The Cutoff Episode 3: Divine Intervention

Dan G and Mario preview Phillies-Braves Game 3 before recapping the rest of the Wild Card Series that have already concluded.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
The calendar has finally turned to October and postseason baseball
rolls on. Welcome into another episode of the Cutoff Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
He is Mario. I'm Dan.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
We've got a bunch of wildcard games down. Three series
are already done. We've got a lot to break. This
may be a long episode today.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Yeah, I think so. The last one we went about
23 minutes. I'm going to take the over on this episode. Yeah,
it's going to go over.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
And we're getting microphones now, no more headsets.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
They doubled our budget, it looks like.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Which is miraculous because I don't know how big the
budget was.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I don't know if we had a budget, to be honest.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
I think the fans were clamoring for it.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
They were.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
That's what they were saying on social media.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I did see a comment or two about that.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So, a lot going on over the last three days.
A lot of funnies.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
I do like the three days in a row, similar
to just a regular season matchup.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Where you get four games.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
You didn't get enough of that. You got four games
the next day. Hopefully, you get some three games or
best of threes that you get to see on that
last day. We're only getting one that we'll get into,
but a lot of close games, a lot of action-packed games,
a lot of stars shining, a lot to get into.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Should we get started?

Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah. There's almost like a March Madness feel to it.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
A little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
Baseball starting at 2 o'clock, very early afternoon, and games
all the way into— midnight, 1 o'clock, those West Coast games.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, it's hard to stay up late for that and
then get up early the next morning and have to
come into the studio to do a show at 9 a.m.
But listen, we do it for the love of the game,
as they say.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
We do.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
All right, let's get to the game that is playing tonight.
The winner take all, Game 3, Braves and Phillies. Braves
took Game 1, 5-3. Phillies responded with a late comeback
yesterday and went in 10 innings yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
And we got, on my.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Notes it says TBD versus TBD, but we just looked
it up. It's going to be an opener for the Braves,
Aaron Nola going for the Phillies. This sort of seems
like a bit of a crapshoot when you look at it.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
Yeah, I mean, we talked a little bit. We've talked,
you know, along in this podcast about, you know, starting
your aces and having that horse go. Neither of them
have their horse starting the game. I'm sure we will
see Zach Wheeler at some point in the game. As
far as the Braves, it's just an opener. It's Ray Kerr.
Ray Kerr, I was just reading that he was like
a movie theater attendant or something, 7-Eleven.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Worked at a movie theater and worked at a gas
at 7-Eleven and thought his baseball career was over. It
was a really good story. And now he's starting an
elimination game for the Braves.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
Yeah. It's pretty cool. I think it's going to come
down to bullpen, right? The Phillies' bullpen has proven all
year to be sketchy, to say the least. The Braves
clearly have the better bullpen. But, I mean, the bats
woke up late. I don't know. The Braves bats, I'm
not really sure about. I thought that was their strong
suit going into the postseason. And they seemed like they

(02:53):
had to fight a little bit to get some runs.
You had the Austin Riley late home run to put
them ahead in game one. They went into extra innings yesterday.
They didn't end up winning game two. So those bats
have to wake up or they're going to be going home.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, we haven't heard a lot from Matt Olsen. Ronald
Acuna has walked a couple times. He's scored a couple runs.
But really, outside of that one homer by Riley, it's
been very just sleepy.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
I don't know the best way to talk about it.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
It seems like they have traffic on the base pass,
but they really haven't had that big swing outside of
that homer.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yeah, it's been a little bit uncharacteristic of them, right?
We were talking before the show about Michael Harris, the second. Um,
and he had only hit into two double plays in
the entire 2026 MLB season. And they, they were both
before the first half, not a single one in the
second half. Yeah. Last night hits into two double plays,
stranding runners. So that's what happens.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
When the lights get bright, right?

Speaker 3 (03:47):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Um, the numbers against Nola, the Braves have hit them
pretty well in the past, but it, You also look
at it, Aaron Nola and Zach Wheeler, when you talk
about them going in 2022, 2023, even 2024, those two
guys were those two guys that you go 1-2. You
feel really good about giving yourself a chance to lead
in the series. So Nola has not been good against
the Braves, but in his career in the postseason, he

(04:10):
is probably one of the better pitchers you will see
in the month of October.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Yeah, he has the experience. Weird things happen in October.
It's not just the stats and what's happened that season.
There's a lot of weird things that can happen. I
think experience definitely plays a part into it. I'd like
having Wheeler as a backup or, you know, the next
guy in. That's not confirmed, but I'm assuming that's what's
going to happen. Then you have Duran. You know, Duran

(04:35):
did allow the home run to Riley.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
What did you think of that? What did you think
of the decision?

Speaker 1 (04:38):
I believe it was the seventh inning he went to him,
and he ended up pitching two innings, but he gave
up that go-ahead three-run home run in the eighth.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
I didn't like it. It was desperate. Obviously, you're desperate
in October, but it's only game one. So it's not
like win this game or you're going home. You kind
of blow him. And he's only used to going one inning.
You kind of overstretch him. It's the first game of
the playoffs. You're kind of setting yourself up to fail

(05:06):
at that point by pitching him so early. And that
proved costly in game one. Yeah, I didn't love that decision.
I love it.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
We're already going to rival each other here. I actually
like the move.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
I think in that situation... You go to your best
guy right then because let's flip it around. Let's say
they said we're going to save him for the ninth inning.
We're going to get him in that close situation that
he's used to all year. Say the same thing happens.
Another reliever gives up a three-run homer in the eighth inning.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Can you imagine?

