Rates & Barrels - Brandon Lowe's bat wakes up, Blake Snell rolls early, and the Rays take Game 2 of the World Series

Episode Date: October 22, 2020

Eno, Britt and DVR discuss Game 2 of the World Series including the adjustments made by Blake Snell, Brandon Lowe's big night, the disappointing outing from Dustin May, and more.  Rundown 1:12 The Dodgers' Bullpen Plan Unravels 5:41 Blake Snell’s Adjustments 9:25 Who Should Have Received the Win? 14:03 Is Tony Gonsolin the New Ross Stripling? 24:27 Mid-Series Predictions & Charlie Morton Love Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic for just $1/month: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Yes, 19. We're closing in on number 20. Derek Van Ryper, Enoceros, Brichiroli here with you talking about game two of this World Series. It was the dreaded bullpen game for the Dodgers, and it didn't go all that well, but it kind of fell apart at a point where I didn't expect it to fall apart, guys. Dustin May allowed a lot of hard contact, only got four outs, only threw 25 pitches. We knew their path was going to be unusual. It was a reasonably early hook for Tony Gonsolin, but he just pitched a few days ago, and it was game seven of the NLCS. So there was going to be a limitation there. I kind of felt like they were bouncing between their A guys and their B guys, trying to use the A guys at the top of the Rays lineup,

trying to sneak the B guys in against the bottom of the lineup just based on the way that team's built. And, hey, this was one that the Rays had to win, but they did what they had to do and got the job done. So I think this is much a tip of a one that the Rays had to win but they did what they had to do and and got the job done so I think this is much a tip of a cap to the Rays as it is uh the Dodgers screwed something up yeah I mean Gonsolin was used for a puzzlingly short amount of time especially now that you look back because May May just was all over the center of the plate it looked like I was looking at the spray

chart of where he kind of lived tonight and he lived where you don't want to live. It's no, no secret why the Rays had a lot of really hard hit balls and were able to string together, um, some big innings, especially for them by their standards. The offense has been struggling for much of this post season. Um, And you saw it in May's reactions. He knew. He was making kind of those faces on the mound afterwards. He knew he didn't have it tonight. And I guess if you're the Dodgers, though, you kind of,

I don't want to say conceded this game, but didn't it kind of feel like, all right, this is what we're doing, no matter what. Now we're lined up. We've got Bueh right, this is what we're doing no matter what. Now we're lined up. We've got Bueller, game three, then we have an off day. And then they're probably, you would think they would go with Urias, right, for game four. So they're set up pretty well. So to me, it kind of just seemed like the proverbial emoji shrug from the Dodgers. If they pull it out, it's a big steal but in a seven

game series you just can't play every game like a must win yeah i mean uh but they did by not letting tony gonsolin staying longer but you know what did tony gonsolin throw like 30 40 pitches in game seven you know i don't know how many more pitches he he really they really wanted him out there for so uh this was going to be the strategy all along. It might have worked. Dustin May was leaving his pitches up. I'm looking here. The Willie Adamas one was above the belt. Randy Orozarena, that's an out. You know, Savant has blue and green

for balls and in play. And it's just like, dude. It doesn't work when there's two pitches that are too close together. That's the problem. Also, he knows we're in blue blockers. Oh, that's it. I didn't think I was colorblind. But anyway, the Brandon Lau one was a curveball at the belt.

The Brandon Lau one was a curveball at the belt. It is funny, though, because Kevin Cash said something really weird about Brandon Lau facing Clayton Kershaw, who throws some low fastballs, and thinking that would get him right as a low ball hitter. I did see that he only had one swing above the strike zone, Brandon Lau did, in the Kershaw game. And that has been a problem for Lau. I looked at a heat map for his swings and misses,

and there's been a lot way above the strike zone. So he's been really flailing at pitches above the strike zone. And this one, the pitches that he did hit didn't look like they were super low, but they were belt high, and he didn't swing under a lot of stuff over the top of the zone. And he was on fire. I mean, he hit a homer off of Gonsolin, he hit a homer off of May, and really put the Tampa in the driver's seat.

