Was it the greatest catch we’ve ever seen? Luke Jones and Nestor are unsure of the legacy of Colton Cowser’s late-night, game-saving robbery in Denver, but the stakes have certainly risen as the Baltimore Orioles are back to .500 and ready to stalk a Wild Card berth in September at Camden Yards. Moo.

The discussion centered on the Orioles’ dramatic win in Colorado and what it means for their playoff push.

Defensive Swing

• Luke and Nestor agreed Colton Cowser’s over-the-wall catch in the ninth inning directly turned a loss into a win and was the defining play of the game.
• The Orioles won despite getting only four hits, with Cade Povich giving solid innings and the bullpen protecting a narrow lead.
• They noted the team’s defense has looked better recently and was the main reason they won this game.

September Race

• The win moved the Orioles back to .500 and within striking distance of the final wild card spot.
• Both emphasized that beating weaker teams on this road trip was necessary before a much tougher stretch against direct playoff competitors.
• They said the team no longer looks desperate, but it still must keep winning series rather than assuming momentum will last.

Open Questions

• Can the bullpen keep outperforming expectations against stronger opponents?
• Can the offense do enough when the schedule gets harder if it repeats low-hit games like this one?
• Will this win become a turning point in the playoff race or just a memorable isolated moment?

Orioles win in Colorado

• The Orioles beat the Rockies in a low-scoring game despite limited offense.
• Colton Cowser’s ninth-inning catch at the wall was described as the game-saving moment.
• The win pushed Baltimore back to .500.

Pitching and defense

• Cade Povich gave the Orioles useful length before the bullpen finished the game.
• The bullpen was praised for continuing to outperform expectations.
• Recent defensive improvement was highlighted as a key factor in the team’s better play.

Playoff outlook

• The Orioles are close in the wild card race, making this stretch meaningful.
• Taking care of business against weaker opponents was viewed as essential ahead of tougher series.
• The next week was framed as a real test of whether the team can sustain momentum.

Ravens kicker update

• The conversation briefly shifted to the Ravens adding Jake Moody to the practice squad.
• Luke said Tyler Loop is still expected to open as the Week 1 kicker but may have a short leash if he misses kicks.

Nestor Aparicio 0:01
Welcome home. We are WNST AM 1570 Tass of Baltimore. We are Baltimore positive. We’re trying to have as much enthusiasm as the Orioles have right now. We are doing the Maryland Crab Cake Tour, and I’m wearing my costus gear. We’re going to be at Dundalk next Friday to kick off the season. So September 11 th, kind of a strange day. september 13, even Stranger Day. The Ravens going to Indianapolis. We’ll have scratch offs in the Maryland Lottery. I’ll have Ravens and the Kiss Face Bird. Also, our friends at GBMC and Farnan and Dermer putting us on the road to start things in Dundalk on Friday the 11th. Orioles might be 11 games over 500 by then because by September 1 they made it to 500. Luke Jones joins us now. Colton Cowser over the wall. You know Cade Pope with five innings of a clean sheet for the bullpen. Hustling to run out ground ball. I don’t know. They did it. Rain delay. I mean they did it all in Colorado on Monday night, didn’t they, Luke? They didn’t hit.

Luke Jones 1:00
I mean, they had four hits in the game. I mean, so they didn’t hit. And usually, when you’re talking about going to Coors Field and you tell someone, “Well, the Orioles are going to get four hits tonight, you’d probably say, “Well, that series is going to start off in disappointing fashion. But I mean, there’s no there’s no need to to sugarcoat it. Colton Cowser saved the game. Colton Cowser turned a loss into a win. It’s that simple. It was a phenomenal play. I’ve never seen. I mean, I don’t want to say never because I saw Pete Gilbert actually said that that game, that win, that was right around one a.m. after what an hour and 40 minute rain delay out in Denver, but it reminded him a little bit. If you recall the 2012 Orioles, they had that 18 inning win in Seattle in all night long.

Nestor Aparicio 1:52
That game ended at four in the morning. Yeah, it was four in the

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Luke Jones 1:54
morning, and not. I mean, I’m not going to sit here and say the entire city of Baltimore stayed up to watch it, but a lot of people did, and this was had a very similar vibe. That my social media just exploded. Full disclosure: Alan

Nestor Aparicio 2:08
texts me at 1o’clock in the morning. Texted

Luke Jones 2:10
me as well. Full full disclosure. I will pull back the curtain entirely here. I had fallen asleep at a couple different points during the game, like a little cat nap. You know, 1015 minutes. You know, the the beauty of having a smartphone is you can set a 20 minute alarm wherever you are, and you’re going to wake up. But I had kind of sort of closed my eyes in the top half of the ninth inning, and I was just like, well, you know, I’m really tired. I’ll I’ll pull up the game on my MLB app in the morning if something crazy happens in the bottom of the ninth, but I just had this weird feeling tugging on me to pull the game back up on my phone. I mean, I’m laying in bed. Premonition. I kid you not. As as my feed comes up on my phone, the ball is in the air, and I’m thinking, “Wait, are are they going to lose? Like, because I I saw I saw it off the bat, and I saw, man, this looks like it has the ballpark. And Colton just made. When you consider scenario, look, I’m not gonna get too extreme here. I mean, you can think of Brooks Robinson in the 1970 World Series and all these different higher stakes plays that have been made in franchise history. But as it just pertains to the difference between winning a game and losing a game. There are very few plays in franchise history that you could even compare to what Colton Kozler just did. I mean, that was absolutely incredible. It was a great catch. It was when I saw it in real time. I wasn’t necessarily 100% convinced that that was going to go over the wall, but when you saw the side camera on the replay, absolutely is going over his body

Nestor Aparicio 3:45
language as he went to get the ball in real time felt like it’s a home run. Yeah, it’s a tie game.

