00:00It's looking to be one of those weeks, Jake, is it not?
00:03Like, I know you were up on the YouTube stream last night.
00:06I couldn't sleep after that Guardians game.
00:09Dude, this city is on fire right now.
00:11I got here super early this morning because I'm just fired up.
00:15I'm ready to go.
00:16It does feel like a great time for Northeast Ohio right now.
00:21Like, if the Browns go 4-1 today and then we've got game one of the ALCS tomorrow in Tampa,
00:27the vibes are just going to be through the roof.
00:30They're through the roof right now.
00:32We're having a lot of fun already.
00:34I mean, things don't get much better than this.
00:35And again, Jake Volnick alongside Nick Padone.
00:37James Bridges on the board.
00:38You heard him on the updates steering the ship for us today.
00:41But, like, I mean, Nick, obviously we can start a little bit with the Guardians.
00:45I talked a lot about it last night, but I know you haven't gotten the opportunity
00:49to get your thoughts off your chest.
00:51And, like, I mean, my big thing taken away from this game,
00:54like, there were obviously a lot of takeaways, but Gavin Williams rocks.
00:59I mean, for a guy to come out, close out a game in game nine,
01:03immediately to walk in and, like, tie a franchise record for strikeouts
01:06in a playoff game and just rip off 12 is insane.
01:10And then for all of the people who were, I don't know about this Jose Ramirez guy
01:14when we get to October, hi, welcome to games three, four, and five,
01:19where he is almost solely the difference maker in the game.
01:22Hey, man, you could take the records, you could take the numbers,
01:26everybody was talking about the White Sox and the fact that they hit all these runs.
01:30You could throw all that out the window because in game five, win or go home,
01:34all that mattered was that the Guardians had the pitching advantage
01:37with Gavin Williams and then late in the game with Cade Smith
01:41and the way he closed that thing out.
01:43And you have Jose Ramirez and they don't.
01:46And obviously, Murakami is a great player.
01:48Miguel Vargas is a really good player.
01:51But you got one of the best of this generation who went out and sent a message in primetime
01:59where you were the only baseball game on last night.
02:01College football had, you know, Alabama and Georgia.
02:05Obviously, Arch Manning was doing whatever that was against Oklahoma.
02:10But you were the only baseball game on TV.
02:14And Jose Ramirez and this Guardians organization sent a message to the rest of the baseball universe
02:19of this is how we do this every year.
02:22Everybody wants to talk about how do the Guardians find themselves in this position every year?
02:26Well, you just saw it on a billboard last night in primetime with elite starting pitching headlined
02:32by Gavin Williams and Jose Ramirez, who is one of the best at his position in this entire generation.
02:39I mean, it's a shame that it's raining in Northeast Ohio today, because if not,
02:43I would tell Jose to go hit the golf course.
02:46Don't worry about getting down to Tampa.
02:48Well, maybe they are down in Tampa.
02:49Maybe it's great weather down there.
02:50Maybe you can still hit a golf course.
02:51It looks like fall golf in Cleveland, though, for Jose last night.
02:55It wasn't dry.
02:56Dude, that's why I feel like right now Cleveland is on this new vibe because of the rain last night.
03:02Old Cleveland, dude.
03:03They would have pulled the tarp.
03:05Gavin was dealing.
03:07He would have come out after a long delay.
03:09Wouldn't have been as sharp.
03:10Jose's not able to golf that ball into the seats like new Cleveland.
03:16However, no rain delay.
03:17They just let him play through the pouring rain, which was a little bit bizarre moments in that game.
03:23There are three teams that you can legitimately feel pretty good about right now.
03:27It's crazy.
03:28You know, just how the tables turn in a very short amount of time, because there was a time this
03:33summer
03:34where the guards were slumping.
03:36Cavs didn't get LeBron.
03:37We were in the midst of Watson v. Sanders.
03:40And things looked kind of bleak on the Western front.
03:44But just a couple of short weeks later, the Browns are 3-1 with a great opportunity in my mind
03:50to go 4-1 against this Jets team.
03:52And most importantly, the Guardians are literally four wins away from going back to the World Series.
04:00And I know there was a lot of chatter this week, Jake, on the station about which means more, you
04:06know, Guardians or Browns.
04:08And we could check that at the door this morning on the Fan Bud Light Tailgate Show.
04:13But I think what's really cool about this right now is that you could feel good about all of these
04:20teams.
04:21Like, if you want to stand 10 toes down and be an absolute guardiac, you know, maniac, you can right
04:28now.
04:28Because they are a lot of fun.
04:30And if you want to do the same thing for the Browns and say that the Browns are going to
04:35the Super Bowl, maybe you're a little bit crazy.
04:37But we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.
04:40And maybe more people will come over to that side.
04:43Like, the vibes just are really up with all of these teams.
04:46And that was kind of impossible to predict, like, seven or eight weeks ago.
04:51Yeah, you would have never in a million years been like, yeah, Guardians ALCS.
04:54Lock it in.
04:55Like, I mean, you probably would have.
