Rates & Barrels - The Rays and Yankees go to Game 5, the Padres, A's and Marlins hit the links

Episode Date: October 9, 2020

Eno, Britt and DVR discuss the Yankees-Rays Game 5 matchup, the quick exits of the Padres and Marlins from the Division Series round, and the A's ongoing October woes.  Rundown 0:36 Yankees Pitchers Deliver in Game 4 Win 9:40 Home Runs Are Good! 14:14 A Fortunate NLDS Draw for Atlanta 16:44 More October Woes in Oakland 20:51 Love for Dusty Baker 25:37 A Disappointing Ending for the Padres' Great 2020 Campaign 36:09 Game 5 Predictions! 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

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 152, playoff episode number 10. It's Friday, October 9th. Derek Van Ryper, Eno Saris, Rich Aroli here with you.

We had four more games on Thursday. We will only have one game on Friday. Only one series going to a fifth game. That's going to be the Yankees and Rays. That's where our conversation begins. Kind of a strange outcome when you think about the two offenses looking at game four. Only six total runs on a day where Ryan Thompson worked as an opener in front of Ryan Yarbrough and the Yankees threw Jordan Montgomery as their starter and actually let him go four after they might pull him a little earlier than that and try and bridge it together with Davey Garcia or Jonathan Loizaga or somebody else to kind of get it to those late inning relievers. But on script, we did see Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman combined for three innings.

I think that was something we were all looking at as a likely scenario for the Yankees in game four. So Britt, as you watch this one unfold, what stood out to you? Missed opportunities for the Rays or just good execution by the Yankees pitching staff? I think the Yankees executed really well. And we talked about this yesterday. Chapman on rest is scary i mean he was throwing consistently uh triple digits he looked really sharp i think you kind of forget how good he can be and you mentioned britain and green also terrific um so i think for me the the way this series has gone they haven't really used those late inning guys and you were seeing now in a perfect scenario the Yankees will send Garrett Cole to the mound and they could again use these guys and be pretty locked down so as bad as things looked 24 hours ago for the Yankees

now we're in a game five scenario where literally anything can happen. And you do have to credit, I think, Jordan Montgomery for giving them those four innings in the beginning when, I mean, there's no question that set the tone, right? The Rays go out, they punch him in the mouth, they score a few runs. This whole thing could have been over. And, you know, for me, the key tomorrow is going to be that first half of the game because the Rays, you guys, haven't lost a game or they've been winning through seven innings since like last July. It's like the craziest stat. I don't know, you know, if you've heard anything about this, but I heard it the other day and I thought that's the most absurd thing I've heard in a really long time. Their bullpen is not just good, they are otherworldly good with any kind of a lead. is not just good, they are otherworldly good with any kind of a lead.

Yeah, it's kind of amazing. And we talked about this similarity to kind of Baltimore Pensaville, how they have these just weird slots and all these guys, you know, RJ Anderson was talking today about how they have, you know, a collection of the most extreme sidearm guys and the most extreme over the top guys, you they lost oliver drake but they still have you know a lot of guys that are extreme over the top and over the side and then i found in the glass now article that they lead the league in extension so basically in all three dimensions in terms of release point they're extreme they've got guys who throw it really close to you so it just comes it pops up in your in your face and they do it from way down low or way up top and i think it's just a kind of a back and forth where you're just like you're never comfortable against the rays and you know i've had other writers and other fans tell me

they find the race boring uh because they kind of have these no names they just keep changing pitchers they keep changing hitters and there's not really like a long-term narrative. You know, even the, the one narrative they have right now, the Randy or as a rain experience last night, or, you know, just didn't have the same juice. They weren't pitching him up in the zone and he just didn't he didn't really smack anything. And it was kind of a boring Rays game. But they stayed in it by doing that. You know, they stayed in it with a Ryan Yarbrough guy who throws 87 and, you know, a sidearm righty.

And they didn't use, I think, their most important pitchers for the most part. And so they're ready to go for game five. They've got glass now is going to be um on the bumps now is going to be available i think they've got everybody they want tonight you know even though they didn't win in you know game four they they set themselves up they've got they've got their pitchers all ready to go yeah thinking about glass now going i mean he just went on tuesday so it's pretty short rest for him. I would think we're looking at maybe three or four innings from him.