Speaker 1 (05:33):
The dialogue around why didn't you bring in your best guy?
Why is he not coming in the game? Because you're
playing this what-if game in a situation that may not
happen if things play out the same way. So I
like it. He said, we're going down with our best guy.
Their bullpen, as we laid out in the preview, it
has been so shaky all year outside of him. If
you can go from your starter to your closer, I
think that's the best way to do it. And in

(05:54):
a game one, yeah, it is game one, but it's
a best of three. If you can steal that game
and kind of give yourself that, all right, if game
two doesn't go well, we can line ourselves up for
game three.

Speaker 2 (06:02):
I felt like he went for it, and he did.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
The only thing that I would question is, early in
that game, they said they were going to go from
Jesus Lizardo to Andrew Painter as sort of a long
relief guy. All of a sudden, you're seeing Jesus Lizardo,
who had shoulder issues in September. He's going five, six innings,
and everyone's sort of like, all right, so then what's
the plan? And it turned out it was right to Duran,
who ultimately blew the game. But I think in that situation,

(06:26):
it was the right call because if it got flipped
around and the situation happened where he didn't come in
and they still lost, there'd be so many question marks
that I think it, it, it would have made sense
for him to do what he did.

Speaker 3 (06:35):
Yeah. I mean, I guess you're due. If you do,
you're due. If you don't. Right. Personally, I think game one,
you know, you're setting the rest of the series by
having him throw. He wasn't going to throw yesterday because,
you know, he went to there. Right. And then in
game three, I'm sure we will see him. I'm sure
we'll see him at all.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
It's all hands on deck. Right.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
And we, we talk about painter didn't pitch in game one.
You question three scoreless innings out of the pen, including
shutting it down in the, in the 10th inning to
close it on a walk-off ABS challenge. I know they
talked about it on the show today.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
It's... I don't know how I.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
It's somewhat anticlimactic, but also when you saw, oh, a
borderline pitch that was called a ball.

Speaker 2 (07:13):
Oh, they're going to ABS. Oh my gosh, the game's over.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Yeah, I don't love that. I like getting the call right,
but I do like the human element of that's what happened.
I mean, you know, history... has been, you know, those
kind of calls have determined the history in baseball, right?
You look at Galarraga not getting the perfect game with
the Tigers. If we would have had ABS, you know,
obviously he would have had his perfect game. So I'm
a little bit indifferent on it, especially in these big season,

(07:40):
you know, these playoff games that mean the world. I
want you to get the call right, but when you're,
you know, a couple centimeters off for a strike, you know,
I would actually– I think, err to the point of
having the human element with the umpires.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
I would have it where it was a missed call
and it got corrected rather than what we saw. I
think that would probably be the better way to see
ABS use late in the game, but it's there. They've
been using it all year. It works to its advantage.
I do like that it's any bit of the strike zone.
I think that that has really cleaned it up a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, it's been good.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
I do love not having the runner on second. I
do too. In the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
I saw some people arguing about that and I mean,
that was the rule for however many years of baseball
before we did the Ghost Runners. So I have no
problem with that. So we go to game three. A
couple nuggets here. See, I'm doing a little bit more
baseball research for Dan on the show.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
And it's trickling into us. It is.

Speaker 1 (08:34):
I basically get to go down these rabbit holes of
baseball stats, which to me sounds like a great Saturday night.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
Any night, really. If you can't tell, I am single.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
The Phillies are looking to become the first team since
the Yankees last year to win the best of three.
after losing game one. They were only the second team
to ever do that. And the Braves, this is kind of,
this may be a cursed thing if they can't win.
They have never beat the Phillies in the playoffs. They
have only played them three times because for years, division
teams couldn't face off until the championship series. That was

(09:03):
just a rule that they instilled to kind of space
out the league a little bit. They lost to the
Phillies in the 93 NLCS and the 2022 and 2023
division series. So, They're looking to kind of get over
this hump because every time they've seen Philly, especially 2022
and 2023, back-to-back years, the Phillies sent them packing.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
Not only every time they've seen Philly, but they have
not won a postseason series since winning the World Series
in 2021. Is that right? I believe so.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
See, even you're doing some research. We're spreading out. All right.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
The winner faces the Dodgers. We'll end with this before
we move on to the other National League series. If
you're the Dodgers, who would you rather face? Would you
rather face the Phillies, who have kind of had to
makeshift their rotation, or would you rather see the Braves,
who have sort of similarly been a bit inconsistent lately?

Speaker 3 (09:49):
I think I'm going to take an unpopular opinion here.
I'd rather see the Braves, especially seeing how the Braves'
bats are acting right now. I'd rather see them. You
have your three guys who are going to go, whether
that's Glasnow, Snell, Yamamoto, Skubal, some mix of those guys.
I personally, and I know that they faced them last year,
but I personally don't want to see Sanchez, Lizardo, Wheeler.

(10:13):
Those are guys that have experience. Those are big game pitchers.
The Braves have been great. I'm not going to take
anything away from them, but they don't have those horses
at the top of their rotation.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Again, we're going against each other.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
I like this. I think the Phillies, right, they just
played them a year ago in the Division Series. They
won it.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
And the recipe was, all right, yeah, you're facing the Sanchez's,
the Wheeler's, the Nola's, all that. You get into that bullpen,
all of a sudden, all bets are off. You don't
know what's going to happen with them. And they were
able to do that time and time again. I mean,
you remember the walk-off error. late in, I believe, the
ninth inning of game four of last year sort of
sealed it. So I think it's one of those things,

(10:51):
the devil you know versus the devil you don't know.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Who was that, Kirkring? Yeah, Kirkring made the throw.

Speaker 3 (10:56):
For the Phillies? Yeah. I see.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
You're smiling. Don't act like you're sad about it.

