October 7, 2025 • 25 mins
Ken Rosenthal dissects the state of the Division Series after the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers surge towards a NLCS matchup like it’s 2018. (Top of show)
(6:39) Ken previews tonight’s Toronto Blue Jays - New York Yankees ALDS Game 3 with New York facing elimination.
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(8:31) He explains why the Seattle Mariners have the upper hand on the mound in today’s ALDS Game 3 against the Detroit Tigers.
(10:49) Inside Dish unpacks Ken’s interview with Trey Yesavage’s parents.
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(17:29) Grillin' Ken starts with leading manager candidates interviewing with teams focused on 2026.
(20:36) Ken then takes your questions, including possible expansion news this off-season, why Dave Roberts won't call Roki Sasaki his closer, if Brandon Woodruff has a chance to pitch this postseason and if we can put the postseason format criticisms to bed.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. I'm
Ken Rosenthal, coming from New York City right now getting
ready for tonight's broadcast of Game three of the Division
series Yankees Blue Jays, Blue Jays leading to nothing. But
of course I want to start off with last night's proceedings,
and particularly the proceedings in Philadelphia, where the Dodgers took
(00:22):
a two games to non lead four to three victory
over the Phillies. We are steamrolling toward a potential Dodgers
Brewers and LCS, both teams the Dodgers and Brewers leading
their respective division series two games to none, and a
Dodgers Brewers NLCS would be big market versus small market.
(00:42):
It would be in the eyes of some referendum on
whether the sport needs a salary cap. But let's not
get into all that just yet. We have some more
fun to discuss regarding these two series, and of course
the two American League Division series going on as well.
The Dodgers all regularly season I found to be frustrating.
(01:02):
I thought they were coasting. I wondered, like a lot
of people, including their manager Dave Roberts, whether they would
be able to turn it on at the appropriate time.
I guess we have our answer. They've won nine straight games,
including the first two of this series, thirteen of fifteen.
The starting pitching looks like nothing else in the sport
(01:23):
right now, so dominant, and we've seen that in these
first two games in Philadelphia. They took those two. They
had that frantic bottom of the ninth last night, the
hold on, which started with Blake trianon kind of an
odd decision by Dave Roberts, then featured the wheel play,
of course, but the story of this series so far
is what Otani has done, and it's what Snell has done.
(01:44):
As Jason Stark wrote this morning in The Athletic, in
a span of thirty nine batters at one point, when
you look at Otani first and then Snell, they allowed
two hits. Two hits in thirty nine batters. And as
well as the Phillies have pitched Sanchez and Lozardo, they've
been outpitched. And the Phillies again in the postseason, are
(02:05):
struggling offensively. Now. I would suggest that a big reason
they are struggling offensively in the postseason is because the
Dodgers pitching has been so good. But Turner, Schwarber, and
Harper right now two for twenty one. You could say
the Dodgers are kind of in a similar spot Otani's
one for nine, Otani bets and Freeman just four for
twenty five combined. But the Dodgers have found a way
(02:29):
to win these two games. And as we go forward here,
it's almost difficult for me to imagine any team outpitching
the Dodgers what they have right now. In addition to
three brilliant starters, of course, I'm talking about a Tani
Snell and the game three choice, your Shinobu Yamamoto, who
will be most likely a top five sal Young finalist,
(02:51):
We're also talking about a bullpen that, yes has struggled,
continues to struggle, but is currently fortified by four other
are starting pitchers, four Glass now Kershaw, Sian and of
course Roki Sasaki, who has emerged as a pretty fair
closer in recent days. So right now you have a
(03:13):
situation where the Phillies are scraping. They're going back to
LA It's hard to imagine them winning this series, of course,
And then if the series ends at some point and
the Phillies end up losing, there are gonna be a
whole lot of questions about the future of this team,
how they're going to go forward. Schwarber and real Muto
are free agents. You would think the Phillies want them back.
(03:35):
They don't have obvious internal replacements. Rob Thompson as manager,
I would say he has done a good job. He
is not the problem. But I would expect if the
Phillies go out there to be some kind of change.
So that's Philadelphia and La the Brewers. Last night they
took it to the Cubs yet again, and we're seeing
here a big market, small market matchup, of course, and
(03:58):
the small market team yet again Milwaukee prevailing in a
big way. They have been the Cubs tormentors for quite
some time now and it's just continuing in this series.
So last night, a team that is twenty second in
the majors in home runs, the Brewers hit three homers,
including two three run shots, and that was the difference
(04:19):
in the game. The three run shots by Andrew Vaughan
and Jackson Curio massive home runs. This is not necessarily
what the Brewers do typically. What they did in Game
one was more typical, but here they are. They didn't
even use Quinn Priester in their bullpen game. Yes, that
was a bullpen game in which they prevailed last night.
They had hinted in using Priester, but they preserve him
(04:41):
for Game three and the miss last night, My goodness,
three scoreless innings, hit one hundred and four miles an hour.
