Cincinnati Reds Season Ends In Sweep To Los Angeles Dodgers | 2025 MLB Postseason, Recap, Highlights

Cincinnati Reds Season Ends In Sweep To Los Angeles Dodgers | 2025 MLB Postseason, Recap, Highlights

All right, it is the final edition of the 2025 Cincinnati Reds Chatterbox Reds. And unfortunately, that means the Reds were incapable of getting this to a game three Nick. 72 losers. Well, I I gotta be honest. There’s probably maybe a a small portion of the of the fan base that it’s probably going to wake up and listen to this podcast right now and and not really know the opportunities that the Reds had at the end of the game because you thought it was dead and done. Uh Nick, they had chances today. They had chances and they just weren’t capable of capitalizing on them. And some of that’s maybe symbolic of the way that the whole entire year has gone. Some of it’s symbolic from the standpoint that the Dodgers are just the better team. And maybe we just got to come to grips with that as well. Um truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. But it’s been a season, Nick. It’s I’m sure we’ll get we’ll get to the sentimental part of all of it probably at the very end of the show, but um it’s been a pleasure. It’s been a journey and it’s been one kind of crazy ride that has been the 2025 Reds. And it ended with a postseason appearance. Yeah, a postseason appearance that I didn’t ever think was coming most of the year. So, um, in that regards, it was it was special to have postseason games. Probably more special for for me and you, Trace, just because of, uh, how incredible the support has been over the last five shows. The last five shows have been the most viewed shows we’ve ever done. So, I guess for maybe from selfish reasons, it was more special for for for us than maybe other folks who um kind of felt the same roller coaster that that we did uh this year. And yeah, the Dodgers were the better team and the Dodgers should have won and the Dodgers would have won if probably would have won if everything was managed and and and done everything perfect. But yeah, they missed some opportunities to come through in big spots in this game. But I also think they missed on opportunities to squash Dodgers rallies by not using their best arm. So there’s a lot of missed opportunities in this game, but the Dodgers are the better team. Um they do have a shaky bullpen, though. I’ll be fascinated to kind of see as a baseball fan if they’re able to get past Philly or not. Just to add insult into injury, uh currently right when the Dodgers Reds go final, they send it to Scott Vanpelt. And who do they have on to talk about it? I see they have Hunter Pence to talk about the game. Like I mean just kick us while we’re down, why don’t you? Um so yeah, I I I if I wasn’t trying to be somewhat of a professional here, I would have seen Hunter Pence on my screen right now to my right and I would have just shut the stream down and we could just go home and we’ll have we’ll all live happily ever after and we’ll be back in 2026. Um but that’s not what we’re going to do. We’re going to do a show here. And I guess, you know, if you didn’t get a chance to watch the live stream and you’re just listening to the podcast, there there’s just moments in this game that kind of boiled over for me. The frustration that lied with the fact that you just just you just feel like there’s a lot of players in this team that didn’t get rightful opportunities. And then on top of that, maybe you you you’re disappointed that some of the younger guys when they did get an opportunity to have a huge moment, they didn’t capitalize on it and they didn’t step up and get the big hits. South Stewart unfortunately. We’ll do the Bosco recap here in a minute and talk about all these different chances, but he had a he had a great game offensively, but he just didn’t capitalize in the one time where he could have maybe made a huge huge difference. But that’s how baseball goes. And I I don’t know if you have it in front of you, Nick. I’m not I’m not trying to say that the Reds had a bunch of bad luck tonight, but it did feel like the Dodgers had a lot of fortunate hits. There was a lot of slow rollers, Baltimore, you know, chops, balls down the line, flared base hits. It just uh when it rained, it poured and it was pouring on the Cincinnati Reds. They had a lot of hard hit balls, but they also had the the bloops, too. So, it it look when you’re playing the Dodgers, you need everything to go perfect, and the Reds didn’t have a very much go perfect. That’s for sure. Um, uh, Craig typically, as many of you probably were, uh, questioning and or wondering who in the world was doing these, uh, Bosco recaps, I think he’s having some issues with his internet as we speak here. So, we got some supers if you want to get there. Yeah, we can we can do some super chats and see if we can buy him some time. Otherwise, you know, I guess ultimately we’ll find a way to uh to try to buy some Craig some time. Let’s do some super chats here real quick before we jump into the uh, Bosshore recap. I know that uh I got it up if you want me to do it. I It’s Vic. Uh where are we starting at with um Carl Carlton? All right, let’s get to Carlton Van Hoy. Abbott didn’t pitch in the playoffs. Make it make sense. Um I that’s just that’s just happen chance. That’s just the the the product of the circumstance. You know, unfortunately, Andrew Abbott wasn’t available on his regular rest to throw in the time frame that we would have liked him to throw in. You had to win this series after you lose game one, Nick. Um, you had to you had to obviously get yourself to a spot to to win game three. And if you don’t win game three, you lose the series anyway. So, I get it. I I guess my point is I understand the idea that it’s frustrating that you don’t have Andrew Abbott throw in the series at all, but I don’t know, Nick. It just felt like that. I don’t want to say it didn’t matter because I don’t want it to sound like I’m I’m I’m not valuing Andrew Abbott. I guess I’m more or less saying that if the Reds were to have won game one, they would have had Andrew Abbott available for the final game to possibly win the series. If you lose game one, well, you were going to have to win game three anyways to win the series. So, it’s kind of like I get it, but I don’t get it. Hopefully, if I’m illustrating this appropriately, I hope I am. He He would have been on three days rest. He’s never pitched on three days rest in his career. He looked tired at times down the stretch. You would not have got the best version of Andrew Abbott. And you still would have had to win the next day, Nick. You still would have had to win the day that he was a scheduled to pitch on regular day’s rest. So, and we’ll talk we’ll talk about I thought Latell pitched pretty well. I mean, he had a couple tough breaks. Like it’s hard to imagine that Andrew Abbott would have pitched much better than that. Especially like the combo of Latell and Leola which got you through five innings. It’s hard to imagine that really you really would have expected that much better performance than five innings. Three runs and the three runs are tough three runs too. So yeah, I I just I get why why it it it doesn’t feel right to to do it, but I don’t think it it a would have made a difference and b we would have been putting Andrew Abbott in a good spot. Yeah, we’ll talk about something I think is a bigger bigger question mark and I hopefully we get some answers here relatively soon because it’s going to be the biggest question that I have going into this game and what the hell happened. We’ll talk about that just a minute. Um let’s see here. College 40 says, “Uh, you guys were the best part of the summer. Thank you.” That’s very nice of you to say. Fire Tito free Benson. Please someone else buy the team. Go Reds. I get the frustration, guys. I really do. I understand it. Thank you for the kind words. Um, there’s a lot of people that people want to fire. There’s a lot of people that want to people want to say that this is wrong. That’s wrong. I’m at the end of the day, I I get it. We’re fans. Um, but there’s some things that are going to have to happen here soon that are just so much bigger than just this ownership group from a Major League Baseball perspective that’s going to make a make a huge impact on I think a lot of people’s fandoms and we’ll probably have a lot of time to talk about that in 2027. So, I’m going to save it for them. But, um, keep your head up. That’s what I would say. Uh, Clint Westerfield says, “Really hope Tito is better next year or not here. We’ll see.” Um, we will see. Clint, ultimately Justin Edgel says, “What an excellent season. I don’t think Tito helped as much as I thought he would. Thanks to Trace Nick. It’s been a joy watching all year. See you next year, fellas. Much love.” Thank you, Justin. Um, appreciate that. You’ve been a loyal loyal listener and watcher of the program. So, uh, and and you’re a a nutter and just flatout awesome supporter of us. So, thank you, Justin. Uh, Victor says, “Uh, thanks for a wonderful season, guys. Even if the Reds had won 89 games, same result. Enjoy your time off, Nick. Can’t wait until you come back when the red hot stove season begins. Pray for a veteran bat with Pop.” That’s right. We need some help with some with some with some guys that we can just throw in the lineup and we know what we’re getting. That would be really really wonderful. We’ll see. 100 bomb from Jonathan Y1. Thanks for all the great content. It’s been a wild ride. Thanks for all the insights trying to make sense of it all. You guys are uh you guys and your hard work are appreciated. Thank you, Jonathan. Thank you for that big super chat. Honestly, thank you to everybody that super chatted whether it’s four bucks, 100 bucks, 20 bucks, 10 bucks. Um it’s very humbling to be honest with you. Um try not to get emotional on this show at the end of the year every single year, but it’s just a lot of work. Nick puts a just an insane amount of work into this show. And to see it grow from what it once was is uh pretty cool, for lack of a better term. Chief Chi uh Chief C, I should say, uh says, “Great stream, fellas. Is it too much to ask you guys to support your NL Central neighbors, the Chicago Cubs? Go Cubs. Go.” Uh that’s nice of you to super chat. Appreciate that. Um I like Reed. I like Reed a lot. Um, I don’t want the I don’t want the Cubs to win the World Series because I don’t want to hear Reed, but I I I do like Reed. So, if the Cubs win in a weird way, in the back of my heart, I’m like, you know, at least Reed’s happy, but I like I don’t want them to win the World Series. I I don’t I don’t know. I I I’ve kind of I’m kind of weird on that. Like I almost I feel like a SEC type of affiliation with the Brewers and Cubs. Like it’s kind of like we were all together like crapped on all off seasonason how the NL Central was the worst division in baseball and lo and behold the Brewers have the best record, the Cubs had the best wild card and the Reds snuck into the playoffs with last seat. So you know what? Like I I don’t want like the Brewers are I really like the Brewers won the World Series. I won’t be upset at all about that. The Cubs are a little bit different, but I also kind of I don’t know. Yeah. Right. I get it. You’re like they’re they’re kind of a part of like, you know, the same fraternity, I guess, or something along those lines. I at the end of the day, do I want them to win? No. But at the same time, whatever. It’s I I actually might root for the Brewers because it’s like I I put it this way. If you’re that successful, if you’re that successful as a small market and you still can’t figure out a way to beat these big dogs in the postseason because they’re just they’re just find they find a way to either outscout you or they’re just better than you and they just don’t care about the regular season nearly as much as us. I mean, at some point it becomes pretty damn disheartening. And Kilo the Great says, “Tito has extreme biases that costed this team all year. Hayes and Mlan has to play despite their struggles. But if Benson or Marte doesn’t hit for the cycle every night, they’re sitting objectively bad. Obviously, it’s not that that crazy. But yeah, I mean, there’s no doubt there’s been times where it seems like one guy’s get get infinite amount of opportunities and others don’t. I mean, even to the point where I don’t know, just so many things. I don’t want to be negative on a show like this, but there’s just so many things like even like the comment that he made the other day, you know, like, yeah, I mean, Sears’s been hurt this year, but you know, I think he’s a better I think he’s a better hitter when he’s hurt. Haha. Is that funny? Is that funny, guys? You know, it’s just like, shut up. Like, with all due respect, I mean, you let the guy go out there and get absolutely drowned for the first month and a half at first base. He was pitiful. He was absolutely pitiful because he had a bum shoulder, but you wanted to rush him after he had seven at bats in the in in in uh in Arizona for spring training and you stuck him on the opening day roster at first base, a position he hasn’t played and and and we just acted like it was fine and it was great. It was a perfect decision and it’s just so stupid. Anyway, Noah Downing said, “Uh, last one of the year. Give it up for 32 years.” Um, yeah. Well, maybe next year, Noah. Who knows? Clint Westerfield says, “I love the Reds. Why do they seem to hate me?” Yeah. Well, they don’t totally hate you. They just like to keep you around. You know, it’d be one thing if they were the Rockies. That would be one thing, right? But they’re good enough to make you feel like you damn near feel like there’s a chance, but they’re not quite good enough to get you to the exhilarating feeling we’re all waiting for. Dustin Puit says, “Uh, taking Benson out in the middle of an AB is one of the most appalling things I’ve ever witnessed. It’s actually something we defended a little bit because you’re trying to you’re trying to find somebody that has success that can maybe hit hit a home run in that spot. Andrew Har is absolutely smash lefties. One of the best left-handed hitting hitters in all of Major League Baseball, not just for the Reds, but all of Major League Baseball. It does suck that he somehow came in with two strikes. And it does, you know what sucks more is it sucks that we’re find ourselves in a position where we’re always banking on the idea of having to hit a home run late in the game to even get ourselves back in the game. You know, Will Benson probably doesn’t get pinch hit for if it’s a, you know, if it’s a relatively close game and you, you know, you want to keep him in, but it’s here nor there. Sean Krukus says, “Jeff Brantley after the game, I think there are going to be some changes, some very surprising changes. thoughts. I think there’s going to be some players traded this off season that will probably may not be shocking, but there’ll be like wow moves that you move because we’ve talked about it all year. there’s like too many average players on one roster where where it just doesn’t like fit like and it’s not like and that’s what’s made it hard this year cuz it’s like you kind of have to be sort of critical of like a guy like Gavin Lux who didn’t do anything wrong. He was a fine player but like he’s not good enough to be a DH. He needs to either be the everyday second baseman but Matt McLean stayed healthy all year so you didn’t need to use him at second base. Um, which I know a lot of people are are crapping on that idea, but I hope you understand my point with this. So, yeah, I think there’s going to be some players traded that I don’t think like Ellie de La Cruz is getting traded. Um, but if if uh I’m just throwing names out there. If if uh a guy like um TJ Fredo got traded this offseason, it would not shock me. If uh Gavin Lux got traded this offseason, it wouldn’t shock me. If Spencer Steer got traded this off seasonason, it wouldn’t shock me. Um because there’s a number of these guys that are like good but not getting you over the hump. Yeah, I completely agree. We’ll see. I’ll be shocked when I’ll be shocked. I just feel like it’s I it’s just it’s not fair. I’m not I’m not trying to say it’s not fair to us, but like it’s just not fair right when the season’s over and it’s dead to sit here and try to get into full offseason talk. I’m not in that mo. I’m not I’m just not in that mindset. I’m not in that space. I’m not saying that we can’t bring it up. If you super chat, we’ll do our best to discuss it. But like I’m just not there yet. Like if you’re going to ask me what hap needs to happen with this team right now, I’m going to give you a completely irrational take. I’m going to tell you that we have a ton of players that aren’t good enough. And I’m going to probably make it sound like we have maybe two guys that I’m willing to keep around or be be excited about. And outside of that, we better go find some help, which is is completely unrealistic. So, I just got to reset. Jump in our Discord on Monday. I’ll be fully invested in the offseason by then. But yeah, I need a couple days to just kind of sleep. Yeah. So, all right. Well, thankfully we got our main man Craig back in the uh back in the booth here. So, we’re going to go to the box recap presented by Craig Sandlin tonight. Um and then uh you know what? probably towards the end of this thing, we’ll just Craig’s going to come on and have some fun with us and we’ll we’ll all sing Kumbaya together and make it feel like we actually didn’t lose tonight. So, um Craig, I know you’re there. I know you were away and but now you’re back. Go ahead and take it away. It’s the box score recap tonight presented by yourself, my friend. For the last time in 2025 and an October version of the box score recap, this one is presented by Nicholas P. Kirby. The Reds look to take advantage of the momentum they gained at the end of game one. Take on the Dodgers in game two on Wednesday night. Zack Latell started on the mound for the Reds as the Dodgers turned to ace Yashobu Yamamoto. Gavin Lux reaching the top of the first on a fieldielder’s choice. Then Austin Hayes sent a shallow fly down the right field line that hit off Ts Oscar Hernandez’s glove and Austin Hayes reached safely. South Stewart then took a two strike splitter to the right side and through the infield for a two-run single. The Reds had their first playoff lead since October 9th, 2012 at 200. The Dodgers cut into the lead in the bottom of the third when Ben Rorvette doubled to lead off the inning, then scored on a Mookie Betts single. In the bottom of the fourth, Maxy singled before Kik Hernandez continued his postseason tear with a double to center, scoring Muny. Miguel Rojos then singled to score Hernandez and give the Dodgers a three-2 lead. Terry Francona turned to Nick Lollo who got out of the inning without further damage. Final line for Latell. Three and a third innings pitch, six hits, three earned runs, no walks, two strikeouts. Yamamoto on the other side retired 13 straight reds before they got three straight singles from Fredel Steer and Lux to start the top of the sixth. But a fieldielder’s choice from Austin Hayes and strikeouts by Sal Stewart and Ellie de la Cruz resulted in the Reds not scoring in the inning. Nick Lola was done after just one and twothirds innings pitched and 14 total pitches, allowing just one hit. Tito turned to Nick Martinez who allowed a single to Kik Hernandez before a throwing error by Sal Stewart allowed Ben Rort to reach base. Otani then hit an RBI single. Mookie bets doubled. Freddy Freeman was intentionally walked and then Tay Oscar Hernandez hit a double scoring two and making it seven Dodgers before the Reds knew what hit them. That was it for Martinez as Tito turned to Tony Santon with one out and runners on second and third. They intentionally walked Maxley to load the bases before Santion even threw a pitch. Andy Pahz threw out to shallow right and then Kik Hernandez popped up in the infield and Santion escaped the inning without further damage. Santion returned to the mound for the seventh inning. Rojos hit an infield single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. Reds then walked Otani intentionally before Muki Betts hit his third double of the night making it 82 Dodgers. and Santion yielded to Chase Burns with one out and runners on second and third. Freeman grounded out to Matt Mlan and Ellie made a phenomenal play behind the mound to erase Tay Oscar Hernandez and end the inning without damage. Gavin Lux led off the eighth with a single to left, but the ball was missed by Kik Hernandez, allowing Lux to advance to second. Austin Hayes then walked. Sal Stewart singled to right, scoring Lux. Ellie then walked to load the bases with no outs yet again. Tyler Stevenson sent the first pitch he saw to left field for a sacrifice fly, making it 84. Dave Roberts then made a surprising move, making a pitching change with a one-two count to Will Benson. Francona countered with Miguel Andrew to face the lefty Alex Vessia with two strikes on him. Andar proceeded to swing at the first pitch, a fast ball a foot above the strike zone to strike out. Mlan then walked to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate, but TJ Fredel struck out looking to end the threat with the score stuck at eight to four. Chase Burns retired the Dodgers in order in the bottom of the eighth, but Roi Sasaki set the Reds down in order in the ninth. The Reds season comes to an end as they fall to the Dodgers 8 to4 and 02 in the Wildcard Series. All right. Uh, unfortunately, the deep drive of the day is going to be a single. Would have been cool to have a deep drive of the day actually be a home run to end the season, but it’s not going to be. Uh, Sal Stewart would single through the light uh through the right side. Gavin Lux would ultimately score. That would jump the win probability for your Cincinnati Reds up to a whopping 5%. As we all know, it would wind up being 0%. But as always, DSC is a leader in renewable commodities for bofuel production, specializing in used cooking, oil