Rates & Barrels - Division Series Scuttlebutt

Episode Date: October 7, 2020

Eno, Britt and DVR discuss the Yankees’ curious decision to use Deivi Garcia as an opener, the A’s attempt to stave off elimination, Ronald Acuña’s feud with the Marlins, and a rough series opener for the Padres.  Rundown 1:09 Yankees-Rays 10:11 Astros-A’s 17:01 Marlins-Braves 25:02 Padres-Dodgers Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Britt on Twitter: @Britt_Ghiroli Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper 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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It is Wednesday, October 7th, literally, as we record this. We've got a full playoff slate from Tuesday, which bumps up against a full playoff slate Wednesday. Really more playoff goodness than you can shake a stick at. I don't know why that's an expression i tried to look it up we had enough prep time to show that i could figure out where that expression came from nope can't trace it back to anything not sure at what point in history people were just shaking sticks don't know caveman era probably what was the what was the one that was the other one we've up? Bee's Knees? We didn't look up Bee's Knees, but we did have one a while back.

I'm blanking on it now. My recall is not great. What the hell is Bee's Knees? But anyway, some fun baseball today. It was the Bee's Knees. Let's start with the Yankees and Rays. There's a lot to get into in this game. There's actually a mailbag question that sort of fits into something I was thinking about

before this game even started. It came in from Cam, and he wanted to know how is Tyler Glasnow so good relying mostly on two pitches? And Glasnow kind of spearheaded the effort of the Rays pitching staff striking out 18 Yankees, I believe, was the

final count, and that was a nine-inning record for a playoff game. So,kees, I believe was the final count. And that was a nine inning record for a playoff game. So, you know, I'll kind of throw it to you first, just from the Glassnow perspective. Like, how is he this good? Well, I hope Cam checks out my piece. I wrote a piece that was a reaction to Glassnow's excellent start tonight and kind of detailed some of the things, his strengths and weaknesses. and kind of detailed some of the things, his strengths and weaknesses. And I think that one thing that stood out was in the last three years,

basically, since he's become a starter, he's only turned the lineup over three times. He's only turned up the lineup over three times, four times. Going to have to work on that one. But do you know what I mean? He's had 34 starts, and he's only faced 27 batters four times. Gonna have to work on that one. But do you know what I mean? He's had 34 starts and he's only faced 27 batters four times. That was the better way to say it. That's the bee's knees. No, but

I guess what it means is is that he doesn't go long. He doesn't go deep. So that's part of it. He doesn't actually turn the lineup over a bunch of times. What he's used at is almost like a super reliever. He's used as, you know, a guy who does have two pitches. Those two pitches are at the extreme end of, you know, the stuff on both of those.

It's one of the best fastballs in the game. It's one of the best curveballs in the game. And so what he does is he just does really well for two times through the order. And then it kind of sometimes falls apart. I think that might not be a super satisfying answer, but I look through different things. And the other thing is this, the type of curveball that he has, has a reverse platoon split. So it actually gets lefties out really well. so he's not gonna get caught out by righty lefty lineups or anything um the only thing is that he can be he only has two pitches so he can become predictable at some point that game was crazy to me because it seemed like kevin

cash wildly outmanaged aaron boone um when you look at the fact that, you know, they obviously had, Glassnow went fairly deep, especially when we look around the league and we look around all these playoff games and we've got guys that are going, you know, an inning or two. And then you've got the Yankees who threw kind of an opener, I guess, for lack of a better term. Derek, what do you make of that move with them

in terms of not not pitching J.A. Hatt moving Tanaka to game three do you is this like it seems to me like this could be something that could really change the whole tenor of the whole series I don't know I thought it was weird for two reasons Davey Garcia last time he made a start on September 26th went six and two thirds so he's plenty stretched out. So to use him as an opener, that in and of itself was weird. It wasn't a great first inning. Gave up a home run to Randy Rosarena.

