 The Astros took down the Rays in Game 5, so the ALCS is set and the NLCS is set to begin tonight. Let's talk about it. What's going on everybody? Welcome to Talking Baseball. It is a beautiful Friday afternoon, October 11th. The Astros beat the Rays. They are who we thought they were and the second half of the show, we will be previewing the National League Championship Series. My name's John Boy, I'm coming to you from New Jersey, and I got the birthday boy, the 30-year-old killer from Denver, Jake, who's 30 years old today. Jake, how you doing? Death. I'm good. I'm good. As you saw, I have retired my eyes today. I put a pair of glasses on. I don't think I'm ever gonna take them off. That's what I don't know. I don't even know what they do. I think they're... What are they? Screen glasses? What do we call these? Yeah, they're blue light glasses. They take the blue off the screen, the blue on the screen's bad for you. I have mine, and I rarely take them off. So yeah, I mean I have X-ray glasses on now, and that's 30. So yeah, I mean everything will be very professional today. Very straightforward. You saw it in my text messaging. No more time for jokes. Very professional episode coming up today. Yeah, you guys want to hear how Jake texted me this morning? I said, what up? He said, hello, James. Good morning to you and yours. I said, are you good to go? He said, absolutely. Sounds great. It's more, it's not professional. It's more boilerplate, like whatever they, the given responses they offered you. Yeah, I was not, they don't give me the given responses anymore. I think Apple gave up on me. Man, being formal. I know you and I, we did this with a guy, Jack Curry, who covers the Yankees, but he's always like very professional, and we're like, how do you do that? Yeah, I couldn't do it. I cut to him in studio, and he is like, Severino dealt for seven, eight innings with a couple strikeouts, but we'll see how he does it, the blah, blah, blah, and it's just out, and it's like, wow, that was so professional. It's hard. Yeah, so you'll never do it. Don't worry about turning 30. You'll still be a dumb idiot at heart. Okay, thank you. When I turned 30, it was only a couple months ago. I'm fully over it now. Fully accepted. So you'll accept your fate, but the things that hurt the most was you'll never be in your 20s again, which is just like clear, but just to hear it's like, oh shit, fuck. Yeah, and next big birthday is 40. Yeah, yeah, the 40 thing is daunting. Yeah, that's fucking brutal. Whoever said that to me, I wanted to fight him. No, it's crazy. You mentioned you'll never be in your 20s again. As you know, I spent yesterday having a failed DMV trip. Yeah, so that was my last day in my 20s. Yeah, well, I don't think many people do like last day in their 20s events. I think they should. I think the last day in your 20s should be more exciting than your 30th birthday. No, it's all about the 30s. I might make that my revolution. Wow. Yeah. Retire your eyes, starting revolutions. You are 30 years old. Eyes are done. You sound like a loser. Eyes are done. Actually, starting a revolution is more like 19 year old. So you're actually aging backwards. Great. Perfect. Perfect. You watched the baseball last night? I did watch the baseball last night. Fucking Garrett Cole, man. He's not human. Is he doing historic stuff? Is that a dumb start your 30s with a dumb question? Is he breaking records, basically? I think there's a record for most consecutive 10K outings. And I believe he's at like 14. I don't know. I could have made that up. But he had 10Ks yesterday. He looks like a video game. I don't even get it. Eric Sogaard walking so tall today. Yeah, I got him. Two for two in the ALCS. You guys did your part, huh? He went two for two. All right, before I forget, this episode of Talking Baseball is brought to you by a bunch of cool people. Our most recent sponsors on Patreon. We thank all of them. First up, Oakley K. Oakley K. I think that can't be a first name, right? Oakley K? I like the first name Oakley. I think that's kind of fun. I don't think I've met one, but... I would call him Oaks. Oakley K. No, you know what? I'd just call him O. I just realized it. I'd just call him O. Thank you. I like Oakley. Okay, what about Oliver Klosoff? Yeah, it's probably Klosoff. Love to have him playing for the German national team. He's good. It's probably Oliver Klosoff, but if you say Klosoff, it sounds like take a Klosoff, Oliver. Yeah, that line's been used. I'm Mr. Klosoff. Yeah, I bet. Nicholas Anthony Giampallo. Good pys on, yep. Nickname is Nag, just as initials put together. Good wife joke. Finn Marable. I don't know if I got that right. Yeah, that's Marble. Finn's a cool name. I wonder if it's short for Finnbar. I have a friend who really wanted to name their son Finnbar and we thought it was weird at first, and now we kind of like it. I