00:00Red Sox, that's a bad one.
00:01What are you doing?
00:01That's not a good one last night.
00:03That one leaves you feeling bad.
00:06Even if they won, I'm not sure I'd be feeling great about it.
00:09I mean, it was exciting.
00:10That whole run was great.
00:11It was a great moment.
00:13Park was lit.
00:14Flashing was going on.
00:16Yeah, but when you strand that many runners
00:18and you have issues in game
00:20against the rotting dead corpse of the Baltimore Orioles,
00:27like, what are we doing here?
00:29That's the point.
00:30I understand the flow of the game.
00:32Like, 13 straight out on base, you've got to send him.
00:34You've got to send him.
00:35Like, there's no choice there.
00:37Tag.
00:38Send him.
00:39I mean, what are we doing here?
00:40And I know Cor said, what?
00:42We self-scout before each game.
00:43He's got a live arm out there.
00:45We're not going to test it.
00:46That's the type of moment where you've got to send him
00:49based on how you left people on base.
00:53That's simple baseball, right?
00:55Simple.
00:57Come on.
00:58You're not sending him?
01:00No, I mean.
01:01I'm not sending him.
01:01I feel like it's not as easy a call as you make it out to be.
01:07I would have sent him.
01:08Yeah.
01:09Yeah.
01:09Personally, me, I'm sending him.
01:11Yeah.
01:11I mean, I'm Braintree Little League, man.
01:13Go.
01:13Isn't that aggressive?
01:15Wake him in, Wendell.
01:16Have you had the stupidity on the bases that they've had at times this year?
01:20Like, where they just do dumb things?
01:22What do you mean by that, Milliken?
01:23Nate Eaton is 95th percentile sprint speed.
01:25He is one of the faster guys in the entire sport.
01:28Colton Couser, 95th percentile arm strength.
01:31His arm value is lower because he gets a little wild at times.
01:34He's played over 500 innings in center field.
01:36He's only thrown a runner out once.
01:37Okay.
01:38So, I mean, the odds are you're going to be safe.
01:40Overwhelming odds are you're going to be safe in that situation.
01:44Yep.
01:44I'm more upset about them having bases loaded, no outs, and having three strikeouts.
01:49Oh, you didn't love that eighth inning?
01:50No.
01:50That, to me, is what stands out as, like, this is a, to me, this is a coaching decision.
01:56This is a thing in the 11th inning of a game in August that it's like, yeah, we can sit
02:00here and say, yeah, of course, you should have said to me, would have been safe.
02:02And now you've got a tie game.
02:03Doesn't mean you're going to win the game.
02:04But to blow the eighth inning the way they did, that, to me, is the sign of, oh, man, this
02:09is a team that statistically, where they are in the standings.
02:12I think I said they could coast the other day.
02:15I feel they're lucky to be there.
02:16Which is why I'm not as alarmed by them losing against Baltimore and the Marlins over the
02:20last couple of days, because I think the math is still very much on their side.
02:23So, I'm not, I'm not one of these, the sky, Dave O'Brien at the end of the game.
02:27Oh, my God.
02:28He was all about the sky is falling.
02:30This loss against the Orioles and the Marlins better not come back to bite them.
02:35I'm like, whoa.
02:36I get that.
02:37That's a broadcast drop in that.
02:38Good for you, Dave O'Brien.
02:40More critical than the sports hub.
02:41Dave O'Brien, more critical than me today, which is awesome.
02:46Glad to hear it.
02:47I get it, though.
02:47It's like going to a game against the Jets, and the Jets beat you.
02:49You can't lose this team.
02:51That eighth inning is why I don't really believe in them.
02:54I see that, and I'm like, ah, this is, yeah, they're going to make the playoffs, but I don't
02:59think they're going to make a real run.
03:01And I say it all the time.
03:02This team wouldn't surprise me if they were out in the first weekend or in the World Series.
03:08Who the hell knows?
03:09Because at home, they get hot, and they run into good luck, and good things happen to
03:13them.
03:14But innings like that shake my faith in them.
03:18And stranding all those runners on base shake my faith.
03:20And I'm sorry, in that situation late, yeah, you could throw that on the list.
03:24Not sending the guy and not being aware enough or smart enough to tie up the game there.
03:31It just feels bad.
03:35It feels like a really terrible loss last night in a lot of different ways.
03:38Well, it just wasn't the three strikeouts.
03:39It's where it happened in the order.
03:40It's your three, four, five hitters that are up.
03:42And who you did it against.
03:43Rico Garcia has been DFA three times this season.
03:46I got a bone to pick with Lou Merloni today.
03:49He absolutely jinxed them when he came into the game.
03:54Absolutely jinxed them.
03:55This is the guy they've been waiting for all night.
03:58And then he shoves it right up there.
04:00You know what?
04:01Duran had never seen a changeup before.
04:03That inning, I not only want to blame the Red Sox, I want to blame Lou Merloni for that.
04:08Lou, you jinxed him on that.
04:11You shouldn't have said that.
04:13That was why it happened.
04:14I believe in that stuff.
04:15I believe in that karma.
04:18This is the guy they've been waiting for all night.
04:21Like, just licking his chops, getting ready for that.
04:25At three Ks, they leave the bases loaded.
04:27In the eight.
04:28That was tough.
04:29That was really tough.
04:30They thought they were dead.
04:32It felt so much like 2021 when Travis Shaw got claimed off waivers.
04:36Like, third day here.
04:37Has the walk-off grand slam against the Rangers.
04:40It all kind of comes together.
04:41It was like, the team was kind of going downhill.
04:43You needed that pick-me-up.
04:44That's what the Nate Lohomer felt like.
04:46Yeah.
04:46And then still, in that ninth inning, Trevor Story going up there.
04:51They were walking the world.
04:52And here he is swinging out of his shoes at a pitch at his ankles.
04:55Yeah.
04:56It's like, come on, man.
04:57You should have been up at least 3-0, 3-1 in that count.
05:00Instead, you're just trying to be too aggressive.
05:01So, my question now, Red Sox playoff odds as of this morning, according to Fangraphs, is 71.8%.
05:08The Yankees have a 96.1% chance of being in the playoffs.
05:14Is this the biggest Red Sox-Yankees series in a while from the Red Sox perspective?
05:20I would say it is.
05:21Series, yes.
05:23I mean, they've had – what are you going to go back to?
05:26Was it – oh, God.
05:27When Buckles – was it when Buckles got hurt prior to that, like, middle of the summer, years ago?
05:33Yeah, this is a big one.
05:34This is where you went out.
05:35You paid for Bregman.
05:36You paid for Crochet.
05:38They got to step up big in this series.
05:40Like, they got to help carry you.
05:42Somebody's got to do something big in this series.
05:442022, Chris Sale, when his finger snapped, and it was kind of like, all right, this is go time for your season.
05:48Which way are you going to go?
05:49And you absolutely got smoked.
05:51But this year, you're 5-1 against the Yankees.
05:53Your season turned around after that nightmare night at the beginning of June when Walker Bueller got his teeth kicked in.
05:58That was kind of go time for you in a lot of ways.
06:00That was right before the Rafael Devers trade.
06:02Problem is, the Yankees are surging right now.
06:05I know a lot of people wrote them off and said they were done.
06:07They're not.
06:077-3, 1-4 in a row.
06:09And we talked about how much the first wild card means for this team and being at home in the playoffs.
06:14That's the stuff I'm worried about.
06:15And even outside the bubble, the Royals, arguably the hottest team in the sport besides the Brewers.
06:20They've won five in a row right now.
06:21Red Sox are in the third wild card spot.
06:23Yankees in the first.
06:2468 wins for each of them.
06:2759 losses for the Red Sox, which is two more than New York.
06:31It's go time.
06:32Yeah.
06:33You've got to tread water in this series, though.
06:34You've already lost three in a row right now.
06:36You can't have a debacle down in New York for this series.
06:38Otherwise, I do think you're in trouble, despite the fact you have a soft schedule coming up.
06:41I just think momentum matters in this situation.
06:48Let's go down to New York.
06:50Stay in New York.
06:50Watch the damn game.
06:51Yeah.
06:52Well, you're going down there.
06:53Yeah.
06:54I got the day off, too, on Friday.
06:56Ooh.
06:57No.
06:57Can't do that.
06:59You have your three playoff starters going in this series.
07:01That's the thing.
07:02You got your guys.
07:04And this is going to be a big indicator of how this season's probably going to end up for them.
07:09We'll see Crochet go seven.
07:10Go seven.
07:11Give up two.
07:13Get him out.
07:13Get a 3-2 win.
07:14So, I think this Yankee series is important for not only just the math and where they are and where the Yankees are.
07:23I think it's important for the Red Sox to prove they're not about to have another Alex Cora second half end of season collapse.
07:29And this is where they can do it.
07:31Because if you go there and you drop two of three or you get swept, the Cora collapses on.
07:37Again.
07:38You think, huh?
07:39Yeah, I do.
07:39This is where it gets bad.
07:41Yeah, that's where the momentum end of August into September.
07:45Yeah, but this is where, like you said, they have the ability to potentially coast here.
07:48Where those other years, they bottomed out, man.
07:52I don't see them bottoming out.
07:54Because everybody else, this thing's a log jam.
07:57And there's no great team right now.
07:58Well, I just wonder if the Red Sox are about to, you know, mentally become undone.
08:02And Jaren Duran had another moment last night, by the way.
08:05That was great.
08:06For those of you who don't know, he was yelling at a fan behind home plate saying,
08:11F you, meow.
08:12That's better than the last one.
08:17Yeah, that's a glass half full there.
08:19It's getting better.
08:19It's getting better.
08:19Right.
08:20Now, I think we can say that word.
08:22Yeah.
08:22I mean, after the end of yesterday's show, I'm pretty sure we can say anything.
08:26What happened to him?
08:27Well, I don't know.
08:29Maybe you were asleep.
08:31F-U-P was what he said.
08:35It's not the first time that he's had an issue with fans.
08:39So, he's at Fenway at home plate turning around yelling at fans in the crowd.
08:44Does that feel like a locked-in team?
08:45Does that feel like a locked-in guy?
08:46No.
08:47At home, no.
08:48No.
08:50That's all.
08:52That stuff.
08:53I don't get it.
08:54This guy always has issues with fans.
08:56He's always yelling at fans.
08:57Can't block it out.
08:58Yelling at fans at the outfield.
09:00Yelling at fans.
09:01The homophobic slur thing last year.
09:03Now, he's got this going on.
09:06But it tends to happen when things are not going well for the team.
09:11And things are mentally starting to unravel.
09:14A team leader.
09:15Well, if your team leader is getting so caught up in yelling at fans in the stands
09:18in the middle of an at-bat, I don't know where anybody is at.
09:22And you brag about how big of a leader he is and how much of an important guy he
09:25is in that clubhouse.
09:26Shouldn't he be one of the most relaxed guys on the team?
09:29You would think so.
09:32I can't believe he gets bugged by it at home.
09:34Like, that's the killer.
09:36On the road, yeah, you're going to get harassed.
09:38But, man, one fan's going to bug you at home?
09:41Sure is, you don't have the ability to have tunnel vision, man.
09:43Block that out.