And so far, they've only had three hitters with an above average OPS in that lineup. You've got Randy Rosarino, of course, and then you've got platoon lefty G-Man Choi, and then surprising power Manny Margot, who's kind of was supposed to be a platoon guy too. Those two guys could fall below average pretty quickly, and then you'd only have

Randy Rosarino. If Lau gets back in there, maybe there's not as much pressure on Meadows and Yandy Diaz and some of the other guys that have been underperforming. This could be one of those things where the Dodgers did kind of want to, kind of thought they might lose this game, but the way they lost it may not be exciting to them

because they don't want an awakened Brandon Lau. That changes the Rays lineup, I think. Everybody in the Rays lineup who started had a hard hit ball in this game. So it's nice to see this offense kind of waking up all over the place because we talked about their dependence on a Rose Arena being a major issue coming into the series. At the very least, if you get Lau going, it's still kind of a top heavy sort of group. So if you're getting hard hit balls from Wendell and Adames, Kiermaier and Zanino, things are going really well.

Now, Blake Snell was pitching great, and things started to unravel on him in the fifth inning. He didn't complete five. I thought he was out after five, even if he was pitching really well. And he was carrying a no-hitter a few innings into the start, and I thought and I thought oh maybe I'm wrong maybe there's a path for him to go a little deeper but it unraveled on him in the fifth inning coming up to that third time through the order just prior to that actually was the bottom of the order that got him it was Chris Taylor who hit that home run off of him there was a sequence in the prior at bat against Kike Hernandez I thought he was

getting squeezed a little bit, and that made the situation a bit worse. But the thing I liked about Blake Snell, even though he walked four, got to the nine strikeouts, that's outstanding. The slider changeup mix that we were talking about earlier, you mentioned this, Eno, he was getting a lot of weak contact with the changeup previously, and he was probably throwing it too much.

He got back to using that slider really effectively and that seemed to really unlock everything else for him yeah nine whiffs on 13 swings for that slider and there was a game where he threw the change up 30 times in this postseason and today he threw it 14 times it wasn't great didn't get any whiffs but the one time it was put into content it put into play 52 mile an hour exit velocity. So that's what he should use the changeup for when he's forced to go in the zone and he wants it to be weak contact. So he just used it to change things up, and mostly it was the two breaking balls that were so excellent for him. Both had combined a better than 40% called strikes and whiffs. And I thought

he, I thought he pitched well, you know, generally he doesn't, doesn't have that great command. So I think that's why it's hard to ask him to go very much further than they did. Yeah. I mean, we talked yesterday about getting him through five, how that would be ideal. Didn't quite get there, but got close enough. And I agree with you, Derek, he was definitely squeezed. I think that contributed to falling behind. He, you know, he's a guy who I think would rather walk someone than get beat most of the time. And so I think that probably contributed to a little bit more walks than you would think. It just shows too, on the flip side with the Dodgers, like how quickly they can get back into a game. They punish mistakes. They had no

hits, then all of a sudden they had two runs. To me, the story of the night is the Rays' offense kind of getting back on track just because you're going to have to if you're going to have a chance of beating the Dodgers at all. The Rays, during the regular season and the playoffs are

the best team in baseball when they're leading. They're 32 and seven, which is pretty impressive. So if Tampa Bay is able to get out to any kind of a lead, whether it's one nothing, two nothing, whatever, they've historically had a lot of success this season because of their ability to, you know, the bullpen and things that we've talked about, but they got a hit. And I think, I think that's gotta be the theme for tonight. Yeah. Because, you know, the pen pitched really well tonight and he still gave up two runs. Like you said, like the Dodgers are going to do it, you know, like the Nick Anderson, in fact, his fastball velocity was back up off of the worst of his career.

He doubled his whiffs on fastball. So there was some... Nick Anderson looked a little better. He got two strikeouts. He looked a little better. It wasn't quite vintage Anderson, but he looked better. And he still gave up a homer. And Pete Fairbanks was pretty close to vintage Pete Fairbanks.

I mean, he was throwing hundreds up there. And maybe the command wasn't great. He gave up a homer. So this is about what you can expect from the Penn. If they're going to have to go four innings in a game, then they're going to give up a run or two. So you can't just expect to win one nothing. But I thought this would be an interesting side question to ask you guys. Snell went four and two-. Gave up two runs. The team was leading when he left. Nick Anderson got four outs.

Gave up a run. Pete Fairbanks went five outs and gave up a run. Loop got three outs, no runs. And Dio Castillo got one out. Who gets the win? I know the correct answer because I know who was given the win. What should happen...

Who should get the win? In this situation, what should happen is we should look at something like win probability added. And if that's really close, then... Loop. It should go to Snell. Snell did more than any one of the other pitchers that contributed toward this win. That is... He did. I feel like this is an SAT type question. more than any one of the other pitchers that contributed toward this win. That is... He did.

I feel like this is an SAT type question. And you could just argue it a million different ways. Britt was right. It's Loop. If you look at win probability added, it was Loop. That's what I would have said. Because if you look at the situation, Loop came in. The Dodgers were threatening.

And I think that's when I said, hey, Eno, you better start writing because you were going to write a story if the Rays lost. And he got a bunch of tough lefties out. Yeah, the Tides, it seemed like they were a turn in there for a second. And Loop came in with all his funky stuff and was able to shut it down.

He got real lucky on that ball that was scorched. Down to Wendell, I believe. Yeah. I just don't think that maybe win probability is the exact right thing because the win probability goes up as there's fewer outs, right? So you're going to give it to people that pitch later in the game even for no good reason almost. I think you have to consider bulk a little bit.

I mean, Snell got 14 outs. The closest anybody got was five. Right. He got more than half. You need 27 to win. He got more than half. That should be enough. I'm giving him the win.

I'm giving him the win. I know win probability says Luke. Yes, I think holds. I know holds aren't great, but I think holds are interesting for arbitration, just to award people something for doing something good. Yeah. They're not sexy though. But I like loop.

I think loop got a hold, you know, a big hold. A hold that we would care about ordinarily, not the hold. Like you showed up, you faced the guy and left the game. Like not,

not the pre three batter minimum faced one guy left. Came on, walked the guy left. Secondary save. Yeah. A half save. A half save. A meaningful inning. A meaningful high leverage inning.

Oh, that'd be just a brutal acronym. We can't start down that path. So when I was covering the Orioles, Buck used to call, when guys made an out, but it was like a good out, he used to call them pofos, productive outs for the Orioles. Oh, gosh. Yeah.

And he'd be like, so-and-so had two pofos, and other visiting writers would be like, what the hell is this guy talking about? Also rolls right off the tongue. It sounds a lot like a mofo. Totally. So, I guess

we can come up with some kind of hackerman productive inning for the Rays. Basically could have given the win to anybody but Nick Anderson and I would have said good choice. How about multiple out flame outing? Mofo.

Luke gets the mofo. But the problem is the flames are hard hit balls in our world now so those work against pitchers so dude it's like goat used to be a bad thing and now it's like now it's the greatest of all time remember when ghosts were bad but the dude speaking of those fire things man dustin may got four outs faced eights, and had six hard hits. It's not good. There's not a... I don't look at that all the time,

but I do look at it frequently, and I can't recall seeing a one and a third from a reliever with six hard hit balls next to it. It really stands out. I wouldn't expect to see it from Dustin May. It's another outing where you're like, the stuff is good, but the command isn't.

And something else could be wrong there too. I don't know if it's that he tips pitches sometimes or if it's sequencing or what exactly it is, but somehow the sum of the parts is worse than it should be. And it drives me crazy watching him because he's

fun to watch, but then he disappoints you. And he becomes an unfun watch as a result. That's true. That's true. Here's my issue. And, you know, you like him a lot. Why is Gonsolin kind of treated as like their, like, schlep? Like, he's a legitimate arm, is he not?

He's got three pitches. I know he's been used a bunch, but it just seems like he's kind of like, oh know he's got three pitches i i know he's been used a bunch but it just seems like he's kind of like oh we're just gonna go with him he's the mop-up guy he's whatever um i don't know it why why don't the dodgers value him i mean he he's given up some hard contact um maybe he's like too north south I mean if you look at these Dodgers they seem to care about horizontal movement they care about suppressing home runs even though Dustin May

I mean he did give up a homer usually you'd think a guy like Dustin May or Broussard-Gatterall with the velocity and with the horizontal movement would suppress some home runs get off the barrel a little bit and I think Gonsolin doesn't do that. He has almost absolutely no wiggle side to side. He's almost completely a north-south guy. So maybe they think

he can do well when it comes to strikeouts and walks, but give up homers. And that's been the story of his postseason. So I still like Gonsolin, but maybe that's it. I don't know. Right. Gratterall doesn't miss many bats either, though. Isn't that the issue of putting him as a potential closer right now, is that he doesn't get enough swings and misses? Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of all messed up by this Dodgers squad. What are they doing? No, but I can't tell if they're ahead of the pack or behind or outsmarted themselves, because this is one,

I think this year or last year was the first year that results on the four seam and the two seam converged. One of the reasons we started throwing a lot more four seams is the four seams were better. That was why we started throwing the high four seam and people started going to the four seam more

and using it for whiffs and all that stuff. But then fewer and fewer people that had bad sinkers were throwing the bad sinkers anymore. So you kind of whittled it down to only the good sinkers. And all of a sudden they converged. If you look at sort of Woba Loud. So I think maybe the Dodgers like outsmarted themselves and they're like, hey, you know what? Like two seamers are good again. Or, you know, like, we can be out in front of people by getting the two best, three best two-seamers in baseball. Or if it's just, like, you know, the personnel they ended up with. And it's not really working out.

Like, Dustin May, Brizard Gallagher has been good. But, like, you know, Blake Trinan can get hit a little too. I mean, Dustin May tonight, the sinker, got hit. I don't know if it's the command or if it's the sinker. The sinker does not get great results, despite him throwing it 100 miles an hour. So let's be clear. When it comes to shipping internationally, can I provide trade documents electronically? Mm-hmm.

The answer is FedEx. Okay. But what about estimating duties and taxes on my shipments? How do I find all the- Also FedEx. Impressive. Is there a do I find all the... Also FedEx. Impressive. Is there a regulatory specialist I can ask about? FedEx.

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Is Tony Gonsolin the new stripling on this team? I mean, look at the overall body of work. Pull away from game two tonight and just look at what he's done in 86 and two-thirds regular season innings last year and this year. He's pitched to a 260 ERA, a.92 whip, 83 strikeouts in 86 and two-thirds innings you look at those numbers and say that's a good starter on most other teams and he's just more of that glue sort of guy for the Dodgers they had a handful of times where they had to use him like a regular starter during the season that went fine but when the chips are all on the table it seems like they do kind of have that reservation that they had for a long time with Stripling.

And there would always be these instances where Stripling would get those chances. And usually he would exceed most people's expectations. But then they'd bump him back beginning of this season. They preferred Alex Wood to Ross Stripling. That was weird, right? And now Alex Wood was the guy that pitched today when they were trailing. And I thought we had a question that came in on Twitter I think it was from Alex and it was about Urias and whether

or not he was really in the mix for tonight and I think the way I saw it maybe happening was if the Dodgers were protecting a lead sometime in the middle of the game around the fifth inning or so and they needed that bridge they needed seven eight maybe nine outs if he's really efficient urias was that guy and you'd say don't worry about game four right now let's win game two and then alex wood who came in because you were losing he probably becomes your your opener or your guy that goes to the line first time in game four you punt later right you go up 2-0 if you can and you say we'll deal with game four later because we're going to have the off day. We're going to see how game three goes and we got Walker Bueller going in game

three, so hopefully we're not even that taxed coming out of the pen going into game four. I think that was the way they were going to use Urias. I think that was really the only way we were going to see him in game two. Yeah, and Dave Roberts tonight again did not rule out getting Woods to start at some point in this

series I think it'll probably be an opener situation like you said um side note guys I do want to give Blake Snell his due here this is a great stat by um by stats uh pitchers with eight or more strikeouts and no hits allowed through four innings of a World Series. Blake Snell tonight. And Sandy Koufax in the 1963 Game 1. I have a feeling that Sandy Koufax probably recorded more than two outs after that fourth inning. Fair bet. But still, still a nice stat. Also, it does seem like Eno said yesterday, the stats are getting a little out of control

with the this plus this plus this. Also, a lot of like cumulative stats where you're like, yeah, dude, we just had the longest postseason of all time, which let me say it felt a little bit like that, but that's all right. It's true. It is true.

Well, Randy Orozarena, I think, passed Derek Jeter, right, in postseason hits, which, again, it is the longest postseason of all time. But it is Randy Orozarena, so we should definitely give him his due because I feel like we talk about him at least once on every show. You just got to get him in there. I'm looking at the Koufax playoff game log, and he pitched in four different post seasons and anytime he started a game,

he went at least six. He had four complete games and two of them were shutouts. So yeah, he did not have the Blake Snell. A little bit different than getting 10 outs. People were looking up like, oh, when was the last time we had a non-injured starter go as short as Gonsolin did?

And it's like, okay, well, you can't compare. It's like comparing apples to like pine cones, right? It's like a totally different game now. Of course, this is going to be some kind of history. We're all equally befuddled. And you didn't even see this a year or two ago. Like this, like, hey, let's take a... Yeah, it's totally different.

Jason Stark has this cool bit in his piece tomorrow. Nick Anderson has now pitched in every inning between the third and the ninth. That's awesome. It's cool. It's actually kind of just an explanation of how different baseball is now than it has been before. You might get the cover

all it's slowing the game down yeah yeah also i don't think i've ever complained about pace of play because unlike you guys i don't cover games at the ballpark and i've never hosted a post-game show until this year i noticed pace of play a little bit more now just a little bit because when i watch the game and the game ends and I go to bed, I don't care what time the game ends. But when I have to come in, talk about the game for a little while and put the podcast together, I start to think more about it. I notice it as a fan, but I notice it differently as a fan.

When I'm sitting in the fan's seats, I don't notice necessarily how long I've been there because I'm happy. I'm having a beer. I'm talking to someone. I'm having a hot dog, that sort of deal. Like, I don't notice how long the game is, but I do notice the lack of balls in play and the sort of the lack of pace. Like I do notice that because, you know, just do one thing when you're like sitting at the, at the park and like, like look up from your phone for a whole inning and watch it and watch the other fans. And you'll notice that they all look up

when there's a ball in play. And now that we're at the very nadir of balls in play, the very fewest balls in play of all time in baseball, that means that people are looking up from their phones at the very least amount. And I think that does mean something i would do something about velocity i might think about lowering the mound um i might think about uh putting a pitch clock on the pitchers telling the hitters to get in the box like i would i would i would attack pace of play and the ball and play thing as like kind of a part and parcel is something

that's something we can change if we don't like something about the game we can change it it doesn't have to we don't have to like play the same game we played 120 years ago and they said please sir could i have a high strike please right right that's true anywhere they just got the ball immediately through it but i do think as a fan even watching the games on my couch like i had i was talking to a baseball executive the other day and he said you know i was watching the game and i was gonna hit pause because i had to pee but then i'm like no it's fine i'll rewind it when i get back he's like i get back i haven't missed a single pitch and he goes and i really had to pee. That's the TMI. But that's, I mean, that's, that's, it's true.

I actually managed to shower the dogs and the kids and missed only three pitches. It was like, there was like a pitching change and I did it strategically, but I came back and I was like, whoa, dude, the same guy's up, man. And I was like, ha, I did a good job. That's what I mean. Mostly I just threw them in there and just sprayed them down. Yeah, I was wondering if you just hosed them all off collectively. Yeah, it wasn't like an amazing shower.

It was just like. The two dogs and the two kids all in there at the same time. Up top, down low, get the milk off the dog. All right, we're good. If you could have each kid kind of like hold a dog for you, you could streamline the whole process. Well, the good news is the dogs seem to like it. It's good to have dogs that like to be bathed.

It makes that whole process a lot easier. So, all right, game three, game four. Those are going to happen before all of us get to speak again. So, all right, game three, game four, those are going to happen before all of us get to speak again. So what are we looking for here? We get the off day Thursday, come back Friday, Saturday. Actually, we're going to have three games completed before we speak next on Sunday

night. So the series could theoretically end Sunday, and we could be talking about a World Series champion. I don't see the series ending that quickly, though. I think these teams do match up well enough where you're going to find a way for the Rays to get one of these next three, and they can get more.

I just think they've basically got a coin flip. I think Morton versus Buehler is very close to fair. I think they do have the disadvantage in Game 4 now that we expect a fully rested Julio Urias to be going for the Dodgers, probably against Ryan Yarbrough. We'll see what the Rays want to do since Yarbrough pitched a little bit in game one. And then in game five, we go back to Clayton Kershaw on the Dodgers side going up against Tyler Glass now again. So that's closer to a coin flip, even though that favors the Dodgers as well.

I mean, the more you get a feel for this series, what do you see in this middle section, in the meat of the series? The possibilities, right? Predicting three games will make your head explode. The bullpen depth will matter a little bit. I don't think anybody wants Pete Fairbanks or Nick Anderson to go three straight games of 20 pitches or 30 pitches.

So I think that swings a little bit towards the Rays. Have you guys noticed? I don't look at these sort of things, but Charlie Morton is nails in the postseason. Yes. I remember that from, was it last year? Yeah, dude. It was last year they made a real big deal about it yeah they did so i think they win i just don't even listen to that sort of stuff

yeah um and it's not just like he's made two starts right he's got a considerable track record let me let me let me pull it up because i i wasn't even gonna i wasn't even gonna quote the numbers because it it seems ridiculous but it was 57 innings now. In 57 innings, he has a 2-8-4 ERA, a 1-1-6 whip. And this one, I think, is sort of great. In the last, as a Ray, they've handed him the ball five times in the postseason. He has five wins. I mean, that's...

And this is the Rays you're talking about. They could have taken him out like a Snell situation where they still won the game, but he didn't get the win. Like he is legitimately, you know, his strikeout rate, some of it is the shape of his career, right? He was a little bit worse early in his career and the teams are worse.

So he didn't go to the postseason. And as he got better, you know, he was on better teams and he went to the postseason. So I am going to look at this. It's funny. I asked the two guys bueller and morton about stuff um in the in the zooms today and i talked to bueller and i said

you know the cutters kind of went away when the blisters were happening and you got a bunch of walks you're throwing a bunch of curves is this all the blister he's like he basically said yeah like i couldn't throw the cutter like that that's basically what he said. He said certain pressure on that finger just didn't work with that blister. And so in the last outing, he had the most cutters that he'd thrown and since before the blisters. So, you know, I think that Buehler is like ready to go and he's going to be vintage Buehler. But I talked to Morton about, you know,

what makes him such a great postseason pitcher. And he was like, well, I think you'd want to, you'd want to, there's a decent sample now. And I think you'd want to go and look and see if maybe my pitch mix was different and see if maybe I did things a little differently. See, maybe if my velocity is a little bit better in the postseason, you know? And like, I was like, yes, thank you for laying it out for me. I will do that in a piece tomorrow.

Thank you for that. So I have looked a little me. I will do that in a piece tomorrow. Thank you for that. I have looked a little bit, and I will look more, but I just want to say I don't want to jinx him, so I don't care. I don't know if I believe in jinxes, but I don't want to set him up and be like, he's amazing, and these are all the things he does differently.

Let me do your advanced scouting for you, L.A. These are all the amazing things that he does differently in the postseason. but what i've seen is he goes to sinker a little bit more and with added velocity i think his sinker is more effective um he also surprises people a little bit by going to the sinker more uh when he's been such a four-seam guy in the regular season and um just a shout out to morton if we don't get to talk about him again he retires or whatever he is one of the most emotional uh you know with it uh with the new new wave metrics but also in touch with himself piano like like like uh guitar playing like I mean he's just a joy to cover I mean I was I was just standing next to him while he was just crying tears of joy after the Astros won and clinched the World Series, and he got the final outs.

And he kept deflecting to other people and talking about how it was great for everybody else and how he was just so happy for everybody. And I just wanted to say, I stan Charlie Morton, man. That guy is great, whatever he does in Game 5. So if you're asking me for a pick, Charlie Morton's going to win. Charlie Morton's man. That guy is great. Whatever he does in game five. So if you're asking me for a pick, Charlie Morton's going to win. Charlie Morton's going to win.

That was a long winding road to get to that pick. I relabeled that segment. It was initially games three to five predictions. Now it just says Charlie Morton's playoff success in the show now. Sorry.

I don't think we have enough time to hear Eno's game four and five predictions. I'm always good for one rant a show. That was my rant. And rants. I enjoyed it. That was great. There's a chicken and egg thing, though, with the success that Morton's had with the Rays. He's 5-0 with the Rays in the postseason.

He's never completed six innings. It's 5-5, 5-5, and 5-2 thirds. And that was in Game 7 when he was pitching extremely well. Part of the reason he might be this good in the postseason is because he's not getting through the lineup that extra time. The anti-Kershaw problem. 20-22 batters faced in all of those starts. That's a big deal.

You're not pushing him all the way through the order a third time. I think that's a huge part of it. And the three through five part of the series is going to be really interesting because if Morton does that again, the Rays are going to use their A relievers, assuming they have a lead or it's close. If you get to game four and Yarbrough doesn't get very deep into that game, if he's only going to go three or four, you're going to have to try and string it together

with some of your B relievers. Otherwise, you run the risk of possibly going three in a row because you're going to want to throw A relievers again. The Yarbrough game is a loss for me. I think I feel the same way. I think we all liked the Rays going into game two. I feel the same way about the Dodgers having a clear advantage in game four. It's interesting

that they each kind of have this problem that they have to deal with. Each team's going to have one punt game, most likely. And if you could steal the punt game, you've done really well. I do think the Dodgers take two of the next three for all the reasons you guys discussed there. There's a clear

advantage there. That Kershaw glass now game is kind of a little bit more of a toss-up. Would I be shocked if the Rays stole that one? No. Would either of you? I think we can make the case that they could hit Kershaw harder than they did, especially if the lineup continues to kind of find its way a little bit, right? Or they take Glasnow out earlier. Yes, and we know the Dodgers make adjustments.

So, you know, I don't see Glassnow all of a sudden pitching six or seven innings, but I see Kevin Cash maybe pulling the puppet strings a little bit earlier, going to the bullpen, no wing. I think there's a difference, too, in these long series. When you get too over that that hump you know now you can just ride these guys right you're at games five six seven like this is it i don't care who you have to use when and where and you just can't manage like that in games one and two if you want your relievers arms to still be screwed on by the end of the series so i think we're going to see a very different game when we get to that Kershaw Glass now game again and I

really do think this series still goes at least six I hope it does it could be it could be Dodgers win Dodgers win Dodgers win I mean it really could be but I'm gonna go Rays win Dodgers win oh man I don't know see that fit it's such a toss-up if itout. That last game? I think if it's a blowout in game four, I think that actually is good for the Rays because they'll just put Sheriff out there for three innings or something and save all their bullets. Fleming, yeah.

They'll throw those guys out there. Just let them chew up a few innings and have everybody ready to go. And if they need to pull a glass now after three, they get them through the lineup one time in game five and then go A relievers. That might be the plan. I think the Rays take game three and they lose game four.

I think the Dodgers are going to win five. It's going to be three-two Dodgers the next time we speak on this podcast. So the Rays fans are going to be going crazy coming out of game three. They're going to be on that emotional roller coaster. And as the weekend comes to a close, they're going to be facing elimination and panic mode will have set in. I mean, that's the life of a fan, right? It's the life of a fan. That's the price of being there, right? You have to run the risk of being hurt very badly if things don't go the way that you want.

I'm on 3-2 Dodgers when we get to our show on Sunday night. Any other thoughts here before we get out? Enjoy the weekend as much as you can. I think Rich Hill is like, there's this guy named Baba Ram Dass who's like, be here now. He says be in the present. Rich Hill is like named Baba Ram Dass who's like, be here now. And he says, be in the present. And Rich Hill is like my Baba Ram Dass. And I'm sorry he's not in this World Series because he always talks about be present, enjoy the highs and the lows. And so I think even as a fan, try to do it.

Try not to chew all your nails off and just try to enjoy this, that this incredible thing is happening. Take a few breaks from Twitter in the next few days as well so this would be a time for me to say don't follow us now if you do follow us now you know turn the app off for a few days on twitter she's at brit underscore droly he's at you know saris i'm at derek van riper if you don't have a subscription to athletic you can get one for one dollar a month at the athletic.com slash rates and barrels gets you all the great coverage that we have about the World Series and about every other sport that we're covering as well.

Big Ten football is back. Yeah, that's right. That came back. I thought that was definitely on ice for a season and they resurrected it. So I'll be sure to read my Big Ten coverage this weekend with that schedule getting underway. Enjoy the next three games of the series.

Enjoy some time away this weekend. We are back with you after Game 5. Thanks for listening. ... ... ... ...