00:00this evening and joining us now a part of apple's friday night major league baseball game
00:07of the week coverage it is heidi watney hello heidi hi guys how's it going great how are you
00:15i'm great i'm great well hard to be back doing red socks yankees when it matters right yeah
00:22well i was gonna say i mean uh it wasn't so long ago june where we would have uh expected
00:29this this
00:29series was a waste of time for at least one of the teams and that was the boston red socks
00:36it's crazy to think how far they've come and just the complete roller coaster and drama of the season
00:44entirely for the red socks it's been it's been wild i mean you could write a movie about it but
00:48people
00:49wouldn't believe this script as they like to say well heidi where we stand right now do you think
00:53that this red socks team as constructed can make a a legit run in october or are we getting ahead
00:59of
00:59ourselves absolutely you don't have the best record in baseball since june 25th and still the
01:06best record in baseball since the all-star break and then just completely collapsed in september
01:11although this team has been pretty mercurial so you never know but i think the way they're rolling
01:16right now was something that we always saw could happen with this red socks team it just took a little
01:21longer for them to get going heidi you've been around a lot of baseball and you've seen these red
01:27socks throughout the year what do you think it was that flipped the switch for this team to do what
01:33they're currently doing right now you know it's interesting i talked to carlos narvaez i had the
01:39orioles right after the trade deadline and he was crushed obviously to get traded away from this red
01:44socks team especially as the team was rolling so much but he said really when the team sat there on
01:51that plane in colorado that had to be turned back and then five hour delay and the whole thing and
01:55they've had a couple of those travel days this year but that particular time they really just kind
02:01of looked at each other in the eye heading into that yankee series and said look no one's going to
02:05feel sorry for us we need to do something ourselves we need to look at ourselves we need to do
02:12the little
02:12things because if not it's not just the coaching staff that's getting fired there's trouble for all of
02:18us we're a little over a month from the trade deadline and it really just galvanized the group i mean
02:23you look at different points in any season and there's always going to be some moment where
02:29things you know either come together and go right or they go completely south and that was a moment
02:34where they came together and they really just started if you look at the red socks they do the
02:39little things they've got you know the the ghost runner and extra innings they're moving the runner over
02:44they're doing all those little things that the defense that you know the pitching's been there really
02:50all year but has just been so good lately um but they're getting it done and that's that's the
02:55formula for a winning team heidi uh this series finally means something again and you look ahead
03:02maybe to the postseason a possible matchup in the wild card like how important is it for the red
03:08sox to have home field advantage in that wild card matchup if they were to face the new york yankees
03:13this is how important it is you hear yankees sports talk radio this week saying uh you know
03:19it's not that important the yankees can beat the red socks at fenway park or at yankee stadium it's
03:24important you know it's important and you know they're worried about their team right now
03:29heidi you talked about formula and this is kind of interesting um when you look at what it takes to
03:35like you know get deep into the postseason and potentially win a world series what would you rank
03:41as say like you know the top two or three most important teams that uh most important things
03:46that a team has to do oh god well pitching right it's run prevention run prevention in the postseason
03:55is is at a premium and that's when you're going to face all the best arms right you're not facing
04:00the number five guy on a pitching staff and you're not facing you know the 12th and 13th man in
04:05the
04:05bullpen um so you've got to be able to do the little things because you're not going to just
04:11slug your way through the postseason most teams aren't going to be able to do that so advancing the
04:16runners um making the defensive plays um which you know has been a problem in new york recently
04:22especially um and something that's been a strength for this red socks team so uh that's the biggest
04:28thing in the postseason is just run prevention um the socks yankees rivalry legendary i don't know
04:35people suggest that it's not the same as it used to be but there may be an even bigger rivalry
04:43that
04:43exists now which is red socks fans v cam schlittler because they do not like they do not like each
04:52other
04:52so i hope you guys are are on that uh this evening and this weekend you know it's so funny
05:00cam really
05:01embraces that role of the villain too which is what every good rivalry needs right when when the talk
05:07in recent years is the rivalry has lost its luster they didn't have the johnny damon that switched
05:12sides but you've got that you've got that in cam schlittler and ben rice who both grew up in red
05:19socks country and were yankees fans i mean ben rice says his first grade school picture even though
05:24he grew up in i think cohasset he grew up in mass somewhere um he was wearing a derrick jeter
05:30okay