Luke Jones 3:52
I mean, even if it wasn’t, it’s a tie game. I mean, the the runners in score and scoring position off the bat, so it was going to be a tie game at the very least. But you could see on the replay definitely was going to go over the wall. I mean, it was just it’s a phenomenal catch. I mean, that was a great, great catch. I mean, Albernaz that was greatest catch he’s ever seen. I mean, there have I don’t know if I’d say it’s the greatest I’ve ever seen, but in terms of consequential, you know, two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. Yeah, you go over the wall in the seventh inning and take a home run away. It’s cool. It’s great. I mean, but it was. I mean, it was a great catch. Period. But then when you consider the stakes, I mean, literally turns a loss into a win.

Nestor Aparicio 4:30
It was a walk off. I mean, that was incredible. Right. I

Luke Jones 4:32
mean, that was that was a you know. I think back to. I always think of Chris Hoyle’s hitting the Grand Slam in ’96 when they were down three runs. Right. The alt kind of the ultimate scenario of a game-winning Grand Slam-that was the equivalent on defense, right? I mean, literally, you’re going to lose the game if you don’t pull that ball back in, and and he just made an unbelievable catch. This is why Gedrich was

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Nestor Aparicio 4:54
pleased with

Luke Jones 4:55
it. Oh, no doubt, his reaction was was hilarious, but that is why. All year long, there have been folks. Look, has Colton panned out in the way that you want the fifth overall pick in the draft to pan out? No, but it is why guys like me have been harping on the idea of why isn’t he just playing center field every day rather than putting Leodi Taveras out there or Blaze Alexander, or Dylan Beavers, or or whoever, because he’s your best center fielder. Now Luis Robert is on the way, and it’s kind of ironic that the Orioles acquire him off waivers. Someone who has a reputation as being a good defensive center fielder, because to me, Colton Cowser just made a statement to say Luis Roberts not going to be playing center field. Here’s what I’m going

Nestor Aparicio 5:40
to do for Colton Kauser. Here’s what I’m going to do for him on my stratomatic car. I’m going to make him a one in left field, at a two in center field, and a one in right field. For now, for now, you know, because they did bring a guy in who’s better as thought to be a better defender. Okay, well, thought to be

Luke Jones 5:56
debatable, debatable. I mean, they brought in a good defender, which look, they’re they’re going to give him $5 million between what he’s owed and the the team option that they’ll almost certainly decline after the season. But I mean, Colton Kozler just kind of made a little statement there about the the kind of defense that really he’s played most of the year, right? I mean, does he have a hiccup every now and then, sure. Any player does, but compared to the guys they’ve trotted out there, whether it’s in center or most of their quarterback, well, the ball gets hit

Nestor Aparicio 6:29
to Gunner Henderson more often, so he has more opportunities to bobble it, scoop it, even bobble it and throw a guy out and not get charged with an error, or the other way around, bobble it and still not get charged with an error.

Luke Jones 6:40
Although I would say Gunnar Henderson’s played some great defense on this road trip, the team has. We

Nestor Aparicio 6:44
talked about that when they left Sacramento. It’s sort of like matter of fact, we talked about that as they left Sacramento. Is like defense is getting better. Defense is getting better. Defense won the game Monday night. Certainly wasn’t the offense. Yeah, I’ll open the door for you to talk about four hits, four hits in Colorado in the rain, and it’s

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Luke Jones 7:02
funny. The other thing I was going to say because I I just revealed that I had fallen asleep at a couple different points, you know, and woke up and happened to see the very everybody’s

Nestor Aparicio 7:09
fallen asleep on this season. Believe me. Well, see, it’s not. Yeah,

Luke Jones 7:14
I’m starting to. This team’s growing on. Better wake up though. You better wake up. It’s starting to get fun, and you know, I’ve said this on a number of occasions. How I just, as a baseball fan, not speaking in terms of covering a team and this being my, you know, making a living and and and being grateful for all that, but it has not been an enjoyable team to watch. They’re getting to be fun to watch. I mean, they’re and well, when

Nestor Aparicio 7:37
you’re awake at 1o’clock in the morning and the Colorado Rockies guys are getting trapped up in the in the in the the tarp on the way out, and it’s raining, and you’re asleep, and I’m asleep, and I’m waking up, and you’re waking up, and and Alan’s texting me at 1o’clock in the morning, waking the neighbors up. I mean, yeah.

Luke Jones 7:52
And think about post rain delay, the home plate umpire completely forgot how to call balls and strikes. I mean, there were a number of challenges for both teams. You have that. I mean, think about the Orioles go ahead in the top of the seventh inning, and here’s how they did it: Kobe Mayo walk, Beavers flies to center, Pasayo walk, Blaze Alexander walk, Kowser grounds into a fielder’s choice, almost a double play, beats it out. I mean, that was kind of the the underrated part of what Colton Kauser did on Monday night, then a Tavares walk holiday grounds out. So they get one run, they have an opportunity to have a big inning, and they can’t get a single hit to to to make it four to one, right? To to give themselves a little breathing room. So it was just, I mean, that game was a slog. I mean, it really was in a lot of ways. Oh, and they’re 500. We didn’t even

Nestor Aparicio 8:40
give the lead yet. We’ve been doing this 10 minutes. They’re 500.

