Cincinnati Reds at Los Angeles Angels LIVE MLB Postgame Show Chatterbox | Podcast, Recap, Highlights
Uh late night baseball here on Chatterbox Reds on the East Coast and currently on the West Coast, the Reds hold a 4 to one lead. That makes doing these shows late at night. A little more tolerable. I know this is right up your alley. I can’t say it’s right up mine, but I do like the idea of watching the game in complete peace. It’s beautiful, spectacular, some might say. Um, I’m currently watching it on game day and some would say an outlet. Um, probably not. Maybe legal, if I could say such a thing. How dare you? But I’m too lazy to log into all of my credentials and have to go through the the nuts and bolts of trying to get myself actually logged into the professional stream. So, did you go ahead? Did you know that you can on not going to say it because I don’t want to wake it up on on ALEXA if you have one of the uh like the the show ones, you can actually log into MLBTV on that. Oh, really? They don’t have the app, but you have to like whatever their browser is called, you ask it to open that and then you have to type it in. You can’t say it because it won’t recognize it. You type it in, you put in your credentials, and you can watch it right there. Oh, okay. Uh, I watched the game on FS FS1 tonight. Okay. Didn’t know that that was even possible. um just somehow like I accidentally stumbled into it and uh I don’t even know who the playbyplay and the the color guy was, but it was like awesome to listen to a game that was just like seemed impartial. Certainly didn’t have an agenda. It felt like it was just interesting to see the uh perspective they had on some of our players. They I think they play uh Reds are on FS1 probably once every three weeks or so. They’ve been on a few times. Doesn’t really get advertised kind of like it, you know, maybe used to 10 years ago. Yeah. I mean, it it seems odd that the Angels have a broadcast, the Reds have a broadcast, and then FS1 has a broadcast as well. Well, I I think when when the the regionals they would like use one of the they would like use it together, but now they’re not Fox anymore, so they they have to. But yeah, they they they must they have the FS1 has like the rights to do the games, but they don’t have the exclusive rights. Like Apple TV paid for exclusive rights. Yep. Um ESPN Sunday Night Baseball pays plays for exclusive rights. So that’s why you have three different broadcasts. I’m actually listening to the Angels broadcast right now. The the Red’s radio got all messed up. It was like behind and so yeah, you know, and I’ll turn on Matt Vascersian. Yeah, I wasn’t listening to Matt Vascersian. Um I got I don’t even know who I was listening to but but uh yeah it was funny because they were talking about man they were they were very impressed with Luis May and they even made the comment right before uh he made you know he walked the guy uh they were like you know he’s he’s actually putting the ball over the plate has pretty good command and then boom there you go a walk. So you can clearly tell that they are not snake bitten by perhaps what we ultimately do know of Luis May because he does have a live arm. Can’t say he doesn’t have a live arm. Can’t say that that it doesn’t look like it can play because all of that definitely checks out. I doubt I doubt those broadcasters are there. I don’t think that those FS1 guys I think they’re doing it remotely. Yeah, that would make sense, too. It would seem that would seem crazy. Come on, let’s do this. Yeah. I mean, as soon as I said that Yeah. Soon as I said, Luis May walk somebody and Barlo decides he’s going to walk somebody, but if this umpire, if if he wants to continue to be um, you know, very, very generous, then we’ll take it, Nick. Yeah. The last thing we do is walk this team. The Angels do one thing good and one thing only, and that’s hit home runs. They literally do nothing else good. They’re a terrible batting average team. They’re a terrible pitching team. They’re a terrible defensive team. They’re a terrible base running team, but these guys, they can hit homers. Yeah. So, what you’re saying is you’d prefer not to walk two guys. Yes. Not to walk anyone. That’s easier said than done, apparently. You got another topic for tonight other than Hayes and Singer? Uh, luck. Oh yeah, I guess. Yeah, Lux probably. Maybe we’ll bump Singer to the back half. Sorry, Brady. Say there win. Let’s do a show, baby. That’s a big win. That’s a big win. Gota You gota got to get off to a good start out there. That was a big win. It’s late. I can’t yell. We’re going to be very quiet on the show. Hopefully people understand. But that’s a big baseball win. We’ll be right back to talk about it. The bench change of the air to deep right field and def. Oh my god. Can you believe it? Johnny B has tried it out. The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series in fourth rate. It was a sweep in the dirt. the red clock and won the game. That ball is fair. Cincinnati’s ahead. Two games to mount. Welcome Joe to Cincinnati. Adam Dun has done it again. Benzinger backing and calling. And the 1990 World Championship belongs to the Cincinnati Red. Marty. Yes, this is Adam from Milwaukee. Hey, Adam. How you doing? I’m good. How are you? You think that a good player done up there with the bases loaded the outfield deep and around toward right to the 10 on the way to the plate. Swing on long drive right field and this one to the ri and a high drive. Get back into deep right field. Junior has just knocked the door down to the 500 scores to the final winner. That ball had a family. And Da Cruz is Oh my goodness. Look at this kid run. My oh my. That is a triple. Now Mlan’s first big league foul. Spencer Steer’s first big league hit is a home run to straightaway center field. Joey Botto’s done it again. The pitch. Botto swings high in the air right field. Yes, he pointed to the dugout to say I told you. That is Joey Bono’s 315th career. Go ahead, Revy. Only Johnny Bench had more as a Red. And I can’t tell you how much it means to play in front of everyone here in Cincinnati as a Red. What a gift. What a tremendous gift. So, thank you. Thank you. I think I can speak for all of Red’s country. Joey MTO, thank you. High five. Left center field racing back to Bush. The Reds are National League Central Division Champions in the air. Left center field begins win. the first ever you have line home day by Ramon Hernandez strike away and out away Homer Bailey round ball to third. Frasier gloves throw to first and Homer B for the second time in his major league career. in the air. What a dream to get into the career Bruce. All right, welcome into a lovely winning edition of Chatterbox Reds. It’s a West Coast version. Nick, we are up late here on the East Coast and for those that are listening in a podcast form, it’s probably going to be just a short few hours between now us talking live to when they probably listen to this show, which is nice. Uh perhaps one of the nicest things about Chatterbox Reds is it’s after every single game, even the ones that are super late. Nick, I know this is right up your alley. I was sitting here watching this game and I gota I gotta be honest. I got to tell you the truth. I may have set an alarm. I may have set an alarm. I was laying in bed. I was like, “Man, my eyes are getting heavy. This is getting tough.” Put the alarm on there, but I fought through it. I largely fought through it, Nick, because this game had some moments in it that kind of made you sit up real quick and say, “Oh, oh, no.” Uh, it started early. And, uh, we won’t get into the box score. I won’t get into the details of it too much because we still have the Bosch recap to get to. But, uh, some great things, some really good things that we got a chance to see. Still had some of those moments perhaps where you where you were a little kind of on the edge of your seat, maybe on the edge of your bed for those that are were trying to stay up like myself. But, uh, a win’s a win, Nick. 41. A big win. A a win that, uh, that kind of gets you feeling like you can believe again. And uh you know it’s it’s weird because the Brewer series felt so disgusting at one point that you were ready just to kick it all down. You’re ready to be done and then all of a sudden they survive on Sunday, right? And they win a game that that they could have easily lost and they turn around and they win tonight and you find yourself back in the same spot you were probably a week ago, which is you’re not sure, but you know what? This team got some resiliency to them. That’s one thing they do have, Nick. Yeah, huge win. I mean, with the Mets being off today, I mean, it’s a difference of