00:00Rob Bradford, what the hell is going on with this team, sir?
00:04First of all, McFarland to you all.
00:06And also, as I trademarked the saying, is my prerogative to be wrong.
00:11So I like myself personally, and it's my prerogative to be wrong,
00:15which everybody is, by the way.
00:17Everybody is.
00:18Although I would say that we might have been right about some things,
00:21but still nobody was right about the fact that they could absolutely win a streak like this
00:26because they hadn't won more than three in a row all the way to the Yankee series in mid-June.
00:33How did you ever feel like this team, a team that had won three in a row twice,
00:38had never won more than three in a row, could actually do something like this?
00:42Nobody.
00:420-0-0-0.
00:44Even Kelsey can.
00:45Oh, no.
00:46Yeah, I can't.
00:47I bailed.
00:48Rich was the only one.
00:49Oh, yeah.
00:50Title winner.
00:51Pants off Atlanta series.
00:54Who could forget that?
00:56Even Sonny Gray made a comment.
00:58Oh, he said we stink.
00:59Yeah.
01:00He was like, yeah, well, I thought we were bad.
01:01I said we were bad when we were bad, and, you know, we've changed.
01:04So if Sonny Gray is even saying that you're full of crap if you thought that this team
01:08was going to turn things around, then, yeah, then absolutely.
01:11I was the only one.
01:12I'll take the credit.
01:15So can I just ask you just a basic question first?
01:18I mean, this has been really wild to watch,
01:21and I know a lot of people are trying to pinpoint, like, when it started.
01:25Was there something that, you know, kind of triggered a turnaround?
01:28Is it all Chad Tracy?
01:29Like, when you kind of see how things have turned out, like, when they write the book
01:33on this, you know, when they finally win a championship,
01:37when they write the book on this season, what are they going to say turned it all around?
01:41It's a good question.
01:42And, first of all, I heard you guys talking about the fight maybe being the T-shirt gun
01:47for this whole thing, and it wasn't because I go back to when the moment
01:51that Wilson Contreras threw his helmet, they did terrible for two games.
01:56They lost two games.
01:57Now, they had won the Yankees before, then they won after.
02:01I think that there wasn't – like, a few years ago, 2022,
02:06the Seattle Mariners went on a heater almost identical to this.
02:09It was incredible.
02:10It was about – I think they went 22-3.
02:12Same time of the season.
02:13Same time of the season, but they traded for a guy named Carlos Santana,
02:17not the guitarist, but Carlos Santana.
02:20And a lot of people say that's what you needed.
02:23You needed to have someone to push you over the edge, get you down that road.
02:26The Red Sox didn't do anything like that unless you count Anthony Siegler
02:30or someone like that.
02:31I do think that an enormous amount of credit has to go to Chad Tracy for this reason.
02:37It's because you have to let a lot of this play out,
02:40and that's what the front office was banking on.
02:42They were banking on their projections being right, this playing out the right way,
02:47the process being right, and you have to have a manager who absolutely is on board
02:52with that and also is pushing things in just the right direction,
02:55pushing just enough when he needs to, but also, as we have pointed out many times,
03:01Chad Tracy, he's very, very even keel.
03:04So it's never been throwing the cougar in the car with Chad Tracy.
03:07It's just been, all right, you know, one day at a time,
03:10and we're going to figure it out, and I'm going to address things as they come.
03:13So I think an enormous amount of credit goes to Chad Tracy.
03:16Okay, well, here are some other possible turning points.
03:18If you texted in, Rob, you tell me which one of these jumps out at you
03:21and scratches right where you itch.
03:23Roman sent to Florida, the Venezuela tragedy, Cora fired,
03:27the Tarpon Army slash Tartan Army, Lorenzo and Gratom G-Swing.
03:33Any of those?
03:34All right, first of all, let's go one at a time.
03:37Can we go one at a time?
03:38Okay, all right, Roman to Florida.
03:40All right, Estas Loco, right?
03:42You know what that means?
03:43That's crazy.
03:44That means you're crazy.
03:45That's what Will you're brave?
03:47That was a signature moment in Red Sox, the Red Sox season.
03:50Will you're brave who's shouting?
03:51Oh, what's that Saturday night?
03:53Yeah, I'm pronouncing it poorly.
03:55I don't care, but it means that you guys are crazy in Spanish.
03:58Estas Loco.
03:59Estas Loco.
04:00You're crazy.
04:01No, Roman, no.
04:02Yeah, exactly.
04:04Baseball, no, as a burrito.
04:06So, no, the Roman thing, I'll say, I said to you guys before,
04:10I think it's overstated.
04:11Certainly sending him to Florida.
04:12You know, they were doing well before that.
04:15That has nothing to do with that.
04:16The conversation with Roman is all about whether or not you think you can get
04:20something from him and how you judge adding to the roster off of that.
04:24What's the next one?
04:24Venezuela and the emotions?
04:26No, I mean, I think that was in the heart of the chaos against the Nationals.
04:31I don't think that did them any favors, to be perfectly honest with you.
04:34Scottish people here?
04:35Absolutely.
04:36Absolutely.
04:36Tartan Army pixie dust.
04:38The Red Sox have, this is science and math.
04:42The Red Sox are the best World Cup team in Major League Baseball.
04:45They, from June 11th, the day that I first saw a kilt at Fenway Park, that first day when
04:52the World Cup started, until the last day of the World Cup, the Red Sox are 23-9, the
04:58best record over that span in all of Major League Baseball.
05:01They got swept by Toronto.
05:02It doesn't matter.
05:03They implemented the vibes, and yeah, they got swept by Toronto, but it carried over.
05:10Bradford, I'm not kidding you.
05:12I think that was like the first time that Fenway had actually been like a blast all season,
05:16like where you were there and you're like, oh my God, this looks like it's fun as hell.
05:19And I know this, and I'm not giving it the credit, you know, like realistically, but I
05:23don't know.
05:24Maybe that stuff's infectious.
05:26I give them credit.
05:26Yeah.
05:27Well, because think about it, Rich.
05:29We were sort of in this morose, woe is us, what a terrible season, what are we going to
05:34do all summer element, and it revitalized us.
05:39The problem was is that we thought immediately when they left town, we were going to be like,
05:44how many more days until we can talk about A.J. Brown?
05:47How many more days can we do anything?
05:50How are we going to get through this summer?
05:52And I think that that's the thing that we sort of grabbed onto right around after that,
05:57as you said, the Toronto series, but after that, you got some confidence, and this is
06:02the biggest thing for me.
06:04It's just that you have some success, you have confidence, oh my goodness, we can actually
06:10win a game where down three runs, that sort of thing, and that goes a long way because
06:15there is, and I remember Chad Tracy telling you guys that, you're grabbing the bat too
06:19tight, you're putting too much pressure, everybody's telling you, you suck, all of it.
06:24Like, that was a very real thing, and then you have some success, thanks in large part
06:28to the Tartan Army and their kilts, and you're on your way.
06:30All right, yep.
06:32Go ahead.
06:33I'm sorry, go ahead, Ted.
06:33Go ahead.
06:34Just, what, I mean, do you think that's all it was, was just the guys were tight, these
06:40guys were just feeling the pressure of it all?
06:42I mean, there was a lot of, they're swinging outside of the zone pitches, we're off the
06:47charts, that's gotten a little bit better, they're not striking out as much, do you think
06:50their approach at the plate is now they're just not holding on to that state?
06:53Yeah, no, I mean, Ted, I think that that was part of it, but that's not the only part
06:57of it, you know, when, when we looked at the Rays when they came in before, and we said,
07:01why can't you have a good team like that?
07:03To me, it was all the pieces on their team fit perfectly.
07:07Everyone knew their role, everyone knew how they should play the game, everyone knew this
07:12was a strategy, and the Red Sox sort of like, oh, we kind of want to feel that way, but
07:16we're,
07:17we still aren't, you know, we're still trying to jack home runs when we can't jack home runs.
07:21But then, I think to answer your question, that they have, they understood that they
07:27could do the things that they're doing now.
07:30More bunting, more sacrifice.
07:30More bunting, more, and actually, like, the pieces fit better, and, and I come back to
07:35Siegler, or I come back to whoever, like, it's, the, the, for whatever reason, the pieces
07:40finally fit like they thought they would all along, because they didn't get the unbelievable
07:47middle-of-the-order hitter everyone was screaming about, but as we've seen when the Rays, when
07:51they're going well, you don't necessarily need stars up and down the lineup if everybody
07:57understands what they can do, and, and yes, and that goes to, obviously, Caleb, your
08:01guy, Caleb Durbin, and Lorenzo, and, and what he can do as well.
08:04He's on Channel 5.
08:05He's hot.
08:06Oh, he's on Channel 5.
08:07His brand has never been hot.
08:08Did they ask him about Carlos Narvaez?
08:09Of course, he didn't.
08:10He worked that in.
08:10Yes, he worked that in.
08:11Oh, he did?
08:12Oh, that was brave of him.
08:13Oh, he got Wookiee in there, too.
08:14Oh, he did?
08:15That was really brave of him, then.
08:16Yeah.
08:16Come on.
08:16No, no, no.
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