Transcript of The MLB Postseason... Is... BACK! | The Pitch Clock

This Gabe guy. I mean, you think he was paying tribute to Ethan?

Yeah.

By just getting the math wrong right away.

He owed me an apology.

We're going to get to that right now. Welcome to the Pitch Clock. Here's the pitch. A 2-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert. This is the Pitch Clock.

Playoffs.

You're just going to leave me hanging there? God, you're the worst teammate.

Hi everybody.

You're an awful teammate. But that's, you know why? Because we're going head to head. Hey, Adnan Virk's gonna be here momentarily so that we could tell you guys everything that's going on in the wildcard round of Major League Baseball. But we have some controversy.

Yeah.

From last week. We thought that I won our game.

11 to 10.

Where you had to pair catchers with their pitchers or pitchers with their catchers. Pick any catcher that that pitcher threw to. We thought I took a 15 to 12 12 lead in our season series.

But, but Dan Herron, Jared Saltomacchia.

Yeah.

No.

What? Turns out that Jared Saltomacchia—

Yeah.

Caught 4 games for Dan Herron. Of course he did. And Gabe's research slash math were wrong. Gabe, what happened? What do you have to say for yourself?

Fall through the cracks? What happened there?

It fell through the cracks.

Yeah.

I'm so sorry.

Love a good crack, buddy.

No, it's okay, Gabe. We love you. Uh, we appreciate your Ethan tribute.

So what ended in an 11-10 victory last week was really 11-11.

So what that means is— So we're tied. We've got—

Free baseball?

A best of 3 free baseball sudden death.

Wow.

We are either going to get to this week's game with a 15-12 lead for me or a 14-13 lead, which is entirely different. A huge swing in the balance before we get to this week's game. We got to finish out last week's. So Gabe is going to name 3 pitchers, best of 3, 1 guess each. Who's the first pitcher?

First pitcher is Jose Lima.

Carlos Ruiz.

Let me double check. Is that sound on the list?

Oh, it's fine.

I got it. I got a name if it's wrong. Brad Osmus.

Chris gets it. All right.

He's—

I have him as an Astro.

Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking of a time where he was with the Phillies, but I might be wrong. If he's not on the list, he's not on the list.

That's okay.

But I guess we'll have you double-check just in case.

He's scarred from the—

Yeah, he is a little scarred from saltalamachia. I understand that one.

Good start though.

Oh boy, tough start for me. I was trying to go too quick. This would be a catastrophic loss for me, and it would be a gigantic win for you. All right, Brad Osmus it is.

You got it, Brad Osmus.

All right, Brad Osmus it is. All right, bases are juiced for the other team.

So if I get this, I win?

If you get it, you win.

Your next pitcher is Jake Peavy.

Jorvitt Torrealba. No, I don't know.

I'm just trying to be quick.

I know he played for the Rockies. He probably never played for the—

It's the Padres.

Padres.

Did Peavy pitch for— oh, Buster Posey.

Correct.

All right. We're down to the final name. Whoever gets this one right wins last week's game before we get to our game for this week.

Tie goes to Chris.

Okay.

David Price.

Jonathan Lucroy. Oh no, did he not catch for the Rays?

Deonner Navarro.

Correct.

Fuck yeah, baby!

Let's go!

We are back, baby. 14-13. I got way too greedy.

Let's go.

Oh, I should have just thought about later in his career.

I'm gonna—

oh my God, Victor Martinez would have been an answer.

Let's get to this week's—

Oh, that was devastating. Oh my God, that was heartbreaking. Okay, so What that means is, yeah, that means it's 14-13 and we got a game to play that means that much more.

Let's go.

And we're going to get to that game after we talk to Adnan. Playoff baseball. I couldn't be more excited to be saying this, which is that Adnan Virk is with me today and he is back. He is our playoff expert here in 2026. He'll be with me every Thursday for the foreseeable future. I'm looking forward to seeing that. mug in front of me every single Thursday. And right now without headphones. How about that? Those broken headphones are gone, Adnan.

I was about to say, a little road game right now coming to you from the hotel in Toronto after doing the Amazon game last night. Might be an improvement. You don't have to look at my stupid headphones. We're just doing this via Zoom. This is good.