collection, aggregation, and sales. Visit www.deepsouthmise.com for more information. And thank you to John and his team. Uh that’s another thing really to get into to a certain extent here is just the the amount of the amount of people that support the show. John and and and DSC and is is a huge huge huge part of allowing us to do what we do. So I just want to say thank you to to uh John and Deep South Commodities for their support and what we do. So, um, we also got the early early early early Black Friday 50% off sitewide. I got to tell you, I got I got a nice package upstairs. I still got a couple more things to get to through that Omaha Stakes package, but I got some sirloins already knocked out. Sirloins already knocked out. Hot dogs already knocked out. Uh, the only thing left are the there was there was four apple um there was four apple desserts, Nick. I’ve eaten two and I still got two waiting. And then tonight just might be the night. So, Nick, I know you like some Omaha steaks. I got a nice package upstairs. Come on. Keep it together, man. I mean, what are we doing? He wonders why you wonder why you got 10 kids. I bring up two things on this stream that might actually bring up something that, you know, could be a little bit of an end window. And there you go. You run with it. Go to omahalaststakes.com and getif Go to omahastaloststakes.com and get 50% off sitewide, plus an extra 20% off select favorites and more limited time deals during their early Black Friday sale. Early what? Use promo code Chatterbox at checkout for an extra $35 off. Minimum purchase may apply. site for details. Oh, bro. I bet that’s what the marketing folks at all was looking for. Shout out to us at Chatterbox Reds. Hopefully, they’ll be back better than ever tomorrow. Not not tomorrow, but next year. Uh, we’ll see. We’ll find out. If you don’t mind, please, if there ever was a time, go get you some Omaha Stakes. Use the code Chatterbox. And who knows, maybe they’ll come back. What a season. What a season. What a year. What a show. Uh, all right, let’s get into it. Uh Reds, they load the bases twice, Nick. Uncapable of getting, I guess, what you would call the uh the crooked number hit that would allow this team to kind of maybe get themselves either break the game open or not break it open, let’s be clear, give themselves an advantage and or get themselves back into a game that just didn’t happen, Nick. Yeah, the first time up, Austin A’s came up with the bases loaded, your cleanup hitter. Tito riding with the guy that’s a veteran that has not hit right-handed pitching great throughout his career, has been a significantly lesser hitter against right-handed pitching than Noel Marte, the Statcast numbers would say, than Will Benson. Um, and Hayes hit a weak ground ball that that ended up getting out at the plate and just kind of put a lot more pressure on South Stewart, who had a great night tonight. had two hits um in an incredible environment for uh a guy that was the the youngest player ever to start a postseason game for your Cincinnati Reds. But yeah, I mean that at bat by Austin Hayes, not the the only at bat that cost the game, but just really set that whole inning up for um things not to go well. And uh yeah, I mean they had their they had their chances in this game. Um that to blow it open and then it just felt like after that point right there, it just snowballed and uh there was nothing that could put uh that could put an end to it. Yeah, it was, as you said, kind of a domino effect. I think that ultimately it wasn’t a horrific swing that I felt like Austin Hayes put on it, but it wasn’t obviously the swing that you’d like to have. He put the ball in play. I’ll give him credit for that. Mookie Betts made a play to decide to throw the ball home and take the lead runner out there. He could have turned a double play relatively easily. I thought it was a mistake to to to throw the ball home. Turns out it wasn’t because we stranded the runners there. Um, South Stewart kind of got free swinging a little bit, unfortunately expanded the zone and so did Ellie. I think two inexperienced hitters in a in a huge spot in the postseason showed their inexperience and they they kind of allowed maybe the circumstance to to kind of get in the way of the process and unfortunately they they didn’t produce and and give the Reds an opportunity to to to build on the momentum that they had by getting uh the bases loaded with nobody out. And it kind of goes back to the point we’ve made all year, Nick, where it’s like it’s just really hard against good teams and especially high pressure situations to kind of continue to find ways to get on base. Uh getting six, seven guys on base before you make three outs just seems unrealistic. And that’s ultimately what happened tonight. Sal Stewart had a nice night. Had a nice night. Just the one time where you kind of needed him to get the big hit. He didn’t get the big hit. He struck out and then obviously Ellie struck out right behind him. So yeah, a tough spot. And then al ultimately they they had another opportunity late in the game to kind of bring the tying run back. They brought the tying run to the plate in a shocking manner, I think, in the eighth inning. And it just once again, you just uh were incapable of incapable of producing. And uh to be to be fair though, honestly, Nick, if you would have told us before this series started that this spreads team was going to score five runs game one, four runs game two, you’re going to get a lot of people sign up for that. So, I’m not going to sit here and make it out like they were absolutely horrible. Uh because I don’t think that they were. They just unfortunately were playing a team that was putting a lot of runs on the board, put a lot of pressure on this offense, and they they um they missed their opportunities, I guess, if you want to call it that tonight. Yeah, and I mean it’s just I’m not trying to to jump topics, but um you know, it just kind of goes right into to the bullpin as well. And uh you know, you had an opportunity to keep the game close. It was a 3-2 game. Um Francona go decides to bring in Nick Martinez, which was a perfectly fine spot. It was Kiki Hernandez, Miguel Rojos, and their backup catcher dup. Perfect spot for for him. Um but uh a couple guys get on base, one of them via an air by Sal Stewart and um then Shoi Otani comes up with runners on I believe the corners with one out. Yeah. Um and Show Otani is is the best player on on Earth, but he does have some swing and miss. and Nick Martinez, a guy that I like, guy that I think was was valuable for this team. Not $21 million valuable, but was valuable in some capacity for this team. That’s not the spot to use him as a reliever when you need to get a strikeout to kind of keep your season alive. You had a guy like Chase Burns. you had a guy like Tony Santion that could have come in and and maybe the same result happens, but at least you would have gone down with a guy that has the capability of striking out show Otani and Franka decided just to let Martinez go out there and he lets Martinez face Otani. gives up a single. Um, hit 102 off the bat, lets him face Betts, gives up a double, hit 100 off the bat, uh, intentionally walks Nick Martinez, uh, and then lets him face Tioscar Hernandez and gives up a double at 104 off the bat. And the game felt like that point it was it was over 72 and and some people like, well, it doesn’t matter. Well, then you watch the Dodgers bullpen and you’re like, man, if you could have held them to one run, maybe even two runs in that inning. This game has a chance of being completely different. Yeah. You you’d like to see what the Dodgers bullpen was capable of doing when when it’s a one-run game, let alone when they were completely, you know, falling apart when they had a sizable lead. So, um I think this leads right into the maybe the biggest question of the night in my opinion, uh which is what what happened with Nicolo? Um you know, the plan was Zack Latell was going to go out there and kind of be an opener. Some suggested that maybe he was only going to throw one inning. You had mentioned maybe you try to get him through the first first six, six, seven hitters. um he did a great job and you turned the ball over to Lollo and you felt like okay this is the guy that’s gonna kind of carry it for the rest of the game and then try to get you to a spot in my opinion where you turn the ball over to the guys that you trust the most and and Santion and Pagan and you maybe even throw in like I know Ashcraft threw threw yesterday but you know regardless you get my point and it just didn’t happen. I don’t know if he got hurt. I I’m going to need to know what exactly happened, but he didn’t look like he was hurt and he certainly looked like he was capable of throwing the ball well and getting some outs and then just inexplicably he’s out of the game. So, I got to tell you, Nick, it it’s it’s going to be a really really tough tough question going into the offseason if if Lollo did get hurt or was in had some flare up on his his blister or had a flare up with his groin. You know, I know that um the offseason talk will be the offseason talk, but it just kind of continues to have this huge huge spiraling question mark over Lolo’s head. Um or maybe Tito decided they that he thought that it was a better move to just take him out, which if that’s the case, Nick, I I give up. Yeah, that would have been pretty crazy in my opinion. You should have let him go at least through that Otani and then it gets to Freeman and Muny one more time. My my guess looking back on it now now that you have some time and kind of looking through how the game was is they felt like Lollo had two innings max and so they wanted to have him just go through that that as he came in actually their nine hole hitter as a lefty right ahead of Otani their first I think they they thought we could get him through one time and that was it. That has to be it. If it’s not it then yes I have no idea what the logic was. Um because Nicholo was an incredible pitcher this year. Um and in terms of Nicolo, even if he ended the year not on a perfect bill of health, um I’m still going to chalk this year up healthwise is a smashing success for Nicolo, even though it might not feel like it ended great. Uh throwing 156 innings after not throwing more than 115. Pitching in 30 games counting this postseason after not pitching in more than 21. I mean, that’s a big step for Nicolo. Um, and it doesn’t seem like any of if there was an injury, obviously, it wasn’t that severe because he pitched today. So yes, I get like like anytime there’s any issue with Lollo, it’s it’s going to be magnified because it’s been a constant concern with them, but I think at the end of the year, I feel drastically more confident in Nicolo’s health than I did at the year before. Now, you’re never going to feel great, incredibly confident about any pitcher, but I feel a lot more confident than I did four months ago. Yeah, it’ll be interesting to see what other teams value Nick Lollo as well. I know that ultimately last off