Rates & Barrels - Kershaw's back, the Braves hold on in Game 2, and the Rays prepare for a sweep

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

Eno, Britt & DVR discuss the status of Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin's spot start in his absence, the Braves' 2-0 lead in the NLCS, the Rays' elite defense, and the Astros' uphill battle facing a 3-0 deficit.  Rundown 0:35 Clayton Kershaw's Status; Tony Gonsolin's Spot Start 5:04 The Dodgers' Offense is Waking Up 9:00 Re-Thinking the Usage of Dustin May 16:04 Will Smith, the Catcher 19:12 Jose Altuve Wades Into Chuck Knoblauch Territory 22:56 The Rays' Reasonably Fresh Bullpen for Game 4 32:29 Are These LCS Series Good? 36:41 Trivia for Charity! 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

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 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. What? FedEx. Thanks. No more questions. Always your answer for international shipping. FedEx, where now meets next. Welcome to Rates and Barrels, episode number 155, playoff episode number 13. It's Wednesday, October 14th. I know that because that's what the calendar tells me. Derek Van Ryper, Innoceris, Brichiroli here, talking about the LCS games that we just witnessed here on Tuesday, it was a very busy day.

We started the day with word that a backstrain was going to keep Clayton Kershaw from making the start for the Dodgers. And I definitely had the, oh no, here we go again sort of feeling. We learned a little bit more over the course of the day. course the day I think after that game ended Dave Roberts in his post-game press conference told John Marossi among others that Clayton Kershaw is on track to start game four of the series held permitting so it's Julio Urias going in game three but the problem is Tony Gonsolin had to go in game two and the Dodgers lost that game they're now facing a 2-0 deficit in the series. I know you're as much of a Tony Gonsolin fan as anybody out there. It was a nice start initially, but it kind of unraveled for him and things really spiraled out of control in this game in the fifth inning. Homer made me think of something that Nick Pollock from The Pitcher Lits says, which he talks about, you know, he talks crap on the splitter all the time. He hates the splitter.

Yeah, he hates the splitter. And to me, I'm like, well, you know, it's a great thing for breaking ball pitchers to try and do a two-finger. I like Montas. I like Gonsolin. It's kind of a breaking ball pitchers change up. I'm into it. But when you saw that pitch that he threw to Freeman, right? You're trying to command that pitch off of one finger.

Did you see the slow-mo of it? It just came off of one finger. I don't think he meant to throw an inside change up to a lefty. I don't think he meant to throw an inside changeup to a lefty. I don't think he meant to do that. I think he was looking out and away and down. And I don't know, he just yanked it a little bit or didn't yank it enough. But it was low and in, and Freddie Freeman loves low and in. He's like your typical lefty drop the hammer guy.

And he dropped the hammer on it. Once he did that that there was no looking back i mean yes the dodgers came back but there was something about the way that worked like if freeman didn't hit that and didn't they didn't get so far ahead you would never have had josh tomlin in this game and so if you want to say like the braves bullpen screwed up and they let the Dodgers back in. Well, imagine this without three runs from Josh Tomlin, because I think without all of the runs from the Braves, Josh Tomlin never pitches in this game. Right now, that's a good point. I think people that look at it that way, it's very short sighted because the real issue here is. The Dodgers starting pitching depth was what they touted as the big advantage of this team and it's really gone away now and and they knew about this

Clayton Kershaw thing on Saturday yeah and they were hoping he'd be able to go game four is still up in the air from what I've read like they think he'll be ready but that's the thing about anyone listening to this podcast i mean me probably you guys has had back or neck aches right you don't really know when you're over them until you test them so until clayton kershaw is physically on that mount i don't know if you could pencil his name in uh maybe pencil because you can erase it but i don't know if you can actually his name in. Maybe pencil because you can erase it, but I don't know if you can actually say he's going to start that game four for them. Dustin May would be on short rest in game five now

because they've used him out of the bullpen. We know the Braves starting rotation kind of goes off a cliff after these first two guys. However, and I mentioned this yesterday, and I still think it's valid, the Dodgers offense has gone missing for large chunks of the game, and that just can't happen. Yes, Anderson was good. They cannot, yesterday, I think after the fifth inning,

they didn't have a single person reach second base. Today, for half the game, looked like they were asleep again. And as Eno mentioned, if they don't have Tomlin in the game, it doesn't look quite as much like, yay, we came back, a moral victory. Okay, this is the NLCS. I'm pretty sure there are no moral victories. The Dodgers are staring down the barrel of their 32nd year without a World Series title. There are absolutely no moral victories.

