Cincinnati Reds CRUSH St. Louis Cardinal Bullpen, Halting 3-game Skid | LIVE MLB Postgame Chatterbox

Cincinnati Reds CRUSH St. Louis Cardinal Bullpen, Halting 3-game Skid | LIVE MLB Postgame Chatterbox

All right, Craig. Bottom of the ninth. Uh, Reds lead by a wide margin. Um, this is one of those shows where you don’t say if you do this long enough. I I gotta figure out this this uh I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but every time I put my microphone up, it stayed that time. All right, just have to smoke. That’s been kind of a problem for like two years now. I feel like Well, all I really have to do on you. All I really have to do is what it looks like to go get like a like a T-25 bit or something like that. And I think I could just probably turn that about a half of a notch there. and it would probably fix my all my problems. But anyway, trying to get the uh the game loaded up here on the old device. I don’t know how many outs we got. One out. Don’t in bottom of the ninth. Two outs. Bren, you’ll like this one, Trace. Two outs in the bottom of the ninth. 11 to six. Reds Reds leading. Brendan Donovan bunt single. Nice. That’s playing That’s playing small ball right there. Uh Craig, let me know when you see it. All right, there it is. Herrera ground ball. Ellie flips it to Mlan. Reds back in the winning column. It’s been a while, Trace. We’re not losers. We’re not losers anymore. We’re not losers anymore. How about a winning edition of Chatterbox Reds? That’s right. All right, we’ll be right back. We’ll talk all about it and more. The bench to bench hit in the air to deep right field. Back to the team. Get out of here, baseball. It’s gone. Oh my god. Can 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 dirt. Ohio the game. That ball is fair. Cincinnati’s ahead. Two games to welcome Joe to Cincinnati. Adam has done it again. Benzinger backing and calling and the 1990 World Championship belongs to the Cincinnati Reds. Marty, yes. This is Adam from Milwaukee. Hey Adam, how you doing? I’m good. How are you? Good. Do you think John Henber’s 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. Swung on. Long drive right field and this one to their and a high drive. it back into deep right field. Junior has just knocked the door down to the 500 block. Vincent scores to run as a winner. They’re both a family. And DA Cruz is Oh my goodness. Look at this kid run. My oh my. That is a triple. Now Mlan’s first big league foul. Spencer Steer’s first big league hit is a home run to straightaway center field. Joy Botto 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 Botto’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, thank you. High five center racing back to the world the round of AC Central division champions in the air begin [Music] with Heat. Heat. [Music] you down the right field line [Music] for a three run home day by Raone Hernandez a strike away and out away is home round ball to third Frasier gloves throw to first and home for the second time in his major league career is Heat. Heat. [Music] in the first game in the air and the win. What a dream to the career of J Bruce. All right, it’s been a while, but you know what? There’s never a bad time for a winning edition of Chatterbox Reds. That’s what we got, Craig. And u some are going to ask, is it too little, too late? You know what? I as I said on last night’s show, I mean, if they win out, I I guarantee they make the playoffs. Now, are they going to win out? We all all probably know the answer to that. Um, weird game tonight, honestly. Kind of a a unique game. Uh, one in which the Reds don’t typically win. Um, kind of a seessaw battle there for a minute and then offense kind of took kind of took over on. Not the most, I guess, clean baseball game. It wasn’t like a wasn’t a pretty game, uh, put it that way. In regards to just, uh, um, a clean, beautiful game is what some would call other games. Not this one. But, uh, not this. Anyway, doesn’t matter really. At the end of the day, I guess it doesn’t really matter. You win 116, Greg. Um, and if nothing else, you gain, I guess, a little bit of ground when I think the Mets have an off day today. They do. They do indeed. I was beginning to wonder whether or not I was ever going to get to do another winning edition of Chatterbox Reds. Trace, it had been so long. I legitimately can’t remember the last time I was on a show when the Reds won. So, this must be the winning combination. Me and you. Yeah, we got a couple more shows this week. We’re going to bring it home, Trace. Yeah, we’re going to will the Reds all the way to the playoffs. It’s just me and you, baby. Well, I’m not going to take uh I’m not going to take I I’ll take all the credit for winning. I’m not going to take any of the credit for losing because I uh I got I got a strong suspicion that that’s not over yet, but we’ll find out here in relative short order, I’m sure. Uh we have some super chats obviously on the way in here. We’ll get to those in just a bit. Um Craig, if if you’re ready to do the Bos recap, we can do it. I can jump into supers. Let’s do that. I’m going to jump into some supers real quick. We’ll get those knocked out of the way and then we’ll obviously jump into the Bosch recap presented by Craig in just a minute. Uh, Alex Beignz Harris says, “Tito’s mo wait 60 plus days to move cold hitters down.” Uh, yeah, it is funny that like uh that yesterday I think was the first time I kind of was just like, “What are we doing?” Like at some point you just finally make a move and then sure enough, I don’t know if Tito’s listen to the show. I highly doubt he does. um based off of uh our our our gripes all year long and those seemingly never changing. But uh nonetheless, at least Ellie did move down the lineup. I don’t know if it’s going to help him or not, but at least it’s just nice to see some semblance of change when you feel like you keep doing the same thing over and over again, Craig, and getting the same result. I know that the definition for that is insanity. So, I’m wanting to know if that’s just what we are is insane. I know as Reds fans we might be, but uh but yeah, I don’t know. I think I told you, Trace, but when I came up to do the show at Smoke Justice a couple weeks ago. Yep. After the show at Smoke Justice, I went over to the game. I met up with a buddy of mine who works in the ticket office. And I think I sent you this text message. I sent you a screenshot of it, but if I didn’t, I apologize. He texted me after I left his office and someone in the front office, I don’t know who, apparently came up to him afterwards and said, “Was that Craig Sandlin you were talking to?” I listen to Chatterbox Reds every day, so somebody’s listening, Trace. I don’t know. Yeah, could be could be Tito. I I tell you, I do think that there’s a there I mean, let’s let’s face it, how many how many uh how many shows really discuss in-depth games every single day like the way and manner we do? Probably not many. So, I would strongly suspect there are times that probably people just peek in to see what’s being said about certain situations. Whether we’re right or wrong, I think we have a decent pulse on the fan base. I know that, you know, probably many people despise the takes that Nick or you or I have at times and they agree with them half the time, but we’re covering at some some some portion of the fan base every single time we have these takes. And let’s face it, there’s been many times where we’ve questioned, you know, what exactly the plan is with with Tito and then the lineup and the overall managing of this roster at times. But, uh, yeah, I don’t know. But, uh, nice to see Ellie De Lucker has moved down the lineup to be honest. Jacob Doyle says, “I should tell you a little bit. We should tell you a little bit about this game. The fact that I didn’t put that on the rundown, even though we’ve been talking about it now for weeks on end, didn’t