00:00Another kind of backsliding game where it's weird over the over the last three games of the Chicago series and
00:08then over the first three games of this series, they're putting together competitive at bats.
00:13Every lever that Steven vote was pulling was the right one.
00:16And now.
00:19I think they're just out of gas.
00:22I that's kind of what it's it seemed to me from the first inning of Parker Messick when it took
00:27him 28 pitches to get out of the game.
00:29There was a not necessarily an error from Brian Rocchio, but there was a play that you knew that he
00:34should have made, but he didn't transfer the ball correctly out of his glove.
00:38And it led to a run being in scoring position and then Parker walking the bases loaded and walking a
00:43guy in.
00:43And from there, you kind of knew that it was going to be an uphill battle.
00:47That was that set the tone.
00:49That first inning set the tone for a game that just showed me as a guardians fan that this team,
00:54I don't know what's going to happen in Tampa.
00:57I hope that I eat my words tonight and I hope that they go out and win two straight games.
01:01But it just looked to me tonight like this was a team that was out of gas.
01:06I don't know if it's just where at the end of the rope, we're at the end of the line.
01:10Parker Messick has came into tonight with 60 more innings pitch than he has ever thrown in professional baseball.
01:17And last year, by the way, the majority of those pitches were thrown in AAA again, you know, in front
01:22of what 200 fans in like Memphis, Tennessee or something like that.
01:26So this is the most high leverage pitches that he's ever had to throw in his life.
01:31And it's when your tank tank is completely on empty.
01:35This goes back to something that I said yesterday where I thought that Sean Armstrong was going to be the
01:40opener and that they would go to Joey Cantillo as your bulk guy.
01:43So that you had Foster Griffin today and even if Foster Griffin wasn't going to go all the innings, he
01:49was going to pitch enough.
01:51He was going to be good enough to get you across the finish line and then set you up with
01:57Parker Messick on an extra day of rest in game six.
02:00And then game seven, the big rig, your anchor, the best pitcher at this point on your roster in game
02:07seven, do or die.
02:09I didn't understand why we went with Foster Griffin for a couple of innings yesterday when that could have been
02:16the case today, especially for the fact that the last time that you saw Parker Messick out, he didn't look
02:21all that good.
02:22He didn't pitch as poorly as he did today, and he lasted a little bit more than two innings, but
02:27it was so clear that he was a rookie that was just out of gas.
02:30And I didn't understand why you were going to go to him on five days rest when you had the
02:35opportunity, especially with no off day, you had the opportunity to pitch him tomorrow.
02:40But you, I mean, immediately, you knew that he was out of the game and that it was just throw
02:45caution to the wind, try and figure out how the hell you were going to come up with seven innings
02:49from there because Parker barely got through two innings.
02:52And then on top of that, you just didn't hit whatsoever for the second straight game.
02:57You had hapless at bats.
02:59You had very few runners.
03:01At least this time you got runners in scoring position.
03:03You actually hit the ball in play with runners in scoring position.
03:06Whereas last night they have, you know, a nice little single here and there, and then couldn't even get the
03:11guy to second base.
03:12At least today I saw a guy standing on third base.
03:14That was nice, but it was still two straight games where they were uncompetitive at bats, backsliding.
03:21The talent level that we've seen, the performances that we have seen over these last three days.
03:27Going into game four yesterday, you had all the confidence in the world.
03:32Despite the fact that you weren't up 3-0, you were up 2-1, you still felt like you had
03:36the upper hand.
03:37You still felt like you had the pitching matchup.
03:39And your offense, the thing that has plagued you all season long, came back to bite you in the worst
03:44spot.
03:45And I'm sure that we knew in the back of our minds that this was eventually going to happen.
03:50But you just, you felt like you had the momentum.
03:53And for some reason, from top to bottom, not just the offense, the pitching, the defense was not that great
04:00today.
04:01Once again, you knew going into the series that you had to play your A++ baseball against the team in
04:09the Tampa Bay Rays.
04:10That probably had the deeper starting pitching staff than you, that definitely had the better lineup than you,
04:15and that might have had the better bullpen than you did.
04:20In all aspects, the Tampa Bay Rays are a much better team.
04:24There's a reason why they were the number one seed in the AL,
04:27and they had one of the best records in baseball this entire season long.
04:31And you haven't played your A-plus baseball, you haven't played A-baseball over these last two games.
04:36Today was another example, and it was just, like, of course, I'm frustrated once again.
04:42I'm more mad today than I was yesterday, because now you're down 3-2,
04:46and in a situation where you've got to win two straight games on the road,
04:50that's not exactly an easy task.
04:53And it's not an easy task for an offense that looks spent and for a pitching staff that Stephen Vogt
04:59has rode
04:59until the cows come home this entire postseason, and maybe they're just spent at this point.
05:05I mean, Tim Heron came in, Tim Heron allowed a run, he looked spent.
05:08Obviously, Sean Armstrong, Eric Zabrowski, Hunter Gaddis, and Kate Smith,
05:14at the back end of the game, looked awesome.
05:17But your first two guys, right off the rip, they just didn't look like they had anything good there,
05:23and it all started off with Parker Messick, and then you speed up your timeline
05:26because you're going to Tim Heron in the third inning.
