 Welcome to another episode of Talking Baseball. The Cardinals forgot to get hits again. They lose game two. The Yankees stunned the Astros in game one. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to Talking Baseball. My name is John Boy. I got my co-host Jake with me a little later in the day-to-day, had a crazy airport run, so I apologize if you are waiting. The people that aren't waiting are the people that are listening live as I talk. They don't have to wait until we're done recording. And then I edit it because they are Patreon supporters. They're in the chat. They're watching live. They get it right away. And our most recent Patreon supporters are Kevin Barry. Kevin Barry, like that. Kevin B, baby. Leonard. Jake, you got an MLB player with the first name Leonard. Jim, I've got some huge news for you. OK, excited. There's been a couple of Leonard's first name and last name in MLB history. There's a gentleman. Where can I send you this link? Because you're going to throw up on yourself. I'm already on it. I'm on it. On what? Leonard? Leonard. Read those career stats. There's a player that's name is just Leonard. No last name. He's played in 1892. He played one game. One played appearance, one walk, one stolen base. And that's his stats. Leonard. Congrats to Leonard. Why put this guy in the system if you're baseball reference? Like, can you confirm that this actually happened in 1892? When they were doing like, I guess we'll put this fucker in here, just Leonard. One inning of right field. Yeah, they used the 1,691st MLB player in history, Leonard. Leonard, well, thank you for being a proud Patreon supporter. And coming up third is Vin Scully. How about that? Yeah, huge. Thank you, Vin. We appreciate that. Appreciate that. All right, yesterday, Jake, we had two games. We got two games to recap today. We had the National League CS. The American League CS game two, game one. We had the Nationals with Scherzer on the bump, Scherzer versus Wainow. Scherzer silences the cards bats who maybe forget they're allowed to make noise. It just seems like bad times over there in St. Louis. Do you have a burn of this game? Do we want to get into that right away? How are you doing? Do we need some small talk? I do have a burn of this game. I don't know if their shots fired at the St. Louis crowd. They haven't had anything to cheer for. Over the course of 16 innings, they had two hits. Yeah, it's rough. I mean, how mean is your burn? Not too bad. OK, let's get into the burns. What do we get mean in the burns? Well, I don't know. There's not nice things to say to Cardinals fans right now. You're the mean guy. I'm a nice, pretty guy. I don't know. You're pretty mean to Granky. No, he's bad. All right, let's burn this Nats game. Nats Cardinals game. I apologize. Burn, Jackie, burn. NLCS game two. Adam and the Cardinals try to wane right the ship after getting one hit in game one. That would be a tough ask as three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer was on the bump for the Nats. Top three, Taylor, gang. Michael A. Taylor rolls up on Wainow with a solo shot in the third, one-nothing Walgreens. Scherzer turned the Cardinal fans into St. Lunatics. I ain't talking Murphy Lee. One hit through seven innings on a ball Soto could have caught. Two hits through 16 innings, yikes. Top of the eighth, it's still one-nothing. STL could steal this game, change the whole series, but Adam eats them up. Two RBI double, tough ending to a heroic effort by Wainwright. Cards would score in the eighth on a ball. Taylor, gang, looked like he rolled up before he tried to catch it, but that was it. Scherzer to do little to Corbin, to Daddy Hudson. Nats win three to one. Take the 2-0 series lead back to the nation's capital. Do you think there's any truth to the rumors that are being spread like wildfire right now that the nationals outfielders hate no hitters? They hate just standing out there bored. And they're just like, you know what? We're gonna let some drop. Like, there's fucking boring out here. And so to let that ball drop, Michael Taylor lets the ball go over his head. It's just so bored. They can't chatter in the outfield. They're lonely. They're bored. Do you think there's any credence to that wild rumor I'm seeing all over the place? It's a classic case of fat and happy. You don't want the pitchers getting comfortable now. I mean, this isn't the job. Like, yeah, good game, but we still got a few more to go. So yeah, you gotta keep the pitchers on their toes. If Scherzer were to throw a no hitter, it'd only be down from there. And then his confidence would be shocked. So yeah, it's a lot of game planning by the Nationals. And it's a lot of bad times for the Cardinals. Cuts to someone on YouTube, because I'm a young kid on YouTube commenting that not understanding we're joking. You think a pro outfielder would actually let a ball drop? It's a lot of people that don't understand jokes and shit. So they get mad on YouTube. No, but for real, they were sabotaging their picture. Boredoms, everyone's biggest fear. And loneliness, it's a killer. For real. Yeah, boredom doesn't worry me too much. But yeah, A, Max Scherzer, seven innings pitch, one hit, two walks, 11 Ks, 101 pitches. He turned it on even more late. He was incredible. Wayne Wright, the old warrior still battling. He had 11 punches. Shut up, A.J. Perzinski. 7.1 innings, Eaton gets them. The crowd still gave him a huge applause as he deserved. He was incredible. He basically went toe to toe with Scherzer. And yeah, if you're the Cardinals, what's really killing you? Michael A. Taylor was hit in eighth again. The eighth hole hitters have essentially been what have done the Cardinals in when you look outside of their lineup doing nothing at all. But that's brutal. Yeah. I mean, if you're the Cardinals, it's, I mean, I don't know. Are there historical numbers behind this? Is this like, could this be the worst offensive performance in the first two games of ALCS history? Because it wouldn't shock me if it was. They let the other team no hit them for the first six innings, both games. Yeah, I mean, they end up. It's gotta be historically bad. Yes, it's involved in being historically bad. Four hits through two games. They get the one run in this game. I'm sure back in the dead ball era, there was a couple NLCS shutouts or something like that, but yeah. No NLCS back then. And there was the two of the Nationals hits in this game. Soto couldn't see it too well and he played it safe and let it hop to give up the no hitter. And then Michael A. Taylor, line drive to center, he comes in on it and he loses it. He does the, oh shit, jump at the end and it gets past him. I mean, there's a world where we're talking about St. Louis having three hits through two games. And it's just not acceptable. The Soto play, I think if there's not a no hitter, everyone's saying good play in a one nothing game. Oh yeah. Like smart, don't let that ball get by you and give them a triple in a one nothing game. But because the no hitters online, you'd like to see him dive out for it because of history. But even then, I think because it's the playoffs and it's a one nothing game, I still think you can say that's not that bad of a. I disagree fully and wholeheartedly and not sarcastically because what if Scherzer, we talked about the end of a no hitter effect when we talked about Anibal Sanchez's game. This was a one run game. If Juan Soto doesn't catch that ball, the St. Louis stadium came to life for the first time. Scherzer gives up a two run Yabo. People are gonna look at that and be like, holy shit. I think I'd rather, I'd rather he dives. And by the way, he could have made the catch. He might not have even had to dive. He, I think the Sun in the stadium was messing with them a little bit. He did play it safe, which well, he's 20. Okay. But yeah, no, I hated it and I still hate it at the time. I would have rather you dive to try to save the no hitter. And actually, and I think a big factor in this is I think he just makes a play then if he did dive and it rolled for a triple, I think that's better. Yeah. I think that's fine. I think it's fine to have both different thoughts. I think they give rules for a triple in a one run game. Now, now an outscores the tying run. Better to keep that guy first, but we'll agree to disagree on that one. The Taylor play is Carlos Martinez, who's probably the most fun guy in baseball. He's up there. I enjoy him a lot. He just throws it. How do you enter on Martinez? Huh? The Cardinals closer? Oh, no, no. Jose Martinez. Yes. Yeah. Ron Martinez, my bad. Same team, same last name. Both energetic guys kill me. Jose Martinez is fun. He's a fun dude. Like he's always being silly. He reminds me of the tall criminal and home alone, Marv. Oh, okay. Well, Latin Marv, I like that. Latin Marv. Yeah, electric shock. Anyway, he broke up the no hitter in game one and he gets another hit here, but again, he just throws his bat at it. He's just kind of like doing what he needs to do. I mean, it should have been caught, but Taylor completely read it wrong. Anyway, I felt bad for Doolittle is the point I was trying to make. Doolittle is coming after Scherzer, who no hit him basically. One hit him or whatever, you know? And in the close game, and it's like, oh shit, I can't like let the floodgates open now. And then the run scores because of that play and you can see Doolittle's reaction. He's just like, oh, what the fuck? Everyone blames the bullpen already. That's a hit in the book. It's like my line looks bad. I don't know if he's the person I think about his line, but his line looks bad now. And then he gets the next out. And did you see the shot of him like saying like, okay, calm down. Yeah, we're good. We're good. It's okay. I really liked the inner monologue that was probably going on and Doolittle's head throughout that whole thing. Cause it's fair. Like, fuck, everyone blames the bullpen already, Taylor. Like, come on, should be out of this. And Jim, can I read to you, I think something you'll be interested in and we're finding solutions for St. Louis. Jose Martinez's last four game locks. So yesterday, one at bat, one hit. Game day before that, one at bat, one hit. Atlanta, October 6th. One at bat, one hit. Atlanta, October 4th. One at bat, one hit. His last four games played, he's had one at bat and gotten a hit. You think they should start him? Game three? And Jose Martinez's last four at bats, he has as many as the whole Cardinals team does in the first two games. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! Yeah. Put, someone put that on a quote so we can retweet it. Someone put that on a shirt that has a quote on it that has another shirt on the shirt with those words. Shirt on a shirt. And then delete it, scrap it, scrap it, you went too far. Just do the tweet, just do the tweet. Yeah, go back to the original. In Carlos Martinez's last four at bats, he has double, he has the same amount of hits as the Cardinals do in the last two games. Yes. And technically, he's a part of that. So he has two of the four hits, so he has more than the rest of his teammates. He has double the amount of his teammates in his four. Yes. Yeah, maybe start him. Could be something. Have to, and I mean, I think what other people would be saying is, well, you know, Michael A. Taylor should have caught that ball and it shouldn't have been a hit. Yeah, but you need something. You need anything. And maybe it's luck, maybe he's doing something right. It was a hard hit ball. But yeah, get Jaymart in there. The hits are sad, man. Goldy's got a hit and it's that misplay. Yeah. DeYoung has a hit. I don't forget what it was. I think it's a real hit. The rest is bad. Who's been, so Ozuna is 0 for 8 with no walk. Carpenter 0 for 6, no walk. Damn. The second half of their lineup is only getting three at bats because they're basically getting no hit. Ozuna, Carpenter, and Edmund have a 0 on base percentage in the first two games. Yeah. Everyone else at least got on base once. Fowler walked. Goldy has that hit. Yachty, how the fuck does he have an on base percentage? He doesn't have a hit or a walk. What could that be? Hit by pitch. Yeah, maybe hit by pitch or. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, he did get hit on a ball, right? Hit him. Yeah. I mean, Yachty is batting sixth, I believe. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5th. Yachty's been batting fifth, and he has five at bats this series. Holy shit. All right. Sorry, Cardinals fans. This is not what you want to hear. Yeah. What do Cardinals feel? What are Cardinals fans telling themselves? They're telling themselves that Jack Flaherty's on the mound for game three, and that Talkin' Jake said that the road game would win the first three games of this series. So they're feeling confident about that. I mean, it's Strasburg coming up, and we'll talk about some of the Tanaka numbers. Him and Strasburger in a fun little race right now for postseason dominance. You're saying we got Flaherty, and the hitting can't get worse, question mark? Unless it does, so it's Strasburg. I mean, Strasburg's prime for a perfect game. And maybe that's what you're looking for. Strasburg has those expectations. I have a fun game for you. Got to get a hit in the first inning of the next game. That's my game for you. What's the breaking point where they quit on the series basically? If Strasburg no hits them through two, through three, through four, when do you think fans, and even like seeps into Cardinals players are like, OK, I guess this isn't happening for us? Like, I think it's four. I think if Strasburg goes through four innings and they don't have a hit, it's like full panic. Like, full, I mean, they're already probably panicking. But full, like, hope is lost. Yeah, they, it's tough. I was going to say the second time through the lineup, which is what you kind of said. They need runs on the board. You need a run on the board before the fifth inning. You need to think you have another chance to score a run. And man, I don't even know. I think I've been on before the start. When the Nats won the wild card game and they did it in magical fashion, it's like, OK. Soto Rindoner locked in. The starting pitching is studs. I was half rooting, half believed in the fall of the Dodger dynasty. I mean, it sounds lazy to say that it's done. I think Flaherty's going to shove. I think he's a special dude. But I mean, they need anything from the offense. And you'd like to think a Goldie, Ozuna, or someone can give you a big at bat or one big swing. Do you think they come out attacking early? I think you have to. I think you have to just hunt fastballs early in the account your first time through the order for that one big swing. That one big swing can change the whole momentum. And if you take you allowed Strasburg to dice you up. You need a base runner, too. I mean, would you rather, if you're a Cardinals fan, you don't want to see them swinging at three curveballs in the dirt if they could take a walk. Like, they just need traffic. They need to see a ball go over the fence. How about a home run for St. Louis? That's what I'm saying. The best way to do that is to attack Strasburg early in the count. Take that walk to run home. I'd come out swinging. I'd come out swinging. Because that homers can need a homer. Like a little base hit will feel OK, but it's not going to put any. It's not going to do anything for you. They're in a tough spot. Good for the Nats. Their pitching is pretty good. I mean, when Anibal Sanchez sets the stage for Scherzer, that's a good sign. Yeah, I mean, we could look back and say that was the end of the series, because it was Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin on deck. That was game one. Let's go to game one of the ALCS. First, a quick word from maybe a sponsor, or maybe there's not a sponsor. All right, Jakey, let's burn game one. Now, talking baseball listeners already know that we have another podcast called Talking Yanks. That's where the burns originated from. You do every game during the regular season. It's fantastic. So you're not going to write two different burns. So these Yankee burns may have a little more Yankee bias to them because they're written for a Yankee crowd, correct? Luckily, this game had some Yankee bias, too. I'm just letting them know. But yeah, it's really good burn. I'm excited to hear it again. All right, here we go. On your mark, get set, burn! Game one of the 2019 ALCS rematch of 2017, the New York Yankees and Mass Hero Tanaka versus the Houston Astros and Zach Morris Grinke as he hopes he doesn't need to be saved by the bell from the Yankees offense. Some good defense and some bad luck has a scoreless till top four. I don't know about you. I'm feeling 22. Glaver, Torres, RBI double makes it one, nothing after four. Top six, shake dad healthy butt. Glabe got back into the Crawford Seats. Two, nothing, fight in Glaver's. Junkalo, let the rhythm take you over Junkalo. Solo shot, too deep right. Three, nothing in the seven. Bases hooked, the kid, the Venezuelan victor, Gracia's de Caracas, two RBI single for Glabe, baby. Five, nothing by the way. Tanaka was the Mass Hero this city needed. Like a criminal with a good lawyer, Tank faced the minimum. Astros through six, Yankees get religious with Geo to God going yard late. And sure, Glaver knocks in his fifth ribby of the day. Tank to Otto, to Britain, to Johnny Ells, who hands one out to Houston. Yankees wins seven, nothing final. That criminal line faces the minimum. It's great. It's there. What meal spinning? Tanaka did not no hit the Stros, like Anabaal or Scherzer through the six innings. But he did face the minimum through six. A lot of double plays helped him out. And the Astros never sent four batters to the box in one inning last night versus Tanaka. Pretty impressive. He cardinals them. He gave them the one hit treatment. One hitter. Did the Stros send four in any other inning? Or were they one, two, three, the whole? Audivino gave up the two hits but had the double play ball. Was that technically five? But yeah, Britain had one walk. Tank had one walk. That's it. Yeah, I think the Yankees definitely kind of punched the Astros in the mouth here. They had home field advantage. The scuttle butt across the nation is that the Yankees have no pitching and their starters suck and they're never be able to hang with the Astros. And Tank comes out here and does postseason tank stuff and deals. Yeah, in the seventh inning, Jake, they sent four. No, no. In the seventh inning, they sent three to the plate. No, that's got to be, Audivino gave up two hits in the seventh. Yeah, but fly out, single, single, double play. Wait, hold on. Oh, they just word this weird on MLB game long. Yeah, four. So in the seventh inning, they sent four. So they never sent five batters to the plate in an inning, which for the Houston offense, that's pretty wild. Yeah, pretty wild. This was a must win for the Yankees with Grankey pitching game one and then Verlander Cole going 2-3. It was not. And Schmoltz said this on the broadcast and a lot of Yankees fans took offense, but it's dead on accurate. The Astros can kind of flick this off their back or whatever. We have Verlander Cole going 2-3. We could afford to lose game one. The Yankees, they couldn't afford to lose game one. This was a must win, but now it flips. Now game two is a must win for the Astros and the Yankees are kind of playing with house money. We took one on the road. Let's give it our best shot. But the Yankees needed to win this game, and they did, and they looked really good doing it. Yeah, I'm going to disagree with you on must win a little bit. I mean, the 2017 series, all the home games won, so I just think the shtick would have turned into like, all the home teams are back at it. We'll see if we could get something at Verlander and we'll shake Cole at the stadium. But no, this was the weak link in their armor right now is Grankey. Who was solid? I said I didn't think he could have one of these lines. He finishes six innings, pitched three in runs, technically a quality start. He gives up two homers. Yanks hit into some bad luck. So did Houston. There's a lot of the hardest hit balls in this game and the first three innings were caught, and two of them turned into double play balls. But that's kind of baseball, Susan. But yeah, man, the Yankees had an edge, the top three in their lineup. I think we did this last night, I think they got on eight out of 14 times. Yeah, DJ judging the labor. And that's just brutal if you're a pitcher or a reliever. I mean, you're just not going to get through them clean. And if you've got traffic on the bases in the postseason, that's kind of what it's all about. The solo shots aren't really going to kill you. And yeah, I mean, Yankees dominated. The Yankees had 13 hits. Houston had three. Seven runs. Tanaka, his playoff numbers are special now. They're still special, I should say. 36 innings to the tune of a 1-3-2 ERA in seven playoff starts. He's never given up more than two earned runs in a playoff start. Pretty incredible. And yeah, now you're right. I mean, it almost feels like if you're the Yankees, the Rays talked about getting verlandered in their first game. And I'm interested to see what Verlander's got today on full rest, coming off his worst playoff start ever. But if you're the Yankees, you say, hey, we got two shots at Verlander and Cole. If we split them somehow, and one of those games is at the stadium, that's kind of a fun mindset. Or if you could somehow get to Verlander today, if he's not sharp again, I mean, you're doing what the Nationals did. You just went 2-0 and now you're heading back home. And two of those home games would be started by Jose or Keady and Grinke. Yeah, they got to win. They got to win tonight, the Astros do. And they have a really good chance to do so with Verlander on the mound. Jake and I are both always very excited to watch Verlander when he's not facing the Yankees and still kind of in awe of him when he's, because when Verlander's right, it's my favorite pitcher, I think. I think when Verlander is on, like when he no hit the Blue Jays, like, and you watch those highlights, that's my, I think that's my favorite pitcher to watch. It feels like a clinic. It feels like you're at camp watching, learning how people pitch. Yeah, and we, man, they really neutralized. Springer goes 0-4. His postseason is starting to get ugly. Bregman, he has a nice walk. But then he gets doubled off first, a really nice play by Aaron Judge. Basically threw it 89 miles per hour off his back foot. So that's pretty good. And then, yeah, I mean, everyone's talking about Glaver. Glaver goes 3-5, 5 RBIs. They slid him up to the three hole for this game. And he, it worked. Plan worked. Plan worked. Yeah, I didn't realize Springer's having a rough postseason. He's got a 154 on base percentage in the six games and a 274 OPS. That's a tough, some tough stats for Springer there. Yeah, and he's a dude. I did this on one of the end of the regular season talk in Yang's episode. If he didn't get nicked up this year, he was going to be easy in the 50s with his home run total. And he's the guy that won the World Series MVP for them. George Springer, I think Altuve, Correa, they get a lot of love. And they deserve it, so does Bregman, obviously. But Springer is just as key of a cog. He's the lead-off dude in center field. He's having a tough postseason right now. Yeah, what's Altuve? What did Altuve do yesterday? No hits? They got him. He went one for three. They were making him chase. If you're a Yankees fan, we did a very in-depth, more cocky recap, because we were in our feelings a little bit more right after the game last night. I think Altuve's the head of the snake. I know he doesn't bat lead-off. But I think if you can silence Altuve, I think you silence the whole order. So I think it's important. He got a hit. Dude, Altuve has a hit in every game this postseason. He's a monster, man. Jesus Christ, he's got a 348 batting average or 1.201 OPS in the six games. Move them up to second. Probably just going to play Jose Altuve highlight reel in my kid's crib growing up. It's another guy who I love watching play baseball. Because me copying Albert Pujol's stance didn't work in this body. Didn't work. Did not work. I can't emphasize it enough how much it didn't work. I'd slide Altuve up to the two hole if I was them. They have Brantley ahead of them. Get Altuve at bats. They had Altuve first, the first three games, and they switched it. I think they like the balance of breaking up some of their righties a little bit, because I think their righties are the danger on the team. Jordan Alvarez, obviously young and really good, but he's going to have to prove himself on the postseason stage. Brantley really solid. He did have a hit yesterday. Yeah, no, I think as of right now, there'd be a bigger fear factor for the Yankees if you saw Jose Altuve leading off. But that's also, I mean, Springer's their lead off dude. That would almost be, I think that would be viewed as kind of a panic move in Houston. Well, Altuve was batting second in the postseason. Like, it wouldn't be strange. I don't know where they have Brantley. Sir, they had Altuve second in games one, two, and three of the DS. Yeah, it packs in on the bump today. Maybe they can use that as an excuse to slide Altuve up. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know why they slid them down. They made the change going into game four. They slid Brantley up. I think it's maybe like Brantley versus Tanaka. And then I think it was to give Brantley better pitches to hit. Because Altuve is hot as fuck. But, and they want to get Brantley going. Who knows? But I would, if I was Astros, as a Yankees fan, I don't want to see, I'd like seeing Altuve third. Less at bats, just, I'd rather see him third than second. So they should probably make room second if I was doing the lineup. Springer, Brantley get on first inning today. It might be a different feeling. But Springer's 0 for the postseason, so. Yeah. No, I mean Springer, Springer is definitely the talk when they zoom into the lineup. That's who they're focused on, that he needs to do something or get out of the way. Because he's kind of holding them back right now. Tanaka was special. His pitch mix and everything was just beautiful. Houston was really struggling to line them up. 68 pitches through six innings. He gets pulled. It was a little bit of a conversation. The Yankees want to go to their bullpen. The Yankees want to go to both bullpens. But yeah, they're up 5-0. They go to Adavino, which kind of works out. And there's some logic behind that. I really like the fact that the next time Houston has to see Tanaka, they're still going to be saying, I don't know what to do against this guy, where the top of the order was coming up. If Tanaka goes back in, Springer, Brantley get a couple hits, they're saying, OK, yeah. We got Tanaka now. We figured it out. Next time they see him, that'll be a big question mark. Adavino, with all these tough Houston varieties, he can be an X-factor in the series. He comes in, and he doesn't give up a run, two hits. There's kind of a misplay by the Yankees in field. He still gets the double play ball, and he looked pretty solid. The Yankees had three double plays turned in this game, which I mean, that's pretty huge, especially when one's an outfield assist. I mean, they got out of trouble, and judge is good, man. That play was awesome. By the way, Giancarlo Stanton, who's on the Yankees, a lot of people forget this. He hit a home run. He's still really good. He is good. All right, this series is the only game coming up. Let's take a quick break, and then we will talk about game two of the ALCS. All right, only one game to preview today. Game two, Yankees versus Astros. Like I said earlier, I think this is a must win for the Astros. You've got home field advantage, and if you were to lose both games and then go down to play three in a row, Yankee Stadium, that's pretty shitty, especially with Verlander on the mound. I think all odds are on the Astros' favor here. I think Verlander is really good. He scares me. You got Paxton pitching for the Yankees. Paxton made one start against the Astros. This season, he was tipping his pitches, and they lit him up. They were all over his stuff. Hopefully, he's not tipping his pitches again. And I mean, the game is, this game, is Verlander. Verlander is this game, because the Astros bullpen isn't good. Yankees nicked him up a little bit last night. I think the Yankees are licking their chops, hoping that whenever they see that bullpen, and it's all about how good is Verlander and how long can he stay in the game, would you agree that that's kind of what dictates this game, the biggest factor at least? A little bit. I mean, obviously, the starting pitchers, and especially when it's someone as special as Justin Verlander, especially special, said those words a lot. Jim, something that I stumbled into last night when we were talking about it, and I fully believe in. And the example I used is, if you watch an NFL football game, and one of the defenses is super hyped up, the great Baltimore Ravens defenses, and they play another team who's got a solid defense, but that whole week, they're only talking about how good the Ravens defense is. That other team ends up winning, and you hear them saying, yeah, keep talking about that Ravens defense, because we're pretty good, too. The Yankees starting pitching is pretty good. Tanaka is a playoff stud, like bonafide. There's not an argument against it. James Paxton is extremely talented. He's won what? His last 11 starts? 12? I don't know if he did any blip at the end of the year. I don't think so. Yeah, he had a no decision. OK, well, either way. He's either won 12 of his last 13, and then Luis Severino is arguably the most talented guy, and he can absolutely shove and hit triple digits for as long as he can go. So yes, those Houston guys are incredible. Verlander, the Hall of Famer, one of the best pitchers of our generation. Garrett Cole just put together one of the best seasons you'll see this time period. Zach Grinke could also be a Hall of Famer. The Yankees guys are also good, and that's what it felt like Tanaka did yesterday, where it's like, oh yeah, keep talking about how good those guys are. I'll shove for six innings one hit. You could see a little bit of that fuck you out of Paxton today. And for me, it's the early runs. We did a Sharp Stats episode, and I think Houston's got some unbelievable numbers. They're like 27-0 if they have a two-run lead or something. At home, yeah. Yeah, and if they score first, they're essentially unbeatable is what the numbers say. If the Yankees get on the scoreboard first, and I don't think it's going to be a blow-up inning like the Reyes kind of did to Verlander. If anything, it's Judge Clipsum, or one of the guys pokes a solo shot. But if a couple innings go by and the Yankees have the lead, I mean, it's panic time in Houston. If it's the fourth inning, and George Springer has a second strikeout of the game, and the Yankees are up on the scoreboard, yeah. It's going to be panic o'clock. So it'll be interesting to see there's no reason to not believe in Verlander. In Houston, they will be rowdy. It is a passionate fan base, and Verlander with a couple dirty strikeouts could get that crowd going real quick. But yeah, I don't know. I think I'm expecting a good baseball game. I don't think I walk away from this, and I'm like, yeah, Verlander shoved six-one Stroes. Well, yeah, you talk about trying to jump on Verlander early. That is what the Astros have to do against passion. He struggles in the first inning, and he's going to be on the road and a history of tipping his pitches. He did face them twice this year. The first time he was tipping his pitch, got lit up. Second time he went five innings pitched, one earned run against a less-than-stellar Astros lineup. It rounded out with Tyler White, Marisnik, and Miles Straw at the back end, but it was actually White and Marisnik that got the run against Paxton. He has a lot of history, since he was with Seattle for so long. He has a lot of history against this team. A lot of them have more than 20-played appearances. Braggman has 29-played appearances with a 276-on-base percentage. Let's see, Springer has a 278-on-base percentage. It's not that great. The OPS is pretty good. And Altuve has a 429-on-base percentage, Jake, and Carlos Correa in 24-played appearances has a 458-on-base percentage with a 1.OPS. So there's some history there. Some of those numbers come from when he was tipping his pitches and they were smacking him around. Altuve got him for two home runs in that game, I believe, just jumping first pitch fastballs because he knew it was coming. Paxton also changed his pitch mix. He was more of a two-pitch guy when he was tipping, so it might be harder. But yes, it's really, both pitchers can get through the first inning clean. Then I think we settle in for kind of a fun pitcher stall. Yeah, well, the thing we have to ask to risk on that that you've been all over is, I mean, Paxton's only going to get to see each hitter twice. Houston needs Verlander to get through three times. So yeah, I mean, that's an interesting dynamic. If James Paxton runs into trouble in the fourth inning, the Yankees will pull them. They will go to their bullpen. Yeah, they got five innings out there. If Verlander's in trouble in the fourth, there's no safety net. The Yankees have five plus innings, five plus. Up to six innings, they can get out of their bullpen happily. It is not scary to go Chad for one or Chad, Kainley, Otto, Britain, Chapman and have one inning like split where two guys go 1.1, 1.2. That is not a worry. It's like, damn, we have to do this. It's kind of like, OK, let's do it. Cool. And my other notes, I think Chapman has to pitch in this as a Yankee fan. Chapman, he pitched game three versus the twins. I think I got, what, four off days. And then yesterday was off. So he's five off days in a row. We have an off day for the Yankees tomorrow. And Chapman, you don't want them to get rusty. I think no matter the score, up 10, down 10, one run game either way, Chapman has to get an inning in this game. So hopefully it's up 10. And Chapman comes in for the Yankees. But expect to see him, I would guess. Got anything else? I mean, let me see. Let me see Verlander stats versus the Yankees. And then we'll get out of here. I got to go have some cake with my dad for his birthday. What's your favorite kind of cake and why is it carrot cake? It's not carrot cake. Carrot cake's a good cake. It just gets lost in the shuffle a little bit. And to say carrot cake's the best cake, that's pretty asinine. It's a good cake. It's my favorite cake. No, no, it's not. That's my whole expectations thing. No, carrot cake's my favorite cake. If you expected carrot cake to be the best cake, then you wouldn't think it's the best cake. If you expect carrot cake to be, it might be OK. I don't know. Let's see what they got. You're like, whoa, this shit's pretty good. When we went to Yankee Stadium and they do the dessert cart and there's every kind of cake you can imagine, I'm grabbing carrot cake. Well, yeah, you've got to end healthy. You've already eaten a ton of shit. You've had a lot of drinks. You have to have a little vegetable to wash it down. I don't know. I really do enjoy an ice cream cake, but I don't even think that counts as a cake. I think that's just ice cream. So I don't know. Does cheesecake count as cheesecake? A pie? We're getting lost. What are Verlander stats? Got a crust on it. It's a pie. Didi has really good stats against Verlander. He has a 400 on base percentage, 7 hits and 22 at bats, a double, a home run. Brett Gardner has better stats than you'd think. A 330 on base percentage in 57 plate appearances. Brett Gardner just needs to grind out at bats. Edwin and Karinassion in 43 plate appearances gets carved up by Verlander. Nothing good there. DJ has five hits and 15 at bats. That's a 333. Aaron Hicks has terrible stats. Aaron Judge has terrible stats. Gary Sanchez has terrible stats. And Glebert Torres has terrible stats. So Verlander has some fun to be had. And Verlander guy is pretty good. He's pretty good. All right. Everyone enjoy the one game. Enjoy your Sundays. Enjoy the football if you like watching football, but this is a baseball show. Have a, we will see you tomorrow I guess and the next day and the next day. Can I get stuck anymore?