Latest / Who's On First? / Episode 10- The Brewers Sweep the Dodgers and Guardians Go Up 2-1
Transcript
- Joseph: Well, hello, hello. Welcome back to the Who's On First Show. My name's Joseph Lund. So happy you could be joining me as we get to talk some more postseason baseball. There is a new sheriff in town in the National League as the Brewers take down the Dodgers in sweep fashion. And the Guardians take the two to one series lead in the American League Championship series over the Tampa Bay Rays. I'll coming up on the Who's On First Show. And this time I want to start with this ALCS series. So far. In the two championship series podcast, I've started with the NL. Today the AL gets its flowers and I wanna start there as the Guardians take game three and they take the two to one series lead with some big swings from their young players. So there you go, it's the Young Sluggers getting the job done for the Guardians. Nathaniel Lau gets the RBI double in the bottom of the second. That put the Guardians up one to nothing. Then the Chandler Simpson triple made it two to one raise before Petey Halpin gets the kill shot after a Patrick Bailey infield single. 385-foot two-run home run to take the lead. And that was all the Guardians needed. The first career postseason home run for the young Petey Halpin. And his fifth career home run, what made it even cooler, Griffin Jax had not allowed a home run since September 9th, and a costly one allowed in this one that proved to be the difference. Such a cool moment for P.D. Halpin. And in the playoffs, it's so much about the intangibles. Who's gonna be the unexpected guy that steps up when it matters most and gets the job done? And for the Guardians yesterday, it was P. D. Halpin. Getting the job done. Getting the home run, and that was all they needed. As they then flipped it to the bullpen, they went Espino to Sabrowski to Gaddis to Cade Smith to close it off with the four out save. And so now how are both of these teams feeling going into game four? Let's start with the raise. The negative outlook, you're down to one with two more games in Cleveland. You've lost the momentum, and Cleveland continues to build it up. As they get these home wins with two more still at progressive field. Now to the positive for Rays fans. You only used two of your bullpen pieces. Tyler Wells comes in, then Steven Matz comes in. They both throw two innings pitched. That tallies up to eight. You lose it in the top of the ninth. So your bullpen is very well rested. You're feeling good about that. Your A plus relievers have had two days off. And you're feeling good because you have all of your bullets ready when needed for games four and five, which are gonna be crucial. And Kevin Cash is gonna have a quick leash on Nick Martinez, who will be the starter today. Of he's got guys ready to go, well rested in the bullpen off two days' rest with the off day, and then not many guys going yesterday. Just the two. And then you also feel good with Nick Martinez on the bump on the opposite side. Cleveland going with a bullpen game in Sean Armstrong. Martinez a 387 ERA in his last 15 starts. A guy that brings a lot of consistency as well as a guy that brings a lot of postseason experience. And so you like your odds there with the conventional starter going up against the bullpen game. On the opposite side of things, it's Sean Armstrong, the opener going for Cleveland. He has been very consistent in the postseason, five and a third innings pitched. Zero earned runs allowed and five strikeouts. That's all you gotta ask for when it comes to being an opener. Go out, get one to two to three innings. If you can get them scoreless, that's perfect. And hand it off to the next guy in line. Get the merry-go round going and see what happens. If you can pull away a bullpen win, then you're feeling really good if you're Cleveland. So now to Cleveland. Why you're feeling good? You're up two to one. Not many people were expecting this from Cleveland. You go back to the division series. They're down two to nothing, going to Chicago. You win two there, then bring it back to Progressive Field where they win a game five. Then you get to this now ALCS where you're the underdog. Despite, remember, this is the one-two matchup. The two teams that got the buys, you're still the underdog with how solid and how consistent the Rays have been all year. And in this postseason, taking down the Yankees, who a lot of people saw as the most formidable opponent in the American League, despite having to play the wild card. They took them down with ease with the sweep. Now you get to the ALCS and the Guardians continue to prove people wrong as now they find themselves up two to one. And you can have a chance to close this game out at progressive field or close the series out at progressive field. You win game Four tonight, and then you get game five at progressive field, you can be done in Cleveland. And that is the positive outlook for this team. As well as you're feeling good, you're building momentum. It's not just one guy you're relying on. In the division series, a lot of the weight fell on Jose Ramirez, who had to have a couple big swings. And sure, they had uple a couple other guys contributing: Joe Adell, Nathaniel Lau, but it was Jose Ramirez who needed to get the big breakthrough swings. In this series, you're feeling good with how much contributions you're getting from so many players all over the diamond, especially your young players. It's Chase Delauder, Jose Ramirez, Nathaniel Lau, Joe Adele, Petey Happa Halpin. All these guys are contributing and you're feeling really good about putting together a complete and total offense. Steven Kwan, another guy. You're feeling good about getting that going and where you're standing in the series and how you feel on the The other reason you're feeling really good is you're guaranteeing now almost that you will get another Parker Messix start and you will get another Gavin Williams start. You feel really confident with both of those guys, and remember, they got the bullpen win in game one. So you know you can do it with your bullpen. That's tried and true formula that you have. And so this is gonna be a really fun game for tonight. It'll be in Cleveland. First pitch at 8 p.m. Eastern. I'm filming this at 1.55 Eastern. I'll try and get it out by around three or four Eastern. To you guys to get this one out before the game. Looking ahead to this one again, it'll be Nick Martinez and Sean Armstrong. And it's going to be a fun one as the Guardians look to go ahead three to one, and the Rays look to even things up at two with one more in Cleveland to follow. So now let's get to this NLCS Dodgers. Versus the Milwaukee Brewers. I didn't get a chance to take you through game three and my thoughts, so I wanna start there as the Brewers win game three, six to two. So the Brewers taking game 3-6-2. It's another win for the bullpen. They get things started with Robert Gasser. He goes five innings pitched, three hits, no earned runs, one walk, and three strikeouts. On the opposite side, it was Blake Snell who got the start for the Dodgers, and he looked unhittable to start. His final line, he goes six innings pitched, four hits, four runs, four of them earned. Two walks and nine strikeouts. So I wanna start things off. Jackson Turio hits the first pitch leadoff home run. The the broadcast cameras were barely even focused. It caught Joe Davis and John Smoltz heavily off guard as they were trying to rebound and get ready for the call. It was a quick ambush swing. Blake Snell likes to start in the zone. So again, you have another game plan coming in that the Brewers were executing on of attacking that first pitch. It's something Churio loves to do and it pays off as he gets the backside bomb to early open up things. And I mentioned how a key to the game for the Brewers was taking the Dodgers crowd out of it early on. And that was the perfect scenario that you could get if you were the Brewers. Of that crowd got silenced right then and there. No one was expecting that in the stadium except for Jackson Churio, who had it game planned and obviously was looking for that pitch, got it, drove it the opposite way. But it immediately took the crowd out of it. However, the crowd eventually got back into it in the bottom of the sixth inning. That was when Urana K or Yuribe came in and Will Smith finally gets the big swing he had been looking for, that two run double. And it had been such a struggle for Will Smith throughout the postseason. Up until then, you had the missed challenges with Yamamoto in game two. He had been struggling with only one hit up to then. But I had mentioned that he had been squaring up a lot of baseballs and at bats had been looking better. And then he finally gets the up and in fastball and he turns on it. I thought off the bat it was gonna be a home run. Hits two feet shy of eclipsing the outfield wall. Instead it's a two-run double with the bases loaded, and now you're thinking this is the big inning that the Dodgers need. In comes DL Hall, but you got the lefty-righty matchup in both of these at bats with Kike Hernandez and Tommy Edman. And the Dodgers again are not able to come through. And it felt like there it was the same old, same old of inability to create runs for the Dodgers, especially with runners in scoring position. And you have to be able to execute there, especially with a runner on third and less than two outs. You gotta be able to elevate something, go get something out deep in the outfield and bring home that run that would have been such a huge run to get the lead past just one. Instead, DL Hall does an amazing job of stranding those runners. He goes two and a third innings pitch, no runs allowed. And then immediately Milwaukee steals it right back with the at-bat of the series. By far, we thought for sure in game two, the at-bat of the series was the Jake Bowers 12-pitch walk that took Yamamoto out of the game, but then he does it again. And this time it's an 11-pitch at bat. That ends in a two-run home run that immediately gives the Brewers the lead back. And this is that relentless Brewers offense that I'd been talking about of constantly wearing you down and grinding you down. And the second the Dodgers finally get a lead in that big clutch hit, the Brewers immediately swipe back the lead and they never look back. Garrett Mitchell then went back to back in the seventh. That made it four to two. And then Bryce Tarang scored on a wild pitch. And Joey Ortiz had the RBI single. That put the Milwaukee Brewers up four. They win at six to two. So my thoughts on this game, how it was managed, is the big thing with Dave Roberts. And I'll start by saying: Dave Roberts has all the respect in the world for me. He has earned it. The man's got three World Series rings. He put on a masterclass of managing in the 24 and 25 World Series. And he has won the respect of Pretty much all of baseball, he will have his number 30 in Dodger Blue retirement when he is done. No one will be able to wear that because of the contributions he has made to this team. However, in this game three, there were certainly some errors. So, you're coming into this one down two to zero. It you cannot afford to go down three to nothing, especially against this Brewers team. But if you get to two two to one. You're right back in it. Just like that. Your offense is feeling good. And you would think in a situation like this, you would only use your A plus bullpen arms because this is a do or die. This is a game seven mentality. And I have no problem with him leaving Blake Snell in after the walk before the Jake Bauer is at bat. However, after the Jake Bauer is at bat, I think you have to take him out. Because you have to have that short leash in a game seven mentality and trust your bullpen. He then gives up the back to back home run to Garrett Mitchell. And then at that point, you go to your bullpen and Roki Sasaki comes in and gets the one out. And he was done there. Again, there were talks of could Roky go longer? But you still had your A plus bullpen arms coming off the travel day. So you're well rested. Edwin Diaz hasn't been used in this series. Tanner Scott was ready to go. So many A plus arms were ready to go in this bullpen. And then Dave Roberts goes to Justin Robleski right after Sasaki. And this was the other big head scratcher of you have all these guys, you're treating this like a game seven. Why are you not going to Tanner Scott in this moment? Why is it not an Edwin Diaz? Why is it not an Evan Phillips in that moment? And the Dodgers bullpen has certainly been hindered by injuries, but you still have your four or five A plus guys that you trust. It's Phillips, Scott, Vesia, and Edwin Diaz. Those are the guys you trust. Instead, Dave Roberts goes with Justin Robleski. He gives up the other two runs, which really put that game out of distance for a Dodgers comeback with how they had been swinging the bats. Then you finally get Evan Phillips in for the ninth, but then it was too little too late, and Trevor McGill slams the door with a four out save. And so that was the issues I had with the managing in that series that really came back to hurt the Dodgers was not using your A plus arms out of the bullpen there. Again, I have no problem with leaving Blake Snell in after the walk. He had retired 14 straight brewers up to that point. He was looking really good. And you get the lefty lefty matchup against Jake Bowers, who had been hitless against him up to that point. However, after that eleven pitch at bat, resulting in a two run home run and how hard he was working, and at that point, his pitch count was low before the Bowers at bat, but then it immediately crept up. After the eleven pitches, I think that's when you have to take him out and you have to go to your A plus plus guys with the mentality that the Dodgers had coming to this one of game three of this is a game seven for us, because we can't Afford to go down three to nothing. But they do. And so now that takes us to yesterday's game where again the Milwaukee Brewers prove they cannot be stopped and they win it in sweep fashion after getting sweep last year with a six-four Milwaukee win. So there you go. The Brewers pull out the Brooms and sweep the Dodgers with the 6-4 win. It was Shane Drohan on the mound for the Brewers. Well, Tyler Glasnow got the start for the Dodgers. Drohan goes one innings pitched, one hit, one earn roll run, two walks, and one strikeout. Glasnow goes four and a third, three hits, four earn runs, two walks, and six strikeouts. And so the big swings in this one. Bottom of the second inning, Dodgers are feeling good. It's the RBI single from Andy Paez that brought home Kyle Tucker. And then Shohei Otani comes up with two men on, and he gets the big breakthrough swing after all the doubters and all the flack he had gotten throughout the series of how he was injured, of how he might be being selfish by not wanting to be out of the lineup. Or how Dave Roberts was mismanaging it by not benching him and putting in DePaula. And how he should have been moved later on in the lineup. And it was certainly an eye-catching move when he got moved to the leadoff spot. But I think at that point the Dodgers were saying, Hey, we just gotta go play carefree baseball and see what happens. We got our two rings. We gotta go play carefree baseball. Roberts puts him in the spot that he feels comfortable in. I will admit I wasn't sure about the move. But he finally gets the big swing, the big home run that he had been waiting for for so long, and you think this is the turning point for the Dodgers. Surely this shifts something with the biggest question mark in your offense, quickly turning things into a big exclamation mark with that big time home run. The Dodgers are up four to nothing, and you think, surely this is the one we get, we win this one. And then a tail as old as time, the Brewers come crawling back. They bring it to four to two after the William Contreras double and then the Jake Bowers ground rule double with runners on second and third. That made it four to two. Then Alex Vesia came in with the bases loaded and had a four-pitch walk to Sal Freelick. And then Evan Phillips walks William Contreras to load the bases. And that was when the fourth run came in. That tied it four to four. That was the Vesia four pitch walk. And then Garrett Mitchell hits a home run in the sixth, and that was all the Milwaukee needed. That was the fifth run. Then they get the sixth run of insurance in the top of the ninth on the David Hamilton solo home run off of Edwin Diaz. And this was brutal. I I'm a Dodgers fan. I was I was definitely rooting for the Dodgers. This was a tough one. And there are so many things to say about how the Dodgers manage this. And What went wrong and how the Dodgers could have done this better. But at the end of the day, the Brewers were by far the better team in every single regard. Pat Murphy outmanaged Dave Roberts. By far, the Brewers were better at outhomering the Dodgers, out hitting the Dodgers, out hitting the Dodgers with runners in scoring position, out pitching the Dodgers. The bullpen was miles better. For the Brewers and even the starting pitching, the one thing you could point to for the Dodgers and say, We got this one down for sure. We know our starting pitching is gonna keep us in this game. For Glasnow, it's four earned runs. For Snell, it's four earned runs. Scuble was the one good start, but that's a wash with how good Mizarowski was. And then Yamamoto has the disastrous start where he only goes two and a third. The Milwaukee Brewers were by far the better team, and they showed why. They were the best team in the MLB. Why they had 103 wins, why they have home field advantage throughout the entirety of the postseason is they were by far the better team. And I gotta admit, I was not very much looking forward to filming this episode. And then this morning, I was just scrolling on my phone and you could see videos of Dodger fans congratulating Brewers fans in after the game and how cool that must be for them. This team has waited forty-two years for a NL Pennant win. They finally get it and they're going back to the World Series. A team that absolutely deserves it. A team that is so fun to root for and embodies the right way of playing baseball. Derek Jeter said it in one of the postgames how everyone's saying, this is Brewer Ball and this is our way and this is Brewer's baseball, but it's really just the right way to play baseball in a true three outcome world that we live in of walk, strikeouts, and home runs. The Brewers go completely against that. And while they still had a couple big time home runs. They rely on small ball. How many times do we see a walk or a single then a stolen base and another single? Or just getting traffic on the bases, constantly making it tough for the Dodgers, as they were by far the better team. And again, I was scrolling through my phone and there was a video of a lady who was on a Cleveland radio station who had her dad come on to the show and talk about how much this Guardians run meant for the city of Cleveland and for their family and how cool it was. And it just kind of put it all into perspective of it's been super cool watching the Dodgers get their last two rings. I'll never forget that Miguel Rojas home run in the game seven of the World Series and what is one of the greatest game sevens of all time, one of the greatest postseason series of all time. You get the Yankees win the year before that when we took them down in five and it stinks that we didn't get the three peak, but that just shows how hard it is to do in this game. And now I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of this baseball play out. I haven't been able to watch as much of this ALCS as I would like just with school and not having TBS available from where I am. And so watching it in bits as pieces a bits and pieces as much as I can. But I do to say I'm excited. It's something new for me of trying out this media thing. And I don't want to make it about myself, but I'm certainly looking forward to just watching baseball and covering it like I've wanted to. And it's been super fun getting to cover this playoff. So it's a bummer that my favorite team is out. But I'm definitely excited to keep bringing postseason content and looking forward to that. a couple more things I wanted to touch on. So again, tip of the cap to the Milwaukee Brewers. I think the quote that will Sit with this team and really embodies is the paragon of this entire run that the Brewers have gone on is what Pat Murphy said in the champagne celebration after the series sweep. Alrighty, so the last thing I wanted to cover on this episode was a couple coaching carousel moves in the MLB. Houston Astros elect to part ways with Joe Espada after their 81 and 81 finish. They got first place in the AL West just barely, and then had a quick departure in the American League wild card at the hands of the Chicago White Sox in two games, as well as the Seattle Mariners on a 76 and 86 season. Very underwhelming with the expectations that this team had. They part ways with head coach Dan Wilson, a couple top candidates that have already been thrown out for both of these jobs. Brad Osmus, the Yankees bench coach, possibly for the Astros, as well as Rodney Lenares, the Rays bench coach. Danny Lehman, the Dodgers bench coach, Jeff Bannister, or Omar Lopez, who's currently the Astros bench coach. And then for the Mariners. the funny enough is the top candidate right now is Joe Espada, who was just fired by the Astros, someone who's familiar with that division in the AL West. Brandon Hyde, the former Orioles manager, could be Rocco Baldelli, David Ross, or maybe Albert Puholz, if he wants to get started in managing again back in the AL West, just that time with the man with the Mariners. and the last funny thing I wanted to cover was Joe Espada wins the American League West and the last. manager to get fired after winning the division. Can you guess who it is? I'm gonna tell you in five, four, three, two, one. It was Dusty Baker, the 2017 Washington Nationals, went 97 and 65, won the National League East by 20 games, just to immediately lose to the Chicago Cubs in five in the NLDS. So there you go. Some baseball trivia To round out this one, I will be back with some ALCS coverage, most likely on Monday, as I can't get any recording time over the weekends. I'll be tuning into some college football anyway. Thanks so much for tuning in from wherever you may be watching, Spotify, YouTube, Apple Podcasts. Leave a comment, leave a review. It helps me out a bunch. And I want to know your guys' opinions. What are you guys thinking about the Dodgers getting swept or how the Guardians are doing or Joe Aspada getting fired, whatever it is? I want to know your guys' opinions. Thoughts and comments, but that's all for me. I'm Joseph Lund saying so long.