October 30, 2024 • 34 mins
On the first episode of The Dougout, Doug Mientkiewicz dives into games 1-3 of the World Series including why this Dodgers team is so dominant, Aaron Judge's postseason struggles becoming a trend, Dave Roberts brilliance, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Dugout Podcast with your host
Doug mccavidge. Can't begin to tell you how super excited
I am to get this thing rolling. This episode one
really looking forward to this long time coming. Glad it's
finally here. In this episode, we're gonna kind of go
over everything World Series. We're gonna go from the preview
and we're gonna analyze games one, two, and three, and
(00:25):
what to expect in Game four, you know, from here
the preview. I know it's a little late, but I
jotted down a ton of thoughts and my first thought
was Yankees must win. Garrett Cole starts has to It's
a must I have. Judge was a main concern, and
their bench. Also defense has to play better than they
(00:47):
have getting there. That was a key point for me.
I felt like the way they played to get to
the World Series was not gonna be good enough to
winning World Series.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And also they had to.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Take advantage of the Dodger's bullpen lack of holding runners.
I really felt that Jazz Vulpi those guys could take
advantage of some of the guys that are slower to
the plate for the Dodgers, and I thought that was
a key component to helping out Judge Soto and Stanton
so Dodgers. For me, it was attack with caution with
(01:21):
Soto obviously, attack Stanton with fastballs in which they finally
got to and mixing match with the bullpen guys. And
so far Doc's done a fantastic job in the postseason.
Training's getting a little bit, I think, a little bit
over exposed not having to use them in Game three.
But we'll get into that. And you'll hear me say
(01:42):
this countless times, no matter what sport we were talking about,
the game exposes your biggest weakness at the most opportune time.
I'll repeat that, the game exposes your biggest weakness at
the most opportune time. We'll head into Game one. For me,
Garrett Cole through eighty eight pitches first inning, balls were
(02:05):
hit kind of hard. After that, he was elite. You
brought this man to New York to win a championship.
What in God's earth are you doing pulling him after
eighty eight pitches. That's the whole reason why you paid
him this kind of money was to bring him for
Game one and Game five, maybe even Game four. Other
teams breathe a sire relief when you take the ace out.
(02:30):
The Dodgers got a second lease on life. Ask Kevin
Cash or the Rays if he could take out go over,
go back and take out blake'snell in the World Series.
It's just impossible. You have an ace for a reason.
You paid Garrett Cole a ton of money. Let the
man finish the damn game at least through the eighth.
You send him back out there. One hitter is not
going to change anything. I felt that Weaver coming in
(02:52):
was a bad spot. It was a no win situation
for him. He's facing bets Weavers, a fastball, change up
kind of guy, change ups, a fly ball, pitches MOOKI
hits the sack fly Now they have the Yankees, and
I get it from both sides. Boone's going for the
kill shot right there. His closers in the game end
it right there. If they get Mookie out, He's got
a one run league with his closer in the game.
(03:13):
I get it, But as a manager, you have to
think both ways. You have to think about it the
other way too, and go if this doesn't work, I'm hamstrung.
Now I've got my closure, multiple outs, multiple inning, outing
in Game one, and now I have no long guy,
so slipped sides to the Dodgers. I thought Flairty through
(03:36):
a gem. I was shocked at how well he threw.
He was better, and he went longer than I expected.
I was shocked that Doc sent him out for the
sixth inning. I am not convinced he's not hurt. Ninety
four miles an hour in the first inning drops down
to eighty eight eighty nine. Hanging on for life against
(03:56):
Stanton and side note, can we please stop falling for
the banana and tail pipe with John Carlos Stanton? The
wild swing at the slider off the plate for two
of them, and then we flip a mediocre high school
breaking ball in there and he whaps it into the stands.
Like how many times do we have to see this?
Like stop falling for it? Like go at him, make
(04:18):
somebody else beat you. I thought Edmund bounced back. He
had an error in the first inning or early in
the game, and then after that he played flawless. Kiki's
triple was huge. Obviously, getting to third at any point
with less than two outs in a playoff game is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Monumental.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
The bunt that Kiki had my gosh, it's one hundred
miles an hour, and he lays it down perfect to
get to God a third. It didn't work out, but
it doesn't mean it was a bad play. Sneaky overlooked
to me, sneaky overlooked move by a manager that is
way overlooked. Doc bringing in Graderol at the time, momentum
was shifting. The Dodgers kind of weren't feeling real good
(04:55):
about what was going on. You know, they scored first,
Dan hits the homer and and all of a sudden
you have the top of the order coming up. And
been around Graderol. The Twins used to rave about him
at sixteen years old. This kid wanted to close a
Game seven of the World Series and to go in there.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
The kid has zero fear. He just attacks people.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
He's an assassin and the comebacker bear hand as a
manager and have a heart attack.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
But that's just his demeanor.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
He's kno going to back down from Soto, He's kno
going to back down from Judge.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
He's going to go right at them.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And I felt like his energy when he gets three
outs changes your whole team's demeanor. And I thought it
was a brilliant time, in a brilliant spot for him
to kind of interject the crowd a little bit and
to get his teammates going, and it worked the perfection.
And obviously, you know the Freddie Freeman homer. If you
don't love baseball, I don't know what's right. You got
a problem because to think that Freddie Freeman hit a
(05:49):
walk off homer at the same exact time that Kurt
Gibson did it hump team thirty something years ago. You
just can't make this stuff up. But if you told
me it was going to happen for the game started,
I thought you were crazy. The Verdugo catch was huge,
going into the stands and then throwing from out of it,
which moved the bases up, moved everybody up one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
You know, it kind of worked out to where that
was the matchup.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I thought you'd bring in Hill, he's more a reliever,
but you can't fault sometimes you got to tip your
cap to their team. And goodness gracious, Freddie Freeman legging
out a triple and then hitting a walk off homer.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Super cool moment.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I mean, I think any person player kid dad now
that that has a father, if that doesn't give you goosebumps.
Nothing will. I mean to have him run over to
his father after that moment. This guy's won an MVP,
this guy's already won a championship, and to have the
wherewithal to after the game, like immediately after the game
(06:48):
go right to his dad.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
That's as good as it gets. I mean, it just
doesn't get any better than that.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
It was one of the neatest, coolest I mean, I
know I was tearing up and I don't even have
you know, I played for both clubs, but as a dad,
that just that just hit, that hit the heart, and
that was that was a pretty cool experience and a
pretty cool baseball moment. It's one of those moments I
think that no matter what fan of whatever team you are,
you're gonna remember.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Where you were when Freddy hit this homer. All right.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Moving on a game two, Yamamoto stole the show and
two starts against the Yankees, he's given up three hits.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
He goes back to June.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I think when they played in June six and the
third one hit, two walks, four k's attacked with fastballs,
got away with some misfires. I thought, high fastballs kind
of like we call those, you know, non competitive pitches
where a hitter noses a ball immediately out of his hand.
And I think he was missing high sometimes, but his
(07:42):
split was nasty. Curve balls was an easy get me
over to first strike. When you're thinking fastball split, you're
kind of looking at the down angle. The breaking ball
is a way for him to steal a strike. Rodno,
I thought, made some mistakes that cost him. He went
through the lineup early, looked like he was going to
be just like he did in the Alcs flip the
script a little bit, and it ended up.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Ended up hurting them the two run homer.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
The Dodgers have a deeper lineup, and it goes back
to what I said before about Game one. They just
keep coming and they grind and they don't take pitches off,
and that just wears down opponents. The dit the Yankees,
to me are are are a flawed lineup. If the
big three aren't doing something you don't, they're not taking
advantage of the of some of the mistakes that were
(08:29):
that are that were being made or tried. Yankees only
hit was a homer by Soto. That's pretty insane. Another
thing that I talked about in the preview the bench.