04:57That's probably like the most, obviously, between that and the Browns being 3-1, the more realistic of the two.
05:02And especially after the bracket kind of plays out the way it does.
05:06Like, expectation was kind of Guardians get to the ALCS.
05:08Now, they decided to put some dramatics on it.
05:10Sure.
05:11When you fall down 0-2, you're probably not thinking ALCS is still on.
05:15Yeah.
05:16Like, you want to rewind back to, I mean, what was it?
05:19Monday, Tuesday of this week?
05:22Confidence was low.
05:23Not that long ago.
05:24Yeah.
05:25Like, I mean, we were talking about five days ago.
05:28Confidence was relatively much lower on the Guardians.
05:31And now you're walking into a series.
05:32Nick, I got to ask you.
05:33I understand we're going to talk a lot of Browns, but we're also going to talk some Guardians today.
05:37Because things are good, and you're one of the final four teams in baseball.
05:41I got people talking crazy about the Tampa Bay Rays.
05:44Like, they are, I mean, the messiahs of the American League.
05:48I'm right there with you, dude.
05:50And I get the regular season record was what it was.
05:52Good team.
05:53Very good team.
05:53They beat you five of the six times you played.
05:56They are a really good team.
05:58But let's be real.
05:59The big, bad New York Yankees, who everybody was afraid of coming into this season, they're already out.
06:06You know, there were people saying that this Yankees team was different than the one in 2009.
06:11You know, no different than the one in 2009 that won the World Series.
06:14Okay, they're already out.
06:15So you don't have to worry about them.
06:17You know who it's going to be for the Rays.
06:19You know it's going to be Juker, Caminero, and the storylines that are going to be ahead about that.
06:23But if I do know anything about those Tampa Bay Rays, Brian Cashman is going to try to overmanage some
06:29of those games.
06:30And again, I just look at a Guardians team that has deep pitching.
06:34And now you're going to have a Sunday to try to get as many of those arms as rested as
06:38you possibly can.
06:39And with Jose and Stephen Kwan swinging the bat the way that they are, and Bizana got on base two
06:45nights ago, and DeLauder did last night.
06:48Like, I'm starting to see some things click with this Guardians team.
06:51And I'm not afraid of the Rays.
06:53No.
06:54Like, I said it last night in the postgame.
06:56Like, you make me pick a winner in this series objectively, take my Guardians bias out of it.
07:00Yes, I'm picking the Tampa Bay Rays.
07:01They are a better baseball team than you are right now.
07:04But, like, I'm taking the Rays in six, maybe the Rays in seven.
07:08This is not like, ah, Rays walk through, they sweep, they're not dropping a game in the American League until
07:13they get to the World Series.
07:14I don't feel like that at all.
07:15In fact, you bring up the Yankees.
07:17Like, I mean, if we're being 100% honest, it's not like I was definitely afraid of the Yankees either
07:21because they had their fatal flaws.
07:22But I like this more.
07:24Yeah.
07:24Don't you?
07:24The Rays are going to play your version of baseball.
07:27They are built in a very similar way.
07:29And, like, this is where they have their advantage, right?
07:31The pitching staffs are both incredible.
07:33But they have guys like Junior Caminero.
07:35And, like, yes, you have Jose.
07:36Jose's on the injury.
07:37You have Chase.
07:37They got a little bit more danger in that lineup.
07:39They maybe are a little bit more built for the right now on paper.
07:43But they're not going to hit a ton of homers.
07:45They were bottom third of the league when it comes to homers.
07:48They didn't spend a boatload of money on their team.
07:50They're right down there with you at the very bottom of MLB payrolls.
07:53Like, the Yankees are the antithesis of what you do.
07:56The Yankees are, hey, I'm going to go out there and launch the ball 450 feet and maybe swing each
08:01and every individual game by saying,
08:03we punch one or two of these out of the yard.
08:06Like, you want a team to play into your hand.
08:09Tampa Bay Rays are going to play into your hand.
08:10Problem is, you're also playing right into theirs.
08:12But it is going to be a battle of, in a lot of ways, who plays guards ball better.
08:16And my question is, are you hot right now?
08:19Like, are the Guardians really hot right now?
08:20I think they are because your bats came alive in Chicago.
08:23You need to figure out how to get that offense to wake up here at Progressive Field the rest of
08:29the way.
08:29And Jose tried his best yesterday with that golf shot into the seats.
08:33You are playing really hot baseball in my mind right now.
08:38And Tampa just had that long layoff that we spent so much time talking about because the Guardians had a
08:43bye.
08:44And that's maybe why they fell down 0-2 to Chicago, who had to get in through the wild card.
08:50So I do kind of wonder how the rest versus rust gets applied to this ALCS matchup,
08:57where the Guardians have been fighting for their lives since earlier this week
09:01and successfully won that fight, by the way.
09:04Whereas the Rays have had a lot of time to sit around and wait for these baseball games to pick
09:09back up.
09:10Yeah, and listen, I want to get you guys in on this.
09:122-1-6-4-7-4-00-92.
09:14We're asking you how bad is it for the Browns if it turns into a running contest.
09:17But I am gladly accepting if you want to whoop it up for Cleveland and whoop it up for the
09:21Guardians.
09:21Let's go out to the phones.
09:23Always positive Jay is out in Garfield.
09:25What's going on, Jay?
09:26Good morning, guys.
09:27I hope everyone in Cleveland got to enjoy that game last night, except for a certain Nick Wilson.
09:32With that said, we'll move on.
09:34Hey, I can't believe what these guys did.
09:36And the most impressive thing to me right now is, as hot as they are, they're still ascending.
09:41And after you come back 0-2 like that, especially with these young guys,
09:45their confidence is out the roof right now.
09:48I believe they can do anything.
09:51And what you guys were saying with Tampa Bay, I believe the White Sox were the tougher matchup for us
09:57just because they see us so much.
09:59They know our team like we know their team.
10:01And when Tampa Bay beat us, we're not the same team when they beat us.
10:05We're so much better at hitting team right now.
10:08I think the World Series is capable for this team right now.
10:11What do you guys think?
10:12I think the World Series is absolutely capable right now, Jay, and I appreciate the call.
10:16At least, if we're just talking get there, that's absolutely possible.
10:21Now, you go up against the Dodgers, you've got a mighty task in front of your hand,
10:25and we're getting ahead of ourselves.
10:26But they're not hot right now.
10:28They're talking about their offensive woes, and I get it.
10:31You've got Shohei Otati and Freddie Freeman in that lineup.
10:34You could get hot in a hurry.
10:36And I'll mention Andy Pah has Mookie Betts.
10:39That's an electric cooktop more than it is a slow-starting gas stove offensively.
10:45They could get hot in a game.
10:47But the Milwaukee Brewers are kind of similar to you and Tampa in the extent of smaller market.
10:53Don't spend that much money.
10:55Obviously, have a bunch of big boppers in that lineup, and they've got really elite starting pitching.
10:59That's their bread and butter as well.
11:01But, I mean, talking about just getting to the World Series, I'm telling you, man,
11:06Tampa, again, very good ball club.
11:09Like, not looking past Tampa in the slightest, not taking them lightly in the slightest.
11:15It's just like, you know the guys in that lineup that you've got to take care of,
11:20and you know that they've got really good pitching, too.
11:22Yeah.
11:23Like, again, objectively, I'm not even taking the Guardians in this series.
11:27Now, obviously, I'm going to be rooting for them in every single game,
11:30and I'm going to get my hopes up for game one in every single one of these games that they
11:33win.
11:34Like, objectively, I wouldn't pick them, but it's just like, it is so entirely capable that I don't know how
11:40you're not sitting there.
11:41And it is a good point to, like, bring up the White Sox and the fact that you see them
11:44so much.
11:45Obviously, that's something we've talked about.
11:46It was a big thing heading into this series.
11:48You face a divisional opponent.
11:49You expect a long series.
11:51You expect a fight.
11:53It's just, the White Sox would have kind of been the Yankees lineup for you, right?
11:58Like, that is a team that mashes home runs, and not that they spend like the Yankees do,
12:02and certainly not, at least this year, spend like the Yankees do.
12:05And that is a Reinsdorf team at the end of the day, so they're never going to spend like the
12:08Yankees do.
12:09But, like, you turn around, and, yeah, like, Murakami's supposed to, he's like the 35-homer guy,
12:15and this is a team that's supposed to live and die by the long ball.
12:19Guardians hit the White Sox in this series, outscored the White Sox in this series,
12:23out-home-runned the White Sox in this series.
12:25And probably more of a credit to the pitching staff than it is even the hitters.
12:28But, I mean, the home-run differential was 3-2, right?
12:33And the Guardians came out on top of that, and it did end up being a major swing.
12:36And I would say probably both of the games where the Guardians' home-runs occurred,
12:40like, you had two in an inning that accounted for three runs,
12:43and then obviously Jose's was the difference yesterday.
12:45Jake, and 21 strikeouts from the Guardians' pitching staff in totality yesterday,
12:50it never happened.
12:51Not in a regular season, not in the playoffs, never happened.
12:55So this pitching staff is absolutely out of their minds right now.
12:59So it's like, you want to ask me if they've got a fighting chance to go to the World Series?
13:03I'm like, well, I just watched this pitching staff do something
13:06that's never happened in the history of baseball before.
13:09So, yeah, like, if they keep playing like this,
13:12I actually do like their chances to go to the World Series.
13:15And we're obviously going to talk a little bit about gambling this morning.
13:18Browns are underdogs today against the Jets.
13:21I pulled it up right here.
13:22It's not like the guards are big underdogs in this series.
13:25Obviously, they are underdogs, but they're plus 140.
13:29They're like just a little bit over even money right now to win the pennant.
13:34That's just tremendous, dude.
13:36And honestly, tomorrow has the potential to be quite the victory Monday
13:41if the Browns can take care of business in Jersey at 1 o'clock.
