitable Houston Astros are two games up on the Texas Rangers. They're 72 and 69. Rangers 70 and 71. The Seattle Mariners, 66 and 75. Athletics, 55 and 86. Angels, 53 and 88. although they're happy.

Cronkies there. In the wild card, your Yanks are running away with the number one spot. It seems like we're just going to get that series. I mean, what an incredible talk about a fun one. Yankees hosting the Boston

Red Sox who have the second wild card. That's going to be electric. They're five and a half games up on Cleveland, who has the third spot right now. If we went to the standings, Houston would be hosting, the Cleveland Guardians in a wild card round.

A half game back of the Guardians are the Texas Rangers and Toronto Blue Jays. One and a half games back is the Baltimore Orioles. And then yes, because I went three games in the National League. I'll go three games in the American League. And who's there? My twins.

Those are the standings in the American League. It should have been two games powered they doing. 67 and 73 twins. Thank you, Trevor. Yeah, I know everyone knows the AL-Spiel, but I feel like three days ago,

I was like, the Cleveland Guardians, watch out for them in October, and they're a half game in the playoffs right now from Texas and Toronto, two teams I like more than them. Let's talk some high-and-tight ale ball. It starts with the division leaders, and I don't want to talk tiebreakers,

but these two teams are fighting for a buy-in-all. the postseason and Houston kind of lays it on them. And I would say the two things that stood out for me, like I said, when Houston gets pitching, we've said this all here. Hayden Wisniewski is on a heater, seven innings only allowed one hit. And then Hunter Brown drags it on the mound for six, six innings himself. That, man, that's the biggest thing, because I could go into the outfield where coming into Monday they had the 29th OPS out of every outfield, only worse of the Cincinnati Reds,

which the jarring both ways. And I see Dalton Varsho out there getting a couple swings in. I don't know what it means, but this is, Trev, if you took the standings out of this, or excuse me, no, if you took the records out of this and just looked at the standings, this was a massive series. It was a huge series. I mean, look, this is called Taking Care of B. business for the Ashtros. We will get into tiebreakers later, but

this is, you know, again, you're talking about a buy into the, into the DS or, you know, a wild card set where you never know what's going to happen. A couple games, a couple good notes for the White Sox before

maybe we talked a little bit more about the Astros. Two guys who had been struggling kind of came back for them in their rotations. And that's, this both, both these teams, it's like looking in a mirror, dude. Like, I think the White Sox probably have a better lineup up and down. But Houston has obviously Yor Don and a couple guys at the top that kind of maybe balance all of that out. Starting pitching-wise, as you mentioned, like it's a mixed bag.

You don't know what you're going to get from these teams. And I do think back in the bullpen can be good for both teams. I'll give the edge to Hater and the guys in the Houston bullpen. But Sean Burke, he'd been pretty bad where his previous three starts. he has a nice start, and same with Davis Martin, who was our first half king, who's been struggling. He had a nice start for the White Sox. And a couple chances here and there in this series

for the White Sox to do more damage. But in the end, yeah, it's Houston. You know, the bats coming alive in that game four, which ended up getting them the series victory three to four. They scored all six runs on the team cycle, which is fun. Altuva had the two-run Homer in the first, and there was a

Paredes, RBI double, Varsho, two-run triple, and then Christian Walker with the RBI single in the four-run third. So, yeah, I mean, this is, again, two teams that are very, very similar. I think if you're a White Sox fan going back to the pitching, you're looking at

Luis Castillo and being like, I don't know if we want that anymore. Six earned runs in four games pitching that last game and he's given up four more runs and five of the starts, five of the six starts he's made for the White Sox. Interesting. Altuve had a home run that was a pitch over his head. It was

cool to see, man, in that final game, you're like, Houston's lineup is professional, dude. Altuve Perrez, even like Varsho and Walker, even if they're not on a heater, like those are guys that have done big seasons at the major league level that

Man, if the light bulb turns on come October, they're scary with potentially with a buy. And yet, the White Sox have now been 500 since, like, June 1st, which we're coming up on month four. Again, that's been more than enough in the American League. But, yeah, they're starting pitching questions. And they've got a Murakami situation right now. He's in the bad place. It's a 13 for 101 with 45 strikeouts. What's going on?

I'm reading some notes here about their day and night OPS for the White Sox. I was going to ask you, Coach Trembler. Are the young guys staying up gaming too late? Like, what's going on here? 29th in Majority Baseball during the day, 673 OPS, and then 760. It's fourth in all of baseball at the night. And I guess they have a bunch of these day games coming up. So like, whatever you got to do, yeah, maybe some melatonin get to bed, kids.

I don't know. Or maybe stay up later. That's always an option too. You don't always have to come. Like, hey, stay it all night. Oh, okay. Because then the next day becomes your night. Interesting.

We'll find out this weekend as the Chicago White Sox face the Minnesota Twins. Yes. Rivalry game. Heated rivalry. That's what people call this show. Mariners played the Red Sox. Mariners take two out of three. It's not enough to bring them into the postseason picture.

that first Red Sox game was insanity, the comeback, Roman Anthony. Our guy Trevor's story back in the mix, Coach Trev, that yeah, it should be jazzy and like Boston. Man, every home game, it just feels like they're going to win even if they're down 10 runs. And they almost did that in the second game. Now, last night's game didn't happen where they had a nice win over Baltimore, but I haven't seen that yet. and it's just two alphas Randy a Rosarana versus Mickey Gasper

absolutely those guys that's a fun buddy cop movie right there yeah game one was awesome that is yeah that's the Trevor Story game it's a two strike two out double and eight to cut it to one and then in extra innings Dan Wilson walks the bases loaded to face him which like a lot of people have a problem with the strategy there because it does you know you have to make your pitcher he has to be perfect.

He can't walk into me. He actually doesn't work a 3-0 count to story before he takes one, gets it to 3-2, and then finally gets another one for the game-winning hit there. So I didn't have that. The strategy to me is fine. Like you got some guys swinging the bat really well in that series. So I didn't mind it.

And then, yeah, it was all Mariners from then. Game two, they put eight earn runs on 10 hits. against Jekine Paiez, who made its first NMB-Stark because they pushed Sunny Gray back for the Red Sox. I don't know, man. Like the Mariners are still, I didn't read them, did I? No. Four and a half, yeah, they're dead.

No, the Red Sox still matter here. And Roman Anthony has been hitting another tough Roman Anthony throw, which I don't know what that's about. And then Red Sox pitching has been getting rocked. I mean, the past five games, their bullpen has a double-digit ERA, the last four games, their starters had a double-digit ERA. So I hope they can win that first game in Baltimore. You know what?

I even think they will. Anthony had a nice series. And again, that game that didn't happen last night. Little Appo taco. Yeah, nice swing. It didn't happen. Trev, another couple potential playoff teams are battling for the last spot right now. Chris Rose's guards versus Joe's McFly's, Toronto Blue Jays.

Like I mentioned, I mean, I'll use my 30 seconds for Gavin Williams appreciation. 13 strikeouts, you know, we, over the past few years, we've been, because the strikeout became so prevalent that I think this number doesn't phase us. That's, that doesn't happen. 13 strikeouts. The first Cleveland pitcher with 13 strikeouts since Sticks, Tristan McKenzie in 2022. Gavin Williams' 10th outing with 10. plus strikeouts, that's the same as Mizorowski.

So what this guy is doing is a very special season and put that into the why you wouldn't want to face the Guardians. That being said, it's Blue Jays the rest of the way and they've won five out of six, 22 and 13 since July 27th. They're in the mix. Yeah, the offense gets going in this series of Vladdy hits a homer. he said months ago early in his struggles

I'm reading this off our sheets I thought this was fun Vladdy said he wouldn't feel truly back until he could stand at the plate and watch one leave and then he did that in this so maybe is that mean he's back or is this just a one-off swing here we will see I agree with you on Gavin Williams going back to the Guardians if you haven't like sat and watched and pitch a game I would highly recommend doing it

It's bully type stuff. It's very old school to me. Like he's just a big dude. Just like, I don't know. It's what pitchers used to look like. And now, maybe that's wrong. They're all so huge.

Whenever we get around the guys again, I'm like looking at these pitchers, I can't stand it because I feel like a munchkin around these guys. And Gavin Williams will be one of them. He's absolutely filthy. What else do we got to talk about here? Oh, I want to say, In game one, this, like, I don't know how often this has ever happened for the Cleveland Guardians,

but they scored all the runs on two-run homers, and it's just so funny who it is. It's like Patrick Bailey, Anheel He Now, and Martinez in the 8th, it's like, all right, if they can just bottle that up, they're a very, very, very scary team. But yeah, Blue Jays take two or three, a couple of mischances by the guards in that last game. Toronto, man, I know we've talked a lot of Brett Bateman. There's a couple new people getting in the mix for them, along with some of the old guard. If Laddie turns it on for three weeks, like, you're not going to want to see them in October. They got to have, Toronto has the best record besides the Phillies going back to like the end of July.

I mean, they're 22 and 13 since the end of July. So go Toronto, go. Put some respect on Sean Keyes' name. My God, Toronto in a play, in a wild card. C. Soriano Scherzer. They might open with Spencer Miles, who's been fantastic for them. He's got a 288 over 84 and a third innings pitch.

He throws 100 miles an hour, so you might see that. And just to see, 19 start, streak, 7 plus strikeouts got snap this series. One game short of the MLB record, Schilling and Johnson. So, like, he's having a very special year up, North. Big news from our partners at Fanatics. Fanatics Sports and Casino is officially live.

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LLC doing business as Fanatics Markets, a CFTC registered futures commission merchant and NFA member. Event contracts carry risk of the total loss and changing prices. Not good for all investors. See app for important disclosures. Trev, a minute on what's going to. going on with your twins and tigers. Great first two games of this series where we just kind of handled business, I mean 11 to 1 and then 15 to 2. We're like, all right, this is good. Because we need, I mean, basically the twins have to like play at a 600, 650 pace

to get back in this thing. And then final game not going their way, but they end up Royce Lewis with a knock against Kenley Jansen. and then Kishaw with a big hit and extra innings, they had a runner on third base with one out with Cody Clemens up who's been their best hitter all year long and they do not get the job done.

He gets out, strikes out, I believe. Good at Bappity strikes out. And then Jeffers hits a ground ball. And then they open it up, Torkelson with the Homer, tough ball, Javi Baez gets past Royce Lewis there. So they end up winning 11 to 6, obviously a lot closer than it sounds. if they win that game, Jake,

they're two games back of a wild card. Things seem a lot different. I know it's just one game, but man, you look at the standings, you see three versus two. It's just, I don't know. Treb, the raise. I know you're getting people excited for Red Sox Yankees in the wild card. Yankee fans are really hoping that the yanks can get hot

and that the raise can slow down. And like I said, they've lost four or five in the drop, which that's a little surprising. and these second half Mets are a different team. So what else do you have? Shout out Morbito had that big knock in game three. Two outs, bases loaded.

And he ends up kind of like hitting one down the line there to kind of open the game up. He'd been 0 for 12 across his first six games. And that was over three months, which is, you're thinking about that a lot, Jake. You're thinking about I'd really like to get my knock. He ends up doing that and winning the series. And you're right, they have been a different team over the second half. They just had a miserable, miserable start. A lot of talking Metsland is, do we keep Andy Green or do we move him back into like a player development role, which is where he was?

I don't know what they end up doing. I'm not really super in tune there. Leave in the comments what you think. A lot of people mad at us for not having junior Cameroneros are starting at their basement for all GM. Fastball Freddy is back. He's got his confidence back. He's got some Velo on it. Mark that as that could be very important come October. And yeah, like I did on the way through Robert Stock. That's pretty cool. First win since April 5th, 2019. Yeah, you know, Robert sucks from my area. I don't have a lot of interaction or I don't have any interaction with him. He's from Agora. He has said some mean things I think about our company. Yeah, and I just want to, you know, I'll be the bigger man. I'm covering baseball. I like a cool baseball story, so good for him.

My yanks took two out of three from the halos. I don't, we can save Artie Moreno Stan Cronky Talk for another time. Your friend, Stan. Yeah, Yanks, so comical, dude. They win that Boston series. Yankee fans riding as high as they have maybe, and since Judge got hurt, they have their worst loss of the year, sloppy defense. They get owned by Walbert.

Who's nasty? He's like fifth in the AL and ERA. They answer. They respond in that second game where might be having a center field battle and then thank God they went in that 10th. Otherwise, Yankee fans would be running really hot. That's kind of what I have there. I saw you put out like, you know, Angels be a top three team.

I wouldn't want to see in the playoffs. And people like in the comments didn't understand like what you're saying. They're like, they're not going to be in the playoffs. The internet's not a real place. I was pretty happy with that because it was a throwaway joke on talking yanks, which, you know, talking on a podcast, you're talking for an hour, hour and a half. You're making a lot of goofs and gaffs along the way that the fact that got posted, enough people got the joke and enough people didn't get the joke that it landed in a perfect place.

I think so, too. Our social team was stoked. I was stoked. And yet, where that came from was, I think the Yankees had. have given up 10 runs seven times this year, and three of them have been the halos. So just one of those funny stats that happens in baseball. Athletic, Texas Rangers, I guess they deserve to be mentioned

because they're chasing this. A dominant de Grom start, that's always going to stand out to me after he struggled for a little bit. And a Corey Seeger Homer, because I thought about doing my annual Corey Seeger speech, because we forget how good that guy is, because the injuries sneak up on us and he goes missing sometimes. Corey Seeger's great. Brandon Nimmo's great.

He had a great game two here. He went four for five, five runs driven in, drove a run in and his first four plate appearances, which is awesome to see. Jeff McNeil in that second game hits a two-run Homer to cut the lead down. The reason I mentioned that, he seems like he should be on the Rangers. I don't know if they could like waver him or something.

I don't know why. Doesn't he seem like he should be a Texas Ranger? I see what you're saying, yeah. He doesn't fit in with the A's, although he does. He's like, unk there, but like this young A's team, and then you have Jeff McNeil. It's really funny to see. Yeah, and you write about DeGrom. He had a really bad start against the White Sox's last time out, so a nice little bounce back for him.

Yeah, the Rangers, I mean, they're obviously right there. Do you know Zeke Duran's nickname? Ooh, Rocket Man. Sick. That one's kind of taken. Yeah. The solution. Why?

Because he does everything. Ah, I like that. What position do you need me to play? I don't know. Put Zeke Duran there. He's the solution. What's up with like the Rangers win a ton at home?

Yeah. So I don't know. Can they host anything? Probably not. If they catch Houston. Oh, yeah. then they'll have the second the two seed they'd have to catch

Houston and Chicago or they'd be home for the wild card if they win the division so yes okay that'd be great for them yeah they're they coach at home and and here's of all the end ofgram with a little McKenzie Gore

and Jeff me knew who they acquired somehow on waivers stop that I do want to say first of all first guy in the scene a lot for me because I'm a ball nowhere. Jacob Lopez. Yeah.

I sat, I talked to him. I went and I know Javi Gera, who is their pitching coach now, I sat and talked to Jacob Lopez or I stood and talked to Jacob Lopez. I said, hey, bro, you're from Saugus. I'm from Castaic. What's up? We started talking about fishing at Castake Lake. Yes.

Oh, so good. 228 with 61Ks over 51 and a third in his last 10 starts. My guy, Jacob Loe. I know talent when I see it. I was the first on the scene with Cater and Lopez. It feels like the same guy. Guys got some funk. I don't know how dudes hit him.

Marlins, Royals, I'm sorry. It's August. Javier Sanoa, always, always. Let's do the second half of the show. And it starts with standout performances. It's time for standout performance. Standout. St out for

This guy stood out for Trev I am going with my guy Thomas Sigacy who had a great series Against the Dodgers On Tuesday goes two for three With two homers Three runs driven in

Three runs scored Also adds a walk In his last 14 At Bats How many hits does he have? What do you think? It's eight Eight

Eight for his last 14 And the reason I chose sin, there's a lot of guys we could have talked about on this list. A lot of guys had a great job. Henry Bolte, one of my favorite players in the biggies right now. He crushed the twins. Didn't talk about him. Why, Jake? Athletics are out of it.

No. Why did I talk about Thomas Sejacy? I told you I was going to ask you this question. Because his family was in the stands. That's a good reason, but no. And it's not because you say Sejacy like that. It's because he's got no batting gloves. I don't know why.

That's a thing, though. that's why Thomas Sejacy gets your standout. Well, he's been performing very well, but like, you know, a little separator in the standup performances. I respect the no bad goes. Could never do it. There needs to be a documentary on that. Who wears gloves and who doesn't?

Who's a sissy boy and who isn't? I was a sissy boy. Yeah, I mean, I thought there was a really nice emotional size where Sejacy says to do it in front of my dad. My dad doesn't get to go to a lot of games, so to do it in front of him, It was really cool to hit one, and then it was a blessing to hit two. But no, he doesn't wear BGs.

So great standout. Oh, my gosh. Are you, I know you're with your mom right now and your new dad, Jim. Stop being so sappy, dude. Careful. It's bad for ratings. I don't like how you said new dad, Jim. That's what you say.

It's not what you say. It's how you say it. No, love me some Thomas, say, J.C. And St. Louis Cardinals, chasing 500. Trev, I'm going, I'm going big. I'm going with your former teammate, Bryce Harper. And, you know, four for four. That'll get you a standout performance,

although one RBI, one run, whatever. 30 games since August, Bryce Harper, 363, 522, pal. That's an on-base percentage of 588 slug. That's a 1.11 OPS. leads major league baseball and on base percentage in OPS. And I was just doing a flashback. Like, yes, this Philly's pitching is kicked into gear. We traded for a rise.

We moved everyone's position. You know, the whole Philly story. Remember the Bryce Harper not elite stuff? Mm-hmm. Well, those were some elite numbers. And I zoomed out to some Jake Illetics, Trev, because sometimes we get so caught up in the stars of the game that we're looking for guys with one dot OPEC.

or OPSs in the nine. Trev of qualified hitters, there's only one guy, one dotting. You know who that is? No. It's Yordon. Okay, I could have guessed that. Yeah, you, I think, two guesses,

I think you would have had that. Next is MVP. He's in the nines, 946. There's only three other guys with an OPS above. 9-100. Like, I think sometimes we forget that, like, we're like, oh, 900, that's a, that's a star. That's a superstar.

And the guys, and one of them might drop out via injury, it's James Wood, who's got a 924. He's played 115 games. Shohei Otani, who we opened up talking about, and Bryce Harper. So if you're a guy with an above 900 OPS, your name is Harper-O-Tani-Wood PC. or Yordon. There's five cats. One of them's Harper. I mean, tough for Wilson Contreras to be left out of that group. I like that you double-checked it, and that's where I gave a shout out to my Giants fans

when you get your Devers tweet off. Wilson Contreras is sitting at 900. Okay. And that guy's a baller. Don't let me do math and round it up. Oh, God. Your hunt, was that a Hunter Brown math equation on you on a plane? I'll never forget that.

I couldn't forget that if I wanted to. Can I give you just a quick story? I go to back to school night with Olivia for Teddy. We're at a new school, you know, we're like, we better be fucking wowed by the school. We better be. He's having a great time. That's probably means the most. That matters.

We went in there, math teacher. First thing she does, here's a pen, a pencil, here's a paper. Here's a problem. Solve it. And we're like, oh, my God. luckily for me like I can I can do math I don't like it but I can do it it was just like a order of operations type of question so I go I go easy I'm looking at Olivia sweat and bullet she goes let me see it I'm like nope got to do it yourself and it says show your work she's got all this

work and she's doing it and I see her get the wrong answer I'm like I'm not going to say anything I actually wanted her to get the wrong answer and she oh no no no like eraser erase eraser erase her checks it. She finally ends up with the right answer. But what a, what a the teacher. That's a power move right there. Power is power. She's like, do you even know how to do math, you people? Let me, let me see. There was a lot of people who didn't get it right

by the way. Power. It's power. Yeah. Trev, we, Tyrone Taylor deserved to be mentioned. Vaughn Grissom, knocking it around. to Rio, Max Clark, Tommy Edmund. Say Lazaro Montes has his name. He's all I watch these days. I'm hoping we're seeing some of these guys on Enfuego.

Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby, like Waco. It is time for Enfuego, powered by Amazon. Just like Amazon helps you get maximum value out of every dollar this back-to-school season. We're talking about the players who have been delivering max value. on the field. Dahl or Quinn, thank you for this.

We're starting out in Minnesota. Those thick, thick thighs. Ryan Jeffers. How much money is this guy going to make in the off season, baby? He goes five for 13 in the series,

a double, a triple, and then three Jimmy Jacks, eight RBI. He hadn't homered in the first 30 days of August. Well, he ended up hitting two on the final day,

and then one more on the first day of September. love me some Ryan Jeffers Greg, I loves ball, loves hitting. I don't know. Randy Rosarena, your guy, six for 15, two doubles, two homers, eight runs driven in in the series

against the Red Sox. Joshua Baez, remember the name, four for eight, two doubles a homer, four runs driven in against the Dodgers. Kyle Stowers, can always like forget how good he is and the difference he can make. It's a Grand Pauly show, but it's probably a Kyle Stourer show.

Four for 12, two doubles, homers three runs driven in he's got a hard hit rate of what 61% on low this season don't throw it there lefties like the low ones guys it's yeah low and inside don't go there swing path uh for the week your guy i think you and carter jensen will get along don't know them at all but i think you get along with most people uh nine for 25 two doubles a triple and four homers on the week eight runs driven in got to love that roman anthony comes off of the I-L. He goes 10 for 22, two doubles, a triple two homers. He's had a hit in each of the five games he's played since being activated. You like that. Luke Kishaw told you. He's actually been an animal.

He really has been and he's like a ball player. Like, that's all he cares about, dude. This guy ain't staying out late playing video games. I don't know what's in his basement. Could be strange because he loves ball. 10 for 20. It might be a cage. It might be a bad in cage in his basement. 10 for 23 3 doubles A homer 4 runs driven in Since July 31st He's one dotting it Jake

Okay 345 435773 10 doubles 5 homers 14 runs driven in He's tied for second In the Minnesota twin Single season record for hit by pitches In a season Did Ty France said it last year

He might have I don't know I don't know his first Brandon Nimmo goes 11 for 24 Double a homer 9 runs driven in on the week. That's nice. Freddie Freeman, I feel like we never talked about him because he's just Freddie Freeman and we're like, oh, you should know how good he is. Well, here's

how good he is. Seven for 18, a double homer, five runs driven in, five runs scored, seven walks. He homered for the first time since our nation's birthday, July 4th, snapping a 47 game homer the streak. And that's my friends, Susan Puego.

Thanks to our partners at Amazon. Shop back to school at Amazon and spend less on your kids. All right, we did in Fuego. Some great studs there. Let's do the sad part of the show. We missed it last time. Who's struggling?

Hey man, you've been struggling lately. It's time to pick it off. This game comes for everyone, and we got a hodgepodge of it. How about the young guy, Travis Bazzana, an 0 for 12, the Chris Rose effect, some people are calling it. Alec Burleson, one for 22, still 2 RBI, because that's what he does this year. The Crohn's Zone, one for 21 out of Croninworth, and then Max Muncie at third base for those Dodgers, a 1 for 15 for the two weeks.

One of my favorite defensive highlights ever are just Jose series. He's in a 3 for 34, though. Taylor Ward coming to Seattle and a 2 for 34. That's not what you want. And then a current national stud and a former national stud. C.J. Abrams in a four for 36 and our guy, Trey Turner, and eight for 51. So, hey, it happens. Put in that extra T work.

And hopefully we'll see them on Enfuego next week. And let's not see them on the IL where we see Wilson Contreras with that 900 on the nose OPS. A left hammy hoping for a minimum. Xavier Edwards from My Marlins, two to three weeks left thumb. We're running out of weeks. Peyton Gray in that Texas bullpen right elbow, Eric Lauer with the Dodgers left elbow. Let's see.

Kirby Yates, expected to miss the rest of the season, right shoulder, hate that for him. The biggest off the aisle list I have seen. Ketel Marte in Arizona, we talked about that a lot. Abner Uribe, throwing down. demon sliders. Out of the park, Mark Vientos. I know that nickname's kind of taken, but he does it in his first game back. Denzel Clark is back. My King. Riley Green for Detroit. Lourdes Curiel Jr. IKF in Boston. Ryan McMahon for the Yankees. Joe Joe, what do you know,

no, no Romero for Milwaukee, the Dodgers catchers, Will Smith in rushing along with Roblesky, Josh Smith in Toronto, Griffin Jacks for Tamas. Michael Massey, James Wood, 900 OPS plus. That's who's back from the IL. Can we start everyone's weekend already? It's time for awards brought to you by Seatgeek Talking 2026. Coach Trev, what do you got? I'm going to go with the Problem Solver Award.

And we've been team this bad boy up all episode long. Here's my take on the world, if you want. want to know. I believe there's a lot of people out here, especially in today's society, they complain a lot. Too much. Hey, there's a problem here. There's a problem here. There's a problem here. Hey, I don't like the way this is going. I don't like the way that's going. You know what I say to that? I tell my, my, well, I tell Teddy this all the time. I'm like, do whatever you want, you sweet little girl, your daddy's girl forever. Right. Love you. Teddy, do not be, uh, do not be a problem, be a problem solver. Stop complaining about things, figure out how to get them done.

I think is the best piece of advice you can give to anyone. Because it's like, dude, like, okay, there's a problem. But are you going to complain about it and sit there and let it continue to be a problem? Or are you going to figure out a way to solve the problem? Because that's what we need in this world is problem solvers. The complainers, man, I'm out. Like, hey, keep it inside, dude. Like, look, I think there's something.

I want to complain about some things from time to time. Do I love cleaning up dishes all the time in my house? No, I don't. But you know what I do? I just clean the dish. Right. Because to me, that's what I want. I mean, I like a clean kitchen.

Jake, I don't like to go to bed what dishes in my sink, bro. Yeah. So if they're there, I'm like, all right, dude, I'll just clean them. And then problem solved. Boom. Yeah. Last year, I said, I was one of those people that just complained. I said, dude, I don't, these tiebreakers.

There's so many going on right now. I wish we just had a solution for it. I wish someone would come here and just explain to me what's left. what's happened already I'm going to do that for everyone today I'm going to go over the tiebreakers because there are some interesting ones that we need

to know first of all the race no one's really catching them I don't think but if the Yankees end up catch them there are three games ahead of New York right now so it's feasible there's four games left and as we mentioned earlier on in the show they're six and three against the yanks if they win one of those last four

they have the tiebreaker if you you want to go down to the Red Sox, but I don't really think matters. They're five and five against them three games left. I think the Yankees is interesting because of the tiebreaker. They're essentially three and a half games up on the Yankees with four games left the side of between them. That one could get interesting.

For the Yankees, they win the tiebreaker against the Red Sox. They win the tiebreaker against the White Sox. Sox, so there's really nothing there. As I mentioned with the Red Sox already, they win it against the white socks they lose it against the Astros in the Blue Jays

and those are the teams kind of still you know in the play there at the end and then TBD for them would be the Guardians who are two and they're two and one against with three games left they're six and four against the Orioles with three games left so they just have to win one of those and then they're two and one against the Rangers

and there's three games left for there this is a lot of information do I need to read all Should I get to the juicy ones? I would say the juice because the ones that have a lot of games left, like that's, we're going to be in it in the moment. So I would go to the juice. Okay. Let's go to, well, the Orioles.

They're one and a half games back of Cleveland for the third AO Wild card, right? They're one and three against the Guardians this year. They got three games left against them. So that could turn against the Blue Jays in division. they're three and four, about six games left. So there's still a lot to decide to decide there. The one that's really got me going, Jake, it has nothing to do with the American League.

Because I do agree, now that I'm like saying all this stuff out loud, it's probably a little bit too long for the awards. Go check it out. MLB.com just put out a really good article about everything. Too much still going on in the American League. Maybe we're going to revisit that in a little bit. The one I really, really want to talk about,

which has got me so fired up, is we know what's happening with the dimebacks and the Padres right now. They are neck and neck here. I believe if we look at everything, I got to get back to it real quick. The Padres are a half game back of Arizona for the last wildcard in the National League. Miami's three games back, but I believe it's going to come down to these two teams. What's awesome about all of that, Jake, is the head-to-head record for the podcast. Padres and the Diamondbacks is

5 and 5. Okay. There are three games left. They just so happen to be the last three games of the season. In San Diego, Diamondbacks Padres,

to decide it all. There's even a scenario where the last game doesn't matter because if they tie and one wins the head to head already, that game will be moot. But we're in a collision course for pre-playoff baseball.

Pre-playoff playoff baseball, September 25th through the 27th in San Diego, Diamondbacks Padres, Tori Lavello. How are you going to manage? What's Catea going to do? Oh, Craig Stammon, you're a pitcher, you're a manager? What? Steven Sousa Jr., Nick Punto on the other side? It's going to be a move.

movie, man. That got me really, really fired up. I'll continue to keep you updated on the tiebreakers as the season gets a little bit deeper, especially with the A.O. But this one, make sure you're somewhere where you can watch these games. I think it's going to be awesome. Very excited for that. And I'm excited to see how they arrive, because you mentioned, Ray's Yankees play for that final week of the season, and I hope it means something. I'll be interested to see. Yeah, I think the Phillies and Braves still have a handful of games left that. Yeah, I, you know, I don't want to kick it to the robots,

but like I'm almost wondering if, you know, our guy Bobby Golfs and Claude have a relationship forming. I'm wondering if we can get a graphic or a game or something like that. I have all that. I did all of that. It's just too much. The A.L. I realize it's too much. Like there's so much going on still,

too many teams still in it. And if I sat and read every single thing, I think people will fall asleep. So that Padres, Dianbex one is clear cut. Can't wait for that. A couple things for you. Yes. if you're someone that doesn't like the expanded playoffs,

there's part of me that gets it. I still think we need to reward the best teams better, and I'm not sure how to get there. And by the way, there is a chance this is the last year of this playoff format, because with the CBA, a lot of times the playoff format changes. So let's see what that looks like. One of the people knock college football, because the argument used to be like every game was a playoff game,

and now college football teams you can lose a couple games and you're going to get into the playoffs, that I think there's some intriguing discussions there. I would say for baseball, we've added juice. I know the AL standings are ugly, but like you're mentioning, there are, those are going to be actual playoff games, basically. And there's a series that we see every week now that it's like,

yo, those matter. Whether it's tiebreaker or just the chaos and the standings that I still want to reward the best better, but where everyone else is and how a lot of these games and fan bases still care, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. Just want to let everyone know the twins own like most of the tiebreakers

and the teams ahead of them. Just saying. Houston Astros really good record against winning teams, something to look at going forward. They already have the season series against the Rangers who are behind them. And potentially the white socks who they could tie with for the two seed and get a buy. Well done, Trev.

I'll zoom out back to life because you mentioned, and this has always been a life pod, how, you know, be a problem solver. And I actually, this might surprise people. I have a little bit of that in me. Like if something goes wrong, my instant reaction is like, okay, so what do we do? So are we going to, which I think is a good thing. I will say I get some flack from a lot of times there's friends or significant others that are just looking to vent and they want the oh that sucks like they don't want the problem solving yet and sometimes I get in trouble for that because it's like I'm not trying to solve it yet I just want you to say that sucks so you're saying someone would come up to you and you want to solve their problems but they're not looking for that they just want misery they want companies yes like they're not ready for the problems like they're not ready for the problems like they're know there's problem solving out there, they just kind of need to let it out.

I would say for those people, get the fuck over it. Shit or get off the pot. Are you kidding me? My award. Well done, Trev. And you're right. Maybe I'm, maybe I am emotional. I'm up here in upstate New York.

Got my nephew's third birthday going on. Shout out, Bodie. That I, yeah, Rob, you can pose it. That's me and Emmett, his older brother, you know, covering his face. So I think we could put it on the broadcast. I think sometimes people get weird about that. Shout out my guy Emmett. He's insane.

He's a straight-up balloony tune. So that's good. But Trev, you mentioned, you know, fathering Teddy. And I mentioned how much I love sports stories. And we gave Robert Stock a shout out, even though I think he has been rude to our company. Because I like a baseball story. Every time there's a grinder that makes it to the bigs

after 11 years in the minors. I love that because you got to be a same. pick and you got to deal with the dark thoughts. You got to deal with the maybe this ink isn't going to happen and maybe, you know, maybe their solution is getting away from baseball. Well, Trev, there's a one-up because where do you and I like to find our ballplayers from? Cuba. Cuba. Miami. The, yes.

And what if I told you, I could essentially combine the two? Because a series we didn't talk about because it was two games, it was Nats Braves, they split them. we had a guy for his first career he got his first career hit and homer in the bottom of the third inning it's it's johandy morales of course it is um and you know i looked in the minor league stats the guy can hit a little bit uh you know he he earned his opportunity to get to the show and that's the whole thing you know get to the show it turns on a little splitter little yeah a j smith shaver a little down and in turn on it young man. We got the family going nuts in the stands. And then I start hearing the story about it.

Because his dad played ball. And I was like, oh, okay, so what's going on? His dad played ball on the Cuban national team. Hell yeah. And he was a baller, man. Pretty cool. Andy Morales. So he's a baller for Cuba. He hits a home run. They came and they played an exhibition. game in Baltimore, like 25 years ago.

He tries to defect, gets caught in the waters, sent back. Nope. You tried to leave our country, literally via water, caught, sent back to Cuba. Defects again, he has to go through Peru or something. He establishes himself in Peru, which allows him to come to America, which allows him a chance to play baseball. In 2001, he's 26. He plays 48 games at AA, not so great. Let go. Play some independent ball, plays better, gets 26 games at Trenton,

AA for Boston the next year, gets on base, but that's it. It's over. Doesn't make it to the dance. If his timeline, if his simulation was a little different, if he was the 23-year-old Cuban that just one-dotted in Cuba, does he maybe get a little more run, get a little more of a look? It's not what happened. And so he never made it to big league baseball after defecting. And, you know, literally, I mean, crazy life stuff.

Remember some of the Randy of Rosa Raina stuff, cesspitus? Like, it's just, it's crazy. It's real life stuff that we just kind of shrug. Like, once it's over, we're like, okay, can this guy? I play? Well, a couple moons later, there's his son playing Major League Baseball, hitting a home run, and he's going nuts in the stands that I can't even imagine all the different feels and emotions that come with that. That's in a Braves Nat series that I felt confident enough to skip, to have a family moment like that happen in a baseball moment. It's one of

the things that makes this sport so special. So, and I believe I tried to look it up and I didn't do a great job. But, you know, yo, Y-O-H is like a paternal family passing on of the name. So it's like, you know, almost an Andy Jr. situation that I'm glad Andy Morales got to see his kid Homer in the show. I really wish, beautiful story. Great job, Jake. I feel like sometimes we like romanticize this like defection process.

Like, oh, this guy really wanted it. like no dude yes he really wanted it but like the things you have to go through I've sat and talked to a few Cubans about it played against the Cuban national team many times and have nothing but the utmost respect for these guys I mean they're freaking ballers it's why I love Cuban ball players so much I've I've seen it and talked to him first hand I even remember swapping like a few like baseball items for some cohabas back in the day some real ones baby I wish there was a legal way for these guys to come over here and I think they worked on it

and then your guy 4547 put an X on it in 2019 that's what I read on the internet at least correct me if I'm wrong but I really wish there was like a legal way and not such a risky way for these guys to defect because the baseball there is incredible I mean a guy I mean is you're on winning the AL MVP like I think yes right yes How many Cubans have won the MVP Googling right now?

Yeah, that's a great one, Trev. Because I don't know. Has to, right? Yes. Three. Okay. So Zoe Oversized, Minnesota Twins should have known that. Jose Kinseko and Jose Abraeu in 2020.

Is Jose Konseko like kind of a, eh? Yeah, I'd have to look that up a little bit more. and Abraeu's in that shortened season there, not to chop him down. But yeah, that would mean a lot. And I hope it can open more things up with Cuba. And yeah, like you're saying, Trev, let me just read a little bit from Andy's Wikipedia.

Morale is attempted to defect from Cuba in June 2000 with the help of an agent, Gus Dominguez, shout out Gus, caught at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard, along with 30 other Cubans seeking asylum in the U.S. He was returned to Cuba under the quote-unquote, wet feet, dry feet policy. How many of you have had to deal with that? Because I haven't.

I haven't. I say it all the time on this show. Give some grace to the Cubans, the Latin American ballplayers, because things, it's a different world, man. And we need to be very understanding of kind of like what they go through. And also appreciative of where we live. I want to get on my soapbox here. Nice, Treb.

Sheesh. People, use Go Talkin' 2026 at Seek, 10% off your next set of tickets, where you can go see these beautiful ballplayers. You can go see these ballparks in our beautiful country.

And we can't tell you how much we thank you and we love you. I hope your team wins this weekend, unless they're playing my team. enjoy Audrey's? Yeah,

fun one, hopefully. Cardinals wins white size? Cardinals over under, 77 and a half. What? You got eight more to go. You both took the under.

Oh, baby. You took the under on your team? Rob, I'm going to throw a challenge flag. Go to our locks episode. Oh, that's 2025. My bad. Thank you.

Thank you.