It's nice. The sound is good. And we've got a lot of baseball to get to. There's just one more wildcard series to be decided after 3 of them were decided last night. So it's the Braves and the Phillies. And It's fitting that that would be the, the, the series that goes 3 games because it's been the best baseball thus far with those afternoon games being thrilling down to the wire. It went extra innings in Game 2. There were massive home runs. The Phillies come away the victors with, with Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber coming up clutch, as well as obviously Alec Bohm. Where does this rank, Adnan, in terms of these 3-game wildcard series that you've seen? Because it's been spectacular. And ultimately, who has the advantage today? Who's going to get to the NLDS?

Yeah, I think it's been a great series, Jeremy. And ultimately you have to have star power these kinds of series. When you have Acuña and Olson for Atlanta and then Schwarber and Harper for Philadelphia, you're going to have the game's best stars. I just like the fact there's been compelling storylines. Alec Bohm had his lowest WAR since 2021, settled a lawsuit against his parents earlier this month. It's been a really up and down season for him. Him stepping up is big. And the Bryce Harper storyline— this guy's been in the public eye since he was on the COVID of Sports Illustrated as a teenager. And he can understand that you can have a gaffe like that and drop the ball and still be able to atone and redeem yourself. And for Philadelphia, this is a was a team that struggled mightily down the stretch. As you know, they get into the playoffs the final day of the regular season, and the biggest culprit was their offense, just completely way too much swing and miss. And they had to rely on these stars. The fact that Schwarber stepped up, Harper stepped up, and now Bohm— I think Game 3 is going to be terrific.

And really, I, I think it could go either way. I mean, as far as Atlanta's concerned, you know, again, they're the favorite for a reason. They're playing in Atlanta. You have to like their chances. But Philadelphia clawing back means that this should be a taut affair and More than anything, I'm just glad we get a best of 3 out of the 4 series.

I hope that we get a little short, uh, short rest Zach Wheeler, uh, launching this game out of the pen in a big moment. Like, wouldn't that be awesome? Thrilling and dramatic in the way that a division series in the wildcard series should go. It's been awesome. And the one name that didn't pop up, Austin Riley, a guy like this who had such a, a horrid year and gets to come up clutch in game 1. It's been an awesome series so far. Hopefully we get another competitive game, but now we've got some division series to look forward to, Adnan. I'm going to stick in the NL before we get to the AL in the second half of this interview. You got the Padres and the Cubs that just wrapped up, and the Padres at home against the Cubs were flatly dominant. I mean, their pitching holds strong. They, they shut down what was maybe the best offense in all of baseball in the Cubs in this series, and it never felt like a close 2-game series at all, which I know was disappointing for our guy Ethan Budowski. Ethan, I'm sorry.

No.

But, but, but with that starting pitching being the way it is, like Can the Padres potentially pull off an upset of the Brewers, or are Jacob Mizerowski and this team like the best team in baseball for a reason and just too deep for the Padres to threaten?

Yeah, I mean, the Brewers are definitely going to be prohibitive favorites. There's no question about it. And I think the thought process is, Jeremy, for Milwaukee, if not now, then when? As you said, 103 wins, a franchise record. They've got all the facets. The pitching is outstanding, led by Mizerowski. But don't sleep on Logan Henderson, who's been a great number 2 for them. Bullpen's excellent. Trevor McGill. Obviously in the past you might say they don't have enough power, but I'm like, Jake Bowers can hit home runs. Bryce Duran has got underrated pop. Jackson Churio is a 2020 guy. Yelich can still hit some bombs. William Contreras is an excellent catcher. So yeah, the Brewers are the favorites for good reason, but the Padres did an amazing job against the Cubs. Shout out to Ethan. Unfortunately, his guys, the top 2 hitters went 0 for 15 with 8 strikes.

Awful.

PC and Bregman just didn't do anything. And for San Diego, they followed the script, which is Michael King outstanding in game 1, and then the bullpen does the rest. And Tatis is always great in the postseason. He has a .700 slug in his career in the playoffs.

Boom, home run off Matthew Boyd sets the tone.

Like, that's a classic Nando. Jackson Merrill was good for them as well. So I think San Diego's been on a real heater. As you said, I'm disappointed Chicago couldn't push it to 3, but Milwaukee's the favorite for good reason. Because again, if not now, then when for the Roo Crew?

