The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Jake Kaplan Breaks Down Game 3 Possibilities For The Astros

Episode Date: October 25, 2019

Jake Kaplan of The Athletic joins Matt and Ross ahead of Game 3 of the World Series in Washington D.C.

is the Matt Thomas show. Here we go in 102 on Sports Talk 790. We're live at Twin Peaks in the 290 location in Pymont. Let's go to our nation's capital where Jake Kaplan. Jake, I got to be honest with you. I loved your tweet a few minutes ago about the Astros Nationals' last meeting in our nation's capital. Was that one of the first games you ever covered as an Astro?

Hold on. Delphia. Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah, go ahead, try it again. Well, I'm not an astro to start, but... What do I call you? I call you an astro? I'm sorry.

I'm talking an Astro. Oh, you are now. You play third base. You've got terrific slugging numbers. You're with the athletic. Hi, Jake. Hi. No, I was actually working in Philadelphia at the time, and it's an easy drive or train ride to PC,

and John Singleton was just on the scene, had been a big Philly's prospect, and so I came down to do a story about him, and also Jared Cozart had been part of this piped-up group of Phillies prospects called the Baby Aces at one point, and so I did a story on that as well. And so I was on the field before the game,

and there was this nice-looking MLB.com beatwriter standing there, and so I struck up a conversation, introduced myself, five minutes. And Brian McTagher, to this day, does not remember our first meeting in June 2014. So it's kind of about how things are with me and him. I'm actually alarmed that you'd call him nice looking. I've met Brian.

I've known Brian since we were in college. Nice looking and Brian McTaggart usually are not the adjectives I'd put in front of him. He's a swell fellow, but nice looking is not one of the things I'd go with. Not an appearance, but he appeared to be a nice person. like just friendly enough to approach. Right. Okay, that makes more sense.

Jake, is Yordon Alvarez going to start a game in this series, and could it be tonight? Based on AJ Hinch's comments yesterday, it sounds like he'll play left at some point in the series, but he didn't make it sound like it would be tonight behind that Granky. And that because of Granky's ability or maybe lack thereof to be a guy that's drawing lots of contact. You don't want to potentially have a left field disaster out there defensive.

And that's not fair to him, but it's just a guy that's hardly played the position as a major league. Yeah, I mean, he's pretty bad out there. And I think in a situation like this, you don't want to lose a game because of your defense. So I think that's really what it stems from. Granky's more of a ground ball pitcher, but hasn't been lately. And it's not like Alvarez is tearing a cover off the ball by any means. I think, you know, in the regular season, He never hit.

He, everything was extra bases. And in the postseason, while he has been getting on base, he's left to the end. It's singles and walks, which obviously are fine, but it's not exactly screaming. You need a fourth minute lineup. So through your eyes, what are you seeing from the Houston Astros that you have not seen? I guess the question would be beyond the obvious. Hitting, Cole gets roughed up, Berliner. Anything else you're noticing about the Astros that has been foreign to you watching?

watching them all season long? Not really. I think they're facing the best pitching that they've faced all year. And I think, you know, they obviously have a great offense and a great team. But I think, you know, when they face the Mariners and the Angels and the Rangers constantly, you know, it inflates their stats a little bit and probably extends expectations. to a point where you can't really expect them to put up those type of historic numbers against the best pitchers in the world.

So I think that's part of it, a big part of it. But yeah, I mean, I don't think it's, I think this is what postseason baseball is. It's not always the best team that wins, but the hottest team. Well, you know, one of the things that Ross and I talked about yesterday was, you know, there's this national narrative of, well, the nationals are loose and feel good. Astros are feeling the pressure. Let me tell you something. The Nationals would feel the same pressure

and still feel nervous about themselves that they weren't getting base hits and weren't hitting home runs. This is not a team that has all of a sudden change its ego and its culture and it's who they are. It's the fact that their bats who have been largely ridiculously successful, Jake, over the course of the year,

have struggled for about a two or three week period. It's not because they're daubbers down. It's not because there isn't a veteran influence pumping them up. It's because they face good pitching, and the type of ferocious Astros offense that we saw for 98% of the season just isn't there right now. I mean, so you don't think the pressure is on the Astros right now. No, I think they're like, well, why are the Nationals so footloose and fancy free? Because they're hitting the ball.

