The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - MLB Postseason Show | Ep. 3

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

"Wall." David Samson and Jeremy Tache recap last night's insane games across MLB including a HR that wasn't at Yankee Stadium, a HR that was robbed at Petco Park, and the Dodgers continuing to cruise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Baseball, the end of the quadruple header, as we had four final games yesterday between all of these teams. We got one more game today between the White Sox and the Guardians. David Sampson with me. David, you had your word of the day this morning on nothing personal with David Sampson as shocking. And I will tell you this. My word of the day, David, is wall. Wall? Wall, because the wall was the most important thing that we saw in yesterday's baseball games.

We had a robbery at the wall in the Padres game as Manny Machado is robbed in basically the same spot as he was in 2017 by Adam Jones, this time by Garrett Mitchell of the Brewers as the Brewers go on to win. And then, of course, a controversy at the wall at Yankee Stadium. Spectator interference. Not really that controversial of a call. I think the umpires absolutely nailed that one. But David, I want to start with you with the Yankees because ultimately the rays move on, a clean sweep of the New York Yankees, their division foe. And there's a lot to look at when it comes to the future of the Yankees.

I heard you talking this morning about Aaron Boone, about Trent Grisham and the way that the lineup was set up and Yankees fans second guessing. Yankees media second guessing. There's a lot there, David. What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about the Yankees this morning? The first thing is I don't know what a clean sweep is versus a dirty sweep. I'm not familiar with that. A sweep is a sweep. I'm a consequentialist.

It was all dirty when you get swept. And the Yankees have to look in the mirror this morning and just realize they got beaten by a better team. And I can tell you from experience, that just sucks. It absolutely is terrible, no matter what your payroll is, to go look in the mirror at the end of a game or at the end of a season or even a series and just acknowledge the fact that your team is not as good as the team you just played. Absolutely.

And then you start with the excuses, of course, which is what the Yankees will do. And you start with the ridiculous PR, which is what Aaron Boot did after the game, or the Aaron Judge comments or the jazz comments. It's now just CYA. It's all of the tropes of, hey, you know, we got to do better. This is broken this clubhouse.

We're going to fix it and we're going to be better next year. It's just all a bunch of crap, to be honest with you. The Yankees have a problem. Yeah, they're just not as good as the race. their offense was pitiful throughout the course of this. Yeah, and that's the thing. It beats good offense every time. Absolutely.

You know this, Jeremy. Don't be that guy. Let Dan be that guy who looks at a box score and says, wait a minute, the Padreys got three hits. Their offense stinks. No, no. The Brewer's pitching was so good that there is no offense that would have gotten more than three hits off them.

That's what you have to look at it. You're absolutely right. And you look at scoring in this. Major League postseason, and I believe going into yesterday, teams that scored four runs or more were undefeated. That happened again yesterday, where every team that scored at least four runs, that's it. That's all it took because the pitching has been that dominant. And specifically when you look at the raise, Brian Baker, you mentioned him this morning

as well on nothing personal. He's a joy to watch a guy that nobody's heard of who's been as dominant as anyone and literally became the only MLB pitcher to save every game of a three plus game sweep in the postseason while not allowing a single hit since saves became official in 1969. Jeremy, what did you think of my statement on nothing personal when I said that I would root for my closers to blow saves in games during the regular season that didn't matter because when you're on a streak like this in the postseason, you end up really blowing a save that's going to matter way more. And then you still, hey, look, he saved 33 out of 34. Don't care.

He just blew the save in game two of the NL or ALCS. It's the most. It's like the preemptor Tommy John. Yes, it's the most baseball-pilled statement you could possibly make of the superstitions that come with baseball of like, well, it can't possibly keep up like this. We need to do this. I understand these stats. Oh, they've never won. These teams have never won.

Let's just go team by team. Yes. The Brewers, zero. Wait for it. The raise zero. Hold on. Let's go to the. the Guardians. They last one 77 years ago. I really do not want to get involved by feeling

sorry that the Yankees are in their worst drought since 1903 to 1922. No, I agree. I don't feel bad for them. The concept being more, hey, when is this all going to end? And we look at some of the teams that it could end for. And I want to talk to you about the Brewers who advance, but almost more importantly for the time being, because we'll have plenty of time to talk about those brewers and Dodgers, the Padres, who go, let's see this. We're looking at the rotation there. I want to look at my notepad.

This is my private notepad of nothing personal, and I did the entire pitching rotation for what the NLCS will be. Wow. And what I was trying to figure out is, hold on, how are the brewers going to not get swept? Well, they got to have Miz Rowski win game one. He has to. He's facing scubal.

Uh-oh. If they don't win game one, They're screwed. And it's going to be so terrible if they're swept again because they won 103 games. They're such a great story. They disposed of the Padres. They're just better than the Padres. Their bullpen is amazing when you can go and you can start.

I mean, listen, Gasser starts. He gives four innings. And then you get to Ashby, who is the multiple inning guy who looks like he's next to you in a movie theater and a trench coat. And he's throwing nothing filthy except you can't get a hit off the guy. at all. Nobody can score off them. And then you got your rebate throwing 125 and then McGill, who just doesn't blow saves. Well, it looks to me like they've got a lineup with Contreras and Churio and Yelich and all the rest, Terang, they're going to win. And then you look at it and you're saying, uh-oh, wait, the Dodgers are better. They're so much better. Of course they are.

The Padres aren't close to the Dodgers. It's like the Yankees beating the Red Sox Jeremy twice and thinking they're going to beat the race. It's like delusion. Weird to see a team. Weird to see a team win 100 games and feel like they are just a massive, massive underdog with the Sai-young on the mound in game one. That's one of the most asinine sentences we can say, and it is 100% fact. I want to move to the Braves really quick because we do have to run. I will leave you with this note. The Mani Machado expected batting average on that home run was 960, which is truly hilarious. What does that even mean?

What does that even mean? I don't know, man. Expected batting average. You know what expecting batting average is. When the ball's put in play, it's the- Because the thought was that that wouldn't be caught by Mitchell? Give me a break. Statistically, it's across all of.

It was an F9. It's a great play. It's a great, but F8, David. The Braves go one for 23. Yeah, it's a center fielder. Oh, is center field who caught that? I thought it was in right field. Okay, F8.

Thank you. Braves go one for 23 with rudders in scoring position against the Dodgers. They're done. Acuna struggles in 30 seconds or less. Tell me about the Braves. The Braves have an aging core. And they've got built around a guy named Bacuni who's got two player options, team options left, and he doesn't look like he cares.

And that really bothers me because he had some crocodile tears, Boris like at the end of the series, he was giving away at bats like nobody's business during that series. And I care about that more than a guy crying at the end after they've been eliminated, saying how he let his team down. Getting booed loudly. Finally, who wins today, White Sox or Guardians? I got the Guardians advancing. So in order to advance, they got to win game four.

And they've got to, I had them even down 2-0. I stuck with the Guardians. I'm going to keep sticking with them. Watch Parker Messick. Del, Dan, to watch Parker Messick pitch. He's so good. The White Sox, all of the whole Pope thing and all of the, oh, we can start anybody, including Jeremy or Samson, and we'll win.

By the way, as you get deeper in October, that ends. And the Guardians are going to win game four. And then Gavin Williams is going to win game five. I got the White Sox. They're better offense at night than they are during the day. And that's my weird line of thinking, David, it was fun. we got to get it over to the main show. I'll see you next week for another one of these crossovers.

Goodbye.