Maybe two. Two from him and two from Snell, and then just go to the bullpen, you know? 2-2 bullpen, maybe 3-3 bullpen. I mean, Nick Anderson's fresh, so that helps a lot. They're well set up in terms of having all the guys they really want to have available

at least a little bit as they go into this matchup but one thing i was concerned about for the race coming into the series was two matchups against garrett cole is really tough you gotta win the three games you don't face him or you gotta take one when he pitches and that's a really tall order for any team so i'm curious to see how garrett coleres on short rest. First time ever, right? Really? Houston never used him on short rest? I think that's what I saw. I think you're right because wasn't Verlander the guy

who used to go on short rest a bunch for them? Yeah. He was more apt to go on short rest in previous years. So, I mean, this is why you paid him. I feel like I've seen that quote or a version of that quote a hundred times already during this playoffs and we're only in the division series but it's true this is why the yankees paid him a bajillion dollars first time in his career just to just make sure yeah yeah so this is why they paid him to make those big starts he's turning out to be kind of their only starting pitcher, though. He is.

We talked about this. The rotation depth behind him is what? We shouldn't say that after Jordan Montgomery had a pretty good start. He pitched four innings. He pitched four innings. Is that what we're – we have such a low bar now. Yes, yeah, we do. We do.

Especially after the Padres and Dodgers game. I mean, it's just like if a guy goes more than two, we notice. I know. But I said that Chad Green was better than his appearance last night, and he looked great. He was dotting the zone with 97. Jordan Montgomery didn't necessarily have great velocity, but he topped out at 92.6 and sat 90.

So, you know, he didn't really have that good velocity he's had this year. But what he did have was five pitches he threw more than 10 times each. The cutter depressed balls in play. So average exit velocity on the cutter was 70. So he just, you know, used the cutter for balls in play, and he used the curveball for whiffs, and he just kind of went back and forth and got it done. So kudos to Jordan Montgomery.

Kudos to Luke Voigt, that man baby. I don't know why I said that. Is he a man baby? I mean, what is it what is it we used to call dan vogelbach like our beautiful big son swaggy v yeah he's got more swag he's not really vogelbach's like a more of a son but i don't know there's something about luke boyd i actually do find kind of adorable i guess you know what he reminds me of though in a bad way is jason giambi he's kind of slicked back and chainy. I don't see it.

You don't see it? No. He's more like wholesome, innocent. Yeah, I guess so, yeah. Maybe that's why I called him a man baby. Yeah, I think he has that young face to him. Like that, I don't know, young-ish vibe. Even though I think he deadlifts like 600 pounds.

Yeah, he's very powerful. But he does kind of look like Even though I think he deadlifts like 600 pounds. Yeah. He's very powerful. Very powerful. But he does kind of look like that kid who in high school still has that face of like a perpetual teenager. I don't know. I see that part of it, just not the Giampi part. All right. I think Voight's kind of like a bulldog on a skateboard.

And Dan Vogelbach is just like the biggest golden retriever you've ever seen. We're going to do dogs, huh? So if we're doing like dog comps. So what's Gliber Torres? I mean, he, he was a dog for so, so much this season. Everyone was kind of down on him. I, I thought, I thought it was still in there. I mean, I honestly, I don't know about the defense, you know,

not the best defensive shortstop, but he showed some pop tonight and was a big part of their win. Yeah, he's still good. I don't know why people were doubting that. I think it was the splits against the Orioles. Yeah, too many homers in Baltimore. He killed the Orioles in 2019, so it was like, well, maybe he's only good against the Orioles.

It's like, no, no, he's like a top 50 sort of player. And in that lineup especially, he gets a little lost in the shuffle, especially when both Judge and Stanton are there too, right? I mean, that really takes a lot of pressure off of Gleyber Torres and what he's supposed to do for this offense. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's going to be a great Game 5. And thank God for it. For all the reasons we talked about in this series.

Thank God for it. We needed it. Yeah. We almost lost an entire day of baseball. Yeah, we almost did. You know, one thing that you can see here is the Yankees out-homered the Rays, and they won the game. This happens a lot.

Everyone keeps talking about it. It's happened for all of eternity. You know, there's even this thing that teams in the postseason that score more runs off of the home run retain more of their offense in the postseason. That's something that Ben Lindberg found. So if you put those two things together, teams in the postseason with more homers win more and teams in the postseason with more homers win more. And teams in the postseason with more homers retain more of their offense. You can see why the game is where it is. You know?

Yeah. You know, it's like. Seems kind of obvious. Yeah, right. What are you going to do? Go for the homers. Yes, it is the best thing you can do when your team is hitting. How do we score runs fast?

Exactly, yeah. And the counter narrative, I guess, today was the Braves-Marlins where we didn't have a single homer, and they kind of just pecked them to death, you know? Pecked them to death. Well, no, you're right. It's like singles and doubles. Yeah, yeah, pecked them to death. Well, I mean, no, you're right. It's like singles and doubles. Yeah.

Yeah. Packed them to death. You're right. I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I jumped into that game late and it was just like already over. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that's, it's concerning for six. So Sanchez next year is that people, you know, I saw, I was looking at reach rates and in the first three games, when six, so Sanchez was amazing, the reach rate was like 36%, which is way above normal.

And then in the next three games where he wasn't as amazing, the reach rate was like 29%. So teams just are basically finding a way to spit on everything outside of the zone. Today, three walks, two strikeouts, and three innings and four earned runs. Today, three walks, two strikeouts, and three innings and four earned runs. I think Sixto Sanchez has a little more work to do before he's as good as we thought he was right off the bat. I think he's kind of an easy early round fade for me as far as a fantasy outlook goes because the hype's going to be off the charts because the ceiling looks so high. Hundreds. Yeah, he's throwing gas out there, and he's going to be really good.

But I just think the market's overcorrected based on those first few starts. I think the thing that was really interesting about the Braves today, they were getting contributions really up and down the lineup. I think everybody who started this game had a hard hit ball.

So when you see fire emojis all the way down, top to bottom, one through nine, you had a good day at the plate. Obviously, a 7-0 win. Pretty clear some things went right. And Kyle Wright pitched really well, too. I mean, I think one of the thoughts that crossed my mind, and this felt like a terrible thing to think when someone's pitching really well

in the playoffs for the first time, was how is this going to work against the next opponent? How is Kyle Wright going to look in a matchup against the Dodgers or even a matchup against the next opponent? How is Kyle Wright going to look in a matchup against the Dodgers or even a matchup against the Padres? And the Marlins just aren't a true playoff team. They made it, yes. They overcame COVID and played a crazy schedule, and there was some redemption in their story for sure. But quality-wise, I don't think we ever looked at their lineup

and said, that is a playoff-caliber lineup. If they were going to do any damage in the series, it was going to be the pitching carrying them and the most clutch, timely strings of hits possible, right? 3-2, 2-1, 4-3, close, low-scoring games was the only way they were going to get it done. And they couldn't even really get anything going offensively throughout the series. It was an uphill battle throughout. But I would say tip of the cap to Kyle Wright, even more so than Jordan Montgomery, since he went six scoreless and piled up seven Ks in this matchup. Yeah, no, you're right.

And the thing with the Braves, right, is it's easy to call them like this terrific team. And it is nice, right, that they're finally in the NLCS after years and years of choking and their fans kind of suffering through and being this regular season team that can't get it done. It's like backhanded compliment if I've ever heard one. The years of sucking, they're finally in the NLCS. It's the first time since 01.

I couldn't believe that when I saw that scroll by. I'm like, it's been that long since they actually made it to the LCS because they're in the playoffs a lot. They're good a lot. No, they're not, it's been that long since they actually made it to the LCS because they're in the playoffs a lot. They're good a lot. No, they're not though, you guys. They're like the quintessential really good regular season team that can't get it done in the playoffs. I guess I have a front row seat because I'm in the NL East covering the Nationals. You see it though. Everyone's like, the Braves are great. The Braves are great. Then they get to the playoffs and they kind of like face plant. They got lucky with this opponent, right?

I mean. Exactly. We don't even know how good they are, right? We don't. They got to buy. Like, look at. They got to buy. Wow.

Kyle Wright. One thing I noticed about Kyle Wright, there's this stat called called strikes plus whiffs. It's a big thing for pitcher list. The only two pitches he was good at were the curveball and slider and all the other ones the called strikes and whiffs was like below 15 15 the good is 35 so he was not good on any pitch other than the curveball and slider another team will punish him for that yes yes like they all season they rank 28th in rotation ERA out of 30 teams. Now in the postseason, they're putting up these historic numbers. They've got like a.92 team ERA.

They've allowed five runs. I think they matched the 1983 Orioles in terms of like historical significance for how well they've started a postseason. And I think you have to temper the expectations now, right? Like they're good. I think we all agree that they're good, but we also agree that they got a really nice lottery ticket here so far. When they, like another way of putting it is like, who in the Marlins lineup would play for the Dodgers?

Like would even make the team? Buck used to do this all the time. He used to go lineup to lineup and go, who would you rather have? And it was like, when they were bad, it was like, never them. I think Corey Dickerson would be a backup on the Dodgers. Yeah, he'd pinch hit. Brian Anderson might start over A.J. Pollock, maybe. Nope.

Nope. You're taking A.J. Pollock? Pollock's better. One of the relievers has got to be better than Kenley Jansen. Oh, wow. We have soured on Kenley Jansen. I'm sorry. It's not true, though.

He couldn't even pitch in game three. Brandon Kintzler. And he comes up immediately because of his love for our fantasy football coverage. But honestly, I don't trust Kenley Jansen at all right now. So you're taking Brandon Kintzler? I really don't. How can you? All right, all right, all right.

I mean, it's 88. In his current form, yeah. Yeah. If I'm getting 88 to 90 from Kenley Jansen, then I'm taking Brandon Kintzler for sure. The issue with the Dodgers, I don't know how you fix it because who else misses a lot of bats, right? Isn't that the issue with Gretel is that he's a contact guy,

so he can't really be your closer. And Trinan is even a sinker guy that sometimes gives it up or doesn't have the command. But we'll get to those guys. One thing that made me sad today was the A's. If you're talking about the Braves having a postseason problem, I mean, the A's did win a

postseason series this year, but when I was left, at the end of this, I was left with they can put together a lineup. They're very good at assembling a bullpen just by sort of picking the right players and putting them together. You know, signing Yusmer Petit, that makes a lot of sense.

Going and getting some of the guys they get makes a lot of, Soria, makes sense. The problem is the rotation. And I think it might be a pitching development, player development problem, because Montas, Puck, and Lizardo was supposed to be the new big three. And I bought into it. But Montas just made too many mistakes. And he makes too many mistakes in general. And I don't know if it's the back injury that he had

or if he's just a bad command guy that's going to make these mistakes in the future. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because weren't they supposed to be good? Right, guys? Like their rotation was supposed to be their strength? It was at least at the top supposed to be good and aj puck's injuries have been really unfortunate they've completely stunted his development in the last two years now or three years really which you look at this guy and say well man if he was out there that would bump everybody down a slot it would take some pressure off of guys that shouldn't be in these situations

but monta still it just unraveled on him. I think it was the third inning. He was cruising along early, and it fell apart. I know there's a lot of people out there, very smart pitching analysts, who say that the splitter is the hardest pitch to consistently command. I forget if that's something that you've also been on board with. I know it's something that Nick Pollock from Pitcher List has put out there a lot.

He's never really trusted Masahiro Tanaka. It squirts out, you know? It's almost like a knuckleball or something, you know? It just reminds me of like Go-Gurt. It squirts out. Get some Vaseline in there. Well, you know, but I think it's not just the splitter, man. I was looking

at the two Michael Brantley homers, and I thought, you know, one part of me wondered, you know, is it a bad game plan, right? And so I looked at the quadrants in which the catcher put his target and then where the pitch ended up for the two Brantley homers. And I think that they were aiming, when they were throwing the sinker they were aiming low and away uh to brantley and he has a 0.006 iso on on sinkers low and away from righties right the way the place that ended up he has a 0.166 iso so you go from like can't do anything to kind of smashes them you know you go from blue to red really quickly and i don't know if they just don't have a good concept of like where to miss so it's like hey frankie if you miss on on low and away to brantley miss far away you know what i mean like

go away away away, away. Like, rather walk him, right? And then later, it's not a Stark, but when Wendelkin threw him a slider, he was supposed to get it down. It was a little bit hanging, a little bit up, but it was a difference between, like, a.100 ISO and a.035.

So, in both cases, they didn't hit their spots. And so you could say, oh, he just didn't hit his spots. But it also could be, like, did they maybe not game plan correctly to match Montas' strengths up with Brantley's weaknesses? Like, the miss was only probably on the order of eight to ten inches. And yet it was huge in terms of what Brantley can cover and what he doesn't. Not to change course, it is sad that the A's lost. However, I've kind of switched gears on the Astros.

I know you both picked the Astros to win this series. I now kind of want them to get to the World Series for just drama alone. Troll. And two, Dusty Baker deserves a World Series ring, does he not? I love Dusty. I love Dusty. Everyone loves Dusty Baker deserves a World Series ring, does he not? I love Dusty. I love Dusty. Everyone loves Dusty. And I just feel like I've talked to so many players who are like, you know what, that are not in it, that are like, I don't care what team he's part of.

I don't care how much you hate him, how much you hate Houston. Nobody roots against Dusty Baker. I mean, it was such a genius move by them to hire him and it just continues to look better and it's just hilarious to me that MLB expands the postseason it's the only reason Houston gets in and now they can't get him out of this

it's just Dusty does a lot of really good things I've worked with him on a not for profit here in the Bay area called, um, uh, first base foundation that helps people do travel ball. Uh, it's like kind of at will. So you can kind of, you don't have to pay the same amount and travel ball can be really expensive. And he's been a benefactor of that. And he, you know, he comes to our meetings and stuff. He's

just a really nice guy who cares about the community, cares about helping people out. And I think in the clubhouse today, I think increasingly managers are given scripts. So I'm sure that at some point they sat him down and were like, Granky, Taylor, Javier, Paredes, Presley. And if one of those guys gets in trouble, you know, here's a couple other decision tree things where you might go here, might go here, but that's kind of the, that's kind of the matchups. And, um, uh, you know, so what does it make the most important? It's what Dusty's great at making everyone feel loved and wanted and happy and calm and collected, you know?

and happy, and calm, and collected. So he should excel in the modern game. Even without the toothpick. He can't have the toothpick. I agree. I mean, all it is now managing is managing the personalities in that clubhouse, pretty much. I mean, to differing degrees. Media relations.

He's good at that, too. I mean, it's just, it's hard. It's getting increasingly hard to root against them, no matter what you feel like about Carlos Correa or Altuve and those guys now that you know that they've cheated. And also their lineup's mashing at just the right time. So, I don't know. I think they can almost beat anyone, especially in a seven-game series.

I think you look at all these teams, the Rays or the Yankees, and it's going to be fascinating to see how they line up. But I just think that Houston is a better team, and they maybe got overlooked over the 60-game season, right? Maybe that was their slump, and they never got a chance to bounce back and show people that they were actually still going to be okay. I don't know. Best strikeout rate in baseball this year.

Other than Martín Maldonado, who had three strikeouts. Springer had two. Bregman won. Redick won. That's it. That's pretty low for today's game. That's a lot of balls in play and powerful balls in play with all those homers. Kind of a,

kind of tough one. Greinke didn't look amazing. And, you know, people were talking about that, you know, showing his sign off, but I don't think he was,

I don't think he was telling Lorano was coming. You know, they have all these super complicated signs where it's like, if he shows a two to the catcher, it could be minus two plus two second page, you know, like it could be, you know,

second set of signs, you know, it could be plus two minus two swipe, swipe two. Like there's all these different things that two could mean other than, and it wasn't, and people kept talking about his curve ball. It's a slider.

So I don't know, you know, you tell him, you know, you know, Greg, he's not stupid. No. and you bring up a great point i'm surprised we don't see more catchers pitchers get crossed up because it's a lot of that stuff is

especially nowadays is confusing guys changing their signs as soon as a runner gets on like you've seen those guys run out there now to the mound and they flip open like what's on their wrist and it's like a football play calling sheet almost. Yeah, the pitcher's looking at their hats because they got a little thing there. I want to see one of those cards. I haven't actually seen a picture of one. I'm sure after the fact, they might be able to put one out there

just for enjoyment. We'll see one in Cooperstown someday if there's some amazing pearl that leads to a game-clinching decision or something like that. Super bad cross-up. They went on a pass ball, and this is the card he got wrong. It's a horrible cross-up on Wednesday.

It was one of the worst ones I've ever seen, and I'm blanking on who it was right now. I should have got a gif of it because it was actually that good. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Forget the pressure to be crushing your workout on day one. Just start moving with the Peloton bike, bike plus, tread, row, guide, or app. There are thousands of classes and over 50 Peloton instructors ready to support you from the beginning. 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. Padres Dodgers, of course, the last game of the night. We always talk about it last because we want to make sure that we know the outcome before we talk about it. Full transparency. of the night. We always talk about it last because we want to make sure that we know the outcome before we talk about it. Full transparency.

A little peek behind the curtain. Yeah. Why is that series you guys were so excited about? Why is that always like after the 25th minute on the pod? Well, it's the start time of the games. We want to start talking about the games

as we're watching the end of that one and just make sure we know what's going to happen. That's how the sausage is made, everybody. Sorry to disappoint you. I don't know what exactly the Dodgers were thinking early on with their pitching plan. Maybe all along they knew they were going to give Julio Urias a lot of innings. And he thrived once he got in the game.

It was five innings, one unearned run, six Ks, one walk. He looked excellent, very efficient with his pitches as well. Why they went May, Kolarik, then Urias, I'm not sure. Like, May-Urias makes sense in tandem. May only going one inning was very surprising as well. I almost felt like they got a little too cute with it, but it didn't come back to bite them because they opened up a big lead and never really had to deal with the Padres threatening all that much

outside of a couple runners getting on. I think it was in the sixth inning there was some traffic that they had to deal with the Padres threatening all that much outside of a couple runners getting on. I think it was in the sixth inning there was some traffic that they had to work through, but that was really it. Go ahead, Dino. I'm speechless about the Mays saying still. Just annoyed or what? Yeah, it just seems like the Dodgers, you're a really good team. You don't have to close your eyes and pull something out of the mystery bag. You know what I mean?

You had starting pitchers who could go. And it just very much reminded me of last year where clearly it's not just Dave Roberts. So we can't just harp on him. Like Eno said, managers don't always get the say. It's a collaborative thing with the front office. It just felt like they sit there they like carve out these pitching plans and they're basically just like i don't know like like these aren't the temples of egypt like you have to be flexible like they sit there and they're like clayton kershaw's coming into the seventh inning

of this game last year no matter what and we don't care if the nationals win we're putting joe kelly in after even if he falls behind every batter it seems like that was kind of the same thing it's like there's no feel there's no feel. There's no like, you know what, you know what, Dave Roberts, we're going to let you call the audible here on this one.

You know, I just think a lot of it is so rigid. And we saw this with Boone in New York in game two. It's like, who's doing the thinking? Are they spinning it into the computer? And it's saying like, Hey,

this will be fun. This might work. You know, are we getting a little too crazy here? Like, I don't know. Again, to me, it just seems like we're watching a grab bag of pitching plans instead of people who are paid millions of dollars try to figure out, you know, maybe the way we've been doing it for 100 years is actually the right way. I don't know. I'm very good off my lawn tonight, if you can't tell. At least it's not like, you know, there have been pitchers in the past who said that, like, I don't want to do this.

You know, I forget exactly who said it. There was one in Oakland who said it, I think. Was it Bassett? I don't know. There have been some people in the past who said, I think, ah, was it Bassett? I don't know. There was, there've been some people in the past who said, I don't want to do this. At least with Urias and may, you're talking about relatively young guys who've done stuff like this.

Like Urias is, you know, spent like a whole season where he came in the middle of the games and pitched for three innings. Right. So I don't think that he's mad about it. Uh, Dustin may,

might be mad about it because there was nothing that happened to that first inning that would say, oh my God, he walked a guy, got to get him out of there. And Kolarik is a reliever and nobody cares what reliever thinks. So I think that the players in this situation probably weren't as mad as the fans. But the fans, like this game, this game took forever, dude. I know. hands like this game this game took forever dude and like i understand it a little bit on the padre side because their backs are against the wall of course they're gonna you know morohan gave up three and two innings you're not gonna just let him rack up more runs and you know

stamina didn't look great so you know maybe you could have left patino in for less than for more than two outs but i guess if you've got got Tim Hill, and then Dan Eld, and then Matt Stratton, and then Austin Adams, and then Emilio Pagan, and then Drew. Oh, my God, dude. 11 pitchers. They used 11 pitchers. Yep. A major league record.

Like, are we getting better and smarter in this game? Sometimes I feel like maybe not. You still gave up eight runs. Exactly. You didn't execute anything. Yeah. I just, I don't know. There's got to be a way to either eliminate that and eliminate the, I'm convinced the

whole key to making these games shorter is the clock on the pitcher and the clock on the hitter. No more of the fiddling. Get in the box. No more of the batting glove fiddling. Where in the history of the game is somebody's batting glove? No more Garcia Parra. We've got a whole group of no more Garcia Parras.

Has anyone ever seen a guy get to first base and been like, oh, my batting glove wasn't Velcroed on right the first time? No, they just did a nervous tick. Yeah. Trevor Rosenthal tonight does not have command, by the way. He just pulled a carnival trick. He hit Justin Turner with a pitch that also hit Austin Nola in the mask and also hit the home plate umpire.

Ooh, one, two, three. So, in other words, it's Friday for Trevor Rosenthal. I've seen him do this. He had such a great season, though, this year. This is the terrible thing about the Padres. They deserved a better fate than being swept by a team they hate. The Dodgers are a better team, especially with the injuries the Padres are dealing with. And I think we could say there are a handful of things the Padres did that weren't necessarily what we would have done in the circumstances.

I think I would have tried a little more with Luis Patino. He was among the guys who didn't even go a full inning in this game. That usage didn't make sense the entire time. Why not throw Ryan Weathers again? He actually looked pretty good in game one. How did he not get into this game? That's pretty weird to me. And then we talked about the Mackenzie Gore stuff on previous episodes too.

I don't understand how you get this far, fall into this problem, and don't push that button. But all that being said, this is a San Diego team that is finally in a position to win for multiple years. The long rebuild, the work that AJ Preller and that front office did, it all came together.

They supplemented the roster with trades during the offseason and in-season that made a lot of sense. This core is going to be in place for a long time. This is a very good time to be a Padres fan. And frankly, throughout that franchise's existence, there have not been many points in which you could really say that. Yes, that's fair. And I think, too, and we talked about this earlier, but it would have been great to see a series where the Padres actually had their top two starting pitchers.

I think it would have been a really good series because you play that game I was talking about where you compare position by position. The Dodgers and Padres are dead even in a lot of positions. For the first time in a long time, it's not that big brother, little brother vibe at all. It just so happens that the Padres I mean it's like the Dodgers entering this series with no Kershaw and no Walker Bueller right I mean it you really kind of cut their knees cut them off at the knees and unfortunately it made for a sweep but I still think both these teams are full throttle and we're seeing a five game dogfight like probably never before it would have

been so awesome to see and instead all we have is a four hour slog fest in which the first two hours were just absolutely brutal and it just never seemed like the padres were gonna spark any of that comeback magic at all i think last night was a total gut punch and they were just never coming back from that. Well, the long-term health, I want to focus on that because, you know, hopefully Clevenger and Lumet's injuries, you know, get solved. The only free agents they lose are Garrett Richards, Jason Castro, Trevor Rosenthal, Kirby Yates, Jackson Profar. It sounds like a lot, but they're relievers, backup catcher, fifth starter, basically, for them. And they might have as much as $40 million to spend. I think you could probably get a fifth starter and a reliever or two on that much money. I don't really know what the market will look like next year. But they could probably also replace a lot of that in-house.

So it didn't look good today, but it still looks good for them long-term, I think. So I think the Dodgers-Braves series will begin before we speak next. And thinking about those two teams, the clear edge here is that the Dodgers offense could overwhelm the Braves starting pitching potentially, but I think the Braves bullpen is good enough to hold up, right? So it's going to come down to when the front office and when Brian Snicker kind of feel like they have to go to the pen and making those decisions at the right time, not leaving a starter in too long, not making those sorts of tactical errors. I think the Braves offense can stack up

pound for pound with the Dodgers offense, right? They could slug with the best of them. So I think that's going to be a great matchup overall. I think those teams are pretty evenly matched outside of starting pitching. That's the one clear area where the Dodgers have a leg up. Frankly, the Dodgers have a leg up over just about any team in the league when you compare rotations. The exception might have been a matchup with Cleveland in the World Series. It's something like that materialized. That game starts Monday. Actually, the Sunday game is going to be either the Astros and the Rays or the Astros and the Yankees.

Nice. We will get to talk about this in greater detail then. I do think it behooves the Braves to make sure they get one of the early games because we talked about Kyle Wright. They're going to lose some games in the middle.

They're going to lose. They might lose game three. It seems like you would favor the Dodgers by a lot over the Braves in a Kyle Wright start. When you've got Gonsolin, Urias. You've got May. Gonsolin, Urias, May for games three and four. You're going to favor the Dodgers heavily in those two games. it is too bad that we can't preview the A's side, but at least we get a good game five, you know?

Yes. Who's winning? Yeah, who's winning? Yeah, what's the script? What happens? Lay it all out there. Spoil it for everybody ahead of time. Cole can't go long, and Snell and Glass now do well.

And I can't see it as a laugher. I don't think it'll be a laugher. I think it'll be low scoring. I think it'll be like 4-2 or something. But who, Eno? You can't bail. I'm sticking with the strikeout rate. It's done everything.

I'm sticking with the Yankees, I guess. All it takes is like, you got Stanton, Judge, Torres, Sanchez. If any of those guys takes a hold of someone, it's gone. I was surprised when Stanton hit a ball real hard today and it wasn't a homer. That's what I'm thinking thinking i'm thinking it's like four two yankees i guess i agree with the low scoring but i'm gonna stick with the rays i picked them in the beginning of this series i'm gonna pick them again i think as long as they're

winning through six that ridiculous stat holds and also like they're just a great the a's are eliminated they're the quintessential underdogs remaining, right? You could talk about money and bemoan all of these market sizes all you want, and the Rays keep laughing and keep winning. And people keep trading with them, which is also ridiculous. So I'm going to go Tampa Bay. 4-2 sounds good. I think it is going to be low scoring.

It might even end up being a one-run game. The Yankees get some guys on late and then some Rays guy that most of the country has never heard of ends up closing it out. Maybe it's our boy Fairbanks. Maybe it's not. Who even knows in that bullpen, right? Could be anybody. McClanahan.

McClanahan, his third game ever shuts the door. I think it's going to be 3-2 Yankees. Second time through the order, it's going to be Stanton going yard. That's going to be the difference maker. I think the Rays are going to take an early lead. It's going to be Randy Rosarano writing another chapter in his

October fairy tale against Garrett Cole. I think Cole's actually going at least five. I think he's going to pull a little bit of a bum-garner sort of just short rest gem. I think what's actually going at least five. I think he's going to kind of pull a little bit of like a bum garner sort of just short rest gem. And I think what's going to happen, because it's New York, even though it's not related to going on short rest at all, at least in my opinion, it won't be. Cole, at some point in that nine-year deal, won't be the Garrett Cole we know right now because nine years is a long time. People are going to point back to the time he went on short rest and wonder if that screwed him up.

That's going to be the stupid narrative that comes back later. That's the price we're all going to pay for this later. Damn. Wow, you're really predicting a lie. You're predicting way out in the future. He's like, and in 10 years. Nine years from now, we're going to look back at this. Yeah, so take this podcast and put it onto a flash drive, bury it in the backyard, and then set a Google Calendar reminder for nine years from now, and we'll see.

Well, you've been listening to a podcast in 10 years. Yeah, the flash drive won't even work anymore. Yeah, right. You'll have a flash drive and be like, I can't plug this into any computer or device right now. There's no USB slot for anything anymore. Get a dongle. We're going to need several dongles nine years from now to

connect this crap all together. All right. Well, hey, look, there's a lot of baseball still to be played beyond this weekend. At least we've got a great Game 5 lined up on Friday. If you're enjoying our podcast, please take a moment to leave us a nice rating and review. Thanks for the nice comments. We've had a bunch of those rolling in both on our app and, of course, on iTunes as well.

We really appreciate that. If you still don't have a subscription to The Athletic, please get one. It's $1 a month right now at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. There's nothing good in this world that's only $1 a month, so take advantage of that offer. It's a really good deal. As always, you reach us via email, ratesandbarrels at theathletic.com. If you want to go that route on Twitter, she is at brit underscore giroli. He's at Inoceros. I am at Derek Van Ryper. That is going to wrap things up for this episode of Rates and Barrels. And just like the Padres and the A's,

I am going to play golf on Friday. We'll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening.