Cincinnati Reds lose to Washington Nationals, Brady Singer gives up 7 Runs LIVE MLB Chatterbox

Cincinnati Reds lose to Washington Nationals, Brady Singer gives up 7 Runs LIVE MLB Chatterbox

All right, Nick, here we go. Top nine trying to avoid a series opening loss to the Washington Nationals. And it looks like Kyle Finnean is going to try to shut it down. Um, I may have missed this. Where is Oh, no. We got the crackle. Uh, I can I can finish I can fix the crackle. It’s gonna It’s going to take a minute though. But I can fix the crackle, I think. Have to bear with me. I’m going to be muted. I’m gonna be I’m going to be muted for a minute. So, that’s just part of it. So, here here we go. I didn’t hear it when we were uh getting ready. All right. All right. Well, I’m going to be muted for a minute. I’m going to try to get this fixed. Matt Mlan with a lid off base hit for your Cincinnati Reds here in the uh top of the ninth. I haven’t heard a box score recap, so uh uh it’s not going well. I think Kyle Finnegan had a rough last outing. Finan uh shut out inning his last outing, but the two times before that gave up five earn runs and then three earned runs. So, uh I take one of those five earned runs. gave up five earned runs on Friday night to the Padres’s. All right. Maybe, maybe not. No. It’s still still there. Very pronounced. Okay. Well, let me see if I can. See if we can’t try to fix it a different way. Still pronounced. Trying to think what I turned down on Craig’s that it maybe say something. I’m saying some it’s bad. What did I fix for Craig? What was that setting? outside. I think I did the noise gate for Craig. I don’t know if that would that was the one or you know I think I did I did the the compressor too. Yeah. Compressor compressor and the noise gate was what uh still crackle. Yeah. So bad. My gosh. It’s always something, man. Yeah. That tough run out of here late. Oh, you got two runners on base. Um, I definitely can adjust the noise gate. I don’t know that with Craig it was background noise, so I don’t know if that’s, you know, obviously the same. It’s like the USB that goes in from the um road cer into the computer for whatever reason sometimes just frizzes out, I guess. I don’t know. I’m gonna keep unplugging things and plugging them back in. Hope for a miracle. Watch him come back and make this happen as I’m just running around with my head cut off. So, I’m going to keep doing it. I mean, I don’t know how they got two guys on, but we’ll take it. can’t throw strikes. So jeez, I mean, I don’t know. I don’t want to limit guys swinging two at pitches down the middle, but man, this dude can’t find the strike zone. And you just you give him an out. Benson in the onex circle. Did Benson enter the game? I didn’t even see that. Will Benson replaces Spencer Steer. Steer get hurt. I I literally didn’t even see this doing some stuff earlier. I was like, surely he’s not actually intentionally pinch hitting Spencer Will Benson for Spencer Steer. There we go. There we go. Uh oh. All right. Well, what happened to Steer? Did he get hurt? Did I miss this? I’m pulling up the chat. Does anyone know? Benson replaced Frey in right field. All right. Yeah, I missed that. I was getting ready. Come on. All right. All right. Well, no pressure on you. I know you haven’t hit in like a week, but you know, you’re coming into the biggest spot in the game. No big deal, big boy. Who’s on first? Lux. All right. First pitch was the one. All right. Um, not to jinx it, but I think I just heard the crackling. Damn. Is it It’s It’s a lot better. It’s significantly better, but it’s a lot better. I’m going to roll with it. If it gets really bad, then it is what it is. Start to work from it from there. All right. I’ve completely missed this ninth inning. So, that catcher just turned. He just did. He just turned. Pretty sure he’s turned almost turned all the way around and said something right here. He like rips his head back all right. I I might have missed this. I’m sure it’s been discussed. Where’s Sedak been? Is there I don’t know. I listen to the radio. Always say that, but I mean, I thought you’d be in the know. Where’s our guy at? The crackling’s like all the way back. Try this way. Say something. It’s gone. You’re really quiet. Just turn me down and make people have to crank their microphone. No, it’s When you did that, it got it came back. There we go. pop out the intro. Gonna try to find a fix for this. So, we’ll be right back. the bench. Change of the air to deep field. That goes from the team. Get out of here. 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. It was a sweep in the dirty. The Ohio won the game. That ball is fair. Cincinnati’s ahead. Two games to knock. Welcome Joe Rand to Cincinnati. Adam Dunn has done it again. Benzinger backing and calling. And the 1990 World Championship belongs to the Cincinnati Red. Yes. This is Adam from Milwaukee. Hey Adam, how you doing? I’m good. How are you? Good. Do you think Scott Henber is a good player? Done up there with the bases loaded. The outfield deep and around toward right to the 10 on the way to the plate. Swing on. Long drive right field and this one do their best and a high drive back into deep right field. Junior has just knocked the door down to the 500 club. Benson scores around a winner. That ball had a family. And Da Cruz is Oh my goodness. Look at this kid run. My oh my. That is a triple. Matt Mlan’s first big league pop. Spencer Steer’s first big league hit is a home run to straightaway center field. Jay Botto’s done it again. The pitch. Botto swings high in the air right field. Yes. He pointed to the dugout to say, “I told you.” That is Joey 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 MTO, thank you. High drive left center field racing back to the world. The rounds of National League Central Division champions in the air. wheel get the first ever you down the right field doesn’t have a chance. The Reds have won for a threerun home run day by Raone Hernandez. Strike away and out away is Homer Bailey. Round ball to third. Frasier gloves throw to first and Homer Bailey for the second time in his major league career has to know. Heat. Heat. in the first game in the air in a win. What a dream begin to career Bruce. All right, Nick. Um, the question of the day is going to be whether or not my microphone cooperates. And to be frank with you, I don’t know if I fixed it or not, but I I I took a absolute hail mary home run um that I think was a fix years ago on off the bench, but I don’t know if it’s going to fix it tonight. And if it does fix it, it’s a miracle. It genuinely is a miracle that I pulled that off the top of my head at the midnight hour. But if it doesn’t work, then I’m just going to say I’m sorry in advance. Thoughts? felt felt good for a second and then it it came back. Yeah. I don’t know what it is. Something obviously from a uh digital perspective because there’s nothing in the front of me that I that I can do to to fix this besides probably shut the whole entire program down, turn it back off, do the whole song and dance, which I don’t know if we have time for that. But um is uh is there any possibility uh throwing another Hail Mary out here? Yes. You know what? I don’t know if that that’s actually probably not a good idea because I have my headphones all the way up. So, if I turn you down anymore, I’m not going to hear you. So, well, the only other Hail Mary I can do one other thing. I don’t know if it’s wise. Um I can maybe pull the audio from I guess the the camera. Um it’s not going to sound great, but it’ll at least not be crackling in people’s ears. So, there’s that. But um we can try it. You can tell me what you think. See what we I would say let’s try it just so you know at least we have some some audio for the podcast that’s not unusable. All right. Hold on. Try to work some magic here. It’s going to sound like I’m talking out of an airplane. But it isn’t crackling. This is like trying to decide between I got an echo in me. I’m like Rob man in front right now. Uh Garrett Hamson or Connor Joe in right field? Yeah, I don’t know. Chat, you tell me. I have headphones on, so it’s going to be a little bit worse for me extreme wise. I guess chat, you let us know what’s worse, the mic or the uh just the the computer. They’re saying it sounds better before I It’s probably It depends. If you’re if you’re don’t have headphones on, it’s probably fine. It’s probably not bothering you, but anyone that has headphones on, it’s probably gonna So, I would I would uh I guess just go with the original. All right, we’re going to go with the original. We’re going to do our best. I’m We’ll just start the damn show. AJ, we’ll start it. I’ll probably uh sit here and and and about it, but here we go. Um Reds drop um a game in Washington 10 to eight. Uh get off to a horrendous start. They do crawl back, make it interesting. I’m sure we’ll get into that. Um but uh but yeah, I told you Nick I think yesterday and I think I told everybody that I’m probably going to be very overreactionary on most of these games if if not all of these games up until the deadline. And yeah, this is dev I I don’t say devastating because people are going to take that out of context, but like you you you’ve got to start winning series and now they leave they leave themselves with no room for air. They’re three and a half back now. So, I mean, they lost another game, lost two games in two days. So, uh I mean, yeah, you’re you’re running out of games here before the trade deadline. So, I I don’t know. I keep I mean, I’m I’m never going to get to the the buy where everyone else where not everyone else, where a lot of the fan base is at. But in terms of the the buy sell meter, I just, you know, today I I flipped back quite a few dials on the the more of the sell side. Um yeah, I mean this just is terrible performance tonight. You go out on Saturday and say we’re trying to send a message to the front office that, you know, we’re try, you know, to to give us some help and then you go out and you’ll give up 10 runs to the Washington Nationals. I mean, it’s it’s hard to it’s hard to to say this is a team you should be buying for after a night like tonight. I’m with you. I I I I don’t know. Um, I re I really don’t know where to go on a night like tonight, especially as I I sit here and I’m I’m pretty much frazzled if we’re being completely frank about the idea that uh my my audio is just absolutely almost incapable of listening to perhaps, but there’s always the Hail Mary that exists. There’s always the chance this team can rattle off 10, 11, 12 in a row, I guess, if that’s what we want to hold on to. But I was hopeful that they could come out and get off to a good start or something like that to start the second half. especially when you felt like they they kind of snuck away with one on Saturday and then Sunday you had a huge opportunity clearly um with a tie baseball game with with you know basically six outs left for both sides and you’re incapable of finding a way to win that game and then you come into Washington and you drop the first one and your odds for the for for making the postseason went from roughly 20 21% probably down to about maybe sub 10% uh at this point. So, you know, for those that um don’t like analytics, and I get all that, and I’m not trying to take like the nostalgia out of the fact that that that that this still can’t be done, because it can. Um the the real hold cold hard truth is we’re all screaming and yelling about going out and getting a guy that’s going to get traded at the deadline by a team that’s deemed themselves as sellers with the Arizona Diamondbacks who have a better statistical chance to make the postseason than we do. I hope people understand that. And I I you call me negative, I guess. I’m just trying to be realistic here. That’s exactly what we’re doing. Half of our fan base is screaming and yelling about going out and trading and to get a guy that the other team that’s trading them that is deemed we’re probably in a better position to sell because we don’t really have any realistic chance to make noise this year. They have a better chance to make the postseason than we do based off of just pure math. Now, maybe you say that that isn’t, you know, that isn’t the end all beall uh to hell with the math, and that’s understandable, too, because I do like to believe. Do I think the season’s over? No. But I I want everyone to know how pivotal and key these games are. And I don’t know who we blame. It it appears, Nick, that I’m sure Singer will be the guy that that gets blamed, but there were there were opportunities in this game to come back and win. We’ll talk about it here in just a minute. Yeah. the other team too. I mean, you you you mentioned, so if you just look at the playoff odds, this was coming into today, and the Reds lost literally a whole game, so it’s not even including that yet. Yeah, the odds for the Diamondbacks were 18, actually 19% if you round up. The odds for the Twins were 18%. That’s another team people have talked about going and getting their closer, uh, Duran, and the Reds odds, uh, coming into today were 12%. So yeah, I mean like those teams recognize it’s time to sell. Again, I’m not saying the Reds have to be like a fire sale completely, you know, blow everyone blow the whole team up or anything, but there’s just there’s not enough to say that, yeah, you got to go all in this year. Um, I guess you could get completely lucky, but you would be basically you would be basically buying to try to get lucky. And if that’s your strategy, I mean, more power to you. I I I’ll defer to you. But that’s not really the way I would want to go about it. Me neither. I I just don’t want to do I don’t want to do the same song and dance again. That’s all. And I know people might take that the wrong way. I’m just saying like I don’t want to just be non-active at the deadline, add marginal pieces in the off season and decide to run it back again and act like act like the saving graces are going to be the young core and guys developing and you know Sal Stewart he’s going to be the next guy that’s that’s supposed to come up here and save this team. The truth of the matter is is that that I I think they I think they need to be aggressive. Um because I I’d really I’d really for I’d really like for them to try to make make at some point here in the new near future make it to where this isn’t the same thing that we continue to find ourselves in where we’re we’re we’re we’re a 500 baseball team. That’s what we are. And I don’t mean to be like overly pessimistic about it, but we just are who we are. And we we try to convince ourselves that we’re not that at some point, Nick, but we always find ourselves right back in the same spot, don’t we? We’re two or three games over 500 or we’re one game under 500 and we rattle some off and we start to believe again and some guys are looking good, but then inevitably something breaks down and we take two steps back. So, um, again, I I I I hope I’m wrong. Trust me, I really do. And I hope that we can find a way to to to not not just win this series, but but, you know, maybe we rattle off um a hell of a home stand that’s coming up against some some good teams. But, I don’t know. I’m just I’m just I’m just wanting the front office to do something. And I almost want them to seem like they have a plan. And the plan to me would be that they’re going to try to they’re going to try to find ways to bolster this roster depthwise and even from a organizational standpoint that will allow us hopefully next year and the year after that be to be very competitive. That’s all. Yeah. And I see it all over the chat. They haven’t won since 1995. I I understand that. So, let’s not like try to luck our way to a a a playoff advancement. Let’s actually try to build a team that can do something like you don’t there’s no shortcuts for a small market team. Like, you’re not going to shortcut your way to having a good baseball team. You have to to to build it. It’s the only way it’s going to work. The Reds can’t compete with teams like the Chicago Cubs straight up. The only way you can compete with those teams is if you have more prospects. So, I just I I I don’t know. I I say it every night, so I I’m I’m tired of it myself, but there’s just there’s no shortcuts to winning. And it sucks. It sucks that it’s taken this long. It sucks that we’ve had year after year of of losing baseball. Uh but you have to you have to be patient and you have to do it the right way or it’s just going to get even worse. All right. Well, let’s see. Let’s do the box score recap up and then then let’s get into it. I mean, there was there was chances to win here, so let’s talk about it. All right, your box score recap. Brady Singer gave up seven earned runs. The Reds tried to fight back. They put up six runs, but the bullpen uh gave up a bunch of runs. Reds lose 10 to eight. Red’s now 50 and 49 on the season. All right, we have a deep drive of the day