Cincinnati Reds Lose ANOTHER Extra Inning Heartbreaker, MLB Playoffs On Life Support? | Highlights
First time maybe in show history where we are going to go live top nine when we’re not winning a baseball game. Here we go. Reds one, Pirates two, bases loaded. Top of the ninth, Alio Pagan just gets a pitching mound visit from Derek Johnson and stands in Nick York, the demon at second base tonight. All right. And headed to the bottom. Heads to the bottom, folks. Down one. Likes. It’s the first time all year. I think I’m going to do it. I think I’m going to do it. Likes. We need the likes. We need them fast. And they do equal runs. Please. This city at some point deserves this. Great American Ballpark has been asked to be packed. It is packed. They need a moment to get excited for. They need something to go roaring in tomorrow for waking up tomorrow morning with a chance to take care of the Pirates. and also clenching. Not clenching, that’s that’s not the right word. Holding the last wild card spot. No big deal. Golly Ellie hit that ball so damn hard. Yeah. Yeah. How’s your day going, Trace? I mean, it’s it’s it’s going fine. I gotta tell you, a lot of a lot of my day hinges on what happens in this game. I I it means too much. I don’t know why, but it does. Yeah. I mean, there’s no doubt that the Cubs, if they can find a way to actually win a baseball game, it certainly it certainly kind of helps a little bit no matter what happens. Um, we do have, by the way, keeps you alive. We do have the uh I don’t even know if you can see it, Craig, but we do have the uh little score bug up at the top right hand corner on the score where we we actually are prepared tonight, thankfully. uh if the computer does what it’s supposed to do, which so far it’s done exactly the way it’s been asked to do. So, we’ll see whether or not it’s capable of doing it. Now, I will say I don’t have I could maybe at some point try to switch it over to the Diamondbacks Dodgers, but that’s the least of my worries at this point. I would hope the Dodgers can find a way to win some baseball games against the Diamondbacks, but you never do know, I guess, huh? Yeah, they’re they’re them and the Cubs are both kind of like flirting with danger in terms of blowing definitely are. I mean, they don’t they don’t watch themselves and the Padres’s sneak sneak in there. The Padres’s did lose today, which like it’s such a it’s such a weird thing is the Brewers wrapping up helps us this weekend, but the Padres’s not wrapping it up helps helps. It’s It’s that time of the year. All right, S. Stewart steps in uh to lead the inning off here. And if there was ever a moment, Nick, for a young man’s career, some are saying it’s right now. How about the Pirates, man, going for a multi-inninging save? They want it. I mean, they want it. You know, shout out to them. You know what? Something something to play for. I don’t blame them. You’d want it if you were in their spot. Absolutely. I mean, if we were Reds fans, we’d be we’d be 100% all in. and you kind of felt like they were going to make today their game too. Like they’re obviously not punting on tomorrow, but they knew that this was a good opportunity to try to find a way to win and they were they are doing it. It also would uh for for skins uh for people who care about wins loss it would make them 11 and 10. So that’s also probably it wouldn’t matter but who knows. All right, S find a way to get on base buddy. If there’s anyone who doesn’t vote for Paul skins to win the an they take it away. Man of the night so far. Man of the night so far. It’s really hard to start Trevvinho right now. You can’t start him for the rest of the year. I They With all due respect, they shouldn’t have started him last night. I You just You just can’t. I mean, you can you can try to justify it by saying this starting pitching pitcher likes throwing to this guy. I don’t It doesn’t matter. Can’t you can’t do it. Especially when Stephvenson was was looking as good as he did at the plate the year the the day before. God, this guy’s just throwing perfect pitches, dude. I mean, even the pitch to South Stewart, I know people are upset he struck out, but dude, he threw a slider that was like dotted on the corner. Yeah, I this guy’s been um almost untouchable for about two months. It’s a back. Good take. I The Reds hitters have had some good takes in this in this game. Yeah, they they they had a couple of bats where they just kind of It is what it is. ESPN uh interviewing Carlos Mendoza, the Mets manager, down four nothing in between innings. Five nothing. Five. Yeah, I was going to say four. [ __ ] Come on, Stephvenson. One time. Get up. Get up. Get up. Yes. I will never say another bad word ever. Ever. Come on, Will. Come on, Will. Come on, Will. Okay. Not that Will. Not that Will. Let’s settle down, Will. All right. Come on. Temper. Temper it. Temper it. Temper it down. Please. In the ninth. I do not want to go in. Yeah. I do not want to do this either. Come on, Nick. Come on, Willies. Just relax. Swinging strikes, man. Have a good at bat. You don’t have to You don’t have to be the hero. Just got to get on base. Wow, what a game, man. What a game. That’s a That’s an That’s an unbelievable game. This is This is This is This is where dreams become become reality. Thank you, Will. Thank you. That’s three of them out of the zone. Now, make sure we stay in the zone. My brain’s so fried right now. Who? Who? Who’s in the nine hole? Matt Mlan. Oh, it is MLAN. Get down. Get down. Come on, Matt. Come on. Now, listen. I know this sounds really, really, really ballsy right here. Pitch Anduhar. I uh I would I would I would consider trying to steal and if he if he if he were to get to second base, I think I would I would then pinch hit I just I just Oh, get out of here. Get out of here. There we go. All right. That feels like a break. I I know I’m a MLAN propagandist, but I do think he’s had some pretty decent at bats tonight. He had that one the last at bat he he smoked a ball right at the center fielder. That was a good swing, but it’s she’s had opportunities. He had a great take against skins that he should have. That was a terrible call, man. When you get down one with skins, 2-1 versus one two, it’s a massive difference when you’re facing this sai young winner. I understand. I’m just saying let’s just make up for it all right here. Let’s just let’s hit put one in the gap. Let’s have Will chug it around the base. I need to know I need to know how long it takes this guy to get to the plate and I need to know whether or not it’s a realistic expectation that we could take a bag here because that feels like I don’t think their catcher is very good at throwing. He’s not good. He is not good. But I don’t know how fast this guy takes to get to the plate. Man, this guy is like called every check swing tonight on both sides. He’s like Yeah. He’s like hell. You have you try to swing. It’s a strike. Let’s see if he did. Went. Yeah. I just want to steal, man. No, Matt. God, he’s just not he’s not seeing the ball well, man. Just All it takes is one swing, though, Nick. It really does. This could be a good pitch to seal on these. Yeah, throw it. Oh, he’s so so so terrible right now. He’s just not seeing it, dude. Like that ball is not even close to the zone, man. Not even competitive, dude. I mean, that ball never even looks like a strike ever. You knew it was going there, too. That’s That’s I almost thought he should have stole on that one. At some point he’s got to do it. He’s got to do it. Like just you got to go for it right now. Let TJ Fredo get a chance to drive you in or not. Just Santion. I just don’t get it. I mean, I I’m I’m so I’m so thankful we’re going to extras. I’m not trying to complain. They took O’Neal Cruz out of the game. Did I miss that? I They might have cuz he got kind of banged into the wall there. Yeah, they took So, it’s it’s uh Henry Davis, their number nine old hitter in a buck 60 with a 493 on base percentage. Jack Sinsky and Jared Triolo. Clay has been so bad. I don’t think that guy threw that many strikes. I don’t think he threw hardly any. I I’ll look it up here. Let’s Let’s count them up. Uh he threw two strikes to uh Stewart, one that was pretty close. He threw one one on the corner to Stephvenson. He only threw one strike to Benson and he hit it in the outfield. Uh threw one borderline strike to Mlan. Like I mean it barely. And then Fredles was right down the pipe that he just rolled over on. All right. This is so so so so terrible. We got another run in Chicago. We got another run. Six nothing. Yes, we do. All right. All right. Reds are they got two up are three and 11 in extra innings this season. Three and 11 in extra innings. Three and 11. Some are saying they’re due. We’re due. I mean, is you see that stat on the scoreboard like the Pirates are six and seven with an offense that that’s worse than the Reds. It’s just they got guys in the pen that can throw get strikeouts. That would be fair. Kryine’s in the game now. So, Brian Hayes went in for Stewart. That’s fair and fine. Are they going to bunt or not? That’s the question. I would think so. Oh my god. He almost hit him in the face. He definitely went. What do we What are we asking for? He He fouled the ball off, didn’t he? He hit a foul ball. Yeah. I mean, what are we talking about? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Was the umpire just trying to get out of the way? No. I don’t know what happened. I may I mean, maybe he legitimately didn’t get a good look, you know, because he like backed away. Come on. Throw my pitch up and in again. I mean, oh my god, Nick. Handing you an out. Handing you an out, Tony. That’s two of them over his face. Too amped. I mean, I like going up and in. So hard to bunt that pitch. But I mean, you got to be a little more controlled than that. Listen, here’s what we need to focus on. The guy at second base is theoretically kind of supposed to score. Okay. Let’s make sure that we don’t get Don’t walk a terrible hitter. Exactly. Let’s just go after him. If he gets the guy in, he gets him in. But we got to get him out. That’s right. We got to get him out, Nick. I mean both of these next two hitters are very strikeout prone. So just just get this guy out. That’s all I’m asking. Steam, man. They just can’t let you live in peace. Come on, somebody take control. All right. You got a chance. You got a chance. This guy strikes out a ton. Yeah. Well, I just again, I know it sounds maybe, what’s the right word to use here? I just need an out. And then I know 33% of his played appearances has been a strikeout. I mean, come on. Come on, buddy. Come on, Tony. Somebody in the infield make a play, too, Nick. Somebody’s got to make a play. Come on. Come on, Blue. He called that a strike to Mlan. Sure called that pitch a strike to Mlan earlier. I got Jesus. Come on. There you go. Come on. Come on, Tony. Let’s get outs, buddy. Let’s get outs. Got to hold him. Got to strand him in second. Right down the middle, dude. Four seam fast ball right down the brittle. ain’t it ain’t too challenging if he gets a good pitch like that to hit. Tonyy’s just amped. He’s He’s I mean, he’s just amped up, man. He’s got to figure out a way to calm himself down here and try to figure out how to control some off speed. Good block, Dory Moretta. You know who uh you know who the Reds acquired for Dari Moretta? Only you. I have no clue. Your old friend. Old Kevin. Kevin Newman. Wow. Lovely. Life’s come full circle now. That’s terrible. three. All right. Now, now what do you do here? Brian Reynolds coming to the play. Walk him. He’s up after Orwitz has two hits. He’s Orwitz has been their best hitter. Okay. Well, over the course of the year, but Reynolds is obviously the uh far more accomplished player. I I think you just you pitch him. You’re not worried about walking him, but you kind of go after him. Somebody make a play in the field, please. Yeah. Fact that we got Gavin Lux in second. Yeah. Of all the spots for Gavin Lux trying to hit a base, it’s kind of not the worst spot for him. Gavin Lux would be a great player if there was a runner on second every time he came up. They’re not going to bunt Marte, I would hope. As long Let’s just get this last out. We’ll talk about all that. Come on, Ellie. Come on. Yes. All right. That’s huge. What a play. All right. Only the only the ghostr runner scored even though it felt much worse than that. Marte Lux Steer Ellie Cabrian Hayes is due up fifth. Dari Moretta Ra threw four pitches last night. 