That's what makes them footloose and fancy free, right? Yeah, yeah. But I still think the pressure coming into the series was on the Astros. They were the heavy favorites, heaviest favorites in 12 years. it's definitely on them now. Now it's down to a strike into the road coming up. Whether that's why they played so poorly in the seventh inning the other night, I don't think that's the case.

I think they just played poorly. But I don't think you can debate that the pressure is on one side versus the other right now. Oh, I'm not debating that. I'm just saying that it's easy to say a team is feeling bad and feeling tight when they're down. I just, I think. Yeah, well, that thing goes for the Astros throughout the regular season, right? when they're having fun, it's because they're winning. That's right.

And I think tonight, if they score six runs, a tremendous weight of the world is off their shoulders. Let's go to the opposite of that. If they lose tonight, is Garrett Cole starting tomorrow night? I don't know. Even if you win game four behind Garrett Cole, then what are you doing? So you're going to have to win four games, so I don't know if your best chance to win is by putting

I'm on short rest, and then you still have the same dilemma the next night. So, yeah, I don't know. I would lean no, but obviously it's something they have to consider if they lose tonight. What other lineup changes could you envision? Or, you know, because I think when AJ has brought that up, it's like, you know what, we don't want to hit the panic button too fast. Anything subtle, anything dramatic when that lineup comes out in a couple hours you think could potentially be? There's not much they can do.

You know, I assume the top seven is the same, or the top six is the same, with Correa hitting six, with Alvarez out, and then you have Trinos and Redick in some order. But, I mean, what else would you like him to do at this point? They're not going to start Kyle Tucker. They're not going to start Lemis Diaz, or Mariznick against the righte. So it's kind of the guys that they have been playing are going to keep playing. Are you noticing a different Alex Brickman? I mean, the offensive goals are one thing at the home run, but there's been a lot. very few times that we've seen him have

one bad throwing a game much less two. Is he had the way of the world on his shoulders right now? You'd have to ask Cam, I can't get inside his head, but obviously the defensive inning he had in the seventh is about as uncharacteristic as he can get

for him. I don't think I've seen him do that twice in an inning maybe ever. And then offensively he obviously, he's spoken a lot about, like, the mechanical issue. He was just off. You know, I think he's up at batts were a lot better in the last game

and obviously at the home run that tied the game. But, yeah, I don't know as far as weight of the world. I think he puts a lot of pressure on himself all the time. But you'd have to ask him as far as, you know, that question goes. All right, well, I'll call him after this segment, see if you can talk to me in between breaks. So what does your gut tell you, Jake? Will there be a game six in Houston, Texas on Tuesday night?

My gut right now says no. But that could change, my opinion, could change pretty quickly. I think it really boils down to Zach Rankie's performance tonight. If he's good, I think they're going to give him enough offense to win. Because I think they will get to Honolvel Sanchez. But if he's bad, I'm not sure there's any coming back from that. How hard it will be for the Astros to market is that Granky if he does not perform well tonight? I mean, because there's two years left still in the contract, correct?

Yeah, I don't think they would market him. I think they need him to, I mean, they acquired him to kind of fill out the, help them fill up the top of the rotation in his next two years. So I don't think they would market him. All right, we'll leave it at that. Jake, thank you for the time. How's the weather, by the way? Any weather issues the next three days?

Right now it's great I was walking around earlier It's like 60 maybe And yeah it's great I don't know I haven't looked ahead At the next couple days But as far as tonight Should be no issue with the weather

Is there a nationals fever all throughout D.C.? Can you feel the nationals buzz in the air? A little bit Yeah I mean I haven't I've only been in the concentrated area of D.C But yeah you definitely see some national shirt around. I'm sure it's going to be a lot crazier around the ballpark, which is a little bit of a ride away from where I'm staying.

Jake, look forward to your work. Jake M. Kaplan on Twitter and the Athletic. Thank you for the time, as always. Thanks, Matt. I will see it. Jake Kaplan from the Athletic with us here on Sports Talk, 790.