and it came off the bat of an 18-year-old. I am going to butcher this kid’s name, so I’m just going to call him Mariano. He hit his fourth home run of the season. It helps when Mariano Rivera was kind of a big deal growing up, so you can kind of say that name pretty well. But nonetheless, Mariano’s hitting .287 with an 811 OPS this season. Mariano was the Red’s second highest international signing in 2024 for 1.6 6 million DSC. They are uh a leader in renewable energies focusing on bofuel production specializing in used cooking oil collection, aggregation and sales. Visit www.deepsouthcommodities.com for more information. Um I’m just going to point out some things that I think I remember that I I I know for a fact could have changed the game. Uh, Trevinho came up twice in this game with a huge opportunity. Um, oddly enough, I I think I even made me mentioned yesterday that that that I that I believe in Trevvinho. And Trevinho put the ball in play. Yes. But it wasn’t good enough. There was uh there was a double play first and third situation with nobody out. He bounces into a double play when they started to mount a rally that cleared the bases. I know they got a run, Nick, but that was a really hard pill to swallow there in that spot. And then later in the game, he comes up with a bases loaded with a chance to kind of again create some major momentum for the Reds and and he and he flies out. Good piece. I mean, not a good piece of hitting, but he hit it decent. But when when you’re playing these big ballparks, hitting fly balls um typically is not going to wind up uh in your favor more times than not, unless you get some really, really, really good wood on it. But I don’t know. Um Singer’s the storyline. Everyone’s going to talk about that. Um, I think the storyline is is not just Singer, but probably even more so that, you know, we we we showcase that our bullpen again, once again, I think is just not very deep. I mean, there’s there’s just not a lot of guys to rely on out there. And um, you know, I know Lion has not thrown the ball in a long time, Nick. So, I’m not trying to overly criticize him, but I would also say like you got one job. That’s your job, man. You know, like you you’ve gotten relegated uh to a spot where that’s pretty much the only opportunities you’re going to probably get anymore if you’re Lion and you drop the ball on it. you know, um it’s the same concept of being kind of Trevor Rogers all year where you come in, you’re supposed to get the left-handed hitters out with guys in scoring position and you can’t hold an inherited runner to save your life. So, does have a good RA. Shout out to Trevor uh uh Rogers tonight. I said Trevor again. It’s Taylor. But nonetheless, you get my point. Um, it’s just disappointing because I I uh you can see these issues from a mile away and unfortunately we’ve just not fixed them. Yeah, Singer’s command was just like all over the place early. He did get screwed on the the the first walk of the game, but he also about hit CJ Abrams twice in that at bat. And so I mean, you know, when your command’s that wild, it’s going to be kind of hard to to to get every strike. So yeah, I mean, the two walks is what did him in. But he did leave the game, you know, with it being a five nothing game. And the bullpen had a chance to to kind of shut the door. And uh the Washington Nationals bullpen is legitimately the worst in baseball by a wide margin. I think they were like almost a half run worse than anyone else coming into today. And you saw that. and they gave the Reds chances after chances. And the Reds offense, I mean, still miss some chances, but put up eight runs. Um, not all off the bullpen, but uh, you know, put up eight runs and got themselves back in the game. And if you could have got a couple more zeros, you could have won this game. Um, so yeah, it’s um, just a tough one. Yeah, I quit. I mean, pretty serious. See it, but people were complaining about Trevvinho dropping a pitch. I didn’t get a chance to see it. I missed I I literally missed the first four runs. I walked in the house and and they were basically up four to nothing. I looked at the box score obviously, but so my apologies. I I can’t really speak on the the the the drop pitch. Um I’m guessing that it was a strike maybe according to ABS, but he dropped it. I don’t know this, but um but I didn’t know if you didn’t get a chance to see it, Nick, so be it. We’ll just move on. But something to at least point out. Yeah, I think that I was listening to the radio and um um I believe the the pitch they were talking about Welsh was talking about how Trevvinho um well actually it might have been a different one. There was several. There was there was one later in the game where uh Trevvinho didn’t get the call on a pitch that that that was a strike, but Welsh was talking about how Trevvinho was like whipping his glove into the zone and he felt like the home plate umpire tonight was kind of punishing Trevvinho for trying to obviously uh try to frame and and actually was strikes. But so I I don’t know. That was what Welsh Welsh thought about about it. Um, but yeah, I I don’t think I saw the one that they were talking about. I didn’t I didn’t I kind of gave this game the effort that the Reds gave uh after about the third inning. Fair enough. Um, to be clear, people were just suggesting that there was a clear strike. That was a drop pitch. And uh, if if Trevvinho catches it, he probably calls it a strike. You don’t know that for sure because you don’t know what the umpire is going to call, but um, I do get the sentiment. So, I don’t want to just gloss over it if if if folks feel like that was a big part of the game. I I genuinely don’t know. So, um yeah, I mean I I guess you could sit here and you could you could pat yourself on the back, I guess, Nick, and say that this offense did bounce back. They fought and they gave themselves an opportunity really to to to to notch the thing up at at multiple different times. Um in fact, they were what they were one swing of the bat away in the in the ninth inning really from being able to to get this thing to a tie ball game. So, you know, I it’s a good effort, but again, it’s just not good enough. And that’s that’s been the kind of story so far of the season is that you’ve had good moments. You’ve just not had enough of them to make it to where it matters. Um, as they say, it’s, you know, close only matters in what, horseshoes and hand grenades. And unfortunately, this is where we’re at. And it’s going to be some tough decisions that are going to be made. They’re going to have to be made soon depending on how this baseball team plays over the next few days. And um it’s a must-win game tomorrow. And I know people, you know, leave laugh at me all you want. You can say that I’m I’m overreacting, etc., etc. It quite literally is like must win. Like they they my my point in saying this guys like when people take this out of context perhaps and they’re like you’re going to tell me that it’s a season defining or pivotal game or blah blah blah. Like what I’m trying to say is this. if they don’t win and win relatively in a wide wide margin like they they can’t just go 500 over the next week. If they don’t do that, I I’m not just saying I’m hopeful. The only real genuine belief that I’ll have in this front office is if they are aggressive and they sell and they sell their heart out because that tells me that at least at least they’re willing to admit when they’re not good enough. Or are we going to do the same song and dance we’ve done before which is try to convince ourselves we’re good enough when every other metric in the world tells you you’re not good enough. That’s all. So, I don’t know. They have to win tomorrow and we’ll talk about obviously tomorrow here in just a bit. Singer disappointment. What What your overall feelings about him? Yeah. Pitched really bad tonight. Not just the night in general. Like I’m just saying like as an overall the la the last call it month and a half. It’s it’s Yeah, he’s been he’s been fine fine fine fine clunker. Fine fine fine clunker. I mean, that’s that’s kind of what you’d expected. I mean, thankfully for the Red’s front office, Jonathan India has been atrocious in Kansas City. So, at least that’s not hanging over their heads. He wouldn’t be and and you know, I mean, you can be mad about Singer all you want, but whoever else would be replacing Singer would have had this these kind of clunkers. like there there’s no way anyone in the