Chris Sale Continues to Shine, Braves Sweep, Phillies Lose to Astros, Yankees Rondon Struggles

the Phillies almost get no hit by the Astros while the Braves sweep the Minnesota Twins is this when the balance of power finally shifts back to Atlanta in the NL East we'll talk about that and more on today's first [Music] [Applause] pitch yes welcome on into first pitch for Thursday August 29th I'm Lindsey Crosby with Athlon Sports he's Christian raal National Baseball Rider and Christian ton of stuff to talk about yesterday ton of games really interesting results we're gonna start yesterday was really heavy on the NL East but we're gonna start with Philly and Atlanta again before we try to catch some other divisions because this situation is becoming really really interesting we asked yesterday are the Phillies back Houston said not so fast uh Houston has a combined no hitter going I believe into the ninth inning end up taking down Philadelphia 10 to nothing you made the joke about um arti and meatballs Taiwan Walker in fact uh gets meatballed there a terrible start um does not go well for the Philadelphia Phillies so they're in a situation now they won the first few games of the series they walked off you know one of them but you're here now one Walker six runs on 13 hits in six innings things um again no hit through I think I think the first hit was in the eighth inning Philly finishes with three hits obviously no runs all three hits were singles um over for five runners in scoring position left seven on base here's I I think kind of the question from this Phillies game before we get to the Atlanta side of this should they be concerned going into this series against Atlanta that they are not going to be able to hold on to the NL East I mean you got to be concerned in at least some way shape or form because yes you performed well other than this last start of Walker which we kind of expected it right we were making jokes about it yesterday even though we think the Phillies could be back we kind of expected that no we'll see what this start looks like first we talking about in yesterday's episode but when you look at how they've performed against the Braves all season long Lindsay it hasn't been their best whato ever so you're coming into a series that is arguably the biggest series of the year for both these teams after a really tough outing against uh with the Phillies so now in my mind I think you have to be concerned because not only did Walker pitch bad the rest of the bullpen pitch bad too it might have been just the fact that they LED down to you know fell down to their level they knew the game was over I I don't know but it it was just not a good overall game game for the Phillies I I expected it to happen though I did once I mean I think we were three batters into the game and Walker already let up four hits he almost let up the a lead off home run to Altuve so I mean it was just hang on hang on three batters in the game he gave up four hits that's oh my bad no that's definitely bad yeah yeah first I should say let up yeah good call I you I you very very tired very tired but no um he let up a lot early right you Walker's not that bad he didn't leave up that many hits and three batters so but regardless it was just not an overall good outing for Walker and I'm surprised if he is he's still on the team this morning to be completely honest with you yeah it feels like at a certain point they're just going to eat that contract to move on I know in Dynasty I finally went ahead second season he's been bad I finally went ahead and just ate the rest of that contract I took the cat pit to go ahead and get rid of him and he's not no longer on my team um here okay for me here's the reason why I'm concerned if I'm a Phillies fan so that brave series and I wrote about this at braves.com that brave series last week Atlanta had a pitching plan of we're going to avoid throwing them fast balls right we don't want to throw them hard stuff and I kind of broke down specifically that last start with Spencer swell and boach and how all three runs he gave up were on Fast balls or Cutters it's just he he did really really well until the very end of the outing at giving them nothing but curves balls and Sliders uh you know Splitters things like that to hit and they just couldn't pull the trigger and so it was like okay the plan here is to avoid fast balls Spencer arti didn't do that you know 103 pitches 54 of them were either fast balls or Cutters and Philly had 11 whiffs on those fast balls or Cutters and you know nine whiffs on the fast ball and so I don't know if that's a oneoff where they finally adjusted and were looking for off speed and breaking stuff and just weren't getting it or if that was a situation where um where they there's a genuine issue here but if they were sitting on breaking stuff trying to hit it well guess what the curveballs the like the sweepers they didn't have a single hard hit ball on anything that wasn't a fast ball and so you're in a situation now where you know in reminder hit ball is to find is 95 miles hour Harder They had three hard hit balls for the game two of them um were off of arety's fast ball but again they also whiffed nine times and then the other