like the name Finn. Zachary Freeburn. Yep. And Parker Phelps. Parker Phelps. Love literation. We do like alliteration on this show. Yeah, we're big alliteration. Those are our most recent Patreon sponsors. We thank them very much. Patreon.com slash Jim slash John Boy media. Signed you up $2 a month. Jersey raffle. I got to do the raffle for the last month. I could do a lot of stuff. Do tons of stuff. Trying to just watch baseball though. Anyway, let's get straight into this, Jake. Yes. The rays. Suck. Or alternative narrative. Alternative narrative. The Astros are cheaters at home. Or alternative narrative number three. Astros are better than the rays. Ooh, okay. Those are the options, huh? Three stands out. Yeah, I'm going with three as well. Three stands out. I think some people might be disappointed, especially if any of our Yankee brother and have come over here. Whatever Houston's doing to try to steal pitches, I mean, that's baseball. Not if they're using technology. Right. Which we don't have any confirmation of that yet. What we do know is Tyler Glassno has two pitches and one of them is fastball. He was tipping. So if you give Houston that kind of information, they did what they did in the first inning. It looked like batting practice. Yeah. I want to... So what we know, if you didn't know the tipping, basically you could see them all whispering to each other, which I love. Love a good whisper train. Whisper movements. We tried to start one at winter meetings last year, remember? Yeah. So I love that. But I think what people... And I'm going to try and look at all the footage closely and make a breakdown on my own. I think his glove hand. It was tipped this way. Like the edge of his glove was facing him. So that's down. It was one pitch and if it was more up, it was another pitch. Yeah, they kept saying higher. I think the fastball... When he was going to throw the fastball, the glove was a little higher. But yeah, you saw... Bregman literally scored and I think Brantley was coming up and he's like, hey dude, when it's higher, there's something like that and it's like, okay, so Houston knows what's going on. Get him out of there. Yeah. I mean, they're really good at picking that shit up that when the Yankees went there early in the year, they picked up the Paxton's glove and it was something so slight. So they're good at that. When we hung out with... Who's the catcher we hung out with? Oh, with Toley. Josh Toley. Toley, R.A. Dickey's old personal catcher for the Mets and then the Blue Jays. He said that that old Blue Jays crew of Donaldson, Batista and Carnation, they could do this every game. Like they could figure out a tip and they were just so good at it and it was mostly Batista, it was so good at it. And then they'd tell him and he'd still ground out and he was like, what the fuck? So it is something that happens and that is not cheating and that's part of the game. Stealing signs. The fact that Rays were giving multiple signs with nobody on base means that they think that they have a way of stealing signs another way. Yeah, that's the sketchy part. But this finding out a guy tips pitches or if the first base coach can see the signs or the third base coach, you can figure out his signs. That's just part of baseball. That's part of the fun of it all. But yeah, I want to go look at the footage or I don't know. But Glass now said after Braggman single, he was like something's a little weird. This isn't right. Yeah. So he went and checked it out and then it was glove and he admitted it. Glass knows like it's pretty obvious I was tipping my pitches. Yeah. Talk about a bad feeling on the mound. Yeah. Andy Pettit did it in the 2001 World Series got lit up by Arizona and says he doesn't even like look back on that game. Like he had to wash it from his entire brain. Yeah. I mean that's a feeling that I don't think happens in any other sport like football. You can watch tape on a quarterback basketball. You watch tape on guys. But like, I don't know if in basketball they shut off you going right because you're really good at going right. Okay. You figure out something else. You make backdoor cuts. You get open at three. If you're a pitcher and they know it's coming, it says Kevin Cash addressed the potential tipping. I didn't see this yet. I'm aware there were speculation about pitch tipping at the end of the day. Give the guys the credit that went up to the plate. Tampa Bay Rays manager dresses. Yeah. Everyone is pretty diplomatic about it I think. Yeah. Crazy. I hope that the Yankees pitchers have their gloves and signs in order because they're going to be playing a lot of games do you think that because of their bats go to die like they were so bad at the TROP do you put any curtains. I saw a lot of people saying that like well they were so bad away and then they just can hit everything at home. They got to be