Red’s farm system that you called up would would have you know they might have some good games but they would clearly have games like this. So yeah, I mean he’s been he’s been a disappointment. It’s a long season though. Um I’d be I’ll be interested to see kind of what his final numbers look like. Um I could absolutely see him having a Nick Martinez type season last year where the middle of the year people were this guy’s not good at all shouldn’t be starting. And then, you know, by the end of the year, he rattles off six or seven good starts in a row. And the end of the year, his numbers look pretty good. So, yeah, he was terrible tonight against the Nationals team that Yeah. And this national team’s offense isn’t that bad. I mean, like CJ Abrams and and Jame James Wood, like, let’s go ahead and like they would be the second and third best players on the Reds. So, I’m not going to say that their offense is is atrocious. And they actually rank pretty similar to the Reds. just their pitching’s been been atrocious this year. But yeah, I mean this was a a game and so the thing is to me Trace it’s just a game like tonight you don’t hit a home run like I mean yeah they scored eight runs but you know when you don’t hit home runs it’s it’s hard to to to to come back in these kind of games and the Reds are 17th in home runs in Major League Baseball playing in great American ballpark. That just continues to be an issue I think for this team. and they just don’t have enough home run hitters and they don’t hit home runs consistently enough. Well, tonight was all about the fact that you can’t get guys out. There’s, let’s make no mistake about it, for sure. I get what I get the sentiment that you’re getting at. It’s a bigger problem. But in regards to just this this, you know, very fine look at this baseball game, you you you you just can’t give up 10 runs and expect to win. Uh it’s a real shame that you score eight and lose. I mean, maybe that hurts even more, you know, um because because this offense really all year long hasn’t really showcased its ability to kind of have big innings and pass the baton down the lineup and and they did do that tonight. Um but unfortunately, as as as I’ve just said, it’s just is uh it’s not good enough. So, you move on and you you got to try to find a way to win tomorrow. Um we got some super chats that I think will lead us into some decent discussions. Uh, Jacob Doyle says, “Uh, the bullpin’s out of gas. I’m not sure they can make it to the deadline.” Um, yeah. I I I almost wonder if the front office just is like, you know, if this bullpen can’t survive for another two weeks, what’s one or two arms that we’re going to get them gonna actually end up doing for the rest of the season anyways? Do I think that’s a great mentality to have? Maybe not. But I can understand why they kind of have that mentality because I think they’re in a spot where I could be completely wrong and maybe I’ll be fooled, but I think that they’re in a spot where they they look at analytics maybe even more so than I do for sure. And boy, when I look at those when I look at the metrics, just none of it states none of it even showcases that that this team is, you know, heavy buyers. So, that’s maybe part of the problem there. Um, Alex Bey Harris says, “Benson’s first at bat since the All-Star breaks in that spot. Tito sucks.” I I I I don’t I wouldn’t go that far. Here’s what I would say about that. I’m gonna let you take the floor obviously as well, Nick, is that teams have realized that the Reds weakness is if they can throw a left-handed arm out there. Like the the Mets, the Mets decided that they were going to utilize left-handed arms to try to go against the Reds. And I know that people are going to say, “Well, it didn’t work. Look at them. They won the series.” That that limited to put it that limited opportunities for Benson. Um I do think that there were some spots, no doubt, that Benson could have gotten opportunities in New York. Um, one of them was on Sunday when I thought Gavin Lux took an at bat in the ninth inning where you kind of needed a an extra base hit or what seemed like a home run to more than the chances of of getting three or four hits in a row in an inning is just so small that I would have loved a little have a little more pop there. That’s taken nothing away from Gavin Lux, but nonetheless, he didn’t get an opportunity there. Um, and then you go into the into tonight and you kind of have left-handed arms and the way that it all kind of worked out, you don’t get a spot maybe until the ninth. So, I know the last thing I’m going to say, Nick, is that Tito did say when Benson, you know, hot dogged it down the line, if you want to call it that, um, that he doesn’t think that he’ll do that ever again. I don’t think that he meant that he was going to sit him for a week and a half or whatever it ends up being. I I I don’t think that’s what he meant. I really don’t. Um, but there is there is what seems to me a pretty clear and evident case to be made that that Tito is not a big fan of Will Benson for whatever reason. And and that’s fine. If that’s if that’s what he believes, then then so be it. But, you know, I don’t I don’t know. What What do you make of it? If anything, Nick, I’m over it. I I don’t It is what it is at this point. Just over it. I mean, they might treat uh And the great ads on says Benson won this team three series and can’t play. I wouldn’t say he won any series. Like, I think I think he helped this team in a large large way when he came up. Obviously, he he was like the NL player of the week. He also had some very very big moments this season. But I I also don’t want to go overboard and act like it was all Will Benson. He won the games, you know, like it it’s a team game. Um there’s upside. There’s clear upside with Will Benson, but I also understand the downside. The guy swings and misses maybe more than some fans would like. I I I completely understand that he’s not a perfect player, and I want people to understand that when we do this whole thing. We’re not suggesting he’s an all-star. We’re not even suggesting, honest to God, I’m not even suggesting he’s uh an an above average Major League Baseball player, but I know that he’s played above average as a Major League Baseball player before for short spurts. So, there was a long time this season where we had guys out there that had not even sniffed a Major League roster. And by God, in three years, when I tell you that they played for the Reds, you’re not even going to remember their names. No disrespect to Jacob Huries. And that’s no disrespect to Blake Dunn. Who’s the poor kid that broke his arm in right field? Tyler Callahan. Tyler Callahan. You’re not going to remember Tyler Callahan’s name in three years. So again, there’s there’s Yeah. All right, let’s move on. Ned Flander says, “Nick, given what we have to sell, would you expect players in return that would help the 2026 team or prospects for future seasons?” I’m assuming it’s the latter. Probably the latter, but I mean, good organizations I I I don’t think are are saying, “We want prospects that fit this exact thing.” They’re they’re just trying to get the best available players wherever they’re at. And a lot of times it’s a lot easier to acquire more talented players that are further away. Um, so yeah, I mean I I would I I wouldn’t care like what what you get in return. I just want good players back. Uh because there’s some really good things going on in the Red’s farm system. There’s some really good players that can impact this team, but there’s too many gaps in between those players. And we see it this year when you have players that don’t belong on a big league roster having to come up and supplement the team when there’s injuries. And the only way to be able to, you know, like be the Milwaukee Brewers is you have to have more depth. Um, so I I wouldn’t I wouldn’t be worried about where those players are are at in their their minor league system. And I know we had talked before and I had kind of gone back and forth and I’ve waffled on this. I’ll admit it on should you go in allin with Ellie de la Cruz and I I just I don’t think they should. I I really don’t because I I I just I I I don’t think it’s the way to go about it. Um I think you just got to keep building. Um but I get it. people are going to want to do that because they’re sick of losing. Um, and we’ll see what happens. But I don’t know. I I would just like to have a team that can constantly compete