one was off of a fast ball of Brian King and so you're in the you're at the point here where I don't know is Philly's offense just stuck between and they can't focus on one or the other is there a genuine issue here but if I'm the Braves I feel pretty good especially coming out of that sweep they just had I mean they Chris Sale goes last night very very good outing uh again I mean he he gets the win he's now 15 and three he goes six Innings six hits and one walk but only one run allowed strikes out six uh season high in pitches for him 109 and this is his 14th consecutive start of two runs or less two earned runs or less so he passes Tom glass and he ties 2223 Max freed for the longest streak of consecutive two-run outings in modern Braves history definitely the front runner for the sa young um and we're going to talk more probably in a happy hour episode about this series and kind of breaking the whole thing down the Phillies won't see sale in this series but Atlanta is rolling right now since I had the stat earlier here what was it it was since August 10th the Braves are 13 and five they've lead the national league in wins during that stretch um this feels like they are almost perfectly set up for Philadelphia with the exception of maybe having high leverage relievers available for game one yeah you mentioned you mentioned the BRS being on a hot streak you know David O'Brien put out a tweet last night after the game Phillies are going into the Philly series they've won six of the last seven nine of their last 11 12 of their past 16 games so it they are on a hot streak there's no doubt about that they have put on uh quite Quite a feat over the last month of a baseball that thing you mentioned about the fast balls with with the Phillies real quick I think there is some sort of concern but I think you also have to go ahead and give a little bit of flowers to Aaron Getty because he's been pitching really well lately and I think that's his third time this season I think that's what I heard that he has over double digits and strikeouts on the season so I think there is some concern for the Phillies I might add but I also do think that we got to give some Applause to the stuff that Aaron Getty has has had up lately but the pitching on the Braves side is no joke if the Braves can come away I know we've mentioned that all they need is one win to take the tiebreaker but if they can come away with a series win without using sale and then have sale for the next series this is where it's going to get really interesting Lindsay and this is where I think Atlanta can make that step forward and possibly win the NL East so if they can win this series Without Chris S that's absolutely abolutely huge huge go ahead and name that that car salesman absolutely huge yeah this is um it's just this whole situation is uh amazing to me for for for Philly to be the best team in baseball in the first half and then to potentially not win this division as a Braves fan it's gonna be hilarious but as um just as a as a baseball fan like this is what you want right you want this drama down the stretch and so uh it's G to be interesting Series this weekend again we're going to do a happy hour episode breaking down these pitching matchups and preview in this series um bunch of different broadcasts I believe Fox will have the game on Saturday ESPN Sunday Night Baseball will have the game on Sunday gonna be definitely interesting there okay um Diamondbacks Arizona Diamondbacks crush the New York Mets 8 to5 uh including scoring four runs in the eighth uh the loss goes to Diaz which is always um tough when you're your Mill hundred million doll closer uh can't really perform there but uh the story here I think is Corbin Carroll two for five both of his hits home runs including the Grand Slam he has five RBI in the game um but almost everybody in this lineup seems to be performing they went up and picked up Luis gor off of waivers third team he's been on this season he goes one for three playing second base from the e hole um de Castillo fill it in for Gabriel Moreno goes two for four at catcher I mean they're just they're getting like Josh Bell one for four um they're at first base filling in for Christian Walker they seem to somehow continue to do this despite all of the injuries uh we talked the other day about would you rather have the Diamond Backs or the Padres down the stretch um with a Carol do you think and I know I I believe you took the diamond back so obviously you feel like you feel this way but with the hot Corbin Carroll do the Diamond Backs have what it takes to make another deep postseason run yeah and I think he's starting to wake up at the right moments right honestly I think he's already woke up I think we're just finally starting to see it when I made that argument last week or earlier in the week Corbin Carroll was was like the highlight of my reasoning behind it he has increased every month this this season in Ops every single month he has showed Improvement and now we're starting to see like okay this guy's the stud that we all know he was this is and he's getting hot at the perfect time so uh yeah count me in on Corbin Carroll being one of the biggest reasons Diamondbacks can push forward