October 23, 2025 • 18 mins
Doug breaks down the 2025 World Series — where Don Mattingly leads the Blue Jays on a full-circle redemption run. From taking down the Yankees and Mariners to now facing his former team, the Dodgers, Doug dives into key matchups, X-factors, and what Toronto needs to do to shock the world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Doug Mkavic and this is the
Dugout Podcast. Today we're gonna go over a little World
Series preview between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los
Angeles Dodgers. Blue Jay's coming off of a late inning
George Springer three run homer in the seventh and exciting
Game seven to overtake the Mariners up against the Los
(00:25):
Angeles Dodgers, who seem to be on a mini vacation
since they dismantled the Milwaukee Brewers. First off, I think
the Dodgers, if you asked me, we're probably pulling for
the Mariners for one reason and one reason only. That
way they don't have to make the track across the
country go through customs all the way to Toronto. At
this point, I don't think you really care, but that
(00:46):
travel would have been nice to stay on the West coast.
To me, this is interesting for me because I call
it the Don Mattingley Redemption Tour. Don Mattingley has been
spent forty years in Major League based It's just it's
ironic and how beautiful baseball really is. Donnie played for
(01:06):
the Yankees and coach for the Yankees. The Blue Jays
took down the Yankees and the Alds move on to
the Alcs. The one time Donnie got to the postseason
in nineteen ninety five was against the Mariners, so he
took care of that. And now moving to the Los
Angeles Dodgers, where Donnie was a hitting coach and also
(01:27):
the manager for several years. So if that's not poetic,
nothing is. We'll break down rotations, keys to each team
to kind of pull off the Blue Jays to pull
off this upset, and what the Dodgers need to do
to continue their success. First and foremost for me, break
down both rotations. Obviously you have for the Blue Jays,
(01:47):
you have Gosman, you have your Savage, if Bieber, you
have Max Scherzer. Dodgers are going to roll out there
at Blake Snell, Havemamoto Tyler Glass now and obviously show hey.
Obviously the edge to me goes obviously it's not that hard.
It goes to the Dodgers. Couple intriguing kind of sidebars
(02:08):
to me is how do the Dodgers' left handed hitters
do against the split against Gosman and especially a Savage,
a Savage as a guy they haven't seen yet, and
as a hitter, familiarity is something you like. You can
watch all the video you want, and until you're standing
down the barrel of a gun at sixty feet six inches,
(02:29):
you don't really know what it looks like and what
it does. With his angle and his split. Obviously you
saw that success against the Yankees when they saw him
for the first time. Obviously he had his a stuff
which helped. But you know, to see this young kid
for the first time in a World Series setting, it's
gonna be interesting. Obviously, Gosman split, you know, there's gonna be.
(02:52):
There's gonna be It's gonna have to take some right
handed hitters to kind of do this. The Dodgers are obviously.
The one thing that sticks out in my mind about
the Dodgers' offense. Stay in the strike zone. They make
you throw it over, and when you throw it over,
make a mistake, they're ready to pounce. So for me,
it boils down to one thing. Can the Blue Jays
survive the Dodgers' rotation? Can they hold games close enough
(03:16):
to give themselves enough outs to get deeper into the bullpen? Obviously,
the Dodgers back end is is they're Okay, they're pretty
good obviously, but you get deeper into that pen, it
can there's some there's some there's some holes there. To me,
it's the only way they can do this is if
they their starters. The Blue Jays starters have to match
(03:39):
the Dodgers starters keep the games close. It's like anytime
you face an ace, you don't really try to beat them,
you just try to survive them. And if the Blue
Jays can keep it close, you know, one run, two
runs throughout the course of the first five six innings
and make Dave Roberts go to a guy he doesn't
really have a ton of confidence in. That's where the
(03:59):
you know, leave themselves enough outs to make to mount
some kind of comeback. Because the Blue Jays lead the
league and comeback victories, that's something to watch to me.
This is both teams. I think these are the teams
that if you're a baseball truist in the sense of
the word throw away the payroll. Obviously, the Dodgers payroll,
they can go get everybody they want, but the way
(04:20):
these teams are built, they can beat you many ways.