It's 14-13. Momentum has swung.

Let's go, baby.

And now we've got a new game to play. Gabe, Uncle Mo, you and I, not friends right now. What is our game for this week? It better be something in my wheelhouse.

Well, due to my blunder last week, this week is Ks and errors.

Oh boy. I like that. I like that as a theme.

You have your, your sheet there and it's a pool of players. We're gonna play 2 rounds. Round 1 is strikeouts and round 2 is errors. What you're gonna do is you're gonna draft 5 players and whoever has the combined total altogether wins.

Okay. The— okay, this is great. The most strikeouts and the most errors between these players. We'll draft back and forth on strikeouts first, and then we'll draft back and forth on errors. Total of all of them ultimately wins.

For the listening audience, we are looking at a list for each of these of 11 names.

It's perfect.

So there's gonna be one name essentially left off.

Yeah, these are, these are high strikeout numbers and high error numbers for all of these players. And on strikeouts, just so we know, and, and We'll name the seasons when we get there, but it's Jim Thome, Nelson Cruz, Chris Davis, Mo Vaughn, Richie Sexson, Mark Teixeira, Jake Berger, Joey Votto, Ryan Howard, Javy Báez, and Jordan Alvarez. And for errors, you got Rafael Devers, Bo Bichette, Ty Wigington— great name— David Wright, Bobby Bonilla, Scott Brocious, Eric Hinskie, José Reyes, Mark Reynolds, Todd Zeile, and Marcus Simeon. So Chris, you won last week. You want to go first?

Yeah. Starting in round 1, let me take Chris Davis 2015.

That's like, it feels like it's got to be number 1.

Chris Davis 2015, 208 strikeouts.

208. That's the good stuff.

Okay, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go Javy Báez 2021. It's a mistake.

184.

All right, I'll take it. I don't know why I went with that.

I will do Ryan Howard.

Yeah, that's the one I feel like I should have gone with.

138.

Oh, that's the lowest one. Wow, that's surprising. Let's, let's stick with the modern era then. I'm gonna go with the most recent season on this list. Jake Berger, 2024.

Yeah, I was gonna do that one next.

150.

150. All right.

Uh, Yordan Alvarez, 1994.

Jeez.

Why are you putting those shit?

Wow. I like that. These felt like they would all be high strikeout numbers. Okay. Um, oh, now I'm more nervous. Made me realize that these aren't all going to be huge. Um, I'm going to go, I'm going to go Mo Vaughn, '96.

154. Oh boy.

Let's go.

Uh, Jim Thome, '06, 147.

Oh, that's a really good one. So I have left Nelson Cruz of '09, Richie Sexson of '99, Mark Teixeira, '06, Joey Votto, '09. I'm going—

There's one name on here, it's like, what's he doing on here?

Yeah, I know, I feel the same way. And it's gonna end up being funny because it'll be a high number, but I just don't think so. Um, I'm going Sexson, '99.

117.

117, 30 points back the other way.

I'm gonna go Nelson Cruz, '09.

118.

118, and I, I will not take Joey Votto. I'm taking Mark Teixeira, 2006.

128.

Damn.

128, so that means I have a 28-point lead after the strikeout round. Adnan, let's move to the American League. Because you have 2 divisional matchups here. You got the Central, you got the East. So long, AL West. You did not deserve to be in this spot anyway. It is fitting that there is not an AL West team left in these MLB playoffs. But I want to save the best for last in terms of the quality of teams. But what might be the more fun series potentially is the Guardians and the White Sox, because you got the White Sox who just thoroughly dominated the Astros. You got a ton of rookies relied on, on both of these teams in Cleveland and Chicago. Obviously Cleveland's been there before in many ways. Chicago has no playoff experience. It's totally contrasting styles with these teams, but the Guardians are likely the overwhelming favorite here, Adnan. So what kind of threat can the Chicago White Sox actually provide against the Guardians?

Well, as my friend Stephen Nelson said, you know, if the White Sox actually pull this off, he might have to convert to Catholicism. So let's just shout out Pope Leo.

And shout out Pope Leo.