He was absolutely brilliant and dominant and electric. It was
also fired up. It was really cool to see. So
the Cubs obviously in deep trouble here. And if your
Cubs fan, I'm sure you're wondering, man, if we only
had Kate Horton, if we only had Justin Steele going
(05:04):
back further, sure that's fair, but the Brewers are without
Brandon Woodruff, and the Cubs just have not matched them
so far in this series. From a starting pitching or
any kind of pitching standpoint, Matt Boyd on three days
rest in Game one. Never a good idea to pitch
a guy on three days rest in the postseason. The
numbers are staggering against it, but the Cubs felt obviously
(05:26):
that was their best option, and then Imanaga in Game two.
He has allowed a ton of home runs lately, thirty
one in the regular season total that is fourth in
the Majors and then even more recently twelve home runs
in his last six starts allowed. Wasn't a shock last
night to see him allow a few more homers. So
(05:47):
the Cubs, I don't know how they're going to figure
this out with the Brewers over time, but here are
the Brewers, and not counting the COVID season, the last
time the Cubs finished ahead of them, the last time
was twenty seventeen. And for the Brewers, if they do
prevail here, and it certainly looks like they will, this
will be a huge thing for them because they have
(06:10):
lost five straight opening round series, four wildcard series, and
division series. They have yet to kind of break through
in this new era of Theirs, this era of Council
and now Crat Murphy. This would be a big thing.
And certainly we've seen them be the best team in
the Majors all season long. It seems to me now
(06:30):
casual fans who might be watching this are seeing why
they do a lot of things really well. Brewers up
to nothing in that series. Now the series I am
on the Yankees and the Blue Jays. We go to
Game three tonight at Yankee Stadium. The Blue Jays have
outscored the Yankees twenty three to eight in this series,
(06:50):
but it has all taken place at Rogers Center, where
the Blue Jays were absolutely electric and brilliant in any
other great adjective you might want to use. In the
first two games. I said this unfair territory yesterday. I'll
say it again today. I do see a pathway for
the Yankees to get back in this series. Obviously, it
starts tonight. Rodin has to beat Shane Bieber, and then
(07:13):
Game four, of the Blue Jays are throwing a bullpen game,
the Yankees will have Cam Schlitzer that would seemingly favor
the Yankees. And then Game five back in the Rogers
Center where the Yankees are one and eight, it would
be freed In Gossman. And who knows how Ya Savage
will be used, if at all, in Games four or five,
coming off his brilliant seventy eight pitch performance on Sunday,
(07:34):
but he is an option at some point four or five.
All hands on deck in a Game five, And yes,
the Yankees would have that Rogers stigma hanging over them
the one and eight record, But at the same time,
when you get to that point, if you get to
that point. Again, all bets are off, You've got a shot,
So we'll see what happens tonight. It is a huge
(07:55):
test for the Yankees, a huge test for Aaron Judge.
As I wrote yesterday, Vladimir Guerrero in two days, in
those games at Rogers Center in two days produced more
electrifying moments in the postseason than I think maybe Aaron
Judge ever has the game one homer in the first
inning for Guerrero, and of course the Grand Slam in
(08:15):
Game two that turned a five to nothing lead into
a nine nothing lead. So Yankees obviously in trouble here,
but again they're coming home as opposed to the Phillies,
and that gives them something of at least a chance.
I would say. The other series, the final series we
should discuss here, Mariners and Tigers. This has been an
(08:36):
interesting series, low scoring, both games decided by scores of
three to two. The Mariners finally win a postseason game
at home for the first time since two thousand and one.
They do that in Game two, a game that the
Tigers had tied up late and easily could have won.
Didn't work out that way. So now it goes back
to Detroit, and we'll see what happens here. I am
(08:59):
not convinced one way or the other that either of
these teams is going to dominate in the next two games. Tonight,
we have Logan Gilbert seemingly with a pitching advantage over
Jack Flaherty, who has been at times brilliant and at
times inconsistent. So this is a series that it seems
like it's gonna go more longer than some of the others.
(09:20):
Certainly when you're tied one to one, that would be
the obvious conclusion. Ken, But with schoolble looming still and
with the Mariners pitching being what it is, I would
expect low scoring games to continue, assuming Flowerty tonight is
going to be the Jack Flaherty we saw at times
in last year's postseason, at times during the regular season,
(09:42):
but not always in either case. All right, we'll be
right back after this with the inside dish FT fam.
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Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well well, well, time out for the inside. I dished
the part of the show where I talk about maybe
a story I've written, maybe a trend in the game,
maybe something else entirely, And today I want to talk
about one of the favorite things that I do in
the television part of my job when I work for
(11:12):
Fox Sports, and that is interviewing parents. And I believe
i've mentioned this before on the show, but I just
take such enjoyment out of it, because really, every time
you do it, it's in a successful situation for the
player and the parents. Most often in major league debuts
is when this happens, they are routinely overjoyed. So on Sunday,
(11:33):
in Game two, after you Savage pitched five and a
third scoreless innings with eleven strikeouts, hitless innings, I interviewed
his parents, Dave and Cheryl, up in the stands in
Rogers Center, and I just kind of want to share
with you guys how this came about, because this one
was a little bit different. So again, I've been doing
this a long time now. This is my twentieth year
(11:54):
at Fox. I remember Daniel Nava, Nava coming up in
twenty ten for the Red Sox, first pitch Grand Slam
in his first Major league at bat, interviewing his parents.
I remember Cole Tucker when he came up for the
Pirates in twenty nineteen, hit a home run and interviewed
his parents. That was cool. Twenty twenty two NLCS the
Nola Showdown between Austin Nola of the Padres Aaron Nola
(12:18):
of the Phillies interviewed their parents in the stands. All
these things are great. Never interviewed a parent in a
postseason game when their son is coming off the performance
that trey Y Savage did. And actually, initially this interview
was not going to happen. The morning of the game,
I contacted the Blue Jays and said, hey, if you
(12:40):
Savage pitch as well, I would like to interview the parents.
What do you think Can you tell me the seat
locations and we'll go from there. And the Jays replied,
you know what, this is something where we want to
ask the player first, and we do not want to
talk to you Savage on the day of his start.
The next time, if you just let us know a
day in advance, we'll talk to him and we'll see
(13:01):
what happens. That answer frustrated me. I will lie At
the same time, I did understand it. Now you might say, well,
what's the big deal about asking a player if a
reporter can talk to his parents, But starting pitchers generally
are left alone the day of their starts. And Treya
Savage was making his fourth major league start, So I
(13:23):
can understand where the Blue Jays were coming from, and
I can even understand why they would want his approval,
because not all players would be comfortable with their parents
being interviewed. And I could speak for myself here. My
dad has passed away, but if he was ever interviewed
about me, I would not have been happy about it.
He would have taken things, probably in directions that I
(13:43):
would not have been comfortable with. So I understood the
whole thing. But then the game is progressing. The Blue
Jays go up nine to nothing, they go up eleven nothing,
they go up twelve nothing, and I text an official
from MLB who was working the series and on the
broadcast sides. He's a sign to really organizing the broadcast
interviews and different things, and I said, hey, it would
(14:03):
be nice if we can interview Trey Savage's parents, don't
you think And he agreed, and he said, you know what,
let me ask the Blue Jays and we'll see what
they say. And the Blue Jays said, you know what, Okay.
They allowed that MLB official to approach the parents in
the stands ask their permission if I could come up
there and interview them, and everything from there proceeded. The
(14:25):
MLB official texted me back and said, we're good, go
ahead up there. I did that, and I had a
stage manager, a person down on the field with me
who knew the ballpark better than I did, got me
to the seats and you saw what happened if you
were still watching by that point. Dave and Cheryl were great.
And what was unusual about this interview different than some
(14:45):
of the others. Usually it's conducted with the parents sitting
down because the games are I don't know, close, and
people are watching and they don't want to be standing
up and blocking the view of others. But in this case, Dave,
you Savage Tray's dad said, you know what, I want
everybody up behind me, because there were family members, a
lot of family members, it seemed like, behind him, and
(15:06):
other people maybe from other Blue Days families as well.
So everybody stood. Dave stood, Cheryl stood, brother Cole stood.
He's in college right now, but he was up. They
had driven up from Pennsylvania for this, and you could
see the excitement of the parents. Hear the excitement of
the parents. They gave great answers to the questions. They
were regular people, as almost all baseball player parents are,
(15:29):
and it was just a fun interview. So it was
the kind of thing that kind of makes my job
even more fulfilling. It's always fulfilling, it's always great. But again,
that is maybe the favorite thing that I do, interviewing
parents in joyous moments like that. And when you have
parents who were as down home and as cool as
Dave and Cheryl were, well, it doesn't get any better
(15:52):
than that. So that was it. That was the story
behind that interview. I want to thank, obviously Dave and
Cheryl for being so accommodating with their time and being
willing to do it. I also want to thank the
Blue Jays for ultimately deviating from their policy, I guess
you would say, And I want to thank the MLB
official who helped as well. Worked out great, and who knows,
(16:13):
maybe we'll have another moment like that later in the series.
Maybe Cam Schlitzler's parents will be the next ones that
we interview. But he's already, I don't know, pretty accomplished
for a major league pitcher. Anyway. That is the inside dish.
We'll be back with grilling Kin right after this. Ft FAM.
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Speaker 1 (17:36):
All right, we're back. We'll get to grilling Can in
one second, But first I want to address the ongoing
situation regarding the managerial merry go round. Rick Groley wrote
about it today for The Athletic and brid of course
did an outstanding job as always. It's a very interesting
situation because there are so many jobs open. We've seen
(17:56):
the Texas Rangers fill their position as expected with Skips Drumacher,
and now it remains to be seen just where these
other ones are going to go. We've got three interims
still to be decided Colorado. I would expect that to
be a change because a new general manager is coming
in to replace Bill Schmidt. Washington still has to decide
(18:16):
on Miguel Cairo. Baltimore still has to decide on Tony Mansolino.
I wrote last week about David Ross and his interest
in becoming a manager again. And there are two jobs
in particular that I think are the most appealing, and
maybe three the most appealing right now. The ones open
is Atlanta. I don't know that there's any question about that.
