Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - The Most Chaotic Week of Baseball This Season

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

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Hello and welcome to talking baseball. It's the last recap. The AL needs to be decided. The wild card needs to be decided. Trevor Plouf couldn't handle it. Jolie Olive is here. Let's talk ball. Nolan McLean.

Doesn't matter who it is. They're striking out. Unless it says Suzuki. Two homers. Hello and welcome to Talking Baseball, the last episode of the regular season. My name is Jake Storelli We are playing

We look like the Rockies right now No that was really real I take that back instantly Who's no we look like the Mets We've got our two We got our top prospects Okay Filling in and maybe making a miraculous run

Like the 06 Cardinal stat coming Inbound BBD is producing his butts off I know the ladies like that And Jolly Olive is here for Trevor Plouffe on his annual family camping trip, which I guess this is a good, a better time to go than October, but maybe a week early. I don't know.

I'm over it. Jolly Olive, how are you? The amount of times I've heard Jolly Olives here for Trevor Plouf in the past 30 days is unacceptable. Camping? By the way, BPD's Stalling Marte. I'm one of the rookies because you're calling back the hot sexy vet. The stud.

I'm good. Mets won a series. Can't say that has happened very often in the past month. And with three to play, we got playoff baseball in the regular season this weekend. So very exciting stuff going on. We were, we just watched the Mets together. We had a nice time. Go, let's go.

Go, Mets go. I won't do you. Jake was singing that to me for like hours straight. Cubs just whooped our butt today. Just looking at me dead in the eye and going, oh, sorry. You don't like the song. I like the song. I just couldn't.

sing it. I can't help you with that. Jolly, it's going to be a unique episode, A, because we have the dream team here. B, there's three games left. Like, it's non-negotiable. There's not a team with four. There's not a team with two.

There's three games left. The standings are hyper-important. Trevor normally handles that. Do you think you can? I hope you can. Who? The AL East and the AL Central are tied. With three games to go.

That's insane. That is insane. The National League slightly less juicy, no shots fired, except the last wild card spot, which involves your New York Mets who would be in the playoffs as of today. The Cincinnati Red snakes are dead. Let's shorten the season. Snakes are not dead. Snakes are dead.

We're going to talk about. Snakes are not dead. Well, then let's talk about it. I'll chew through the National League quick. If you're new to the show, I mean, it's going to. going to be, we're going to talk about the five teams that matter at this point of the season because that's what matters. We'll talk about, well, Hunter Goodman 90 RBI. Best catcher season in Rockies history. Let's do some National League baseball.

And we're heading out to lovely Cincinnati who controlled their own destiny. I'm sick of that phrase because so many teams did and are blowing it. The pirates, they came out and they took game one Oviato versus Singer. Mm-hmm. O'Neill Cruz out does Ellie Dayle. Cruz. Pittsburgh jumped out 4-0-0. It was too much. And the next day was Skeen's Day.

But Hunter Green was there. But Skeens was better. Reds. They dropped the first two in extras. They come back. They salvage the final game. Noel V. Marte with the RBI to lead it off and the game-saving. Home run catch. Ladolo looked nasty. Reds win one game, which has them from in the wild card to out of the wild card,

not controlling their destiny anymore. There you go, Gun. The Dodgers take two out of three from the Diamondbacks, and in a series that encompasses the whole Diamondback season. They won the first game. Dude, you're getting a Dell. Adrian Del Castillo in the first two games with clutch hits. They come back against the Dodgers bullpen.

Tell me if you've heard that before. they go to extras. Here's Clayton Kershaw out of the bullpen. What? Dodgers win the game. Snakes couldn't push one across, and then Dodgers blow them out on the final game of the series

to take two out of three, which allows the Metropolitan who take two out of three from the Cubs. The one game they didn't win, Jolly Olive was in attendance. The Curse of the Olives? They win the bread games. What a comeback, finding Nimmo

with the big game-tying Homer in the first. one and then rep Beatty have a year okay uh and who his name is tyrone a couple big plays being back for the Mets in this series they are in the yawks Padres in Brewers played this had some implications but not a ton of implications Padres win the first game in extra innings Pavetta final tune up for the postseason Padres roll him Randy Vasquez gonna see him in some October innings seven shut piece Brewers salvages set, Babe Jansen homering off the giant brick building

they put in left field in San Diego. Phillies Marlins played three. Phillies, after dropping the first game, Alberto Hernandez, by stock now in him. They come back in extra innings to win. Phillies, they roll them in game two. Walker Bueller is pitching shutout baseball for the Phillies. Did you know?

They win one-nothing against Jansen junk. Cardinals took two out of three from the Giants. I'm sorry, guys. I don't... We're here. It's over. And the Braves took two out of three from the Nationals. James Wood is back.

Michael Harris, two homers. It's over. That is what happened in the National League. And that National League was brought to you by Seek. Today's episode is sponsored by Seekek. The playoff chase is on. And football is here. The Giants.

BPD's Giant. and Jolly's Giants. Big weekend. Kind of. Really? In a way, why don't you go see a game with the number one rated

ticketing app? 70,000 concerts, sports, festivals, anywhere that there's a seat. There'd be a little asterisk on that. Places, a lot of places with seats. Green means good, red means bad. You know how to use the app.

And we're giving you a discount. Talking 10 for 10% off your next set of tickets at Siki. That's code talking 10. 10% off any tickets at Siki. Jolly, do you have the standings? I do. Do you want to hear them? Should I only read the teams that matter? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. The Philadelphia Phillies. They've won the NLEs, 94 and 65, but no one's getting to 100 this year. Kind of crazy. The Mets in second place in the division, but more importantly, occupying that last wild card spot at 82 and 77. Everyone else in the east does not matter. The Brewers still the best team in ball.

96 and 63 leading the NL Central already clinched. The Cubs have clinched their wild card and their matchup with an 89 and 70 record. They're trying to maintain that home field advantage and then still lurking down there. Cincinnati Reds 81 and 78. Three games over and one game back in the wild card race. You're Los Angeles. Dodgers take two out of three. Probably should have been three out of three.

90 and 69 on the year. They have clinched the West. The Padres don't lag very far behind. 87 and 72. They're trying to get that home field advantage in the wild card series, which is still up for grabs and the Diamondbacks. Snakes alive, hanging on by a thread, 80 and 79, one game over. They're probably going to need every game from here on out,

but they still have a chance two games back of the wild card with a tiebreaker. Thank you, Jack. Don't. Not now. That's your name. Come on. People don't know that. Well done.

Thanks. Much better than Trev. He just gets lost. the twins get mentioned and you're like, it's the NL standing. I have to connect with nature. Rooksley's good. He reminds me of me. Luke Kishol, they're teaching him second base.

Anyways. Thank you for that, Jolly. And yeah, I believe the Brewers are one win away or one Phillies loss away from clinching the one seed in the National League. They're both clinch for one, two. And with a loss by the Phillies, it'd have to be a sweep and a sweep. for them to switch places that you're probably looking at Brewer's 1C. It's one of the more confident things we could talk about this episode,

and then the Phillies with the two. The Los Angeles Dodgers will win the West, and that's good. They will play in a three-game wild card, either against your Mets or the Reds or the snakes. We'll talk about that, obviously. And then Padres Cubs, which has been lining up for a while. do think that would have to be essentially sweeper be swept for them to switch home field and go from Chicago to San Diego. It looks like it's happening in Chicago. Again, we'll see what drama

this weekend brings us that shouldn't be part of it, but you never know with this beautiful baseball season. With that, Jolly, let's talk Mets. I just did that. You like them. I do. They played the Cubs. Like I mentioned, we were there Wednesday night. Thank you to the beautiful people of Chicago. We had a event at the Draft King Sportsbook. A lot of ball knowers there. A question was asked,

what makes a ball knower? Which spent me into a cycle. I'm still not out of it. I was a good answer. You know, just sitting on the airplane rocking like Leo. What's his name? Leo DeRosher? Who's the old Braves pitching coach?