using technology. No I think I mean there's home field advantage. There's a I mean that Garrett Cole guy made things pretty difficult for Tampa when they were in Houston two out of those three games. And yeah I mean I don't know Justin Verlander wasn't Justin Verlander. It's it's not like Verlander was pumping high 90s hitting his spots and like wow these race hitters they're doing something special is like no this dude can't find his location and his stuff doesn't look good. So no I I don't put too much merit to that for the Tampa hitters or the Houston hitters. I mean it was a hostile environment and Tampa's got a lot of good pitchers. It was really loud at the end there when they were about to get the first out there's a shot I didn't clip it because I was clipping I was clipping something else but there's a shot where Josh Redick just looks at the crowd and kind of nods just like oh yeah it's cool. Yeah well I mean there's a definite we talked about a little bit yesterday but the pressure was on on Houston. Yeah and even Gerardi or AJ said that at the beginning they're like if you walk around the streets you got everyone saying let's go win it win it win it your family's there pressures on the home team in elimination games. I mean even I mean through once we got to the seventh and eighth inning and sure Tampa hadn't done anything but neither had Houston I mean Tampa shut out Houston for one two three four five six six straight innings as Houston you get nervous you let you know there's a couple times there's one runner on base comes a one run game you know there there was a couple timid moments and then the eighth inning they took off they are like Snell went one one without allowing a hit then Rowe comes in he does good Yarbrough came in walked guy Nick Anderson is amazing yeah but whatever whatever he figured out give give me that same medicine. Did you listen to the game yes. I missed I didn't I did for a little bit then I went to no volume but how someone in the chat just said how good was Drardy legitimately getting pissed off at AJ last night. Those guys hate each other Drardy does not like Przensky. Nobody likes Przensky find me the person find me the person that's out there like yes AJ Przensky he was one of the most hated players when he played and now he's the guy in the booth. I don't get it. I think he's got some interesting insight like every now and then but I'm sure so with a lot of guys that aren't hated. That's true if you play the game you should have some insight. Yeah I hope that crew see if I was watching that crew with my heart on the line I'd hate it I wouldn't be able to laugh at it. I'd be I'd be like this sucks. And I think a lot of Astros fans were like this sucks. They can it completely took away from the game like they just it was you want to hear AJ and Joe's opinions on baseball game or do you want to watch a baseball game because it's two different things happening. Yeah. That's I think I think part of it's like a message from MLB that it's like hey we've got these large markets like if you find a spot to talk about something go for it and teach them and it's like no I don't I don't know we're not it the end in the NBA semi-finals or the conference finals you don't hear guys talking about like the value of a backdoor cut it's like no if they're watching that they kind of know what's going on. Yeah. Basketball analogies. You feel bad for the raise are you happy for them they want to at home. I don't know I I feel bad for a degree I feel bad for a sports team that gets eliminated like they they believed and do you have a burn of this game. I do. Shit. Sorry. Cooking with gas baby. You want to burn it and then we'll talk about how we feel like I can burn it. Here we go. Sorry man. You're good. A juicy game five at Minute Maid Park in Houston the raise and Tyler please don't be made a glass now trying to do the unthinkable against Garrett J Cole world as he continues his king of diamonds type season bottom one when I tip you hit you put your bad up on my pitch. Tyler tipping his pitches and the Stroh's went off play the music. Jose Altuve. Jose Altuve. RBI single for Jose. Hey are you tits man or an ass man. Neither a bregman to RBI double. Yuli Yuli. Oh let my runner score. Four nothing Houston Eric so guard so good solo shot off a Cole in the second four to one from their doughnuts on the scoreboard raised pen would have and Cole would have 10 K's two hits over eight innings but bottom eight Houston wants the Yanks daily nightly and ever so Brantley. Michael goes yard piece followed by play the music. Jose Altuve. Jose Altuve. He gets one of his own Houston advances in game five six one final. Was that tip pitch. Lyric you had there. That was a. So what's the song it's like when I dip you dip you put your hands up on my hips or something like that. Yeah. So I said when I tip you hit you