The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Postgame Show: The Pitch Clock

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

The Pitch Clock is back for another episode as we inch closer to the Championship Series in the MLB Postseason. Adnan Virk joins Jeremy and Chris for this week's edition of Taylor's Trivia. It's been 18 years since the Mets and Yankees had played a postseason game on the same day, so Taylor wants to test the trio's knowledge on the Mets, Yankees, Tigers, and Dodgers lineups from that day back in 2006. Plus, Jeremy chats with David Samson about all the action taking place in the divisional round including Fransisco Lindor and the Mets clinching a spot in the NLCS, Giancarlo Stanton powering the Yankees to victory, the Tigers' "Pitching Chaos" getting them (and Jeremy) within a game of the next round, and Friday night's Game 5 between the Dodgers and Padres. Help out Hurricane Milton victims with food on the frontlines: Give what you can to World Central Kitchen at Donate.WCK.org/LeBatard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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No purchase necessary. 21 plus ends November 15th, 2024. See rules at website for participating area and other important details. Sponsored by Diageo Americas Inc. New York, New York. Welcome to the Pitch Clock. Here's the Pitch, a two-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the Pitch Clock.

All right, back with another playoff edition of the Pitch Clock. Adnan Virk joins me and Chris Cody to play this trivia game with Taylor. We'll have David Sampson joining me in studio, but we gotta get to some trivia. Taylor, what is our trivia game today? So this past Saturday, the Mets and the Yankees played a postseason game on the same day

for the first time in 18 years, October 7th 2006. In front of you guys you have the lineups from those two games that day. The Yankees vs. the Tigers and then the Mets vs. the Dodgers. 06 2006 October 7th. So you guys will be guessing the players from those starting lineups. It's three strikes in your out format and you don't need the exact spot in the lineup. I'm gonna go out on a limb here. Derek Jeter. One of the safest picks. That's a good one.

Okay. I'm gonna go ahead, Jose Reyes. Jose Reyes is the Mets starting choice. All right Adnan, who you got? We've got Derek Jeter and Jose Reyes off the board. I love Cody's confidence. I'm gonna go with a guy I worked with yesterday, Sean Casey of the 06 Tigers.

Wow. The mayor was starting at first base for the Tigers. Wow. Chris. Bernie Williams. Steer. Strike. That's a strike.

That's a strike. He didn't start in this game. Okay, I'm gonna stick with the Tigers and I'm gonna say Maglio Ordonias. He didn't start in this game. Okay. I'm going to stick with the Tigers and I'm going to say Maglio Ordonias. He is the right fielder. Yep. Batting fourth that day. Maglio Ordonias. This is so stupid.

Adnan, your second guess here. Chris has one strike. You and I are strike-less. Yeah. I feel like, Jorge Posada. Jorge was the starting catcher. That's great... Jorge Posada. Jorge was the starting catcher. That's great. Take it.

Jorge Posada. Had him. All right, so through two rounds, Chris Cody with a strike. Zero strikes for me and Adnan. Chris. The only one who talks **** has one strike. I'm gonna go with David Wright at third base.

That's a great one. That's the other one I was considering going with. I'm gonna stick, I'm gonna go with the Yankees again. I'm gonna go Jason Giambi. Yeah. That is a strike. No, really? I thought that was, I had him.

No. He was on the team. He was on the team, it didn't start at first or DH that day. Shuffle in the line. Oh. Okay, so I mentioned that David Sampson would be in studio. The only thing I didn't mention is that now I ended up being at home because those are all the moving parts here at Metal Arc Media, but we continue with the pitch clock.

Very excited to catch up with David after the final day of four baseball games in the postseason, the final day where you had that much action and there was a lot of it. David, I want to start with you with the only team thus far to clinch a trip to the championship series and that is the New York Mets who were headed to the NLCS for the first time since 2015. They had a 4-1 win powered by Francisco Lindor who, according to Optistats, became the only player in Major League postseason history to account for all of the runs that his team had via the Grand Slam in a series clinching win.

