The Kevin Sheehan Show - Nats Rolling & The Cousins Game

Episode Date: October 24, 2019

Kevin and Thom (from Houston) open with a lengthy recap of the Nats 12-3 win over Houston in Game 2 of the World Series. They previewed the Skins-Vikings "Cousins" game tonight in Minnesota. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. You're listening to The Sports Fix. Tommy's on the phone from Houston. Aaron's here. I'm here after the Nats won 12 to 3 last night to take a two to nothing series lead. It was such a good game through six innings. So compelling, so tight. And then they blew it open in the seventh. We've got that. That's what we're going to spend the first half of this show on. And then the back. half of the show, we will talk about Redskins Vikings tonight. Tommy, you know, and you get this too, but I probably get it more than you. I get people that like to program the show for me, you know, sending me tweets. Now, if you spend one second on the Redskins tomorrow, nobody cares about the Redskins game. Thank you. But you know what? Actually, a lot of people care about the Redskins game. That's the truth of the matter. But I right now personally, um, care. less, much less about that than the baseball, which was, you know, I described it on radio today, Tommy, and tell me what you think of this, is a game that essentially had three parts. The pitcher

part, which was, you know, Verlander versus Strasbourg, both started off slowly and then both pitched great. Strasbourg's sixth inning to get out of that situation, a dangerous situation, was really that the most tense, the most dramatic portion of the night. That's, so, So you had the pitchers, and then I said you had the sixth inning, Strassburg, getting through it. And then the last part was the avalanche that started with the Suzuki home run in the seventh. And they just ran away and hid from a great Astros team, but a game that really was so good through the end of the sixth inning. And I thought we were headed towards, you know, seventh, eighth, ninth inning drama until what they did to Verlander and the bullpen in the seventh and eighth. Yeah, it really was like a heavyweight matchup between two great fighters for, you know, the first six innings, or at least five of the first six innings.

And then it just deteriorated into this slug fest, and the Astros just collapsed. I mean, again, the Astros, I thought, and I was wrong, were the team that just seemed to, like, just bask in the professionalism of what they do, and the nationals just seemed to be riding on this wave of having fun. Well, what you saw in that was the opposite. You saw a nationals team that was methodical in their at-bats against the at-shoes and broke them down. And you saw an Astros team that while they weren't having fun,

they were consumed by their own failures. Yeah, they definitely, that's a really good way to describe it. They were the 107 game winner, the heavy favorite, the group that had been there before, and they had their two best pitchers, including arguably the best pitcher in the sport, in the moment anyway, going in the first two games at home. They lose game one, and the Nats, you know, it was one of those games in which, You know, they could chalk up. You know, Garrett wasn't as good as he's usually been.

We had a chance to get to Scherzer. We never did. It's just one game. But then you're back at it. And first of all, Rendon, you know, puts the Nats out two nothing in the first. They came back, by the way, with Bregman, who's really struggled in this series and struggled defensively last night, hitting a two-run homer off a Strasbourg change-up, by the way. First, by the way, Fox last night with the broadcast was phenomenal.

It seemed like every inning they had a tidbit about something that was a first or a historic, you know, accomplishment that the Nats were in the midst of. But one of the things that popped up is that's the first change-up home run Strasbourg's given up since August. His change-ups have been unhittable. And Bregman hit it. And then you got this, you know, back-and-forth game with a couple of threats here and there. And then Tommy Strasbourg in the 6th, this is exactly what we've talked about, you know, now. in this postseason and the narrative that has changed on him.

I mean, you had opportunities for him to really buckle. He looked spent. The pitch count was above 100. You know, he got behind Alvarez and then they intentionally walked him, which was the right thing for Davey to do. And then Correa, he's got two pitches that looked like strike three. Absolutely looked like strike three. The one and two pitch and the two pitch.

And he doesn't get rattled, but he yelled at the yump. I mean, he got really animated, and then he gets Correa to pop out and gets Tucker on a curveball, a 3-2 curve ball, and that was a jump out of your seat moment. Like, I was talking to Ray Knight about it this morning, and I said to him, I'm like, you know, who at 3-2 throws an 80-mile-per-hour curve ball with two runners on and stuck it right in there and totally froze Tucker? And I was like, man, Strasbourg is one great clutch pitcher. He really was after the first inning last night.

Yeah, and he had supreme confidence in his ability to throw three or four pitches differently. Yeah. I mean, I can remember when he started working on his change-up years ago, and there was some pushback on it as to whether or not the motion for the change-up would ultimately re-aggravate his Tommy John situation. There was some debate about that. well, that debate is gone at this point. His change-up is one of the best pitches in all baseball right now.

And Suzuki talked about last night, Kurt Suzuki, who, you know, was the guy who stirred the drink for the nationals last night. He talked about how Strasbourg has his ability now to throw so many different pitchers and keep hitters, like just totally off base. Yeah, it was just like just like, just like, just like, Scherzer, you know, had that grinded out, didn't have his best stuff. It was different last night because Strasbourg did have his stuff after the first inning. Scherzer was behind in almost every count, but somehow got out of five innings with just two earned runs.

Strasbourg after the first, and Verlander, too, they both settled down and they both were really, really good. But that's sixth inning. And by the way, I got to ask you, before we get to the seventh and the offensive, you know, big inning that starts. to end the game, basically. How about Rodney up is the first guy in the bullpen in a two-two game? I was shocked. I thought for sure that Corbyn was going to be available if they needed him in a tight game last night. And when Rodney got up in the sixth inning with Strasbourg still out there,

I was like, oh my God. Now, he got in an eight-two game, so a much different situation by the time he came in. But he was likely going to be the pitcher in a two-two game in the bottom of the seven. that's remarkably frightening. I know. Absolutely is. And I'm not, you know, I mean, he was the only one up. So I guess that would have happened.

I still have a hard time believing that Davey would have done that. I just can't see him doing that in that situation. Maybe there was a sense that if the game was broken open at that point, you know, if the assholes broke open the game. But even that, no, that doesn't. I mean, that's pretty frightening. On the other hand, when Rodby came in, you know, the asteros couldn't do anything with him, even when the score was, you know, 8 to 2.

Yeah, but it probably would have been a different situation had he entered the game in a 2-2 or a 3-2 game. Oh, I know. Aaron, were you surprised? Aaron, were you shocked? Like, I mean, we had heard yesterday that it was very possible that Corvin would be available again last night. And by the way, if Corbyn had pitched last night, you know, Mark Zuckerman said that there was even a remote possibility that Joe Ross could get the start. in game four. But were you shocked that Rodney was the first one up? I wasn't shocked just because they have shown a little bit of faith in him. And I did think that they would, you know, they

wouldn't use Rainy again. Well, they've shown more faith than Rainy. But they, I didn't think they would pitch Rainy back to back like that, especially after, uh, he had a little trouble the last time out. So it wasn't shock. It did send me, I was at Nationals Park and everyone around me got very nervous when they saw that. Yeah, I mean, Tommy, like, it's like everything is going their way, you know, in this postseason. Like Rodney didn't have to enter the game in a 2-2 or a 3-2 game or even 4-2. He came in with a 6-run lead after they broke it open in the 7th with Suzuki's home run. And by the way, what an underrated two games he's played.

