00:00Let's just go on record. First things first here, Craig, as a diehard Yankee fan, the idea that I would
00:06ever lead with a Red Sox story is just blasphemous.
00:10And you understand that that's even if I have to rip the Yankees in the opening, I will do that
00:17before I ever congratulate the Red Sox tying a franchise record with 15 games and winning streak.
00:23In fact, I think Carl Yastrzemski was six years old the last time they won this many games in a
00:31row.
00:32You got to go back to, you know, Ted Williams days, guys, to find anything even close to this.
00:40Listen, you don't ever want to catch a falling knife, we say, right?
00:44And that goes for teams that are heading the wrong way. I don't know, a team like the Marlins comes
00:49into mind.
00:49But what you also don't want to do is, of course, step in front of a train like the Red
00:55Sox right now who are getting it.
00:58And listen, Baltimore over the last couple of weeks, number one against left-handed pitching in Major League Baseball.
01:04And what did they get today? They got a left-hander in the rookie Bennett.
01:09Did it matter? Absolutely not. The kid was phenomenal.
01:12And they got enough runs and enough offense.
01:15And they just held off Baltimore the rest of the way.
01:18Hey, you and I talked about the thing that's going really well for the Red Sox during this streak, starting
01:24pitching and bullpen.
01:26If that continues, again, they don't have to score 12 runs to win a game, Greg.
01:31And I think that is really the story of what's going on.
01:35We thought, ah, they don't have any home run hitters.
01:38They don't have a—they don't need to score a lot of runs if they're going to keep pitching both starting
01:44and bullpen the way that they have.
01:46And I don't know that Baltimore is going to be the answer to this, where all of a sudden, you
01:52know, you know what happens when they're due.
01:54That ain't going to happen here.
01:57Craig Breslow, I hate to admit it, is looking smarter and smarter by each win here of the Red Sox.
02:03And I'm not stepping in front of that.
02:06I mean, they announced Rivera being the lefty.
02:08Not me against—I'll take the Red Sox again against Kyle Braddish.
02:13Yeah, I think so.
02:15It's the way to go.
02:15You know the other thing, Joe, that has happened with this Red Sox winning streak is that—and you mentioned Craig
02:21Breslow.
02:21That's a good point—is that everybody in Craig Breslow's seat right now, Joe, that's sitting in their office, that's looking
02:29over players and the trade deadline,
02:31no matter what their record is outside of, I don't know, maybe the Mets or the Rockies or the A's,
02:38like a few teams, they're all going, look at those guys.
02:41They just won 15 in a row.
02:43I would probably say, Joe, that the Red Sox have saved their season charging toward a potential postseason berth and
02:52may ruin the trade deadline.
02:53Because now everyone is looking at them going, wait a second, why are we punting?
02:59Why are we giving up?
03:00We can't.
03:01We can't stop.
03:02I mean, if the Red Sox can do it and they look left for dead, I mean, they were right
03:06there with the Mets and the Giants.
03:07And now all of a sudden they're there.
03:09Like if you're—like the Giants, that's a crazy talk here, Joe.
03:11But if you're the Giants—and they played the Royals today, what a disaster.
03:15But if you're sitting out there and you're Buster Posey, are you saying to yourself, well, the Red Sox just
03:20won 15 in a row?
03:21We'll take 12.
03:23We'll just win 12 in a row and we're right back in it, too.
03:26So this is the big story of the summer at this point.
03:30It wasn't the story in the early part of the year.
03:32But now the Red Sox, you have to consider them very much in the mix as far as buyers.
03:36You have to consider them very much in the mix for the playoffs.
03:39The only team I think this really hurts, Joe, are the Blue Jays.
03:43I think this may put the Blue Jays to bed over the next week or so.
03:46But I think everybody else is looking at this like, why not us?
03:50Why can't we do what they did?
03:52And again, it's, you know, the 15-game winning streak is great since July 3rd.
03:58But, you know, they've won 20 of their last 22 games.
04:01And it's happened prior to the All-Star game.
04:04They came out of the All-Star game.
04:06They just—they have been rolling.
04:08And they're getting contributions up and down.
04:11I mean, Chapman, again, I think ninth on the all-time saves list after this game here today.
04:18He closed it out into the 9th, 390th career save.
04:22He's now in company with Dennis Eckersley, I think, tied for ninth on the career saves list.
04:28I think a Chapman—I don't—Cubs, Yankees, Red Sox.
04:33That was with Pittsburgh a year ago.
04:35Royals.
04:36You know, for a guy that's top 10 all-time and to have been as on many teams as he
04:41has, kind of crazy when you think about it, correct?
04:45Well, the thing with Chapman, Joe, is that he completely fell off two, three years ago.
04:50Everyone thought his career was over.
04:52He was working out here in South Florida, pitching in both Dade and Broward County.
04:57In fact, he was at my son's school.
04:59He threw a bullpen.
05:01And he couldn't get a job.
05:03He couldn't get a one-year, one-million, Joe.
05:05He ended up signing, I believe it was with the Pirates at the time, or the Royals.
05:09He bounced around with those two teams for a couple of years.
05:12Now, all of a sudden, he's back to being the guy that he was seven to ten years ago, which
05:17is incredible.
05:18The one thing that I'll say about Chapman—and naturally, he's got the—he had the domestic stuff going on with him
05:24in the past.
05:24It's going to be a very complex Hall of Fame case when it comes out.
05:28The one thing that I would say in Chapman's favor—and I don't think that it changed.
05:32I think that he just went through a couple of injury-plagued seasons and he wasn't himself—is nobody works harder
05:37than this guy, Joe.
05:38You've seen this guy lifting weights and his body and the way that he takes care of himself.
05:43And that, I think, has kept him around in the game for a really, really long time.
05:48But you're right.
05:49His elite game was back when it was with the Yankees and then traded to the Cubs and then back
05:53to the Yankees again.
05:54And he's still a guy, though.
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