The Cleveland Guardians have THE BEST RECORD IN MLB | Ben Lively SHUTS DOWN the Orioles Lineup

B now to the Guardians that was very scary that for Cleveland yesterday a 10-3 dub over the Baltimore Orioles right B I want to ask you this to start bigger storyline coming out of yesterday's game Ben Lively shutting down the Orioles lineup or The Orioles teeing off on Trevor Rogers who was one of Baltimore's deadline Acquisitions I actually think it's Tanner BBY having a short shoulder we're going to get to that later we will get to that later uh the bigger headline uh is definitely not that it was Trevor cuz he's not very good anyway but uh I think specifically that he's a lefty and that's what they're hoping to get out of left he's L on Wednesday's ultimate Guardian show Zack and I were discussing the fact that the reason the Guardians had slumped for three four weeks is because all their All Stars weren't playing well guys for the first time this year Jose was slumping not not that you know Naylor had slumped earlier but it was the first time that all of them were slumping together Quan Naylor fry Ramirez all were not playing well during that 3-week roughly stretch and you're not going to Wi you're not going to win when all your All-Star players are not playing well it's it's hard to win that way so what lo and behold what now they've been playing better obviously they've been starting to heat up but last night in particular if you throw Lane Thomas into the mix because he's played against lefties at an All-Star caliber level to this point uh all five of those guys at the top of the lineup all had big games last night and until Bo Naylor's home run late in the game after that six through nine they hadn't done anything but when the top five which is where they're really strong hit the Guardians will win a lot of games because the pitching most most nights is good enough starting the bullpen great the defense is great the base running is great so when the top five hit the Guardians are going to win a lot of games and last night they did Jason you and I agree almost everything on baseball I'm actually going to go the other way with you though been sa Lively it's Lively it was a great start because I can't I mean in March and April we never would have said we're going to be counting on Ben Lively but this team going be coun Ben throw big games in October and for to shut down that line that's more telling to me than one game against a guy making his first start for a new team where I think there's some unfamiliarity and there's you know there's it's just a little awkward and it's it's a great sign yes it's a great sign that the lineup is starting to pull out of its Funk but Ben Lively is proving over and over and over again for whatever reason whatever the Guardians have fixed whatever he has fixed he's trustworthy at least one or two times through the order in a playoff in a playoff series against a top opponent like this so I was really really encouraged by the start from Ben Lively I think that's more important break I was very very encouraged by the start from Ben Lively yesterday I don't know about YouTu but it seems like all all season long when we see the Guardians play these stretch of teams that have weak weak records they play down to their opponent but they get these teams that's right there on the on the same level that that they are on and they show up every single night ready to play he came out last night and he was solid you know he gave up two runs um he really didn't put the Guardians in a bad situation and then the offense gave him some runs and I thought when you I think when you get those two combinations every single night the Guardians are going to come out successful more often than not no matter who the opponent is we all know that Baltimore is great at scoring runs but they struggle you know they they struggle in the pitching department and I feel like the Guardians at the right time seem to be able to take advantage of of things like that I guess uh it shows the confidence level I have with Ben Lively right now that I didn't pick that right like he's been so consistently good I what's he got one or two bad starts the whole year yeah it's it's it is REM best stories in baseball really it really is I mean this guy was the definition of a journeyman when you think of that role a guy who just bounces around the league and never really does anything and you're like how did this guy stay in the league for so long he was not very good and they have turned him into something it's it's funny cuz Zach and I were talking about you know Alex Cobin and Matthew Boyd rehabbing and we were kind of lenting the fact that even when Matthew boy not cob but when Matthew Boyd was at his best he was maybe League average maybe but I and then I said to Zach I was like you know I know he hasn't been here the whole year like Lively but with what this they have with this pitching Factory here and with what they've done with Ben Lively maybe for the last six years they've seen something in Matthew Boyd that they're like we do this one thing we could fix this guy now he's you know older than Lively and he's coming off a serious injury and he hasn't been here the whole year but who the hell knows I mean the way they seem to find magic when it comes to starting pitching but you're right Jason Ben Lively is extremely important I mean right now uh the best case scenario is that for the playoffs you have a healthy BBY which we'll get to later Gavin Williams a healthy Alex Cobb and Ben Lively and those or four starters and you're not using Carrasco or Joey cantio or Matthew Boyd or McKenzie who's been terrible and continues to be he's been awful in the minor I know he can't even throw strikes anymore I know I I told it's a season I think I'm going to go down to Columbus and talk to him in I want to do a follow-up story on him and just where he's at because it's it's sad man his career is unraveling it doesn't mean he can't put it back no no no no but this is a lost year for right now his career is on raving yeah no doubt Logan Allen you know he's younger obviously but Wellen he's still pretty young too but you know and that's it and they got to get they B's got to be healthy cobs got to be healthy but uh you know um it it it's funny ear you say the Orioles pitching is not that good now they have Corbin Burns who's a superstar at the top of their rotation but I was just talking about this earlier today for all the consternation we have about their rotation and the Orioles and the Yankees and have more depth of rotation that you trust at least on some level than the Guardians do do but in if the Guardians can get to the playoffs with with BBY Williams Cobb and Lively healthy that one through four potentially is just as good as anybody in the American League except for Seattle uh Seattle's got the best rotation there's no doubt about that but you know for the Yankees they they they have good depth of mediocrity um and they have gar Cole on top but G Cole hasn't been G Cole this year because he's been hurt he had a start push back this week as well obviously or have Burns they got a really nice number two a young pitcher like the Guardians do with Grayson Rodriguez the rest of their rotation is is question mark Z Zack effin is basically Alex Cobb but he's been healthy this year but they're the same kind of level rather have Cobb I I think I'd rather have if he were healthy yes I'd ra I agree with you I think Cobb is better if he's healthy so I think pitch rotation wise even with again they got to be healthy because they don't have any depth because the depths all been terrible this year whether it's McKenzie or Allen or Xavier uh Na curry curry zavon curry I don't know where I come up with na it used to be a player name Xavier na I think it was I'll feel yeah yeah yeah right I don't know why I called them that anyway uh but I think the Guardians match up and yet they have a better Bullpen than all those teams they have better base running than all those teams they have better defense than all those teams if you don't think the Guardians can win the World Series you're out to lunch now it's baseball so who the hell knows the Guardians can get eliminated in the first round and then the people that said they couldn't win the World Series I thought told you so I told you so but uh they are certainly capable roster wise of winning the World Series I have no doubts about that another point on Ben Lively you know I'm very very confident in him going forward and it was just pretty it was really really good to see the Guardians give him some run support I think in his last three stars the Guardians had scored a total of four total runs right and like I go back to the Tampa Bay game you make one or two mistakes and because your offense could put any runs on the board it looked like a bad outing and so if he can continue to just deliver what he's been delivering and the offense can do you know what they've done for the majority of the Season I'm really really confident in this rotation even with a Matthew Boyd even even with a Alex Cobb coming off of injury I just I trust this organization with pitching and I know this year compared to numerous years past the pitching hasn't been up to part what we've used to but even like with the pitching being what it is if our offense can just give us something is still good enough to your point to go win a World Series yeah I who's the third starter right now on this team I think it's a debate between Lively and Cobb yeah and that's a good thing yeah sure like a couple days ago a couple weeks ago we couldn't know if we could name two starters that you trusted behind Tanner BBY and now you know Gavin starting around in form a little bit we have to see cob throw obviously hasn't thrown at all yeah he's pitching Saturday for Columbus in his I mean he's a competitor he he can he can he when he's good he's very good when he's bad he's really bad and I guess you could say that about a lot of pitchers but there seems to be a lot of fluctuation with him he's had a ton of injuries in his career but I'm I'm just excited to see him on the mountain in Cleveland and see how much they have left I said yesterday the day before that it was the most obvious Cleveland move that we missed was like of course we didn't think about it never mentioned him no it's like how did we miss that that's a vintage Cleveland Guardians move to go out and get a guy like that although in the perfect world would have been the second pitcher they got right right but I mean M Matthew Boyd I guess is the second pitcher that they got I don't trust him in the playoff series at all real quick did Lan Thomas win his home debut or what yeah like yeah yeah we get the double right off the bat in the first inning yeah uh and and he had two hits and and it it was a great game they they played really well offensively defensively uh pitching Wise by the way I asked Zach this question I'll ask you guys this um uh if the Guardians could get out of the Andre SZ contract right now would they you think they would ear El say they would yeah I actually don't think they would I don't think they would yeah I don't think they would but I think that he's been awful offensively this year I know but it's yeah they're you know what maybe they would because they're pretty good about getting off things a year two early than a year to late and if they try you know another year of this and they're not going to be able to get out of it yeah I mean he went from being Allstar level offensively to League average last year to well below League average this year I don't know what I don't know how much does having a platinum glove make up for how bad he is not enough this year if he's League average offensively as he was last year then it's fine if he's a platinum glove at Short it's better than a platinum glove at second well next year he'll play short I assume I assume he will we talked to Jason Kipas about that yesterday oh yeah what did had was he he's great get a chance to and he said the same like he would expect certainly not this year yeah but next year Jimenez to slide to Short right and B to arrive at some point second base yeah yeah yeah and B hitting a grand slam in his first home game that was cool go ahead Mike what do you got