October 20, 2025 • 49 mins
Steve Sax and Tim Cates look back at what Shohei Ohtani did in Game 4 of the NLCS. Is it the greatest performance in baseball history? The backstory on how Roki Sasaki became the closer for the Dodgers and how it was up to him to decide he wanted to pitch out of the bullpen this October.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
They say. The hardest thing in sports isn't winning a title.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's hard to repeat seasons.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's winning it again.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
This year is not trying to win a championship, They're
trying to repeat.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's October baseball for your world champion in La Dodger.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
The twenty twenty five Dodgers are the National League's Western
Division champions.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And you know what that means.
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Saxon Kates and Am is back.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is Saxon Kates in the Morning with Tim Kates
and former World Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
Reacting taking your phone calls talking Dodgers playoff baseball all
postseason long.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Now here they are on AM five to seventy LA
Sports and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (00:43):
Steve Sacks, Tim Kaits, Tim Kates.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And world Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
Ah not a playoff edition of scam, a World Series edition.
I'm Sack and Kates in the Am. Yes, as the
Dodgers are going back to the Fall Classic and man
are we excited for what is coming up? I am
Tim Kats along with two times World serious Champion, Rookie
(01:14):
of the Year and our favorite number three to wear
a Dodger uniform. The one and only Steve Sacks sexy.
Good Monday morning to you, buddy. How you doing.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
What's up? Tim?
Speaker 5 (01:24):
Oh? What a weekend it was here in southern California.
So much going on, and they got off to a
great start on Friday night with our Dodgers. Really solidified
his spots with a win over the Brewers in Game
four the NLCS. And here we are back to back
trips to the Fall Classic for the Los Angeles Dodgers,
(01:45):
and they did it in a business like effort and
after the game, it was so fun to see this
team celebrate. But I thought it was very interesting Steve,
that this was a businesslike approach from the Dodgers after
the win, just the victory formation, high five line, a
little bit of a celebration on the field, certainly popping
the champagne and alcohol inside the Dodger batting cage celebration,
(02:07):
but on the field it was very business esque. Is
this team has got more to finish?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
They got more to finish, no question.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
But the great thing about it is the experience factor
you can see is just running out of this team.
Not that they, you know, take anything for granted because
they don't. But the business aspect I think you see
with that body language is the proper one. Don't get
too high, don't get too low. Although you must celebrate,
I think after these victories, even the small celebration that
(02:39):
they had against the Reds, you got to do this
every time. You got to, you know, reward the team
for that accomplishment. You have the next step up. And
while we are in a World Series talk today, we're
still in playoff mode really because we still have one
more game to go and that's going to be tonight.
So we'll see what happens after tonight where the Dodgers
will play, whether it be home field or will be
(03:01):
on the road.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, a lot riding on the lion tonight for Game
seven of the American League Championship Series. With the Blue
Jays and Mariners tied and three a piece. As the
Blue Jays beat the Mariners last night six to two
in Game six to force a Game seven, Vlad Guerrero
continues to have a monstrous October for Toronto, but tonight
winner moves on to face the Dodgers in the World Series.
(03:23):
That game is in Toronto at the Rogers Center, and
as you mentioned, a lot riding on it. With Seattle winning,
the Dodgers would have home field in the World Series
beginning Friday, and if the Toronto Blue Jays win, it'll
be the home field for the Blue Jays beginning Friday
night at the Rogers Center for Game one of the
World Series. So a lot riding on who the Dodgers
will face and win and where they'll face them.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, I think you know, the the
networks would love to have it beat Toronto, La. Then
you have East West, you have you know, you have
US versus Canada. You got a lot more at stake.
You could build up a lot more, I think. But boy,
I think the players would think, hey, you know, we
got a short trip up to Seattle, we got home
(04:07):
field advantage. I think that's where it lies with the Dodgers.
Bet I'm not in that clubhouse every day, So maybe
this is a question for David Vasse.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Yeah, Dave will join us in the eight o'clock hour.
We got a lot to get to over the next
three hours, including your phone calls at eight, six, six, nine,
eighty seven, two five seventy. We're gonna get into this
game on Friday night in just a second later on
this hoary. Some interesting comments from Andrew Freeman on a
five seventy LA Sports on Friday when asked about Rokie
Sasaki and a little bit of the story is how
(04:38):
he became the Dodgers closer here in October had not
heard Andrew Freeman mention this or talk about the backstory,
but you will hear what he had to say coming
up later on this hour in the seven o'clock hour.
One of the narratives around baseball, Dave Roberts addressed it
in the celebration on the field was that the Dodgers
are ruining baseball. So we'll get into that in the
seven o'clock hour. Also, it's even the nl West is
(05:01):
looking to hire a college coach to be their next manager.
Maybe Pat Murphy has started a trend around Major League Baseball.
Will get sax's opinion on what is happening there in
San Francisco with the Giants. Also in the eight o'clock hour,
your phone calls Mariners or Blue Jays, who you want
to see the Dodgers face in the World Series. But
we go back to Friday night, just an epic performance
(05:24):
from show Hey Otani six shutout Indians on the mound.
Dodgers beat the Brewers five to one, but stax Saxon,
We're we're now being told this is the greatest performance
in Major League Baseball history with the six shutout Indians,
the ten strikeouts, and the three home runs that show
Aotani hit. First off, your your initial impressions when you're
(05:47):
watching show, Hey Otani do what he did on Friday night?
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Well he, uh, you know, first of all too in
a small sense here if you want to call it that,
I'm just trying to get this in sections, if you will.
But he goes out and he strikes out the first
three guys, runs over to the dugout, puts his hitting
costume on, and then he goes up and hits a
mammoth blast. And you know, he's had the world looking
(06:14):
at him because he was one for eighteen and he
had what eight or nine strikeouts, and he was facing
the toughest of the tough when you talk about left
handed pitching, going back to Philly and all that, they
had the you know, really tough guys he had to face.
And then something clicked. He started to turn around. Remember
he had the batting practice on the field. Who knows
(06:35):
if that made a difference. He was able to see
the flight of the ball. He did hit three out
over the stadium in batting practice. Maybe this was something
that helped him. You could see Otani I think hitting
more on the field. I mean, after all, it is
maybe a sheer coincidence, and maybe it isn't that he
was able to really get his act together. I thought
(06:55):
in his final at bats the previous game, where you
saw him taking pitches on the outside part of the
plate and not flinching, not pulling out. Uh I remember
we talked about that in studio. Is ah I see
something a little bit different about Otani.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I don't see the reaction. I don't see him jolting
out of the out of the box with his right.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
Shoulder, trying to pull too quick, and maybe he's gearing
more left central and that to me is a great
indicator that he's tracking the ball better. And sure enough,
that's what he did. You know on Friday's game. It
was amazing, probably the most epic performance I've seen. When
you want to comment, when you combine pitching and hitting together,
of course nobody else does that, but if you add
(07:36):
it all up, yeah, it might be the best performance
I've seen.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
In a long time. And I was charting the game.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
I was calling the game when Nick Kurtz had his
four home run game and just missed his fifth home
run by about three inches. I called that game that
might have been the greatest performance offensively. But when you
when you round it all up and say the three
home runs plus the pitching performance, man, it's hard to
argue that this might be the best performance ever.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I mean, the three home runs alone from sho Heyo
Tani would go into a feat that not a lot
of guys have done in the history Baseball. Only twenty
one players have ever done that hit three home runs
in a postseason game. Then you add the ten strikeouts
and six shutout Innians. If we wouldn't have seen what
Blake Snell has already done this postseason and Yamamoto did
(08:24):
with the complete game, we could be talking about what
that was one of the best postseason outings this October
from sho Heyo Tani. But he's got other guys step
up and pitch equally as well, if not better. But
the combination of the three home runs, hitting one of
them out of Dodger Stadium and the six shutout Indians.
I don't think people comprehend how hard that is. Then
(08:45):
the non baseball fan who I talked to over the weekend,
whether it's family or friends, that follow the game, and
you know, they hear Otani hit three home runs and
what a performance. Some of them are like, I don't
understand what the big deal is. So he hit a
couple home runs and he struck out some batter. I
don't even understand. Nobody does this, Like, you either do
one or the other. You either throw six shutout innings
(09:07):
and strikeout ten or you hit three home runs. You
don't do both.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Would we would be marveling, tim if there was a
guy that was out there playing on a team that
was able to pitch and come in.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And you know, maybe pitch an inning or two. Maybe
he was a.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Middle relief guy and he was an outfielder as well,
that could you know, go from the outfield, go to
the pitchers mound, pitching in and or two. This is
a guy that maybe hits two eighty and hits twelve
home runs. We'd be marveling at the fact that the
guy could do that. He's a two way player. Look
at this, how does he change from going being an
outfielder to a pitcher, or maybe he's a guy that
(09:44):
comes from the outfield to close or something. But he's
a guy that's, you know, a good hitter that can
hit you know, twelve to twenty home runs a year,
and we're just we just can't believe what we're seeing.
Otani is is miles ahead of that. This is this
is one of the best pitchers in the game, with
the most incredible stuff, and he's the guy in the
game that has the most power that can lie to
(10:07):
up better than anybody. Oh yeah, did I mention that
he can steal fifty bases? This is ridiculous what we're seeing.
It's we've taken him for granted way too much, way
too much. There should be a lot more pomp and
circumstance when it comes to what Shohei Otani can do.
He can hit, he can hit it farther than anybody,
(10:28):
He can run better than anybody. He can pitch is
good or better than anybody, and the overall hitting performances
are just about better than anybody.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I don't know what else you can say. I mean,
this guy's a unicorn.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I mean, the numbers speak for himself with any you
start diving into the numbers. I mean, he becomes the
first pitcher with multiple home runs in a postseason game.
He joins Bob Gibson as the only pitchers to have
hit at least one home run and strikeout ten in
the game. Gibson did it twice, but show Hayes is
the only player to hit three home runs in strikeout
(11:01):
ten and a game. I mean, this was his thirteenth
three home run game in postseason history. The Dodgers, It's
the Dodgers have seen Chris Taylor do it, and Keik
a Hernandez do it. Reggie Jackson did it, Babe Ruth
did it twice. It was the sixth of thirteen three
(11:21):
home run games to come into postseason clinching series. I mean,
you just start diving into numbers. The three home runs
x velocities over one hundred and thirteen miles per hour,
the hardest hit balls in the postseason, and three home
runs in the stat Cast era. I mean, you really
start diving deep into these numbers of the minutia, that is,
all these numbers that we see here with joey Otani,
(11:43):
the longest home run with four hundred and sixty nine
feet in postseason at Dodger History. I mean, this is
all stuff you'll never see again, and things you may
see individually in the course of a season or a career,
but you put them all together in one big present
with a bow on top, you just will never see
(12:04):
it again.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
No, we'll never see this again. As I said the
other day, Tim, I think shoe Otani is maybe one
hundred years ahead of his time. We may see another
player like this. We won't be alive when we when it.
Probably when it happens, not to this extent, but I
think he's probably one hundred years ahead of his time.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And I mean, look at you.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
You just mentioned the stuff that he did pitching. How
about what he did this year and last year, the
last couple of years offensively, just in and of itself.
This year, Tim, he scored one hundred and forty six
runs this year. I mean, that's just doesn't happen, right, Okay,
he hit fifty nine jacks, he drove in over one hundred.
