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GUARDIANS GAME 1 LOSS REACTION: Lineup fails Guardians in 3-0 Game 1 loss to White Sox in ALDS
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00:00ALDS game one officially in the books and the guardians are losers by a final score of three
00:09to nothing. Again, it is Jake Volnick Anthony Lant with you guys and we're taking your calls
00:13all the reaction at two one six four seven four double oh 92. Well, Anthony, not the way that
00:19any of us envisioned it guardians get a home playoff game first round by you wonder what
00:24the time off does to them and apparently it puts the bats completely in the dirt and they
00:28pick up three hits and zero runs. What did James just throw out to us? They got shut out 16
00:32times
00:32in the regular season about 10% of the season, right? That looked like the offense midway through
00:37the season that looked like we were going to end up winning 75 games today and yeah, three hits
00:45against the bullpen game. I know the White Sox have a really good bullpen, but if you pulled the
00:50average guardians fan, I'd say about four out of those five pitchers. You didn't recognize maybe
00:55Hagan Smith, the starters, the guy that you recognized, but I mean, they couldn't get anything
00:59going. Like I, I don't know. I, I said between the break, I, one of these times I would like
01:05to do a post game show where they actually won. I I've done, I don't know how many guardians
01:10post game shows. I haven't even been here two years and I've been on air screaming my head
01:16off about loss after loss, after law, you had the easiest path that we could have ever set
01:21up for you. You know, White Sox team that you have little bro'd since 2005, a team that
01:26has won, uh, what? Three, four playoff series since, I don't know, the turn of the century,
01:34like the turn of the 19th century. And now all of a sudden they're coming out here and
01:38the new look, new fangled White Sox team, that's the one that you're losing to. I don't, I don't
01:43get it. Parker Messick made one bad pitch today. He made one bad pitch and against Murakami,
01:48of course, and this White Sox offense is good. I don't want to discount them. They've
01:51got a lot of 20 home run hitters across the board. He made one bad pitch. You couldn't
01:56respond to that. How many times were we sitting back there watching it? Like after the on hell
02:00Martinez catch and double play after another double play, you know, ground out, double play,
02:04uh, Eric Sebrowski comes in and closes the lights out. Daniel Spino gets two pitches and gets
02:10out of a bases, uh, two, two men on. And we're like, Hey, take that momentum and go score
02:16a couple of runs. And then no, it was crappy at bat after crappy at bat, after popping up pitches
02:23that were right down the middle. It was ridiculous. It was awful. 12 strikeouts tonight. Uh, you got
02:29a golden sombrero on the books for, uh, Joe Adele. He struck out all four of his at-bats
02:34tonight. Hey buddy, in Cleveland, we play baseball in October. I know that you're used to being on a
02:38beach in Cancun, sipping margaritas by now, but we actually need you to perform because we made the
02:44playoffs. We're not the angels. Yeah, no, I mean, this is his very first playoff game does not go
02:48the way that he wants it to, uh, but this was a team Anthony. And when you talk about the
02:51offense,
02:52uh, they just squandered moment after moment. Like there were back-to-back innings where
02:57they waited for two outs, but they find a way to get the bases loaded. You have opportunities at
03:01the dish. And I mean, what both were, I think pop outs to the outfield. Like they, I mean,
03:06basically cans of corn for, I think it was one to left, one to right and chase the water and
03:10Brian
03:11Rocchio. Like you are over three with runners in scoring position. It just, you just had no
03:16punch through whatsoever. And you have the opportunity, right? This is how many times
03:20did we hear Steven vote this season go on the, well, you know, you just got to keep with it.
03:24You got to keep putting guys on base, keep putting on the pressure. Eventually it's going to break.
03:28And that did prove true when we got to the month of September and right there at the end of
03:31August.
03:32But right now, this kind of felt like that exact team that you kind of mentioned halfway through
03:37this season. That was the team that guys on base, guys on base, guys on base all day,
03:41long, but the runs just never kind of backed it up. And it was just guys not coming through in
03:45big
03:45moments. That was really what showed. They're like, this is a game where three runs were scored.