I mean, even before that home run defensively, he's been so good. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely tremendous. You know, Stephen Strasberg had a quote about the Nationals that he said, in the postseason, in the past, they've seemed to run into a buzzsaw in the other team. I mean, two of their four post seasons, the team went on to win the World Series. So Strasbourg said, maybe this year we're the buzzsaw that everybody is running into. And he's right.

They are just that. I mean, eight straight postseason wins that ties the all-time record. You know, I mean, they literally are. I mean, they've got all these cylinders pumping at the same time. And I always thought that maybe not all of the postseason teams they've had to pass, but I think most of them had the capability of doing the same thing. But just fell short for one reason. They never hit in the postseason like they are this postseason.

They always seem to struggle with their hitting in previous playoff appearances, even though they had tremendous lineups and great hitting. I think it's the personality of this team, the veteran makeup of this team, and their manager, Davey Martinez, I know this has been reduced in some ways to old school versus new school. The Astros with their analytics, computers, the nationals with their scouting, you know, rely more heavily on scouting. But in a way, that's accurate because they talk about this after the game. the nationals hate to strike out. They don't like to do it.

This is why they're so successful with two strikes. I mean, they constantly, they want to put the ball in play, and that's not the trend in the game. The trend in the game is, you know, the strikeouts are worth the chance to drive the ball, you know, over the fence. I mean, strikeouts are up year after year after year, and the national since spring training have preached, don't strike out. Right.

and that's served them well in this postseason. Yeah, I think it's really interesting the whole discussion about, you know, Houston being a team that doesn't send out scouts and the Nats are, you know, led by Mike Rizzo, who's a scout scout. You know, every time I look at the Nats and they're shifted over and somebody hits a ground ball right into the shift, I'm like, there is some data and some analytics being used here to make decisions, you know, in the game. And somebody pointed out to me, you know, there's a reason that Strasbourg's thrown so many curveballs, you know, over the last couple of years versus what he threw early on and more change-ups.

By the way, that Bregman home run, I think I already mentioned this, but that was a change-up. Like, Strasbourg, I love his stones. Like, it's just the opposite of what we used to think. He's a big stones pitcher throwing that curve to get Kare out or to get Tucker out there to end the six. That was just an unbelievable, unbelievable pitch. So I wanted to read a quote to you that I read early this morning that I thought was really interesting because they're in the seventh after Suzuki goes deep for a three-two lead. You get Robles up, and Robles doesn't walk.

He hasn't been a patient hitter. He's only walked 35 times all year. He's gotten hit by a pitch almost as much as he's walked this year. And Adam Eaton said that that was the most. important at-bat of the night. And I'm going to find the quote here. I had it up a minute ago. Give me a second here. He said that, you know, Robles, here's the quote. By the way, Robles in that at bat, he looked at strike three. I mean, there was a pitch that was right down the middle that I could not believe was not called strike three with a two-and-two count.

But anyway, Eaton said the following. He said, it's very difficult to hit after a solo home run, especially in a big game. Sometimes you want to do too much. You want to hit another homer. That type of deal keep things going. To walk there, talking about Robles. For me, he said, that's the play of the game. Closed quote.

It did knock Verlander out. I don't know if Verlander was going to stay in past Robles anyway. But, you know, the Suzuki Homer by itself doesn't more likely than not win the game. I mean, Houston's got enough firepower. They're going to face Fernando Rodney in the bottom of the seventh. And I thought it was interesting that Eaton honed in on that at bat, that Robles walking that got the rest of the inning jump started, was the key moment in the game.

I didn't think of it that way in the moment. Well, I don't necessarily agree with them. I think the Suzuki home run changed everything in the game. By itself, it would not have won the game. But just like the Zimmerman home run, you know, the night before, it sort of opened up the floodgates for the rest of the offense. It certainly energized the team. I don't think anyone expected Suzuki to put that kind of wood on the ball like he did.

So I still think that it was the Suzuki home run was the key moment for the game. I think that's really what changed everything for the nationals offense moving forward. It was three to two. Robles walked, Turner walked. Then they used Eaton to sack, bunt those guys over. Rendon, I was listening to Hinch in the postgame show last night that they're running on MLB network, and it was really funny. He said, you know, that's seventh inning. The one, you know, you got Rendon coming up, and you got, you know, Turner and Robles on second and third,

and Soto's behind him, and it's like the one guy that you're, you know, you think you can't get out. You actually get him out. and Springer made a really good play to keep Robles at third and not allow them to tag up and score. They walked Soto, and then you had back-to-bat back what you guys refer to as professional hitters. Kendrick and Cabrera with runners on. And Kendrick hits that shot to Bregman, which he couldn't handle. They called it a base hit. I think that's right.

Although a lot of guys afterwards were saying, you know, that's a play Bregman can make. It's like a 50-50 play. And then I loved Cabrera last night. Like I think you said on Tuesday, I know others said this, that you expected Dozier to get the start at second. Well, that was only because I expected a pitching matchup between Scher and Cole. Yeah. And in that, but I look at game two, knowing Cabrera's numbers against Verlander, I expected him to start in game two. Right.

And that's why he was in there. You know, he was in there for that professional. two-run RBI single when you had to have it to stretch the lead out. And it was a great at bat too, because that guy, when he's down in the count, just battles. You know, he'll strike out a bunch when nobody's on. But when people are on, that guy is a tough out. It was an awesome game. I would ask you a couple of things in follow-up.

Number one. But wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let's go back to what you mentioned. The Soto Intentional Walk. Yeah. That was unbelievable. The Astros have not intentionally walked a hitter all year.

I couldn't believe when I saw that. I'm like, how can you go 162 games without an intentional walk? That's crazy. Crazy. It goes against, you know, their very grain of AJ Hinch managing. And somebody asked them that after the game last night. And its answer was, have you watched Soto in this? Yeah, right. Yeah. Well, context is everything. And with first base open, I mean, if he had pitched a Soto, that would have been insane in that spot.

But yeah, and you know, Kendrick comes up with the bases loaded after a Soto intentional walk again, just like he didn't game five against the Dodgers. And he hit it hard, you know, and hit it in there and Bregman got the glove on it. And that scored another run. And then Cabrera got the two in. And then Zimmerman. It was great. But yes, there were things. The Fox broadcast was excellent last night in giving you all of these tidbits. And I'm fine with Joe Buck and Smoltz, and I think they do a good job. A lot of these historic numbers that were popping up about what the nationals had done and what they've been doing in the postseason were really interesting. I'm going to get to those in a moment. But that was an unbelievable. That was a jaw dropper, that they hadn't intentionally walked somebody.

