Luke Jones and Nestor head off to Texas for Game 3 at Globe Life Park with the realities of the Orioles mountain to move ahead. It was a terrible weekend for Orioles and Ravens fans but the Birds still have one more chance – or maybe two – in Arlington.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
win, point, orioles, year, game, rodriguez, postseason, play, texas, sunday, bullpen, talk, second inning, week, team, season, october, bruce bochy, thought, grayson
SPEAKERS
Luke Jones, Nestor Aparicio
Nestor Aparicio 00:01
8
Welcome back, W and S T, Towson Baltimore. Baltimore positive. It’s, it’s gonna be me quite a week around here. I remember we used to take phone calls around here and it was
Luke Jones 00:13
herbal therapy. We
Nestor Aparicio 00:14
never really had any orange therapy. I mean, I mean, I got the station in 1998 I’m wearing my curio shirt you’re laying are friends of curio wellness and foreign daughter. It’s our 25th anniversary. And in all of these years, I don’t know if we’ve ever had anything like we had here this weekend. So I’m going to slow it down a little bit. Luke and I are gonna get together. I’m gonna get together with Dennis and let her Raskin who I went to the Billy Joel concert with on Saturday nights, my birthday week, spending part of my birthday week in Arlington and hoping to extend it somehow, which is even crazier. So I brought to you by the Maryland lottery on Friday, we’re going to convene at drug city hopefully be pregame for game five. I’m working on some game times for what we’re going to do on Friday for the birthday. It’s also brought to you by our friends at Windsor nation 866 19 He talking about their October offer as well as our friends at Jiffy Lube multi care, do not want to forget our sponsors in which will be one of the bigger weeks we’ve had around here. Luke Jones joins us now. Dude, I’m gonna begin every second by saying we’ll talk baseball and we’ll talk football. What’s the phone call about today? Because it certainly I mean, I have to exhale. I wrote about this in the aftermath on Sunday night of watching a football game than watching a baseball game. And the baseball game starting and they’re scoring runs, and I’m watching John Harbaugh from a press conference thinking I should be in Pittsburgh in front of hardball and asking Lamar the tough questions and finding out ze flat all these guys, right? I’m not there. We’re not there. You’re in the press box. You’re watching the baseball game. And I think all of us were thinking we might split Sunday, but the Ravens would be the ones that would win. And Grayson Rodriguez, it’s just so many directions to go in. And you and I are getting on a plane we’re going to be in Arlington, Texas the next couple of days. But your perspective before all of this begins in the weirdness for you not being meat eating Mr. Rooney’s cookies in Pittsburgh, first time in 15 years, you haven’t done that. And, and trying to document a day that really, I mean, like sort of Black Sunday, right? I don’t even know what to call it. It was just, it was a it was a terrible, terrible day to be doing what we do are fans and the cold air and leaving the ballpark at seven o’clock. It’s eight o’clock at night. I mean, it’s just so crazy sunday loop.
Luke Jones 02:28
It really was and especially considering how exciting it was going into the weekend. I mean, you even had the Terps playing in Columbus, Ohio State and they jumped out to a lead. And I didn’t get to see much of that. But I’m just saying there was so much going on this week, and so much excitement this weekend. To be very simplistic. I think the feeling that I take away from the weekend or from Sunday specifically is discussed with the Ravens loss. And we’ll get to that because my goodness, there’s so much to unpack there and what was just a really bad loss in my opinion. And I think for the Orioles. It’s much more than that in the category of disappointment. I mean, they didn’t hit on Saturday, and they didn’t pitch on Sunday. And look the Texas Rangers I sent it to you before the series started. I felt they were really good. A baseball team and I thought at different times over the course of the 2023 season. They look like they could be the best team in the American League. But they were just kind of hot and cold up and down. But we saw what they did against Tampa Bay and what they’ve done against the Orioles in the first two games of this series.