and and they're doing all this with all those injuries still linday they're still figuring it out I I really like where the dime backs sit not only is Corbin Carroll doing it but the entire team is for the month of August they are leading all of Major League Baseball in team Ops so you you have to really like where you're at on the other side flip side with the Mets you mentioned Diaz he got the loss he also got the blown save that's his sixth blown save of the Season unreal they can't have that especially if you're trying to get back into this postseason race which is starting to dwindle down we're starting to see a couple teams punt which we're going to talk about later on in the show but I think we're only down to about five teams for three spots in the National League Wild Card race yeah and uh point of concern I think for both teams maybe starting pitching in this game Luis srino four and two- thirs innings for the Mets four runs on eight hits does strike out nine very impressive strikeout totals there Eduardo Rodriguez for the Diamondbacks five and a third five runs on five hits um despite only giv up one Homer it's always frustrating when that happens right but you're in a situation here where you kind of have to wonder on both of these teams do you have enough starting pitching you saw the Diamondbacks be able to use their Bullpen Kevin GLE and Thompson Justin Martinez they get through the last uh three and two-thirds Innings with one hit um flip side of that obviously you see um Reed Garrett Phil maton able to keep it manageable for the Mets and then like you said Diaz blows the save is six of the year uh so third loss six blown save but I think if like I think the Mets undoing is going to end up being this pitching staff I just don't quite think there's the horses and at this point in the race you can't afford srino or Mana to have a bad outing and obviously srino did and I just worry that they don't quite have enough and for Arizona we saw Brandon fought turn it on in the postseason last year I think that you can still you still you have guys who could do that still Eduardo Rodriguez could do that as he gets farther away from the injury but I think if there's any re reason to be concerned about these teams I think it's the pitching for both the starting pitching I agree with that 100% yeah I agree with that 100% that the pitching um is is could be a concern and and might be down the stretch for the dime backs especially and I mentioned about the team Ops being one of the highest in baseball the highest in baseball in August but how long can that last Lindsay we've seen Improvement month after month but how long can that last can it last into October and will that be enough to be able to you know take over for some of the issues that the pitching staff's holding it worked last night but will it work if we get into the postseason for a Deep Run and potentially another bid to the World Series right uh speaking of pitching issues Yankees lose to the Nationals five to2 in the series finale uh Carlos rhon here okay five and two-thirds Innings eight hits five runs two walks to eight strikeouts has a runs scoring bulk he's called for a bulk with Runners on the corners and I think it's time officially I'm sure people a lot of people are already way past this point but to say the Carlos rhon contract is a problem he's 14-9 with a 431 erra this season that is an improvement because his Ra was in the sixes last year he started 41 games for the Yankees he's 17 and 17 with a 508 erra but he is being paid $162 million over six years he is making more per season than anybody on the Atlanta Braves and that's just my favorite thing because nobody makes board 22 million a year on the Braves um and he's given you an erra of five in that stretch um so I mean this is a situation where I know that the Yankees obviously the the offense is amazing judge andto is the are the big drivers there outside of that jazz had another home run last night goes two for three at third base um do you have with Cole not looking like sa young Garrett Cole because of the injury Carlos rhon being Carlos rodon do the Yankees have the starting pitching here given that Luis Gil is also on The Struggle Bus because he's at a career he's way past his career high Innings yeah I mean you have to be concerned at least some way when you when you look at it from the outside looking in you see the names you're like oh I'm not concerned but when you really dig in deep and you you see what they've what's happened over the past couple games over the past month yeah there's some concerns rown is a guy that has been really polarizing to me for quite some time I think even before the Yankees he made that he had that two-year contract with the Giants if you remember that and and he had dramatically outperformed in year two right outperformed year two but the first year was kind of shaky but then he got that then he got that contract with the Yankees and it just never was never really worked in my in my mind and we've seen with the numbers here I think they're going to be in a really tough spot and I think this is going to be a nice conversation that you and I are going to definitely have probably multiple times this