Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast

Sam Levitt On Padres Winning 2 Of 3 In Cleveland

Ben & Woods catch up with In-Season Sammy as the Padres pre and postgame show host returns to the show and gives his thoughts on the Padres taking 2 of 3 this past weekend from the Cleveland Guardians to start the 2nd half of the season! Listen here!

Duration:: 20m
Broadcast on:: 22 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

You don't just live in your home, you live in your neighborhood as well. So when you're shopping for a home, you want to know as much about the area around it as possible. Luckily, Homes.com has got you covered. Each listing features a comprehensive neighborhood guide from local experts. Everything you'd ever want to know about a neighborhood, including the number of homes for sale, transportation, local amenities, cultural attractions, unique qualities, and even things like median lot size and a noise score. Homes.com. We've done your homework. Nice. Today's episode is sponsored by Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. Nerd Wallet's experts will set future you up for success. With dependable, fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow Nerd Wallet's Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast ad. Get your laugh on with me, Chris Jericho, and the Talk is Jericho podcast. We've got Guns N' Roses, Hall of Famer, Duff the Kagan, and his Joke of the Week, every Friday, plus regular visits from the hilarious Brad Williams and special appearances by everyone from Gabrielle, Fluffy Iglesias, Mark Marin, Dennis Miller, Cheech Marin, Kevin Neeland, if they're funny, they're on Talk is Jericho. So listen to and follow Talk is Jericho now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. If I understand correctly, he was getting so bored that he started appearing with other shows and was just aimlessly driving the coastline based on his social media pictures. Sammy, how was your all-star break? That is pretty much what I was doing on Thursday, aimlessly driving the coastline, but it is a beautiful coastline. It was a nice drive, but it was nice. I had some family here, it was my dad 65th birthday over the all-star break, so we actually had an Airbnb in Encinitas, my brother came down from LA, we all stayed together for a few days, so that was very nice and a really nice way to spend the break and it lined up really well with the days off. And you're right, they could not keep me out of the studio even came in and did the afternoon show for a couple of hours, which was fine and kind of worked out the radio muscles for a few days, but a very nice break and a good weekend for the potter. You were in Ben & Woods territory in Encinitas, it didn't say a thing to us. Yeah, I mean I was out of town, but- No, you were there during the all-star break, right? Oh, during the break. Yeah, well, I mean, it wasn't like I was like roaming there alone, I had- Yeah, you had your family. I apologize, I should have hit you up. I will tell you where we went, where we went for meals, where did we go? We went to La Papagayo one night, we went to Birds Eye Kitchen one night. Good time. Very nice, yeah. Yeah, we went to, where else did we go? We went to somewhere in Carl's bed, we went to, I can't remember what the place was called in Carl's bed. We did go to Cali Cream for ice cream, which was very good, one night, and yeah, yeah. We had a good time. So I apologize, I did not invite you to the birthday festivities, that was an oversight on my part. Yeah, I mean I probably wouldn't have gone, but it's always nice to get invited, Sammy. I don't really like to go to anything, but I do like to be invited. I do. But then you're awkward when you say no, then I feel bad when I say no. Here's the truth though, at one point during my dad's visit, I did mention how you two lived up there. Yeah. Because we were talking about San Diego and how people, you know, work in different places, a lot of people live up here. And I said Ben and Woods, my dad is a big time Ben and Woods listener. I'm sure he will listen to this segment in particular at some point today. He is aware that you guys live up there. So he did know he was in Ben and Woods territory. Well, happy birthday to your dad. I'm sure he is. I mean, listen. If you raised Sammy Levitt, you can pat yourself from the back that you did a really, really nice job. I know you were excited to get back to baseball. We all were. It was it was like a loss inside of us. And then the game rolls around Friday night and boom, seven nothing loss. I mean, just as putrid of a performance as you could give. And it felt it didn't feel great coming out of the break. Yeah. Three hits. Yeah. Three hits. Yeah. On you all night, how did that that first post game show go? Yeah. It felt very much like how the first half ended. That was certainly the most concerning part about Friday night was the fact that offensively they picked up right