Anyways, Jolly, where are you at? Yeah, I know you just recorded Shea Station with Jerry Blevins in the office. Good seeing him. Speaking of six. You guys double hugged. Speaking of six, seven. Oh, come on. We had a nice moment.

Where are you guys at? I guess what did you guys just talk about? Yeah, this was a win or die series for the Mets. They dropped two out of three to the Nationals, which you can't do if you're going to be a playoff team, but apparently you can get away with it because the Mets went to Riggily and took two out of three. Game one was incredible in that series. Mets were down 6-1.

They got only four outs from their starting pitcher David Peterson. Bullpen patched together. Nimmo and Alvarez had huge homers. The Mets are able to take two out of three because of that win. We were at game two. We had a great day in Chicago. I'll say it. We had a really nice day.

That was awesome. Wrigley was awesome. Murphy's after the game was awesome. We had a fun day. Big series for the Mets. They've been beating the good teams. they've been losing to the bad ones. And now they're going to play the Marlins next to.

We're kind of in the middle of those two things. So stay tuned. Where are you at with the Marlins? Because I know that used to be a house of horrors for the Mets. I think it still is, especially when, like, I think Mets fans at the very beginning the season were like they circled Miami end of the year last year

and said, this is going to matter. And here it is and it matters. I will say the Marlins line up their three best pitchers because they still had hope. Yeah, I didn't see that yet. I know. They had to,

They had hope that they could still clinch if they were able to, I think, win the Philly series. They didn't end up doing that, but they still have Sandy, Yuri, and Edward Cabrera going in these three games. Jolly, this is a disaster. It's a nightmare, Jake. It's an absolute nightmare. We can go into the nitty-gritty there. We don't have to.

The Mets have good numbers against Yuri. They have bad numbers against Sandy. They have played well in Miami recently. We'll see. They got to go out there and win a series. If you can't beat the Marlins in a series, you probably don't deserve to be a playoff team anyway. The best thing the Mets have gone from the game. is that the Reds are playing their big bad wolf.

They're playing the Brewers in Milwaukee. The Brewers have won 13 straight series against the Reds. They're 7-3 against them this year. The only question is, how much longer are they going to try? Because like you just mentioned, the top seed is technically up for grabs still, but with one Philly's loss or one Brewers win, it's curtains. So the question is, how does Pat Murphy manage?

And can the Reds conquer a demon? I don't know. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. Jolly, that's a lot. Hey, Brett Bady. I like Brett Bady.

That's your starting third baseman in a one-game playoff? Well, we were at game two. We got to watch some Mark Viento's defense firsthand. The Mets are a bad defensive team. They have a lot of shortcomings there. You mentioned Tyrone Taylor. Him coming back really fortifies their outfield defense. But yeah, I mean, the Mets have to give their pitching every advantage

because their starters might only go two. Like they have, right now, they have to be the 2024 Tigers. Last year the Tigers had one starting pitcher and they went to Game 5 at the DS because A.J. Hinch just did pitching chaos. Guys are going to go two. They're going to face the order one time through.

That's kind of how the Mets have to treat this. Their one starting pitcher was the best starting pitcher in baseball. I want that as a caveat to pitch in chaos. Hey, McLean. Oh, McLean's, be that guy. Best for a woman. Man, it's Jolly, I want, ooh, this is tricky.

Okay. I want to see the Mets in the postseason because how they navigate that pitching is wild. Because I've said this, I've said this probably five times now. I said that like, that's a lot. I don't know. We talk a ton.

You guys are not that dramatic. Thank you, everyone that listens. Nice. In theory, everyone that can come into the game, I'd be like, okay, I'll watch them for an inning. We saw Clay Holmes and Sean Munaya pitch an inning in our game that we saw at Wrigley, which is, I wasn't expecting that at all. Why didn't he cover home? Well, because he should have been out of the inning, but Marfianto's made an error at third base.

That Beatty. Because Pete Crow Armstrong. Welcome back to Shea Station. Pete Crow Armstrong, join me. Jerry looks shorter. Sorry, that's mean. Cubbies. in the series, Sayas Suzuki turns on a couple balls,

which his, he's had a rough go of it recently slash in the second half. Yeah, I don't know. I think the Cubs are just in this interesting spot where the Padres have been lined up for them for a while. We did our live show outside of Wrigley. I asked you and Joe's, who's the team from the opposite league that you wouldn't want to see coming out of the World Series. Joe's McFly said the Padres.

A couple Cubs fans were like, yeah, you don't want to see the Padres because their bullpen can end a series instantly, never mind the star power at the top. Right. Hey, the Cubs have that same star power. Same, same, but different. That the environment at Wrigley,

I hope home field matters. I hope home field matters. Because otherwise, this three-game playoff, it's in my head. I will say Cubs got really bad news on Cate Horton. Craig Counselor didn't sound confident that he's going to come back. He's been so good for them in the second half, like best starting pitcher and baseball good.

They still have enough guys there to get through a four, or excuse me, five game or seven game series. But Horton was definitely at the top end of that. Now you're looking at Showdod, definitely getting a start in the three game series. Tyone probably gets the ball in a longer series. Cubs rotation is definitely a strength. Bullpen for them right now is not.

So as many innings as they can get from the starters, the better for them, whereas the Padres are kind of the inverse. The Padres have a lot of question marks in their starting rotation, but if they can get four innings from Dillon's Seas with a lead, they might just win a ballgame. I don't know if they can get four innings from Dillen's Seas with the lead. I don't know either. Also, insider information here.

Scoop, scoop, breaking. We saw Kyle Tucker running and he looked pretty good. Looks healthy. A guy on the aisle with a calf thing. I think he's coming back and deaching for their final series. That matters. Huge. And that's just all the chaos.

Like Kate Horton was going to get the ball in game one. He still might. We're still waiting for injury updates. Kyle Tucker is one of the best players in baseball that like, those are big updates for your cubbies. What voice was that? Let's make sure that doesn't happen again. That was like sleazy finance guy.

Why'd you double down? Anyways. Jeff Passon brings things out of me. To a boner ad. One thing. Francisco Alvarez. Good? Good.

How old is it? A lot of hair. So you guess. You and Francisco Alvarez. Have you guys have a hair off? Brothers? I don't want to see that. The best.

Jolly, the team that the Mets are now controlling. The Mets are now controlling. The Mets are now. now controlling their own destiny after not controlling their own destiny. You love that phrase. You said it twice. It's just so... Control their fate, I think, is better.

Control their path. Here's my thing. People have started saying it 10 games out. And that means if you win all 10 games, which teams don't really do unless you're the Seattle Mariners or the brewers. They're like, yes, you control your own destiny. You don't. Anyways.

The Reds went to, went to Cincinnati. We're in Cincinnati. Excuse me. Facing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Yeah. And knowing that Skeen's Day is day two, I think that really affects game one.

And the pirates jump out to a four-nothing lead. We get an Ellie Homer, which it's been 73 years. Titanic meme. Nobody cares. Keeping it topical, very good. Nobody cares. That by losing that game, they stop controlling their own destiny. You have skeins on the mound who goes six plus scoreless for his eighth time this season.

First player in MLB history to have back-to-back seasons with a sub two ERA, a 10 plus K per nine, and 100-plus innings. Pits? Don't. Don't. You didn't see that thing going around Instagram, right? I really was hoping you weren't going to do this. Pittsburgh. They take that game next year innings.

They lose that. 11, 2 outs, base is loaded. Noel V. Martee grounds out. Maybe that motivates him the next day. As he makes one of the catches of the season or hopefully a catch that goes down in Cincinnati history or lore if they could get into the postseason and do anything there.

Lodolo with maybe the best he's looked all season, 12 strikeouts. This whole elbow gets above the wall. That's crazy. That Cincinnati is here. Like you mentioned, your Mets hope is that Cincinnati goes to play Milwaukee that has been... Some of the numbers from that series are insane. And I guess the other thing, and I've said this previously,

which maybe I'll just stop fucking saying, because I've said everything previously at this point of the season. With Milwaukee getting the buy, it's not like you're ducking anyone. Like, you still see their best pitchers and almost guaranteed to. Like, in a normal regular season game, if the Reds were up to, you wouldn't see Milwaukee's best relievers. Right. You're going to see them anyways because it's their last throw day for four or five days.

So, Cubs, the Mets and Reds are walking into death traps. Yes. There's a world where they both lose their series, but, like, one of them gets in and it doesn't feel good. controlling their own destiny. That's, I think, seven times the show that you've said that. Here's what I'll say about the Reds. One, their series with the Pirates kind of felt like they were playing a lesser mirror of themselves,

a team that is a starting pitching forward team that if they get a little bit of offense, they win a game. Red should have won that series. I know that Skeen's Day is the middle day, but also they had Hunter Green going in that game, who has been the best pitcher in September. He's been absolutely nails. He just threw a complete game shutout for them. This was an incredibly winnable series, kind of a moment.

must have for them on their home turf that they weren't able to get done. Every game was incredibly close. Right now, their offense is, it's a struggle. Like, it's Novi-Marté and Miguel Anduhar, and that's kind of it. Like, the offense has been top to bottom, just underwhelming, and they've really relied on starting pitching to get them wins. For them, if they go to Milwaukee and they face who is going to be Milwaukee's guys that are going to be playing in playoff series, and they win that series, that means they've earned it. That means good for them. And they were able to conquer. or a demon there. But they're going to get Freddie in game three because that'll set him up on normal

rest to pitch game one of the DS. They're going to get Mizorowski and they're going to get Quinn Priester tonight. So it's not going to be easygoing for that offense that really needs to wake up if the Reds are going to make some noise here. But also they put themselves in his position with a good September to really make some noise. I mean, if you throw the Reds into a three game series with the Dodgers, the Dodgers offense hasn't been great as of late.

And the Reds starting pitching is up there with, like, the Phillies, in my opinion. In terms of, like, they got four guys that can give them quality start day in and day out. It's just can they get, as BPD shirt says, runs on the board. A little ball and play shout out. Yeah, Dodger fans, I guess, let us know. Who would you rather see at the end of this? Would you rather see the Cincinnati Reds and Hunter Green, but their top home run hitter, I think is Spencer Steer with.

on the year. Or do you want the Mets to come in who, pitching chaos, I don't know who's going to throw for them at all. There's some names, but it's Soto. It's Lindoor. It's Alonzo.

Lindor and Soto, the third pair of teammates to ever go 30-30. Can you name the others? One of them is Mets. It's Hojo and Darrell. And then the other one is Rockies. It's Dante and, uh,

Oh, fuck. I don't know. I don't know the other Rocky. Sorry. Fantastic baseball player. I. Ellis Berks. Okay.

Sorry. I already gave away the answer. I said fantastic baseball player. That's nothing. It's just fun. I picture when I was young and learning baseball, Ellis Berks at that point was like a Husky D.H. Then I,

when I found out Ellis Berks used to steal bases, I was like, oh. I don't like you call another guy's husky. I shared at the Cubs game that, you know, in hindsight, my mom buying me Husky clothing as a youth. I didn't think that was a normal. I just thought, excuse me, I thought that was normal. I just thought Husky was like a brand of clothing.

You overshared a little bit. Cincinnati, you do not control your own destiny. But you made tonight. You made tonight. What's wrong with you? And I'm interested to see what Milwaukee brings to the table. You know, A, Pat Murphy is not going to let them rest on any Laurel. In fact, he's probably trash talking his own players as they arrive.

They're running suicides midgame. Like, you might see that. You might see him, like, kick Freddie Peralta to the bullpen today. Just to like, well, Freddy was feeling a little too good. So those are the two teams that I think you have to be the most locked in about. Arizona. Don't sleep, man. Well, why? 2.1% chance, Arizona.

First of all, I'm so sick of playoff odds. Give me a break. And that's a lot like 99 during their losing street. Give me a break. They're facing San Diego. Yes. In San Diego. Mike Schiltz has all but said,

we're not trying this series. He said yesterday on foul territory, I'm putting my pictures in bubble wrap. So whatever probabilities you see for them, I wouldn't believe that too much. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks effectively punted the finale of the Dodgers series to set themselves up with their three best starting pitchers for the set. So there is a very realistic world, in my opinion,

where the Diamondbacks win all three of these games. You don't believe that. I'm reading some of the names in the Diamondbacks bullpen. Sure. I enjoy a lot of baseball. I follow a lot of baseball. I'm not going to docks these guys. There's a lot of young guys that I hope I know there.

names better soon. Dude, them losing that Dodgers extra inning game. Yeah, that was tough. That was it. They had them. Especially after winning the first game. They had them. They came back against the Dodgers bullpen.

Shohei. My God. Have the Dodgers announced their wild card rotation yet? I mean, we got to talk about who came out of the bullpen for the Dodgers in that game, too. Old man Clayton. Not that. I mean, that was crazy. Oh.

Roki Sasaki came out of the bullpen and looked really good. And we just talked about the brewers. Basically every good brewer's starting pitcher in the last five years at homegrown started in the bullpen, threw some gas, and then found it as a starter. Maybe that's what Roki needs. I don't know. He looked really good, though. And Dodgers are probably going Yamamoto, Snell, and then Otani if they need him in game three.

That works. That works really well. That's without using Tyler Glass. now. Or if they win the first two games, then you have And you have Shoah and Glass now. What is this?

It was a weird year, man. And they, I think Dodger fans would admit, they never played the version of baseball we thought. Yeah. Never. Like, we thought there was going to be a month or a streak this season where you looked at every box score. It was seven shut from Snell.

It was seven shut from Glass. It was six shut from Shoah. Mookie Betz player of the week. Who's tracking players of the week? Freddie. I mean, Shohei did it. It just never clicked on all cylinders. There was times where their bottom of the lineup stats were like, what?

Like, if you guys can just do anything, we're probably getting hot. Let's be honest. I mean, they're kind of lucky that the Giants or Diamondbacks. I don't want to knock the Padres because they're, going to be firmly in the playoffs and could be lined up for exactly what they want. But like, if something else clicked in that division, I think we'd be talking about a very different story. I mean, I don't know.

The Giants really just faded away recently. They were hot in September and making a lot of noise. And they kind of just, you know, self-destructed at the end here. Snakes, if they didn't sell, how are we talking about them right now? I still think they made the right decision for where they were. but like, man, if they had still had Gino, nail her in this lineup and a couple of those bullpen guys, I don't know.

Shelby Miller was huge for them. They traded him. It's hard to say. It's hard to say. It's hard to say. It's hard to say. It's just not how baseball works, sadly. You know?

Wise. Very wise. I'm getting old. Let's see. What else from this? I don't know. I guess National League, I mentioned Phillies at the start.

What else in the national? National League needs to be mentioned, Jolly. I think that's it. I mean, I think you're going to get your top seat tonight. The twins have Joe Ryan going against the Fills against Aaron Nola. Not a great matchup for them. Wow. Brewers are throwing out pre-ster.

I think that's that is the National League. It's just keep your eye on those three teams. Mets, Reds, Diamondbacks is going to be absolute chaos. Tonight the Mets get Alcantra, who I think they have never beaten ever. So it would be a great time to start. Never beaten ever I can look in I'm sure that's not true

But watching Saniel O'Connor manhandle our lineup Reds with every tiebreaker That's nuts What They have every tiebreaker Yeah Nuts

Yeah Let's jump over To some American League baseball That's okay That's okay with me In the American League Go guards go No

The Cleveland Guardians take two out of three from the Detroit Tigers. They take the first game. How are your won? Scoobel v. Williams. Are we going to get that start again in a couple days? We'll talk about that. The Guardians go on. They knock around Jack Flaherty early.

There's George Valera. You know he's always in the mix. He kind of was. Had a really nice series. Guardians win that five to one. The Tigers, the sky is full. falling. Or is it? They come back, they win the final game of the series. Jamai Jones and Wenzel Perez set the tone early that the Tigers salvage the set. They are tied in the standings.