season um we, you know, we don’t try to spread rumors or anything of that nature, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that they were definitely in the market for trying to get rid of or or not get rid of I don’t want to make it sound like that, but they they were interested in what kind of deals that possibly would be at their disposal with Nick Liddolo. The question is now what what ultimately will happen this offseason with him. But unfortunately tonight just um you know I I I I guess maybe um I I I will also let me say this my my doing the live streams and watching the games. It’s a little more difficult to process as much as I normally would when I’m watching these games by myself. So I don’t want to make it sound like I I’m completely clueless on this show. I just want to openly say that before I say what I’m going to say. I just felt like maybe you’d just ride Lollo because it’s the season’s over if you don’t win. And he looked good and he felt like a guy that just came off of a career game. I get that he threw in Milwaukee. I understand that. But at the end of the day, I just would have liked to have at least seen him get in trouble. Maybe that’s not the right way to go about it. But if you’re going to tell me that our next best options were to to just let Nick Martinez continue to let guys get on base and not take him out and be desperate, then why are we being so desperate with Lolo, but that’s here nor there. It’s water under the bridge. And to be frank, I don’t know if it mattered. I’m I’m not trying to be overly critical here. The Dodgers are better. They beat us eight to four. It’s not like we lost another one-run game, Nick. It mattered in terms of giving yourself a chance in this game to to steal a game. Uh for sure. I mean, Nicolo uh faced five batters, retired all of them on 14 pitches, only gave up one hard hit ball, and that one hard hit ball was a whopping 0.8 above the threshold for a hard hit ball, and that was a show Otani a 95.8 mile per hour flyyou. Most of the contact he got was incredibly weak contact. Uh, and actually the only hit he allowed was uh hit a whopping 30 miles per hour off the Dodgers backup catcher that I don’t know how to say his name and I’m not going to try to. Um, so yeah, I mean Lola was incredibly effective for a guy that if he is hurt, um, that’s why you didn’t pitch him as deep as you did. So yeah, to your point, what he did today didn’t make you think, well, why couldn’t he have tried with your season on the line to go another inning? That’s very fair. I I I also say that there’s a chance that it it has something to do with what what maybe there’s this belief system in the offseason of what they want to do. And I don’t want to I don’t want to be overly speculative on this show or anything like that, but I just want to openly say that I’m not I I’m not putting it past it that there was a conversation had about the way that they’re going to manage Nick Lollo in a realistic chance of them making any sizable difference. They didn’t want to take their chances on him having some major catastrophic situation happen right at the tail end of the year. Go into that off seasonason with no leverage at all to use. And there you go. So I I know that sounds like tin foil hat conspiracy theory guy, but it just wouldn’t shock me. That’s because it it just didn’t put it this way. for a team that had to win to stay alive. It didn’t feel like if you had someone that looked that good, you were managing like it was game seven of the World Series, per se. It felt like you were managing it a little differently, but that’s here nor there. So, um, yeah, I don’t know. I obviously don’t know if there’s a back half here, Nick, but ultimately I guess at this point that the Dodgers are are a better team and they deserve to win. And I’m happy to I’m I’m happy to admit that. Not not trying to hide behind it or anything like that, but um you know, I I guess to put a put to put a little bit of a bow around just the overall thought process of 2025, I don’t think it was a great season. Uh I certainly don’t think it was a a poor or bad or anything like that. I just think that it was a it was a it was an average season that had some highs and some lows and now moving forward I guess it’ll be interesting to see what the kind of the makeup and the decision-m will be going forward on what they want to do because on one hand I thought pitching and defense mattered a lot but then on the other it felt like we are now moving guys positions to try to get their bat up here guy like S Stewart who you know I don’t know if he was going to be like you said a third baseman or not But they clearly made that decision when they went and got Cabrian Hayes that he’s not going to be a third baseman. Um what happens with um you know some of the other prospects like CES and and and these are all decisions that that that certainly can get made in the offseason and we’ll wait to find out. But yeah, it’s uh just, for lack of a better term, to my to my uh thought process right now, just it was a roller coaster and it was frustrating. And it was frustrating because I thought they were good enough to be better than they were. But I also understand that maybe I’m just being a little unrealistic about how good this roster was because I’ll openly admit that I don’t think they have that many great players from a lineup perspective hitters-wise. So, you know, I can’t have it both ways. Yeah, it was it was frustrating like in in like June that you looked up and this team wasn’t better than what they were and I but I think at that point like I had kind of accepted this is not our year and I had kind of moved on. Well, then they did kind of rally and somehow found their way into the playoffs. And I think that’s a good thing. Like I think there there’s there’s going to be some takes about how it doesn’t matter, you know, they just got lucky to get in the playoffs because of the Mets and it doesn’t matter at all. I don’t agree with that at all. Um I I don’t think that it’s something that you should say, oh well, they made the playoffs. They don’t need to make serious um I don’t want to say changes, but but fixes to improve their team. Yeah, they absolutely need to have a aggressive off season and make smart decisions to improve their roster. Um, but look, I I think that it’s good experience for any of these guys uh to get a couple games in the playoffs to kind of see what that’s like, to get a little bit of a taste of it. I think it’s great to see a guy like Chase Burns look really good at the end of a playoff game. Yes, it was, you know, in some ways out of hand, but um good to see him and he finished the year. Um, and it’s good to see see guys like Ellie, good to see South Stewart. I mean, young as he is to get to play in some playoff games and kind of in some ways you get to see a little bit of what South Stewart’s made of um when he plays in a game like today. Yes, he had the one the one at bat I was going to talk about, but man, he had two other really good at bats and had two big hits in this game. Um so yeah, I think that’s all all good stuff for this team going forward, but it doesn’t mean that there’s not serious questions that need answered. um some even I would say philosophies that need altered um and and overall a roster that needs to fit better. And I will say I think that the Reds got to the end of this year and I I hope that now the puzzle is a little clearer on on what works and what doesn’t. It’s not not crystal clear, but I I hope that you say, “Okay, well, we’ll we’re going to go with the more defensive aligned team, but as I was saying during the show, it’s fine if we’re going to we’re going to go all in on defense for for third base, shorts stop, second base, and center field, but we have got to have our left fielder, our right fielder, our first baseman, and our DH be above average hitters. We have got to have those players carry the load offensively. And South Stewart could be an option there to be a guy that could carry. Um, Noel Marte could be a guy that could could carry right field. And I’ll even say it just one more time to to make the haters mad. Will Benson could be at least a a 60% of uh of that as a platoon option. Um, but yeah, you have to have those spots carry the weight if you’re going to go with the more defensive-minded team. We’ll see what they ultimately end up doing. Uh, as far as the term great season, I just don’t I just don’t think I can give it that grade. Um, maybe it’s just too close and the the the I don’t know. It’s just hard for me to say it was a great season. I know they made the postseason for the first time in a long time. I get the idea that uh that they ran into the Dodgers. So, how can you possibly judge the entire season off of just two games against the Dodgers? That’s probably a little unfair. And it took them to get into the postseason until 162, but just my brain won’t allow me to get past the idea that realistically speaking in the final game of the year, they went out, they put a lineup that had Trevinho, Hayes, Mlan in the last three slots of the lineup, and they didn’t feel like they managed that game with any sense of urgency. And fortunately for the Cincinnati Reds, the Miami Marlins won a baseball game that allowed them to get in the postseason, but we didn’t control that. Our organization had nothing to do with that. And the Mets completely collapsed. And maybe you’re going to say that that’s overly pessimistic and that I’m that I’m always, you know, looking at the the the negative side of things. I’m just openly saying that we didn’t control any of that. Um, and thankfully they fell apart and it allowed us to get to the postseason. But I think we’re a far cry away from, you know, being a competitive team that’s capable of actually ex executing and making a sizable difference in the postseason. You somewhat saw it in this postseason attempt, but I’d even say we got to find a way to compete with the Cubs. We got to find a way to compete with the Brewers. I know the Brewers probably played a little bit over their head this year. That’s fine. But you can’t finish 16, 17 games behind a divisional opponent that spends less money than you, Nick. That can happen. And we’ve got to find a way to try to scratch and claw and get ourselves a little bit closer to that. I’m not saying they got to make it all up in one year, but we’ve got to start to try to find ways to be a little more competitive in this division. And hopefully that starts next year. But I’m not going to say it’s a great season just because you get in the postseason and then you get your brakes beat off of you. So that’s just kind of hopefully people understand that. I’m not trying to be negative. I’m just being completely blunt and honest about how I feel. And hopefully uh they they they’ve spent a little bit of money in in the offseason and they hit because Jamie and Candelarios of the world, the Nick Martinez of the world. You do spend money, Nick, but you need you can’t you just can’t miss. And I’m not trying to say it’s all Nick Crawl’s fault, but he’s going to