(18:37):
Most everyone in the game expects the Braves to be
back and back in a big way next season. They're
going to do some things in the offseason, and they're
also going to be healthier than they were, so I
would expect that job to be one that is highly contested.
I don't know and have no feel really for which
way Alex Anthopolis wants to go. What Weiss is certainly
(19:00):
someone who has managed before. He was on Brian Snicker's staff,
but I don't know that they want to have that
kind of continuity. They might want to change, and Anthopolis
has not hired a manager in Atlanta. He's had Snicker
the whole time, so he's going to probably want his
own guy with his own stamp. That would be my expectation.
Baltimore is another interesting job, and the Orioles, yes, they
(19:23):
have work to do this offseason. They have to reconstruct
virtually their entire bullpen, and more than anything, they need
to find the top of the rotation starter that they
didn't get last year. It turns out that Trevor Rodgers
kind of emerged as that guy in the second half
of the season, and Kyle Bradish is coming back, So
you've got two top of the rotation types kind of
(19:44):
in place, but at the same time they need one
more so that's another interesting job San Francisco as well.
The Giants have some holes to fill. They've got to
get better in a number of different areas. But it
seems like Nick Huntley, the former catcher, is favored for
that job. And that job two is appealing because Buster Posey,
as President Baseball Operations is going to want to win.
(20:07):
So we're gonna see how this all plays out in
the next few weeks. I do expect maybe even more movement,
especially if the Phillies go out, because then the question
of Rob Thompson would come up. And I know Yankee
fans are waiting, well, if we get swept, what about
Aaron Boone. I don't see it. I don't see it
because of the way this is happening. It's not Aaron
Boone's fault that his team is getting pounded here. It
(20:30):
just happens to be that they've run into a hot club.
But we shall see in the days and weeks ahead.
All right, with that, let's get to grill and can
first question comes from Richard Proctor, who asks what are
the chances of any expansion news this offseason? That, Richard,
actually is a really good question, and I don't know
the answer to it. So Rob Manfren's position as commissioner
(20:54):
has been the whole time, Wait till Tampa Bay and Sacramento,
it turns out, now gets resolved, Wait till the two franchises,
the A's and the Rays have their stadium issues all set.
They're not quite there yet, so I would not expect
an announcement this off season. Yes, the A's have a
plan they're going to Las Vegas. Construction is underway. The
(21:14):
Rays have new ownership, but they yet or they do
not yet have a stadium plan in place. So once
that happens, and I do expect it to happen in
relatively short order, then at that point I would expect
Manford to proceed, But not before that, and maybe not
before the next round of the labor negotiations because that's
going to take precedence, and the next agreement does not
(21:36):
expire until December one, twenty twenty six. So there's your
non answer, but I would not expect it to be
this offseason. All right, next question here, This one comes
from Bernie Suarez. Us Is Dave Roberts going to finally
give in and say Sasaki is the closer in this case?
Bernie I would say it really doesn't matter. Actions will
(22:00):
speak louder than words, and at some point we're going
to see Roki Sasaki continue on the way he is
right now as the closer. That's what he is. He
came in last night and closed, even though he wasn't
the initial choice. So yes, perhaps Dave Roberts says it
today on the off day, Perhaps he says it going
into the next game. Perhaps he doesn't say it at
(22:21):
all but just keeps using Sasaki that way. What matters
is that usage, how he actually goes about the late innings,
And I would expect from here on out we're going
to see a whole lot of Rokie Susaki closing. All right,
we've got time for one more. I believe, Okay, is
Woodriff going to return for the NLCS? This comes from Drew.
(22:43):
I would not expect that. I have not heard much
on him lately, but my understanding was that he was
problematic for the rest of the postseason. Now not on
that series, and I might not have the freshest updated information,
but I would be surprised if Brandon Woodriff came back
and to shift the conversation a little bit to another injury.
(23:05):
Bobaschet I was asked about him on FT yesterday and
I said, I don't see him coming back for potential
alcs because he's still is limping. When I see him
in the dugout during the games, he's not moving all
that well. So these questions obviously will be answered as
we move forward here. But we will see if we
see either of these guys again in the postseason. All right,
(23:26):
one more question or no, let's see, yes, one more?
Can we put the postseason format criticisms to bed? From
foul territory? This comes well, yes, at least in this case.
The two teams with the bys actually yeah, two teams
with the byes, the Blue Jays and the Brewers have
played exceedingly well coming out of those breaks. The Mariners
(23:48):
have done okay, The Phillies have not, but they've run
into a better club. So I don't know that we
can put it to bed. Each team reacts in a
different way to that layoff. But with the Blue Jays,
Guerrero has talked quite a bit about this. He's benefited
from the rest. Other players have as well. The Brewers
perhaps were a bigger surprise in that obviously all players
(24:11):
need rest, but with the style that they play, weren't
sure they could turn it back on again. Yes, they
have turned it back on again. So really, at this point,
at least looking at this postseason small sample size of
that teams seem to have figured out how to rebound
from five days off and in some cases clearly it
has benefited them. All Right, that is it for today's show.