I think if you're the dodgers uh you really from a lineup perspective have got to come to play over the next couple days and capitalize on the inexperience in the bridge rotation i'm kind of encouraged by the fact that they did rally even if it was against josh tomlin and when you look at this box score, there are 17 hard hit balls by the Dodgers lineup. And everybody in that starting nine had at least one. So to me, that's an offense that might be waking up at just the right time. It has been a problem for them. They just haven't put runs on the board the way we would expect to this point.

You see it in the XBA column, 304. Braves had an XBA of 232, right? We talked about that in the astros race series a little bit where the astros have had some pretty bad luck offensively i think the dodgers caught a little bit of that in game two but looking through i mean ian anderson five walks five ks four scoreless only one hit allowed had he been more efficient had he avoided those free passes might be able to get a little bit deeper into this start that's the achilles heel in his profile for me. The more I've dug into Ian Anderson, just seeing his walk rates in the minor leagues, I think that's going to be part of who he is as a pitcher, at least for the early part

of his career. We've seen Max Freed come up and sort of improve in that regard by leaps and bounds really since arriving in the big leagues. So it's far from hopeless and Anderson's doing just enough or even more than just enough right now to really kind of help stabilize a Braves rotation that really needs someone like him to step up. I think there's a relationship between command and confidence that was on display here a little bit, because I think in Anderson has good command. I think this,

this, this situation and this lineup that he was facing sapped some of the confidence. And if you don't necessarily have that confidence, you try to place it further away, you try to bury it more. And so he was kind of scattering it more than he might normally. I think if this was a regular season game, he might have not had five walks like that.

I thought he pitched fairly well. I was a little surprised to see the five walks in the box score. I knew that he was dealing with it and he had runners on base. But I don't think that Ian Anderson has bad command, is I guess what I'm saying. I think that this was a good lineup, and you're right to point out all the hard hits. And it's not a lineup that just goes all or nothing

and just strikes out all the time. I mean, yes, some of these guys had strikeouts today, and Bellinger struck out twice, Seager struck out twice, Taylor struck out twice, but they all had these hard hits, and they don't strike out all the time like this anyway. I think Mookie Betts will wake up. I don't think the Dodgers are going to go through this without winning some games. It'd be very surprising to see the Dodgers get swept.

Even if the pitching doesn't kind of play out the way we expect, right? We think in Game 3 especially, this is a game we kind of earmarked at the beginning of the series as one that the Dodgers should definitely win. I mean, Urias is the better of the two starting pitchers. We trust Urias a lot more than Kyle Wright in this situation. And I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Dodgers come back on Wednesday and put seven or eight more runs on the board. Right. I mean, but you also have to credit the Braves who everyone, including the three of us on this podcast, did not give a chance to win this series. How do you feel now about them winning two of the next five games?

Certainly a lot better than needed for the series started, right? You know, one, you could, the Rates and Barrels podcast, Jinx is alive and well. I think we can all confirm that Astros in six we'll get to Derek's Astros later to be fair to us Kershaw grabbing the back I mean yes it might have been

somewhat predictable but we didn't even if the team knew about it Saturday we didn't so that changed us a lot and before and before the game Saturday, we didn't. Right, right. I missed his call. Yeah, totally. And before the game started, we didn't know that Dustin May would be pitching a relief, which I'm not sure that that necessarily swings things. But we talked about starting pitcher depth. And then the first game, we're like, oh, Dustin May is not a starting pitcher.

Or maybe he is, but we'll see. Right. We also argued, should he be in the bullpen? So we were on the fence on that one. But he didn't pitch so much in game one that he wouldn't be ready to start at least and go three or four or something in game four if Kershaw can't go. I don't think they've ruled that out. I think game three will determine whether or not May is available for game four, right? But everybody that could pitch in game four has pitched.