Speaker 3 (11:02):
I loved it. I'm not rooting for the Phillies in
any fashion.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I believe we call that a good old-fashioned hate watch.
Is that what it's called?

Speaker 3 (11:09):
Oh, it's 1,000% a hate watch. I do not want
to see the Phillies. I don't want to see them.
I would love if they had a perfect game tonight.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, I know you and Anthony were the two that
sat down when we were watching in the man cave
the other day, and you were just.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Like, someone's losing. Whether it's the Braves or the Phillies,
somebody's losing.

Speaker 3 (11:25):
My hatred towards the Phillies, I think it's so much deeper.
I have a lot of friends who are Philadelphia Phillies fans,
good friends, and they are not nice people when the
Phillies are winning. So, you know, I'm sad. I want
to see them sad, too. Okay.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
All right. I get it. All right.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Let's move on to the second National League one. Now,
this one, you probably can't wait to talk about this one.
Padres sweep the Cubs in two games, 8-0, 4-1.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
The Cubs looked like ghosts the entire series.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Yeah, they didn't show up. They didn't show up at all.
No PCA. I know we'll dig a little deeper into that. Yikes.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah, I mean, I don't even know.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
This was a team that was the best run-scoring offense
in the entire league. In baseball, I believe. And one
extra base hit in the two games. They hit 129.
It's hard to imagine. And Pete Karamstrang, who you brought up, Mr. 40-40,
the MVP, the guy that you said he needs to

(12:26):
be the one that leads this team. Even when things
are going slow, he's got to be the one that
gets on, steals a base, maybe hits a homer, makes
a great play in the outfield, does those things.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
He went 0-4 in this series. He did not get
a single hit. He struck out. I have here he
went 0-7 with four strikeouts in.

Speaker 1 (12:41):
The wild card. I believe we have a graphic for it, too.
The production value here is going up.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Wow, look at that.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
147, 16 strikeouts.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Zero home runs.

Speaker 3 (12:53):
Now, I get it.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
Last year, it was his first taste of the playoffs.
He really sort of had to get his feet wet
and learn, and there was the veterans there.

Speaker 1 (13:00):
The expectations were significantly higher this year for what he
did in the regular season. So I ask you, does
that regular season look a little bit different given how
his postseason went?

Speaker 3 (13:13):
I don't think so. I don't think so. It's like
the Heisman, right? We can't include the playoff's. I'm not
going to allow two games for this season. We're looking
at his stats for his career in the playoffs, but
we can only look at these two games for this
particular MVP season. I'm not going to allow that to
deteriorate what he did in 162. Yes, disappointing. Yes, you

(13:35):
start to have questions. But I don't think that should
factor in at all. He went 40-40. He had a
great season. At one point, Otani was the significant favorite
to win the MVP, according to the books. and he
overtook that, it's clear that he's going to win the MVP.
I know Otani got hurt, and he had some struggles,
but you've got to give him credit for what he

(13:56):
did in the regular season and keep the conversation separate
for what happened in those two games in San Diego.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (14:03):
I think that it doesn't take away from what he did,
but if you looked at the state of what Chicago
sports has been lately, even last year, there was the
momentum that was building into it. Obviously, you have Conor
Bedard with the Blackhawks. You have caleb williams is your
quarterback you have caleb wilson who was a top five
pick for the bulls and you have pca who just
wins mvp the city was buzzing with sports where akami

(14:25):
more kami yeah see we'll get to them look at
you're already jumping ahead i love it uh there was
a lot of excitement across all of the sports there
caleb williams is it gets hurt with a hamstring and
all right what's the season gonna look like until he
gets back obviously it's been looking great with a third
string quarterback but this is a baseball podcast we don't
talk a whole lot about that um It does kind

(14:45):
of hurt a little bit that, all right, this guy
who was the MVP of the league kind of laid
an egg. And it sort of leaves that sour taste
in your mouth throughout the entire winter. And you're going
to have those questions leading up to next postseason. Can
they do something different? Can he step up? He needs
to have that moment because now all of a sudden
it's not this. Look at this exciting kid who can

(15:07):
be an impact player. This is a guy that we
know can change games game in and game out. He
has to step up.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, I mean, you look at their offseason and what
do they do different? I don't know if it all
falls on him. You know, they have the Bregmans of
the world. They have the Suzuki's of the world. They
went out and got Gaussman at the trade deadline. He
didn't prove to do much. So I think it comes
down to they don't have the arms. Yeah. You know,
you saw what the Padres did in those two games.

(15:34):
They hit, hit, hit, hit, hit.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
And I think they're going to have to make significant
improvements in the pitching rotation and in the bullpen. But
I don't think it falls on him. If I'm a
Chicago Cubs fan, I'm disappointed for sure. But you can't
put it all on him. This is not the NFL.
This is not basketball where the quarterback or the leading
scorer goes. It's one player. It's one out of nine

(15:59):
in the lineup. And the pitching didn't do well either, so.

Speaker 1 (16:02):
Yeah, well, before we go to the Padres, I know
there is a Mets angle here, and I have to
get it in because there's no Met playoff talk.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
There is. One that brings a big smile to my face.

Speaker 1 (16:13):
There is, and it's not even the Pete Crow Armstrong trade,
which that somehow just sort of slides under.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
We don't have to talk about that.

Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, we don't have to talk about that. So you
talk about the trade acquisitions that the Cubs made. They
got Clay Holmes, they got Tyrone Taylor from the Mets
at the trade deadline.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
They did.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
Tyrone Taylor hits lefties really well, and so it was
going to be that bat that was utilized. Only got
one hit, one at bat. He didn't really play much.
And then Clay Holmes, where was he? No appearance, nothing
like that.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
I could have been on the roster.