(24:34):
We will be back maybe Thursday, maybe Friday, not exactly
sure yet, depends on the postseason schedule that show. The
next one will be with Alana Rizzo in all of
our usual places, YouTube, Apple, Spotify. Have a great week, everyone,
enjoy the rest of the DS and we'll be talking
to you soon.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
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Welcome everyone to the Monday edition of Fair Territory. I'm
Ken Rosenthal, coming from New York City right now getting
ready for tonight's broadcast of Game three of the Division
series Yankees Blue Jays, Blue Jays leading to nothing. But
of course I want to start off with last night's proceedings,
and particularly the proceedings in Philadelphia, where the Dodgers took
(00:22):
a two games to non lead four to three victory
over the Phillies. We are steamrolling toward a potential Dodgers
Brewers and LCS, both teams the Dodgers and Brewers leading
their respective division series two games to none, and a
Dodgers Brewers NLCS would be big market versus small market.
(00:42):
It would be in the eyes of some referendum on
whether the sport needs a salary cap. But let's not
get into all that just yet. We have some more
fun to discuss regarding these two series, and of course
the two American League Division series going on as well.
The Dodgers all regularly season I found to be frustrating.
(01:02):
I thought they were coasting. I wondered, like a lot
of people, including their manager Dave Roberts, whether they would
be able to turn it on at the appropriate time.
I guess we have our answer. They've won nine straight games,
including the first two of this series, thirteen of fifteen.
The starting pitching looks like nothing else in the sport
(01:23):
right now, so dominant, and we've seen that in these
first two games in Philadelphia. They took those two. They
had that frantic bottom of the ninth last night, the
hold on, which started with Blake trianon kind of an
odd decision by Dave Roberts, then featured the wheel play,
of course, but the story of this series so far
is what Otani has done, and it's what Snell has done.
(01:44):
As Jason Stark wrote this morning in The Athletic, in
a span of thirty nine batters at one point, when
you look at Otani first and then Snell, they allowed
two hits. Two hits in thirty nine batters. And as
well as the Phillies have pitched Sanchez and Lozardo, they've
been outpitched. And the Phillies again in the postseason, are
(02:05):
struggling offensively. Now. I would suggest that a big reason
they are struggling offensively in the postseason is because the
Dodgers pitching has been so good. But Turner, Schwarber, and
Harper right now two for twenty one. You could say
the Dodgers are kind of in a similar spot Otani's
one for nine, Otani bets and Freeman just four for
twenty five combined. But the Dodgers have found a way
(02:29):
to win these two games. And as we go forward here,
it's almost difficult for me to imagine any team outpitching
the Dodgers what they have right now. In addition to
three brilliant starters, of course, I'm talking about a Tani
Snell and the game three choice, your Shinobu Yamamoto, who
will be most likely a top five sal Young finalist,
(02:51):
We're also talking about a bullpen that, yes has struggled,
continues to struggle, but is currently fortified by four other
are starting pitchers, four Glass now Kershaw, Sian and of
course Roki Sasaki, who has emerged as a pretty fair
closer in recent days. So right now you have a
(03:13):
situation where the Phillies are scraping. They're going back to
LA It's hard to imagine them winning this series, of course,
And then if the series ends at some point and
the Phillies end up losing, there are gonna be a
whole lot of questions about the future of this team,
how they're going to go forward. Schwarber and real Muto
are free agents. You would think the Phillies want them back.
(03:35):
They don't have obvious internal replacements. Rob Thompson as manager,
I would say he has done a good job. He
is not the problem. But I would expect if the
Phillies go out there to be some kind of change.
So that's Philadelphia and La the Brewers. Last night they
took it to the Cubs yet again, and we're seeing
here a big market, small market matchup, of course, and
(03:58):
the small market team yet again Milwaukee prevailing in a
big way. They have been the Cubs tormentors for quite
some time now and it's just continuing in this series.
So last night, a team that is twenty second in
the majors in home runs, the Brewers hit three homers,
including two three run shots, and that was the difference
(04:19):
in the game. The three run shots by Andrew Vaughan
and Jackson Curio massive home runs. This is not necessarily
what the Brewers do typically. What they did in Game
one was more typical, but here they are. They didn't
even use Quinn Priester in their bullpen game. Yes, that
was a bullpen game in which they prevailed last night.
They had hinted in using Priester, but they preserve him
(04:41):
for Game three and the miss last night, My goodness,
three scoreless innings, hit one hundred and four miles an hour.
He was absolutely brilliant and dominant and electric. It was
also fired up. It was really cool to see. So
the Cubs obviously in deep trouble here. And if your
Cubs fan, I'm sure you're wondering, man, if we only
had Kate Horton, if we only had Justin Steele going
(05:04):
back further, sure that's fair, but the Brewers are without
Brandon Woodruff, and the Cubs just have not matched them
so far in this series. From a starting pitching or
any kind of pitching standpoint, Matt Boyd on three days
rest in Game one. Never a good idea to pitch
a guy on three days rest in the postseason. The
numbers are staggering against it, but the Cubs felt obviously
(05:26):
that was their best option, and then Imanaga in Game two.