Yes. And the entire season and postseason to date. It's crazy. Crazy. And this is a 20-year-old kid who's become the star of the postseason. Oh, yeah. And the most feared hitter in the Nationals lineup, he turns 21 tomorrow for game three. Well, look, first base was open for Rendon 2, and they didn't walk him to get to Soto.

You know, they weren't about to do that. All right. So we both, I think, felt, you know, after the two games in St. Louis that the series was for all intents. and purposes over because St. Louis just didn't, they looked dead coming, you know, out of St. Louis, and they didn't have the firepower really to win four out of the next five games. What do you think about the Astros? Do you think they're dead? I don't think they're dead. Look, the Nationals have won eight straight games. The Houston Astros can win four straight games. It can happen, or four of the next five. I mean, we're talking about, you know,

arguably the best regular season team in baseball this year, a team that won the World Series two years ago. I don't think they're going to fold up under the pressure. I mean, they've got the, we've been here before. We know how to win in postseason, you know, basically a resume behind them. So I don't think they're done. and I'd be real wary about celebrating a little bit too early because they're certainly capable of beating the Nationals

in four to the next five games. I've had the over in the first two games. It was totally the contrarian play with the pitching matchups, and I'm 2-0, Aaron, in this series now. I love the Astros on Friday night. They're favored in the Friday night game. They are favored in game three. They're a minus 125, minus 130 favorite,

and I think the world will be on the Nats to win that game. But, yeah, I don't think they're dead either. I would be surprised if they don't win at least a game or two over the weekend, but I don't see this as a clean sweep. I would think that the nationals are going to have to battle the next two in particular with Sanchez and with Corbyn. Yeah, I absolutely think that. I mean, if it's a sweep, then we're talking about one of the historic postseason teams of all time. Of all time.

Yeah. Yes. But Tommy, a historic, if they do sweep, or even if they win in five, I mean, the run that they've had is already, you know, historic in terms of the number of games in a row, the number of road games. And they were within, you know, down 3-1 in the eighth inning against Josh Hader, down 3-1 in game five to the Dodgers, and Dave Roberts leaves Kershaw in there. You know, it's such a fine line in sports, not just baseball. We see these things all the time where you look back in your. you're like, wow, it was almost over before it started. You know, and if it ended, you know, in that wild card game against Milwaukee,

think about this. Like, okay, they made a really nice run, but they lost in the playoffs again, and are the learners going to lose Rendon? Because if they lose him, then the franchise is being just ripped apart by everybody, you know, despite the run to get into the postseason. They were facing the best closer in the sport down 3-1. And they got it done with a broken bat bloops. single, a hit by pitch, and a hit by Soto, which was awesome, but it also was a, was an error

on the right fielder, you know, on that same play. And that's how close they were to being eliminated. And we would have spent a lot of the, you know, week following, you know, talking about Scherzer and the decision to pitch Scherzer. And Roberts should have never left Kershaw in there to face Soto after Rendon homered. Never. So a lot of different things that you need. It's, it's what, you know, they've been buzzsawed in the past and now they're buzz-sawing people. And they've been on the back end and the wrong end of all of the breaks. And this particular postseason, they're getting everyone to go their way.

Yes, they have seen more than their share of breaks go against them in the postseason. I mean, I still shiver when I think of that fifth inning against the Chicago Cubs in 2017. Right. So, yeah, I mean, everything they seem to do right now seems to work for them. But, you know, when you look at their talent, you can certainly understand it and explain it. Because, I mean, their lineup from top to bottom are full of, I mean, there's no outs in that lineup. No, no, there isn't. There isn't.

And, you know, even, like, you know, guys, Michael A. Taylor gets into the act. That was another one that I was stunned at to hear that last night was the first time in World Series history that a team had a home run in the seventh, eighth, and ninth inning of a World Series game. Really? I didn't know that. I was shocked by it. I was like, really? It seems like it would have happened. But Suzuki in the seventh, Eaton, in the eighth, and then Taylor in the ninth.

First time one team has had a home run in each the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings of a World Series game. Crazy. It's awesome. You're right. It's a great lineup healthy. And it's got stars with Rendon and Soto in the lineup. And they've got professional older guys like Cabrera and Kendrick and Zimmerman in the line. And Suzuki.

You know, Suzuki became the oldest player to hit a go-ahead home run in a World Series game. in the seventh inning or later at 36 years old. That was another one. He had, listen, he had 17 home runs this year in less than 300 at bat. Yeah. I mean, his power has emerged in the past couple of years for him. I mean, usually he was like a 14 or 15 home run a year guy over the course of a full season. And again, Suzuki is one of the strongest clubhouse presence.

on the team. Every conversation you hear about the Nationals, when they've had discussions in that clubhouse, especially during those tough times, Suzuki's name comes up every single time. He is one of the emotional leaders on that team. Ryan Zimmerman was talking about him last night. He was on with, I forget where I saw Ryan late, early this morning. Actually, that game was a four-hour plus game. And by the way, you forget so many things when a game, you know, had that much to it. and I was just looking through my notes. How about Al Tuve trying to steal third in the bottom of the first? It would have been a bigger inning potentially for Houston if he didn't.

And Suzuki made a great throw to get him out. But Zimmerman said about Suzuki. He just said, he just smiled when he was asked about him, and he said, you know, he was here in 2012, and he was a great teammate then, and he's a great teammate now. Everybody loves him and respects him, and it was so good to see that happen to him tonight. So, you know, when you...

tremendous respect for that guy. Yeah. All right. So here are some of the incredible, you know, statistics and accomplishments that came out of that game. First of all, the Nats have now won eight straight games in the postseason. That ties the 14 Royals, the 05 White Sox, and the 04 Red Sox for the longest win streak in a single postseason. That's where the Nats are right now with eight straight. You know, starting with the Dodgers game.

and two of those teams went on to win the World Series, not all pre. Right. So, yeah, because they won, I was thinking for a second, wait a minute, did they win game four? Yeah, they won game four in the address. The Royals lost to the Giants in 2008. Yeah, in 2014, exactly. That was the Bumgarner comes out of the bullpen series. So then here's more, all right?

You'll love this stuff. the Nats combined in the first two games to score 17 runs. It's the third most by any road team in the first two games of a World Series ever. It's the most that a team has scored on the road in the first two games in the World Series since the Yankees scored 20 in the first two games of the 1960 World Series against Pittsburgh. Correct me if I'm wrong, that's the Maserosky World Series, right? Yes, it is. That was the Bizarre World Series, where the Yankees won, I think, all three of their games by tremendously wide margins.