where they left off. And I don't mean that in a very good way. Now, the good part about Friday night was Matt Waldron was really good. And you can bet. So we actually looked really good. And then the game got away late, but yeah, it didn't, it didn't leave a great taste in your mouth Friday night when they come out of the break and offensively it was the same thing we saw at the very end of the first half, where they just weren't doing things they did pretty well for the most part in the first 90 games or so. And that string hits together that's creating the beginning that's, you know, for the most part, especially early in the first half, winning on the road, doing those things on the road. And then obviously they were able to turn it around Saturday and Sunday. But no doubt, Friday did not feel very good and was sort of a continuation of what we saw right before the break, especially offensively. Tell you what concerned me, Sam. And I, you know, when I watch a team like the Guardians, I always look, okay, what makes this team so good? Why did they have the best record in the American League? The all-star break certainly isn't their starting pitching. Jesse pointed out a number of times probably worst starting pitching in baseball. Okay. How do you have such a good record? Well, they got a decent lineup. Padre's pitchers did a great job shutting them down though. They kept Stephen Kwan and Jose Ramirez in check for most of the series. So where is the difference? And it's clearly in the bullpen. They have a dominant bullpen where the Padres have a stressfully, you know, adequate sometimes not other times bullpen and it just shows you what a huge difference that can make. When they have a lead, they're not going to give it up and the Padres are pretty good at holding the leads. The difference is when you're down one, they're going to keep it there for the most part. They didn't on Saturday, but you know what, they, they did yesterday, they gave themselves a chance to win. They didn't come back and win it, but they could have and they've done it many times this season. And to me, that's the difference right there where the Padres, there's going to be too many games where they're not giving themselves a chance to win because they don't have a deep enough bullpen like the Guardians. Well, look, even, and you make a fair point then, even with the good of this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, and a lot of that was due to how terrific Dylan sees him and Michael King were. And if those two guys are going to pitch anywhere close to that level, that's a big deal for this team. And that's a really great thing. And especially if you throw a wall turn in the mix, look, the starting pitching was great this weekend. If they get that level of starting pitching, that's awesome. But what Friday night back to the first game of the series, again, what it did magnify, and I know you guys were talking about it right before the break, it magnified one way or another, whether that's via a trade or that's, well, look, I'm certain they are going to get some sort of reliever in here. But even beyond that, it magnified the need one way or another to be able to rely on somebody or two guys outside of Asrada, Maura Hone in Suarez to get out in big spots. I mean, look, you go to Steven Colick in the eighth inning, and that's just a one-nothing game on Friday night, and I know they have Emmanuel Closse waiting in the bullpen, he's no easy task. But hey, it's a one-nothing game in the eighth inning, and you're trying to give yourself at least a chance in the top of the ninth inning to tie or take a lead, and obviously things sort of unraveled in that eighth inning, and the game got totally away. So to your point, Ben, Friday night was a game where it magnified, whether that's a Yuki Matsui, who was actually really good on Friday night, but whether it's a Steven Colick, whether it's an annual Delos Santos, whether it is somebody via a trade in the next week or so, yeah, it magnified that a bullpen in 2024, especially as we get later in the season, yeah, you need more than three guys that you can really look at and rely on to go get some big outs and big spots, and Friday night did reveal that, and it makes the next week or so that much more interesting because there's clearly a pretty glaring need in that pen. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on Homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings, and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by Homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com. We've done your homework. Nice. Today's episode is sponsored by Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. Nerd wallets experts will set future you up for success. With dependable, fact-based insights, no financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation, find your next credit card, or loan for a big purchase, and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Get your laugh on with me, Chris Jericho, and the Talk is Jericho podcast. You've got Guns N' Roses, Hall of Famer, Duff the Kagan, and his joke of the week every Friday, plus regular visits from the hilarious Brad Williams, and special appearances by everyone from Gabrielle Fluffly Iglesias, Mark Marin, Dennis Miller, Cheech Marin, Kevin Neeland, if they're funny, they're on Talk is Jericho. So listen to and follow Talk is Jericho now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. I mean it was interesting and there's a guy on Twitter, letters to AJ, he writes a really good blog on Substack I read it every week, and one came out this morning right before the show started, and it talks about that Friday night game, and I got some DMs about it as well, and essentially Sammy, it was like, man, kind of a defeatist attitude of going with Colec there instead of a higher leverage guy, because you know you've got Closs A coming up, you also know you have literally told us on Friday that he had graduated some more higher leverage situations, and that was before that game, and it doesn't get much higher leverage than that one, right, and so the game was shot, didn't work out, but he was able to preserve Estrada and Suarez for kind of when he really needed him, I kind of scratched my head in game two going to Estrada, but six pitches I think and he gets out of it, you know, listen, they get paid to know a lot more than us, but I was ultimately pretty surprised by that move on Friday night, but I think, you know, I took calls about it on Friday night, I think the easy second guessing is obviously, hey, it's only a one run game, you do have the off day on Monday, you don't know what Saturday and Sunday are going to bring anyway, so why not use one of your mean to set up guys in Estrada or more hone in a one run game, right, even though you're not winning, you're losing, I totally understand it, with that said, I did see the reasoning on Friday or, you know, I saw reason as to why you would say, okay, Cole, even though he gave up the home run to Darno in the game on Sunday before the first half ended, had been really good before that, they're trying to find an arm or two that they can rely on to go get out and giving him that opportunity, you know, one run game, it didn't work out, right, because the game got away and the inning got away, I understood the reasoning after the game, I also understand, you know, from a fan perspective of like, hey, it's a one run game, you got to try to keep it a one run game and you have the off day on Monday, they tried it with Cole, and it didn't work out, and like I was saying in the previous answer, I kind of get it because they need sort of desperately to be able to turn to somebody else outside of those three, I guess what I'm saying is I didn't hate that moment, trailing, to try to get those three outs with Cole, it can see if you can kind of graduate to that sort of spot, it's a tough spot for a manager, it really, really is when, you know, maybe you don't feel like you have that fourth fifth guy you can turn to in that big spot and go get outs in a consistent way, but again, goes back to this, whether it's via trade or it's via guy stepping up, they need it desperately down the stretch in these final 60 plus games. Well, it's like this, I try to put myself in his shoes, and I thought to myself, I would have all, what do I always say, make moves that you can save your ass, right? Like, and that you can't manage that way, Mike, she'll can't live that way, make man, make moves that you can say, well, of course, I went to Jeremiah's try to only down one, I have faith in my team that we can score off the best really, right? Like, that's the easy move, Mike Schill did not make the easy move, I got a DM on Friday night, says I know Klossy's good, but with two, three, four, up with a rested pen and days off the upcoming, you don't throw more on a strata, I said, makes no sense unless they win the next two, then he's a genius. He says, on the ninth, you're just using one inning and more on have a strata and score as rest of the next two days, they're going to use their top three pitchers, I wish they would have saved one for the gnats. And he said, now they don't even have to use Klossy because they scored so many off of, they scored so many off of Coli. Now they did use Klossy in a two, one deficit yesterday, like the Padres didn't do on Friday with the strata. Correct. So it's just, again, a move that I didn't get that is, I'm glad I didn't spout off about it because it would have blown up and they didn't score, they didn't score. So it was the right move. Yeah, apparently. Yeah. Right. And also, just to kind of push it a point further, when you really think about it, if you look at Saturday of game, the score was three nothing heading into that top of the eighth inning. Okay. If the Padres don't score in the eighth inning there, guess who's coming in in all likelihood