put it in the rundown. Sure, we’ll talk about it nonetheless.” Yeah, we’ll find a way to get it in there. Uh, Jacob Doyle says, “I’m telling you guys, it uh it just sounds different off of S Stewart’s bat, 2026 first baseman.” Yeah, I I I guess here’s where I’m at. and and he’s going to be the first guy that I’m going to keep a close eye on because if somehow he starts to kind of just seemingly magically not have power or magically doesn’t look the same guy over a certain amount of time, I I I am going to probably um subscribe to the the conspiracy theory of some hitting philosophy taking over the clubhouse and it becoming a a huge problem because he kind of reminds me of what some of the other guys look like when they first came up here, they were just raw. They were maybe naive, didn’t know any better, didn’t realize how hard Major League Baseball probably is supposed to be, and they come up here and they have success. So hopefully Sal Stewart will will continue to ride the the notion. And I I I want to say this, I know we can maybe get off of two too tangent here perhaps before the show starts, but I I do want to bring up Sal Stewart and like he hits a ball over the fence. And again, I do think that there this there’s this there this philosophy that has just been absolutely hammered within the Red’s organization. I like the Cowboy mostly, but he spent four minutes te telling me about how he just thinks that Salah Stewart’s going well because he’s focused on hitting line drives. You don’t know what the hell he’s thinking about. Okay? You no one knows what these guys are thinking about. You don’t know what the hell he’s thinking about when he’s trying to hit. I mean, let’s be honest. Is Sal Stewart looking back? He said he’s looking backside hitting hitting line drives and he’s, you know, my favorite thing about his home run so far is he’s hitting line drives over the fence. Who cares? Who cares? He’s hitting the ball hard. He’s hitting the ball hard and it’s going over the fence every so often. Why do we give a damn whether or not they’re looking backside or they’re hitting ground balls over there or there’s a line drive through the middle? That stuff is just blasphemy anymore. I’m so tired of hearing about it. He’s hitting the ball hard. That’s all we should care about. I don’t give a damn whether or not he’s trying to hit ground balls or he’s trying to hit it o over the moon. It doesn’t matter. We don’t have to have some perfect philosophy while we’re trying to hit. Can you hit or can you not? That’s what the philosophy should be. That’s it. I’m done with it. Can you hit or can you not? And if you can hit, we need you. But I don’t give a damn if you’re Gavin Lux and you have a great approach and you hit ground balls to the right side with a guy on second base. I’m over that. I need guys that can hit the ball hard. That pissed me off. It was like four minutes of lecturing me on how Sal Stewart and why he’s hitting the ball hard and why he’s playing so great. Golly, it’s just mindboggling why we always talk about it. Seriously. N 919 OPS. That’s all I really care about. Four home runs and 37 at bats. I’ll take it. I don’t care what he’s doing. I don’t care how how he’s doing it, but I’ll take it. It’s the same thing in It’s the same thing in I think it was Colorado or somewhere. I don’t know where the hell it was. Colorado. Will Benson hit a fly ball literally to the warning track and and and the cowboy was like, “Ain’t nobody hitting one out to center field today. Going to have to change your approach. The wind’s blowing in.” And you know what? Two two at pass later, Will Benson hit one over the fence in center field. It’s like, news flash, there’s dudes in this league that are incredibly strong that can just hit the ball no matter where it’s at over the fence. It doesn’t matter. the whole win thing and and and all that. Forget about it. All right, rants over. The Reds won 116. By the way, I just want to remind everybody they did win. Uh even despite me yelling and screaming and there’ll be people, oh, there goes that child again. I don’t really give a damn. Okay, I’m tired of watching it. I’ve watchedund and how many ever of these games. I’m I’m over this whole notion of the way you should go about hitting. Okay. How about we just find guys that can hit and and and however they want to do it, they can do it. I I I I you know what I’d love is if uh this is a magical moment. It will never happen. I would love for Kyle Schwarber to get signed and they ask him like what his what his philosophy is and it’s just like something so obsess like it’s just completely opposite of whatever they’ve been preaching. It’s like oh well I’m looking for one pitch in one spot and I’m trying to hit it as far as humanly possible. Anyway, uh I I I wish they would ask S that and he would just say, “No, I’m just trying to hit ground balls. Just trying to hit really hard ground balls.” Just just exactly what Chris Valica preaches. You know, I just I don’t know if it’s happens to go out. I I don’t know, but it’s obviously morphed itself into the broadcast. We’re talking about it. Uh speaking of rants, Trace, the uh the chat is going wild on me because apparently my microphone’s too low. You’re going to get to a super chat about it, but just a heads up. Yeah. Listen, I I’ll tell you what I can do. We got to we got to adjust it now. So, yeah. Listen, I’ll do it right now. Let me try to find your level and I’ll I’ll I’ll I’ll bump you up on We’ll see if that helps. I don’t know. We’ll find out as we go. Um Mike Dean said that uh uh he thought Tito uh abducted Stewart starts Ellie and 7hole. He thought he’s thinking that Tito got abducted. Okay, I’m getting it now. Uh Stewart starting Ellie in seven hole. Benson pinch hitting then Latell left in too long. Pagan closing five run leads equals proof of Tito’s life. Uh yeah listen I I I tell you when I when when they pinch hit Will Benson I was like wow. Holy smokes. This guy’s going to actually come up in a relatively seemingly meaningful spot in a baseball game even though he’s been one of their better hitters. And sure enough Craig he did his job. Uh, super chats are getting us off track a little bit here. I I know we’ll we’ll recap all this stuff as we get going. Um, Ned Flander says, “How will Tito hold Sal Stewart accountable for those drop foul balls?” Uh, win sprints may kill that kid. Mercy. Oh, come on, Ned. I must admit when they panned the camera to S Stewart when he tagged up on Will Benson’s fly ball, I was like, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, no, no, no. That does not look like a very swift fella, you know? I mean, Sal Stewart, he loves him. He loves him some uh uh some chicken Alfredo or something. You know what I’m saying? I mean, I listen, whatever. He’s on. He’s He’s doing all right. He’s eating well. Uh that minor league money must have gotten a little bit better over the years. I don’t know. But sure, he’s he’s having whatever Alfredo Duno’s having. You know what I’m saying? Harrow, uh he’s been a member for 23 months of Nutter Nation. Shout out Harrow. He said, “Uh, I don’t think any of those other small mid-market teams have a daily viewership on Postgame podcast comparable to you guys.” Um, maybe because I don’t know if there’s anyone crazy enough to take a mid-market baseball team and do a daily show like we do cuz it’s just absolutely heartbreaking most times than not. But you know what? We’re here and one day, I’ll tell you, one day it’s all going to pay off. I think uh one of two things is going to happen. either everyone stops covering the Reds because they’re no longer good enough and be the only ones left or they’re going to finally win and when they finally win it’s going to maybe be even that much sweeter. I do have a fear though, Craig, that when we finally do and I say hopefully I mean you never do know. We We can always die before it happens. Uh when they do get