 We had a really fun 11 pitch battle between two rookies, Tanner Hawk and Wander Franco raised in Red Sox from a couple weeks ago. This one's brought to you by Draft Kings, the number one sports book app. When you download the app, use promo code John boy to let them know I sent you and then just bet on the raise to win because they're so good and all they do is win. And as a Yankee fan, it's infuriating, but here watch this battle. Now either Franco steps up to the plate with a predetermined plan saying I'm going to attack the fastball or after taking this fastball for strike one, he kind of says, yes, I'm going to attack that pitch. That's the one I want because he's going to be dead red fastball this entire bat. And everyone kind of knows it, but no one can do anything about it. The next pitch is off speed. That's like a split change. That's very non competitive. Just stays away the entire time. Franco doesn't even blink. Then they go fastball, little outside. He's late on it. They're going to go fastball again. He's going to be right on this, but fouls it straight back. The catcher knows he's right on that. So he's like, hey, let's get away from the fastball. Pitcher says, no, I want to throw another one. So he shakes to an inside fastball and now Franco's rocking and rolling and bam. He's on that one, but now he's ahead. So he's kind of timed it up a little every single which way. Now it's one and two as a pitcher. You still have chances to get him to swing at a pitch that's not in the zone. You're three pitches ahead. You can throw three more balls. You only need one more strike. So he's thinking, he's thinking, he's thinking. He likes the fastball, but he's understanding you probably should go away from it. One, two pitch coming. They're going to go slider, back foot slider. Decent pitch almost gets Franco going, but no, takes it. Two and two back to the fastball outside fouled off. That's the pitch he's swinging at. So here's the breakdown. You went fastball, strike looking, split finger, non competitive ball. Fastball fouled it back late. Fastball right on it. Fastball fouled it again. Slider ball, fastball fouled it back again. So you're looking at this. You either need to make a hell of a pitch with the fastball or you got to try something off speed here while you still got the chance to throw another ball. So the two, two pitch coming. He's thinking, he's looking. Which pitch are they going to go with? The split change again. And that's just as non competitive as the first one. A ball from his hand to the glove and Franco doesn't even care. So now they got to figure it out. Three, two, you don't want to walk them. You want to attack them. It's rookie on rookie. We're having fun. They get together and they say, let's go with the slider. He's hunting the fastball. Let's go slider in the zone. Let's be ballsy. Let's get it done. Here's where Franco wins the at bat. He fouls that one off. That's not the pitch he's looking for, but it's three, two. So he's in protect mode. Then they try to call a fastball again. He says, no, let's throw the slider again. Because I got him swinging at that one. So if I get him swinging at this one, maybe he swings and misses or induces weak contact or what of it. And Franco just fouls that one back as well. So now they finally go, all right, dude. We got to throw a fastball. It's just got to be our fastball versus his fastball swing. We got to attack them. Let's see what happens. Here's the pitch. One, two, three. Fastball, bam, middle, middle. Not a great location on a three, two fastball. And that is a home run, a double. They throw it in the second. Franco's like, wait, hold up. Everyone's like, hold up. Cash is like, hold up, hold up. Let's take a look. What the hell just happened? The umpires are going to get together and talk about it. And this is a weird Fenway Park rule because it hits the wall on the left of the yellow line, which is a double. But it ricochets onto the roof, which is behind the fence. This can't really happen on a lot of other parks where it hits the front facing of a wall in play and ricochets out of play. And they get together like, what do you think it was? What do you think? Oh, wait, are you saying what I think you're saying? Hit the wall, but then it went over. So that's a home run, right? Yeah, it's a home run. Yeah, home run. Franco did it. What a battle, man. 11 pitch at bat, went up there hunting fastball, made him throw all his pitches, fouled off the sliders enough, got to it, gets to celebrate with his friends. They're all happy and they go up three to one. Weird rule. But that's why baseball is fun. All these quirky fields. If every field was cookie cutter, it'd be boring. In the 80s, they did a lot of cookie cutter stadiums and people did not like it because they were kind of boring and ugly. Oddities are what make baseball so fun. Next pitch, fastball absolutely rocked off the monster. That bounces off the monster, but into the field of play. So that's just a single and Hawks Day is done and Tampa just does it because they're so good and it's infuriating. Go to DraftKings, promo code Johnboy, bet on the Rays to win. It's all they do is just win. It's all they do. So just go to DraftKings, bet on the Rays. Don't even watch the games. Don't need to.