03:50Okay. This was not some white socks, offensive onslaught. Like this was a winning product
03:55by the guardians, defense and guardians pitching. You held the white socks to three runs. That is a
04:00game that every single time the guardians should feel like we have an opportunity to win this,
04:04right? We didn't get six put up on us. And I think that's the most demoralizing thing of the
04:07entire day is that it kind of feels like the playoff games that we've watched over
04:12the past, how many years that, Oh, well pitching came up to play today, but the bats were just
04:17asleep. Yeah. But you weren't playing the, you know, $350 million rostered Yankees or
04:24the Houston Astros that were winning championship after championship, but even the last two years,
04:28this is kind of what it's felt like against the Detroit tigers who are not a team that goes
04:31out there and spends $300 million on a roster. Yeah, no, I agree. And again, you,
04:36you loaded the bases, two straight innings. You didn't get anybody in you, you score.
04:40You literally deliver one time. I'm not asking for two straight innings with grand slams in them.
04:46That's okay. I've put that out of my head for the time being, you have one hit across two of
04:52those
04:52innings and that's a tie ball game. And then you're in it and you'd, I, you know, obviously they allow
04:57the extra run on the botched play that was bobbled by Austin hedges. It was ridiculous. And we were
05:04celebrating and then looking back up at the TV at the ball, trickling away from hedges at the plate.
05:08But like I full surrender, Cobra, hands on the head, could not believe what I was watching.
05:12And how many times did we do that? Because it was just opportunity missed after opportunity missed.
05:16And like how many times did we watch? Okay. What we watched 16 shutouts this, this season,
05:23how many times did they load the bases, two straight innings and weren't able to deliver?
05:28That's, that's not like, you know, we mentioned the first segment that, well, it's, you know,
05:32they're always deemed as this young team and inexperienced players that have never been here
05:36before. I mean, at some point you, you have to either deliver or you just like not good enough
05:42to do so. And also you have Joe Adele, who's a veteran player. I know he hasn't had any playoff
05:47experience. You have Nathaniel Lowe, who's a veteran player. I know he doesn't have much playoff
05:51experience. So it's not like that this roster is full of rookies that just came up yesterday.
05:55Like there's, there's veteran stuff around this team and they still didn't deliver.
06:00Yeah. And like, you talk about the guys that you need to show up big for you, like a year
06:03after year. And I get, this is a better guardians offense than years past, right? I think we
06:07all agree on that. This is an offense that should have more firepower to it than the, the team
06:11that we watched over the last two years or probably going back to what, 2017, somewhere
06:15around that range. That's probably the best offense you've output. Yeah.
06:19Steven Kwan, Jose Ramirez, Chase Lauder, Joe Adele, Angel Martinez, up until you get to
06:25the six spot in the order. We're all all four tonight today. I should say, but like none
06:30of those guys came through, like the guys that you've been talking about that have not
06:33carried this offense, but have obviously been a massive part of it. Like the Lauder has
06:37had a fantastic season. Joe Adele has come up in some big moments. Obviously you talk about
06:41Jose Kwan. They've been here in these moments with this team and had big moments. None of
06:47those guys showed up today. Like they all just, I mean, even combined those two, you have
06:51a walk from Kwan and a walk from Jose. They got on base twice today. Yeah. Well, and how many
06:55times
06:55have we walked out of a game that they've won this season and the hero isn't Kwan, DeLauder,
07:00Ramirez? It's, you know, Patrick Bailey or Austin Hedges or Brian Rokey, you know, somebody that's
07:05the unheralded player that's down in the seven, eight, nine spot. Nobody got it going today.
07:11And so it wasn't just that you weren't getting production from your top guys. Nobody was
07:15contributing. I mean, it was, I don't know. It was just frustrating. Yeah. It was really frustrating.
07:20And now like, you know, you have Gavin Williams going on Monday. Gavin Williams is pretty hit
07:26or miss at points. And so you're one blow up away from being down to all and having to
07:31win three straight games. So you're basically out of the series. Yeah. I mean, that's like
07:34the danger of like, we talk about basketball series, all best of sevens. You drop a game
07:38and it's okay. It's a game, right? Like you bounce back. You're going to be fine. And I
07:42like, there's a little bit of that in the best of five. It is one game, but now bare minimum,
07:47like you talk about, you have to win three of the next four. And also that's the spot that you
07:51just put yourself on. You can't be any worse than winning three of the next four. And you have to
07:55win two of those games in a white Sox stadium where again, those fans have not seen playoff
08:01baseball since 2005. So, I mean, they're going to be rearing and ready to go as well. So if you
08:07thought that it was tough to play today, when the home fans were rooting for you in a bullpen game
08:11and a bullpen game, and they were getting loud when the white Sox were on the mound and when the
08:16white Sox were having trouble, what do you think's going to happen on Wednesday and Thursday night
08:20when you're at a sold out rate field that fans have been waiting 15, uh, 11 years for this?
