Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
Aug. 8th Hour 1: Padres win a WILD one
Now, with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. Pick your favorite team, your favorite players, and get customized highlights, stories, and breaking news right on your home feed. Follow the action with Game Tip, where 3D replays add another dimension. Plus, notifications can keep you connected to every pinch, every hit, every game, the MLB app. Baseball your way. Download it now for free from the App Store or Google Play. Blackout and other restrictions apply. Major League Baseball Treebards used with permission. Wow. Good morning, everybody. Ben & Woods, 97.3. The fan. Great to be here with you on a short show today. It's a Thursday. It's August 8th. Kind of getting over my jet lag and weird island time that I was on, but I feel pretty good today. Fired up. Really fired up on a Thursday. I'm Woodsy. That is a bold rindle AKA Adam Clug. I should have done it the other way. Adam Clug, AKA Baldrindle because Polly is out today and Adam is here. Hi, Adam. Good morning, guys. How are you? Good morning. If I'm allowed to be in the YouTube chat, that's all. That's up for debate. I have a petition out. We're going to we're going to discuss that after the show because the management around here started to become stars a little bit and that's you never it's management. It's like umpires. You never want to know who the management is. You don't want to know the management's name, right? If great umpire, who's that guy? That son of a gun is always right. I don't know his name. He's great, but we'll talk about it. It's a listen. We got a few hours to discuss. It's good to have you here. I'm going to come back to you in a minute. Ben Higgins, your friendly neighborhood sports anchor joins us as well. Good morning to you. Good morning. Grab my Bubba's burger shirt on that you gave me yesterday. You look great and brought back from Hawaii for me. Thank you very much. I still laughed when Hannah picked it out. And she said, I like this for Ben. And I said, okay, why? She said, well, look at the colors. It's Iree. And I said, but he's not Iree at all. You didn't go to Jamaica. You went to Hawaii. Doesn't make a lot of sense. Like if it had floral stuff on it or if you had gone to Jamaica on your trip and you had brought this back, I would have gone. Okay, that makes perfect sense, but I still appreciate it and I'm wearing it. And it looks good on you. It does. It looks really good on you. It's a good good. It's a good series of colors for you. I do think. Holy smokes. All right, Clueger. All right. Number one, I'm looking at you on the feed. He's on his phone right now. I need you to be if you're going to be here, I need you to be engaged and active. He's tired. You're up to the show. That's what I was going to ask him about. So I want him to be engaged in a member. If you're going to be in the chat, be a member of the show today. Be a be a third leg, if you will. I was just checking to make sure the audio was properly working on YouTube. Everything sounds good. You've got it all clocked in. I want to know though, because I did not go last night. I want to know how the Foo Fighters, before we get into this game, by the way, that my blood pressure just came down from last night's game. It was an excruciating watch. We've got a couple hours to cover it. And I want to get into every nook and cranny of that game last night. That win, by the way, the win that the Padres were able to eat out. And it was that was a rough one. But Clueger, you went to the Foo Fighters last night at Petco Park. That was your first time seeing Dave Grohl and Pat Smear and Nate Mendel. I don't know who's drumming for him now. Who else is in there? I don't remember his name, but I think they said he used to be in the Nine Inch Nails. It's it's not it's Nine Inch Nails, but it's it's um I know it. I know something. Josh. Josh Fries. Josh Fries. He's incredible. Incredible drum. Taylor Alkins was a G. He was such a such a terrible loss. But Josh Fries, what a pickup. What a pickup he was. So they played Petco Park last night. What time did you get to the show? I'm allowed to talk right. I don't want to become a star. I got there around eight twenty. I'll say you missed the hives. Oh yeah, I was only going for Foo Fighters. I a little birdie told me that they weren't going on until nine o'clock. And I said really nine o'clock. I thought it was eight thirty eight thirties, exactly what I said. I was at my house and I'm waiting for the Padres game to end and it just kept going and then there's the injury and then there's the pitching. It just kept going. So I got in the car finally and I left and I got in there about I when I was parking. I heard the crowd going crazy. Go are Foo Fighters also you listened on the radio. Ninety seven three the fan home of the San Diego Padres on the drive down. No, I watched the whole game and watch the whole game. Yeah, then I didn't leave from up north until after the final out. So you get to Petco Park and nothing worse to get out of your car here. I'm sprinting into the stadium. But it was worth it. What a win. 100% and they crushed it. Didn't they last night? They were great. I saw the set list. Few too many new songs for my liking, but but the old songs that they did play were really good. Really good. The hits were great. That was my one criticism is that there was definitely a part of the of the concert where they kind of lost the crowd. I felt like it was like they've been playing a little too long of the slower, lower, low, it's time. You know, like they need to bring it back with something big here in a minute here. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough. So Pauli was there. He texted me a video. He said he was on cloud nine. He'd never seen him. He loves them. I was happy for him, but they weren't. He wasn't in the suite with that. Yeah, how was the suite? It's a different viewing experience for concert. Just so you all of the management. Michael was the only one from management there. Clients. I think there was a handful. Handful clients. Yeah, a lot of people from corporate are in town. There are a lot of people from corporate in there. Where are they? Why are they here? Radio bootcamp. For Odyssey. Oh, they're going. Are you sending any? You're not sending anyone? No. Oh, yeah. Surprise. You guys are going after the show. Forget it. So radio bootcamp for those of you that don't know is a two day event. Now I've been to it once. I've never gone. It's a thing that they do where it's a conference, essentially. It's a radio conference. Now, it's mostly run. It costs a lot of money to get into baseball, winter meetings, different panels, and panels, and discussions about rarely are there any trades made during radio bootcamp. Hey, when you guys do more of the roses, how do you do it? So it's a lot of that. I went to one in New Orleans. I got hammered the first night and barely went to any events, if you can imagine. And it was a total waste of time and money to send me and our crew. And I never went back again. Now, we're a pretty successful show in San Diego. Anybody called to ask if we would come down or do anything? Someone from corporate reached out to see if I wanted to attend. And his wording to me was, you don't need to like get on say, we're not asking like speak or, you know, be on any paneling thing. Just attend. He goes, it's more so for music stations. I go, I think I'm gonna pass. It's a hard pass. Yeah. So they do that. Well, what's his implying, by the way, Adam, if you couldn't tell, is that he feels like he should be asked to share his wisdom and successes with the greater audience of radio professionals in town. You don't want to let you, you don't need me advice from me. You don't need I'm not having accomplished anything in this business. We need no of advice of mine. I don't know what I'm talking about. I am a hack. You heard what our beloved Boomerah Seisen had to say about you. That is true. But so that's going on. That's going on now here in San Diego. It is weird though. What would be if we hosted a panel, like what would be the the panel topic in discussion? Like what's that we do that we could impart wisdom onto other shows. It's not something you can teach. Really? No, there you go. I would say it would be something of the effect of, yeah, how do you how do you take a show from scratch with players who don't really know each other and make it work from the beginning? Because that's the one thing I think we've done pretty like better than most is taking two guys who met for an hour at a bar. And let's put radio show together based on that. Well, not only put a radio show together, but let's ascend to the highest of the of the mountain. How do you do how do you guys do that? You guys don't want to hear it from us though. You're fine. There's plenty of people across the street going to get down there, do their stick and and that's fine. I if I was forced to go to radio boot camp today, I I would be I'd be livid right now. We have a short show and then imagine getting out of here and having to go down there and listen to you know somebody from Minneapolis tell you why his bit works in the morning. I just have no desire anymore. But I do love this job and I love this station and I love that bald rindle is in here this morning. He is is a little bit tired. So I'm going to make sure he stays on the on the ball this morning. But listen, let's we can get right into that game last night. We we've chopped it up for 10 minutes. That game was excruciating in every sense. And it was also incredible because they got the win. Holy smokes, Benny. Where do you start? That's what I was wondering. Where do you start? So I write like notes on every game every night. And usually there's like six or seven things that I you know, write about each game. I have literally 26 lines about the game last night. And I have no idea. I guess Jackson Merrill is the first place to start. Jackson Merrill continues to amaze and not just because he's doing it as a 21 year old rookie playing out a position for any player for any player to come up in the clutch situations. Like, all right, Jackson, we need a home run here in the ninth inning. Got it. Go do your thing. And for it to happen multiple times. Anyone can run into it, you know, one time. Great. Good swing. Yeah, you really got to hold of that one. Now he's done