Most of the year he was leading off, and he
(12:48):
still drove in one hundred runs. Okay, he hit two
eighty two, which is far better than most people hit
this you know in baseball now, I think the mean
averages in the two forties, and he also stole twenty bases.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
His ops is on base plus slugging was over a thousand.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
I mean, these numbers just don't happen, and we again,
we almost take it for granted.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Oh okay, so those are his numbers. But that's sho
hey o Tani.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
It's just like we're getting ahead really of just kind
of let's microanalyze some of the things he does all
the time and celebrate it and not take it for granted.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
That's how good he is. I think for me, it's
even more impressed. I mean, all the numbers are impressive,
and I think, wow, this is a guy who struggled,
as you mentioned, so much this postseason, and it's been
talked about for the last two weeks, his struggles and
when is he gonna get going? And he changed up
his routine and David Evans alluded to it on the
postgame show on Friday night, and talking to Freddie Freeman
(13:51):
pregame show, Hay was mad. Sho Hay had been hearing
these things. I mean, we talked to David last week
about it at the press conference, though he was at
and show. He was asked repeatedly about his struggles and
started to get annoyed with the questions about can he
be a two way player? Is the offensive numbers bringing
him down? Is it worth him being a hitter and
(14:14):
a pitcher in the same game. Is it worth him
pitching if the day after he pitches his numbers are
still not very good. All these things were starting to
rear their ugly heads as far as questions and whether
he can do it and whether this was feasible moving
forward for him to be a two way player. And
he went out Friday night Saxy and he basically squashed
(14:34):
any talk anymore that he can't do it, that he
is not able to pitch and hit the same game
and be productive.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, and sometimes you know, you got to do that
to silence the press.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
And you know, for even him to get to get mad,
that really says something, you know, if he's getting irritated
with the press, because he doesn't change that expression too much.
He doesn't let us in to see some of the
times where he gets arked on. I'm sure sometimes that
he does. But the expectations imagine him after every game,
the expectations are so high for this guy. If he
(15:11):
has an unbelievable game where he hits a couple of
home runs, steals a couple of bases and pitches, well,
people are gonna, well, you know that's you know, he's
supposed to do that. We just take it for granted
too much. I think I don't take it for granted
because I know how hard it is to play baseball,
and the stuff that this cat's doing is ridiculous. I mean,
it just doesn't happen with mere mortal people. It just
(15:33):
doesn't happen.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I love the reaction and response from the dugout Steve
on Friday night when when he hit the home run
that landed in the parking lot basically at Dodger Stadium.
And to see Freddie Freeman put both hands on top
of his head and just start mouthing what oh my,
and all the guys on the Dodger bench looking at
(15:54):
each other like what what are we watching right now?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Well?
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yeah, what is that? Where did that?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Who did that?
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Nobody else can do it? They are amazed. And to
see guys who are superstars and Hall of famers in
their own right a gasp at what they were watching.
To me, that really. I mean, at the time, you're thinking, yeah,
this is pretty amazing. What's happening, okay, and the game's evolving.
He's pitching too the sixth inning. But to see Freddy
Freeman's face and reaction to me summed it up perfectly,
(16:23):
like he's if he's saying this is unbelievable, then yes,
this has to be unbelievab.
Speaker 7 (16:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
If Freddy Freeman's sitting there just in absolute amazement, then
you know that this is the real deal. I mean,
you know, you make comparisons to other players and what
they do, but I mean, just getting out of the gate,
this guy can cook there and just put zero's up
on the mound, throwing ninety nine to one hundred with
incredible stuff up in the zone, down on the zone.
(16:48):
He knows how to pitch too. He's not just a
guy that's going out there slinging the ball. He's a
pitcher and he's got unbelievable stuff. He's got both ways
that he can hit the plate. He hardly walks people,
and he fills up the strike zone and they still
can't hit it. And then he goes offensively and he's
able to torch the best pitchers in the game and
hitting balls out of the stadium. I mean, I don't
(17:10):
know what else you can say about it. It's just
that it's almost unbelievable. And I think the reaction for
the players, as you said, some guys are going to
the Hall of Fame. Like Freddie Freeman, He's watching this
and he can't believe it. He's just gotta be kidding.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Is it the greatest performance ever in baseball history? Probably so,
eight six six nine eighty seven two five seventy. Now
is it the greatest moment in baseball or Dodger history?
I would say, no moment, no performance. Yes, eight six
six nine eighty seven two five seventy. What he did
(17:42):
throughout the course of the game, no arguing, three home runs,
six shotout, innings, ten strikeouts, getting the Dodgers to a
clenching win, that was the greatest performance. But still, in
my eyes, Steve Sacks, the greatest moment in Dodger postseason
was last year and Freddie Freeman's Game one walk off
grand Slam against the New York Yankees. He surpassed Kirk
(18:05):
Gibson's eighty eight home run just by a little, bit
by little, just by little. For the greatest moment. I
mean you can go neck and neck, you can call
them one A, one B. I mean, depending on what
day I wake up and how I'm feeling. Kirk Gibson's
home run may be the best moment ever in Dodger history,
but the greatest performance, Yes, overall performance, the greatest, not
(18:26):
only in Dodger history, but in posts in history.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Eight six, Jim, I really like the way you clarified
the difference between moment and performance, and there is there
is a difference.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
There is a difference, huge difference, right, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
But see other people that listen to other stations, they're
not going to be able to decipher that difference unless
someone like you really breaks that down and separates it.
You're almost compartmentalizing these two things, difference between performance and moments.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
I think you have to though, because I mean I
didn't at first, but Friday night after the game, I.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Mean, did you sit down and think about that for
a while or did that run out of you?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
No? No, I've been thinking about this all weekend.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Steve. Were you inspired by someone at you she was
one of the people.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Yes, absolutely, eight sixty six, nine eighty seven, two five
seventy you want me to be the part of the conversation. Yes,
it was Friday night after the game, and we went
to our favorite Mexican restaurant here in Burbank Donk I
knew it.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I knew she was in inspiration by the way, meeting
your daughter. What a lovely young lady. Tim, you and
your wife have done a marvelous job racing that young lady.
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
I appreciate that. That's our youngest Sadie went. We went
to don Kukos and we ran into the manager, Hector,
who I love and have gotten to know him very well,
and he's a huge, huge Dodgers fan, and we were
talking about you know, this is the greatest moment ever,
and I was thank I thought to myself afterwards, I'm like,
this is the greatest moment ever. This is the greatest
(19:56):
performance ever. And then you start seeing all the numbers
come out. Sarah from ESPN and MLB starts putting out
all these great facts about where it ranks and who
hasn't done this, and who has done this, and when
it compares to in the course of the history of baseball.
Then on Saturday and Sunday, I kept talking to people
and last night, I'm talking to my brother in law
and he's like, this is the greatest moment ever. And
I'm thinking to myself, is it the greatest moment ever?
(20:18):
I don't think this is the greatest moment ever.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So this, this said.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
Layers to it, right, But this is the greatest performance. Yes, ever.
Greatest moment is something you can pinpoint. It's something you
look at and say, at this time, this play is
the greatest moment the game. May not have been in
the greatest game, the performances around it may not have
been very good. But at this one moment, this swing
(20:42):
of the bat, this pitch, whatever it may be, this out,
this one moment in time, this is the greatest moment
in Dodger history. And that was last year with the
Home of the Grand Slam from Freddie Freeman. Friday night performance,
the overarching arc of a game and one man's performance
in nine innings of baseball the greatest will ever see.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, I think you. I think you nailed it right there.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
And and to be able to separate those two really
puts it in perspective. You'll you'll get some talk about, hey,
you know the Gibson home run. I was on deck
when he hit that, So I'm kind of partial to that.
The Gibson home run was was my maybe the greatest moment. Uh,
Freddie Freeman's home run, I would say, those are one
(21:25):
A and one B. You can flip them whatever where
you want. Flip a coin on that one tomorrow, and
Gibson might be right in front of Freeman's. I mean,
they're both great. I mean, it's hard to you what's
what's greater than the other. But if somebody says, uh,
you know, Gibson's home run was a was the greatest moment,
I'd say yeah. Or if somebody said Freddie Freeman's was,
I would say yeah. I would say they're both the
maybe equal, But there's no question what what shoey O
(21:48):
Tani did. I mean, just imagine if a guy was
even a part way pitcher, and uh he was a
you know, a decent hitter. Uh, Shoeyo Tani is better
than everybody at both So he just got to look
at that and to do it on the stage in
postseason especially now, I said, especially not especially Okay, you
(22:10):
ever noticed that to him? A lot of people they say,
especially I don't know why they do that. I mean
it's especially right, yes, okay, good, it's like realtor, and
some people say real a tour. It's not realtor. It's
realtor anyway, just a little grammar. And so any way
to do it on that stage, you know, postseason, that's sick, man.
(22:32):
I mean, that's just nobody could ever do that. It's
not even contemplated by anybody else except Shohio Tani. And
like I said, I'll mention it again, probably one hundred
years ahead of his time.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Now, what exactly was the greatest part of this achievement
on Friday night? Was it the six shutout innings? I guess?
Was it the ten strikeouts? Okay, the two of those
combined really good? Is it the fact that he hit
three home runs? I mean, if he hits two home
runs on Friday night and does what he did, are
we still talking about the greatest performance ever? Or is
(23:03):
it the three home runs one of them going out
of Dodger Stadium and then the six shutout?
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Is it?
Speaker 5 (23:10):
Is it the entirety? Is it all of it combined?
If he doesn't want to do one of those things,
it's not the greatest performance.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean maybe not.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
Here's why it's the greatest performance because it's it's everything,
it's the it's the totality of the whole thing. Okay,
he's up there, he's shoving pitching. Okay, he's a oven,
just right through them. Ten strikeouts, he only walks three. Uh,
he was unbelievable that. Okay, then the three home runs,
I mean, this is.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Off the chart. But he hits it out of the stadium.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Okay the first time is like, that's like a shot,
It's like a gigantic baboom. Okay, out of the stadium
as well. Oh guess what, folks, this is just the beginning,
because you're gonna see two more absolute howitzers coming off
of that bat to come. And oh yeah, by the way,
everybody's questioning, can he ever do it again?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (24:05):
Is this a shot in the flashing the pen? He
can't do it in postseason because this is the most
elite pitching he's gonna see. Oh, Philly really shoved it up.
You know, he can't do it against anybody in postseason. Well,
guess what, he wins the MVP of the nl DS,
this NLCS, I'm sorry, at the NLCS.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Basically in one night.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
Yeah, that's what he did because he was just getting,
you know, run over by the pitching. And then he
changes it one night and wins the NLCS MVP. Heunreal
how dumb am I?
Speaker 5 (24:36):
I was at the game, did the pregame show, watched
him pitch that first inting bottom of the first show, Hey,
hits that leadoff home run. I grabbed my backpack, I
grabbed my stuff, and I said, I'm out of here.
I did not stick around and watch the game.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I was there.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I was there for the first home run, and I
did not see the rest of them. And now everybody's
talking about the greatest performance in postseason history ever. And
I left in the first inning to go home and
watch the game and listen to go home and watch
the game. Yeah, well I was trying to beat the
crowd too. I've been there all afternoon. We were wrapped
up five days of SCAM. I was tired.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I tell you what. I was tired getting up
at four am. You know, we get up at four
am so we can be on point with SCAMM. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Absolutely. I'm kicking myself now because I went to Don
Cucko's on Friday night and they're like, hey, how was
the game? I said, I left in the first and
one of them like, you know with me, Oh, what
are you doing?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (25:35):
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Now, I mean it's not like leaving when you guys
were losing in the ninth and all of a sudden,
hit my brakes and when Gibby hits the home run.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Not like that.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
But I still feel like an idiot leaving early in
the first.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
So where did you catch the game when you got home?
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Uh? Well, it took me a little while to get
out of there because I was going against the grain
of traffic coming in. Still, so the next two or
three innings I was listening to on the radio, and
then I got home and was listening and watching it
at home until the end of it. So you're watching
like in the fourth inn none, yep, okay yeah after
that second home run and I saw the third one
on TV. So unreal, wow, unreal.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, I saw three.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Tim the greatest performance ever eight six six nine eighty
seven two five seventy, but not the greatest moment ever
eight sixty six nine eighty seven two five seventy. He
is Team Sax. I'm Tim Kates, who want you to
be a part of the show on this Monday morning,
the Dodgers going back to the World Series on your
Home of the Dodgers an FI seventy LA sports Old
(26:39):
Tony te's off deep Brightfield, Show Hey Old Toney.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
One of one, an Old Tony towering wall.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
High drive, bright Field. He's started again. Show Hey Old Tony.
To the top of the pavilion in.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
Right field four hundred and.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Sixty nine feet the longest home run at Dodgers Stadium
this year. Four nothing Dodgers.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
In Game four, and Otani's knocked in two of them. Incredible,
absolutely incredible. Big Rdy McGill SATs on the mountain. Here's
the pitch, and Otani tries one.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Left center field.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Dig you God, Show Hey Otani, the stuff of legend.
Show Hey Otani, the greatest show on Earth in what
has been called the greatest baseball game ever played by
(27:55):
a player. In Show Hey Otani. Six shoutout innings, three
home runs, one one four and four forty six feet
another one win four hundred and sixty nine feet out
of Dodgers Stadium in the third home run four hundred
and twenty seven feet to left center field. As we
are all in awe on Friday night, as the Dodgers
beat the Milwaukee Brewers five to one to punch their
(28:17):
ticket to another World Series starting on Friday night. Who
will they play? We'll find out tonight Game seven of
the Alcs, the Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners. Seattle wins,
Dodgers host game one and two on Friday and Saturday.
If the Blue Jays win, the Dodgers will head north
of the border Friday and Saturday and play at the
Rogers Center against the Toronto Blue Jays. We'll get into
(28:38):
that matchup coming up later on. David Vata Say will
join us. We'll get into it whether or not the
Dodgers are ruining baseball. But Friday night to the greatest
performance ever in baseball history from show Hey Otani and
again not the greatest moment in baseball history, but certainly
the greatest performance in Major League Baseball history. And I
(28:59):
think back to the the lead up to that, Steve
and again the doubters, the naysayers starting to creep into
this guy can't do it. I think some of the
baseball scribes out there, we're starting to get into that
narrative of Okay, maybe he's human, Maybe maybe this guy's mortal.
Maybe this guy can't be a two way player. Maybe
we're asking too much for show. Hey o Tani, and
(29:20):
he quickly shut them up.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah he did.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
And you know, look, Tim, as we talked about before,
there's more to come. We all know that there's there's
probably things that we're gonna see. We can't imagine it
right now because we probably saw the most epic.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know, performance in in history.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
I mean when you talk about pitching and hitting, the
time that he did it and the importance of the
of the game. But we may see something again that
we didn't expect, and we're gonna be grabbing our head
like Freddy Freeman did in the Dugout and said, what
the heck else are we going to see from this guy?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
But probably will eight.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Six, six, nine, eighty seven, two five, seventy, Lee and Corona,
Welcome to Sack and Gates in the AM on this
Monday Morning show. Hey Otani, the greatest performance ever?
Speaker 7 (30:07):
Hey guys, Yeah, yes it was. And Tim, that was
a great thing to say. Also the greatest moment. And
I'm gonna say Gibby because of one specific reason they
were both hurt. I believe Gibbey was hurt more, but
they were both hurt. But Freeman did his off of
Nestor Cortes, who was very average at the time. When
(30:29):
when Boone brought him in, Gibson hit his off of Eckersley,
who was the greatest relief pitcher of that generation. Also,
I'm the guy that keeps being wrong on the starting pitching,
So once they announced the pitchers for this series, I'm
going to call back and be wrong again because I'm
three for three for being wrong and they keep winning.
And then you guys can scold me on on who
(30:52):
I think should be the starting pitching and who Roberts
is gonna do. And then my last thing is a
question for you, Steve, who is the greatest player you've
ever played with, who was in their prime? And who
was the greatest pitcher you ever played with? Who was
in their prime. I'm gonna listen to it off the air.
Thanks you guys, great show.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
All right, appreciate it. Yeah, the greatest player you ever
played with, Steve Sachs played with or again, how about
either one or if that if that greatest player wasn't
or wasn't on your team, who wasn't you know?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Uh? Man?
Speaker 6 (31:22):
I mean, I can I could go down a long
list of that. I mean, you know, there's there was
a in their prime days. Well I mean, you know,
I think in Dodge for as far as Dodgers go,
you got to put Garvy.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
In there, you got to put.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
You know, as far as guys outside of that, I
mean pitching, Fernando you know, he was he was definitely
one of the greatest. And uh but I think outside
of everything, you know, I played against, you know, George
Brett and Kirby Puckett and Don Maddingly was it was
a teammate, you know, I just uh by the way here, yeah,
(31:56):
I mean, you know, guys like Clemmens, and I mean
there was you know, there were some unbelievable pitchers accuracy.
I played against so many Hall of famers that it
would be uh, it wouldn't be fair to just point
out a couple, but there was a lot of them.
And that's why I really liked the baseball of the
of the eighties and nineties because it was it was
(32:16):
when baseball was was was not marred by I don't
want to say marred, but but a lot because a
lot of the things that have come into baseball with
the changes people really like, and I like a lot
of them too, uh so, But I think in the
innocence of baseball, those days were my favorite days.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
So it's the days before the pitch clock, the days
before we're going to have an automating strike zone, the
days before the ghost runner at second base.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
It's well, that's the Bobby, that's that's the softball runner
at second base. That's the one that really just chaps
my behind is is putting the runner at second base.
And I know it cuts the game down. We can
get out of here early and we can go have dinner.
But but but to me, that's it takes away from
you know, you work the whole game. The pitcher works
his tail off the whole game, maybe he's been in
(33:04):
there the whole time, and then you're gonna go ahead
and put a runner at second base and mess it
all up. To me, I understand you want to get
the game over. I get it, But that to me
just takes away from the essence of all that hard
work during the game.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
I'm with you, I used to agree with you, and
I have completely come around on it. I like the
ghost runner, so to speak, the free runner at second
base because it's a Wednesday night against the White Sox
in May. I don't want this game going thirteen Indians.
I don't want the Dodgers or any baseball team having
to use six relievers and all of a sudden it's
the fourteenth inning, and that ruins things for the next
(33:41):
two days or the next series that the Dodgers have
to play. And next thing you know, they're having to
play catch up for a week or two with the
Arms because that one game on a Wednesday night against
the White Sox that you know, means something. But we
could have sped things up, and it provides a little
bit of sense of urgency. Also, move a runner over.
I mean, if if it's such a big deal, then
(34:02):
then then you know, make sure. I mean there's some
teams now that won't even bunt the runner over Steve
even nobody else.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Many teams won't.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
I see him up there. I see the second basement
behind second base, you know, just barely on the right
side of second in that situation where you bunt him over.
Now they know the hitter is not going to do it.
With the right handed pull hitter, He's just he's just
gonna go launch you know. But but the you know what,
the one thing that's taken away from all this is
is the the element of attrition, and that's part of
(34:33):
the game too. You know, the war of attrition is
you know who can stand out there, who can battle
the injuries, and you know who can't.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
And that's that's really mitigated.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
Now with the fact that you put that guy in
second base and get the game over early, you don't
have to worry about so much the war of attrition.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
I hate when people say, well, if you're the home team,
you've got to score a lead. You're the visiting team
and you're out there first, you have to score at
least too, because it's a fore gone conclude that runner
at second base is gonna score, So you need to
score two, not just the one free runner at second base,
we mean just the one. It's not a given anymore
that that run's gonna score. But you just assume because
a guy is standing on second in the tenth inning
(35:11):
with nobody out, that that runs automatically gonna score. So
the guy to play, that's the guy that really has
to score, because if you score two runs, you're really
putting it out of reach. I when did a free
runner at second, all of a sudden become a given
that that guy was just gonna score. If that was
the case, let's just give each team a run and
just keep going back and forth.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Are you surprised that the ghosts they call it the
ghost runner? Huh uh?
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Are you surprised that they don't bunt that runner over more? Yes,
I'm shocked. I mean, that's that's an easy one.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You just hey, you don't have to bun him over,
but hit it hard over to the right side.
Speaker 6 (35:44):
You get to give yourself up, not really hit it
hard over there, hit it hard and low. That means,
you know, on the ground, the skimmer through the right side. Man,
I made a live in doing that. And these guys
today they just started trying to wrap it around the
left field voul ball. You know, get the runner over.
You must get the runner over. You know, when you
(36:05):
get the runner over, you don't get paid for it.
You know, you don't get paid for it. You get
paid for hitting home runs and striking out. That's what
you're getting paid for. And so if you get the
runner over and you come back to the dugout, watch
how many of your teammates are up giving you the
high five because they know how important it is. Yeah,
you may not get paid for it, but you made
(36:26):
a productive out and everybody knows that that's the right
way to play the game. But it's just not cool,
it's not fashionable. It doesn't reek of saber metrics saying that, well,
two out of five times you hit a home run,
er one out of eight times you hit a home run,
and overall that's worth it. Well, it ain't worth it
in this one game right here, because we just lost
(36:47):
because we didn't get the run over. I've seen it
happen so many times in the last couple of years
where they don't get the runner over and the next team,
the home team comes up, bunts them over, has a
sacrifice fly game over.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I mean it happens all the time. So I don't
agree with the numbers crunching stuff all the time.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
No, Well, analytics tells you you don't waste it out,
and a bunch is considered a waste it out. Now
in the postseason, that's a different waste. It's a different animal.
The opera word to waste it out. It's not wasted,
it's productive out. It's in their eyes, it's a wasted
out where you can try to slug and again they're god,
they're chasing that second run.
Speaker 6 (37:25):
Who's out the guys that never played before to wear
the shirt and tie and have a job.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, that's that's who's out.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
It is the guys on their Apple MacBooks. Those are
those guys.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Got it.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
But they're chasing the second run.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's what it is.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
Everybody just assumes that runner and second is going to
score anyways, so we really need that second run in
order to get this win.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
He doesn't always score exactly, No, exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
Yeah, So anyway, eight sixty six ninety seven two five
seventy more of your phone calls coming up up next?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Fuh.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Andrew Freeman explains the backstory to Rokie Susaki becoming the
Dodger closer? Yes, how did he end up the phenom
here in October? Shutting things down for the Dodgers. Here
from Andrew Freeman is how this all played out and
how a guy who spent most of the season on
(38:12):
the injured list and coming back from an injury now
is the darlings of the Dodgers. Rookie Sasaki Your phone
calls Dodgers ruining baseball? Will get into that next hour.
A team in the NL West hiring a college coach
to manage their team. All of that coming up right
here on Saxon Kate to them on an FFI seventy
(38:32):
ice Sports. Saxon Kate's in the Am. It's a Monday
morning here in southern California as the Dodgers all wait
to see who they will face in the World Series
beginning Friday night. Will it be the Toronto Blue Jays?
(38:54):
Will it be the Seattle Mariners. They will play decisive
Game seven tonight at the Roger Center in cam with
the Mariners looking to get the win the Dodgers that
would have home field advantage in the World Series. If
the Blue Jays win tonight, that means the Dodgers have
to fly north of the border to Canada and start
the World Series Friday night at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada.
(39:17):
So we'll find out tonight altogether who the Dodgers will face.
The Dodgers saw the Mariners at the end of the
season the final weekend of the regular season up in
Seattle and swept that series against the Mariners, so we'll
see if they can get a rematch of that series.
Certainly the Dodgers even playing better than they were that
final weekend. Let's go out to Oscar and Baldwin Park.
(39:37):
You're up next up on Saxon Kate today, am how
you do an Oscar holp.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Me Kate, mister c SAgs wore as gentlemen, Oscar. What
a great time of being a la right now, I
like Dodgers fans by Dodger out there enjoying. Man, we're
watching history right now. It's hard to believe that the
Dodgers have never won back to back World series. Man,
I still kind to chip out on that this is
the year real quick enough, Tony Man. As the weekend
(40:04):
went on, I was talking about Buddy, Yes, you don't.
I don't even think we know what we saw on
Friday night, and then now the day going by, we're like,
exactly what we saw. To me, that's the equipment of
of a of a quarterback throwing for three hundred yards,
a couple of touchdoups and playing defense, get a couple
of interceptions and returning and get a touchdout on that.
You know that? I mean, I don't know basketball playing
(40:26):
that was something we never seen. You know, nobody at
last seen Baby Route plays, so we've never seen that
as historic. And I'm glad to be watching right now,
so you know, that's what I got this morning, and
or just so wish the World Series are starting tomorrow,
to be honest with you, but you know whatever, I
guess we only need a little break, So go Dodgers,
g every good day, all.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Right, thanks a lot, Oscar. That that is kind of
a good comparison quarterback going out and throwing three touchdowns
and then going over and getting three sacks as a
safety or a linebacker on the defensive side. You know,
we just don't see that guy's playing two ways in
the NFL. This is, I guess the closest thing you
can equivalent.
Speaker 6 (41:01):
You know, tim if I may. Oscar brings up a
good point, and it's another analogy, yet another one.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
We don't.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
We can't compare it with anything. We keep trying. Oscar
makes a good shot at it right there. You know,
football player playing defense and throwing three touchdowns. Okay, but
does it really sum it up. We're trying to find
an adequate analogy for what shoey Otani does and what
he did on Friday, but we still can't nobody can
really make a great determination exactly what he did. Only
(41:34):
Otani can do that, and it's just it's people are
still shaking their heads.
Speaker 5 (41:39):
Rookie Susaki has caught the baseball world by storm for
what he is morphed into here as now. The Dodger
closer and Dodger Stadium went crazy for him Friday or
on Thursday when he came in and pitched the game
and got the save.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
He came in and pitched.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Friday as well to pick up the save and struck
out a batter. Rookie Susaki wasn't always like this. I
remember back when they started this season when they first
signed him, young arm out of Japan. He comes over
throws one hundred miles an hour, much talked about. Got
a start against the Cubs over in Japan when they
played that series over in Tokyo and went three Indians
(42:16):
and looked a little shell shock, had some control issues,
walked five. He walked a total of ten batters in
his first three starts and looked shaky, looked like a
guy who was trying to find himself. Ended up going
on the injured list. Steve and missed the better part
of this season. He missed all of May, June, July, August,
in most of September before coming back the final week
(42:38):
of the season. Now, the rookie Sasaki we see now
is this confident, young flamethrowing closer that the Dodgers have
and another weapon they have now at the back end
of the bullpen. Here's Andrew Freeman, president of Baseball Operations,
on with Petro some money on Friday before Game four,
and I had not heard this before. It's sort of
the backstory of Roki and how he morphed in to
(43:03):
what he is compared to where he was. And listen
to what he has to say, Dodger fans. This was
a rokie Sasaki who they were already looking ahead to
next year. He wasn't a part of the plans here
in October Baseball until he decided to morph into a
new role. Take a listen.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Gets off to kind of an uneven start.
Speaker 9 (43:21):
Delivery was out of whack a little bit, Stuff was down,
ends up missing a long chunk of time, and so
at that point our starters are rolling.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
He has made a few rehab.
Speaker 9 (43:31):
Outings where stuff still hadn't quite come back. Delivery hadn't
quite clicked for him, and at that time, it's like, Okay,
we're gonna have to have a really productive offseason to
get him ready.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
For the season next year.
Speaker 9 (43:44):
And then he went down to Arizona and with our
pitching coordinator Rob Hill, had kind of a breakthrough moment
and then solidified with him watching some video next outing
in Triple A, it was like, oh my god, that's
really good. Like he's kind of back to that twenty
two twenty three because even twenty twenty four wasn't quite
peak Rokie, so it was back to those twenty twenty
(44:06):
three levels.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
And so.
Speaker 9 (44:09):
At that time our starting pitching was in such a
good place. It was Hey, the only way to really
the pathway to impact us in October is in the bullpen.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
If you don't want to do it, we totally understand
you've never done it.
Speaker 9 (44:23):
Takes them getting used to there's some risk with it,
but that is the pathway, and we feel like you
can really help us. Said, don't want you to answer, now,
go think about it.
Speaker 5 (44:33):
So he did.
Speaker 9 (44:34):
Next day He's like, I'm in. So it's like, okay,
go do two relief outings in OKC. We'll bring you up,
get you a couple before the end of the year
and we'll all see where it is. There's no promises,
we'll see where it is. And obviously it's been incredible.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
There's Andrew Freeman amazing that he was not even in
the plans for the rest of twenty twenty five. They're
already looking ahead to next year and they said the
only shot you have is if you can get a
spot in the bullpen. There's no guarantees. He said, yep,
I want it and worked his way into it and
good for him. Wanted to be a part of this
roster any way possible, and I just love that about him. Steve,
this is a guy who could have said, no, I'm
(45:08):
a starter, I'll wait till next year. I'm not gonna
go to the bullpen.
Speaker 7 (45:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
You signed me out of Japan to be a starter.
That's what I am. But no, he's a team guy.
He wanted to be a part of this team and
he's really warped himself into this new role.
Speaker 6 (45:21):
Yeah, it's amazing, and I like the way Andrew Frieman
put it to him. He gave him a choice and
this is how you can really help us. And of
course he wanted to do that up from ninety one
miles prowar during the season. That's where he was throwing
in the regular season. He's over ninety nine to one
hundred now with the four seam fastball of velocity. He's
(45:42):
yielded just one hit in the sixteen at bats in
October off of this pitch. Oh, by the way, if
you want to throw a splitter in there as well,
that's has a fifty percent whiff rate in the playoffs
and he's been lights out closing games for the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
So there you have it.
Speaker 6 (45:58):
Coming out of the pen, you need two at least
fastball and something else. If you're a starter, you need three,
and he has three, but he's been using mostly mostly now,
he's been using two, the fastball and the splitter, but
he's got the curveball or the cutter. I think he's
got four pitches. But you just need to in postseason
for being a closer, and that's what he's done, and
(46:20):
he's been fantastic at doing it.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
I love the fact that they didn't promise him anything,
and they told him, if you're gonna have to work
your way and okay, see and if we like what
you see there in a couple outings. All right, then
we're gonna call you up the last week or so
of the season and give you a couple of opportunities
and if it works out, you know, again, no guarantees,
but we'll see if you can get onto this postseason roster.
I think the struggles of the bullpen though the final
(46:44):
month of the season, opened the door. Certainly, the struggles
of Kirby Yates, Tanner Scott, the inability to find somebody
to close the guyut of game and get those final
three outs certainly paved the way for rookie Susaki. Credit
to him for one wanting to do this role and
seeing that opportunity, but then the second part is he
had to seize that opportunity. It's one thing to want
(47:04):
to go do it and say, okay, I see my role,
I see a path to me be part of this team,
but he still had to go out and do it,
and then the Dodgers had to trust him. And hearing
these comments from Andrew Freeman, it puts into context more
seeing Dave Roberts the final of the week of the
season and even in the wild card in DS round,
where he kept getting asked about Sasaki. Is he your closer?
(47:25):
Is he your closer? Is he your guy? And he
kept him in it, Han like, yeah, you know, he's
one of our guys. High leverage. They I don't think
they still quite understood what they had. I don't think
they quite believed yet that in this small sample size,
this guy is really this dominant and and you know.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
I think they are very pleasantly surprised what they've gotten here.
Speaker 6 (47:44):
Because look, the test was going to Oklahoma City, as
as you pointed out, he had to pass that test.
Well he did, then he had an opportunity because of
the state of the bullpen. He comes in there, he's
kind of thrust into this job because that's the only
level he was really tested in, right, And so he
comes out and you know, he does.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Such a great performance.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
But it's not always about especially in that closer position, Tim,
It's not only about your stuff and throwing strikes. It's
having the right mentality. That's a big part of being
a closer is having the right bulldog mentality to number one,
go out there and being able to mow guys down.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
That he does.
Speaker 6 (48:20):
But if you get dinged up to have some amnesia,
if you will and forget about that and concentrate being
the moment to get this next hitter.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
And that's what this guy does.
Speaker 6 (48:29):
He's just remarkable athlete all around, but coming in there
and being a closer as special.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
And he certainly met the need of the team.
Speaker 5 (48:37):
He has met the need, and he has meant a
lot so far to this Dodgers team. One hour down,
two to go, and we got a lot to get
to coming up over the next two hours, including Mariners
or Bluejays. Who's a better fit for the Dodgers to
face in the World Series. The Giants are hiring a
college baseball coach. Maybe, Oh, we'll see if Steve Sacks
(48:57):
likes that move. The Giants decided to do it up next,
the Dodgers ruining baseball, the narrative spreading across the game,
and Dave Roberts has had enough. Eight sixty six, nine
eighty seven two, five seventy your phone calls coming up,
Thanks for being with us. He is Steve Sax, I'm
Tim Kates is Sax and Kate's in the am here
on a five seventy l A Sports
They say. The hardest thing in sports isn't winning a title.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
It's hard to repeat seasons.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
It's winning it again.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
This year is not trying to win a championship, They're
trying to repeat.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
It's October baseball for your world champion in La Dodger.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
The twenty twenty five Dodgers are the National League's Western
Division champions.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And you know what that means.
Speaker 5 (00:22):
Saxon Kates and Am is back.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
This is Saxon Kates in the Morning with Tim Kates
and former World Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 5 (00:32):
Reacting taking your phone calls talking Dodgers playoff baseball all
postseason long.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Now here they are on AM five to seventy LA
Sports and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 5 (00:43):
Steve Sacks, Tim Kaits, Tim Kates.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
And world Champion Dodger Steve Sacks.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
Ah not a playoff edition of scam, a World Series edition.
I'm Sack and Kates in the Am. Yes, as the
Dodgers are going back to the Fall Classic and man
are we excited for what is coming up? I am
Tim Kats along with two times World serious Champion, Rookie
(01:14):
of the Year and our favorite number three to wear
a Dodger uniform. The one and only Steve Sacks sexy.
Good Monday morning to you, buddy. How you doing.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
What's up? Tim?
Speaker 5 (01:24):
Oh? What a weekend it was here in southern California.
So much going on, and they got off to a
great start on Friday night with our Dodgers. Really solidified
his spots with a win over the Brewers in Game
four the NLCS. And here we are back to back
trips to the Fall Classic for the Los Angeles Dodgers,
(01:45):
and they did it in a business like effort and
after the game, it was so fun to see this
team celebrate. But I thought it was very interesting Steve,
that this was a businesslike approach from the Dodgers after
the win, just the victory formation, high five line, a
little bit of a celebration on the field, certainly popping
the champagne and alcohol inside the Dodger batting cage celebration,
(02:07):
but on the field it was very business esque. Is
this team has got more to finish?
Speaker 2 (02:13):
They got more to finish, no question.
Speaker 6 (02:16):
But the great thing about it is the experience factor
you can see is just running out of this team.
Not that they, you know, take anything for granted because
they don't. But the business aspect I think you see
with that body language is the proper one. Don't get
too high, don't get too low. Although you must celebrate,
I think after these victories, even the small celebration that
(02:39):
they had against the Reds, you got to do this
every time. You got to, you know, reward the team
for that accomplishment. You have the next step up. And
while we are in a World Series talk today, we're
still in playoff mode really because we still have one
more game to go and that's going to be tonight.
So we'll see what happens after tonight where the Dodgers
will play, whether it be home field or will be
(03:01):
on the road.
Speaker 5 (03:01):
Yeah, a lot riding on the lion tonight for Game
seven of the American League Championship Series. With the Blue
Jays and Mariners tied and three a piece. As the
Blue Jays beat the Mariners last night six to two
in Game six to force a Game seven, Vlad Guerrero
continues to have a monstrous October for Toronto, but tonight
winner moves on to face the Dodgers in the World Series.
(03:23):
That game is in Toronto at the Rogers Center, and
as you mentioned, a lot riding on it. With Seattle winning,
the Dodgers would have home field in the World Series
beginning Friday, and if the Toronto Blue Jays win, it'll
be the home field for the Blue Jays beginning Friday
night at the Rogers Center for Game one of the
World Series. So a lot riding on who the Dodgers
will face and win and where they'll face them.
Speaker 6 (03:46):
Yeah, I mean, obviously, I think you know, the the
networks would love to have it beat Toronto, La. Then
you have East West, you have you know, you have
US versus Canada. You got a lot more at stake.
You could build up a lot more, I think. But boy,
I think the players would think, hey, you know, we
got a short trip up to Seattle, we got home
(04:07):
field advantage. I think that's where it lies with the Dodgers.
Bet I'm not in that clubhouse every day, So maybe
this is a question for David Vasse.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
Yeah, Dave will join us in the eight o'clock hour.
We got a lot to get to over the next
three hours, including your phone calls at eight, six, six, nine,
eighty seven, two five seventy. We're gonna get into this
game on Friday night in just a second later on
this hoary. Some interesting comments from Andrew Freeman on a
five seventy LA Sports on Friday when asked about Rokie
Sasaki and a little bit of the story is how
(04:38):
he became the Dodgers closer here in October had not
heard Andrew Freeman mention this or talk about the backstory,
but you will hear what he had to say coming
up later on this hour in the seven o'clock hour.
One of the narratives around baseball, Dave Roberts addressed it
in the celebration on the field was that the Dodgers
are ruining baseball. So we'll get into that in the
seven o'clock hour. Also, it's even the nl West is
(05:01):
looking to hire a college coach to be their next manager.
Maybe Pat Murphy has started a trend around Major League Baseball.
Will get sax's opinion on what is happening there in
San Francisco with the Giants. Also in the eight o'clock hour,
your phone calls Mariners or Blue Jays, who you want
to see the Dodgers face in the World Series. But
we go back to Friday night, just an epic performance
(05:24):
from show Hey Otani six shutout Indians on the mound.
Dodgers beat the Brewers five to one, but stax Saxon,
We're we're now being told this is the greatest performance
in Major League Baseball history with the six shutout Indians,
the ten strikeouts, and the three home runs that show
Aotani hit. First off, your your initial impressions when you're
(05:47):
watching show, Hey Otani do what he did on Friday night?
Speaker 6 (05:52):
Well he, uh, you know, first of all too in
a small sense here if you want to call it that,
I'm just trying to get this in sections, if you will.
But he goes out and he strikes out the first
three guys, runs over to the dugout, puts his hitting
costume on, and then he goes up and hits a
mammoth blast. And you know, he's had the world looking
(06:14):
at him because he was one for eighteen and he
had what eight or nine strikeouts, and he was facing
the toughest of the tough when you talk about left
handed pitching, going back to Philly and all that, they
had the you know, really tough guys he had to face.
And then something clicked. He started to turn around. Remember
he had the batting practice on the field. Who knows
(06:35):
if that made a difference. He was able to see
the flight of the ball. He did hit three out
over the stadium in batting practice. Maybe this was something
that helped him. You could see Otani I think hitting
more on the field. I mean, after all, it is
maybe a sheer coincidence, and maybe it isn't that he
was able to really get his act together. I thought
(06:55):
in his final at bats the previous game, where you
saw him taking pitches on the outside part of the
plate and not flinching, not pulling out. Uh I remember
we talked about that in studio. Is ah I see
something a little bit different about Otani.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
I don't see the reaction. I don't see him jolting
out of the out of the box with his right.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
Shoulder, trying to pull too quick, and maybe he's gearing
more left central and that to me is a great
indicator that he's tracking the ball better. And sure enough,
that's what he did. You know on Friday's game. It
was amazing, probably the most epic performance I've seen. When
you want to comment, when you combine pitching and hitting together,
of course nobody else does that, but if you add
(07:36):
it all up, yeah, it might be the best performance
I've seen.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
In a long time. And I was charting the game.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
I was calling the game when Nick Kurtz had his
four home run game and just missed his fifth home
run by about three inches. I called that game that
might have been the greatest performance offensively. But when you
when you round it all up and say the three
home runs plus the pitching performance, man, it's hard to
argue that this might be the best performance ever.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I mean, the three home runs alone from sho Heyo
Tani would go into a feat that not a lot
of guys have done in the history Baseball. Only twenty
one players have ever done that hit three home runs
in a postseason game. Then you add the ten strikeouts
and six shutout Innians. If we wouldn't have seen what
Blake Snell has already done this postseason and Yamamoto did
(08:24):
with the complete game, we could be talking about what
that was one of the best postseason outings this October
from sho Heyo Tani. But he's got other guys step
up and pitch equally as well, if not better. But
the combination of the three home runs, hitting one of
them out of Dodger Stadium and the six shutout Indians.
I don't think people comprehend how hard that is. Then
(08:45):
the non baseball fan who I talked to over the weekend,
whether it's family or friends, that follow the game, and
you know, they hear Otani hit three home runs and
what a performance. Some of them are like, I don't
understand what the big deal is. So he hit a
couple home runs and he struck out some batter. I
don't even understand. Nobody does this, Like, you either do
one or the other. You either throw six shutout innings
(09:07):
and strikeout ten or you hit three home runs. You
don't do both.
Speaker 6 (09:11):
Would we would be marveling, tim if there was a
guy that was out there playing on a team that
was able to pitch and come in.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And you know, maybe pitch an inning or two. Maybe
he was a.
Speaker 6 (09:23):
Middle relief guy and he was an outfielder as well,
that could you know, go from the outfield, go to
the pitchers mound, pitching in and or two. This is
a guy that maybe hits two eighty and hits twelve
home runs. We'd be marveling at the fact that the
guy could do that. He's a two way player. Look
at this, how does he change from going being an
outfielder to a pitcher, or maybe he's a guy that
(09:44):
comes from the outfield to close or something. But he's
a guy that's, you know, a good hitter that can
hit you know, twelve to twenty home runs a year,
and we're just we just can't believe what we're seeing.
Otani is is miles ahead of that. This is this
is one of the best pitchers in the game, with
the most incredible stuff, and he's the guy in the
game that has the most power that can lie to
(10:07):
up better than anybody. Oh yeah, did I mention that
he can steal fifty bases? This is ridiculous what we're seeing.
It's we've taken him for granted way too much, way
too much. There should be a lot more pomp and
circumstance when it comes to what Shohei Otani can do.
He can hit, he can hit it farther than anybody,
(10:28):
He can run better than anybody. He can pitch is
good or better than anybody, and the overall hitting performances
are just about better than anybody.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I don't know what else you can say. I mean,
this guy's a unicorn.
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I mean, the numbers speak for himself with any you
start diving into the numbers. I mean, he becomes the
first pitcher with multiple home runs in a postseason game.
He joins Bob Gibson as the only pitchers to have
hit at least one home run and strikeout ten in
the game. Gibson did it twice, but show Hayes is
the only player to hit three home runs in strikeout
(11:01):
ten and a game. I mean, this was his thirteenth
three home run game in postseason history. The Dodgers, It's
the Dodgers have seen Chris Taylor do it, and Keik
a Hernandez do it. Reggie Jackson did it, Babe Ruth
did it twice. It was the sixth of thirteen three
(11:21):
home run games to come into postseason clinching series. I mean,
you just start diving into numbers. The three home runs
x velocities over one hundred and thirteen miles per hour,
the hardest hit balls in the postseason, and three home
runs in the stat Cast era. I mean, you really
start diving deep into these numbers of the minutia, that is,
all these numbers that we see here with joey Otani,
(11:43):
the longest home run with four hundred and sixty nine
feet in postseason at Dodger History. I mean, this is
all stuff you'll never see again, and things you may
see individually in the course of a season or a career,
but you put them all together in one big present
with a bow on top, you just will never see
(12:04):
it again.
Speaker 6 (12:05):
No, we'll never see this again. As I said the
other day, Tim, I think shoe Otani is maybe one
hundred years ahead of his time. We may see another
player like this. We won't be alive when we when it.
Probably when it happens, not to this extent, but I
think he's probably one hundred years ahead of his time.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
And I mean, look at you.
Speaker 6 (12:25):
You just mentioned the stuff that he did pitching. How
about what he did this year and last year, the
last couple of years offensively, just in and of itself.
This year, Tim, he scored one hundred and forty six
runs this year. I mean, that's just doesn't happen, right, Okay,
he hit fifty nine jacks, he drove in over one hundred.
Most of the year he was leading off, and he
(12:48):
still drove in one hundred runs. Okay, he hit two
eighty two, which is far better than most people hit
this you know in baseball now, I think the mean
averages in the two forties, and he also stole twenty bases.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
His ops is on base plus slugging was over a thousand.
Speaker 6 (13:09):
I mean, these numbers just don't happen, and we again,
we almost take it for granted.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Oh okay, so those are his numbers. But that's sho
hey o Tani.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
It's just like we're getting ahead really of just kind
of let's microanalyze some of the things he does all
the time and celebrate it and not take it for granted.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
That's how good he is. I think for me, it's
even more impressed. I mean, all the numbers are impressive,
and I think, wow, this is a guy who struggled,
as you mentioned, so much this postseason, and it's been
talked about for the last two weeks, his struggles and
when is he gonna get going? And he changed up
his routine and David Evans alluded to it on the
postgame show on Friday night, and talking to Freddie Freeman
(13:51):
pregame show, Hay was mad. Sho Hay had been hearing
these things. I mean, we talked to David last week
about it at the press conference, though he was at
and show. He was asked repeatedly about his struggles and
started to get annoyed with the questions about can he
be a two way player? Is the offensive numbers bringing
him down? Is it worth him being a hitter and
(14:14):
a pitcher in the same game. Is it worth him
pitching if the day after he pitches his numbers are
still not very good. All these things were starting to
rear their ugly heads as far as questions and whether
he can do it and whether this was feasible moving
forward for him to be a two way player. And
he went out Friday night Saxy and he basically squashed
(14:34):
any talk anymore that he can't do it, that he
is not able to pitch and hit the same game
and be productive.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yeah, and sometimes you know, you got to do that
to silence the press.
Speaker 6 (14:48):
And you know, for even him to get to get mad,
that really says something, you know, if he's getting irritated
with the press, because he doesn't change that expression too much.
He doesn't let us in to see some of the
times where he gets arked on. I'm sure sometimes that
he does. But the expectations imagine him after every game,
the expectations are so high for this guy. If he
(15:11):
has an unbelievable game where he hits a couple of
home runs, steals a couple of bases and pitches, well,
people are gonna, well, you know that's you know, he's
supposed to do that. We just take it for granted
too much. I think I don't take it for granted
because I know how hard it is to play baseball,
and the stuff that this cat's doing is ridiculous. I mean,
it just doesn't happen with mere mortal people. It just
(15:33):
doesn't happen.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I love the reaction and response from the dugout Steve
on Friday night when when he hit the home run
that landed in the parking lot basically at Dodger Stadium.
And to see Freddie Freeman put both hands on top
of his head and just start mouthing what oh my,
and all the guys on the Dodger bench looking at
(15:54):
each other like what what are we watching right now?
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Well?
Speaker 5 (15:58):
Yeah, what is that? Where did that?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Who did that?
Speaker 5 (16:01):
Nobody else can do it? They are amazed. And to
see guys who are superstars and Hall of famers in
their own right a gasp at what they were watching.
To me, that really. I mean, at the time, you're thinking, yeah,
this is pretty amazing. What's happening, okay, and the game's evolving.
He's pitching too the sixth inning. But to see Freddy
Freeman's face and reaction to me summed it up perfectly,
(16:23):
like he's if he's saying this is unbelievable, then yes,
this has to be unbelievab.
Speaker 7 (16:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
If Freddy Freeman's sitting there just in absolute amazement, then
you know that this is the real deal. I mean,
you know, you make comparisons to other players and what
they do, but I mean, just getting out of the gate,
this guy can cook there and just put zero's up
on the mound, throwing ninety nine to one hundred with
incredible stuff up in the zone, down on the zone.
(16:48):
He knows how to pitch too. He's not just a
guy that's going out there slinging the ball. He's a
pitcher and he's got unbelievable stuff. He's got both ways
that he can hit the plate. He hardly walks people,
and he fills up the strike zone and they still
can't hit it. And then he goes offensively and he's
able to torch the best pitchers in the game and
hitting balls out of the stadium. I mean, I don't
(17:10):
know what else you can say about it. It's just
that it's almost unbelievable. And I think the reaction for
the players, as you said, some guys are going to
the Hall of Fame. Like Freddie Freeman, He's watching this
and he can't believe it. He's just gotta be kidding.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
Is it the greatest performance ever in baseball history? Probably so,
eight six six nine eighty seven two five seventy. Now
is it the greatest moment in baseball or Dodger history?
I would say, no moment, no performance. Yes, eight six
six nine eighty seven two five seventy. What he did
(17:42):
throughout the course of the game, no arguing, three home runs,
six shotout, innings, ten strikeouts, getting the Dodgers to a
clenching win, that was the greatest performance. But still, in
my eyes, Steve Sacks, the greatest moment in Dodger postseason
was last year and Freddie Freeman's Game one walk off
grand Slam against the New York Yankees. He surpassed Kirk
(18:05):
Gibson's eighty eight home run just by a little, bit
by little, just by little. For the greatest moment. I
mean you can go neck and neck, you can call
them one A, one B. I mean, depending on what
day I wake up and how I'm feeling. Kirk Gibson's
home run may be the best moment ever in Dodger history,
but the greatest performance, Yes, overall performance, the greatest, not
(18:26):
only in Dodger history, but in posts in history.
Speaker 6 (18:30):
Eight six, Jim, I really like the way you clarified
the difference between moment and performance, and there is there
is a difference.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
There is a difference, huge difference, right, Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:42):
But see other people that listen to other stations, they're
not going to be able to decipher that difference unless
someone like you really breaks that down and separates it.
You're almost compartmentalizing these two things, difference between performance and moments.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
I think you have to though, because I mean I
didn't at first, but Friday night after the game, I.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Mean, did you sit down and think about that for
a while or did that run out of you?
Speaker 5 (19:07):
No? No, I've been thinking about this all weekend.
Speaker 2 (19:10):
Steve. Were you inspired by someone at you she was
one of the people.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Yes, absolutely, eight sixty six, nine eighty seven, two five
seventy you want me to be the part of the conversation. Yes,
it was Friday night after the game, and we went
to our favorite Mexican restaurant here in Burbank Donk I
knew it.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I knew she was in inspiration by the way, meeting
your daughter. What a lovely young lady. Tim, you and
your wife have done a marvelous job racing that young lady.
Thank you.
Speaker 5 (19:35):
I appreciate that. That's our youngest Sadie went. We went
to don Kukos and we ran into the manager, Hector,
who I love and have gotten to know him very well,
and he's a huge, huge Dodgers fan, and we were
talking about you know, this is the greatest moment ever,
and I was thank I thought to myself afterwards, I'm like,
this is the greatest moment ever. This is the greatest
(19:56):
performance ever. And then you start seeing all the numbers
come out. Sarah from ESPN and MLB starts putting out
all these great facts about where it ranks and who
hasn't done this, and who has done this, and when
it compares to in the course of the history of baseball.
Then on Saturday and Sunday, I kept talking to people
and last night, I'm talking to my brother in law
and he's like, this is the greatest moment ever. And
I'm thinking to myself, is it the greatest moment ever?
(20:18):
I don't think this is the greatest moment ever.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
So this, this said.
Speaker 5 (20:21):
Layers to it, right, But this is the greatest performance. Yes, ever.
Greatest moment is something you can pinpoint. It's something you
look at and say, at this time, this play is
the greatest moment the game. May not have been in
the greatest game, the performances around it may not have
been very good. But at this one moment, this swing
(20:42):
of the bat, this pitch, whatever it may be, this out,
this one moment in time, this is the greatest moment
in Dodger history. And that was last year with the
Home of the Grand Slam from Freddie Freeman. Friday night performance,
the overarching arc of a game and one man's performance
in nine innings of baseball the greatest will ever see.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, I think you. I think you nailed it right there.
Speaker 6 (21:05):
And and to be able to separate those two really
puts it in perspective. You'll you'll get some talk about, hey,
you know the Gibson home run. I was on deck
when he hit that, So I'm kind of partial to that.
The Gibson home run was was my maybe the greatest moment. Uh,
Freddie Freeman's home run, I would say, those are one
(21:25):
A and one B. You can flip them whatever where
you want. Flip a coin on that one tomorrow, and
Gibson might be right in front of Freeman's. I mean,
they're both great. I mean, it's hard to you what's
what's greater than the other. But if somebody says, uh,
you know, Gibson's home run was a was the greatest moment,
I'd say yeah. Or if somebody said Freddie Freeman's was,
I would say yeah. I would say they're both the
maybe equal, But there's no question what what shoey O
(21:48):
Tani did. I mean, just imagine if a guy was
even a part way pitcher, and uh he was a
you know, a decent hitter. Uh, Shoeyo Tani is better
than everybody at both So he just got to look
at that and to do it on the stage in
postseason especially now, I said, especially not especially Okay, you
(22:10):
ever noticed that to him? A lot of people they say,
especially I don't know why they do that. I mean
it's especially right, yes, okay, good, it's like realtor, and
some people say real a tour. It's not realtor. It's
realtor anyway, just a little grammar. And so any way
to do it on that stage, you know, postseason, that's sick, man.
(22:32):
I mean, that's just nobody could ever do that. It's
not even contemplated by anybody else except Shohio Tani. And
like I said, I'll mention it again, probably one hundred
years ahead of his time.
Speaker 5 (22:42):
Now, what exactly was the greatest part of this achievement
on Friday night? Was it the six shutout innings? I guess?
Was it the ten strikeouts? Okay, the two of those
combined really good? Is it the fact that he hit
three home runs? I mean, if he hits two home
runs on Friday night and does what he did, are
we still talking about the greatest performance ever? Or is
(23:03):
it the three home runs one of them going out
of Dodger Stadium and then the six shutout?
Speaker 7 (23:09):
Is it?
Speaker 5 (23:10):
Is it the entirety? Is it all of it combined?
If he doesn't want to do one of those things,
it's not the greatest performance.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I mean maybe not.
Speaker 6 (23:19):
Here's why it's the greatest performance because it's it's everything,
it's the it's the totality of the whole thing. Okay,
he's up there, he's shoving pitching. Okay, he's a oven,
just right through them. Ten strikeouts, he only walks three. Uh,
he was unbelievable that. Okay, then the three home runs,
I mean, this is.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Off the chart. But he hits it out of the stadium.
Speaker 6 (23:41):
Okay the first time is like, that's like a shot,
It's like a gigantic baboom. Okay, out of the stadium
as well. Oh guess what, folks, this is just the beginning,
because you're gonna see two more absolute howitzers coming off
of that bat to come. And oh yeah, by the way,
everybody's questioning, can he ever do it again?
Speaker 2 (24:04):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (24:05):
Is this a shot in the flashing the pen? He
can't do it in postseason because this is the most
elite pitching he's gonna see. Oh, Philly really shoved it up.
You know, he can't do it against anybody in postseason. Well,
guess what, he wins the MVP of the nl DS,
this NLCS, I'm sorry, at the NLCS.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
Basically in one night.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
Yeah, that's what he did because he was just getting,
you know, run over by the pitching. And then he
changes it one night and wins the NLCS MVP. Heunreal
how dumb am I?
Speaker 5 (24:36):
I was at the game, did the pregame show, watched
him pitch that first inting bottom of the first show, Hey,
hits that leadoff home run. I grabbed my backpack, I
grabbed my stuff, and I said, I'm out of here.
I did not stick around and watch the game.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
I was there.
Speaker 5 (24:52):
I was there for the first home run, and I
did not see the rest of them. And now everybody's
talking about the greatest performance in postseason history ever. And
I left in the first inning to go home and
watch the game and listen to go home and watch
the game. Yeah, well I was trying to beat the
crowd too. I've been there all afternoon. We were wrapped
up five days of SCAM. I was tired.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, I tell you what. I was tired getting up
at four am. You know, we get up at four
am so we can be on point with SCAMM. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (25:21):
Absolutely. I'm kicking myself now because I went to Don
Cucko's on Friday night and they're like, hey, how was
the game? I said, I left in the first and
one of them like, you know with me, Oh, what
are you doing?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (25:35):
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Now, I mean it's not like leaving when you guys
were losing in the ninth and all of a sudden,
hit my brakes and when Gibby hits the home run.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Not like that.