3.38 erra. He’s only thrown 16 innings. I think he might have been coming back off Tommy John. What I’d like for him to do, Nick, is to throw the first pitch over the guy’s head up against the back stop. He He strikes out a lot of guys, but he walks a lot of guys also. Then he also also gives up a few home runs, does he? But I you know, we should be bunning here. Obviously, we’re not bunting, right? I’m I’m joking. I’m joking. Okay. And I’m saying like we’re not going to try to bunt, right? We can’t do Don’t do that to me. I mean, we cheer louder for ground balls to the right side than than than Tyler Stevenson home runs in the ninth inning to save. I just don’t see the I don’t see the upside in bunting. No, you do not bunt. And I don’t think I do not trust No Morte to lay down a bunt. Yeah, not only that, but he might not even do it right. All right, here we go. Craig texted maybe Morte will bunt and Tito will say he did it by himself. Come on Craig. I don’t even want to talk about it. That’s still sour. Still very sour subject. Cubs still leading 6 nothing. Top of the sixth at Wrigley Field. All right. Nove just put one in the seats. Let’s just end this right here. Come on, Marte. There you go. Good take. Good take. Oh, you’re ahead of me now. How’s that happen? Oh, my Xbox caught up. You’re like a You’re like a half a pitch, maybe a pitch. Just hold your excitement for for uh one second. Well, I got two kids under the age of uh one and under uh sleeping, so my my excitement is going to be be dwelled no matter what. Here. One pitch, one spot. Be ready to hit that pitch. If you don’t get it, that’s okay. We get three strikes. Don’t have to be a hero. What kind of pitch is that? Dude’s throwing sliders. He can’t throw a strike. And you’re going to give him that strike, blue. He’s throwing sliders that like nip the outside corner on us. 20. Well, 62 Cubs. Alvarez just hit one eight miles. Okay, Marte, you don’t have to be a hero, buddy. You don’t have to be. Don’t really love that swing. Felt like a very defensive swing. Yeah, I’m 31. 31. Tell you what, the Nova Bart has kind of been the king of an ugly swing and then the next one. Yeah, it looks like the best swing you’ve ever seen. What about Cruz, by the It looked like he kind of could have caught that ball, but he just like jumped on the fence and didn’t even like look for it. That was a weird weird play. That was move your center fielder to Here we go. center field. I knew that was seen that mile away. A mile away, Nick. Come on. One time, please. All right. Fighting it off. Fighting it off. Oh, it took him forever to it took him forever to read that. TJ, my gosh. It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay. Listen, I get it. I’m excited. But you can’t You got to score on that hit, dude. I mean, you know where your infielders are. The guy’s right to your right. What do you think? He’s going to catch that. I I honestly even if he’s going, I don’t know if he scores on that. He’s scoring. Now, listen. I I I mean, this guy that’s our center fielder with 40 40 percentile sprint speed. All right. Come on, Gavin. Come on, Gavin. I just don’t understand. That reminds me of the Joey Vado situation where we didn’t score on a base hit. Oh god. Come on, Gavin. Get the ball in the air, please. Tag. Tag. Tag it first, too, just in case he air mails it. He’s so slow. All right. All right. Now’s the time for Noelv to be to be a silent assassin. Steal a bag. Good for Gavin Lux, by the way. Really good for him. Spencer Steer, do it. Do it, Spence. Come on, buddy. Oh yeah, chat. I’ve put you away for so long. I love you. I appreciate you. I just want to tell you, please for the love, please just hit the like right now if you believe in miracles. [Music] My god, the Reds have a lot of hard hit balls tonight. The one by LA. Every player Every player has a hard hit ball. No, you don’t see the a boxport looks like that. Come on. Oh, don’t let him blow up by you now, Spence. Come on. Yeah, I get it. We should probably steal at some point, but you don’t want to take the bat out of Steer’s hand or Ellie’s hand. Yeah, and it sounds like they have a different catcher in from last night. This guy’s got a good pop time behind the plate. Craig text us and said that this guy’s uh good. Yeah, he was the number one overall pick. I’d hope he can throw out runners. Yeah, I think the guy he can’t hit. The guy last night was not the same guy. Good take. Good take. battling. What are you blocking? I have uh I have I have gone full mute mode and I’m trying to block out Nick Kirby in my purview and also Craig. Am I that far? Am I that far ahead of you? Of trying to make sure that I see whatever happens in real time right down the middle. Do we want to try to Do we want to try to sink this? H. All right. For a guy that’s been very very much mangled as a guy that’s supposedly not clutch, boy. Oh boy. Oh boy. Wouldn’t this be something? Do they have a lefty up? I know they only have two lefties in their pin. One of them is the uh guy they just called up that I’m sure they’re not going to pitch probably again in this series because he’s a starter. You can’t steal at this point. I’ll tell you why. You know, you got to play another extra inning regardless. And honestly, if Ellie is the last Ellie doesn’t hit a whole lot of base hits, I’m just saying if Ellie is the last out, he starts this second base. And that’s a that’s a massive advantage. Yeah, definitely over steer. Now he calls that a ball. This guy sucks. This guy sucks. Yeah. Jeez. I can’t believe people what what are probability. Yeah, we’ll take it. Andrew Horses. Who Who the hell would play third? Who do you think, brother? I know who. Oh. Oh, Es. I forgot. Oh, I forgot. Espanol. Any chance we can get him in this game and he gets a base hit. All right, here it comes. Here it comes. Right here. And do it for crawl. Do it for crawl. Ellie just such a better looking swing. Yeah, he’s back. I do not want to go to Oh, they’re going to the pen. Johan Ramirez. Let’s let’s uh let’s learn about him. He is uh the last person on the fang grass depth chart. 30-year-old. Is there any chance that he’s got control five.58 erra fip is a lot better. 3.83 thrown 30 innings. Walks strikes out strikes out a lot. 12 batters per nine. Walks 3.8. So, also gives up some homers. I don’t really care about a homer at this moment unless it’s, you know, I’ll take it obviously, but I was hoping you were going to tell me he has a chance to come in here and hit the first batter and then hit the next guy and that was going to be the game. Yeah, just a little pressure, you know. I just need a little bit of game pressure on these guys. Just, you know, let’s let’s get the bases juiced here with a guy and make him throw some strikes. Miguel Andar in the meantime. Bottom five. Is that right? 6-2 bottom five or bottom. Yeah, we were It was getting a little dicey. Boyd was having a hard time throwing strikes, but he got out of the inning. This guy uh Johan Ramirez, I uh he’s been in the big leagues every year since 2020. I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of him. He’s been he was on four teams last year. Dodgers up one nothing, I’m told. All right. All right. Did you do that? I I saw the the popular Did you do the little parlay today? No, I just didn’t. My heart’s My heart can’t handle it. This is enough for me for one night. Did they walk him or are they just talking about Stephenson? I don’t know. I think they’re just talking about Stevenson’s night. There’s no way. There’s no way they’re walking Andrew Hart, right? I mean, I wouldn’t think so. No way in the world. He’s on deck. How about the uh the Guardians up 5-1 and the Tigers? An unbelievable run by them. The Tigers would fall to uh two back and lose the tiebreaker if they lose this game. Good. Don’t Don’t do it. Don’t do it. All right. You’re ahead of me by like a pitch, which is fine. Just stay where you’re at. Don’t touch it. Don’t touch it. I just I’m gonna mute you actually. That’s what I’m not literally on the stream. Just my headphones. You don’t have to swing strikes, buddy. So close. Just gota you got to have to stay back on that and try to shoot it through the other way. Blake Snell on the mound tonight for the uh the Dodgers with a one- nothing lead. I don’t know if you’re uh listening to me or not, Trace, but Andy, I tell you what, lead at second and I’m gonna have to score on a hit. There’s just I’m gonna have to be able to score on a hit. Andy is really good at at uh spoiling pitches with two strikes. Klay Holmes on the mound for the Mets right now. Have something nice in this city one time. Please get through. Blake Snell gives up a leadoff double tell Marte. Come on Blake, I need you to lock it down, brother. Man, you can spoil some pitches. Love it, dude. Seen it. What he’s got. You’ve seen what he’s got. Don’t get beat on a fast ball and take that pitch to the right field. Look at this guy. I love that little 1995 jersey. There he is. There he is. [Music] Well, are we going to end before the Cubs? need a drink. I’ll be right back. I I need to I need to compose myself. All right. I think Nick Martinez is who I heard was warming up to Horwitz McCutchen fam. I I don’t love I don’t ever love especially when you’re the home team walking the first guy, but man, Horwitz is is pretty pretty hands and above their their best uh hitter, especially against right-handed pitching. Um I mean, McCutchen is obviously McCuchen. Tommy Fam is is been terrible this year, especially against right-handed pitching. I you got to be careful with Horwitz. I I don’t think you can walk him because especially I mean you got to you got to remember here too the Pirates they’re up against it with their their bullpen. Um at this point I don’t think they’ve gotten a single guy to go go multiple innings other than their closer. Um, Hunter Barco is one of their relievers and they’re not going to use him. I think they have a six-man rotation. So, so, so, so Cubs uh, picked up another run. 72. Nice. Still threatening runner on second base. They’re showing a sad Pete Alonzo. Showing a sad Pete Alonzo. Did he just make an air? He wasn’t able to scoop it. Let’s be careful. Let’s get Let’s be careful making fun of that, Nick. Let’s Let’s keep Let’s be careful. That’s true. That’s Yeah, there’s a chance we have that own We have that own issue ourselves at times. Pet Cro Armstrong still in second base for the uh the Cubbies. They got Dansby Swanson. Like, you couldn’t hurt me, but they got Klay Holmes in the game. Trace kind of surprised down. They were down four runs. They brought in their I guess he’s their long guy right now. Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to be punting with this guy, John. Definitely not a left-handed hitter, too. All it takes, we got Espanol in the game right now. Espenol is at third. Yeah, man. Come on. Get it in. Get it in. Golly, man. Andrew Harlay off so many pitches, too. And then swung at that one. Cubs got another run. 82. Just need to be better, man. Need to be better. It sucks that we that we burn through the guys that I think can actually get strikeouts earlier and now we’re left with a bunch of guys that are just whatever. Pitch pitch tit tit t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t for tat guys that are just going to try to just just harder to locate. Yeah, I’m just saying it’s a lot harder to locate when your adrenaline’s going like this and than it is just a rear back and throw 100 101 mile an hour and said here, hit it. Pirates are at the back end of their bullpen. Just just hold them here. Hold them here. There you go, Matt. There you go, Matt. There you go, Matt. I can’t pause it either on the Xbox. There’s like no pause button apparently. I’m I’ll fantastic. That God bless America. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. That is so big. By the way, that was a good swing by that. That was that was that was a good swing. Got him. That’s that’s catching a break, folks. You suggesting we’re already out of the inning right here. Strike. No, just just a strike. Just a strike. Sorry. Figure out how to I know what I’m gonna do. Put literally put some kind of curtain over top of you so I don’t have to I don’t blame you. There’s no way not to react. Yeah. Yeah. I think I’m on a show where I’m supposed to react. Yeah, I know. It’s just It is what it is. No way to get synced up. It’s It’s all It’s so close. The Cubs fault for being on ESPN. That messed my whole setup up tonight where I had to move move stuff around. I don’t have MLB TV. Oh, Majinski. I didn’t think he was available. Threw 48 pitches couple days ago. Everybody’s available, dude. He’s their most Pirates World Series. Yeah. And they don’t call that one a strike. Like this guy, bro. This guy. God. Can’t walk Tommy fam. Can’t walk Tommy fam. Just over for his last 28 minutes. Guy has one hit since the Obama administration. Nick Gonzalez. Diamondbacks tied it up. Great work, Snell. Let’s just win. If we win, nothing really can can kill us. We lose. There’s a lot of scenarios that kill us. Yeah, I know. I got it over here. Nick, good block. Nice. What we got here? Saying that the mounds got to mess up. Okay, maybe that gives us a couple warm-up pitches that he feels like he’s going to try to find something here. Well, Corbin Carroll uh just got kicked like in the face. He’s all right, but [Music] This is crazy. Carvin Majinski, I think is how you say his name, warming up for the Pirates. 3.62 RA, 97 innings this year. They’ve had him like as a starter and a reliever. He’s kind of bounced back and forth. Uh, if you’ve not hit the like yet on the stream, folks, please do that. Please. This is one of the few times I’m actually begging. We got a lot going on right now. long bottom of the first inning and uh in Phoenix. All right, Nick, here we go. Give me about one second before you go crazy or make a noise. You can go crazy all you want. I got you covered up with with a with whatever I got. It’s my best look. Some are saying. All right. Oh, Santiago. Oh, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Did he make a play? Come on. Nice. Sorry, Santiago. That was for That was for optimistic John right there. That was a good play. He did it. He did it, John. He did it. That was a good play for real. A good play. His name in the history books of the Cincinnati Reds. We got Ellie de la Cruz at second base. Yeah. We got Tyler Stevenson four for four coming up. William Buchanan Benson in the hole. And Matt Mlan do up third. Gosh. Can we please not do this to Mlan? I can’t do a stream. I can’t do a stream of Can we please Can we please get Mlan up with a chance to win the game and that’s all he has a chance to do? I seriously we have got to score that run before Mlan comes up, dude. Otherwise, there’s we’re cooked. Reds have a 274 expected batting average in a game started by Paul Sch. Yeah. Well, yeah, the ball that Ellie hit is the toughest one. What’s up? Yeah. I I just want to say the the crowd at Great American Ballpark has been uh fantastic tonight. Yes. Shout out 100%. I mean, they uh they delivered, man. Yeah, they delivered. I think they were a big part of the comeback here tonight. I just feel like if one time we could at least reward the folks that went down there, please possibly do that one time. All right, shout out Shout out to the Pirates for straining a guy at second base with nobody out after they obviously hit the double. All right, we uh we’re in the top of the second. Might as well do it again. We’re in the top of the second in Arizona 1-1. Dodgers got out of the inning with uh no further damage. By the way, what about that guy booting the ball against Stevenson right there, but then making that play against Ellie? Geez. That’s That’s such a big swing by Tyler Stevenson, man. What an insane swing. It took Horwoods out of the game. Wait. Wait. Well, this is not Carmen Majinsky. This is the same guy. Why is I’m so confused right now. Is my brain just completely fried? Who made the last out? How? Andrew made the last Andrew made the last because Ellie walked. That’s right. I forgot. I just my brain isn’t there. Espanol. I get it. Yeah, you said you said that about him that stealing and it got it got gotten in our heads that he was the ghost runner. All right, Tyler fight. Thanks, Sad. Thank you. Appreciate it. Oh, hit him. Cubs get out of the sixth. We’re going to the seventh. 82 Cubs over the Mets. All right. Oh, I thought he chipped it fair. That would have been unbelievably. Austin wins. Shout out Austin wins. Good take. Great take. That’s what I wanted to say, but I held it back. I held it back. Good pitch, man. Good pitch. All right, Willie. Just stay in the zone. Um, you know, don’t don’t try to be that try to be the hero [ __ ] But swinging Great take. Come on, Will. the type like I mean I love our guys. It is what it is. But just we just How many of these guys are just going to continue to swing at pitches that aren’t even remotely close? You can’t try it. Thank you. Only the second walk of the game for the Reds. This is such a lot of that. A lot of that skins. All right, Matt. Golly day. Matt freaking Mlan. Just make sure the ball’s in the air. You never know. You never know with that pitch. It’s a good pitch. Yeah. He likes to call him on MLAN clearly because he’s so tall. Yeah. Oh, come on, guys. Take it from him. Oh, what a lazy effort. What do you Reynolds? You caught it, you idiot. Like, you don’t get interference. You don’t get a second out. You weren’t interfered with. Heck, that was the weakest effort I’ve ever seen. The Cubs are up 10, too. What’s that, Usher? What are we doing? All right, Tee. Oh, man. MLAN, man. Matt Mlan. At least he didn’t hit him into a double play. I guess that’s that’s that’s how bad he’s going is that that we’re excited when he doesn’t hit into a double play. I’m also going to tell you that TJ Friedel being the leadoff hitter is our best hitter is just insanity. Mets have Shawn Maniah in the game now. Very confused with what their pitching plan is for this game. and the rest of the year. I’m just hoping TJ Fudo gets a hit. We will probably Say that. Just stop. Target. Can we get a wild pitch? Hit him. Is that too much to ask? Hit him right in the middle of the back. Hit him right in the middle of the back. I don’t give a damn how bad it hurts. And I hope there’s no way he can get out of the way. Smoke him. Hit him as hard as you can. Come on, Noel. Come on, Noel. No. No. Noelvie, stay in the strike zone. Please. Please, my man. I’m begging you. Yes. Stay in the zone, please. Put the pressure on this clown. I feel you, brother. I feel you. Hit him in the back. You’re like a full second and a half ahead of me. Hit him in the back, please. Okay. Still swinging at strikes. Still swinging at strikes. Oh, thank the Lord. Noelvie, I swear I I don’t I don’t You don’t have the take sign, my man. But you better love it. You don’t have the take sign, but you better love it. [Applause] field and the team. Get out of here, baseball. It’s gone. Oh my god, you believe it. Johnny B has tried it out. The Cincinnati Reds win the World Series in force rate. It was a sweep in the dirty won the game. That ball is fair. Cincinnati’s ahead. Two games to welcome Joe to Cincinnati. Adam Dunn has done it again. Benzinger backing and calling and the 1990 World Championship belongs to the Cincinnati Red. Yes, this is Adam from Milwaukee. Hey Adam, how you doing? I’m good. How are you? Good. Do you think 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 do their best and a high drive back into deep right field. Junior has just knocked the door down to the 500 block. Benson scores to run a winner. That ball family and Da Cruz is Oh my goodness. Look at this kid run. My oh my. That is a triple. Matt Mlan’s first big league pop. Spencer Steer’s first big league hit is a home run to straightaway center field. Jay 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 B’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 the boo. The rounds of national league central division champions in the air. Let’s see. Get begin. [Music] you down the right field line [Music] for a three run home day by Ramon Hernandez strike away and out away is Homer Bailey round ball to third Frasier gloves throw to first and Homer Bing for the second time in his major league career [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] in the first half game in the air and the men’s win. What a dream beginning to career Bruce. All right, Nick. Um, one of I don’t know, most disheartening, devastating losses of the season. Maybe you can go back as far as to say the last decade. I don’t know. Do whatever you want. Say whatever you want. Um it’s a difficult difficult show to do. Certainly because once again they had opportunities. Uh there was plenty of chances for them to kind of break through and and and have that major moment and they were just once again just just one swing away or you know one swing too short. And I just want to say one thing before we start the show. First and foremost, thanks to everybody being in here. If you haven’t liked the stream, I understand the frustration. I get that there’s going to be probably some super pessimism in the comments. Just, you know, be be respectful. Second second of all is is uh I just want to say that uh that that’s a good pitch for Marte to try to get a hit on. I I I I don’t really want to sit here and try to act as if we are going to beg for that pitcher to to walk the guy and you’re taking till you get two strikes. You just you just can’t do that as a Major League Baseball player. uh take until you get two strikes in a spot like that. And secondarily, he gets a base hit, they win the game. It was a good pitch to hit. He missed it. That’s that. Um there’s plenty to talk about, Nick. I It’s It’s going to be a hard show to be to be honest. Yeah, it was a fun baseball game. Uh didn’t go the way the Reds wanted, but it was a fun game, fun drama. You know, looks like thankfully the Reds are going to get some help and uh stay alive and uh we’ll do it again tomorrow. I mean, we’ve been doing it all year. We It’s been a a season where this team’s looked dead 100 times. We’ve all counted them out, but they’re still alive. Live to fight another day. Well, there’s no doubt now that I think the season’s going to come down to the final day if the if the Reds are capable of getting in, which will ultimately probably come right back to the old age-old question of what do you do with Hunter Green? And I know that was a topic or a very very highly debated topic and and now I have really just an impossible feeling, an impossible situation to play out almost to get the Reds in a spot where they can clinch by not going into that final game and getting a win. Crazier things have happened. It’s it is theoretical theoretically possible, Nick, but seems very very unlikely. I know as we are doing the show currently the Cubs are up 10 to2. Uh but uh yeah I just what do you do? I mean they’ve fought I give them credit for that. I I I do kind of have the same sentiment that you have. That was a good baseball game. I know everyone’s going to say that it’s the Pittsburgh Pirates and they’re the last place team in the division and you can’t find a way to win and that there there there’s some there is some good criticism from that. But I’m also going to say that like tonight the Pirates, they played well. I mean, they defensively didn’t really make too many mistakes. They made some really good plays in the field when they needed to make them. They they got some timely hits and ultimately they have good pitching. Like they came in time and time again, Nick, and brought in sub two erra bullpen guys. And they had Paul SK pitching who’s by far the best pitcher in the entire world. And you know, we knew this coming in. It wasn’t a surprise, but they had a chance, Nick, and they just didn’t find a way to get it done in extra innings. And yet now, I think at the end of the season, they’re going to, you know, everybody I think last year, remember the oneun losses that everybody circled? Now it’s going to be, look at all these extra innings that you couldn’t win. They are now three and 12. If memory serves me right, that is that’s correct. And uh for a team that wants to pride themselves on playing small ball, uh going 3 and 12 uh when you have a ghost runner on second base doesn’t exactly uh uh bode well uh for that whole narrative. It feels like that should be maybe where you would would thrive or maybe you know the whole small ball approach is just not a very good approach. It’s a frustrating night because they had some good at bats, they had some great swings, some huge moments. Uh we’ll get to Stevenson in a minute, but you know, unbelievable baseball game out of Tyler Stevenson outside the fact that I guess he theoretically could have gotten his fifth hit uh in the in the whatever that was the 11th inning. It’s just um they also had some some poor at bats against skins. I thought that they, you know, kind of got us they got ahead of themselves. They made it to where they they I think were, you know, maybe trying too hard almost in a way, but it is what it is. Nobody nobody hits Paul Ski. It’s kind of hard to criticize an offense when Skins does what he does. Let’s talk about it. I don’t know if there’s really anything you want to run into or get kind of get in front of before we do the box score recap, but feel like it’s an appropriate time to do such a thing. No, we we’ll do the best we can here with the old box score recap. Good luck with that one. Just cliff notes. All right, we got we got great notes through like the eighth inning, but uh then I just kind of gave up. All right, Reds versus Pirates, game two of three at Great America Ballpark. Hunter Green against Paul Skins. Both pitchers put up zeros through the first three innings. In the top of the fourth, Hunter Green walked Brian Reynolds with one out, then gave up a double to Spencer Horwitz. One- nothing Pirates. Green breezed through the fifth. Tyler Stevenson crushed a leadoff double. You might not remember this. back in the bottom of the fifth right off the top of the wall. Looked like a home run off the bat. Benson then grounded out to move the runner over. Um but then Mlan and TJ Fredle struck out to end the inning. In the top of the sixth, under Green retired the first two batters, but then gave up a two out double to Brian Reynolds um on a ball that probably was misplayed by TG Friedel. The next batter, Spencer Horitz singled right under the glove of Sal Stewart getting a start at third base. Probably should have made that play as well. Two nothing Pirates. Final line for Hunter Green. Six innings, five hits, two runs, two walks, seven strikeouts. Chase Burns pitched a perfect seventh and eighth. Reds caught a break. The Pirates pulled Paul Skins after just 85 pitches. And the Reds in the bottom of the eighth tied the game up on a Noel Marte inside the park home run. Uh then in the bottom of the ninth, Tyler Stevenson with one out crushed a home run that tied the game. Uh we would end up going into extra innings. In the 10th inning, the Pirates scored a run in the top of the tenth. The Reds responded. Uh Noel Marte singled to lead off. The bottom of the tenth, Gavin Lux sackfly, tied the game at three. Uh Ellie Dea Cruz would single with two outs. loaded the bases for Miguel Anduhar. And 10 pitch at bat, but ultimately struck out on a sweeper way out of the strike zone. In the top of the 11th, Red’s turn to Nick Martinez. Uh Nick Martinez gave up a leadoff double to Spencer Horitz made it 4-3. Was able to get out of the inning without any further damage, sending us to the bottom of the 11th. In the bottom of the 11th, Tyler Stevenson was the leadoff batter, four for four in the game, but struck out swinging. Will Benson walked. Then Matt Mlan flew out. TJ Fredo walked to load the bases. Marte worked the count full, but a 3-2 fast ball right down the pipe. Rolled over for a ground out. Reds lose 43. Reds now 80 and 78 on the season. All right, we had a uh a massive deep drive of the day. It would have been the biggest deep drive of the day in the 2025 season, but uh unfortunately the Reds would obviously drop the game, making it probably not the biggest deep drive of the day for that fact and that fact alone. But you know what? Who knows? It’s like one of those situations where it was such a big home run, even in a losing effort, like maybe you give the team the uh the game MVP to the losing player. But Tyler Stevenson’s home run, 13th of the year, fly ball to left center field. It would tie the game at two, 103.4 off the bat. Win probability at the time would jump up 46.9%. That is insane. Win probability would be 57.7. As we all know, it’ wind up being zero. DSC, they are a leader in renewable commodities for bofuel production, specializing in used cooking, oil collection, aggregation, and sales. Visit www.deepsouthcommodmodities.com for more information and thank you to John and his team. Uh I want to get ahead of this. I think there’s a lot of people in here right now that uh that that that certainly are are are upset. I get it. Um I just want to tell you something though. This is a fact. Season’s not dead. Okay. I I I I’m telling you right now that they have an excellent opportunity still to make the postseason. They just do. That’s a matter of fact. They find a way to win tomorrow. Cubs win the series tomorrow and next thing you know you head to Milwaukee controlling your own destiny with only three to play. That’s, you know, like it or not, that’s a real real real possibility. Um, but let’s let’s cool the Jets a bit on just the idea that there’s zero chance the Reds can make the postseason. It’s not like we’re three down with four left to play here. Okay. Um, Omahal Stakes, don’t know if you know or not, but they have a red-hot sale event going on right now. 50% off site sitewide, excuse me, omahhalstakes.com. You can also use the promo code chatterbox. That’s ch h a tt e r b ox. Get an extra $35 off. If you use the promo code, once again, chatterbox cha tx. Redhot sale event, 50% off sitewide. Omahastal stakes.com. Myself and Nick both are very big fans of Omaha Stakes. And like I said before, hopefully the Reds can figure it out. We’ll be grilling on some Omaha Stakes here in the postseason with a crisp September and maybe even, dare I say, October air. All right, folks. Uh, I know we have plenty of super chats. We’ll get to those in just a moment. I just want to say once again, if you haven’t already, hit the like button and we will get into the show itself right now. Tyler Stevenson, what a performance. I don’t want to gloss over it. I think it’s one of the best performances that I’ve seen of an individual player for the Reds in quite some time. I know that everybody want to give Hunter Green his accolades. Last time he went out and threw a complete game shutout on the way to a one to nothing victory, but Tyler Stevenson damn near put this offense completely on his back and got themselves to a victory. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen. But, uh, you got to give him props. And reality is is that at this point moving forward, Tyler Stevenson plays every single day. There’s no ifs and buts about it. The only way he doesn’t play is if he walks into Tito’s office and says, “Hey, I have a real severe issue. I am not able to play.” I highly doubt that happens. So, moving forward, Tyler Stevenson, congratulations. You get to play the next four games in a row, no matter what. Um, Nick, what else can you really say about it? I I I I’m sure that everybody in Red’s country have has watched this game, so they’ve seen it with their own eyes, but it’s nice to see a guy that uh has has struggled a bit this year. Um, but for all intents and purposes, a night like tonight will probably skew the numbers in a in a great direction for him. But, you know, he’s swung and miss a lot this year. I was a little concerned about him, but as I said before, and I’ll say it again, you’re not going to hear me say another bad word about him. That was an unbelievable swing and an unbelievable time. Yeah. Yeah. Thomas is playing very well. He was my uh uh player when I uh did the show with Mike on Monday, a player that I I felt could could be a big hero this week. And of course, he didn’t play on Tuesday. And I think that was a mistake clearly. I think it’s also probably a mistake that Tyler Stevenson at this point’s batting seventh in the lineup. I think he should probably be batting a little bit higher. Stevenson had four hits today. The Red’s first four hitters had a total of four hits uh in 11 innings. Um but yeah, Tyler Stevens swing the bat really well. um has had a rocky season. He has had multiple injuries. Um but he’s swinging the bat as good as anyone. Maybe I might dare to really push the envelope and say Ellie might be a little bit better. But um yeah, I I think I think Tyler Stevenson is playing very well and I think he should be hitting higher up in the lineup. At this point, I don’t even know what to do to fix the offensive situations because it it does seem unfortunate. The Reds have caught, I guess, either a little bit of a bad break or you’re just going to say that’s part of the game. I don’t know. But it just seems like Matt Mlan has come up in so many situations that could have been meaningful that that that he had a chance to get a hit, not only last night, but then also again tonight. And he’s he’s just not been good enough. I don’t know what else you want me to say about him. He’s not been good enough. And unfortunately for for Red’s fans, uh the truth is is coming into this season, he was probably one of the bright spots of saying, “Hey, what’s different from 2024 headed into 2025?” You know, what what what can maybe get you a little bit excited for a turnaround? Matt Mlan was a big big big part of that. He’s probably one of the main guys that you could point to and say, “Well, we didn’t have Matt Mlan in 2024 and look what he did in 2023.” Well, it’s just not been that case this year. 2025 has been an absolute disaster for Matt Mlan from an offensive perspective. And I I don’t know what others want me to say or you to say about Matt Mlan. I mean, he’s not he’s not a guy that has a clear replacement and that’s also been the issue in my opinion because realistically speaking, his clear replacement is is also a very lighthitting player. Uh I’m talking about Santiago Esmanol specifically. Maybe you could suggest that Gavin Lux could play second base, but they tried to do that. And here’s the issue. They tried to put Gavin Lux at second base, Nick, one time. I remember vividly when they did it. It was against the Dodgers. Um, and he made an error and he and he made and he cost them the I mean, he really did cost them the game defensively. And I think from that point forward, Tito Francona has just decided, I am not going to do that ever again. I’m going to play guys that can catch the ball. And Matt Mlan does catch the ball. Okay, whether you like him or you don’t, he plays a good second base. I get it. He He has been horrific offensively. But the truth is is what are you going to do now? You have four games left in the season. He You’ve rode him all the way till now. Are you suggesting that you’re going to bench him and put who there? I know the answer. Someone’s going to say Sal Stewart. Nick, that’s just not a viable option at this point. South Stewart has when was the last time South Stewart even played second base genuinely speaking. Um Gavin Lux, maybe you can convince me, Nick, but again, you know, I’m not going to do it because I know that I I I get really frustrated when we blame other things outside of the offense when you score three runs in 11 innings and you got a ghost runner to score one of them. But Sal South Sal Stewart could have, and I’m putting that in quotes because I don’t think it’s fair to expect him to make this play, Nick. But let’s not forget that Sal Stewart had a chance to make a play that KBrian Hayes probably would have made and he didn’t make it and it allowed a run to score. I mean, that’s the truth. That’s that’s the God’s honest truth. I’m not blaming South Stewart, by the way. I I hope it don’t come off that way. I’m just saying that’s the reason that I don’t think Tito does that. I don’t think he tries to put guys out there he thinks are a liability, Nick. Yeah, I think defense was the biggest reason the Pirates won this game today on their side and on the Reds. Um, Fredo misplayed a ball. I like TJ Fredle has been an above average center fielder defensively all year. So, I’m not like throwing shade at Fredo playing center field, but he did misplay a ball. And yeah, I don’t think it’s fair to expect that South Stewart’s going to be a great defender. He made a couple really nice plays tonight. Yes, he did. But there’s no doubt that Cabrien Hayes makes that play. That that’s the discussion. Brian Hayes makes that play 99 out of a hundred times and you don’t even sweat it. So, uh defense matters. The Pirates, I mean, their second baseman robbed Ellie De la Cruz of a hit that would have uh tied the game at that point and you and who knows how it plays out, but could have won the game and made some other really good plays throughout the game. So, yeah, defense was a huge reason. So, um and I just I I don’t think Matt Mlan’s been as bad as people think over like the last month. He’s had a couple really terrible games at the plate. Um, but I think coming into today, it led the Reds in extra base hits over the last three weeks. So, for your guy batting ninth that’s really in there for defense, he hasn’t been as bad as he’s been made out to be because he played two really bad games at the worst time of the year. Yeah. And and at the end of the day though, Nick, you’re going to always rem be remembered for what you did in big moments. Like it or not, whether that’s fair or unfair, it doesn’t matter. Like, you know, I know this sounds absolutely ridiculous now and it’s maybe the worst analogy, but it’s one that comes to mind. Like, Michael Jordan could have been an unbelievable player, but if Michael Jordan in clutch moments absolutely failed every single time, and we know the opposite to be true because he made the plays every single time. But if he failed every single time, he would never be brought up as one of the greatest players of all time. That’s just how it goes. Matt McClan has opportunities the last two days in the biggest games of the season and he’s laid a goose egg. A complete utter goose egg. That’s on the heels of the fact that uh from win probability added, he’s the worst player in the league. And the second worst player in the league of win probability added as a as a hitter is is Santiago Espanol. And I know that people are going to sit here and say that they like I’m not doing this guys. I’m just not going to go into it and sit here and act like Espanol is a significantly better option. like it’s he’s just not he’s not. Let’s be honest with ourselves and understand that he’s not. Matt Mlan’s terrible, okay? He’s been terrible at the plate. Santiago also terrible at the plate. We’re we’re we’re swapping one pig out for the next and acting like we’ve we’ve we’ve changed things. As you say, Nick, we were rearranging deck chairs and acting like we’re doing something. It’s just not the case, man. I I don’t I I there’s there’s two schools of thought moving forward about Matt Mlan in second base. If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of it, you either put Gavin Lux out there and you live with the fact that Gavin Lux has very limited range, probably isn’t going to turn nearly the amount of double plays that Matt Mlan can turn, and you might ultimately give up an extra base hit or two, or have a costly air that leads to a big inning from Gavin Lux at second base. Now, maybe there’s a chance that he makes all the plays. But I guess ultimately the question is is do you think Gavin Lux’s ceiling for hitting is significantly higher than Matt McLean’s? And of course everyone’s going to say right now yes don’t know if it’s that big of a difference and we’ve sitting here and clamorred and and begged for Sal Stewart to get in the lineup and you know it’s not fair to sit here and expect Sal Stewart to come in against Paul Ske and somehow have two three hits tonight. I get that. But Tito Francone is 100% Nick gonna sit in his office tonight and think about all the things that could have happened in this game that would have made a difference. And I damn near I I damn near sure know that he’s going to think about what if would Krian Hayes made the play that allowed that run to score to make it two to nothing. And the answer is Kabrian Hayes would have made the play. Like it or not, he would have made the play. And I think Tito Francona is also going to add in the fact that I made a post about this. You know, I I I I’m not sitting here suggesting that it’s Sal Stewart’s fault, and I don’t think it’s fair to sit here and continue to bring up things that Sal Stewart maybe did wrong, and I don’t mean it that way, but he did have an at bat earlier in the game where Ellie gets on first base with two outs. I’d like for you to give him a chance to seal second base. like we don’t you don’t get that many chances to be able to score with Paul SK on the mound and you’re damn sure not going to get like three four hits in a row. That isn’t going to happen. Now maybe you can convince me that Steuart could hit one over the fence. Sure. But not not to give Ellie de La Cruz a chance to even try to run on the on the first or second pitch and you lazily get out on the first one. It’s it’s I’m telling you these are the things that Tito logs in his memory bank and he holds like it or not but I think he holds a grudge or holds it holds it to a higher standard than maybe what it even should be. Nick I’m not saying that he should be gool logged but people have been gool logged for a lot less. Yeah and in defense of South Stewart I mean this is his first start in like six days against Paul skins. It’s not necessarily set up for success uh by any stretch, but yeah, Cabrian Hayes makes that play and you can sit there and talk about well the Reds didn’t come through with with a runner on second base. Those are not sure things. Like the best hitters on the planet don’t come through more than 35 40% of the time in those in those spots, but Kabrian Hayes will make that play 99 out of 100 times. So like that’s a sure thing that you that you gave away. And I guess the the the the people that want Gavin Lux to play second base, I mean, Matt Mlan has been absolutely atrocious for stretches this season. And his OPS is 71 points lower than Gavin Lux. And Gavin Lux doesn’t even play against lefties. He can’t even play a full game because he gets he’s gotten taken out to avoid facing left-handed pitchers all year. And he’s still only 71 points better than Matt Mlan. you want to weaken your defense for a guy that’s 71 points better and can only play in 70% of the plate appearances. No, you’re right with Matt Mlan. It’s unfortunate that he should be batting ninth right now. It’s unfortunate that the guy batting ninth had so many spots tonight, but it’s not that’s not even remotely close to the Red’s issues right now is Matt Mlan in my opinion. What do you think the biggest Red’s issues are offensively in your in your I guess assessment of what what this whole thing they just they don’t have enough good hitters man they just don’t um and I I don’t I don’t know man like like I’m not a big lineup guy but like guys like Ellie and Stevenson and you know I I’ll really piss people off. I’ll throw Benson in there. I want those guys hitting higher up in the lineup against right-handed pitching. I wanted those guys to get more at bats. I know Marte had a couple really good swings tonight, but man, TJ Fredel and Gavin Lux, they’re not really inspiring a whole lot of confidence in me right now. And they have very little power, too. Gavin Lux sitting in the three hole is just such a such a malpractice situation. I don’t understand it. It just makes no sense. It’s both Fredo batting first and Lux batting third. Like, one of those guys can be a fine leadoff hitter. for the get on base guy, but you don’t need two of them in the first inning getting at bats every single night. Put someone up there that can hit the damn ball out of the ballpark because you know what? When the Reds hit the ball out of the ballpark tonight, it actually helped helped their win probability go up a little bit. Like, let’s try to jump on some pitchers early, but you’re not going to jump on a whole lot of pitchers early with TJ Fredo, Noel Marte, and Gavin Lux up there in the first inning. Yeah. And Noelv Marte, by the way, is Tito. It seems like in my opinion, and listen, um it’s there’s a million things that we can sit here and discuss and say this is the problem, that’s the problem. And and I understand people are saying I I I don’t know what you want from us at this point. We’ve watched quite literally 150 some odd games of baseball games this year for this Cincinnati Reds team. The the the reality is is this. They don’t have enough good hitters. And on top of that, Tito, for whatever dumb reason, and I’ll call it dumb, for whatever dumb reason, he gets it stuck in his head that he has to continue to try to force like these these these, you know, rectangular parts in a in a circle. It’s just the the the shapes don’t fit. You do not have to continue to put Marte in the two-hole. I know he had a big swing tonight. That’s fantastic. But like, you can’t let guys struggle for two, three, four weeks in a row with this bad of an offense and continue to put them in in meaningful spots. We’ve done it all year in the two-hole. And the two-hole quite literally is one of the most important spots in a baseball lineup. Some would argue, the analytic community certainly is one of them, argues that that is the most important spot in the lineup to have someone that is a very good, productive player. And we have had, you ready for this, in the two-hole all year pretty much Santiago Espanol, Matt Mlan, and Noelv Marte there for a vast majority of the season. And Marte has been good at times. Yes, I’m not here to discuss and argue and say that he hasn’t, but the truth is is that this whole notion that you just can’t possibly switch things up. He took years, it felt like, to move Ellie Dea Cruz magically. Just magically, I’m sure it was coincidental that he moves him and then all of a sudden after maybe a game or two, something sparks and here comes Ellie Dea Cruz. Looks like himself again. It’s okay to move a guy down in the lineup and then move him right back up if you feel like he’s playing well again. It’s okay to take a guy that’s struggling in the two-hole and move him down. Again, I know that you’re not a big lineup guy. I’m not even suggesting that fixes all of our problems because let’s face it, at the end of the day, they got to get a big hit. And Matt Mlan, unfortunately, has come up time and time again and he’s not gotten a big hit. And now everybody wants to sit him, bench him, ship him to Mars, do whatever else you want to do with Matt Mlan. I I I got to tell you folks, hand up. I’d be the first guy to say Matt Mlan has got to be number one, he’s got to play better. Period. I’d be the first guy to say that Matt Mlan should sit. He’s not He’s not been good enough as a Major League Baseball player this year to continue to earn the same reps he’s gotten. And to be honest, Nick, he Nick Tito plays favorites. Like like it or not, he plays some favorites. And the truth is is like Matt Mlan is the opposite of Will Benson. I mean, let’s face the facts here. Will Benson, it requires almost a perfect scenario for him to continue to produce, to continue to get opportunities. And thankfully, Will Benson has kind of done that. Matt Mlan seems on the opposite end of the spectrum. The truth is is that at some point though, I got to ask myself internally, who replaces him, Nick. That’s the truth. And I got to tell you, that’s where I have a hard time. I don’t have a clear answer there. There’s not like boom, I know for a fact, do you put him there and we can and we can ride or die with it. I will say, Nick, I was the first one that brought this up about a month and a half ago, and you will say, and I think that you’re right, that, hey, truth be told, Matt Mlan’s actually been pretty good for the last month and a half to a certain extent. I get that. But I said, at some point, if you have Sal Stewart down in in Triple A, why are we playing him at third base and why are we playing him at first base? I at least want to see if we can get away with maybe sneaking him in at second base. And I’m okay with him being the Gavin Lux because actually Nick, he’s made some plays at third base so far that have kind of made me think he’s got a little better athleticism than maybe I would give him credit for. I don’t know if it would translate to second base well enough, but I I just I’m not substituting a soft hitting player for another guy that’s the same type of player. I’m just not doing it. I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude to Santiago Espanol, but quite literally that is not the solution. The Reds are convinced that Sal Stewart can’t play second base. And I mean, every scouting report I’ve read is convinced that Sal Stewart can’t play second base. It’s the first thing that they say is his range is not good at all. So, he’s better at third base. And I think he’s still he’s somewhere in between like not good and a liability. Like I don’t think he’s a full liability, but he’s he’s and a lot of it also is with Kabrian Hayes. Like I think South Stewart’s defense at third base would feel a lot better if it was him or Jamber Candelario, but when it’s him or the best defender on the planet, it it does. It’s a hard spot to be in. But every report, I haven’t watched South Stewart play second base. I don’t watch every single minor league game, but the people that do say he’s a terrible option at second base. So, if you really want to ride with that in the middle of a pendant chase, go for it. I’m going to say that’s probably not a good idea. Our leadoff hitter is not an elite player. Our three-hole hitter has no power. I it just it it it sucks because as I’ve said before on the show, I’ll say it again, the guys, like we all know the drill here. We We just do. We I’m so tired of doing this every single show. We know the truth. Let’s not run from the truth, guys. Can we please just not run from the truth? We’re not a very good offensive team. We don’t have the goods. We don’t have enough consistently good at bats in a game to even get to a guy like Paul Ske. Let’s face it, if we had a lot of guys that could could work a walk or work a count or be able to lay off pitches in the dirt when a good pitch is made, like you can say whatever you want about Will Benson. You can say whatever you want about him. I’m not here to try to be like pro Willson, but I am going to tell you this. that at bat that he had in extra innings where he laid off multiple pitches that were sliders that started in the zone and they and he laid off them and they and they finished below the zone. That’s the type of at bat that you need to have a good offense. And you need to have that at least one through six or seven. I get eight or nine can be automatic outs to a certain extent, but we don’t have that. We don’t have that. We have a ton of super inconsistent offensive players and the reality is it leads to nightlight tonight a whole bunch of times throughout the regular season and it happened just again tonight. So, I don’t know what else there is to say, Nick. If you want to say anything left about the offense, go for it. I just I’m kind of at a loss for words at this point about it because I just feel like we’re doing the same song and dance as we’ve done a thousand other times on this show. Yeah. No, nothing else other than I mean I think Ellie had some really really good at bats today. I think it was a lot better than his one for five line um ended up. He looks much more comfortable at the plate and uh yeah, I mean that’s that’s the thing that I think gets you excited. If you can just hopefully get the uh the Cubs to get three more outs here and the Dodgers to hang on to a 3-1 lead, you live this fight another day. And uh I don’t think anyone any none of us would have dreamed whether they’re here by luck or not, none of us would have dreamed that this team would be one game out with four games left in the season. So you know what? You can be pissed off all you want. You be angry all you want, but you’re not going to get these opportunities all uh too often. I haven’t got a lot of these opportunities. So, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to wake up tomorrow. I’m going to be excited as hell to watch the Cincinnati Reds at 12:30 or 12:40 or whenever the hell the game is. I’m going to root like hell and I hope they win tomorrow and I hope the Mets lose tomorrow night and we have an exciting weekend ahead of us. 100%. I mean, the truth of the matter is is that you you know, as much as you like it or you don’t like it, the reality is is that you you can at least get saved. I mean, would we like to step on the would we like to step on the gas here, Nick? Of course. I mean, I’ve said it time and time again. Stop worrying about what these other teams do. Take care of business yourself and you’re going to find yourself probably looking up after six games at four and two and you’re going to feel great about it. You’re going to be in the postseason. Also, when we keep saying one game out, folks, I want you to remember halfame out. It’s really a half game out, Nick. That’s what we are. were a half game behind the Mets because truth be told is if you actually jump them, if you gain a gain, you win. There is no tie. You win. So, we’re h I’m just going to say it. We’re a half game out going in tomorrow. Hopefully, if the if the Dodgers can hold on and win, so be it. But it’s all for the taking. It’s right there. and and the and the and I think the biggest thing moving forward as we get into Hunter Green here and we’ll get into the supers in just a second is this. We can’t dwell and I say we I hope the clubhouse. Tito always says this and tonight it’s maybe more apparent than ever. It’s over with. This loss is behind us. You’ve got to find a way to come out tomorrow and you have to win. You have to win. And you can say whatever you want and be upset that they lost they dropped the first two game to the lowly Pirates for the last three games at home. I get it. I’m not naive to that. I get it. But you got to find a win on getaway day. And you have every chance in the world to to to to basically control your own destiny with three games to go in Milwaukee. Nick. Yeah. And and the Pirates bullpen is is pretty beat up at this point. Um with the extra inning game today, they don’t have a lot of depth. Like I said, they have a six-man rotation. They also have a guy they just caught up with Triple A. So, they don’t have a whole lot of options if you’re able to get their pitcher out early, who also hasn’t been a starter for most of the year and hasn’t gone past five and a third all year long. Um, I mean, you got a chance. You got a chance tomorrow. And, uh, uh, Nick Leola needs to give the Reds a big start. And, uh, yeah, I I don’t know. I I just I I’m I’m I’m done. I’m moving on. I’m excited for tomorrow. And, uh, you can be mad at me for having that mindset, but, that’s my mindset. I’m I’m not gonna I’m not going to waste an opportunity to be excited about an opportunity that I haven’t got most of my life. Yeah. I mean, well, there’s no other option. You can sit here and there it’s over. It’s done with. I mean, you you you dropped a huge pile of cash right into the middle of the ocean off of a cruise ship. You can sit there and get pissed off that you dropped it, but guess what? It’s gone. You’re never going to get it back, man. It is long gone. And I’ve been upset, frustrated, and absolutely demoralized countless times with this baseball team. And maybe that’s why some people are incredibly upset right now. And I get why because you feel like you keep letting these opportunities slip by and we never have that moment. Tomorrow’s an opportunity to have that moment and we’ll see if they’re capable of doing it. Hunter Green, uh, unbelievable. Once again, I know people are going to say, “Well, he gave up a couple.” Yeah, he did. I get it. He gave up a couple. But the truth is he gave them a chance to win. Nick, you said thousands of times, and I think that right now, this is probably the worst case scenario for the Reds. They decided to to pitch Hunter Green when they faced Paul Sk. And unfortunately, they didn’t win game one. Now they lose game two in heartbreaking fashion and now you don’t have Hunter Green available for 162. It’s uh it’s kind of like um a comedy of heirs at this point perhaps, but it was nice to see Hunter Green throw the ball well if it’s perhaps possibly the last time he throws it in 2025. Yeah, he should have gave up that second run. So I’m just going to basically say I think he deserves six innings of one run baseball, which is um a pretty pretty good performance. Yeah, I mean the one the one thing that I’m sure Hunter’s kicking himself was is walking Brian Reynolds uh in the fourth inning. You know, this is a Pirates team that they they don’t string a whole lot of hits together. So, when you give him a free pass, it it’s really one of the few ways that the Pirates can beat you. So, that was his big mistake in the fourth inning. Other than that, I think he pitched his tail off. I think he tried to match Paul Skins, who who was incredible. Um and yeah, I hope it’s not Hunter Green’s last start. Um because man um I I’d love to see him pitch next Tuesday. Uh cuz I have a lot of confidence whether you’re facing the LA Dodgers um that he can go out and he can beat anyone. No, I mean just got to get him get him one more start, you know? Let’s just find our way just for the love of God. Can the city have anything nice just one time? You know, that’s where I’m at with this whole thing. It just seems like that that’s what that’s where the pessimism comes from, man. It’s just pent up pent up situations that have happened to us time and time and time and time again. And um it just feels like at some point the dam has to break, doesn’t it? And hopefully the fact that the Cubs were able to win, that is a blessing. And hopefully the Dodgers are capable to they’ll keep pouring on some runs here and they’ll able to hold on. And Nick, we get to see Hunter Green pitch one more time. And if that happens, folks, that means he’s going to be facing the Los Angeles Dodgers and or maybe who knows at this point. Maybe he’ll be facing the Padres’s. I don’t know who he’s going to be facing, but it will be game one of the wild card round in the postseason. So, shout out to Hunter Green. Thankfully, he came back, but um I got I I I got uh I just I don’t know. I got a weird feeling that they’re going to find a way to do this. And maybe I’m being overly optimistic and maybe I’m just the idiot that thinks that they’re going to be able to do it. But I just have a I don’t know. I have an intuition that just tells me like they’re going to find a way to do this. And uh obviously hopefully it starts tomorrow. All right, folks. As always, you can text and or call 988 day or night anonymously. Um it is a 247 hotline if you’re ever in a time of need of crisis. There is also a place that you can turn to, manap.org to get help as well. It’s okay to not be okay. Very maybe appropriate on nights like tonight where you got to realize it’s just a baseball game even though maybe it feels like it’s more super chats. Here we go. I seen them. They’re out here and they are in full full force. Let’s scroll all the way to the top just to make sure I’m on the same page as Craig. I got a chat summary from uh whatever. Why did they put this in here? Thank you. I’m glad it went away. I haven’t opened it. I haven’t opened it. I don’t want to open it. Yeah, it’s probably a good idea for you, Nick. Scott C says, “Get the garage beer out, boys.” Yeah, that was that was back when that was back when we needed a drink, I think. And that was extra in game. Noah Downing said, “I’m sorry for being so mean yesterday, Nick. I was I was in the ballpark yesterday and it was so heartbreaking.” I get it. We all get it. So, there you go, Nick. He’s sorry. Future talent. Um, future talent says a super chat for the win. Here we go. Believe says future talent. Um, he was trying, man. Trying to will God bless your heart, man. God bless your heart. I I just didn’t have the chat up because I didn’t want to ruin any moments. Craig, uh, if you’re running the show, if you see like super chats like that, just go ahead and post those if we can going forward. I guess that would maybe be the way to do that. It’s hard though. Yeah, it’s hard. Things on the road said, uh, “Every time this team is in a big moment, they never fail to crap down their leg. Send Mlan to Japan. Guy’s trash.” Listen, I get it, guys. We’re frustrated with Mlan. I got it. I know. I’ve seen it. Chat’s not happy with Matt Mlan. I get it. Vandy 81 says, “I’m calling four in a row to make the playoffs.” That’s what I’m talking about, Vandy. There you go. That’s nice. Thank you, Vandy. Four in a row will get him in the playoffs for sure. Future Talent says, “Uh, sub 500 teams seem like our Achilles heel.” Yeah, they are. Yeah, this team’s played down to their competition all year long, and they’ve won some big series against great teams. You can’t find a way to make it up, but they they continue to do it. You just at some point you give up trying to figure out what this 2025 Reds team’s about. Um, Lara says, “Uh, Marte could have just played to foul. Why swing?” I said it. I That’s why I said it right when we came out of the break, guys. I mean, this is baseball, okay? These are professional hitters. You You don’t stand up there looking to walk no matter what. The reality is is that what happens if he throws a pitch middle middle, which it was. I mean, I don’t I don’t I didn’t go back and look at it, but it looked like a pretty dagon good pitch to hit. What happens if he throws that pitch, you take it, and next thing you know, the very next pitch, he throws a dot right on the corner for strike three. You’re going to be thinking and wishing that you would have given yourself a good chance to hit with it being 3-1. I said this time, I said it before the at bat, and I’ll say it again. All you ask of your hitter there is to have a pitch in mind, a good pitch to hit, and to try to put a good swing on it. If Marte laces that ball down the left field line, no one gives a rat’s tail that he swung at it, but since he missed it, then all of a sudden now it’s a bad swing. It’s just not. I’m just telling you, it’s not. Trust me, I’ve yelled and screamed how many times on this show? I’ve gotten I’ve gotten viral moments out of me screaming and yelling about guys swinging at pitches they shouldn’t have swung at. That was a decent pitch to hit. You got to live with the result. He’s the two-hole hitter in the lineup. He’s one of the better hitters we have. If I’ll tell you this, I’d be on your side if Matt Mlan swung at that almost to be honest. I’d be on your side if Santiago Espanol swung at that. To be honest, I’d be on your side if Cabrian Hayes swung at that to be honest. But it’s Noel V Marte. He had a ball that ripped off the top of the wall earlier in the game. You got to live with it. It sucks. Crappy result, but you got to live with it. Pete Garden Tools is back. He said, “We had no business winning this game, yet had another shot. Great shot at the end. If we find a way to get in, this team will be fun to watch. You can’t kill us.” Thank you, Pete Garden Tools. That’s the super chat that we need. I’d say that yeah, listen, as soon as you think that this team’s down and out, they come back and they find a way to get it done. So maybe this is the poetic way for the 2025 season, regular season that is to end. As soon as you think you’re dead, they come back and find a way to win four in a row and get in the postseason. Uh LW LJW99 says, uh I don’t know what this means, but he says Magnaloid Mlan strikes again. annoying loss. Season probably done, but we’re still not out. Well, that’s a little oxymoronic. You can’t say that season’s done, but it’s not. I get the idea, but season’s not over, guys. We got a huge opportunity tomorrow to get right back. We We are a half a game out, guys. A half a game out with four games to play. Shake yourself, man. Shake yourself. Lock in chat. We were dead a month ago. Dead. This team was absolutely dead. You guys told me to stop worrying about them. You told me to go watch the Bengals. Preseason games were back. Thank the Lord. I’m not saying you should be excited and happy about the loss tonight. But God bless America, folks. We are a half a game out with four to play. This time tomorrow night, your Cincinnati Reds