it three times. Ninth inning, tying or go ahead home run this season. Only 21 year old. Whatever to do that. I think he's the he's got the most in baseball this year. Yeah. So I mean, that's that's just astounding. He's somebody tweeted last night. I loved it. I would give you credit. I can't remember who it was. They said, Jackson Merrill was born to play ball with his voice. That's it. I mean, that's what he lives to do. He is the definition of baseball guy, Joe baseball. There he is. You're looking at him out there in center field for the San Diego Padres. And in his bombs last night, that guy didn't, that guy didn't run into either of those. That guy hit two tanks out last 853 feet. Come on. Of two tanks. And we sat in here, maybe two months ago and said, well, hopefully one day the power comes for Jackson Merrill, doesn't look like it's going to come now. We get this point. Just keep doing what you're doing, taking the pitches you're given, taking them the other way, which by the way, he still does. He still does that. He hasn't lost a step Ben. His AB, his quality of a bat has not suffered one Iota since he started hitting more home runs, not at all. I mean, he still takes that outside pitch through the five, five hole. He still pulls his hand gets his hand serve and rips a ball down the right field line. The kid is unbelievable. And I do have a, I do have a mile. I'd say it's a fairly warm take, a spicy take about Jackson Merrill. Do you want it now, or do you want to tease it? No, just do it now. We got a short show. Okay. Don't, don't make us wait. I did see a lot of consternation last night about the rookie of the year, the impending rookie of the year award that will be handed out at the end of the year to the best rookie in the national league. And it popped in my head and I went, ooh, people are going to be mad at me for saying this. But my take is this, Jackson Merrill doesn't care about winning a rookie of the year, and neither should we, we really shouldn't care. And in fact, I'll go you one step further. You don't want him to win it. Him not winning it may be the best thing for his career. It may be because what other person is going to get fueled now somewhere deep in the cockles of his heart. Would he like to win that award? Yes. You know what else he wants to win? He wants to win in the playoffs. He wants to win a world series ring. That's what he wants to win. I don't, and this is from his mouth. He doesn't care about player of the week. He doesn't care about individual achievements. I'm, I'm not telling you guys what to be upset about. I'm telling you that if he doesn't win rookie of the year, I really don't care because what you're looking at is a 100% team guy. He is as team oriented as anybody I've ever seen. I don't think it's lip service. I don't think it's the image that he wants to portray because I have seen other prospects come up and they've been referred to as baseball rats. This guy just cares about baseball. Show me though, once you get to the big leagues and you start getting big checks and you start traveling, you know, first class and first class hotels and show me that you are still all you care about is baseball. All you care about is getting to the ballpark early, hanging with the guys and have, you know, going out and playing a hard game. Great quote. And you, it sometimes drops off a little bit and this is where understandably, of course, it's human nature. You reach the top of the mountain. What do you do? And this, you're relaxed just a little bit. This is why I fail as a sports radio host because I know I'm supposed to get on here this morning and Paul Skeens is this and, and Jackson Merrill, he clears him by a mile, blah, blah, blah. I don't, I'm not going to get myself worked up in a tizzy about an individual award when, when the guy that is up for the award doesn't really care. He does not really care. If he wanted, would he be excited? Of course. Of course, he would be excited, but he's certainly not going to, he's not campaigning for it. And I'm certain, I'm positive that on the list of things that are important to him, it's probably at the bottom. So this is a personal, I'm not going to get upset if Paul Skeens or anybody else wins it. I really won't. I promise you, I'm not going to, I'm not going to get upset. I love this kid. I love everything about him. My kids love this kid. They try to emulate him. That's what I, that's what I care about. He is such a good baseball player and seemingly an even better human being. And all that guy wants to do is win for his team. And I just admire that so, so much. I was thinking the same thing Dominic in the chat. I don't know that it's the exact opposite of paddock, but I remember the vibe Chris paddock against Peter Lonzo. And it was like such a big thing already in May. Like who's, who's the rookie of the month? And you know, who's going to win the award? And you don't get that vibe with Jackson Merrill. It's about the next game and just going out and having fun and playing hard baseball and coming through for his team. And it's really fun to watch. You know, I said something. I don't even know if I believe it. I feel like if Paul Skeens won the rookie of the year and Jackson Merrill got quote unquote snubbed, right? I don't know that it would motivate him. I don't actually know that I said it out loud. There's the one thing I was going to push back. I don't think he cares. I really don't either way. It's not like he's going to be, I don't think winning it's going to damage him. I don't know either. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, he's going to be unaffected. Whatever happens. And you wait for that, you know, they always say, well, they're big league players. They're going to adjust to him and then he's going to make his adjustment. Then, a while now, I mean, they've had a chance to make their adjustments to Jackson Merrill. He's been a step ahead of them all the way through the season. I mean, all the way. And listen, this is not this is not I don't think this is hyperbole at all. He is absolutely his attitude has 1000% changed the course of this season. And it is 1000% rubbed off on the veterans of this team period. It just has you can see it. You can see it in Zander. You can see it in Manny. You can see it in all of these guys. So I, I'm very impressed by that young man. Jackson Merrill was a guest on Friday and winning Chris last week and they asked him if it was going to hear. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, it's oral series or nothing to me. I don't really have any other goals in this game besides winning. So, you know, obviously an award is cool, but it's it's really nothing compared to winning a world series, you know, I love to do both. That'd be awesome. But yeah, that's it. And I really believe that that's how he feels. He's not he's not saying it because it makes a good quote. He's not saying it because that's what the fans want to hear or what he's supposed to say. He's saying that because that's truly what he believes and how he approaches the game. I love it. I love everything about him. That's a good place to start. Yeah, great. Quick time out. We're pretty much going to be all Padres, Pirates weird into our show. I'll set the menu. It's a what about Brandon? Are you guys? No, probably not. Jim Harbaugh. No, don't think we're going to get there today. Even don't do this is going to be last night's game. Yeah, we're doing don't do this for our favorite baseball team. Yeah, we're just going to do it all from last night's game. There are so many things to get to. And again, we got a short show leading into early potteries baseball today. So we'll set the of a tasting menu, the the prefix coming up next after Kelly's traffic, Ben and Woods and Baldr, right? Oh, Adam Kluge on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three. Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. Pick your favorite team, your favorite players, and get customized highlights stories and breaking news right on your home feed. Follow the action with Game Dead where 3D replays add another dimension plus notifications can keep you connected to every pinch every hit every game. The MLB app baseball your way. Download it now for free from the App Store or Google Play. Block out another research and supply major league baseball tree parts used with permission. Now Adam, you can't just play and return songs and bands that you sat in the company suite to see the night before. That's not how it works here on the Ben and Woods program. Did they play this song? No, they didn't play that one. They didn't play that song. Terrible. Come on, guys. I bet they played the sky as a neighborhood though, didn't they? Maybe. Yeah, you got some P break. Can I get the sky as a night ball? All right, I'm gonna hit the head. A couple years ago, the chili peppers came to Petco. Yeah, they did not play under the bridge. Now I have such a problem with that. I really, really have a problem. I was gonna play your hits, man. You gotta play. They didn't play kisses on my list. It was like the most disappointing experience of my lifetime. It's such a bummer when it happens, man. And like, if you heard under the bridge on the radio, you probably changed the station because you've heard it a billion times. But yeah, you gotta play your hits, guys. The sky of Mabel. Oh, David, David. All right, here's what we've got coming up today. It's mostly, as I said, pot raise talk. We will play some real or fake on a throwback Thursday at seven 10 if you want to try to qualify for our trip to Las Vegas. Can't wait to hear all the Jesse's highlights though, in our pot raise wrap up in the next segment. Don't do this is just going to be more on last night's game because there were plenty of don't and do do this moments that we can squeeze in there at seven 20. So that's in an hour. So do we have to save these things we're going to talk about? Yeah, be a professional and hold a couple of things in the chamber. All right, for don't do this. And then you know, Sarah's is going to be with us a little early since we got the short show today. So super polished yet to be named smart baseball weekly segment with you know, Sarah's brought to you by seven mile casino comes up at 7 35. We'll talk more about last night's game and the pennant races pot raise now, by the way. Oh my God, three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West still