Speaker 5 (25:44):
But I still feel like an idiot leaving early in
the first.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
So where did you catch the game when you got home?
Speaker 5 (25:49):
Uh? Well, it took me a little while to get
out of there because I was going against the grain
of traffic coming in. Still, so the next two or
three innings I was listening to on the radio, and
then I got home and was listening and watching it
at home until the end of it. So you're watching
like in the fourth inn none, yep, okay yeah after
that second home run and I saw the third one
on TV. So unreal, wow, unreal.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, I saw three.
Speaker 5 (26:11):
Tim the greatest performance ever eight six six nine eighty
seven two five seventy, but not the greatest moment ever
eight sixty six nine eighty seven two five seventy. He
is Team Sax. I'm Tim Kates, who want you to
be a part of the show on this Monday morning,
the Dodgers going back to the World Series on your
Home of the Dodgers an FI seventy LA sports Old
(26:39):
Tony te's off deep Brightfield, Show Hey Old Toney.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
One of one, an Old Tony towering wall.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
High drive, bright Field. He's started again. Show Hey Old Tony.
To the top of the pavilion in.
Speaker 8 (27:01):
Right field four hundred and.
Speaker 4 (27:08):
Sixty nine feet the longest home run at Dodgers Stadium
this year. Four nothing Dodgers.
Speaker 8 (27:16):
In Game four, and Otani's knocked in two of them. Incredible,
absolutely incredible. Big Rdy McGill SATs on the mountain. Here's
the pitch, and Otani tries one.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
Left center field.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
Dig you God, Show Hey Otani, the stuff of legend.
Show Hey Otani, the greatest show on Earth in what
has been called the greatest baseball game ever played by
(27:55):
a player. In Show Hey Otani. Six shoutout innings, three
home runs, one one four and four forty six feet
another one win four hundred and sixty nine feet out
of Dodgers Stadium in the third home run four hundred
and twenty seven feet to left center field. As we
are all in awe on Friday night, as the Dodgers
beat the Milwaukee Brewers five to one to punch their
(28:17):
ticket to another World Series starting on Friday night. Who
will they play? We'll find out tonight Game seven of
the Alcs, the Blue Jays and the Seattle Mariners. Seattle wins,
Dodgers host game one and two on Friday and Saturday.
If the Blue Jays win, the Dodgers will head north
of the border Friday and Saturday and play at the
Rogers Center against the Toronto Blue Jays. We'll get into
(28:38):
that matchup coming up later on. David Vata Say will
join us. We'll get into it whether or not the
Dodgers are ruining baseball. But Friday night to the greatest
performance ever in baseball history from show Hey Otani and
again not the greatest moment in baseball history, but certainly
the greatest performance in Major League Baseball history. And I
(28:59):
think back to the the lead up to that, Steve
and again the doubters, the naysayers starting to creep into
this guy can't do it. I think some of the
baseball scribes out there, we're starting to get into that
narrative of Okay, maybe he's human, Maybe maybe this guy's mortal.
Maybe this guy can't be a two way player. Maybe
we're asking too much for show. Hey o Tani, and
(29:20):
he quickly shut them up.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah he did.
Speaker 6 (29:23):
And you know, look, Tim, as we talked about before,
there's more to come. We all know that there's there's
probably things that we're gonna see. We can't imagine it
right now because we probably saw the most epic.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
You know, performance in in history.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
I mean when you talk about pitching and hitting, the
time that he did it and the importance of the
of the game. But we may see something again that
we didn't expect, and we're gonna be grabbing our head
like Freddy Freeman did in the Dugout and said, what
the heck else are we going to see from this guy?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
But probably will eight.
Speaker 5 (29:55):
Six, six, nine, eighty seven, two five, seventy, Lee and Corona,
Welcome to Sack and Gates in the AM on this
Monday Morning show. Hey Otani, the greatest performance ever?
Speaker 7 (30:07):
Hey guys, Yeah, yes it was. And Tim, that was
a great thing to say. Also the greatest moment. And
I'm gonna say Gibby because of one specific reason they
were both hurt. I believe Gibbey was hurt more, but
they were both hurt. But Freeman did his off of
Nestor Cortes, who was very average at the time. When
(30:29):
when Boone brought him in, Gibson hit his off of Eckersley,
who was the greatest relief pitcher of that generation. Also,
I'm the guy that keeps being wrong on the starting pitching,
So once they announced the pitchers for this series, I'm
going to call back and be wrong again because I'm
three for three for being wrong and they keep winning.
And then you guys can scold me on on who
(30:52):
I think should be the starting pitching and who Roberts
is gonna do. And then my last thing is a
question for you, Steve, who is the greatest player you've
ever played with, who was in their prime? And who
was the greatest pitcher you ever played with? Who was
in their prime. I'm gonna listen to it off the air.
Thanks you guys, great show.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
All right, appreciate it. Yeah, the greatest player you ever
played with, Steve Sachs played with or again, how about
either one or if that if that greatest player wasn't
or wasn't on your team, who wasn't you know?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Uh? Man?
Speaker 6 (31:22):
I mean, I can I could go down a long
list of that. I mean, you know, there's there was
a in their prime days. Well I mean, you know,
I think in Dodge for as far as Dodgers go,
you got to put Garvy.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
In there, you got to put.
Speaker 6 (31:36):
You know, as far as guys outside of that, I
mean pitching, Fernando you know, he was he was definitely
one of the greatest. And uh but I think outside
of everything, you know, I played against, you know, George
Brett and Kirby Puckett and Don Maddingly was it was
a teammate, you know, I just uh by the way here, yeah,
(31:56):
I mean, you know, guys like Clemmens, and I mean
there was you know, there were some unbelievable pitchers accuracy.
I played against so many Hall of famers that it
would be uh, it wouldn't be fair to just point
out a couple, but there was a lot of them.
And that's why I really liked the baseball of the
of the eighties and nineties because it was it was
(32:16):
when baseball was was was not marred by I don't
want to say marred, but but a lot because a
lot of the things that have come into baseball with
the changes people really like, and I like a lot
of them too, uh so, But I think in the
innocence of baseball, those days were my favorite days.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
So it's the days before the pitch clock, the days
before we're going to have an automating strike zone, the
days before the ghost runner at second base.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
It's well, that's the Bobby, that's that's the softball runner
at second base. That's the one that really just chaps
my behind is is putting the runner at second base.
And I know it cuts the game down. We can
get out of here early and we can go have dinner.
But but but to me, that's it takes away from
you know, you work the whole game. The pitcher works
his tail off the whole game, maybe he's been in
(33:04):
there the whole time, and then you're gonna go ahead
and put a runner at second base and mess it
all up. To me, I understand you want to get
the game over. I get it, But that to me
just takes away from the essence of all that hard
work during the game.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
I'm with you, I used to agree with you, and
I have completely come around on it. I like the
ghost runner, so to speak, the free runner at second
base because it's a Wednesday night against the White Sox
in May. I don't want this game going thirteen Indians.
I don't want the Dodgers or any baseball team having
to use six relievers and all of a sudden it's
the fourteenth inning, and that ruins things for the next
(33:41):
two days or the next series that the Dodgers have
to play. And next thing you know, they're having to
play catch up for a week or two with the
Arms because that one game on a Wednesday night against
the White Sox that you know, means something. But we
could have sped things up, and it provides a little
bit of sense of urgency. Also, move a runner over.
I mean, if if it's such a big deal, then
(34:02):
then then you know, make sure. I mean there's some
teams now that won't even bunt the runner over Steve
even nobody else.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
Many teams won't.
Speaker 6 (34:08):
I see him up there. I see the second basement
behind second base, you know, just barely on the right
side of second in that situation where you bunt him over.
Now they know the hitter is not going to do it.
With the right handed pull hitter, He's just he's just
gonna go launch you know. But but the you know what,
the one thing that's taken away from all this is
is the the element of attrition, and that's part of
(34:33):
the game too. You know, the war of attrition is
you know who can stand out there, who can battle
the injuries, and you know who can't.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
And that's that's really mitigated.
Speaker 6 (34:43):
Now with the fact that you put that guy in
second base and get the game over early, you don't
have to worry about so much the war of attrition.
Speaker 5 (34:50):
I hate when people say, well, if you're the home team,
you've got to score a lead. You're the visiting team
and you're out there first, you have to score at
least too, because it's a fore gone conclude that runner
at second base is gonna score, So you need to
score two, not just the one free runner at second base,
we mean just the one. It's not a given anymore
that that run's gonna score. But you just assume because
a guy is standing on second in the tenth inning
(35:11):
with nobody out, that that runs automatically gonna score. So
the guy to play, that's the guy that really has
to score, because if you score two runs, you're really
putting it out of reach. I when did a free
runner at second, all of a sudden become a given
that that guy was just gonna score. If that was
the case, let's just give each team a run and
just keep going back and forth.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Are you surprised that the ghosts they call it the
ghost runner? Huh uh?
Speaker 6 (35:33):
Are you surprised that they don't bunt that runner over more? Yes,
I'm shocked. I mean, that's that's an easy one.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
You just hey, you don't have to bun him over,
but hit it hard over to the right side.
Speaker 6 (35:44):
You get to give yourself up, not really hit it
hard over there, hit it hard and low. That means,
you know, on the ground, the skimmer through the right side. Man,
I made a live in doing that. And these guys
today they just started trying to wrap it around the
left field voul ball. You know, get the runner over.
You must get the runner over. You know, when you
(36:05):
get the runner over, you don't get paid for it.
You know, you don't get paid for it. You get
paid for hitting home runs and striking out. That's what
you're getting paid for. And so if you get the
runner over and you come back to the dugout, watch
how many of your teammates are up giving you the
high five because they know how important it is. Yeah,
you may not get paid for it, but you made
(36:26):
a productive out and everybody knows that that's the right
way to play the game. But it's just not cool,
it's not fashionable. It doesn't reek of saber metrics saying that, well,
two out of five times you hit a home run,
er one out of eight times you hit a home run,
and overall that's worth it. Well, it ain't worth it
in this one game right here, because we just lost
(36:47):
because we didn't get the run over. I've seen it
happen so many times in the last couple of years
where they don't get the runner over and the next team,
the home team comes up, bunts them over, has a
sacrifice fly game over.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
I mean it happens all the time. So I don't
agree with the numbers crunching stuff all the time.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
No, Well, analytics tells you you don't waste it out,
and a bunch is considered a waste it out. Now
in the postseason, that's a different waste. It's a different animal.
The opera word to waste it out. It's not wasted,
it's productive out. It's in their eyes, it's a wasted
out where you can try to slug and again they're god,
they're chasing that second run.
Speaker 6 (37:25):
Who's out the guys that never played before to wear
the shirt and tie and have a job.
Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, that's that's who's out.
Speaker 5 (37:30):
It is the guys on their Apple MacBooks. Those are
those guys.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Got it.
Speaker 5 (37:33):
But they're chasing the second run.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
That's what it is.
Speaker 5 (37:36):
Everybody just assumes that runner and second is going to
score anyways, so we really need that second run in
order to get this win.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
He doesn't always score exactly, No, exactly.