And every game, the Pirates won, was razor thin. But yes, it was the Mazzarowski home run, and the walk-off home run in game seven was the 60 series. But, yeah, I mean, that was a tremendous series for the Yankees, absolutely. Off Ralph Terry, right? Did I get that one right? I think you might have that one right. Yeah. Ralph Terry, who came back in 62, and I think won the Si Young with 23 wins and then beat the Giants in the 62 World Series.

Yeah. All right, so let me continue with some of this stuff, because it's all amazing. Like, they're not just up to nothing. They're doing it in, like, historic fashion. The nine-run victory, winning by 12-3s, the most lopsided wins. by a road team since 2011 in the World Series and was the and was only the fourth time Tommy since the division era started in 1969 that a team won a World Series games by World Series game by at least nine runs on the road only the 82 Brewers and 96 Braves

pulled that off all right Straussberg's postseason ERA is 1.34 we knew this before but I'm just throwing it into the mix. Second only to Sandy Kofax for starters that have gotten at least five starts in the postseason. That's amazing. Wow. It really is. And that's going to be the lead if he's in the Hall of Fame was his postseason career at this point. It could be.

Yeah. I mean, that, you know, in a way, and, Mike Rizzo, the general manager, has talked about this. And you've mentioned this as well. It's very reminiscent of Kurt Schilling and Randy Johnson. and 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks. This whole roster is reminiscent of that right now. That was a team that Rizzo was the director of scouting on, and I don't think it's a coincidence that this team is built in a lot of ways like that Diamondbacks team was. All right. Here are the others, quick, quickly, you know, the 2-0 series lead,

85%, 71 out of 84 teams have gone on to win in the current 232 format. But when you've won the first two games on the road. 22 out of the last 25 have won the World Series. The last team that didn't, the Yankees lost the first two in 96 to the Braves and won that series. The 86 Mets

lost the first two to the Red Sox and won that series. And the 85 Royals lost the first two to the Cardinals at home and won that series. So there you go. They would appear based on the facts and figures to be

pretty good shape. But there's a long way to go. I actually like the Astros in game three. I'm going to be there, by the way. Did I tell you that I got a ticket or not? I think you did. Yeah, okay. So I'm excited about that. Are you going by yourself? No, no. I'm going to take at least, I think Ryan's coming back from Penn State. He's going to come back, go to the game. And I think Corbyn, my middle son, is going to come with me as well. My oldest son, I think, is out of town this weekend. So I think it'll be the three of us. And maybe Kara will go if she wants to go. She doesn't really like going to sporting events. But if you explain to her that this isn't a sporting event?

I did. I did. Okay. Now, yeah, I did. I don't know that she really cares much. It's funny. You and I both talked about this before. My wife couldn't care less about sports.

Couldn't care less about sports. I guess it's... Neither could mind, except she surprises me sometimes. Like, she actually sat at home and watched some of the stuff. Stanley Cup games. I remember you saying that. He's never been a hockey game in her life. And she's watched some of it. She watched the Nationals in the World Series, but she can't stay up late. She can't stay awake long enough to watch up these baseball games. Yeah, that's funny because I think we've had this conversation before, but Kara, for whatever reason, really enjoyed

the Caps run in the Stanley Cup as well. She got into that. But she was not watching last night. She couldn't have cared less. Maybe I can convince her to go. Of course, I have friends of mine that would say, seriously, you're going to take your wife and she couldn't care less? You know, like, oh, Aaron's looking at me. Like, Aaron's like, you're not going to take me, you're going to take her. Exactly. Come on. So, anyway, we'll see. We'll see what happens.

All right. I wanted to get to the Redskins, but there were a couple of other things. Did you see, I have not seen the ratings for last night. Are they out yet, Aaron, for last night? Not that I've seen yet. Usually they come out for round moon. Not out yet. I haven't seen them yet. But game one off the charts, a 23.1 rating, Tommy, which is incredible. It's the highest rated game in Nats history. The highest before that was game five against the Cardinals in 2012.

You know, game four, the closeout game against the Cardinals, only did like a 14.6 rating, which was still really good in the second highest rating. for the Nats ever. But I put out the tweet when they did the 14.6. I said, you're going to see 20s early in the World Series. And when you get to close out games or crucial, you know, three, two, or, you know, a game seven, you're going to see 30s and maybe a seventh in deciding game might, you know, do something around 40 plus. It's just a bigger market opportunity for baseball. We're seeing that. And I think we're going to see a bigger number for last night. Of course, you know, I said this on the podcast yesterday, I think, or on the show, and you know, got people that are saying, you're so dismissive to the capitals.

I don't, it's not about the capitals. The baseball's got a bigger audience, period. If you don't know that, you're stupid. You know, so. I know that. This is what people don't get. This is why I've argued that no matter how much the Redskins think, they have the safety net of the fact that, arguably, it's NFL football. Right.

I mean, there's an NFL factor that's always going to protect them from falling too far. Yeah. And baseball, because they have bigger numbers, we'll have that same, than hockey, will have that same phenomenon going, whether it's the nationals or whatever team. I mean, you know, so, of course, the nationals are going to have more interest because there's more interest in baseball. The World Series does a television rating that's like five times that of the Stanley Cup finals. You know, I found the tweet that I wanted to read.

It was from this dude, Pat. You know, and I... This guy, Kevin. This guy, this guy, I know who you're talking about. Whatever. I mean, we get the same people a lot of the times. But he said, Sheehan, the 14,500 people at Nats Park last night was considerably less than what the caps had between those. inside and outside the arena, you know, when they were making their Stanley Cup run in Chinatown.

He goes, I know you love to trash the caps, but let's be fair here. First of all, it's outside versus mostly inside. It's late October with temperatures. By the way, last night in the 40s versus, you know, 40s and low 50s versus, you know, the middle of June. I mean, get a grip. I mean, for last night personally, I mean, I feel this way. I don't, I'm not a guy that's going to go to Nats Park and watch the game. I like watching the game. I like being into the game and not missing pitches and not missing, you know, the commentating, you know, and I don't like to be bothered when I'm watching a big game. You know, I'll go, I'll go to a sports bar with some friends to watch, you know, the first two days of the NCAA tournament, but I'm not going to stay there for the Maryland game.

I need to be by myself or with, you know, my small, my small group of people that I like watching games with. I don't want to be with the dudes that have the jerseys on with their own name on the back of the jersey and all they care about is getting hammered and, you know, and trying to get lucky, you know, in a setting like that. But anyway, no, the net of it is, is that baseball has the real, I think basketball does too, but, you know, that's, well, I don't think we're ever going to see that, you know, where the wizards are in the same position that the Nats are in right now. to do a fair comparable. But the Nats right now are the clear number two in town.