over the hump and let’s just say they win a postseason series I’m not even going to go so far to say a World Series. Let’s just say they win a postseason series. Uh, I almost feel like I’m going to have more like a relief uh of stress than I’ll be excited. It’s almost going to be like thank you versus like actual joy. I’m a little worried about that. I mean, how Well, you weren’t a Bengals fan, so I guess it’s probably a little different for you, but you know, very similar experience for me. you know, the the huge interception at the end of that Raiders game was almost like you immediately had this giant weight lifted off of your shoulders and obviously it propelled them into a Super Bowl appearance. I wouldn’t be shocked if the Reds do something similar. If they’re able to win a series, again, we talked about how good the starting pitching can be. If they can win a series, they can definitely make a run. And I think that weight off of their shoulders would definitely go a long way in terms of uh trying to advance. So, yeah, I’m I’m with you. I would definitely just deep sigh of relief once it happens and then try and go back the next next series and keep going. Uh Molly member for 20 months. Shout out to Molly Nut Cutter Nation. She says, “Turn your mic up, Craig.” Listen, I did turn it up. Um this is the moment where you go back to you go back to chat and you try to figure out whether or not uh Craig’s microphone has reached the level of um what’s the right word to use here? Have reached the level of satisfaction within the chat community. Hopefully, it has. If it hasn’t, I’ll turn it I’ll continue to turn it up, but you need to be honest with me because we do have a podcast afterwards and we need the levels to be uh somewhat normal. Some somewhat normal. So, uh we shall find out. Anything else? Mike with a nice little tid Yeah, Mike Cart with a nice little tidbit. Sal Stewart 10th percentile in sprint speed as he was tagging up. So, uh I do have one more bit of uh news unrelated to today’s game before we uh get started for the chat. Uh 4:25 PM this afternoon, Oliver Ray Kirby officially welcomed to the world. So congratulations to Nick and Andrea and the rest of their family on the newest edition. Uh heard this one uh took a little bit longer than the first three kids. Uh but nonetheless, Oliver, Ray, Kirby here, healthy. Everybody’s healthy and happy. So Nick, if you’re watching, we love you. Congratulations. And if you’re not, well, we still love you. Yeah, I think he’s doing okay. Based off the text messages, he seems to be in good spirits. Um, you know, we’ll sign just in case Andre is watching. We’ll we’ll he he’s enjoying his time in the hospital, it seems. I even said that the the couches you typically sleep on aren’t the best. And he even said, you know what, these couches aren’t that bad. So, shout out to Nick. I’m sure he’ll be, you know, how he is. He’ll be trying to figure out a way to work here in the next few days when he shouldn’t be. But, uh, we’ll be excited to have Nick back when he’s here. And hopefully the Reds will win like six, seven, eight games in a row and then all of a sudden we’ll be right back in the playoff hunt once again. All right, folks. Uh, we have gone off the rails here a little bit to start the show, but that’s just what makes Chatterbox Reds go sometimes and that’s part of it. Uh, box recap presented by Craig Sandlin. Craig, you can take it away, my friend. Let’s do it. After being swept by the Athletics, the Reds head down the final stretch of the season with their last 13 games against division opponents. Up first, the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night. Matthew Liator got the ball for the birds while the Reds handed it to Zack Latell. Sal Stewart continued to hit the cover off the ball. He got the Reds on the board in the second inning with a solo home run off the facade on the third deck of Bush Stadium. The Cardinals answered in the bottom of the second after Wilson Contrarus doubled to lead off the inning. Nolan Areronado singled him home in his first at bat in 40 games. The Reds took the lead back in the third. Miguel Andahar hit a single to center field. Victor Scott misplayed the ball allowing Matt Mlan and Noelvie Marte to score uncontested from second and first for a three to one Reds lead. Latell had sat down 12 straight Cardinals before Brendan Donovan singled in the sixth. Latell then hit Ivon Herrera before allowing a game-tying double to Alec Berles. Contraras followed with a single, giving the Cards a 4-3 lead and knocking Latell out of the game. Graham Ashcraft would retire Lars Nupar. Latell’s final line, five and two/3s, five hits, four earned runs, no walks, three strikeouts. Reds didn’t allow the Cards to lead for long. Tyler Stevenson singled off St. Louis reliever Chris Rocraftoft and Ellie Dea Cruz worked a walk. Matt Mlan then drove both home with a ground rule double to right center for a 5-4 Reds lead. TJ Friedel then extended the lead with a single up the middle. After allowing the first two runners in the seventh to reach, Graham Ashcraft struck out two straight before an RBI single from Brendan Donovan. Francona turned to Tony Santion who allowed a single by Ivon Herrera to tie the game at six all. Reds loaded the bases in the top of the eighth thanks to two walks by Ryan Fernandez, but could only score one on a Will Benson sack fly. Reds take the lead 76. Connor Phillips worked a perfect eighth inning, striking out two. Reds would then load the bases again in the ninth, but this time they’d capitalize a lot more. Sal Stewart hit a single that ricocheted off the Cardinals pitcher, scoring Fredel. Then Tyler Stevenson cleared the bases with a three-run double to left center, making it 116 Reds. Alio Pagan allowed just a bunt single in the ninth and the Reds got back in the win column. 116 is your final. Reds now back at 575 and 75. They sit as of right now two games back of the New York Mets. All right. And uh thankfully we do have a deep drive of the day. That line drive home run, baby. Sal Stewart’s fourth on the year. That’s his fourth home run. He’s been up here for like four days. Who would have thought it? 112 mph off the bat, 417 ft. Wind probability for your Cincinnati Reds would jump up 11% all the way to 58.8 and as we all know it wind up being 100 and DSC they are 100% a leader in renewable commodities for bofuel production specializing in used cooking oil collection aggregation and sales. Visit www.deepsouthcommodities.com for more information. All right. Uh, we are on our way in a baseball game in which I said it was a little unique. Uh, and maybe some of the uniqueness, Craig, was the offensive explosion. I think there’s no doubt that the Cardinals certainly propelled or allowed the Reds to kind of get a little momentum there with the misplay on the Anduhar single, but other than that, they did scrape, you know, they scraped across some runs. And let’s face it, Tyler Stevenson’s uh basically I don’t I don’t know if it was bases clearing, maybe it was bases clearing double um was a huge part of kind of like, you know, breaking the game open and making you feel like all right, we kind of got this in a good good spot now. Um, despite maybe how Tito felt or not, it was a it was a good opportunity to at least pick up your teammates in my opinion on the Santion outing that we can talk about here in a little bit. But it just kind of felt like there was an opportunity for this game, let’s face it, to go south or sideways and they did a good job of responding and that was nice to see even though I know it was against the St. Louis Cardinals and, you know, they got like 10 people in the stands. Yeah, it was definitely one of those games where in the past you would have felt like the Reds were going to collapse and just give up the lead and then uh lose the ball game and and maybe even losing it by multiple runs, but instead eight runs in the