Some of these stats have been really ridiculous as of late, but- Who does that? How do they come up with that? He hits the Grand Slam. I assume the statisticians are more excited than Lindor was running around the bases because they're thinking, all right, if this game ends this way, let's start looking right now. Maybe they just punch it in or ask AI,

but at some point the stats are insane. That one to me is ridiculous. The Alonzo one is way better where it's a go ahead home run later in the game to. Oh yeah. Anyway, so yes, it was a great moment for the Mets, watching Stephen Cohn celebrate with goggles. I hate the goggle look.

I embrace the sting. You have to have the sting. It's ridiculous. And even if they're sponsored, just put them on your forehead. But the Mets have this aura around them. And I was really finding myself thinking about the Phillies. Oh my god, the level of despondency. Jeremy, it was a year ago that John Middleton said,

hey, guess what? We're good. And Bryce Harper's underpaid. And then the Diamondbacks beat him twice at home in the LCS. It's a shock to me to see the Phillies that had such great vibes have a team come in somehow with even greater vibes in the Mets and they're on this unbelievable run team and try to link it to anything when really all it is is Francisco Lindor turning it on and the rest of the team following suit. If you like those random stats, David, how about this one for you? The last nine teams to eliminate the Brewers in the postseason have reached the World Series. So that's good news for the Mets as they head into the NLCS. But I want to stay in New York with you David for a minute because last night it's your guy John Carlos Stanton. How about some of these stats that I've got for you here? Last night he's three for five with a homer, an RBI double, and a stolen base. The rest of the Yankees were one for 25 with five strikeouts. Judge

this postseason one for 11 with five strikeouts while Stanton has been dominant. He's, he's the sixth Yankee or I believe the number is he is sixth in career postseason home runs in Yankees franchise history. Now he's the third Yankee ever with 24 or more RBIs in a 20 game span of the postseason, joining Reggie Jackson and Lou Gehrig. So how special is it, not just for you, but for Yankees fans, to see what Giancarlo Stanton

is doing right now, and how does that elevate the Yankees in their World Series hopes while Judge, Soto's playing well, but Judge has yet to get hot? So here's the key for the Yankees. They have to have someone carry them offensively because Jazz and Judge and Soto's hit well, but you just need more. And then you've got Stanton.

But really, if you look at what the Yankees are doing, their bullpen has been untouchable. You can't score off the bullpen as opposed to the Phillies bullpen, which is a piece of melted Swiss cheese. All they do is give up runs and runners. So while I'd love to say, and call up Giancarlo, look at me David

and say hey you are carrying the Yankees you are the man man. The fact is he's a man amongst other men who are making the Yankees harder to beat. The only way they will win without judge being better is if this bullpen continues and I just Jeremy I'm sorry I got to go back to the Mets quickly. Don't underestimate what they're starting pitching's done oh yeah unexpectedly manaya going seven scores Kintana setting records going five scoreless like the last several postseason starts if that continues forget grimace forget booing jazz you could see a subway series here in the next couple weeks. It's unbelievable

Okay, I have a strike now even with Chris Adnan your third guess I'm gonna go with Was Mickey on the Tigers out let's go McGill Cabrera, that's a strike Wow, so damn it. I have a couple here I have I have a tiger that I want to pull out of my ass here that I just want to say yeah I'm pretty sure he feels like the right time I'm just gonna do it. Let's have some fun Brandon dude. I swear Brandon Inge was starting at Where Wow, I had a he was playing third base that day, okay hmm Third base that day. Okay. Notice we're all avoiding the Dodgers.

Oh, I just, wow. I just found one with the Dodgers. I'm going to, my 2006, was he there? No. Eight seconds. All right. I'm gonna try to cash in here. Was the Mets catcher Paul LaDuca?

It was Paul LaDuca. Yes! Wow. Paul LaDuca. All right, Adnan, what's your next guess here? Okay, we're going to go with the Dodger. I don't know if maybe this game was just starting, but what about Andre Ethier?