The Dodgers are coming off of a World Series where
they pretty much wont with their bullpen they want with
their bullpen. In their offense, this year is different. It's
it's more their starters are more. There are more their
their star are more dependable, they go deeper. It's more
of their strength than it was last year. So both
(04:42):
lineups have ways. They both can hit them over the fence,
and they both can manufacture runs. They both do a
great job of putting pressure on the opponent. So, you know,
I always have this argument all the time. People want
to talk about the new wave hitting people. You know,
people think contact or you know, just just make contact.
(05:02):
We're not talking about soft contact. You know, people think
that you know, contact or working accounts means passive. No,
actually it means the exact opposite. It means you're aggressive
in the strike zone. If you know the strike zone,
you're going to be aggressive in it, and if it's
in there, you take your a swing. So, you know,
I always get that question a thousand times from parents
and from other coaches, like, yeah, we're trying. I want
(05:25):
guys that know the strike zone. Guys know the strike zone.
Generally hit and everybody in October is dangerous. Everybody at
the major league level can hit a home run. Everybody
with the intention of detail, especially in a World Series.
Your attention of details at an all time high, and
you're seeing guys and seeing swings throughout the course of
time in baseball. The Mark Lemke's of the World of
the Braves back in the day when he was hitting
(05:47):
seventh or eighth, and he came through with big hit
after big hit after big hit. It's usually from someone
you don't expect, and the Blue Jays have those guys
up another lineup. Don't underestimate the Blue Jays coaching staff.
I've talked about it on this podcast, how impressive Donnie
and Popkins are at breaking down other teams pitching their
(06:08):
plans are It's one thing to have a plan. It's
one thing to teach a plan or to give them
a plan. But these guys have enough. Blue just have
enough guys to execute them. And you've seen that throughout
the course of the playoffs and throughout the course of
the season for that matter. Donnie does a fantastic job
of breaking down pitching and breaking down what to look
(06:28):
for for each not only for you as a group,
but for you as an individual. And when you hear
it from someone of Donnie's caliber, of Donnie's background, of
Donnie's you know, a legendary player, one of the best
players of his era. And to hear that confidence from
a guy like that, the thing that makes him so
good as he keeps it so simple. I'll give you
(06:50):
an example. I remember back when I was playing for
the Dodgers. We were facing Tim Linzkombe. And if you
don't remember, Tim Linskin was a shorter guy, but he
had trema this angle, lived on high fastballs and lived
on swings and misses on us change up in the dirt.
It looked like a bugs bunny pitch. It almost stopped.
And Donnie against when we faced him, his meeting was simple,
(07:12):
I don't care if we swing through high fastballs. We're
not gonna chase down. So we told us to raise
our sights up. And I won't say that we beat him,
but we survived him, and we eliminated the change up
in the dirt. And when you give a hitter and
out to not feel like he is okay to make
a mistake, it kind of opens up. His thought process was,
(07:35):
if linsenkom throws a fastball that's not quite up enough,
if our hitters click it, it's gonna be a point,
it's gonna be a homer, or it's gonna be hit
really hard. So that was that was just an example
of how Donnie simplified some of the great pictures of
each era. And Donnie is a fantastic job of breaking
down counts, breaking down what their go to pitch with
(07:57):
Menet's corn position is against you, against your style of hitter.
So you know that's something that that's something to look
for for me. The Blue Jays can run the Dodgers.
I don't know glass now, high leg kick. You gotta
you know this. For this thing to work for the
Blue Jays, they're gonna have to take advantage of every
little break they get. The split from Yamamoto, They're gonna
(08:18):
have to be aggressive on balls from the dirt. There's
just gonna have to be. You're gonna have to play
with your hair on fire. You're gonna have to force
the issue it. Sometimes you can't just sit back when
other teams are more talented than you. You can't just
sit back and hope for the best. If you go
attack them and put pressure on them. I'm not saying
they're gonna make a mistake, but they're more apt to
(08:38):
every break they give you. You're gonna have to kick
the door opening and go ahead and take advantage of it.
What do the Blue Jays do about Boba Shet That's
a tough one. He's eighteen homers, ninety four the eyes,
obviously one of the top shortstops in baseball. It's gonna
be a tough decision for Snyder and Ross Atkins and
everybody involved in the Blue Jays, because of course Bo's
(09:01):
gonna want to play, and if this is the regular season,
there's not a question you put him right back in
the lineup. But this isn't This is a seven game series.