final three innings. Trace, uh I don’t know that I can remember the last time they did that. Um, it does feel a little interesting that the middle innings, at least anecdotally, feel like they almost always slump during them, but for some reason, the the first couple innings and the last couple innings, they seem to always find a way to push runs across the board. And, um, it’s interesting because that’s not necessarily reflected in their in their stats according to baseball reference, but yeah, here we are. Every single uh, oh my god, Jay Tinsel. every uh every game it feels like uh this Reds team just has an opportunity to st claw and scratch and uh most of the time they don’t make it happen. Most of the times they kind of wilt away and crumble and then tonight luckily uh they were able to battle back the game like you said back and forth a little bit. the Cardinals uh trailed and then came back and then the Reds took the lead back and then the Cardinals tied it up and then the Cardinals took the lead and then the Reds took the lead and it just back and forth back and forth and finally that ninth inning kind of broke it open as you mentioned Tyler Stevenson with that huge triple that uh nice to see him it feels like since he came back from the IIL that he’s been hitting the ball pretty well. Um quite frankly he was somebody that I was a little worried about um for a while there. felt like he wasn’t really doing much of anything at the plate. Um but of late it certainly feels like he’s turned a corner a little bit and um you know over his uh the course of the year, you know, I would have loved to see Tyler Stevenson be a little bit more effective offensively, but nice for him to step up when it mattered and bring home those insurance runs and give the Reds the the big lead. I mean, he’s not Yeah, Stephvenson’s Let’s Let’s face it, he’s probably not had the year that we were all hoping for, but uh you know, I I don’t You can sit here and paint a picture with stats however you wish, right? Um the strikeouts, but you know what’s funny is I really don’t want to complain about the strikeouts because I feel like if you start complaining about the strikeouts, then you get into this notion that that strikeouts are are horrible. And I think we’ve kind of gone a little bit overboard with the idea that, you know, we don’t want these guys striking out at all. Having said that, Tyler Stevenson strikes out a lot. He He’s striking out a lot. Um, but you know what, as I said before, I’m going to keep it positive with Tyler Stevenson on a night like tonight. He got a big hit. Let’s let’s focus on the positives. And you know what, he he’s a guy that if he’s capable, and again, we do this all the time with a lot of these players. if he’s capable of getting red-hot, he’s got the potential to do it and he’s done it before. And whether or not he’s capable of doing it the last two weeks of the season and and the Reds can get on some kind of absolute heater, we we shall find out. But there’s no doubt that Tyler Stevenson had a big hit tonight. And I also say that there’s no doubt that there’s some some semblance of concern for, you know, what what he looks like next year as he tries to progress into another year, whether that’s health related or perhaps that’s also a guy at the plate that can help you. And the ABS system probably can’t get here fast enough for a guy like Tyler Stevenson because he just he just has a hard time kind of like sticking pitches around the corners of the zone. And I think it cost him a couple pitches tonight and one of them was a big big pitch for a strikeout I think with Santion and he didn’t get it. And again Santion I get it. He hit the corner and abs it would have been a strikeout but he didn’t get the call and then all a sudden it kind of the I don’t say the wheels completely fell off on Santion but he he gave up some he gave up some big hits. Let’s act like let’s let’s not act like he didn’t. Um so we’ll get to that maybe in just a minute with the bullpen. moving forward into the staff while we’re talking about pitching. Um, Latell on a night like tonight had to had to at least, if nothing else, be good enough to give your team a chance to win. I don’t think he was great, but I also think he was more than good enough to make it feel like uh, you know, you weren’t going to sit there and have to try to run out some long reliever early in the game. And and uh, overall since he’s come over, Craig, I feel like he’s done what any reasonable Reds fan can ask of him. He’s not been unbelievable, but he’s not been horrific either. And he’s filled a little bit of a hole here as we’ve had guys missing in the starting rotation. Up until that sixth inning, I thought that this was one of Zack Lutell’s better games that he’s had with the Reds. Um, I’m not going to sit here and act like I watched a whole lot of Zack Latell when he was with the Rays. So, I don’t know exactly what he did back before then, but you know, you go all the way back to his first outing with the Reds against the Cubs when he went seven innings of three hit baseball, gave up one run. I felt like he was kind of back in that groove a little bit. His last two starts now. He went six innings against San Diego, gave up two hits on two runs. Um, you know, and then tonight I felt like he was pitching really well. He had retired 12 straight. um including the first two in the sixth inning and then the wheels just kind of fell off and fell off quick and I don’t know if that’s because it was the third time through the lineup and it was the third time that these guys were seeing them but it was it you know we got eight out to start the sixth and then you turn the lineup over and you get to that third time through and single hit by pitch double single and all of a sudden the wheels were falling off before Tito even had a chance to get someone up and warming and so it goes back to some of the conversations that had happened right when the trade happened for Latell of his ability to either be a starter or kind of that length reliever out of the bullpen similar to a Nick Martinez where if he can only go twice through the lineup then maybe he is just as good for you out of the bullpen than as he is out of the starting rotation or it could just be that Tito needs to know that hey whenever we’re about to get to this third time through the lineup I need to be ready I need to have a guy up and warming because once we get back to the top of the lineup for that third time. Odds are that I might need to go to the bullpen. And it’s much better if I’m ready for that versus having to go four batters for Latell. And before you know it, they’re scoring three runs and this game’s kind of, you know, getting squirly a little bit. I think he would have gotten pulled earlier in the sixth inning if he didn’t get two outs immediately in the inning. That that’s kind of where I feel like Tito got caught between a rock and a hard place a little bit because he felt like he was rolling as you mentioned. He got two outs. You think all right well here come it almost felt like here comes another you know maybe one two three inning. You give up a single hit by pitch kind of causes a little bit of start to get in a little bit of drama and then obviously I think it was Bur Berles who who doubled um looking it up now. Berles doubled to tie the game and then obviously Contrera single to give them the lead and then obviously they went to to uh um to Ashcraft from there. Uh the the crazy thing is is like I don’t know how big of a deal to make of this, but one thing I do have a little bit of concern is is how easily we gave up some bags and some critical spots. like we just let guys steal second base without even like like it almost looked like we were up five runs in the last inning and we were just having a defensive indifference and we didn’t care. Those were those were like those were critical moments in a game where you you’re just allowing a guy to get in a they weren’t even like great runners either. We’re talking like again I’m not saying they’re they’re the Sal Stewart level of a runner but they’re probably pretty close and that’s again I’m picking on a guy that I like. So, um, just to be clear, I like Sal Stewart, but just not the most swift defeat. Having said that, uh, that was my main concern, I guess, to a certain extent there for a minute. And then, I don’t know. It’s always easy to second guess in hindsight here, Craig, with the bullpen. But they had an opportunity to leave Ashcraft in against yet another left-handed hitter. He has this weird situation where he has reverse splits, Craig. We know this. We’ve talked about it. In fact, the Cowboy and I thought Sedak kind of had a good little banter back and forth just about how maybe why some managers don’t, you know, want to do that or why because the Cardinals had an opportunity to pinch hit with, you know, I think it was first and third with with nobody out and they didn’t. They decided not to not to do that because there was a left-hander up and Cowboy was suggesting that no no manager in the major leagues in their right mind would want to pitch hit when you have a left-handed hitter coming to the plate and a right-handed uh pitcher on the mound. But my thought on that is like, and that goes into a whole another subject matter that I don’t know if we want to go into Craig, but it’s just like, are we admitting like the Cowboys just admitting that just I guess kind of like grandfathered in unwritten rules of baseball are trumping pure clear obvious data that we have because we’re embarrassed or we might be scared to say that’s the right move or not the right move. Like that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Um, so I’m thankful that the Cardinals decided not to pinch hit in that spot and they allowed Ashcraft to face two left-handed hitters. He struck them both out. But I guess my question, Craig, is is then then we counter by not letting him face the third left-handed hitter. And Santon comes in and he gives up a hit. He gives up another hit and then and again you lose the lead. But it just seems like I I don’t know like maybe we are all living in like this crazy loony land where we think to ourselves that you don’t have to like fall in love and marry the data but you just watch two guys strike out relatively easily against Graham Ashcraft who are both left-handed hitters. You have yet another one coming to the plate. What made him think that he I just don’t understand why he was like we got to get Ashcraft out of there now. I don’t know. Maybe. But again, it doesn’t matter. Reds win, I guess. So, you can’t question all the decisions, but I thought it was a little interesting if done. If nothing else, Craig, he took him out before Ivon Herrera. Is that right? Um, I don’t remember the fast. So, he he struck out he struck out Jimmy Krooks and then struck out um Victor Scott and then he faced Brendan Donovan. Brendan Donovan’s a lefty. Brennan Donovan is hitting 500 against Graham Ashcraft in his career coming into today. Four for eight with a double. So, the fact that he let him face Brennan Donovan is interesting. Um, Graham Ashcraft has never faced Ivon Herrera. So, if my if my notes are correct here and and he faced Brendan Donovan but not Ivon Herrera, that definitely doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Now, Ash doesn’t have a whole lot of He he did not He did not face He didn’t He did not face Brandon Donovan. He basically struck out the Jimmy Krooks kid. Jimmy Krooks was the kid that that that that they were suggesting probably should have got pinch hit for in a spot like that because there was again um I believe it was it was first and third with nobody out. Jimmy Crook struck out. Uh Victor uh Scott the second comes up. He strikes out. You have two outs in the inning and then you have Brennan Donovan coming up. So that’s probably why they made the choice to to take him out cuz he was four for eight against him in his career. They decided to go to Santion. Santion gives up a line drive uh single uh by Donovan. That makes the score six to five. And then and then Ivon Herrera gets another single to tie the game at sixes. Um and then fortunately for the Reds, they got out of a bases loaded jam there with two outs with the ground out to Matt Matt Mlan who made a good play by the way. Matt Mlan made a solid play right there to get out of the to get out of the inning. something we don’t even really think about because he made the play, but if he doesn’t make that play, who knows where this game goes. Yeah. No, that’s good. So, yeah, Brennan Donovan being four for eight, I think, explains why he took him out at that point. Um, he had never faked Victor Scott or or Jimmy Crook. So, um, so yeah, you get the two strikeouts, take him out for Brendan Donovan, who was four for eight, it just didn’t go your way. I mean, you Tony Santon’s been your high leverage guy basically all year. The guy that you turn to at the top of the lineup didn’t work out today. Um, but I’m not going to second guessess that kind of a decision. But to your point, Cowboy talking about the idea of pinch hitting when the stats are very clear that Graham Ashcraft has reverts splits against right-handed batters. I don’t know. I’m not gonna Yeah. I always wonder too like what’s what’s the sample size where you feel really good about a matchup too, right? Like I mean I I I guess like four for eight’s not bad, but also is like four for eight like is 4 for8 enough to where you feel like really like really devoted to the fact that you should not absolutely go after this guy with Graham Ashcraft because he’s 4 for8. If that’s the case, Craig, I got news for you. Maybe we should stop pitching to guys like Christian Yelich when he comes to town. I I’m just just a thought, you know. I mean, if if we really wanted to if we want to use sample sizes to our advantage, maybe when we have a base open with Christian Yelage up, like we just walk him from now on. That that’s where I would go personally. I’m not I have no problem using uh some data to try to make make informed decisions. No doubt about it. But if we’re going to do that, then let’s let’s let’s consistently do that. Um that’s all I would ask for. But again, it’s easy hindsight to say, why did you take Graham Ashcraft out? Because Santion didn’t get the job done. If Santion gets the guy out, you’re going to say, well, that was a good move. He was for eight against Graham Ashcraft. Santion came in, he did his job. Boom, boom, boom, you move on. Santion didn’t do it. So, now you can question why the hell you take Graham Ashcraft out. So, I get it. I’m not going to get overly crazy about it. I’m just saying it was a decision made in a game that could have made an impact, but ultimately it didn’t matter. You know why it didn’t matter? Because we scored runs. Isn’t that nice? It’s kind of like it just covers and masks all of these things up. We’re not sitting here debating all of these minute details on a two to one game about what who should have done what or why they didn’t do that. You know what? You go out and score. It kind of helps solve a lot of those problems that we think are bigger problems when we only score two runs. Yeah. I mean, only hit one ball out of the ballpark, but it felt like there were a million hard-hit balls in this game. Um, I didn’t actually look at Savant to know exactly what the number was tonight, but definitely felt like Red’s hitters were hitting the ball hard over and over again. Um, yeah, I mean, if you if you sort by exit VO, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11 of the 12 hardest hit balls tonight were by Reds and they were all 102 miles an hour or harder. So definitely a lot of hard hit balls by the Reds tonight. Um I think the final number ended up being 18. 