05:30And yeah, we can complain about the pitching and all this different stuff,
05:32but guys, I knew, and I think that we all knew, or at least you should have known,
05:36going into this game, that Parker Messick was at the end of the line.
05:40And that anything that Parker Messick was going to give you toward this point,
05:44or whether it was tonight or tomorrow night, was going to be great in terms of just,
05:49like, it was going to be extra good stuff because he just didn't have it the last time he was
05:54out.
05:54And, I mean, look, I understand from Stephen Vogt's perspective,
05:59you have a potential Cy Young top three finisher.
06:03You have a guy that's probably going to finish top two, finish second in rookie of the year.
06:09And he's been your best, most consistent pitcher this entire season.
06:15You also had to have a little bit of a feel to it where when you saw him in game,
06:21was it game two?
06:23I mean, he got you through a couple more innings than he did tonight,
06:26but he was still nibbling on the outside a little bit more than he has all season.
06:30He was still walking more guys than we have all season long.
06:33And, I mean, we even saw that in the divisional series where, you know, again,
06:38Stephen Vogt, this is his second time in three seasons getting to the ALCS,
06:42but we've gotten up to this point and everything's just been burnt out
06:46because he's relied so heavily on pitching and pitching and pitching.
06:50And Cade Smith, you know, insisting on him pitching every single day,
06:54insisting on Sebrowski and Tim Heron and Hunter Gaddis pitching damn near every day.
07:00And I know that those guys didn't pitch yesterday,
07:01but it just seemed like nothing that you were going to do today worked.
07:06And it wasn't in the sense that, that the team, you know, that like yesterday,
07:11nothing worked because every lever that Stephen Vogt pulled,
07:14the guy just came out there and just didn't pitch.
07:16Well, you know, Daniel Espino just wasn't that good.
07:18And then Tim Heron, Tim Heron didn't pitch, but Slate Zaccone wasn't that good today.
07:25I mean, it just kind of seemed like you threw your hands up and you were like,
07:28this team's out of gas.
07:29This team's completely out of gas.
07:31And I don't know if they have anything left.
07:33And so over these last two games, you've seen a team that looks like they're playing
07:38with one arm tied behind their back because they're just,
07:42they just, they've given all that they have this season.
07:44I wonder if that Petey Alpen home run was the last gasp of energy that they had.
07:50And then since then, there's just been nothing from there.
07:53And you haven't gotten a whole lot out of your starting pitching.
07:56You haven't gotten the most successful outings from your main bullpen guys,
08:01other than Cade Smith, that you've relied on so heavily throughout this postseason run.
08:06And when that happens, coupled with the fact that you only cobbled together five hits today,
08:10you went over three with runners in scoring position.
08:13You had five guys left on base today.
08:16I mean, what are you going to do?
08:18You know, it's just, it sucks.
08:21I can't yell and scream that Steven Vogt necessarily did anything wrong today,
08:25other than the fact that I wouldn't have started Parker Messick.
08:29But once you started Parker Messick, you had to know that he was going to have a quick hook on
08:33him
08:33because he didn't look good the last time out.
08:36And immediately in the first inning today, you saw that he still did not have the gas
08:42that you needed from him to even get you through four innings.
08:45Like, I think that Steven Vogt probably went in today thinking that
08:48Parker Messick could get him three, four, and then we could get to the bullpen.
08:52And it was still going to be a really heavily, heavy reliance on that bullpen.
08:58You were going to lean on Gaddis and Sebrowski and Cade Smith because you didn't pitch him yesterday.
09:05But I mean, at the end of the day, you tried to pitch him and it just didn't work.
09:092-1-6, 4-7-4, double-0-92.
09:13Guardians again, losers today, 3-1.
09:17Again, the story of the day, I think, is just that they cobbled together five hits.
09:21And, you know, combine that with the fact that Parker Messick, a guy that you've relied on all season,
09:26when he can't get out of the second inning, what are you going to do?
09:30That's not exactly a recipe for success.
09:33That's going to lend you to losing the majority of the games that you play.
09:37And I don't know if I have all that much confidence heading into these next three games.
09:47Freddy Peralta, who dominated you the last time out, is going to pitch probably Monday night.
09:54And then Griffin Jacks, who you got to and you did pretty well against, he's pitching in Game 7, if
10:01there even is that point.
10:02But again, if we get to a Game 7, I don't know who's pitching for the Guardians.
10:06Is it going to be the kitchen sink approach that we've seen over these last two days?
10:09Who the hell is going to start for you?
10:12Who the hell is going to play for you?
10:14And even if you go to guys like Gattis and Smith and Sobrowski, eventually this Rays lineup, which is very
10:22prolific and has started to show how good it is, it can be over these last two games.
10:27Eventually, they are going to get the best of your best.
10:30And you saw the cracks in the facade start to form yesterday.
10:36And then I think a little bit, you know, I don't know if I could say that the floodgates opened
10:40in a 3-1 loss, but I think the floodgates, they're there.
10:46Like, this is not, you're not going into Tampa very, very confident, especially because you didn't set yourself up in
10:53a great spot for Game 6 and 7.