This is I just don't understand how you can enter
a playoff series, let alone the World Series. And when's
the last time you saw a World Series team pinch
(08:50):
hit a catcher for a catcher. That tells you how
short the Yankee bench is. You can't tell me that
your best offensive option with the game on the line,
stripe stop it. He can't even he's not good enough
to be a starter, and yet you're pinch hitting in
with the game of the line.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Thought that was a little odd. Even their makeup of
their club.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I've talked about it at other places that it just
didn't seem like they've always had that veteran presence.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yes, no, no they don't. They don't pinch it a.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Ton, but a presence on the bench there de Mingo's
he's nineteen, I get it.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
But he can hit, he's fear. There's factor there, there's.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I'm just gonna say that if you had to rank
their hitters on their bench, Travino would have been the
last one, and that's the option you go to. I
just it just doesn't make sense to me. Talk about
making Stanton on the fastball. My goodness, gracious, watching all
these games. It's like they don't pitch inside anymore. Judge,
the same thing. Why have I understand they may have
(09:45):
holes away, I get it, but if you don't go
in at all, it's a recipe for disaster. They all
wear the face shield. I'm not saying hit people. I'm
saying to make them aware of a fastball in. I
just feel like the Yankees have too many soft landing spots.
You hear about John Smoltz talk about landing spots and
playoff games. There's a lot of soft landing spots. Vulpay Wells, Judge,
(10:08):
right now is a soft landing spot. Yeah, there's fear,
And don't give me the regular season. This is not
the regular season. It's way different. It's the attention to
detail is elite, the execution of pitches is elite. In
October and you're facing everybody's best, and there are guys
at the major league level who can make a career
(10:30):
out of beating up fours and fives and the last
guy of the bullpen, and there's guys that just rise
to the occasion.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And it just seems to me.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Aaron Judge, he's laid on a fastball, he's pulling off
breaking balls. He's in between, and that's the worst place
to be as a hitter. There's nothing you can go
back to. And to me, it's like it looks like
he's trying to beat the other team at what they
are trying to do, as opposed to I know what
you do. I'm not coming off what I want to do,
(11:01):
meaning he's got to pick something and stay with it
and go with it, whatever your strengths are. I always
talk about my players, or as a hitting coach or
as as a manager, I want to tell you what
the other team does and what the other pitchers do,
but I don't want you coming off your strengths. Stick
with what makes you good. And it just seems to
me like the Yankees are guessing, and guessing's part of it,
(11:26):
but at the same token, you gotta go with what
makes you good. And I think Judge is trying to
beat them at their game instead of staying with his own.
Soto's two for four of that game, the rest of
the team is two for twenty seven. It's just not
gonna happen. It's just not gonna work. Otani goes down
sliding in a second was a huge thing. He kind
of felt that game kind of slipping right, Otani goes down,
(11:48):
takes the air out of the stadium.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I know what that feels like. I've done that.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's how I ended almost pretty much end of my
career was mine's head first. His was vat first, but
he's a lot bigger and a lot younger. And then
you see the ninth inning roll around and all of
a sudden, Train is trying to get out of it.
He's hanging on and Bessie comes in. If throws the
only one pitch I think save in World series history.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I get it. Everybody talks about you gotta hit the
first one off the bench. No, you don't. You can,
But at the same token, you've been sitting on the
bench for four and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Does it really like, do you really think you're gonna
be on the first pitch you see?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I get it again. If you take that pitch right,
they're gonna say, oh, that was the one he should
have hit. Yeah, But the longer a hitter keeps his
feet in the box, the better the advantage goes to
the hitter. And if you punch out there, so what
so what? Instead you're gonna go up there the anxiety
is kicking in. Everybody wants to be the hero and
you're gonna get big and you've hit a lazy flat
(12:47):
ball to center field. Yeah you hit it, okay, But yeah,
this isn't you know, this isn't Little League.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You don't get a you know.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Participation trophy, like let the let the pitcher feel the situation. There,
he's coming in call just like you are, so make
him feel it a little bit right. And don't even
get me started on the umpire in this series. Holy moly,
Like I am so not an advocate of electronic umpires.
I cringe every time that comes up on Twitter or
(13:15):
social media.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I cringe.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But when you it's almost like Manford is doing this
on purpose by putting this crew in the World Series
to force everybody's hand to want electronic robot umpires because
that and it goes, It gets worse than three. Game
three was worse. So those are pretty much my main thoughts.
You know, it must have been a long flight for
(13:38):
both teams. For both teams going back home, the Yankees,
you're thinking, okay, we put something together ninth inning, let's
use that Dodgers. Yeah, we're up to nothing, but our
best player can't lift his arm over his head, so
it must have been an interesting flight for both teams.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
You know, who knows.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I would I feel pretty good being up to nothing,
but I also would feel pretty good going Like the
whole thing to me is a series starts when the
home team doesn't hold serve and you know that's why
they do it the way they do it. But the Dodgers,
you know, I thought winning Game one was huge, Game
two was just a bonus, and now they get back
to New York.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Now on to game three in New York.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Don't get me started with the fat Joe thing, like
take your Timberland boots off the mound. Man like ground
screw guys work their ass off to make that place immaculate,
and then you play lean back, which was our song
in two thousand and four in Boston, Wor's jay Z
play Empire state of Mind. But just get your Timberlands
off the damn mound, son like no one came in
(14:45):
here to see you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's a whole different topic. But do you have the
crowd right?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
They're hyped up here we go and in walks Freddy
Freeman and we have a saying throughout baseball, take the
crowd out of the game, or get the crowd involved
and on the road. Take the crowd out of the
game early. And Freddie Freeman steps up and does it right.
Two strike cutter that kind of was away and it
(15:10):
kind of just hung onto it and Freddie short porched
him beautiful and all started with a what a four
pitch walk. If there's ever a time not to walk Otani,
it's that, I get it nerves, first game at home
World Series game and how many years, But if you
ever want to see Otani and what he can do,
that's the time. Cold weather shoulder. He went to the
(15:32):
anthem with a jacket on, make him swing the bat,
and I think if you saw throughout the game, he
doesn't look comfortable at all. Hey kudos for him going
to the post for his boys, but he doesn't look
anywhere close to what he normally is. The third thing,
with the third inning, you get another leadoff walk. Betts
has the bat of the century, just keeps grinding. There's
(15:54):
a play for me that changed the entire game. It
wasn't an easy play by an especially imagination. Rizzo foul
ball going over to the foul territory, going into the
going into the camera.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Well whatever is an easy play?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Absolutely not, But it's a play to me that has
a chance to be made that changes the outcome of
a baseball game and a series.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think Schmidt threw I.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Want to say, twenty two to twenty four more pitches
after that, and then you know, Mookie dumps it in
there on a breaking ball, the little duck fart in
the right great read by Edmund Scores goes up three,
and now the Natives are getting restless, right Yankee Stadium's
kind of booming. They're kind of mulling around, going. I
can't believe this is happening again. At the end of
the day, Schmidt two and two Thursday innings, sixty eight
(16:36):
pitches not what they needed. The fourth inning, I think
that's the kill shot. That's the kill shot opportunity for
the Dodgers. They get first and third, nobody out. I
don't mind the safety squeeze. I actually really enjoy it.