year after year after year after year. I would say this though, Nick. I think that the opposite argument could be made that that this league is not set up for that to happen. And I think we try to compare ourselves or we try to look at maybe the golden childs in this league that have found a way to do it. And although I would say that there probably is a systematic way of doing it that can give you a decent chance to get the results that the Brewers to give you the results that the Tampa Bay Rays have had and and even the Guardians, I guess, if you want to include them into that mix because I think that’s fair to to include them. I I guess what I’m getting at is uh you know h how much of that has been fortune too? How much of that has been just good luck? And I guess you could say good decisions can offer you the opportunity to get good luck, but there are times that make me think, you know, and I’m not saying that the way the Marlins had done it in years past is the way to do it, but I could start to get behind the idea that you just focus on classes. And I know people might hate that. They might not think that’s possible, but I’m okay. I’m okay with that train of thought. as as long as this Nick as long as there’s a consistent genuine plan and it just feels like that’s the thing that has been missing is that there is no plan. There is no genuine one sole focus in the organization. Sometimes it’s hey let’s keep some of these veteran guys around that we know are are kind of you know fan favorites and we don’t want to let go of them and we don’t want to trade them when maybe their values at at at a at a point where you kind of need to let them go. Um, and again this goes all the way back to the Jay Bruces of the worlds and you know th those types of players. You know you I mean you trade a Raldis Chapman for you know basically one of it’s it was a bad bad deal. Point is is that you can’t be you can’t be half in half out. So, if you wanted to convince me, Nick, that hey, over the next three years, we’re going to make a concerted effort to try to be one of the best teams of baseball and know that we’re going to then have to make some wholesale trades to try to get another class that comes up from call it single A type level players, then okay. The issue with that is is that if you do swing and miss on one of those, you’re irrelevant for decades. you’re you’re you’re you’re you’re in a spot where you don’t even get to see meaningful baseball for so long that you just you genuinely could lose complete disinterest. And I think that’s where a lot of this fan base is. Um and I say a lot, maybe that’s too much of that. There’s some of this fan base that’s just like we don’t care anymore. We’ve waited so long that I genuinely don’t even want to listen to any reasonable argument or explanation on what the Red should do because they can’t gain my trust. they don’t have my trust. They have never showed me that they’re a that they’re a, you know, a sound organization that’s going to do it right. Um, and then you have someone like yourself, Nick, that goes into the weeds of all of this and you you you genuinely, I’ll say it, you know a significant more about the details that go into what makes the Brewers the Brewers and the Rays the Rays. And you want the Reds to emulate that as best they can. And I think that’s where the discourse, if you want to call it that, happens because you’re not wrong. You’re you’re not wrong. And and even the people that are shouting and saying, “You know what? We’re tired. Who gives a who gives a rat’s tail? Go out and trade these prospects and get me some team that can get to the postseason and I’ll live with the result because I don’t care. I’ll wait another 20 years if I get to see postseason baseball.” That’s a bad model. Yes. But I understand why the sentiment is exists. So hopefully, you know, it’s a long-winded way of me saying this fan base is going to be divided no matter what happens. And I would just ultimately say to everybody, that’s normal and that’s okay because this organization has not given the fan base a chance, in my opinion, to be in harmony. they’ve not given this fan base a chance to come together um as one because they’ve not been good enough and you know it’s sad, it sucks, but I just hope to be clear they make a decision and they stick with it. Don’t don’t keep Martinez. Don’t don’t keep um I’ll try to think of something off the top of my head. I don’t know who else I I definitely want to see go, but you you you better find at least some value back for these guys that quite literally are going to play meaningless baseball towards the end of the season if you don’t buy and buy heavy. Yeah, you got to you got to kind of go one way or the other. Um and yeah, I mean unless they I mean they literally can’t lose another game in the standings. when you lose one more game in the standings, you’re you’re clearly a seller at that point. Uh I kind of think if they were right where they are next Thursday, they should be a seller. I think three and a half’s too far. That’s you know, my opinion, but I don’t know. We’ll see. There’s a it’s a it’s a it’s a you know, it’s a we talked about it last night. It’s a week where things could change rapidly. Um but today was Yeah. I mean, you know, today was a big swing. the other way. Yeah. Listen, in 24 hours they lost I mean they lost 100% of their playoff odds. It was a game and a half out on Sunday morning. I mean so it’s completely Yeah. I mean Sunday evening sun Sunday evening. I mean like sun Sunday in the eighth inning they were right there and then 24 hours later quite literally um I mean I guess the game started a little bit after that but you know you go down four to nothing in the first inning and it’s just like dude what happened or how we how do we get here so fast but I don’t know that’s nonetheless all right as always uh 988 is a valuable resource for many if you always uh are finding yourself in a spot where you think you need some help it’s okay to text and or call the number 988. Please remember it’s okay to not be okay. You can also visit man theapy.org as well. Uh last few super chats here before we move on. Nick Jacob or Jake, excuse me. Jake Warner says, “Who are some players that we can get in return for selling that we can actually control for a couple of years?” Um I I We talking about Yeah. I don’t know. Are we talking about we go buy the deadline? I’m guessing. I don’t know. Yeah. I I maybe he’s thinking like we can sell but get players back that are like still helpful big league ready. I mean it’s just it’s not I’m not say it’s impossible. Well, I mean, there could be a a deal out there, but for the most part, most of these teams that are, you know, going to buy people like Nick Martinez, you’re not going to give up major league ready pieces for Nick Martinez unless you just are a team that has an excess. Um, so I I just I don’t think there’s a lot out there. I mean, I’m not going to say it’s impossible. Um, but I think it would be pretty difficult. I mean, I think the the the best case scenario for kind of this season would be the Reds play really well the rest of the week. You know, they’re within two games. And like we talked about last night, maybe you you trade Lollo and Stevenson. Let’s just use those as examples because you have teams that are willing to give you just massive returns for them. Um, and then you you turned around and um you acquired some other pieces. Um, like maybe you take a shot on Luis Rober. Um, and maybe you maybe you take a a shot on uh maybe a dominant maybe even a dominant reliever. maybe Duran from the Twins and overall you probably with the returns from Lola and Stevenson replenished your farm system and actually maybe made it better um and it made it a little bit easier to to trade some prospects to get those guys back. Um but that that’s I don’t think you’re going to be do that I I think it’s unlikely you’re going to be to do that player for player. It almost would have to be a series of moves. Um, but the thing you have to, I think, also remember, you know, um, my mind changed a little bit on this. I I remember there was a really interesting, it was like a kind of a documentary on on the MLB network a while back about the trade deadline. And I I remember there was a year where I was like really mad the Reds didn’t make enough moves. And when you kind of see all the details that have to go into one of these moves happening, it’s it’s a lot. and and especially when things are flying on on all different angles. So, um I know like it’s easy to say it’s their job, which it is, but there it’s it’s hard to make six, seven, eight moves at the deadline. Like there’s a reason you don’t see many teams make more than like three or four moves max. So, it is hard when you start getting into that many pieces of uh uh of the deadline. Yeah. I mean, Pagan’s another guy. Like, there’s plenty of guys that you can sell to. You think that you could probably get something back in return that that might yield something. Um, I have a question for you in regards to Stevenson. I was thinking that today people are going to sit there and they get all they get all upset about the idea that that basically you’re left with no backup catcher. H how much do you think uh like JT Realmuto would cost? Is it is it as a free agent this off season? Yeah. Like is that even is that even realistic? I mean, he he can’t Is it crazy to think he’s going to yield that much? Because I mean, he’s just so old, man. I mean, he’s gonna be Catchers are crazy, man. I I I I’ve said this before. I have I don’t understand how to value catchers and their free agent dollars. Uh I’ll throw I’ll throw my hands up. I have no idea because like Austin Hedges made $8 million either this year or last year. What? Like, so I don’t understand how catchers get paid. Um, and there’s been some catches where I’ve looked at like that’s all he cost. Like that makes no sense to me. So, catching value is something I do not understand at all. Um, so I don’t know. I mean, again, I’d have to be blown away, absolutely blown away to want to move Tyler Stevenson. Um, it would have to be a deal where I felt like that other team there was I I would want there to be dissension among that other team to make that deal, right? Like I would want that other team to be like that’s one guy I would want the Nick Kirby in the corner be like, “Dude, that’s too much. You can’t give up that much for Tyler Steven.” Like they better have someone in that room that says that if the Reds are going to pull off that kind of deal. Um, so yeah, I I but again it’s just and again we’re just throwing names out there of players that it would be right to shop on. Doesn’t mean we want them traded for pennies on the dollar. Um, yeah, all the guys that I mentioned, I don’t really know if there’s anyone on this roster that I’m desperate to trade unless the Reds completely crap the bed this week. Um, Trace, we’re also in a different spot, too, because the Reds have valuable pieces, but they don’t have like this one piece. They don’t have like a Luis Castillo right now that’s a free agent at the end of the year that I know is going to bring a massive return that there’s you you have to move now or never, right? The only pieces that are kind of like that are sort of the Dolo and Stevenson, but you still could trade them again in the offseason if you wanted to. and everyone else. Yeah, Austin Hayes has value, Nick Martinez has value, some of those other guys have value, but you’re not going to get you back a return that’s going to most likely alter your your franchise in any way. So, it’s a little bit of a different spot. Every player is its own entity at the trade deadline. Yeah. The only reason I like the deadline personally when trying to shop guys over the off seasonason is that there there’s 100% the the pressure and or the fear of missing out on something when you’re trying to do something to help your team win in the heat of the moment and you’re trying to also impress your fan base. Maybe, maybe not. But nonetheless, you’re still trying to help your team get over the proverbial hump or whatever it is. whether you think that’s going to help them get deeper into the postseason or whether you just think it’s going to help them get into the postseason period. I just think that that’s where your biggest chance and again maybe maybe this isn’t the case. I’m just assuming here a little bit, but I think it’s your biggest chance to fleece teams. I think it’s your biggest chance to try to to try to get emotional buys. People are going to make decisions that maybe they would regret in the offseason thinking, man, we we just we just completely got a little bit of ahead of ourselves. And we all do it when when we when you make mistakes in life. More times than not, it’s because you rushed a decision and you really were trying to, you know, make it make an impression and you realize, you know what, in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have done that. So, um, any other final super chats here before we move on? I was going to add the best example of this, uh, for me is, uh, Lance Lynn in 2023. I remember I brought up the idea of, “Hey, Lance Lynn would be a good guy for the Reds to target because I think you could get him as a salary dump.” And I remember everyone’s like, “Nick, you’re an idiot. Lance Lynn’s terrible. He’s like a 60 RA,” which he did. But I was like, “Yeah, you know, he’s a guy that you could get that that you might not have to give up any prospects.” And what ends up happening, the market goes so insane, the Dodgers legitimately gave up, I think a top 10, their ninth ranked prospect for was Lance Lynn and Joe Kelly. But like that’s how that that’s when you’re talking about fleecing teams. That’s it. You think Do you think the Dodgers would have gave that up for Lance Lynn in the offseason? No chance. But they were out of options. like they and a team like the Dodgers, they can be a little bit more aggressive at the trade deadline because well, you know, hey, we can just go uh buy Gav, we can just go buy prospects for Gavin Lux, right? We could do things that these other these other franchises can’t do. Um Rob Manfred said on another podcast, I had seen that that he had said some comments that I actually liked a lot. I know people were were in the comments absolutely killing Rob Manfred, but I don’t want to get into that tonight. I’ll save that maybe even for some offseason stuff, but I was a very big fan of what he said and I think that he’s people trash Manfred, maybe don’t like him, but etc., etc. I think he hit the nail right on the head when it comes to the actual real issue uh when it comes to what you just said, trying to be trying to be competitive when you’re a small market team. So, uh we’ll get to that another day, but I I I I adore I adored the comments. I’ll leave it at that. Um, Michael Roth says, “Eight runs, zero RBI’s from our one through four hitters.” I guarantee that is the first and hopefully the last that happens ever. I’d bet the Reds haven’t scored five plus runs all season without one RBI from one through four. Well, in in fairness, Ralph, uh, Da Cruz and Hayes walked a combined five times. So, they didn’t exactly have a ton of chances to drive in runs because they uh weren’t really throwing a whole lot of strikes. Fredo walked too once. Yeah. Listen, they had the the the best opportunity that that came in the game was was, you know, was at the hands of Trevinho and it stinks because it’s the nine-hole hitter, but just the way that it fell. The way that it fell and uh they they scored eight runs though, guys. Like they I don’t know. You just can’t give up. You can’t spot the Nationals four runs in the first inning and then you can’t come in if you’re if you’re Lion Richardson and and let’s give Barlo some flowers, too. I I don’t know if we were ever going to get there. Yeah, but I’m glad you mentioned that. This dude just comes in the game and the the slider that he has is an elite level pitch. I mean, it really is. Guys swing and miss through that thing more. I mean, I don’t want to sit here and act like Barlo is anything more than just a solid reliever, but boy on this team does he look like he is absolutely electric. And uh he he he he cleaned up the mess pretty damn well, Nick. Like, this thing could have gotten out of hand big time. Lion loads the bases up and uh Barlo comes in and cleans it up. So, shout out to to Barlo. Yeah, I think if uh if Barlo and Rogers would have been flipped, I think people would have been like, “Oh, that was a great, you know, great pickup.” Uh it’s it’s just funny how relievers work. Barlo was the guy you got for two and a half million bucks at the end of spring training. Rogers was a pretty big trade that, you know, we did an emergency show for. Like that’s how big of a deal it was at the time. And and Barlo’s been great. Rogers has the better RA, but I think anyone that’s actually watched the games