being one back or or two back with 30 something games to play. Um, yeah, I mean, you just It’s a huge game. That’s a huge difference. You’re putting more pressure on the Mets and I believe in the whole putting pressure on the Mets thing like that that team, that city. Um I was just watching an interview with with Clint Frasier um guy who came up with the with Cleveland got traded to the Yankees and talking about how they have to go through all this media training. It’s a whole different animal. You put more pressure on them. It’s magnified 100 more times than the Reds. So huge win. One of the most eventful 4-1 ball games without really a lot of no lead changes or anything that that you’ll maybe ever see. No, you’re right. I mean, when you do the Bosal recap, if you don’t emphasize certain things that happen during the during the course of the game, it would be hoham. Oh, it’s a normal game. You win 4-1. But, uh, boy, there were some moments where you just thought, “Oh, no.” And then you thought, Key Brian Hayes is that guy. Sure, we’ll talk about him in a bit, but uh, but that’s more to come here on this show. Let’s jump into it. Uh, box score recap presented by yourself um on a lovely winning edition of Chatterbox Reds. Nick, take it away. All right, Reds taking on the Angels game one of three at Angel Stadium in game one of six of a West Coast road trip. Brady Singer against Victor Maderos making his second career big league start. And the Reds jumped all over Maderos early. TJ Fredel singled and then Gavin Lux homerred and five pitches into the game, the Reds had a two nothing lead. The Angels responded with the run off Singer in the bottom of the first, but Singer got a very fortunate double play to get out of the inning with the lead. Cabrian Hayes then made a pair of absolutely ridiculous plays in the second and third innings. And then the Reds picked up another run in the top of the fourth on an Ellie de La Cruz triple and an Austin High Hayes sack fly to make it three to one. The Reds did have the bases loaded with just one out later in the inning, but were unable to add on. Brady Singer, who looked like he was on the ropes early, would end up getting through six innings with just that one run allowed. Singer’s final line, six innings, six hits, one run, one walk, four strikeouts. Singer has now gone six plus innings, allowing one run or less in four of his last five starts. Reds would pick up a big insurance run in the eighth thanks to a Cabrian Hayes triple that was certainly aided by a misplay in center field and then a Matt Mlan sack fly. Connor Phillips pitched around runners in the seventh, gave up a fly ball that uh was definitely scary um but was nothing less than an out. Luis May. Uh, he got a couple outs, left a couple runners on base. Scott Barlo came in, struck out Joe Adele to get out of the inning. And then Scott Barlo struck out three more batters in the ninth. Four strikeouts for Barlo. Uh, an inning and a third save. Reds win second in a row. Reds improved to 66 and 60 on the season. And with the win, Red’s now one game out of a playoff spot. And the best part about it, we have a legit deep drive of the day. Shout out to Gavin Lux. Who needs Great American Ballpark when you can roll in just to Angel Stadium and wait for that 350. Think about that. 350 ft to right field. And he said, “The hell with it. I’m going to hit one 387 ft. 99 miles an hour off the bat. 30° launch angle. That would give the Reds a two to nothing lead at the beginning of the game. in the top of the first win probability would jump up 15% giving them a 69 nice 4% chance of winning the game is all we know it would be 100% by the thing by the time it was over DSC they are a leader in renewable commodities for bofuel production specializing in used cooking oil collection aggregation and sales visit www.deepsouthcommodities.com deepsouthcommodmodities.com for more information. Um, I know we can go maybe a plethora of ways here really quickly. You kind of have on the rundown uh key Brian Hayes and Gavin Lux, not to make this all confusing for the for the audience here, just for the for the fact that DSSE was the Gavin Lux deep drive of the day to make it a smooth transition into him. It was nice. It was nice to see the Reds kind of put their foot down early and get off to a good start because far too often I think that uh psychologically it means a lot to be able to jump out ahead. Personally, I think in a baseball game uh you you get a big big swing from Gavin. He puts you up two to nothing. Kind of settles the nerves if there are any um by by by the whole kind of flying all the way out to the West Coast situation. You don’t really have a a turnaround, Nick. That’s the other thing, you know, it’s not like they had an off day to get out there. They they get out there, they got to play the the the following night. And um you know, that’s a big swing from Gavin Lux. It really is. And for a guy that doesn’t have a position, Nick, this month, he has made himself have to be in the lineup more times than not because of just how well he swung the bat. And um that’s a big that’s a big big swing. I don’t know how else to say it. Yeah, he’s he’s he’s hit incredible in in the month of August, but um came in with just two extra base hits. So, that was great to see him hit a home run. Um he hadn’t hit a home run since uh June. So, yeah. I mean, that’s a big deal that that’s the that’s the challenge with Lux is Lux has never been bad this year, but the problem is is like his his ceiling just hasn’t been high enough at times, and he’s just kind of been one of these guys. So, I don’t know. He He did have some good power the second half of last year. You thought maybe in June when he hit like three home runs in that month, like, okay, maybe he’s going to be able to, you know, just sneak out 10, 12, 15 home runs. Um, but there hasn’t been anything there. There hasn’t even really been like, I mean, since June, he has six doubles. That’s it. Like, so I mean, he hasn’t even had extra base power. So, again, if you can just get a little bit of power out of him, it would really go a long way. And um the Reds home run home run ball. I mean it just completely changes the whole complexion of a baseball game. 100%. And I think that uh the other complexion of this whole thing was really the the defense. And if you want to really specifically talk about one guy that has made a an enormous impact since he’s gotten here, it’s it’s Key Brian Hayes. I don’t even think it’s remotely close about how valuable his defense has been. It’s really one of those things where when you put it on paper, someone’s going to tell you, “Ah, this guy’s got these this this amount of defensive run saves, and you know, here’s his outs above average, and look how much better he is than the rest of the league.” Nick, we we we we put those out in podcast form. We let everybody know about how good he was. The truth of the matter is is that I don’t think that many people even understood that this is the level of play that he provided. Now, to be fair, I did not watch him in Pittsburgh, you know, extensively. I don’t know if he was this good all along. I don’t know if this is par for the course, but I’ll tell you right now, if you even get remotely this much value ad from def of a defensive player, he just has to be somewhat serviceable. I mean, just just be somewhat serviceable at the plate and I’ll live and die by it. And it’s funny enough, because I’m not going to jump from one subject to the next. We’ll get to the back half in the back half, but it’s funny enough that kind of, you know, he’s almost ruined it for Matt Mlan a little bit, Nick. Like, I I I I hate to say that, but he kind of has because it’s like you kind of look at him and you’re like, well, damn. I mean, if we’re going to get this good a defense out of somebody that can’t hit, that’s the kind of defense we need. Then you almost you look you you look at the other side of the diamond and you’re like, well, he’s not that good. We need to find somebody else that can hit. Then you then you jump back into the Gavin Lux Cook. Like we could we could sit here and talk circles around this whole entire show about how one guy leads and the next guy leads. Key Brian Hayes, man, if you if you were waking up this morning and you didn’t watch this game, which I understand it was late, do yourself a favor and go back and find the MLB.com, whether you want to go to the film room or whether you want to go to the condensed game. I’m not sure which one has the most plays. This guy made every single play that you could possibly imagine. And the one the one play that that bounced off of um Singer’s foot, Nick. I mean, that’s just anticipation. That’s