Like, it's not close. And we're going to see that because you're going to see a television number in the 30s here in the next few games. I agree. I agree with all that. And what's interesting is... By the way, it's not a knock on the caps. It's not. They had a great run and a cool bandwagon,

just like the Nats are benefiting from the bandwagon effect, too. You know, do you know that you could get into game four against the Cardinals for less than $100 you know leading up to that game late? You're not going to be able to get into the park for the World Series for less than $1,000. But go ahead. No, not at this point. And I noticed that nationally, I think game one of the World Series, the ratings were, you know, lower than they've been before, almost historically lower.

Yeah. But this shows how difficult it is to ensure. interpret TV ratings today and how I think they're eventually, really soon, you know, going to go out the window in terms of a measurement. I think the only people that pay attention to them right now are Madison Avenue and people are in TV. I disagree with you. It's still the significant, you know, majority of people that consume a sporting event. They do, they do so through television. All of the other ways to consume this stuff is a fraction of television right now. It may change down the road. But the measurement is a flawed measurement.

How so? Here's the confusion of what happened in game one with the national broadcast. It's one of the lowest they ever had, but it was the highest rated TV show in the United States that night. So what does that mean, then? Oh, you're comparing it to back when you didn't have all these options. And I see what you're doing. Yeah, no, no, I totally agree with that. I totally agree with that.

People can say, oh, look it, the ratings are the lowest they've ever been. And you can say, yeah, but more people watch the World Series than any other program on TV that night. Of course. It's the same with the NFL. It's the same with, you know, basketball. I mean, you know, the pre-cable days, you'll never match those numbers when you had three options, ABC, CBS, and NBC. You're never going to have that option. But, you know, the numbers for the Nats' Houston series are going to be down compared to

Red Sox Dodgers last year, or Astros Dodgers the year before that, or, you know, was it Cubs Indians the year before that? I think it was. Yes, it was. So you've had big, big market baseball, you know, cities involved in the World Series, and now you've got Houston and Washington. But anyway. But I want to point out, you know, when you talk about big market, a lot of that has to do with identity more than actual market size. because Houston is the fifth largest market in the country. And D.C. to six.

And Washington is like six or seven. So these are big markets. Yes. But in terms of identity, these teams are not big market identity teams. Fair enough. That's exactly what it is. Yes. The Dodgers and the Red Sox are big brands. The nationals and the Astros are not baseball or sports brands at this point. Right.

But I'll tell you what, you know, the most impressive thing, you know, as we've sat here for years and talked about the bad culture and the bad ownership and the bad management of the football team in town. What the nationals have accomplished, and I'm so glad, by the way, that they didn't get eliminated in the wildcard game and lose Rendon and have, you know, coming off a year that was disappointing from an attendance standpoint, etc. I'm so glad that they've made this run because it really does validate, you know, everything they've been doing for a while now. They are a perennial contender. You know, this is sustained success.

This is the fifth year in the postseason for this team in the last eight years. And they're going to, and they're in the World Series and they may win it this year. But it's not like they just got here. You know, we've obviously documented leading up to this postseason the four major disappointments, especially the three game five losses at home. But they are doing something right down there. Mike Rizzo has done something right. He's figured it out and he's created and built a perennial contender.

They're in the hunt every year. You can't say that. Yes, they are. About a lot of teams. I think they're the third winning its franchise in baseball since 2012. And the three years that they didn't make the playoffs, they had winning seasons. It's not like they went in the tank and lost like 90 or 100 games. I mean, they have not had a losing season since 2011.

So you're right. They have built something that in this day and age has sustained remarkably. Did Matt Williams have a winning record after the year they lost it? After the year they lost to the Giants? Yeah, I think they won 83 games that year. Oh, okay. I know they have not had a losing season. Yeah.

Like last year with Davey, they won 82 games. Yeah, it's, I love that. You know, Rizzo's sharp, we've always known it. You know, he is, he knows what he's doing. I don't know that the learners have always had the same faith that people like you've had in them, you know, real baseball people, but they know what they're doing. And again, you know, I say that in knowing that there's this fine line, right, of not getting through the Milwaukee Wildcard game and a lot of things changing,

potentially, you know, if they had not gotten through Josh Hader in the wildcard game. But that doesn't change the fact that that was their fifth postseason appearance in eight seasons, or seven, whatever it is. I think it's five out of – it was. It's a fifth out of eight, right? Because they were – Yes, it is. They weren't in it in 13, 15, and 18.

I think that's what it is. Right. That's correct. All right. So, exciting times. And Friday night's going to be quite the scene. and quite the ticket. It will be one of the most difficult tickets to get we've had in this town in a long, long time.

And as you pointed out, maybe the most important sporting event ever to be played in this city. You know, you've had NFC championship games, and you've had Stanley Cup finals games in an NBA championship series game, but it's the World Series. And they're playing at least two this weekend. I bet you that the learners deep down, if the Asper, Astros wins, say on Saturday, which, by the way, there's rain in the forecast, and they have to end it in game five, wouldn't be that displeased. They'd love the revenue from all three home games. Oh, yeah. I mean, they have, I mean, postseason revenue for every owner and every

sport is cash right in their pocket. So I'm sure they are elated to host this many postseason games. All right. Quick word about mybooky.org. If you want to bet the assesion on Friday night, which I think is going to be the right side, even though I think the Nats are going to win the series. You can go to MyBooky.orgie.ag. If you want to bet football, you want to bet baseball. You want to bet basketball. Now the NBA season started, the Wizards opened up last night. Bradley Beale, by the way, got ejected with a minute to go in the game. I didn't see one second of that last night. But if you've been looking for a place to bet, mybooky.orgie.orgie. dot AG will take good care of you. You got it. There's a lot of research to be done. I've done the

research for you. MyBooky.orgie.orgie is one of the biggest and one of the best in the business. They have fast payouts. They've got great lines. They are fair. You're going to be able to play in any way you want to play. Go to mybooky.orgie.orgia today. Use my promo code. Kevin DC, that's K-E-V-I-N-D-C, and MyBooky will double your first deposit. That's my bookie.orgie. ag. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll double your first deposit. You play, you win, you get paid.

All right, let's get to tonight. It's a good thing that there's no baseball tonight, and there couldn't be baseball tonight, because Fox has the World Series and Fox has Thursday night football. So that's why you're not getting baseball to conflict with the football tonight. And the football tonight is Redskins at Vikings, where the Vikings are 16 and a half-point favorites in the game.

I'm going to do a Redskins win if. I'll do that shortly. I usually don't do that with Tommy because we usually do it on the Friday show, but we'll do it with Tommy here today. But, you know, if not for the Nationals in the World Series, this probably gets people who haven't been paying attention to the Redskins season to perk up a little bit. First of all, there's no football to compete with it.