knows that he hasn’t been good at all. Um, and it’s just relievers. They’re such a crapshoot. I mean, they are they are such a crapshoot, especially when you’re talking about the non elite guys, like these middle tier guys, I mean, the Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan, I mean, he was a guy that was really good for a while and he’s been really shaky of late uh for them. Um, yeah, relievers, man. It’s just uh it’s tough. It’s a tough gig. I feel for relievers. Yeah. Well, it’s not an easy job either, right? like you could you can be great all year long and then if you have a one bad week of baseball or bad week of of of uh of of outings and it comes in the most pivotal time of the season and it comes when everybody starts watching. You know, they don’t care about what you did in April and May and how many times you got guys stranded in at at the end of uh the very end of March when it’s freezing cold outside. They don’t care about none of that. You know, no one’s going to care about that. They only care about what you did lately. Um, you know, talk about talk about relievers being just absolutely uh um fickle. I mean, I got on the internet tonight, started digging around about just free agencies because I was just curious like which guys were coming up that might the red that the Reds could realistically like target that I thought would actually genuinely help them. And they they obviously started listing the relievers. And it’s just hilarious to see that Luke Weaver was like he was like the third ranked reliever that they felt like was the bet, one of the best. It’s just like what are we what what what in the absolute hell is going on. But I get I get why obviously, but it just goes to show you that you just never know who’s going to step up and throw the ball. Well, and I don’t know if we’re concerned about Ashcraft or not, but you know, he’s he’s also kind of dancing a little bit in hot water. This is just a funny side note. I was listening to the radio broadcast and uh uh Chris Welsh, I mean, he couldn’t get it out of his mouth. He said Ashcraft has been really good. He hadn’t given up a run actually and I’m counting up one, two, three, four, five, six in seven straight like literally says seven straight games. The ball goes flying to the wall. Well, there we go. So, he had actually been pretty good. He had been better than I thought cuz when Chris said that, I was like, really? He’s been that good? I don’t Yeah. If you look at his last like seven games and it was around an IIL stint in between there. Um, he’s actually been really good of late. Better than I thought. Yeah, I mean I I know that, you know, he’s not been around a ton, right? He’s not been someone that we could rely on a lot just because of the injury stuff, but um but you know, his stuff has always seemed like it should play, right? Like when you watch Ashcraft throw, you’re like, “This guy’s got a 99 mph cutter.” Um how does that not work in Major League Baseball? Um and it does. It has, but we’ll see if he can continue to be consistent and stay on the field. His just a side note on on Ashcraft, his peripherals look really good. Like Ashcraft is, and again, it’s a small sample. It’s only 40ome innings, but Ashcraft’s first three years in the big leagues, it was all uh strikeouts per nine in the sixes. He’s up in the nine right now, so he’s increased his strikeouts, which we know typically works better for relievers. Walks are a little up, but not too alarming. Home runs, he is not allowed home runs. Knock on wood. He’s only allowed um two home runs all year and Ashcraft if as a starter wasn’t like the world’s worst guy giving home runs but that wasn’t a strength was preventing home runs by any any means. So he has prevented the long ball. Um yeah Ashcraft it’s kind of weird how he’s got there but his numbers overall do look pretty good especially for his first year as a reliever. Fair. Fair. Very fair. Um, yeah. And I don’t know if it’s really fair to ask that to ask Ashcraft um to be your, you know, high leverage guy his very first year in the bullpen. Maybe he can. I’m not suggesting that he’s not a grown man and he can’t do it, but um, you know, he’s he’s learning, I would assume, just kind of things that also make him tick when he comes out of the bullpen. And he’s hopefully continuing to get better and better each time he does it. So, um, final super chat here before we move into Red’s MLB. Ralph says, “Manford still uses a beeper. He takes calls on his loudspeaker next in public. He wears socks with Velcro sandals and he rides a white seat Schwin in a Speedo.” Rough not a fan of Manford. I get it. I think Manford lost like half the Major League Baseball fan base when he called the the trophy a piece of metal. you know that that that was his where you gonna go comment, right? Like it’s just it’s it’s one it’s one comment that you’re just never going to let down and the no matter what you do from here on out, people are going to hate you. So it honestly would just be wiser to take on the villain role. But uh but no, I’ll stand by the fact that I thought he made some good comments and I and I and I hope he finds a way to fix the damn things that he was talking about. I really do. So, we will see. I think he’s a billion times better than Bud Celig. I don’t think it’s close. That’s fair. But offseason, we got plenty of offseason content to talk about. Red’s MLB. Uh it is Monday, so you got well what I would say not a lot to talk about, but you do have the old DSL. Nick, take it away. Yeah, the ACL Reds are in action right now. They trail the uh ACL Brewers 7 to4. Tyson Lewis is one for three with a double. Um Arnold Lantigua, he is one for three. Uh no Shang and Lynn in action tonight. But we did have some uh action earlier. Good day down in the Dominican Summer League. The DSL Reds won 6 nothing. The DSL Rojos 142. Adulo Sanchez, uh, Red’s top prospect down there. Continues to hit two for five, stole his ninth base of the season. Uh, 479 on base percentage. OPS nearly at 1,000 in 32 games. Uh, that is really good to see. One of the most talented players. Um, I’m assuming he probably next year would would maybe move up to Daytona. Um, and so that’s a good development there. Nabio Mariano, as mentioned, our deep drive of the day, hit his fourth home run of the season. Um, and then Liberte 0 for three with the walk. So, some good stuff out in the Dominican Summer League. All right, we do have a little who, what, when, where, and why. It is a must win baseball game. Yes, it is. I don’t have the uh Someone say I should put my entire account on it. If I’m gonna be I want to be miserable. Sorry. Sorry I keep cutting you off. I should have looked at you. Um Chase Burns tomorrow for the Reds. Uh Burns coming off uh two pretty good starts last two times out uh 2.53 RA uh against the uh uh Phillies and the Rockies. Um walked a few too many guys. Uh seven walks in 10 and two/3s, but has struck out 17 batters in a 10 and two/3s inning. So certainly exciting to see Chase Burns. Uh the Reds will be going up against a guy who uh is getting converted back to a starter. His name is Brad Lord, a right-handed pitcher. Uh he will be limited to 45 to 50 pitches tomorrow according to the uh Nationals Beat Rider. Um he started as a starter was okay. Uh pitched really well. had has a 2.79 erra in 38 in two/3 innings as a reliever. Um Nationals 18th round pick out of South Florida. Uh mostly a four seamer slider sinker change up fast ball averages 95 batters hitting just 204 um against his slider. So yeah, I mean for the Reds, we talked about how bad the Nationals bullpen has been. Uh a guy on a limited pitch count. I mean, you got to try to get him out early and get into that bullpen and hopefully uh Chase Burns can settle and have a good night and maybe have a nice easy win and we can have a nice fun postgame show and maybe the Marlins can get it done and we’ll be back to two and a half games and feeling completely different in 24 hours. Let’s hope so. Let’s hope so. That’s what it’s going to take and uh hopefully we can get my microphone figured out before now and then as well. But in the meantime, uh we do have a new show. There’s some folks down at Cook Sports. Uh many of you know the longtime standout uh merch store in downtown. They got a show that they are doing on our platform called West Fourth and Long. Uh check them out. Their first episode uh is now up on our on our YouTube channel. So, you can log into that maybe later