And he threw like 27 pitches. I thought he'd at least get through the entire order once. I thought two-plus or at least three was sort of the minimum. And I thought they would follow him with Jordan Montgomery because I thought Jay Happ was the guy they would actually want to have start after Tanaka starts game three. I thought Happ was going to start game four. Clearly, that was not the plan. And I don't even know if Jay Happ knew for sure what the plan was. I saw some comments from him after the game and the ongoing friction between Jay Happ and the Yankees front office is kind of funny. He obviously will not be returning to the Yankees as a free agent.

But the main thing that struck out to me is the way the pitchers kind of came in after Garcia and Happ. They used Adovino. They ended up using Johnny Loaiziga, Holder, Nick Nelson. You're not worried about them as high-leverage guys. But they burned a couple useful pieces in adovino and loa siga and i don't know this this didn't feel like it was out of reach so that was probably probably a little bit too close to the vest really when you look at how this game played out and try to save those guys for for future games so that was one thing that really stood out to me uh john

carlos stanton has been amazing in this postseason. He homered in three consecutive plate appearances, first Yankee to do that in the playoffs since Reggie Jackson. And Stanton, I mean, he's hitting the typical Stanton rocket moonshots too. So he's doing it in a very fun sort of way as well. But yeah, you know, I mean, did you, when we were talking about this game yesterday, did you have any inkling that Garcia was only going to go one? They had some clarification after the game, some comments after the game.

They said that, I think it was Boone said that the plan was for Hap to come in sometime in the second inning and to be ready for the second inning, but maybe to come in at the end of it or for Garcia to finish too. And so I think they've wanted more length out of Garcia than they got, but you know, a little bit of rockiness led to bringing happen earlier. I do agree with you that it does shift the tenor of the series significantly, because even though Tanaka can maybe save the bullpen tomorrow, there's the question of who starts on the fourth game, and then the fourth game, therefore, will probably be

a bullpen game, which means that they're going to really have to maybe push somebody back to back to back to back you know um you know uh on on friday or just hope that cole um you know wins them a tight you know wins them game five maybe they're just playing the win lose win lose game where they're like they thought this might be a game they lose and then tomorrow they win with tanaka and then they after that they lose and then they win with cole um you know but the same time, they still have to find somebody to pitch game for. And getting between three and five with the bullpen intact will also be difficult. Yeah, it just seems like they gave up early. I'm with you, Derek.

I thought they were going to maybe piggyback, which we've seen Houston do this postseason, which has been very effective. And by the way, Houston, now the darling of the postseason to everyone's great delight. I do like Dusty Baker. I will say this. I'm rooting for Dusty Baker. I'm torn because I don't want the Astros to go very far. But as you guys know, being around baseball, does anyone not like Dusty Baker? Just a classy individual,

but it just seemed like tonight, and getting back to the Yankees one more time, not to pile on Boone, but I am going to pile on, it was a very winnable game that very early on seemed like they just kind of threw in the towel, and oops, if they win, they win, but they just decided that even if he goes two innings, Garcia, what was the actual point?

It just seemed like a cute gimmick. I really just don't understand. Were they trying to out-raise the Rays? I mean, it's pretty funny. They go with an opener, and the Rays go with three conventional starters in a row. So that's a little strange reversal of roles. conventional starters in a row so that's a little strange reversal of roles but you know you did point out to me that Christian Javier had only pitched one inning in the Astros series and so he could be back right so maybe Davey Garcia can be back for game four and they just run it back

again with Jordan Montgomery in the half roll and maybe the results are different. I don't know. And I think maybe you base it off of how Garcia fares in that start, too, where maybe tonight if he'd pitched well, he would have gone three or four. And if he goes a little better in game four, maybe he does get that deep into the game before Montgomery takes over. And a lot about what happens in game three is going to shape who's available in game four. But Zach Britton didn't pitch in 2. Chapman hasn't pitched yet. I think he warmed up, but he didn't get into the game on Tuesday.

So they have two very fresh, high-leverage guys. If they can get even 5 from Tanaka, they don't have to work real hard to figure out who's going to get the ball until they get to the 8th and 9th inning with Britton and Chapman. They can even go to Britton a little early and push those guys to get the ball until they get to, you know, the eighth and ninth inning with Britain and Chapman. They can even go to Britain a little early and push those guys more than one inning if they want to. Yeah. I mean, I, I think that the,

I, I, my pessimism about the rays, um, has softened a little bit. Uh, but I still, I still see coal looming in game five.

It's a, it's a big, it's a big one to be, to be sitting there at the end. Yep. It absolutely is. Nick Anderson threw 22 pitches in two innings. I really want to know if he's available in Game 3

or if they're going to save him to have him for back-to-backs in 4-5. Game flow might be a determining factor there. I have not seen anything confirming that they plan to hold him out of Game 3 at this point. Let's go to that Astros-A's matchup. The A's now facing a 2-0 deficit. Frambois Valdez pitches really well again. He goes seven, scatters five hits, only allows two earned runs. One thing that was really interesting to me as I was digging into this game, eight hard hit balls against Frambois Valdez, two were the home runs that the A's hit. The rest were all

ground outs. So a lot of the hard contact that Valdez was allowing were balls hit on the ground. It's like if you're going to give up any hard contact, that's obviously the best place to do it. And this is pretty cool too because we saw Enoli Paredes again. He's kind of becoming our favorite reliever of the postseason on this show. At least I'm giving him that title. He's gone from underbelly to part of the bridge to Ryan Presley. They've both gone on back-to-back days, though, so now the Astros may have to dig into their depth a little bit more if they end up putting themselves in a position to go for the sweep on Wednesday.

What stood out to you guys from this game, Britt? Was there anything in the A's-Astros game that really surprised you? I don't know about surprise, but it's the postseason, and George Springer is in typical October form, right? I mean, you look at this Astros team, and you guys didn't have them moving on from the Twins, if you recall, because they were under.500. They weren't a good team.

I didn't think they were a good team either, and it seems like now they have everything clicking. They're a rotation that doesn't have Verlander, no longer has Cole. And yet we talked about this. They've done wonderfully in terms of piggybacking guys. And that offense has really just been able to put away the A's. You've seen that here in the first two games. The way they've added these runs,

they've just been absolutely gut punches to Oakland and to their pitching staff. And Springer, you guys look now, he's in some like elite territory. I think I saw he passed Babe Ruth in terms of postseason home runs. He's a guy that always kind of seems to step up in the moment. And he's continued to do that here. And by the way, we finally got an answer, guys, to our where the hell is that granky thing he's got arm soreness they're not going to pitch him game three i don't think this is going to preclude them from winning the series at all it could have ramifications down the line um you know what do you think about that that kind of rotation and how it shakes out you guys were all over it

right i mean the just uh wondering where he was uh he was hurt um there was a little scuttlebutt that like and scuttlebutt there's another word what the heck does that mean but anyway um there was some scuttlebutt uh some butts were scuttled and um uh i've lost my train of thought oh um there was some thought that like somebody like somebody said that ercody just found out today that he was going to uh pitch in game three so I don't know if that's a communication with you know Erkity or between Granke and the staff or if it just popped up you know maybe it just popped up in a session or he was recovering from a session and said, you know what, it's actually sore today. But we've seen the velocity loss from Granke,

and the two things that happen when you are as old as Granke is are the velocity loss and injury. So I'm not necessarily too surprised by it. And I think with a two-game win, I think winning it in the next two games will be good for them to bake in, to win the extra days of rest, to maybe get Granke back out there.

But I think for them in the playoffs, Granke is kind of a 3-4 inning pitcher at this point. And that's replaceable for them in the short run. But I think you're right. It matters for them in the next series. Yeah, I think that's exactly where it starts to catch up to the Astros. This A's offense, as we said yesterday, not a bad group. They're just ice cold.

At least they were ice cold today. And I don't know if I see any reason to be optimistic about them. We talked about this as far as not wanting to have too much recency bias. You're watching a team on one day and expecting more of the same the next. But time's ticking, and it just feels like this is going to be yet another disappointing chapter in a's post-season history uh scuttlebutt by the way is a drinking fountain on a ship or at a naval or marine installation but it is uh also the water cooler talk they talked by the water fountain i of 19th century seafarers. They talked by the water fountain.

I get it. Okay. Yeah, that made sense. There were some people talking about when people found out about this injury, but I don't think it was like, you know, maybe it was. Houston is probably like those NFL teams that were like, he has a lower half injury. NHL.

Yeah. When Jose Altuve like had a knee problem that needed surgery at the end of the season, I actually literally asked him in a scrum. I was like, Hey, what's wrong with your knee? And he's like,

uh, they told me not to say anything. Basically. I was like, like, come on. Are you okay? And he he's like it's feeling okay and you're like oh god geez like really pushing the information warfare angle yeah i saw something

somewhere word baker was like well cranky doesn't look right over his last five or six starts which seems to me like the other extreme five or or six starts? That's basically when the season started. You're being really specific here. Okay. It's like now he didn't look good when he first came to camp. Like, okay.

I don't know. He was getting good results, but it is weird if you look back at his game log, at least three earned runs allowed in each of his last seven regular season starts. He was on this torrid pace with his ratios to start the year, and then he kind of just became a regular guy. I didn't really notice that was happening to him down the stretch. Big fail on my part, but I feel like that is a stretch. I think he was pitching a little better than Dusty was letting

on in that case. Also wondering if Fleetwood Mac ever thought about naming the Rumors album Scuttlebutt instead. It probably wouldn't have been as well-received. It wouldn't have held up as well. Stevie Nicks wrote that about breaking up with the dude in the band? I think the

entire album is written for and about people cheating on each other which is why they didn't last very long yeah that was a part of their demise i mean just like no doubt yeah just like no doubt yes yes exactly like no doubt but just imagine being the dude that has like sing you know has to play Dreams for like the millionth time. I said I was sorry. I said I was sorry. I'll play it again.

Oh, my gosh. Speaking of drama, did you guys see Ronald Acuna Jr.'s Instagram and Twitter flex today? Oh, yeah. I mean, yes, they won the game. They went up 1- nothing on the marlins but um acuna had what people aren't talking about was the slide that kind of pissed off miami is what i understand his slide in the second base earlier in the game um something i also saw on social media that kind of irritated them as well so of all the rivalries we talked about going into this. I didn't have like bad blood really between the

Marlins and Braves ranked at all, but they might be the one series where you really got to watch tomorrow for warnings issued and potentially some tempers flaring. The Marlins do hit Ronald Acuna Jr. a lot with pitches. I saw some of the numbers floating around Twitter after the incident. I was actually listening to part of this game on the Braves feed. I took the dog out for a walk, and that's actually a really good booth. And as this was playing out, they didn't really

seem to think there was any malintent there, right? If any booth was going to assume malintent, it would be the Braves in this case. So they suggested that that's not Don Mattingly's style as a manager. I don't know how much truth there is to that. I mean, players can go rogue and just throw at guys if they're upset.

That can happen. But in that situation, that seemed really odd, right? You're an underdog with a 4-1 lead, and you're in a situation where you don't want to just put a guy on base. If you're upset about the way Ronaldonald acuna jr celebrated his home run with that kind of walk out of the box and pronounce bat flip you deal with that in april and i don't believe in this crap anyway i think throwing at people is one of the worst things about baseball i wish mlb would police it more so we could move past it it just seems like outdated caveman stuff it predates scuttlebutt uh i hate it. I hate it.

Like, I don't like what this guy did, so I'm going to throw a rock at him. You know... Not the bee's knees. I think it's actually really difficult to parse this one. Yes, he threw inside in a way where it could have... And he has movement. He has a lot of movement on that sinker.

And he doesn't have an amazing amount of command. So he could have just missed. And that'd be fine. But then there's his comments after the game where he said, I didn't mean to hit him. have an amazing amount of command so he could have just missed um and that'd be fine and but then there's you know his comments after the game where he said i didn't mean to hit him but if he wants to fight i'll fight him so it's like okay uh plus you throw in just how many times acuna and the braves in general have been hit by the Marlins specifically. And it reminds you a little bit of the kind of the Pittsburgh Cincinnati thing where it's just been festering.

Jose Ureña like has hit Acuna like three, four times. And it just becomes a point where it's almost confirmation bias over and over again, right? Like you're like, oh, the Marlins, they always hit me. Oh, see, they hit me again, you know? And you don't remember all the times the Mets hit you or whatever. So I'm not saying that Acuna is wrong to not want to be hit. And I'm not saying he's not, you know, you know what I mean?

Like I understand all sides of this. But I think I agree that in that situation, all Sandy Alcantara wants to do is win, you know? And I don't think he necessarily wants to make a point to Acuna Jr. right there and put a guy on. And eventually turned into, I believe, a run. He did. He ended up coming around to score in that inning.

Yeah, I agree. And also, like we talked about this earlier, the actual game-related stuff. I mean, the Marlins just simply couldn't hang on. They couldn't hang around with the Braves. Once it got to those middle innings, we saw kind of the underbelly that you guys talked about with their relief. And it would just have been a weird time to start anything, right? It was a weird flex, which, by the way, in 100 years, people are going to look up some of the expressions that we have.

And be like, okay. That's right. By the way, in 100 years, people are going to look up some of the expressions that we have. And be like, okay. That's right. Yeah, and underbelly. My kids will use them against me on whatever's after Twitter. Exactly. By the way, this is very random. I don't know how many people listen to our show, follow Craig Calcaterra on Twitter, but I don't know if there's a person I've encountered on the internet who gets dunked

on harder by their own children than Craig gets dunked on by his daughter. That's true. Holy crap. My greatest fear as someone who might have kids one day is that my kids are going to be a lot smarter than me. And I think Craig's smart. I think his daughter might be already smarter than him and she kind of knows it

and she just rubs it in his face all the time, which it's incredible. It's really cool that he actually shares that because I don't have the confidence to put that out there. It'll happen to all of us or all of us that have children. But yeah, I'm pretty sure one of my kids will do it to me. I'm not sure which one. One of them will probably.

So my younger one turns six tomorrow. And I see him. He's very sort of. He loves. He's very sensual. Like he loves the feeling of things and the taste of things. And I think he's going to just jump into life. And I see him as like a future surf instructor. and I think he's going to just jump into life.

And I see him as like a future surf instructor. So I don't know that he'll be on Twitter dunking on me. I think he'll be my other son. I think you should aim a little higher for your son. No, he'll probably just live out the other side of life I never had. Acuna, by the way, if you didn't know what to put on your tombstone when you die, his Instagram post was just, I apologize to absolutely nobody. It's a good final statement. He's got the picture of the bat flip from today.

It's a good final statement. He's got the picture of the bat flip from today. The tweet said, they have to hit me because they don't get me out with three of the shush emojis, as I call them. I don't know if that's the proper name for them, but that's what the emoji is doing. Marlins, I think the bullpen's a problem. Pablo Lopez goes in game two instead of Sixto Sanchez. Sanchez will go in game three. Ian Anderson goes for the Braves.

This is a winnable matchup for the Marlins. They just need their starters to keep going deep in the games. Yeah, they need six plus. They need six plus to have a chance, and even then it can unravel. Last thought on this game, Travis Darnot going to the Braves wasn't a signing that got a lot of attention when it happened. I think some people thought, oh, why'd they add another catcher? Tyler Flowers is fine, and Darnot's got a lot of attention when it happened. I think some people thought, oh, why'd they add another catcher? Tyler Flowers is fine, and Darnot's got a pretty bad injury history.

This guy's hitting cleanup, and he had a great year. If you're a Mets fan, you're watching this, and you're going, what the hell? Why is this happening? What a division rival, no less. Why is Travis Darnot an anchor in a loaded Atlanta lineup at this point? If you're a Mets fan,

you're used to it. Mike Fast left the Astros to go to the Braves. And one of the things he did publicly as an analyst before he went behind the curtain was some stuff on framing. And you see that Flowers is a plus framer and uh so is uh so is darnell so i think that even though he's been a guy where the offenses have been a little bit up and down and he's also uh been hurt often and that's kind of maybe why the mets let him go in the end

um when he's in there he's good you. You know, he's only had one year. No, you take that year out. He had 16 plate appearances. He's never been below replacement. He's been at least a league average guy if you kind of prorate it out, and in some years a very good player. So really sneaky signing. I think you're right.

And hard to do that when you're missing time with major injuries. I mean, he had an ACL tear at one point. I think he's had at least one concussion. Those are not easy injuries to come back from, especially at that position. 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. Okay, but what about estimating duties and taxes on my shipments? How do I find all the- Also FedEx. Impressive. Is there a regulatory specialist I can ask about? FedEx. Oh, but let's say that- FedEx. What? FedEx. Thanks. No more questions. Always your answer for international shipping. FedEx, where now meets next. Let's go to the Padres-Dodgers matchup, the nightcap. The nightcap of all nightcaps. Mike Clevenger started this game. He didn't stay long.

We saw the velocity charts going around on Twitter. You just worry that there's a more serious elbow injury that's kind of inevitable with him at this point, just based on what we're seeing right now. And I always wonder if it was kind of like, hey, let's just see what you can do for us. Go out there. It's torn already anyway i i don't know if that's the case that's sort of what it felt like and as a result of his early exit the padres had to go really

reliever heavy again and for a while they held together they have the bullpen depth but you know it's going to test them against the dodgers team. Yeah, I mean, they had 14 guys throw consecutive scoreless innings at one point until they finally allowed a run. So it just seems like, to me, the Padres are a really good team. Their bullpen is really a lot better than people realize, but you're asking way too much. You're just asking way too much now. Now you're in a five-game series with no let-up and no off days. With the Clevenger situation, we won't see him again in the playoffs

should the Padres advance. I don't think we see him again. Yeah, that seemed very definitive. Walking off the mound with a trainer, for sure. And now you hope, like you said, Derek, that you hope that something's not torn. You hope that you don't hear about him needing surgery and it affecting next

year. And it sucks because he was one of their big prizes at the deadline. A guy who they really needed, you know, and I, this was a bad loss for the Padres, I think. And it's not just Clevenger. It's the fact that they're not going to be able to get away with what they did game three of the wild card series for the next four games right the dodgers are not going to let them do that their arms are not going to hold up and unless the offense really steps up and starts putting up some serious runs they're gonna have a hard time beating the dodgers

now three of the next four games i think it might be time for a hail Mary. Mackenzie Gore. Yeah, if Dick Clevenger off the roster, you could put Gore on it, right? Unless, like, did you guys hear more definitive news about LeMet? I mean, I know he didn't make the roster, but was there some idea that he would make the next roster? But, you know, if he's not making this roster, I think that means the thing, he's out. So I think it's time for Mackenzie Gore. I mean, the only way I see them winning the series at this point

is Patino, Morahan, Gore. Those are the only guys that can give him length. They already made Richards a reliever, and he already pitched in this one. So who else you got? Maybe Davies can keep him in it, and then you need someone to go length in game three if you want to win two games in a row. It can only be Morohan, Gorr, Patino,

and Patino pitched in this one. Really, you only have Morohan and Gorr. It's too bad they're both lefties, so I think I might even depend on both of them for length at some point. The Padres used nine pitchers in this game. Obviously, that wasn't the plan. The plan was for Clevenger to probably go at least four, probably five or more if possible.

So that really put them on their back foot. Ryan Weathers made his big league debut. I think he's the youngest player since Adalbert Almondese to make his big league debut in a playoff game. The stuff looked really good. He pitched at Fort Wayne I think in the Midwest League was the highest stop and it's low a so he jumped from low a to the big leagues came into a game and didn't allow runs against one of the best offenses we've seen probably in the last 20 years

which is a nice way to be thrown into the fire so kudos to him on that debut I thought that was actually pretty impressive I know he walked a couple of guys, but I bet he gets another important inning or two before this series is over, just based on what we saw here and based on the need they're going to have with so many guys pitching in this game. stuff, but they couldn't solve them. And I think when you have an ace who's not on top of his game, that's an opportunity to pounce. And I think this is one of those games the Padres are going to look at and say, we had some chances against the guy that doesn't give up a lot of chances. And now we're just going to be chasing this series the rest of the way. Jace Tingler got tossed after a Mookie Betts double in the bottom of the sixth inning. I rarely side with umpires, but I don't think Jace Tingler was right to be upset. Maybe the frustration he was having with his offense

and the Clevenger injury and all these things kind of just came to a head, and he took it out on the umpires instead. But strike zone didn't look that bad. So, yeah, I don't know. This was a disappointing start to the series for the Padres for sure. Austin Adams slider count, 10 of 10. Ryan Weathers sat 95.

I was excited about that. Did not get a single whiff on the slider. That was interesting. If you could smush Austin Adams and Ryan Weathers together, maybe you'd have an elite closer. But that doesn't work. That's been banned. I'm not allowed to do that.

That's a future thing. That's a future thing. I was a little surprised that this lineup couldn't put something together. But there is some part of it is the ballpark. You got the two best barrelers in baseball, and they are in the second least friendly park, two barrels in baseball this year. And the other one was Buffalo.

So you could say it was a small sample thing because these parks haven't been around a lot. But if you just look at the StatCast error, the two least friendly ballparks, two barrels in terms of homers divided by barrels, have been Globe Life and Buffalo, and they sent everybody to Buffalo, but they did change. They did try to open up the roof, I think, to make it a little bit more hitter-friendly,

but later start maybe, cooler weather later in the year. I saw about four or five drives from the dodgers that not necessarily were all homers but i think if you hit those four or five drives in la or in san diego one boogie bets one i thought for sure one of them would have been homers yeah there was a pollock one two seager hit one 390 you know, sometimes when you're talking about, you know, an inconsistent ball and then a stadium like this, the stadium plus the ball can be a 10-foot difference. And, you know, add 10 feet to some of those balls,

they would have been out, especially the Betts one. So, you know, in some ways, this game wasn't as close as it seemed. Dustin May looked untouchable, too. His stuff was electric tonight. 3Ks, two scoreless innings, didn't walk anybody through 27 pitches. I would assume with 27, he's back and available for Game 4. They could use him in Game 3 if they needed to, but I think they're going to try and use him in 4

because then you have the option for 4 and 5. Use him in 3. Or try not to use him in game three if they needed to, but I think they're going to try and use him in four because then you have the option for four and five. Use him in three. Or try not to use him. Win it in three, and you've got May for a couple games in the next series. Yeah, it's really tempting, and I keep looking at those numbers. I tweeted this out. Every time I watch him pitch, I go look at his fan graphs page, and his strikeout rate and swinging strike rate

are so much lower than you'd think for a guy that's touching 100 with that much movement. I mean, there's no reason why he shouldn't strike out more guys in the future. And maybe that's 2021, right? Maybe that's the year he makes the leap. I could see him easily becoming a 28, 30% K percentage guy, a 10K per nine sort of pitcher at his peak. And are the Dodgers... I mean, the Dodgers, there's a lot of things they have in common with the Rays, and one of which is some dude coming out of the pen that used to be a lefty soft tosser throwing 97. Like, Victor Gonzalez, man?

Like, what? Where did this guy come from? Anyway, if they're going to do something like that, then it doesn't matter that Kenley Jansen's throwing 88. They'll probably do weird things with, you't matter that Kenley Jansen's throwing 88. They'll probably do weird things with throwing Kenley Jansen in the seventh just to mess with other teams because they've got...

They didn't even use Ruzdar Graterol tonight. They had a guy throwing 100 they didn't use. You're right. It was not nearly as close as even the score indicated. You're right. I think Tingler... It just seems like a lot of that was kind of frustration because the umpiring for the Yankees-Rays game was a million times worse, and nobody got thrown out of that one.

I think the Padres are searching for some kind of spark here, right? Clevenger was supposed to be their white knight, was supposed to be their, hey, we got this, and now it just doesn't seem at all like they have any kind of chance here. I picked them to win. i want them to win but the dodgers are just a really good team that did exactly what they were supposed to do uh in game one despite walker bueller struggling to find the the strike zone for most of the night yeah still had velo still had movement just wasn't locating where he wanted and that was the... It was kind of amazing to watch.

He would walk a guy on four pitches, and then he would dot 98 on the outside corner. I wonder if there's a little bit of that. They show pictures of his blister situation, and they talked a little bit on the cast about how he can't do the same amount of in between start work because he's trying to let the blister heal. It looks gross

when they show the pictures. He's got some weird frankenfinger going on where they've pasted it shut with some fake skin or whatever. That's got to affect your command a little bit too. It's a consistency sort of thing with Buehler. I think that is a perfectly fine explanation

for why he struggled that way. As I mentioned earlier, just one team, the A's facing elimination on Wednesday. Britt, do the A's behind Jesus Lizardo going up against Jose Urquidy, do they live to see a game four? I don't think so. I think Houston's just got too much momentum right now.

The A's have been a nice story, but unless they get somebody else to hit, it seems like they've got two guys, three guys max hitting in their lineup right now, and I just don't see them turning it around. I think momentum, as we've talked about in baseball, can be dangerous. And Houston, no doubt, has that momentum right now. Yeah, I learned something today.

I think in Spanish, lefty is Zerto. So Lizardo El Zerto will be throwing the pelota tomorrow. I love him, but one problem that I guess has shown his head, even though I didn't think it was necessarily going to happen, he kind of goes four and five, and I don't know what happens in the fifth inning. Sometimes maybe the command falters late or something, but he's given up some homers in the fifth innings. And it does seem like maybe there is something there. I think he could learn a cutter or a harder breaking ball in the offseason and be an ace's ace still. I still love the stuff.

But right now, as he is, I don't think he's the savior. I want to see the A's make the Astros work harder for this. It's going to take an extraordinary effort from Lizardo if that's going to happen. I think Urquidy's really good. The regular season numbers this season don't fully reflect it. He, of course, missed a lot of time with the COVID-IL stint that he had,

but electric last postseason, I think he can get back to being that guy. Maybe they get on top of him early and get into those low leverage relievers that Houston has that really don't have a lot of experience. That's the A's best chance to come away with a win in game three. But like you guys,

I am not optimistic about it. By the way, if you Google search Zerto, you get an image of Ned Flanders that comes up. So yeah, that's lefty. Is it sexy Flanders? No, it's just regular Flanders that comes up. So yeah, that's Lefty. Is it sexy Flanders? No, it's just regular Flanders. Sorry to disappoint you.

Stupid sexy Flanders. That is an all-time great Homer line. I also think it's funny that famous Lefties, the first person people think of is Ned Flanders. And then after that, maybe Paul McCartney or somebody else who is real and has achieved a lot.

It's actually more fun to watch lefties pitch, in my opinion. Anyway, if you're enjoying this show on a platform that allows you to rate and review this podcast, whether you're left-handed or right-handed, take a moment, give us a nice rating and review. We really appreciate that, especially if you're a lefty. I feel like you're obligated to leave us rating

and review after this little ending here. If you don't already have a subscription to The Athletic, $1 a month at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. Get all the Brits articles, Eno's articles, all the playoff baseball coverage, everything we've got going on the site right now, which is overwhelming in

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That is going to wrap things up for this episode of rates and barrels. We are back with you on Thursday. Thanks for listening. Thank you.