put your bat upon my pitch. Nice. Wow. It's a fucking weird brain they gave me but. That's where my brain jumped to instantly. This makes sense. When you tip. I don't even know I don't even know the original fucking song. When when I tip you hit you put your bat upon my pitch. Yeah. It's a simple. It works. Yeah. I don't I don't know if if Stu Scott was still here. I don't know if he would give me a big hug or just choke me out on site. I don't know. You kind of got the same glasses style on now. Hopefully both. You got schools. You got Stu Scott glasses on. It starts with a big hug and then he just chokes me. Maybe. He definitely call you a loser face. There's some really cool stories about like the original Sports Center crew. Like they used to play pick up basketball and it used to be like intense. Like dudes used to go at each other. That's for another time I guess. That is for another time. We'll talk about that another time. So feel bad for the race. I mean. Is it is it patronizing to say I feel happy for the race. They got in the wildcard. They. Won two games at home and they took the game. They won two games at home and they took the Houston Astros to game five in the DS. They didn't make the playoffs last year. So if you're doing you know step ladder bit by bit calculations. I don't. I try not to say this as. A dick. But I don't think the race fan base is like World Series or bus. They kind of can't be because they've never won a World Series. No. It gets really tricky. It gets really tricky because technically they went three and three this playoffs. They won the wildcard game at Oakland and then they go two for five against Houston. So like there's a lot of wins there. Their pitching looks so good. And like there's you know there were some guys that that didn't pitch a lot this series that are all so good and like I also think they have some injuries like where's a is that Alvarado guy heard I know he was filthy at the beginning of the season. Like they. I think their next step is figuring out. It seems like they have a surplus of pitching. So it's are they going to turn that into more hitters. The fear there is that if you do that and then you run out of pitching you look like big old idiots because there's quote unquote no such thing as a surplus of pitching. You're happy but dude after they won that series they thought they were going to win this series. Yeah. Like that's just a natural fan reaction. Why were you grinning like an idiot for a minute. When I tip you hit. You put your bad up on my pitch. You put your bad up. I keep thinking about it. He's cracking me up. Imagine the pictures saying that to the batter. When I tip you hit. Yeah. I could see that. I could see that I could I picture like a bad JV baseball coach saying something like that like during bad in practice you know have all the fun you want. But when I'm out there I'm on the mound throwing BP I tip my hat. You're hitting. I'm the I'm imagining like a hardball ask movie kids playing baseball. And it's very it's very. It's like a kids bop movie. High school musical ask and they find out that the other team is tipping pitches and then that it turns into a musical and that song's playing and that pitchers like when I tip you hit I got this whole thing in my head it's cracking me up. This this is definitely an off season episode but are we do for a good baseball movie. Are we doing for a bad baseball movie. Yeah we should be due for a bad baseball movie. I mean. What was the most recent baseball movie. There was trouble with the curve Jackie Robinson's movie. So let's see forty two was in twenty thirteen. Million dollar arm was twenty fourteen. Trouble with all that twenty twelve. Moneyball was twenty eleven so there was like there was four straight years there where they came out with a baseball movie and now we've been shut out. And then yeah I mean going back a little further two thousand six bench warmers fever pitch bad news bears Mr. Three thousand the rookie. Those were all in a three year span we need some baseball movies what the hell. There was a movie called The Phenom which is very slow it's not really a baseball movie but I liked it. That was Xenon the Z Cool. Zoom zoom zoom. I'll meet you in my room don't get me started with Xenon. All right. Try not to. There's a movie in 2014 called Hero. This is about a little league coach Joe Finn whose pursuit of fame and fortune leaves him with little but broken relationships particularly with his son. Sad. Yeah we need a good baseball movie. Yeah. Like a comedy baseball movie. A good one. Yeah. So if anyone's got one. Just get Kevin Costner on it. OK. Yeah. Yeah that's true. It's true. Are we done with this. I mean we'll preview the ALCS Yankees versus Astros. Everyone's in for a treat. Yeah we we kind of got ourselves. I don't know if we were excited as Yankee fans with the thought of Tampa