05:31yeah he was wearing a derrick jeter uniform in his first grade school picture he tells me um so yeah
05:38you've got you've got a couple people who've crossed over but cam really embraces that narrative and then
05:43his postseason performance last year i mean i'm sorry red socks fans but that was dominance that
05:48he just owned the socks this is the third time we've seen him pitch on friday night baseball this
05:54year we just keep running into him and it's great because he's he's really a good pitcher i mean i
05:59can
05:59appreciate that obviously saw young candidate this year and he's just really come into his own as a
06:05pitcher um but what i love is the emotion because by all accounts every time i've talked to him he
06:12seems
06:12like a very nice guy but he just loves that role of being the red socks villain um i don't
06:19think his
06:19family should get death threats let's this is a game let's not take ourselves too seriously here
06:23but um but i love that he's embracing that emotional aspect of this rivalry and really having fun with it
06:31heidi a guy that we've been talking about a lot this morning mickey gasper and what his future could
06:36look like for this red socks team as they're getting guys back it what are people saying inside
06:40baseball about him five homers in eight games it's it's been a story here in boston and i'm sure
06:45elsewhere you mean mickey mantle right uh yeah he's he's been entertaining to watch and i love um
06:55i saw chad dracy say he's seen this at triple a he's seen him go on these hot stretches he
07:01has it
07:02inside him um whether he can keep that up over the long course i mean that's just how the game
07:07of
07:08baseball goes right a guy will get hot the league will make an adjustment to him if he doesn't make
07:13an adjustment back then it's not going to last but um but it's fun to watch and it's fun to
07:17see what
07:18he's doing for the red socks now and you know with this roster juggling that's going to have to happen
07:22as guys are coming back i hope that he is not a byproduct of that because um because i love
07:28seeing
07:28stories like this and it's fantastic and and maybe this is just the moment he needs to break out and
07:34stick in the big leagues i mean that that also could be one of the storylines so it couldn't just
07:38be a flash in the pan but it's nice to see from a guy who's been who's been around forever
07:43and is
07:43getting a chance heidi watney what time does coverage begin tonight on apple gosh i should i should know
07:50that i think 6 30 let's let's say there's definitely at least a half hour pregame show um i'll be
07:58talking
07:58to uh to adley rutschman i'll be talking to wilson contraris i'll be talking to a couple of yankees
08:04players too um we're gonna have a live pregame show on site and you know one of the things that
08:09i think is the calling card of our broadcast is it's so crystal clear it's so crisp and i think
08:15we
08:15do a really great presentation of the games and um and i know our crew is going to bring the
08:20the
08:21perspective in from the red socks yankees and the rivalry and the history and i mean it's like do you
08:26remember when the all-star game had that like this time it counts that's what i feel like heading
08:30into this game this time it counts there's a lot on the line it's huge and none of us thought
08:36this
08:36would be happening right now at the end of august it's fantastic so i think the winner of this series
08:41has a legitimate chance of catching the rays for the division i think that how do you feel absolutely
08:48okay yeah absolutely you look at it and you saw the cleveland guardians come back from 15 and a
08:55half games back at the beginning of july last year and they overtook the division on the last day of
08:59the season and they they won the division they got that by and the whole thing i think the red
09:04socks
09:04team could do that i think they're that hot right now they've got to get these new guys back they've
09:09got to work them in without losing that mojo and that like fight that they have right now that's the
09:13best part about this red socks team it's so boston it's so blue collar it's so everyone pulling
09:20together it's so like a roster of dustin padroyas that i absolutely love it all right well if it's
09:276 30 that means i will have to start at 5 30 to try to figure out the apple uh
09:34on my on my not that hard
09:36well it's uh it's heidi it's a it's an old man thing it's like i'll i'll i'll have to put
09:41the phone
09:41up there and get the qr code and uh that won't work and then my kids will have the it'll
09:47be it'll be but
09:47i will be there uh when things get going tonight so it's great to hear your voice and thanks for
09:52talking a little bit with us this morning thank you thank you i always say come for the baseball
09:57stay for ted lasso it's great you're a ted lasso person see corny's i love ted lasso it's the best
10:05i
10:05think we all are yeah have you how are you not a ted lasso person ted lasso is like the
10:10best in all of
10:17that's you're set up for success exactly now it's the lady footballers yes i just feel like
10:23it's in real life people are not things don't go well things people are not that happy i just don't
10:29i don't know it's guys to watch it maybe your perspective will be changed maybe you really need
10:35ted lasso i think you just gotta move to the midwest where he's from i'm more like a silo person
10:41where the world is ending at any moment that's more that's more me when it comes to apple but
10:46all right heidi thank you we'll talk to you soon all right take care guys
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