8Nestor Aparicio 03:32
And they don’t have their best pitching right? Yeah, all their best guys all of their Batista those who are going to eat a 567 innings in these games. If they could get here if they could get past Euston and hold on which they didn’t. I mean, you talk about that ride we’re gonna fly into you know, DFW here. You know it soon before people here most of this will be flat. We’ll be in Dallas right? And thinking about where they were and how this this roller coaster rides for places like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Las Vegas, for all of these places that have been a part of the tournament. Yankees have lost a whole lot more in October lately than they won. The Red Sox have lost more than they’ve won. They’ve won a lot. But this is a bad bad mojo when you lose two games at home and in the fashion that it sort of all unravels very, very quickly. And I think that’s the thing I kept saying all summer long. This happens in a blink not like football. We have seven days to work on a trip to New England where maybe it happens and we digested in the three day period the aftermath and the purple smoke. I mean this is get back out of bed do it again get on a plane and boom the season could be over or or and I want to say this out loud because I want to be the optimist because we’re Baltimore positive you know, you get down to Texas you know you get some bats you win eight the four on Tuesday night. You come back Wednesday night you piece it together, you win seven to six and 10 innings blow everybody’s minds. We fly back on Thursday, there’s a game on Friday. And that’s breaking baseball dude. That’s the way this could play out. Or they go take a nap. And we got to sit here and figure out much like Ken Rosenthal was always poking the Orioles with because he was treated like he was the original gotta get treated like garbage and was threatened in every way. You know, can you have no my whole life said pick up spend money, and that becomes the lease. And spending money becomes the minute the season’s over. But while we’re in it, man, I’m in it. And I there’s no thought that they can’t come back and win here right before we even get going here. Even the bats waking up there is a thought that they could survive Texas they could it’s this isn’t this isn’t some insurmountable thing to go win a couple of games in Texas.
Luke Jones 05:45
It’s not, it’s not the same as being down three to win a best of seven where literally, you have the Boston Red Sox to point to in 2004. And that’s it. 10 times. It’s happened in the best of five postseason series in baseball history where a team falls down oh two, and then they come back and win. It’s three games in a row. How many times not just from a historical context that we just laid out. But how many times have you seen this team go back just a couple of weeks ago, when they played the Tampa Bay Rays in a four game set at Camden Yards where they thought they fall in the first two. Tampa Bay pulls into a tie for first place. So many people were panicking, and they came back and won the next two. Think back to late June and early July when they had that stretch for the last six or seven and, and they were in the Bronx and everyone was thinking okay, well, the other shoe has dropped in this team is going to start regressing to the mean after a really good first three months of the season. They reeled off their longest winning streak of the year, right immediately after that. So look, I don’t expect anyone to wake up Monday or to go into Tuesday evening. feeling overly optimistic by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, you’re down oh to that record that I just mentioned 10 teams have come back from a no to deficit and the best of five, but the overall record Nestor is 10 and 78. So we know that Yeah, this isn’t looking good. But
Nestor Aparicio 07:04
I’m going up to Hollywood casino right now you know, how much 10 bucks down right now on the Orioles? What are you getting back? You know, like, I’m not gonna turn this into the gambling hour because they’ll do that for me. They do that all night long. But when you think about hey, if you love the Orioles here this week, but when a couple of games, you want to have some fun. This is certainly something and look if I were to write the orange rain or finished the Peter principles with the parade that’s coming in four weeks, as we sit down here, oh two, we’re going to the airport and a couple of hours to fly to Texas to see them try to literally resurrect their season. I mean, this is worst case scenario and every possibility from the last time you and I spoke on Friday morning to speaking at the end of all this by the way, Billy Joel was great. Stevie Nicks was awesome. Sorry, you didn’t get there. Nobody got there. It was the most amazing, gloriously awful, I parked at Mercy Hospital and walked and I’m a veteran. Because I know what the hell um, I live downtown for 20 years. I would just say, for me, I went to the Thursday and Friday games. And you know, I’ve gone to so few I went to five games this year, sort of famously, I don’t give Mr. Angelo’s money, because he’s a creep. But I love the team. And I’ll fly to Texas. I would say I got up out of my seat in that race game on the Friday night and walked out of there. And I thought, you know, maybe they’ll battle back, maybe they’ll still win the division because it was level set at that point. They were getting no hit. I mean, it was awful. It was terrible, right? So I drove home on that Friday night. And then I sat on the couch and watched the other games and I I didn’t burn my orange jersey. It’s gonna go to Texas with me. But the birth Jersey I love that hopes. I hope they resurrected. I guess I’ll have to burn it if they lose 11 And nothing on Tuesday night. But they bounce back. And they came back in a way that if they come back again, you and I if it’s for thematically writing the book and they have and they win, and they win this series and they’re playing in Houston or Minnesota next week, and we have a lot of fun together. You want to eat sloppy cheeseburgers in Minnesota or something like that. Who knows nachos with John McClane in Texas without and Dan Passerini. That’d be fun. So I can dream a little bit, but we’re getting on this plane to go to Texas and think maybe they can, to your point through this has already been written into the script, right? Like they’ve done this before. And I guess this is the point where I would say to you, John means most be pitching this game, right. And then and then the biggest news that comes out of the, you know, the workouts and in the Friday is Oh, man. That’s there was the gray cloud that rolled into town that began the whole thing. And I don’t know maybe Kyle Gibson’s the tonic here. Maybe Dean Kramer’s a bailout for them. Maybe they go back to Rodriguez in the seventh inning on Friday night and I don’t know I really No, no. But all the problems with the bullpen all the problems with the pitching. And where Rodriguez was the means drop, that news drop was a little bit like, Oh, there’s one game we’re not going to get. And now this is the game that he would have gotten.
Luke Jones 10:13
8Yeah, I mean, it’s just you never want to hear something like that at the start of a series. And people will say, Okay, well, the Rangers, you know, they had Scherzer throw a sim game during the workout Friday, and he’s not on the roster, but that that’s kind of baked into it, right. They know, they knew that Scherzer if he’s coming back, it was going to be most likely the ALCS or the World Series if they advanced so but you just we know that this team has played so many close games, their formula, great as it’s been, as much as it’s worked for them, because they want 101 games, you know, best regular season this team’s had since 1979. We also know that everything fits together a certain way. And their margin for error isn’t tremendous. You know, how many times that I say to you and we joked about this, we still were joking about this in September that I wish they’d play board blowouts because they had to rely on their bullpen so hard and you know, even before they lost Felix Batista, so when you lose one of your projected top three starters, for your rotation in the postseason, I mean, it just makes things that much more difficult on everyone else and look, so lots of hand wringing lots of complaining about Jacob Webb and Brian Baker on Sunday. And I mean, this is the reality Nestor if you’re starting pitcher gets knocked out in the second inning of a postseason game. I don’t know if there’s a path to success from that point in the game other than just saying, Well, you better score 12 runs and you can go back and look at my tweet from the second or third inning on Sunday. That said based on how much they’re gonna have to lean on their bullpen on the heels of how much the bullpen worked on Saturday, which look that’s postseason. Baseball bullpens are used. They’re used a lot. Everyone does that at this point in time, other than maybe Bruce Bochy who doesn’t match up in the same way and Hey, he’s off to great
Nestor Aparicio 11:55
Tommy Conwell, who I would encourage everybody to come see the young Rumblers at record theater in December when they play. There ain’t no tomorrow, baby. There’s just right now. I mean, literally, this is you smoking you got on there. There’s none of that for any of them. No. And this is where Bochy took the left handers and said, I’m gonna, I’m gonna lose by playing to their weakness. And if we lose, we lose. But, I mean, it’s a fascinating head game at this level at this point in the year when you’re playing checkers with with Bruce Bochy. I mean, you don’t I mean, like the guy sitting in the other dog out is as good as it gets, even if his team isn’t as good as it gets. And their strength is taking pitches. And the Orioles weakness is throwing ball one.
Luke Jones 12:44
Well, it and it hasn’t, but it hasn’t been that much of a week. I mean, look, they walked 11 On Sunday, that was their season. Hi. It’s not as though the Orioles have had this chronic problem throwing strikes, but they did on Sunday, that’s for sure. And Grayson Rodriguez specifically, as great as he was in the second half of the season. And I felt you feel for a kid when he’s 23 had the second half that he had he earned that game to start. I mean, it wasn’t as though you know, they put them in there solely because oh, well, we don’t have anyone else. No, he was he was one of the best pitchers in the American League over the second half of the season. He earned that Kyle Bradish earn game one. It’s not as though these guys were there and didn’t belong there. And yeah, we can talk about should they have added someone better than Jack Flaherty or added they could have had ivaldi Last offseason, for example, but those guys are in those spots. But Grayson Rodriguez, unfortunately, this was the Grayson Rodriguez that we saw all too often that warranted him being demoted in late May, quite frankly, a fastball command wasn’t there, walked people just wasn’t crisp. And we saw it in the first inning when he got out of a Bases Loaded jam in the first inning. And you’re hoping at that point in time that that was his opportunity to turn things around and settle in and it’s just it didn’t happen. So when you get to that point where you have to pull your starting pitcher in the second inning, again, short of scoring 1112 Ronson, okay. The Orioles scored more than they did on Saturday, but it wasn’t going to be enough because you’re just at a point where you’re gonna have to use Ryan Baker, you’re gonna have to use Jack Flaherty and we know how that’s typically gone. There’s a reason why Brian Baker it only pitched once in the major since what late July? I think it was so you know, he’s the last guy in your bullpen. But when you’re in a position where your starter can’t get out of the second inning, you’re in trouble. I mean, that’s just the truth. So and now you you fast forward to game three and you don’t have John means. So is it going to be Dean Kramer? Is it going to be Kyle Gibson we did see Gibson warm up briefly at late in the game in game two, so maybe that I don’t know if that’s a tale for whether we’re going to see He Kramer in game three or not, as Brandon Hyde is trying to keep everything close to the vest, but it’s not great. And we’ve just talked about it at every juncture where we’ve talked about it when they lost Felix Batista. And now when you had John means and people will say, Well, you’re never expecting John means to be in that spot, you know, you hoped he would be. But he was in that spot, right? He threw in the sim game on Thursday, and then woke up the next day. And, you know, the elbow was just tight. And that doesn’t mean that he suffered some catastrophic injury. You know, maybe he would be able to pitch later in the postseason if they advanced. But, again, this team, the way they played close games, the way that they’ve won this year, they’ve needed things to be set up in the right way and things have just gone sideways for them. And they really went sideways in game two, obviously, with how much they had to use the bullpen with Grayson Rodriguez just not being Grayson Rodriguez, quite frankly, looking like the early season Grayson Rodriguez, the guy who got knocked around by the Rangers Memorial Day weekend, which resulted in him being sent a trip away
Nestor Aparicio 16:09
to the Rangers or his Alamo at this point. Right. This point? Sure. And, you know, I compared him to Palmer in some way that Look, man, I I remember we were comparing storm Davis De Palma, right, like Boddicker to like, blah, blah, blah. There’s one Palmer I made that clear two weeks ago, you can go read up on that before Brooks died, right? Like for years Palmer’s the guy. So even Messina, you know, comparing him to another hall of famer right or whatever, right, like, but at this tender age for him, and we’re Palmer was in 64, and 66. And being able to pitch and not being the number one guy but being the two guy and working his way in. You know, I don’t know that 10 years from now, Grayson Rodriguez doesn’t have $280 million in the bank. And 182 wins. And maybe it’s with the Cardinals or maybe it’s here or maybe it’s with the Blue Jays like Gasman, right? Or, you know, or maybe it’s with the Cubs like Ariad? I don’t know, I don’t know. But this is certainly a challenge for all of them, right? I mean, for all of light, like, they’re all young rutschman Is stood on top of the mountain, you know, they’re all sort of made guys and that they’re living a little better driving a Mercedes and on their 23. Right. And they’ve made it to this point, and this is the hardest challenge ever. And the thing, Luke that I like that I’ll bring up and again, I didn’t go to either the games I’ll be in Texas on on Tuesday, I sort of and for people that want to know why I didn’t go to the games a, I don’t have a press credential, and I’m a media member. And that pisses me off. B, I didn’t want to spend a whole bunch of money to be in left field in the upper deck where I don’t see the strike zone. Well, I don’t I don’t do well at baseball. I do great at baseball games, when I want to drink beer and socialize and hang out on the club level. And it’s the third inning of a May 21 game on a Friday night when I’m not really there to watch the game. I’m there to like, hang out, you know, but if I want to watch the game, and I do want to watch the game, and I’ve watched every game, and look, I’ve watched every game on TV and you know what you get on TV, you get Ben McDonald or Jim Palmer, you get the strike zone, the strike zone, the strike zone, you get replay the strike zone, the strike zone, replay it first base replay on the strike zone, replay on any close play, insights, insights. So like I’m used to that, being in the outfield at a game no offense, with people screaming at me get squirted. Like it’s just not not. I should in the press box. I’m there. I’m good. I can watch the game. So watching it on TV, the last couple of days, I would just say to you there and you’re there every night. And God bless you and our sponsor support you being there every night all these years and the awfulness, but for a 23 year old kid, even for Watchmen, certainly for Gunnar Henderson from Selma, Alabama, to walk into that stadium on Saturday with the weight of the world and the shadows falling, right. And it’s do or die and the place is mobbed. And Joan Jett, and I mean, you’ve been at a million opening days, you’ve been at dozens of playoff games now in New York and other places. Also, you’ve been the soup. You’ve been the I don’t know how many stupid a couple of Super Bowls right? I mean, I’ve been to 27 I know what the air feels like. I know what all of that feels like. It feels the same thing when AC DC comes on stage the other night and plays maybe the last show and you feel like you’re doing something special. And then you feel like I’m 55 and you just turned 39 for the second time. And we you feel it a little bit. I just think there’s a reason Reggie Jackson performed the way he did was Mr. October even though he was a prick. And there’s a reason. Bruce Bochy, he’s doing this again and there’s there’s a calm underneath Tom Brady and Patrick mahomes and LeBron James and Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter. pick anybody you want for chilling, go the other side of the wacko political spectrum. That Stadium was big and large and full and orange and rabid. And I don’t know that that’s everybody’s gig the first time or the second time, or even for Kyle Gibson or even for, you know, any of these Flaherty who’s pitching World Series game, right. I mean, you know what I mean, like, so I don’t think you ever get used to that. And I know you’re taking pictures, your mother’s retweeting them, it’s just almost imagine being out there and being Gunnar Henderson. And, you know, and Seger putting the bat on his shoulder and letting them letting them get himself walked, most of these guys could never do that sit there and get themselves walked five times in a game, right? Like that. And I’m just saying the energy itself, from what the city provided for the fan base for the rapidity of all of it. I know what that feels like. I’ve been in that environment a billion times. You know, literally, I mean, that’s, that’s the beauty of what I do. And what I’ve done with my life the last 40 years is I’ve been in full stadiums where I was there when labor, it’s at the bomb and quieted, I mean, I’ve seen it all happen, man. And I know the way the crowd happens, but I also know you don’t necessarily respond well to that if you’re Jim Palmer, or if you’re a Grayson Rodriguez, or if you’re Tom Glavine or Greg Maddux, or any of these guys that have gotten their brains beaten in, in the second inning of a playoff game in October, because it’s small talk. I mean, it’s happened to everybody. Right?
8Luke Jones 21:32
Yeah. And I mean, and it doesn’t always necessarily mean that someone has this fatal flaw or they’re not cut out for it. Sometimes it’s just as simple as it’s not your day. I mean, clean, Kershaw’s go into the Hall of Fame. Did anyone see how he pitched on Saturday night? I mean, he didn’t make it out of the first inning, let alone talking about the second inning. So
Nestor Aparicio 21:53
it’s time he’s got the large axon money.
Luke Jones 21:56
It’s tough. And it’s not to make an it’s an excuse. But there’s a winner and there’s always going to be a loser, right? I mean, you’re never gonna it’s not as though you can say the Rangers are winners. And you could say the Orioles are winners. And while they’re not both going to win, so there’s some of that, but this is why I said going into the series one I thought highly of the Texas Rangers, but two I pointed out the Houston Astros didn’t win the World Series, their first trip to the postseason back in 15. And putting aside the trash cans and all that, just for the sake of this argument right now, but they didn’t win their first try. DE LA Dodgers, Corey Seager. I mean, coming from that organization and the number of times they’ve been to the playoffs look how many times they have failed in October, even after 100 Plus win seasons, they failed multiple times in October. Is there some fatal flaw about them in the makeup of their team and the fact that they’ve only won a World Series in the weird 2020? pandemic? October?
Nestor Aparicio 22:56
8So is walkaways. Watching the Padres walk over from last year? Sure, sure. That’s
Luke Jones 23:02
right. Right. So So my point here with this is, there’s a lot of failure, failure baked into even the success stories of quite a few individuals. I mean, you mentioned LeBron James, my goodness, that people wouldn’t you know, the comparisons inevitably that you hear on talk shows and talking heads on Morning, weekday morning sports networks, LeBron James, or Michael Jordan. Both of those individuals came up short a number of times in the postseason before they finally broke through. And we think of Michael Jordan is one of the greatest winners of all time. The point is, for every Tom Brady story, where the underdog gets to it gets to the Super Bowl, or it gets to the World Series, or it gets to the finals, or Stanley Cup Finals, NBA Finals, whatever it is, and they win on their first try. There are so many who don’t I just mentioned, the Astros and the Dodgers. The Braves didn’t win it their first time. If you want to talk about the Braves of this era, or go back to the bobby Cox era Braves they didn’t win the World Series until they had tried it and had to try again and you just go down the list and nationals four years ago, the Cubs did not win their first try. You know the Royals got to the World Series with their first try, but they didn’t win it until the following year. The point is and that’s this isn’t to make excuses for the Orioles they haven’t played well enough over the first two games of this series. It’s that simple. You know, the really simple thumbnail is they didn’t hit in game one. And they didn’t pitch in game two like it’s it’s not that complicated. But to your point, talking about the stage and especially when you’re talking about someone like Grayson Rodriguez who’s 23 or Gunnar Henderson who’s 22 Or even Adley rutschman Who yes want to call it you know was in the College World Series and played as high profile college baseball as you can play. This is his first shot at it in October baseball as a 25 year old. It’s not to make an excuse but it’s not guaranteed to go well automatically the special Be the first time around where you’re still. You’re trying to get your feet you’re trying to get your bearings. And I think if someone wants to sit here and say that the Orioles weren’t quite quite ready for this moment, well, if they get swept on Tuesday night, then it’s it’s kind of difficult to argue that that doesn’t mean the seasons of failure, or that Mike Elias was wrong, or that this team won’t break through next year or two years from now or three years from now,
Nestor Aparicio 25:23
but or that they didn’t make the right trade on July 31. Well,
Luke Jones 25:28
I mean, we could certainly we could talk about that look, you
825:31
could not get five runs in the Yankees paid him to do it.
Luke Jones 25:35
Well, but Aaron Hicks, Aaron Hicks also missed the hit and run sign that Gunnar Henderson got blamed for for stealing in the ninth inning. He missed the hit Run side. That’s what happened actually there. So a veteran Yeah, a guy who’s a guy who’s been to October, their most experienced postseason player missed the sign in the ninth inning now that doesn’t you know, he could have swung through the ball he could have hit a line drive that turned into a double plate. Just lots
Nestor Aparicio 26:00
of things there including putting the fastest guy on the planet on first base and saying we’re just gonna play to tie the game and and live another day because we want a faster guy out there just period you know, like,
Luke Jones 26:12
8but but but even in that spot, I mean, Gunnar Henderson stolen 10 bases this year, gunners got speed, he can steal a base, but it was a hit and run your veteran, your most established most experienced, most seasoned player and noting that Aaron Hicks didn’t exactly put up great numbers with the Yankees in the postseason. But he made a mistake. They did some uncharacteristic things over the first two games of the series. Does that mean that the moment was too big for them? Maybe. Or it could just mean that they didn’t play well. And the Texas Rangers are also really good. And the Rangers played better than them. So, you know, we always want to try to explain away what happens when a team doesn’t win, or a team doesn’t play up to its potential. I said to you going into the series. Look, we’re at a point now where every one remaining is good. I mean, look at what the Diamondbacks did against the Dodgers in game one. I mean, look at the record discrepancy there. I mean, it’s it’s baseball, look at what the twins did in game two, against the Astros on Sunday nights. So we’ve done
Nestor Aparicio 27:12
it before and they think they can win, right? I mean, the Phillies, and they’re sleeping on that disappointment of everything that happened last year, right. Yeah,
Luke Jones 27:19
no question about it. Look what the Phillies have done against Spencer Strider in the postseason compared to what they’ve done in the regular season. It’s like the Ravens back in the day against Tom Brady. They could never beat him in the regular season, but they find a way to beat him in January, like go figure on that. So the point is, there isn’t necessarily that much of a rhyme or reason to this. It’s, especially in a sport like baseball where the game the game variance is just enormous. So it’s
Nestor Aparicio 27:44
big moments and it’s pitching, it’s pitching. It’s pitching. It’s pitching, right. Sure, sure. And
8Luke Jones 27:49
I mean, the Orioles didn’t hit the back end of the Texas rotation in game one. You know, he and Dunning coming in. And, you know, the maligned Texas bullpen. They only scored two runs. It’s not it’s not that complicated. They didn’t hit they didn’t swing the bats. And in game two, like goodness, you can’t walk 11 people, you know, and look, Grayson Rodriguez lived to fight another day. He I think he’s gonna be fine. I actually, I love the kids makeup. It didn’t go well on Sunday by any stretch of the imagination. But
Nestor Aparicio 28:19
that doesn’t mean he’s not gonna win 20 Games next year. Right. And look what he did
Luke Jones 28:23
in that Saturday game against Tampa Bay, which coming off of two losses. I mean, that was a critical juncture for the Orioles in their quest to win the division. He threw eight shutout innings. So look, nothing’s guaranteed for anyone. And that’s why I threw out Clayton Kershaw, who’s going to the Hall of Fame and he was God awful. On Saturday night, you know, disaster for the Dodgers on Saturday nights. So you know that it doesn’t always play out the way we expect it to. And that’s, that’s what makes it beautiful. That’s what makes it fun. I mean, you can have a team that forget about the Orioles winning 101 compared to the Rangers winning 90, you’ve had much greater discrepancies between teams and the underdog wins. I mean, it’s just it’s the way it works. So we’ll go we will go to Texas. The Orioles will fly to Texas and we’ll see what happens Tuesday night. Nothing else matters beyond that at this moment in time, other than the Orioles trying to put their best foot forward, win one game in Texas. And then you try to win two games in Texas and if you do that, there’ll be a party in Baltimore Friday night for a game five that keep in mind Camden Yards has never hosted a game five elimination scenario. Or a game seven so
Nestor Aparicio 29:34
8pretty se championship game in the modern NFC Championship game like that kind of game, right? Yeah,
Luke Jones 29:39
yeah. So hey, win two. They’ve they’ve been a great road team this year. win two on the road, get back to Baltimore for Friday night and then see what happens but none can’t talk about that until they went Tuesday night.
Nestor Aparicio 29:49
Well, maybe we could celebrate my birthday on Saturday morning with the oil still being alive and Kiko Garcia’s birthday. And then Jim Palmer’s birthday is of course Sunday, West Moors birthdays this weekend. AC Keibler former intern so it’s a big Libran I know as a fellow Libra a Luke you can appreciate that I want to come back and celebrate we’re gonna be doing a crab cakes over at the fountain it drug city can be upstairs actually in the tasting room doing the Maryland crab cake tours presented by the Maryland lottery I’ll have some scratch offs hopefully some lucky Raven scratch offs or some fans or friends or window nation 866 90 nation as well as Jiffy Lube MultiCare putting on the Maryland crab Gator. I’m gonna try to get it done on Friday. Luke and I are gonna be in Arlington the next couple days. We are not letting John Harbaugh or Lamar Jackson or the Ravens off the hook. They’re going to London this week. We’re not going to London. We’re going wish that we’re going to London. Dudes better in London in Dallas, but we’re going to Dallas this week. Everything’s better about London to Dallas actually. Yeah. Yet it’s in Texas. Yeah. So we’re gonna be monitoring Raven stuff. We’re going to talk to Lamar, so Pittsburgh and all that. We’re going to stay focused on the or at least for a little bit here. Talk about game three starters. And just talk about where Brandon and I goes from here. I’m Nestor. He’s Luke we are wn SDA and 1570, Towson Baltimore continuing disaster coverage here at Baltimore. positive.com. Stay with us. It ain’t over till it’s over.