Speaker 2 (16:41):
You could have, yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
I think he was just chilling in the bullpen enjoying
the San Diego weather. But the Mets ended up getting
Jefferson Rojas, who, for those of you who don't know
about the prospect rankings, he was one of the most
regarded prospects in the Cubs system. Comes over to the Mets,
has a great second half of the season. So now
all of a sudden, if you're the Mets, you're kind of...
both those guys are free agents for the Cubs.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
You got a top end prospect. You kind of look
at this, like they didn't really make it much farther
than we did. And I think we got better in
the longterm.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:07):
I mean, Jefferson Rojas came over. He's the net, the
Mets number one prospect at this point. Um, I think
he has a shot to make the roster next year.
You put them at second base, you know, you pair
him up with the benches and the Ewing's and the
Soto's and the Lindor's. Um, I love it. I love it.
You know, it, it, it's a good way to, it's
a nice bright side to look at such an awful
season for the Mets. Uh, I never really trust the

(17:29):
prospect stuff. You know, I'm a big advocate of at
the deadline, if you have a chance to buy and
trade off, you know, some top prospects, you do it.
I don't think prospects often work out the way that,
you know, the way that they're so coveted. Look, I
was talking to Anthony in the back room, and we
were talking about Cunha. You know, Cunha, Luis Angel Cunha

(17:50):
was supposed to be, in my opinion, was supposed to be,
you know, an everyday second baseman for us. He didn't
work out. So there's a little bit of skepticism for
me as far as looking at that. But everything proves
that he had a great second half when he came
over to the Mets, Jefferson Rojas. It's exciting, but I'm
still not quite there. Sure.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
I mean, everybody has their own perspectives on prospects and
how they view it and everything like that.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I love diving into that stuff.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
I think it's very interesting to just see them before
they debut and everything. But we can dive more into prospects.

Speaker 3 (18:23):
In a little time. Offseason. We've got the offseason.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
My one point I'm going to make on the Padres
before we move on to the American League. Peter Seidler,
who was the former owner of the Padres, I believe
he died in 2023 or 2024.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
I'm unsure.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
But he, before he passed away, he wanted to put
a winning product. He wanted to push for a championship.
And that resulted in signing Machado the long deal, giving
Bogarts the long deal. And while they haven't necessarily worked out,
I feel like there's not many of those owners in baseball,
the ones that are pushing year in and year out.
For the Padres, unfortunately, it's out of necessity because they

(18:56):
can't pivot to do anything else. But they traded their
top prospects to get a Mason Miller. They traded prospects
year in and year out just to get talent to
compete and push for a title every year. It's fun
to see that. And when they're able to look as
good as they did in the wildcard series, it does
make you kind of happy.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
To see just because.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
Yeah, no, for sure.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
So I want to preface that. I do enjoy.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
I think the environment in San Diego is top tier.
I mean, I want to get out there at some point.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
They say it's one of the best places to take
in a baseball game.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yeah, so I.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
I want to at least commend them for that, even
if they don't end up going as far as they do.
The fact that they push year in and year out,
regardless of what the motives is, it's something that we
don't see a whole lot in baseball, and it's something
that we need to applaud because that's what fans want
to see. They don't want to see the five-year rebuild.
They want to see the teams that say, this prospect's good,
I know that, but let's get a Mason Miller who
has a sub-two out of the bullpen. He's the guy that,

(19:44):
when you're in the ninth inning to clinch a series,
that's the guy you want to see on the mound.
That's the guy that the fans remember the most.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
And I respect, almost to counter my point with the Padres,
they've given up some really big prospects, so they've had
to go out and make trades and get big names.
They kind of lost out in that Soto trade, where
they traded James Woods, C.J. Abrams, Mackenzie Gore. They traded
one of their... top prospects, the shortstop, I'm forgetting his name,

(20:10):
Leo DeVries, for Mason Miller. So they are taking chances.
It's ending up where some of those prospects are becoming
big names in Major League Baseball. But I respect that
they're going out there and taking chances and trying to
get the talent to win. Second point, new Padres owner?

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Enlighten me.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
Puerto Rican. Had to get it in.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
And there we go. We didn't have any last episode.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Had to get it in.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
So, all right.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
I think the line got lowered a little bit from
the last episode with there being none.

Speaker 2 (20:41):
So maybe it was half. Maybe it was one and
a half. I don't know. We'll see what the bookmakers said.
They move on. They got the Brewers. Now the best
team in the National League. Yep. Miz was on the
show not too long ago.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Really great interview. He was awesome.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
He was great. He was very... Laid back, we'll say.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
He got loose, for sure.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
And we're not talking loose in the bullpen either.

Speaker 3 (21:01):
No, no, no.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
All right, let's move to the American League, a series
that I regretfully have to talk about. The New York Yankees,
I don't even know the best way to put it.
Just dancing around the Red Sox. It wasn't even close.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
It wasn't even close.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
It was not close.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
8-0, 9-2, Yankees effortlessly move on to the division series
where they play the Rays. There's so much to break
down here, and as a Red Sox fan, again.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
I pained you. I see the pain in your eyes.
It is.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
But what's the one thing we talk about? Journalistic integrity.
We have to stay true to our roots.

Speaker 3 (21:35):
After they get eliminated now, too, it's them. Not we anymore.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Did I say them?

Speaker 3 (21:39):
No, I'm just busting your ass.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Well, that's something I would do.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
So if I accidentally said it just subconsciously, I would
understand why I did it. I think the biggest question
here is, like, where were the bats? Now, Cam Schlittler
is obviously great. Can we please stop talking, like, tweeting
at him and doing this? I get last year it was,
you know, the first time and he did it. All right,
one start. He's done it twice now. I don't know
if I have the exact numbers. I believe it's no

(22:03):
runs in almost 15 innings in the playoffs. Can we–
I'm going to look right in the– please stop. Please
stop tweeting at him. I think that this is a
no-win situation for Red Sox. It doesn't matter what he
does in the regular season. When it gets to October,
he owns you. There is no other way to put that.

Speaker 3 (22:21):
I think we talked about it last podcast. I said
this is going to be either his October moment where
he becomes the ace of the Yankee staff or the
Red Sox are going to advance. Obviously, we didn't see
the latter. He looked like a stud. He looks like
he's going to be the guy for the Yankees. As
much as that pains me, It looks like they have
their ace for the next 10 years.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
And that hurts me.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Now, the one thing I will get a laugh out
of this is that, so the Red Sox had to
go down to Tampa Bay to play the Cubs the
last game of the year because we had a whole
nor'easter up in the northeast. They got move games around
and everything like that. They have these machines, right? They're
called Traject Machines, and you're familiar with them.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
So you can replicate pitchers.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
It's essentially an advanced pitching machine where you can use
the program and you can put in any picture you want.
It'll simulate their, their motion, their spin rate, all that
kind of stuff. The Red Sox reportedly did that with
Cam Schlitler and the words that they use where they
wore out the machine.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Oh God.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
The number one question, can we get a refund on
the hours and the labor that we use? Because we
clearly did not see. I said, we there, the Red
Sox did not wear them out. Um, it, it, I
just thought that was funny that that was the whole
talk about there.

Speaker 3 (23:28):
They're ready. They're ready.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
And I think they somehow look worse this year. than
they did last year.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
There has to be a seven day warranty. I mean,
you guys return it.

Speaker 2 (23:35):
There's gotta be something right. Like, is there in the
fine print? Can we see where we can return it?

Speaker 3 (23:40):
I've actually, we went, we did the super bowl in, uh,
San Francisco at the giants facility in Scottsdale, Arizona. Yeah.
And we, uh, use one of those, those machines. They
are pretty cool.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
If you could, if you could go on, on the
traject machine and you could put in one picture right now,
the face, not even saying for success rate, like just
one picture in baseball, who would you want to face?

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Either Mariano Rivera, The Cutter. Everybody says that that was unreal.
Or Randy Johnson.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
So you want to walk up there just no chance?

Speaker 3 (24:11):
No. Clearly, I don't want to have any success. I
would just like to see... what all these, you know,
great hitters that couldn't, you know, figure out two of
the best pitchers of all time, uh, talk about.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
See, there's a famous, uh, again, I'm going off baseball.
There's a famous quote from Brian Scalabrini when he was
playing pickup saying I'm closer to LeBron than you are
to me. I would like to find like the worst
major league pitcher and just prove how far away I
am from even him that I have, I have no
chance and just will tell me how good major league
hitters are. Um, all right, we'll keep rolling on with
the Red Sox. The bullpen ERA was a problem in

(24:44):
the postseason. They allowed 15 runs, six and two third innings.
Third best bullpen ERA in the regular season. The question
marks about taking your starters out, Sonny Gray was clearly
not happy about it in his postgame remarks.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
I think he has every right to be so.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
This is a guy that you brought in to sort
of be that Yankee killer, a veteran that could go
deep in a postseason game.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
You pull him after 4-2.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
He's had a lot to say about the Yankees years past.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, and he pitched well. That was the thing.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
First sign of trouble, they went and got him, and
it just spiraled out of control after that.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
We talked about it in the preview.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
George Lombard Jr., Spencer Jones. We talked about the young
guys in this series that need to step up. Roman
Anthony got hurt. Young guy for the Red Sox, gone.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Didn't do much. Lombard and Spencer Jones hit. 375, six
runs scored.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
The Red Sox as a team scored two. That is
a difference right there. When you have your young guys
that are not afraid of the moment and are playing well,
that just elevates the rest of the team. And they
did all this without Aaron Judge.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Without. That was a big question going into this, Ray.
I think I questioned the preview whether or not they
were going to have the bats to do it. It
didn't seem like they had the bats to do it.
You need those Lombards, those Spencer Jones. Luis Garcia had
a home run yesterday. I think we talked a little
bit about him. He's been a great trade deadline acquisition player.
Ben Rice, right? We talked a little bit about him

(26:01):
as well. He's not necessarily a young prospect guy, but
he is kind of just making a name for himself
the last two years. And he had two home runs
in game one. If they hit like this and then
you add Aaron Judge to that lineup, they're going to
be a tough out, especially with the pitching.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
Did you know that Ben Rice is from Massachusetts?

Speaker 3 (26:19):
I didn't. Is he a Red Sox fan? No.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
See, that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (26:22):
You would think.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
He grew up in Massachusetts. You'd think he'd be a
Red Sox fan, but he wasn't. See, that's the twist there.

Speaker 3 (26:26):
That is. I haven't heard that storyline before.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
I mean, we're approaching. I just don't want the Red
Sox to face the Yankees for two reasons. One, clearly
the Red Sox have not been close. Two, I need
to stop hearing that.

Speaker 2 (26:38):
He's from... We know. It's approaching levels of.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Insanity at this point if you watch... Because the people
that listen to our podcast, they watch baseball.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
We know.

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Then it's not the common fan that is just tuning in.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Just to see the whole season. No, no. As the
great Pedro Martinez once said, the Yankees are your daddy.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
They are.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
And unfortunately, there is a lot that needs to change
with the Red Sox.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
But again, we'll push that. That's an off-season topic.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah. I would like to get a little bit more
into their... Them choosing to just extend Chad Tracy....

Speaker 2 (27:08):
I like the move.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
I think when you take a team that was on
a pace to be historically bad by Red Sox measures
and you turn them around and have the summer that
you did, I think he gets, at the very least,
he deserves an opportunity to go in with a full
year and all that kind of stuff. However, I think
the way that this season ended, it does leave some
question marks that what does this look like?

Speaker 3 (27:30):
The bullpen management, I didn't understand that. I get bringing
in Garrett Crochet. The guy hasn't pitched in six months.
You just want to give yourself a chance. What's there
to lose at this point? We're down big. Let's see
what our former ace can do. Obviously, it didn't work
out for them. But the Red Sox think that he
would be in demand or something. They wanted to lock

(27:52):
him up early. I don't understand doing it in the
regular season because it's like we can just do this
in the postseason or we can do this in the offseason.
The same way the Mets did with Andy Green. They
had a great second half. but why do it now?
Just wait, go through, you know, the due process. Let's
interview a couple guys. Let's get a full picture of

(28:13):
what the manager could be. Um, then just, you know,
committing without even weighing your options.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
I get both sides of it.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Uh, I think that there's going to be a lot
of micromanaging now that this series is done and what
they did and didn't do.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
And I think it's already sort of, it's already begun.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
They're already sort of dissecting where the Red Sox went
wrong and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
Um, But again, we'll get into that probably at a
later time.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Yankees face the Rays. I mean, you sort of broke
it down a little bit. You like their chances if
they're hitting like this.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Yeah, I mean, again, it's still unknown whether or not
Aaron Judge is going to be there. But you have Schlittler,
who's nasty.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
You have Freed, who's... Can't lose if you give up
no runs.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
No. Freed looked good yesterday. You know, he went six innings.
Then you bring your bullpen in. They look good. You
have Rodon still. You have Garrett Cole, who's a big
game pitcher. He's been in these moments. He knows what
this is. But I'm really interested to see this series
because the Rays have three studs.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
They do.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
They have Drew Rasmus, who's been... amazing. We have Nick Martinez,
Nick Martinez, Fordham university alum. Oh, so he's returning back
to New York. I don't know if he'll get the
star in New York, but he is a Bronx guy.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
I thought you were.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Going to say Puerto Rican. I was like, Nick Martinez.
I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
Okay. I think he's from Miami, but he went to
Fordham university, which is right up the block.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah. Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
So, um, and then you have Freddie Peralta who, you know, he's.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Met legend, right?

Speaker 3 (29:35):
Yeah. He's well, stop it. He's proven to be good
in the post season. Uh, he hasn't had the most
success since being traded to the arrays, but you know,
once the lights turn on in October, a lot of
things change. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:47):
That, that's a.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
Series I'm looking forward to the division rival and like you,
I will be hate watching.

Speaker 3 (29:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
That, that will be fun. All right, let's go to
our last one. This one, I think, was the most heartwarming.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
To me, this series.

Speaker 3 (30:00):
I wonder why.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
For a couple of reasons. One, I called it off
the bat. Two in a row, I said, I don't
know if we can even roll the tape back. I
said the White Sox were going to win in two.
I thought the Astros, based on their record, they sort
of backed their way in, home field advantage. It did
not seem legit to me. And as I will break down,
The White Sox have a lot of Red Sox ties,

(30:22):
so I think it's more than just the name. There's
players that I remember as well that were prospects that
got moved and all that. The White Sox sort of
put together complete games. There wasn't a star that did something.
The pitching had its moments where they ran into trouble,
but from the hitting, the pitching.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
The fielding, they just sort of pieced it.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
Together enough where you really didn't think the Astros had
much of a chance to come back.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
Yeah, and even with those bats, you know, again, we
talked a little bit about it in the preview where
we have, you know, they have veteran bats who think
these guys were going to turn it up. Altuve did
have a home run yesterday. They were fighting. My guy,
Jeremy Pena, hit a home run. You know, he came
up big. But Jordan Alvarez didn't do much. Hunter Brown, again,
you have your ace. You think that, you know, this

(31:07):
guy is going to go at least 6th. He didn't
even make it past the first inning.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
You know, it's never a good thing when you say,
we're going to do a bullpen game, game one. We're
going to push our starter, our star back a game
to game two. And then you get to game two
and he throws two outs. It's like, all right, well,
I guess we need another bullpen game.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
Yeah, and I respect Patrick Lambert who came in. He
gave a couple good innings.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
He did.

Speaker 3 (31:26):
You know, he kept them in there for a while
until the home run, you know, 3-1 home run that
proved they were done.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Do you smell that? I think it's nugget time. I
think we've got another nugget.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
All right, let's hear it.

Speaker 1 (31:40):
I crack myself up. Hunter Brown recorded only two outs
in that first inning. It's tied for the shortest outing
of his career. He went two thirds of an inning
on April 11th, 2024, when he allowed nine runs and
11 hits. First of all, allowing nine runs and 11
hits in a first inning. Like at what point are
you on the mound? Like, Can you come out here?

(32:01):
Get me out of here. At what point do you
motion to the bullpen yourself? Just walk off the mound.
Once that happened, I was watching the end of the
Phillies game, and the White Sox game sort of blended
over into the start of it. So by the time
I stopped watching the Phillies game, it was already 4-0
in the top of the first, and you're like, oh
my gosh, they may actually do this. Astros kind of

(32:21):
climbed back a little bit, but Chase Mydroth, that big
three-run homer to sort of.

Speaker 3 (32:25):
Bomb.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
And he knew it. Those are the best ones.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
When the guy, especially in October, in the postseason, when
they know they get it and the emotion that comes out, that's...
It hits.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Alvarez didn't even move.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Not even like a courtesy try. Yeah, no.