To me, it's the most undefensible play in baseball.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
That there is.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
If it's executed, there's no way to defend it. It
puts the defense in a completely vulnerable position all the
way around. If it doesn't work. You have second and
third and one out if it's done properly. I thought
Lux could have stayed at third on the bunt. The
bunt wasn't that great. I'm not real sure. I take
the bat out of Edmond's hand with nobody out, because
even if he grounds a double play, which doesn't happen
(17:14):
very often, you still score that add on run. Yankees
kind of wiggle out of that, right, they get out
of it, and all of a sudden you're thinking in
your mind. I know as a manager, I'm thinking a
momentum swing got we gotta put up a zero here. Bueller,
who was phenomenal. We'll get into him later, but he
got hit a little bit that inning. And I know
(17:34):
everybody wants to kill Stanton for not scoring the ball,
or the third base coach for not for sending him. Look,
I get both sides of it. But it took a
perfect throw and that's exactly what happened. And sometimes you
gotta tip your cap. Yes, did he pick up the
ball before you at the third, Yes, But sometimes look,
I think everybody would agree the Yankees aren't hitting in October.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Do you want to hold standing up.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
For a hit you'll never get like when you finally
get a hit, you gotta take a shot. This is
the same guy that waved tore Is in the first
inning against Cleveland. You think he's not gonna wave him
two outs. You gotta tip your Captaininana is making a
good throw. But goodness gracious alive. You have to You
have to try that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
And I thought that was another one where they kind
of that was a big, huge momentum swing both ways
in that in that third inning.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Go back to the replay. I think Lux is safe.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I just don't understand if you have an obstruction call
at second base, right, I've seen many runners be called
safe because a shortstop or a second baseman on a
stolen base attempt blocks second base.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Now they're moving to a position.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
They're moving from their position to cover second base, whether
it's two steps, four steps, six steps, sometimes farther.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
The ball is in the air.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
They're running to the ball that's thrown to them, and
they have to stop, catch and tag. If their foots
of the way, they're safe. A catcher on a play
at the play has to take one step from where
they sit. The entire game, you have all day and
I do understand. I do know that once you have
the ball you can go ahead and block, but I
just don't understand how that makes any sense. And you
(19:11):
put all this strain on a shortstop or second basement
for having a cover ground and put their foot in
the way as opposed to a catcher dropping a shin
guard on your thumb as you're trying to score.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And Uncle, on replay, Uncle want to go.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Buehler was phenomenal, probably the best he's thrown since he's
been hurt.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Obviously, I know Doc said that.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
But the carry on his fastball, the whole spin rate thing,
and what that means is a hitter gives up on
his fastball.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
That's down because it rides out so long you think
it's gonna be down.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
It hits a certain plane and just keeps on going
to the same level and it's a strike and then
the ball's up.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You think you're on and it's by you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
But you know what this guy's done this every World series,
the names, he's getting himself in the same company of
our World series heroes. As time, will we start giving
this guy his credit his due and not be so
shocked when he goes out and does this, And I
think that the Dodger doing this with how many guys
(20:12):
they have hurt. I mean, if you look at it,
I think I try to write them all down, and
I think I ran on a paper. You have Glass,
now Kershaw, Joe Kelly, Goslin, Gavin Stone, River, Ryan Dustin May.
Those are all starting or key components of their pitching staff.
And they're in the World Series, dominating the American League
(20:33):
with all those guys injured, with basically two starters at
the end of the day, starting pitching wins championships. Flaerity, Yamamoto,
and Buler have absolutely dominated. Outside of Cole, He's been
they've been the best three and they've given them. They've
given the Dodgers more than what the Yankees have given them.
Here's a stat for Hever. Game three, fifty five fastballs
(20:54):
in the strike zone. The Yankee saw four seamers. Twenty
four of those were taken by the Yankees offensively, most
in a game all season. To me, that tells you
you're guessing, you're not attacking what you think you should attack.
Too many leadoff walks. Two of the three in the
first three innings were lead off walks. And they end
(21:14):
up scoring. Those are just you could see, you know,
Bounie's frustration in the in the post game last night.
You know, I feel for him. His team has just disappeared.
I mean, I mean Judge's mi I A. I think
he's one for twelve with seven k's quick crazy stat
on our boy, Aaron Judge with at least one runner
(21:35):
on base in the first inning of ten of the
twelve playoff games this year, zero for ten. Seven k's
talk about scoring first. The Yankees have yet to score
first and they're down three to zero. Doesn't look good
when the guy that has done it all year just
disappears one postseason, okay, two postseasons.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
It's starting to become a trend. He is, don't get
me wrong, he's an MVP. I mean it's not that easy.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
But they've played a significant amount of games and he
doesn't have anything meaningful. And if you're going to be
a point of the Captain of New York, they don't
really care about MVPs. They've seen it, They've had plenty
of them. They want championships and all these people I've
(22:31):
seen other you know, podcasts and media and oh please
don't boo Aaron Judge, Where do you get to tell
a fan what to do and who to boo? Like,
come on, man, like I if you're a fan, you
can do whatever you want. Hell I played, I'd be
the first person that booed me if I played bad
and it happened a ton.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
But how can you sit there like you really think?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Like if you think Aaron Judge is that fragile that
we're concerned about? Oh wait, I was so scared to
them up and see if they cheer me. Come on, like,
stop it, Like, if that's what you're worried about, just
pack up your shit and go home, because you all
have the stones to pull this off. You don't, please,
don't tell fans what to do and what to say.
They pay a shit ton of money to go to
(23:16):
these games. They can say and boom whoever the hell
they want. My three biggest things that took the Yankees
crowd out of the game yesterday Walker Buehler, Judge's pitiful October,
and Fat Joe's boots walking all over the damn mound
that took the crowd out of the game, out of
the shoot if you just saw like people, you have
(23:37):
to have seen that. If you were watching the game
and you like pan the Yankee stadium. Every fan looked
like they're gonna throw up, like they were like shocked,
like besides the bad botox and his facial expression doesn't
move and like you're like huh, like what where'd the
game go?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Like what I mean? They panned the stadium and that
one guy's face was like he had to ask you
someone like who is that? So that was.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Get the crowd involved tonight in game four, please. I
thought Doc's post game in game three was pretty interesting.
Clearly O'tani's hurt. I won't say he's hurt. He's affected
by his shoulder.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I had the assumption that his shoulder might be a
good thing. It was going to limit his swings, which
is gonna kind of It might make him shorter to
the ball, which yeah, it might take away his power,
but his half swings can go over the fence. So
I thought maybe because you're injured. A lot of times
when guys have nicks and dings and an injury, it
(24:36):
makes you short of the ball.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
You don't want to get jammed. You don't want to
hit it off the end.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So you're a little more aware and you don't take
chances at pitches that you normally would probably chase. Doc
talked about urgency. I think it's brilliant. You don't ever
want to let your foot off the gas. Baseball is
a funny game. One thing happens, and all of a
sudden boom, everything changes. I think though, four red Sox
kind of prove that Dave was talking about urgency and
(25:02):
he's not gonna talk to his team, which I totally get.
If you're up three nothing, you do nothing. You can say.