just wanting the baseball. And uh I I I can’t tell you, I am in insanely impressed with him. I made the joke earlier that I would obviously have gotten his jersey probably a couple weeks ago if he didn’t have Jerry Candelario’s number. He has he has he has shaken even that off. I mean, this guy has been incredibly impressive and uh he, you know, he came up short at the plate the the the one time we might have kind of he had an opportunity to to get a guy in from third base, but uh wasn’t capable of doing it, but stepped up later in the game and did so. So, regardless, um you know, I don’t know how much more there is to say about it, but Key Brian Hayes has has been as advertised at third base. the the triple that was misplayed by the center fielder was hit 103.5 off the bat. He put a really put a great swing on that that so um again not been great but he he hasn’t been as big of a liability at least he’s felt like and at least he’s seen some upside with him swing but yeah he just changes changes the game defensively and this Angels team came in third in Major League Baseball in home runs. Uh I said it during the ninth inning. I mean, that’s literally the only thing this team does well. They don’t pitch well. They don’t play good defense. They don’t hit for average. They don’t run the bases. They hit a lot of home runs. And just erasing runners off the bases against a team like the Angels is is huge. And you just never know how this game goes. If uh if the Reds had I’m not even saying like Jamber Candelario at third base. If the Reds had Santiago Espanol at third base, it’s not meant to be disrespectful to Santiago Espanol. So, don’t take it that way. But if they had him at third base, who knows how this game goes tonight. It’s hard to say. I mean, listen, I I’d also say I know we have luck on the back half. I don’t want to jump around too much here. I’m trying to stay the course, trying to trying to stay in my window, but the Reds were fortunate in this game. We’ll get to it here in a little bit, but they were fortunate. And sometimes you need that. You need to catch a break. And they caught some breaks tonight. And uh thankfully, you know what I was going to say on the show, Nick? Like we always talk about, well, we we never really we never really steal that many games. You know, tonight I I again, we find ourselves in a spot where it’s like it’s really hard for me to say we stole this game, but let’s face it, I mean, we we we we hit one ball over the fence and the Angels hit a thousand balls incredibly hard right at our guys in some very big spots. Mind you, that’s that play that Spencer Steer made that that again to go back on the defensive side here. Uh that’s a bullet right at him and he did a very good job of making the play and having the wherewithal to know that there’s probably going to be a double up opportunity at second base. Ellie D Cruz did a good job of making sure that he was there on time. That was a massive moment in the game, right? Uh for those that that that didn’t watch, essentially you got first and second base right after you scored two. uh Angels have an opportunity to kind of get it right back and you feel like you lose the momentum and as soon as you think you lost the momentum on the ball that was laced towards first base, you get it all right back because you get a double play out of it and you get out of the inning. So, um you know, I I tell you it it just felt like fortune was on our side and the umpire helped a few times as well, I must admit. Uh we got some fortuitous calls uh from from a strike and ball perspective tonight. So, you know, it’s it is what it is, but Kebran Hayes has has certainly at the plate done more than enough to justify wanting him to be out there because of what he’s done at third base defensively. And I wasn’t even mentioning, Nick, the ball that he hit. The ball that he hit over the center fielder’s head was hit very, very well. In fact, it was hit so well that I think it fooled the guy. He came in two steps thinking he was going to be able to make a play on it and it lost him. Now, I also I also did find it funny. I don’t know the the dude’s name from from the Angels, but I also thought it was funny that he just turned around and joged after the ball, too. That was that was that was that was peak bad baseball, which, you know, I’m all about when we’re playing it. I I love watching bad baseball when it’s the opposite side of the field that the Reds are on. But, uh, Ke Bryan came up, I guess my point is he’s come up a couple times and, uh, with a guy on third base with, you know, with less than two outs in some big moments, uh, one against, uh, against the Brewers just the other night and then again tonight. Wasn’t able to get the guy in. Um, but he has had some good swings this year. So, I with the Reds to be clear. So, I I don’t want to make it sound like he’s been horrific at the plate. It’s just one of those things where you got to live and die by the fact that he’s he’s probably not going to ever truly get you too excited as an offensive player. And if he if he does, then watch out. I mean, he’s pretty he’s basically what he’s a I know it’s going to sound funny to say, Nick, but like if he was a 120 uh WRC plus guy, dude’s like a Hall of Fame player. If he can play for like 12 years, he’s an MVP candidate. Yeah. I mean, that’s how good he’s like that. He’s like that maybe uh I think Carlos Gomez kind of comes to mind. I think he was like really elite defensively in center field for a while and like his like like wins over placement was really high, but it didn’t have like these gaudy offensive numbers. That’s kind of I think what Cabrini would be if if if he got to that level. Um, but yeah, it was not also not like the Reds were had some massive uh successful run at third base offensively all year either, right? So, I mean, he’s providing far more value than than at any point at third base defense, offensively, defensively, the whole package this year. Like, what he’s done since he’s been here has been the best three weeks of third baseman play from the Cincinnati Reds as an all-around package all year long. And I don’t even think it’s close. I agree. Uh he’s been a good player. We’ll leave it at that. Just take away what you think about him offensively, take away what you think about him defensively. You you combine the two like you just said, and he’s been a very good player for this baseball team. All right, folks. As always, uh a quick reminder, you can text and or call 988. It’s anonymous hotline. You can visit mantherapy.org as well, uh to get help. It’s okay to not be okay. Uh, also as a reminder, Idlewood. Idlewood is not Idlewood. It’s Idle Wild. Okay, I I found that out yesterday. Idle Wild. I sat up all night last night trying to say it in the mirror five times over and over and over again to make sure I didn’t mess this up today. So, here we go. The Disc Golf Pro Tour LWS Open at Idle Wild. Idle Wild. Idle Wild, Burlington, Kentucky, August 22nd through the 24th. Features 150 of the top disc offers in the world. Food trucks, Ryan Beer, and other vendors will be there. You can get tickets at lwsopen.com or dgpt.com. That’s dgptt.com. Um, all right, the back half. Uh Brady Singer went out and to be honest, I I wouldn’t call it a great start by him in the sense that he was on top of his game. I do think that he ran into some fortune and he took advantage of that fortune. I don’t want anyone to think that I’m saying that he got completely lucky and he and he he threw the ball horrible. What I am saying is that he ran into some to some situations that to be frank, nine times out of 10, he’s probably going to give up three, four, five runs in this baseball game if it if it just wasn’t for the fact that balls were hit right at guys. But you know what? It doesn’t really matter, does it? And that’s how I feel about it at the end of the day. He threw the ball uh relatively over the plate. And on top of that, you know what? His stuff was good enough to keep the ball in the ballpark. All those, you know, hit hard, Nick. Doesn’t matter when the when the field’s this big. And I started thinking to myself again, what is it about this baseball team, man, when they go out and they play at these massive ballparks, it’s almost like they can’t lose. Now, I say that knocking on wood, everybody, okay? I’m not trying to jinx this thing. But when they got these humongous outfields, it just feels like it bodess well for this Red’s baseball team. TJ Fredo made some good plays in center field as well. Um Marte made some look a little iffy at times, but he still caught the ball, so you got to give him credit where credit is due. You know, there was a couple times