Tim Kurkjian’s SHOCKING World Series Prediction Includes the Rays?!

0:00If you're ready to feel confident again, visit orderlymeds.com to learn about which GLP1 you may be eligible for. Getting started as fast, easy, and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Game confidence, choose healthy habits this fall. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com. That's orderlymeds.com. Taking care of yourself feels great. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Electorality required an internment by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details. The drive with T-Cross podcast is powered by Farah and Farah. Tampa accident attorneys. The great Tim Kirchian of ESPN joins me on the central floor to behavioral health network WDA hotline. Learn more at cfbhn.org. Tim, I know you're really busy. Thanks for joining me. How are you, my man? I'm well. I'm at the playoffs. It's October. It doesn't get any better than this. Those podraze games against the Brewers were tremendous.

1:03And the game we had in game one was fabulous. Just another reminder, October baseball, there is nothing better. And we are off to a flying start with the wild card and now even better with the LDS. 100% and look, when you know when it comes to October and I say this all the time on the show, it's about pitching, pitching and pitching. We saw Drew Rasmussen on Saturday before the magnificent performance. Look, Garry Cole on the other side, he was very good. Jonathan Aron, the guy on for that one home run. But tell me, will you saw it a Drew Rasmussen who's been doing this all year since he all star break Tim, the race of one each and every one of his starts. Yeah, counting that game. He's 10 and a half the second half of the season. But just as important, first off, he's been really good for his entire career. It's just hard to tell sometimes that he's been hurt so many times, but he is completely healthy and he pitched one of the best games that I know I've ever covered in my life.

2:04He throws three different fastballs, but the way he uses his change up is also so effective. Plus, he came into that game with a 1.81 ERA against the Yankees in his career. That's the lowest ERA of any pitcher who's made ten or more starts against the Yankees. And then he went out and had a no hitter for six innings. No Yankee team has ever been no hit for six innings in a postseason game. He ends up with a 1 hitter. No Yankee team has ever been one hit in a postseason game. It was a historic performance by a guy who has been absolutely spectacular, especially the second half of the season. You know, the video is out there, Tim. And I saw your reaction when Austin Wells was rounding second, heading to third. You put your arms up and you took your glasses off and you said to yourself, what? I said, what are you doing?

3:06Where are you going? It was a reaction. I was incredulous. I just couldn't believe that he would go to third on that play when the third base coach Louis Louis, Louis Ross was holding him up before he even got to second base. And for him to go to third and be out by that much, you know, the reaction was this, this just can't happen in a major league game. It can't happen in a major league playoff game in the eighth inning down by a run in game one. It just can't happen. It was one of incredulity to me. Like I just couldn't believe what I was watching. And that's why I guess that's why I reacted the way I did. I wasn't angry. I wasn't upset. I was stunned. I was stunned too. And the Yankees obviously could not get any closer. They lose one nothing. And now we fast forward game two tonight. Freddie Perolter will go for the race. Cam Schletler has been incredible all season long. This has got to be as close to a must-wing game for the Yankees.

4:07And I think it is a must-wing for the Yankees, your thoughts. Yeah, it might be because of the way the rays play at home. They are 29 games over 500 in this ballpark. And they showed again last night how good they are when they play here. So the Yankees need this one so they can go home and maybe try to win two in a row, not easy against the rays. I think this is going five games. I picked the rays to win the series, not like that matters. But I just think both teams are evenly matched in a lot of ways. I did the Yankees against the Red Sox. The Yankees played their two best games, maybe of the season, back to back. They weren't the same last night because they couldn't hit through Rasmussen and they made a terrible mistake on the bases. But I fully expect the Yankees to play better tonight. And Camteliller is going to win the ALC I own unanimously. His numbers in the postseason are ridiculous. And he is ready for this and they have the exact picture they need going at a time where

5:11they pretty much have to win. He's been fantastic and you saw it on Saturday night. You mentioned Drew Rasmussen through a lot of changeups. Freddie Peralta came over and that midseason trade from the Metz. Kyle Snyder worked his magic. He's working out of the stretch. He's incorporating his changeup a heck of a lot more. How come the Yankees are really struggling? Why are they struggling with the changeups? I know the rays know that and they're using that to their advantage. But how do you perceive that situation? Well, again, the changeup is a really, really important pitch in today's game because these hitters are so used to seeing velocity at an unheard of level from four seamers, sinkers, sliders, everything that we see cutters. Now when you can mix in a changeup, it really gives them something else to look at. And that's what's so good about our pitchers today. They don't just average almost 95 miles an hour with their fastball. It's their secondary stuff that is so, so good. And the ability to adapt, like Schlippler did in game one using his curveball much more

6:17against the Red Sox and normal. And Rasmussen the way he used his changeup last night. It said chess match and the rays are really good at that because Kyle Snyder is ahead of almost anyone when it comes to how we going to pitch these guys and how we going to just in game. He sure is Tim Kirchin of ESPN is with me. He'll be at the top tonight. Call him the game on ESPN radio, raising the Yankees game two of the AODS. You saw Junior Caminero on Saturday night. He fell behind O and two in the first inning, worked out a walk. He's done a great job of doing that. That patient at bats, he played in all 162 games. The Yankees walked them a little bit later on. So it kind of feels apparent to me that the Yankees looking at Junior and they're thinking, we don't want this guy to beat us. Yeah. And you can't because he's 23 years old and he has two 40 home run seasons already. Juan Gonzalez and Eddie Matthews are the only players other than him in history to have two 40 home or seasons before 23 years old.

7:19That's how good this guy has been. And he's becoming even better hitter this year because he's become more patient. He recognizes if I'm not going to get a pitch to hit, I'm not going to go out of the strike zone. But his power is ridiculous. But we proved they proved last night. Jonathan Rada is a very dangerous man as is Yandee Diaz. So it's not like the race or just this plucky little feisty little team. They have three guys who can hit the ball out of the ballpark in the first three batters of the game. You get past them. You got a better shot. But get through those first three is not easy to do. Give me the X factor for the game here tonight, Tim. What are you looking at? What is the one player or players who could be one from both sides who can really figure into the outcome? Well, I know Ben Rice. I've been Rice. It's going to finish in the top four of the MVP voting this year. He had an amazing series, two game series against the Red Sox. Now he's played eight games this year, counting game one.

8:20He's got five homers at the top. His numbers against Rasmussen, he's like one for 20 now against Rasmussen. We got to watch him tonight against Peralta because he's the best hitter on the Yankees right now. So he's the guy that you have to keep your eye on no matter what. With the raise, it could be any one of those guys. But again, Yandee Diaz sets the tone at the top. He led the league in hits and I found out yesterday and I did not know this that he did not challenge a pitch with the ABS system the entire evening. I find that impossible to believe that a guy who's that good of a hitter would not find but he's like, I was told by Eduardo Perez, my broadcast mate that he just doesn't want to embarrass himself or the umpire. So he just goes with the flow and boy, he's a good flow hitter. That's for sure. That he is and I could tell you this Tim, it's been a long running conversation here and I've been talking about on the show. Yandee just will not do it. He doesn't like the ABS challenge system.

9:22He's a traditional guy. The race have talked to him about challenging certain pitches and he joked, well, we get it to the playoffs of the World Series. I might use one of the challenges then, but trust me, that's been an ongoing conversation here. Nobody knows the strike zone better than that guy might as well use it. You would think is it's a really important thing to do, but I'm not about to tell a really good hitter to stop the way that he's been going in order to add something in. These guys are all creatures. I have it and if he's uncomfortable doing it, I'm not going to make him change. He espionsed Tim Kirch and kind enough to join us here on a game day, raising the Yankees game to at the top tonight. So I talked to Eric Neander every Friday. So when I had him on this past Friday, he was kind of evasive about their plans, but he did say, look, when you have this many off days and there are three off days over the course of this series, it makes sense to take your two best pitchers and use them twice. So it kind of feels like Rasmussen, you just saw him. You got paralta tonight.

10:23Paralta's been very good at home, two and no, two and one at home and four starts with a 1.69 ERA. I think they're going to go Martinez game three. They're going to come back with Rasmussen game four and then paralta again at the top game five. Is that what you're hearing? That makes the most sense to me. Look, I'm almost 70 years old. I grew up at a time where the starting pitcher had great value and we used him and used him and used him some more because he was the best pitcher on the team. We've gotten away from that, but if I'm going to beat the Yankees and advance to the next round, I want my best starting pitchers out there as often as possible. And if you go to Drew Rasmussen and say, are you going to be ready to start game four? He's going to look at you like, is this a trick question? Of course, I'm going to be ready to start game four. They want more work. They want more action and more starts. And I think we should give it to them because we've kind of lost the value of the starting pitcher in our game today.

11:24And this is not a time to do that if you're the raise and you're playing the Yankees. All right. I'll get you out of this. I'm shame that these are the two best teams in the American League and they're meeting in the best of five when they should be meeting in the ALCS. And you know, a baseball kind of wakes up and smells the coffee and maybe recedes after the first round where the top seed gets a lowest remaining seed and then maybe you can get raised in the Yankees at a best of seven ALCS. Do you feel the same way? Yeah, I think we should recede. Look, I understand the importance and the integrity of 162 games. And every team will tell you the first goal is always to win your division. And I really, truly understand that. However, after you win your division and you're say the Houston Astros with 81 wins, I'm sorry, you should, the teams with more wins should move up after that. So I would, I would think about receding. Maybe baseball has heard enough about this that they might take a look at it.

12:26But you know, we're slow to react to things in baseball, I understand why, but I think it's time to do it because this postseason kind of proves it because to me at least, the raise in the Yankees are the two best teams in the American League and they should be playing in the next round. Maybe not this one. All right. I'll put you on a spot who comes out of the American League. Do you like Milwaukee or LA coming out of the National League? Who's meeting in the World Series? Tim? Hi, well, I'm really bad at this. But at the beginning of the playoffs, we all have to make our picks as if it really matters as if we know something's going to happen. We don't know. It's so unpredictable. It's the beauty of the game. I picked the brewers to play the raise in the World Series, not to be different like how cool would this be to smaller market teams that kind of play a similar style of baseball. I just think they're the two best teams right now because they play the game differently and they play it so correctly.

13:26So if that's the thing to do with October baseball and maybe it doesn't anymore, maybe after the ball out of the ballpark to win in October, but I've got the brewers playing the raise in the World Series. I'm with you. And you know what? That's going to piss off a lot of people because everyone wants to see the big bad Yankees and of course the Dodgers going for the three-p and of course with the upcoming CBA. Talks, Tim, that might put a monkey wrench in their plans too in terms of the owners. Yeah. Look, I don't care who plays in the World Series. I just want to go to the World Series for the 47th year in a row. That's all I care about. Tim, keep up the great work. Thanks for a few minutes. Have a great call to the game today. We appreciate you. Okay. Thank you, Tom. Thank you. That's the great Tim Kirchian of ESPN. Great, great stuff there. He'll be on the call for ESPN radio. Of course. We've got our guys Chris Adams wall with the official race pregame show coming up at 730. Then you have Andy Fried, Neil Solons with the call right here on your home for race baseball

14:29957 WDAE and AM620 game to tonight. Freddie Peralta on one side. Cam Shilitler on the other side. You know runs will be at a premium. And think about this. The race won one nothing. And it was one home run. That was the difference with Jonathan or on the if they're going to be Cam Shilitler tonight. They've got to get bought get that they have to get to him by playing their brand of baseball, meaning the bumping the speed. I think Chandler Simpson is going to be a major weapon here tonight. We got to force these Yankees to field their positions. The corner infielders, Cam Shilitler was pretty good at it. But you know what? Sometimes in a high pressure situation, guys crack Austin Wells. He cracked. He got greedy. He got caught up in the moment and he cracked.

15:29Making the third out at third base is a no no. I was taught that in little league. But when you're on the heat of the moment, play off baseball. Sometimes you don't focus on what's important. And you don't you don't understand situationally what you should or shouldn't be doing. And you know, he had a brain fart and he paid the ultimate price. And the rays were able to win. Rasmussen was incredible. The change up and they've studied the Yankees and they know that the Yankees have struggled against the change up and Rasmussen through it. And you just heard Tim mention it and Liam Hicks. We played a his comments that Rasmussen used that change up more than he normally would. And he got 23 swings and misses on that change up. Actually from all of his pitches on Saturday, he was incredible. It was an historic performance historic. And now it's starting to be.

16:29The drive with T-Cross podcast is powered by Farrah and Farrah. Tampa accident attorneys. If you're ready to feel confident again, visit orderlymeds.com to learn about which GLP1 you may be eligible for. Getting started as fast, easy and happens virtually through telemedicine from licensed professionals. Game confidence, choose healthy habits this fall. Check it out for yourself. Go to orderlymeds.com. That's orderlymeds.com. Taking care of yourself feels great. Compounded medications are not FDA approved. Eligibility required entertainment by a licensed provider. Individual results may vary. See website for details.