though, actually lost half a game to the diamondbacks yesterday. Those who are so insanely hot. They won two games over the Cleveland Guardian and they are also three games back. They're both two games up on the Braves is the one two teams in the wildcard race. That that looks like it's going to be a fairly intense, intense race for the playoffs the last month and a half of the season. So we'll talk to you know, and then we get to eight o'clock and we're getting you ready for the game. We've got Sammy's Ecowater SoCal pregame show. I believe eight 35. Is that correct? Adam this morning and then nine 35 Jesse Bob Scanlon with the first pitch is the pot raise go for the sweep. Their fifth win in a row. I think they're at four now. They've been one 14 of 16. Is that correct now? Yeah. And go for 15 out of 17 today in the same nuts. What is going on? But before we get to the pot raise wrap up, we mentioned Jackson Merrill. I thought that was where number one we had to start. Number two. Adrian Moore at home and what he did in the bottom of the 10th inning in unimaginably difficult circumstances to come in there after you've spent your top relievers. Everyone else has been used essentially that's available last night and to put him in that situation after Tanner Scott had walked three guys in a row, forced in a run and then Morihone spikes the first pitch. So it's nine. It's nine eight. And at that point, even the most optimistic of pot raise fans, even the one who's been convinced that this team is different than the other teams. You see how this one's not going to end well, right? And it just because of the come, you know, because of the three runs you scored in the top of the 10th boy, you felt good going in there with Tanner Scott coming in Benny. Sure. You probably should have saved Adrian Moore home for do do this in our very special edition today, earning his first save in the big leagues. And my God, what a way to do it, man. Right into right into the fire last night for Adrian Moore home, zero room for air. None gets the ground ball for the tag play at home plate. Well done defensively by the pod raise gets the strikeout twice really on Connor Joe. He did not check his swing the first time, but they gave it to him and then got him the second time. Great breaking ball down by the toward the back foot swung right over it and then gets the ground ball into Hassan Kim, who by the way, gets an extra nod as well for coming and playing hurt because the pot raise were down to literally no one at the end of the game left. And that will be a big topic when we discuss the umpires. And I'll probably come and don't do this in what happened in that game last night. If you didn't follow after the game was over, you like turned it off when the game was over and you go, well, that was a crazy one. You don't even know the half of it of what happened in the ninth inning with Mike shilt and the pitching change, why Robert Suarez came out of the game after six pitches was resrested as anybody in that bullpen. What is going on? We got an explanation from Mike shilt that is going to blow your mind that I mean, I did not have any idea that it took place in the game last night. Same absolutely no idea. And of course, we would be remiss if we did not kiss the roach, the rally roach. Here you go. I want tongue on that, Benny. Oh, God, I love the rally roach. I am also to be somebody led me to believe on Twitter last night that one of the pirates broadcasters actually said this. We've not been able to find the audio, but he said these pot raise are like cockroaches. They do not go away. And I somebody tweeted it. They heard it. They were listening to broadcast. That is fantastic and bodes well. So let's get into it. That's coming up next. We get all of Jesse's highlights and our pod raise wrap up when we return. I'm not going to miss it. Hopefully you don't either. Ben Woods on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three, the fan. Fun to be a Padres fan right now. I mean, fun is certainly the right word, but did that feel fun last night? Not really. Holy crap. Oh, that did not feel a lot worse to be a pirates fan. Yeah, that was, I mean, kind of their season. It really is. It was a 100 massive. They want to get back into it. This was their chance. The Padres gave them every opportunity for unearned runs. And we'll talk about the mistakes in the game. But the pirates had every chance twice, three times to win that game. Once twice thrice to win that game last night. And they could not figure out a way to make it happen against the Padres who continue to roll since the all-star break. We've got all the highlights from Jesse and Bob last night. The thrills, the chills, the coming up with our Padres wrap up right after this check of traffic on 97 three, the fan. I love winning, man. I love winning. You hear what I'm saying? It's like better than losing. Oh my god. I'm so stiff. Miss any of the Padres win. Man in Woods didn't. What a proof. We've got you covered with all of the highlights. I like it with the Padres win. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's the Padres wrap up presented by Hamul Casino with rilling slots and tables in all the best rewards. Hamul Casino has all the fun you're looking for. Hamul Casino, fun of all else. Yeah. Give me a due damage. New damage last night's game. Since this one of the years straightaway center field in deep, Michael A. Taylor is back. He's going to watch this one going to go into the topiary and straight away center field and Jackson Merrill with his 14th home run of the season. It's two to one. First pitch to a gaseous said in the air to deep center field. Taylor's back. He's at the wall. This one going to go. Three run home run. Kylie gaseoka. And with that swing, the Padres will take their first lead of the night. It's four to three. One, two ripped into right field. That's down in a base hit. He plays the hot fires home. Machado on his way, the throw in the tag. Not in time. RBI single Jackson Merrill, his third hit of the game, and Manny stolen base as help put the Padres back in front. It's five to four. The pitch is swung online in the center field and they said he's escorted to tie it. They is right behind him and the buck goes off back in front. The country to run single and they lead at six to five. On down by one, swings at the first pitch, sends it in the air deep to right center field. Taylor is back. This one going to go. Jackson Merrill's second homer of the night has tied it. Six six here in the night. Nobody out one one line in the left field. That is a base hit for Zander Bogart to rise rounding third. He'll score Kim going to hustle into third base as the throw comes into second and RBI single for Zander Bogart and the Padres are back in front. It's 76 pitch on the way. Ground all swings. It's a ground ball to the left side. Kim has got it. The throw to first is in time and the ball game is over. A wild one in Western PA as the Padres hold on for a 9-8 victory in 10. With more healing, more than earning his first career, major league save, what a tremendous job and clearly a tough spot. Just can't say enough about the job it did coming in and that situation and being able to keep it right there and bring it home force. Padres with the 9-8 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates in 10 innings. And by the way, they've got to play again here in a couple of hours. I think three hours from now they will be underway. They're going to be a little bit short handed in that game pitching wise. Obviously, you know, Robert tourists should still be available. Some of the guys like Jason Adam didn't pitch yesterday because he pitched a lot. He should be available. I mean, they'll have like three or four guys, but I assume so I'm looking at that they're going to be a bit piecing it together today. So I got total pitches, Benny, for the last three and the last five. So Brian hoeing 45 pitches in the last three. Estrada 38 Tanner Scott 36 Memorial home 29, Adam 26, Alec Jacob 22, Yuki Matsui 21, and Robert Suarez six. This, this, yeah, it's going to be a tall order today. Brian hoeing did not throw yesterday neither did Jason Adam three and two thirds before I don't know that he's available either today. So it's a, you know, Matsui Adam Suarez would be great. If you get six out of that that's only through 21 last night. Jacob through 22 more home through 13 Tanner Scott. I mean, again, these are those last three numbers that the guy that's in the red is is hoeing. Estrada's in the orange. The the tan more known and Adam and the beige 22 and 21 for Jacob and Matsui Suarez. The only is the most well-rested receiver, a reliever with only six pitches in the last four days, five days. So a little bit of pressure on Randy Vasquez today, a lot of bit of pressure to get deep into the game. I wouldn't be shocked if they, you know, called someone up, you know, bring back a Logan Gillespie or something, you know, just in case they needed a long guy, but I'm not sure if they'd send down in that situation. Jacob, you could send back down, I guess, and just taxi him up and up and back, but we can talk about that a little bit later. There's just so much more to get into from last night's game that that I want to talk about. Start with Michael King's performance. After 10 days off dealing with the the comebacker and the injured calf, the sore calf, I thought he was not bad. He certainly, you know, that first inning did not help having to throw 30 pitches, giving up a couple of runs, not that he gave up any hard contact. He struck out the first two guys look like kind of cruise through the first inning. And then all of a sudden, we'll talk about it and don't do this. Bryce Johnson's play out and right field. I thought it changed the entire complexion of a check swing by Rowdy to Les will he may say, well, he may say style like, oops, totally down the line. And you know, again, and all of a sudden you find yourself down to nothing and your pitcher who hasn't been on the mound for a while is already his pitch count is climbing. So you're kind of buying the eight ball right at the start. Jackson Merrill gets that one back. You heard the the home run call by Jesse to the topiary. He dotted the eye in pirates on the the shrubs out there with his longest home run of his career, 400 42 feet. I mean, not only is there power though, the power that we said, oh, yeah, in like three or