Rates & Barrels - Clevinger's Injury, Kirilloff's Surprising Promotion & Bieber Gets Hit

Episode Date: September 30, 2020

Eno, Britt & DVR discuss the impact of Mike Clevinger's absence for at least the Wild Card round, Alex Kirilloff's MLB debut coming in the postseason (rare!), the Yankees' approach against Shane Bieber, and more! Rundown 0:35 Mike Clevinger’s Uncertain Status Beyond Wild Card Round 3:39 Alex Kirilloff Debuting in the Postseason 10:22 Framber Valdez Shines Behind Zack Greinke  13:57 How The Yankees Hit Shane Bieber? 20:29 Did the Jays Deserve Better in Game 1? 25:09 Lucas Giolito's Dominant Start Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper e-mail: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels, episode number 145, playoff episode number 3. It's Wednesday, September 30th. There are 8 games on the schedule today, and some of those will be already in progress by the time you're listening to today's episode. But four in the books on Tuesday from the AL side, and we've got some bad news for the Padres. Let's get right to it. Let's start in San Diego. We received a report Wednesday from Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers of ESPN that Mike Clevenger is unlikely to pitch in the wildcard series against St. Louis. And frankly, it looks like his biceps injury could keep him out even longer than that. You know, as you look at Clevenger's absence, this is something that we

considered, you know, both he and Denelson Lumet are banged up right now. It puts the Padres in a somewhat difficult spot, but this is a team that actually has a good bit of depth, including guys that can go multiple innings in their bullpen. So in a three-game series, I don't know if it's necessarily panic time, but I do think this is something that could really catch up to them as they move further into the playoffs if they advance. Well, I just don't know if I don't respect the Cardinals enough, but I think that the Padres can beat the Cardinals in three games without Mike Clevenger.

So not that worried. And if it's the rest of the playoffs, that changes a little bit. They got him to be a great number two or one with Lomet. And when you get down to Lomet and pray for rain um that gets a little tough i think the the concern i have brit is that we just still don't know about denelson lamette like he's kind of tentatively penciled in for game two but we actually don't have a confirmation that he's going to make that start yet right i guess you maybe go zach davies right for game two if he can't go, it would

probably be the best option for them. I agree with you. I don't think this is like a dagger to them in the first round. Certainly, it would be in the later rounds. I think if you're the Padres, though, it places added emphasis on not fooling around, like winning today and winning in two games and not letting this stretch to three because you've got two guys you'd rather not pitch in this series. I think it becomes really important for them to jump out and take the game today. Win yourself an off day. Win yourself some off days. I think, yeah, I think that's really important.

And I think if you can win today, you can push Lemaitre to three, right, and take a shot at two without him. Yeah. And then you could get through without pitching either, give them both rest. Then you get Lemaitre game one and hope that Clevenger can get on the roster by the end of the next series

or the beginning of the one after that. So, you know, it's not great news. It's not great news. And it's something that's part and parcel of the Mike Clevenger experience at this point. In the past, it's been like back and some leg stuff, but, you know, you have to wonder if there's such a crazy delivery

that some part of that comes from that. Yeah, definitely a fair question to ask. And I know when Jace Tingler was asked about Clevenger's status and LeMet's status on Tuesday, he seemed more optimistic about Clevenger. So this turnaround on Wednesday, definitely a concerning development. We'll have to see what happens in the next couple of days. The other big story from this morning,

the Twins have Alex Kirloff in their starting lineup for Game 2 against the Astros. He's going to be the first player in MLB history since Bug Holiday in 1885. Apparently, the Twins research department is awesome. Dustin Morris, their communications maestro, had the nugget initially. We thought it was all Kirloff being the first player to debut with a start in the postseason. But actually, yeah, Bug Holiday did it. So all of your great-great-grandparents maybe out there would remember that. That baseball doesn't count.

18-85, they were like, please, sir, throw me a high fastball. Thank you. Who's keeping score? They played in parks where there were people eating lunch in the outfield literal parks yes parks you know so not baseball parks just parks just places where people would gather just open green spaces with no fences um so yeah really this is the first time this has happened in a setting that truly matters i apologize if I've offended anyone who really thinks that 19th century baseball is better than 21st century baseball.

