 What's going on? The playoffs are officially here. We got game one, National League Wild Card, Nationals versus Brewers. We're gonna talk all about it. What is going on everybody? An episode a day for a long time because there's a lot of baseball to talk about. My name's John Boy, if you're a first time viewer or a listener, thank you for hanging out with us. We're gonna talk some baseball, Jake, some playoff baseball, you ready? Regular season was just gonna warm up. This is our real season. That's what all the bad ass baseball podcasters say all the time. I'm ready, man. And yeah, if you're, because I know this is you, if you're the new Nationals or Brewers fan that's tuning in for the first time because you're just itching away right now because the Wild Card is an absolute nightmare. Something to do to distract you from the Wild Card? Leave a review. So welcome and thank you. The Wild Card is a nightmare. And I think this one feels a lot like the 2017 Yankees Twins. To me, I think we have a clear David and Goliath Wild Card. And I don't think that I'm in line with everyone. I think this is in my own personal. I think there's some people that feel the same way as me, but others that are like, nah, it'll be a good game and stuff. I think there's a tough matchup for the Brewers, but we'll see. I think you're missing one key factor when you make that comparison is that the Brewers minus that Yellich dude, they did this last year. So they've done it and it's, I mean, you look at the lineup and you kind of chuckle to yourself a little bit because there's a few guys having solid seasons but nobody jumps off the page and they are just gonna throw the whole kitchen sink and they've been doing that for the past month or so and they did it last year at the playoffs. So they're like, I feel like there's a lot of teams going into this post season that aren't sure. Think of the Yankees. There's rumors that Tanaka might come out after an opener or a lot of teams aren't sure how they want to burn their bullpins or how they want to operate. The Brewers, no. The Brewers will do anything. I know a lot of teams have, leave your ego at the door. We're gonna need you where we need you. Yeah, that doesn't work for all this Chapman. For the Brewers, it really does. If they have a lead and it's the seventh inning, like, Hader, you might have to get hot and ride it out, dude. If you need a big out somewhere else, it could be anyone. And I think the Brewers have that. The Nats, I think what you're saying is the Nats are the more talented team. Yeah, I mean, and they have Scherzer as one of the best pitchers of this generation starting for them. And then there's some underlying numbers that are just kind of tough. And what the interesting thing is is what the Brewers do good, Jake? Is they just win. Like, they don't, they kind of, like they at bat you to death. Like everyone is giving you a good at bat. So they make you work. So that's something they could do to Scherzers. They could like, you know, now you gotta face this, dude. Now you gotta face this, dude. And everything's kind of a battle in its own way with their kind of like a nagging battles. That's kind of what the Brewers do best. And then the pitching's the same way. Like they already have gone into our starters aren't starters. And we'll get into that. Like the guy Woodruff who is starting for the Nationals or for the, sorry, for the Brewers. Woodruff is the announced starter. His last two outings have been two innings pitched both times because the Brewers have already canceled starting pitching. That's what they do when they go to the post season. Throwers. Just a bunch of throwers. Like Woodruff started all season. He has a game against the Nationals this year that's like six innings pitched, one earned run. But he's not gonna be asked, no, that was his last, or maybe that was this year. This is not gonna be asked to do that. He's gonna be asked to go two innings. He also got injured so he's not fully built up. He hasn't been throwing 100 bullets. And that's part of their thing at this point. Like Bobby Woodruff, you're gonna go to three max and that's doubtful. And you're gonna get the kitchen sink. And it's kind of exciting. It's fun how Milwaukee does it. But yeah, I think it feels like the Nats are favored in this game. You could be 60, 40, you could be 70, 30, whatever your lean is. But it just, it feels like the answer to this game is gonna be so definite. Like, damn, that Brewers approach works. They just next guy up and they do it. Or you walk away and you're like, yeah, Scherzer, Straburg, Rendon and Soto just own this game. Yeah, and so Scherzer's getting the start for the Nationals with Corbin and Strasburg ready to come out of the pen. Cause their pen isn't their strong suit. So those guys are, their top three pitchers are the best, I think the most war for any top three pitchers in the MLB this year. It's crazy. So I mean, that's tough. The Brewers have, I don't see the Brewers, the Brewers have to win this game against Scherzer. A little bit, and that's kind of what I was saying is that I think this post-season, what you're gonna see is not a lot of pitchers are going to even have the opportunity to lose a game. Like if you're a pitcher and you're starting to have a bad inning, you're gonna get yanked. Except if you're Max Scherzer. And that's where things get kind of wild Jim cause he hasn't been the Max Scherzer. Since he's come back from injury, he's got seven starts, 38 innings pitch to a 474ERA. So that's where things get kind of wild here cause guess what, if it's the second inning and Scherzer's got two runners on base and he hasn't given up a run yet, you don't pull Scherzer. If that's Bob Woodruff and a tough lefty is up, they probably go to Geogen's Dolls or someone cause it's not Max Scherzer. So it's one of those things that early on in the game, yeah, that could play in the Brewers favor. Yeah, the other thing, and we're kind of bouncing all around here, is that, you know what, maybe I should finish off Scherzer. I have some numbers for Scherzer before we move on. Scherzer versus the Brewers. The most hits is Mike Moustakis who has a 167 batting average, six hits and 36 at bats. Okay. Yasmine Grandal, one hit and 16 at bats, 0-6-3 batting average against Scherzer. Not great. Lorenzo Kane, Yeah. 0-0 hits and 15 at bats. Do you believe in do, baby? Ryan Braun, who may or may not be in the game, he's been a little injured, cap strain out for the last two days, but they say he's likely. Oh, he's playing. Oh, for 14 against Scherzer, Jake. Is that good? Yeah, yeah. And then, okay. The numbers on the, if you want to talk about that or how much you think that matters, the numbers are bad. It matters. I mean, Max Scherzer's crazy good. And yeah, that's tough because Milwaukee only has, and this will sound kind of rude, but they only have so many guys in their lineup who can actually do damage because their team is normally built around who should have been the MVP of the National League, Christian Yelich, and he is out. So the whole thing is bizarre except this stupid Brewer's team ruined everything by going on an 18 and two stretch in September. Yeah. So I kept diving in the numbers. Oh boy. The Nationals versus lefties this year, Jake. Okay. 828 OPS, 356 on base percentage. Really good versus lefties. The Brewer's bullpen, it's all lefties the guys are gonna throw, Sutter, Pomeran's, Hater. It's all lefties. I think what's turning into the theme of this is it feels like the strengths line up with strengths for the Nationals. Like, you know, you casually say Drew Pomeran's and Sutter and a lot of people know Hater when he's right, he's one of the most special relievers in the game and that whole bad guy thing from last year, but moving on. Drew Pomeran's has been great in the bullpen since he's gotten in there. Sutter just won reliever of the month. So it feels like when those guys come in the game, you're right, it's gonna be a push come to shove with these guys who've been doing it for the Brewer's versus what's been part of the strength of the Nats. Yeah. The other cool thing about this Brewer's that is like, they're like, yeah, we got a good bullpen. It's like, okay, well, your good bullpen is also what they feast on. So we'll see all that plays. It's like, who's good is better? Is our bullpen outdo your splits or do your splits come after our bullpen? We'll see. What's cool is that this Brewer's team, and this is why they were so good down the stretch shake because they went to the, we're a bunch of throwers, not starters. They use like 20 pitchers down the stretch, they don't get to do that in October. You know what I mean? Like, you don't get to use a pitcher in inning, a pitcher of your two innings in October. You can for this game, but you gotta get past this game, and we're just talking about this game. The cool thing is Lyles, Jordan Lyles, he'll probably come in this game after Woodriff, I would guess. They traded for him. Pomerance, they traded for him. And then Sutter or Sutter, I'm not positive how you pronounce it, he just got called up in September after coming back from Tommy John surgery. These are all additions to this team that may be getting big innings in this wild card game for the Brewer's. That's a lot of fun. And I mean, Sutter, one reliever of the month, like you said, his last eight outings have been scoreless. Pomerance has a two, three, nine ERA in his 25 games since being traded. Lyles has a two, four, five ERA in 11 starts since being traded. Like, they're been crushing it for him. Haters gone off, last 16 games, he has a one, four, two ERA. All stats are there. Just gotta play it out. But I do think the numbers, and they're just numbers, they don't mean everything, like, to me, like, oh shit, this is kind of a national dream matchup. A little bit, it's like we're saying the strengths and the weaknesses, the way they lined up. I mean, I don't know. If you're the Brewer's, what you have going on in your head is that if the later the game gets for the Brewer's, the better their chances are. And vice versa for the Nats. Because Haters is a giant trump card. I know this hasn't been a full season. He had one real tough stretch, but you're right, he's back. And I mean, I think if they have the lead in the gulp seventh inning, they'll go to him. Didn't they try to get three out of him last postseason? I think he was pretty good at it. Yeah, he did have, he did blow a save against the Nationals this year once. One blown savers the Nationals. It was when that lady was sleeping in the front row the entire time. Been there. Yeah. Let me, let me get the postseason. Josh Hader postseason game log open. That's, that's exciting stuff. Yeah, he did two, three innings dents last postseason and each time he didn't give up an earned run. So that's, that's if you're Milwaukee, you're saying we're gonna use everybody except Hader to get to the seventh inning unscathed. And I mean, that's, that's the whole push come to shove with this game. Can they do it? Yeah, can they do it? I will say, root for the Brewers, so if you don't know, if you haven't paid attention to the Brewers or the Nationals at all, or right now the Brewers, here's some cool shit to know about this Brewers team. Their leadoff dude is a rookie that got called up in the middle of the year, Trent Grisham got called up on August 1st. He was a midseason accusation. He was a big pick, right Jake? First round pick. Well, yeah, and he, he was a top pick and he was supposed to be a role player and kind of involved on the stretch and then Yellich got hurt and now he's, he's there. He's been leading off. I mean, he was having a really good September for a while, 942 OPS. He calmed down a little bit lately and ends with a 747 OPS in September, but he's their leadoff dude. Gonna be a rookie, okay? Now they also have one of the better rookies in baseball, Keston Hiura, who crushed it this year for them playing a second base, right? No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, second base. Here is a stud, yeah. He's, he's another guy who's a big prospect. He's a second baseman. He finished, he played half a season and he hit 303 with 19 homers and that's 84 games. So a true like half a season pretty much. So he's a stud. He, he has their best offensive numbers by far. He's a line drive, line drive hitter who's gotten some pop. He's got a 938 OPS on the air. So that's two rookies, okay? Two rookies. I mean, our C is fun. And then, like we just said, a lot of accusations. So it's like, like a lot of, I don't know what the term for it, but there's a lot of mid-season call-ups or rookies. Like guys, they didn't plan to be key cogs in a wild card game. But the other part of me is if you're Trent Grisham and your first playoff game is a game seven against Max Scherzer, you gotta have ice in your veins to not be fucking a ball of nerves. Yeah. And I, when I look at the Brewers lineup, I mean, Grindal is a plus catcher. Tames had a pretty solid year. If he's versus righties, you're gonna get a good at bat. Hiura, we just talked about him. Moustakis had a better year than I thought before I brought up the stats page. And Brawny turned it on a little bit. I think all their OPSs are in the eights plus. So there's five guys right there that if they're giving you good at bats, Kane has had a lost season, which is pretty wild because he's such a talented ball player. Arsia not there with the stick, but he had the big post-season game last year. And then Grisham, you're right. I mean, he's a rookie and they've thrown him into the fire. So if he can give them the goods, that would be huge. But yeah, I think for, when I'm looking at the brewers lineup, I trust Grandal, Tames, Hiura, Moust and Braun to give you at least a good at bat. Those other three, Arsia, Kane and Grisham, right now I don't feel like they're total wildcards to me. They could go down one, two, three and Scherzer dominates them. If those guys can make Scherzer or Strasburger, whoever it is, work, I think that is so big for the brewers lineup. Yeah, Moustakis has been having a pretty tough September. A lot of hitless games and then a couple with three multi-hit games that helped the stats, but day-to-day basis, he's been pretty tough for them. So we'll see. And I mean, Moustakis has been there and it's crazy how much you and I value that. I mean, he had, he ended up with a 35 home or season. And this is gonna be what his one, two, this is gonna be his third post-season. He's played 41 post-season games. So like, Moustakis has been there. I trust that, dude. For Washington, it's their top four. Hey, Jim, I wanted to ask you about this because I know you like diving into the lineup a little bit or seeing how these teams function on an everyday basis. I love diving into the lineup. I love doing that for teams. I, well, you know how I do my chicken scratch notes. I got a couple things and it leads into the lineup. The Nationals started this season 19 and 31. 19 and 31, they finished from there 74 and 38. So the Nationals have been one of the best teams in baseball for two thirds of the season or whatever it is. And that makes sense when you look at the lineup and especially their pitching. But Jim, this was interesting to me because they lead off Trey Turner and Adam Eaton. Eaton has always been a solid OBB guy. Turner has amazing speed and he's one of the best better short stops in the league. And then they go Rendon, Soto, three and four, which has led Anthony Rendon to lead the league in RBI's and Soto's just a baby monster basically. But I thought you would like that because we've been pretty turned on to the bat your best hitter second method that's been kind of going through baseball. And it seems like the Nats are kind of, they got those OBB good at bat guys up there and they passed the torch. The Nationals baseball, they play like it's the 90s still. They hit and run, they bunt over people. They do things a little backwards and they're doing really well with it. They're top four, Trey Turner, Adam Eaton, Rendon and Soto, that's their top four. Like that's their dudes. Robles is always in center. He's usually batting sevens. And then in the middle there, you have like Howie Kendrick, Gomes sometimes, Zimmerman sometimes, or Gomes is eighth or Paras eighth. It kind of, those last couple get bounced around a lot. Looks like Kendrick is usually been batting fifth lately, but those top four, Turner, Eaton, Rendon, Soto, that's who the Brewers have to focus on. That's their four. And I mean, as Drupal Cabrera has been really good since he joined the Nats, Kendrick has been crazy. I, what I looked was the discussion in Nationals land is are they going to start Zimmerman or Kendrick, which is a real battle. Cause like Ryan Zimmerman is, he's a big part of like where that organization come from. He's, he's been through everything with them. He's a mainstay. Yeah. So that's, that's the interesting thing there. And the other note I had, and I, Kendrick's like really hot though. I like just looking at the numbers and not watching the Nats day to day, cause we are honest on this show. If you're, if you're a new listener, I mean, just doing the eye test, it feels like it's gotta be Kendrick. In his last 10 games started, his last 15 games played, Howie Kendrick has a 465 batting average, a 521 on base percentage, a 1.265 OPS. And I could go, I could crawl back all the way to the start of September. It doesn't get that much worse. Jake, it actually gets a little better. It's a four, no, it's a little worse, but 410 batting average, 455 on base. Dude, Howie Kendrick in the month of September has a 1.077 OPS, a 410 batting average, a 455 OPP. He has to be part of this game. The article I read was like hinting towards, you gotta play Kendrick just cause he's been so good. And Zimmerman can still be a threat to pinch hit. You're gonna see a lot of pinch hitting in this game. That's, well, I've got a weird ending speech around that, but I'll get away from it from now. But yeah, I'm assuming for national fans that they want Kendrick at first as Drupal Cabrera at second base, because I think those guys have just produced the most. And I think there was a discussion to be had between Suzuki and Gomes, but Suzuki just came off the IL and everything I read made it sound like Gomes was going to start this game. And if they advance in the playoffs, you might see it be more of a discussion, but it sounded like Gomes was going to get the star for sure. One hit in one at bat with the walk. Howie Kendrick versus Josh Hader. So sample size, my God. Wow. He crushes him. He does have a double versus Lyles. And let's see against Woodruff. Oh, for two and three played appearances. So nothing there. Jim, I know you and I were wondering how we're going to format this a little bit. We do this when we do our Talking Yanks pregame show. I think I have my official what to watch for in this game. Okay. My what to watch for in this game. For me, it's Turner and Eaton. Cause they have had really solid regular seasons and they're good ball players, but they're not Rendon and Soto. Rendon has a chance to win the MVP. Soto is special. If Eaton and Turner each get on base once or twice or if they get on base three times combined, I think the Brewers are in trouble. If you get Rendon and Soto up with those guys on base, this is playoff baseball. And this isn't shots fired at Turner and Eaton because I think they're both good ball players in their own respective ways. But I think that's kind of the head of the snake there. If you can clip those guys and you have Rendon coming up with nobody on base and kind of the same for Soto, I think that kind of changes the game. So those are the big at bats for me that I'm watching for in this game. Mine is the first two innings versus Scherzer. Okay. They have to get to him. Scherzer, in 27 games, he's pitched four innings. Like, you know, minimum he made it through four innings. Actually, he's never pitched less than four innings this season. 27 games always has one, two, three, four before he gets pulled. The first inning, he's given up 13 runs. A second six, the third nine and the fourth 13. If you're penetrating in the fourth, you might not be able to do that. You know what I mean? Like you said, these pitchers aren't gonna be given the chance to get the loss in a close game. So you gotta get him in the first. So we gotta get the Scherzer quickly. Otherwise, this looks bad. But what I find very interesting in my rooting interest for this game, because some people might want us to make picks. I don't wanna do that. I think it's lazy and kind of just stupid. I'll say this, it would be a lot of fun if the brewers win this game with their, we have a bunch of throwers and we have a bunch of rookie hitters who at bat you to death. It might make for a terrible DS. Against the Dodgers. So I think I'm rooting for the brewers to put up a hell of a fight, but lose so we can see the Nationals go, Scherzer, Corbin, Strasburg against the Dodgers and see a real good series there. I mean, I think you summed it up for everyone who's not a brewers fan. Cause yeah, that would be incredible when you start thinking of those pitching matchups, but it would be very, it would be very brewers of the brewers to not let that happen. All right, so thanks for hanging out with us. Enjoy the game tonight. We'll be back tomorrow to recap whatever the hell happened and then preview the next wild card raise at Oakland. We thank you guys. Leave a comment, rating, review, whatever.