00:00Everyone was trying to figure out where their feelings were last night.
00:02I missed the point where the Guardians have been eliminated from the playoffs.
00:06Is that right?
00:06Did that happen?
00:07No, no.
00:07We got a game tonight.
00:09Got a game tonight, potentially a game tomorrow.
00:11Like, I understand that there's going to be an element of,
00:15you lost the last two games, you had a 2-1 lead, you don't have one anymore,
00:18and now you got to win the next two games, you're going home.
00:21I understand that that lends itself to a lot of emotional bipolarity.
00:27I'm just not there.
00:28Like, yep, this is the one that I'm most concerned about,
00:32not because it's the next one up,
00:33because you're going to be doing another bullpen game,
00:35and this has not exactly worked out every time you've done it here,
00:39and you've lost the last two games.
00:41But I feel like this is the game you've got to win,
00:43because I think if you win this game, tomorrow takes care of itself
00:46because you've got the ace on the bump.
00:47You're right, you have to win this one.
00:48If you don't win this one, you're gone.
00:49I did not.
00:50Yes, that's not what I'm saying.
00:52What I'm saying is this is the tougher get.
00:53Okay.
00:54That's what I was saying.
00:55Of the two, this is the tougher get.
00:56Yeah, I think so.
00:56I look at it like, do I think they're going to win?
01:00No, I'm not saying that.
01:01But did anybody think they were going to win when they were down 0-2 to the White Sox either?
01:04Like, this is a backs-against-the-wall baseball team.
01:07They have been the entire stretch.
01:08Until this team is legitimately dead and knocked out of the playoffs,
01:11I think it's not insane, but it's just not something I would do in counting them out,
01:15even though, again, it doesn't look good.
01:18Nobody's saying it looked good,
01:18but it didn't look good when they were down 0-2 to the White Sox either.
01:21I feel like because of the weather here, there were like three home runs,
01:24coulda, woulda, shoulda home runs, from the Guardian side of things in the last two games.
01:30If you're in Tampa in that Dome Stadium, those are home runs,
01:34and we feel pretty differently about this.
01:36Like, there is an element of this that I think going to a weather-controlled place
01:40to play these next two games, I think that's going to be good for the Guardians' bats.
01:44Just the problem is it also might be good for the Rays' bats.
01:46Well, and the Rays' bats, I mean, that's something we talked about on Friday,
01:49is when are the top three in their lineup going to come to life?
01:51Turns out it was the last two games, and so we knew they wouldn't lay down and die.
01:54We knew that at some point they'd come to life, and they did,
01:57and so now you've got to respond.
01:58But again, the cool thing about this Guardians team is every single time
02:02it feels like everybody's given up on them, said this is done, said this is over,
02:06this is when they respond in their best way.
02:07And this is the point where it's like, guys, like, you can't always be up 3-1
02:13and then coast to an easy five-game gentleman sweep.
02:17You can't.
02:17And sometimes it has to go this way, and for some reason,
02:21this guards team, as you've mentioned, prefers it this way.
02:24They didn't really come on until the end of September.
02:27They spotted the White Sox, the 0-2 series lead.
02:29Like, maybe this is the way it's just got to be for this Guardians team.
02:34I think it's fine if you're doubting them.
02:36I think it's natural that you're doubting them.
02:38Natural, that's the right way to put it.
02:40But I'm not down.
02:40It's so funny.
02:41Like, last night stunk, right?
02:43There were multiple moments that you could have taken that game over.
02:46You didn't.
02:47Hosey had the at-bat there in the eighth inning to give you a chance,
02:51and he struck out.
02:53So, like, you lost the way you lost.
02:56I was on to game six at, like, 9.05 last night.
02:59Well, it did help that the game ended at 8 o'clock,
03:01and so we didn't have to sit with it right before we went to bed.
03:04You know, for a lot of us, if you stay up a little bit later on,
03:06you got to watch Sunday Night Football,
03:08and you got to kind of distract yourself a little bit more
03:10than just sitting in your pain and your agony.
03:12Also, can we agree that putting Messick out there
03:15for more than two innings made sense yesterday
03:17if you knew today was going to be a bullpen debate?
03:20And maybe if you had a couple days where you really had to rely on the bullpen?
