00:00It was fun.
00:02Right away, Tyler Wells came in.
00:05He asked, how big of a vibes guy are you?
00:07I said it before, I'll say it again.
00:09I'm always down for the boys.
00:10So next thing I know, I'm thrown into the laundry cart,
00:13going into the shower, getting dosed.
00:14So it was a great time.
00:18If that doesn't put a smile on your face,
00:20I don't know what will, Baltimore.
00:21It's Vinny and Haney here on 105.7 The Fan.
00:24A little bit of a different lineup for you today.
00:26Nolan McGraw, Steve Molesky with you here.
00:28Until noon, when Ryan Ripken comes in
00:31and joins us for the first Ripping It With Ryan show of the summer.
00:35We'll be rolling him in here at noon to two on Fridays
00:38and Thursdays, for that matter, for the rest of the Orioles season.
00:41But we begin today with elation.
00:45Baseball is not only back,
00:46but the Orioles are also back in the win column, Steve.
00:49And it's always a good sign.
00:51I believe that's four straight opening day victories for the Orioles now.
00:54And, I mean, yesterday was just a perfect, perfect day.
00:59Weather, down to the crowd atmosphere,
01:02everyone getting a chance to see all those new amenities at Camden Yards,
01:06and then, of course, the performance on the field.
01:08But your big takeaways from yesterday are the first thing that comes to mind
01:12because the reason I come in with that Helsley save there
01:15is that that was my big takeaway from the game,
01:18was we've got that closer presence on the mound again.
01:23And life without Felix Bautista in the past
01:25has been a little tricky for this team.
01:27It's not the easiest guy in the world to replace.
01:30But I tell you, Helsley hitting triple digits yesterday,
01:32that had me feeling all right.
01:34Well, it did.
01:35And the thing was, you know,
01:37last time he was seen in baseball last year,
01:40he had over 70 ERA in 22 games for the Mets.
01:43At the end of the year, he's tipping his pitches.
01:45They were hitting his fastball.
01:47And so this guy throws 99.
01:50That's what he averaged last year.
01:52Yesterday he averaged 100.
01:53And of his 19 pitches, six were 100-plus.
01:57I mean, he was throwing incredible stuff in the ninth.
02:00A slider that he got the last strikeout on, he buried that.
02:04He's got a splitter now.
02:05He buried one or two of those.
02:07I mean, there are some weapons here.
02:09He's got three above-average weapons with 100,
02:14and he's got the experience.
02:16So now behind him, Nolan, it drops off dramatically.
02:20So you keep your fingers crossed here that health stays well for this guy.
02:25But, you know, for one night, he looked like the 2024 version,
02:29which led the major leagues in saves.
02:31So, you know, we're going to get into all this, I know, in the show today.
02:34But, you know, we could add Kobe Mayo's defense to that list.
02:37We could add Samuel Basayo's scamper first to third, so big.
02:41What I like about close games in baseball, especially low-scoring close games,
02:46you have to do a lot right to win them.
02:49And I've heard some fans were even telling me last night,
02:52well, it wasn't a perfect win.
02:54I'm like, well, baseball is not perfect.
02:57If you're looking for perfect, you're in the wrong sport.
03:00Because many games, they're going to win, and it won't be perfect.
03:03But yesterday, they did do a lot right.
03:06And so, fun day.
03:08Right.
03:09Would it have been great if Pete Alonzo stepped up there after the ovation
03:12in his first at-bat and hit the warehouse?
03:14Of course.
03:15Everyone would have went crazy.
03:16It would have been great.
03:17If he went five for five yesterday, Gunner had hit for the cycle.
03:21We would have been over the moon.
03:22But I liked that it was some of the lesser-known guys.
03:25I mean, Blaze Alexander, huge at-bat with the RBI.
03:28Couser, just doing what's required of you at the time.
03:31I mean, for a guy who struggled to make contact and strikeouts a ton,
03:35just needed a sack fly.
03:37Just put it in the air.
03:37He did it.
03:38Gets you on the board.
03:39It was the lesser-known guys, or I should say,
03:43not the expected pieces that were contributing yesterday.
03:47Mayo's defense, for sure, turning two huge double plays.
03:50The first one in particular was actually a tough fielding play
03:54where he's doing the spin and the timing,
03:57the transition from Blaze over to Alonzo at first,
03:59who he was fired up.
04:01There was an energy in the ballpark yesterday
04:04that I think the team, the crowd was wanting to give it.
04:08After such a bad year last year, the crowd was like,
04:10we just need an excuse to let loose today.
04:13And the team responded accordingly.
04:15Exactly.
04:16I mean, it would have been a buzzkill to lose opening day,
04:18let that lead get away.
04:19Oh, my gosh, we'd be having a very different show today.
04:22But they did what they needed to do, man,
04:25and it was, you're right, Blaze Alexander,
04:26he flies under the radar, but he's a high-energy guy.
04:30And you could just see in his interviews, man,
04:32he's still wired.
04:34And I think he's going to be fun.
04:36And he really did some nice turns in the middle of those double plays
04:38because 5-4-3, you've got to do a lot right from here to there.
04:42And I love the passion of Alonzo after that first double play.
04:45He knew Mayo made a great play and that they got two outs.
04:49And a Cal Ripken senior used to say, don't make half a great play.
04:53You know, like, make the great stop and then throw it into right field
04:55or something.
04:56So Mayo did everything right.
04:58I think we've been saying of Mayo's defense,
05:01just make the routine plays and don't hurt them.
05:04Well, yesterday he went above and beyond that.
05:07Those were not routine.
05:08And he made some outstanding plays.
05:10And we were talking about it at Pickles yesterday,
05:13which, by the way, what a great day there.
05:15I was so excited.
05:16I was jealous of you guys.
05:17I was so excited to be part of the fans coverage out there.
05:20And we had a great time.
05:21And there was just a sea of people.
05:24I can still see it in my mind here.
05:27But we were talking about the maturity he seems to be showing this year.
05:32He's come far in a year.
05:34Just one interview with him Sunday when I went over to his locker
05:37before the game with the Nats, I could see he's grown a lot.
05:42And he just feel, he seems to feel like, I can do this.
05:46There's, he knows I'm going to mess some things up.
05:49He even said that.
05:49I'm going to mess some things up.
05:51That's what happens in baseball.
05:53But I think he feels, after that spring he had a bat,
05:56I think he feels he belongs.
05:58And he knows right now he's out there every night.
06:01He's not worried looking over his shoulder.
06:02Now, at some point, hopefully Jordan Westberg's going to come back.
06:05But it's got weeks down the road.
06:08So this kid's got a lot of runway here.
06:10And I'm excited to see what he can do with it.
06:12Yeah.
06:12I mean, the circumstances, like you said, it's not ideal.
06:15We didn't want Mayo to be playing every day with the injury to Westberg
06:20for that to be the reason.
06:22But what was it, last year, where he actually had a decent spring at the plate,
06:26but then, you know, there's no room at the inn.
06:28He gets sent down.
06:29And he made some comments out of frustration about, you know, a young player, right?
06:34He was just frustrated.
06:35And people kind of ran with it and everything.
06:37We had some fun with it on air.
06:38But in hindsight, you look back and it's like, well, how do you blame the guy?
06:42You know, I mean, it's a tough situation when you're surrounded by that much talent
06:45and you feel like you're proving yourself, but the opportunity isn't there.
06:49Now the opportunity is there.
06:51And, well, you can't say he's not taking the full advantage of it, at least for yesterday.
06:56It's come a long way.
06:57Remember his first go-round at the major leagues, had like a 400 OPS.
07:01I mean, it was not, it wasn't just rough.
07:03It was really, really rough.
07:05And he just looked over a match like he didn't belong.
07:07And if we had said to someone at noon yesterday, Nolan,
07:10the Oros are going to win this game today and Kobe Mayo's defense is going to be one of the
07:13biggest factors.
07:14They'd have said, okay, yeah, God, I hear you.
07:16Yeah, yeah, yeah.
07:17We just don't hope Kobe doesn't botch it up.
07:20Well, his defense was a big factor.
07:22And remember, the Orioles moved this kid off third base because of defense.
07:26But yesterday they won in large part because of his defense.
07:30So that shows you, you're going to make improvements.
07:32And one game doesn't mean Kobe's all of a sudden Brooks Robinson over there
07:36or he's going to be a plus defender.
07:37I still would say get, you know, you hope over the long haul, average-ish, and make all the plays.
07:43And if he occasionally makes a great one like yesterday, all the better.
07:46But that was a really good day for him.
07:49Yeah.
07:49I mean, well, I was going to say he doesn't get replaced in the ninth inning in a tight game
07:53where you might think,
07:54oh, typically let's get a shaky defender off the field.
07:57But to be fair, I don't know if Jeremiah Jackson's necessarily the most elite third base defender either.
08:04They kept Vazquez or, you know, whether it's really glove first guys, maybe they make that move.
08:094-1-0, 5-8-3, 1-0-5-7.
08:11If you've got some thoughts on yesterday's win, we want to hear from you.
08:14What were you most impressed by with the Orioles' 2-1 victory over the Twins?
08:18We'll get into all of this stuff throughout the rest of the show today.
08:21We are wall-to-wall baseball on 1-0-5-7, the fan today, at least on our portion, 10
08:27-2.
08:28We will briefly talk a little tournament, but other than that, it is mostly Orioles here.
08:334-1-0, 5-8-3, 1-0-5-7.
08:36While we're talking defense real quick, before the break, it wasn't just a Mayo thing, right?
08:41I mean, he was the popular guy to point at, like, oh, you've got to fix your defense there.
08:47But team-wide defense was in question, at least for me.
08:50Yesterday, kind of a mixed bag.
08:52You know, O'Neal had the gaffe in right field where, you know, they were coming in and didn't get
08:56a good read on it.
08:57And then the stranger one to me was in that eighth inning where the Twins finally got on the board,
09:03the Buxton triple.
09:04Now, maybe he reaches third no matter what there because the ball was rocketed into the corner.
09:08But maybe Taylor Ward getting his first taste of the unusual dimensions out there, getting fooled a little bit.
09:15But, I don't know, just watching the replay back, you kind of, I think whether he misplayed that or not
09:21is in the eye of the beholder.
09:22And I've heard people say he misplayed that ball.
09:25And like you said, that ball was drilled into the corner.
09:27Maybe it's going to get there anyway.
09:29Buxton can really run.
09:30It didn't seem like he had juice on the throw in.
09:33He kind of lobbed the ball in.
09:34Did he think he had no shot at all at third?
09:36So, I think top left fielder maybe makes that play differently, maybe takes a better or different angle and holds
09:44him to two.
09:45And so, in a close game, yeah, that's a big play.
09:48But you're not overlooking it, but you're understanding it better because they won.
09:54And, again, it's not going to be perfect.
09:57Nine innings of baseball, two and a half, three hours.
09:59There are going to be some things that go wrong for both sides.
10:03And so, I mean, Trevor Rodgers walked four.
10:07That's the most he walked in any game last year is four at season high.
10:10So, that was unexpected, but he made big pitches that it didn't hurt him.
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