where I must say uh it was a little questionable. Um but the defense held up tonight, Nick. The defense held up tonight and Brady Singer was a big part of that by just giving him a chance. Yeah. First couple batters of the game I was like, “Oh man, I was just hoping Singer could get you through four innings was kind of what I was I feeling because this bullpin desperately needed it.” I mean, Connor Phillips and Luis May pitched in this game with the lead. I mean, that’s that’s where the Red’s bullpin was at. And uh so the biggest thing was just that he got through six innings. I mean, that that was kind of incredible with how hairy it was earlier. Only walked one guy and yeah, it felt like he gave up a ton of hard contact. He gave up seven hard hit balls in six innings. That’s not atrocious. In fact, uh the the Angels starter and then the reliever in their six innings gave up exactly seven hit seven hard hit balls, too. So, it was pretty even um both ways. So, yeah, he he doesn’t hurt himself. And um certainly was not his best start, but it was another start that you needed from Brady Singer. And he’s been pitching very, very well of late. He’s had a couple ugly starts, but man, you feel like almost every time he takes the ball, he’s going to give you a real chance to win. And um I’m interested to see kind of how he looks down the stretch because it feels like he’s pitching his best baseball season. I don’t want to go too far, but it does feel like he’s pitching his best baseball right now. Uh, Singer is also kind of a another prisoner of what’s around him, right? I feel like that’s the vast majority of what we feel like most of our players are. We’ll get into that in a minute what I mean. And and just you compare, I guess, what guys are capable of doing for you based off of what other guys are doing for you. And you you’re you’re hoping that you can get more. Brady Singer, if he’s a fifth starter, Nick, you are thrilled to death. This guy’s a great fifth starter, but he’s starting to slide down the total. you know, he’s starting to slide down the pole here where he’s getting closer and closer to that two or three role because of just injuries and guys not being available and you find yourself then maybe some fans being like, well, he’s not this, he’s not that. I don’t think he was ever really truly meant to be kind of one of your top guys in the first place, but he’s an innings eater. And you know what? He has done that. He has been durable. He’s been as advertised when it comes to that side of it. And you know what? this late in the season when you get into the the thick of uh what is going to be probably a 30-day race here soon. That’s a that’s a massive deal. And you you’ve mentioned it. We’ll jump into the bullpen now. They they are struggling, man. They are they are joy with because of the the walks and the the opportunity to let a team right back in it. And thankfully Luis May only had one walk, but I don’t think that that’s what this uh front office and or Tito would like to rely on when you have a 4-1 lead in the bullpen. And then you turn to Connor Phillips as well uh who almost gives up a massive home run, but the ball stayed in the park so we’re all happy, right? I mean, it’s just funny how it all depends on maybe like a small glimpse of if that ball’s a half a millimeter lower on the bat. Um, it’s a home run. You lose the lead and we’re all pissed off that we have a terrible bullpen. But tonight, we don’t have a bad bullpen, do we, Nick? No, I I guess that the biggest positive is just, you know, May and Phillips clearly have a lot of talent. So, it was nice to see them get through an inning because hopefully I feel like both of those guys, especially Phillips, it’s confidence as much as anything. So, you hope that that can just be a confidence booster for them because the Reds desperately need any of these guys that are in their spot to to take advantage and run with it and maybe be that fifth option. Like the Reds desperately need a fifth option behind Pagan, Santon, Ashcraft, and Barlo. And to be completely honest, they may need that fifth option to get bumped to the third option because some of those guys are uh uh nothing against them. They’re just they’re gassed. Um, so yeah, that was that was great to see. Scott Barlo, I mean, that guy didn’t love the walk in the ninth, but he struck out four batters. I mean, he’s just had an unbelievable season. And, uh, it was a big day off. You gave Pagan, Santiana, and Ashgraph day off. Now, you only have two games to get through before an off day. So, that’s huge. You love, man, a couple of these games. I You love to get greedy and blow a couple of these games open. um you know, teams that are below 500, blow a couple of these games open and and maybe kind of have a really easy week for Pagan and Santon because feels like they desperately need it. And it almost feels like at this point with what we’ve seen, Titos rode them just because it felt like you had to, but at this point, I don’t think you need to. I don’t think you can push them. I think you’re better off riding with some of these lesser guys because the I don’t feel like that it’s that big of an advantage right now with them being gassed and it’s going to help you later, you know, if you’re able to stay in this race to the end. Yeah. Listen, the the comments made by Tito, what was uh yesterday? I think it was yesterday. Maybe maybe it was even earlier today. Um or hell, yesterday or two days ago depending on when you’re listening to this at this point. I’m I’m losing track of days at on the West Coast. what Tito basically mentioned that uh that he took the blame for for what he thought was began struggling. I also think that is maybe what the best asset of Tito Francona is. I think that he’s smart. He understands the psychological part of this baseball game. He realizes that his guy struggling and he knows that really it’s probably in his best interest to go out there and take the blame for it even if it’s probably not his fault and that’s what he did. But there could be some truth into that too is Nick. Like I I’m not saying that Tito is just providing lip service. Maybe, you know, maybe he is tired and and and listen, there’s no doubt that Alio Pagan has showed that he’s willing to take the ball no matter what. I don’t think Ailio Pagan’s ever walking into the clubhouse and telling Tito Francona that he’s incapable of taking the ball that day. I just think that there’s this kind of this this uh whether you want to call it ego or whether you want to call it pride, uh they’re not going he Pigan is not going to do that. So Tito is maybe taking upon himself now to say that that’s his fault and he’s asked way too much of Pagan and uh now you’re starting to see some of the ramifications for that. And to your point, Nick, maybe you just move on and you say, you know what, we’re going to give these guys a break and we’re going to have to live and die by some of these guys that we might not feel like we can trust as much, but we can’t really trust the guys we have anyways because they’re too tired to to go out and perform the way that they have all year. So you you you don’t you’re not you’re not you’re not winning anything by running guys out there that you trust more when they don’t have their best stuff. So um speaking of bullpen, I I love the idea that we got to the Angels bullpen in a pretty timely manner. I thought that the the Reds did an excellent job of of when they didn’t score tonight, Nick. I thought they did an excellent job of having some good at bats with two outs. They made some rallies with two outs. They kind of extended the inning. I think there was two times um where um what was the kid’s name? I think it was um Maderos. Mados. Maderos. Uh Maderos got maybe like two outs on five or six or seven pitches and then all of a sudden you look up and he’s got the bases loaded with two outs and he’s thrown 22 23 24 25 pitches in that inning. Um, you know, not to not to just give all the glory to one guy cuz I think it was a collective effort, but that bat that Trevvinho had where again he he just fouled off three, four, five, six, seven pitches in a row and he kind of hits a little flare base hit to to center. It didn’t score run. No runs ultimately ended up scoring, but those little trickle down effects can can matter like we’ve always talked about on the front end of a series. you find yourself in two days where, you know, you you have an extended baseball game and you’re going through three or four or five bullpin arms. Nick, I got to tell you, I I I think that there’s a small chance that you can reach back over and say, “Hey, that first game of the series really set up our opportunities late in that baseball game, uh, which would be on Wednesday to win.” So, we’ll see if it ultimately ends up mattering. As you always say, you never really do know, I guess, but uh it’s kind of the game within the game. And I thought the Reds offensively, although they only scored four runs, they looked the part. They had much better at bats and it was encouraging if nothing else. Yeah, that at bat by Trevino, 10 pitches was an incredible at bat and um yeah, they didn’t come through, but it still helped them, you know, in this game and and going forward. The the earlier you can get to the Angels bullpen, the better. It’s not a good bullpen. Um the only pitcher you want to avoid is Kinley Jansen who’s only going to pitch if you’re probably going to lose the game anyway. So um he’s the only he came in absolutely dominant over his last like six weeks or something like that. But everyone else is uh mostly filler guys to maybe slightly you know above average arms. Um so yeah um yeah big deal to get to the bullpen early and um yeah there was there was some there was some really good at bats tonight. um mixed with some really bad at bats. It was kind of a it was it was a interesting night for the offense. You know what’s funny is it felt like some of the guys that had some at bad at bats at some key moments, they ended up having a good at bat later. Like Ellie Ellie comes up with an opportunity I think what was in the uh I don’t know, maybe it was a second inning. I’m not sure. It was first and third or whatever it was. And he and he, you know, he strikes out and he doesn’t really get an opportunity to take too many good swings. And then he comes up and he laces the ball down the right field line, gets a triple. Uh Steer kind of gets jammed, doesn’t get the guy in from third base. You’re kind of like, “Oh man, here we go again. He can’t get We can’t get a guy in from third base.” Um the next inning there was kind of that play over his shoulder. The national broadcast kind of made it sound like he had to have that ball or he should have caught it for sure. I don’t know, man. I I thought that it was a little bit of a difficult play for Steer over the shoulder, but then Steer comes back and he has a great at bat, you know, and puts uh puts an opportunity to give the Reds another run. So, it’s like I it’s weird because you can’t say that it’s like one person’s fault as far as like this guy’s, you know, he’s terrible at terrible at a terrible at bat. But it does seem like there are some spots, Nick, where they could blow this game open and they they were incapable of doing it right. I think they stranded 10 guys. Um, and then I think the Angels stranded eight guys. At least they might even stranded nine guys now. I don’t know what it was in the ninth inning. They might have stranded a couple guys that I kind of forgot about. But, uh, there was opportunities in this baseball game to blow it open. And they weren’t they they weren’t capable of doing it, but you know what? Um, I can’t really sit here and act like one person had a horrible horrible game. I mean, simple as that. TJ Fredo had a great game. I He did. I mean, they lead the inning off or lead the game off with a base hit. Gavin Looks comes up and and hits a home run. Those things, you know, those things matter. Fredel also made a good play in center field. Um, so I don’t know. I was I was pleased, Mick. I I’m being honest. I I Yeah, they could have played a little bit better, but the truth is is it doesn’t really, you know, it’s just not realistic to ask them to play perfect baseball on a night inout basis. And uh I thought that they did what they needed to do and obviously they did win. Matt Mlan had a big sack fly to increase the lead to three runs. I mean being up four-1’s a huge difference than 3-1. This week’s it’s a business trip. I mean this is a business trip to the Angels and to the Diamondbacks. This is you know who cares how how you win at this point in the season. You’re just you need to win these games. You need to win these series. Um, this is the the week ideally you’d love to, you know, try to run it up. You you’d love to go five and one or something, you know, really crazy. Um, not going to say you have to do that, but it’s an opportunity here. So, yeah, I I I don’t don’t care how you get it done. Find a way this week. This is the the find a way week. I agree with that wholeheartedly. All right. Uh, let’s jump into some super chats here real quick. M D M Dean J D maybe that’s how you say it. I’m sold on Hayes. That’s H E H A Y S. Speaking of Hayes, we even bring up Austin Hayes. Pretty good day. Pretty good day again. Yeah, I mean he’s had backto-back days where he’s kind of looked back, didn’t he? Didn’t he have a couple hits on Saturday, too? Um maybe. But I will also admit Saturday was so demoralizing I’ve tried to erase it from my brain. Um but he says, “I am sold on Hayes. Don’t care if he hits or not.” Yeah, I get based off the way that he’s played third base so far, I understand. I mean, that’s understandable. Uh Jaden Williams says, “I’ve seen enough. Take Mlan to the woodshed.” Um, we’ll discuss that here in just a minute. There’s a couple MLAN super chats, so I don’t want to get too far down the beaten path with Matt Mlan. He seems to be a very, very uh highly debated topic at this very moment. So, we got some more supers about it. Daniel Meyer says Mlan should get this week to prove himself before S comes up and takes his spot. Ned Flanders says, “Does Mattie’s sack fly put him back in the two-hole?” That’s obviously sarcasm and that’s also funny, Ned Flanders. So, I do appreciate the humor on a very late night show. Uh, A Beignz Harris says, “I’ll be at the game tomorrow. LA Reds fans unite.” Uh, shout out to you, man. Well, I’m a little jealous the fact that you get to live in LA. Uh, from a weather perspective, I don’t think I’d like to live in live in LA for almost every other perspective, but the weather seems to be awfully nice, especially when I walk out my front door every single morning and it feels like it’s 200 degrees out right now and then I’m sure in 6 months it’ll be negative 200°. Jay Tensel says, “The Red’s winning in LA reminds me of how hot my stepmom is.” I’m going to say that because I feel like it’s funny. Now, I can’t probably read the rest of this, okay? Because Jay Tenzel, you’re trying to get me say some things that probably aren’t appropriate, but I I read the first I read the first part, okay? And I thought it was funny. Now, those that can read obviously can read the rest. Future talent says, uh, “Adn, the Reds still have not been swept.” I think he meant and the Reds have still not been swept. You got a good point. I forgot all about that, to be honest with you. Oh, yeah. Um, they haven’t been swept. I mean, we we’re we’re a whole another series down again, baby. Uh, Andrew Scobby says, “I don’t know if you guys have talked about this in detail, but do you think that baseball should take umpires out of the game completely? Just curious what your take is on it?” Um, I don’t know. I really don’t know because at one point I was going to say no, definitely not. I’d also say this. I think a few bad umpires kind of make a bad rap for the vast majority of them. I think umpires in general are really really good. Like very very good. Uh the issue is that there’s really no way to have accountability with them because seems like no matter how bad some of the bad ones are, they keep their jobs. And I get it, they have unions, but um it is interesting. Uh what was the individual um the athletics outfielder is a butler I think maybe um I don’t know if you seen it Nick but he kind of went he went hard in the paint on the umpires man went hard in the paint on him I don’t I don’t know how some of these guys show way more of his strength than I think I could he went hard I mean I got you got millions of dollars on the line for every at bat and you know and yeah no not millions on every at bat You know what he said that I thought was interesting? He did say that he thought that he thought that AAA umpires were much more locked in largely based off the fact that they knew that there was a chance that there was accountability for whatever they missed in the sense that you can get embarrassed and that’s fair. Like I mean heck if you make a horrific call at home plate, right? like a you you call a ball a striker striker ball and it’s it’s off by four, five, six inches and they and they challenge it and on the big screen in front of everybody in the world, it pops up there and shows that you were you were you were that wrong. You probably would kind of maybe lock it in a little bit more. But I don’t know, as far as no umpires at all, I think that the way they have it right now is really not that far from perfect. They just have to get to where you can you can kind of clean up the balls and strikes in my opinion because let’s face it, Nick, have we had too many plays in the field that were so egregiously bad that they didn’t get right? I’d say not really. 