offseason talking about the free agencies of the Yankees and rodan's going to have to be a big part of that I think there's also some other other issues as well in the roster we can get to you in a second but when you look at this pitching staff Garett Cole I think he'll figure it out I think he already is a little bit it's just not the numbers you expect and it's because you know as you mentioned the injury I think he'll figure it out I think he's also I think he's also going to be pitching like he's almost in a contract year because he's expected to opt out so I think there's that too so I think that's going to be leverage for garole so not too worried about him as long as he stays healthy but the rest of the rotation you mentioned Gil we've mentioned rodon strowman strowman's been pretty good let's give him that but there's also been some shaky sides of him and then Clark Schmidt has also been injured yeah um I do want to point out on strowman they skipped him I think two weeks ago or so to give him some rest but also 388 erra his Fielding independent pitching so when you take out the effects of the defense is 495 more than a run worse so he is he is outperforming the inputs which makes you worry that that regression is going to hit at some point in time now doing a little worse than I expected then I didn't I didn't know that yeah I mean and and I feel like ground ball guys sometimes will do that right heavy ground ball guys like he is a sinker guy um because fielded independent pitching obviously takes out the effects of the defense and you the defense does matter so it's not a perfect metric when you're looking at uh a ground ball pitcher a pitch to contact guy but still it is a little bit of cost for concern because he will give up hard contact and if you can manage to lift it obviously that's gonna that's gonna cause problems so I I have I have concerns about the Yankees rotation uh like you said I trust garri col to figure it out he's not quite there yet I trust him to figure it out his erra is down under four already um so trustman figured out questions about almost everybody else Nester Cortez is fine do I think you want to start him in game two of the postseason I don't think you do um I think they have guys that they would rather the names like a rhon or a strowman that they would start but do you trust them that's the big question there I don't quite know uh flip side of this Dylan Cruz hits his first home run goes two for four his family was there always love when that happens uh very excited uh Washington between James Wood and Dylan Cru this team's getting kind of exciting and I'm I'm I'm eager to see what they're able to do uh in 2025 with this young core that they have of CJ Abrams and and uh Cruz and R and and wood and all these guys yeah and then you figure out this pitching staff as we mentioned there's a couple injuries that are they're dealing with with some younger guys as well and McKenzie Gore didn't have that bad of an outing yesterday and that's been that's been quite a concern lately as well so if you can figure that out and this team can figure it out and bring up some of the pitching and I know you questioned it and it made me question I looked into it after the show but if you can figure that out Lindsay I I I'm excited for this Washington Squad I really am and I and I'm gonna keep going on record because I really do think this is the case I think we see them be a wild card competitor next year and potentially be go ahead and put me like where the Mets are right now I can see the Nationals being there next year yeah there we go that's uh you heard it here first all right uh let's get into quick pitch couple uh quite a few things to talk about actually first of all one of the first games yesterday the Royals and the Guardians Royals going for the sweep uh leading this game until the seventh Guardians take their four first lead of the series I believe in the seventh score four runs they win seven to five uh they hold on to first place by a single game over Kansas City Minnesota obviously falls back to third because they got SWAT by the Braves um we still like Kansas City to win this overall though I think yeah yeah I'm I'm still concerned about Cleveland too like that was one really good inning that seventh inning was very good but that was like really their only good inning of the entire series Kansas City lit it up right from the beginning I think they had three home runs in the first three Innings they had two in the first inning from Massie and passantino so I really like the Royals still and and count me and we we got mentioned the twins the twins I think are going to fall off or or at least gonna figure something out I don't know not sure but I saw a stat this morning that made me think okay maybe we are going a little too overboard on the twins the Minnesota Twins this year against the Chicago White Socks Are 12- One Lindsay against everyone else 60 and 60 oo are we calling them frauds I mean I think we're calling them yeah I think we might have to throw a couple caution flags up on the Minnesota Twins and maybe that's another reason why I think Kansas City is going to roll through the central okay I feel a little Vindicated thinking