08:25Yeah. Like it is, is such a, a tough moment. I think you botched that number, uh, 2005 to 20,
08:3126, that'd be 21. 20. Thank you. Yeah. A lot more time on the whole extra decade that they've
08:36been waiting for it, but like, yeah, I just, I don't know what your expectation then becomes
08:41because this is an offense that once again, you just have to wake up. Like this was the
08:46offensive years past is my problem. This is what I've been watching year after year, time
08:50and time again, and a year where it's supposed to be different. And we talked about, this is
08:53not the guardians walking into even a coin flip of a series. You're favored. Like you're expected
08:58to win this series. The white Sox are coming in as a, as you mentioned the first segment, kind
09:02of the media darling, they're playing with house money. They got nothing to lose. If
09:06the book closed on them and they got three Oh swept in this series, what would the end
09:10result be? It would still be, Oh, well, white Sox still had a really nice season. Huh?
09:14And they won a series. Yeah. They won a playoff series. That would be the closing on their
09:18season. They would still be very happy. It's a guardians team that expectations, when you
09:22get the draw that you get by getting the two seed, by getting to play either a white Sox
09:27or an Astros team that already had to play a series of baseball, the expectation is you get
09:31to the ALCS. And I'm not saying you couldn't drop a game along the way. Like that was in
09:35the cards here. The white Sox are not a team. You're supposed to just mow over the, I mean,
09:39it's a divisional opponent. I expect them to get a win in this series. I expect this to
09:42be a tough road, even with it being the easiest path. Like these are games you have to show
09:48up in. This is an offense that I walk away from today. Like I felt like I had a little
09:53confidence in the offense. They weren't going to get shut out. Maybe it's only two or three
09:56runs, but they can find a way to win. I'm now reevaluating my thoughts on this offense
10:00and whether or not they can do it. Cause that's what game two picture going up against going to
10:04be a hell of a lot harder than, you know, a getting five different white Sox bullpen
10:09members to come out of that and try and put together a win. Yeah. I mean, they, they finished
10:12the season with a two 39 batting average with runners in scoring position. Good enough.
10:1726th in major league baseball. But we, I, so we knew that this wasn't high powered, right?
10:23But they've been playing out of their minds into September. And how many times have we seen
10:27a team that's maybe not the juggernaut that we might see this year from like Tampa Bay
10:31or obviously like Atlanta and the Dodgers and like all those teams that are, you know,
10:35the regular juggernauts of the baseball, but it's the team that gets hot at the right time.
10:41And you bullied your way into the playoffs where every game for the last three weeks was basically
10:46a must win. And if you drop the game, you were walking on pins and needles for the next couple
10:50of days. So that's where the confidence came from was they were stepping it up offensively.
10:55It seemed like things were clicking Joe Adele and Nathaniel Lowe, your deadline acquisitions,
11:00your veteran presence was giving you consistent major league veteran at bats down the stretch.
11:06And that's why I thought very, very highly of this team and this setup that we were going into,
11:12regardless of the fact that we had five days off, I thought that was only going to help
11:16because you set yourself up to have Parker and Gavin, hopefully pitching two games in this series.
11:21And I said earlier today, like if you have a one, two punch of Parker Messick and Gavin
11:25Williams, and you don't win one of those games, or you don't win either of those games, you weren't
11:30going to win this series to begin with because your offense was just that bad.
11:33Yeah. Like there was nothing Parker could have done to make this a winning game, right?
11:36Like obviously they didn't put up runs. They put up three hits. There's nothing to do.
11:39Like, did you want him to get through six innings on two earned runs? Did you want, like how many
11:43times
11:44have we watched these pictures from Tanner, from Tanner Bybee to Shane Bieber, like go back as far
11:49as you want. They put up really, really good playoff starts. And even that includes allowing a couple
11:57of runs here and there, like that's going to happen, especially against a team like this.
12:01You have to be able to have more than three hits. That's simply what it comes down to.
12:05Yeah. There's just, I mean, there is legitimately no excuse for you. You can't have it.