Speaker 3 (32:42):
Because I looked at him immediately to see if he
was trying to track the ball down. He didn't make
a step.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Yeah. Yeah, it.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
It was the backbreaker. Once that happened, I said, that's ballgame.
I don't think the Astros are coming back. The thing
I want to get on, you know, so we talked,
I said it was heartwarming because I got it right,
even though some of my other picks were.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
Selfish.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
Yeah. Wrong, first of all. Wrong and selfish. But Kyle Teal,
Chase Mydroth, Brady Montgomery. Those are three names that if
you're not a White Sox fan, you're probably like, who
are these guys, right? They all are, I mean, they're
looking like core pieces of the White Sox moving forward.
They were all acquired from Boston in the same trade
that gave the Red Sox Garrett Crochet. Now, when that

(33:23):
trade first happened, everybody thought this was a great trade
for the Red Sox. The Red Sox got the ace
that they finally needed. The White Sox, yeah, they got
pieces because they were all prospects at the time. Very
rarely do you see a trade like this that is...
win i call it win-win like garrett crochet was top
he was the runner-up in the cy young last year
i still have high hopes for him i think this

(33:44):
year injury riddled you know you kind of chalk it
up to that but the white socks got three pieces
possibly a fourth that was kind of floating around that
could be impactful and those are the type of things
that a team like the white socks we don't spend
much and we talked about that they have to develop
they have to find the talent they have to to
put themselves in a position where they get these young
guys coming up and producing. The White Sox won a

(34:05):
playoff series before the Red Sox did after this trade. Like,
if you told me that when that trade was made,
I'd tell you no way. The White Sox just lost
121 games. So, again, I commended the Padres for pushing
and winning. If you're a team like the White Sox,
first of all, I think everybody should be spending money
and putting the best product on the field and for agency.
But when you can't do that or you're... Don't have
the means to do it. Don't have the means to it,

(34:25):
hamstrung by it, finding... Diamonds in the rough because outside
of I mean teal Montgomery were high-end prospects chase my
draft was not he was a fourth round pick Yeah
contact guy he was sort of the throw-in Yeah, if
you want to call it that in the trade has
probably the biggest swing of the entire series this is
a thing that I enjoy seeing as well that Teams

(34:45):
that can build from within even though they were required
by the trade they were developed to the point where
they got to the majors with the White Sox and
they were able to make an impact and I love
to see that.

Speaker 3 (34:54):
Yeah, and I love to see it too. And these
guys have been great. Kyle Teal, I think he started
the season on the IL. He got hurt during WBC. Ah, see?

Speaker 2 (35:02):
And we talked about that too. We talked about WBC
and injuries.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
Yeah, I think he played for Italy and he got hurt.
But I love him. I think he's been one of
the top catching prospects in Major League Baseball for a
couple years now. He's been great. Chase Meidroff, who we've
talked about. Montgomery. I love that young team. And Morikami
didn't even really do much in this series. So, you know,
there's still a little bit of time to see what

(35:25):
he's going to end up doing or, you know, he
has some time to kind of prove himself. He's been
a character. He's done a lot on the TV.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:31):
And, you know, his post-game interviews, he's been a lot
of fun to watch. But I posed this question to
you this morning because I was thinking about it on
my drive in. Was this a true test for who
they can be in the postseason? And I asked that
question because if you look at that Minute Maid park,
you know, where the Astros play, they had quote-unquote, home
field advantage. There was no one there. There was no pressure.

(35:53):
There was no, you know, there was no raucous crowds.
You look at the complete opposite of what happened, what
was happening or what's been happening in San Diego. The
towels waving, you know, every single pitch living on them.
There was no one in Minimake Park. You know, they
were booing their team. And, you know, it felt like
the Chicago White Sox were able to settle in. They weren't,

(36:14):
you know, they weren't moved at all. It doesn't feel
like a true home field advantage. Now they're going to
Cleveland where Cleveland, that's a raucous crowd.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Cleveland rocks, you could say. Yes.

Speaker 3 (36:25):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
See?

Speaker 3 (36:25):
I like that. There you go. Bloop, bloop, right? There
we go. Yeah, that's a crowd that it's going to be,
you know, it's going to be the crowd. They're going
to be loud and they're going to be in your face. And,
you know, I'm curious to see. Obviously, I don't know.
I'm curious to see how those young guys on that
White Sox team react react to it they've obviously played
cleveland a bunch of times being in the same division

(36:47):
but that crowd is not going to be the same
it's not going to be the same uh place today
what is that uh field i think it's progressive progressive
field yeah it used to.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Be jacobs field now and it's been progressive for a
while i mean i'm going to stop what you hear
it's dyken park now not minimated wow i'm showing my
age i know i'm gonna see the thing is it
When you go down these rabbit holes of stats, I'm
going to stat boy you if I have to.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
No.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
So I apologize. No, no. When did you become Dyken Park?

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Two years ago, I believe. I believe before the 2025 season.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
I'm risking my stat boy integrity here.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
I don't exactly know this. I'm putting it back on you.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
So you're going to reverse Uno me.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
I see how it is.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
It's an interesting question because when you see these full
postseason slates, you're like, all right, these games are great.
There are the teams that are going to have the
2 p.m. and the 5 p.m. And breaking news, people
have work. People have school.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
Unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
As much as we all love to go to postseason games,
not all of us can't. So it is a fair question,
and there was a story that came out that one
of the Astros relievers, Bennett Souza, I believe, kind of
came out and said, yeah, the crowd kind of sucked.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
It wasn't very good, and he caught backlash for that.
But he wasn't wrong.

