The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Jake Kaplan Discusses Game 7 and Greinke vs Scherzer

Episode Date: October 30, 2019

Jake Kaplan of The Athletic joins Matt ahead of the final game of the World Series

is the Matt Thomas show. It's our final appearance of this season, at least the season of baseball, with Jake Kaplan, our good friend from the athletic. Jake is on Twitter at 8. Jake M. Kaplan, his articles are fantastic on the athletic. Jake, let's get right to it. How do you envision tonight going? Have you played out various scenarios in your mind, and can you give me two or three for the audience to kind of see what you're in here, what you're thinking? right now. Yeah, you know, it's going to be fascinating. You know, in my mind, going into it, it's really a coin-flipped game, and so much it's going to depend on both starting pitchers. You know, Max,

I think on paper, obviously Max Scherzer is better than Zach Granky, but, you know, which Max Scherzer is going to show up? Is he healthy? Can he go deep into a game? Is Granky going to be the guy who who've got six inning to three runs against the Yankees or the guy four and two-thirds of one run against Nationals, or is he going to be their guy they saw against the race? So I think, you know, I wouldn't expect either start of the pitch deep, given all those factors. So it could be a game of a lot of picking changes and a lot of starters and relief, and, you know, it should be a fun one. We have seen the Astros, unfortunately, be very inconsistent with their bats throughout the month of October, regardless of opponent. we are seeing a change in the nationals and how aggressive they are and how successful they are

in Houston as compared to what you saw in Washington. Do you have any idea why that is? Yeah, I don't. You know, they do seem pretty comfortable hitting in Houston. Obviously, Houston's, it's fluctuated over the years, but this year it was definitely a hitter's part, so that could play into it. But, yeah, as to why exactly, I'm not, you know, really sure. It's been interesting. you know the Astros hit well at both places and obviously they won 60 games at home

so you know it's but they were fine on the road too so it's it's yeah it's tough to figure out Jay Cap on us from the Athletic here on Sports Talk 790 and you had a chance to talk to Zach and you just can't read anything to what he says because his comments are so brief give us give us anything that you could notice about the tenor of the clubhouse. It felt like, and again, I'm a thousand miles away from you here in D.C., but everything that I saw, at least video-wise, it was a pretty upbeat clubhouse despite the disappointing loss.

Is that fair to say, or was that just a good act by a bunch of very nervous baseball players right now? Yeah, it's tough to tell. Honestly, the whole playoff, win or lose, it kind of feels similar every time. You know, it doesn't feel all that different from the regular season, which is strange to say, but, like, I don't know. just be a product of most of these players have been in the deep in the playoffs three years

in a row now. They're pretty good at keeping an even keel. And whether that helps or not, I don't know. I don't think it hurts. But ultimately, you know, tone of the clubhouse, whatever, it doesn't really, you know, the night before, especially it doesn't really matter for the next day. Tonight's game is going to come down to who executes the most pitches and doesn't miss the mistake pitches.

Granky, like you said, his comments are brief. if you said it's going to be a big game. So that's about the most insight you're going to get there. Yeah. Let me give you, I just love throwing a guessing game that you. Give me the first two relievers that go to the mound after Cranky tonight. Who's batting? Oh, you had to give me those.

Let's give me a heart of the order. Heart of the Washington, 456. Heart of the Washington order. What inning is it? Sixth. Little Harris. It seems like that's been his sweet spot, the whole series. You know, anytime he comes in, it's either for Turner,

Eaton, Rendon, or eaten Rendon Soto or some combination of those. So I would say him, and, you know, that's really how they have to map it out. Who do they want facing those best hitters of the Nationals? You know, if you figure one or two of those turns, goes to that Grinkey, one of those terms, just Will Harris, does Garrett Cole get the fourth one? Is there a fifth one? Yeah, that's what I guess the angle I was going with is,

at one point could you see Jose Orkitti and or Garrett Cole? And I talked about this with Mike Stanton last hour. He's in agreement with me. I know that A.J. would love to have Garrett if he's going to throw to do it in a clean inning, but there's a chance that if you're going to Garrett Cole, it's because there's a lot of trouble on the base paths. There's a lot of traffic. Yeah, it's, you know, it's tough to forecast

because Gary Cole, number one, he's never pitched a relief in his major league career. Number two, he's never pitched on short rest. So he's on two days' rest. What can he actually give? No one knows, except for him. So, you know, I think with every starter coming in relief, you want to give him a clean inning, but like you said,

you know, you can't always do that in this situation when, the season's on the line, you know, game seven of the Will's series. So, you know, I think that if there is traffic on the basis, that has been also Will Harris's forte. So maybe you go there, maybe you go, you know, he's gone Josh James a couple times. But, yeah, it's going to be, that's the most interesting thing is how much can Cole give them? Because if you think back to 2017, Charlie Morton was on three days where that's, that's a big difference for two days rest. Morton went four innings, obviously, but can Cole give two innings?