He has allowed a ton of home runs lately, thirty
one in the regular season total that is fourth in
the Majors and then even more recently twelve home runs
in his last six starts allowed. Wasn't a shock last
night to see him allow a few more homers. So
(05:47):
the Cubs, I don't know how they're going to figure
this out with the Brewers over time, but here are
the Brewers, and not counting the COVID season, the last
time the Cubs finished ahead of them, the last time
was twenty seventeen. And for the Brewers, if they do
prevail here, and it certainly looks like they will, this
will be a huge thing for them because they have
(06:10):
lost five straight opening round series, four wildcard series, and
division series. They have yet to kind of break through
in this new era of Theirs, this era of Council
and now Crat Murphy. This would be a big thing.
And certainly we've seen them be the best team in
the Majors all season long. It seems to me now
(06:30):
casual fans who might be watching this are seeing why
they do a lot of things really well. Brewers up
to nothing in that series. Now the series I am
on the Yankees and the Blue Jays. We go to
Game three tonight at Yankee Stadium. The Blue Jays have
outscored the Yankees twenty three to eight in this series,
(06:50):
but it has all taken place at Rogers Center, where
the Blue Jays were absolutely electric and brilliant in any
other great adjective you might want to use. In the
first two games. I said this unfair territory yesterday. I'll
say it again today. I do see a pathway for
the Yankees to get back in this series. Obviously, it
starts tonight. Rodin has to beat Shane Bieber, and then
(07:13):
Game four, of the Blue Jays are throwing a bullpen game,
the Yankees will have Cam Schlitzer that would seemingly favor
the Yankees. And then Game five back in the Rogers
Center where the Yankees are one and eight, it would
be freed In Gossman. And who knows how Ya Savage
will be used, if at all, in Games four or five,
coming off his brilliant seventy eight pitch performance on Sunday,
(07:34):
but he is an option at some point four or five.
All hands on deck in a Game five, And yes,
the Yankees would have that Rogers stigma hanging over them
the one and eight record, But at the same time,
when you get to that point, if you get to
that point. Again, all bets are off, You've got a shot,
So we'll see what happens tonight. It is a huge
(07:55):
test for the Yankees, a huge test for Aaron Judge.
As I wrote yesterday, Vladimir Guerrero in two days, in
those games at Rogers Center in two days produced more
electrifying moments in the postseason than I think maybe Aaron
Judge ever has the game one homer in the first
inning for Guerrero, and of course the Grand Slam in
(08:15):
Game two that turned a five to nothing lead into
a nine nothing lead. So Yankees obviously in trouble here,
but again they're coming home as opposed to the Phillies,
and that gives them something of at least a chance.
I would say. The other series, the final series we
should discuss here, Mariners and Tigers. This has been an
(08:36):
interesting series, low scoring, both games decided by scores of
three to two. The Mariners finally win a postseason game
at home for the first time since two thousand and one.
They do that in Game two, a game that the
Tigers had tied up late and easily could have won.
Didn't work out that way. So now it goes back
to Detroit, and we'll see what happens here. I am
(08:59):
not convinced one way or the other that either of
these teams is going to dominate in the next two games. Tonight,
we have Logan Gilbert seemingly with a pitching advantage over
Jack Flaherty, who has been at times brilliant and at
times inconsistent. So this is a series that it seems
like it's gonna go more longer than some of the others.
(09:20):
Certainly when you're tied one to one, that would be
the obvious conclusion. Ken, But with schoolble looming still and
with the Mariners pitching being what it is, I would
expect low scoring games to continue, assuming Flowerty tonight is
going to be the Jack Flaherty we saw at times
in last year's postseason, at times during the regular season,
(09:42):
but not always in either case. All right, we'll be
right back after this with the inside dish FT fam.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
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Speaker 1 (10:51):
Well well, well, time out for the inside. I dished
the part of the show where I talk about maybe
a story I've written, maybe a trend in the game,
maybe something else entirely, And today I want to talk
about one of the favorite things that I do in
the television part of my job when I work for
(11:12):
Fox Sports, and that is interviewing parents. And I believe
i've mentioned this before on the show, but I just
take such enjoyment out of it, because really, every time
you do it, it's in a successful situation for the
player and the parents. Most often in major league debuts
is when this happens, they are routinely overjoyed. So on Sunday,
(11:33):
in Game two, after you Savage pitched five and a
third scoreless innings with eleven strikeouts, hitless innings, I interviewed
his parents, Dave and Cheryl, up in the stands in
Rogers Center, and I just kind of want to share
with you guys how this came about, because this one
was a little bit different. So again, I've been doing
this a long time now. This is my twentieth year
(11:54):
at Fox. I remember Daniel Nava, Nava coming up in
twenty ten for the Red Sox, first pitch Grand Slam
in his first Major league at bat, interviewing his parents.
I remember Cole Tucker when he came up for the
Pirates in twenty nineteen, hit a home run and interviewed
his parents. That was cool. Twenty twenty two NLCS the
Nola Showdown between Austin Nola of the Padres Aaron Nola
(12:18):
of the Phillies interviewed their parents in the stands. All
these things are great. Never interviewed a parent in a
postseason game when their son is coming off the performance
that trey Y Savage did. And actually, initially this interview
was not going to happen. The morning of the game,
I contacted the Blue Jays and said, hey, if you
(12:40):
Savage pitch as well, I would like to interview the parents.
What do you think Can you tell me the seat
locations and we'll go from there. And the Jays replied,
you know what, this is something where we want to
ask the player first, and we do not want to
talk to you Savage on the day of his start.
The next time, if you just let us know a
day in advance, we'll talk to him and we'll see
(13:01):
what happens. That answer frustrated me. I will lie At
the same time, I did understand it. Now you might say, well,
what's the big deal about asking a player if a
reporter can talk to his parents, But starting pitchers generally
are left alone the day of their starts. And Treya
Savage was making his fourth major league start, So I
(13:23):
can understand where the Blue Jays were coming from, and
I can even understand why they would want his approval,
because not all players would be comfortable with their parents
being interviewed. And I could speak for myself here. My
dad has passed away, but if he was ever interviewed
about me, I would not have been happy about it.
He would have taken things, probably in directions that I
(13:43):
would not have been comfortable with. So I understood the
whole thing. But then the game is progressing. The Blue
Jays go up nine to nothing, they go up eleven nothing,
they go up twelve nothing, and I text an official
from MLB who was working the series and on the
broadcast sides. He's a sign to really organizing the broadcast
interviews and different things, and I said, hey, it would
(14:03):
be nice if we can interview Trey Savage's parents, don't
you think And he agreed, and he said, you know what,
let me ask the Blue Jays and we'll see what
they say. And the Blue Jays said, you know what, Okay.
They allowed that MLB official to approach the parents in
the stands ask their permission if I could come up
there and interview them, and everything from there proceeded. The
(14:25):
MLB official texted me back and said, we're good, go
ahead up there. I did that, and I had a
stage manager, a person down on the field with me
who knew the ballpark better than I did, got me
to the seats and you saw what happened if you
were still watching by that point. Dave and Cheryl were great.
And what was unusual about this interview different than some
(14:45):
of the others. Usually it's conducted with the parents sitting
down because the games are I don't know, close, and
people are watching and they don't want to be standing
up and blocking the view of others. But in this case, Dave,
you Savage Tray's dad said, you know what, I want
everybody up behind me, because there were family members, a
lot of family members, it seemed like, behind him, and
(15:06):
other people maybe from other Blue Days families as well.
So everybody stood. Dave stood, Cheryl stood, brother Cole stood.
He's in college right now, but he was up. They
had driven up from Pennsylvania for this, and you could
see the excitement of the parents. Hear the excitement of
the parents. They gave great answers to the questions. They
were regular people, as almost all baseball player parents are,
(15:29):
and it was just a fun interview. So it was
the kind of thing that kind of makes my job
even more fulfilling. It's always fulfilling, it's always great. But again,
that is maybe the favorite thing that I do, interviewing
parents in joyous moments like that. And when you have
parents who were as down home and as cool as
Dave and Cheryl were, well, it doesn't get any better
(15:52):
than that. So that was it. That was the story
behind that interview. I want to thank, obviously Dave and
Cheryl for being so accommodating with their time and being
willing to do it. I also want to thank the
Blue Jays for ultimately deviating from their policy, I guess
you would say, And I want to thank the MLB
official who helped as well. Worked out great, and who knows,
(16:13):
maybe we'll have another moment like that later in the series.
Maybe Cam Schlitzler's parents will be the next ones that
we interview. But he's already, I don't know, pretty accomplished
for a major league pitcher. Anyway. That is the inside dish.
We'll be back with grilling Kin right after this. Ft FAM.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
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Speaker 1 (17:36):
All right, we're back. We'll get to grilling Can in
one second, But first I want to address the ongoing
situation regarding the managerial merry go round. Rick Groley wrote
about it today for The Athletic and brid of course
did an outstanding job as always. It's a very interesting
situation because there are so many jobs open. We've seen
(17:56):
the Texas Rangers fill their position as expected with Skips Drumacher,
and now it remains to be seen just where these
other ones are going to go. We've got three interims
still to be decided Colorado. I would expect that to
be a change because a new general manager is coming
in to replace Bill Schmidt. Washington still has to decide
(18:16):
on Miguel Cairo. Baltimore still has to decide on Tony Mansolino.
I wrote last week about David Ross and his interest
in becoming a manager again. And there are two jobs
in particular that I think are the most appealing, and
maybe three the most appealing right now. The ones open
is Atlanta. I don't know that there's any question about that.
(18:37):
Most everyone in the game expects the Braves to be
back and back in a big way next season. They're
going to do some things in the offseason, and they're
also going to be healthier than they were, so I
would expect that job to be one that is highly contested.
I don't know and have no feel really for which
way Alex Anthopolis wants to go. What Weiss is certainly
(19:00):
someone who has managed before. He was on Brian Snicker's staff,
but I don't know that they want to have that
kind of continuity. They might want to change, and Anthopolis
has not hired a manager in Atlanta. He's had Snicker
the whole time, so he's going to probably want his
own guy with his own stamp. That would be my expectation.
Baltimore is another interesting job, and the Orioles, yes, they
(19:23):
have work to do this offseason. They have to reconstruct
virtually their entire bullpen, and more than anything, they need
to find the top of the rotation starter that they
didn't get last year. It turns out that Trevor Rodgers
kind of emerged as that guy in the second half
of the season, and Kyle Bradish is coming back, So
you've got two top of the rotation types kind of
(19:44):
in place, but at the same time they need one
more so that's another interesting job San Francisco as well.
The Giants have some holes to fill. They've got to
get better in a number of different areas. But it
seems like Nick Huntley, the former catcher, is favored for
that job. And that job two is appealing because Buster Posey,
as President Baseball Operations is going to want to win.
(20:07):
So we're gonna see how this all plays out in
the next few weeks. I do expect maybe even more movement,
especially if the Phillies go out, because then the question
of Rob Thompson would come up. And I know Yankee
fans are waiting, well, if we get swept, what about
Aaron Boone. I don't see it. I don't see it
because of the way this is happening. It's not Aaron
Boone's fault that his team is getting pounded here. It
(20:30):
just happens to be that they've run into a hot club.
But we shall see in the days and weeks ahead.
All right, with that, let's get to grill and can
first question comes from Richard Proctor, who asks what are
the chances of any expansion news this offseason? That, Richard,
actually is a really good question, and I don't know
the answer to it. So Rob Manfren's position as commissioner
(20:54):
has been the whole time, Wait till Tampa Bay and Sacramento,
it turns out, now gets resolved, Wait till the two franchises,
the A's and the Rays have their stadium issues all set.
They're not quite there yet, so I would not expect
an announcement this off season. Yes, the A's have a
plan they're going to Las Vegas. Construction is underway. The
(21:14):
Rays have new ownership, but they yet or they do
not yet have a stadium plan in place. So once
that happens, and I do expect it to happen in
relatively short order, then at that point I would expect
Manford to proceed, But not before that, and maybe not
before the next round of the labor negotiations because that's
going to take precedence, and the next agreement does not
(21:36):
expire until December one, twenty twenty six. So there's your
non answer, but I would not expect it to be
this offseason. All right, next question here, This one comes
from Bernie Suarez. Us Is Dave Roberts going to finally
give in and say Sasaki is the closer in this case?
Bernie I would say it really doesn't matter. Actions will
(22:00):
speak louder than words, and at some point we're going
to see Roki Sasaki continue on the way he is
right now as the closer. That's what he is. He
came in last night and closed, even though he wasn't
the initial choice. So yes, perhaps Dave Roberts says it
today on the off day, Perhaps he says it going
into the next game. Perhaps he doesn't say it at
(22:21):
all but just keeps using Sasaki that way. What matters
is that usage, how he actually goes about the late innings,
And I would expect from here on out we're going
to see a whole lot of Rokie Susaki closing. All right,
we've got time for one more. I believe, Okay, is
Woodriff going to return for the NLCS? This comes from Drew.
(22:43):
I would not expect that. I have not heard much
on him lately, but my understanding was that he was
problematic for the rest of the postseason. Now not on
that series, and I might not have the freshest updated information,
but I would be surprised if Brandon Woodriff came back
and to shift the conversation a little bit to another injury.
(23:05):
Bobaschet I was asked about him on FT yesterday and
I said, I don't see him coming back for potential
alcs because he's still is limping. When I see him
in the dugout during the games, he's not moving all
that well. So these questions obviously will be answered as
we move forward here. But we will see if we
see either of these guys again in the postseason. All right,
(23:26):
one more question or no, let's see, yes, one more?
Can we put the postseason format criticisms to bed? From
foul territory? This comes well, yes, at least in this case.
The two teams with the bys actually yeah, two teams
with the byes, the Blue Jays and the Brewers have
played exceedingly well coming out of those breaks. The Mariners
(23:48):
have done okay, The Phillies have not, but they've run
into a better club. So I don't know that we
can put it to bed. Each team reacts in a
different way to that layoff. But with the Blue Jays,
Guerrero has talked quite a bit about this. He's benefited
from the rest. Other players have as well. The Brewers
perhaps were a bigger surprise in that obviously all players
(24:11):
need rest, but with the style that they play, weren't
sure they could turn it back on again. Yes, they
have turned it back on again. So really, at this point,
at least looking at this postseason small sample size of
that teams seem to have figured out how to rebound
from five days off and in some cases clearly it
has benefited them. All Right, that is it for today's show.
(24:34):
We will be back maybe Thursday, maybe Friday, not exactly
sure yet, depends on the postseason schedule that show. The
next one will be with Alana Rizzo in all of
our usual places, YouTube, Apple, Spotify. Have a great week, everyone,
enjoy the rest of the DS and we'll be talking
to you soon.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
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