but there there was a chance that Houston was going to go down especially after watching the Dodgers go down and they held serve in a in a very Houston way. Cole was untouchable except for one pitch to Eric Sogaard. And the the lineup they crushed in the first and then you know just to get away from an anxious ninth inning with Roberto Azuna you know Brantley catches one and Altuve catches one and it's over. I have an analogy or whatever I want to make if the Yankees can beat the Astros. Sure. It's you know when when you can't open a jar and then you hand it to someone and they get it and you're like well I loosened it for you. I think the Rays might have loosened the Astros for the Yankees. Making Cole only be available until game three Granke's got a pitch game one and five. Yeah I mean in in theory I mean we'll we'll see how this series The Rays left an effect for the next series. The Twins did not leave an effect for the next series. Yeah I said it about that game four I mean I and maybe it's a little bit hopeful as Yankee fans to be completely honest but we were hoping that game four because the Rays earned game three. They played good baseball they brought it back to Tampa and they won their game they earned that. Game four was a surprise Verlander and they got them and yeah that that's going to be interesting is that game four of the ALDS going to have a true effect on the ALCS because we thought A. there's a chance Tampa advances or B. I mean Houston does not have their rotation lined up like they want to I mean in theory Cole would be three and seven if the Yankees can jump on some games earlier in the series they might only see Garrett Cole once that's insane. Yeah that's awesome for us. Yes. Cool. All right let's move on to preview the NLCS but first a word from a potential sponsor. Cool. Everyone in the chat saying that we need to get a sponsor from Felix Greys or something they're all buying their own now which is true I I've reached out to two companies and let them know like hey I love your product I'd love to plug it give me the monies give me all the monies so until that happens don't you guys even think about that so NLCS tonight Jake Cardinals versus the Natitude I mean and talk about segue and from Garrett Cole I mean does it get any better than Anibal Sanchez and Myles Michaelis Both both pitched really well I mean I what Anibal Sanchez was thrown the other day is baseball porn it's IFA's pitches I mean definition of the old warrior given it one more role I don't know man in St. Louis is there this sounds lame but I think it's like the only way to say it like what are what are you even thinking about when you think of this series I haven't like I want to piece together the whole series a little bit and not just this game because I haven't really thought about it a lot I want to see let me find well it's going to be Michaelis Wayne Wright and Flaherty for St. Louis and then it'll be it'll be Anibal Anibal Scherzer and Strasburg so these teams met seven times in the regular season and the Cardinals won five the Nationals won two again that doesn't mean really anything at all because who knows who was healthy who was pitching or whatever happened so let's go Miles Michaelis do you think he faced do you think he faced the National Nationals what was that headphones gave out he faced them twice this year how about that OK interested yeah Miles Michaelis six innings pitched eight hits three earned runs and they took the loss that day as Drupal Cabrera got him after Howie Kendrick hit a triple off of him Rendon got him for a single and Howie Kendrick hit a homerun Wow Howie Kendrick had a triple and a homerun versus Michaelis this season how about that he's feeling pretty good about himself too yeah he's coming in pretty happy alright that was in September way earlier in the year Michaelis went six innings pitched seven hits one earned run seven hits and eight hits I mean I know the runs are low that's that sounds like traffic traffic Jan Gomes had a RBI ground out after Howie singled alright time to find Howie's numbers versus Michaelis because it seems like they're rather good sounds a pretty good Michaelis struggled in his first game of the DS in the first inning and then settled down and actually pitched really well yeah for me I think the National story and I'll keep beating the drum on this A is Adam Eaton I believe in Trey Turner I like him in the leadoff spot Soto and Rendon are just monsters if Adam Eaton has a series and those guys have a couple guys in front of them I just I just don't think that Washington lineup will slow down but it's been funny dude Washington was a couple outs from being eliminated from the wildcard they were a couple outs from being eliminated in the DS I don't know are they a team of Destiny or a team of Howie Kendrick's stats versus Miles Michaelis dude Howie Kendrick I