when you got some downtime perhaps right after this show and check it out. And as always, we have the Flying Lion and FC podcast now on Chatterbox as well. Uh Nick is telling me that they will be on here better than ever tomorrow. Tomorrow. It’s only a day away. Um here we go, folks. This is it. It’s not cutting time. Uh you don’t win tomorrow. We get on here. We uh we we we we start to talk about some things that maybe we don’t want to talk about on uh July 22nd. We find a way to win tomorrow and we we keep the we keep the dream alive. Um, you know what’s fun about it? To me, it’s fun that I get to sit down tomorrow and then the first inning I’m going to treat it like a postseason game. Is it a postseason game? No. Can I try to trick my brain into thinking that it’s an absolute must necessary win? Yes, I can. Do I think it’s a necessary win? I do. Will people think that I’m absolutely a lunatic and say I’m crazy and I’m a stupid fan for thinking that any game in a 162 game regular season is an absolute must-win. Yes, there will be people that think that and we would just have to agree to disagree. But do me a favor. Uh you guys, yes, OT OTB update. We we I I got I’m working on OTB. I’m working on OTB there. Yes. just you gotta what you have to do you what you have to do I feel like I’m Nick Crawl right now. Um I know there’s not been any updates but you got to have some faith there will be some updates here. Um not relatively soon to be clear. Um I’m thinking probably if I had to guess okay probably the second week of August there will be an update and hopefully that it will make some of you happy. Um, oh, Mike Cart, uh, leader of Ben in the chat, uh, telling us that we should also probably promote, uh, Chatterbox Reds Day a week from tomorrow. That’s that’s probably what we should do as well. Nick, you have the better microphone, so I’m going to kind of let you basically run the show here with when it comes to this. But, uh, I did confirm. I think I think my family, my entire family is going to head down there. So, I’m excited about that. And I am excited to see many of you. I really hope uh that we see a lot of you there. I I would love to, you know, shake your hand, meet you for a second, at least, if nothing else, talk Little Red’s baseball and um, you know, build the the community that we’ve that we’ve continued to to try to to to to foster and grow as we’ve uh, as we’ve moved on here throughout what we our third season doing this, Nick. So, third season. Go ahead, Nick. Take it away. Tuesday, July 29th. Uh that is next Tuesday, 4:30 to 6:30. We will be at Smoked Smoke Smoke Justice uh in Covington talking Red’s baseball eating some smoked meats and drinking some smooth bourbon. Maybe not because I think I’m driving back Tuesday night. So maybe maybe a tiny bit of smoke uh smooth bourbon for me. uh 4:30 to 6:30. First 50 guest traits. Yes, we uh will get a free Chatterbox t-shirt. Nice. Got some pretty cool stuff. Uh Sean Spurlock is uh getting the presses ready for those I heard today. So, uh love to hang out with you next Tuesday, 4:30 to 6:30. Uh we would really appreciate it if you came. Um you know, it’s to be completely honest, it’s hard to get sponsors and you know, it looks good for us if we bring a lot of people. So, if you like us, uh, we’d love for you to show up. We would love to meet you, but it would also, uh, you know, help us continue to bring you more content. That’s it. Thank you. And, uh, thank you for, for your support, man. There’s a 200 plus in here after a pretty tough loss on a night like tonight when the season’s starting to kind of fade what seems to be into the sunset. But, you never know. I mean, there’s always a chance you can rattle them off. And um personally, you know, it it it feels like we’re in the the seventh inning of a tie game um to a certain extent, if you want to use the analogy of a baseball game. And you know, we’re we’re we’re trying to plate some runs here in the seventh inning to convince basically to convince our our manager to to to bring out his best relievers to try to close the door down in this game. Otherwise, you give up two or three runs here in the seventh inning, you’re probably going to punt and throw, you know, throw some guys that you don’t think are your best for the rest of the game. That’s where we’re at. Seventh inning, I’d say it’s still a tie game. There’s a chance we can scratch out a run or two here over the next week, week and a half and we can convince this this front office that it’s worth going for. Otherwise, if not, then uh then then then it is what it is. So, thank you. Like the stream if you haven’t already and uh hopefully tomorrow my microphone will be back better than ever as they say. Take care. We’ll see you tomorrow everybody. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.

00:00 LIVE in the 9th inning.
16:08 Full Game Recap
1:09:21 Reds MiLB
1:10:59 UP Next

On July 21, 2025, the Cincinnati Reds (52-48, third in NL Central) face the Washington Nationals (39-60, fifth in NL East) at Nationals Park for the first of a three-game series, starting at 6:45 p.m. ET. This matchup follows the All-Star break, with both teams navigating different trajectories as the trade deadline looms. The Reds are in the wild card hunt, 2.5 games out, while the Nationals aim to boost veteran trade value amid a challenging season.

The Reds, led by shortstop Elly De La Cruz, bring an average but explosive offense to Washington. De La Cruz paces the team with a .281 batting average, 18 home runs, and 65 RBIs, ranking among the league’s top shortstops. TJ Friedl complements him, hitting .270 with 46 walks and a .364 OBP. Cincinnati’s offense ranks 17th in batting average (.246), 11th in runs scored (456), and 17th in home runs (107). Their pitching, anchored by Brady Singer (7-7, 4.32 ERA, 92 strikeouts in 100 2/3 innings), holds a 3.88 team ERA (13th in MLB) and a 1.241 WHIP (10th). Singer, starting tonight, recently allowed three earned runs over 6 1/3 innings against the Rockies. Nick Lodolo has emerged as a key arm, posting a 2.25 ERA, while Hunter Greene’s return in August could bolster the rotation. However, injuries to Julian Aguiar (Tommy John), Brandon Williamson (elbow), and Rhett Lowder (forearm) strain their depth.

The Nationals, struggling offensively, rank 21st in slugging (.388) and 28th in pitching ERA (5.24), with a 1.410 WHIP (fifth-highest in MLB). Jake Irvin (7-5, 4.58 ERA, 83 strikeouts in 116 2/3 innings) takes the mound, coming off a scoreless five-inning outing against Milwaukee. Washington’s lineup, led by Luis García Jr. and Brady House, has shown inconsistency, with James Wood recently struggling (1-11 vs. San Diego). The team’s bullpen ERA (5.81) is the worst in the league, posing challenges in close games. Injuries to CJ Abrams (hip), Dylan Crews (oblique), and others further complicate their outlook. Despite a 4-2 win over the Padres, the Nationals have dropped four straight series, making this series critical for showcasing veterans like Andrew Chafin and Paul DeJong ahead of the trade deadline.

Both teams face pressure: the Reds to stay in playoff contention, the Nationals to salvage value from a rebuilding year. Cincinnati’s recent 4-1 stretch, including series wins over the Mets and Marlins, contrasts with Washington’s 9-7 edge in their last 16 meetings, including a 2-1 series win in 2024. The game airs on MASN and FDSOH, with streaming on Fubo and tickets available via Vivid Seats. Expect a competitive opener as the Reds leverage their offensive depth against a Nationals squad aiming to capitalize on home-field advantage.

Chatterbox Reds is your home for coverage all season long for the Cincinnati Reds with LIVE postgame shows after EVERY game on YouTube, and NEW podcasts the morning after every game (including weekends)! SUBSCRIBE to the channel and turn on notifications to ensure you never miss a thing!

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, Julian Aguiar, Graham Ashcraft, Scott Barlow, Emilio Pagán, Fernando Cruz, Alexis Díaz, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Tony Santillan, Carson Spiers, Brent Suter, Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, Tyler Stephenson, José Trevino, Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Santiago Espinal, Jonathan India, Noelvi Marte, Edwin Ríos, Will Benson, TJ Friedl, Jake Fraley, Stuart Fairchild, Austin Hays, Spencer Steer, Jacob Hurtubise, Blake Dunn

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