could be holding a spot in the postseason with three games left. Come on. I’m the negative guy. I’m the toxic trace. I’m telling you to shake yourself. Wake up. We got a game to play tomorrow. It’s not over. We’re not dead. Sean Kruka says, “A huge opportunity was put in front of them, and the amount of crap they released down the leg is has been biblical.” Listen, biblical biblical. We’re going to the biblical. I I understand, Sean. Yes. The biblical The biblical crapping. Mike Dean says, “Why does House even bother with signs we never run?” I don’t know. I didn’t even know he was giving signs down there if I’m being honest. Is he giving signs? I don’t know. Is he giving signs? I thought they came I thought they went to Cowgill. Who knows? I don’t know. Uh Pete Garden tools says, “Bring that dude BP4 out of retirement, also known as Brandon Phillips.” Yeah, listen. If we had Brandon Phillips on our team right now, I’m pretty sure we probably would be a couple games up in the wild card if we’re being honest. We wouldn’t be fighting for the third wild card spot. Uh and I’d be blocked by the Red Bman. Yeah, probably. Future talent says, “Uh, Nick, you’re the man. Appreciate what you uh appreciate what we have. We’re Reds fans and should be blessed to be one game out right now. Mets suck and we are still in it.” That’s true. That’s true. Mets have absolutely allowed us to be around and we are here uh to be a part of it. It’s kind of funny the perspective of of of just of just how this whole thing goes. I mean, what Reds win tonight. Reds win tonight, next year innings, and somehow the the Mets win and and and the Diamondbacks win and we’re right back in the same exact spot and everybody’s acting like we did a great job, which I get it. I I’m not I’m not naive to it, but come on. Mike Dean says, Pete Pete Garden says, “I need fireball and not because we won a series.” I get it. I’m not doing fireball tonight, but I do understand the sentiment. Mike Dean says, “Tomorrow we will win.” And Ned Flanders chimes in and says, “I uh I shook myself and withdrew my application. I’ll be in section 131 tomorrow. LFG.” Yes, that’s all I’m trying to do, guys. I’m trying to remind you that it’s all right here for the taking. Okay, I get it. We’ve blown an opportunity, man. You don’t have to tell me. I know. I’ve watched them all. I can go through a laundry list of all the ones that we’ve blown, too. We almost got swept by the Colorado Rockies. We had a chance to sweep the Mets on getaway day in New York right out of the All-Star break and we failed to do it then. We had the bases loaded against the Mets in the first game of the series with nobody out in the ninth inning with a chance to win the game and we are incapable of getting a run in. Those are twoame swings. In fact, if they won both of those games, folks, I got news for you. They would be up by three games right now with four to play. But they didn’t. And we don’t want to talk about those because they’re long past overdue. We want to talk about what happened tonight. I get it. I understand. But the truth is is they’re a half game out. I’m gonna keep saying it because that’s what it is. They’re a half game out with four to play. All right. Uh Josh Codle finally with the last super chat says, “Uh, don’t you know how I hate losing to the Pirates? Pop Fisher Trace.” Um, yeah. I don’t know, man. The Pirates do suck. And they they dude their their record against us. I don’t even know if you want to know it. I think Luckup put a post out the other day and their their record against their division opponents. Nick, did you see that post he made? No. Dig do me a favor. I’ll buy you a little bit of time. Dig up dig up dig dig up his sky app. No, he’s on an X. You have to go blue sky. I thought it was on someone probably screenshotted it. Okay. Someone probably look ups on the blue sky. Oh yeah, he’s a blue sky guy. Okay. Well, anyways, look up put out a post, some insane post about the Pirates record against the Reds versus the rest of My guy’s been my guy’s been blooming a lot. Is that what you call it? You don’t call it tweeting, you call it bluing? Who knows? Oh, here we go. Here we go. Pirates record versus NL Central teams since the start of 2018. Against the Cubs, they have a 376 win percentage. Against the Brewers, a 384 win percentage. Against the Cardinals, a 408 win percentage. And against your Cincinnati Reds, this is coming into tonight. It went up a 549. How How is the Pirate How are the Pirates that bad? I tell you what, man. Like I I I I spent I spent a lot of time researching these teams and try to have some some notes and some stuff. And I’m like going through like every single one of their pitchers are like really good. Like this team has some of the best pitching I’ve seen all year. I It is insane that they are I I get like they’re not a playoff team, but I don’t understand how they’re not like a 75 win team at least. Who knows? Uh Mike Dean says, “Uh, did we quit when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?” No, I don’t think we did. So, yeah. All right, folks. Um I just want to say one last time, thank you to everybody that’s been in the chat. Uh it’s been a it’s been a it’s been a little whirlwind of a show, I know. And uh hopefully you enjoyed it. Hopefully you had some fun along the way. The Reds, they have a massive baseball game tomorrow, folks. They have a massive baseball game tomorrow. Don’t give up. Uh we have on the back half here. Um Burns in the bullpen. I I’ll move quickly here. I would just say this. I think that at this point I was asking you the question before we went on air. This is I guess this is me trying to boost up the bullpen and not knock Amelio Pagan down. I hope it doesn’t come off that way, but Alio Pagan maybe the third or fourth best arm that we have in the bullpen now, which is an outstanding problem to have or if you want to say problem period. It is an it is uh it is quite unique that really at one time Barlo, Santion, and Pagan were the guys and now it kind of feels like maybe you could even say Santion is maybe still up there. But you got the addition of Burns and also now Connor Phillips and things have gotten real interesting, Nick. Yeah, Santion, I think we talked about it where we’re live. Definitely a little too amped tonight and something that kind of you forget about, but yeah, I mean him him uh throwing that wild pitch just kind of completely changed the complexion of the game in the 10th inning because I think he would have got it out of that inning probably without allowing a run. It’s hard to tell, but um but yeah, I mean, Chase Burns, another really good outing, two out two innings. The question with Burns is obviously he’s not going to pitch on Thursday, but will they try him on Friday and Sunday? Will they try to get two more out of them? Are they just going to say we’re just going to do one this weekend? Um that’s maybe the the biggest question. Probably some of it will depend maybe on how the game on Friday would play out, but I mean, he’s clearly just such a huge weapon. And yeah, I mean, but gone, shout out to him. I mean, got out he got out of his inning. Um, wasn’t pretty like like it’s been a lot of times. And Santon and Martinez, you know, they both gave up the the ghost runner, but they both times it could have got worse and they they kept the team in the game and gave the team a chance. So, I mean, overall it was a fantastic pitching effort from start to finish. Yeah. For those that are wondering, like, yeah, the bullpen gave up some runs in the extras or whatever, but the truth is is that, you know, they did not give up a a a traditional run. Zero earn runs. Zero earn runs. did not give up a traditional run. They they they ultimately allowed the Manford man to score and our offense. And I think that really is the shining light on how bad our offense is or has been is that that our record in extra innings is what it is. And I bet the reason it’s the reason our record is what it is is because we are incapable of getting that guy in from second base with nobody outs to score the vast majority of the times that we’ve lost in extra innings. So jumping into the extra inning woes now, I just that’s that’s the storyline if you want to get get into it. It has nothing to do with the pitching or the the lack of being able to kind of strand the runner at second base. The truth is we just cannot score that guy from second base with nobody out. Nick three and 12 in extra inning games. The Pittsburgh Pirates who have a significantly worse offense than the Cincinnati Reds are now seven and seven. And yes, I will concede that some of that is probably dumb luck. like if you played another 20 extra inning games, I’m guessing that that comes back to earth some, but three and 12 is is pretty damning. And uh I don’t know what it all is, but I’ll say I I I think that this whole beating down to to the core of moving guys over, I think it could have contributed to to some of these woes that you’re so obsessed with making the right baseball play that you just don’t go up there and try to hit. And you know, it was a player earlier in the game, you know, man, Will Benson, he moves a runner over and oh, it was Yeah, Will Benson, he moved a guy over and the next two guys two guys struck out and like that’s baseball today. Like, like if you move the runner over, it’s great. But I just am not obsessed with this whole trying to move the guy over. I I’d rather Will Benson try to put a swing on the ball, try to put a ball in the seats, try to rip a ball off the wall, try stop being so obsessed with trying to roll over on on ground balls that you have bad at bats because it’s just so hard in today’s game to get guys in from third base, no matter how good of a hitter you are, because you’re facing pitchers that are just so good and can strike you out. Yeah. No, I mean the strikeout rates for Major League Baseball have skyrocketed as we all know and I think that’s a large reason as to why getting that guy over to third base with one out has not paid off as much as we’d like it uh would have liked it to. Uh also give a Gavin Lux a little bit of credit tonight. He was capable of getting a sacrifice fly there and giving the Reds a chance there in the 10th inning and then ultimately they giving him a chance to even get to the 11th inning. So, you know, it’s just they just didn’t get the big hit, man. Andrew Harrar was what two feet away from having a basically a game-winning hit. And I think Nick such a good at bat and then swung at such a terrible pitch. 10 pitch at bat. Fouled off tough pitch after tough pitch and then oh swung that sweeper in the dirt. That was that was brutal. Yep. Just kind of got over anxious. He got in swing mode. Uh I don’t blame him. Andrew Hard got in swing mode because he had just been battling. He’d been touch, you know, touching pitches, touching pitches, touching pitches. And sometimes when you get into that mindset, you just kind of forget, hey, you know, I gotta make sure I see a strike or see a good pitch to hit. And unfortunately, let’s face it, like, you know, the Reds have just, you know, they’ve just not been in a a a ton of situations where there’s been a soldout crowd, super high energy, and these guys had a hard time, I think, controlling their emotions at the plate. And I that’s why I give I give some of those guys some some real good credit there. um in extra innings being able to draw a walk. Steer, I think, drew a a great walk. Benson drew a great walk. Um it just didn’t work out tonight. So, it is what it is. We move on. And I think that’s what we need to do now. We move on to what is next. We have a little who, what, when, where, and why. Nick, major, major opportunity tomorrow. It’s a day game and we got to find a way to win. Yeah, Nick Lollo on the mound for the Reds. Um Lollo, he’s he struggled a little bit of late. allowed four plus earned runs. He’s allowed at least four earned runs in three of his last four starts. That’s since coming off the IIL. Um although look, this is a the worst offense by far that he’s faced. He’s faced the Dodgers, Padres’s, A’s, and Cubs. Um in his four starts back off the IIL. Looo 3 and2 with a 3.72 career RA in five starts against Pittsburgh. Uh only start in 2025. How about six innings of one-run ball in Pittsburgh back on May 19th. Seven strikeouts, one walk. Braxton Ashcraft, another Pirates pitcher that you never heard about. That’s a pretty good pitcher. Uh second round pick of the Pirates in 2018. Kind of fell out of all the prospect rankings with a pretty disappointing MLB career and Tommy John surgery, but he’s been absolutely brilliant. This is his rookie season with the Pirates. 2.62 6’2 RA over 65 innings um as a starter and a reliever. Since the end of July, he’s been used as a bulk pitcher. He’s thrown three plus innings in each of his eight games. Some of those have been starts, some of those have been out of the bullpen. He maxed out at 5 and 2/3. Um he is up to 113 innings pitched uh between the minors and the majors this year. His previous high was only 73. So, it’ll be interesting to see uh how far he’s pushed uh on Thursday afternoon. Um he has only allowed three home runs though in 65 innings uh this season. Um and also has been really good as a starter. 1.86 erra in seven starts. Relies on five pitches mostly a slider for seamer curveball and sinker. Occasionally a change up fast ball averages 96.9 but batters are hitting 311 against his fast ball. Batters hitting just 140 against his curve ball. Uh Ashcraft has only faced the Reds once. That was in a start back on August 9th in Pittsburgh. Three and a third, three hits, one run. Steer went two for two and Matt Mlan was one for three. Also tomorrow of note, the Dodgers are at the Diamondbacks at 3:40. Uh so they’ll be after the Reds. Red are at 12:40 tomorrow. Um Yoshobu Yamamoto against Zack Gallon uh for the Diamondbacks. And then the Mets, they play another night game at Wrigley Field at 7:40. They have Noah Mlan on the mound going up against Shoto Mananga. All right, thanks to uh thanks to Craig on the back end there throwing up some uh schedules with the probable starters. Might be outdated. I think they’ve changed some of that. Could be, but nonetheless, you can at least see who they have left. As we all know, they Mets have Chicago for one more and then they go and play on the road in Miami, a team that is is also another pesky in rival team similar to what the Pirates are to us. I think the Marlins are kind of like that maybe to to the Mets. We shall find out. We shall see. Uh Pete Garden Tools once again says, “Love the thought at Mike Dean, but please give this man a history lesson. It was Japan.” I think we’re talking about Pearl Harbor, but uh I don’t know. I digress. Where Mlan will be suiting up next season. All love, Mike. Matt Mlan, he’s he’s getting torn up. I I’d love for Matt Mlan tomorrow to go out there and get some big hits. So maybe he can at least get a little bit of help from the chat tomorrow. But we shall find out. Ned Flanders says, “I can’t handle the stress. Long for the days when we were happy with our run differential and mad at Jake Frilley for his lack of power.” Yeah. Yeah. Listen, God, I love Ned. He just always knows what to say. Ned. Yeah, Ned’s Ned’s a funny guy. Uh Pedro Gutierrez, today’s game was a loss. It was against the best pitcher in Major League Baseball, but yesterday’s game in a series against the Athletics are going are what’s got us here. Yeah. Listen, there’s a lot of games that got us here. There’s a lot of games. There’s a lot of games that the Mets screwed up that also got us here. So, yeah. Exactly. In fact, I don’t know. I I I I almost want to go find the post and repost it, but I didn’t want to do it just because I didn’t want to jinx it. But there’s a guy there was a there was a Mets fan that had about a six and a half minute and it was all short clips. six and a half minute edited clips of all of the opportunities the Mets had. Yeah. In games that they lost. And if you watch that, it’s quite the video to watch. I’m telling you right now, they had plenty of opportunities that you think, man, they lost this game. Folks, not going to tell you again, but I got to tell you one more time. It’s a little oxymoronic. We’re a half game out with four games to play. We’re going to go to bed tonight. If you’re listening to this podcast form, you’re probably going to drink some coffee or whatever you’re doing at this very moment. And we’re going to take a deep breath all collectively at one time. We got four games left. We’re a half game out. The New York Mets aren’t playing great baseball right now. There’s a chance they turn it around, but the truth of the matter is is it’s all still right in front of us. One final stat just because I looked it up uh from one of the super chats. Wild Red’s record uh against 500 below 500 is it’s crazy how it’s how it’s kind of finished the season off. And a lot of that was just the four game sweep of the Cubs. But Reds are now 43 and 40 against teams over 500. Now 37 and 38 against teams below 500. For some context, the Cubs are 40 and 43 against teams below 500. So, the opposite record of the Reds. Mets are 38 and 40. The Dodgers are 41 and 39. Yes, the Reds have a better record against teams above 500 than the Los Angeles Dodgers. And the Padres’s are 38 and 45. So, make that make sense. My last thought though, the one thing I think Tito has done the best job of all year is after ugly deflating losses, he’s gotten the team ready for the next day. So Tito, let’s do it one more time, baby. And you know, you know the saying, just one time. Just one time. That’s all we need. Just need it one time. All right, folks. Uh please, please like the stream on your way out. We’ll see you better than ever tomorrow. I am going to head down to the ballpark myself. I think uh obviously Nick is going to hold the fort down along with Craig and hopefully they can bring you a win and I can chime in maybe from Great American Ballpark and we can all sing Kumbaya together as we are sitting ourselves at this very time tomorrow night in the postseason. It’s possible. Doesn’t feel like it right now, but it’s possible. Heartbreaking yet again. I’ll say this. If uh if the Reds win tomorrow and we get into a situation where the Mets lose, I I’ll be going on a live stream with someone at the end of that game and celebrating it. Say that again. If the Reds win tomorrow, Yes. and then the Mets lose their their 740 game and the Diamondbacks don’t do something stupid here. Yes. I’ll come on for a few minutes. We’ll do some sort of stream and we’ll celebrate it. We’ll have a good time. Fair enough. All right. Mike Dean chimes in one last time here with some supers. He says, “The line from the Animal House.” Is that a line from the Animal House? The The Pearl Harbor Germany thing. I don’t know there. We’ve got a We got a We got a back and forth back and forth. Rough chiming in on a night like tonight said, “Just pulled into the garage. We have it all. We have it all tonight.” Or, “We gave it our all tonight.” I think he meant we gave it our all tonight. Uh, if you heard bird calls and extras, boom, we roasted Brian Reynolds tonight. That was Ralph. Uh, listen, Ralph’s coming in last second. Um, I gotta go, guys. We got to go. I love you. I appreciate you. Go Reds. We’ll see you better than ever tomorrow as always. We got to find a way to win tomorrow. We got to take care everybody. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music]
00:00 LIVE in the 9th inning.
12:50 Top of the 10th
21:48 Bottom of the 10th
39:52 Top of the 11th
51:45 Bottom of the 11th
1:07:58 Full Game Recap
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As the 2025 MLB regular season winds down to its final week, the Cincinnati Reds host the Pittsburgh Pirates at Great American Ball Park tonight at 6:40 p.m. ET. This interleague clash—wait, no, it’s a classic NL Central rivalry—caps the second game of a three-game series, with Cincinnati desperate to reclaim a wild-card berth after dropping the opener 4-2 on Tuesday. The Reds enter at 80-77, clinging to third in the division and the final wild-card spot, but now trailing by a game following the loss. With just five contests left, every at-bat carries playoff weight. Pittsburgh, mired at 68-89 and dead last in the Central, rides a modest three-game win streak but has little beyond pride and momentum to play for, wrapping up a season-ending six-game road trip.
The pitching matchup is a highlight, pitting two of the National League’s premier arms against each other. For the Pirates, rookie sensation Paul Skenes takes the mound in what could be his final start of a Cy Young-caliber campaign. The 23-year-old right-hander boasts a league-leading 2.03 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and 209 strikeouts over his starts, anchoring Pittsburgh’s staff that ranks seventh in MLB with a 3.82 team ERA. Skenes has been untouchable against Cincinnati this year, going 4-0 lifetime with a 0.39 ERA and 33 punchouts in limited action, including six scoreless innings in his lone 2025 outing versus the Reds. His triple-digit fastball and devastating splitter have baffled hitters all season, and he’ll look to cap his debut year on a high note.
Countering for Cincinnati is Hunter Greene, the flamethrowing righty who’s been the Reds’ ace down the stretch. Greene sits at 7-4 with a sharp 2.74 ERA and 125 strikeouts in 101 2/3 innings, fresh off his first career shutout in his last appearance. At home, he’s been lights-out with a 1.44 ERA across 10 starts, fueling the Reds’ 7-3 record in his Cincinnati outings. The 25-year-old’s mid-90s heat and improved slider have limited opponents to a .193 batting average, and his command will be crucial against a Pirates lineup that’s shown sporadic pop. Cincinnati’s staff ranks 14th overall at 3.92 ERA, but they’ve leaned on Greene’s reliability amid injuries to arms like Rhett Lowder (forearm) and Wade Miley (flexor).Offensively, the Reds boast balance and upside, led by shortstop Elly De La Cruz’s electric .266 average, 21 homers, 85 RBIs, 31 doubles, and seven triples—making him a constant basepath menace with 67 steals.
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Andrew Abbott, Scott Barlow, Hunter Greene, Zack Littell, Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Zach Maxwell, Emilio Pagán, Connor Phillips, Lyon Richardson, Tony Santillan, Brady Singer, Brent Suter, Yosver Zulueta, Will Banfield, Jose Trevino, Elly De La Cruz, Santiago Espinal, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Noelvi Marte, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Sal Stewart, Miguel Andujar, Will Benson, TJ Friedl, Austin Hays, Gavin Lux, Rhett Lowder, Alfredo Duno, Tyson Lewis, Steele Hall, Cam Collier, Chase Petty, Edwin Arroyo, Héctor Rodríguez, Graham Ashcraft, Fernando Cruz, Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Edwin Ríos, Jacob Hurtubise, Blake Dunn, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Frank Robinson, Barry Larkin, Tony Perez, Joey Votto
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, Louisville Bats, Chattanooga Lookouts, Dayton Dragons, Daytona Tortugas
13 comments
Please STOP putting game score SPOILERS on your thumbnails. You ruin it for those of us who wait for the MLB highlight videos. Just stop.
Face it … Reds are an AVERAGE team , and choke when the lights are brightest .
Cost me 2000 i was stupid for betting on them im not a reds fan this team sucks u can't lose to the fucking pirates delacruz isnt a star trade him now reds need a new manager why didn't they try and steal a base when marte was the base runner the manager is not aggressive hes too fucking old and scared
Hey everybody who thought the reds would pull that out LOL … Not me I've been watching the reds for over 45 years and I could tell the reds were done after the All-Star break but everybody thinks they can make it to the playoffs well I hate to burst your bubble but we're going to get swept by the pirates if we don't we're lucky and then we probably will get swept by the Brewers but these people that get excited like Steve often Banker and Jeff sCarr they are killing me but they only have 14 years experience LOL
Congrats Reds.
Anybody could see this coming! Anybody who's followed this team, that is. But the Reds could win and the Mets could lose tomorrow, making it all even again, with 3 to play. The question is whether the Reds will show up and play well against a Brewers team that's just treading water, waiting for the playoffs.
The Guards play small ball; the Reds play lol ball.
Brutal! Mistakes were made but Reds definitely got the worst of the luck just missing hits and hrs etc
Interesting that the Mets and D-Backs lost besides the Reds so who knows this race might go to the end of the season because seems none of these teams want the third, last wildcard spot in the NL wildcard race especially the Reds more so . The Reds offense can't hit their way out of a paper sack especially Matt McLain when he strikes out a lot with not much contact to speak of ugh. Reds had chances vs the Pirates bullpen after Paul Skenes shut them out for six innings. So I still don't have much confidence in the Reds moving forward vs the Pirates later today and the upcoming series vs Brewers because of the Brewers owning them the past 4 or 5 seasons. So maybe they prove me wrong somehow, but I don't see it right now.
The Mets gifted them the playoffs and they couldn’t beat the Pirates and the A’s because they can’t hit at GABP or a minor league park. They strike out like a team that has power though. Awful.
Absolutely pathetic… this is why no one goes to watch this team
Still 1 game out
What is it with Reds and Extra innings? Holy crap they are the worst of the worst.. i knew i should have bet everything i had for them to lose its guaranteed money at this point