the Twins were a little bit fraudulent a couple weeks ago I like that okay good thank you for that that was that was a great that um Orioles visit the Dodgers drop the game six to4 Corbin Burns takes the loss that's not the story of the game the story of the game is the giveaway the game's giveaway they had 40,000 bobbleheads of show Otani and his dog decoy who threw out the first pitch and moments ago the first dog ever to throw out a first pitch was pretty darn impressive actually sh goes behind home plate and here comes decoy with the first pitch and it's a strike right down the middle little treat little reward you tell me he works hard on his game he works hard on training hisg so I mean just show for those of you on audio Shi walks out sets decoy down on the top of the mound puts a ball next to him goes back behind the plate and then when Shi signals decoy picks it up in his mouth runs to Sho and drops it off on home plate um sh said after theame game be an interpreter that he was um that he practiced that they've been training that for weeks they even did a dry run in Dodger Stadium um a couple days ago U speaking of thank you to the Dodgers for that clip um Dodgers and MLB there but uh line started at 900 a.m. despite there being 40,000 bobbleheads in a stadium that when it sells out which it did yesterday the capacity is only um I just I find it's it's an interesting it's a really unique giveaway obviously that dog has really captured everybody's attention ever since the um the MVP acceptance when that dog was next to him on the couch and he just didn't acknowledge the dog's name or anything we found out his first aers press conference but um that was adorable one two do we really think that there's never been a minor league team that had a dog run the first pitch to home plate like was that the first time it's ever happened no it's definitely not I think the the real winners here though are Shi and decoy it's awesome the losers here I mean got to be 50 Cent I mean got to be 50 Cent after the first pitches because decoy did way better than what we've seen from 50 cents SM guys out there I mean come on it's got to be the loser there but I'm I'm sorry I love bobbleheads I love baseball Memoria I'm a huge fan of that stuff I have it all over my my house but I am not going to stand in line at 9:00 a.m. for what was it a 7:00 game to get a bobblehead I'm not doing it I'm not doing it I did see this that was really cool though Lindsay they had somebody pulled a gold oh yeah they had they had like a hundred or a thousand or whatever of them were gold which was just kind of cool and obviously sh got one he posted with it before the game he got one of the gold ones that was always that's a unique little twist on that I like that a lot um okay first game of the day yesterday really interesting Pirates versus Cubs and uh this game was certifiably wild right this was a SK start so you're thinking okay it's going to be Pirates domination in fact they are up early they have a 10 to3 lead going into the seventh inning Skin's day is done he gave up uh three runs two earned on five innings five hits one walk six strikeouts good not great schem start the Cubs won this game 14-10 they scored 11 runs in the final three Innings including six runs in the ninth to take this game they get the win over uh the loss goes to the closer bner he had a blown save and the loss Porter hodj for the um for the Cubs pitch the last two innings to get the win but here's the thing they've scored 41 runs in their last three games the Cubs have this is the most runs in a three-game stretch by any team this season and most people are not going to guess who the previous holder of that three-game stretch was because it was the Oakland A's who scored 39 runs back in July uh but the flip side here the Pirates when they were leading by seven or more runs had won their last 144 games the last time they blew a seven-run lead was June 2nd of 2011 is this the worst loss of the MLB season yeah yeah I think so yeah I think it is I think it's the worst in quite some time so I would say that for the season did you see Derrik Shelton the manager of the Pirates how mad he was in the postgame I mean can too can you blame him I mean you skin didn't have his best start but he still got six strikeouts he only allowed three runs like he didn't have his best start but he kept the team in the game when he left he was set up for the win he was set up for his ninth win and you go into that ninth inning you still have a couple run lead I think was what 107 going into the ninth yeah and you wind up losing that game that Bullpen I mean this makes me think if I'm the Pirates and I and I shut down skin now like as a fan you almost can't blame them like why put skines out on the mound at and let him pitch like this and just to give up all these runs I I feel I feel really bad for pirates fans because this was a rough one watching um but on the other side the Cubs how about Pete Crow Armstrong how about what he has done has been super impressive opto stats came out with something really impressive after the game Pete car Armstrong in this three- game series Lindsay multiple three hit games scored three plus bases in a game or scored