Luke Jones 8:44
Oh, you you mentioned 500. Did

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Nestor Aparicio 8:45
I mention it? Okay. Yeah, you

Luke Jones 8:46
mentioned it in the beginning. 6969,

Nestor Aparicio 8:48
I mean,

Luke Jones 8:48
since april 30. Yeah. I mean, it it look. This is the play of the year. It it it’s the P determined how meaningful it really is in terms of whether they make the playoffs. If they do, we’re going to be talking about this for I don’t want to say for the rest of our lives. You know, I don’t want to be dramatic about it, but this is the kind of play you remember. Like, like I just cited that 18-inning win in Seattle in 2012. The Orioles didn’t win the World Series that year, but you remember how crazy, insane that game was. This has that kind of feeling to it. Whether it’s just going to be the play of the year because it was just an incredible play in isolation, or what it could mean for the month of September now. I mean, it’s sitting right there for them. They’re a half game out of the final wild card spot. They’re going to play Cleveland. They’re going to play Toronto. Right. They’re going to play Boston for 48 hours. Like literally. But I mean the teams that are directly fighting it out for for the third wild card spot. So I mean this is this is getting exciting. This is getting fun. I think, and I’m working on this. And I’ve you know I’ve mentioned this before. For anyone who’s been incredibly frustrated with the state of the franchise, with Mike Elias, with the. Uncore with where this thing’s going, with ownership, with the CBA and pending lockout, all those issues that are still very much there. It is okay to embrace where they are right now in the micro and just say, “Look, I’ve nicknamed this the race of the undead, right? I mean, this wild card race. It’s okay to have some fun with it. It’s okay to just experience it and get into it and root for it, because it’s September. It’s September, and the the bar is not very high. And I get that. And there is a part of me in the back of my mind that kind of sees this and says, “Is this fool’s gold that’s going to be detrimental to the big picture, I don’t know. Time will tell on that, right? That’s a David Rubenstein and Michael Araghetti question more so than a Luke Jones question, ultimately. But it’s it’s okay to embrace this and have some fun with this because it’s getting fun, and certainly it helps that you go from playing an A’s team that’s won 13 games over the last two months, to a Colorado Rockies team that had lost what 11 of 13 going into Monday night. But that said, the Yankees were blown out by the Angels on Monday night, right? It’s baseball. You you’re not guaranteed of any of this, right? When you see these matchups on paper, it’s still a very high variance sport where the the worst team in the league can beat the best team in the league, and it’s not even something that you, you know, they’re 68

Nestor Aparicio 11:25
and 70 if Colton Cowser doesn’t leave his feet at the exact moment, and that’s a

Luke Jones 11:29
demoralizing loss, right? I’m not saying that the season’s over if you lose. Demoralizing,

Nestor Aparicio 11:34
my God, walk off on the rain in front of nobody against the worst team in baseball. Oh my! And at that

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Luke Jones 11:39
point, you’re back to two under, right? I mean, it’s not season ending. Like I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but boy, it feels like it’d be it could be season making for them in terms of being a potential springboard. I mean, it’s just a great catch. I mean, it really was. That was one of those where, as I said, I was basically asleep. I see that I couldn’t fall asleep for 45 minutes. I mean, I was just I was wired at that point in time because that was just just a great catch. And the the the it’s funny because in modern baseball, and we we even talk about this with football, we hear about win probability a lot, right? You know, as far as probability swings, you know what what happens in a game that improves your chances of winning or or increases your chances of losing? It’s funny because you don’t have, as far as I know, there’s no measurement of what win probability is in the midst of a play. You know the Orioles were still leading the game when when that ball is hit, but in the midst of that play, and you see the balls going back, you’re just thinking, “Oh my gosh, they’re going to lose this ball game in about the worst way you can lose it. And then he just snatches it out of the air. I mean, it was just-I can’t say enough about it. I mean, it was just incredible to see that. It was incredible to see my social media come alive at 1:00 a.m. to your to your point, I mean, Alan McCallum texted me. One of my cousins texted me like two hours. He usually watches the game on delays. He’s a night owl. I always get texts from him in the morning, and typically it’s about you know complaining about the Orioles’ defense or whatever it might be. I got a text from him, so I mean it was just it was incredible. It really was, and yes, momentum is only as good as the next day’s starting pitcher. And you know they push back Kyle Bradish, Kate Povich pitch well, as you mentioned in passing. But that was just-it’s-it makes you a-it’s enough of a swing, enough of a just crazy play to make you start believing just a little bit, at the very least, right? Got a long way to go, right? And they’re they’re still not even in a playoff position. They’re not even above 500. But for them to win that game in the fashion that they did, even those of us who stopped believing in this team a few months ago have to look at this and say it’s sitting right there, and you just took a game. I mean, that was absolutely insane. So, hats off. Maybe I’m a fan of