99.9% of them. You could you could say, well, it was pretty damn close. I think they should have overturned it, but the reality is it’s pretty damn close. I’ve never seen one where it’s like he’s obviously out, he’s obviously safe, and they and they don’t overturn it. Now, I do think they hide behind the call stands, but that’s a story for another day. Only thing I really want change is the whole uh uh like going off the bag for a tenth of a second. I actually want that to go the opposite way where you have to see that in real time where you can’t challenge because his hand came off the bag for a tenth of a second. Umpire has to see that in real time. If they don’t, it’s that’s not the it’s against the spirit of this sport. Exactly. Go ahead. I was say to your point, I was thinking the other day, I was watching a replay of uh it was it might have been a Red’s game. The home plate situation needs to be a halo, too. Like I’m so tired of guys sliding into home plate and them being like, well, I’m not sure if his foot’s touching the actual plate, dude. He’s sliding across the plate. Like what are we talking about? Yeah, I the plates maybe like a little bit below the surface, but was that is that really the point of the rule? Like come on, man. I’m like, let’s just have some decency of what we’re trying to do here. So, I almost wish they make it to where like if you’re sliding into home plate, if your foot’s literally over the plate when you’re sliding in, it’s it’s on the back. Like, unless it’s, you know, a foot in the air, that’s obviously different. But, uh, but I think we’re both on the same page there. It’s like it’s not in the spirit of the game, spirit of the rules. Anyway, yeah, robot officer coming next year. There’s definitely been enough. And uh to be honest, I mean, at this point, every game that there’s a terrible homeplayed umpire, it’s better for us. Yeah. Because it it’s continuing to mount the pressure to to change it. So, that’s I guess how you have to view it. Uh and I would also say no doubt we got some fortunate calls tonight. So, I will take them and we will appreciate tonight the fact did not yesterday though. Did not yesterday. It was terrible. It was terrible. It was like uh almost almost a run and a half towards the the the the the Brewers. I was like a 1.4 1.39 to be exact, but still absurdly ridiculous when you’re trying to win a one-run game against all of all teams. The Brewers, they don’t need any help as is. Um you have MLB realignment on here. I know that’s kind of a broad topic here for for a show like this. Perhaps we won’t get into the weeds of it because it seems like a very good offseason topic. Maybe you just needed to fill in something on the back half. I got to tell you, Nick, I I I I’m going to say something probably a little controversial again. People are going to hate me for it because they always do. I I think Rob Manfred’s actually done a pretty serviceable job. I really do. I Rob Manfred, in my opinion, has done a such a better job than any other commissioner that I’ve personally been able to follow. Bud Celig being the main one that I know of. And and I get that he has some flaws in regards to some things that he said. I get that he called the the trophy a piece of metal. I get that maybe you were upset by the way they handled the whole Astros situation. I get that maybe you think that some of the comments he makes perhaps about um certain business decisions that that that they’ve made are, you know, perhaps they they lack a little bit of empathy in certain areas. But the truth is is I feel like he’s made this a better game. And I am very hopeful that hopefully in the next CBA here that he will continue to help make this game a little more well-rounded. We can discuss perhaps exactly how he can do that later. But he did kind of throw out a little bit of a of a hint, Nick, of something that he’s been thinking about. One of those was kind of realigning geographically what some of these divisions look like and uh perhaps your thoughts on on the on the whole matter. Yeah. Um I I agree on Rob Manfred. I think he’s done a fantastic job overall. Now he’s got a massive undertaking here to to keep the sport playing at some point. I’m not going to say if he you know they they miss half a season. and it’s a failure on him because we’ll have to see how it all plays out. Um, but his his his legacy could certainly still be very impacted here in 2026. But, um, Jim Bowden put out a piece today and I don’t we don’t need to go into crazy detail talk about it 10:05 p.m. 10:5 a.m., but it got me thinking. Bowden had an idea for realignment and I I had never thought of what about realignment to fix competitive balance trace. What if you put the teams uh in smaller markets in the same divisions? Would that not sort of fix the compet certainly helps. Yeah. I mean, so Bowden had his and I kind of took it and I ran with it a little bit more. He’s saying Charlotte and Nashville would be the teams, but just for example, Reds, Guardians, Pirates, the Nashville team. I mean, that would be a pretty competitive advantage. And it’s nice that it works out geographically so well. Um, I think you would you would play those teams a lot more. Maybe play everyone else just once. And yeah, you’re going to still have a bunch of wild cards. There’d be eight divisions. So, if you kept the same amount of teams, there’ still be, I guess, total of six wild cards. So it almost, you know, so the the the the higher divisions are going to have still an opportunity to get maybe three teams in, but I think it would be a way to fix the sport or at least significantly make a dent in fixing the sport competitively. It helps. It definitely helps. Uh I think that there’s two ways to look at competitive balance in my opinion. One of them is, you know, what what are your chances to make the postseason in general? And then I guess farther more, the way that baseball is and kind of the, you know, the the the sport lends itself to a to a degree of of random chances of of something doing something improbable. You know, I I I go back to the NBA for for the longest time, right? Whoever had LeBron James, it it just seemed like that was the team that was destined to probably get to the finals and or win the championship. uh if you had Michael Jordan or you you really can’t do that in baseball per se, you can’t say that, well, if you have one player now, on the opposite side of that, I would say just as a fan, the same way that maybe the NCAA is going to have issues with maybe some mid- major teams in regards to trying to keep players and trying to hold fan bases and try to get trying to build up, I guess, what I would call younger fans in those smaller markets to believe that they can follow one specific player for their career and they can stay there. That’s really the NFL is king. The NFL is is 100% a league where if you find a star player or you have a star player and they for all intents and purposes, I guess enjoy their time there, they’re going to they’re going to spend their whole career there because there’s no financial benefit to going anywhere else. So, I guess those are the two things in my opinion, Nick. One is yes, I think that MLB realignment from a divisions standpoint to your case is great. I would take that in a heartbeat. What you just showed on that screen with with basically plotting the new two two New York teams together, putting Boston and Philadelphia in the same division, making the two LA teams in the same division with San Francisco and the Padres’s. Now, I will say the Padres’s, I’m not too totally sure about, you know, their market size, etc., etc., but they’ve had success recently, so maybe they’d have an issue with it. But you have both Chicago in there. Detroit’s probably going to be a little upset perhaps, but nonetheless, you have St. Louis who’s that’s a great baseball city, so they shouldn’t have a problem, I wouldn’t think. But then you start to get kind of into those smaller markets and you give um even you go outside of the Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Nashville, the Minnesota, Milwaukee, Kansas City, and Colorado one is another good obviously excellent opportunity for those franchises to maybe try to take foot and get themselves into postseason baseball. Um, I I take that in a heartbeat. Nick, what I’m hoping will also happen is I just hope that they find a way where if you’re a smaller market and you really value a a player and or a couple players that are homegrown that there’s some revenue sharing system that forces ownership to have to be able to offer those opportunities to those homegrown players. And I know everyone’s going to say, “Oh, you can make it a salary floor.” Um, and you could tell your owners to not be cheap, or whatever term you want to use. But the true issue with that is is that if there’s no cap at all and there’s no ability to say, “Well, you can’t get paid more than this,” it’s going to be hard for me to ever believe that you’re never going to get something taken away from you. Because the bigger markets are just going to offer more money because more times than not, it’s a hobby to whoever owns those those franchises. So, that’s a a story for another day. Like you said, maybe at 1:00 or 1:10 now, uh, uh, Eastern time in the morning, it’s not the perfect time to maybe go into the weeds of all this, but I think it’s a good good topic to bring up. I also think it’s fair to say that at least we’re talking about it. I I’m I’m I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful that we’re at least giving it a thought to to to try to make this thing make somewhat of sense because right now um it doesn’t make enough sense for me to really buy into there not being a work stoppage if everyone thinks this is perfectly fine. And I’m not here to say that I don’t want baseball to be clear, but I want this stuff to get fixed before we just sign another CBA. That’s all. Yeah. Two just real quick points. Um, number one, I I have a sort of fix to uh like the NBA has that whole offer sheet thing. I think one thing baseball could do is they could make the uh the qualifying offer, they could make it bigger. So, when you when you if the Reds offer, let’s say the Reds keep Ellie de la Cruz all the way up till his free agency and he wants to go sign with someone else. Well, if you’re going to be a player that’s going to sign a deal of $500 million plus, it’s not just one draft pick. It’s maybe like three draft picks. And that would make the players be like, you know, I want to consider Cincinnati’s offer more because it’s going to make me a little bit less valuable in free agency. That could be a way to kind of counter that is to I don’t know what the exact number would be, but I think like like right now it’s it’s the same if it if it’s $50 million or more, right? There there’s no difference in if you signed for $50 million or 500 million. And I think that would that would at least make teams, small markets, incentivized not to trade Ellie de la Cruz with two and a half years of control because even if he doesn’t want to resign, well, we’re going to get a big return back in in draft picks, which you don’t have to believe me, the Dodgers traded for draft picks. So, it’s not it’s not just the cute little small market teams that value th those picks as well. Um, and then my other my other quick point is on the realignment. I think that the the the thing that people are going to say about that is, well, that’s just going to incentivize the small owners not to spend more. Maybe I personally, the way that I’ve watched the Red’s ownership, I think that would motivate them to spend more. I really do. I think, and it might sound silly, but I think Bob Castellini and and the other 80%, he’s only 20%. Right. I think they’d say, you know what, I want to be the top spender out of those four teams in that division because I could actually do that. But when I’m competing with the Cubs, who I I can’t outspend. There’s literally nothing I can do to outspend them because if I go and I spend $100 million more, the Cubs fans aren’t going to be okay. Oh, that’s okay. Just keep spending the same. No, they’re going to just up it more. I think it would I think it would motivate motivate them to spend more now. It’s not going to be crazy. They’re not going to be the in the top 10 or anything, but I do think it they would probably spend more when they’re feeling like they have a chance than they do now. I just think that the risk of spending more money with the chance of still not winning more games is so is such a huge fear factor in my opinion for ownership groups that they just decide to shut it all down. As soon as they can kind of get to the point where they’re like, you know what, let’s add 40, 50, 50 extra million dollars to the payroll, right? As soon as they get to that point, I guarantee you that there’s some analytical genius or somebody that’s in the back saying, “Hey, I just want you to know if you’re going to spend this 40 extra $50 million, you might only win two, two more games.” Odds say you might win three, maybe three and a half more games. And then all of a sudden they sit back and they think, “Well, that ain’t worth the risk because ultimately I know that that that we have to still compete with the likes of the Dodgers to still compete with the likes of the Mets, still compete with the likes of the Phillies, etc., etc., etc. in your own league, let alone the other league. So, I’m with you. Um, it’ll be interesting to see. I mean, I I’m trying to save some of it because uh I know there’s a lot of people that want this show to be positive and it has been positive up to this point and we’re going to keep it that way, but I got a good feeling that when it comes to that next CBA, things are going to get nasty. They’re going to get really nasty and it’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out because this is going to be the first time where I actually think, Nick, that there’s going to be a decent population of Major League Baseball fans that are tired of it and they’re going to side I’m not I’m not saying they’re going to side completely with the owners, right? Um but I don’t think that there’s going to be as many as much player support as there as there has ever been. Um because I think that most of fans just think that if you have a rational brain, you can’t expect these smaller ownership groups to be pwning up the likes of what the Dodgers are doing and or the Mets are doing. And yes, I get it. Right now, the Mets are only a game ahead of us, which goes back to my first point, Nick. Why the hell if you’re a small ownership group, would you look and be like, “Yeah, let’s go bankrupt trying to win when we’re competing with a team that’s only a game ahead of us and they spent $9 billion more than us.” That seems to be like a smart idea. Of course, it’s it’s it’s all goofy. Major League Baseball has to figure it out and we’ll see if they can. Yeah, good stuff. All right, that was fun. Uh, all right. We have uh Red’s MILB at 1:16 in the morning. I I don’t know if you’re going to tell us who they’re playing tonight. I don’t know if you’re going to tell us about every little nook and cranny that happened because you actually had time to see what the hell happened in these games. And as you’re spinning around in your chair smiling from ear to ear, I’m guessing you have plenty of nuggets. I can’t wait to hear about Shangen Lynn and the likes of uh let’s think here, Austin Hendrick. My two favorite players in the farm system. Not really. Tyson Lewis is that guy, but uh go ahead, Nick. Well, it was Monday, so we only had the Dominican Summer League, but we had a lot of Dominican Summer League action today. Tuesday now, though, right? And uh we had uh we had a couple winners. DSL Reds beat the DSL Padres’s 13-7. The DSLR host played two games. They won uh game one 16-13 over the DSL Cleveland Goreal and they lost the second game six-3. The only player of note, Libertante, the top prospect left down the Dominican Summer League. 10 total bases in the 16-13 game. Um, how about a 4 for4 day with a double, hit seventh home run of the year. Um, so that’s very exciting. He is a incredibly talented player. Had a massive day. So that’s it. That’s your only red zone for the day. I won’t go through all the probable pitchers on on Tuesday. We’ll save that. All right, fair enough. Um, all right. Well, let’s do uh who, what, when, where, and why uh before we finish this show off with uh with some supers. All right, Red’s back at it. 938. Going to have Hunter Green on the mound. This is going to be his first ever uh start against the Angels. Um has never faced them again. Obviously, Hunter Green uh pitched very well. First time back. How about six shutout innings, no walks, six strikeouts. Uh Green a 1.82 ERA in 21 starts since July 1st, 2024. Uh that’s the best erra in Major League Baseball among pitchers with 100 innings or more. Active only active Angels batter that’s faced him is Travis Darno who’s actually one for two with a homer. Uh the backup catcher having a really bad year for the Angels. Red’s going up against old nemesis Kyle Hendris. Still kicking it. He’s 6 and8 with a 4.88 880 RA. Um, overall, I mean, he’s been okay, you know, for for what he is. Uh, last start against the Dodgers, gave up five runs in three and a third innings. Um, he has a career 4.09 RA in 28 games, 26 of those starts against the Reds, but last year dominated the Reds. He had a 1.62 RA in four games. and uh you might remember threw seven and a third shutout innings in what was his final start in a Cubs uniform. Believe that was the second to last day of the season. But active Reds have great numbers 25 for 74. Gabrian Hayes is has seen him the most. Nine for 21 with two homers. Miguel Andir was out of the lineup on Monday night five for six with three doubles. Da Cruz is 1 for eight. Lux and Stevenson two for seven. So, um, Trace, it’s good matchup tomorrow night. This is one you really want to get the the match up on Wednesday. They’re facing, um, Kikuchi, a tough lefty. Um, so tomorrow feels like, man, you want you want to win this series tomorrow and then you can at least kind of get into Wednesday and feel like you’re kind of playing with with house money to an extent. Who are they facing on Wednesday? Kikuchi, I think is how you say his name. Say that one more time. No. All right, folks. Uh, it’s getting too late. Let’s do some supers. Uh, Park Barker Harris K Cuchi. Nice. Keep doing it, Nick. Coochie. Keep doing it. I’m reading the pronunciation guide right now. All right. Whatever you say, boss. Uh, it’s 700 a.m. in Poland, says Parker Harris. Love starting the day with a Reds W. Appreciate what you all do. 7 a.m. Nice. I wish I I wish this was a 7 a.m. show for me. That would kind of fit my schedule. Poland. Poland, my man. That’s Poland. Um, if you asked me to point to that directly on a map right now, I would be in a bad bad spot. But good news is is that I don’t have to do that. Parker, thank you for watching our show. We appreciate you and appreciate you super as well. Um, glad to glad to get you started off the right foot at 7 am in Poland. Uh, thank you for being a fan of the show. Uh, Kefir Daell says, um, “Reds g a Reds fan from uh NC.” I’m guessing that’s North Carolina. Reds fan from NC. Enjoying my favorite postgame podcast. My favorite host. Love the show. Also an avid disc offer. Hope you get to uh enjoy the I hope you go to the LWS. Trace. I really think you’ll enjoy it. Um, thank you Kefir Dao. I think I’m going to do that. Just a matter of scheduling really. I think if it’s three days, I probably should be able to find a way to get down there for one of them for sure. Um, but thank you for the super. Thank you for listening as well, guys. Uh, we have had an incredible crowd in here on a late night edition of Shatterbox Threads. If you’re not already, as always, you know the drill. Like the stream, uh, if you can, please, and, uh, more importantly, you know, tell somebody else about it, friends, family, etc., etc. Hopefully we can keep you laughing and uh hopefully we find a way to to win some baseball games because I think what you just said, Nick, um I do remember Hendrickx coming into Great American Ballpark two years ago, I think it was, and uh we lit him up like a Christmas tree. So, I’m hoping we do that again tomorrow. Um I guess what would it be today now? Um Kino Kino him. Yeah, Kino was that. We started that game, too. the three home run game. Never. That’s what Maybe that’s when it was. That might have been when it was. It was a little more than two years ago. Well, I don’t think I I need to Now I need to go back and look at the game logs. I’m assuming it was maybe I want to say it was two years ago. I think they also lit him up two years ago, but I don’t Maybe it maybe it wasn’t Kino. Kino was he still around two years ago? No, I don’t know. 2022 was his last year. No, Kino was last year was before we did the show. One last uh one last thought for me. Uh the Chatterbox Bengals guys did a great job recapping the preseason game. First preseason win for your Cincinnati Bengals since 2023. So you need to uh enjoy that show. Celebrate that big preseason win uh on YouTube and everywhere you get podcast. Um I’ve been asking people of late you’ve and you’ve left us a lot of five star reviews. We appreciate that. Leave them some five star reviews. That would really help them grow that show. They’re working hard on that. So, if you’re a fan of us, we would really appreciate go leave them a fivestar review on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Love it. Love it. All right, folks. Uh, you know what time it is? It’s time to dunk. Now, here’s the problem. It is super super late and uh right above me there is a vent that goes directly to my kids’ rooms. And the last thing that I need to do is wake my kids up. So, if I do that, there’s a good chance that this show will go on, but it might go on without me as I could be a dead man. So, what we’re going to do tonight is we are going to be smart. We’re going to be wise. What we’re going to do most importantly is be quiet, but still going to try to be an athlete. So, love you. Appreciate you. Hope you enjoy the show, but Nick’s got one thing left to say. One super at the buzzer from Joe Russell. Go Reds. Big win tonight. Keep it going. Boom. And with that, here goes nothing. I believe. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Trace Fowler and Nick Kirby will be LIVE in the 9th inning.
The Cincinnati Reds (65-60, third in NL Central) face the Los Angeles Angels (60-64, fourth in AL West) on August 18, 2025, at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California, kicking off a three-game series at 9:38 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on FS1, FDSOH, and FDSW, with streaming available on Fubo. Both teams are coming off wins on Sunday, with the Reds snapping Milwaukee’s 15-game winning streak in a 3-2, 10-inning thriller, and the Angels rebounding with an 11-5 rout over the Athletics, fueled by Jo Adell’s 3-for-5 performance, including a home run and four RBIs.
The Reds will send right-hander Brady Singer (10-9, 4.31 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, 119 strikeouts) to the mound. Singer, coming off a stellar six scoreless innings against Philadelphia, has been inconsistent but is 0-2 with a 2.61 ERA in two career starts against the Angels. Cincinnati’s offense, led by Elly De La Cruz (19 HR, 76 RBI, .286 over last five games), ranks 10th in runs scored (570) and 16th in batting average (.247). The Reds are 49-27 when recording eight or more hits, a key stat against an Angels bullpen ranked 26th in ERA. However, injuries to Chase Burns, Nick Lodolo, and others strain their pitching depth, putting pressure on Singer to go deep.
The Angels counter with right-hander Victor Mederos (0-0, 5.63 ERA, 1.50 WHIP), who struggled in his last outing, allowing three earned runs in four innings against the Dodgers. The Angels’ offense ranks 15th in runs (551) and third in home runs (176), led by Zach Neto (.270 BA, 21 HR, 54 RBI) and Taylor Ward (29 HR, 90 RBI). However, their .232 team batting average (27th) and depleted roster—missing Jo Adell, Luis Rengifo, Mike Trout, and others due to injuries—limit their firepower. The Angels’ recent 11-5 win showcased their potential, but they’ve lost eight straight against Cincinnati since 2019, with a .206 average and .662 OPS in those games.
Betting odds favor the Reds at -113, with the Angels at -106, and a total of 9 runs (over favored at -120). The Reds have won and covered the run line in their last eight games against the Angels, while Los Angeles struggles to cover at home after road wins. Weather in Anaheim (mid-70s, winds blowing out to left at 5 mph) could boost offense, supporting the over. The Reds’ stronger bullpen and better form against right-handed pitching give them an edge. Expect De La Cruz and TJ Friedl to exploit Mederos’ vulnerabilities, while Singer’s road splits (4.31 ERA) suggest a competitive but winnable game for Cincinnati.
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Andrew Abbott, Julian Aguiar, Graham Ashcraft, Scott Barlow, Emilio Pagán, Fernando Cruz, Alexis Díaz, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Tony Santillan, Carson Spiers, Brent Suter, Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, Tyler Stephenson, José Trevino, Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Santiago Espinal, Jonathan India, Noelvi Marte, Edwin Ríos, Will Benson, TJ Friedl, Jake Fraley, Stuart Fairchild, Austin Hays, Spencer Steer, Jacob Hurtubise, Blake Dunn
Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Seattle Mariners, St. Louis Cardinals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals