Braves Squander Game 2, Face Elimination Following Bullpen Implosion

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1:28www.blog.org slash connects. Hello everyone, welcome back to the Hammer Territory podcast. This is Brad Roman coming to you on Wednesday evening. It's our last show of September. I'm joined by Scott Coleman Scott. Yesterday, the tenor of our show changed in a dramatically positive direction in a short period of time. Today, the tenor of our show changed in a dramatic direction in the other direction. Are you my friend? Hello Brad. It's probably a good thing that we are recording this edition of the podcast. A few hours after the end of the baseball game today.

2:29I mean, what a choke. That was a choke. The Braves had a 90% win probability once Mad Olsen gave them a 3-1 lead. And the bullpen, which has been so good all year long, choked, dillily choked. Did your fountains who has been awesome all year long did not have a good tentating? And now what looked like we were on our way to the NLDS. We're now staring down a game three against probably the two most accomplished pictures the Phillies have. We'll find out who's pitching or who's starting at least for game three for the Braves. It's just so unfortunate, frustrating, and just another kind of yet another game, another postseason game for this franchise. Other than the magical 2021, will you just look around and go, how did they lose that baseball game? That is what we've been doing basically for the last couple hours. I agree with your take that it's probably good. We waited a little while out of necessity. We both had day job things in your three hours behind and all of these things. I will just say you didn't mean to do this.

3:30You said three run lead. I think you met three one lead. We all understand what you meant. But no, it's a situation where in my head I'm planning a victory podcast at that point. Not that it was a shirt, but we're thinking about all right, what are we going to do? They went tonight, etc, etc. And look, the offense has been not inspiring in the series, which we're going to talk about and should not be overlooked. I know they scored five runs in game one that was heavily aided by one swing of the bat, which is what happened sometimes. And today they scored three runs at 10 endings. Two of those runs were gifted to them by a terrible play, basically in Redfield by Bryse Harper. So they scored eight runs in two games, but didn't feel like it was an eight run dominant performance for the offense. I say that because a lot of it's going to be on the bullpen today. When you're up three to one late in the game, we've said this. And I think it's still been true coming into the series. I would have argued, I think we have argued on this podcast that the Braves Bullpen has been

4:33their best area this year. And the numbers paid that picture. In fact, our colleagues, Steve, and to over tweeted this, and I want to just read it. He said, and I quote, the bullpen being bad was not really a development. The Braves could have forward with the offensive issues that they already have. And quote, and it's kind of true. Like, look, we didn't plan for this part of the conversation, but I'll just throw it to you. Like in my mind, the formula, if the Braves were going to make a deep run this year in the playoffs, and my deep run win a series, win two through whatever was going to be. It really involved the bullpen being good. Like we kind of baked on that. Like as a nut, it's never a given, but they had to be good because of the other uncertainties that they have. And in this game, Tyler, and I was great. We'll talk about that. The offense wasn't horrible, but you know, it wasn't great. But they're up, they're up two runs, and the bullpen's all there. Everybody's available and they gave it up. And that's hard to swallow when that was the area where we felt the best. Yeah. This team cannot withstand the bullpen not being elite. And we talked about it in the preview where, you know, you think about how good this bullpen

5:37has been and how reliable it has been for large portions of the season, and how much of an advantage the bullpen should be for the braves over the Phillies. We saw how little confidence Don Mattingley has in the Philadelphia bullpen today. When he had Chris Sanchez throw like 112 pitches. And to let the Phillies off the hook, you get the gift of all gifts from Bryce Harper in the seventh inning to get those two extra runs. And then you bring in Dylan Lee and we know that Dylan, you know, he pitched pretty well in game one against basically the same at three hitters. But today, man, I mean, those two sliders were just middle, middle meatballs. I mean, there were triple A hitters who would hit those balls out over the fence. Those were the worst pitch imaginable and Dylan Lee threw it twice within a span of like five pitches. Just so frustrating, man, we had this game. We should be talking about going to the NLDS. And maybe in 24 hours from now, we're going to look back and laugh and go, game two, that really sucked.

6:37But at least they bounced back in game three. But maybe we're scarred and jaded as Braves fans who have followed this team in the playoffs for the last 30, 35 years. But you know, this team has not played well over the years in elimination settings. There's not a lot of stories of this, this franchise being on the cusp of death and pulling themselves out of it and turning things around. And just because something didn't happen 20 years ago does not mean it's going to happen tomorrow in game three. But I think it's Braves fans. Once they blew that game today, everybody started looking around each other like, are we really about to do this again? We were 90% of the way there. You blow it today. And now at very best, it's 50, 50 for game three. Yeah, I mean, you said earlier, but you know, ESPN had 91.1% win probability. Fengaraz was 88.9. Is that an exact science? No. But the Braves are in a dominant position in their home ballpark up to runs with the chase advance and they give it away.

7:37And that's that sits in. So like, we try to be rational on this podcast and process driven. We're going to try to do that throughout this podcast. But like, it's it's raw. It is what it is. You blow a game. You should blow and just maddening fashion three solo home runs over the course of what 30 minutes of real time. And that's the game. And it's opportunities too. Like as much as we talk about the offense already briefly, we'll come back to this later. How many mischances that the Braves have in this game to add on or take the lead or whatever. And they just didn't. But what time they actually got it was aided by the opposition's defense. So all kinds of stories to get into. One just broad shot out in this first segment. I want to make sure I say I was out loud. Tyler Malley rocked today. It was it was a tough start for him. And after that, it was everything you possibly could have asked for. Seven endings of one run baseball. Seven endings. I mean, I would have I would have the under on that. I'm in on Tyler Malley, but him going seven full endings is like pretty surprising in a playoff setting. Any earned it. He was fantastic. And what wise by the way said after the game that Malley felt an abdominal pull before the game

8:41started and almost didn't start. Now, Malley downplayed that afterwards. I'm not sure how much I just like that's player and manager going back and forth. But like the fact that he was maybe in some sort of doubt earlier today and through like that. In that setting, I feel bad for him. He did everything. He should have what he should have been the conquering hero of this game. Like, awesome day for a guy just got here and the family's likes because he's been good. But man, this should be the Tyler Malley game. And it now it is a force. Yes, absolutely. We should be doing 10 minutes on how good Tyler Malley was. But because of the bullpen and because of just so many wasted opportunities from the lineup, we're not. And Malley was spectacular. You mentioned, you know, the first four batters of the game all got hit. Or three of the first four hitters of the game all got hit. And it was like, oh my god, I tweeted in the moment. It's like, look, if this gets any worse, you got to get the bullpen up, right? Like we've, you know, I think about Mike Fulton-Evig. Wow. Game five, right? Like it's different. You and thankfully Malley settled in and after those first four hitters, he was virtually perfect. So, so good. Just the one run.

9:41Phil, I don't know if you didn't even really threaten. I mean, you make a case. He was almost like more dominant than Chris sale was in game one. With just, you know, there was really never any danger risk. Your seven innings, only one walk, six strikeouts. That splitter was so effective today. Just a shame that while everyone's going to remember how good Malley was. And hopefully he has more postseason appearances around the corner. It is such a shame that they could not close this game out today and give Malley the flowers that he deserves. Yeah, he was fantastic. It was one of Mike's words. We said something about that early on before we let it get off the rails over the course of this podcast. All right, Scott, we will dive back in to game two in a moment. But first, I do want to take a look at the current Wildcard series market on Kalshi to give people a picture of what's going on. The Braves are currently trading at 47% to win the series. Now, that's sub 50, which means they're now the underdog in the series having lost game two.

10:43That's a far cryover thing stood even during the game. As we talked about earlier, but it's far from over and we'll preview game through a little bit later in the podcast and also with a special episode that will be dropped after this with Steven and Sean. But if 47% odds, it's worth about our trade at Kalshi. It pays out roughly $51 if you are right and the Braves advance on Thursday. And if you're interested in trying out Kalshi, use the code baseball. If you've paid up $5, add it to your account instantly. One more time that code is baseball for $55. Add it to your account instantly with Kalshi. All right, Scott Hammer territory as always engineered by Fasinol email fell to territory facetol.com for more information. And we now have the pleasure of diving in to what was not a very fun game in the end. Well, try not to be painstaking about this. You mentioned early the Tyler Malley battle in the first inning. Limming to one run as much as that sounds crazy was actually a really good result with the way things started. So that was the first part of Tyler Malley's

11:45Redefined story was the only one on the top of the first. And after all in Acuna walks, steals two bases, and that also brings them in. And it's one to one right away. I guess the elite left hand pitcher and it's your two stars combining for a run. It was like Manifold heavens guys. Oh my gosh, the stars have awakened and they were terrible on Tuesday. They won the game. The top of the world guys were not good on Tuesday. And it's like, all right, feel pretty good again. All of the darkness went away for at least a period of time. Honestly, the middle of this game, we'll talk about a little bit of it. But from ending two to ending six, not a lot happened in this game. Yeah. Yeah, both Malley and Christopher Sanchez were both really, really good. And those guys deserve credit. They were great, especially in the second half, we know how good Tyler Malley was with the Braves after the trade. But yeah, you know, in the first inning, both teams scored a run. I thought it was really good to see Matt Olson come to life a little bit. After you go down early, it was nice to tie it up and kind of get things back.

12:46Even there were a lot of parallels between game one and game two. Philadelphia scored in the first in both games. The Braves quickly answered. It was the second inning in game one. It was first inning today. And then not a whole lot doing. And especially the Braves in both games have had chances. They had, I think they left 11 runners left on base today, which is just an infuriating number. But really after the first inning there, Malley and Sanchez really did just, I mean, they were nearly perfect. There were a couple base runners. But even when guys got on, it was like two out walks, which really aren't, you know, a big danger zone. It was really impressive stuff from the two starters today. Yeah. Sanchez was pretty good too to late, as you mentioned. The one kind of threat that happened is in the fifth after a nice one out double from Sean Murphy, who had a good game today. Also walked, there's a rocket by Murphy, by the way, 111 an hour, just absolutely crushed. Baseball, they intentionally walked the Kunea to get to ball win and the ball and ground it out to end that threat. The first of the maddening moments, I would say, was the sixth inning where Ozzie leads off

13:50with a single. Marisa Duban gets very lucky on a chopper, but beats it out in field single. To my non one out, then australi singles to load the bases. I want to stop here. There was some question about where there should have been a send at third base for Ozzie Alvis. I saw a few replays that made it seem like it was pretty clearly the right call to hold him, but maybe I'm being too conservative. What do you think about that? I think Ozzie would have been out by about 10 feet if they would have sent him. I agree. If it was a good throw, he's almost certainly out. Yeah. You know, it's funny, though, because looking back, the moment that they held, so there's all the euphoria when Riley hits that ball, you let field. And it's like, oh, here we go, Ozzie, he can run a little bit. He's going to score. And then you hold him. And sure, Michael Harris was really good in game one, but everyone was like, oh God, how are they not? They're going to load the bases and they're not going to score. And then just a pretty excruciating double play there from Michael Harris to, I mean,

14:51it was just one of like, it was almost like death by a thousand paper cuts today for the Braves with all of the chances they had both on offense and on the pitching side to get big outs. And that was kind of the first real kick in the stomach that started a series of unfortunate events. Yeah. I mean, bases loaded one out first pitch and Harris grounds in a double play. Look, Chris, as we talked about a lot yesterday, both Oz and Sean and Steven, Chris and Chess has ridiculous numbers against left handed pitching. I'm sorry, left handed hitting. So, you know, there's some grace for that. And in particular, individually has very bad numbers against Chris and Chess. And he moved on in the lineup today. I think probably because of that, we'll probably talk about this later on. But what seems to be picking and choosing where he cares about individual batter pitcher stuff. But regardless, Harris does not enjoy facing Chris and Chess. And then that's part of the story. But so he's the first pitch. It wasn't like he hit it like the worst thing possible.

15:51That was bad timing and a brutal let down. And I felt like, OK, that was not good. I think I even tweeted like, we'll be talking about this later tonight. Now, that became a much smaller story than it would have been had they lost like two to one. But there you go. The best part of the day was the seventh inning. By the way, a one, two, three, seventh for Tyler Malley. I was kind of surprised to stay in the game in the seventh. And he was like, no, no, no, don't worry about me. I got three more in me. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and go out there. It just crews to it was very impressive. Yeah, we got to keep Tyler around. I know Alex just dies a little bit whenever he thinks about giving a starting pitcher any kind of money or contract. But you got to keep Tyler Malley around. He's been so good. Clearly, the braves have worked with him well. It's probably a conversation for the offseason, whatever that offseason looks like if there's a lockout. Yeah, we got to keep Tyler Malley around one way or another. We agree on that. In the bottom half, Murphy draws lead off walk. Hassan Kim, Bunse, and I chrew to my word last night on this podcast.

16:56I literally said, the one guy I'm okay with bunting is Hassan Kim. So I know he's with that whatsoever. He also had a great bun that was in a good spot. And then Alec Bome, who became the hero, unfortunately later on, threw to second kind of inexplicably. That was the first gift in that inning to give the braves two runners on. Nobody out. Ronald struck out kind of ugly fashion. That was a brutal moment. But then Bryce Harvard gives a very generous donation in right field. I'm sure anyone listen to this podcast, seeing the play by now. But it was ruled a double. And that makes me laugh. I have to say, that's not a double. I know official scores are very generous these days. I understand. Friends, that's an error if I've ever seen one. But Bryce Harvard, I'm sorry. Yeah, definitely an error. I don't. I swear they're messing with the baseballs again because they have just carried so well, especially to right field in this series. I mean, the Bome home run, we'll talk about it. The Bome home run, I can't believe I ever defense. No one could believe. Same here. I was sitting watching the game and my mouth was a jar.

17:58I could not believe that Bome's ball got out. I thought it was a routine pop fly for Drake Baldwin. And when Harper misplated, I don't know if they asked Harper about what went on out there. But in the post game interviews, but yeah, I couldn't believe it. It was such a gift. It's just what makes this game so much more frustrating, Brad, because, okay, let's think about this run from 2018 to 2026, right? How many times has the opponent just like flat out made a gigantic mistake against the braves that benefited the braves? I was trying to think. I really can't think of any, right? Like, total errors that change the game, errors that should have changed the outcome of the game. I really couldn't think of any over the last nine years where they've been in the playoffs for eight of them. And you get this gift and then Dylan Lee just completely shits the bed and then Didier can't get home. You know, it's been two appearances now for Didier who's been so good. But yesterday, it gives up the triple to Real Mudo, which is unfortunate.

18:59And they weren't his runners. You know, they were sales runners, but you know, you bring Didier into the biggest leverage spot of the game to get a couple of outs and he wasn't unable to do it. The Bome Homer, I don't know. It wasn't a horribly located pitch, but I couldn't believe it got out. I don't know, man. It's just I really hope on Thursday night, if the braves can't win game three, you know, we're just going to look back and say, how did this bullpen that was so good all year long below this for game two? Yeah. I mean, to add to your Bome point, we'll talk about this later again. I'm sure. But I was listening to the radio broadcast at that point because I was in between things. And Joe Simpson literally said, I had the direct quote, Joe Simpson said, I thought it was a routine flyout. Yeah, the bat. And it was the official stackass tracking on the Bome run in the 10th was 3.57. It's in terms of feet. That's like that much over the wall. If you're watching it, not one giant YouTube, I'm doing a very, very small time between my

20:00fingers. And also is the fastest pitch that Bome is ever homerd off of in his entire career. Like the fastest number one on the list. OK, going back quickly to the seventh and a, I won't say miss opportunity, but after the Harper miss out, right? They intentionally walk Aussie to get to Olsen. Now that's what a concept that is, by the way, intentionally walking Aussie to get to Olsen. I guess the only picture in the world without make sense is Chris Anchez, I guess, like a guy who's so good against left-handed pitching, left-handed hitting, still crazy that happened just for the record. And then Olsen hits an absolute missile to left center. 1008 miles an hour, a 620, expected batting average, it gets caught in left center. Still scores a run. So it's 3 to 1. You're still fine. If that ball is two feet more to the left, it's, you know, it's 5 to 1 and the game's over probably. But that didn't happen in that moment.

21:01Now, we all thought it was going to be fine with 3 to 1. Okay, we've arrived at Dylan Lee. Dylan's talking about Dylan Lee now first. No, next top. Next top. I know you don't want to. I know you don't want to. Okay. Okay, so people know, back to back home where you mentioned earlier, Sliders, not well placed. It's too easy to be true. Dylan Lee had an amazing season. That's full stop true. And what he is not and has never been is like a lefty stopper. There are some lefties that have like Chris Anches, different profile, but like who are like lefty versus lefty guy. That's what they do. Dylan Lee is not that. No, he's fighting us lefties historically. But this year, literally this season for the full season, he has reverse splits. For his career, he has neutral splits almost exactly. So he's a good pitcher. Everyone knows that.

22:02But like it wasn't it shouldn't have been, I should say. It should not have been automatic to go to Dylan Lee in that spot. Now of course, Scott, you know, I'm going to ask you what you think about this in a second. I'm just going to keep wanting to do that. But after the game, Walt Weiss predictably, I would say, may seem like it was just like that was the only choice. He literally, he literally gave a quote that said, Lee is our high leverage lefty. That was a direct quote. And he said there was no consideration of anybody else in that spot. It was just going to be Dylan Lee. Which if you don't follow this stuff closely, I understand why it would be that. He is your best left hander. You're facing. Philly has two pitchers there elite. They're both lefties. I get it. But that said, Scott, try to take yourself back to before the before it happened. And then also what happened is we're trying to be somewhat process oriented. What did you make of that? Was it just like a picture getting beat or did you hate what Walt chose to do? So when the bottom of the seventh ended and we knew Mally was coming out of the game,

23:05I don't know if on the broadcast if they showed who was warming up or not. But I thought it was going to be didier Fuentes because of the struggles that we saw from Dylan Lee, kind of like the last six or so weeks of the season. But then he said, Dylan Lee has been really good all your long as you alluded to. He was pretty good in game one, although if you want to look at the other side, it's well, Harper and Swarber just saw Dylan Lee 24 hours prior. So maybe you want to give them a different look. But at the same time, Kyle Swarber hit that homer off of Didier Fuentes three weeks ago in Philadelphia that won him a game. And Rice Liglaseus has horrible career numbers against Bryce Harper. Bryce Harper has completely owned him. And realistically, I mean, sure, it's in hindsight. That's like, well, what if we called on Dylan Dodd as the other lefty in the bullpen? You could have. I don't know. That was the question. By the way, the wall got specifically was Dylan Dodd not to cut you off, but like Walt almost like there was, you could tell Dylan Dodd was not part of the calculus.

24:06Right. It seemed like what Walt said, but what Walt said, ring, I think it would have been Lee, it would have been Fuentes. Like I think it came down to Lee versus Fuentes for Walt. So we got a couple of questions to our Twitter account at Hammer Territory about why it wasn't Robert Swarrest, which isn't a crazy question. Walt was asked the same, basically, and he of course pointed to the fact that he hasn't pitched basically in four months. Yeah. Which is not unreasonable. But someone's framed, I can't have it in front of me, but it was like, I'm sure they're mad or yelling at us by virtue of yelling at Walt, but it was like, why do we pay Robert Swarrest all this money and not use it? It's like, well, I understand that reaction. Because by the way, if Robert Swarrest had been healthy the entire time, it probably would have been Robert Swarrest. Like Robert Swarrest was treated like the clear number, not closer, but like the best relief of the bullpen when he was available. That was his role. Then he got hurt and mystery of three and a half months.

25:06So like, I can't act like I'm mad that they didn't use Robert Swarrest. Like I wasn't bothered by that given that he has a pitched improvement. Yeah, I agree. I don't think they trust Swarrest yet. And I don't really blame them because he's only pitched twice his two appearances. We're not exactly stellar. You know, it gave up runs in both. I don't know if he had a strikeout in either of those two appearances. You're asking a lot of guys. He was warming later, by the way. He was. He was. He would have come in at some point. I think he would have came in in the 11th. Had they tied it? Yeah. I think so. So yeah, I mean, man, at the end of the day, it's, I know a lot of people were really on Walt Weiss today for some of his decision making. And I don't think it was a great game for Walt. But at the same time, Walt Weiss is not the one who hung. I mean, capital letters hung the worst sliders you can possibly throw in that situation, man. I mean, those were, if you asked Pausch Warber and Bryce Harper where they wanted the ball to go, I'm not sure they would have put any other different location than a hanging

26:08slider were done lead through both of them. I mean, they, Ronald did not even move in right field. They were hit so hard. I mean, it just, and now going forward, if the brave somehow I would be shocked if we see Dylan Lee in game three, but if the brave's advance, I don't know if you can trust Dylan Lee anymore. It's probably more Dylan Dodd or Robert Swarris. I'm not saying you, you know, you never hear from Dylan Lee ever again. But in the highest leverage spots of a game, I don't know how you can trust Dylan Lee right now. It's been rough. And I, I hesitate to even do this because I know how it's my sound. But we said it in the preview, so I have to say no. It's hard for me to swallow, letting Schwarber and Harper beat you. And it's not, it's not that easy. I understand that. But we talked about it at length this week. There are two hitters in the Phillips lineup who have been good this season. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that. There are two hitters in the Phillips lineup that have even been better than average this

27:10season. And it's Schwarber and Harper. And those guys have backed him back home runs. Yeah. Like that can't, that just can't happen. You cannot have that happen. Yes. Like even if you walk them both, which is bad, like make somebody else beat you, man. I'm sorry. It's not, I know it's not that easy. I'm not eventually pitcher. I'm acknowledging this flaw in simplistic logic. I am, I promise I understand it. But it's, on the other side of my brain, I'm like, you let those guys tie the game. Those two guys, if Alex Bohm, look, if Alex Bohm thinks the three went home were to beat you, I would be really upset about that. But I would almost be like more understanding of it. Because it's like man, whatever. I wish the guys that who were awesome didn't beat you. And Alex Bohm is a pain in our, in our backside all the time. He always does something crazy. Of course he does beat you later in the game. I understand that. But like this game, the game's over. If you don't give it back to my co-brones to the guys who can't beat you. Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. Okay. In a second, I want to come back and finish out this brutality of a game breakdown.

28:11We're going to do that in a second. First though, a work more partners on today's podcast. Okay, Scott. In the bottom of the eighth, the Braves had another frustrating sequence right after giving up all those runs. So now the game's tied. Everybody's kind of off-kilter. And then, Andrew Painter, for his six consecutive pitches out of the strike zone to open the inning. For pitch walk, then two more. And then for the second time in the same game, Michael Harris hits into a back breaking double play. And look, I'm not saying you're going to score the man on first no-als. Doesn't mean you're going to score. Like I'm not saying that. But the fact that Michael was the same guy. Oh, but to might only defend Michael Harris quickly, I saw someone say that Michael Harris has been killing us in the series. And I was like, guys, he went three for three on Tuesday. You can't say that. He was bad today. I'll give you that. But, you know, it was it was more frustrating because it was Michael. If it had been anybody else but Michael that did that, it probably would have been like

29:1310% less frustrating. But he did it twice in the same game. Four-house adjustments. And, you know, okay. So then, right, so all of a sudden, all of the air has been sucked out of Truist Park after the two homers. But then a four-pitch walk to Riley and in two-o count to Michael Harris against a rookie who has probably never done this bullpen thing at this level. You know, at any level, he's never pitched in this type of situation. And then it was over in three pitches, Brad, in the 150-year history of Major League Baseball. Do you think ever, there's like tens and thousands, hundreds of thousands of baseball games have been played? Do you think ever, in any case, started with six balls and was over three pitches later? It's probably happened because everything has happened in baseball. But your point stands. It shouldn't, that shouldn't happen. Right. And it happens to be Atlanta Braves because this team is just infuriating on offense. And guess what?

30:13We talked about what we were scared and nervous about going into the series. It was the offense. And spoiler alert, other than one swing from Austin Riley, a three-run homer, the offense has been maddening. They've had runners-on base, but they just continue to be awful. Ronald Econi Jr. has done nothing Drake Baldwin, other than the wind or whatever aided play that Harper misplade has done very, very little. Yeah, error, whatever you want to call it. Matt Olson, he had the RBI single, but Matt Olson hasn't really had a huge impact on the series. And you know, you need your stars to be stars. And they, especially, I mean, Ronald's been awful. And Drake has really been pretty bad too. So it's, regardless, I mean, well, if they lose game three, season's over, Brad. And start thinking about King Coon. But if they advance, if they somehow come back and win the series and advance to play the Dodgers, they have no prayer in LA if that big three isn't hitting. And so far, they really have not hit anything. Yeah, they were better today than they were on Tuesday.

31:17You know, Ronald walked twice. Drake got one actual hit. The other one was fake, but that happened. And Matt had, Matt, he's got a single, like they were better, but you're 100% right. Those guys said they have to be better for them to do. They can probably win tomorrow. They could win tomorrow without those guys doing something crazy, because it's one baseball game. You're right. They're not beating the Dodgers without those guys being good. I mentioned earlier, like the night they didn't, it wasn't a huge takeaway, but they brought in Rice Cell to end the eighth, right? He got, like, he got the final out of the eighth. He stayed into the, in the ninth, got two outs. Then they pulled him. This is why he pitched great for three batters. They pulled him. I got his tray turner. I think because of pitcher batter matchups, again, it seemed like that would be the reason why, because turners been good against the clasis. Okay. They bring it to your, he gets out of it, so no one cares, because they didn't bite them, but that was a weird moment that caused some, I got the, I'll say this, the normies in my life, the non-diehards that don't know this stuff, like we do and other people do.

32:20Tech, and it's actually today with some people that I know from high school. They're like, wait, they took out the proven closer with one better left to put in the young guy. I'm like, yeah, it was kind of weird. I didn't hate it. It was just, it was odd. So I think a lot of people were like, what's going on here? Why do they do that? It didn't matter. Again, it didn't matter. It didn't bite them, but just weird. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, you want to go down the rabbit hole. All right. Well, then Didier comes in and throws one pitch to tray turner and gets him out, but then sits on the bench and then comes out. Yeah. So he's got Harper and Schwarber out pretty easily. And it's like, okay, just one hit or to go, just Alec Bohm. I forgot to say that. That's actually their worst thing, maybe not the worst thing, but the fact that he came out and retired the top three in the order, and give up a homer and Alec Bohm is like just nice stuff. Well, in the bottom of the ninth, I tweeted in the moment, I'm like, look, you got Harper and Schwarber and Bohm coming up in the top of the tent. So let's win this thing right now. And of course, the offense did nothing predictably.

33:22But, you know, in my mind, I'm like, well, if you can get through Harper and Schwarber, you're good. You know, those guys are future Hall of Famers or future Hall of Very Gooders. And guess what? He does get those two outs, but then, yeah, the Bohm homer, I don't know, man, I thought, I can't, but when Ronald just kept going back and back and back and back, I was like, there's no way. And when that ball landed in the first row, I couldn't believe it. I don't think the booth could believe it. The radio broadcast, which you mentioned, couldn't believe it. It's so frustrating. And again, it goes, you know, Diddy has been so good this season. He's a young kid. Really, you know, he's been a great story since day one. But we mentioned the Real Mudo 2 run triple. If you want to call that in game one and then the homer to Bohm today, yeah, it's not just his fault. It's not the reason that the Braves lost. But as a whole, this bullpen is a big reason why they, I mean, they should be on a plane to Los Angeles right now. Yeah. The Braves had four really good relievers this season. One of them has been in the series because he's been hurt for three and a half months.

34:25One of them is a 21 year old starter prospect, which is what that has been incredible this year. But he's had an obviously rough series, don't leave had a terrible day today. And then it's funny. It's funny. You blew, you blew to save situations basically. And it wasn't a good time. You're closer. You think great. He's also, he's been great. So he's been the one out of the four that had helped him so far. But anyway, last bit of procedural business here, Scott, is the bottom of the 10th because the Braves did threaten the bottom of the 10th down a run. Dubon and Harris, both single and with two outs, Dom Smith pinch hits for Sean Murphy. Now I am on the Sean Murphy guy. I'll acknowledge that. It was a right handed pitcher, which is obviously an important data point in Andrew Painter. I have one more bit of rant that's more low stakes than I'll deliver in a second about

35:25this not this situation. But what did you think of going with Dom Smith and that's my. And I thought was I wish we had somebody better than Dom Smith to take this, this played appearance. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the only answer. I, I'm trying not to be prison at the moment. I will say, many people said it's on Twitter too. I think Murphy had a really good day. I think Murphy had a really good played appearance as the entire time. He had a great day today. Yeah. Had a day. I also understand not wanting him to face a righty and a big spot. Yes. I'm going to get that because he's not the good guy to ride even when he's been good the last couple of years, which did happen. It's mostly left. He's been lefty mashing. So I have no huge issue taking Murphy out of the game there. I really don't. I still think I would have rather had Murphy if my option was Dom Smith because Dom Smith hasn't played baseball in a month. And also you didn't need a homer. You need it as, which is, I guess it already makes a good Murphy too.

36:27Murphy is a homerun guy too. So like, they didn't have anybody to go to. That is the, you're right. That is really the takeaway is there wasn't anybody to go to. Dom Smith made it worse by striking off on three pitches. He just haven't got a non-competitive played appearance. That made it all feel worse. You're right though. The real takeaways, like I wish we had somebody else. And, you know, obviously what was asked about it, he said they thought Dom might draw a walk. He didn't even see it all in the played appearance. Well, he saw basically the same pitch twice and he swung over the same pitch twice. It was a change of down on the zone. So clearly Dom was not seeing pitches well. And then he struck out, I mean, the strike three, you know, it's the first playoff game that we're in on ABS. It was close. And it, um, credit to painter. It's a bad take. It's a bad take. It's a bad take with two strikes. You got to swing the bat. You know, it is what it is. But yeah, that was, there's a little bit of, uh, I saw a lot of cost. That's one where like, I'm not in a rage at wall. And you said it very well earlier and I agree with you.

37:29I don't think a wall had a good day today. I don't think he's the reason they lost. There have been moments in this podcast history and it's various iterations where we have been like in a blind rage about something that Bryce Nicar did in a playoff game. I was not at that level for any move today. I have to say, um, I didn't love them all. I think this is fine. This is low stakes. I get it, folks. I thought that single dumbest thing that wall did today was let Mario Sir Dabon run for himself in the death. Now, it didn't matter in the end, which is why nobody cares. But Dabon is very slow. People don't understand that because he's like a utility guy. Dabon is very slow. He's not Sean Murphy Matt Olson slow, but he's like 35th percentile or something, uh, sprint speed. He's not a fast runner. You're down by one. You have to Sean Kiersee on your team for literally one reason. It's that he should have been in the game. I'm not saying that anything would have changed because it probably wouldn't have.

38:29There is an argument. Maybe Kiersee stills a base for you and you put some more pressure on a young guy. But like, I thought it was like legitimately. And it wasn't just me, like even like there were national sickos like Fangirl. I had John Becker at Fangirl. I said it first. He was like, it's kind of like malpractice to have Dabon running here. I'm like, I was already yelling. I was texting you. I'm like, why is Kiersee not in this game right now? What's going on? Like, what's the point of this? You can't. You're losing. If you were tired, I get it. If you were tired, you don't want to lose Dabon. You lose the game if you don't score. Right. In the moment when Dabon got on and Michael Harris was coming up, now of course, if Doshon Kiersee comes in the game in steel second, is there any guarantee that then Michael Harris flips that ball into the field? No. Of course not. But at the same time, I thought the same. Dabon will call him sneakily slow because you generally think of players and kind of his archetype is being, yeah, he's pretty fast and everything. But yeah, it just looked 34th percentile sprint speed from Mauricio Dabon. When Kiersee can fly, we saw that in September, stole 40 bases in AAA. So yeah, and look, Kiersee, he could have finished run form and he could have tried to steal

39:33second and real Mudo throws him out and the game's over and everyone's then like, why the hell you stealing a base here? But yeah, in the moment, I think it by the 10th inning, I think everybody was so on edge and on tilt. And it was kind of a perfect summary of this baseball team that as you were playing for a chance to advance in the playoffs. Other options are Sean Murphy or Dominic Smith and you're not pinch running with your designated pinch runner to have a chance if Michael Harris hits a ball somewhere, it just, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that that probably is what you're right. I totally tilt and jump off the roof. But yes, just just incredibly frustrating today. We're 40 minutes in. So that's why I feel free to do this, this level of rant, I acknowledge thing that it doesn't matter that much. The whole reason to carry 15 position players is so that you can do stuff like this. Yeah. Like you had Luke Williams. So like somebody replied to me on Twitter and was like, what do you do if you tie the

40:35game? And I'm like, you play Luke Williams, a short stop. Like you had a guy, you carried Luke Williams for this. Like you have another guy just for this. You could, by the way, the other option we should have mentioned is that they could have gone to Ryder to Les. Can you imagine the reaction if they had had to Les pinch it for a perfect sense of strategy? Routy time, baby. It's routy time. Oh my gosh. All right. We're tired of real. That is a big, big boy. If this baseball thing, get him on the Atlanta Falcons, he could play some nose guard or something to do some damage. Yeah, that was, you know, yeah, that's if they used Dom Smith earlier and it came down to Rowdy, Taleb's, what a what a moment that would have been. He might be better than Dom Smith. All right. Well, we're going to move on and talk a little bit about game three, but first got let us see what's on deck presented by the folks at the Fox one app. All right, Scott, there is one more game on deck for sure for the Braves and that's part

41:35of the segment here. And we're going to spend a few minutes now talking about the big decision what wise has to make in game three or really before game three begins. And that is their pitching plan for game three. I think we all expected them to not name a starter if game three happened. They had not done that as of this recording. Part of that is they don't have one. Part of that is that if Grant Holmes is the bolt guy, which is the widespread projection, I would say, from the beat guys from us, we've all kind of expected great homes to probably throw the most innings or we should be in the spot for the most in games in game three. Grant Holmes probably isn't ideal to start the game. I guess the team featuring college or bar and rice Harper. So that's my that's my T up. What if your Walt Weiss, your something Walt Weiss got what would you plan to do at the beginning of the game pitch you wise on Thursday? Dylan Lee. No, I'm just kidding.

42:36Probably Ray. World Series starter. Dylan Lee. That's right. No, in all seriousness, I would probably I will not send Dylan Lee back out to the wolves to face those two guys knowing Philadelphia's line of construction. I would probably open with Ray Kerr or Brent Souter. I would imagine that the Braves have done some kind of deep level scout on how those two guys might fare against the top of the Philadelphia order. That's why they have very large advanced scouting teams. You and I do a couple of podcasts believe it or not, I did not do a deep dive in the last couple hours since then. But I think it makes sense knowing everything we know about Grant Holmes and his splits as well. I would probably have either Kerr or Souter open and then I would send Grant Holmes out there for probably until you start to get uneasy with him and see how he goes. We know usually the first time through Grant Holmes is really good. Second time through is kind of a mixed bag and then I mean, he's not getting a third time through by any means because that would just be a that would. That would you know, you talk about blind rage at things managers do.

43:39We will not see Grant Holmes a third time through on game three, but that would be my guess. And I think that's what they're going to do. That would be a Kim roll arms folded in the in the bullpen level melt down. If that were to happen. No, so I think we're on the same page and that's what I think most people are projecting that exact thing and opener of some kind, whether it's Kerr or Souter. I probably lean Kerr with what we have. I think Souter might be useful if you get into an extra ending game. You got a guy go three endings. He can do that for you later on. You don't want that to happen. I do love I do love Brent's Souter. So wouldn't I see him on the mound. Grant Holmes for a while, but look. Everyone knows this already, but it has to be set out loud. It's in all hands on deck game. It's just what it is. You throw everything you possibly can at it. I even had someone. I can't remember who it was right now. So my apologies on this. Someone pitched. How about Chris sale for the first ending? Oh, baby. It should it would be his throw day in theory, which is why it's like somewhat possible.

44:41So if you remember people don't watch a ton of playoff baseball. There's not the braves. The daughters have done this a lot where they'll throw their starter on their throw day. And if you want to guarantee the most maximized ending for Chris sale, it would be the first against those guys. It's not going to happen, but can you imagine if it's like by the way Chris sale started today? Who started today? I think Chris would be down. I don't think the way you would do that. But Chris, yeah, Chris and maniac. He had that. It has to be what had to be honestly had to be one ending. He wouldn't go be he wouldn't go beyond that. Yeah, but no problem. No, it's not worth the risk. It seems absurd because it kind of is, but the whole season is tomorrow. Like you have to let everybody is available. Other than Tyler Malley, everybody is available tomorrow. Everyone. Luke Williams is available. Okay, I'm just kidding. All right, Scott, we're going to move along. Luke Williams or Dylan Lee in a high leverage spot against Bryce Harper and Coach Will. What do you do? Dylan Lee, Dylan Lee, I guess. We should say because we're in the Fox one segment.

45:44We should mention this first and foremost. If the Braves can win on Thursday, they'll be playing a lot on Fox one. Even if they don't, Fox one still has the game. So they have the entire NLDS, NLCS world series stuff. It's all there on the Fox one app. That would be on Fox is streaming on Fox one. The postseason is here. I remember front row seat, the wildest walkoffs, lights up pitching and clutch plays all playoff, long, street stream each NLDS and LCS game. Plus these twenty twenty six world series live on Fox one at home or on the go live or on demand. Never miss a moment. Stream now. Start your Fox one three day free trial today at Fox one dot com. Scott before we go, we mentioned this briefly earlier. It's like we have to talk about it a little bit. The Braves had this like long time horrifying record in elimination games. And you did say this, you saw my thunder in a good way. I was going to make the pitch that it doesn't actually matter because these are different

46:46players. But I'm old and you're getting there. We haven't seen a lot of Braves elimination game victories in our time. In fact, I did the research on this today. The Braves have not won a series in which they face elimination at any point. Since 1996. Wow. They won the NLCS in 96. They were trailing three to two in the NLCS and they came and when they won the last two to make the world series. Since then, they've won a couple of elimination games where they were like trailing in the series and could have been eliminated. Like for instance, in 2018, the Royal Nacuni grand slam game they won and they just lost the next day. So they still lost the series. In fact, I think that was their last time. They won an elimination game. I believe was the Royal Nacuni grand slam game and other cities. That's eight years ago.

47:46And people were probably yelling guys in 2021, they never faced elimination. They were in control of every series they played. And that's the way you want to do it, ideally. You're just in control all the time. But again, I'm not sure what the point is here, but the Braves have been genuinely horrific in these situations for the majority of my life. In my entire adult life. I was 10 years old in 96. So you were younger than that. I won't say how old you were then, but you were younger than that. Anything that you feel differently about now, and then we're going to save our rant about the start time until the very end of the podcast. But game three thoughts. Game three thoughts. If this team ever wanted to just completely stun us all and wake up offensively against presumably, Erin Nola and Zach Wheeler and the remnants of the Philadelphia bullpen, the time is now, boys. I mean, regardless of who pitches, the pitching for the Braves, the starting pitching for the Braves has been excellent this year.

48:46But the idea of having the match, Nola and Wheeler, with whoever the Braves are going to open with and start tomorrow, is pretty terrifying. If we're being honest, I think we're going to see both of those guys and Nola through the ball really, really well in the second half of the year. Zach Wheeler is a maniac. Might be my favorite non Braves pitcher in Major League Baseball, actually. Zach Wheeler, he's so good. He's been so good for so long. It's, you know, that's why losing today was just so frustrating in such a bummer because even going into the series, we knew that game one was a massive lean towards the Braves. I think game two was relatively 50-50. I think the betting odds going into it today were 50-50 for game two. But game three, yes, the betting odds, I think, are around 50-50 again, but it doesn't feel like it. And maybe that's because we're being prisoners of the moment and we're so frustrated after the game a couple hours ago. But, you know, knowing everything we know about this team and knowing the both recent history of this team, I don't think there's many Braves fans out there who are going to

49:46bet tonight feeling real optimistic about game three. Yeah, I think you have to be a person who just isn't optimistic to feel that way. Yeah. And I don't mean that pejoratively. I admire those people who actually feel that way. I'm a pessimist for sure. That's just the way I live my life. But no, the argument that I would make is the Braves, for me, the Braves are the underdogs in game three. It might be slight, but they are. I think if you simulated this game a thousand times, the Braves would lose more than they would. Give it a situation, give it a matchups. They have home field advantage. That's helpful to some degree. It's a playoff game. So anything can happen. Aaron Nolo, who you mentioned earlier, had two rough starts at the end of the season. Maybe that guy pops up. Zach Wheeler has been awesome for a long time, but the Braves have been okay. He gets to him recently. Like there's always a spot where those guys blow up or something happens. Maybe office comes alive. It's winnable. No one's neither of us sure to say that they can't win.

50:47They're obviously going to win the game. I don't know if I pick them in my heart of hearts, but I hope that it's, I hope they win. I mean, that's the worst analysis of all time. But I think they're like, they're alive. They certainly can win the game. I think it's going to take a full on group effort. Like that's the thing. There's not one. It's Chris Ellis pitching tomorrow on full rest. I'm in my mind. I've written my ticket to the NLDS, but that's not what happens. He's not pitching tomorrow. They have a conglomerate. How many quit? Here's a fun question for you. Over under five and a half pitchers tomorrow for the Braves. Oh, good question. All right. Well, we know, let's say they open with one and then home. Yeah, I think I'm going to take the over. I'll say six. I think it's the over. Yeah. I think six or seven. And that might sound crazy, but it's, again, it's what you have to do. I mean, we also don't know. We got a question actually what we're recording to our Twitter account. That was like, do we have any idea if any of a glaciers, Fountains, and Lee are available? And we're like, well, they're never, they're never going to tell us that ahead of time.

51:48That's just not going to happen. I think Rysel will be available. I know it's a certain, but he hasn't pitched it. Pitch it pitches wise. He's not been used that much. Did your son a lot of pitches? And he's a young guy. It would not surprise me if he's not available to him. He'd be the one where I'm like, I'm not sure he's going to maybe is. I don't know. That's totally a medical thing. We have no clue. Yeah. That's the rest of the real answer is that they're not going to tell us because they wouldn't, that it does not help them to tell us. But we're going to see guys we haven't seen so far. So the first two guys in the series, it's been only the high leverage guys. We're going to see Ray Kerr. We're going to see Brent Souter. We're going to see Dylan Dodd. We're going to see whoever you Robert Suarez is probably going to fish tomorrow for the first time in the year. High leverage spot in Richard Madero. It's like, maybe not all those guys, but some of them are pitching tomorrow for sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah. No, everyone's up. You saw today with the Phillies facing elimination, they got real weird with their bullpen, you know, with guys pitching and, you know, Durand was not in the game today, but they had painter covered the last few innings and they brought in McFarland who gave up the run on game one. So yeah, everything is on the table for game three.

52:50Um, we'll figure out what time game three is actually going to start at. Yeah. Let's end on that. So as people, and we won't, the fact is as people listen to this, they'll probably have an idea. Just for housekeeping notes, if the Yankees and the Padres win tonight on Tuesday, on Wednesday, the Braves are playing at 8 p.m. Thursday night. But if the Yankees or the Padres lose tonight, then the Braves are playing it at two o'clock, right? Either or they're playing it two o'clock on Thursday. The best part of this whole thing is because the game is in San Diego and doesn't start until 10 o'clock Eastern. There is a real chance that it is one in the morning or later if we get extra innings or something that we don't know what time the Braves are playing in the elimination game against the Phillies. It is the dumbest, most brain dead thing imaginable, how major league baseball handles the scheduling

53:53of their playoffs. Can you imagine Brad, the NFL doing this? It is moronic. Set aside the fact that the only two halfway decent playoff games so far have been Braves Phillies that started at two o'clock Eastern, as everybody is sitting in their offices at work or sitting in their math classroom in school and not able to watch or trying to watch between their legs on their phone screen, it's just the dumbest shit imaginable. And I don't know why it's self-inflicted. No one is making major league baseball do this. What are genuinely, what are we doing? This is not rocket science. No, it's insane. It really is. I mean, we're recording this at like about nine Eastern as we're talking right now, we're almost an hour in. The earliest the Braves could possibly know when they're playing tomorrow is like 10, 15 PM Eastern time today. That's insane when they'll be playing at two PM tomorrow. That is nuts.

54:54Like there's a whole separate argument, by the way, for people to have to be at a stadium working, which you pointed out to me earlier. Hundreds are right about this. Hundreds, no, that is, that is, it's, you would argue that that is less about the product on the field because they're not, they're not physically, but that's a logistical challenge clearly. But as far as the product on the field, like it's insane that you would have players who might be going, like trying to go to bed tonight, they get a full night sleep. They don't know what time it's that they're alarm for. Like I generally, I mean, I know there are players on the Braves roster, we're not going into the name and stuff, who have like a five hour ramp up, like schedule that they do for games. Yes, if you get to graduate, just say this. So like, so let's say it's five hours. If you play at two PM, that means you're getting to the ballpark, nine AM. If you don't know what time you have to be there until one thirty in the morning, that isn't supposed to be, that's not, that's, this is not, this is not like an AU tournament.

55:56You're playing for your playoff life tomorrow. It's insane. I'm sorry, that's nuts. Like I, I understand flux scheduling, I understand TV rules all and TV does rule all. We've learned that. This is what this is about. It's about TV. But come on, man. Like honestly, as much as we hate the two clock starts, just say it's two. Like for the love of God, just say it's two. Like make a decision. You cannot have guys going to bed tonight, not knowing what time they play tomorrow. This is major league baseball. Yes. Insane. Not Mickey Mouse league. What are we doing, man? This is, yeah, I am almost as worked up about this as it was the baseball game. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe I'm, I'm coming down off my frustrations, but goodness gracious. What? One more thing to be, to be 100% fair and I don't like the Phillies. They should be pissed about this too. Oh, he has the same problem. The Braves. The Phillies are on the road. They're not even home. Yeah, I tweeted about this. And of course, the morons on Twitter, I get to get off Twitter bread. People, oh, the Braves, they were already coming up with excuses.

56:56They don't know how to look at the schedule when they wake up in the morning. No, dude, it's not about the Braves. It's about the Braves. It's about the Phillies. It's about hundreds of event staff workers. It's about security. It's about parking. I mean, concessions, all kinds of stuff. It's just, major league baseball is the only professional league in the world who does stuff like this. We'll never understand it, but we should, we're coming up on an hour. I'm worked up again. I just called it. I waited purposely this long to do this. So if people want to sign off, they could. That aside, there will be a game tomorrow. We don't know when it's going to be, which is very funny and not funny at the same time. We're told our colleagues, Sean and Steven, are planning to record a game three preview podcast. So that should be in your feed at some point too. So please go ahead if you are new to the show or if you were around sometimes, we appreciate you being here. The diehards as well. Please subscribe to Hammer Territory anywhere you find your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, et cetera. There will be an extra episode between now and the game tomorrow.

57:59And then when lose or draw, we will have an episode after game three. I'm promising you Scott Coleman on the air tomorrow night. Whether he likes it or not, we'll have to be talking on the air tomorrow. If it's a loss, we'll see what happens. But it looked, say a lot about us. You and I have been pucked together for a decade plus now. We always post up. We'll be here. We're going to be here no matter what. That's right. We'll be here. Nothing breaks this podcast. Please. The train, the train has left the station. We'll see it might be going into the station in 24 hours, but once the train leaves the station, we do not stop and we'll get out of here. But I do want to take a 30 seconds to sincerely thank everybody who has been tuning into the show on the back end. People don't care about our views and downloads and stuff, but they are incredible. And that's, you know, Brad and I, we'd probably still be doing these podcasts if we were posting in seven people watched, but it's a lot more than seven people watching and listening. And we are deeply grateful. It allows us to continue doing this podcast. We put a lot of time and effort into it.

59:00We hope you guys and gals enjoy the shows. When lose, when they lose, it's therapy when they win it's euphoric, but did want to give everybody a sincere thank you. Who have checked out the show, both if you're a new listener and this is your first time ever or be a hell of a show to be your first time ever. Or if you've been listened to us since the talking chop days going back to like 2016 or so. And I know there are people who've been with us for 10 years. It really does mean a lot to us. Yeah, I echo all of that and I'll show our friends at F allot territory for hosting us and being our folks that make this all happen as well. So we should everybody for listening, say to me for our guys Sean and Steven who will have I'm sure playing to say on their episode as well, reacting to today and previewing tomorrow. So stay tuned for that. To our friends, we appreciate you listening and we'll see you all next time.