Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Shocking Outcomes in the Wild Card Series | 552

Episode Date: October 9, 2022

Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 2:45 Rays-Guardians 21:44 Mariners-Blue Jays 42:13 Padres-Mets 1:00:26 Phillies-Cardinals 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.

Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball. Three teams are done. We've got one game three wild card tonight. Oh, baby. Players only. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball presented to you by Seat Geek. Who! Code Talking.

Get $20 off your first order with Seat Geek. They're the Geeks of Seats. Trevor Plouf. DJ Jazzy Zach on the ones and twos today. Trev, it's an emotional night. People that live and breathe baseball, whether you're on the internet or by yourself, there's a lot of emotions right now. Three team seasons ended yesterday, including Tampa Bay,

which I think we're going to talk about in this first one, but also the Cardinals and the Js. Two teams people really liked a lot. Trev, how are you doing? Big night last night, huh? Big night last night I'm doing great There is a lot of emotion

You know in the air And in my social media comments I am getting roasted Mariners fans Coming at me Fine, I get it Philly's fans coming at me Saying Aeronado was never going to make any

Misplays in the field And Alec Bohm might And he hasn't So I guess I deserve it I guess that's the bottom line I want to play a game with you real quick Okay. Okay, Zach, you can try this game too, all right?

Okay. I'm going to do something. I want you to tell me what hitter I am. Okay. Ready, go. Paul Goldschmidt. Oh, my God. Jeff McNeil, do you see me choking up?

Sometimes you just got to get the hands through, Big Poppy. You know that. I thought you were just choking up to get the whole bat in frame. I didn't realize that was the... Oh, no. I was looking at your hands. It was kind of alberty. It was ridiculous.

how far high he was choking up last night. But then you led with the knob. Yeah, I love McNeil. I hope there's a generation of young kids watching that are emulating Jeff McNeil and they're the next greasy Mets studs. Trevor, are you ready to do this? That's hop into it.

We had a lot of baseball to cover, man. A lot of strikeouts to cover. We sure do. And we are Cronpod, per usual. And as always, so we will start out. Not a lot of offense to cover in this one, Trev. The Cleveland Guardians and the Tampa Bay Rays, they kicked off.

And sure, do or die. Glass now McKenzie, fire me up. We talked about the low under over under. The over under in Vegas was five and a half. It could have been lower than that. It could have been lower than that for two games, as we found out. A fun, honestly, a fun way to kick off the day of baseball.

I realize, do I think it crossed into an area of not great baseball? Yes. There are some good pitching. There were some other opportunities. And the Ray's lineup, as I think, you know, via injury, which we've talked about all year, has been a lot thinner than past years. And kudos to them for also shutting out the baby guardians through nine, through 14 innings.

Glass now, what a performance. McKenzie the same way. And then, yeah, this was just back and forth wondering who was going to push it across the Jose Ramirez play. Currently goes into playoff lore as an incredible one. And then big Oscar Gonzalez, a guy who, Trev, let's be honest.

Like, I, on talking baseball, I don't want to say I consider myself the prospect guy, but you know, you're in the card game. Jim likes when prospects come to fruition. I do some nerdy stuff that lets me know, guys. I wasn't locked in on Big Oscar Gonzalez, and he came up this year and he was slapping it around, and then he gets the big walkoff that, you know, as we talk about the future of this Guardians team, he's a guy that should be in the middle of it for the next little while. So with all that, Trev, I know you have some connections to the raise, cash.

Francona's going out there, pounding gum and tobacco. Where do you want to go with this one? I think we start with the starters, man, who are absolutely amazing, both of them. Glass now, the sharpness of his breaking ball was incredible yesterday. He goes five innings pitch. She's got five Ks. Then Tristan McKenzie matches them and gets better. punch for punch he goes six with eight k's both of them don't go up any runs obviously zero

zero until oscar did his thing uh and that was the name of the game man strikeouts this this guardians team who that's all we ever talk about is bat to ball skills they don't strike out they strike out 19 times yeah ray strikeout 20 and you know i don't know did it did it pass over into that realm where it's like tough to watch a lot of strikeouts maybe but you kind of do have to just applaud the pitchers for coming in and doing their jobs. And this is pressure-packed baseball, especially if you're on the raised side. And you know, the bottom half of the inning, any miss queue, and your season's over. And these guys are going out there and doing it. So you have to just kind of tip your cap to the pitchers there. Cash had some quotes about the lineup saying,

we were just trying to, the classic line of trying to hit a three-run home or with nobody on base. You know, sometimes you start to press. And then you get into that zone, you know, a home run will put you ahead. And then I have to do it shut them down for three outs and you're and you got the game. So you start thinking that way instead of passing the baton. Let's get one guy on and see what happens. And that's where we kind of got stuck. And then imagine like this is just so funny. You just never watch a baseball game. You turn it on. You see this big motherfucker. Oscar Gonzalez coming up. And SpongeBob Squarepants is ringing, you know, in the stadium. And you're like, what's happening right now and then whack.

And I told you, the first time I ever saw that guy swing a bat, I was like, this guy is incredible. And he crushed that pitch and Cleveland's moving on. And C. Rose is happy. And the AL mid ain't looking so AL mid anymore.

What's up with the AL East, bro? A couple things here. This race team. This raised team, let's stay here. This race team wasn't it this year and they haven't been it. You know, we gave them, I've given them a lot of credit for staying in the wild card

throughout basically the whole season. And I said, I hoped when October got here, we were saying, okay, Rays, like, B. Lau is back. Wander Franco, who was back and was in this game and had one of the six Rays hits? He was back in this game. No Kiermeier, no Zanino. I know Zanino more of an offensive threat than Kiermeier. Kiermire, though, he's been in a lot of battles. I've seen him have big postseason moments.

That this race lineup, I mean, they traded for David Peralta. He didn't click over there. This race team was thin and hurt all year. Like race teams, I know you, race fans, I know you just won't, you don't want to like me, right? I'm a Yankees fan. I'm kind of obnoxious. I get it. but I think any Ray's van, when they take a step back,

and you look at all the injuries, and I know every team has their injuries, but the Ray's had them in a big way this year. And they were the sixth seed. Like any other year, this isn't a playoff team. This is an 86-win team that didn't make the playoffs. This is the first year that this was a playoff team. And I think they were thinned out, depleted by injuries.

Kudos to their pitching, and it's what that team and franchise is so good at. and it's why they've been a problem for the past five years, and it's probably why they're going to be a problem for the next five. You know, they were missing, like, a playoff pitching rotation for them. I mean, between Baza and Anderson, Fire Ice, and Kittridge, Poshay, Thompson, that being said, it comes back to the hitting. And I mean, Jose Siri, a guy that, you know, is a 600 OPS guy,

he was their nine hitter. He's the only guy that pushed a run across for the race. in these two games. I mean, 24 innings of baseball and a solo home run from Jose Siri is the only run to push across. Guardians get credit. They were at home.

The stadium was popping, and they win behind a Jose Ramirez two-run shot and then an awesome. So I don't know. I want to give the Guardians credit. They deserve it. They won. We're going to talk about a couple teams

in the Blue Jays and the Cardinals that people really liked. Like, you know, we're World Series prediction teams. that they are now out with two home games and two losses. So Guardians deserve their credit for advancing and moving on. This race team, I mean, you know, did you see a single person online that was like,

I think this Ray's team is the one that's going to make a run? No, it was everyone saying like, Ray's Devil Magic or whatever. Right. Maybe it'll surprise us. That's what we always talk about. Race fans get really mad at us. It's hard to put a finger on this team.

Well, it's because if they, If they scored one run in 13 innings, they would have won this game. In the end, it was the offense. It just didn't show up. And you could either say, well, it was thin because of injuries. It's not as deep as other teams. Or you could say the Guardians just fucking threw the ball, man. Yeah.

You know, you can go either way there. I thought there were some really cool moments in this game. Weird with all these numb fingers. What's going on with all these numb fingers? Is this a ploy to get your reliever? is maximum warm-up time? I'm currently leaning that way. I don't know.

I'd love to tap in Peter and Jerry and see what they know because, you know, there are bullpen guys, but, I mean, Fairbanks, I'll say this. I mean, to come in 11 pitches and only three strikes, that is unlike him. Yeah. And he, you know, I don't know if there's a code word

for like, hey, you know, we need you to come out of the game and say it's an injury, so say, you know, if you see me come out and grab my left knee, make sure you say there's no feeling in my hand. I don't know. I'm going to assume Pete Fairbanks wasn't feeling good because he wasn't. So I don't know.

It's one of those weird things with baseball that the two things that I've been questioning, the clock, the pitch clock that's going to come in next year, do we want that for the playoffs? Is that maybe a regular season thing? And it'll, because, you know, those playoff moments that do breathe and you're in it, those are kind of dope, right?

And then the other thing is the three-batter minimum, which I don't know, has, I don't think anyone's really super lost in. I think with some of the roster stuff we've done and how pitchers get used, I don't think teams would really abuse it, that I don't know, do we need a three-pitcher minimum? Maybe that's an off-season conversation,

but I don't know. I don't know. It seems suspect at the time. I know and like Fairbanks, I'm not going to accuse him of it. Oh, I don't think he's trying to do anything shady or whatever. I mean, it was rough. Watching a pitch was rough.

Then Adam comes in and Adam, excuse me, comes in. Hits Rosario right away. And now if you're a Guardian fan, you're like, this is it. This is our moment. We have Jose Ramirez up right now. Freaking Kiz him and then gets to double play with Nailer. And that was a massive moment in the game. And that's when he started to say, hey, the raise, man.

They're going to freaking find a way, aren't they? But those batches could never get going. Ramirez, with that play to in the 12th. Everyone keeps saying the Ramirez played, but Josh Naylor deserves half the credit. And a long, in-between hop kind of thing. And he just, he's been doing that, man. He can stretch over there.

He can pick it. And that gives you the confidence, if you're Jose Ramirez or any of the guardians infielders, but just chuck it over there, dude. You've got to get rid of the ball. just get it over there somewhere around and you got a big boy over there making plays that was incredible though

I audibly gasped watching that play it was amazing and dude I mean that's a game saver and by the way Josh Naylor I'm gonna double check and get into the stats I mean in the minor leagues he played

he did ah he split time between first base and outfield when he came up. He was mostly... That's a big boy in the outfield. He was mostly playing outfield when he originally came up. This year has easily been

his most run at first base. 88 games at first base coming into this year. I think he had something like 20. So, yeah. How easily could we be sitting here if Josh Naylor doesn't

pick that and it's like, raise devil magic, bro. They force you to make the play. They get you. Get the run across, they win one nothing. They're probably going to win this series. Instead, we talk about how great that play is. We talk about innings and innings and innings

with not a lot of threats, if we're being honest. You know, the other biggest threat early on in this game was during Fairbanks. He comes out. He's wild. We get runners on. Adam comes in out of the bullpen. He plunks a dude.

It's bases loaded. he throws two balls to Jose Ramirez. 2-0 change-up down and out of the zone. Ramirez swings through it. It would have been 3-0. Bases loaded. Changes the whole inning. And yeah, I mean, that's as we go through,

I mean that game, you know, there was a couple times runners got to second and third and nobody could just put the barrel on it and let one drop. That, you know, hey, Kudos to Cleveland. They win their two games at home. They pitched.

McKenzie and Glassnow, like you said, those guys deserve the biggest claps. I mean, Tyler Glassnow... T.L.L.S. Tyler Glassnow coming back from T.J. last August, and then throwing five shutout in a playoff game. The next year, that's insane. Karen Schack, Stefan, Classet,

Sanlin, Morgan, DeLo Santos, and Hanchus. Three innings out of him, which is really, just really, really impressive. And the guys, you know, Tampa deserves a shout out too, Glass now to Fairbanks,

so we talked about that, but Adam, Rasmussen, Cleaver, Armstrong, Raleigh. And that is where I did think that this game, the later it got, when they went to Rasmussen, who people thought could be the next day's starter. That's when that raised ideology, of like let's get outs and figure it out.

I thought that was going to be advantage raise, having been in some big games before and willing to do that. And it turned out it wasn't. Guardians, guard dogs pull it off. And then I thought it was interesting. Who's on the mound for the walkoff homer, his first relief appearance in nine years?

Is that even right? I think so. That seems crazy to me. But yeah, I mean, it's Corey fucking Kluber, man. Back in his home where he was one of the best pitchers in baseball, gives it the walk off Jack. Interesting moment for him, I'm sure, very surreal. Dude, you're with this raised team.

It's the 15th inning in a playoff game. I'd like to know what he was thinking out there. Not like what were you thinking throwing that pitch, like what was going on in his mind? Because it had to be a strange moment for him. Yeah. And this doesn't really matter. But first pitch of the at-bat was a strike that got called a ball.

You wonder, you know, just the flow of baseball. What does that do? to a guy. But yeah, man, I mean, you talk about a guy, you know, this guy's career. Cy Young's in the bag, did it, did it in Cleveland. And then he's kind of been vagabondie in rehabbing. But, you know, this guy was the dude. This guy was better than Bieber. This guy was two Sy Youngs. He's getting MVP votes. Here he is as a 36-year-old coming out of the pen, throwing, you know, 84 mile per hour cut pieces. Yeah, there's got to be a lot of mixed emotions for him.

Cleveland is going on to face the Yankees. We'll be doing a series preview on that. That'll come out tomorrow. So I don't know. I guess in this game in this series, I think we should do probably a brief goodbye to Tampa and anything else you have on Cleveland. What do you want me to say to Tampa?

I don't know, man. goodbye and give them a hug right now or something? I mean, you're an alum. I'm an alum. You're at Tampa Bay hangs on to your every word. I think you nailed it though, man. This is a team that benefited from the expanded

playoffs. Look, I like watching them play. Some people don't. I think it's interesting the way they approach the game. They have some real, really high-end talent there. I love watching Wander play. It's going to be more of the same next year. Hopefully they, you know, stave off the injury bug a little bit better.

Go make some moves. I want to see Tampa like actually get away from everything that they do and go sign somebody. Like they just did it with Wander. That's a massive deal that you don't see them doing very often. I hope they go out and try to get someone else in the off season. I'm very curious to see what they do. Was this the first playoff series where Tampa had the higher payroll? Tampa is at 100 mill.

Cleveland was at 80. I wonder we might have to get R&D. on that. They're like, so that's what they're going to do. They're going to go shed payroll. We can't be that team. Let's get it down to 30 mil. We need to be the underdog.

That's how this team wins. No, Trev, it is interesting, and we're going to have all off season to talk about it. But, you know, their advantage is being able to just get guys who pitch. I wonder if they start investing more on the offensive side. Like, you know, we see these guys, Jack Peterson types that you can get on one-year deals. I wonder if that's the,

next step for the raise because I mean, they wasted a beautiful outing. I mean, 14 shutout innings. Like, I know hitting was, wasn't at a premium. I don't know. But one run and we would be talking about a game three today. I think that's one thing you can, you know, be happy about as a raised fan is Glassnow came back and looked phenomenal.

Yeah. So that's very, very nice for you. you can say we got this guy ready to go, you know, plus the other starters you have. I mean, you have the makings of a good team. You need to go supplement the offense a little bit, get healthy, all that jazz. Tampa, we will see you guys and talk about you guys a lot this off season.

I think Keirmeyer's contracts up. We've talked about that a lot. So they're interested to see where we're at with the race next year. And Cleveland, hello, Facing me, Johnboy, and Zach's Yankees. Is this like 98 did they do this? Is that the last time? Chris Rose is coming through.

I mean, they've done it more recently. They've done it against Jose Ramirez, 2017, I think. Okay. They took the first game. I just, when I think of Guardians or I think of Indians, Yankees, I think of 1998 for some reason. Is that weird? No, I mean, that Indians, the Yankees dynasty kind of got in the way

of Indians dynasty. They were so good. So, so good. Richie Saxon? How much would we have liked him on talking baseball in 98? Last question before we move on. Does Oscar Gonzalez

give his belt back to Sandy Alamar? Oh, no. He has to keep it, right? Did he wear it the rest of the game? I don't know. What was the story there? I didn't hear that. Guardians fans.

Gets the belt from Sandy. I'm assuming he kept it on the rest of the game unless they went back and got him a new bow. I don't know. We need the scoop. Guardian fans, sound off in the comments. We will see you a lot next week. I mean, check out talking Yanks. Check out talking baseball. We'll be live streaming with Papa Rosie on Tuesday night.

A bunch of Yankee fans and Chris Rose, that is going to be quite the scene. Excited to see you guys there. Trev, as we Cronpod along, the next game of the day. this game was so crazy that I think baseball fans almost weren't computing it at the moment the Toronto Blue Jays Don't you dare Don't say the T that's blatantly in the name of Toronto

Toronto. The Toronto Blue Jays That's so hard to say. Hosted the Seattle Mariners Season on the line, right? Kevin Gossman, a guy who's been so, so good the past couple years, a FIP king, a strikeout king, that splitter. When it's right, you're not touching it. Robbie Ray, just won the Cy Young in Toronto last year.

I mean, we've got some beautiful baseball stuff going on here. Robbie Ray's been struggling recently. Toronto, season on the line, that place is getting rowdy. They strike first. Teoscar Hernandez with the two-run Homer, an up and in slider gets those hands through and gets it out of the park. Vladito with the big RBI single, the next inning. Teosker, again, it's 4-0.

We're going nutty in Toronto. They get a sack fly. Sure, it's 4-1. Don't care. A massive fifth inning. The Blue Jays push another 4 across. It is 8 to 1. We are in business.

Get ready for game 3. Uh-oh. They're chipping away. Tie France scores on a wild pitch. Carlos Santana, the vet, with a grand... No, not the Grand Slam because of the Wild Man. It would have been a Grand Slam, but they scored on the wild pitch. The three-run Homer, that's fine.

It's eight to five. We still got a three-run lead. Let's give it to our horses in the back. Hell, Danny Jansen with the insurance run. It's nine to five. We're working hard in Toronto. I mean, an inning that won't be forgotten in a long time in Mariners or Blue Jay's history. Jordan Romano comes in, the closer.

Bass has a tough outing for the Jays. And then a blooper in between shortstop, second base and center field. If you've watched, if you watch like five baseball games, you've seen this ball. It's, you know, it's an all-time ball in baseball lure. It's the blooper between shortstop, second, and center field, and full speed. Bo Bichette and Springer, they collide, looked horrifying at first. It looked like Bichette's knee might have got Springer's dome. It looked like it was his arm after watching the replay.

The ball drops. Everyone is scoring. It's a tie game through eight. And then Adam Frazier. always been an Adam Fraser pod. They slid him up in the lineup after a tough year, but really good numbers off of Gossman and a good game one, and he gets the game-winning RBI double.

George Kirby comes out of the pen and holds them. The Seattle Mariners take the series. They are literally dancing on the grave of the Toronto Blue Jays with their post-game celebration. And this baby Jays team that's so, so talented, a lot of people liked. They lose two games to nothing at home to the Seattle Mariners. Trevor Plouffe.

Whoa. I got a lot of things to say. A lot. Toronto. I'm going to start calling it that, I promise. Okay, I'll try. I'll be my best. It's like Alec Bohm.

I figured it out eventually. I don't know where you go from here. I'm going to spin it so Toronto fans can, be a little happier. Okay. We're calling on the baby jays. They ain't babies anymore. No.

These boys don't growed up. They went to the postseason. You have last year where they don't make it. And it hurts. So they work hard. I want to come back. Get in the post season. They get to the post season this year.

Get slapped around and lose a really tough game. That is going to sit in their minds the entire off season. And that will motivate you and motivate you. and motivate you and motivate you. I'm hoping they turn this loss into the best off seasons they've had and they come back ready to go. We're not calling these dudes the baby Jays anymore. They have the postseason experience now.

They're getting too old to be called that. It's like you can't be Tom Brady and your kids anymore because they're too old, all right? Do you know what I'm saying? Sucking face with your kids. Let's circle back on that because, Treve, I 1,000% agree, but Blue Jay fans, A, they don't want to hear. hear that right now.

No, they don't. We deserve to talk about this game more and the Mariners because they're down 8-1. You're down 8-1 in Toronto. You know, like we talked about, this was one of the most anticipated series because of all this young talent, and these are two teams that may be linking up for the next few years. Seattle's really good, really young. They've got a lot of guys locked up.

Same with Toronto. And they're down 8-1, right? Bobby Ray ends up getting touched up. Paul Seawald, who had been so, so good this year. He has a brutal outing. And this Jay's bullpen, you know, they added a lot of guys. They brought in Bass and Jimmy Garcia. Jordan Romano is a really cool story, man.

I love when a new up-and-coming team kind of has their new closer. And Romano's perfect. Like, he's kind of quirky. He grew up a Blue Jays fan. So it's really cool. It's really cool. And by the way, it's not like he, you know, if that blooper, if Springer makes a great play or Bichet or, you know,

I think we're talking about this game being won by the Blue Jays or surviving it, but it's not. And the Mariners kept putting together good at bats and rallies, and they fought back in this game. And as much as I'd love to tighten the screws on Toronto, because I can because that fan base was a lot this year.

It is more so the Seattle Mariners. They are really good. They don't quit. Cal Raleigh with another massive game. Adam Frazier. Carlos Santana, you know, some guys that were added to the pot on this team,

Julio goes 0 for 4. It wasn't like they got Julio Rodriguez and that's what it was. No, because this team is really good. J. P. Crawford 3 RBI. And when it counted in this crazy, crazy game, Munoz and Kirby locked it up on the Blue Jays. Really impressive, impressive series by Seattle.

Santana goes down and gets that pitch from Miza. They wanted to flip him around and turn him right-handed. They liked the matchup. But he just goes down against that pitch. Was that a change up, a sinker? Down in the zone watching it right now. I think it's a sinker. Mesa's like 70% sinkers.

Yeah. That thing did sink, man. But he just kept the hands through, just like a Jake swing right there. And just sneaks it over the wall. And again, you're at that point, you're saying,

okay, we still have a nice lead right here. We'll be okay. And then you go to that J.P. Crawford blooper that you're talking about. And I think if you're a Blue Jays fan, you're like, why didn't Springer just play that ball in front of him?

Why are you diving for that ball? Let's keep it in front. Maybe they score two runs. Fine. We'll still have the lead. Didn't go that way. And then Adam Frazier does his damn thing. So just some pivotal moments in the game that could have went really either way.

I mean, if Carlos Santana catches that ball like a centimeter more down his back, because I don't think he necessarily barreled that thing up too much. He was a little out in front of it. Just got enough of it. We're talking a completely different. from ballgame. We're talking to game three probably. And something that is obvious, but I'll say it once because I'll probably say it most of the rest of the way of the postseason.

It's such a tight sample size that diving into stuff is crazy, but it's what we have. And hey, we just talked about it with the raise. Carlos Santana is a guy that could have been had at the trade deadline. Like they flipped a couple prospects for him, not big names. And Carlos Santana was then in the middle of this lineup. that, you know, if he was on the raise yesterday and he ran into a ball for them, what are we saying? Are we saying that the race have a chance to win game three today?

Are we saying that there's a game three in Toronto? Instead, we're not. And, you know, the Mariners and Depoto and how many moves that team loves to make and it became a little bit of a joke. Like I said, this wasn't, the raise came down to, like, wander Randy, and hopefully and hoping and praying. This Mariners team is not just Julio. I mean, Mitch Hanigar, who I think is their second best player coming into this season,

he was out most of the year. Like they have guys, Ty France. How often did we talk about him this season? And then he had his injury. But this Mariners team is really good. And I don't know. I think them coming into Toronto, So, you know, everyone thinking this was going to be a bloodbath,

them kind of going down 8-1 and being like, well, shoot, if everyone was right and this is supposed to go to three games and we got low-gill tomorrow, cool. But we might as well put some A-Bs together and see what happens and they did. And they have, you know, one of the biggest postseason comebacks in MLB history. Yeah, if you told Mariners fans that Ray was going to go three innings

to give it four runs, Seawald was going to come in in the fifth inning and before runs. They'd be like, what is, what's happening? I don't like this game. Please don't talk about this game. But here we are saying, biggest comeback for them and no game three. And you're moving on and you're going to face those astros. And by the way, I think we do.

I play devil's advocate probably too much in my life. But I think it's funny when you do sports, especially baseball. You know, we just mentioned Clover, his first relief, appearance in eight years or whatever it is. George Kirby's a kid. He hadn't made a relief appearance since low A-ball in 2019. You know, how easily if he gives up a Jimmy Jack can we be saying, I don't know if you should put Kirby in that position

and said the kid's nails. And he gets it done. Tay Oscar, the Two Homer Day. The Mariners, like we said, they are going on to face the Houston Astros, which is, that's going to be fun. I think the Mariners are feeling good as a team. I think they know that Houston has obviously been the big brother and putting him on them.

I think they're going to give them hell. I still think Houston, and we're going to preview the whole series in another episode, but if you're Houston in Seattle, like I think we got the start of something out west, which is really cool, which is really cool. Houston's kind of been waiting for that, you know, since, I mean, when was the other, like, last West Coast power?

like the Texas Rangers when they 2010 when they were kind of good I mean I don't know hopefully this is what we're saying about Seattle in a little bit anything else about the Mariners before we kind of wrap up on

the Blue Jays I mean they got all the momentum in the world right now man like there's when you when you have a comeback like this how much confidence do you have doesn't matter like you don't when you get down by a couple runs instead of shrinking they're like I don't give

I don't care about two runs. We just came back eight one. Like we can do this, guys. And like, it's one thing to tell yourself that and not have gone through it. But to be able to tell yourself that and gone through it. I mean, you could really truly believe it. And that does make a difference on the field. I mean, it, I know what Houston did against Seattle this year in the regular season.

But it ain't the regular season, man. Right. It's the postseason things are hot. I think the Astros are an incredible team. But like, they're facing. a Mariners team coming in as hot as can be with as much confidence as ever. I think it's going to be a good series, man. It's where the postseason is incredible because right now Cal Rally

might be the scariest hitter in the postseason. The dude is out of control. Adam Frazier, who had a down year, he's sliding up the lineup. It looks really good. Like that's where postseason baseball changes instantly. And yeah, man, you know, when you come back down seven, and people are starting to put shoes on their head and you got rally cries and everything,

you know, that's when things start to get special. Should I do it? Or Mariners fans are going to be real mad at me if I do it? Because I brought one out there. I showed it. I have no idea where Mariners fans are with you. They don't like me. Oh, they like me.

They like to hate me. I'm not going to put it on my head just in case. But Birkenstock, too. That's the classic. I guess that's going into the Mariners Hall of Fame. Yeah, sure is. Cox starting it up. Senor Cox.

Yeah, I mean, you're in their, you're in their, like, hype video, being the bad guy, kind of. But I think those that, you know, like, love to hate me or something. I'll just, that's what I'll tell myself, because I'm getting crushed here, bro. Treve, a couple minutes on the Blue Jays. So, A, I mean, I know you hate when I phrase things like this, because it is technically wrong. But they kind of get it done. Like they put up eight and they're feeling good And you know Gossman is is cruising into the

You know into the sixth inning And then the wheels just straight fall off And you know this is my dumb joke I lot Game starts moving real quick A blooper drops and Bada Bing, Bada Boom Your season's done You know, Tay Oscar is a guy Whenever the Blue Jays get mentioned

I try to give that guy a shout out because he has, like, the most hardware of this crew of young Jays. Like, he's got a couple silver sluggers. Like, this dude is bona fide. Tayasker's a stud. You know, our short king Alejandro Kirk, he's got two hits in this game. Danny Chanson with three. Springer, no hits.

He has to leave with injury. Bichette and Vladdy. You know, they have one hit apiece. Espinall with two hits at the bottom of this lineup. The pitching falls apart. Bullpen was kind of thought to be a weakness. of this team. It comes back to bite them a little bit.

Again, in that small sample, and there's a blue pit, I don't want to over harp on it. But like you were saying with the Blue Jays, they were talking a lot, and they had swag. And again, part of me loves that. You know, you're Vlad Guerrero,

you're 23 years old, you should absolutely have swag. You're Boba Chet. You're a stud shortstop. You got the hair. You should have swag. You know, they're going to hear a lot this offseat.

about the movie quote and how, you know, this year was going to be the movie. And, you know, Vlad with the This Is My House and Manoa talking about how much he loves pressure and then his first inning. Those boys in Toronto watched two celebrations on their field this year. They watched the Yankees clinch the American League East on their field and take that picture. They watch Seattle dance on their field. then take their picture that we're going on. Jay's fans, you couldn't care less what I say at this point.

I'm a Yankees fan. I'm Jake. I think this is going to be a little bit of a blessing in disguise. I think Alec Manoa and Vladdy being on the top step, watching the Mariners party it up on their field. I think that felt wrong. I think they saw the Yankees win the division and they were like, all right, you know what, they had a great year, like whatever.

We'll get it next year. and we're in the playoffs, blah, blah, I think them saying like, wait, what? The wild card in our house, two games and our season's over. Like, if I, I might sprinkle it right now. I think Vladdy's going to be the one given Otani hell for the MVP next year. I think it's going to be the step that they didn't need, or they'll tell you they didn't need,

but I think they kind of needed. That I think they're going to be laser-focused and, kind of the Blue Jays wagon next year that we're expecting. And it sucks that sometimes it has to go down like this. But I don't know. I think they got a big slice of humble pie, man. I always tell you that when you guys, when you have a gimmick, bro, you are going to get humbled with that.

And I don't think that's a, I don't think there's a problem with that, dude. I was about to say, let's retire the home run, Jack. Who cares, bro? Do whatever you guys want to do to make you feel confident to win. They're returning most of their roster. next year, a team that won over 90 games this year. You know, they're young, but now they're almost getting to that point where they're veterans.

They played enough baseball. They have dirt on their spikes now. Let's go, let's go. What do you do in the offseason? Is it address the bullpen, go and try to get a piece? I feel like every time teams go in the off season and try to address their bullpen, it doesn't work out. Like it's usually like guys you have in your organization take a step forward. And maybe that's all that needs to happen.

I'd assume they go out and try to get somebody for the back end of the bullpen. You know, you want to have as many options back there as possible because it's like a tide, man. Like guys are in, guys are out. Like it's, you have to find who's hot at the right time. You have to have enough guys to be able to choose. We've seen that. We've seen what the Phillies were about to talk about. Eflin all of a sudden is closing games out for them.

It's just you just have to have those guys that can do it. But yeah, I mean, they're really. going to think about this and you're right man like watching those teams celebrate like that on your home field i've done it man like a lot it sucks dude it really sucks and it does motivate you and i have one of the clearer memories that i have of my baseball career is jason kipnis diving to his left fielding a ground ball getting up throwing it to nick swisher them clinching i think i don't know if it was a wild carter division whatever the fuck it was and nick swisher going like this i'll never forget it it pissed me off so much.

Like, I wanted to be them. So this will motivate Jay's and, you know, they're not going anywhere, man. Gabriel Moreno, their super prospect, he should be ripe and they have other catchers. You wonder if something happens there. But yeah, you think a little more pitching, which you could say for any team,

except the race. And, yeah, a lefty bat, some balance. I think that's important. I saw my Yankees do this. They were all righty, and I just think it makes it a little easier to pitch to. Matt Chapman played great. I heard it on the broadcast,

and I was like, wow, that guy would have been such a good fit there. They were supposedly big on Jose Ramirez before they did the Matt Chapman trade. If he was switch-hitting up in the lineup, and he's kind of a hustle leadership guy, I don't know. That would have been super interesting, but Guardians move on.

Jays do not. We will talk about them a lot this off-season, I'm sure of it. And congrats to the Mariners As they go into Houston And that is going to be Fun to watch to see What kind of leap the Mariners can take Trevor

That now brings us to Again, Cronpod The New York Mets Your 737 game The Airplane game as I call it Jacob de Grom Why 737 like the airport oh okay i just made it up i don't know it's how my brain works i was like i never heard

you say that before that's how my brain works um jacob de graham best pitcher in the world uh a lot of people believe and there's a lot of good arguments for that met season on the line back against the wall in their home ballpark after they saw some of the stuff that happened around baseball today blake snow has been hot in the second half he's got the play off resume. He comes in with the Padres, the chance to be the bad, bad guys. And in the first inning, DeGrom comes out, he looks gross. One, two, three, how's your day? Huge. Gets the city field rocking. And then Frankie Lindor, he tattoos one, 403. And again, stuff that's important

but not important. Head down. Head down. Gave a little like, let's go, boys. Very business like from these Mets in this game. Trent Grisham then shows up. Hello. Speaking of guys that had tough regular seasons and now they are postseason monsters, he goes Apo Taco off to Grom, off getting Scherzer the day before.

Brandon Nimmo, how's your big day? My guy, RBI single, he puts together a three-for-three start to his day in this game. Profar, infield single. They tie it back up. It's two-to-two. And then big Pete Alonzo, again, very business-like in the home run. I'm, I pairs, it appears I'm going to overharp on this.

And then what everyone was talking about, Buck goes to Edwin Diaz in the seventh inning. Holy smokes. Everyone starts doing bullpen math. Can he get through three? Do you have out of V, when's out of Vino or someone else ready? You know, if they do get a lead, do you keep them in? The fun conversations of baseball are at full tilt. And guess what?

The Mets made those conversations kind of go away with a massive inning. Adrian Mora Hone didn't really have it. McNeil with the huge two-run double. Eddie Escobar, Voguey. They put up four runs in the seventh after Diaz had come in and shut them down. Diaz comes back out for a couple outs, but they keep his pitch count under 30. I think that's significant for what will now be tomorrow's game.

And by the way, we still get a scare late. Machado gets walked in for a run. The tying run is at the plate. Seth Lugo gets them. The Mets win, 7-3. A little bit of a scare late. But the Mets move on. And they're going to be our only third game tomorrow,

which is crazy in this new wild card format. For a second, you know, the rays were how close? The Js were how close? It looked like we could have been having all four game threes. Instead, they're going to be the only ones there. Trevor, Padres Mets, where do you jump to? I think I'm not going to say anyone was business like. That's your thing in this show.

You got it. I was interested in the Diaz move because I was trying to understand it in the moment as well. And then it's funny, you know, Trent Grisham, we talk about lack of offense all throughout the year. He's the boogeyman in this scenario. Buck Shoal walked, said, this guy has been killing us. I'm going to bring my best reliever in to face him right now and kind of put the fire. I thought that was like, it's just, that's postseason baseball right there. It's like certain guys getting hot. I think it was unconventional of Buck to do that. But you know what, dude? Like it ends up working out.

He keeps his pitch count under 30. Like you said, I don't know why 30 is the number. I don't get that, but I'm in, I'm in it. I'm in it, man. And I thought the decision, though, to bring him back out was interesting because he sat for 46 minutes. Is that even right? I keep reading these things and I watched the game, but like 46 minutes, it was. It's crazy for a half inning. Goes back out and does.

I thought that was a little interesting right there. I don't know if I would have put him back out there, but Buck is a manager. That's pretty good. So, you know, these are the decisions I talked about before the series. I said, managers, this is where you earn. your money, man, like these pitching decisions and, you know, when you're going to run your guys out there because you do see this in the postseason and you don't see it in the regular season where you're running your closer out there in high leverage situations. Like you're putting your

guy, especially Edwin Diaz is a ninth inning dude for the Mets. He doesn't pitch in any other innings, okay? And now he's going to because of the postseason. I thought it was awesome, man. Very businesslike by the Mets, right? Jeff McNeil choking up getting that knock. Eddie Escobar, you know, squeaking run through through the other way. I think it was like a 67 exit velocity. Doesn't matter, man. Put it where they ain't. And yeah, the Padres, you know, they put forth a valiant effort there at the end. Lugo kind of hung that pitch to Bell there. You know, that thing could have went far, but Bell ends up grounding out. And yeah, we're going to get a game three, which I'm very,

very excited about. Yeah, but a little credit to the Padres for fighting back late and almost making a very Metsi moment. And that's the, the Diaz part. of this on multiple levels. So I'll go hand up at first. I thought he came in too early. I said, I don't know, man. Yeah, because isn't Grisham coming up later in the game anyway? So it's like, when do you want this to happen?

It was interesting. To get three innings out of Edwin Diaz, he has to be perfect and there can be nothing, right? And by the way, there's a line drive that goes off Lindor's glove that you kind of almost start having a Metz moment of like, oh boy, like is that, you know, we almost ruined the perfect game, Edwin Diaz needs to have to get through these three innings. The other side of it was if Edwin Diaz comes in and he's Edwin Diaz and he does his job,

then if the Mets offense does something, you get a little more breathing room. And that's what happened. And by the way, it still got scary at the end. But you mentioned Diaz coming back out. If he didn't come back out and now that he got two outs, you know, we're talking about Adavino and Seth Lugo struggling to get through the end of this game. Those two outs could have been massively important. Like if he had not sent Edwin Diaz back out after 20 pitches or whatever it was,

and the Mets did blow this game in epic fashion, that would have been the whole storyline. So they do send him back out for a couple outs, and it'll be ready to go for tomorrow. Adavino and Lugo, more or less get it done at the end. I think more importantly, when I look at back at this box score, Lindor started off the scoring. You know, 300 million Frankie.

Like, he's a guy that if and when the Mets season does end, he's one of the first guys he got a circle. He's supposed to be a star of star on this team. Pete Alonzo, the polar bear. You know, one of the best sluggers in baseball, that is more than just a slugger. He's a great hitter, but he slugs. He hits a go-ahead homer.

McNeil hits the RBI, the 2-RBI double. And even Nimmo, you know, the top four In that lineup. Well, actually, Starling Marte gets slid up, which that's part of the conversation. But Brandon Nimmo, a guy who all year I've said, like, what's Brandon Nimmo's highlights look like? Like, what's the, I see Lindor, I see Alonzo, I see all of it.

To have a three-for-three start to the day in a do-or-die game from your leadoff hitter, I mean, that is impactful. That is very impactful. So a huge day from Nimmo. Proud of these Mets. Proud of these Mets. And like I say in business life twice in that first minute of this episode, I feel bad. And it doesn't matter, but it does.

And, you know, connecting it to the Blue Jays. The Mets played last night's game like, hey, we need to lock this in because we are not going to be on the back page of the tabloids tomorrow. Like, we are not. Like, everyone bring your best at bats and let's get this win. And Alonzo and Lindor's home runs, it means nothing. But the fact that they were head down, kind of little points to the dugout, like they were there on a mission yesterday.

And they end up getting it done. Yeah. 3-1 pitch to Lindor right there in the first, kind of grooved one for being honest here. Snell kind of right down the middle. But they were showing him taking batting practice early before these games. And I don't know if that helped. I don't know, man.

Sometimes it helps. Sometimes it doesn't. You can point to it now. Like you're getting extra work in the playoffs and then you do this. That is what a leader does. You know, put forth the example. Like, I'm going to go out there. We're still in the playoffs.

After a long season, I'm going to get some extra work right now because I want to feel good during the game. So I'll piggyback your business like shit. Right now, I like where the Mets heads are at. Game three today. It's been fun to watch. After they take that three to two lead, DeGrom comes out for the six. And again, you know, five innings, two.

two runs for Jacob de Grom in a playoff start is kind of mid, for lack of a better term. He comes back out for the sixth with the one-runn-lead, strikes out Croninworth, gets Drury and Kim, you know, in the most important inning of his and the Mets season at that point. To give that lockdown innings takes a start to six innings to earn. It makes that feel a lot better. And then we know they obviously kick it. By the way, you know, they're up three to, Darren Ruff. gets hit by a pitch. They put in playoff

legend Terrence score. Instant double play ball. There's some bad juju there for a moment. It all goes away after that, after Diaz gets the job done. It seemed like those were the guys like Buck had this drawn out like before the game. The Grom

and then some mixture of Lugo Atovino and Diaz. Now Aadivino walks some dudes and I think that he'll have to obviously tighten that up a little bit. But You know, these managers get on these runs with these guys in the playoffs, like guys they really trust. They won't say that to the rest of the relievers, but they have a few guys who they trust in big situations.

And it's kind of looking like this will be it for him. You know, maybe sprinkle some other guys in. But it's, I always like seeing like who are the guys that they're going to go to? Who are the guys they're going to go to here? And it just seemed like this was the plan all along. Maybe not in that order, but those guys. Snell is our guy. I mean, kind of, just a tough day at the office for him, six walks.

His pitch count in the third inning was, you know, approaching 80, and you're like, what's going on here? You know, obviously not his dream playoff start. I mean, kudos on the Mets for putting together some good at bats and all of that. Anything else on this game, Trev, because this is the only series that we kind of have to preview the third game tonight. Musgrove Bassett coming up for him I mean this is awesome

man this is exactly what we want in these series where you know two good games going into a third one it's anybody's ballgame I don't know man Met's business like in game two are they going to show up and do that again we'll see the Padres they have their bullpen fresh

we haven't seen Have we seen Josh Hater yet? No, we haven't seen the bad man for them. So he, you talk about your playoff formula and Edwin Diaz coming out in the seventh? Don't be surprised if we see Josh when they need it. I mean, also Robert Suarez, he threw only seven pitches Friday night.

Luis Garcia, you saw him pumping. He threw 20 on Friday night. It's all hands on deck. It's a do-or-die game. But boy, do they have a formula. I mean, you've got Musgrove, who's been nails lately. He's ready to go.

I've been saying nails a lot. Do we like it? It's all right. It's okay. All right. It's okay. I'm going to try to space him out more. You have Sean Minaya ready to go in case of emergency.

If you need to bail on Musgrove, he is ready to go. With those good bullpen guys, you know, the Padres are built up and ready to go. Chris Bassett on the other side, he pitched in that, you know, second, second pressure pack start in the past week and a half for him. He was in that Atlanta series. We know Edwin Diaz is going to have to be available for whatever they need. And it's going to be very interesting to see if they have to connect that bridge from Bassett to Diaz, how are they going to do it?

David Peterson, you talk about playoffs happening quick. He looked really dominant in his outing. Are we going to see him, especially if there's a lefty lane? that Soto guy? Yes. Yeah, I mean, watch out for that. Joelli has been really good against lefties all year. He's got a funky lineup.

There's some, you know, Buck and the Mets are going to have a game plan for him coming into this. Are we going to see our guy Trevor May, Drew Smith, Lugo would be his third day in a row. He only threw four pitches yesterday, though. Otto threw 35 last night. So the Mets formula to get there is a little more slippery than the Padres, and that's the advantage of winning that first game. That being said, it feels like this game is in Bassett and Musgro's hands,

which, by the way, I know some of the name recognition isn't there with, you know, the Scherzer and DeGroms and even Darvish-Snell. This is a really good matchup. It's a very, very good matchup. You're totally right. I had something I was going to say,

and I totally forgot. Okay. So that's where my head is at. I don't like nails that much. I decided. Okay. I'll stop using it. I don't love it.

First game. First like game seven. I know it's game three, but first game seven, you know, winner go home for both teams. I like that aspect of it, man. The true desperation of it.

Padres, let's do it. I want to see some funky shit with the pitching. I love that. I love high leverage, bringing in these guys early in the game. Like I want more of that. That's so fun to me. like I said, I like

decisions like that being made. I just, I want to see people have to use their brains during the game. I want to see Buck Shawalter like looking at the book and talking to his dudes and Melvin just like, what do we do, what do we do? And then that decision ends up winning you the game or losing the game. I love that, man.

I mean, two of the more respected managers in baseball, you got, for game three starters, you're going to have two of the best game three starters that you're going to quick as a leash, like all these things happen in these games. Do we see Trent Grisham slide up the lineup? Like you're saying, he's been a boogeyman this series. You know, Machado and Soto, Soto's stat line ends up looking fine. It felt like those guys had a couple pitches that they could have really done damage on.

They looked locked in. ProFar has been a problem of the trade guys. You know, Bell, you know, is Brandon Drury going to be back out there? I don't know. I don't know. I'm interested to see what that Padres lineup looks like. The Mets, they're going to be interesting. They slid Marte up because he had the spark plug game one.

Do they slide him back down after an 0 for 5? You talk about decisions getting made. Decisions are going to start getting made at 2 when these lineups start to get written up that are going to impact. And like we've said, coming into these series, even the Blue Jays, and we're about to talk about the Cardinals, and even the race, you know, you have a full season, 162, and then two games, it's over.

One game tonight. You know, we haven't gotten to Beauminato yet, but you can see how in an instant, you know, one game feels a lot different than 162. Who did you pick? I don't remember who you picked for this series. I picked the Mets. I picked the Mets.

I think the Pades. Yeah, okay. I picked the Mets. I'll stay with them. Dude, it's razor thin. Like, it's one baseball game. To pretend I know, do I think the Padres have the slightest advantage

with their bullpen being fresher and deeper? And I think I like Musgrove a little more than Bassett. Yes. That's nothing. In one game, that's nothing. So I'll stay with Los Mets. Yeah, I mean, I pick the Padres to win the series. I mean, again, we're just picking to pick, dude.

Nobody knows. Pete Alonzo could walk up and hit three homers today. He could go over five. It's basically. Or he can go for, yeah. Yeah. We'll be streaming tonight. We're going to have a full jam crew.

We had a blast last night that we got ice guys. They're silly boogers and Kenobio packs. Joe's might be bopping around. We got ice maybe back at. I don't think Jolly's coming. Big weekend for Jolly. Yeah, love you, Jolly. Good luck.

And yeah, we'll be back talking about this game tomorrow as it's the only game three going down. And Trev, it is the only game three going down because the last game, 8.30 kickoff in the loo. Albert Pujos, Yadier Molina, these Cardinals in St. Louis, one of the best baseball cities that you'll come upon. Phillies. They stole that game yesterday.

Or did they take that game? Aaron Nola on the bump. Yeah, that's the same thing. One of the best pitchers in baseball. Miles Michaelis, huge season. Awesome mustache. He comes out. Second inning.

No doubt. Treves Guy Guy Guy. Bryce Harper. There's no doubters and there's that. just a video game home run from Bryce Harper solo shot 435 feet in the second inning and it would stay that way because Michaelis was good. Aaron Nola was pretty dominant. Four hits, one walk, no earn runs through 6.2.

The Phillies get another run on a sack fly. They got a lot of action on the bases. My guy, Monty, is fighting through 2.2 innings. two hits, three walks, three strikeouts, no Ernie's, Gallegos and Hicks. They do their job out of the St. Louis bullpen. And then we see this Philly's pen, a bullpen we've talked about a lot over the last couple years. Alvarado comes out.

Walk gets two outs. Sir Anthony Dominguez. One hit. No walks, two Ks. And then Led Zefflin, your boy. he comes in and we've got guys ending Hall of Fame careers potentially. Pujos gets the hit off Dominguez.

He gets pinched run for. Goldie and Aeronado get punched out. They come back out for the ninth. Dickerson fights one off, keeps the season alive. Yachty, same. puts one into right field. got two on Tommy Edmund is up I'm screaming for Tommy put one in the gap he fouls out one of the worst feelings in baseball and Philly starts to celebrate they take two in St. Louis they shut them out

at home in the second game steal the first game from the jaws of defeat and the Philadelphia of Phillies, how's your NL East? They are moving on. Trevor. Whoa. You have to give all the credit to the Phil's here. I mean, look, you went and shut out this team. Paul Goldsman didn't get a hit in the series.

Did Aronado? Yeah, he had one hit in the series. I think he was one for eight or something like that. I mean, that's, you have to shut those guys down and you did it. They went one for 11 with runners in scoring position in the series. That ain't going to get it done. So all the credit goes to these guys I mean the bullpen who we kind of like

Hey yeah that's going to be a weak point for them They get it done The defense They get it done Yeah all in my mentions Alec Bohm making that play Stealing one from Aeronado Taunting him

Oh you're the best defensive third baseman league I don't know not in this series So it all came Phil's Bryce with the big homer there to start things off You got to score first in these games man And then you're get to start with a guy like Noel, you score first, put the pressure on that Cardinals offense, and that's exactly what they did.

Dude, it's, it's awesome to see, man. Like the brand of baseball they're playing right now is exactly where they want to be. And they went in, yeah, they stole the first game. No doubt about that, they stole the first game. You know, a bunch of lazy ground balls finding holes. But game two, they went out and freaking beat the Cardinals at home. And they got, I mean, you got to have all the confidence in the world if you're the Phillies right now. The way you're starting pitching is pitched.

That's, you have to have those guys go. They went. And then you get the offense going a little bit. And they're a force, man. They're not just like sneaking into this thing. And they're a force. There's been a lot of talk about pitching this wildcar weekend because it's been incredible. And especially the starters.

I mean, even going back to yesterday, Beaver McClan, you know, Luis Castillo and what he did, Manoa, Darvish, Scherzer, you know, Wheeler for the Phil's. Kentana dropped it. And then going into, you know, McKenzie Glassnow. You know, Robbie Ray last year, Cy Young winner, I know he hasn't been as hot. Gossman, who's been electric. Jacob de Grom, arguably the best pitcher in the world.

Snell and what he's done. And Aaron Nola, not a guy that rolls off a lot of people's tongues as one of the best, the best pitchers in baseball. Even Wheeler, because, you know, he's a FIP guy. He, you know, a lot of people, you jump to Wheeler, he got the ball in game one. Aaron Nola is one of the best of the best, and he shut them down, 6.2 with the Cardinals back against the wall.

He deserves all the credit in the world. Bryce Harper in a big playoff game. Enjoy him in any short playoff series. Because that guy can ruin your night. Just like we mentioned, Pete Alonzo, could have a three-home or night tonight? Bryce Harper could do that on you in any given game. Shout out to the Phillies bullpen who followed it up.

The Phillies defense, they made the plays. Like you said, we've been brutal on that defense. And, you know, it's part of the reason we lose respect, I think, slightly for Wheeler and Nola. Because we see their ERA a little higher and we're like, well, you know, that ballpark and they don't have defense, but you still got to be a little better. The defense showed. The defense showed up. Alec Bohn.

I mean, his season could be a 30 for 30 already. What he's doing in this series. Do they give up MVP's for these series? I don't think they do. I don't think they do. You would have won it. Think so?

Maybe. You know what? I'm getting killed in my mentions. Philly's fans. I had the quote. quote, on this show, previewing the Sears. I said, Aronado's going to break your heart with some defensive plays. You think you're going to steal a couple runs,

and Aronados and say, no, no, no, I got you. And it was the opposite, man. Alec Bome did that to Aronado. Alec Bome was that guy, and you have to give credit, man. So I'm fine. Come kill me my mentions. I don't care, man. I'm happy for the Phillies.

Happy for Reese or all those guys in that clubhouse, man. Like, Topper. That was one thing after the game that just kept saying. Toppers our guy. Steady all throughout the year. Like set the tone. And I think, you know, I talk shit about managers all the time. But there is something to be said about when he came in

and having to steady them throughout the year. And now he's got him rolling, man, in the playoffs. Going on to the DS, let's fucking go. It's awesome, dude. Can I say something? Brandon Marsh looks disgusting. Like, Okay.

The beard is intense. If you want to go full beard, that's fine. You know, a little Duck Dynasty baseball. Knock yourself out, kid. His hair! It's like soaking wet. It's always wet. And it's long.

And it's, do, are there any girls that genuinely like that? Or is the whole point to not? I just want to know how much he washes it. I'm curious. It's gross. Whets it all the time. I can never tell how clean it is. It's gross.

400 in the series. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and he tracks balls down, and we saw, you know, all the little decisions that go into this. And, you know, we don't say it a lot during the postseason. You still know your team better than us. So St. Louis, they had choices to make coming into this game. They started Yeppez because he had the home run yesterday,

and there was a ball that dropped between him and Newport. It ends up not hurting them as my guy Monty fought through it. I mentioned it earlier. I think for St. Louis, hey, this is playoff baseball, right? we're seeing teams scrap for runs anywhere against a lot of high-level pitching. Eighth inning, pool holes, gets the single after Newt Bar walks. First and second, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Aeronado. Trev, you know I know better than to say this,

because I think people believe in it too much, and it's where baseball is brutal, because, you know, we're talking 92-mile-per-hour sliders. Goldie got a couple pitches to hit. you know, it's not like there was just pitches in the dirt and he was swinging through him. Like he had a couple pitches to hit. He ends up swinging at a pitch out of the zone. Eighth pitch of the at bat.

So it's not a bat at bat. Like if he takes that eighth pitch, I'd say like hell of a pat, hell of an at bat from Paul Goldschmidt. But instead, and then Nolan Aeronato swings through a slider too. So I don't know. Like those are the two guys. if you told Cardinals fans season on the line in the eighth inning, I think they pick those two. Maybe Albert sneaks in there,

but, um, and they don't get it done. Yeah, they had their chances. And Sir Anthony, I played with him. He has swinging,

miss stuff. I've seen a lot of bats go through those pitches. So, you know, whether it's some funk and it doesn't really show up on TV, I don't know. But yeah, you're totally right.

You're St. Louis. You want those guys up in that situation. They don't come through. Um, and now you're going home. I think we have to talk about Pujols and Molina, both getting hits in their last at bat.

So I think that's meaningful. I think that's really cool. I know they didn't want to go out like this, and they'd want to keep going, and it was supposed to be, you know, the storyline that was going to get into the World Series. But they both got the ovation, and I don't know, man. I liked it.

I like seeing them get a hit in their last at bat, even though they end up losing the game. I mean, their careers are over. there's two of the people that we've, every single baseball season that I like can really remember, Albert Pujols and Yaddy Molina have been involved in it.

And I've talked about them and watched them play. And then now we're not going to see it again. It's kind of crazy to think about that, man. Trev, it's one of those things. We, um, we had a funny phase in our Bronx office where we would put YouTube TV on. Like, you know, we'd maybe if we did a talking Yanx or talking baseball,

like they'd stream it out there and they'd listen because, you know, a lot of baseball fans like Yankee fans. And then it would go into the YouTube algorithm. So, you know, there was a ninth, I think the 98 home run derby used to roll on repeat. And sometimes classic games would pop up. And you forget all of these little memories and plays and pitches or, oh yeah, that happened.

And oh, my God, they dropped a foul pop. You forget it in history because you remember the end, what happened. Like, that's what your brain remembers. There was a little bit of this that you were like, this has to end up being like an all-time classic. Like Albert Pujos gets the hit and then gets Pinch Ran for

and gets the ovation of what could be the end of a Hall of Fame career. Or if you get a ball in the gap, we might get to see him play tomorrow. Yadier Molina, who hadn't hit all year. Like, it, you know, Albert and Yaddy kind of had the contradicting final seasons, right? Like Yaddy kind of had the last year that it's like, dude, you're awesome. You are a Hall of Famer.

But, you know, you're a catcher that's caught a lot of innings, my guy. Albert, you know, found the fountain of youth, Ponce de Leon. I don't even know what you do with that. Yaddy, two outs, two strikes, season on the line, gets it done. stays in and drives one. He gets pinched run for it. He gets the ovation. I'm having this moment like,

I'm going to watch this as a YouTube replay in five years. And it doesn't happen. Yeah, think about that, dude, Malina. Like end your career, ending the game in the playoffs. That's not fun, dude. Like, you're going to be thinking about that for a long time. But instead gets the knock. He's able to ride off into the sunset.

Like I said, obviously he didn't want to go home yet. But if you're going to go home, it's nice to have that last knock in the bag. You got to feel good about that. that. And yeah, it was kind of funny because I was like, the bottom of that Cardinals lineup felt a little thin. I mean, hey, that's really unfair to say that when you're seeing Aaronnola, because a lot of bottom. But, you know, Brendan Donovan's really young. I know he's nice, but he's young. Juan Yeppez got thrown in. He didn't start the first game. Dickerson, you know, didn't have

his best year. Ended up having a nice game. Yadier Molina. Tommy Edmund is kind of the reverse, you know, second lead-off guy for that lineup, that I was saying in that inning, I was like, give me a Cardinals guy that's like the threat that's going to end this game, that's going to walk it off. Joe's McFly and his mountains of knowledge came back from Comic-Con and he was being real wonky. He did something funky happen to him at Comic-Con and he wouldn't tell us. But he was saying, he's like, actually in the postseason, you almost want the guy that's

about to make his postseason memory. Like Paul Goldschmidt's going to get remembered either way. But you're looking for a guy that can kind of put their stamp on it. Man, I thought Tommy Edmund, with how much we've talked about him this year and who he is, I thought for sure he was throwing a ball in the gap. Carlson was going to be giving it hell and trying to score from home. The foul popout is my most deflating out in baseball easily. and it's just brutal on the fifth pitch of the at bat

that that's how it goes down. Yeah, he had the hole over there because they were shifted over, first and third, they were shifted over a little bit on him. He had the hole, he gets it over there, but with the pop fly,

like if he just puts it out on the ground, hits the groundball to third base, game goes on, here we go, here we go. You're right, pop-up foulouts, are the, worst. And I did that a lot. For some reason. Feels illegal. Like, it's like I kind of did something right and I'm not getting rewarded.

Tough. What felt like a storybook season for the Cardinals for a while, 93 wins, their retirement tour of their three, you know, legends. Doesn't happen. And I know, I know Wayno was getting worn out down the stretch. And I know Flaherty has his issues. And hey, you know, we're, we're, we're, kind of media now. I do a baseball show and blah blah, and I don't watch every Cardinals game, and I asked this last time, I think if I'm a Cardinals fan, no Flaherty, no Wayno in this series. I know. There wasn't really an avenue for those guys. It wasn't the problem. Yeah. It wasn't the problem. Jack Flaherty may be in relief in that, that first one, although again, Palante kind of

did what he was asked. He did his job, yeah. A little bit of that wouldn't sit great with me. I mean, I get that because I wanted to see Jack pitch. I thought they did, like going back to game one when they had them double-barrowed, I thought they did point to Jack so you're the guy. And I was like, oh, I was on Instagram live and I was like, okay, Jayflair's coming in, I got to go. And then all of a sudden, they came back from commercial and it was Palante in there. And I mean, I think it was the right choice.

He did his job. He got the ground balls. They were just hit in the wrong places, bro. Yeah. And sometimes that happens. So I don't think you can really put it on that. I think they had the guys in that they wanted, and I think it's just a postseason three game series

that fucking anything can happen, man. Right. Philly's took advantage of it. Dude, they came back and did it, dude. And that's why momentum is so important in the playoffs. Like, you know, you win that game, and it's like, are you playing with house money? You kind of feel that way.

And it's like you get to play free the next day. The pressure is not there. Treve, it's a great point. I mean, like you said, the Ray's bullpen, you gave them more credit because they deserve it because every time they were out there, their season could end. Yeah.

I think we saw that a little bit yesterday. Even with that Padres' late comeback. Like, if you win the first game of the wild card is we're learning this new format, House Money Day? That's a good spot to be in. I love House Money. You can do funky things.

You can try things. You can do all sorts of, You know, it's interesting. Now that we're here, Jakey. Yeah. We got one game left, but, you know, essentially this wildcar round is over-ish. What do you feel about it? You give me a little house money around a roulette table.

I turn into a very different guy. That is the worst game, but so fun. So fun. When that ball starts bouncing, all of my demons come out. I like the format. I like that it's not one game. Yeah. Because that just stings so much more.

Like, I guess that's the thing. At the end of the day, St. Louis and Toronto, you're hurting bad. Ray's fans, too, you're hurting. But at the end of the day, especially Toronto and St. Louis, you had two games at home and you didn't win one of them. So there's kind of no coming back from that. Like, in previous years, it's one game. One ball hits the foul.

pull and your season could be over and that's baseball Susan. With this, you had two games at home and you didn't win one. So you can't really say much. That's it. Do you like it? I do. I do. I think that causes managers to have to think it's not long enough where you're just

blowing everybody and blowing everybody, blowing everybody out in the bullpen and your next series is tough. I think everyone's going to be fresh. I think it's going to be fine. I like it. Three games seems right. One game was awesome for fans, but crappy for baseball players.

Yeah. I think three games feels right. Well, the Phillies go on to play the Braves. How's your NLE East? Like I said, one of those teams will be in the CS, and if the Mets win tonight,

it would be a very good look for the NLEs. So we'll see if Coastal elitus reign strong. Either way, they will, I guess. San Diego. They're on that other coast. Anything else before we go, Trevor Plouffe. That's it, man. Okay. One game tonight. We will be live streaming. Join us. Have some fun. Buy some merch. Our merch, me, Trev, and Z-Man decked out today in John Boy Media Swag. We have great

fall gear. Trev's Windbreaker, my hoodie, the hats, all of it. Go check that out. We'll be streaming tonight. We'll see. I don't think we're Do we do a separate Mets Padres recap? Yeah, because then we're going to do a Mets Whoever they're

Or would do a Dodgers, whoever they're playing preview. So yeah. So okay. So check out for that On the Tube tomorrow. I guess podcast only That'll just be one app.

We'll record that clean. Thank you guys. Enjoy. And we are almost on to D.S. Baseball. Thank you. We love you. See you soon. I won't do it. No shoe on the head.

I will not do it. Maybe Mariners fans will accept you. Never worn these. Birkenstocks are just not me. Jake sucks. You just lost all of Seattle. He had a chance. You can tell I have it. I've worn him a few times.

See my toes right there? I see the toe prints. Olivia will not let me wear it. Always blew my mind on those like fringley sandals. that where your toes would go would just like empty? Like how's that work? No cowboy hat and not and I can't wear these either. What the fuck?