Dude, that's great, right field, batting fifth. That's a second strike for Adnan. No! Two strikes! I had Ethier written down at the right fielder for that. Cody, I was so proud. I was like, Andre Ethier could be a sneaky good pick. That does help me think about certain eras.

Yeah, Chris, you're up. I mean, this is obvious looking at it. The only second baseman in history to back clean up was Jeff Kent. It was Jeff Kent. Jeff Kent, wow! I just wanna know if the guy I'm thinking of was up yet with the Yankees.

Yankee second baseman Robinson Cannell. It was Cannell. Thank God. Adnan, you're back up here. Okay, I'm going to have to just play it safe here. I believe Nomar was on that doctor's tape. Great one. That's a third strike for Adnan.

Are you kidding? Hang on, hang on. Let me redeem myself. Russell Martin. I will give him a redemption. It was Russell Martin catching. Okay, but all right. But he has struck it out.

Yeah, all right. And if you want to stick around and keep guessing, we'll let you do so, but you are at the car dealership and you're already out of the game and can't win. So it's up to you. Let's stick in the American league for a second because you have an even stranger series going on between a couple of AL Central teams

and the Guardians and the Tigers. The Guardians have now gone 22 straight scoreless innings after their offensive outburst at the beginning of game one. First, it was Tarek Schubel who was dominant for the Tigers in game two. And then yesterday, the rebrand of a bullpen day to pitching chaos is maybe my favorite thing that I've seen in baseball recently,

which is the Tigers just piecing it together with all of these other arms. They're now a game away from advancing to the championship series. David, do you think the Tigers can continue this improbable run and win one more of these games against the Guardians? What are your expectations for what goes on tonight

in the first game between these two teams? First of all, your bias is leaking out of your pores as you want the Tigers to advance. I'm desperate. It's unbelievable. Like forget neutrality. This is all on Tigers advancing because I want to go as part of the Levitard show

to Detroit, which are not words uttered by all that many people in Miami. But that said, what the Tigers did is what the Dodgers did yesterday. They put out eight pitchers and they all were good. That is not a great prescription to win a seven game series, but you can win a five game series because they are related.

You say that the Guardians haven't scored. We know you can't win a baseball game if you don't score, and the reason they're not scoring is the Tigers bullpen. So can the Tigers get another game in the next two when you've got Scoobal ready to go for a game five if necessary? You gotta feel really good. But if you are the Tigers, tonight's game matters so much.

You don't want to go to a game five because you want Scubal ready to go game one of the ALCS. And so in order to get that, you can't burn them in game five. That's exactly right. Therefore, the Tigers need to look at tonight's game four as a game five and manage accordingly, more so than any other team. The Padres didn't have to clinch last night.

They're ready to go with Darvish in game five. It's all good. The Yankees can move on if Cole doesn't get it done. There's no team more than the Tigers that needs to win in four games. Last night, it's the Dodgers absolutely dominating offensively in their bullpen, putting it together. We look ahead at a game five where it feels like a lot is on the line for both of these

Franchises as they go head to head game five deciding game. Yeah deciding gas There's a lot of words game five as you have these two teams David What are your thoughts and who do you expect to ultimately come out the victor is you? Darvish is the scheduled starter for the Padres and the Dodgers are sitting here going, what are we going to do on the mound? My guess is they go with Yamamoto and they can back them up with Flaherty if they absolutely have to coming off a bullpen game the way they did in game four. Again, you Darvish, he is, he owns the Dodgers.

They're his, what's that expression? I'm gonna sound old. Is it I'm your daddy? Yeah, that was the Pedro Martinez. The Yankees, right? The Yankees chanting, who's your daddy? Who's your daddy? Well guess what?

