00:00Harris helped take all the pressure off in the first inning with a three-run homer.
00:04Ozzie padded that with a two-run homer in the fourth,
00:06and Matt Olsen then with a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh.
00:09Let's hear Walt Weiss in the locker room while all of them were celebrating.
00:13Hey, I told you guys, listen, when the stakes are highest, we're at our best.
00:17I've been saying it all year, and it doesn't surprise me what we did tonight.
00:21What we've overcome this year is simply amazing.
00:24All the things we've overcome to get here.
00:26We couldn't do it without the right people in the room.
00:28It's because we have the right people in the room.
00:30Okay?
00:31You guys, unbelievable.
00:32We checked two boxes.
00:33We got another one in front of us.
00:36Let's hear it.
00:41You've got to love it, man.
00:43You've got to love it.
00:44You get chills listening to it.
00:45He's absolutely right, man.
00:46With all the rotation injuries and things they've gone to, suspension,
00:52going all the way back to that, it's been kind of crazy to see
00:55what this team has been able to accomplish.
00:57He's right, though.
00:58The job's not done.
00:59You've got another one coming with another series that you'd love to exercise
01:02some demons with for the rest of Major League Baseball,
01:04and I think that a lot of eyes will be on this group as they try to make that happen.
01:08Yeah, you know, there's a lot of – now the questions are, hey,
01:11who's starting game one and all that kind of stuff.
01:14But, again, I know we've talked about it probably more than we want to
01:18with Walt's decisions in these three games.
01:21I think he's made mostly every right decision, and it's easy to second-guess
01:27to Dylan Lee, but I don't even blame him for that because everything was –
01:33everything in your – if you've got a notepad and it's got the analytics
01:38and, like, whatever on – you know how the coaches have the card of when to go for two?
01:43Yeah.
01:43And it was, like, when to put in Dylan Lee, it was against two lefties at bat
01:47that he's had some success against, and he hasn't given up homer and a lefty.
01:52Like, it all made sense, and so he – excuse me – he continued to do it,
01:55and I saw people, like, even on our group chat, why did they bring in Sell?
02:00Well, now we know that – because Chris Sell said bring me in.
02:03I was going to say.
02:04But the second part, I would say, is finish it.
02:07Like, we've – how many times have we finished it?
02:09There's no – leave no doubt.
02:10Don't even let it get to a situation where you have to –
02:13because remember, I don't know – I think he would have pitched if needed,
02:17but I don't know what Iggy's status was after pitching two straight days.
02:22It was interesting because Chris Sell came in in the eighth,
02:24and he got one out in the eighth, right?
02:26So then he's back in the dugout, and everybody was, like, kind of thinking,
02:31he's not going to go back out.
02:32It's going to be Iglesias that goes out.
02:34But I think once you get Sell in that moment, he's not leaving.
02:37Yeah, and he's already warmed up.
02:39You don't have to warm up Iggy.
02:40You warmed Sell up multiple times.
02:44It would have been his day – if I'm not mistaken, Grant can probably check me on this
02:48if he's awoken yet from the late night.
02:52I know he's listening if he's awake.
02:55And, like, I think today would have been Sell's day to toss, right, to throw.
02:59And these starting pitchers, they have a day where they throw,
03:03and it's not, like, out there in soft toss.
03:06They don't mind it.
03:06And it's something we've – if you watch enough postseason baseball,
03:09you understand that because it's not an unfamiliar thing to baseball in postseason
03:14where a starter comes in and does that.
03:16I actually saw – I think I saw it on socials that it would have actually been yesterday.
03:19Like, his day comes a day early, I think.
03:21Yeah, okay.
03:22That was the thing.
03:22So, yeah, but he did.
03:24I think it's a good point.
03:25He got up twice.
03:26And I think at that point, you have to throw him.
03:27Yes, I agree.
03:29So, you get him up, then Matt Olsen hits a tater, and you sit him back down.
03:33And then the Phillies score that run in the eighth inning, and it's like,
03:35all right, get him back up.
03:36You know what I mean?
03:37This is one of those situations.
03:39And I think once you got him up the second time, it was like, all right, dude,
03:41he's got to go out there.
03:42And once you – again, once you get that one out and he's in there, you're like,
03:46all right, cool.
03:46Like, we already did it this far.
03:47Like, we might as well stick with our best arm, literally our best arm that we have,
03:51and make sure that we nail this thing down because you saw just the day before
03:54how late-inning heroics for the Phillies can pay off in those situations.
03:58Absolutely.
03:59And Ray Kerr had a great night as well.
04:02I know there were some questions with him going in, but he went for three and a third,
04:05one hit, one walk, two strikeouts.
04:07Here he is on how he performed.
04:08I'm proud of it.
04:10My only objective is go out there and put some donuts up, let the boys hit.
04:13Everything's going to take care of itself after that.
04:15Well.
04:16He also did not realize he was on TV.
04:18There were many expletives in some of his post-game interviews.
04:22It was very interesting.
04:23Yeah, him with Wiley was awesome because of the – I mean,
04:29the F-bombs just showed his emotion, and I appreciate that.
04:32I liked – Mike nailed it earlier when he walked off the mound.
04:34I loved the fact that he did the chop.
04:37But I go, we were having this – again, we were having this conversation.
04:39It was like, how long does he go?
04:41And I was like, get him – if he gets through one, bring Holmes in and let him go four
04:45or five, and I like that situation better.
04:47He doesn't have to face Schwarber – Turner, Schwarber, and Harper like three times.
04:54You don't have to face them twice most likely, depending on how it went.
04:58But when he went – he got through the first pretty well.
05:00I think he gave up the hit, but he got through it.
05:02It was the only time in the old series they didn't score a run in the first inning.
05:05He got through it.
05:06And then you're like, okay, I'll see that again.
05:11And then you're like – and for me, I'm like, pull him now, pull him.
05:16But Walt was like, no, I'm going to – as long as you look good and sharp, we're –
05:20and it was the thinking of, A, it's working, but, B, you are managing to win,
05:28but you're also managing to be able to win the next series or be in position
05:33and not overuse someone.
05:35I just thought Ray Kerr, his name now goes in those – in the – what is it?
05:41The hallows of postseason history in the Braves with guys like Francisco Cabrera,
05:46who you needed for one moment, and that moment was three and a third last night.
05:50Yeah, I do – and I'll give credit to – I think it was maybe Jake Mastroati
05:56on Twitter yesterday, and he put out – he was like, man, if Ray Kerr – this was way
05:59before the game.
06:00He was like, if Ray Kerr can get through the top of the lineup twice,
06:02and then Grant Holmes can come in and give you three innings
06:04and get through the lineup once, and then you can go from there,
06:08kind of in that – maybe throw Dodd out there.
06:10And I was like, as this game's moving on, I'm like, man, that was spot on
06:13because at the moment I was kind of rolling my eyes going, dude,
06:16I don't think Ray's staying in that long.
06:18I think that's kind of a pipe dream.
06:19And it absolutely was not.
06:20I mean, he delivered in a very, very special moment.
06:23And the broadcast, even Kruk was like, this is amazing.
06:26Like, this is unbelievable what he's being able to do right now.
06:29Ahead of the game, there were questions on Ray Kerr and Dom Smith being in,
06:32and everybody had to take all those tweets back and eat their words on those
06:36because they both performed so well last night.
06:39Yeah, completely agree with you.
06:40And highlighted yesterday, Dom Smith, I don't know –
06:45I genuinely just did not think he factored in the postseason plans
06:47because of the volume he had in the month of September.
06:50Like, if he does and factors in, at the same time,
06:53I know you're trying to get Hasan Kim going and Sean Murphy going
06:55and all these other things, but I'm like, there's no way he's going to be
06:58a part of this lineup, right?
06:59Because he just didn't play in September, just straight up did not play.
07:03And yet, see him in a big pinch hit roll, and then obviously DH in that nine slot.
07:06The thing that I always come back with Dom Smith is when he first got here,
07:10and I remember hearing a national broadcast on –
07:13I think it was that first night, that Saturday night of the regular –
07:17the second game of the regular season.
07:19Remember, he hits the big home run?
07:21Yes.
07:22And I remember just going back, Dom Smith, professional hitter, professional hitter.
07:26He had success against Aaron Nola.
07:27He's a guy that played in the division with the Mets for a nice amount of time.
07:31So he knew – it was a situation – he knew what they were.
07:36He knew their staff.
07:37And I go back to the professional hitter thing.
07:39The Braves had some professional at-bats last night.
07:43Austin Riley's –
07:44So true.
07:45With 10, 11 pitches off of Wheeler, and he gets to walk,
07:50and then Ozzie hits the two-run shot, that kind of – that was, to me, the nail
07:56because you put that lead out there.
07:58And, hey, Matt Olsen even – Matt Olsen's home run, that was crushed.
08:03And you like it for him because even though you won't see them again,
08:08it is a little bit of a settling thing in the postseason.
08:12Now Matt Olsen's like, I'm kind of settled in.
08:14Yeah, I thought he had had some bad luck, the comebacker that landed in the pitcher's glove
08:17the other night.
08:18But did either one of y'all see the clip that was going around yesterday
08:21when it was understood that Nola was going to pitch?
08:24Or maybe it was – I'm sorry, it was Wheeler.
08:27And he was on Mookie Betts' podcast.
08:29Did you see that?
08:30Yes.
08:30And he's like, yeah, I mean, I don't like pitching Austin Riley.
08:32It always makes things difficult.
08:34And I was sitting there going – as – you know, look, we've all watched Austin Riley
08:37throughout the year, and we've all watched the Braves really struggle to take walks.
08:41They're one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball in taking walks.
08:43And I'm sitting there kind of listening to it going, wow, that is nothing like I thought
08:47it was going to come out of his mouth in this conversation.
08:49And sure enough, Austin Riley struts up to the plate like he's talking about right
08:53before the Aussie Albies home run and has a graded bat, gets the walk, gets on base,
08:57and gets knocked in with an RBI.
08:59It's just – it's beautiful to see because all year it's like, man,
09:03why are these homers always solo?
09:04Why can't we walk?
09:05Why can't we manufacture runs?
09:06And they've done all of that in this series to a T.
09:09So,
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