four years, they'll develop power hellish raw power. There's prodigious power inside of Jackson Merrill already is the 21 year old. That kid gets off his A swing as much as anybody in baseball. Honestly, he really does. I mean, he gets off his A swing so much that it's it's actually it's baffling how much he's able to do it. The our friend Tom Yannes on Twitter said, Hey, if they win this game, I'm going to spring for the the premium Twitter so I can post the 10 minute video of every Jackson Merrill hit. And I didn't have time to watch it last night, but I did anyway. It's sexy just seeing Jackson Merrill and where all of his I mean everywhere all over the field from foul line to foul line line drives, bleaters, doubles, home runs everywhere. The hits that he has had this year, he just puts good swing after good swing after good swing on the ball. It is really fantastic to watch. And then Kyle Higashyoka who has done something. I mean, I don't know that it gets enough attention. His 14th home run of the season, which they put the graphic up on the pottery's TD broadcast, he has more home runs as a catcher than any other catcher in baseball, one more than Will Smith. Now Smith has 15, but two of them were as designated hitter. So 14 home runs as a catcher leads all of baseball and he's done it. Still literally playing less than half of the season because he wasn't the starter for most of the year. He's in a giant slump when he was early in the season, but his home run per at bat ratio. He is squarely second in baseball right between Aaron Judge and Shohei Otani. Yeah, crazy right there. One, two, three. It is Judge Higashyoka Otani, the guys who have produced the most home runs per at bat this year. How is that even possible? I have no idea, man. I have no idea. You know, he's hit 10 home runs and every season he's been in the big leagues, and you thought, hey, he got his 10. And man, that sure came a lot quicker than we all thought. But when he put them back up last night, man, the elation that I felt for him, what a great, great dude, a very easy guy to root for. Didn't have the best game defensively, but he certainly wasn't alone in that, you know, the pottery's really kicked it around last night. They really did. And like we said, man, they gave the pirates every chance to win that game last night. Pirates, they also fought really hard last night. It was a, you know, look, you take, you take some of the mess out of the game last night. I think you enjoy playing in a game like that. I really do. I think it's, it keeps you in it the entire time. But to watch this team, the intestinal fortitude, the stubbornness is what I tweeted last night, stubbornly, would not lose that game last night. I, I'm out of superlatives for it, man. It's crazy. So King ends up going five, gives up four runs, three of them earned. The one, you know, the McCutcheon home run, he got to hold that one. That's fine. You know, it's one swing struck out seven. The unearned run came on a Manning Machado error, but he got that run back in the, the go ahead run there in the top of the sixth or the fifth inning, I think, infield single. And then what a savvy stolen base by Manning Machado who doesn't go often. But when he picks his spots, they're usually important and it was an O2 count on Jackson Maryland. He knows, all right, inning maybe over. Jackson gets a lot of singles. Can I get myself into scoring position? You know, just like they're not thinking about Manning Machado stealing a base and he stole it rather easily with heads up and then off on the, the crack of the bat on what was going to be a pretty close play, but made him make a play. They could not do any scores from second base on Jackson Maryland's go ahead single there to get them back into the lead at that moment. That was, that was a pretty big moment of the game. And I just kind of shows you the kind of player that Manning Machado is. Yeah, the baseball IQ. And like you said, he picks his spots pretty smartly when he, when he goes. And it's a pretty good base stealer when he's, you know, when he decides to go, it's not something you want him doing all the time. But yeah, man was able to score on that a huge, huge moment in the game. One of a does huge moments last night for the boys. Then the sixth inning scary moment as jerks and pro four gets drilled kind of in the side of the knee with a 95 mile an hour fastball. I think it was one of three times the Padres batters were hit in that game last night by pirates pitchers who were a little all over the map jerks and looked like he was in, in a lot of pain. He wasn't a lot of pain. Yeah, tried to stay in, ran to second on the, on the next play on the single and like hobbled into second and then they took him out for pinch runner Hassan Kim. Mike Schilt did say after the game that imaging was negative, which is a positive, means no, no break show now. That's still just reason for cautious optimism as they can't always see everything because a, you know, like swelling and inflammation on, on something like that. But hopefully it's no more than just a nasty bruise and jerks and won't have to miss time. I don't, no, have we haven't seen a lineup yet? No, I should be one out fairly