four or more runs in a game no other rookie has done that in the all three games in a single Series in the modern era 1901 so pretty impressive stats by peer Armstrong the national league has a lot of good young guys coming up yeah P Armstrong four for four four runs RBI in this game like you said and a walk so he gets on all five times batting from the eighth spot in the order and I mean the Cubs got great performances from everybody catcher Christian Beth cour DFA by the Marlins of all teams goes three for five with three runs scored and drives in seven just a amazing performance all around and um this is just this is baseball right any team can beat any other team in a three- game series I really do think the Cubs could be dangerous next year having the pitching that they have getting Pete Crow Armstrong playing like one of the top prospects in baseball I think it all kind of depends on uh what what they do or what happens with Cody Bellinger does he opt out does he come back and can they get some better performance out of guys like Dans B Swanson who went two for four yesterday I'm sorry he went 0 for four he walked once he scored twice but 0 for four yesterday dropped his Bat in average to 227 he was batting um seventh in the order his Ops is 666 seven on the year just a situation it's really not tenable the money you're paying him you've got to get better production than this out of a guy like Danby Swanson but I mean definitely a uh a frisky Cub Squad Cubs are still alive which is crazy to say but they're with all the other teams that are punting right now they're probably one of the only five teams remaining in the National League Wild Card race I think they have the longest shot but with this Ser huge Series win they are still alive they are five and a half games back in the wild card for the final spot behind the Braves the Mets are four games so it's just two teams really there the third team in the Wild Card Standings so third team out San Francisco Giants six and a half games back they are officially punting on the year they put a couple players on waivers yesterday they put um Tyler matsik who they got in the uh the Jorge Solair trade with Atlanta they put relever Taylor Rogers on waivers and they put Tyro Estrada on waivers and this that one is the one that's really surprising to me I know he hasn't had a great year he's been dealing with some injuries he's been on the iil multiple times batting 219 this year but he's a year removed from batting 271 with a mid sevens Ops he had um he had 23 stolen bases and 14 home runs last year the year before that he had 14 home runs and 21 stolen bases batted 260 and he's an ARB one guy like he's not making a ton of money he's making 4.7 this year he'll get a at best modest pay raise probably to 5 million for next year anybody who claims him right now you get him and you have he's not a free agent till 2027 you get three years of Tyro Estrada and all it's going to cost you this year is the pro-rated portion of his salary down the stretch I think it's around $800,000 or so has there been a more surprising um waiver placement this year than Tyro estrado question one and question two is this waiver process just getting to be a bit too much are too many teams dumping quality players this late in the process it's getting interesting that's for sure and I think the Estrada one is a head scratcher for me because you mentioned he's not really too much money and the ARB one thing is wild that's a very aggressive move by the Giants I just I don't get it I don't understand why but I tell you what but that this is one of those waiver moves that maybe he doesn't even just go to a contender I could see him going to a team that's trying to build up because this is a as you mentioned this is a piece that doesn't going to cost you a lot of money and there's a lot of value there too uh but interested about see where Taylor Rogers goes I think that could be a really huge piece and he could be one of the guys that is like a deciding factor of a team making a playoffs or being a a huge postseason addition so especially like a team like the Astros we've talked about do they have enough in the back end of their Bullpen add a guy like Taylor Rogers and that that conversation might change a little bit Lindsay yeah um this is something where like I could see the Yankees making a claim arrra doesn't have the arm for third really doesn't have it much for short he could play second base you can probably use him some at first he's not the usual profile of a first baseman but like I could see quite a few teams saying hey we're going to go grab him because we have multi- years of control of him it just it's a it's an odd move uh this has been first pitch for Thursday August 29th if you are listening on audio do us a favor leave us a festar review really does mean a ton helps folks find the show if you're on YouTube subscribe to the channel uh leave a comment down below hit the notification Bell so you know when we drop a new episode we're going to try to come back to you this afternoon on for a happy hour uh talking about the Braves and Phillies this four game series the pitching matchups things like that uh but until then this has been first pitch