18 hard hit balls for the Reds. Um I mean that’s a pretty solid number. Now a lot of those came off of Lietori who hasn’t had the best year. Um but the Reds haven’t been great as right-handed batters against left-handed pitchers either. So for them to be able to do that tonight, I think is a is a good step. Um, but yeah, I mean, you had so many hard hit balls. Hayes had three, Stewart had three, Stephenson had three, Mlan had three. Mlan’s a guy who I wanted to mention at during this game, too. I mean, he had a a really nice game in this one. And, um, you know, you mentioned his his play defensively, but two for five with a double and two RBI, scored twice. Um, nice to see him have a a decent game and yeah, this Red’s offense certainly felt like it was clicking tonight. It would have been nice if the pitching matched up, but they did enough. And uh we’re not going to not going to turn down an 11 to6 win at any point. No. Uh it just showcases how, you know, the baseball games more or less are one on on, you know, situational kind of at bats and whether or not you get the big hit or you don’t get the big hit, right? Are you able to hit home runs that that that produce multiple run innings or you not? Uh the Reds tonight, for all intents and purposes, they they out hit they out hit the Cardinals, but it wasn’t by like a landslide if we’re being completely honest, um you know, the expected batting average for the Reds tonight, 309. Expected batting average for the St. Louis Cardinals was 252. Now, again, there’s a there’s a decent delta there. I’m not here to say that there’s not, but there’s also been games where you find yourself losing when you’ve out, you know, you’ve almost out expected batting average by someone by 125 points at times. So, we’ll see. I mean, ultimately the Reds, they found a way to score some runs. It’s nice to see, especially when you have guys like Stewart and um, you know, I guess Marte back in the mix again. Marte, another good sign, a guy that, you know, not to say that he was starting to kind of worry me, but he certainly was cooled off from the guy that kind of was carrying this team on his back for for a certain amount of time. And we’ll see how he finishes the year because, let’s face it, we need all the positives we can get. I’m not going to buy the front office this year telling me that that’s that’s the plan moving forward is just all of these guys are going to get better in the offseason. and we’re going to run them out there and we’re going to sing Kumbaya in 2026. But I would like to see uh at least a lot of these guys finish the year strong to make me a little optimistic as we head into the offseason. But uh bullpen wise, I guess the other question is is you bring Ailio Pagan in when the game’s kind of out of reach. But I guess at this point you it is what it is. You got to get gota you got to get some reps in. You can’t just continue to, you know, say that these guys can’t throw and rest them and rest them and rest them and then all a sudden they hadn’t pitched in a week and you put him in a one-run game, Craig, and you expect him to be nails. So, I can’t be overly upset about it either. Yeah, he hadn’t pitched since San Diego. His last outing was on September 9th, so he had gone almost a week without pitching. It’s probably the right moment to I know obviously they were going to put him in even if it wasn’t a fiveun game, but at that point he had already gotten up and warmed up, hadn’t pitched in a week. You might as well let him get some lowle leverage outs and uh and make sure that he’s ready for you when you need him. Um it feels like Amelio Pagan went like three weeks pitching every single day and then over the last couple weeks it felt like he’s barely pitched at all. So, um, you know, we’re we’re halfway through the month of September and he’s only pitched five times. Um, so I don’t think that there’s any issue really getting him reps at this point, but you know, what and Tito has talked in the past about how once he gets a guy up in the bullpen, he doesn’t like to sit him back down and get him up and down and up and down and all those things. So rather than get somebody else up and get them warm, just throw him out there. You’ve still got Zack Maxwell in there for a high leverage outing if you need it tomorrow. Maybe Santion still available. He threw 15 pitches tonight. Um but obviously Piggon low leverage. Uh nice easy inning and uh only threw 10 pitches. So he should be available tomorrow still after not pitching for a week. Yeah. And the Reds are in a spot where they they’re going to have to they’re going to have to sweep this series. I don’t know. I don’t I I just don’t see any scenario where they don’t sweep this series and they find a way to get themselves in a position in the last week to have a chance. Um it sucks that’s where we’re at at this point as Reds fans. We have to play perfect baseball here on out. But you know what? Tonight was perfect. You win. Doesn’t matter how you win, but it was a nice win. 116. You almost double them up. And hopefully you can head into tomorrow and you can find ways to score the same type amount of runs. Now, again, 11, that’s that’s probably more than, you know, we can bargain for more times than not. But the truth is is that I I just I feel like that’s the missing link here that we’ve not had all year. And I know people are going to say, “Well, that’s because they don’t have good enough players, Trace. Their lineup’s not good enough.” That that might be true. Um, but at least I can say I don’t really feel like there’s been one time this year where the offense has just been absolutely on fire and they have carried this team for a week, week and a half. and if there was ever a time to do it and now is the time and if they don’t do it then it is what it is cough and nails bam bam bam as they say of in football so you know we’ll find out um but I also want to say 988 it is a resource obviously all of us in the chat typically know about but in case you don’t know it’s a place that you can turn to if you are in a crisis 247 it’s anonymous hotline 988 you can text and or call that is 988 you can also visit mantherapy.org org to get help. It’s okay to not be okay. Uh this is the part of the show where probably I should ask questions on the uh on the before I even get on the airwaves, but that’s the raw nature of the show. I’m open man enough to admit that I probably should know this and I don’t know this. Uh I have no clue if we are doing the Omaha Stake ad read. So when in doubt, I’m going to do it anyways. That’s how I’m going to roll. I’ll give you more bang for your buck. They might not even be paying for this. They might be paying for this. I have no idea. But I do know that Omaha Stakes right now has a red hot sale event. You can get 50% off in the entire sitewide. Plus, check this out. You get an extra $35 off by using the code chatterbox. That’s ch h a t rer b ox. That’s uh if your order gets to be $159 or more, you can use the code chatterbox. C cha t ox. And you can get yourself some steak, some sirloin, some some uh perhaps you get you some, you know, sausage. Throw on the old grill there in the fall as you watch perhaps the Reds play meaningful baseball. Hell, heaven forbid we make it to October. But if not, you know who’s going to be playing? The Cincinnati Bengals. You might enjoy them. Or maybe you just like watching the NFL in general or some college football. Maybe you’re a Buckeye fan and you need a place to tailgate. Take Omahal Stakes with you on the road or perhaps at home. No matter where they’re going to be delicious, you can visit again omalstakes.com. Use the code chatterbox cha t ox and you can get $35 off your purchase. Plus, right now there is a red hot sale, 50% off. Craig, um you can you can do what I did, Trace. I went last night after I heard you guys give the promo for the first time. Yes, I went and I built my own premier protein assortment. Got to build my own little combo package. I got bacon wrap fillet minan, chicken breasts, steak burgers, bacon, steak tips, jumbo franks, seasonings. Wow. Built my own little package. I got the 50% off. I got an extra 35% off and it’s supposed to be here by Wednesday. I like free shipping. I kind of like what you’re what you’re putting down, Craig. Some bacon wrap. Did you say get to the checkout? Bacon wrapped. What? Yep. Bacon wrap fame minan trace. And that doesn’t even count the additional two pounds of bacon that I got as part of the deal, too. So, yeah, I’m pumped up. It’s supposed to be here on Wednesday. So, uh I’m hoping for some good weather. I’ll be grilling out later this week or this weekend. Maybe I’ll have some friends over for a little Omaha Stakes grill out. But I’ve been super easy. When you get to the checkout, when you get to the checkout where you put your card in, just click I have a promo code and enter Chatterbox and boom, $35 off. Love it. Just like that. Uh I love Jim, too. Uh he throws in there, keep the dry ice away from your pets. Don’t ask why I know this. So, yeah, dry ice not not not fun. Dry ice is not fun if you find yourself on the wrong side of some dry ice. I can tell you that right now. So, it’s your You know what will be though? What will be fun though, Trace? Oh, look at that segue from the main man, Craig Sandlin, the the the king of kings for the Segways. Uh, Chatterbox Bengals live from Smoke Justice Sunday, September 21st. I think that’s going to be the day that Jake Browning breaks out. 12:30 to 5. You can check out Chatterbox Bengals. It’s got a pregame halftime, postgame analysis, all at Smoke Justice. Come down there, hang out, get you some uh good old bourbon, get you some smoked meat, whatever it is that you enjoy. You can head on down to Smoke Justice. That’s 302 Court Street in Coington, Kentucky. So, uh, shout out to Chatterbox Bengals, Craig Reed, Stone, I think Andrew’s been in there. Mike’s been in there. We had We got a whole assortment of folks that are obviously trying to provide some Bengals coverage. So, check them out. Uh, season’s in full swing. We’ll get into I don’t want to get too far into the well because I I think I’m going to go to be on OP2B tomorrow. So, I don’t want to give too many of my hot takes. But, I think the Bengals are I think the Bengals are in an okay spot. You know, it’s the sky is not falling. It’s not falling. You know, you’re 2 and 0. You’re 2 and 0 for the first time in a long time. And you know what? You can find a way to win a couple more games. Joe Burrow comes back and all is well in the world again. Uh we sh And it’ll be fresh, too. I mean, yeah, I know that he’s got the toe thing, but it’ll be he’ll be fresh. So, uh we’ll see. and uh JJ McCarthy ruled out today. So, it’ll be the battle of the backups. That’s actually bad news. That’s bad news for me. Jake Browning going against Carson Wentz. So, I think I’d have rather faced I I would have rather faced uh I’d have rather face JJ McCarthy personally. Yet another Everybody tune in to Off the Bench tomorrow morning at 10A to hear Trace Reed break down the matchup with the Vikings. All right. Uh we have more of Red’s MB. Craig, I don’t know where we’re at in the season at this point for Red’s MLB, but we got to be getting down to where there’s just not a whole lot of baseball left. Let’s be honest. Uh, you can let me know where there’s not a whole lot of baseball left. Craig, there’s not in Take it away. What? In fact, there is almost no baseball left. Uh, Louisville starts their last series of the season. They host Nashville starting Tuesday 6:35 p.m. Chattanooga, they’re into the Southern League Division series. Game one takes place Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. in Birmingham. That’s a best of three series. And then Daytona and Lakeland. Uh Lakeland leads the series one- nothing in the Florida State League Championship Series. Game number two is Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Once these seasons are done, they’re all done. then we turn our attention to uh fall ball. So, um cheer on the the Red’s minor league teams and see if we can’t bring home a couple championships here before it’s all said and done. Yeah, listen, it was it was getting pretty bad earlier this year. Bought some uh some Reds Mileb had some really, really, really poor records and they kind of all they all kind of turned it around, started playing a little bit better in the in the back half. So, we’ll see if the Reds can’t take that same MMO and ride off into maybe what would be the most glorious sunset of all time if they found a way to sneak in as the third wild card spot despite really just not even being relevant for most of the year. We’ll find out. Uh, Reds back to 500. That is a positive. And we do have some more baseball along the way. And we need to win them all, Craig. Little who, what, when, where, and why. We do. But we do need to win them all. Tomorrow, Reds and Cardinals back at it. Tuesday night, 7:45 p.m. First pitch Eastern time. Andrew Rabbit will take the mound for the Reds. He’s nine and six on the year with a 279 ERA. Last time out was a beauty. He pitched at San Diego. Eight innings, five hits, only one earned run. Walked two, struck out six. The only run he gave up was a solo home run by Fernando Tatis Jr. in the fifth inning. Reds won that game two to one. He’s made eight career starts against the Cardinals. He’s 4 and3 with 374 erra. This will be the fourth time that Abbott faces the Cardinals this season. Reds are two and one in those games. Abbott 16 innings pitched, 10 hits, only three earned runs. Last time out was August 30th. Reds took the loss. Five innings, three hits, two earned runs. He walked four plus hit another batter. Uh struck out seven in a 4-2 Reds loss. Uh active Cardinals hitters against Abbott obviously a lot. Uh Brendan Donovan’s three for 13, Wilson Contreras 3 for 11, Lars Nupar 1 for 10, Jordan Walker is 0 for 10, Alec Burlson 0 for nine, Nolan Gorman one for seven, Ivon Herrera three for five. Um Pedro Pahes is one for five, so JC 1 for four. Uh home runs by Wilson Contrarus and Nolan Gorman. On the other side, Michael McGrevy takes the ball for the Cardinals. Six and three with a 444 erra. Did I say that right? Three fours. 4.44. You figured it out. Close enough. McGrevy has struggled at home this season. He’s two and three with a 6.07 RA in eight games, allowing six of his eight home runs on the season at Bush. McGrevy doesn’t strike out many batters. In fact, he’s in the third percentile in the MLB and K%. However, he balances that by not allowing free base runners, walking batters at just a rate of 3.6%. good for the 99th percentile in Major League Baseball. McGrevy’s last time out, September 10th against Seattle. Six innings, five hits, one earned run, no walks, four Ks. Of course, that one was in Seattle. His last home start before that, September 5th against San Francisco. Four innings, nine hits, six earned runs, one walk, three strikeouts. McGrevy faced the Reds once earlier this season. He went six innings, five hits, one run, two walks, no strikeouts, and a 4-2 Cardinals win. Red’s batters Miguel Andahar is two for three with a double. Elliot de la Cruz one for three. Gavin Lux one for two with a double, a walk and an RBI. Noelie Marte is one for three. Fredel, Cabrian Hayes, Steer, Mlan, and Trevinho all hitless. McCreevy one of those pitchers that just throws a little bit of everything. Seven different pitches. Throws us four seamer, sinker, sweeper, curveball, cutter, and change up. Fast ball averages just 93 miles per hour. All right. Well, we’ll find out if we’re capable of taking our ace, I guess, is if if some would call him that. Maybe some wouldn’t call him that. I don’t know. Hunter Green’s obviously very very good as well. And I know people now are going to be like, “Well, he wasn’t so good in in Sacramento.” Okay, I get I get it. I’m not I He’s not perfect, but uh another good opportunity for the Reds to find a way to win. And you know what? They win tomorrow. What’s that mean? It gives them a chance to do what they have to do the following day, which is find a way to uh to take care of business against the St. Louis Cardinals and we’ll see at this point if the Reds can do something special. I’m not, as I said before, I don’t have a ton of hope, but I will say that there is at least some chance. And uh let’s face it, I I don’t know whether or not we would have signed up for it or not, but I kind of think we would if you’d have told us at the All-Star break we’d be a couple games back with, you know what, two weeks to play. Um seems like we probably would maybe have signed up for that. I don’t know. But nonetheless, we did let, let’s face it, we the reason we feel so sour about it is because we let a huge opportunity slip away. I mean, that was right in front of us. We had a chance to just grab the bull by the horns and we just didn’t do that. But we no reason to sit here and continue to cry about it. You got to wake up tomorrow and find a way to win. We’ll see if we can do that. Uh, finally, before we head out of here, I just want to tell everybody thank you so much for for being so loyal and consistent viewers of this show. And the the reality is is we we always have uh just so many loyal kind of I guess regulars, whatever term you guys want to use, nutters up in the chat. And uh you know, it’s nice to see and it’s very very very kind of like uh encouraging to continue to try to do this on a night innight basis when there’s no doubt that we’re all to a certain extent burn out a little bit here uh as we kind of wind down the season, especially when it’s not gone the way that the that we have hoped. Um, but who knows, man. May the only thing that seems like a poetic way for this whole thing to end is it’s either going to crash and burn or they’re going to find a way to win the win a postseason series for the first time since 1995 or whenever the hell it was. I don’t even remember. But it it seems like one of two things are going to happen. I don’t know. We might not be 500 by the end of the year or we might find a way to to rattle off 12 in a row, go to the postseason and do something crazy. Who knows? But we shall find out. Just want to say thank you one more time. time. Craig, got anything before we go? I just say obviously the Reds are going to have to be doing a lot of scoreboard watching over the next two weeks. Uh only one game on Monday of note that matters to the Reds. Uh Diamondbacks, they take a 7 to1 lead into the seventh inning there in Arizona over the San Francisco Giants. Big series there in the desert. Those are two teams that the Reds are trailing behind right now in the wildard. And if you take a look at the wildcard schedule, this is up-to-date standings. Reds currently two games behind the New York Mets for that last spot, but they have the Dbacks and Giants between them. Mets have the Padres’s, Washington Nationals, Cubs, and the Marlins. Giants are currently at Arizona. Then they go to the Dodgers before ending with St. Louis and Colorado. Dbacks obviously currently with the Giants. And then they get Philadelphia, the Dodgers, and the Padres’s. Tough stretch there to end their season. And of course, the Reds currently two games back. They have two games left in SE uh St. Louis before they have the Cubs at home for a four-ame series, Pittsburgh for a three-game series, and then end in Milwaukee for a pivotal threeame series. It’s possible. It’s definitely possible. And uh it’s just seemingly crazy to think that we’re at 500. Crazy to say 500. 500. There was a time this year where I thought it was going to take like 88 wins, 89 wins to get into that third wild card spot. And the Cubs, excuse me, the Mets have absolutely just completely fallen apart, man. I mean, that’s the real storyline in this whole thing is how bad the Mets have played. But you know what? We don’t really care how we get it. we just find a way to get in and and we move on. So, all right folks, appreciate it and we’ll see you tomorrow, of course, back better than ever, hopefully in the ninth inning to watch another Reds victory. Until then, take care of yourselves, get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll see you tomorrow. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

00:00 LIVE in the 9th inning.
5:40 Full game recap

Trace and Craig will be live in the 9th inning!

Go to https://OmahaSteaks.com to get 50% off sitewide during their Red-Hot Sale Event. And use Promo Code CHATTERBOX at checkout for an extra $35 off. Minimum purchase may apply. See site for details. A big thanks to our advertiser, Omaha Steaks!

As the National League playoff race enters its final stretch, the Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals face off in a pivotal three-game series at Busch Stadium. With both teams in the wild-card hunt, this series could determine the fate of their seasons. The Reds arrive in St. Louis clinging to a slightly better record at 74-75, while the Cardinals are right behind at 73-77. The Reds are just 2.5 games out of the final wild-card spot, while the Cardinals are four games back.

Tonight’s opener pits right-hander Zack Littell (9-8, 3.78 ERA) against left-hander Matthew Liberatore (7-12, 4.35 ERA). Littell, a midseason acquisition, has been a mixed bag for the Reds, with his ERA suggesting solid performance despite a high Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) number that indicates he’s due for regression. He is particularly susceptible to the long ball, which could be a factor against a Cardinals lineup featuring Alec Burleson, who has had success against right-handed pitching.

For the Cardinals, Liberatore has struggled this season and particularly in his recent starts. In his last outing, he gave up five earned runs in just four innings. His vulnerability could be exploited by a Reds offense that, while inconsistent, has shown an ability to score in bunches. The Reds’ offense will lean on players like Austin Hays, who has been performing well recently, and rookie Noelvi Marte, who has cooled off in September after a strong showing earlier in the season. The Cardinals, meanwhile, have relied on hitters like Burleson and catcher Ivan Herrera.

This series is far from a lock for either team. The Cardinals hold a slight advantage in the season series, 6-4, but this is a different ballgame with the stakes this high. The betting total for the game is 8.5 runs, a number that seems low given the recent tendencies of both teams and their starting pitchers. Both teams have offenses capable of putting runs on the board, and both bullpens could be tested. Ultimately, the outcome of tonight’s game may hinge on which starter can limit the damage and which offense can capitalize on mistakes. For the Reds, it’s a must-win situation if they hope to continue their postseason push.

PODCAST LINKS:

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3jlFDPP…
Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/733…
Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0…
iHeart Radio: https://iheart.com/podcast/109483256
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/chatter…
Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/id5327101?…
Player FM: https://player.fm/series/3450767

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, Aaron Watson, Adolfo Sanchez, Arnaldo Lantigua, Mason Neville, Sheng-En Lin, Mason Morris, Julian Aguiar, Luke Holman, Ethan O’Donnell, Liberts Aponte, Tyler Callihan, Ricky Cabrera, Carlos Jorge, Leo Balcazar, Jose Franco, Tristan Smith, Cole Schoenwetter, JeanPierre Ortiz, Ty Floyd, Graham Ashcraft, Fernando Cruz, Alexis Díaz, Carson Spiers, Brandon Williamson, Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Edwin Ríos, Jake Fraley, Stuart Fairchild, 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