Yeah, Pope Leo is clearly blessing this team. I mean, to have 3 straight 100-loss seasons and then turn around like this is remarkable story. And for Chicago to win, Jeremy, it's gonna be their offense, right? Their starting pitching was bottom 5, worst in baseball, and for good reason. It's alarming. And the bullpen, aside from Grant Taylor, isn't exactly lights out. So they're gonna have to score runs, whether it's Colson Montgomery. He might have 224 strikeouts and set a new record, but he's gonna hit home runs. Munetaka Murakami is gonna hit moonshots. Miguel Vargas, was an All-Star for good reason. Chase Mycroft will get some big hits. Tristan Peters, the man from Manitoba, All-Star as well. So the White Sox, I'm with you. Thank God that they won. I, I don't wanna see any kind of Fugazi .500 team as a division champion of the Astros. Get outta here. Get rid of that nonsense. White Sox took care of them. Great. You can argue it was a futile American League. It was disappointing.

Fine.

They're an 84-win team. If you're above .500, to me that's good enough. But Cleveland's the favorite since August 20th. They've been the best team in baseball.

Mm-hmm.

And a big strength of them is their starting pitching. It's the antithesis of the White Sox's starting pitching struggles. Gavin Williams got 244 5Ks. Parker Messick's been great. He's gonna get Cy Young votes and Rookie of the Year votes and also acquiring Foster Griffin from the Nationals as well. So I really like that Cleveland starting and then offensively they've just been much better and it hasn't been in the past Jose Ramirez carrying them. It's the likes of Chase DeLauder and Joe Adell offering a, a lot more length to this lineup and Travis Pizana. And obviously Ramirez, you need him to be that guy. And Steven Kwan's been really good the last 2 months of the year. So yeah, I, I really like Cleveland on this series, but Chicago keeps it going. I'd love to see it.

It would be so fun. I mean, particularly to watch them up against whoever it is in the other division series of the Yankees and the Rays, because ultimately that is the headliner as we head into the division series. I kind of don't care who wins between the Phillies and the Braves, although obviously either of those teams against the Dodgers is a big powerhouse of a deal. The Yankees and the Rays is what's got my eye. And look, the Yankees didn't have the MVP in Aaron Judge, right? The guy who's won multiple MVPs here. He wasn't in the lineup at all during the wildcard series. injuries, still may not be. And yet it didn't matter because they had the guy who was the MVP after the first month of this season in Ben Rice, who sure was playing like it. He was spectacular. The vibes are really high for the Yankees after being able to thoroughly— I mean, it was 18-2. That's the total score in these 2 games as they dominated the Red Sox. Obviously that feels good for them. They actually have the advantage on paper over the Rays, even though the Rays were the best team in the American League at the end.

So look, Look, these contrasting styles are going to be beautiful to watch. What do you view as the key in this series between the juggernaut Yankees and Dan's Tampa Bay Rays?

Love the fact Dan is stumping for the Rays. And what's fascinating to me is, Jimmy, one of the storylines was, hey, the Yankees are going to have problems against the lefties of the Red Sox. Peyton Tolley, Ranger Suarez, the lefty bullpen was an issue. They had an .1122 OPS against the lefties. The other part of it is, okay, no Judge, 3-time MVP, Stanton limited potentially as a pinch hitter, but the homegrown stars stepped up. It's Ben Rice, it's Cam Schlittler, it's Austin Wells, it's Anthony Volpe, it's Will Warren, it's George Lombard. So all those guys that they've come up through the system are really the ones that stepped up. So if they can continue, all of a sudden that gives you a lot more variety for Aaron Boone to mix and match a little bit. He's not just relying on 3 guys. And Luis Garcia was an important pickup for them as well.

Yes.

So did they absolutely mash the Red Sox? Like, the Red Sox bullpen was the best in baseball, an ERA right around 3. In this series, they had a 20.25 ERA.

That's crazy.

Like the Yankees bludgeoned them. Like they, like Sonny Gray's upset with a quick hook and I get it. Like on paper it made sense, but all from the Yankees offense, they just hammered that bullpen. So the Rays should not be underestimated. Rasmussen's an absolute ace. Kim Iñárritu, aside from Jordan Alvarez, is the MVP of the American League. Yeah. Yandy Diaz is a former batting champion. I love what Jonathan Aranda brings. And Liam Hicks, our guy. Yeah. Maple Masher, him coming over from Marlins to the Rays is important as well. But I, I do think the Yankees are the better team. And the key to this series is again, how good their starting pitching is. If they can toss like that between Schittler, Fried, Rodón and Cole, that can be a 4-horsemen. Not quite as good as the Dodgers, but a formidable rotation.