03:23Just kind of putting him out there
03:24and letting him kind of sit in it for a little bit?
03:25Yeah, yeah.
03:25Because, again, like, you didn't lose last night
03:27because Messick gave up a couple runs.
03:29You lost the game because the offense gave you one run.
03:33Yeah, well, now they've given you eight runs over the previous four games.
03:35Not enough offense.
03:36But, like, it was interesting.
03:38You know, we had a lot of debates about whether or not
03:41you'd stay with Bailey at any point and give him a chance.
03:44Because, you know, Hedges had been Messick's catcher.
03:46We talked about that.
03:47The personal catcher is a real thing.
03:49Paul Skeens has one.
03:50For years, Greg Maddox was always the poster boy in that discussion.
03:54And Vogt went for the offense.
03:55And he decided to go ahead and sit Hedges.
03:57And then Bailey.
03:58And boy, did it work out.
03:59And Bailey just vomited all over his shoes offensively.
04:02But, like, I mean, it's just, it's, I couldn't believe that was the spot he did that in.
04:06All right.
04:06When his first at-bat, I remember thinking halfway through the at-bat.
04:10I think he's in a 37 double plays.
04:12Yeah.
04:12In the last two games.
04:13I actually said out loud, Hedges could have done that.
04:16Like, that's exactly what Hedges is in there to do.
04:19To accept, maybe you don't have, to me, it was just a risk.
04:22Like, I don't know why you took that risk in that game.
04:25It just felt so unnecessary.
04:25When you pushed off that risk by putting Hedges in the lineup every other time Messick was in, in the
04:31postseason.
04:32Like, was there something Messick told him?
04:33Like, hey, no, I got it now.
04:35Now, I think I cleared this.
04:36Was this actually a Chris Ballard situation?
04:39My favorite framing of the Colts GM getting fired today is, he told the Colts ownership she had to fire
04:46him.
04:46Yeah, because I think that's what she was waiting for.
04:49Yeah.
04:49The green light.
04:50Like, was this Hedges going to voter and being like, you gotta bench me?
04:56It might have been.
04:57Put Patty Barrels in.
04:58It might have been.
04:59He's like, listen, he's just a much better offensive player than I am right now.
05:02We need the offense.
05:03Let's get this thing going.
05:05Honest to God's truth, we're going to get a Zach Meisel article in like two weeks about that story happening.
05:09Only if they win.
05:10If they come back and they erase all of this, it'll be the Hedges convo with Vot to give him
05:15his blessing to go ahead and let him through.
05:17What happened to the Guardians 2-1 series lead?
05:20And are you despondent today?
05:23I'm actually doing pretty well.
05:24I'm pretty confident the Guardians can not just win today.
05:27But if you win today, I'm expecting you to win the series because Gavin's going to be on the bump
05:30tomorrow.
05:31But, hey, the Browns are 4-2.
05:34And that is the textbook way that this team has made you feel.
05:38Is that you don't really know anymore if they're going to pull it out or if they're going to lose.
05:43You do know you're pretty annoyed for most of the game.
05:46And at least four times this year, not at least four times, four times this year, you've gone, hey, that's
05:52a game they normally lose.
05:53I'll take it.
05:54And they kind of walk away not really knowing what the hell you should take away from the game.
05:57And what's funny about it is as the game evolved, it went from, oh, my gosh, Deshaun can't do anything.
06:02And all of a sudden, I'm scared of Tyler Huntley to then Tyler Huntley can't do anything.
06:06And Deshaun's definitely going to make a pass here.
06:09I don't know who it's going to go.
06:10If you were to ask me to guess Jerry Judy, sure, why not?
06:12Right?
06:13Could have been anybody.
06:14But you knew he was going to get the job done.
06:15And that, to me, is the development of the Browns this season is that it feels like as sloppy a
06:21football as that is.
06:22And it was very sloppy.
06:23You just kind of felt like they were going to get the job done.
06:25Learning how to win.
06:26And that's what Munkin does.
06:27He can finish off these games that I'm convinced Stefanski just didn't know what to do in the past two
06:31years.
06:32It's a real trait, Nick.
06:33Yeah, it's pretty crazy.
06:34The Browns have one of the worst first quarter teams in the NFL.