It's the only game tonight. And, of course, secondly, they're going to face Kurt Cousins in the game tonight. By the way, did you guys hear Callahan the other day? enunciate Kirk. He put that K on the end so everybody could hear it. And it was really interesting. He said, Kirk, a little bit, you know, old man Bill's taking some shots at Jay, and that may have been a shot at Bruce a little bit.

But anyway, I'm not going to bullshit you. I am not rooting for the Redskins to win this game. I don't think there's any benefit in them winning games the rest of the way. And I get the added benefit of being able to root for Kirk Cousins, who I have been rooting for since the day he left here. Now, I have been. I mean, I have been rooting for him. I'm still rooting for him.

You know, now, if the Redskins were five and two, no, I'd want the Redskins to win the game, and I'd want maybe cousins to look good, but I'd want the Redskins to win the game. But understand this, and I'm just being honest. Part of it is that I want to be right. You know, I was among, Tommy knows this, I was among the very few who thought he would be a good quarterback coming out of Michigan State. In fact, Tommy, when we used to do that thing, you heard it here first on the sports fix. I predicted, remember I predicted in 2011 that Cousins was going to be the future starting quarterback of the Redskins when he was still at Michigan State. But anyway, I always felt like he seemed like a good fit for Mike Shanahan.

I loved what Shanahan said about him and thought about him. and would say even privately that this guy is going to be a big-time starting quarterback in the league. I took a guess. I got it right. I mean, I've already been proven right. He's been a starting quarterback and a productive one in the NFL. But, you know, I'd like to see him continue to evolve into a much better quarterback than he's been. Is he a great quarter? No, it's like a winning quarterback. Like a winning quarterback, yes. You know, you win in the NFL, for a lot of reasons. You know, if the Redskins had had a better defense in 2016 and 2015,

they would have won a lot more games because they were pretty damn good offensively. They were certainly capable enough offensively. Is he a great quarterback? No. I never said he was or would be. He is just a really smart, capable NFL quarterback who if you have the right coaching staff and good players around him, he will torch you. And if you don't, You can rattle the shit out of them and really make them look subpar. But we've seen enough now from his career to know that if he's got a good offensive guy, basically designing an offense and calling plays around his strength with good pieces around him, he can be really, really good and produce at a high level.

And if you don't, then you know, and you get to him, then he can really look average to less than average. But yeah, I am rooting for him and the Vikings. Sorry, if people find that distasteful, that's your problem, not mine. I can't stand. People won't just find it distasteful that you're hoping the Redskins lose. People may find it more distasteful that you're rooting for Kirkland. Of course. But, you know, I'm not about to be disingenuous.

People know that I'm rooting for him, but I was rooting for the Redskins to lose the Dolphins game. I wanted the Dolphins to make that two-point conversion. So they've approached the last few weeks and appear on the verge of approaching the next few weeks in a completely irrational way. They still think they are close to something. They're delusional. This should be reboot mode right now, and this is going to be a very valuable draft to have the number one, number two, or number three pick in it. And I want them to end up in that spot.

Now, they'll probably fuck it up anyway. I mean, they're already fucking up the Trent Williams situation. Did you see the latest news on that? No. Cleveland's now looking at other NFC East teams, a guy like Nate Solder as a possible trade target. This guy Dorsey keeps calling Bruce saying, we'll give you basically anything you want. I'm exaggerating there.

I don't know exactly what he's saying. Mike Jones was on with me this morning, saying that the Redskins absolutely could get a first and like a third from Cleveland for Trent Williams. And Bruce is continuing, you know, the organization's stance is just so petty and so small-minded in my view. Yeah, I don't like my organization right now. I am a Redskinned fan at heart.

I cannot wait for the day that they are actually a legitimate NFL franchise and operating like one, and we're playing meaningful games again. But tonight, I'm rooting for Minnesota. Yeah. Do you have any hope that failure will bring about change? I don't. I don't. This is the state we're in. I mean, a lot of us, and I think by the way, the people that are a little bit more attached to reality, we have, we understand that there's no path out of this that's obvious unless, you know, and I've said this before, unless they stumble onto to the next Peyton Manning like the Irseys did. And maybe Dwayne Haskins is that guy. But as long as Dan Snyder owns this team, and even worse, have been, as Bruce Allen running it, they're not going anywhere. They're not getting, I mean, they are going to continue to be the laughing stock of the league.

And, you know, it's gotten, I forget if you and I talked about this the other day, but, you know, Kyle took shots at them and everybody's been taking shots at the Redskins, you know, publicly. There's no, there's no hesitation, Tommy, for people around the league, media types, other league people. you know, former players to take shots at the Redskins. And I said this the other day and I forget if I said it to you. So I'll say it again. You know, when people are openly critical of somebody to the point where you're almost like taken aback at how critical they are, it's much more of an indication that it's much more than just your record, you know, the fact that you've been a failure. It's that those people don't respect you and furthermore don't like you. And they don't care because it's mob mentality because nobody respects the Redskins and nobody likes the Redskins.

There are teams that have just as bad or even a worse record, but they have people in the organization that the rest of the league respects and like. And therefore they actually hope or believe that those teams will get out of their way at some. point and turn it around. Nobody believes that about the Redskins. Nobody. And you know what's interesting is that do you think the team itself, the players itself, are likable? I do actually. I really do. There are several players. You know, there are several players. You know, I don't know John well, but I've had multiple conversations with John Allen. I really like John Allen. Matt Ionitis is a first-rate guy. You know what? I like Case Keenham. Had a chance to have a conversation with him

over the summer briefly. I like Case Keenum. Yes, Chris Thompson is a first-rate guy. Yeah, there are people. I think they are a likable group of players. Which makes it so difficult. Yeah, I haven't thought about it that way. I mean, like, you know, you almost have to separate the two. I mean, but, I mean, I think, look, I'm not crazy about Josh Norman. Yeah. But the Landon Collins run in his mouth all summer about the Giants drove me nuts. Yeah, but I think they are a like-al group of players. Morgan Moses has gotten to be annoying.

Yes. So you have this likable group, but everybody hates the Redskins. And it's a shame. I feel sorry for these players to be part of the organization. and I'm still not sure most of them realize, and they're inside, how bad it is on the outside. I think some of them are surprised still with the contempt that everybody had for this organization. The players, I mean. Yeah.

So, you know, when you were saying that, I was like, yeah, they do. They have, you know, they have higher quality people as players than maybe they're. have in the past. I mean, I'm just thinking off the top of my head, you know, Deshawn Jackson, Chris Baker, you know, some of the guys, I mean, they've had a lot of guys that have come into the organization and run their mouth, and they've got a coach that did it this summer and Rob Ryan, and they've had those before. But do they get credit for drafting and acquiring players that are likable? What do you, how do you sort of reconcile the, you know, the ineptitude, the incompetence in which Dan and Bruce run this organization and then say,

you know what, though, I really like their employees. I really like their players. Well, it should make it easier to swallow, but it doesn't. It really should, but it just doesn't. You know, like I like Jordan Reed. I like Vernon Davis. Yeah. Okay.