It's going to be fascinating to see because the advantage in starting pitching should be the Rays based off of the statistics throughout the year. But when you can go with your 3rd and 4th starters being Cole and Rodón, I mean, when you can have that combination and then from there you can have the advantage of, of the matchups where you get Schlittler at home. where you get freed at home.

Yeah.

If you can just steal one in Tampa, you got a shot. And the irony in all of this, as I've got my Marlins hat on, is that former Marlins could end up really being the keys to this series. You look at the Yankees and you got Jazz Chisholm Jr., who could play obviously a huge factor for the Yankees, even potentially Ryan Weathers out of the bullpen as he returns from injury. And then with the Rays behind the dish, you got Liam Hicks, who we mentioned, the Maple Masher. It'll be Nick Fortes potentially against left-handed pitching. Those are 2 former Marlins. And a guy who could potentially step up, who's been one of the best left-handed hitters in baseball over the last couple of months, Victor Mesa Jr.

Yeah.

A name that Marlins fans may remember. His older brother, Victor Victor Mesa. No, Victor Mesa Jr. has been great for the Tampa Bay Rays. So former Marlins all over this series. It's going to be a lot of fun to watch. A lot of great baseball coming up. We'll have more of it with Adnan. next week here on the Pitch Clock. Looking forward to watching Braves and Phillies today. Adnan, cannot wait to have you back next week and be bothering you with texts all week long.

Never a bother, Jim. It's gonna be a blast. I can't wait for Nick Fortes to do something big. And I'm like, well, there's Tasha's guy. He called it. I told you. I told you.

Hey, it'll be a lot of fun. All right, let's get back to some trivia. Okay, headed into round 2 here. I'm up 28 total points. We're drafting errors in round 2, and we've got 11 names again on this list. Chris, go ahead.

Jose Reyes, 2011, 18.

Oh, is that good?

I don't know.

And I'm looking for the most errors.

Yeah, you're looking—

you'd want the least, right?

Yeah, I remember this guy being a pitiful defensive player. I'm going Mark Reynolds, 2008.

35.

Yeah, baby.

So much for my strategy of let's go shortstop because they get the ball hit there more. I'm gonna stay with that strategy though. Marcus Simeon.

Also 35.

Yeah. I'm wondering positionally, like, where did these guys— because there's like certain guys that you like almost wonder if they were like moved off a certain position. Um, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna stick with your strategy. I'm gonna go Boba Fett.

23.

Okay, all right, that's fine, that's fine. I'll take 23.

Eric Henske, 22.

I'm going to take— oh, it makes me nervous. I'm gonna take Scott Brocius, '01.

22.

All right, even on that one. So I believe right now Just to update the math for those at home, I believe I am up by 33.

Yep.

At this point. So we have, we have 2 more draft picks to take each one of us.

Ty Wigginton.

It's a good one.

Also 22.

Oh boy. I don't know about you, Chris.

I'm not doing it.

Okay.

Um, the only name that makes me feel— there are like a couple names that make me feel not confident here. I'm going Todd Zeal, 08.

23.

All right, that feels good. That feels good.

All right, hopefully there's one guy on here who has one error.

Well, there's a strategy that I think Gabe put on here for one of these guys that is interesting to me, and I'm not gonna take him.

Bobby Bonilla.

You're going Bonilla '94?

Yeah.

18.

All right, well, that means I win. I'm going David Wright 2010.

He had 20.

Yeah, and I'm going, I'm going with that because what was Devers? Because that's the 2020 season. There were only 60 games.

14.

Holy hell, he was so bad. Hey, thank God. Honestly, I was feeling awful after the last one. That makes me feel at least a little bit better. At least it's 15-13 and the momentum swings back in the right direction.

We can just pretend the mistake never happened and then I won this week.

And then you won this week.

Yeah, fun.

You want to do that?

Yeah.

You want to pretend? Just scrap it all? Carry the momentum?

Yeah.

Just get rid of all of it?

Forget about Saltimacchia. It never happened. I won this one. Good win by me.

You sound salty.