Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
7am Hour - A Padres Weekend That Was
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With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on-trail navigation. Download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep. And when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Sleeping on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience. Because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips. And support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam. And thanks to over 1,400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the Restore Hybrid Collection. It combines gel flex grid with coils and the Rejuvenate Lux collection, the height of luxury with over 112,000 to five star reviews to prove it. Visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast 10 to get 10% off. This podcast on 97.3 The Fan is presented by Hamel Casino, fun of all else. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] Welcome back one Joe Musgrove to the mound. Gonna make his first start since late May tonight. He takes the mound against the Pittsburgh Pirates returning from the injured list. And by the way, sneaky. Well, we can talk about it a little bit later as well as we look ahead to the pirate series, but not necessarily today, but Joe's performance going forward. Kind of critical for the Padres chances, I would think, you know, in the playoffs, getting to the playoffs and then performing well in the playoffs of Joe minus the kind of. If Joe is pitches like Joe, man, all of a sudden your rotation looks a lot more formidable in a postseason series. And if he's not, you know, he had a five and a half something ERA in the first part of the season, then it's not quite as scary to face the San Diego Padres. So they've said that his velocity is up a little bit in the rehab starts and works in the bullpen. He's made some adjustments to his mechanics to try to alleviate some of the elbow discomfort from the bone spur that doesn't just go away. It's there until he has surgery at some point. He's got it in there, but there are ways they think that they can compensate with more leg action and he's getting some more velocity out of it. Now, can he still get the same kind of movement on the breaking balls? Miss bats the way that Joe can when he's on will start finding out the answer to that question tonight. We won't get a definitive answer one way or another in, you know, four innings or whatever he throws in this game, but we'll start getting the answer to that question tonight when Joe Musgrove makes his return to the mound. Yeah, it's going to be really important for the defense to do their job early and really, you know, for the rest of the season. You've got to show up the defense of this team and when your pitcher, when they know, hey, Joe Musgrove has only got 65 pitches. What do you think their game plan is going to be? Right? I mean, if you're Derek Shelton tonight, like, hey, this guy's got 50 to 60 pitches that are at his disposal tonight. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Then again, do you want to get it in this Padres bullpen? You might after how tax they are. So it's going to be a bit of a chess match tonight for Joe. I wonder. I mean, they've done a good job even with as much as the bullpen's been used of. Yeah. I mean, I would think that Hoeing and Moray Hoeing are both available tonight behind Joe, maybe even for multiple innings. Sure. Hoeing certainly at least that you can, you know, Mike Schiltt and Ruben are able to have a plan for how they're going to handle that. Yeah. And then they've got two more games. So what King and Perez again. And then they've got an off day on Thursday to kind of reset things. Is that a- Perez or Waldron? Is it Waldron? It's Waldron, whatever. They've got two more games before and off day on Thursday where they can then reset the bullpen a little bit before the weekend series in Colorado, which sometimes you need extra bullpen. Help in Colorado as well. Stay a reminder. As of now, Carl Edwards still in the roster. He's very fresh. So he's throwing 12 pitches, but he's fresh. You don't want to see it going to Carl Edwards necessarily. Bro, I almost thought yesterday when they got down five in my mind. No, it's Perez on Wednesday. Is it Perez? Perez. He was warming up yesterday. In my mind, I see I was driving to the game. It was five nothing. And I was like, that's a great day for Carl Edwards, Jr. But then again, if you're Mike Schiltt and make no mistake, there are big league managers. They all do it. They won't admit to doing it, but they do it. It's a punt. And I don't know what the number is for Mike Schiltt, where he's like, yeah, let's just flush it today and get back at it tomorrow. Probably because this team never quit fighting. Is it eight? Is it eight in four innings? Is it nine? Is it ten? I have no idea. It's also weird when you have such a deep bullpen and you're behind in games and you're going to a guy like Jason Adam yesterday down three and I'm going, why are you using one of your best relievers down threes? Well, because we can come back at a moment's notice and all of the relievers, you know, at least the top four or five guys are all really good. So you get to use better guys in worse situations when you have a deeper bullpen and we've seen that and it has led to victories for sure for the Padres in the second half of the season, especially since the trade deadline. So somebody's got to go down for Joe to come up today. I would imagine. Yeah, it's probably Carl Edwards, Jr. I would think so. Yeah, I would, I would expect that that would be the corresponding move, but we will find out sometime pregame I would imagine. It's also the chance that Scott Reynolds. Sure. Yeah. That's true. He pitched yesterday. He's got options a little while yesterday. So probably Reynolds or maybe they make two moves. Yeah. Who knows what goes on. All right. We need a contestant for take on Woods. If you want to call in right now, we're just a couple of minutes away from our musical trips. From our musical trivia challenge, tier one, V woods, 833-288-0973, 833-288-0973, calling now, Frankie will put you on hold and we'll play our game here in just a couple of minutes. We'll get into the Saturday and Friday games, the Jackson