00:00Excited for Cody Bradford and the Texas Rangers.
00:04Let's get a little offense going here.
00:06Go ahead and give me cut number one, will you please?
00:09Good sir.
00:12496 OPS.
00:142-2, that's hit inside third.
00:16That is a fair ball right over the bag and down the line.
00:19Nimmo comes in to score.
00:21Berger hits the bag at third.
00:23He's being waved home.
00:24He scores standing up.
00:26Diving into third with a two-run triple is Justin Foscue.
00:30And the Rangers lead it 3-0.
00:32So, Justin Foscue right there.
00:34That was awesome, by the way.
00:34It was.
00:35With the triple, Wyatt Langford picks up an extra base hit,
00:39which is really important because he's been struggling
00:41since he had to leave the game, not this past weekend,
00:44but the weekend before.
00:46Yeah, after the ball that got hit off his foot,
00:48we even asked Jared about it yesterday.
00:50And Mike and Dave were talking about it right at his at-bat,
00:55like right during that at-bat.
00:56And the next thing you know, he puts one right past the shortstop,
01:01gap in the left center field, and it just rolled.
01:05And Wyatt had, that was a great moment for Wyatt
01:08because it feels like you can get the ball rolling
01:10with some confidence there.
01:12Absolutely.
01:12And so, all of those things are important.
01:15And I don't mean to make it sound like I'm discounting any of that,
01:20but it feels like the biggest takeaway from this game
01:24is the return and appearance of Cody Bradford.
01:29Two things.
01:30Actually, you're dead on about that.
01:32And we'll get to the other one in just a second.
01:35Kevin, we didn't know how much.
01:37You asked about the pitch count yesterday to skip.
01:39Right.
01:39We didn't know what we were going to get, but Kevin...
01:4275, give or take.
01:44Exactly kind of what I was hoping.
01:45He had 70.
01:46Yeah, exactly what I was kind of hoping for out of him.
01:48It's just there's a presence that he has that he never looks flustered.
01:52He always looks calm.
01:53And now, I don't know if yesterday was there was some adrenaline involved,
01:57but he just always has this calm presence on the mound.
02:00But he was delivering some pitches that I was like, he looks back.
02:04For having not pitched in so long,
02:06and I know he's pitched on his rehab assignments on the way up,
02:09but just watching the way he was pitching yesterday.
02:11Now, that first couple innings, he was at 40 pitches early,
02:16but then he seemed to just kind of level into it.
02:19I'm expecting some really good stuff from him as we move forward here.
02:23And my guess would be if the fifth inning was kept a little bit cleaner,
02:28like if you hadn't have given up,
02:29or if he, excuse me, hadn't have given up that second hit,
02:33they probably would have let him ride out the fifth inning.
02:36But at that point, it's still, it's only four to nothing.
02:39Now you have two runners on base.
02:40You're like, hey, let's get out of this situation.
02:43And they did, and they go on to win six to nothing.
02:45That's two straight.
02:46You need to win a series against a, let's face it,
02:49it's a god-awful Giants team,
02:51especially since they sold most of their team away.
02:56You're right.
02:57You need to beat that team the way you did.
02:59And maybe, Kevin, we look at this,
03:01that first game was just a little bit of a deflation from the trade deadline,
03:06and the next two seemed to be,
03:08now obviously the second one was a weird game
03:10because we're not used to Lats doing that.
03:12But here's the other note that I'm taking from this game.
03:15Tell me.
03:16Have you watched the salute?
03:18Oh, yeah.
03:20That's something that they're all,
03:21as soon as those dudes were getting on base,
03:24they're standing on second, they're standing on third,
03:25they're all turning,
03:26and I think they're looking directly for Jacob deGrom
03:29to salute the general.
03:30I really thought you were asking me about an Apple TV show.
03:34That's why I paused.
03:35And I was like,
03:36oh, he means in the game.
03:38We were talking baseball.
03:39Gotcha, gotcha.
03:39We were just talking baseball.
03:40No, it's the salute thing that, like,
03:43I asked, we kind of,
03:44I know after the trade deadline,
03:46we were all kind of down,
03:49feeling a certain way about things.
03:51And that game didn't help, right?
03:52Yes.
03:53That game did not help.
03:53Well, and we said it,
03:55and then Skip essentially said,
03:56surely that was our worst game of the season.
03:59Yeah, and then he was,
04:00the reality of,
04:01we're playing 500,
04:02we played 500 ball,
04:03still not healthy.
04:04Yeah.
04:05Hopefully that changes if we get healthy.
04:07Now, that being said,
04:09we had questions about the deGrom factor,
04:12and Skip told us yesterday,
04:14look, it's so much better
04:15whenever a player says something,
04:17or the players do something.
04:18How many coaches have we talked to in our career?
04:20Even going back to the newspaper,
04:22where they're like,
04:23I love the fact that I don't have to say,
04:25go give them a speech.
04:26They speak to themselves.
04:28And so, for that group to have that conversation,
04:31hate the way that they lost,
04:33and then come back the way they have
04:35in the last couple ones,
04:36and now they have a new thing instead of the lasso,
04:38they're adding this into it.
04:39You remember Claw and Antlers, baby?
04:40Yeah.
04:41We love those things as fans, too.
04:43It tells me that they are playing for something.
04:46Remember when the Steelers played for Jerome Bettis?
04:49Yeah.
04:50Like, that was his last year.
04:51I'm not saying that's it,
04:52but deGrom wants a World Series
04:55as a pitcher on the mound.
04:57Can this be the thing that galvanized that team?
05:00We're going to get rid of deGrom,
05:01and the team said,
05:03no, you're not.
05:04I hope so.
05:05I hope so as well.
05:08I feel like it was just deGrom who said,
05:10no, you're not.
05:11Yeah.
05:11But I get your point,
05:14and you're right.
05:14It is much more effective
05:16if Nimmo went up to Jake Berger
05:18and I was like,
05:18just using these as examples,
05:20hey, pull your head out of your ass
05:22and let's go.
05:23Then if Skip said that to him,
05:24you're like, whoa.
05:25Hey, coach.
05:25Yeah, but like,
05:26if the guy in front of you in the lineup
05:28is saying that,
05:29then you're like,
05:30all right, I'm going to pick it up.
05:31Yeah.
05:31And I just,
05:34look, dude,
05:34we saw one magical moment.
05:37Sean asked,
05:37if we got into the playoffs,
05:39we both agreed,
05:40that would be awesome,
05:40and they made it pass round one,
05:42that would be awesome.
05:43Winning another World Series
05:44would be awesome, too.
05:46Let's do that.
05:47Doing that thing would be fun.
05:49Everybody wants that
05:50angel in the outfield moment.
05:51Right.
05:52We all want to be able to believe
05:53that our team can do it,
05:55and even though it didn't go
05:56the way we kind of expected it
05:58to go at the trade deadline,
05:59they got, what,
06:0040-something games here
06:01to go turn this thing
06:02into a potential,
06:03and that's all you can really ask for
06:05is for them to play their hearts out.
06:08And I guess I now have to send
06:09a picture to Skip
06:10of me in a tank top
06:11to show him
06:12that we are going to have
06:14to continue playing at that level.
06:16Yeah, love to hear it.
06:18And look,
06:19this is something,
06:20and we talked about it
06:20pretty in depth
06:21with Jared yesterday,
06:23this is something
06:24that all teams,
06:25it feels like,
06:26if you're struggling
06:27to a certain degree,
06:28you can point back
06:30to this,
06:31and what I would say
06:33is take a look at
06:34during the losing streak.
06:35Five for 41
06:36with runners in scoring position
06:39in that losing streak.
06:41But,
06:41since you bounced back
06:43in the last two,
06:45you went
06:45five for 12
06:47with runners in scoring position.
06:49Yesterday,
06:50four for 12
06:51with runners in scoring position.
06:52So,
06:52just these last two games,
06:54you're hitting 375
06:55with runners in scoring position.
06:57That will always be
06:59a winning formula.
07:00So,
07:00the Rangers are getting
07:01scoring opportunities
07:03or opportunities
07:03with runners in scoring position,
07:05and they're converting.
07:06The issue
07:07in the previous six games
07:08was,
07:09even though you were
07:10getting fewer,
07:11but still some opportunities
07:13with runners in scoring position,
07:14you just weren't
07:16stepping up to the table.
07:17So,
07:17I think that's something
07:18that will translate
07:18game after game
07:20after game
07:21in terms of wins
07:22or losses.
07:23We're the KNC Masterpiece
07:25right here on
07:26105.3 The Fan.
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