The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Jake Kaplan Discusses The Huge Game 4 Victory On The Matt Thomas Show

Episode Date: October 18, 2019

Jake Kaplan of The Athletic joins Matt and Ross after the Astros take a 3-1 lead in the ALCS over the Yankees and prepare for Game 5

is the Matt Thomas show. One o'clock on Sports Talk 7-9. Let's spend 10 quality minutes with our good friend, a man that is getting more frequent flyer miles and more hotel miles because this game got delayed a game. It's Jake Kappell from the Athletic. Jake, how are you, sir? I'm well, Matt. How are you?

I'm a little tired. I had a few cocktails during a game yesterday, so I know you didn't, but you worked because you're a grinder at Jake M. Kaplan on Twitter. So I just want to congratulate you for outstanding coverage at once again, The Athletic. Thank you. I appreciate it, and I'm glad that you got to enjoy some cocktails. What were you drinking? Beers and took multiple shots.

Of what? Kamikaze tequila, and I think we did a sex on a beach as well. Wow. Sounds like quite the night. Oh, my God. What I remember of it, it was magical. It sounds like an upset stomach is what that sounds like. Let me tell you some.

This morning between, say, four, nine. noon. It wasn't pleasant today, Jake. But you know what? Let's let's move on to some important things. Describe Zach Granky's performance, and I want to make sure I tell you before you give an answer, I am not umpire bash guy because I think, again, it's just too simple of a

narrative. But I really do think yesterday, and both guys could probably complain, I thought the strike zone was very, very inconsistent, and Zach could have had a much better fate for a couple of calls this way. Agree or disagree? I thought there was a couple

bad ones for him. But I agree that it was a pretty inconsistent night all around, just a bad night for the home plate umpire on both sides. I mean, I thought there were some pretty generous calls the other way too, or the vice versa. But

I guess the one that stands out for Grinke is the judge, the judge one that it was up in the zone, but it's, you know, it's also, I understand that his zone is so much different than every other hitter in baseball, but I could do the challenge there. But ultimately I think

Grinky's fastball command was just poor in the first inning and we've seen that before from him in his brief stint with the Astros he'll just kind of lose his fastball command for an inning or two and then it seems like in most of the instances something will click back in mechanically

and he'll be okay in subsequent innings but that was really the issue for him he wasn't throwing any fastballs for strikes in the first inning I think he threw all of two fastballs for strikes and his second all of his secondary stuff plays off of that. So if he's not

locating it, he's going to be in trouble. You know, and then once the second inning started, he was locating this fastball. So, you know, it was kind of back to Zach Grinkey. They got the Sanchez home run. And then forgetting about the first inning with the

Wildness, there's just a bunch of missed opportunities for the Yankees and, frankly, in this entire series, even more so than the Astros. I thought for the first time, especially after the Astros started to pour it on and the defense let the Yankees. Yankees down. It was a defeatist attitude. And this is a Yankee team that won on, what, 105 games, one of the most vaunted lineups in baseball, 103 games. And it

looked defeated. And I'm stunned. What has happened to them beyond the fact the Astrobatts, when necessary, have come through, especially with Coray and Springer and their limited hits, but I've obviously been all of them very meaningful. Yeah, I mean, I think they've had a couple of their key players either get injured or slump at the wrong time. And the Astros have pitched them really tough. I mean, outside of Judge's Homer off Burlander, he

hasn't done a ton. You know, Gary Sanchez, that was his first, you know, good swing of the series it felt like, and it was when the game was already in hand last night, you know, Edwin and Encornacione hasn't looked comfortable at the plate, and he was just coming off

injury. So I think that's part of it. They've obviously missed you in Carlos Staten. And, you know, the Astros, maybe we underrated the depth of their bullpen a little bit. It's easy to say that now and how they performed in a small sample of this series.

But, you know, whether it's game planning or just stuff, they've pitched the Yankees hitters really tough. Yordon Alvarez, scuffling at the plate, Jake. In your estimation, is he lost out there? Is he just running into tough matchups?

Or is he, I mean, is it just hard luck? What do you think is going on with him? I think he's chasing a lot more than he did in the regular season, because it's probably, you know, a large part of a product of the pitching he's facing. You know, even though the Yankees are down three-one in the series, you know, and their starters won't go deep. They have a lot of really good pitchers and especially in their bullpen. So, you know, it's not the Mariners and the Angels and the Rangers like you face a lot in the regular season.

So I think that's part of it. I think just, you know, I mean, he's still getting singles. doubles here and there, so it's not like he's completely a zero for them. But, you know, it has been interesting to see how he's, you know, struggled in his first real, you know, exposure to this kind of stage. Jake Kaplan from the athletic with us from New York, getting ready for game five tonight of the American League Championship Series. Jake, I don't know if you spoke to Ryan Presley after the game, but how big of a moment of truth moment was that for him getting the final two outs in the fifth because it has been obviously less than a stellar postseason work for him so far.

Yeah, that was a, I mean, that was a huge moment in the game, the swung game. I mean, I think the Astros had the momentum at that point, but obviously it kind of swam it even further into their favor. Yeah, I mean, I think he, like you said, he struggled in the postseason. He struggled in the second half. You know, Torres is their best hitter. He's probably the one got the most dangerous hit in their lineup right now, and Presley came in. You know, I think some people might have questioned the quick hook on Granky and also the usage of Presley there, given his recent track record. But, you know, he made his manager look really smart.

And, yeah, it looked like the swing and miss, slider, curveball, and basketball, too, you know, that you saw in the first half. All right, so tonight's JV, and boy, what's the leash going to be on Paxton? I mean, this guy has not seen the fifth inning in forever. Where are they with their arms? I mean, they have got to be, their bullpen's got to be really tired at this point. Yeah, I mean, it's weird, though. I mean, it feels like a role as Chapman's barely in this series. So, you know, maybe they use him for two innings.

Jack Britain didn't pitch yesterday, right? So, I mean, the green and Canley are the two that it feels like are in every game. But, yeah, I mean, I think it all depends on how Paxton pitches. I wouldn't expect he goes more than two times to the order. But, you know, with his stuff, he's capable of getting two times to the order. You know, it just depends on which version of him shows up. I mean, over the years when he was with the Mariners and this year, it seems like it's one way or the other with him.

He's either dominant or the Astroath hit him pretty hard. A couple more questions here for Jake Kaplan from the athletic with us from New York. It appears by his performance and by his mannerisms that Carlos Korea is soaking in every glorious moment of this postseason for himself. Yeah, you've been wearing sunglasses to the press conferences inside. You look like he was in the 90s R&B band or something. I know, right? Yeah, he looks to be, I mean, he's that kind of player, right? The player for the dramatic, big stage player.

I mean, he's got 10 postseason homers and he's, what, 25 years old? So, yeah, I think he's, you know, calming a lot of concerns that prevailed throughout the last two regular seasons about his health status by showing up when it really matters. And, yeah, I mean, it's amazing that he's hitting seventh in this lineup. All right, we try to be sneaky with AJ yesterday about game six potential. He caught it from a mile away, so we were sneaky but unsuccessful. What does your gut tell you if the Astros lose tonight? Who's pitching tomorrow first? You know, I keep going back and forth in my head.

I think they really have to consider going to Gar-Cole and short rest, but, you know, I'm not sure if they would do it. I think a big reason they did it last rounds with Verlander was, because they had Cole to fallback on in the game five. This time, they wouldn't have that fallback because, you know, Granky and Verlander will just pitch. So that leads me to think that the move is probably to go bullpen games and coal, if necessary, in seven.

But you're playing with fire a little bit there if you do that because, you know, one bad inning by Jose or Keeney or that peacock or whoever, you know, could even the series. So I could see it going either way. My gut right now tells me bullpen in six, but you know, neither way, you know, I wouldn't be surprised if they went either way. See, you know, it's funny as you were talking, I could flip it the other direction on you and say, wait a minute, you are being risky by putting call out there on short rest because we've already saw what JV did,

and then you're relying on the bullpen game and game seven where it's a coin flip because you've gotten the game seven because you've lost the last two games in the series. So it's one of those things, if you debate and the decisions made for AJ, you could have to the people are going to say, yep, that's the right caller, hey, what's he doing? So I don't think it's one of those decisions. Like people trying to tell the audience a couple days ago that JV should be wait for game six and go bullpen game today, that was ridiculous.

I think either way, what he does in six and seven, you could justify. Yeah, and one thing I want to point out is I don't think just because Burlander struggled on short rest, we could assume that Cole will struggle in short rest. There's been countless instances throughout baseball. history and in recent years where guys come to pitch on short rest and dominate. I mean, look at David Price against the Astros last year in the CS. So, you know, I don't think one bad short rest start for Verlander necessarily means that Cole is the wrong choice on short rest if there's a game six.

We'll leave it that. Mr. Kaplan, thank you very much. Enjoy the rest of New York. What's the weather supposed to be like tonight? I haven't really looked yet, but I was just outside and it felt, you know, 50s, 60s somewhere in there. Not as windy as yesterday. So that's good. I was getting blown all over

the street by the wind yesterday. So that was interesting. Why didn't you take a video of that? I've been fun to watch. I mean, I don't think it would have been that fun. I would have laughed. I'd have been absolutely amazed by it actually. Jake, great materials always from. We'll talk again soon.

Thanks, guys. You got it. Jake Kaplan from the athletic. Follow him on Twitter at Jake M. Kaplan. I do. Yeah. He put the M in there. Is there another, that's been another Jake Kaplan getting into the space. Yeah, it doesn't seem like that uncommon of a name. You know, like, you know the guy that does

watch what happens live, a guy named Andy Cone, he does, he's in town this weekend, I think, with him and Anderson Cooper, you know what that is? I have no idea who that is. You know who Andy Cohn is, don't you? Lindicone is. No, that doesn't matter. Yeah. Okay. Andy Cone is this, he's a executive producer of all the real housewife shows and all. He's

basically filming anything on Bravo has his name on it. Okay. You know what his Twitter account name is? Andy Cohn? Andy. He got just Andy? He must have gotten in like the day Twitter started.

Yeah, there's some people like that. You never know. It might have lasted for a while before anyone even tried it because everyone just assumed it was already taken. Like poor Matt Thomas of the Toronto Raptors. He wanted sports MT. No, he didn't. Sure he did. No chance.

He's absolutely wanted sports empty. I took it from him. Yeah, you think so? All right. Let's get back on the phones. We got beat the schmose at the bottom of the hour. My name wouldn't fit. Brian, you could have gone to at Ross.

Yeah, that's the... But then you'd be in a bunch of tweets about clothing sales. That's a discount retailer. Yeah, that's right.