Speaker 1 (37:56):
It was kind of quiet, and it is a fair
point to make that they didn't really get the full
on the road.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
They looked maybe comfortable.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yeah, they settled in. In my opinion, I think they
settled in.

Speaker 1 (38:06):
So I think you're going to have two questions. conflicting
things that are going to happen in this division series.
You're going to have a White Sox team that beat upset, technically,
by seeds, a higher seed, and really didn't make it close.
I don't really think many White Sox fans were nervous
at the end of those games. And on the other side,
you're going to have a progressive field that is going
to be jumping. There's going to be a lot of energy.

(38:28):
They do that every year. They have high energy at
that field. So something is going to give. one of
those two things and we're gonna see it I think
that's gonna be such an underrated series I hope I
hope that one goes five the divisional the divisional rivalry
matches are great 7-6 the White Sox won the season
series okay so very close very even match the fun

(38:48):
thing I like to say this uh you know see
in my stats first playoff series win for the Astros
since 2005 when they won the World Series over 20
years since a playoff series win.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
And who do they beat in that World Series.

Speaker 3 (39:03):
The Houston Astros. Yeah, when they were in the National League.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
So it's very funny how it kind of comes.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
That was like Jermaine Dye, I want to say. Paul Conurco.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Bobby Jenks, rest in peace. Mark Burley. Mark Burley. I mean,
there's a lot. Pope Leo was there. Pope Leo.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
A.J. Pruszynski, was he on that team?

Speaker 1 (39:20):
I believe he was on that team. We do have
to ask, is there divine intervention here?

Speaker 3 (39:25):
I thought about putting a little, just sprinkling a little
bit because of that reason. Yeah. We saw the Knicks win,
and Pope Leo has ties. That's true.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
He was a Villanova guy.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
He has ties to the Knicks with Nova, and the
Knicks hadn't won since 1973. Uh, there could be something,
you know, going up high above, you know, the big
men may be putting in some work.

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:48):
Is there, is there like a, like a holy parlay
or something like that, that someone can put together with
like the bears and the white socks. And then when
the Knicks, maybe they all, it all interlap, maybe, maybe
the white socks play long enough where you can get
all three of those in there.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
I mean, You know, I haven't done it yet. I
put a little bit of money on the Padres to
win it all, but I may go a little bit
of a White Sox.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
I mean, Padre means like father, right?

Speaker 1 (40:08):
So you can kind of sneak it in there, I guess,
if you want to do that. Yeah, this one was fun.
I'm very excited to see. And in honor of Murakami,
I'm going to get drunk yesterday.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
You are.

Speaker 2 (40:20):
That's what he said. Yeah. Before he said, no, tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
I don't speak English. Yeah, he doesn't.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
No. But that's the thing. He's awesome. When he's out
of his shell and celebrating like that.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
Oh, he's awesome.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
The one when they clinched and then the one when
they won the wild card series.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Those are the things.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
And then Mike Vassell, who has had Tommy John, so
he's been out all this year. He's got the wand.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
It's like their little gimmick and everything. Those are the
fun things about baseball.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Yeah, I love it.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
The celebrations and everything like that.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Although, when you're the Red Sox and you're down 9-2,
like the Wally head after Homer.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
Put it away.

Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, I don't think we really need that.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Send Wally, put him back on the truck, and send
him back to Boston.

Speaker 2 (40:56):
All right, well, real quick, who do you like? Guardians,
White Sox, early preview.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
I was going to go Guardians, but based on our
conversation 30 seconds ago, I'm going White Sox.

Speaker 2 (41:09):
Power above, right?

Speaker 3 (41:10):
Power above.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
All right. I'm going to go, because we'll recap, because
we're not on again until next Thursday.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
Next Thursday.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
So we'll have the Division Series games, I want to say,
mostly concluded, if not still going on. Real quick, I
think the Braves win today.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I think the Dodgers beat them, because we all, you know,
like that. I think the Padres are going to beat
the Brewers.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
I do, too.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
I think that is... I think we're on... See, if
we take a look at the... See, look at that.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
We're getting directed. There's graphics and stuff. I think the
Padres just have that.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
That vibe.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
If you can split those games in Milwaukee and go
back to San Diego 1-1, I think the series can
end there.

Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yankees, Rays. I mean, I have to put the Rays.
I have to pick them, right? It's kind of like
the enemy of my enemy is my friend type of thing.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
Yeah, I think you do. I'm going to go Rays 2.
I don't feel comfortable saying that, though.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
I know. I think that one's going to be very good.
I agree with you. I think the White Sox win
it in five.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
I have a buddy who's a Cleveland fan, and he
likes to– You know, all my friends are fans of
the Red Sox and the Mets and the Yankees, and
he's like, oh, this, you.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Know, guard ball. That's what he terms it.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Guard ball?

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Guard ball.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
It's like using situational baseball, like bunting, stealing, because they
don't slug.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
No, that's guardian baseball right there.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
It is, hence the term guard ball, right?

Speaker 1 (42:25):
So I figured he probably would like to let the
world know, yeah, the plug of guard ball.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
But I think that's it. I think we covered everything.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
I think so, yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Like.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
don't know i don't feel comfortable about that race pick
that i just made.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
I don't feel comfortable about a lot of these but
that's that's the good that's a sign it's gonna be
a good series.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Yeah i don't know i i may reverse right here
and say yankees all.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Right well we'll see if it we'll see if that
bites you but uh that'll do it this episode of
the pot of the podcast uh We're marching along. This
is going to be fun. So we'll be back next Thursday.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
We'll have some games of the division series in the book,
if not some series wrapped up, depending on how.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Far they go. But we'll give you the breakdown. We'll
give our insight. We'll do all that stuff. But thanks
for watching. He's Mario. I'm Dan. We'll see you guys
next time.