06:39Should be noted, the Ravens have the best first quarter offense in the NFL as well.
06:44Yeah, the graphic displayed it.
06:45It was like, oh, plus 46?
06:47What's going on here?
06:47Yeah, they've been outscored 40.
06:49Now I'm going to forget the number because you said the number 46.
06:52It was, I think it's 44 to 6 in the first quarters through the first six games of the season.
06:57And yet, they might have the best fourth quarter quarterback in the NFL if that was the only thing that
07:04mattered.
07:05But yeah, Deshaun has been electric in the fourth quarter.
07:07And again, I'm not saying he was electric yesterday.
07:10But it was good enough.
07:12He made enough plays to win.
07:13And so there's a million different conversations to have, including is it real and all that kind of crap.
07:19And I'm like, well, I'm pretty sure the defense is real.
07:21Can I just ride that for a while and just enjoy being 4-2?
07:24So that's a part of it, right?
07:26You get to enjoy that.
07:26And as the week moves on, we'll probably discuss more and more of the idea that, like, I don't know,
07:31is Harold Fannin ever going to have, like, a multi-catch game again?
07:34I don't know.
07:34Is he going to be able to have a 50-yard receiving game again?
07:37Noted blocking tight end, Harold Fannin Jr.
07:39I don't know.
07:41Judkins not even playing in the game.
07:43It's a prize development on Sunday.
07:44Then obviously he goes out to stretch, tries to get out there, can't go out there.
07:48We have a backfield that collectively had two total carries and 31 yards in the season entering the game.
07:53And actually looked pretty decent, all things considered.
07:55Yeah, it's funny.
07:56If you just look at the stats specifically of Estime, you're like, oh, he must have been cock-a.
08:00It's like, he actually had a couple clutch runs, and McLaughlin did look like he was more explosive.
08:06Or, like, no, you know what it is?
08:07It's not explosive.
08:08He was just quicker to the hole.
08:09And again, the numbers—
08:10I mean, Jurel was averaging, like, six yards a carry up until the fourth quarter.
08:13Like, the numbers might not—as you were going to point there—like, the numbers might not look different,
08:17but it did look different when McLaughlin got a decent hole to run to.
08:21He actually found it.
08:21Whereas, if you go back and look at some of Quinchon's runs, it's like, oh, hey, look at that gigantic
08:27hole off the right side of the line.
08:29I think I'm going to rub the center's ass.
08:31So, like, we didn't have too many of those.
08:34And if they were, it was from Estime, who I think's idea is just, I'm a bulldozer.
08:39I think that's what he thinks, and he is, because the man's a damn unit.
08:42But no, I mean, it was—again, it was an ugly game.
08:45It was an ugly win.
08:46And there's a million valid questions from it, including, what can you actually take away from it?
08:53And every time I think too hard about that, I just go, would I rather really ponder this,
08:58or would I rather just remember that the Browns are 4-2?
09:00No, it's—no, that makes for a miserable postgame.
09:03If it's like, did we win?
09:04Yes.
09:04Did we lose?
09:05No?
09:05Okay, that's the entirety of all of it.
09:08Like, we got 25 hours this week to figure out what's sustainable, what isn't sustainable.
09:12So you know my rebuttal.
09:13So you're going to come up with these really smart points, real salient things, right?
09:17Real football guy knowledge over here from Peterland.
09:20And my rebuttal will be, I mean, they're 4-2, right?
09:24It's going to be infuriating to me.
09:26Was this game set up to just drive us between the two of us on a part?
09:30Is this the wedge game?
09:30It might have been the wedge game.
09:32Because I was definitely starting to piss you off last week with, I don't care, if they're 4-2, they're
09:364-2.
09:37I don't care how it looks.
09:37And my response is, well, that's great.
09:40Again, why do we even have a post-game show?
09:41If your response is, did they win today?
09:44Yes.
09:44Oh, okay.
09:45I guess that's a post-game show.
09:46Did they lose today?
09:47No.
09:48Like, I just, I don't know what to do with that.
09:50Oh, no, no, no.
09:50It's, did we win today?
09:52Yes.
09:53Awesome.
09:55Did we lose today?
09:57Yes.
09:58Boo.
10:00That's basically it.
10:01That's at least another 30 seconds of content right there.