Nestor Aparicio 14:07
Colton Kozler, dude. You know, I mean, I

Luke Jones 14:09
mean, well, it’s like I’ve said. I mean, and the funny thing is, I was actually talking about this at Ravens with another reporter who watches the Orioles on a nightly basis. But I had said to him, first of all, go look at his splits. He actually had a pretty decent month at the plate in August. But if you look at Kozar’s overall numbers, I’m not sitting. I’m not going to sit here and say he’s had a great year. Let me be very clear about that. But he has cut down on his strikeout rate from a year ago, and he’s raised his walk rate from a year ago. Those were two things I talked about in spring training and saying for Colton to have a rebound season, these things absolutely must happen. Again, is he the player that everyone wanted him to become when he was drafted, or what he looked like he might become as a rookie? No, but that doesn’t. Mean he’s not still a useful player in in certain ways, and one of those ways was on full display well on Monday night with just an absolutely insane catch. But again, you look at his numbers; he has drawn more walks than he did a year ago. I get it; he’s hitting 220. I’m not going to sit here and say he’s been a great player. He hasn’t been a great player, but there there are elements of his profile that have improved a little bit from where they were a year ago that I’ve liked to to see. The question with him, as is always the case, can he sustain it? Can he be more consistent? Can you know he has a hot stretch where he looks really good for two weeks and then it goes away for six weeks, right? And that’s where it’s really tough to count on him as an everyday player, but the way you can count on him as an everyday player or a guy that’s going to play a lot is he goes and gets it, and he went and got it on Monday night and saved the day for them.

Nestor Aparicio 15:53
Luke Jones is here. He is Baltimore. Luke, we’re going to be at Costas next Friday doing the Maryland Crab Cake tour, presented by the Maryland Lottery, along with GBMC and Farnand and Durner, also bringing some new sponsors aboard here for football season. We’re talking about that a little bit. Kate Povich and then the bullpen holding this thing off. Look, the bullpen gets just gave up a two-run walk-off home run. The Cowser saved the game, so using that and backing up from that. Whether it’s Garcia Nunez going down. You know what they’re doing with their roster. They’ve signed an outfielder now and gave him $5 million. So they’re trying, and more than that, the bullpen continues to be something. When they have a one-run lead in the sixth, somehow I feel like they can hold it.

Luke Jones 16:39
I’ve said it for a while now, and I mean, even going back to earlier in the season, but especially considering where they’ve been since Helsley went down the second time, since trading Tyler Wells at the deadline, right? This group has just absolutely outperformed the perception by by a wide margin, right? We have been so quick to bury their bullpen, and when I say we, I don’t mean necessarily just you and me. I think just perception of this team, whether we’re talking about media fans, whatever. But they’ve done a really well with bullpen. You

Nestor Aparicio 17:14
look for proven.

Luke Jones 17:15
Sure, Rico Garcia,

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Nestor Aparicio 17:17
Nunez. I mean, even Kittridge going away and coming back, and I mean, I haven’t seen him look great for the Orioles, and he’s been signed for two years, and he was an off-season signing for Elias, and but he’s supposed to be an is, and they’ve just put him into a closer role here through all of this. I mean, even the guys they have that are proven were question marks in March, right?

Luke Jones 17:42
I mean, to different to to varying degrees, yes, right? I mean, they brought Kittridge back. I mean, Kittridge is the most accomplished out out of their relievers. I mean, he’s been doing it a long time, and I mean, he’s been really, really good for them from what about June on. So, but you’re right, and I think, I mean, I I go back to where they were in the spring, and obviously they bring in Helsley. They signed him. They signed him coming off of a a really disappointing finish to his 2025 campaign. I’m you know talking about pitch tipping and you know just not being very good for the Mets. All of that, and they barely had him. I mean, Ryan Helsley’s been a non-factor for them this year because of his health, you know, because of his elbow, and you know, I know he’s throwing, and you know, we’ll see if he gets back. I mean, we’ll see if Felix Batista factors into the mix at all, as he’s got three or four rehabs outings under his belt now, and seems to be doing pretty well. But this group just-they’re getting it done, and I mean to me really Grant Wolfram was was kind of the star out of the out of the bullpen for them on Monday night. I mean he comes in after the delay. I mean Kovich wasn’t long for the game anyway. He’d already thrown 87 pitches, but Wolfram go comes in and hangs two scoreless innings on the board. I mean how many times do you see after a rain delay one team’s pitching or the other, it just goes sideways, right? I I think back to the that rain shortened Orioles Phillies game. Uh, what right right before the deadline that Sunday where Bradish and Zach Wheeler are both taken out by an early rain delay, and and you know they they come back and start playing again, and the Orioles just got shelled. I mean, I can’t even remember who it was that day out of the pen, but a game that was close was not close anymore. So that can happen, right? It’s tough sometimes when you shut it down and you’re waiting it out. And think about it. I was even thinking about this during the rain delay. This is a team that’s on the third leg of a three-city, nine-game road trip without an off day in there, it would have been very easy for the Orioles to, you know, the figuratively go to sleep on Monday night as they’re waiting for for the rain and to come in and you know come back on the field and not be very good. But the bullpen was good. We mentioned the defense and obviously Cal. Does what he does, but but it’s just it it the bullpen’s done a nice job. I mean, Rico Garcia has been shaky of late. He he was good on Monday night, right? It was good to see that from him. Two thirds of a scoreless inning, but whether it’s Wolfram, whether it’s Alex Hoppy, I mean, it’s just they’ve had different guys that have stepped up at different points, and I was a little surprised that Nunez was sent down. I get it; he threw a couple innings, and they needed a fresh arm, especially as you-they may or may not be going to a six-man rotation here. They’ve at least done it for the time being with pushing back Bradish a day, which I thought was smart to do, especially on the heels of how he looked his last time out, so you don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like. Obviously, rosters expand now, so you’ll have an extra pitcher as you go from 26 to 28 men on the roster, so that helps. But collectively, I mean, you know, you mentioned Kittridge in the ninth inning. I mean, but it hasn’t been him in the ninth inning every single time, right? Sometimes it’s a little more matchup dependent, but by and large, those guys have done the job. Again, the perception of what that group looks like on paper, compared to how it’s performed, has been very striking, and especially in the in the wake of trading away Tyler Wells, which Tyler Wells was the most consequential trade they made to their chances right now. Go look at it.

