Latest / Who's On First? / Episode 9- Is the Dodgers Dynasty Over? Guardians and Rays Split in St. Petersburg

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Episode 9- Is the Dodgers Dynasty Over? Guardians and Rays Split in St. Petersburg · Who's On First?

• 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 of baseball. We got NLCS action, ALCS action. What are we gonna cover today? Wanna walk you through game two of the NLCS? Is the dynasty over for the Dodgers? We're gonna preview NLCS Game 3, which will be happening later today. And then I'm gonna walk you through the Guardians and Rays as they split things in games one and two in Saint Petersburg in the ALCS, all coming up on the Who's on first show. So let's get going, starting things off with NLCS in game two in Milwaukee. The Brewers take this one. Take a look. So there you go. Brewers take it 7-4, and they take a 2-0 lead in the series. Thanks to a big day at the plate from William Contreras and some more Dodgers miscues. Want to take you through this game and really break it down. Logan Henderson on the bump for the Brewers, Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound for the Dodgers. You think certainly the Dodgers have the starting pitching advantage in this one, but that was not the case. We saw. Two days ago that indeed Yoshinobu Yamamoto is a human being. He does have off days, and it came at a great scale in game two of this one. He goes two and two thirds innings, four hits, three earned runs, only two walks, only one strikeout, 75 pitches. It was an inconsistent day for Yamamoto. He couldn't get out in front on any batters. Getting ahead and counts is what he relies on. And then that makes his chase stuff so good. That big splitter that breaks the opposite way. His big looping curveball. That's what makes Yamamoto so good is getting ahead in counts. And then he has those amazing put away pitches in his arsenal. He can run up the radar gun with his fastball and he can he can hit triple digits. But he couldn't get ahead in counts. And then the Brewers were doing an amazing job of battling the entire time. I talked about in last episode how the Dodgers game plan for Jacob Mizarrowski was go get up there and take Deep count at bats, get a lot of foul balls off, push up his pitch count, get him out of the game early, and put up some runs. And that was the same mentality for the Brewers in game two. They just executed at such a greater level compared to the Dodgers in game one against the Miz. Again, 75 pitches and two and two-thirds innings pitch for Yamamoto. And he couldn't catch a break. After a while, he was exhausted, especially going into that third inning. It was the Jake Bowers 12 pitch at bat. It lasted over seven minutes in real time. At one point, Yamamoto, he was saying he was having a tough time with his pitch calm, but it kind of helped him in that he got a chance to settle down and catch his breath. He was throwing so many pitches throughout that seven minute stretch to Bowers. Just could not get him to go down. And then eventually Bowers draws the walk. And then that inning is broken open. That was the bigot bat of the game. Certainly the kill shot. they were a little bit surprised on the broadcast when Dave Roberts came out of the the out from the top step. Then John Smolt said he kind of has to. He is exhausted. It was so many pitches and so little outs for Yamamoto. And again, the Brewers, you gotta tip their cap. They absolutely executed in this one on every pitch imaginable. They had the game plan and they executed so well. a couple more things with this Yamamoto tough start. There were two pitches that were on the borderline that Will Smith elected not to challenge. And the Dodgers have been very conservative on their challenges throughout the year, but especially in the postseason. That appears to be the way they are handling it, and they want to get save those challenges for the ends of the game. But when Yamamoto wants to challenge, he's earned the right to ask for a challenge. Or at least when Will Smith sees him going to tap his head, Will Smith should call for a challenge. Especially, I think it's so important to try it on an action pitch, meaning it directly influences an at bat. A 3-2 count, 0-2 count, 3-0 count, where the either missed ball or strike call can directly influence a walk or a strikeout. And there were two strikes on Bryce Tarang. It was a borderline pitch. It would have been close. Again, the the fox box that is up there on the broadcast is not compliant with ABS challenging it. So it would have been really close. Yamamoto motioned, bringing his hand up like he wanted to challenge. Will Smith elects not to, and then Bryce Tarang hits the double, and the Brewers go on to tie the game. Again, driving up Yamamoto's pitch count. When that inning could have been stifled early. I think that is one, again, it's so easy to see the box on the broadcast and think, my gosh, how do you not challenge that? It's a lot tougher real time. But