All right, you convince me. I'm going to root for him tonight. I'm not. But by the way, again, just to be clear, I wasn't rooting for him against Miami or New England or last week against the 49ers either. I want them to have the number one pick in the draft and turn it in to like three ones and a two. That's what I want. But anyway, and I want Dwayne Haskins to play. If Dwayne Haskins were starting tonight, I'd really be hoping that he looked and played really well.

I would. Anyway, by the way, Tommy, I think they're going to play well defensively tonight. You ready for my Redskins beat Vikings, Ziff? And you can do it too. Yeah, go ahead. All right. Aaron, will you roll the music, please? They stop the run.

All right. And make Minnesota, by the way, one-dimensional, and they put it on Kirk. Yeah, I do like Kirk. I'm rooting for Kirk. I have been rooting for Kirk Cousins. I like Kirk Cousins. You know, he's a quality guy, which, by the way, is one of the reasons he isn't here anymore because he had the choice.

They essentially, you know what, I'm going to go back to that right now because I'm going to take this opportunity. I didn't do it on the show today. I've heard this narrative over the last couple of years that Kirk didn't want to be here, so go to hell,

see you later, and a lot of people have just essentially told him to F off and they don't care about him because he screwed the organization. That is so off by miles. all right, that's not what happened here. He was never actually given a reasonable chance to stay here contractually.

It wasn't close. Now, is it true that maybe he wanted to leave here, especially after Sean McVay left? Yeah, I think that's probably true. I think he looked around the building and saw the likes of Bruce Allen and said, if I have a choice, I'd rather work in a building that doesn't have a person like Bruce Allen. But the Redskins offer in May of 2017 was so under the market, it was $35 to $40 million under his projected market value, his eventual market value. And while the Redskins had every right to offer whatever they wanted, they were really

stupid to offer what they offered if they actually wanted him to accept the offer. there isn't Tommy one agent on the planet that would have told their client to accept the Redskins offer in 2017. Cousins would have been giving the team what turned out to be a $31 million discount. Like, who would do that? None of you would. That's what's always made me so confused with some of you, where you say, well, he didn't want to sign here. They never gave him a chance to sign here. They never made him an offer that anybody on the planet in his position would have signed,

which by the way makes me think that essentially they really knew he wouldn't accept the offer. But then, you know, they made that incredible off-putting mistake of doing what they do organizationally, right? It's their move. They throw people under the bus publicly when they don't like the answers they get from them. You know, Bruce Allen in that statement in 20s, was total redskin pettiness, you know, trying to prop himself up like this was a really good offer and make Kirk look really bad simultaneously, which some of you out there bought hook, line, and sinker. But, you know, what they've always missed is that so many of us, me in particular, you do to a lesser degree,

but a lot of us, you know, in the market, really pay attention to this stuff. You know, and really, we had been debating for over a year what they were going to have to offer him to be competitive. We knew about the lost opportunity of not getting him signed in 2015. Most of us knew the market better than the team knew the market, which is frightening. You know, Bruce just doesn't get that the media here are following this shit, day-to-day, granular detail for granular detail. We knew their offer wasn't anywhere close to what the market would be for him at the end of 2017. They didn't think we'd know because actually they didn't know. Once I heard Bruce's

statement that day, I knew there was no chance he was going to sign that deal. None. And then he blew it further by not trading him to San Francisco for a first round pick because they hate Kyle. That's a really good reason if you're six years old. Unbelievable. You see, to me, that's the most egregious thing, is that once they decided they didn't want him and once they knew he didn't want them, why would you continue to play that out?

Why wouldn't you have then decided? I want to get him out of the building and far away from me as possible. If you're to Redskins and you hated him and you couldn't stand them, why didn't you send him packing? There are two answers to that, Tommy. Two reasons for them not trading him to San Francisco.

One is what I just said. They hate Kyle Shanahan. And again, that's a really good, good reason if you're in a sandbox at six years old, you know? But the other reason, Tommy, and this is the real reason. Now, the Kyle thing is real too. Don't get me wrong. Wait for it. Because they thought they were close. They did. Bruce and Dan and Eric and Doug and Jay thought they could make a big run in 2017. And I think there was some feeling in the organization that if they made a big run in 2017 that they could convince him, Kurt, they could convince Kurt to stay after

a successful season. And by the way, you know, the truth of the matter is, if they had stayed healthy in 2017, it wasn't a contending team, but they were improved enough defensively, you know, with the likes of DJ Swaranger who played well early in that season and John Allen is a rookie, that, you know, remember that season, the dominant win over the Raiders, they should have won or worst case gone to overtime against the Chiefs. Josh Doxon dropped that touchdown pass and then Jay Gruden mangled the clock at the end of that game. But, you know, after that, the injury bug hit and the season went to hell in the handbucket. So there's no first round pick for Kirk.

They paid him $23.9 million on the tag, the second tag. There's a bidding war for him in free agency. and he signed pretty much the first ever totally guaranteed deal in the league's history for $31 million more than Bruce and Dan had offered eight months earlier. But hey, they got a third round compensatory pick for him. This is how losers operate. You know, they get petty, they're delusional and detached from what their reality is, and they miss out, and they have no vision, none.

They should have signed him in 2015. That's what they should have done. He was a good fit for Jay Gruden. and if they had signed them in 2015 for the $45 to $50 million guaranteed, average $19 to $20 million a year, the deal would have been 15th best contract in the league two years later. They would have been able to build their defense up, and they would have had a decent team moving forward,

or at least a team that would have been in that 8 and 8 to 10 and 6 range more often than not. But they don't have vision, and they don't do things the right way, and that's why they are where they are now, thinking that Alex Smith is going to come back and save the day in 2020. Anyway, the Vikings have been on a role here recently. He's been playing at a high level. But I think that the Redskins have a chance tonight. They need to stop the run.

Minnesota's third in the league in rush offense. By the way, it's not just Dalvin Cook. This guy, Alexander Madison, their third round pick from Boise State, is really good, too. But I think the Redskins have gotten better at stopping the run here recently. I think the San Francisco game and the Miami game are tough games to judge because they played well for three quarters and then got lit up by Ryan Fitzpatrick in Miami. And then last week the weather really makes that a hard, you know, a hard tape to evaluate. But if you go back to that New England game in the first half, they were much better defensively in that game. I think they're getting better defensively.

I don't think they're a good defensive team, but I think they're getting better. And I think their strength is up front. And if they stop the run and they make Minnesota one-dimensional without Adam Thielen tonight, their best player offensively, you could argue, then you've got a chance to get Kirk uncomfortable, into third and longs, into straight dropback, not play action or bootleg. And if you can get some pressure, we know that he'll cough it up in the pocket once. You know, he'll throw a ball and errant ball. and you could potentially hang in there because of your defense.

I also think the only way they move the football offensively is to throw it. Minnesota is impossible to run the ball on. Adrian Peterson is going to play tonight. They've got to be more aggressive and they've got to throw the ball. I found this particular interesting stat. Minnesota is second in the league right now in defensive penalties. they get called for more defensive holds, more defensive pass interferences, than 30 other teams in the league.

So you've got to throw the ball against Minnesota and hope that you get some flags and you move it and you can hang in there that way. I actually think that they got a chance to cover tonight. I like a 24 to 10, 24 to 13 type of game. What do you think? 35-10 Vikings. They're got to pummel.

And the Redskins can't score. They can't score points. They have no ability to score. They're lucky. They are a 10-point-a-game team right now offensively. Yeah, which just, you know, it goes back to what we talked about the other day. You're going to tell me that Dwayne Haskins can't hand the ball off 12, can't throw the ball 12 times and hand it off 26 times in the game on Sunday.

Give me a break. He should be playing tonight. He must be really bad. I don't know. I don't know. I think there's a lot going on that we don't know about it. I think there may be, but if the owner's not pushing him to play, and I don't believe he is, or else he'd be playing, he must not be as good as the owner thought he was. The owner might not be pushing him to play because, you know, Team Haskins doesn't want him to play right now with a coach who is a lame duck and with injuries and without great players around them. But the kid wants to play.

Yes. Tommy, he should be starting tonight. They should be playing him tonight. They should be playing him the rest of the way. No more excuses you got only 2020 and beyond you should be thinking about. Just the thought of watching Case Keenham go out there tonight is such a waste of time. It's insanity from my standpoint. But to your point, you know, if he's not starting two or three weeks from now,

then it is a massive red flag, and he must not be very good. I do think, I know you dismiss it, but myself and others believe that part of what they fear is they put him out there, he's really bad, and the fan base turns against him, whatever the fan base is, is that these ain't eight. Yeah. All right, you got 35.

I think that's what's it. You got 35, 10, I got 2413. No smell test picks tonight. I actually like the Redskins plus the number a little bit. I'd lean them. I leaned them against the 49ers on a bad smell test weekend last week. I'll have all the Smelt Test picks tomorrow if you still won them after last week. But I would lean Redskins tonight.

I don't know why. I think everybody thinks what you think, which is they've got no chance to keep it close and that Kirk Cousins is going to get his revenge. And by the way, he has said all the right things this week, which is not a surprise. I'm, you know, again, it comes down to, you know, back to, what I said before, you know, high-quality people, you know, there are some on that team now. You know, they were drafted. They didn't have really a choice, a lot of them. But if you do have a choice, you know, Washington's not the destination, you know,

as long as some of the people are in the front office running it. All right. Thanks for calling in from Houston and have a safe flight back. Feel better. I'll talk to you on Tuesday. All right, boss. All right. Got a little, you know, heated there. Not between Tommy and I, but man, I am losing my voice here today with a cold from the last couple of days. So I've had to elevate the volume a little bit.

Sorry if I burst at anybody's eardrums. I am absolutely going to watch the game tonight. And I hope the Redskins play Dwayne Haskins and then I'll have something to root for. But other than that, I'll be rooting for Kirk Cousins to play well and for the Vikings to win. It's better for the Redskins if they go one in 15 people. It's better. If they go 1 in 15, you may get Bruce Allen the hell out of here. But worst case, you end up with no worse than the second pick in the draft.

No worse than that. I want to thank Mama Lucia for bringing lunch in today. They've got the Soto Special going on right now from Mama Lucia. It's extended for another day. It's a Greek salad, a sausage Napolitana, garlic bread, and Jimmy's sauce for just $13. By the way, I saw Jimmy over the weekend at Penn State. He was up at the Penn State Michigan game. It was good to see Jimmy up there.

It's available at all six Mama Lucia locations right now, the Soto special. Call your favorite one or check them out at Mama Lucia Restaurants.com. I didn't watch any NBA last night, and I'm assuming most of you didn't either. I am curious, why did Beale get tossed in a game in which they had rallied from 23 down to cut it to seven with like a minute 10 left, and then he got tossed for arguing with Donchich? You didn't see it either. I was at National's Park. I was at that watch party.

So, yeah, I saw some of the stuff on Twitter, but didn't see specifics. I'm going to go take a look at what happened on that. Because if they were actually in the midst of a big run and he got tossed, that's stupid. Really stupid. You know, I like Bradley Beale. I think, by the way, he's a really thoughtful guy and an impressive person. I really do. I just, this extension that they just gave him, they better be contending for a 50-win season before his deals up.

You know, it's not going to be this year, you know, obviously, but, you know, they have invested now in Beal and Wall, and they better be back together and they better be pushing 50 wins in 2020, 2021, you know, during that time frame. Not this year. They're too young. They're too inexperienced. You don't have John Wall out there. Hachamura, by the way, had a double-double in his first game, 14 points, 10 rebounds. that's a good sign.

But you can't get thrown out of a game that you just cut a huge lead down to seven. And you're actually, I know it's a minute 10 left or whatever, and you're still probably going to lose the game. But you've got to keep your cool in that spot. Kyrie Irving had 50 in his first game with Brooklyn. And that's all I know from the NBA last night. I saw some of those highlights. Tiger Woods, my God.

Steve Sands is probably listening to this podcast. He does so from all over the world. He texted me the other night, sort of indicating that he thought Tiger would play well. Tiger went out in this event in Japan, which is a PGA tour event, and he shot six under and has the first round lead with Gary Woodland. And that was after three bogeys. He then made nine birdies. And that was on Golf Channel late last night after the baseball game, during the baseball game, and I turned it on. It was like a gallery for a major championship with Tiger on the back nine.

They were nuts over Tiger Woods. Something else for some of you and me to pay attention to the rest of the weekend. All right. Back tomorrow, smell test, NFL preview, Redskins, Vikings recap. And we'll get you ready, obviously, for Nats Astros game three at Nats Park tomorrow night. All right. Other than that, you know, we've got an app out. I think we've mentioned that the last couple days.

You can get it in the Apple, you know, on your Apple iPhone, iPhone, in the app store, or you can get it on Android in the Google store. Kevin Sheehan Show, download the app. Very simple to use. If you have any feedback on it, let us know. Please rate us and review us at a high level. That would be nice. That helps us out.

And obviously tell everybody that is old and doesn't know how to do an app on their phone or a podcast that were available at the kevin Sheeonshow.com. Have a good rest of the day. Really fun last night. Good stretch of days for D.C. sports. Tonight, at least there's a lot. game to watch and there's no other NFL to watch. If there's other NFL, I'm more interested

in the other games tonight. It's a stand-alone and we'll see what happens. Have a good day.