Luke Jones 21:23
Adley Rutschman’s been terrible for the Red Sox. Taylor Ward has been absolutely atrocious for the Mariners to the point where I’ve seen some questions about whether he should even be playing every day at this point in time. That’s how bad he’s been. So it’s not like they’ve missed those two guys. Have they missed Wells? Yeah, but they’ve had other guys step up, so they even that hasn’t been as extreme as I thought it had a chance of being in terms of their short-term chances. They miss Brian

Nestor Aparicio 21:51
Baker too. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I mean,

Luke Jones 21:54
so but but they’ve give him credit, and you know I’m not a Michaelias guy at this point in time, after what’s transpired the last few years, but they have found a way to bring in some arms that have helped them at different times. Whether it’s Hoppy, whether it’s Cam Sanders, you know, all these guys have have done a nice job, and some of these guys have good arms. Like Alex Hoppy’s, he has a good arm. Like he throws hard, and he’s been pretty good for them. Yeah, not perfect. You know, they all have their hiccups every now and then, but overall, Dave, to to your point, when you get a two to one lead in the seventh inning, you actually have a a pretty reasonably high degree of confidence that they can get through it. Right? You always want to add on. Well, you’re like this

Nestor Aparicio 22:41
guy can get three outs. This guy can get three outs. This guy can get three acts. And the other thing is, it rarely begins with ball one, ball two. Yeah, you know, like that. That coming out of the bullpen, the seventh inning, and you’re up a run or down a run, and you get ball one and ball two. No bueno.

Luke Jones 23:00
Yeah. Well, I mean, look at how the look at how the Rock. I mean, and this is why it was so disappointing that it was only two to one. I mean, the Rockies. What was it, man? Freddie comes out in relief of Gordon, who Gordon was pretty good. I mean, it’s kind of a unfortunate for them. He’d only thrown 60 pitches through five innings, but he walked three, and then Frasso walks two. I mean, like that whole inning was about the walks. I mean, the Orioles scored on a fielder’s choice. Kowzer beat out a double play ball, right? I mean, that was the difference in the game until Kowser makes the catch in the bottom of the ninth inning. But that was the difference. Whereas the Orioles, you know, Hoppy had one walk, right? I mean, the bullpen tossed four scoreless innings, and there’s one walk there. That generally will play, right? So, we’ll see if it continues, right? I mean, you you are talking about a bunch of unproven guys. You know, most of these guys have not pitched in a in any kind of a playoff race. You know, Kittridge has, you know, Cano has going back to 23 and 24, but you have

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Nestor Aparicio 24:00
some other guys who really haven’t been in that. Well, the stakes are going to get high when Reds. I mean, they’re playing good teams the rest of the way. They they have a tough schedule. Oh yeah, against the rest of these teams. I mean, I looked at like I I looked at like the White Sox and I looked at at at the Tigers and I looked at other teams and like who they’re playing Central Division teams and stuff. And I’m like Indian. Excuse me, the Guardians who they were. I I meant the Guardians, not the Tigers. Um, and I looked at and I’m like, well, can they catch them? And I’m like, well, they have the easiest schedule in the sport in the Central Division. And I’m looking at it, I’m thinking, well, Cleveland, it’s not so easy for them, but the Orioles is difficult. I mean, sure, they have six games against Toronto. They got to play the Red Sox this weekend. Even

Luke Jones 24:44
even the Mets have been playing better baseball. If you kind of look at the Mets over the last month, yeah. So yeah, I mean this this is why I wrote. This is why I emphasized to you so much when the St. Louis series was over, and we knew they had six games against the A’s and then against the Rockies. It’s why. Saying, man, if you can go five and one or six and zero against the JV, that really helps you big time knowing what’s ahead. Well, four and

Nestor Aparicio 25:09
zero right now.

Luke Jones 25:10
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, I mean, they win one of these next two games, they’re guaranteed to. Well, four and zero means they’d be

Nestor Aparicio 25:16
a 500 team, and that’s where they are. And you, for many times, they got the two under, two under, two under, and backed up the ball back. And now they’re at 500. They’re playing the worst team in the sport. They got their pitching sort of aligned, if not their chakra, and they’re gonna have to come home and and put big boy pants on and play big boy games for a week here at home, at a time when like Eddie Murray Day and everybody’s up late at 1o’clock in the morning, texting each other about the Colton Cowser thing. I don’t know what the ballpark’s going to look like in September. I mean, historically, we haven’t had a lot of pennant races around here, dude, in your lifetime to say would a victory Thursday begat a Friday, begat a Saturday, begat a four-game sweep of the Red Sox, and all of a sudden by Sunday, this thing’s incendiary. And on Tuesday, we’re talking about them with a two-game lead in the wild card instead of talking about the Ravens going Indianapolis. You know what I mean? Like that’s really their charge is over the next seven days to make sure they’re not one in six this week and back this thing up, sure. Because I mean, there has to be a forward button only at this point. It is September,

Luke Jones 26:27
no doubt. I mean, you have a you have a kind of week like that. Then you’re you’re back to where you were a week ago or a week and a half ago after they were swept. When I start

Nestor Aparicio 26:37
sniffing where the Twins are and some of these other teams and say they were equidistant a week and a half ago. That’s how quickly it backs up when you start losing and someone else starts winning.