You might want to wet their appetite and be like, hey,
don't forget. You know they're pretty cool to end this
thing now, because if you're if I'm Doc, I'm concerned
a little bit. I know I'm up three to nothing,
but I don't really know what I'm gonna get out
(25:22):
of Flairity coming back. His second start wasn't so great
against the mets Otani. You know, his shoulder. I want
to end this thing as fast as I can. Freddie
Freeman foulls up off his ankle yesterday after he started
to feel good, like I just you do want to
get it over as fast as you.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Can, but you don't want to give anybody, hope.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
But if you're sitting there managing these guys going, man,
I don't know, I don't want to. We have a
shot to kind of end this thing. Let's let's let's,
you know, let's end this thing as fast as we can.
Kill shot him and get him out of there. So
head into Game four, at least Gil gonna have to
throw strikes. You know, he doesn't get ahead of guys
very well. Let the league of walks. It's not it's
(26:07):
not a good combination for the Dodgers, Like, that's not
what the Yankees are looking for. Who knows. Again, this
goes into I know what analytics say, but you have
to do what works right now.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You have to do what your eyes tell you.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Like take Judge for example, right we all see the
fifty eight Homers, we all see the American League MVP,
But what do your eyes tell you right now? Your
eyes tell you right now that if you had to
rank Torres, Soto, Judge Stanton, if you had to rank them,
Judge is by far the worst. That's the guy you
go after because your eyes tell you. So I know
(26:42):
what the numbers say. I get it, he's the MVP.
But that's the difference between analytics for a regular season
and what you see with your eyes in the postseason.
You're gonna have to have a short leash on Guild
to night. They need some length. This kid can do it.
He's got he's got legits stuff. It's just a matter
of whether he attacks inside the strike zone and the Dodgers,
(27:05):
you know, have an off night. Dodgers pen, get this
thing done tonight.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
A pen game.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It sounds daunting, but you keep opening that gate every
six seven times one guy's off.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
It does a wrench into the whole entire program.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
So Doc's done a masterful job of working his pen,
more so, I thought in the Mets series than this one.
But like he's done as close to almost perfect as
you possibly can. Can he keep that up and granted
his guys, It's funny how the manager looks smarter when
the guys perform. Right when the guys don't live up
(27:45):
to what they do, everybody wants to go after the manager. Well,
you know, just because it didn't work doesn't mean it
wasn't the right move. So this game four is is
it's it's it's huge for the Dodgers because you don't
know what you're gonna get going back to expect the
same starts from the guys you've already seen him from.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It's it's almost unrealistic.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I don't if I'm Doc, I don't want to see
Garrett Colet till next April.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I don't want to see him again. So there's some
urgency there. I talked about the guys being hurt, Otani,
Freddie Freeman. They're banged up, trying to end this thing
as fast as you can.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Urgency. I know.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Doc talked about in spring training how he challenged his
players to want and to crave those at bats that
matter in October, to prepare yourself for those at bats,
to want to make the play on defense, to want
to be out on the mound. And that's a mindset,
and he's preaching to his guys, and it's a culture.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It's in their culture.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Those guys don't shy away from big at bats or
big pitches.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I think you saw that last night. You saw a
lot of guys.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
From the Yankees who want to be the guy instead
of just doing what they normally do. At the end
of the day, people are wanting to break down the
Yankees and a Yankee hater at all. I'm just toeinged
like it is. They are playing exactly the way they
played to get here. They just didn't face enough teams
(29:10):
that had enough firepower to expose them. If they were
in the National League, they would have went home in
the first series unless they played Atlanta. That's just reality.
That's not a knock against the Yankees, the Guardians, the Royals,
the Tigers.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
They made the playoffs because the White Sox were in
their division and the Twins completely collapsed. And again it's
not the Yankees' fault. They had to play who they played.
They only play the people that are scheduled. It's not
any of their concern. But there's four or five teams
in the National League that would have beaten the Yankees
(29:47):
to get to the World Series in the Nation League side,
And it's just the way it works sometimes. So these
games haven't felt two and three. The scoreboard made it
seem like it was closer than what it was. Obviously
two was a one run game, was a one run game,
and you kind of felt that one slipping. But last night,
for nothing, it almost felt like it was seven or eight.
And that's one thing to look for. I was telling
(30:07):
I was sweeping my Yankee fans or texting my Yankee
fans last night, My buddies, If Judge it's a homer.
If this game gets to be seven or eight to
nothing and Judge comes up with the ninth, then he
hits a home run, it's a thousand percent mental because
the pressure's off, and now he clicks one.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Now he's starting to Now they're starting to make sense. Now.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Game fours, generally in a World Series are crazy. So
the Yankees just got to get off to a good start.
Goodness gracious, get the man a run early and see
what happens. Get the crowd involved. And I know as
a as a visitor, we used to go in the
Yankees stadum and going if we score early, we can
turn the fans on their own team, and then we've
got them right where we want them. And if they
(30:48):
get off to a bad start tonight, you can use
the fifty five thousand people against them, and that's a
bad place to be. I've wore the pinstripes. I know
what it feels like to get booed, and it's not
a fun feeling. So always has that eye of the
tiger kind of grinder.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Look.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
He's looking for challenges. He's looking to try to get
him in the pitcher's skin with his show, his Soto
shuffle and the stare down. If you saw his eyes
last night, it looked like a defeated human being. And
it's almost like he's looking like, oh my gosh, do
I really want to come back here? If this is
(31:23):
if they're gonna need me to do this every time,
I cannot do this alone. A thing that for me
goes that drove me nuts as a ex player, manager,
baseball fan. It seems like nothing, and maybe I'm nitpicking,
But for Jugo hits the home run, great swing, roll
series homer, I get it. It's a big it's a
(31:44):
big moment. But if you looked at after the game,
the Dodgers are shaking hands. He's standing on the top
step looking at his swing on his iPad. The game's over,
you're down three to nothing. No one gives a shit
about your about your dignity tape, you're checking out on
the top step of the dugout. Go do that inside
(32:05):
like it's just not Those are the things that you
shouldn't let especially with the media around the world series.
They're trying everything they can to nitpick the heck out
of you. Don't give them a reason. For me, it's
a do or die for Judge.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Pick one and stay with it.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Pick a fastball or pick a breaking ball, but don't
try to hit both of them. Just stay on one
or the other. And for the life of me, why
they don't haven't pitched either one of these guys. I
think they pitched Stanton inside last night for the first time.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
But make a guy.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Everything that I've ever learned about pitching and hitting is
you have to make guys fearful of the inside part
of the plate, especially big guys. You just keep letting
them bang balls. I mean, John Carlos, Stan's gonna hit
one out of Dodger Stadium if they go back there,
and if he has a chance to do that, because
you're just letting them do whatever he wants. Granted, he's
on fire, I get that. But he finally hit a
(32:53):
fastball in the middle last night, finally, but it was
a way. I don't think you've seen the best of
the Yankees yet. And that's the beautiful thing of baseball.
Judge takes one swing and gets locked in.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Uh oh, he has that ability.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
That being said, I just think for everybody's feeling, they
need to play a game with a lead and care
free and usually when you're down. I know for the
Red Sox we were down three nothing. It was the
most care free game we played all year because we
had nothing to lose. And there's four, all the heats off.
(33:29):
Just go play, just see what happens, and we'll see
if that happens. Tonight, that's gonna do it here for
episode one of The Dugout. I'll be back to give
you my breakdown of Game four and beyond, hopefully, hopefully
more hopefully it's a game five and six. Make sure
you subscribe to The Dugout. You can find me at
dm eas recruiting on x and dougman Cabridge sixteen on instat.