It's a race to four wins. He hasn't seen a pitch.
He hasn't played a game since September fifth. You can
take all the batting practice you want, you can face
all the simulated games you want, it's not the same thing. Also,
the the Blue Jays have something good going. They've already
(09:21):
made the World Series. He manages done an above average
job at making the plays and coming up with key,
key hits. Obviously, Boba Schett's a better player, but maybe
not the better player right now. So that's a decision
to look for and understand that can change. You know,
you change. You take one guy of the lineup, even
if it isn't All Star, and interject him back. Where
(09:42):
do you hit him? What are the expectations? Can he
handle it? I'm sure he ken His dad played forever
and I've heard him on social media and I've heard
him talk hitting and it's it's special. So Bo's I
managed against that same team that I manage against with
Ladd Junior at Bobaschett on it two I think one
was nineteen and one was barely eighteen, and they were
(10:04):
leap years better than everybody else in that league. So
the talent's there. Interesting dynamic to see what the Blue
Jays do with that. How did the Blue Jays pull
this off? I said it before match. The starting pitches,
survive them, find a way to keep throwing up zeros
and keeping the games close. Get deep into that pen,
keep gain from the striking distance. You know, once the
(10:24):
Dodger starters come out, leave yourself enough outs to make
a push. Continue their relentless one through nine at bats,
even if you don't score. There's ways to put pressure
on people and to you know, the most overlooked thing
from a casual baseball fan is the importance of a
foul ball, the importance of fouling off a put away pitch.
(10:47):
You keep making that guy make pitches, and if you
saw it, if you watch the other games, you watch
that Mariners Blue Jay series, there was a lot of
pitches that split the plate. They made quality pitches, but
as soon as it caught the white part of the plate,
guys got the racewing off didn't what didn't result always
in success. But the more times you force a guy
(11:08):
over the white part of the plate, the better the
results are gonna be. To me, Bieber and Suzer got
a pitch better than they did against the MS. Bieber
was not good in Game seven, a lot of mistakes.
He made a lot of quality pitches, but every at
bat there was one or two pitches in there that
could do some damage. I mean, the Mariners lineup is
not the Dodger lineup. You make a mistake to anybody
(11:30):
in the Dodger lineup, and it's gonna be it's gonna
it's gonna be a problem. Sureser, what are you gonna get.
The luxury is he's probably gonna have over a week's rest.
Obviously forty one years old. This isn't Max, it was
twenty five, twenty four years old. But you love the
competitor in him. Yes, you want him out there, Kenny
Canny give you four? Can he give you four quality innings? Kenny, yes, Willie,
(11:52):
who knows? But having those extra few days it's gonna
be a bonus. Most of the time in these seven
game series, Game four is usually a crazy one. Game four,
Game five is usually that hiring score, high score game
where the pitching are pitching is getting thin. You don't
want to wear your bullpen out. That's usually when the
games get a little crazy and be able to turn
(12:14):
to a guy who's pitched twenty plus years in the
big leagues. It's not a bad thing. So Max has
a million ways to get you out. He's gonna he's
gonna need every one of them to give the Blue
Jays the quality innings that they're gonna need. If the
Dodgers make a mistake, and they don't make them often,
they have to capitalize on it. They make an error,
they give an extra base. The Blue Jays have to
capitalize on every mistake that the Dodgers give them. And
(12:36):
for the Dodgers, just keep doing what you're doing. I
mean for me, it's drive the same way to the
park every day, eat the same food, don't change a thing.
They're battle tested. They can beat you. You know. The
beauty of both these lineups, especially the Dodgers are so
multifaceted and how they score runs. They can beat you
with the long ball, they can they can manufacture a run,
(12:58):
they can steal a base, they can work a walk.
They just they have October flair. Obviously, Otani three home runs,
but Kiki Hernandez is, you know, one of the best
generational October players we're seeing right now. He always finds
a way to come up with huge hits and he's
a force in October. Max Munsey gives you a quality
(13:20):
at that every time he goes up there. Like I said,
you watched that Brewers series, even though the sweep, those
games were close, and I go back to the Max
Munsey ball that bounced off the wall that ended up
being adult play a lot of teams in October. It
takes him a couple of innings to rebound Rogers. What
happened Blake Snell went out threw an eight pitch inning,
(13:40):
got the boys back in the hit and they came
right back out and got a couple of hits that
and he put pressure back on the Brewers. That's what
October experience will do for you. Nothing changes, They keep going.
They just they're relentless. They keep coming and they have
ways to beat you, and they've beaten you. They're also
multifaceted in in the pitching department too. Last year they
realized that they needed more depth in the starting pitching.
(14:03):
They got it. So their bullpen isn't the same as
it was last year. But that's almost impossible to do
because they were so good last year and they were durable.
I think you saw the Blue Jays Mariner series. Both
bullpens weren't the same because they're guys getting trotted out there.
And again, it's not that you know a lot of
fans and a lot of people talk on Twitter about
(14:24):
like only only through fifteen pitches. Well, there's a lot
more than fifteen pitches in October. It's pressure pack pitches,
high leverage situations. Every inning they come in the game,
it's a high leverage situation. You had to get up,
you had to warm up. So now you've got to
go through that mental grind of getting yourself ready to go.
You have adrenaline, you got to harness it. Every pitch matters,
(14:46):
the up and downs matter, and the more you bring
a guy out of the pen, usually it's advantage hitter.
So my heart wants this to be a six game series.
I truly think the Dodgers win in five. I would
love to see the Blue Jays get this thing back
to Toronto for Game six and seven, but they're going
(15:06):
to have to at least split it home the first two.
I think their best bet to me is Game one.
You know, the Dodgers, I know they're veteran Leyden October
battle tested team, but having a week off sometimes it
takes some time to get back in the swing of things.
And the Blue Jays can take advantage of that long
series with the Mariners and and keep the train rolling.
(15:28):
So you know, you expect if the Blue Jays, for me,
game one is is huge. Game one is more important
for the Blue Jays than it is than it is
the Dodgers. Blake Snell can he do it again? I'm
my gosh, he's been absolutely filthy this this this postseason.
He's coming off an eight innings, one hit performance. Can
he back it up again? That's you know, to expect
(15:49):
eight innings and want to hit again is almost impossible.
But he has this stuff to do it. He's already
beaten him once this year. You know, look for you know, Junior,
first time in the World Series. He's been phenomenal this postseason.
They'se got more homers than strikeouts. That you can't say
that too often in today's baseball. That goes without saying.
He's he's been locked in since since Game one, and
(16:12):
you know, it's been fun to watch. It's been fun
to watch the Ernie Clements of the world. Var shows.
Keep an eye on the ball Show. I said this
earlier in other podcast. He was getting close to where
he was, Like he was against the Yankees at home
the first two games. And there's a sneaky, sneaky power guy.
I think get twenty plus homers only seventy games. That's
a lot of homers that's on pace for you know,
(16:35):
forty or fifty. So he can carry you. So Barger's
swinging the bat right now, so everybody in that lineup,
The Blue Jays have a good feel going. You know,
they got a little snarl to him to losing the
first two games at home to the Mariners. Put their
back against the wall and they responded. So this should
be you know, this is two different changing of the
(16:56):
guard the way baseball has been run the last several years.
Blue Jays are getting more into into putting the ball
in play, not weekly putting the ball in play. You know,
you put the ball in play, you increase your chance
of a thousand of getting hit. You don't have to
hit a ball one hundred and twenty miles an hour
off the bat for to be a hit and for
you to be an October legend. So this should be interesting.
I'm looking forward to it. You know, look look more
(17:18):
for this. This podcast will go over probably break down
each game and it's its entirety. Also looking forward to
the crowds. I mean, Dodger Stadium is historic, Rogers Center
has been has been been rocking like crazy. It's gonna
be It's gonna be a fun series. I'm looking forward
to this. That regard, look for more breakdowns of Game
(17:40):
one and two in the near future. And that's going
to wrap up this edition of the Dugout. Check us
out wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify again.
If you have questions, comments, things, you have questions you
want to, you know, discuss on a podcast, hit me
up on Twitter. I love I love in interacting and
talking and talking baseball to fans. You don't have to
(18:01):
agree all the time. That's okay too. If you don't agree,
that's fine. I don't get upset, I don't get frustrated.
You know you're entitled your opinion too, So until next time.
This is the dugout saying see you next time.
Welcome back, everybody. I'm Doug Mkavic and this is the
Dugout Podcast. Today we're gonna go over a little World
Series preview between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los
Angeles Dodgers. Blue Jay's coming off of a late inning
George Springer three run homer in the seventh and exciting
Game seven to overtake the Mariners up against the Los
(00:25):
Angeles Dodgers, who seem to be on a mini vacation
since they dismantled the Milwaukee Brewers. First off, I think
the Dodgers, if you asked me, we're probably pulling for
the Mariners for one reason and one reason only. That
way they don't have to make the track across the
country go through customs all the way to Toronto. At
this point, I don't think you really care, but that
(00:46):
travel would have been nice to stay on the West coast.
To me, this is interesting for me because I call
it the Don Mattingley Redemption Tour. Don Mattingley has been
spent forty years in Major League based It's just it's
ironic and how beautiful baseball really is. Donnie played for
(01:06):
the Yankees and coach for the Yankees. The Blue Jays
took down the Yankees and the Alds move on to
the Alcs. The one time Donnie got to the postseason
in nineteen ninety five was against the Mariners, so he
took care of that. And now moving to the Los
Angeles Dodgers, where Donnie was a hitting coach and also
(01:27):
the manager for several years. So if that's not poetic,
nothing is. We'll break down rotations, keys to each team
to kind of pull off the Blue Jays to pull
off this upset, and what the Dodgers need to do
to continue their success. First and foremost for me, break
down both rotations. Obviously you have for the Blue Jays,
(01:47):
you have Gosman, you have your Savage, if Bieber, you
have Max Scherzer. Dodgers are going to roll out there
at Blake Snell, Havemamoto Tyler Glass now and obviously show hey.
Obviously the edge to me goes obviously it's not that hard.
It goes to the Dodgers. Couple intriguing kind of sidebars
(02:08):
to me is how do the Dodgers' left handed hitters
do against the split against Gosman and especially a Savage,
a Savage as a guy they haven't seen yet, and
as a hitter, familiarity is something you like. You can
watch all the video you want, and until you're standing
down the barrel of a gun at sixty feet six inches,
(02:29):
you don't really know what it looks like and what
it does. With his angle and his split. Obviously you
saw that success against the Yankees when they saw him
for the first time. Obviously he had his a stuff
which helped. But you know, to see this young kid
for the first time in a World Series setting, it's
gonna be interesting. Obviously, Gosman split, you know, there's gonna be.
(02:52):
There's gonna be It's gonna have to take some right
handed hitters to kind of do this. The Dodgers are obviously.
The one thing that sticks out in my mind about
the Dodgers' offense. Stay in the strike zone. They make
you throw it over, and when you throw it over,
make a mistake, they're ready to pounce. So for me,
it boils down to one thing. Can the Blue Jays
survive the Dodgers' rotation? Can they hold games close enough
(03:16):
to give themselves enough outs to get deeper into the bullpen? Obviously,
the Dodgers back end is is they're Okay, they're pretty
good obviously, but you get deeper into that pen, it
can there's some there's some there's some holes there. To me,
it's the only way they can do this is if
they their starters. The Blue Jays starters have to match
(03:39):
the Dodgers starters keep the games close. It's like anytime
you face an ace, you don't really try to beat them,
you just try to survive them. And if the Blue
Jays can keep it close, you know, one run, two
runs throughout the course of the first five six innings
and make Dave Roberts go to a guy he doesn't
really have a ton of confidence in. That's where the
(03:59):
you know, leave themselves enough outs to make to mount
some kind of comeback. Because the Blue Jays lead the
league and comeback victories, that's something to watch to me.
This is both teams. I think these are the teams
that if you're a baseball truist in the sense of
the word throw away the payroll. Obviously, the Dodgers payroll,
they can go get everybody they want, but the way
(04:20):
these teams are built, they can beat you many ways.
The Dodgers are coming off of a World Series where
they pretty much wont with their bullpen they want with
their bullpen. In their offense, this year is different. It's
it's more their starters are more. There are more their
their star are more dependable, they go deeper. It's more
of their strength than it was last year. So both
(04:42):
lineups have ways. They both can hit them over the fence,
and they both can manufacture runs. They both do a
great job of putting pressure on the opponent. So, you know,
I always have this argument all the time. People want
to talk about the new wave hitting people. You know,
people think contact or you know, just just make contact.
(05:02):
We're not talking about soft contact. You know, people think
that you know, contact or working accounts means passive. No,
actually it means the exact opposite. It means you're aggressive
in the strike zone. If you know the strike zone,
you're going to be aggressive in it, and if it's
in there, you take your a swing. So, you know,
I always get that question a thousand times from parents
and from other coaches, like, yeah, we're trying. I want
(05:25):
guys that know the strike zone. Guys know the strike zone.
Generally hit and everybody in October is dangerous. Everybody at
the major league level can hit a home run. Everybody
with the intention of detail, especially in a World Series.
Your attention of details at an all time high, and
you're seeing guys and seeing swings throughout the course of
time in baseball. The Mark Lemke's of the World of
the Braves back in the day when he was hitting
(05:47):
seventh or eighth, and he came through with big hit
after big hit after big hit. It's usually from someone
you don't expect, and the Blue Jays have those guys
up another lineup. Don't underestimate the Blue Jays coaching staff.
I've talked about it on this podcast, how impressive Donnie
and Popkins are at breaking down other teams pitching their
(06:08):
plans are It's one thing to have a plan. It's
one thing to teach a plan or to give them
a plan. But these guys have enough. Blue just have
enough guys to execute them. And you've seen that throughout
the course of the playoffs and throughout the course of
the season for that matter. Donnie does a fantastic job
of breaking down pitching and breaking down what to look
(06:28):
for for each not only for you as a group,
but for you as an individual. And when you hear
it from someone of Donnie's caliber, of Donnie's background, of
Donnie's you know, a legendary player, one of the best
players of his era. And to hear that confidence from
a guy like that, the thing that makes him so
good as he keeps it so simple. I'll give you
(06:50):
an example. I remember back when I was playing for
the Dodgers. We were facing Tim Linzkombe. And if you
don't remember, Tim Linskin was a shorter guy, but he
had trema this angle, lived on high fastballs and lived
on swings and misses on us change up in the dirt.
It looked like a bugs bunny pitch. It almost stopped.
And Donnie against when we faced him, his meeting was simple,
(07:12):
I don't care if we swing through high fastballs. We're
not gonna chase down. So we told us to raise
our sights up. And I won't say that we beat him,
but we survived him, and we eliminated the change up
in the dirt. And when you give a hitter and
out to not feel like he is okay to make
a mistake, it kind of opens up. His thought process was,
(07:35):
if linsenkom throws a fastball that's not quite up enough,
if our hitters click it, it's gonna be a point,
it's gonna be a homer, or it's gonna be hit
really hard. So that was that was just an example
of how Donnie simplified some of the great pictures of
each era. And Donnie is a fantastic job of breaking
down counts, breaking down what their go to pitch with
(07:57):
Menet's corn position is against you, against your style of hitter.
So you know that's something that that's something to look
for for me. The Blue Jays can run the Dodgers.
I don't know glass now, high leg kick. You gotta
you know this. For this thing to work for the
Blue Jays, they're gonna have to take advantage of every
little break they get. The split from Yamamoto, They're gonna
(08:18):
have to be aggressive on balls from the dirt. There's
just gonna have to be. You're gonna have to play
with your hair on fire. You're gonna have to force
the issue it. Sometimes you can't just sit back when
other teams are more talented than you. You can't just
sit back and hope for the best. If you go
attack them and put pressure on them. I'm not saying
they're gonna make a mistake, but they're more apt to
(08:38):
every break they give you. You're gonna have to kick
the door opening and go ahead and take advantage of it.
What do the Blue Jays do about Boba Shet That's
a tough one. He's eighteen homers, ninety four the eyes,
obviously one of the top shortstops in baseball. It's gonna
be a tough decision for Snyder and Ross Atkins and
everybody involved in the Blue Jays, because of course Bo's
(09:01):
gonna want to play, and if this is the regular season,
there's not a question you put him right back in
the lineup. But this isn't This is a seven game series.
It's a race to four wins. He hasn't seen a pitch.