Can he go a whole time through the lineup? I think that's really the wild card on the Astros side for this game. All right. I think the easy narrative, if they win tonight, Jake, is you fought in scratch and clawed for home field advantage in game seven. You got it for a reason. They win it because 43,000 people have your back, and you finally break through and put up a huge, huge number.

maybe, you know, seven, eight runs in home. If the team falls tonight is the legacy of damn awesome series, seven games, nationals are good, or this team, and in particular, Justin Verlander, were just two schizophrenic in the final two series of the season. You know, I'm not sure if I agree with the first or second narrative there. You know how I feel about home children's near as we can talk about in September. and I think my points maybe been I've got a you know been supported in this series

but yeah I mean it depends on if they lose how they lose you know if Frankie gives a bunch of runs I think that would be the you know the big story if they lose late you know who knows it depends it really depends

it's hard to predict what narratives are going to be out there before game even played if they win I think it's going to be if they won the World Series. You know, they did what they were, you know, everyone expected them to do. You know, I don't think if you said at the beginning of the playoffs, the Astros are going to win the World Series. I don't think anyone in baseball would be surprised.

Maybe how they got there would be the surprise getting pushed to the brink against the race and the nationals. But, yeah, like I said, it's, you know, narratives, we'll see what happens. That's why they play the game. Do you care to make a guess as I wrap things up with you? You know, I have no idea. I thought the Astros was win last night, and I was way off. So I really do think of the coin flip tonight, and I could see it going out of way.

I think this going to a game seven makes it a coin flip, right? I mean, you would have, I don't know if you and I would have spoken yesterday. I think you probably would have felt a lot more confident about making a prediction. But I think if you're the nationals, you're like, you know what? We got this to a game seven. Look what we've been. We came here after looking horrible at home and got our mojo back in the heart of the order doing it. And we had a delay.

We had our manager get tossed and this and this and this and this. And oh, by the way, Justin Verlender was still looking for his first major league or first World Series win. He was supposed to get it on the home field with 43,000 people. I mean, I would say, and look, the Astros again can act all the way they want to, but both clubhouses are going to be nervous. But if you're Washington, you're like, man, we've got a real good chance of this. And that's why I think there are some Astro fans bumping around, listen to us right now. We watch more nervous today than they were, say, 24 hours.

ago. Yeah, I mean, I think that's human nature, right? Like, everyone who has a stake in this is probably nervous. Game 7 of a World Series, man. It's the end of the road. It's, you know, a huge difference between winning and losing just for the whole offseason. I mean, if you think about the 2017, the Dodgers losing game 7, and they haven't won it since. You know, you never know if you're going to get back there.

So, yeah. Yeah, it's, this is. It's going to be fascinating. I mean, it hasn't been, you know, from a game to game standpoint, like in terms of pure baseball, it hasn't been a very exciting series. But last night's game was probably the best game so far in terms of, like, drama. But, you know, maybe they're saving it all for game seven tonight. I like that approach.

Jake, thank you for the visits. As always, are in the course of the year. How about you and I visit again maybe before the winter meetings after you take a long winter's break? How about that? Sounds like a plan. Thanks, Jake. I appreciate it, my friend Jake Kaplan, on the Astros beat with us all year long, here on Sports Talk 790.

It's you and me the rest of the way. We are expected to be joined by Matthew McConaughey on a mobile. You're saying, why would he want to call the show today? Well, Matthew McConaughey is going to scream play ball before the first pitch. It was supposed to be to Sean Watson, but he has begged out because of a minor eye irritation. Apparently, it's not going to affect him Sunday in London for the Texans game against the Jaguars. but he's just going to get some extra recuperation time and therapy, whatever, to make sure that I is ready to go.

So with that being said, Matthew McConaughey gets the call, and we'll see if we can get a hold of him on a mobile. Our time is 212. It is the Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790 from Washington, D.C.