(33:54):
Look forward to hearing from you guys, and I'll see
you next episode.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
En
Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Dugout Podcast with your host
Doug mccavidge. Can't begin to tell you how super excited
I am to get this thing rolling. This episode one
really looking forward to this long time coming. Glad it's
finally here. In this episode, we're gonna kind of go
over everything World Series. We're gonna go from the preview
and we're gonna analyze games one, two, and three, and
(00:25):
what to expect in Game four, you know, from here
the preview. I know it's a little late, but I
jotted down a ton of thoughts and my first thought
was Yankees must win. Garrett Cole starts has to It's
a must I have. Judge was a main concern, and
their bench. Also defense has to play better than they
(00:47):
have getting there. That was a key point for me.
I felt like the way they played to get to
the World Series was not gonna be good enough to
winning World Series.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
And also they had to.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Take advantage of the Dodger's bullpen lack of holding runners.
I really felt that Jazz Vulpi those guys could take
advantage of some of the guys that are slower to
the plate for the Dodgers, and I thought that was
a key component to helping out Judge Soto and Stanton
so Dodgers. For me, it was attack with caution with
(01:21):
Soto obviously, attack Stanton with fastballs in which they finally
got to and mixing match with the bullpen guys. And
so far Doc's done a fantastic job in the postseason.
Training's getting a little bit, I think, a little bit
over exposed not having to use them in Game three.
But we'll get into that. And you'll hear me say
(01:42):
this countless times, no matter what sport we were talking about,
the game exposes your biggest weakness at the most opportune time.
I'll repeat that, the game exposes your biggest weakness at
the most opportune time. We'll head into Game one. For me,
Garrett Cole through eighty eight pitches first inning, balls were
(02:05):
hit kind of hard. After that, he was elite. You
brought this man to New York to win a championship.
What in God's earth are you doing pulling him after
eighty eight pitches. That's the whole reason why you paid
him this kind of money was to bring him for
Game one and Game five, maybe even Game four. Other
teams breathe a sire relief when you take the ace out.
(02:30):
The Dodgers got a second lease on life. Ask Kevin
Cash or the Rays if he could take out go over,
go back and take out blake'snell in the World Series.
It's just impossible. You have an ace for a reason.
You paid Garrett Cole a ton of money. Let the
man finish the damn game at least through the eighth.
You send him back out there. One hitter is not
going to change anything. I felt that Weaver coming in
(02:52):
was a bad spot. It was a no win situation
for him. He's facing bets Weavers, a fastball, change up
kind of guy, change ups, a fly ball, pitches MOOKI
hits the sack fly Now they have the Yankees, and
I get it from both sides. Boone's going for the
kill shot right there. His closers in the game end
it right there. If they get Mookie out, He's got
a one run league with his closer in the game.
(03:13):
I get it, But as a manager, you have to
think both ways. You have to think about it the
other way too, and go if this doesn't work, I'm hamstrung.
Now I've got my closure, multiple outs, multiple inning, outing
in Game one, and now I have no long guy,
so slipped sides to the Dodgers. I thought Flairty through
(03:36):
a gem. I was shocked at how well he threw.
He was better, and he went longer than I expected.
I was shocked that Doc sent him out for the
sixth inning. I am not convinced he's not hurt. Ninety
four miles an hour in the first inning drops down
to eighty eight eighty nine. Hanging on for life against
(03:56):
Stanton and side note, can we please stop falling for
the banana and tail pipe with John Carlos Stanton? The
wild swing at the slider off the plate for two
of them, and then we flip a mediocre high school
breaking ball in there and he whaps it into the stands.
Like how many times do we have to see this?
Like stop falling for it? Like go at him, make
(04:18):
somebody else beat you. I thought Edmund bounced back. He
had an error in the first inning or early in
the game, and then after that he played flawless. Kiki's
triple was huge. Obviously, getting to third at any point
with less than two outs in a playoff game is.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Monumental.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
The bunt that Kiki had my gosh, it's one hundred
miles an hour, and he lays it down perfect to
get to God a third. It didn't work out, but
it doesn't mean it was a bad play. Sneaky overlooked
to me, sneaky overlooked move by a manager that is
way overlooked. Doc bringing in Graderol at the time, momentum
was shifting. The Dodgers kind of weren't feeling real good
(04:55):
about what was going on. You know, they scored first,
Dan hits the homer and and all of a sudden
you have the top of the order coming up. And
been around Graderol. The Twins used to rave about him
at sixteen years old. This kid wanted to close a
Game seven of the World Series and to go in there.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
The kid has zero fear. He just attacks people.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
He's an assassin and the comebacker bear hand as a
manager and have a heart attack.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
But that's just his demeanor.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
He's kno going to back down from Soto, He's kno
going to back down from Judge.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
He's going to go right at them.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And I felt like his energy when he gets three
outs changes your whole team's demeanor. And I thought it
was a brilliant time, in a brilliant spot for him
to kind of interject the crowd a little bit and
to get his teammates going, and it worked the perfection.
And obviously, you know the Freddie Freeman homer. If you
don't love baseball, I don't know what's right. You got
a problem because to think that Freddie Freeman hit a
(05:49):
walk off homer at the same exact time that Kurt
Gibson did it hump team thirty something years ago. You
just can't make this stuff up. But if you told
me it was going to happen for the game started,
I thought you were crazy. The Verdugo catch was huge,
going into the stands and then throwing from out of it,
which moved the bases up, moved everybody up one.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
You know, it kind of worked out to where that
was the matchup.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
I thought you'd bring in Hill, he's more a reliever,
but you can't fault sometimes you got to tip your
cap to their team. And goodness gracious, Freddie Freeman legging
out a triple and then hitting a walk off homer.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Super cool moment.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
I mean, I think any person player kid dad now
that that has a father, if that doesn't give you goosebumps.
Nothing will. I mean to have him run over to
his father after that moment. This guy's won an MVP,
this guy's already won a championship, and to have the
wherewithal to after the game, like immediately after the game
(06:48):
go right to his dad.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
That's as good as it gets. I mean, it just
doesn't get any better than that.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
It was one of the neatest, coolest I mean, I
know I was tearing up and I don't even have
you know, I played for both clubs, but as a dad,
that just that just hit, that hit the heart, and
that was that was a pretty cool experience and a
pretty cool baseball moment. It's one of those moments I
think that no matter what fan of whatever team you are,
you're gonna remember.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Where you were when Freddy hit this homer. All right.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Moving on a game two, Yamamoto stole the show and
two starts against the Yankees, he's given up three hits.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
He goes back to June.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I think when they played in June six and the
third one hit, two walks, four k's attacked with fastballs,
got away with some misfires. I thought, high fastballs kind
of like we call those, you know, non competitive pitches
where a hitter noses a ball immediately out of his hand.
And I think he was missing high sometimes, but his
(07:42):
split was nasty. Curve balls was an easy get me
over to first strike. When you're thinking fastball split, you're
kind of looking at the down angle. The breaking ball
is a way for him to steal a strike. Rodno,
I thought, made some mistakes that cost him. He went
through the lineup early, looked like he was going to
be just like he did in the Alcs flip the
script a little bit, and it ended up.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Ended up hurting them the two run homer.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
The Dodgers have a deeper lineup, and it goes back
to what I said before about Game one. They just
keep coming and they grind and they don't take pitches off,
and that just wears down opponents. The dit the Yankees,
to me are are are a flawed lineup. If the
big three aren't doing something you don't, they're not taking
advantage of the of some of the mistakes that were
(08:29):
that are that were being made or tried. Yankees only
hit was a homer by Soto. That's pretty insane. Another
thing that I talked about in the preview the bench.
This is I just don't understand how you can enter
a playoff series, let alone the World Series. And when's
the last time you saw a World Series team pinch
(08:50):
hit a catcher for a catcher. That tells you how
short the Yankee bench is. You can't tell me that
your best offensive option with the game on the line,
stripe stop it. He can't even he's not good enough
to be a starter, and yet you're pinch hitting in
with the game of the line.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Thought that was a little odd. Even their makeup of
their club.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
I've talked about it at other places that it just
didn't seem like they've always had that veteran presence.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yes, no, no they don't. They don't pinch it a.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Ton, but a presence on the bench there de Mingo's
he's nineteen, I get it.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
But he can hit, he's fear. There's factor there, there's.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
I'm just gonna say that if you had to rank
their hitters on their bench, Travino would have been the
last one, and that's the option you go to. I
just it just doesn't make sense to me. Talk about
making Stanton on the fastball. My goodness, gracious, watching all
these games. It's like they don't pitch inside anymore. Judge,
the same thing. Why have I understand they may have
(09:45):
holes away, I get it, but if you don't go
in at all, it's a recipe for disaster. They all
wear the face shield. I'm not saying hit people. I'm
saying to make them aware of a fastball in. I
just feel like the Yankees have too many soft landing spots.
You hear about John Smoltz talk about landing spots and
playoff games. There's a lot of soft landing spots. Vulpay Wells, Judge,
(10:08):
right now is a soft landing spot. Yeah, there's fear,
And don't give me the regular season. This is not
the regular season. It's way different. It's the attention to
detail is elite, the execution of pitches is elite. In
October and you're facing everybody's best, and there are guys
at the major league level who can make a career
(10:30):
out of beating up fours and fives and the last
guy of the bullpen, and there's guys that just rise
to the occasion.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
And it just seems to me.
Speaker 1 (10:39):
Aaron Judge, he's laid on a fastball, he's pulling off
breaking balls. He's in between, and that's the worst place
to be as a hitter. There's nothing you can go
back to. And to me, it's like it looks like
he's trying to beat the other team at what they
are trying to do, as opposed to I know what
you do. I'm not coming off what I want to do,
(11:01):
meaning he's got to pick something and stay with it
and go with it, whatever your strengths are. I always
talk about my players, or as a hitting coach or
as as a manager, I want to tell you what
the other team does and what the other pitchers do,
but I don't want you coming off your strengths. Stick
with what makes you good. And it just seems to
me like the Yankees are guessing, and guessing's part of it,
(11:26):
but at the same token, you gotta go with what
makes you good. And I think Judge is trying to
beat them at their game instead of staying with his own.
Soto's two for four of that game, the rest of
the team is two for twenty seven. It's just not
gonna happen. It's just not gonna work. Otani goes down
sliding in a second was a huge thing. He kind
of felt that game kind of slipping right, Otani goes down,
(11:48):
takes the air out of the stadium.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
I know what that feels like. I've done that.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
That's how I ended almost pretty much end of my
career was mine's head first. His was vat first, but
he's a lot bigger and a lot younger. And then
you see the ninth inning roll around and all of
a sudden, Train is trying to get out of it.
He's hanging on and Bessie comes in. If throws the
only one pitch I think save in World series history.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I get it. Everybody talks about you gotta hit the
first one off the bench. No, you don't. You can,
But at the same token, you've been sitting on the
bench for four and a half hours.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Does it really like, do you really think you're gonna
be on the first pitch you see?
Speaker 2 (12:24):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
I get it again. If you take that pitch right,
they're gonna say, oh, that was the one he should
have hit. Yeah, But the longer a hitter keeps his
feet in the box, the better the advantage goes to
the hitter. And if you punch out there, so what
so what? Instead you're gonna go up there the anxiety
is kicking in. Everybody wants to be the hero and
you're gonna get big and you've hit a lazy flat
(12:47):
ball to center field. Yeah you hit it, okay, But yeah,
this isn't you know, this isn't Little League.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
You don't get a you know.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Participation trophy, like let the let the pitcher feel the situation. There,
he's coming in call just like you are, so make
him feel it a little bit right. And don't even
get me started on the umpire in this series. Holy moly,
Like I am so not an advocate of electronic umpires.
I cringe every time that comes up on Twitter or
(13:15):
social media.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
I cringe.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
But when you it's almost like Manford is doing this
on purpose by putting this crew in the World Series
to force everybody's hand to want electronic robot umpires because
that and it goes, It gets worse than three. Game
three was worse. So those are pretty much my main thoughts.
You know, it must have been a long flight for
(13:38):
both teams. For both teams going back home, the Yankees,
you're thinking, okay, we put something together ninth inning, let's
use that Dodgers. Yeah, we're up to nothing, but our
best player can't lift his arm over his head, so
it must have been an interesting flight for both teams.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
You know, who knows.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
I would I feel pretty good being up to nothing,
but I also would feel pretty good going Like the
whole thing to me is a series starts when the
home team doesn't hold serve and you know that's why
they do it the way they do it. But the Dodgers,
you know, I thought winning Game one was huge, Game
two was just a bonus, and now they get back
to New York.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Now on to game three in New York.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Don't get me started with the fat Joe thing, like
take your Timberland boots off the mound. Man like ground
screw guys work their ass off to make that place immaculate,
and then you play lean back, which was our song
in two thousand and four in Boston, Wor's jay Z
play Empire state of Mind. But just get your Timberlands
off the damn mound, son like no one came in
(14:45):
here to see you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
That's a whole different topic. But do you have the
crowd right?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
They're hyped up here we go and in walks Freddy
Freeman and we have a saying throughout baseball, take the
crowd out of the game, or get the crowd involved
and on the road. Take the crowd out of the
game early. And Freddie Freeman steps up and does it right.
Two strike cutter that kind of was away and it
(15:10):
kind of just hung onto it and Freddie short porched
him beautiful and all started with a what a four
pitch walk. If there's ever a time not to walk Otani,
it's that, I get it nerves, first game at home
World Series game and how many years, But if you
ever want to see Otani and what he can do,
that's the time. Cold weather shoulder. He went to the
(15:32):
anthem with a jacket on, make him swing the bat,
and I think if you saw throughout the game, he
doesn't look comfortable at all. Hey kudos for him going
to the post for his boys, but he doesn't look
anywhere close to what he normally is. The third thing,
with the third inning, you get another leadoff walk. Betts
has the bat of the century, just keeps grinding. There's
(15:54):
a play for me that changed the entire game. It
wasn't an easy play by an especially imagination. Rizzo foul
ball going over to the foul territory, going into the
going into the camera.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Well whatever is an easy play?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Absolutely not, But it's a play to me that has
a chance to be made that changes the outcome of
a baseball game and a series.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I think Schmidt threw I.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
Want to say, twenty two to twenty four more pitches
after that, and then you know, Mookie dumps it in
there on a breaking ball, the little duck fart in
the right great read by Edmund Scores goes up three,
and now the Natives are getting restless, right Yankee Stadium's
kind of booming. They're kind of mulling around, going. I
can't believe this is happening again. At the end of
the day, Schmidt two and two Thursday innings, sixty eight
(16:36):
pitches not what they needed. The fourth inning, I think
that's the kill shot. That's the kill shot opportunity for
the Dodgers. They get first and third, nobody out. I
don't mind the safety squeeze. I actually really enjoy it.