He hasn't played a game since September fifth. You can
take all the batting practice you want, you can face
all the simulated games you want, it's not the same thing. Also,
the the Blue Jays have something good going. They've already
(09:21):
made the World Series. He manages done an above average
job at making the plays and coming up with key,
key hits. Obviously, Boba Schett's a better player, but maybe
not the better player right now. So that's a decision
to look for and understand that can change. You know,
you change. You take one guy of the lineup, even
if it isn't All Star, and interject him back. Where
(09:42):
do you hit him? What are the expectations? Can he
handle it? I'm sure he ken His dad played forever
and I've heard him on social media and I've heard
him talk hitting and it's it's special. So Bo's I
managed against that same team that I manage against with
Ladd Junior at Bobaschett on it two I think one
was nineteen and one was barely eighteen, and they were
(10:04):
leap years better than everybody else in that league. So
the talent's there. Interesting dynamic to see what the Blue
Jays do with that. How did the Blue Jays pull
this off? I said it before match. The starting pitches,
survive them, find a way to keep throwing up zeros
and keeping the games close. Get deep into that pen,
keep gain from the striking distance. You know, once the
(10:24):
Dodger starters come out, leave yourself enough outs to make
a push. Continue their relentless one through nine at bats,
even if you don't score. There's ways to put pressure
on people and to you know, the most overlooked thing
from a casual baseball fan is the importance of a
foul ball, the importance of fouling off a put away pitch.
(10:47):
You keep making that guy make pitches, and if you
saw it, if you watch the other games, you watch
that Mariners Blue Jay series, there was a lot of
pitches that split the plate. They made quality pitches, but
as soon as it caught the white part of the plate,
guys got the racewing off didn't what didn't result always
in success. But the more times you force a guy
(11:08):
over the white part of the plate, the better the
results are gonna be. To me, Bieber and Suzer got
a pitch better than they did against the MS. Bieber
was not good in Game seven, a lot of mistakes.
He made a lot of quality pitches, but every at
bat there was one or two pitches in there that
could do some damage. I mean, the Mariners lineup is
not the Dodger lineup. You make a mistake to anybody
(11:30):
in the Dodger lineup, and it's gonna be it's gonna
it's gonna be a problem. Sureser, what are you gonna get.
The luxury is he's probably gonna have over a week's rest.
Obviously forty one years old. This isn't Max, it was
twenty five, twenty four years old. But you love the
competitor in him. Yes, you want him out there, Kenny
Canny give you four? Can he give you four quality innings? Kenny, yes, Willie,
(11:52):
who knows? But having those extra few days it's gonna
be a bonus. Most of the time in these seven
game series, Game four is usually a crazy one. Game four,
Game five is usually that hiring score, high score game
where the pitching are pitching is getting thin. You don't
want to wear your bullpen out. That's usually when the
games get a little crazy and be able to turn
(12:14):
to a guy who's pitched twenty plus years in the
big leagues. It's not a bad thing. So Max has
a million ways to get you out. He's gonna he's
gonna need every one of them to give the Blue
Jays the quality innings that they're gonna need. If the
Dodgers make a mistake, and they don't make them often,
they have to capitalize on it. They make an error,
they give an extra base. The Blue Jays have to
capitalize on every mistake that the Dodgers give them. And
(12:36):
for the Dodgers, just keep doing what you're doing. I
mean for me, it's drive the same way to the
park every day, eat the same food, don't change a thing.
They're battle tested. They can beat you. You know. The
beauty of both these lineups, especially the Dodgers are so
multifaceted and how they score runs. They can beat you
with the long ball, they can they can manufacture a run,
(12:58):
they can steal a base, they can work a walk.
They just they have October flair. Obviously, Otani three home runs,
but Kiki Hernandez is, you know, one of the best
generational October players we're seeing right now. He always finds
a way to come up with huge hits and he's
a force in October. Max Munsey gives you a quality
(13:20):
at that every time he goes up there. Like I said,
you watched that Brewers series, even though the sweep, those
games were close, and I go back to the Max
Munsey ball that bounced off the wall that ended up
being adult play a lot of teams in October. It
takes him a couple of innings to rebound Rogers. What
happened Blake Snell went out threw an eight pitch inning,
(13:40):
got the boys back in the hit and they came
right back out and got a couple of hits that
and he put pressure back on the Brewers. That's what
October experience will do for you. Nothing changes, They keep going.
They just they're relentless. They keep coming and they have
ways to beat you, and they've beaten you. They're also
multifaceted in in the pitching department too. Last year they
realized that they needed more depth in the starting pitching.
(14:03):
They got it. So their bullpen isn't the same as
it was last year. But that's almost impossible to do
because they were so good last year and they were durable.
I think you saw the Blue Jays Mariner series. Both
bullpens weren't the same because they're guys getting trotted out there.
And again, it's not that you know a lot of
fans and a lot of people talk on Twitter about
(14:24):
like only only through fifteen pitches. Well, there's a lot
more than fifteen pitches in October. It's pressure pack pitches,
high leverage situations. Every inning they come in the game,
it's a high leverage situation. You had to get up,
you had to warm up. So now you've got to
go through that mental grind of getting yourself ready to go.
You have adrenaline, you got to harness it. Every pitch matters,
(14:46):
the up and downs matter, and the more you bring
a guy out of the pen, usually it's advantage hitter.
So my heart wants this to be a six game series.
I truly think the Dodgers win in five. I would
love to see the Blue Jays get this thing back
to Toronto for Game six and seven, but they're going
(15:06):
to have to at least split it home the first two.
I think their best bet to me is Game one.
You know, the Dodgers, I know they're veteran Leyden October
battle tested team, but having a week off sometimes it
takes some time to get back in the swing of things.
And the Blue Jays can take advantage of that long
series with the Mariners and and keep the train rolling.
(15:28):
So you know, you expect if the Blue Jays, for me,
game one is is huge. Game one is more important
for the Blue Jays than it is than it is
the Dodgers. Blake Snell can he do it again? I'm
my gosh, he's been absolutely filthy this this this postseason.
He's coming off an eight innings, one hit performance. Can
he back it up again? That's you know, to expect
(15:49):
eight innings and want to hit again is almost impossible.
But he has this stuff to do it. He's already
beaten him once this year. You know, look for you know, Junior,
first time in the World Series. He's been phenomenal this postseason.
They'se got more homers than strikeouts. That you can't say
that too often in today's baseball. That goes without saying.
He's he's been locked in since since Game one, and
(16:12):
you know, it's been fun to watch. It's been fun
to watch the Ernie Clements of the world. Var shows.
Keep an eye on the ball Show. I said this
earlier in other podcast. He was getting close to where
he was, Like he was against the Yankees at home
the first two games. And there's a sneaky, sneaky power guy.
I think get twenty plus homers only seventy games. That's
a lot of homers that's on pace for you know,
(16:35):
forty or fifty. So he can carry you. So Barger's
swinging the bat right now, so everybody in that lineup,
The Blue Jays have a good feel going. You know,
they got a little snarl to him to losing the
first two games at home to the Mariners. Put their
back against the wall and they responded. So this should
be you know, this is two different changing of the
(16:56):
guard the way baseball has been run the last several years.
Blue Jays are getting more into into putting the ball
in play, not weekly putting the ball in play. You know,
you put the ball in play, you increase your chance
of a thousand of getting hit. You don't have to
hit a ball one hundred and twenty miles an hour
off the bat for to be a hit and for
you to be an October legend. So this should be interesting.
I'm looking forward to it. You know, look look more
(17:18):
for this. This podcast will go over probably break down
each game and it's its entirety. Also looking forward to
the crowds. I mean, Dodger Stadium is historic, Rogers Center
has been has been been rocking like crazy. It's gonna
be It's gonna be a fun series. I'm looking forward
to this. That regard, look for more breakdowns of Game
(17:40):
one and two in the near future. And that's going
to wrap up this edition of the Dugout. Check us
out wherever you listen to your favorite podcast, Apple, Spotify again.
If you have questions, comments, things, you have questions you
want to, you know, discuss on a podcast, hit me
up on Twitter. I love I love in interacting and
talking and talking baseball to fans. You don't have to
(18:01):
agree all the time. That's okay too. If you don't agree,
that's fine. I don't get upset, I don't get frustrated.
You know you're entitled your opinion too, So until next time.
This is the dugout saying see you next time.
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