I'll take that chance. But Byron Buxton sits. And Britt, when you and I were messaging before the show, my first thought was maybe he's not right after getting hit in the head by a pitch over the weekend. I think we've reached this point in sports where concussions are still not necessarily handled for what they really are. They're mild traumatic brain injuries. And anybody who's had a concussion knows those symptoms don't go away in a day or two.

More often than not. You just don't feel right for more than a couple of days. And in Buxton's case, he's had a concussion at least one time before. I think multiples have been diagnosed for him already. So I had to wonder if that was a big part of why he is not in the lineup on Wednesday. Yeah, Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters on Zoom that he wasn't going to comment on whether this had to do with that injury that happened late in the season.

I think that it's really easy to connect the dots here, right? And we talked about this earlier this week, guys. The Bomba squad is beat up, and it's alarming. Josh Donaldson yesterday, not only did they miss his bat, but you cannot tell me that he wouldn't have made that play in the seventh inning that really started to open the floodgates and turn the momentum in Houston's favor. It's a tough play,

but Josh Donaldson is an above-average third baseman for a reason. Now they have no Donaldson, no Buxton, heading into an elimination game. How can you not feel bad for the Twins, you guys? They've lost, what, 17 playoff games in a row? It's a North American pro sports record. I mean, Nelson Cruz, who's 40 years old, the oldest player in Twins Senators history to get a playoff RBI,

is the only guy who drove in a run. They have got to be better today or they're going home. There's a funny stat out there about the Twins and the Braves. And I'm trying to find it here. I think it's the Twins, the Braves, and the A's have lost the most games in a row, and here it is. Coming to this postseason, the Braves, A's, and Twins

lost 28 of their last 29 postseason series. The win was the A's beating the Twins. Someone had to win because they even got to match up against each other. I really can't believe that stat. I think I first saw it on Tuesday. Sarah Lang's put that out there. Oh, I saw it from Chicken Puppet.

Chicken underscore puppet is a funny name. Chicken Puppet? Should I be following Chicken Puppet? It's a dark feed, I'll have to say. You've been warned. Yeah. But, you know, one thing that also occurs to me is, you know, 2002, we had an injury replacement in September after the cutoff date for when you would normally be allowed to bring a guy in. That person was famously K-Rod. Francisco Rodriguez came in in late September.

Nobody had seen that Bugs Bunny change up, and so he just tore through the playoffs, had a crazy minuscule ERA, and was a real key part of the Angels winning it all that year. And that's always seen as like a loophole. And of course, any loophole that existed before becomes like any trend or anything that that happened before this year is in gone into hyperspace and i have kirilov in the rays have a guy named shane mcclellahan um who hasn't pitched above a ball and made the postseason roster for the Rays.

Apparently, like every other Rays reliever, he throws 100 miles an hour from the left side. Kevin Cash has a whole stable of guys who throw 98. He did tell us. Oh, my God. So I've been on their Zooms this week because I'm trying to help coverage on the Rays. And Charlie Morton had a shirt of a bunch of horses and and so they were like he's

like the stable and then McClellan at the end of his zoom he wanted to get it in you know when everybody all the questions that finished he was like I'm just really excited to join the stable so it's like it's a it's a real thing. They have shirts. There's a hashtag, I'm sure. The thing that I'm pointing out, though, here is that these are injury replacement exceptions. That's why you're getting these postseason debuts. I don't know how I feel about it. You know, with the pitcher, it almost seems unfair because no one's ever seen him. And you feel like you could get a pitcher that just comes in and no one knows anything about him.

And no one has video on him, especially this year where there is no video. It seems almost unfair to be able to do that. With the hitter, I think it would go either way. I mean, really, he hasn't seen Major League pitching Kirilov. But they also don't necessarily have the best, most recent book on him. Either way, I think it's a little bit weird and I think it leaves a...

I'm happy for Kirilov. I want to be clear. I'm happy for McClellan, but there's a little bit of a weird taste in my mouth about it. Yeah, it's complicated even further by this shortened season, right? I mean, Kirilov would have spent most of the year at AAA, probably would have been a second half call-up if injuries dictated it. I think he had a path to the big leagues this season. Just the weird timing probably has as much to do with

Byron Buxton's health as it does with anything else. And we know the matchup for game two now, for a while, that was unclear. It's going to be Jose Urquidy going for the Astros. You know, one thing that could have really gone south in that game yesterday, Zach Greinke left pretty early, and I didn't really see any reason or explanation. The pitch count wasn't that bad, but then Frambois Valdez came in and fired five scoreless innings. And I started to wonder, are teams comfortable going with tandem starts in these short series? Because there's a decent layoff before the divisional series begins. The ALDS series don't start until Monday. So if you have six guys that you feel like can go long, you can just stack them up in

these three games and they're going to have plenty of time to recover before you need them to go a bit longer in the divisional series. Yeah, this is incredibly sneaky and incredibly smart, I guess, when you look back on it, because it worked. I was one of those people screaming at my TV, why would you take Granke out of that game yesterday? And then, of course, Valdez goes in and finishes the game. Now Dusty Baker has his entire bullpen at his disposal, and they found a way to cover for the weakest part of their team, which is the bullpen.

Now, Dusty Baker wasn't too forthcoming with this information leading into the series, but their pitching coach did kind of point out that Valdez, who is a starter, can get out lefties, can get out righties, can give them length. And you do wonder, Derek, in lieu of using these starters to pitch kind of bullpens this year, we talked to Ken Rosenau earlier this week about how with the no-off days in these series, you can't do that. Are we going to see this piggybacking a little bit more? Because really, as we talked about,

the Twins should have won that game. They had the bases loaded early on in the first inning off of Granke, couldn't get anything done. They had several chances to really break that game open, and they couldn't. And instead, what we saw was Valdez coming in, shutting them down, and a couple errors.

And I think if you're the Twins, you're sick because you're not the worst team here. You're not the inferior team. And I hate to say I told you so to you guys, but I told you so. Well, I told you so about the Yankees, so you be quiet. We're not there yet. Yeah.

Out of time. No, hey, I think this is a really interesting point for the rest of the series, and I just don't know how it'll matter when the series gets longer, because yes, Christian Javier, for example, is a better choice in the

fifth inning than Enolis Paredes or Scrubb. We don't want no Scrubs. Andre Scrubb, I mean, nice enough reliever, but you'd rather throw Christian Javier out there for 4+. And you would still have Lance McCullers for Game 3 if you lost. Yeah. It's nice to be in that position.

They've had a lot of things go wrong, but I do think some tandem combos might be the way that some teams try and attack this postseason. Jose Barrios going for the Twins as they try to stave off elimination. There aren't a lot of other teams, though, that have the starting pitching depth, though. The one thing that they kind of figured out this year was kind of surprising because they lost the two starters

is that they found five quality starters. I mean, maybe the Reds with Tyler Molle, but I don't even think so. The Indians could have pulled Bieber earlier, I guess, and put Savali in and just see if they could have kept that game closer. But I don't see another team. Maybe the Dodgers. Yeah, the Dodgers could pull something like this. Yeah, the Dodgers, if they have any trouble with any of their starters,

have enough long options to just back them up right away. Yeah, and it's going to be tough to get runs. Now, I think we'll talk about the Indians-Yankees matchup now. I mean, Shane Bieber is the runaway Cy Young winner in the American League, and to see him after four pitches down 2-0 to the Yankees, that's a big mental blow for a team. To have your best guy out there and to fall behind that quickly, it puts a lot of pressure on an offense that struggled. But the command for Bieber was not its usual elite, sharp self, I guess. It's not really

a person, but he just didn't seem like he was locating his fastball well. You look at those first two batted balls the Yankees had against him. They were middle-middle fastballs at 94, right? You can't throw that pitch to DJ LeMay. You can't throw that pitch to Aaron Judge and live to tell the tale. I think they did a good job on MLB Network. It's not quick pitch. It's whatever.

MLB Tonight was the recap show. The Yankees were spitting all over the curveball that Bieber usually gets all those strikeouts with. The strikeouts down below the zone. Is this a well-executed game plan by the Yankees and just a failure to adjust

on the part of Bieber and the Indians? I mean, it almost seems like they spotted something. You know what I mean, it almost seemed like they spotted something. You know what I mean? They were so good at spitting on things low. And I wonder, I think probably what they just did, if they didn't have like a tip of some sort, is that they basically just said like anything that looks like it's going

anywhere in the lower half, we're just not going to swing it. You know? So maybe Bieber could have responded by throwing some low fastballs for called strikes. But one thing I've also noticed about Bieber down the stretch is there is a relationship between your command and how close to your maximum you're throwing, I think. And if you just think about it, when you just try to throw your hardest, like when I was trying to throw my hardest, I did a piece where, you know,

I ran and I hit in front of the machines, like the tracking machines and just got all my track band numbers. And when I was trying to throw, I was trying to, all I was trying to do is throw hard. All I wanted was an okay number. I got like 71. It wasn't that great, but all I wanted to do is throw hard all i wanted was a okay number i got like 71 it wasn't that great but all i wanted to do was get a good number and the ball like hit the ground uh it hit like i think there was at the beginning we had someone catching and then after a couple of my throws he was like i'm going to uh step behind the backstop now so uh my point is that i had no idea where it's going because i i was just trying to throw my maximum and i think i saw some of that with bieber uh even as he was going well he's throwing harder than ever he's throwing closer as maximum ever and i think there was a little bit of reduced

command uh with that in place yeah they were definitely hunting fastballs. And I don't know about you guys, but by the sixth inning, I was already like Googling who's going to start today because, you know, you look at this and you're like, okay, everyone was all in on the Indians. Okay, myself included. Derek, raise your hand.

Eno, you can gloat. But now you've got for New York, you've got Tanaka going and he's been ridiculous in the postseason. Yes, the Indians have Carlos Carrasco, but you look at these numbers for Tanaka in the postseason, guys, 176 ERA, 37 strikeouts, and 8 playoff starts, holding opponents to a 157 batting average. And on the other side of this, for Cleveland, they have now lost 9

straight elimination games um so really it's incredible and we've talked about this earlier with the short series the momentum can change so quickly now it's like well you know everyone was all in on the indians and now it's like well the yankees look like that fully operational death star as mark karrig wrote this morning aaron judge doesn't look like he's 90 percent and now you're kind of wondering hey do they get steamrolled right out of this you know do the Indians just have a quick exit yeah I'm kind of frustrated seeing how the first games all played out like I was excited for these little three game series at first and now I feel like we're getting cheated

because if Cleveland's done after today they deserve more chances to go at it with the starting pitching depth they have, right? Seeing if they're three and four and five starters, or at least they're three and four could come back and get some wins in the series would have been really fun. So I hope for the sake of everyone, this one goes three, sorry, Yankees fans, but it's a great call. Cleveland has been abysmal in elimination games. The number that a bunch of teams' fans don't want to hear today is 76%. That's how often a Game 1 winner wins a three-game series. But that's a little bit different because that's in the regular season. When you play your bullpen normally...

Right, you have to think about more tomorrows during the regular season. The Saudis doesn't come in and pitch six innings in the middle of the game for you. Definitely, I would say that number is lower. There's no precedent in the postseason for a three-game series. It's somewhere between, I would say, probably 67% and 76%. I would still say it's two-thirds likely that every team that won game one advances. Garrett Cole looked fantastic, by the way. That wasn't just a Cleveland offense that was struggling. That was Cole in control of everything.

13 strikeouts, second all-time in Yankees postseason history behind Roger Clemens in the 2000 ALCS. But yeah, Carrasco versus Tanaka, really nice Game 2 matchup in that series. Last week is in the books. Now it's time to review the tape and prepare for this week. There's no better place to get in on all the action than with DraftKings, the leader in one-day fantasy sports. To add to this week's excitement, DraftKings has a free shot at millions of dollars in total prizes up for grabs.

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Remember, doing something is everything. Rent the Peloton bike or bike plus today at onepeloton.ca slash bike slash rentals. All access membership separate. Terms apply. Let's get to this Rays-Jays matchup. This was one of those games that if you just glanced at the box score, you thought, okay, the Rays won. Good pitching battle. End of story. But the Jays had a nice rally going in the eighth. Randall Gritchick smoked a ball that Willie Adames just happened to be in the path of, and that would have at least pulled the Jays within one. And they really probably deserved a better fate than an

opening game loss when you consider they tandem started Matt Shoemaker and Robbie Ray, and they got six innings from those guys only giving up one run, which is kind of the dream scenario. That's exactly what Toronto needed to go in there and get the win. It was Manny Margot came in with that game-winning home run against A.J. Cole. Blake Snell looked really good, and I think this is the thing that the Rays do so well, you guys. Nick Anderson, the usage was perfect. The Rays were in a jam. I think it was in the seventh inning with runners on. Anderson came in and got out of it, and they went to Peter Fairbanks to get the save. He became the 13th Ray this season to record a save in 2020. It's just

unbelievable. We talked about that with Ken Rosenthal a couple days ago. 12 Rays had a save in the regular season, and Peter Fairbanks wasn't even one of them. Now, Britt, they get a chance to close it out. Tyler Glass now against Hinjin Ryu in Game 2. Yeah, the good news for the Jays is that Ryu has been their ace. So if you're going into an elimination game, this is kind of the way you want it set up. The problem with Tampa Bay, and our Rays expert Eno can probably get more into this, is that after the sixth inning, they're pretty much unbeatable.

That game is so shortened because of their bullpen options and we were joking earlier about the stable of arms but it's true uh they can throw anyone at you at any time what kevin cash does is pushes the envelope he uses his best reliever in the most high leverage spot you saw him use his you know eighth ninth inning guys earlier in the game and then randomly throws Fairbanks in. This guy's a ninth rounder out of Missouri. I hadn't really heard much about him and they're able to win the game. So if you're the Blue Jays, you take solace in the fact that you did have some good at bats and you do have your ace going. But if you're Tampa Bay, you've got to feel pretty good now. You've got Glasnow on the mound.

But if you're Tampa Bay, you've got to feel pretty good now. You've got Glasnow on the mound. You've got a bullpen that it doesn't really matter who goes out there. It seems like they're always going to get the job done. And you've got a chance to, like Eno said, earn that off day. So as much as I like the Blue Jays and they're the youngest team in this field, I just feel like Tampa Bay is probably going to overtake them today. Yeah.

One of the tough things about today's game for the Jays is I think the best way to deal with Tyler Glass now is to take a lot of pitches, at least early on, and try to expose that command a little bit. And, you know, at the same time, you're in heading to elimination. And if you take a bunch of pitches and let him get through three innings with a couple walks, a bunch of strikeouts, and no runs, you're getting close to the time when they could just mix and match and get you eliminated. So you kind of want to be aggressive because you want to get ahead of that bullpen,

and yet you don't really want to be aggressive with Tyler Glasnow. So they're just hoping that it's the wild version today, and it hasn't been. Glassnow really kind of settled down after a wild beginning of the season. So I don't envy the Blue Jays today. Tyler Glassnow releases the ball closer to the plate than anybody in baseball. So not only does he throw 98, but it seems like 103.

Part of being 8 feet tall, you know, has that nice extension and nasty stuff too. It's not just like 92 that plays up. It's gas. And he looks like Cillian Murphy. And he's nice. He's also nice too. He just has it all.

Yes. Can I marry him? Were you guys, I didn't know really Fairbanks well it all. Yes. Can I marry him? Were you guys... I didn't know really Fairbanks well at all. Were you surprised? The guy... I mean, they've had 12 other people close games and they just randomly throw this guy out here

who hits 100? Where do these people come from? Listen, I wasn't surprised because I'm in this super deep league called AL Labor. It's 12-team league. We have a nine-man pitching staff, and I actually spent a fair amount of

auction money to get Peter Fairbanks in the middle of the season, thinking that he would get me some saves once. Who was it that got hurt? Nick Anderson went down. I'm just actually mad that he got his first save in the postseason because it could have helped me maybe

take first place in that. I ended up second, and a save or two could have really helped. But that's okay. That's really – we're nerding out here. It's a little bit too deep nerd, I think. It's fair. Totally fair game to nerd out about that. But you were talking about how awesome Cole looked,

and I was just thinking about how awesome Giolito looked yesterday. I was near the visitor's side for the Oakland White Sox game, the A's White Sox game, and I could see G Alito warming up, and that ball was just on a string. I mean, he didn't throw as hard as Lizardo, but he was pretty demoralizing for the A's hitters. And the A's hitters are a little bit more swing and miss than people know. They hit more fly balls per ground ball than anybody since we've tracked that number.

So I think they became a little bit of a hit or miss offense this season. And losing Chapman may not have exacerbated that, but adding La Stella was not maybe enough. But adding La Stella was not maybe enough. They almost need like two or three La Stellas to go up and kind of diversify the Matt Olsen, Matt Chapman situation. Yeah, I feel like the twins we talked about feeling bad for, man, I feel that for the A's too. Every year they get in and they lose in that first round, it seems like. And they're in a really tough spot here again. I mean, I just keep thinking of that Tim Anderson line before the series when they were throwing Lizardo.

Everyone knew how good the White Sox were against lefties. The A's, for some reason, felt like this was going to be it anyway. It was going to be some kind of anomaly. And then, of course, Tim Anderson has a line yesterday like, hey, we did our homework. Because it really, to me, is baffling. I had a few questions in that game yesterday. You get down 2-0 to Abreu before that home run, changes the complexion of the at-bat. Why do you pitch to him? If you're the A's, obviously you mentioned Gialito. The game plan there, they just seem totally lost early on. And I think the White Sox really have the momentum

as much as the A's have Bassett going. And he had a great September. I think he was AL Pitcher of the Month. But it seems like the A's are in that familiar position again where they're in an elimination game and they haven't been as bad as the Twins. But they've been pretty damn close, too. You could speak a little more to this,

but I'm sure Ace fans are like, oh, here we go again. We build this good team. We think we're going to be okay, and then we lose in the first round. It looks like it's set up. Yeah, the only thing that I can think of that might change some of that sort of monkey on the back,

like long-term stress that an A's team might have or a Twins team might have. The only thing I can think of is that we, the media, and the like average A or Twin are not going to interact between game one and game two. So like, you know, i think that in another if we were in the clubhouse um almost every player was worth quoting you know any player that would show up in a piece um would get asked oh how you know how do you feel with like the history of the a's losing in the first round you know don't you think like almost everybody would have to field a question like that the way it is now it's just the one or two players that that they send out for zoom it's a good point i mean this is a team that uh i mean

it could mean something they are missing matt chapman in a big way even though jake lamb has done a little bit of damage as a late late season replacement he had the best he had the best at bats yesterday too the vibe though is different marcus simeon's probably going to leave as a free agent like there's always these little clouds hanging over this team this time of year, too, because you know a few key players are probably not going to be there next year, too. I don't know if that adds to pressure or not. But Chris Bassett goes up against Dallas Keuchel as the A's try and stave off elimination today. I got one trivia question for you guys and I'll turn it into a charity thing. So we're going to see how this goes. I'm so bad at this, dude.

Well, this time you have an incentive to be good. I'm really, really bad at trivia. I get nervous and I forget things I know. I feel like you'd be good. It's been a bad week for me for charity. So I mean, not for charity. For trivia. But let's try it. Let's try it.

You know, people were yelling at me. Last time you gave me a trivia question, I couldn't come up with Mookie Betts, and people were apparently just yelling into the radio at me. It's going to happen again today, especially with the money to charity on the line. So we were talking about the Twins earlier. The last time they won a playoff game was 2004.

It was game one of the ALDS against the Yankees. So here's what we're going to do. You can each miss one time. For every player who appeared in that game for the Twins that either one of you can name without looking it up, of course, I will give $10 to charity for each

one you guys get right. 2004 ALDS Twins. They beat the Yankees that day. That was October 5th, 2004. We can talk about what we were all doing on that day once we go through this. Each one of you can have one wrong answer and continue to guess. We'll just alternate

back and forth. You can name any position player who appeared in the game or any pitcher who appeared in that game for the Twins. Joe Maurer? It was pre-Maurer, so no Maurer. There's your one strike. I'm already out, Eno. You got one strike. It's okay. Eno can go. Oh my god.

Look at Eno. Pre-Maurer? Eno's in pain. I know. It seems like forever ago. I was just moving back from London. I don't even think I was watching baseball. Oh, man. So then there goes more no, because they kind of are the same. Like Kirby Puckett?

Time. He's in the 80s. No, not that far back. See, I think that's too old. Who's in between those two people? I know. Jim Tomei? You're on the right era.

Britt's got one. I'm going to give Britt Justin Morneau. Justin Morneau was on that team. So you guys have one correct answer so far. This is how bad we are. And you've each used your strike with Maurer and Puckett. This is really hard. I feel like there was this huge gap of good twins.

All right. Because it's for charity, I'm going to give you guys some hints. The pitcher in that game was really good. He pitched in a bigger market for a different part of his career. Johan Santana? Yeah, Johan Santana started that game. Okay. All right, so Johan Santana started.

He didn't throw a complete game. There were two relievers. Latroy Hawkins? That's a great guess based on context. He did not pitch in that game, but one very long-term Twins closer pitched in that game. He's got two first names. Two first names?

It's for charity, so I'm giving lots of hints. Oh, is it? I'm not going to say it. I don't want to be wrong. I know. That's how I feel, too. Also, Eno, and this is between Eno and I, Jim Tomei, are we missing his era? Was he with the White Sox? Yeah, he wasn't a twin at that time. It's a bunch of guys

that you do start to associate together, because this was a core that played together for a while. Well, then you said it was pre-Mauer, so then I... It was pre-Mauer, but it was a bunch of guys that ended up playing with Maurer for a little while.

Was Brian Dozier on the team? Pre-Dozier. I'll give you each one more strike again because it's for charity. I told you I'm so bad. You guys are terrible. I am so bad at this. Everyone listening is like...

I'm really bad. I listen to these people talk baseball. It's 2004. It's 16 talk baseball. It's 2004. It's 16 years ago. It's a long time ago. It is. But it's not so far. It's a weird lapse.

The reliever, though, the two first names, is an iconic Twins reliever. Definitely an elite fantasy closer at his peak, too. You guys should get that one. And the center fielder on that team. Also a guy that's been around. Yeah, the center fielder is obvious. Torrey Hunter. Torrey Hunter.

Torrey Hunter. Okay. So you guys are up to three? Yeah, yeah. We're at 30 bucks for charity. It's going to the American Cancer Society. I have like a guy in my head, but you know what's funny?

I think I figured it out. I think I figured it out. I was thinking Lee Smith. That's not my guess. Yeah, he does. But Joe Nathan. Joe Nathan. Joe Nathan.

Joe Nathan was the closer that day. He got a save. Oh, my God. Good one, Ina. I am thinking about walking into Target Field and thinking of those guys on the walls. But again, they weren't that good of a team. Who was the guy that got all the concussions?

You got the guy. You can get the name. It's not Nick Punto, right? Or too far. Koski. Corey Koski. You're up to five. Eno's killing it now.

I'm done, though, I think. The next wrong answer ends the game. We're at 50 bucks for charity, though. So you guys have rallied after a very rough start. Okay, here's a weird guess. Lou Ford. Lou Ford was the DH that day. That's a big one i'm so done you're up to six i'm so done who else is in that infield why can't we name another pitcher you guys have a short stop uh the other pitcher like there's almost no way you're getting the third pitch oh right because it's just one game so yeah it was like a setup let's not think pitchers then short stop would

we have heard of the shortstop you yep you would have heard of the shortstop and both corner outfielders are still out there too and the second baseman i think was a good fantasy guy for a while he had a nice little career so let's see yeah you got the two middle infielders and the two corner outfielders i think you can get so when i covered the rays in 08 they got jason bartlett from the twins was he still there in 04? He was not, but I like where your head's at. That's, again, that's the right way to play this game.

All right, so you got six correct answers. Some of the names that you missed. Shannon Stewart, Jock Jones, Christian Guzman, and Michael Kadir. Kadir! I thought it was Kadir. For some reason, when you eliminated Maurer, I was like, oh, all those guys are out. Yeah, Mauer played with a bunch of these guys for a while. The other random players in this game,

Luis Rivas, came off the bench and recorded a put-out in that game. Never getting that. Henry Blanco was the catcher, and Juan Rincon was the other pitcher. Yeah, we remember that game. No, Kadir, though, will annoy me all day. Well done, though.

$60 going to charity. So I will make the donation and put a screenshot up here later today. If you're enjoying this show on a platform, if you're not so outraged by only six correct answers in our charity trivia game, please take a moment to give us a nice rating and review. We really appreciate that. And if you'd like to subscribe to The Athletic, you can sign up for $1 a month at theathletic.com

slash ratesandbarrels. Get all of Britt's articles. Get all of Eno's articles. Read Jason Stark's piece because I think Lou Ford was mentioned in that on Wednesday. So that was one of the correct answers sprinkled into our little game. As always, you can reach us via email. ratesandbarrels at theathletic.com. If you'd like to do

that on Twitter, she's at Britt underscore Giroli. He's at Eno Saris. I am at Derek Van Ryper. That is going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels. Enjoy the postseason games today. We are back with you on Thursday. Thanks for listening.