To me, it's the most undefensible play in baseball.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
That there is.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
If it's executed, there's no way to defend it. It
puts the defense in a completely vulnerable position all the
way around. If it doesn't work. You have second and
third and one out if it's done properly. I thought
Lux could have stayed at third on the bunt. The
bunt wasn't that great. I'm not real sure. I take
the bat out of Edmond's hand with nobody out, because
even if he grounds a double play, which doesn't happen
(17:14):
very often, you still score that add on run. Yankees
kind of wiggle out of that, right, they get out
of it, and all of a sudden you're thinking in
your mind. I know as a manager, I'm thinking a
momentum swing got we gotta put up a zero here. Bueller,
who was phenomenal. We'll get into him later, but he
got hit a little bit that inning. And I know
(17:34):
everybody wants to kill Stanton for not scoring the ball,
or the third base coach for not for sending him. Look,
I get both sides of it. But it took a
perfect throw and that's exactly what happened. And sometimes you
gotta tip your cap. Yes, did he pick up the
ball before you at the third, Yes, But sometimes look,
I think everybody would agree the Yankees aren't hitting in October.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Do you want to hold standing up.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
For a hit you'll never get like when you finally
get a hit, you gotta take a shot. This is
the same guy that waved tore Is in the first
inning against Cleveland. You think he's not gonna wave him
two outs. You gotta tip your Captaininana is making a
good throw. But goodness gracious alive. You have to You
have to try that.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
You have to.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
And I thought that was another one where they kind
of that was a big, huge momentum swing both ways
in that in that third inning.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
Go back to the replay. I think Lux is safe.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I just don't understand if you have an obstruction call
at second base, right, I've seen many runners be called
safe because a shortstop or a second baseman on a
stolen base attempt blocks second base.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Now they're moving to a position.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
They're moving from their position to cover second base, whether
it's two steps, four steps, six steps, sometimes farther.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
The ball is in the air.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
They're running to the ball that's thrown to them, and
they have to stop, catch and tag. If their foots
of the way, they're safe. A catcher on a play
at the play has to take one step from where
they sit. The entire game, you have all day and
I do understand. I do know that once you have
the ball you can go ahead and block, but I
just don't understand how that makes any sense. And you
(19:11):
put all this strain on a shortstop or second basement
for having a cover ground and put their foot in
the way as opposed to a catcher dropping a shin
guard on your thumb as you're trying to score.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
And Uncle, on replay, Uncle want to go.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Buehler was phenomenal, probably the best he's thrown since he's
been hurt.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Obviously, I know Doc said that.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
But the carry on his fastball, the whole spin rate thing,
and what that means is a hitter gives up on
his fastball.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
That's down because it rides out so long you think
it's gonna be down.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
It hits a certain plane and just keeps on going
to the same level and it's a strike and then
the ball's up.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
You think you're on and it's by you.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
But you know what this guy's done this every World series,
the names, he's getting himself in the same company of
our World series heroes. As time, will we start giving
this guy his credit his due and not be so
shocked when he goes out and does this, And I
think that the Dodger doing this with how many guys
(20:12):
they have hurt. I mean, if you look at it,
I think I try to write them all down, and
I think I ran on a paper. You have Glass,
now Kershaw, Joe Kelly, Goslin, Gavin Stone, River, Ryan Dustin May.
Those are all starting or key components of their pitching staff.
And they're in the World Series, dominating the American League
(20:33):
with all those guys injured, with basically two starters at
the end of the day, starting pitching wins championships. Flaerity, Yamamoto,
and Buler have absolutely dominated. Outside of Cole, He's been
they've been the best three and they've given them. They've
given the Dodgers more than what the Yankees have given them.
Here's a stat for Hever. Game three, fifty five fastballs
(20:54):
in the strike zone. The Yankee saw four seamers. Twenty
four of those were taken by the Yankees offensively, most
in a game all season. To me, that tells you
you're guessing, you're not attacking what you think you should attack.
Too many leadoff walks. Two of the three in the
first three innings were lead off walks. And they end
(21:14):
up scoring. Those are just you could see, you know,
Bounie's frustration in the in the post game last night.
You know, I feel for him. His team has just disappeared.
I mean, I mean Judge's mi I A. I think
he's one for twelve with seven k's quick crazy stat
on our boy, Aaron Judge with at least one runner
(21:35):
on base in the first inning of ten of the
twelve playoff games this year, zero for ten. Seven k's
talk about scoring first. The Yankees have yet to score
first and they're down three to zero. Doesn't look good
when the guy that has done it all year just
disappears one postseason, okay, two postseasons.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
It's starting to become a trend. He is, don't get
me wrong, he's an MVP. I mean it's not that easy.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
But they've played a significant amount of games and he
doesn't have anything meaningful. And if you're going to be
a point of the Captain of New York, they don't
really care about MVPs. They've seen it, They've had plenty
of them. They want championships and all these people I've
(22:31):
seen other you know, podcasts and media and oh please
don't boo Aaron Judge, Where do you get to tell
a fan what to do and who to boo? Like,
come on, man, like I if you're a fan, you
can do whatever you want. Hell I played, I'd be
the first person that booed me if I played bad
and it happened a ton.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
But how can you sit there like you really think?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Like if you think Aaron Judge is that fragile that
we're concerned about? Oh wait, I was so scared to
them up and see if they cheer me. Come on, like,
stop it, Like, if that's what you're worried about, just
pack up your shit and go home, because you all
have the stones to pull this off. You don't, please,
don't tell fans what to do and what to say.
They pay a shit ton of money to go to
(23:16):
these games. They can say and boom whoever the hell
they want. My three biggest things that took the Yankees
crowd out of the game yesterday Walker Buehler, Judge's pitiful October,
and Fat Joe's boots walking all over the damn mound
that took the crowd out of the game, out of
the shoot if you just saw like people, you have
(23:37):
to have seen that. If you were watching the game
and you like pan the Yankee stadium. Every fan looked
like they're gonna throw up, like they were like shocked,
like besides the bad botox and his facial expression doesn't
move and like you're like huh, like what where'd the
game go?
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Like what I mean? They panned the stadium and that
one guy's face was like he had to ask you
someone like who is that? So that was.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
Get the crowd involved tonight in game four, please. I
thought Doc's post game in game three was pretty interesting.
Clearly O'tani's hurt. I won't say he's hurt. He's affected
by his shoulder.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
I had the assumption that his shoulder might be a
good thing. It was going to limit his swings, which
is gonna kind of It might make him shorter to
the ball, which yeah, it might take away his power,
but his half swings can go over the fence. So
I thought maybe because you're injured. A lot of times
when guys have nicks and dings and an injury, it
(24:36):
makes you short of the ball.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
You don't want to get jammed. You don't want to
hit it off the end.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
So you're a little more aware and you don't take
chances at pitches that you normally would probably chase. Doc
talked about urgency. I think it's brilliant. You don't ever
want to let your foot off the gas. Baseball is
a funny game. One thing happens, and all of a
sudden boom, everything changes. I think though, four red Sox
kind of prove that Dave was talking about urgency and
(25:02):
he's not gonna talk to his team, which I totally get.
If you're up three nothing, you do nothing. You can say.
You might want to wet their appetite and be like, hey,
don't forget. You know they're pretty cool to end this
thing now, because if you're if I'm Doc, I'm concerned
a little bit. I know I'm up three to nothing,
but I don't really know what I'm gonna get out
(25:22):
of Flairity coming back. His second start wasn't so great
against the mets Otani. You know, his shoulder. I want
to end this thing as fast as I can. Freddie
Freeman foulls up off his ankle yesterday after he started
to feel good, like I just you do want to
get it over as fast as you.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Can, but you don't want to give anybody, hope.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
But if you're sitting there managing these guys going, man,
I don't know, I don't want to. We have a
shot to kind of end this thing. Let's let's let's,
you know, let's end this thing as fast as we can.