have to find a way to not miss that bad if he decides to go out into the free agent market again and make a splash. It’s only a great season if this is a stepping stone towards next year being a really great season. That’s the only way that I can look back on this. But you see teams like this that get into the playoffs as kind of that last team and it was their first step towards them being great. And you also see teams that that get in here and that’s it. Uh the Miami Marlins come to mind, a team that snuck into the playoffs and the next year they were the one of the worst teams in baseball. I don’t think the Reds have that that going for them. I think they still have a um a obviously a competitive roster. Uh, for me, I I don’t think the Reds are maybe as far off as I think a lot of people are going to think. I think that because the offense was so brutal to watch a lot of this year, it makes the team not feel as good as it was. This team has incredible pitching and they’re going to win ugly. Even if they improve on the offense, they’re still going to probably win kind of ugly and that wins. It’s not a sexy brand of baseball, but the Milwaukee Brewers, I think it looks sexy to us because they beat the crap out of the Reds. But I think if you watch that team every day, it probably don’t feel as as wow, you know, maybe not this year because they won so many games. But a lot of those other years where they were maybe like that 88 89 win team, it didn’t feel that way. And this team left a lot of games on the table. We’ve talked about it all year. They left a lot of games where there w there was not enough of the games that they stole versus the games that they gave away. So again, I don’t think they’re that far off. But I think that for for me, I think the Reds could roll out of bed next year and win 87 games if just a couple things go right. But man, I’d really like to see them put the the pedal to the floor and try to maybe win 92 games or maybe even hell be the Milwaukee Brewers if everything goes right and then have to make some some real changes and some some tough changes and and some some tough trades and some tough pieces. Um, and maybe even ownership pwning up just a little bit to get that that one player that fits that can help get this team over the top. We we’ll we’ll find out um here in the near future. Uh as always uh a friendly reminder here, you can text and or call 988 day or night as anonymous hotline uh for a suicide and uh crisis lifeline. Please, please, please make sure that you check on your friends and your loved ones from time to time. And understand that 988 is always a resource that you can turn to day or night. Again, it’s a 247 anonymous hotline. You can also visit manap.org or to get help. It’s okay to not be okay. All right, we have some super chats and they are big ones and we are very very appreciative of everybody that has supported us in this show. U so let’s get back to them. Um uh I know that uh we stop with um where are we at here? I want to make sure I don’t miss anybody. I think we’re at Mike Dean. Yeah, I see Mike Dean on the West Coast. TR uh on on West Coast Tito Sundowns before the first pitch. Um John Thompson says, “Thanks for the show, guys. I appreciate it. Go Reds.” Thank you, John. Thank you, Mike, as well for the super. Clint said, uh Sal Stewart, I lost the team, the game. Can one of the vets talk like him of that mindset? Is that what he said? Yeah. I mean, I I I um What a freaking guy, man. I like that. I I’ll be honest with you. I like that. I really do appreciate that. I I tell you what, I mean, sometimes some people will think that that’s a negative trait to have if if you’re really really critical of yourself sometimes. I I don’t know if it’s if it’s always the best version to sit there and be that critical of yourself, but I’ll tell you this, that guy got some big hits tonight. I mean, he he he got two hits. There’s a lot of guys on this team that can say they haven’t gotten two hits sometimes in a month. I I got to give him credit though. He came up in a big spot and obviously he feels terrible about it. He knows it was a big spot. And uh the truth is is that I like that kid. He’s going to be a he’s going to be a fine player if he has that attitude. And like you said, Nick, he he’s he’s got a reputation of working really really hard. And I hope I hope he continues to find success and and and um you know, it’s it’s easy to get sentimental and and and root for guys when you get a chance to see obviously the uh the game, his his MLB debut and his parents and and his dad and the way that he was emotional and the story behind all of that and um so good for South Stewart. Um, so that was a that’s a that’s a crazy quote to be honest with you, but thank you for the super. I hope I hope the Reds uh I hope the Reds tell South Stewart, you’re our first baseman next year, spend all offseason working on it because I I think that kid will work his tail off and I think he gets the spring training and I think he’s I don’t think he’s a great first baseman right but you you get you let that guy work at first base, he’ll be a he’ll be an above average defensive first baseman. I agree. I I I completely agree. Um, uh, let’s see here. Michael Roth, once again, 50 bomb. Just crazy. Absolutely. Roth Roth is in a is in a league of his own. Um, Nutter Nation there. He says, “The biggest question, and we’ll we’ll use this to jump into the uh into the next topic here, and then we will finish with Sean Kutka’s super chat as we wrap up the show.” Uh, but uh, Ralph says, “Actually, let’s do this. Suzu Sean Crook is not to talk off season two super chats. That one’s not popping up unless you click on the red FYI. What? Ralph’s got a 100 super chat and it’s not even Yeah. Holy smokes. Yeah, I see it. Rough. My gosh, brother. What can I say? Trace and Nick. Every end of the season feels like high school graduation movie. We We don’t get to see your shining faces every single day. Chatterbox Red’s offseason schedule. Also, YouTube suggested multiple Bear related videos today foreshadowing Nick’s hibernation. Yes, I’m forcing him to go into hibernation. He needs to take a break and relax and breathe and get a chance to to to take care of the the home life for a bit. And uh nobody needs to no listen, I’m going to tell everybody this right now. No one needs to hear anything about the Reds, okay? until the World Series is at least over. Okay. Now, Nick’s going to probably get a hair up his tail and want to do something. And I’m going to tell him that he needs to realize that sometimes you just you take a chill pill. Nothing’s gonna if if if something crazy happens, sure, we’ll be here. We’ll be back better than ever. We need to take a break. Nick’s been working his tail off. He needs to he needs to find a little more what we’ll call balance here in the next few weeks. So, he said the end of this week, I’m I’m going to force him to take longer than that off, unless he’s going to absolutely hate my guts for it, which he shouldn’t, but that’s his decision, not mine. Um, let’s keep moving here. Thank you, Raw, for that super chat. I’m going to read your next super chat. Uh, he said, “The biggest question for the Reds off season is to figure out blistergate. The Reds postseason baseball was awesome. Last night was fun. Tonight was fun. Thank you both. Let’s break down uh let’s break the tube and like the show. Chatterbox Sports forever. Thank you, Roth. Thank you for everybody for still being in here. If you haven’t already, like the stream, subscribe to the channel. That’d mean a lot to us. And um we’ll keep it moving. Shot says, “Not to talk offseason again, but it’s hard to imagine them doing much spending with a lockout likely the next season.” Yes, we’ll get into that all off seasonason. It’ll be interesting because I mean ultimately that might help them maybe. I don’t know how they’re going to do that. It feels like they might prorrate contracts possibly if there’s a shortened season. So, you might get off the hook for some bigger contracts. I don’t know. Like, you could take you could you could take it both ways. You could say that, you know, you I don’t know. Small markets, too, might also feel they might also feel a little more brave because they feel like they’re going to get they’re going to get some things that they never got before because clearly the the the commissioner, I think, is on their side. I feel like the commissioner believes that there is way too many inequities in the game and it’s making the game a little more difficult to grow. I’m not going to sit here and say they’re going to go out and spend a ton of money, but you could argue it both ways. That’s all I would say. Joshua says, “Big off season coming up. Love you, brothers. Next year.” Thank you, Joshua. Appreciate that. And Davis Rafferty says, “Well, boys, there’s always next year. Appreciate you guys doing the show every every night. I look forward to it night in and night out.” Thank you, Davis. And uh yeah, always next year as long as, God willing, you never know, hit by a bus tomorrow and last thing I’d get to see is the Los Angeles Dodgers taking it to the woodshed at your Reds. But you know what? I hope for I hope for it and I’m looking forward to next year. Um as long as we can find a way to to make our season better. And you know how it goes, Nick. You’re tired at the end of the year and give yourself a couple weeks and January comes around and you’re like, “Ah, let’s find a way to do this again.” So the winter meetings come around, brother, and I’ll be all in. But nonetheless, the uh that’s the uh that’s the end of those supers. So folks are asking obviously in the supers, they’re already talking about the offseason. I guess if you want to share kind of a little bit of a gist of of some offseason calendar stuff and this has kind of been a tradition. I think I’ve done this every year the last show. So why not? Why not? Fortunately, I did get this ready ahead of time just in case tonight was the the end. and uh seems like probably was a good decision. All right, here’s what’s coming up in the off season for those uh at home just because uh you may be wondering few more that that didn’t make the uh the old list here, but uh here’s what’s coming. These are tentative dates because there’s no official calendar yet. So, I’m going off of last year and I tried to uh uh figure out the closest. So, free agency will begin. This will either be November 2nd through 6th. It’s 5 days after the World Series ends. contract option decisions that will fall between likely November 6th through the 9th. The deadline to make qualifying offers falls between November 6th through the 9th. The qualifying offer decision falls between November 18th through 20th. And the really interesting things mostly for the Reds will be the nontender deadline. Uh that will be where probably Santiago Espanol is no longer a red. Um, I’ll look a little bit deeper when we do uh our our first kind of preview of that as to everyone that would be on there, but that would be the kind of guy to tender Santiago Espanola contract um players of that nature. Um then the MLB winner meetings are December 8th through 10th. That’s obviously where a lot of action happens. We did a lot of content then. That’ll be fun. The draft lottery was part of that. The rule five draft part of that. It’ be nice to see the Reds pick up someone good. the rule five draft is they have just had a bunch of nobbodyies. Uh then in in January you have the arbitration filing deadline. Um that will be interesting. That’s more in terms of u trying to figure out contracts. A guy like Gavin Lux could be a guy that could be a guy that could be disputed where he thinks he’s worth more than he is. Um just as an example. And then Redsfest is January 16th through the 17th. They’re doing it in January of this year. Uh so we’ll try to do something along the lines. I’m going to try to come down for that if I can. I don’t know exactly if I’ll have any official capacity for that, but I would love to be down there and love to maybe uh maybe we could do something with Chatterbox, but stay tuned for all that. Lot more of that off season. Um I will cool down here over the next month. I promise. I can’t promise I’m not going to do nothing because this is the one thing I actually like doing. I like doing want to make it a lot more than making Tik Toks about the Bengals to be honest. So, can you find someone to make a Tik Tok of the Bengals and let me talk about the Reds trace? Uh, I kid. But, uh, but no, seriously though, when we get into when we get into November and December, when we first started this trace, I thought, let’s just do one video a week for Red’s content in the offseason just to kind of keep something on the channel. Like literally that was our conversation after 2023 was just to have the channel active. Well, like we there’d be a rumor that the Reds might be interested in Josh Naylor and like 5,000 people would watch these stupid videos. So, if you’re going to keep watching the stupid videos, I’m going to keep making the stupid videos. So, if you don’t want them, you better stop watching. Um, but no, I love doing this. I love talking about this. And the great thing is I have guys like Craig and Mike that can help me out. And the more guys like that can help me out that I can we can jump on and bounce ideas off of each other. It’s a lot less preparation time I have to do and so we’ll be able to get more content out. So stay tuned. We’ll have content on offseason. I promise I won’t go crazy over the next couple weeks, but we’ll get there. We’ll have a lot of content hopefully. And I got a couple ideas, too, but I got to make sure they they all pan out before I say anything else. Okay. All right. We we’ll find out. All right. Uh, I’m going to bring in one more person that’s obviously been a been been a large part of not just Chatterbox Reds, but Chatterbox Bengals as well. And, um, you know, the reality is he’s been behind the scenes for the past, I don’t know, month and a half. It’s it’s felt like. I I don’t know when you signed up for this job, Craig, but we appreciate you doing it. I uh Yeah, it’s been a tough a tough stretch of baseball here of late. When they played meaningful games, you felt like you’re half in, half out, but uh tonight’s the final night. Craig, any uh I guess overarching thoughts that uh that you that you heard throughout the two hours that you’re passionate enough about sharing now, man. I mean, like you guys, I’m kind of sad that it’s over, but um you know, we had a lot of fun this year and there are a lot of memories that the three of us made. Mike obviously being a part of it as well. Definitely. um Corey and and among others into the pregame show uh don’t necessarily give the love as much as the postgame show, but they definitely put in a ton of work and and effort to make it work and uh we appreciate them for that. And then Andrew Collinssworth, who you guys don’t see on Chatter’s Box Reds, but uh you’ll see on Chatterbox Bengals a lot doing a lot of the uh social media work while Nick is able to focus on this for an hour or so after the game allows uh allows Nick to really just focus on the show. O want to give Andrew a shout out as well. Um look, tonight’s game was was similar to last night. You know, things got away from them in certain situations and you know, we’re going to question decisions. We’re going to question moves and all that stuff and it is what it is. I I I you guys know my internet’s being wonky, so if you talked about it, I apologize for bringing it up again. They stuck with Nick Martinez for way too long. The fact that they went with him in that situation to begin with was a little weird. Chase Burns looked amazing yet again. Uh so excited for him in 2026 and beyond. I know we had a super chat about that. And then uh not to be negative, but the 6789 hole tonight uh 0 for12 with eight strikeouts. Meanwhile, the 6789 spots for the Los Angeles Dodgers had seven hits. We had more strikeouts than that. So, um, tough tough night nonetheless, but appreciate you guys having me on for a couple minutes at least. I think, uh, if my timing is correct, I’ve got about six minutes until my internet kicks me off yet again. So, uh, nonetheless, here we are. And, uh, it’s been fun and I look forward to an off season of a lot of great content and overthinking every single rumor that hits the rumor mill. And I hope Nick has an opportunity to spend some time with his newborn and um I know I’m going to spend a couple extra days a week with with my family. So, looking forward to that as well. Yeah, final thanks. I I just want to say final thanks to to our families in general. Um it’s part of the show that you try not to get emotional about, but I got to be honest with you folks. I I know that people think that this is just a baseball show. you get on here every single night, you talk about it, it’s fun, but uh but there’s just there’s just uh there’s a lot of time. There’s a lot of time that you just take away from your family on a night um every single night of the of of the summer for the most part. And you’re watching the game for two two and a half hours, then you get on a show, you do an hour show, and then you you know, by the time you you get you get back, everybody’s asleep. And that doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean that I’m complaining. I hope people don’t take it that way. Yeah, it’s more or less just my gratitude for all of the families that are involved for what we do. And I just want to say thank you to them because they’re the real backbone of this whole thing. If if my wife were to look at me and say, “Hey, you can’t do that show anymore.” I as much as I love all of you and as much as I love this show, I got to be honest with you, I love my wife more. And I I just I’ve never been put in that spot. Obviously, Andrea and and uh and obviously Craig, we’ve not been put in that spot where we’ve been had an ultimatum. At least not yet. I I say that jokingly, but you know, I I just I just I just got to say thank you to them. Um because realistically speaking, they’re the ones that make this whole thing go because they do all the dirty work while we sit here and we talk baseball and on on a night in night out basis. And and yeah, it it certainly doesn’t probably look from the outside looking in like it’s it’s that hard of a job or it’s that big of a commitment or any of those types of things. And I’m not here, trust me, my both of my grandparents worked in a factory and steel mill for for 35 40 years. And I’m not here to sit here and suggest that by all means that I that that that’s it’s the world’s hardest work. But I do understand the sacrifice that that our wives and families make every single night uh every single night uh to to to allow us to do this. and and um you know I just I just want to say thank you to all of them and obviously thank you to you guys but but uh I just when you live this and you do it long enough you know what the ins and outs of it are and I don’t know how many people totally understand the the commitment levels that go into this to be able to try to do it at a high enough level where people can be proud about it but I just uh want to make that the kind of final parting thought as we head into what will be the offseason for the next 2026 year is that thank you to our wives. Thank you to our kids and thank you to um basically anyone else that uh that loves us that unfortunately uh doesn’t maybe get the time that perhaps they would like out of us because we do this show. But um one final time, thank you to all of you. One more thing, Trace. Go ahead. 4 450 people still watching this stupid show at 1:15 in the morning. Yeah, I mean, it goes without saying, I think, but I’m going to say it anyway. We literally couldn’t do it without you guys. Uh, if you’re looking for more Cincinnati Sports content, uh, when we are taking this break, um, I’m going to pin a link to our Discord channel now in the YouTube chat. if you’re not already in there. Uh there not only are the three of us in there, but a ton of other passionate Cincinnati sports fans are in there as well who would love to chat Cincinnati sports with you all off seasonason long and throughout the rest of the Bengals season. So that’s right. Look forward to chatting with you guys in there as well. Yep. Uh just click that Discord link and you can get in there and there’s plenty of channels that you can find something that you’re interested in and and you’re basically in the chat 247 or whether you want to be in there or not. But, uh, really tons of other content. Tons of other content here on Chatterbox Sports. Off the bench, 10 a.m. to noon every day. Show Stone Shield Show 11:00 a.m. Uh, Chatterbox Bengals, all kinds of content. FC Cincinnati, the Flying Lion, Chatterbox Bearcats, those guys have really been ramping up, doing a lot of stuff. So, lots of other content here. Uh, Chatterbox Sports does not go away. Chatterbox Sports never sleeps. We’re always here. Um, appreciate the support. uh echoing everything Trey said about my wife uh who is just incredible to help me do the show and and Craig and Mike uh helped me help my wife as well. So, it was a a a team effort. It takes a village. It takes a village, guys. It does. It does take a village. Noah Downing on the way out the door. Thank you for being a member for three months. He says, “Thank you for all service.” Thank you, Noah. And thank you everybody. If you haven’t hit the like button, please do so on the way out and uh subscribe to the channel because as Nick just said, we never do sleep around here. It feels like from a Chatterbox sports perspective and you can get an opportunity to to to to take in as much Cincinnati sports as you humanly would like. So until the next time, enjoy the playoffs. The Reds are not in it, but enjoy some more baseball and we’ll we’ll catch you on the flip side. Take care everybody. It’s been one hell of a ride. Some say it’s great, some say it’s terrible. I’d say it’s somewhere in the middle and it’s been a roller coaster. So see you everybody. Take care. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat.

Trace Fowler and Nick Kirby recap the Cincinnati Reds loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2.

In the electric haze of Dodger Stadium, where the October air crackles with playoff promise, the Los Angeles Dodgers dispatched the Cincinnati Reds 8-4 on October 1, 2025, clinching their National League Wild Card Series in two games. What began as a gritty Reds upset bid in the first inning dissolved into a Dodgers masterclass, blending small-ball precision with opportunistic hitting. Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s surgical seven-inning gem anchored the victory, while Cincinnati’s late rally—five runs across the seventh and eighth—evoked ghosts of comebacks past, only to fizzle against a fortified bullpen. For the Dodgers, fresh off a 10-5 Game 1 rout fueled by five home runs, this sweep vaults them into the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, a rematch of last year’s epic clash.

For the Reds, a plucky 83-win squad that snuck into the dance as the No. 6 seed, the dream ends short of Great American Ball Park’s hallowed turf.

The night unfolded under a balmy Southern California sky, with 53,212 fans roaring as if the World Series banner from 2024 still swayed in the breeze. Reds starter Zack Littell, a midseason acquisition from Tampa Bay with a deceptive 3.81 ERA, toed the rubber first, his curveball a whisper of hope for manager David Bell’s underdogs. But it was Yamamoto, the $325 million Japanese import in his sophomore MLB season, who stole the show. The 26-year-old right-hander, who dazzled in a July start against Cincinnati (seven innings, one run, nine Ks), retired 13 straight after an early blemish, fanning nine—a postseason high for him.

His arsenal of splitters and sliders danced, leaving Elly De La Cruz and Noelvi Marte flailing like shadows in the night.Cincinnati struck first, capitalizing on a rare Dodgers miscue. In the top of the first, Teoscar Hernández—hero of Game 1 with two bombs—misplayed Austin Hays’ fly ball in right, extending the inning. Rookie sensation Sal Stewart, the 20-year-old phenom batting cleanup, laced a two-run single to left, plating Hays and Matt McLain for a 2-0 lead. It marked the Reds’ first postseason lead since 2012, a nod to their scrappy ethos forged in a 79-83 regular season that defied odds.

Stewart’s hit, a seeing-eye grounder that eluded Freddie Freeman’s dive, ignited a sea of red in the stands, where pockets of Cincinnati faithful chanted for their “underdogs in tights.”Yet the Dodgers, perennial October predators with 64 playoff wins to Cincinnati’s zero, refused to wilt.

Yamamoto steadied, stranding runners and mowing down the heart of the order. Los Angeles clawed back in the third: Ben Rortvedt, the steady backstop, doubled to open the frame, and Mookie Betts’ RBI single trimmed the deficit to 2-1.

The tying run came in the fourth, Enrique Hernández—ever the postseason clutch hitter—drilling an RBI double to score Max Muncy, chasing Littell after 3 2/3 innings of four-hit ball. Miguel Rojas, subbing at second for the injured Tommy Edman, followed with an RBI single off lefty Nick Lodolo, putting LA ahead 3-2.

Rojas’ poke through the box exemplified the Dodgers’ opportunistic edge: 13 hits, including timely two-out knocks, against Cincinnati’s seven.The sixth inning cracked the game open, a four-run eruption that buried the Reds’ spirits. Shohei Ohtani, the two-time MVP whose Game 1 leadoff blast off Hunter Greene’s 100-mph heat set a tone of dominance (117.7 mph exit velo, his hardest-ever off a triple-digit pitch), drew a walk.

Betts singled, Freeman walked, and Will Smith—inserted for late-game pop—forced in a run with a bases-loaded walk. Hernández added another RBI single, his second of the night, swelling the lead to 7-2. Lodolo, Cincinnati’s vaunted lefty, labored through 1 1/3 innings, his command unraveling under Dodger Stadium’s pressurized glow.

By then, the Dodgers’ bench, deep as the Pacific, had flipped the script from Game 1’s long-ball fireworks to a symphony of contact.Cincinnati refused to fade quietly, their youth infusing defiance. In the seventh, De La Cruz’s RBI groundout scored TJ Friedl, and Tyler Stephenson’s double plated Spencer Steer, pulling within 7-4.

The eighth brought peril: bases loaded, one out, tying run at the dish. But Jack Dreyer, the Dodgers’ flamethrowing rookie, escaped with strikeouts of Stephenson and Ke’Bryan Hayes, his 98-mph heat painting corners like a maestro.

LA tacked on insurance in the bottom half—Rortvedt’s RBI single after a throwing error—before closer Evan Phillips slammed the door in the ninth.Statistically, the Dodgers’ edge gleamed: a .333 team batting average in the series, outhitting Cincinnati .295-.250, with Ohtani (3-for-8, 3 RBI) and Hernández (4-for-9, 4 RBI) as catalysts.