I mean, otherwise it's Alex Wood, right? Who got five outs in this game. And that was in mop-up time, right? That game was out of hand at the point when Alex Wood came in. So it seems like things are pointing towards May starting a game, I guess. I mean, how far back do you guys think they take this?

They knew Kershaw wasn't right on Saturday. Why would they not have Dustin May be prepared? Yeah. Yeah, that seems weird. If they knew that back on Saturday, and they hadn't used Gonsolin in the postseason at all, you would have thought that their priority would have been May over Gonsolin. But for one reason or another.

But then they thought, we need to win game one. But they know Buehler's not right. They know his blister. He's not the regular Walker Buehler, right? He's lacking a lot of the finish and a lot of the command. You see the blister. Like, I hope no one's playing a drinking game for every time they bring up the blister on the broadcast.

You're probably legally dead. they they knew he wasn't right either don't ask about the pants definitely don't ask about his tight pants there seems to be some weird decision making right i yeah i think i would have held dustin may back but then we saw how tight that game was and how they went to Jake McGee only after the game was blown and they might not have had another reliever they trusted. I don't know. I think there's still some reliever questions here.

Even on a night where I guess the pen was good for the Dodgers, you know, five and two-thirds, three runs. It's so convincing. Well, I don't know. Five and two-thirds. It's so convincing. Well, I don't know. Five and two-thirds and three runs does not sound that great to me, but it kept them in the game. Sure.

And it wasn't the A team. Yes, agreed. They were also behind eight to nothing, seven to nothing for a while. And it actually is, it's easier to stay in the game that way. The calls start going your way. The calls start going your way.

And the opposing batters just start basically swinging more It's easier to stay in the game that way. The calls start going your way. The calls start going your way. And the opposing batters just start basically swinging more and lose focus. There's definitely kind of an equilibrium thing that happens in baseball. I agree. A couple of questions that came into the mailbag about this series. This one comes from Peter. A quick thought about Braves-Dodgers, especially in light of Duvall's injury. What on earth would be more fun right now than Yassiel Puig starting in the Braves outfield? He, of course, had that deal with the Braves that fell apart before the positive COVID test, and then Atlanta,

of course, backed out. We're seeing Christian Pache play a lot, the very young outfielder. He was fun today. Yeah, I think Pache is one of those guys that he's probably a better real-life prospect than a fantasy prospect, but he has a very nice ceiling, too. If he gets to his ceiling, he's going to be a player that we're talking about 10 years from now as a very good long-term piece in this Atlanta lineup. Well, they also have Pablo Zandoval, don't they? Which nobody knew still existed and was alive until all of a sudden he's taking a big abat in this series. It's fun.

It is also fun. Can I offer you him instead? Given that Nick Marquez opted out, you know, they didn't know he would opt back in. Also true. I think they really should have signed him. You know, renegotiate, but just sign him. I don't know.

It's like, what do you... Is Yasiel Puig, like, on his deathbed? Like, what? Like, I'm sure he's okay now. No, and that was after the time that we were all, like, wiping off our groceries at the store. I mean, that was midsummer,

so I think we'd progressed to the point where a little more critical thinking was happening. So I was surprised they didn't work that out you know once puig was healthy enough to join the team especially with marquek is opting out around that same time there's no way to know he was opting back in it didn't seem like there was any chance that he was going to do that why would someone opt back in like that just seemed completely out of the question. He's the only guy, right? He's an odd bird. Isan Diaz came back, too. Oh, that's right.

Both teams. But the Marlins was a little bit different because Isan Diaz was like, oh, we're good? I'm in. Be right there. Hold on. I mean, Marquinhos must have known they would have been good. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe it was similar because he also said like oh it sucked to see them all winning and doing it without me or like i think he went home and realized that like he was gonna have to probably retire right and then i was like what am i doing here at home i'm bored kids too right so there's like there's three kids i believe there's definitely this like retirement thing that happens with baseball players where they're just like, oh, wait, this is what life is for everybody else. Right, right. And I do think, too, that like he's a guy. Did you guys know he's the longest tenured, like active played in the most games without going to a World Series?

I did not know that. That's a great fact. Thank you. So I think that certainly the need to win plays in. I mean, people talk about how he was with the Orioles in 14, and he was hurt a lot of the times that they were good. So he really hasn't enjoyed, obviously, the Braves, haven't been in the World Series since 1999.

This could be really something special, and I think if you're Nick Markakis, you're looking around, you're like, all right, this is retirement one, and two, two like how bad would it suck if the braves won the world series and you opted out you know like come on so i i think that plays into it a little bit as well but still it doesn't matter like puig would still be useful on this team uh it like marquegas has looked overmatched on high fast on on hard fastballs i don't know he had two for four today so maybe i don't know what i'm talking about but there were times there have definitely been times in this series where i'm like marquegas is close to retiring as you just said he's old like i've i think he's been a little bit underrated by maybe defensive metrics

and war and stuff like that over the past. And he has probably had a better career than people might realize without looking at his numbers. But Puig would definitely have helped this team, and it would be fun. Marquecas also came in with a good bit of prospect hype. And while he was a very good player for a long period of time, I don't know if he was ever really that superstar elite sort of player that some of the projections for him

as a prospect might have suggested he'd become. But thanks a lot for that email question, Peter. We got one more from Levi, actually about Dodgers catcher Will Smith. Just wanted to know our thoughts about him from kind of a statistical perspective and was wondering why he can't seem to shake Austin Barnes playing time-wise because Will Smith actually was great this year and there's probably going to be a Will Smith, Will Smith matchup. Actually,

they may have been one in the series already. So keep an eye out for more Will Smith versus Will Smith, but he's been really good. I mean, walk rate jumped this year. K rate came down from 26.5% to 16.1%. He's got legitimate power. I think he's the clear-cut starter on this team. I think you kind of see teams might share the catcher spot a bit more in the regular season. You get to the postseason, they're going to lean a lot more heavily on their guy, especially if they like the game calling, they like the defense, and they're getting that big offensive boost, which Smith over Austin Barnes is a no-brainer offensively. So i think they're going to keep leaning on him pretty heavily in the playoffs and i think he's their clear-cut number one guy if we get 162 games

next season will smith probably catches 110 or 120 of them and is probably a top five or top six catcher for for fantasy purposes i think that's a fair place to put him right now if uh will smith faces will smith and doesn't come out to a song sung by Will Smith, I will be upset. Getting jiggy with it. No, that's the one you want to go with.

No, it's a terrible one. You know, the one I did come with because it's funny. No, it's not funny. Okay. No,

the, the, the, the, my point is, um, well, I think it's just that young guys, they've got to call the game.

They've got to work on their defense. They've got to frame. And then they've got to do offense. I think that we sort of soft introduce everybody. And people in San Francisco were even talking about Joey Bart. People, they wish that Buster Posey had been around for Joey Bart uh just to sort of break him in easier uh so I think that's just what the sort of normal process with a with a hitter I did think it was kind of interesting today that the announcers were like oh you know he's got a bit of a curveball problem and then they fed him three straight curveballs in a big in a big moment

i think it was bases loaded with two outs and um it seems like something you want to deal with uh you know across the board um if you look at his pitch type values which kind of sum up his production against different pitches curveball you knowitter, but you don't see that many splitters. Curveball was really the only negative in his line. The problem is then if you start getting the playing time, then people game plan for you and then you just see curveball.

He has to do something about that. A weak grounder to third is not the solution. I think we saw that happen to Mitch Garver this year in Minnesota. If you look at the way he was pitched last year versus this year, he was feasting on fastballs last year,

scouting report caught up. He just didn't come close to what he was doing a year ago. It doesn't mean he can't get back to something close to that 2019 level, but teams do find those weaknesses and they will exploit them. This episode is brought to you by Peloton.

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no, I don't think it's a full Chuck Knobloch situation just yet. El Tuve makes a big error, and I see Joe Sheehan on Twitter seconds later, this has reached Chuck Knobloch's territory. Oh, no. That's how it goes. Joe gets to have the official call on that.

I respect his judgment, and I think it's probably merited at this point. And I think as we continue to watch this series play out, the Rays' defense is relentless. I mean, John freaking Curtis doing crazy acrobatic

things, making great plays. I thought the... How many bruises does Kevin Kiermaier have tonight? Or Renfro. Renfro took a huge gamble, made a diving catch in the eighth that robbed Kyle Tucker of extra bases. That ball goes to the wall if he misses it. Oh, look at this. Kiermaier's doing a postgame with a big wrap.

I'll see that in about eight seconds since I'm way behind. Yeah, it's because you have a legal Korean video feed. No one knows that for sure. But Wendell, Wendell, I got to throw some Wendell out there too. And Adamas, man, everybody, dude. And Choi doing the splits. I mean, they've really been great defensively.

The consistency with that is remarkable. Yeah, I mean, not only have they made every play, but they've taken away hits as well and just been so deflating. Like you said, that eighth inning for the Astros, they have the bases loaded. They're hitting hard balls. You saw Springer after, you know,

one of those terrific plays. He takes his helmet off and just throws it to the ground because there's nothing else you can do. Bregman had his sixth straight hard hit that got taken away. Yeah, it's just out of control. I mean, I don't know where the Rays find these guys

and then somehow fit them in, but they seem to, more than any other team, have every guy just kind of fit in, right? Like these little puzzle pieces, and they use them all so well. They use their bench, they use all their bullpen, and every guy who comes in, Kiermaier gets hurt, he leaves the game. All of a sudden you're seeing Renfro who had really done nothing, you know, has a big hit, makes these terrific catches. It's just always a different guy. Joey Wendell, who struggled with

his arm and this winter they put him on a throwing program and now he's making these ridiculous plays. So I didn't know that. He's so good at third you know what you know i like to drop some knowledge here on rv that's great though that's great you and derrick come at it with the numbers you know i try and get you from a different angle i would say the renfro was underrated defensively in san diego so i think that was i i've seen him make a lot of plays i even talked to him once about like his his head moving on like he he can like he's made plays with his eyes closed you know like literally i know that sounds ridiculous i don't know but know. You're podcasting with your eyes closed. No, but when you slide, you slide sometimes, right? You think you're going to get the contact.

You think you're going to hurt yourself. There's definitely two or three big catches that he made in San Diego where his eyes are closed and he's catching the ball. So I think he's like an underrated slider catcher guy to get my inner kevin millar slider catcher guyer we saw that ball whacker guy it's immediately where my mind goes but they did it again with sort of the one foot toward the good relievers one foot foot toward the middling ones. They didn't have to use Nick Anderson today in the Rays' bullpen,

which means he's very much available for Game 4. And I realize he was not himself in Game 1, but now he's very rested going into a possible series-winning situation. He might go two innings if he needed to go two in that matchup. I think the way we've talked about the different relievers and how they fit was perfectly put together. I think it was Mike Petriello had the tweet, and they referred to it as kind of like the octopus

of all the raised relievers in one gif from all the different arm angles and from both sides. And everybody labeled. I think it was at least like six different pitchers. And it really drove home that point of how difficult it is to just even pick up what's coming at you and then the one at bat in particular the ending of this was not even like a great ending and carlos correa had a softly hit infield single that you know was probably one of the few things in the series that have broken the rays way broken the Astros way.

And it was just a great back and forth with Ryan Thompson. Thompson was throwing frisbees up there. It was just like 77 with breaking away from a righty and kind of almost rising because of the release point and everything. And then like 95 at the same part of the plate. I just couldn't believe they were getting that from Ryan Thompson in that spot. And the back and forth. Some of the swings that Correa took. You could just tell.

Like watching his posture in the box. He was really uncomfortable. He was really unsure at the beginning of the at bat. What he was going to get. And what he was going to do with it. But you could kind of see it coming together as he followed more pitches off. He was getting a little bit more comfortable. He kind of had the timing down. He had a little more of a plan. And credit to him, he fought enough to get on base in that situation. But I actually thought that was one of the best at bats we've seen so far

in the series. Yeah, that pitch was like a Frisbee. It just had this crazy tail at the end, you know, like when you're playing Frisbee in the backyard and all of a sudden it goes five feet past where you think it's going to go. That's what that reminded me of. Like, sorry, I had no control over that Frisbee. You know what I was thinking of, too, guys, is like we sit here and we like hammer some of the decisions made by managers. And have we one time said, what the hell was Kevin Cash doing? You know, you've covered the Rays pretty closely. Have they done anything?

Has anything not come up Kevin Cash this October? It's amazing. I think that some part of it you have to give them credit for, and some part is luck. But, like, you know, I look at something like what you said. You know, tomorrow's the deciding game, and they've used their bullpen for 12 innings in the first three games. You'd think they won the first three games. You'd think they used their A-team three times.

You would think they're going to punt this next game and win in five. They don't. They don't have to punt the next game. They have Nick Anderson available. And they have other guys available they they used by using aaron loop you know for two outs and using ryan thompson for one out they they create these things like dio castillo pitched tonight he he got he shut the door he hasn't he didn't pitch the night before so he's available tomorrow. So they've got Diogo Castillo and Nick Anderson,

two guys that are going to throw 97 with killer breaking balls from different arm slots, just like Derek is talking about. And they can get probably six to eight outs from those guys tomorrow. So you get Glas now, that means you're only trying to fit in like 3-4 more outs. You know what I mean? That's all you're looking for. And if you get lucky and you run out to a big lead,

it doesn't matter. You don't even have to use Nick Anderson. You can just use him at the very end. And if it's tight, you're just getting 3-4 outs from guys. Maybe you can even use Curtis for an out or Thompson for an out. He only threw 17 pitches. I mean, maybe he could come back, loop through seven. Like, some of these guys can come back.

So, I don't know. It's something about team construction. It's something about buy-in from all these guys. But it's also, there's some luck. I mean, you've just seen it. Charlie Morton yesterday did not pitch the better game than Lance McCullers. There's defense as part of that, but also some luck. I mean, as good a defender as Margot is,

he has to go over the well, you know, to get that catch. Right, right. You know, there are other good defenders who are as good as Margot that are not going to, you going to go over the well. So it's a little bit of everything, but it does seem kind of like the storybook tale, right? Like they can't do any wrong. No, they're running red hot.

They're playing well and running hot, which is an extremely difficult combination to deal with as we're seeing for the Astros I mean their frustration was as visible as it's been at any point during the series and for good reason one of the thought here on the Rays bullpen Jose Alvarado kind of a forgotten guy I think he only made nine appearances in the regular season upper 90s stuff from the left side nasty curve curveball. He could be the guy that comes in in the fifth or sixth inning. If Glasnot goes a little short, you throw Alvarado,

a B-team guy in this bullpen right now, who'd probably be the second or third best reliever in just about any other bullpen. And if you have a little bit of a lead, he can walk a guy or two. You leave him out there for a little bit. And the Randy Orozal-Rena experience continues. walk a guy or two you know like you you leave him out there for a little bit so and the randy

arousal rain experience continues you know story i mean the thing that was funny was that like i wrote about how like you know you could try breaking balls high and fastballs low and i've seen some of that in in like their new book on. But today he hit a high fastball for a single and two low breaking balls for a single and a double. One of them was kind of like a magic wandu hit. He kind of fisted that fastball, that high fastball, was up and in on his hands. He fisted that into the outfield and maybe got a little lucky.

But, you know, if one hit was lucky, the other two were not. And he just seems he has a good collection of hit tool, the ability to hit the high fastball and the low breaking ball. That's like a pretty good combo in today's game. You know, it's like that's what everybody's trying to do to you. High fastball, low breaking ball. That's the game. And he happens to be really good at hitting those.

So we just saw more of that today that was that was kind of fun yeah and speaking of luck kiermeier gets hit with the pitch he gets the x-rays come back negative just like a contusion which is that fancy word for bruise so it looks like they dodged another bullet and i i do kind of wonder guys i don't want to say is this karma for the Astros, but Jose Altuve was such a big part of everything the Astros were and for him to be this guy now who maybe has the yips,

maybe doesn't have the yips. I don't know. I mean, you know, Dusty said, like, you can go in a defensive slump and, you know, he said he's not going to be the DH and stuff, but we see he also has some knee problems. There could be something physical. I think the karma actually comes

in a little different spot. Yuli Gurriel on that throw from Altuve on some replays it kind of looked like Gurriel picked up the ball while his foot was still on the back. Right. He's been struggling too because Dusty took heat for playing him

that yeah and then wasn't there there was a big check swing call tonight i think it was on the ninth uh with with two guys on i mean it's five two two guys on there was a big check swing i think it was a strikeout for the for the second out and um i'm not i'm not i'm not saying i'm not saying anything. I'm just saying that who would be mad at the Astros? Who would be most mad other than the fans? Yeah, I get it. I think it would be the umpires. I mean, who are you jobbing the most other than the fans?

That is a good point. That's a better point than like Altuve's knee hurting because to me that has really limited to do with some of these throws. That might be true because he's been hitting homers. Like if he can hit tanks, then maybe his knee's okay. And if his knee's bothering him at this time of year, they're going to give him so much cortisone or pain meds that he's not going to feel anything.

So, you know, like they're going to give him enough tranquilizer to like knock out a horse, you know, like they're going to have enough tranquilizer to like knock out a horse, you know, at this time of year. But he's so sure handed on defense and he's just not. Haven't you read that Rick and Kiel book? Like the yips come at you and there's nothing you can do.

They just come for you. What do you call it? The monster? You know, the monster comes. Oh man, Chris Davis wrote about the monster. Yeah, that's, I mean mean that's what i mean you just see these guys who are chuck knoblock they're just not the same so i don't think there's a way for derrick's astros to come back here do you guys think there's i know they can't win in six so

that prediction's out the window so i've definitely got it wrong even if they somehow find a way to win four in a row which frankly does anybody outside of houston want to see that no i've got a question for you guys though because it occurred to me that i've been enjoying watching these games but they haven't all been super close i guess they've been kind of close but they've gone a certain way to the point where the series aren't close. So have these been good series? I'm going to answer your question like I'm a lawyer defending someone for watching illegal cable feeds and say these have been good baseball games. They've been good baseball games.

Yeah. You're parsing your words. I can tell. The score hasn't always reflected the game, how good the game is. Like today's Dodgers-Braves game, not a good game, not close at all. But if you wake up and look at the box score, I don't know who still does that anymore, like people's grandparents, you're like, oh, 8-7, this was pretty close. Tonight's, you know, the Astros-Rays game

doesn't look that close in the scoreboard, right? 5-2. Was that what it ended up being? Yeah, it was tight. It was tight. They loaded the bases in the eighth. Yeah, tying runner at the plate in the ninth inning, even. I actually think this has been a great series.

The Astros-Rays series, despite the fact the Rays have won the first three games, which doesn't make me sad at all it makes me wrong they've been good all very good games yes yes so maybe not good series you know from like the bird's eye view but if you actually enjoy baseball I think they've been games

by and large good and exciting even today as much as it wasn't a good game for most of it like the Dodgers were 90 feet away from tying that game. Yeah. Yeah. I guess I'm sad that these good games, I almost wish that some of the breaks had gone in different directions

so that we just have more good games. You know what I mean? Right. I think the games have been good, but I feel like I don't know that either of these series is going to go past five. Yeah. If it were 2-1 and 1-1, we'd be in a much better spot.

We're going to have almost a week off before the World Series starts. It's true. Get those chicken stories ready. We're going to have some dead air. Get the chickens ready. Dust up on the old equestrian lessons. Get ready to pass on that knowledge.

Real quick, one more mailbag question. This one came in from Reggie. Reggie wanted to know how the fake crowd noise is determined at this stage of the postseason. Is it determined by the home team? Is it determined by MLB, especially in Arlington where you've got a quarter capacity? What's going on with the crowd noise at this point? Well, i realized that i reached out to uh rangers pr and got an answer but i did like i have the inner lawyer in me now and i realized i didn't actually answer that question as it was maybe perfectly intended i this is the question i answered mlb is handling the noise. That's what I know.

Which doesn't mean that they're necessarily pushing the buttons. Or I don't know if they're favoring the home team, which is like the quote-unquote home team. Because in these series, it switches, right? They're trying to keep up this idea of like home field advantage or whatever so i don't know if they're like okay press the button louder for the asterisk today they're the home team i don't that part i don't know so i didn't answer the question fully but i did try to get an answer for you and i do know that mlb is handling it also took me a few minutes

today to realize that houston was now the home team like i don't know was i the only one kind to get an answer for you and i do know that mlb is handling it also took me a few minutes today to realize that houston was now the home team like i don't know was i the only one kind of confused it took me a few minutes well the whole concept of home is being thrown on its head i there is what's interesting is by the end of the season they still had a 55 home field advantage like there was still a home field advantage um so i think that comes mostly from when the first pitcher, when the first inning starts for the home pitcher or whatever, that thing, and then batting last. I think baseball has baked in a little bit of home field advantage

that exists without fans and in this weird alternate universe we've found ourselves in. All right. We've got one question for charity. I promised one trivia question. It's a very easy question because you each get one answer. Very simple.

Here's what it is. Our friend, Ian Kahn, has agreed to make a donation to charity if you get it wrong. I guess I have to make a donation if you get it right. We'll figure that out. Money will go to charity.

You each get to answer one time. There's only one correct answer. Oh, gosh. We would like to know which player led the league in triples during the regular season oh god this player had six triples by the way i don't know if that helps you in any way but triples yep it's such a weird stat i never think about triples. It's a fast guy with power. I better not see you typing and looking up something over there.

I'm not. I'm not. All right. I've got a guess. It's terrible. All right. Go for it. Fernando Tatis Jr.

No. It's a good guess, but no. DJ LeMayhew. Nope. Tatis had two, and LeMayhew had two, so they were both on the board. Why are you even close? Why are those good guests? Somebody had six.

It's going to be like Matt Wieters or someone who could never trap us. Come on. Is it six of them? No. Was it Albies? Not Albies. Not Acuna. Damn.

Freeman? Nope. Azuna? So naturally, this player is still playing at this point in the season. Bellinger? Not Bellinger. The Injurable Knight.

Give us the team, Derek. We're terrible. Yeah, we're really... Oh, they play for my favorite team. Oh, really? Yeah. Correa? Nope.

It's a player I really like, too. Altuve? Springer? No, it's not Altuve. No, I actually like the player, even though I don't really like this team. Tucker. Yes, Kyle Tucker is the correct answer. Dude, there was a thing about Kyle Tucker triples this year.

He's such an idiot. Fast guy with power. He's exactly what you described. Trey Turner, second with four. I didn't even guess him. Turner would have been a good answer, because he's probably always around the top of that leader described. Trey Turner, second with four. Mike Kostrowski, four. Turner would have been a good answer because he's probably always around the top of that leaderboard. Trevor Story also had four. Tatis' triples went out,

I guess. Yep. You can't hit too many home runs if you want to leave the league in triples. That's what they tell me. That's true. That was good. That was harder than naming random twins. Yeah, well, money goes to charity. It's either mine or Ian's, but it'll go on behalf of Kyle Tucker and you guys.

So details for that. It's going to the American Cancer Society. It's on my Twitter page, at Derek Van Ryper. You can find Eno on Twitter, at Eno Saris. You can find Britt, at Britt underscore Jiroli. If you're enjoying our show and would like to take a moment to rate and review it, we'd really appreciate that.

It goes a long way toward helping new listeners find the pod. And if you don't have a subscription to The Athletic, you can get that Randy Arrozarena piece we were talking about. Just $1 a month, theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. But you get more than that. You don't just get the Randy Arrozarena experience. You get all the Brits articles, all the Eno stuff, fantasy stuff, soccer, basketball, hockey, football, whatever you like.

We have it covered. You can email us, ratesandbarrels at theathletic.com. If you want to reach us that way, be sure to check that every single day. So if you've got any good questions, we'll get to those on tomorrow's episode. That is going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We are back with you on Thursday. Thanks for listening.