I think that one with the scenario and the circumstances, and with William Contreras on deck, I think that's one where you have to challenge there if you're Will Smith. And Dave Roberts kind of talked about in his press conference how he wishes Will Smith had challenged there. you don't you don't carry over in your ABS challenges. The Dodgers ended the game with some they they don't carry over. You gotta use And I get saving for the later high leverage innings, but at the same time, all nine are high leverage innings when you get to the postseason, when you get to an NLCS. And so it'll be interesting to see how Will Smith responds to this, how quick or hesitant he is to use his ABS challenges, because now it's under a microscope. after Yamamoto's outing and him not electing to challenge it. I also want to real quick touch on a couple issues I had with the Fox broadcast and MLB broadcasts in general, and I don't know why they do this, is the the second there's an ABS challenge, it's okay, this is our ABS challenge brought to you by T Mobile, and they show it. But when there is not, and there's a borderline pitch, and you hear them always talk about, and I mentioned how The the fox box that's out on the screen that we see the overlay, that is not the the ABS box. It's the ABS box is 17% of your height to 53% of your height. that one's just a projection that they have. That's an overlay. But why not when catchers don't elect to challenge, do they not show it to see if it would have been? You'll see this a lot in other sports where, we're not sure if a coach is going to challenge or not. And then they replay it and say, this this coach or this player should have challenged that. Why is that not happening in the game of baseball? It should be so easy, perfect, T-Mobile. You get some more ad space. Congratulations. And we get to see, would the Will Smith ball have been called the strike? We didn't know. Real time. And that is a frustrating thing that I wish they would change on the broadcast. And my second issue with the broadcast was both of these starting pitchers were out of the game early. Yamamoto only went two and two thirds. Logan Henderson only went four innings pitched. And they would barely ever show the bullpen's of who was warming up, who was getting ready. If a team was going double barrel action to get ready to play a certain matchup. And they should be going to the bullpen constantly. And if not, you're going if you're not going to the bullpens. You should have a a overlay on your scorebug saying who's in the bullpen. When you watch a game in person up on the big scoreboard, I know they do this at Dodger Stadium, is they'll have who is in the bullpen for each team because you can't tell in the stadium, you can see that someone's warming up but not who is up. And there's no alternate broadcast or way on MLB game day to see who is warming up. It's the most frustrating thing. When you're trying to figure it out and you're not sure who's coming in until the the bullpen phone is rung and Pat Murphy or Dave Roberts go out there with their right or left arm up and you know who's going into the game. Just constantly show the bullpen, especially if someone new comes up. And it's so much more important and especially the bullpen's and their actions and how managers call the games is under a microphone under a microscope and magnified to a hundred in the playoffs. So I don't understand why you don't just go to the bullpens all the time and show them. It's your job on the broadcast to keep the fans informed. And that is my two big problems I had with the broadcast. My little mini rant in the episode. There you go. I wish they would change that. Who knows? Maybe the Fox producers are turning into my podcast. I doubt it, but we'll see if anything changes. Keeping on with the storylines of this game. What went wrong for the Dodgers, what went right for the Brewers. I think the Dodgers can't be so matchup oriented. And it was something that has come back to bite especially twice in this game, that led to Brewers runs. they intentionally walked Bryce Tarang to get to William Contreras to get the matchup. And then that was when William Contreras had the RBI single. And then Dave Roberts bought in brought in Chris Bubic. to get the lefty lane but also had him face William Contreras and that was when Contreras hit the home run. Two problems I have with the Bubich outing and him coming in is one, you sign Roki Sasaki to be a starter and he hasn't quite found his place on this starting rotation with how much depth the Dodgers have at pitching. So he goes to the bullpen, but you can still trust him to go multiple innings and and the script is gone. When your starting pitcher who has been averaging seven innings pitched in the last however many postseas five postseason starts he's had, when he goes two and two thirds, the script goes out the window and Sasaki looked really sharp. compared to how Yamamoto had looked. the the Brewers at Bats were not as competitive against Sasaki as they were against Yamamoto. He has the same lights out stuff and amazing put away pitches. Got a couple strikeouts. I wish they had kept Sasaki in. I get that the lefties were coming up, but then again, you still have to look at William Contreras and him coming up and his spot looming in the lineup. And then I don't get the the Chris Bubic call to the pen. Even if you are going to take Sasaki out, Bubic is not a guy that the Dodgers really trust up to this point. And there are a certain number of guys that have earned the trust of Dave Roberts and the fans. That you would want to go to. I don't understand why Robleski doesn't come in after Sasaki. I get it. He's had a tough time, but also he was an NL All-Star this year. He was one of the best Dodgers on the starting rotation. He had a better year than Tyler Glass now. He did. I wish he had come in and picked up a bulk of the innings. He had looked good. He got to come in and it was the eighth inning. with runners on and he gave up the single and everyone was quick to say, man, no Robleski's in, we're throwing in the towel. I think Justin Robleski's a really good pitcher. He had an amazing year. There's a reason he was an NL All Star. And he didn't get that opportunity. If you're not going to let Sasaki go long in long innings, you have your other long innings reliever in Justin Roblesky. The Dodgers don't go to him. I think that was another mistake, especially then bringing in Bubic. He gives up the solo home run. From there they went to Brock Stewart, who went point two innings, giving up a run. And then one of your one of your eight A guys out of the bull, Pent Tanner Scott. Then Henriquez, who had built up so much rapport with the Dodgers pitching staff. He kinda loses that after giving up two and he was a little bit all over the place. And then Robleski comes in to finish out the eighth inning, only getting two outs. Upside for this is the Brewers are yet to see Edwin Diaz in this series. That's one green light that the Dodgers can look for across the lake, is that they still have Edwin Diaz to go and he has not been seen by the Brewers. Certainly helps, especially in these seven game series when teams get so familiar with other teams' relievers. And I'm hoping that pans out for the Dodgers with how many times they've seen Urena and these other guys out of the bullpen, Ashby, Jojo Romero, Abner Uribe. All these guys have been used quite a bit so far, and hopefully that pans out for the Dodgers. We shall see. but you really like where you are if you are the Brewers. And I can't say this enough. I try and be neutral as as neutral as I can on this podcast. I am a Dodger fan. I will admit that. And I've been saying all these ways that the Dodgers did stuff wrong. Or where the Dodgers lost this game, but the Brewers have been the flat-out better team by far in this series, and these scores are closer than they should be. The Brewers, with runners in scoring position in game one, two for seven, with runners in scoring position in game two, six for fifteen. That is a near 500 clip with runners in scoring position in game two. That's eight for twenty-two. on the series. The Dodgers in the entirety of the postseason are two for twenty six. That is a glaring problem. In two games, the Brewers have had more have had four times the amount of hits with runners in scoring position than the Dodgers have. They have put up there is competitive competitive at bats one through nine in the Brewers lineup. And they are showing that, and they are wearing down this Dodgers pitching staff. And that is where they have shined. And that's that embodiment of Brewers baseball is wearing down pitching staffs. using the run game, making all these factors are coming into the pitchers' heads that they don't have to worry about as much in the regular season. All of a sudden you play the Brewers and they come out to a early two game lead. Cannot stress it enough that the Brewers have absolutely been the better team so far. And while the Dodgers have a lot to improve on and can change, the Brewers have looked so good and so sharp and refined throughout the six games that they've played in the postseason. They've certainly been the better team so far. And adding to that point, this game was a lot closer than it should have been, the seven to four score. The Dodgers were gifted runs in this game, especially by Logan Henderson out on the mound. He had the pickoff attempt that went past first base, and then he had the errant throw on the bunt. That was two errors that let Dodgers come around to score. And this Dodgers team. In the past has been so good at capitalizing on mistakes. You go back to the Yankees World Series series, where it was the errors that lost them the series. And the Dodgers were able to capitalize and build off of that. But they're just not able to. In this 2026 postseason, the Dodgers have been gifted chances. This isn't a loss where you can say, you know, the the Dodgers just couldn't catch a break. And