gotta tweet this out right away before someone snags me on it Howie Kendrick is 8 for 11 off of Michaelis that's pretty good 8 for 11 and in 2019 this is the game log single single single triple homerun fly ball deep center field that's pretty good huh Howie Kendrick looking good against Michaelis damn damn you gotta get some aniball stats before the Cardinals fans listen and get mad at ya because they are not liking what you're saying about Miles Cardinals fans every fan base is just under everything you guys hate this fan huh yeah like I heard all those subtle jabs subtle jabs is kind of just what I do about everything in my life I made a subtle jab at my own hand the other day it was being too slow your own hands yeah they were being too slow damn fumbled my wallet dropped it stupid fucking hand it's not that subtle it was pretty uh pretty out there bad hands day is tough Sanchez aniball with his e-fist pitch alright how many times do you think he faced because he moved around how many times do you think he faced the Cardinals this season this season oh he got I'm guessing he got one start against the Cards one you're right congrats it's in uh April 30th so who cares matters we'll talk about it five innings pitched five hits three earned runs seven strikeouts he balked in it ooh watch out for that here's how he gave up his runs single to Jose Martinez he walked Paul De Young he walked Yachty Colton Wong single Harrison Bader single that's how they got all the runs off of them I feel like and I'll zoom out a little bit yeah do it zoom out feels like game three I know everyone is always obsessed with the even games or the odd games because if you win them if you won one, three, five and seven you win the series games one and two are in St. Louis we've already mentioned this pitching matchup Anibal Sanchez vs. Miles Michaelis no offense to those guys but a lot of the other names on the mounds are going to be more impressive this series game three is looking like Strasburg Flaherty and it feels like that is going to be that game is going to be a huge momentum swing for whoever wins it yeah we got to do game one first I know but I told you who's game two who's game two game two is Scherzer Wainwright oh that's that excites me more than Flaherty Strasburg really you hate young guys nah not really yeah I was going to say but I like Wainwright Wainwright's fun but he's not he's not the other guy you should have seen his face during game five Wainwright they just kept cutting to him right now in the dugout he was just sitting there like like a dad watching his son play baseball winning he was like man we're doing so good I'm so proud of the guys can you believe they're doing it alright Anibal Sanchez numbers vs. these Cardinals hitters let's see you think anyone owns them I didn't even do anyone else for Michaelis because how he owns them so much yeah just how we Kendrick let's see it looks like Matt Weeders which probably isn't going to come into play hey I've got one for you manager John Boy yeah knowing those numbers because eight for eleven is insane like would there be a world where you move how he Kendrick to the top of the lineup no messing with a good thing yeah no I wouldn't do that you just hope that he gets when his time comes he gets it yeah because you can't bank fully on BVP even though they are pretty cool yeah single single single triple home run deep fly ball I should go find the footage of that but I don't want to that'd make for a better tweet take up some time I already got to find out how class and I was tipping his pitches what else you got in this series who do you think is going to be the hero the hero well I'll be honest and my Cardinal fans won't like this I've been I've had some strong natitude I filled out one of those dumb playoff brackets that everyone is doing before the playoffs and I had the gnats moving on I don't know they're pitching so strong Soto has been for me Soto is the story I mean I think there's a chance that this 20 year old kid leads the Nationals to the World Series after Bryce Harper was supposed to be the hero of that franchise for what seven years I think Soto ends up being the story or it's just the Cardinals I mean we saw that they're doing everything we saw Mike Schild's speech we saw Matt Carpenter taking himself out of the deciding game and you look at that team and there's nobody that jumps out like a Juan Soto so I mean it's either the Cardinals as this organization and St. Louis trying to be a championship city or it's got to be the Soto show Yeah I was trying to see who had the best like Rendon had seven hits in five games he had a 4-12 batting average he had a pretty good series I think like his career he's being overlooked Yeah, absolutely he had the highest OPS the highest batting average highest on base percentage and highest slugging slugging percentage for the Nationals and we're all sitting here agreeing that Juan Soto is the story Yeah and that's kind of Rendon's whole career he just gets overlooked Yeah, I mean Soto's were pretty big hits basically to win the wild card and to win the NLDS so Rendon's been awesome and him and Soto that's why I keep going back to Adam Eaton if Adam Eaton gets on base with a 3-30 clip I think the Nats win because that's just too much action in front of those guys Yeah Alright Do the Cardinals have a lefty they're gonna use for Soto is it Miller vs Soto show Oh yeah, that's exciting That's something to look out for That's exciting Dude, that sucks man Oh, who's got more pressure there I mean each player's gotta think about it like the other ones got more pressure like Soto's gotta think like alright, who's your guy that's gonna come face me he's gotta face me every game that sucks for him and Andrew Miller's gotta be thinking it's all attitude It's all don't make a mistake cause that dude will hit it Well Greg Bird told us like when they played when the Yankees and the Indians played in 2017 we hung out with Greg Bird afterwards like you, what was going through your head and he was like well I knew they were gonna use Miller on me every game so I just knew I had to get to Miller so I basically like prepped for that at bat Yeah and I mean if you're Kolarak you're essentially barely playing baseball so you have the advantage as long as you could throw strikes I mean Andrew Miller's a pitcher he's not coming from the first baseman slot although he's got some good extension over there but those at bats are gonna be fun I'm excited for that The Cardinals side Goldy had the most hits Goldy and Ozuna almost had the same exact stats Jake they both had 21 at bats in 5 games they both had 9 hits they both had 2 home runs they both had a 4-29 batting average a 4-78 O.B.P. and their O.P.S. is basically the same Goldy outslugged Ozuna a little bit Isn't that wild? Yeah if you're Washington there's 3 dudes you don't want to see up and important at bats Goldy, Ozuna and Yadier Molina Ozuna I've liked his at bats because he'll just throw the barrel at the ball he doesn't have an A swing and this is my A swing he's like I'll just do what I have to do even if he has to strike out and run to first to get the RBI he's a constant threat if he could open up this series 0 for 9 and you're still scared when he comes to the plate yeah it's gonna be a good series I hope this one's a good series I think the AOCS is gonna get a lot of hype because it's two like two monsters that were on a collision course and it's like alright we got it but I hope the N-O-C-S gets a lot of hype because now these are kind of not surprise teams but somewhat the Braves and the Dodgers were everyone's favorites they were the division leaders they didn't have to worry down the stretch at all and they're both out is there anything to do you think you know the Nationals have three good starters two of them are really good Patrick Corbin is good do you think there's anything like Game 1 is in St. Louis do you think there's a little extra pressure on St. Louis to get Game 1 because they're gonna be facing Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin the next three oh absolutely okay yeah yeah I think it's gonna be very similar with the Yankees facing Granke in Game 1 with Verlander Cole behind him like it's more pressure on Yankees to win Game 1 it's more pressure on the cards to win Game 1 so you're not down 0-1 with the three dudes yeah how's trying to find what was Michaelis's what was his line in Game 1 because then he made a relief appearance right I'll give a jakey bold prediction that'll make St. Louis fans hate me okay go the road team will win the first three games of this series so that would put the gnats up 2-1 after 3 yeah wow did I know you're gonna be a jerk call once you turn 30 I don't know I don't I don't believe in Michaelis if there's I love Scherzer and Strasburg I think there are those two are on our are on a mission from God like Randy Johnson, Kurt Schilling shit Michaelis when 5 innings pitched three hits one earned run in Game 1 against the Braves after a rocky start where he was like nervous couldn't spin his curveball walk then the caught stealing helped then walk then single then they reached on an error then got two fly balls so like things unraveled on him and then he settled down I'm now rooting for Michaelis I'm rooting for the Cardinals tonight we've only mentioned one guy who's coming out of the bullpen the bullpens are gonna be a huge factor um like even more in the 5 game set um and I don't know I guess I would you give St. Louis whose bullpen do you have more confidence in and let's let's do it but including Carlos Martinez as the closer cause basically right now right now you have two reliable closers for Washington and nobody else and St. Louis you have a few guys you believe in but you don't really have a closer right now yeah um I had a damn I don't know it'll be it'll be interesting Carlos Martinez I don't believe in him at all does someone like Giovanni Gallegos turn it on or who who steps up from the Cardinals bullpen the series um cause yeah I mean and Cardinals fans again turn your ears off but there's an argument to be said that like the Nationals are essentially stronger and starting pitching hitting and bullpen they get tricky with some things with the extra rest days in the longer series they can utilize like some starters in different ways they still have like you know Miller um web wasn't good Carlos Martinez was awful Gallegos was good uh it's a guy with the red beard Braba Braba Brabia I don't know how to pronounce it sorry I still like that better than the Nationals man I mean they got two guys and if you need a bridge a gap at all you have to use a starting pitcher well yeah and I think that's the thing I mean I think you're going to have Corbin available for game one I think that's a win for the Cardinals Corbin look great in the game five man he look great um and they're not going to need Corbin to start till game four um and I guess that's the thing like Scherzer and Strasburg you may not need any bullpen yeah but that's they're walking a fine line with the Nationals if they need to use Tanner Rainey Fernando Rodney Hunter Strickland no those are their three like they have Hudson they have Doolittle and then they have three guys who you actively want to avoid so if they're down in the seventh inning and their starter needs to come out the game's over yeah well Carlos Martinez there'll be there'll be a couple good late fireworks shows in this series yeah alright well game one tonight we're excited for it I think that's all we got Jake how you doing you uh you feel like you got any more to say or we touch everything do you doing anything for your birthday tonight um I don't know I think we're supposed to be doing some like some haunted haunted bar thing or something nice you love being scared yeah um that definitely not my girlfriend who loves haunted stuff um making that plan but uh yeah I don't know I'll say this back to St. Louis there's a good chance that I could be wrong about everything St. Louis has some really good juju going they're great sports town and like if St. Louis wins St. Louis wins this series I'm not going to be shocked at all like it's just they've got it rolling but I think the Nats are the favorites is that unfair uh are they the favorites I don't know I have Cardinals are favorites in my head okay but I want to I want to backtrack on something I said I was rooting for the Cardinals sure I'm not rooting I'm rooting for good games and good storylines yeah we like I honestly could care less who wins oh yeah I mean this is going to be a big time whoever's down one run in the eighth will be rooting for that team yeah in the ALCS I'm rooting for the Yankees hey I've got kind of a loserish baseball question but that's what these glasses do to me now um do you think the Nats should have home field advantage because they had a better regular season record yeah I do yeah yeah yeah uh yes I I firmly do yeah like if the twins would have had a home field advantage over the rays yeah well they have a better record divisions are funky yeah maybe I'm starting to come your side on that scheduling thing you get out of here my side is busy well your side wouldn't allow the twins to think they're so good yeah and I mean I just I more so want to get stars in front of people so they can become fans of guys so baseball can be popular but yeah that's I mean that's nice but I just I like the division because I like taking pride in like the AL East is usually brutal or you know if you have a hard division there's a hard division but uh when you have a shitty division like the AL Central and a bunch of teams trying to lose it kind of ruins maybe baseball this is now this stems to just like let's stop having ten teams tank every yeah maybe that's the biggest issue here yeah don't I mean you could the scheduling because teams are tanking fix the culture of huh baseball clubs I think there you could make a pretty easy argument that the NL East is a tougher division than the NL Central this year and the Braves had more wins than St. Louis and now St. Louis hosts home field I don't know it's a conversation I'm losing a lot of my St. Louis fans you're a jerk 30 year old I'm a jerk 30 year old jerk Jake why don't you sing some Nelly to cheer him up if you want to go and take a ride with me yeah Bob Dylan singing Nelly that's good make a whole album yeah must be the money yeah we're out of here thank you guys for hanging out with us for a little bit talking baseball we'll be back tomorrow to recap game one of the NLCS and preview game one of the ALCS see you later