Latest / District Territory / Miles Mikolas and the Washington Nationals are 1 game out. How?

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Miles Mikolas and the Washington Nationals are 1 game out. How? · District Territory

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome back and happy Monday to all of our listeners
0:08
Speaker 1: and viewers. I'm Eric Shellhouse from the Bat Boys and
0:11
Speaker 1: joining me today co hosting Spencer Nusbaum of The Athletic.
0:15
Speaker 1: The Nationals finishing off a phenomenal series after dropping game
0:19
Speaker 1: one and Friday in ugly fashion, responded nicely with two
0:23
Speaker 1: wins and then an astounding victory on Sunday ten to
0:26
Speaker 1: one was your final, and Miles michaelis turning in probably
0:30
Speaker 1: his best outing of the season. Here's Blake Putera on
0:34
Speaker 1: Miles michaelis is out in yesterday and how he continues
0:36
Speaker 1: to build his confidence.
0:38
Speaker 2: He's been the same guy.
0:38
Speaker 3: He got frustrated early on not seeing the success right away,
0:42
Speaker 3: but now that he's kind of gotten into a groove here,
0:46
Speaker 3: he's been a lot of fun to watch pitch and
0:49
Speaker 3: a ton of confidence. And like I said earlier, he's
0:52
Speaker 3: willing and wants to do anything he can to help
0:53
Speaker 3: us win, whether that's throwing seven innings or throwing three innings.
0:57
Speaker 2: Whenever his name's called.
0:59
Speaker 1: He wants to Now, Spencer, you wrote about Michaels as
1:04
Speaker 1: well as Zach Lettel will get into that a little bit,
1:06
Speaker 1: but you know, I was reading it this morning, and
1:09
Speaker 1: this quote stuck out to me. Simon Matthews, the Nationals
1:12
Speaker 1: pitching coach, talking with Miles back in the offseason. I
1:15
Speaker 1: remember thinking like, man, just shut up because he was
1:19
Speaker 1: like wide open, and you said, Miles Michaelis sounded like
1:22
Speaker 1: a National already. But yeah, please tell me more about
1:26
Speaker 1: you know, writing that story this morning, and what Miles's
1:29
Speaker 1: progression has been like through the Nationals organization.
1:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've kind of been talking on people throughout
1:36
Speaker 2: the organization and heard all season about how just like
1:40
Speaker 2: open and willing to change michaelas is after a few
1:44
Speaker 2: rough seasons. I was talking to Simon Matthews the other
1:48
Speaker 2: day about their kind of first call in free agency
1:51
Speaker 2: before he even like signed a contract, before he was
1:54
Speaker 2: even a Washington National, and Michael Liss was just kind
1:57
Speaker 2: of ragging on himself like, yeah, I can't do this,
1:59
Speaker 2: like I'm trying to fix this. This isn't working, this
2:01
Speaker 2: hasn't worked. And Simon made equipped that was like, if
2:07
Speaker 2: I was his agent, I'd tell him to shut up
2:08
Speaker 2: right now because you know, he's costing himself money. But
2:12
Speaker 2: in reality, that's that's kind of been his strength as
2:14
Speaker 2: a National, right is his ability to take the ball
2:18
Speaker 2: when he's needed and more than that, make changes when
2:20
Speaker 2: it's needed. Now, in past seasons he had maybe made
2:25
Speaker 2: some over corrections where you know, the maybe most popular
2:31
Speaker 2: way to pitch these days is fastballs at the top
2:34
Speaker 2: of the zone. They kind of went up to him
2:37
Speaker 2: and said, hey, like, you're actually your best when you're
2:39
Speaker 2: throwing like it's nineteen seventy eight and just peppering pitches
2:42
Speaker 2: at the bottom. And even more than that, they also
2:46
Speaker 2: brought him a new kind of biomechanics report, which for
2:50
Speaker 2: those who are unfamiliar, that has to do with, you know,
2:52
Speaker 2: just how your body moves and I won't work until
2:54
Speaker 2: the machinations and bore you guys. But effectively they taught
2:59
Speaker 2: him how to throw hard again. And so is the
3:01
Speaker 2: mix of him kind of going back to who he
3:03
Speaker 2: really is as a pitcher while also having on the
3:05
Speaker 2: physical side being able to throw harder. And that's why
3:08
Speaker 2: you see sense like may or so he has an
3:12
Speaker 2: era in the threes, which we I think neither of
3:15
Speaker 2: us expected, at least when when we were talking about
3:18
Speaker 2: him back in April.
3:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, just not a doubt in my mind, and I
3:23
Speaker 1: think a lot of Nats fans minds his best outing
3:26
Speaker 1: of the season yesterday. The final line seven innings, pitch
3:28
Speaker 1: shut out, baseball, no walks either. Love the no walk count.
3:32
Speaker 1: Only three strikeouts, but hey, three hits, that's not too bad.
3:35
Speaker 1: And of course we got to give our flowers to
3:37
Speaker 1: the offense, and that's we're actually trailing one nothing at
3:40
Speaker 1: one point in this game. It didn't last particularly long,
3:42
Speaker 1: as James Wood had his fifth leadoff blast of the season. Spencer,
3:46
Speaker 1: you know what kind of pressure does it put on
3:48
Speaker 1: the opposing lineup to have a guy like that leading
3:51
Speaker 1: off again, his fifth of the season. I think we
3:53
Speaker 1: give him one hundred and sixty two in that spot,
3:55
Speaker 1: he'll probably take the Nats franchise record pretty quickly.
3:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, it puts a lot of pressure on the other team,
4:01
Speaker 2: right because you know, hey, you can't just like pitch
4:04
Speaker 2: around the first guy or anything like that. Or maybe
4:07
Speaker 2: you can try to, but he's smart enough where he's
4:09
Speaker 2: going to work a walk or he's gonna immediately present
4:12
Speaker 2: a challenge out of the gate. I actually tweeted this
4:15
Speaker 2: out the other day. You know, the Nationals obviously lead
4:20
Speaker 2: baseball runs, but James Wood leads baseball runs by such
4:22
Speaker 2: a large margin that the gap between him and the
4:25
Speaker 2: person who scored the second most runs is the same
4:28
Speaker 2: as the gap between the person who scored the second
4:30
Speaker 2: most runs and the forty six month runs. So that's
4:33
Speaker 2: the other part of it too, right, is he has
4:34
Speaker 2: so much talent hitting right behind him that when he
4:37
Speaker 2: always gets on base first or hits these leadoff homers
4:40
Speaker 2: or things like that, instantly it's like, oh my God,
4:43
Speaker 2: Like if he gets on first base, he's going to score,
4:45
Speaker 2: or if he leads off the game, he's going to
4:47
Speaker 2: hit a homer. Like it's all that stuff that really
4:51
Speaker 2: speaks to the National's decisions and their lineup management. But
4:53
Speaker 2: more than that speaks to Wood and his ability to
4:56
Speaker 2: set the tone right away that I think has been
4:59
Speaker 2: just unbelievable for this team.
5:01
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and James wasn't the only guy getting in on
5:04
Speaker 1: the long ball yesterday. Cabert Ruiz pulled another home run. Spencer,
5:09
Speaker 1: you sent out a tweet about that, But man, he
5:10
Speaker 1: has just been on a role lately. In the postgame
5:13
Speaker 1: press conference, I asked manager Blake Tetare about the decision
5:16
Speaker 1: to move caber Ruiz up to the five hole in
5:18
Speaker 1: yesterday's victory.
5:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's been swinging the bat really well, and a
5:22
Speaker 3: lot of our lineup constructions about making sure that we
5:25
Speaker 3: are matching up against the starting pitcher and also having
5:27
Speaker 3: the bullpen in mind and knowing, you know, trying to
5:31
Speaker 3: make it as hard as possible for the opposing team
5:33
Speaker 3: to match up. We knew they had two good lefties
5:35
Speaker 3: in the bullpen, a couple good writings as well, but
5:37
Speaker 3: we have a pretty left hand heavy lineup, and Caber
5:40
Speaker 3: being a switch hitter and been pretty good from both sides,
5:43
Speaker 3: give us the ability to kind of insert him anywhere
5:45
Speaker 3: we'd like to, to split it up and make a
5:47
Speaker 3: pocket maybe a little bit more difficult to pitch against.
5:50
Speaker 4: Prepare for.
5:51
Speaker 1: And it was a massive fourth inning the other day
5:54
Speaker 1: for the Nationals. Here's Blake d Terra speaking about the
5:57
Speaker 1: Nationals harping on them, harping on the starting pitcher in
6:00
Speaker 1: the fourth inning and running up the score.
6:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was attacking his zone.
6:04
Speaker 3: He was coming at us right away with a lot
6:06
Speaker 3: of fastballs for strikes, and I think our guys a
6:08
Speaker 3: really good job of recognizing that and wanting to take
6:11
Speaker 3: advantage of that, and they certainly did there in the
6:12
Speaker 3: fourth inning. I know there was like five guys in
6:14
Speaker 3: a row that went after the first pitch. Luckily we
6:17
Speaker 3: were squaring him up. He's got really good stuff, He's
6:19
Speaker 3: been really good, but we knew he was going to
6:21
Speaker 3: try to get ahead of us, and our guys jumped
6:23
Speaker 3: on that early.
6:24
Speaker 1: Now, before I played the final quotes from Blake by
6:27
Speaker 1: Terra's press conference after the victory yesterday, Spenser, I just
6:30
Speaker 1: want to get your thoughts. I think there was a
6:33
Speaker 1: sense of dread and fear within the Nationals fandom and
6:36
Speaker 1: community online after Friday's loss because of the fashion in
6:40
Speaker 1: which Wednesday's loss happened, and then to see them get
6:43
Speaker 1: shelled again on Friday, but then to see them respond
6:46
Speaker 1: with the victories that they had on Saturday or Sunday.
6:50
Speaker 1: What's your outlook on the team right now?
6:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think they've proven time and time
6:55
Speaker 2: again right that this is real. I think that's kind
6:58
Speaker 2: of the overarching thought here to just to like dumb
7:00
Speaker 2: it down, is the fact that they've been kicked in
7:03
Speaker 2: the mouth plenty of times this year, like that happens
7:05
Speaker 2: to every baseball team, but in the past, even at
7:08
Speaker 2: this time last year, you know, the Nationals lost eleven
7:11
Speaker 2: in a row. They weren't able to rebound from stretches
7:13
Speaker 2: like this. They have rebounded so well after every single
7:19
Speaker 2: kind of downstretch or mini cold stretch this year that
7:23
Speaker 2: it is kind of time to say, like, hey, you know,
7:27
Speaker 2: maybe Knots fans are gonna think I'm jinxing it, but basically,
7:30
Speaker 2: any time they're in a stretch where you're struggling, or
7:35
Speaker 2: maybe guys in pitching well, or you just have a
7:37
Speaker 2: game or two that goes like it did on Wednesday
7:39
Speaker 2: and Friday, every single time they've responded, so it maybe
7:43
Speaker 2: is time to say like, hey, this is who the
7:44
Speaker 2: Nationals really are. And again October, we'll see. There's still
7:48
Speaker 2: a long road ahead, but they've it's a large enough
7:51
Speaker 2: sample now where they've responded every single time after rough
7:53
Speaker 2: going that you start to think, hey, maybe this team
7:57
Speaker 2: is built for games like this, moments like this, and
8:02
Speaker 2: to really sustain this because they haven't had. You know,
8:06
Speaker 2: they had the three game losing streak against Miami and
8:08
Speaker 2: that was basically their longest cold stretch and that's three games.
8:13
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's been really impressive to see what they've done.
8:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Nationals fans can toss me in and on
8:18
Speaker 1: that Jinks too. I was knocking the table, knocking wood
8:21
Speaker 1: right in front of me when you said that a
8:22
Speaker 1: moment ago, Spencer. But that's, you know, kind of the
8:27
Speaker 1: question that Mark Zuckerman asked in the postgame press conference yesterday,
8:30
Speaker 1: if it allows to give if seeing them do this
8:33
Speaker 1: again and again, does it give Blake sort of that
8:36
Speaker 1: confidence that it's just going to continue to happen. So
8:38
Speaker 1: as we go into our first break, here some words
8:41
Speaker 1: of Blake Tera ending a two game losing streak turning
8:44
Speaker 1: it into a two game winning streak, and how the
8:46
Speaker 1: National has been playing lately.
8:48
Speaker 3: A huge credit to our player, is huge credit to
8:50
Speaker 3: our coaching staff for keeping the belief in one another
8:53
Speaker 3: and making sure that there's confidence there and we have
8:55
Speaker 3: an understanding of Look, we really love to this point,
8:58
Speaker 3: we're not going to let one aim affect the way
9:01
Speaker 3: that we feel about ourselves confidence wise. And I think
9:05
Speaker 3: really good teams do a great job of learning but
9:08
Speaker 3: then also flushing before the next game. And these guys
9:12
Speaker 3: continue to do it. I mean they're they're relentless, They
9:15
Speaker 3: play their tails off every single day. Just watch the
9:17
Speaker 3: way these guys are running around the field flying around
9:19
Speaker 3: and our pitchers coming in, attacking, attacking hitters. And I
9:23
Speaker 3: think the the players, I mean, they deserve all the
9:26
Speaker 3: credit and our coaches deserve all the credit in terms
9:29
Speaker 3: of just being able to lock back in and regroup
9:32
Speaker 3: after a tough loss, after a tough inning, you know,
9:36
Speaker 3: and just saying, hey, this is where we main our mistakes,
9:38
Speaker 3: let's flush it, let's move on.
9:39
Speaker 2: And so a couple of things.
9:40
Speaker 3: One I really believe and when you play this this
9:43
Speaker 3: long of a season, it's really important to maintain a levelheadedness.
9:47
Speaker 2: And I always believe.
9:49
Speaker 3: That you're never maybe as good as you think you are,
9:51
Speaker 3: but you're also never as bad as you think you are.
9:52
Speaker 3: You have to stick with what we believe in what
9:55
Speaker 3: our work's going to look like every single day. And also,
9:57
Speaker 3: I think really good teams you see them try to
10:02
Speaker 3: prolong when we're playing really really good baseball, and then
10:05
Speaker 3: also be able to stop when things are going poorly,
10:08
Speaker 3: because there's gonna be up and downs throughout the season.
10:10
Speaker 3: There's no way a team's only going to play well
10:12
Speaker 3: for one hundred six two games. But really good teams,
10:15
Speaker 3: in my opinion, are able to you know, shut down
10:19
Speaker 3: those those tough skids that you're going to go through
10:21
Speaker 3: and kind of flip the switch and get back into
10:23
Speaker 3: that positive territory and moving forward again.
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11:26
Speaker 1: And we are back. The Nationals also had an outstanding
11:29
Speaker 1: win on Saturday. Eight to three was the final score.
11:32
Speaker 1: And Luis Garcia Junior, he is such a good bad
11:36
Speaker 1: ball hitter. I don't even think this pitch was in
11:39
Speaker 1: the strike zone, but right off of the bat had
11:41
Speaker 1: the sound and Louie giving the look a reassurance back
11:43
Speaker 1: to the dugout. This made it a five to three game.
11:47
Speaker 1: But Spencer, what do you notice from Louis is a
11:50
Speaker 1: hitter of late because from a defensive standpoint it was
11:53
Speaker 1: not a terrific weekend form, but from an offensive standpoint, phenomenal.
11:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's someone where and I've kind of looked at
12:01
Speaker 2: the little Fangrafts charts in the past to back up
12:05
Speaker 2: my thinking on this, but he is one of the
12:07
Speaker 2: few players where his chase right actually doesn't dictate how
12:11
Speaker 2: well he's playing. So much of it is just about
12:15
Speaker 2: the type of contact he's making. Now again, like you
12:17
Speaker 2: can't be chasing half the time. But he is such
12:21
Speaker 2: a good bad ball hitter that when he sticks to
12:24
Speaker 2: his approach meeting he says, I'm only going to get
12:27
Speaker 2: pitches at the bottom of the zone. I'm only going
12:29
Speaker 2: to get pitches at the top of the zone and
12:31
Speaker 2: then expands a certain amount. That's when he's really good.
12:33
Speaker 2: And he's been really good this season. I think he's
12:36
Speaker 2: on the prespice of ten homers, which puts him on
12:39
Speaker 2: base for close to a twenty homer season, which is
12:43
Speaker 2: pretty remarkable. Now, again, I know he's had a good
12:45
Speaker 2: last couple of years, but again, to sustain it for
12:49
Speaker 2: a third year, to do it under a new coaching staff,
12:52
Speaker 2: all that's been really impressive. The flip side, obviously, the
12:56
Speaker 2: defense is a work in progress. It had been trending
12:59
Speaker 2: in the right direction up until this weekend. Took a
13:02
Speaker 2: step back with a couple of plays that are obviously
13:05
Speaker 2: new to him but he probably should have made. And
13:09
Speaker 2: so yeah, there's still a learning curve on that front.
13:12
Speaker 2: And maybe as we think ahead to the deadline and
13:15
Speaker 2: whether teams would potentially be interested in him, I think
13:20
Speaker 2: maybe he starts to get pigeonholed a little bit more
13:22
Speaker 2: as like a DH as opposed to first base in
13:26
Speaker 2: which affects value and things like that. But when we
13:28
Speaker 2: think about the Nationals, and you know, theoretical, let's say
13:31
Speaker 2: they keep him and they make a push towards wanting
13:34
Speaker 2: to play October baseball or maybe being on the cusp
13:37
Speaker 2: of it. He's going to need to keep hitting like
13:40
Speaker 2: this and the defense isn't going to be able to
13:42
Speaker 2: go through stretches like this. So still absolutely net positive
13:45
Speaker 2: on the team. But yeah, you wonder because the path
13:49
Speaker 2: that the Nationals take could also maybe mirror the path
13:52
Speaker 2: that he takes in terms of whether or not he
13:54
Speaker 2: sticks on a roster.
13:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really interesting conversation because this is a
13:58
Speaker 1: guy that had played second base pretty much throughout his
14:02
Speaker 1: entire major league career and then comes into spring training
14:05
Speaker 1: and switches to first base this season, and then the
14:08
Speaker 1: Nationals have played him and made it clear he's going
14:10
Speaker 1: to play first base this season. So you want to
14:12
Speaker 1: have the conversation of, oh, is he going to be
14:14
Speaker 1: available at the deadline? Well, yeah, I mean, this is
14:16
Speaker 1: a guy that's played second base before. Since we just
14:19
Speaker 1: alluded to, maybe he gets pigeonholed into a dah sort
14:21
Speaker 1: of situation, But gosh, I hope that is not a
14:24
Speaker 1: guy the Nationals are thinking about selling. That would break
14:27
Speaker 1: my heart. There's one other play that I don't think
14:29
Speaker 1: the Nationals have intentions on trading this guy at the deadline,
14:32
Speaker 1: Dylan Cruz. He was running on this pitch in the
14:35
Speaker 1: seventh inning, But going first to third on a base
14:38
Speaker 1: knock is exciting. Going first to home, I don't care
14:40
Speaker 1: if you're running or not, is electric in the swim
14:43
Speaker 1: move to finish it off made it an eight to
14:45
Speaker 1: three game. That was your final. But Spencer, what can
14:48
Speaker 1: he bring to the game when it's not necessarily offense?
14:52
Speaker 1: And I do want to note he absolutely murdered a
14:54
Speaker 1: ball on Friday night's loss, But you know he has
14:57
Speaker 1: been electric on the bass pats and made some incredible
14:59
Speaker 1: play in the field over the weekend.
15:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dylan is again. You see him go first to
15:05
Speaker 2: home on a ball that no one should be going
15:07
Speaker 2: first to home on. That's obviously what he brings. He's
15:10
Speaker 2: really good at separating what's happening in the field and
15:13
Speaker 2: what's happening on the basis with what he's doing at
15:16
Speaker 2: the plate. And I think that that's an important trait
15:18
Speaker 2: when we think about the maybe floor that Dylan brings
15:21
Speaker 2: to having him on your roster, and then defensively right
15:24
Speaker 2: like he can play all three positions in the outfield.
15:27
Speaker 2: More specifically like center and right is where the national
15:30
Speaker 2: has had him. But if you are the Nationals and
15:33
Speaker 2: let's say in the theoretical world, someone gets hurt or
15:36
Speaker 2: you move off of one of your outfielders, eventually, you know,
15:40
Speaker 2: maybe you move off Jy or something like that. He's
15:43
Speaker 2: someone where we saw him make some incredible plays in
15:45
Speaker 2: center field. He can fill in wherever's needed out there.
15:50
Speaker 2: And yeah, the bat still needs to come along and whatnot.
15:53
Speaker 2: But yeah, to to see what he's been able to
15:56
Speaker 2: do from a defensive en a base running standpoint, gives
15:59
Speaker 2: him a a floor of basically like a league average player, right, Like,
16:03
Speaker 2: he is never gonna show up, I don't think in
16:06
Speaker 2: the future and like the negative war call him or
16:08
Speaker 2: anything like that. But again, the bat has to translate
16:10
Speaker 2: for everything else to come together.
16:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, just a very special player, a word that we
16:17
Speaker 1: throw around on this show quite often. And Friday night
16:19
Speaker 1: it wasn't terrific. As we've talked about earlier in the show,
16:22
Speaker 1: the Nationals lost ten to two. A big part of
16:25
Speaker 1: that was because of the pitching, and in particular just
16:27
Speaker 1: one inning. It was the second in exact Lytell had
16:29
Speaker 1: a one two three first inning and then just rain
16:32
Speaker 1: into some trouble after he maybe we put the jinks
16:35
Speaker 1: on him talking about in our last show had just
16:37
Speaker 1: such a terrific may But what did you notice from
16:40
Speaker 1: him the other night, Spencer, You know you wrote about
16:42
Speaker 1: it on that tweet, but it was just an inability to,
16:45
Speaker 1: you know, kind of put hitters away.
16:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's kind of been the big thing for Latte, right,
16:51
Speaker 2: And so when I talked to him. I actually spent
16:53
Speaker 2: like twenty minutes chatting with him the other day in
16:54
Speaker 2: the Giants clubhouse, and he talked about how he's at
16:58
Speaker 2: his best when he pounds the zone, which means he
17:01
Speaker 2: gets ahead of guys. He like, he doesn't need to
17:07
Speaker 2: throw meatballs necessarily in like o two counts or anything
17:10
Speaker 2: like that, but when he gets ahead oh one to
17:13
Speaker 2: oh two, he's a completely different pitcher. The issue and
17:16
Speaker 2: part of what he'll need to work through is like
17:19
Speaker 2: the stuff metrics, they don't love his pitches, and he
17:22
Speaker 2: even admits he's like, I don't really get a ton
17:24
Speaker 2: of end zone with on any of my pitches, so
17:26
Speaker 2: he really needs to expand when he gets two strikes.
17:30
Speaker 2: And the fact of the matter was, like with most pitchers,
17:34
Speaker 2: the guys. The pitches that Lttel was throwing are good pitches.
17:39
Speaker 2: It was like a splitter down in a way that
17:41
Speaker 2: clipped the zone, and you know, a fastball at the
17:43
Speaker 2: top of the zone that like just caught the edge.
17:46
Speaker 2: But the line for Lttel is so fine where he
17:49
Speaker 2: needs to expand a little bit more than that when
17:51
Speaker 2: he gets the two strikes because he has trouble getting
17:53
Speaker 2: with on some of those pitches. So yeah, it's a
17:56
Speaker 2: fine line between throwing it way too far out of
17:58
Speaker 2: the zone where guys are never gonna chase, and throwing
18:01
Speaker 2: it like just inside and frankly, like I think this
18:03
Speaker 2: is still a good game plan right, Like most of
18:06
Speaker 2: the time guys aren't going to absolutely pounce on that,
18:09
Speaker 2: but he is liable to maybe a hit like this.
18:11
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's that weird and funky balance where he
18:16
Speaker 2: knows that things like this are possible, but he also
18:18
Speaker 2: knows like, hey, if I just keep attacking the zone
18:20
Speaker 2: like things will be fine. And so yeah, he's still
18:25
Speaker 2: in a figuring it out process. But you look at
18:27
Speaker 2: the era in the fifth sense. May first it's in
18:30
Speaker 2: the threes, like, well, I'll slow my role on saying
18:34
Speaker 2: he's all of a sudden lost it again. Like I
18:36
Speaker 2: think he's in a good spot still, but he'll need
18:39
Speaker 2: to maybe not replicate.
18:40
Speaker 1: One of these definitely. And yeah, I think it was
18:43
Speaker 1: honestly his most interesting start of the year for me,
18:46
Speaker 1: just given the way that Wednesday night's loss played out
18:49
Speaker 1: or Wednesday's get away game played out, and then what
18:52
Speaker 1: was it kind of not at stake in that game,
18:54
Speaker 1: but how important it was for the Nationals to respond,
18:56
Speaker 1: and then he responded phenomenally with a one, two three.
18:59
Speaker 1: First it seemed like, hey, he's picking up right where
19:01
Speaker 1: he left off, and then things just didn't work out
19:04
Speaker 1: for him really quickly. I want to remind you all
19:06
Speaker 1: to subscribe because you do not want to miss our
19:08
Speaker 1: Eli Willetts sign baseball card giveaway. That's right, We are
19:12
Speaker 1: giving away an Eli will Its signed card once we
19:14
Speaker 1: reach one thousand subscribers, and we do weekly giveaways on
19:17
Speaker 1: Friday every Friday's episode. Take a look at the NAT's
19:22
Speaker 1: upcoming schedule. It is the Kansas City Royals coming to
19:25
Speaker 1: town later today before they hit the road Tampa Bay
19:28
Speaker 1: starting another long, grueling stretch without any off days, but
19:31
Speaker 1: later on at the ballpark, Mitch Spence and Andrew Alvarez
19:34
Speaker 1: gets the rock. Andrew Alvarez terrific last time against a
19:37
Speaker 1: pretty good Giants lineup. Four innings pitched, four case struck
19:41
Speaker 1: out the side I think in the first inning if
19:43
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, but it was just a terrific outing
19:46
Speaker 1: forum last time, and I'm excited to see him at
19:48
Speaker 1: the ballpark later on today. If you want to go
19:50
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Speaker 1: in the description to download the app and have the
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Speaker 1: it later. Now later on Kansas City Royals, as I
20:58
Speaker 1: mentioned in The Nationals Find Themselves, is just nine and
21:00
Speaker 1: a half games back in the National League's standings, but
21:03
Speaker 1: more importantly, one game out of the National League Wild
21:07
Speaker 1: Cards standing suspenser, What will the Nationals need to do
21:10
Speaker 1: well in this series, in particular later today to keep
21:13
Speaker 1: the momentum rolling and maybe slip back into a playoff spot.
21:17
Speaker 2: Here, Yeah, this really is kind of for many teams.
21:21
Speaker 2: The Royals have been a get right series where they're
21:24
Speaker 2: not hitting well at all. Now again, I think we'll
21:29
Speaker 2: we'll see about this one. Just because the Nationals again,
21:32
Speaker 2: we know about the struggles in the field on the
21:35
Speaker 2: mound even for how they've turned it around. But yeah,
21:38
Speaker 2: so much of it will be dictated on that side
21:40
Speaker 2: of things, right where the Nationals may only need like,
21:44
Speaker 2: you know, four or five runs, which is, you know,
21:47
Speaker 2: a decent amount, but may only need four or five
21:49
Speaker 2: runs to get this thing done, and at least two
21:52
Speaker 2: of three to get this one done. But yeah, I
21:56
Speaker 2: mean the Royals just have been a kneemack on offense
21:58
Speaker 2: and haven't been able to do anything on that front.
22:02
Speaker 2: And so so much of this will come down to, hey,
22:04
Speaker 2: can you keep the Royals like exactly where they are?
22:07
Speaker 2: That's easier than done. They're still a big league line up.
22:09
Speaker 2: They still Bobby with Junior up there, you know, heavy
22:12
Speaker 2: dose of Laine Thomas obviously with a lefty going today.
22:16
Speaker 2: But yeah, we'll see how this one works out. But
22:19
Speaker 2: I think pitching and defense is going to be really
22:22
Speaker 2: such a such a massive part of this one.
22:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be exciting to see Lane Thomas
22:27
Speaker 1: back at the ballpark. The Nationals played a nice tribute
22:30
Speaker 1: for Victor Roblz before Friday Night's game. After a super
22:34
Speaker 1: long rain delay. That was the one thing I was
22:36
Speaker 1: not able to grab because my words will never be
22:39
Speaker 1: able to do that sunset justice after the long rain delay.
22:43
Speaker 1: But Spencer, you tweeted out some incredible pictures. Everyone makes
22:47
Speaker 1: sure to go check out Spencer's feed if you want
22:49
Speaker 1: to go see the sunset there. I took some pictures too,
22:52
Speaker 1: I just didn't share them. But I think that's going
22:54
Speaker 1: to wrap up today's episode. We'll be back on Wednesday
22:57
Speaker 1: recap in some of the world series and no promises,
23:00
Speaker 1: but I'm going to reach out to Jeremy Guthrie hoping
23:03
Speaker 1: maybe he could join the show where I could do
23:05
Speaker 1: a quick segment with him to some degree. So hey,
23:07
Speaker 1: maybe we'll have Jeremy on Wednesday. But Spencer, anything you
23:10
Speaker 1: want toss him before we head over the ballpark.
23:12
Speaker 2: That's all I got. Just keep reading The Athletic and
23:14
Speaker 2: watching US of course
23:16
Speaker 1: Yes, and watching Foul Territory, District Territory, the whole network
23:20
Speaker 1: until then, See you later.