You know, certainly some will go our way in this one. They had two unearned runs on errors by the pitcher. And Dave Roberts talked a lot about how they're not gonna play Brewer Ball and they're gonna stick to their mentality, which I think is good, and I think they should do that. But also, it worked. Get the pitcher thinking about something. If you're having uncompetitive at bats, go up there and lay a bunt down. Do something. Go have a Bowers-esque. at bat where you run up the pitch count, get those five plus pitch at bats. That's what the Dodgers are not doing. They're making the lives of the Brewers pitchers a lot easier. And especially now the Brewers starters, the standard has been set that you only need to go four to five innings before you hand the baton off to the bullpen. And they've been so dominant throughout the entirety of the postseason that that precedent has been set. And so it's going to be really important for the Dodgers that they have to get an early and multi-run lead if they want a chance in game three. so now I want to transition, give you guys a little bit of a preview of game three. there's been a couple big lineup possible changes, non-changes that I want to talk about pertaining to a certain player, number 17 on the Dodgers, Shohei Otani. pitching matchup, it'll be Blake Snell at home, four and one record on the year, one nine ERA, fifty-five strikeouts, and nine starts. His year was limited to injury. And then it'll be Robert Gasser, the lefty, for the Brewers, 20 starts, a 387 ERA, a five and five record. And I'll start with the pitching. The Dodgers have an incredible advantage the next two games. And you can look back at Game one, it was Jacob Mizarowski, the certain will be NL Cy Young against Terek Scuble. That one you can call a wash. It's two A plus pitchers going against each other. In the end, the Brewers come away with the two-to-one win. Game two, you like Yamamoto, but still Logan Henderson had had an amazing season up to that point, had not allowed three plus earned runs in a start. Up to game two and continue that trend. He only had two earned runs. the other two were on airs by himself. And so this is the first time in this series where the Dodgers have two glaring pitching advantages. And it's the young guy, the lefty gasser against Snell. And Blake Snell has to go throw an amazing game. Because if the Dodgers lose this one. You can pretty much continue consider their season over. And then looking ahead to game four, it'll be Tyler Glas now against the Brewers Bullpen, which will most likely be Dustin May, starting, which is what we saw in the Padre series. He started game four at Petco and they won it. And so this will be the Dodgers have to go get it done. They're playing they're playing two game sevens in games three and four. And that they are both must win games for this one. And wanna get to a couple quotes by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on the status of his lineup going into game three. So there you have it. Shohei Otani will be in the lineup today for the Dodgers against the Brewers. Otani has been struggling. It is easy to see. He is fourteen for ninety-six with thirty-four strikeouts. In his last stretch, he has not homered since August, and he is struggling to drive the ball. But also, he is the best baseball player in the world. And so Dave Roberts is caught between a rock and a hard place of he's obviously in pain and injured and struggling. But it could be one swing that changes things and solves all his problems and that be the swing that does it. And it's gonna be really interesting to see how this game goes of you assume and I'm filming this at two forty, so lineups will be coming out in two hours and twenty minutes. But it's gonna be interesting to see A, is he at the bottom of the lineup? And B, if he goes out and against the lefty gasser has another bat at bat, non-competitive at bat, meaning I would say sub five pitches ending in a strikeout looking or swinging or a pop out to the third baseman. Do you take him out? And if so, what is your plan of action? A lot of people have been talking online and to the shows I listen to. Everyone's been swaying saying that Josue DePala is the guy that goes in and is the is the spark the Dodgers offense needs. The problem with that is he is so young. He has played a minimal amount of games. I get that he had he had an amazing at bat in the game that he did play in the NLCS. And I think he has earned a lot of trust and favor with the Dodgers coaches and the Dodgers fans, and I think he will get more opportunities. I think he's more valuable off the bench though, especially with how high regarded he is by the fans. If he comes off the bench, that stadium's gonna be rocking again because Dodger fans are fantastic. That stadium will be packed tonight. ticket prices have gone a lot down since then LCS game two. So that stadium should be nearly full. How cool would that be if he comes in? And especially after if Otani has another bat at bat. How much that will drain the crowd. And then if, say, DePaula came in, how how much that would bring the crowd back into it immediately with how much the Dodger fans love Josue DePala. But I think you go a different route. And I think what the Dodgers could do, and if Otani has a bad game three, and then you get to game four, what they could do is you put Kike Hernandez in left field. There was a ball on Monday. Where it was the ball into third third base foul territory at Max Munzie would have had a really tough time getting to. And Teo could have gotten there. He's just not that fast. So I think you put Kike in left field to give you the better defense. There's a reason he came in and he was used so much at the end of the end of the World Series games. It's cause he's a really good defender. He grades out great in left field and he's he's a plus defender. Maybe not world class, but he's certainly better than Tay Oscar. And you have Teoscar DH. And I think Kike Hernandez provides as much of a spark as Josue De Paula. However, you get the experience that Hernandez has of him having over 15 home runs in the postseason and the amount of World Series NLCS, NLDS games he has played in. Remember 2016, he had the three-home run game against the Cubs in the NLCS. In the NLCS against the Braves, he had two massive home runs to help the Dodgers in winning that one. He had a big home run in the World Series last year. He had one against the Yankees, one against the Mets. He has come up big so many times, and he has earned a chance to play in this lineup. And Tommy Edmund will get the start at second base. I would assume it will be Freeman, Edmund, Mookie, and then Muncie. There's a chance Miguel Rojas plays with it being a lefty. But I think Muncie's been too good to take him out of the lineup. And then it'll be Tucker Paez. And then I think you put Kike Hernandez out there if you make that shift. Obviously Otani's gonna start, but if he comes out, I think Hernandez is the guy you go to being Kike Hernandez to be out and left. Let Teoscar DH and let Kike be the spark. He's already got one home run in October, and we've seen it seen him do it time and time again. Where he is a a different baseball player in October. And it's really we've never seen something like this in sports where he is an average player in the regular season. I don't have his OPS plus on me. I would assume it's somewhere around a hundred, which is league average. But in the postseason, he is a different animal. And time and time again, he has come up clutch. And I think he deserves an opportunity in this game, especially against the lefty. He might get a start at third base if they take out Muncie. Which I would be surprised by s considering he leads the team in home runs in the postseason at any point, like the flip of a switch, he can he can hit one four forty plus. So it's gonna be really interesting to see how the Dodgers lineup shifts throughout the game with the lefty going, and then once a righty comes in, whoever it may be to follow, I would assume Ashby is out because he threw multiple innings and threw in both games. Yuribe threw multiple innings as well, but with the day off, I would think he would be fine. He only went one and a third, and then he went one inning. He discovered the eighth inning in game one. And so it's going to be a cat and mouse game of how how the Dodgers adjust their lineup and then how Pat Murphy responds with who he takes out of the bullpen and who comes into pitch. I would assume it would be a relatively short lease for Gasser, but also you're kind of fine losing this game of actually no. It's gonna be a short lease for Gasser because of the how good the bullpen for the Brewers has been. And I don't think Pat Murphy minds how many times the Dodgers see him with the the quotes you heard after game two. Mookie Betts was asked, why is it so tough to face And he was like, they all throw a hundred, all from different angles with nasty off speed and it was the same remarks from Freddie Freeman and Max Muncie and a lot of the Dodgers of they were having a really tough time with this bullpen. And so I'm going to get to my keys of the game now for both teams. For the Brewers, you want to keep it close. You want to get the Dodgers crowd out of it early with a long inning of some point, even if you get one or two runs out of it or none. You want a long inning on offense. Get that crowd stressed out. Get them out of it early on, because that stadium's going to be a packed 52,000. And then keep it close. Get it to your bullpen. And then let Brewers baseball happen. That's been the recipe for success for pretty much all six games so far. They had the comeback against Mason Miller. They had the Ty France ball off the roof. keep it close and and let yourself let Brewers be Brewers and see what happens and maybe come away with a game three win. And then you're up 3-0 looking to sweep tomorrow. Now for the Dodgers, the keys to this game for them. You need to have the big swing from somebody with runners on. And I remember in 2020, in 2020, it was the NLCS and the Dodgers were the same, really struggling with hitting runners in, with hitting with runners in scoring position. And they had the big explosive inning where they had eleven they put up 11 runs against the Braves. And that kind of flipped the entirety of the series because it immediately gave the confidence back. And the Dodgers have been squaring up baseballs. Muoky Betts' at bats have looked really good. Will Smith, he's not getting balls to land. His at bats have looked good. You gotta get the inning where you string together a couple of hits and you put up a crooked number to where you distance yourself to where the Brewers bullpen does not become a factor. That is gonna be the job for the Dodgers. And then Blake Snell, go be the Cy Young Southpaw that you are. Go through, he needs to get five or six at least, and then give it to the bullpen. And it is only the guys you trust from there. It is most likely if they get it, if Snell goes six, it'll be Evan Phillips to Alex Vesia to Edwin Diaz with Tanner Scott somewhere in the mix if he only gets five. That is how you cover those innings. It is only your A relievers because this is game seven for the Dodgers. And tomorrow, it's game seven for the Dodgers. And every single game from now on with how the Brewers have this lead. It is a game seven mentality, especially with how Dave Roberts calls his shots and the amount of leeway he gives to his starters, to a guy out of the bullpen, however that may be, that is the mindset for the Dodgers and that is how they win this game. So that was a lot about the Brewers and the Dodgers. with that game being today, I wanted to preview one. Now I want to touch on the ALCS and the two games we had. Haven't gotten a chance to talk about those yet on the podcast. So I wanted to cover both of those in the drop. In game one, it was the Guardians who came away and stole a victory. Guardians win it, they steal one in game one and all of the cards were stacked against the Guardians coming into this one. I talked about it how the Guardians might need a punt in one of these games and throw some of their more low leverage relievers. They're able to stay in it against Rasmussen and then they steal the lead just like that. And the decision that is going to be so heavily looked at in game one is Kevin Cash's decision to bring in Tyler Wells. Tyler Wells is a great pitcher. He had not thrown since Octo since September twelfth. He had not thrown an MLB pitch in a month. When he came into the game, he throws just one out, point one innings, and gives up the two earn runs that immediately give the Guardians the lead. It was the DeLawter solo home run, then the Patrick Bailey solo home run tied it. That one was against Wells. And then it was the Lau two run single in the eighth, which broke the tie. And that is the questionable decision. They have their bullpen has been so good and you have so many A plus arms in that bullpen. Why not immediately go to Sulser or Seymour or Kelly or Brian Baker not pitching in this game after you get the entirety of the rest from sweeping the Yankees? That was the other head scratching decision in this one. Didn't make much sense. And Kevin Cash is an amazing manager. He has won manager of the year multiple times in the American League, well deserved, but in the postseason, he has had the tendency to make some questionable pitching decisions. Go back to 2020, it was taking Blake Snell out of game six and relying too much on the analytics of him going a third time through. On Monday, it was the decision to bring in Wells and not use Baker at all in the close game. Is two decisions I don't understand. And that was ultimately what cost them the game. great job by the Guardians of staying right there with Drew Rasmussen. Asked the Yankees how tough that is. And they stayed with it, kept the game close, and then when they were given their opportunities, they made the most of them. With of course the big home run coming from DeLoder and Bailey. And then Nathaniel Lau gets the big swing that ultimately gives them the lead. Then Joe Adell added two runs with the double in the ninth. To give them some some insurance going in towards the bottom of the ninth. Foster Griffin starts on the bump for the Guardians. He goes four innings pitched, five hits, two runs, both of them earned, which was a pretty good manageable start for the Guardians that kept them in it, which is what you're asking for with the opening roll that he had and going four innings was huge, especially with all of the pressure and mileage that was put on this bullpen. going five games with the White Sox, where three of them were must-win games with elimination staring them down. So a fantastic job by Foster Griffin of giving them four innings pitched, getting those three strikeouts. Rasmussen goes six innings pitched, gives up eight hits, and then the two earned runs, seven strikeouts, certainly not as dominant as he was against the Yankees, but still very much manageable. And then it was the bullpen that really gave it away And then ultimately ended the game as the Guardians win that one big. Then wanna touch on game two real quick. It was Parker Mesek starting for the Guardians. He went five innings pitched, six hits, three runs, none of them earned. And this was the reason. And that was the deal breaker, the kill shot for the Guardians was that fourth inning, two outs, the error by Jose Ramirez, who it stinks because he has been so good and he pretty much saved their season. He saved their season in game five with that two run home run. And then it's the error here that goes right between the wickets, between his legs, and then leads to three run scoring, all of them unearned after the air. He gets caught in no man's land. with flat feet and as a third baseman you want to either be moving back because it's a ball that takes a late hop or if you see an early hop you want to charge it as much as possible. Third base is a really tough position because you have to react so quick, especially in the major leagues. He gets the the ball to kick off that lip of the infield goes between his legs. And that was all she wrote for the Guardians as the Tampa Bay Rays, unlike the Dodgers have been able to make teams pay. For the mistakes they have made, and the Guardians with that error did not play clean baseball, opened the door, and then the Rays blew it wide open, scoring three runs, and the Guardians just not able to limit there after the big error from Ramirez. I expect him to bounce back. I don't think this will phase him in any way. He tends to be a third baseman in the player who is very unfazed. In fact, he got three hits in game one, then had a nice game in game two. As well Chase Delato with three hits in game one. I think Cleveland will be fine. And I think if you're looking at this, you really like where you are. If you're the guardians, you go out and you get game one, which was not expected against Rasmussen, and now you're coming home to a rowdy bunch of Clevelanders in progressive field, and you're gonna have Gabin Williams, who is the guy you trust the most, even though on paper Parker Mesek is your ace, you trust Williams the most, and how he's been throwing the pill. As of recent, and all the strikeouts he racked up. It was 11 strikeouts in the first start. It was 12 strikeouts in the game five start. And I believe another five in the relief appearance he had. Absolutely ridiculous numbers from Gavin Williams. You feel really good with him on the mound, going back home to maybe pick up two of three, I think is the goal for the Guardians. Use that home crowd to your advantage, having home field, and with the one-to-one split. You now hold home field advantage in the series with three in Cleveland. Even though you go back and if needed, it would be game six and seven in Tampa Bay. You hold the home field advantage with three in Cleveland. They need to take advantage of that on the back of Gavin Williams, who I think will have a great game in game three. And they're panning out to be the favorite in game three. And you gotta like where you are if you're the guardians and staying in this one. And similar to the Brewers, their mindset needs to be keep it close and then steal it away in the end. With how good that raised bullpen has been, it's been tough, but you gotta take advantage of the chances you're given and you gotta keep it close and then steal it away in the end. That was the exact formula for game one that got the bats going later on in the game, starting in the sixth inning and on is when they scored almost all of their runs. That is the formula. For the guardians on the opposite side for the raise, you gotta be able to string together hits. And if at all you get any glimpse of daylight of an error or a mistake by the guardians, you capitalize on that, and that is when you make them pay, and you put up a crooked number, and you gotta again get that crowd out of it early. And the easy way to do that is take advantage of mistakes, rely on your amazing and well-rested pitching staff, and then go put up a couple crooked numbers, at least one, and that's gonna be their formula for success to go try and steal two of three in Cleveland, which obviously the Rays can do. They have been proving people wrong the entirety of the season. There's a reason they're the best team in the American League and they've put themselves in this situation to have success is because of how good they've been and how consistent they've been, rely on that consistency. That is gonna be the keys to the game in this one. That's really all I got. coming up, I'll have maybe a more in-depth preview tomorrow of games four and three in the NLCS and ALCS respectively. It's gonna be a really fun one tonight. Do or die time for the Dodger Dynasty. And that is all I got. Really excited for these games coming on tonight. Thanks so much for tuning in. I'm Joseph Lund, saying so long.