I'll tell you who the Dodgers daddy is. It's Darvish. So you gotta feel really good. Last night's game was just, it was done in the third inning. You could just sense at five nothing that everyone's wheels were turning toward a game five. It turns out that the road team has won the last six game fives. This is a very it's the home field advantage is not what it used to be. It's only as good as the starting pitching in my opinion. Getting a bullpen game over and over again is super hard to do because one of the

pitchers is not going to be on on a particular night. So if I'm the Dodgers, I'm worried about facing Darvish. And if I'm the Padres, I'm feeling pretty confident. However, as we've seen with the Guardian series, you got to score to win. That is, it's the funniest thing we say in sports, but it's so true. It doesn't matter how good your pitching is. You got to score a run. And that is is gonna be the case for the Padres. Some unbelievable hitters in this series Fernando Tatis is on fire Mookie Betts

all of a sudden going from postseason choker to one of the hottest hitters in baseball over the last couple of games. So hey Otani's been great this should be an incredible end of the series David thank, thank you for providing your analysis here. I do want to real quick before we wrap here, shout out ErnieThreads.com. The new pitchcock logo made by AngelResto, they put it on a couple of hats for us. So David, I'm gonna get one for you.

I will also have a budget proposal to get to Detroit as soon as they clinch. I promise that'll be- You gotta be ready to do it now. Within 40 hours. Get ready now. I'm starting as soon as we finish this recording. David, thank you so much.

Let's head back over to see how our game wrapped up with Adnan and Chris. I'm gonna go Carlos Beltran batting third for the Mets. Good call, Doty. That is correct. Well, and sticking with that era of Andre Ethier, I'm gonna go Matt Kem. See right.

Oh, really? Not in the lineup. Oh, but he was on there. Oh, but he was on the team? I have no idea. Okay, fair enough. 06 feels early for Matt Kemp. 06 feels early.

Might be early. That's on me. Wow. All right, so Chris, we each have two strikes at this point. I'm just going to stay hot with his Mets lineup. Jeremy Bernitz. Jeremy Bernitz. All right.

Omar Vesquelll, Tigers? Erick! Wait, yeah, that's a bad one. I panicked. Bring it home here? Bring it home. Metz, first base. Carlos Delgado.

Carlos Delgado, man. Carlos Delgado! Chris's hot streak continues. Wow, this is unbelievable! I really, you know who I almost said for the Mets was Mike Jacobs because he was the next one after. Damn. All right, Taylor, can we hear the rest of the names that we were missing here?

The Tigers lineup that day was Curtis Granderson, Lucito Polanco, Sean Casey, Maglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Hodge Rodriguez, Craig Monroe, Marcus Thames, Brandon Inge. Marcus Thames Brandon inch Marcus Thames Wow that name brings Jeremy Bonderman a discovery father on Dermin that's amazing what else the Yankees lineup was Johnny Damon Derek Jeter Bobby Abreu Gary Sheffield got the start at first a decking Matsui Posada Kano a rod in the eighth then- Why was he batting eighth?

The slum is struggling in the playoffs. And then Malky Cabrera was batting ninth. Jared Reick. Malky Cabrera amazing. Wow. That's great. Jared Reick on the starting. The Malky Cabrera delivers.

The players on the Mets you guys missed was Cliff Floyd, Sean Green, Jose Valentine. Jose Valentine. With no way to the uh- Steve Trasko. The Dodgers, Rafael Furcal, Kenny Lofton just played everywhere. He was there center.

Todd Halsworth? Marlon Anderson in left, Jadie Drew in right, Wilson Betemy at third. Wilson Betemy, Jesus. Who was that first? James Loney. These names just made me so happy. Pitching for the Dodgers that day?

Greg Maddux. James Loney? Greg Maddux. James Lone. Greg Maddux! This one delivered, man. This was awesome. Great day. Adnan, thank you so much for joining us for this episode of The Pitch Clock.

Chris, as always, congratulations on your victory. And one last thought, Jeremy. I mean, if ever there was a guy that dropped things with love, it's Wilson Bettany. Come on. Thanks, Adnan. Wilson better be come on. Thanks, Adam.