Kill shot him and get him out of there. So
head into Game four, at least Gil gonna have to
throw strikes. You know, he doesn't get ahead of guys
very well. Let the league of walks. It's not it's
(26:07):
not a good combination for the Dodgers, Like, that's not
what the Yankees are looking for. Who knows. Again, this
goes into I know what analytics say, but you have
to do what works right now.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You have to do what your eyes tell you.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Like take Judge for example, right we all see the
fifty eight Homers, we all see the American League MVP,
But what do your eyes tell you right now? Your
eyes tell you right now that if you had to
rank Torres, Soto, Judge Stanton, if you had to rank them,
Judge is by far the worst. That's the guy you
go after because your eyes tell you. So I know
(26:42):
what the numbers say. I get it, he's the MVP.
But that's the difference between analytics for a regular season
and what you see with your eyes in the postseason.
You're gonna have to have a short leash on Guild
to night. They need some length. This kid can do it.
He's got he's got legits stuff. It's just a matter
of whether he attacks inside the strike zone and the Dodgers,
(27:05):
you know, have an off night. Dodgers pen, get this
thing done tonight.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
A pen game.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
It sounds daunting, but you keep opening that gate every
six seven times one guy's off.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
It does a wrench into the whole entire program.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
So Doc's done a masterful job of working his pen,
more so, I thought in the Mets series than this one.
But like he's done as close to almost perfect as
you possibly can. Can he keep that up and granted
his guys, It's funny how the manager looks smarter when
the guys perform. Right when the guys don't live up
(27:45):
to what they do, everybody wants to go after the manager. Well,
you know, just because it didn't work doesn't mean it
wasn't the right move. So this game four is is
it's it's it's huge for the Dodgers because you don't
know what you're gonna get going back to expect the
same starts from the guys you've already seen him from.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
It's it's almost unrealistic.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
I don't if I'm Doc, I don't want to see
Garrett Colet till next April.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
I don't.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
I don't want to see him again. So there's some
urgency there. I talked about the guys being hurt, Otani,
Freddie Freeman. They're banged up, trying to end this thing
as fast as you can.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
Urgency. I know.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Doc talked about in spring training how he challenged his
players to want and to crave those at bats that
matter in October, to prepare yourself for those at bats,
to want to make the play on defense, to want
to be out on the mound. And that's a mindset,
and he's preaching to his guys, and it's a culture.
Speaker 2 (28:42):
It's in their culture.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Those guys don't shy away from big at bats or
big pitches.
Speaker 2 (28:47):
I think you saw that last night. You saw a
lot of guys.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
From the Yankees who want to be the guy instead
of just doing what they normally do. At the end
of the day, people are wanting to break down the
Yankees and a Yankee hater at all. I'm just toeinged
like it is. They are playing exactly the way they
played to get here. They just didn't face enough teams
(29:10):
that had enough firepower to expose them. If they were
in the National League, they would have went home in
the first series unless they played Atlanta. That's just reality.
That's not a knock against the Yankees, the Guardians, the Royals,
the Tigers.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
Let's be honest.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
They made the playoffs because the White Sox were in
their division and the Twins completely collapsed. And again it's
not the Yankees' fault. They had to play who they played.
They only play the people that are scheduled. It's not
any of their concern. But there's four or five teams
in the National League that would have beaten the Yankees
(29:47):
to get to the World Series in the Nation League side,
And it's just the way it works sometimes. So these
games haven't felt two and three. The scoreboard made it
seem like it was closer than what it was. Obviously
two was a one run game, was a one run game,
and you kind of felt that one slipping. But last night,
for nothing, it almost felt like it was seven or eight.
And that's one thing to look for. I was telling
(30:07):
I was sweeping my Yankee fans or texting my Yankee
fans last night, My buddies, If Judge it's a homer.
If this game gets to be seven or eight to
nothing and Judge comes up with the ninth, then he
hits a home run, it's a thousand percent mental because
the pressure's off, and now he clicks one.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Now he's starting to Now they're starting to make sense. Now.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
Game fours, generally in a World Series are crazy. So
the Yankees just got to get off to a good start.
Goodness gracious, get the man a run early and see
what happens. Get the crowd involved. And I know as
a as a visitor, we used to go in the
Yankees stadum and going if we score early, we can
turn the fans on their own team, and then we've
got them right where we want them. And if they
(30:48):
get off to a bad start tonight, you can use
the fifty five thousand people against them, and that's a
bad place to be. I've wore the pinstripes. I know
what it feels like to get booed, and it's not
a fun feeling. So always has that eye of the
tiger kind of grinder.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Look.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
He's looking for challenges. He's looking to try to get
him in the pitcher's skin with his show, his Soto
shuffle and the stare down. If you saw his eyes
last night, it looked like a defeated human being. And
it's almost like he's looking like, oh my gosh, do
I really want to come back here? If this is
(31:23):
if they're gonna need me to do this every time,
I cannot do this alone. A thing that for me
goes that drove me nuts as a ex player, manager,
baseball fan. It seems like nothing, and maybe I'm nitpicking,
But for Jugo hits the home run, great swing, roll
series homer, I get it. It's a big it's a
(31:44):
big moment. But if you looked at after the game,
the Dodgers are shaking hands. He's standing on the top
step looking at his swing on his iPad. The game's over,
you're down three to nothing. No one gives a shit
about your about your dignity tape, you're checking out on
the top step of the dugout. Go do that inside
(32:05):
like it's just not Those are the things that you
shouldn't let especially with the media around the world series.
They're trying everything they can to nitpick the heck out
of you. Don't give them a reason. For me, it's
a do or die for Judge.
Speaker 2 (32:16):
Pick one and stay with it.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Pick a fastball or pick a breaking ball, but don't
try to hit both of them. Just stay on one
or the other. And for the life of me, why
they don't haven't pitched either one of these guys. I
think they pitched Stanton inside last night for the first time.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
But make a guy.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Everything that I've ever learned about pitching and hitting is
you have to make guys fearful of the inside part
of the plate, especially big guys. You just keep letting
them bang balls. I mean, John Carlos, Stan's gonna hit
one out of Dodger Stadium if they go back there,
and if he has a chance to do that, because
you're just letting them do whatever he wants. Granted, he's
on fire, I get that. But he finally hit a
(32:53):
fastball in the middle last night, finally, but it was
a way. I don't think you've seen the best of
the Yankees yet. And that's the beautiful thing of baseball.
Judge takes one swing and gets locked in.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
Uh oh, he has that ability.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
That being said, I just think for everybody's feeling, they
need to play a game with a lead and care
free and usually when you're down. I know for the
Red Sox we were down three nothing. It was the
most care free game we played all year because we
had nothing to lose. And there's four, all the heats off.
(33:29):
Just go play, just see what happens, and we'll see
if that happens. Tonight, that's gonna do it here for
episode one of The Dugout. I'll be back to give
you my breakdown of Game four and beyond, hopefully, hopefully
more hopefully it's a game five and six. Make sure
you subscribe to The Dugout. You can find me at
dm eas recruiting on x and dougman Cabridge sixteen on instat.
(33:54):
Look forward to hearing from you guys, and I'll see
you next episode.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
En
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