regardless, right? I know a strata ended up coming in anyway. Yeah. But then it's definitely a strata in a three run game. And if you're still leading three nothing heading into the ninth inning, it's Suarez. So look, there was a world, but there was a world where it could have worked out where it was, you know, you tried Colik on the Friday and it ended up being in two close games late and saved situations late. You had to go to a strata in Suarez on Saturday and Sunday. Now the devil's advocate to that is like, well, you still didn't end up using more hone, right? So you certainly could have pitched that eighth inning on Friday. Yeah. Again, I understand the second guessing. I understand the other side of it. I also sort of understand the thinking of trying to graduate somebody just like they've done with more hone in a straw. Absolutely. Hey, absolutely. You got to do that. Sometimes you're both but so I get, you know, not to kind of avoid it. But I do understand both sides of the argument and they both have real, I think valid points. Well, and it friggin worked at the end of the day. Before you go, Sam Levitt, I'm looking in the chat here and I need to ask, do you have a fan club and are they called the levitators? Oh, that's a genius. I don't think so. I've seen that. I've seen that in the YouTube chat a little bit. I really, I've nobody has ever come up to me and said that in person. So I really don't think so. Now, I don't know if you guys are aware of this because I wouldn't say there's any sort of levitators fan club and that's fine, but my fan club is nothing like the Scravenator fan club. Yes. I have experienced the Scravenator. Do you know that he's doing a second Scravenator night at the ballpark where where I and I don't have all the details in front of me, but where he's going to have another night where he has his followers and supporters that call themselves Scravenators at the ballpark. I spread the letters levitators levitators. Can we do the Ben and Woods and Nators? That's a little Ben and Woods and Nators just get rid of the tier one. Yeah, I'm not just the Woods and Nators. I've got a ring to it. The Ben and Nators. Yeah, that's backed by popular demand tier one. That's really, you know, it's really you know, it's really interesting as I was just as you were saying that I was thinking of your names and I thought of Ben Higgins. What everybody calls Higashiyokie. No, nobody calls Ben, Marc Grant and Marc Loretta. That's it. That's both call me Higashiyokie and there's the only two. You know what? That is that is unsurprising because if there's one thing I've learned in working in baseball for like a decade now, baseball players and the baseball culture, they love a nickname. Throw it in and as we learn as we learn as we've learned Mike show. Yeah, you throw any on it and and you're good. Like I'm like, I'm kind of shocked nobody called me at end. They've never done it. Nobody called me Levy. Levy. Well, they do tell you Sam. Yeah, it's already Sam. Sam, have a good seat. Enjoy the rest of your day off tomorrow. Ecowater SoCal pregame show. I believe what two, 45 against the Washington Nationals. Fairly early start for an afternoon game. We will hear from you again then. Thank you so much. All right, guys, see you. What kind of programs does this school have? How are the test scores? How many kids do a classroom? Homes.com, those, these are all things you ask when you're home shopping as a parent. That's why each listing on homes.com includes extensive reports on local schools, including photos, parent reviews, test scores, student teacher ratio, school rankings and more. The information is from multiple trusted sources and curated by homes.com's dedicated in-house research team. It's also you can make the right decision for your family. Homes.com. We've done your homework today's episode is sponsored by Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast. Get your head in the financial game with smart investing and budgeting tips straight from the nerds. Nerd wallets experts will set future you up for success with dependable fact based insights. No financial misinformation allowed. Learn how to save on your summer vacation. Find your next credit card or loan for a big purchase and invest in your next index fund. Make smarter decisions in 2024. Follow Nerd Wallet Smart Money Podcast on your favorite podcast app. Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? With nor sides and bullion as you're not so secret ingredient, you can skip the drive through and do dinner at home. Nor taste combos provide a menu of delicious, affordable and well-balanced meals that you can prepare in 30 minutes or less. Visit nor.com to get quick and easy recipe ideas for your home-cooked weeknight dinners. It's not fast food but it's so good. With Kevin Nealon, if they're funny, they're on Talk Is Jericho. So listen to and follow Talk Is Jericho now on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.