soon. I would imagine we'll find out if, if Jerkson's going to be given a day off here or not. My best guess is, is that you probably have to do it. And, and you're going to put, you're going to put a Tyler Wade out there, you're going to put Peralta, which you've already had to be doing. Yeah. You know, is Kim ready to go back on a full-time basis? He was forced into the game there. I assume that Schilt would have loved not to have to use how Hassan Kim, but they needed him at the end of that game once pro far got hurt. So there was that moment in the sixth inning. And then, uh, Jeremiah Strata has, uh, had some stumbles lately and, uh, you know, had another one in the sixth inning was, did not helped by his, uh, catcher, Kyle Gashiyoka, who did not stop us a strikeout. He struck out three guys. Yeah, should have been out of the inning, but one of them got away, pass ball led to two guys on. He was actually one strike away from a four strikeout inning, would have given him seven strikeouts in the last two days. Two days, two days, uh, but McCutchen comes through again, guys, the thorn in the side and the, the pirates go back ahead on two Hunter and runs there against Jeremiah, Strata in the bottom of the sixth. That sets up the dramatic finish. Uh, you know, the chance for the Padres on the top of the eighth, they get two on in the corners on a, probably get the benefit of a bad call on Louisa rise, not getting hit by a big. I swear I saw a finger jiggle. I did. I'm not being a homer here. People are like, Oh, that was all bad. I'm like, bro, what? But I also feel his fingers have been coming off jiggling a lot just on everything. No, the way he's been hurt. I also feel like for all this Chapman dots you on the hand, you'd be a little more in pain, but maybe he's built different. I don't know. Considering how much pain he's been in, the fact that he's not like dead. That made me think that he actually didn't get hit on that one. They took advantage, got runners at first and third, but Xander Bogart strikes out and then, and that was, that was just on a little hundred and two, I think. Yeah. And the man of a shadow gets two pitches, which by the way, two of the eight fastest pitches ever recorded in the history of baseball to many Machado, including the fastest ever called strike three history of baseball at 105 miles an hour on the inside corner. Who wasn't said? Oh, he's got to swing at that. Hey, you got to swing at that pitch. You got to go for like, you can't see that pitch. That's insane 105 miles an hour on the corner. So a tweet last night. Manny is so washed. Somebody said, you try to hit 105. And this guy actually said on this app, I have before, I'm not saying it's the easiest thing in the world, but in that situation, he had a pitch down the middle and another one in the strike zone. With a runner on third, you have to swing to give your, your team a chance. And I wrote, I quote, tweeted and said, on what planet have you ever hit 105 mile an hour pitch? Uh, then it's not this one. And then, uh, I didn't even write it down, but you got to give and Mike Schilt did credit to, uh, Alec Jacob for keeping it a one run game in the bottom of the eight huge inning, or there would not have been a chance to tie it up. And then Jackson Merrill, we talked about already with the tiny home run. I don't know. I mean, obviously you don't face the same guy. So role does Chapman comes in the eight. If I'm David Bednar, I'm going, everyone's looking their chops. I'm an all-star closer, but after 105, it's like, please bring in your all-star closer. Cause I'd rather face that than what I just saw up there. I'm like, thank goodness I'm facing your all-star closer and not a rolled as Chapman right now, bro. I don't know what it is. Baseball is the most overthinky game in the world. Now Chapman has certainly blown saves, and he's certainly blown big saves. Bednar had a really rough start to the season, but if I've got it guy that is locating it 105, that pitch to Manny. And again, people, I saw it because I knew I would. Oh, what is he smiling there? Bro, Chapman grinned from ear to ear. He did not know he could throw 105 on the inside black like he did. So he had to laugh. Manny had to laugh. I thought it was a pretty cool moment, to be honest. I hated it in the moment, but it was, uh, it was nuts. And we haven't even gotten to the craziness in the bottom of the ninth or the tenth inning yet, which is why we're just going to keep this rolling. Also play a little reel or fake in our next segment. We have a, uh, a manager out of a job. Take one guess. Whoa, I did not see this all coming up next year, 97.3 the fan 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. Now with the MLB app, you can get baseball your way. Pick your favorite team, your favorite players, and get customized highlights, stories, and breaking news right on your home feed. Follow the action with Game Tip where 3D replays add another dimension. Plus notifications can keep you connected to every pinch, every hit, every game, the MLB app. Baseball your way. Download it now for free from the app store or Google Play. Blackout and other research and supply major league baseball tray parts used with permission.