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Luke Jones 26:46
Yeah, I mean it’s you look at the Tigers now. You look at the Twins now, right? I mean the Twins have actually won a couple games in a row, but they had lost I think seven of eight before that, and you know I’m looking at the ESPN playoff probability odds, and I I know those percentages. You know you can put what stock you want into those, but I mean the Twins right now are at 7.4% right? I mean the Tigers are at 0.9% I mean the Tiger, it’s wild. Two and a half weeks ago, if you had asked me of all these teams that are sub 500 and kind of looking at them and saying, “Okay, who’s who? Who would you pick? The Tigers were would have been the team that I would. One thing to get rid of the Wells.

Nestor Aparicio 27:28
It’s different than to get rid of Scouble.

Luke Jones 27:30
Well, it’s not, but it’s not just that because I mean they’ve just they’ve kind of fallen apart apart across the board. I mean Scoble, but the fact that they

Nestor Aparicio 27:36
could have held it together without Scubel, it looked like they were for a week or

Luke Jones 27:40
three. Well, I would say that yeah. Oh, they they they were playing really good baseball for a long time, and Scouble was only pitching one every once every five days, right? But yeah, there that right there screams a little bit more, even though they held it together maybe the first two weeks after the trade deadline. But that right there speaks to where I will give the Orioles some credit. The Tigers trade Skubel, they trade Mize, they play well for a while, and then the transmission fell out of the car entirely, right? And they’ve just been woeful for the last two, two and a half weeks. The Orioles, they trade Adley Rutschman, right? They trade Taylor Ward, they trade Dean Kramer, they trade Tyler Wells, they add Christian Franklin, right? They add Narvaez, right? I mean, like marginal, barely even players that you’d even mention. They played a month with

Nestor Aparicio 28:30
that or catcher,

Luke Jones 28:31
right? Literally, but but they’ve they’ve hung in there. And again, yes, they’re playing the JV right now. I don’t want to make too much out of beating the A’s and the Rockies, but as I pointed out not long ago, the Texas Rangers had a two and five road trip against I think it was the A’s and the Angels, right? Two of these really bad teams that we talk about at various points. So just because you’re playing bad teams does not mean that you’re going to win those games. So for the Orioles to take care of business to the degree that they have. Understanding, yes, they have two more games to go here. Don’t take your foot off the gas. Don’t start puffing your chest out too much. You haven’t won a darn thing yet. You’re not even in a playoff spot right now, but they’re putting themselves in a position now where you come home and you’re not in desperate desperation mode. Where oh my gosh, we have to sweep Boston. Oh my gosh, we have to sweep Cleveland. Right? You need to win series, yes. But what they’ve done on this road trip is now they’re in a position where they don’t need to go 11 games over 500 the rest of the way to make the playoffs. Right? Like they don’t need to go nuts. They can just play good baseball. They don’t have to play insane baseball the rest of the way to make the playoffs, and that’s what you want. If this road trip is is mid, and you you drop the series to the Cardinals, and you only won two out of three to the the A’s, and you drop, you know you lose that game on Monday night, you. Three under right now. We’re having a much different, you know, the tone is is much more desperate than it is at this point. Now, the urgency is all needs to be as high as it’s been all year, but it’s not desperation where you need to do things that are way outside the realm of expectations in a sport like baseball, where you know you’re not you can’t expect to have a 10-game winning streak, but can you go six and four? Can you go seven and three over the next 10? You. Those are reasonable things to expect if you’re a decent ball club. So they’ve. This road trip has allowed them to start, or has allowed everyone else. You know, they need to be focused on that night’s game and who’s pitching that night and what you’re going to do to win on Tuesday or to win on Wednesday or to come home and win on Thursday, you know the the Buck Showalter teams that were really good they were able to compartmentalize. They didn’t get ahead of themselves. They didn’t look, they weren’t looking at the big picture too much. They were looking at winning that night and doing what they needed to do that night and then staying in position to win the next night, right? In terms of managing your bullpen, if you’re Buck Showalter or if you’re Craig Albernaz in this case. Well, let the scoreboard

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Nestor Aparicio 31:06
watching begin now, right?

Luke Jones 31:08
Yeah. Well, I mean, scoreboard watching-that’s that’s been there for a while now, but now it it ratchets up, right? I mean, it’s it’s definitely a little more okay. Who’s playing whom and who’s pitching for this team? Well, you get to

Nestor Aparicio 31:21
500, allows an old guy like me to take you seriously, at least, because I mean, I still don’t think 79 and 83 is going to get a playoff spot. Yeah,

Luke Jones 31:28
well, and and then there’s there’s also the feeling that I think has really been a big struggle. I know it has been for me as far as it it shouldn’t be a playoff spot when you’re 80 and 82. You know what I mean? Like that whole thing, but

Nestor Aparicio 31:42
don’t don’t bring any logic into this, okay? Don’t bring any. That’s what I

Luke Jones 31:45
said. Like at some point in time, just embrace it and have fun with it, right? And because because you can sit there and be grumpy about it, and look, I’ve been grumpy about this team for a couple months now, and frankly, the burden of proof has been on them. However, to prove me wrong, to prove fans wrong, to prove media wrong, to suggest that they should be talked about in more serious terms, and they’re slowly but surely, and especially with this road trip again, JV or not, in terms of the competition, they’re going out and winning. And now, by the way, Toronto plays Cleveland over these next few days, so you know that you’re going to gain ground on one of them, but you know one of them’s winning also. So it speaks to you need to keep winning, right? Because the last thing that you can afford right now is to puff out your chest, right? Don’t get satisfied with how you’re playing because that’s you do that. That’s how the Rockies take the next two from you, or you come home and and the Red Sox just punch you in the mouth because suddenly oh you’re you’re you’ve stepped up in weight class after the last couple series. So you know it just keep it going, keep it going. I mean that was a heck of a lot of fun on Monday night. I much prefer talking in those terms compared to complaining about the defense or how they’re performing with runners in scoring position, all that, and they didn’t hit the ball on Monday night. But you’ve got to win ways. You have to win games in different ways over the course of a full long season. So that was great to see, and it’s been really good to see the way they played defense overall. Hasn’t been perfect, but it has absolutely been better over the last really probably the last three weeks or so. It just feels like their defense has been

Nestor Aparicio 33:31
and they’re winning,

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Luke Jones 33:32
yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 33:32
and they’re winning because it always helps.

Luke Jones 33:34
Yeah, and you’re not

Nestor Aparicio 33:35
grumpy anymore. But this is where I will transition a little bit here to the football side, just briefly. Yeah, you are Moody, correct?

Luke Jones 33:43
Yeah, that was that was a pretty good transition there. Yeah, Ravens, as many fans and many media have been clamoring for since the moment that Tyler Loop missed the kick in Pittsburgh, probably they have finally added a kicker to their practice squad. It’s Jake Moody, who was a third-round pick of the 40 Niners in 2023, but you know his his career started going sideways in 24. Had a bad season. The the 40 Niners basically did to Jake Moody what potentially could happen to Tyler Loop, meaning Jake Moody had a bad week one last year, and they said see you later. So he was with the Bears. He was with the Commanders. He actually finished off the season pretty well with Washington last year, but he was cut in mid August because they had a competition and a young guy beat him out for Washington. So look, I’m not going to sit here and say Jake Moody’s going to be the answer because I have no idea, right? And and Jesse Minter made it as clear as he could make it without knowing what’s going to happen over the next 10 days, let’s say. But he indicated that Tyler Loop, the full expectation is he’s going to be their week one kicker. But you bring in Jake Moody for some cop. Petition for him to learn and work with, you know, Eckley as the as the holder, Dick Moore as the long snapper, and you get him ready because let’s face it, they could go to Indianapolis, and even if they still win, if Tyler Loop misses a couple field goals in Week One, I think that’s. I think you’re going to see the, the the the. You’re going to pull the plug on that. I mean, I you can’t let that linger. You he’s got to make kicks. Like it’s that simple. And practice only goes so far. And that’s what’s kind of tough because even when you look at it from a competition standpoint, Luke’s been fine in practice. Like he he’s had a good summer when it comes to training camp practices, but got to make them in the game, right? I mean, like got to make them in the game. It’s that simple. So they bring in Jake Moody. We’ll see how this play transpires. I do expect Luke to begin the year as the kicker, but it’s it’s a kick by kick basis at this point in time for him. I think. I mean, that’s where we are. You can’t miss the kick that he missed in Pittsburgh, and then have the kind of preseason that he had, and then think you’re going to have a particularly long leash, right? Week one, week two. If he’s missing kicks, you got to pull the plug. I mean, it’s a six-round pick. You know, you didn’t. This wasn’t Sebastian Janikowski that you took in the first round, or or something crazy like that. I mean, it’s a six-round pick. The Ravens just cut a six-round pick from last year. Robert Longerbeam, who was also a six-round pick that same draft. So, you know, you can’t you can’t be in this position where you’re so pot committed, where you’re holding on to a guy that potentially could sink your season if he’s not going to do the job. So we’ll see if it’s Jake Moody or perhaps they’re adding another kicker at some point in time here. I mean, this is-I said it to you the last time we were talking about Tyler Loop. All the off-field embarrassment aside and all that, they were very spoiled with Justin Tucker for a very long time, and what’s unsettling-that’s why when the

Nestor Aparicio 37:06
phone rang out there and they said people were doing, he was doing stuff to women. They, Justin, cut that out. We’re not going to do that around here. You’re a really good kicker. We need to keep you here. That’s literally what happened. So I just want to make sure that that we’re clear on that. He was such a good kicker that they could look the other way on anything that might have been going on out in the community.

Luke Jones 37:26
But what can become unnerving is you get to the point where you don’t like your kicker, and then you bring in somebody else, and that guy’s not doing the job either. I mean, it it it can be scary territory. This is why, to me, it was such a mistake to not bring in competition back in the spring, and to not really look at this in terms of, look, Tyler, you will have every opportunity to win this job and keep this job, but we we can’t show this degree of confidence. But they thought otherwise. They they obviously had a ton of conviction. Well, he’s going to have

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Nestor Aparicio 38:01
dome kicking on the 13th. I’ll promise you that. Right?

Luke Jones 38:04
Yeah. I mean, at the end of

Nestor Aparicio 38:05
the day, he’s going to come out for a kick. There’s going to be a lot of people in my father’s helmets and gear, booing, jeering, and he’s going to have to make kicks.

Luke Jones 38:14
Better make it. Better make it. I mean, I mean, it’s just that simple. You got to make them, and you got to make them from long distance, right? 45 plus, like 12. Well, this is this

Nestor Aparicio 38:23
again. This becomes an interesting football conversation as to what I even saw in the preseason, where the ball’s at the 39 yards. I know, but you have to. Are they good

Luke Jones 38:31
in preseason? They’re going to make him kick a 56 yarder. You have to be able to. You need to have that skill. You can’t just say, “Well, our offense is going to be so good, so our kicker doesn’t matter. Well, you can’t also

Nestor Aparicio 38:40
say it’s 56 yards. He’s just going to make it because we adjusted Tucker here for two decades. You need because that’s not the way it works.

8

Luke Jones 38:46
But 56 yards in the in the modern NFL is not what it was 15 years ago. You have to make it. Go look around the league at the best kickers. You got to make three out of four of them. I mean, you have the 60 yards has basically become like the new 52 yarder. I mean, it it really has when you look at the distance that some of these guys have. So I hear what you’re saying, and don’t get me wrong, the the goal isn’t to kick as many field goals as you can. I mean, we all understand. I guess

Nestor Aparicio 39:10
my point is what they’re going to do with the offense. My point is where’s fourth and three versus where it used to be under Harbaugh, where it used to be under Greg Roman, where it could be under Derrick Henry, where it might be with the offensive line, because that’s going to affect the kicking game as much as anything. Luke

Luke Jones 39:25
does, but but you’re also going to be at you’re also going to be at the 40 yard line, and sometimes it’s going to be and you’re going to pull him out, and he’s

Nestor Aparicio 39:30
going to have to make the kick wherever the ball and agree with that. Yeah, so you have

Luke Jones 39:33
you have to be able you need to have the ability to do that because that could be you’re down by one point, and the kickoff comes, and you’ve got 21 seconds to move the ball in the field goal. Well, it’s not

Nestor Aparicio 39:45
like Stover either, where we’re not going to let him kick a 52-yarder because he’s just not going to make it. At least for this guy, he’s going to kick at 70. It might go into Curtis Bay. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it might not. That’s

Luke Jones 39:56
the but you you’ve got to have someone who can make those. I mean, you have to have a. That can make 50 plus in the NFL in this day and age. I mean, you just do. It’s points. If you don’t, then you need to get someone else. You can. I mean, it’s just that simple. So we’ll see how it plays out. All right, we got plenty of time already. Jake Moody, Jake Moody,

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Nestor Aparicio 40:12
talking preseason backup kicker football with you when we’ve got a team in a pennant race here. It’s a baseball

Luke Jones 40:19
segment, but we’re not. Uh, you know, we’re we’re less than two weeks away. We we can talk about both. There is more than enough oxygen to talk about both. Like I’ll I’ll push back on what you said. I’m gonna throw music, Gary. I’ll do all

Nestor Aparicio 40:30
three. I’ll throw the weather in. I’m still gonna talk about peach cake. That’s I’m gonna do it all.

Luke Jones 40:33
We gonna talk Maryland football? No, I don’t know. Who are they?

Nestor Aparicio 40:38
Who they play? I don’t even know their schedule, dude. I don’t know when they play. Have they played already?

Luke Jones 40:43
Not yet.

Nestor Aparicio 40:44
I’m not being a jerk. I’m just saying, like they have done such. You talk about an organization, and they are an organization. They’re not a school.

8

Luke Jones 40:52
But like they just-they’re not good.

Nestor Aparicio 40:54
Hold on, Hampton. They play Hampton on the. I just want to give their schedule. They play Hampton on the fifth. They play Randy Edsel on the 12th, Connecticut. They play Virginia Tech at home on the 19th, so they’re home against Hampton. Virginia Tech had to be a big guy. Got people that went there. UCLA at home on the 26th of September. Then they go to Nebraska. They go to Ohio State. These sound like losses, right? They always do. When I say Virginia Tech, UCLA, Nebraska, Maryland, Rutgers-they got a chance on my birthday, october 17. Illinois at Purdue, Wisconsin at home, november 14. They get Wisconsin here, not in Camp Randall. Then they go to USC, and then they have Penn State here.

Luke Jones 41:37
Yeah,

Nestor Aparicio 41:37
they they do have. Lord Jerry Clayburn’s going to have a tough year this year, Bobby Ross. I will give them this much love.

Luke Jones 41:45
They do have Malik Washington at quarterback, and

Nestor Aparicio 41:47
USC and UCLA and Penn State. Oh, it’s funny. I didn’t get Wade Forrest on his schedule, dude. Where’s Belichick? Let’s get North Carolina on his schedule on on second note. How about that Orioles win last night, you know. Walk off win. He’s Luke. I’m Nestor. We’re Baltimore positive. Back to the music. Stay with us.