12:09You can't bank on the fact that this is going to be something. And we point to the end of
12:12the
12:12schedule. The guardians get hot. Like there's a little bit to this idea of, okay, well, they
12:17obviously had a really easy September, right? They, they played much harder of a schedule
12:20early in the year and it got backloaded, but like even a series against Boston, I know that
12:24Boston, obviously they're out of the playoffs already. They got, I mean, decimated by the
12:28Yankees. They're not like the picture boy for what a playoff baseball team is and a good
12:33playoff baseball team, but they were there and like, you played competitive games. Now the offense
12:37was ugly, but you found ways to win and you won two out of three. That was kind
12:41of the, the moment for me where I'm like, yeah, okay, this might be what playoff baseball
12:44looks like, but the guardians have in big moments where they didn't have the division
12:48clinched. They had the ability to show up and then it just goes away. And listen, I'm
12:52not buying any of the, the rest talk or, ah, you come out. So no, like you play to get
12:57a buy in the first round. You don't get to come out flat and then just blame it on the
13:01fact that you had days off. And I don't expect to even vote to do that. I don't expect the
13:04guardians to do that, but it was talking about how much the rest helped, but you walk
13:08away from this thing. Like you have no excuses to come out flat. You have every advantage
13:11in the world walking into this game. Again, like I have nobody to trust right now. They,
13:17that lineup just proved to me who am I actually counting on in this game?
13:21Yeah. I'm glad that you and I have the same idea about the rest versus rust thing. I, cause
13:25I would have just lambasted you if you would as well. I don't know if they would have rested
13:28for too long. That's the most hack radio hack topic ever of the rest versus rust thing,
13:33because as you mentioned, you play to set yourself up and based on from the pitching
13:39staff being, you know, worked throughout September, Cade Smith getting worked throughout
13:43September, Jose Ramirez getting injured, chase a lot are dealing with a couple of
13:48things. This team was perfectly set up to have five days off and just take a beat and
13:53relax and set themselves up. So like anybody that it just, it's something that just fits
13:57a narrative for you. But yeah, I mean like what, like what's, what's Steven Volk going to
14:01say? Like I'm sure we're going to hear from him in his post game speech. Is he
14:04going to continue to roll out the same mantra that we've heard? However many times
14:08this year, you just got to keep delivering, keep delivering. And eventually it'll go
14:12through. We didn't deliver at all today. And now you're at a point where, like you
14:16said, you have to win three of the next four games. This is not like eventually
14:19we'll figure it out. It's now or it's never. And you're going home with the upstart
14:24White Sox moving on to the ALCS and usurping you in the division. Yeah. Like you, you have
14:30essentially a mulligan. That's what you have left right now. You have a mulligan
14:33on the season or for your season on the line right now against the White Sox in
14:36four games. Like, and you put together anything that looks close to that
14:40offense. I'm telling you right now, like, this is why when I stare at the White
14:44Sox, there was a little bit of fear attached to it because this is not a team
14:48that you're just going to go out there and win games one to nothing. They're going
14:51to put runs on the board. They hit the ball too far. They're able to channel the
14:55long ball at some point during the game, they're going to put up runs. So like there is
14:58no, the guardians offense does not show up in it. Guardians walk away happy with a win.
15:03No, the offense is going to have to come to play in this series. Even if it's just
15:06punch through at an opportune moment, right? Once or twice throughout a game, punch through
15:11with an RBI single that might be enough for you, but like blanking the White Sox is not
15:15really, maybe it's in the cards once in this series, maybe, but you can't rely on that
15:20being, Hey, we're going to win games one to nothing and two to one. That's not going to
15:23happen. And how many times have we watched? I mean, they played 13 times a season. I don't
15:27have it pulled up in front of me, but how many of those games were one or two score
15:29games? So the entire, I know the entire series was decided by one total run in one game
15:34that what that comes down to is delivering clutch hits when it matters the most. And
15:40when you have the bases loaded in the third inning, I really don't give a damn if there's
15:44two outs or not. You're major league hitter, put the ball in the damn outfield and get something
15:49going. You put, all you need to do is find grass and you have two runners in one of those
15:54two times. And it's a tie game going into the seventh inning. That that's all you need
15:58with the guardians didn't do today was deliver anything in any sort of like high leverage
16:05situation. It was, and, and the White Sox did, it felt like this is a team who's been able
16:09to kind of ride on the momentum. And even when you were getting in this game, as we mentioned
16:13kind of at the start, like you had defensive plays, you had pitching that gave you momentum
16:17in this game. You didn't capitalize on it. 2-1-6-4-7-4-0-92 guardians, losers three to
16:23nothing. Game one of the ALDS and now have to win three of the next four. And I want
16:27to know from you guys, is this guardians offense good enough for playoff baseball? Or are you
16:31just taking today as a mulligan?