Cleveland has the tiebreaker. How did they even get here? We'll get into that. The Boston Red Sox kid had Yankee fans rooting for them as they took the first two games of the series, Gioito and Chris. both do enough hold them to one run while the offense. Nathaniel Lowe, that's right, he's there. Masataka Yoshita is hitting the ball this time in the season. Okay, okay. The Blue Jays, they come back, they salvage the set Bullpen Day, and Dalton Varshot Day.

Some stats on him coming up that leaves the ALEs in a precarious spot. The Houston Astros, they're still in the mix. We haven't talked about them, part of the reason is they dropped a series to the athletics. They only score one run in the first two games. Severino and Jeffrey Springs. What a year for the athletics. Framber Alert on the final day, Valdez, with his best start in a while,

overcomes Kurt's comma Knit with a couple home runs. The Yankees swept the white socks. Go listen to talking yanks. their first game was their pressure game, a la what I talked about with Cincinnati before. They were down late, they tie it in the ninth, they walk it up in the ninth. Caballero, the gentleman.

They go on to win the next two games. Aaron Judge, two homers, yep. The Rockies, they face the Seattle Mariners, and the Mariners swept them. And the story in baseball, Cal Raleigh, 60 home runs, you might have heard now. We're going to debate the MVP for the next three. Three hours.

Please no. Buckle up. What else happened? Julio's good. Jorge Polanco has a nice year. Are you happy? Eugenio's a homer away from 50. That would be record setting for baseball, right?

The Orioles took two out of three from the raise. Does it matter? It's going to matter more this weekend, as these two teams have opportunities to play. Spoiler. Dylan Beavers walk off. Where were you? Over it.

Twins. And the Texas Rangers played. God, also over that. Twins took two out of three, rallying for next year. I don't, I don't know. Bailey Ober, six-inning shutout. Tell your kids. And the Royals and Angels played.

I really like Vinnie Pasquanty. Nice guy, he homered. Bobby Witt's final season numbers are getting to rare air again. He might have seven war. Bryce Tedioso. That's not how you says his last name, but that's how Joe says it's stuck in my head. That's what happened in the American League.

Jolly, the American League was brought to you by Draft Kings. Why don't you guys go to Draft Kings, especially if you're a new customer, because right now $5 will get you $200 in bonus bets and score you over $200 off NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube and YouTube TV. We were just out at the Draft King Sportsbook. If you go to a game in Riggily, check it out. It is a sports viewing.

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Jolly, if you don't have the standings, I'm going to be furious. Jake, I'm so glad you asked for the standings because I do have them up. And did you know that there's a tie in the AL East for the top spot? 91 and 68 are your Toronto Blue Jays and your New York Yankees who have been playing very good baseball, five wins in a row. Toronto has the tiebreaker.

So if there's a tied record, that's your champ is. Boston Red Sox not far behind, but their division hopes are probably gone, 87 and 72 on the year. You'll see them in the wild card round. There's also another tie in the AL Central. Are you kidding? The Cleveland Guardians have the tiebreaker officially with that series win.

Them and the Tigers are both 86 and 73. It's going to come down to it. What is not up for grabs is the AOS Division title, which for the first time since 2001 belongs to the Seattle Mariners, 90 and 69 on the year behind them. Excuse me, the Houston Astros at 85 wins. They are currently on the outside looking in, And I cannot remember the last time they didn't make the playoffs.

I think it's 2016. It's been a very long time since October baseball didn't feature the Astros. It's been 73 years. Oh, Titanic. I just saw that in theaters. I don't even think the years are right. I hope it wins the Oscar. I'm going to find out what it is.

I hope it wins the Oscar. Leo DiCaprio, a pretty sneaky good actor. I think he's going to get some big roles going forward. 98? That's my guess. 98. 84. 84.

Yeah. What? Yeah. That movie looks good. Good. 84. When were you born? No, the meme is it's been 84 years. Okay.

I was going to say, that makes no sense. First, are you done with the standings? I cut you off. You're talking about Houston. I'm going to go fucking camping. Screw this, man. I'm out. Thank you, Jolly, for the standing.

Titanic earmuffs. First boobies I saw. They didn't need that. That whole painting scene. They didn't need that. I think that's common. Right. Yeah, no, of our, my era and surrounding ages.

It's like, oh, it's the Titanic. It's history. It's an all-time movie. And it's like, well. Shout out James Cameron. Hate me like one of your French girls. Release date December 19, 19, 1997. Okay, so I said 98 and I was close.

So I saw that in, so it was eight? It's important. You were eight? Is that too early? That's too early. Thank you, Jack. Stop. That's his name in Titanic.

Oh. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A little history lesson. Everyone's like, why are we listening to this? Yeah. They tuned out 40 minutes ago when you referenced it the first time. I want to watch, I just want to watch the baseball this weekend.

As you mentioned, Jolly, the need to knows. Blue Jays Yankees, same record. Blue Jays tiebreaker. So the Yankees will have to outwin the Blue Jays the rest of the way. if they want to win the East, which is just insane that the Blue Jays or the Yankees will one will win the East and have the buy. One will be the top wildcard team. That is cemented with last night's Yankee win.

The Mariners and Blue Jays, they could potentially shuffle the one or two seed, or the Yankees, depending what happens this weekend. and then the rest of it, good golly, Miss Molly. The Guardians and Tigers can still flip-flop. They have the same record. Like you said, guards have the tiebreaker after their dominant run of late. Still a negative run differential,

but we'll mentally get over that. Detroit and Boston play this weekend. Yeah. And Detroit swept them earlier this year, So if Detroit wins the series this weekend, they will jump Boston in the standing. Unbelievable. So the whole AL is kind of completely not sorted.

Like, okay, I don't know if it's our socials team or BBD, but like screenshot the AL standings, because every one of these can change. And the crazy thing is that it's looked like this for a while, except for, of course, the Guardians leapfrogging the Tigers, but still, it's been these matchups for like a month minimum, right? Yes, there's been some slight, there was one or two days that are shuffled,

but the other thing that's obnoxious here, and I guess maybe I jumped the gun on obnoxious, but Jolly, the consensus with any baseball person I'm talking about, because if the playoffs started today, it's super divisional. Yeah. It would be Yankees Red Sox, which, okay. Fire me up.

For three games, it's putting my fandom aside. That is exciting for a lot of reasons. And it would be Guardians hosting the Tigers, which I don't know. I think the general consensus among baseball fans is that divisional wild cards, something kind of feels off about that. Oh, no, I love it. You're about it, okay?

Especially three-game series. Okay. I love it. Good. I'm happy for you then. Okay. Like we might get Cubs brewers on the other side too. Metz-Filly's.

Like, it's all on the table. Right. I like it for DS or CS. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Something about jumping in against your division opponent.

Something feels off about that. Well, it might all change, Jake. Right. And I think in the AL it's going to. It's just the who, what, where, and the why. Let's do Detroit and Cleveland because that was kind of the, this was, this was play. playoff baseball.

Like I saw, I think in game two, Will Vest was out in the sixth inning, like trying to put out the fire. Like, this was playoff baseball. And it started with game one, scubel against Gavin Williams. Gavin Williams, the breakout happened. His year-end stats. Scoobel, Vegas very much has him winning the Cy Young, which there's probably a more of him and crochet debate than you'd think. Or if you believe, there's still time to get money on crochet and you could. Actually.

You could, like, Vegas has Scoobel winning it. And I think it's the answer, but things are very tight. I live bet on the shows. Anyways, absolutely. That frowned upon them? They enjoy that. Game one, Detroit comes out. They take the lead.

They've been scuffling. Riley Green, solo homer in the six, it's two nothing. Here's Jose Ramirez. Here's a wild pitch to tie it, which that's something in baseball that, what that. does energy-wise, the Yankees got to run off that too. That should almost count as two runs and then it does

as Arias gets the ground out. Daniel Daniel Schneider. Got to stop. He's a good ball player. He's a great ball player with a two-run pinch hit single to make it 5-2. It is absolute pandemonium in Cleveland as that game

flips the script and puts them on top in the division. The Guardians after this game were in first place for the first time since April 22nd, overcoming the 15 and a half game lead. First team in Major League history to overcome a double-digit deficit in the division or league in September.