Merrill heroics coming up here in just a little bit, but certainly more positive than negative for you, San Diego Padres, since the all-star break. But we were just talking during the break that, and I thought, Frank made a really good point, that the Arizona Diamondbacks are probably actually the hottest team in baseball right now. The Padres are just a tick behind them, but they are playing so well that they went six and one this week against the Guardians and the Phillies, two first place teams. And they are now at full strength. They got Merrill Kelly back yesterday. They've gotten Eduardo Rodriguez finally into their rotation. He's not pitching great yet, but he's starting to get there. Jack Gallon is back. The early part of the season was when you had your chance to separate yourself from the Diamondbacks. Now they are, you know, with the Padres, breathing down the necks of the Dodgers and they are going to be a problem. I saw some people saying that the Diamondbacks are a problem. Yeah, they are going to be a problem the rest of the way and you don't face them again until the last weekend of the season. They're handling business against some really good teams, putting up a lot of, you know, against some really good pitchers as well. Marte is a little banged up right now, but guys are stepping up in his absence. So yeah, man, they're scary ass team. They really, really are. And if I'm the Dodgers, I'm still a little bit nervous. Maybe even more about the Diamondbacks than I am the Padres, which, hey, that's fine. You know, I make the playoffs. At this point, I just want to make the playoffs. Winning the division would be a dream. It would take a bit of, it would take actually quite a lot of luck to do that, but getting the playoffs, we'll see what happens. But man, yeah, they look, they look like they have figured it out. No, I mean, I don't know if it takes luck. It takes playing like you've been playing for another seven weeks. But they, they need, they also need to play poorly and they're not. They're, they're playing really well as well. Yeah. Can't catch up. Well, you know, you're not behind them though. You're, you're right where they are. So no, no, no, not the Diamondbacks. The Dodgers. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they, you know, they may have started turning around this weekend against the Pirates. We'll, we'll see. They're not, they're bullpen still is a little nerve inducing, I would say. You know, they've had some leads that they're unable to protect. You know, they're getting Mookey bets back. He's going out into right field. Which is where he's really good. Well, yeah. But he was really good at shortstop before he got hurt too. Well, no. I mean, offensively, he was producing when he was there before they, you know, before he got hurt. No, he's, he's, he is back where he is probably the most comfortable. No, I don't know that that's the position he necessarily wants to play. He really liked being a middle infielder. And, but hey, man, he said I'm going out there and he obviously knows how to play the position very well. So we will talk about that. We will talk about all of it right now. Let's get to our game. Let's play a little take on woods. It's time for take on woods. Woods. Woods. It looks like Guy is our guy today. Take on Woods is brought to you by Valvoline instant oil change. It only takes 15 minutes. You don't have to get out of your car for directions and discounts. Go to SoCaloilChange.com. That's SoCaloilChange.com. Guy, good morning to you. Another month. Another game, right? Another month. Another game, yeah. We got a great prize here in August. If you can beat or tie woods, we'll put you into the grand prize drawing for the two nights day at Resorts World Las Vegas and two tickets to carry under wood reflection at Resorts World Theater. It's our new residency from August 14th starting later this week to October 26th. Tickets are on sale now at aexcess.com and rwlossvagus.com. Guy, here are your categories to choose from. The afterlife, still sitting there. Five song titles and artists including the word after. Sprecken Sidoich. Those are German adjacent bands, artists, songs and then we've got the beginning of life. Five songs or bands that begin with life. So the afterlife. Sprecken Sidoich or the beginning of life, guy? The beginning of life. The beginning of life, the new category again. Okay, today we are looking for five songs or bands that start with the word life. You'll have 60 seconds. Get as many as you can. Pass if you don't know one. We'll come back to it if there's still time left on the clock. First question is our two second song. Frankie is queuing it up right now. We need to identify both the song title and the artist to score that point. Guy, I know you know how to play. I'm just explaining it for people out there who may not have heard this before. Guy, you ready? I am. Natalyan Paul, are you ready to go? Alright, let's put 60 seconds on the category. The beginning of life. Guy, your time begins when Frank plays the music. Good luck. Let's take on Woods. Correct, which 1991 song by Canadian artist Tom Cochran was covered by rascal flats for the Pixar movie Cars. A life is a highway. Correct, consider one of his best vocal performances, which 1971 David Bowie song references one of the planets of the solar system. Life on Mars. Correct, which band's 2000 hit "Hanging by the Moment" was named the number one song of the year by the Billboard Hot 100. That is correct. Joe Walsh satirically sings about the excesses of his Eagles rock star life, including a Maserati that goes 185 in which 1978's solo hit. That's great. That's a five for five. That's a win. Hang on a line, Guy. Frank will get all your information. You are in for the drawing. That just leaves us with one question. Can Woods match you? Bring him back into the studio from his isolation. All right, Guy's score is locked in. Adding to the difficulty, Woods doesn't get the category. Oh, it's Guy. Oh, boy. 60 seconds on the clock. You know what that means. You probably should be on your game. Your time begins when Frankie plays the music. Good luck, Woods. Let's take on Guy. Life on the Fastlane, the Eagles. Correct, which 1991 song by Canadian artist Tom Cochran was covered by rascal flats for the Pixar movie Cars. Life is a highway. