00:00He does great work and it's a pleasure to listen to him on TBS. He does Mets games during the
00:05regular season and if you don't watch television you know him as a phenomenal pitcher in the 13-year
00:11Major League career. He's Mr. Ron Darling. Hello Ron. Hey Ron. Hi John and Andy. Thanks for having
00:16me guys. It's good to have you with us. I'm Jeff. He's Andy. Ron great to have you here. Andy
00:21ran
00:21into you in the bathroom the other day over the ballpark. It was me, you, and Amy. It was a
00:26little
00:26awkward. I was like I wanted to say thank you for coming on the show all the times you've come
00:29on
00:30before and I was like hey and then Amy was and I was just like good to see you man.
00:36It was it was
00:38uncomfortable but it also was great to see you. Okay good all right. I'm glad you admitted it. It
00:42was weird. It was weird. It was like if it was the hallway it wouldn't have been a big deal
00:46but it
00:46was in the bathroom and I was like hey. So Ron you play 162 for a reason and then you
00:52get into a
00:53five-game series and in the first two games you hit 115. How deflating but and how disappointing
00:59and how does our team bounce back after hitting 115 in the first two games? You know you know Jeff
01:05baseball is such a strange game right? I mean if you didn't if you didn't hit in two games in
01:11June
01:11you wouldn't think twice about it right? It's just how baseball kind of goes but you know I try to
01:19chalk it up more to to the people that are pitching. I think the White Sox have done a nice
01:24job of pitching. You know you were so red hot in September. I don't know what were you guys 16
01:31and
01:31nine to chase them down. Everything was going right. The offense was good. All of that stuff. So
01:37I'm hoping that the Guardians snap out of it just because you know they're too good of a team not
01:43to do
01:43it. You hate to see them you know leave the postseason playing like this because they're a
01:50much better team than that. That being said they always answer the bell. Every single time they get
01:56behind the eight ball they seem to figure it out and I would expect them to do that tonight and
02:01you
02:01guys have probably talked about it ad nauseum. There's a beautiful window for them if they win
02:06tonight and I think there's a lot of pressure on the White Sox to have to sweep them because this
02:11has
02:11been a bullpen series for the Chicago White Sox but it goes to more traditional baseball and I think
02:18a real strength for the Guardians if they can get at the game four. Yeah what do you think of
02:22the
02:22bullpen games? You know the Guardians are kind of doing that tonight with Espino. I just I remember
02:27like your career I mean you were always a starter. You started. And you're like and that's just the way
02:32it was and like you knew Darling was starting tonight and you know now we're watching these games not
02:37only in our series but other series too where they're like okay let's do this with a bullpen and
02:40it might be cheaper in the long run on contracts. I just don't know if I like it as a
02:44fan.
02:45Yeah I don't I don't think aesthetically it's pleasing. When you think about last night
02:49you really wanted to get make sure you watched Sale against Yamamoto right? Two prime time kind of
02:58competitors and pitchers. So you wanted to watch that game. That's kind of how it always was
03:03before. Now understanding that a lot of these teams they get to this part of the season and they try
03:11to
03:12run these bullpen games but if you've been following the White Sox all year they've kind of done it like
03:16this the entire year. 766 plus innings from the bullpen. I mean that's a franchise record for them.
03:24It's a number that I was trying to do the math in 86 and I to speak to your point
03:30Andy and this is a
03:31thousand years ago but I think 1100 of the 14 and 150 innings that most teams have to cover we
03:38covered
03:38with our starting pitchers. So you know the game has just changed so much in in that way and I
03:45think
03:45what teams are doing now is that they look at their roster they realize where their strength is and for
03:51the
03:51White Sox their strength is really these four or five pitchers that they keep running out there.
03:57Ron today I would assume I think we all assume here in Cleveland Joey Cantillo is the guy who will
04:02follow up Espino. If you're Steven Vogt why do you make that move instead of maybe going with Bybee?
04:09And you can sit here and make the argument either way. We thought we thought he'd go with Tanner Bybee
04:14even though Tanner's had some rough moments this year. Yeah it's a it's a hard call right? You know with
04:20Bybee you're going to get more strike throwing you believe right? But you know his last 10 starts I
04:27think eight of the 10 three turn runs or more in all of those starts. So it came down the
04:33stretch
04:34wasn't that hot. Now I think they're going to something that's familiar. Espino and Cantillo they
04:41coming down the stretch they did a couple of these games and it was very successful and Joey was very
04:47successful in that boat's inning kind of role. I think that's why they're going towards it. I've
04:53seen Joey at his best and when his stuff is in the zone when he's throwing strikes he's as nasty
05:00as
05:00anyone in the game. As you guys know because you've seen him pitch a lot sometimes that strike zone can
05:06be wandering for him. But you know I always bet on the athlete. I'm always betting on a kid from
05:11Hawaii
05:12you know for because my background. Yeah and I'm just hoping he has one of those magical moments
05:20that you know he can have if he's in the zone and he really writes this kind of series back
05:27to where
05:27the Guardians can foresee getting back in this. How did Chicago do it? How were they able to turn this
05:34thing around so quick with a couple hundred lost seasons? I know big trade here and there and then
05:37what does it say about the game that they're able to do such a quick turnaround after having
05:42so many a couple seasons with hundred losses? Well I was thinking about that today and I guess my
05:49answer would be they've got six players that are still remaining from that 2014 when they had their
05:55they just got their heads beat in and sometimes I don't know sometimes in the world we live in where
06:03everything is so loud now. It can sometimes kind of bring you together you know where you're like
06:08you know I remember what it was like I'm never going to let that happen to me again. So I
06:13think
06:14that might have helped certainly the crochet trade. We hear about it all the time you know
06:19Scoobo got traded and other great players. Very rarely do these trades work and when they do work
06:26and you can have three starters in the game every night from that trade I mean that's remarkable.
06:32The only trade I remember that was equally as good was the Teixeira trade if you remember from
06:39Atlanta from Texas to Atlanta and Atlanta sent Naftali Feliz, Elvis Andrews and others guys that became
06:46stars for that Texas team as they went through their best moment right in 2010 and 2011. So the trade
06:53certainly is part of it. I think they were really intentional with the kind of people they have in
06:58their clubhouse and let's let's not kid ourselves it's just a sometimes it's a confluence of a lot
07:04of events that end up being a little lucky too. They have a lot of young players that have a
07:09lot of
07:09young players that like each other they're playing with unbridled joy that doesn't last forever you
07:15know guys make money they get married they have families all that kind of stuff changes that dynamic
07:20but right now they are like a travel team that's undefeated. They just feel so proud of themselves
07:27so good about themselves and you know half this game half of it is belief and if you believe you
07:34can do it boy that's more than half the way there. Ron Darling joining us you'll hear him doing the
07:40color analyst work on today's TBS telecast of game three Guardians against the White Sox. A 115 team
07:47batting average for this team here in these two games Ron and they were terrible offensively before
07:53the trade deadline after they brought in Nathaniel Lowe and Joe Adele it there was an uptick and they
07:59were kind of middle of the pack which we here in Cleveland we were elated about. You're on the mound
08:04you're going up against this team does it frighten you and how do you how do you attack it as
08:09a pitcher?
08:10Well I think that you know every year every other year when I come with TBS and we do the
08:16postseason
08:17I'm always doing the Guardians so they're always in the postseason so I feel like I know them as
08:23well as any team that I've ever seen in the postseason and I think this lineup despite what
08:30has happened in the first two games is one of their deepest that they've ever had in the postseason.
08:36I love their rookie right fielder DeLauder. I think he's going to be a real special player for you at
08:41some point Joe Adele showed what he could do and that last at bat almost tying the ball game up
08:47he's got to do more you expect more from Ramirez my belief I could be wrong is that he's playing
08:53hurt
08:54I've never seen him kind of take the swings he's taking right now so I feel like he's not a
09:00hundred
09:00percent but I think the way the postseason has worked throughout baseball is you get the lead
09:08off man on good things happen and I think Steven Kwan has got to have one of those special games
09:14where he you know scores three runs gets three hits and a walk makes a couple of great catches
09:19you know he can do that and I think he can inspire this ball club and I hope he has
09:24one of those games
09:25tonight um as far as answering your question how would I face them um you know for Ramirez is a
09:31hundred percent that I'm being very careful with him I don't think he is so I probably go at him
09:36a
09:36little more um I try to keep Adele in the ballpark if I can and uh the rest of the
09:43guys I think you just
09:44I feel like you if you walk the guardians you have a lot of walks they're going to beat you
09:48I think if you don't make plays um in the field they're going to beat you if you don't control
09:54the
09:54running game they're going to beat you it's just that the guardians have not had enough traffic
09:59to do a lot of the things they would like to do love listening to you do games Ron so
10:04I'll be
10:05sitting on the couch listening to you today and always enjoy your time when you're with us thank
10:09you very much and we apologize for the awkward conversation with you and Andy and Hammy in the
10:15bathroom Hammy was talking up a storm he didn't care well how about if we do this we'll get it
10:21back
10:21to the fifth game I'll meet you both in the bathroom okay that's perfect I'm gonna pass right
10:28thank you thank you thanks thanks Ron Ron darling