This is an all-time collapse, I guess. Jolly, do you start with guards or kitties? I think you have to start with the Tigers. And not saying that the guardians have not earned this. They've played incredible baseball. But there was one clip I saw of the post game from this first game, someone's interviewing Riley Green, and they tell him that tonight the Tigers had struck out 20 times. And Green asked him to repeat it and then looks absolutely shell-shocked.

Like, I don't think, I think it's finally setting in for the players because it's a one-game-out-a-time thing. But this has never happened before. The fact that they took the finale in the series is massive to keep them tied, but all the momentum resides with Cleveland. And you remember when you brought up the question before of what team you don't want to face in the other league? I said Cleveland, and I got some confused looks from the crowd. You started booing and no one booed. Some people agreed. Cleveland is going to make you play tight defense.

They're going to put the pressure on the opposing pitchers. They're not going to kill you with the long ball, and that's a big postseason stat. But you look at the best team in the National League, the Milwaukee Brewers, they're not going to kill you with the long ball either. So this is the clip I was referencing before. I don't know if we want to play it with the audio or whatever. 19Ks. That's not going to get it done usually.

19Ks for. For what? For you guys. Tonight? Yeah. I mean, that... You don't like that. That's...

He's processing that a long time ago. I think he gets hurt there for having naturally big eyes. Maybe. But, I mean, that just epitomizes the entire thing for me of, like, I can't believe this is happening. Like, this team is much better than the baseball they're playing right now. Was it that fifth inning that the Guardians bunted three times and scored three rows? Oh. That is just the epitome of guards ball.

but they're playing a great brand of baseball. Gavin Williams in the first game, six innings, two are and runs, 12 strikeouts. I've had my eye on him ever since he showed up at City Field and almost through a perfect game. This Guardians team is incredibly talented. I really didn't think they had a division run in their bag, and here they are with three games left to go.

The Tigers definitely have the worst draw of the two. They have to go to Fenway and play against the team that still has a lot to play for. Yeah, Detroit Boston this weekend. And I say this in a very tasteful way, and I'm sorry I'm a Yankees fan in this moment. And you could actually say this about my Yankees team. Both of those teams have poop their pants potential. The Tigers and Red Sox have seen a lot of baseball games swerve the wrong direction this year.

That your momentum is... What's the old baseball phrase? Your momentum is only good as the next day's starting pitcher? I think that's an old school baseball phrase. useless here. That Boston Detroit game, I mean,

you're going to see a lot of... Boston hasn't technically clinched. They can clinch with one more win. Or I guess it was a tiger's loss, but they're playing the Tigers. So if the Tigers win tonight, things get a lot more interesting. If they don't,

Boston's locked in, we're good. Hey, here's a guardian stat. If you don't mind. I don't. After game two, they had 19 straight games with a starting pitcher allowing two runs or fewer. God, what a luxury. That makes me so jealous.

What would the Mets record be if they got one of those this year? A million and one, probably. They'd be fighting for the Phillies for the East. The Cleveland pitching has been amazing. It's guard ball, as you described with the defense, and Will Bunt, nobody's above anything. It almost feels like the, go nuts, George Valera, swing for the fence.

If you run into one, we'll win that game. Or let's get one at bat a game with runners on for Jose Ramirez. Because he just broke the Guardian's record for extra base hits. That's a deep franchise history, too. It's a long franchise history. It's been 73 years. Stop. Restart the episode.

Set back the clock. Since they've won a World Series. I think that's... I'm over it. 76. Okay, damn. Really close. I thought I had it. Titanic.

Tigers snap their eight-game losing streak. I think they had lost 11 of 12 at one point. As bad as it can be. I mean, one of the biggest collapses we have ever seen. The Tigers went from Hinch is a genius. This team, they were new guardians. You don't want to. to play these guys. They got some talented arms in the back end. They've got some stars in the middle of

their lineup. The entire tone has changed. And as I mentioned with Toronto and the Yankees, they are tied that Detroit has to outwin Cleveland this weekend. Cleveland heads to Texas, which I don't know how much fire the Rangers are playing with. Jack Leiter, Kelly, and Patrick Corbyn. Not easy. Not easy. Can I say something? Please. Did Jimmy Norp curse the Tigers? It's a question. By getting hired here.

Did he curse the Tigers? Comment down below. I'm glad you jumped there because also people may know about a month and a half ago, I think I bet the Tigers to win the World Series. Did you? When the Padres traded for Mason Miller, I bet them. That's aging like milk, which is just a common phrase. It's been 73 years.

Is this waking Jake? Like, what is this? Sometimes. Sometimes when I lose Trevor for a little bit. Bebe easier, yeah. Detroit and Boston. Yeah, let's keep your eyes on Cleveland in Texas because anything could happen there this weekend.

There's so much good baseball this weekend, man. Let's jump over to those Boston Red Sox, who I mentioned Yankee fans were rooting for them. That game won. The Blue Jays are starting to scuffle. A couple calls going against the Blue Jays. Yeah, which has been a theme lately. My goodness.

I very much enjoy George Springer. Yukon. Yeah. New Britain, Connecticut. Amazing career. Role model. Role model. That's an all-time bad quote.

And I know there's cameras everywhere. And, you know, I've got a buddy who's got a buddy who's got a little salt and pepper in his hair who was really good at the lip reading and all that stuff. Yelling at the umps mid game about a team that's not there. I get the competitor's mindset and like you're locked in and you're in chaos and crazy mode. But playing the Red Sox and being like the umps want the Yankees to get the division. I don't know, man. I know you got to play with an edge, but that's, I mean, that's rent free, no?

That's rent-free. I'll say this. Because Jimmy said in his breakdown, and I thought it was interesting. He was like, he's saying what all the fans are thinking, which is a moment that very, very rarely happens in any sport when you're able to catch it on the camera. But also, the two-pitch sequence of what would have been a go-ahead to run double into a pitch that is a foot off the play called for strike three

would get any emotion out of any player. Sure. You know, so like I understand where he was coming from in that moment. It is a shame that a camera was on him. but that was a brutal stretch. There was also the Varshot catch in Kansas City, which was very clearly a catch ruled against. That caused them a run there. It has not been kind for the Blue Jays recently

how the Omps have been treating them. I'll say that much. I think it's earned the reactions that they've had. Towards the Umps, yes, to have the Yankees even on your mind. How could you not? It's a division race. I don't know.

You're playing a team in front of you and like be mad at the Ups. I don't know. I don't know. Teach their own. And then, okay, so we talked about there was a lot of teams that had pressure first games because all the aces, all the ones, were lined up for game twos because those are the wild card one games. That was a little bit of what was happening here because Crochet was lined up for this game too.

Oh, yeah. And my God, eight shut out from him, Jolly just bet on him to win the Siam. He might have won the Siong with that start because Scoobel gave up, I think, three in his start. I don't know. I don't know. Vegas is usually smart. with their money. And did you, what was the crochet number? I'm pulling up right now.

Actually, I didn't get the chance to. Oh, my God. What? I was paying attention to your yap. Who said we're yap? Blue Jays salvaged the set in the final one. Dalton Varsho. The fifth player since 1950 to play 70 games or less and hit 20 homers.

That's awesome. The list of names is like a ghost of girlfriend. friends passed for me. It's Luke Voight in the 2020 season. Nice. It's Joey Gallo in 2019. Whoa. It's Matt Olson in 2017.

And it's Gary Sanchez in 2016. A couple yanks on there, huh? That's why. It's a reason I phrased it by the way. I hope I never have to see Joe's McFly root for the Red Sox again. That felt disgusting. It felt ugly. It was an ugly week.

And he was like too passionate. Cubs fans rooting for Brewers, Yankee fans rooting for Red Sox. This is Manfred Ball. This final week of the season is going to lead to annual chaos, I believe. Yeah, it's kind of awesome. It's landed in a good spot. You wish a couple teams' records were maybe the NL wasn't limping as bad. Maybe Houston wasn't as limping as bad.

Something to watch for the Red Sox. Trevor's story, six errors in his last seven games, five throwing. Whoa. Oh, no. caught him up with Anthony Volpe for most errors in the AL. That's a little what to watch for. Varsho's Grand Slam. Talk about relieving some stress and getting the monkey off your back there.

If the Blue Jays didn't have that, it probably would be a much different discussion right now. Yeah, it's them and the Yankees in a race. The Yankees are facing the Orioles this weekend, and they are getting Trevor Rogers, who has been the best pitcher in baseball. baseball. That's the swing of the season for them right there.

They're getting Kyle Braddish on Sunday and Sagano in game two. So the Orioles have a chance to mess things up for the Yankees potentially. While Toronto hosts Tampa, not exactly the pitchers I mentioned, although Senor Puk, Adrian Houser will get the pill for them. Bieber, you savage, and potentially Gossman for the final game. That's a good path for them. they have their stars aligned better than the Yankees with the tiebreaker, their matchup.

Although the Orioles and Rays, they don't mind leaning into we want to ruin your weekend. And they can try to do that. Yeah. That is going to be the must-watch action in the American League. As we leak down the AL a little bit,

we talked Boston and Detroit, I guess. I guess you should get some pitching matchups there. we're kind of keying up this weekend's, this weekend's games. Casey Mize versus Kyle Harrison. Wow. Okay. Out of the park baseball destinies have ended up here. World Series game one.

Chris Paddock versus Connolly early. Chris Paddock's getting a start. I felt weird about my poop your pants potential comment. I don't now. Yeah. This series is going to be, it's in Fenway, which is just a multiplier. Anyways.

A lot of rookies getting massive starts this weekend, man. That time of year, I think. I think teams like try to hide guys now and then bring them up towards the end of the year. What are you saying over there, Bves? Just a lot of chaos with Fenway, a lot of rookies and hide guys be like, oh, you probably don't look at the minor leagues. And this is also the thing with the Red Sox, like the top half the rotation? Nice.

The bottom half. Well, the other thing, depending what gets decided here, Like, fan graphs has the probabilities for Sunday as Scoobel versus Gialito. That could change. But that depends. Are we in the postseason? Are we not in the postseason? That we might have some interesting decisions have to be made.

A huge game one for Boston. Massive. Got to win that game one. Because if you let the hope leak for Detroit, who is going to be eyeing their division, who's going to be eyeing surviving in the postseason, season. And then it would also, weirdly enough, how baseball works, if Detroit wins game one, it would be a two-game win streak. Are you getting hot at the right time?

If you're a ball fan, do you have like six games on your screen tonight? There's like so much to track. It's a lot. It's a lot. We're so lucky. Hashtag blessed. Hashtag blessed. The last team that needs to be discussed, Jolly, is the Houston Astros. Yeah. who like you mentioned, they have become commonplace in the postseason. Still a lot of familiar faces. They play the Angels this weekend, who I want to say this as tastefully as possible.

We've gone through a lot of pitching matchups. Whoa. Kyle Hendrix. Potential last start ever. Caden Dana. Who? Sam Aldegari. Our friend.

I mean, for the Houston side, Jason Alexander, A.J. Bluebe. ball wearing 69 he's getting a start huh christian Javier so we're i mean we are in the throes of the season here that houston has none of the tiebreakers oh they're in a tough spot that they have to jump everyone they got sweep and with everything i just mentioned if you told me houston sweeps this weekend i'm not surprised at all um but they have to be above cleveland boston and or detroit so we're fully in the situation that we were with in the NL last year where two teams in the wild card picture are playing each other and if they split at all they both get in. Right.

And the Astros have to sweep and they're in the Diamondbacks roll. So it's basically history repeating itself in the other league. It's wild. Yes. Yeah. So Astros are rooting for sweep or get swept. Yeah, they're rooting for one team to take all the games. And yeah, the other caveat to that would be if Texas can somehow sweep Cleveland.

they are still... Yeah, man. My brain hurts. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot. Texas is dead. If you need to hear about them again,

I was saying this and I feel slightly vindicated because I know Framber hasn't been good, but what could be his last start as a Houston Astros, seven innings, one earn run. And yeah, I can't believe it's gotten this bleak. There's a lot of stats you can... Baseball doesn't necessarily work like. like this, but the Framber intentional cross-up has been kind of where their season has

started to spiral. And Jolly, they were one of your teams from the start of the year. The athletics. Kurtzcoma-Nix final stat line this year? It's going to get MVP votes, no? Yes. Like, absolutely. What?

293. That's very good. And today's baseball, that's incredible. Okay. 35 home runs in 114 games. 88 runs, 84 RBI, a 387 on base, a 1.01 OPS for a rookie. Being real right now. What?

How many first baseman do you take over him? For a season? Yeah. For the 2026 season. I mean, who's in play? I think Vlad is in play. Matt Olson, Pete. There's a very strong argument.

Like this might be the best first baseman in baseball already, and he's 22 years old. They'll have to tune in to the Wake and Jake Jolly Tierless next year. 10 weeks of hell. Just an incredible, incredible season. Awesome. Houston does not control their own destiny. They will have to win out against the Angels,

which is very on the table. Yes. And they need a certain level of chaos that I'm not ruling anything out, but they need a lot of help to get into the dance. I'm getting nauseous listening to this. Let's see. What else do we need to highlight? Seattle's incredible.

I'll talk about them later. We got to keep it moving. Okay. I was going to ask you about the Yanks, but we can give them. What do you have? I just how you're feeling. Eight and two in your last 10 playing better ball, beating the teams they should beat. I know the vibes this time last month were kind of bad.

Can I be honest? Sure. I'm juggling a fucking lot. My life is crazy. That's what you're saying. If the Yanks win the division, that's fantastic. Jimmy has a kid coming. This is the second time that he's done this.

They've scheduled an appointment for the kid to come out on day one of the wild car. If you work in baseball, why are you doing October babies? you can control this. That means October birthdays for the rest of time for him. Yeah, that came up late on- September 30th. That came up late on talking Yanks last night that Jimmy was like, yeah, Katie was asking me, like, wait,

are we going to have to deal with playoffs in his birthday forever? And Jimmy was like, no, the playoff format's bad. They're probably going to change it. I was like, Katie did not listen to a word of that. You don't. It's so will usually start on September 30th. John, you got a lot of power. You don't have changing the playoff power.

Doing it twice is insane. I'm very happy for you. It's crazy, though. Powerful seed. Yeah, we're feeling good about the team. It's just, dude, we... Of all the team's paths we've currently talked about, they're in the same boat where we could be playing three against the Boston Red Sox.

We could have... Or we could be the one seed hosting an ALDS against Cleveland, which we have a fantastic track record against in the postings. Are you a guaranteed host? I think if... Guaranteed host, which is nice. Sweep and you guys get swept. No.

Don't they have the tiebreaker? They're not. Yankees are guaranteed two home playoff games. So we're feeling good. They're playing a good brand of baseball. Judge is incredible. Like, you have a one, two in the rotation. There's a, the bullpen, guys in the bullpen that should matter are doing nice things.

So like, of everyone's recipe, there's a lot to like there. It's just the wild card is brutal. Free and Rodon, though. When you're in the wild card, you can't dream yet. No. You're not really... I like that Jimmy says, you're not really in the playoffs. No, it's a play in.

Yeah. It's a play in. It feels like a playoff game. You're not really in it yet. Three games. Anyone can lose three games. So that's where I'm at. Let's save some Seattle Mariners talk.

MVP talk. Because they deserve... Oh, that's right. The remaining three hours. Wow. Let's move on to standout performances. It's time for standout performances. Standout performances.

Stand out performances. This guy stood out for Trev. What? The squeaky. Rob's insane. Yeah, he's crazy the person. Do you have a standout, Charlie? I have one.

Okay. I'm getting my standout to Nico Horner of the Chicago Cubs. The 300 hitter is dying in baseball. I need someone to do it. Judge is going to do what Jacob Wilson's going to do. I need Nico Horner to get in that club as well. He had a three-for-five performance. His first game ever with four runs scored, swiped a bag for the Cubs.

It was the game they lost, but it wasn't because of Nico Horner. I really just like his brand of baseball. Like, if he was on my team, I think he'd probably be my favorite player. Hardest guy to strike out in the league. So he gets my standout. It's a good one. Thanks, man. If we did a off-season most underrated players in baseball,

Nico Horner has an argument that goes with anyone. Yep. Nico Horner, Will Smith. I mean, after this season, Will Smith might be out. Cattel Marte used to be there. Future Yankee, according to Joe's McFly. Comment below. Yeah, why not?

Nico Horner is really good. Yeah. Those Cubbies, man, they're an interesting test for me. Again, like, I feel like Cubs fans and Padre fans haven't been able to officially dream about the postseason because literally one of them will be out. Yeah. Cubs, like, I love them in a seven-game series.

I don't know how much I like him in a three-d-year. Their defense when you go around the horn, you're like, damn, that's awesome. Their lineup when you go soup to nuts, you're like, damn, that's awesome. The pitching names have freaked me out all year, and maybe that's rude, and it feels like I'm anaga's not coming in at his best necessarily. And, like, now Kate Horton's banged up that I, I don't know. If the Cubs work, it's going to be a beautiful team to watch.

I'm worried. I'm worried for the Cubs. I just, the Padres have been in a lot of big playoff games. Like, God, that team feels like they could lean into being on the road and being the bad guys. They like that. Hey, the Padres don't really know what they're doing with their pitching. It's Pivotta and then they're...

Kitchen sink mode. I can't wait to watch that series. My standout. I was going to go to Edmundo Sosa. Oh, you're not? Because he hit three home runs casually. The only Philly shortstop ever to do that. Edmundo Sosa seemingly finds a way in every Philly's playoff series that he's in big moments.

Why doesn't he play every day, by the way? It is a sin that he hasn't gone an opportunity elsewhere. He's racked up to B-Warr in less than a hundred games the past two seasons. With the Phillies, he has a 104 OPS plus in his career. Like, why isn't he the third baseman? Another team has never traded for him. Well, Alec Bohm came back and was raking, so that's part of it.

I'll just hard pass, and I'm going to make this my Seattle segment. Sure. Okay, nice. They face the Colorado Rockies, and that's okay. Cal Raleigh hit two home runs, one of them into the upper deck, 440. Um, 60 home runs from a catcher. If you're looking for an MVP debate about it, go check out all of the past Baseball today episodes.

Go check out Wake and Jake. Go check out wherever you've consumed baseball. Any episode of baseball today. And you can- Yanks had it last night. Talking Yanks did a little bit. It's, it's a fun one. Um, and what Cal Raleigh is doing is special.

I think he's going to win. Um, that's just an opinion. Um, just because a catcher has never done this. which hitter has never done this. Seattle hasn't won the division since 2001. Crazy. How many of you, a lot of our listeners probably have not been alive for that.

And if you were alive, what do you remember? How old were you in 01, Bebs? I would have turned four that year. That was two. Also, that was when they were the best team ever. Yes. It's great.

People forget. They have the most wins in a season ever. It was that team. An incredible team. And yeah, man, I mean, Josh Naylor, something that Trevor Plouf opened my eyes to. We mentioned how game ones

had a little more pressure in these series. The Mariners, they were down to the Colorado Rockies. Late. Top five, worst team ever. In the eighth inning. Something I never put together, and this is such a good ballplayer perspective.

As fans, we get, caught up with the walkoff because walkoffs are electric. Trev said it's up there for players with a walkoff. The eighth inning take the lead. You go from losing the game. This might not be our night. Everyone's going to be sad. We're going to have to do sad post-game pressers.

To wear up, here comes the closer. Three outs. That's all you need. That's what Josh Naylor did in the first game. and I have already issued a lot of apologies to Julio this year. I will issue one more. 799 OPS, sneaking up on 7B war, 32 home runs, 28 steals. Oh, him and Randy, watch out this weekend.

Randy has 29 steals, Julio has 28. Do you know how many stills Josh Naylor has? I would guess, I don't know, 75. He has 29 stolen bases. He's 18 and 0 on the Mariners. The Mariners are running this week. It's crazy. Watch out Dalton rushing and the Dodgers who they play this weekend.

Are those games going to matter? Seattle, you deserve a ton of love. J.P. Crawford is back being J.P. Crawford. I like that team, man. They are the best team in the Yale. I think so. If they were not named the Seattle Mariners, I think there'd be a lot more hype on them,

which hopefully turns out to be horribly rude to in a couple weeks. Actually, when I say hope, I don't mean that. I like my Yankees. But the Mariners are really good. Emerson Hancock out of the Penn. Let's see what goes on with Seattle. It's the Rockies.

I don't care. Incredible team, incredible season. Yes, absolutely. Well put. Got nothing to add. Jolly, we do a segment called Enfuego, where I don't know if Randy Vasquez is going to be on there. I don't know if Byron Buxton made it.

I mentioned Yoshita. is hot, but Corona. And Fuego is brought to you by Corona, the official Cervesa of talking baseball. Dirt nasty's on Fuego. That means I'm on fire, baby. You smoke. Like Waco.

I'm on and off. Okay. You want to tell me who's in Fuego? Oh, I would love to, and it starts with your guy. Dan Kenobio's guy. Yeah, Shay, Bengaliers, 9 for 13 in the past series. The second catcher in A's history with the 30 home run season,

you know the other one. It's your guy, Terry Steinbach, of course. James Wood woke up this week. That's good to see three homers in the series, four for seven altogether. He's got a lot of strikeouts this season, so it was nice to see him get back on the right side. The youngest player in Washington history

with 30 home runs and 15 stolen bases in a season. Love that. Freddie Freeman also had a nice four-hit series as well. Brandon Nimmo came up with a huge knock against the Cubby's a three-run homer. He went six for 13. How about for the whole freaking week, though? We're talking about Gino.

8 for 23. It's been a tough go for him with the Mariners. He had a huge series against the Rocks. Three homers in that series. Ryan O'Hern waking up for the Padres as well. 12 for 24 this past series. A home or excuse me this past week. A homer eight RBIs and an OPS over 1,000.

Lindor. Francisco Lindor at September. The Games Matter put the lights on me. Eight for 26 this past week. Three homers. Eight runs scored and a thousand OPS as well. He gets to 30-30 again. him and Soto are the third pair of 30-30 teammates.

And then we just talked about him. Let's mention him again. Josh Naler this past week hitting 4.55, three doubles, a homer, four runs scored, two stolen bases, and an OPS over 1,200. That's who's in Fuego, Jake. Thank you, Jolly. And guys, it's Corona season. The yoffs are here.

Kickback, order some coronas. My argument is they help with winning and losing. If you think about it that way, uh, from opening day months ago, it's been 73 years to the last play of the World Series. Baseball is the one sport where anything can happen. That's been the whole episode.

And for baseball people, there's nothing quite like sharing a corona, trying to relax and enjoying every unpredictable moment with friends. Turn the cheap seats into your own private island with some ice cold coronas, the official surveys of Major League Baseball. Crack open a coronavirus. grow up, squeeze in a line. Yeah, come.

And enjoy America's favorite pastime with Mexico's favorite present time. Get yours. Order Corona.com. 21 plus, enjoy responsibly Corona extra beer. Ported by Crown Imports, Chicago, Illinois. How do you like that? This is the portion of the show

where I bring things down for a little. This is called batters who are struggling. Who is that? Is that Leonardo DiCaprio? I think that's the lady from Titian. Kate Winslet. Kate Hudson? Weird mix of ombrays here.

Luis Garcia Jr. with your Nats is in a 3 for 32. Seeing 3.5 pitches per plate appearance this season, second lowest in the NL. Who finds this, though? Hacking. Hacking. He Brian Hayes, 3 for 31.

His 600 OPS is the lowest in the NL. Randy Roserena is in a 5 for 4. Just saving it for the postseason. And that's fine. Speaking of Ryan McMahon. We got to get him. We got a trade for him. We got to.

The defense has been delicious. Good for you. 089 on breaking pitches versus lefties. That's the lowest in Major League Baseball. Guess what he'll be getting in the postseason. Matt McLean. Jolly. Five for 40.

Couple reds on here. Yeah. That's a 125 batting. average, struggling with the heat. 176 on pitches 95 miles per hour or faster this year. Can I say something? Sure. So Matt McLean is my embarrassing thing from the tier list, which you like to bring up?

It's just, I don't like to fight you in those episodes, but I had to, I believe sophomore year or doing it again is really hard. That's where I, like Kurtzcom and Nick, I think it's where the first big conversation is very interesting. Yeah. Do you remember our Royals lineup versus Mariners lineup debate? Okay. Just asking.

Just wondering. Bobby Witt, though. Anyways, give me that trade deadline. Okay. Give me the two corner infielder. No, no, no, that's fine. Hey, guys, you got one weekend. Hit some balls.

Now's the time. Some of you in the post season. The I.L. Got some bad news. If you're going on the IL, Dasit. A couple of these guys have asterisk to that. Thai France for Toronto.

Obliq. There's a chance for the DS. Let's see. Kirby Yates, right hammy. That's a big one. Been a weird one for him. Jose Berrios. Right elbow.

First time on the aisle in his 10-year career. Whoa. That's an awesome stat. After his first. career relief appearance. That's a weird one. That's very weird. You mentioned Luke Keishel sprained thumb.

I did? Oh, at the beginning of the show. David Frye took a scubel pitch to the face. Pretty cool stuff by scubel showing up. That was a tough one. Ozzy Albies, Ben Intendi, Wyatt Langford, Dane Myers, the last you're going to see of them.

Mike Talkman. Tough. Returning from the aisle. A little bit of hope. Edward Cabrera to face the Mets this weekend. I see three Miami names. Yeah, a couple of Marlins coming back. They're calling in fucking everybody.

Adley came back for Baltimore. So similar tone there. Zanda Bogots. San Diego. Anthony Santander for Toronto. I almost had a grand slam. Tony Taters is back. Warming Burnabell for Colorado.

Daniel Palencia for the all-jake team this year out of the Colorado pen. Roki Sasaki, like we talked about. Edmundo Sosa, here's your three homers. And that's kind of what's going on. I see Luriano on here. I think he's going to the I.L. Yeah, he just went back back. So that's a tough one for San Diego.

He's just so fun to watch. Ryan Zephyr John, back for the halos. Thank God. Let's start everyone's weekend, final weekend the right way. Awards are just brought to you by Kelsey Winger. She's the goat. And for all of you tuning in, we appreciate you. Let's finish strong.

Jolly, do you have an award? I do have an award, Jake. And it's going to be about a player on a team that their season's over. You know, they made some noise late, but they had a very weird year. and there was one guy at the beginning of the year, speaking of our tier lists that I was extremely high on, gave a lot of kudos to because I think he's incredibly talented. And since there's no real reason to talk about him during the show,

I'm going to talk about him right now. My award is the Don't Write Me Off award. And it's going to Michael Harris the second. Okay. Okay. Okay. Bad of a first half offensively as you could possibly have. He was one of the few braves that was actually healthy this year,

but was not helping his team win bowl. all games. And there were serious questions about, was that extension a huge mistake? This guy never faced a pitch at AAA. Was that a huge mistake? Because he looks completely overmatched. Well, on Monday, he went three for five with a double and three RBIs and three stolen bases. This past week, he's eight for 23, two homers, four stolen bases and 1100 OPS. His second half has completely saved what was a disastrous season for him. The end of year numbers don't look great. But I think that this is important for the Braves going forward. It might be weird hearing from the Mets fan talking about the Braves.

They're just dormant right now. I think they're fully going to be back next year when they have their entire roster healthy. He had a 551 OPS in the first half and eat 31 in the second half. He doubled his home run total from the first half. He's stealing bases again. You know that center field defense is there. Don't write off him. Don't write off the Braves when you start thinking about 2026 because in a week's time,

a lot of teams are going to be thinking about 2026. I'm in a real weird spot with MH Deuce. I love center field defense, and he is top tier on that. He dictates and changes games. His first half was so, so bad. Came out of the break hot, went into another slump. Finishing strong. It's just tough.

In baseball, we look for some form of reliability, and when you play high-level defense, you do get a version of that. But it's just, you know, when you're the Braves and you're filling out, hey, what our lineup needs to look like next year, you can't pencil him in for anything. If he's the worst hitter of the first half next year, he wouldn't be surprised. And that's just a weird thing.

So he's still very young, and he's shown these moments of hitting that you'd like to think there's more in there. And with his defense, he's still valuable, but it's just, it's very frustrating for me. And I'm sure Braves fans have to feel similarly. You know, it's a potential, comp for him, though?

What's that? Who has a bad first half and then brings it up in the second half in center field every year? It's Julio, but... It's Julio. Julio stats have landed in a very different area. It's true. A very different area. I wouldn't write them off.

Look at you giving some good Braves juju to try to cover your ass. You guys hear of baseball guys. Did you hear of me? You just yelled at Joe's for rooting on the Red Sox the past couple days. And here you are giving out an end of season Michael Harris II award. It was gross for me, okay? I am going to give out the when it rains at Porous Award. Jolly, I want to thank you for filling in this episode.

You know I do enjoy saying the silly let's go Mets from America's politician. I know where my votes go. Jolly, I said it at the top of the show and we never said the stat. I don't know what's going to happen with your Mets. I don't know if they're going to be in the playoffs. I don't know if they're going to be competitive in the playoffs. I don't know if they're going to win series. Jolly, one team in MLB history has had three separate seven-game-plus losing streaks

and still made the playoffs. It's insane. The Mets have the opportunity to join this club. It's absolutely insane. They had a seven-game losing streak in June, August. and September. It's not what you want. It sure isn't.

It's been a long year. The one other team that did it was the 2006 Cardinals that did go to the World Series. I don't know what it means. I think there's something, me and brother Jeff talked about this that I think with the parody in baseball

combined with, I think just viewing the game analytically, it leads to more streaks. I don't have that theory perfected, but there's something there. because this season was so volatile for so many teams. The Mariners who have just won 16 of 17, if you flashback before that,

had a bad three weeks. Yeah. Like a horrible three weeks. They were on every baseball show that we did about like, it's happening again. It's over. Here comes the Mariners collapse. Can you believe in them?

No. I don't know what I can believe in with the Mets. I still love the big three at the top of their lineup. I like all of their pitchers for one inning. and can pitching chaos do that? I don't know. Even if they get in, they still have to go to the Mighty Mighty Dodgers,

who we talked about their starting pitchers. Talk about two opposites attract right there. Jolly, I don't know what it means. I'll say this. Let's go, Mets. Thank you for Phil. I don't do the voice. Let's fill in.

I appreciate you filling in for Coach Trev as he's camping in some luxurious campground. Beautiful family, having a nice time. This life is so hard. Sometimes he has to go on a Zoom call. And I'm, again, I have no idea how this chapter ends, but I know that Soto guy in the postseason is not scared and he's a problem.

Just get up there. Alonzo guy isn't and the door isn't. Thank you for filling. What problem, Jake. And that's the Mets stat that I've had pocketed all episodes. It's an insane stat. That 06 Cardinals team won the World Series and they beat the Mets on the one. Oh.

So now they'll be. the Cardinals in the playoffs. Thank you to Jolly Olive. Thank you to BPD. Thank you to Trev. Thank you to baseball. That was a lot of ways of saying this is pure chaos this weekend

and we don't know what's going to happen. You don't either. Let's watch it together. Can't wait for the wild card stream. Is that jam baseball or is that here? As recently as yesterday, I heard a debate about it. I'll be there.

We'll be on a channel. You'll see tweets. There'll be a link. We'll be live and panicky. Yes. I'm met. My God. Screw football.

Go baseball.