Speaker 5 (37:46):
Yeah, So anyway, eight sixty six ninety seven two five
seventy more of your phone calls coming up up next?
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Fuh.
Speaker 5 (37:52):
Andrew Freeman explains the backstory to Rokie Susaki becoming the
Dodger closer? Yes, how did he end up the phenom
here in October? Shutting things down for the Dodgers. Here
from Andrew Freeman is how this all played out and
how a guy who spent most of the season on
(38:12):
the injured list and coming back from an injury now
is the darlings of the Dodgers. Rookie Sasaki Your phone
calls Dodgers ruining baseball? Will get into that next hour.
A team in the NL West hiring a college coach
to manage their team. All of that coming up right
here on Saxon Kate to them on an FFI seventy
(38:32):
ice Sports. Saxon Kate's in the Am. It's a Monday
morning here in southern California as the Dodgers all wait
to see who they will face in the World Series
beginning Friday night. Will it be the Toronto Blue Jays?
(38:54):
Will it be the Seattle Mariners. They will play decisive
Game seven tonight at the Roger Center in cam with
the Mariners looking to get the win the Dodgers that
would have home field advantage in the World Series. If
the Blue Jays win tonight, that means the Dodgers have
to fly north of the border to Canada and start
the World Series Friday night at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada.
(39:17):
So we'll find out tonight altogether who the Dodgers will face.
The Dodgers saw the Mariners at the end of the
season the final weekend of the regular season up in
Seattle and swept that series against the Mariners, so we'll
see if they can get a rematch of that series.
Certainly the Dodgers even playing better than they were that
final weekend. Let's go out to Oscar and Baldwin Park.
(39:37):
You're up next up on Saxon Kate today, am how
you do an Oscar holp.
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Me Kate, mister c SAgs wore as gentlemen, Oscar. What
a great time of being a la right now, I
like Dodgers fans by Dodger out there enjoying. Man, we're
watching history right now. It's hard to believe that the
Dodgers have never won back to back World series. Man,
I still kind to chip out on that this is
the year real quick enough, Tony Man. As the weekend
(40:04):
went on, I was talking about Buddy, Yes, you don't.
I don't even think we know what we saw on
Friday night, and then now the day going by, we're like,
exactly what we saw. To me, that's the equipment of
of a of a quarterback throwing for three hundred yards,
a couple of touchdoups and playing defense, get a couple
of interceptions and returning and get a touchdout on that.
You know that? I mean, I don't know basketball playing
(40:26):
that was something we never seen. You know, nobody at
last seen Baby Route plays, so we've never seen that
as historic. And I'm glad to be watching right now,
so you know, that's what I got this morning, and
or just so wish the World Series are starting tomorrow,
to be honest with you, but you know whatever, I
guess we only need a little break, So go Dodgers,
g every good day, all.
Speaker 5 (40:43):
Right, thanks a lot, Oscar. That that is kind of
a good comparison quarterback going out and throwing three touchdowns
and then going over and getting three sacks as a
safety or a linebacker on the defensive side. You know,
we just don't see that guy's playing two ways in
the NFL. This is, I guess the closest thing you
can equivalent.
Speaker 6 (41:01):
You know, tim if I may. Oscar brings up a
good point, and it's another analogy, yet another one.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
We don't.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
We can't compare it with anything. We keep trying. Oscar
makes a good shot at it right there. You know,
football player playing defense and throwing three touchdowns. Okay, but
does it really sum it up. We're trying to find
an adequate analogy for what shoey Otani does and what
he did on Friday, but we still can't nobody can
really make a great determination exactly what he did. Only
(41:34):
Otani can do that, and it's just it's people are
still shaking their heads.
Speaker 5 (41:39):
Rookie Susaki has caught the baseball world by storm for
what he is morphed into here as now. The Dodger
closer and Dodger Stadium went crazy for him Friday or
on Thursday when he came in and pitched the game
and got the save.
Speaker 2 (41:54):
He came in and pitched.
Speaker 5 (41:55):
Friday as well to pick up the save and struck
out a batter. Rookie Susaki wasn't always like this. I
remember back when they started this season when they first
signed him, young arm out of Japan. He comes over
throws one hundred miles an hour, much talked about. Got
a start against the Cubs over in Japan when they
played that series over in Tokyo and went three Indians
(42:16):
and looked a little shell shock, had some control issues,
walked five. He walked a total of ten batters in
his first three starts and looked shaky, looked like a
guy who was trying to find himself. Ended up going
on the injured list. Steve and missed the better part
of this season. He missed all of May, June, July, August,
in most of September before coming back the final week
(42:38):
of the season. Now, the rookie Sasaki we see now
is this confident, young flamethrowing closer that the Dodgers have
and another weapon they have now at the back end
of the bullpen. Here's Andrew Freeman, president of Baseball Operations,
on with Petro some money on Friday before Game four,
and I had not heard this before. It's sort of
the backstory of Roki and how he morphed in to
(43:03):
what he is compared to where he was. And listen
to what he has to say, Dodger fans. This was
a rokie Sasaki who they were already looking ahead to
next year. He wasn't a part of the plans here
in October Baseball until he decided to morph into a
new role. Take a listen.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
Gets off to kind of an uneven start.
Speaker 9 (43:21):
Delivery was out of whack a little bit, Stuff was down,
ends up missing a long chunk of time, and so
at that point our starters are rolling.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
He has made a few rehab.
Speaker 9 (43:31):
Outings where stuff still hadn't quite come back. Delivery hadn't
quite clicked for him, and at that time, it's like, Okay,
we're gonna have to have a really productive offseason to
get him ready.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
For the season next year.
Speaker 9 (43:44):
And then he went down to Arizona and with our
pitching coordinator Rob Hill, had kind of a breakthrough moment
and then solidified with him watching some video next outing
in Triple A, it was like, oh my god, that's
really good. Like he's kind of back to that twenty
two twenty three because even twenty twenty four wasn't quite
peak Rokie, so it was back to those twenty twenty
(44:06):
three levels.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
And so.
Speaker 9 (44:09):
At that time our starting pitching was in such a
good place. It was Hey, the only way to really
the pathway to impact us in October is in the bullpen.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
If you don't want to do it, we totally understand
you've never done it.
Speaker 9 (44:23):
Takes them getting used to there's some risk with it,
but that is the pathway, and we feel like you
can really help us. Said, don't want you to answer, now,
go think about it.
Speaker 5 (44:33):
So he did.
Speaker 9 (44:34):
Next day He's like, I'm in. So it's like, okay,
go do two relief outings in OKC. We'll bring you up,
get you a couple before the end of the year
and we'll all see where it is. There's no promises,
we'll see where it is. And obviously it's been incredible.
Speaker 5 (44:47):
There's Andrew Freeman amazing that he was not even in
the plans for the rest of twenty twenty five. They're
already looking ahead to next year and they said the
only shot you have is if you can get a
spot in the bullpen. There's no guarantees. He said, yep,
I want it and worked his way into it and
good for him. Wanted to be a part of this
roster any way possible, and I just love that about him. Steve,
this is a guy who could have said, no, I'm
(45:08):
a starter, I'll wait till next year. I'm not gonna
go to the bullpen.
Speaker 7 (45:12):
You know.
Speaker 5 (45:12):
You signed me out of Japan to be a starter.
That's what I am. But no, he's a team guy.
He wanted to be a part of this team and
he's really warped himself into this new role.
Speaker 6 (45:21):
Yeah, it's amazing, and I like the way Andrew Frieman
put it to him. He gave him a choice and
this is how you can really help us. And of
course he wanted to do that up from ninety one
miles prowar during the season. That's where he was throwing
in the regular season. He's over ninety nine to one
hundred now with the four seam fastball of velocity. He's
(45:42):
yielded just one hit in the sixteen at bats in
October off of this pitch. Oh, by the way, if
you want to throw a splitter in there as well,
that's has a fifty percent whiff rate in the playoffs
and he's been lights out closing games for the Dodgers.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
So there you have it.
Speaker 6 (45:58):
Coming out of the pen, you need two at least
fastball and something else. If you're a starter, you need three,
and he has three, but he's been using mostly mostly now,
he's been using two, the fastball and the splitter, but
he's got the curveball or the cutter. I think he's
got four pitches. But you just need to in postseason
for being a closer, and that's what he's done, and
(46:20):
he's been fantastic at doing it.
Speaker 5 (46:22):
I love the fact that they didn't promise him anything,
and they told him, if you're gonna have to work
your way and okay, see and if we like what
you see there in a couple outings. All right, then
we're gonna call you up the last week or so
of the season and give you a couple of opportunities
and if it works out, you know, again, no guarantees,
but we'll see if you can get onto this postseason roster.
I think the struggles of the bullpen though the final
(46:44):
month of the season, opened the door. Certainly, the struggles
of Kirby Yates, Tanner Scott, the inability to find somebody
to close the guyut of game and get those final
three outs certainly paved the way for rookie Susaki. Credit
to him for one wanting to do this role and
seeing that opportunity, but then the second part is he
had to seize that opportunity. It's one thing to want
(47:04):
to go do it and say, okay, I see my role,
I see a path to me be part of this team,
but he still had to go out and do it,
and then the Dodgers had to trust him. And hearing
these comments from Andrew Freeman, it puts into context more
seeing Dave Roberts the final of the week of the
season and even in the wild card in DS round,
where he kept getting asked about Sasaki. Is he your closer?
(47:25):
Is he your closer? Is he your guy? And he
kept him in it, Han like, yeah, you know, he's
one of our guys. High leverage. They I don't think
they still quite understood what they had. I don't think
they quite believed yet that in this small sample size,
this guy is really this dominant and and you know.
Speaker 2 (47:41):
I think they are very pleasantly surprised what they've gotten here.
Speaker 6 (47:44):
Because look, the test was going to Oklahoma City, as
as you pointed out, he had to pass that test.
Well he did, then he had an opportunity because of
the state of the bullpen. He comes in there, he's
kind of thrust into this job because that's the only
level he was really tested in, right, And so he
comes out and you know, he does.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Such a great performance.
Speaker 6 (48:03):
But it's not always about especially in that closer position, Tim,
It's not only about your stuff and throwing strikes. It's
having the right mentality. That's a big part of being
a closer is having the right bulldog mentality to number one,
go out there and being able to mow guys down.
Speaker 2 (48:20):
That he does.
Speaker 6 (48:20):
But if you get dinged up to have some amnesia,
if you will and forget about that and concentrate being
the moment to get this next hitter.
Speaker 2 (48:28):
And that's what this guy does.
Speaker 6 (48:29):
He's just remarkable athlete all around, but coming in there
and being a closer as special.
Speaker 2 (48:35):
And he certainly met the need of the team.
Speaker 5 (48:37):
He has met the need, and he has meant a
lot so far to this Dodgers team. One hour down,
two to go, and we got a lot to get
to coming up over the next two hours, including Mariners
or Bluejays. Who's a better fit for the Dodgers to
face in the World Series. The Giants are hiring a
college baseball coach. Maybe, Oh, we'll see if Steve Sacks
(48:57):
likes that move. The Giants decided to do it up next,
the Dodgers ruining baseball, the narrative spreading across the game,
and Dave Roberts has had enough. Eight sixty six, nine
eighty seven two, five seventy your phone calls coming up,
Thanks for being with us. He is Steve Sax, I'm
Tim Kates is Sax and Kate's in the am here
on a five seventy l A Sports
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CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.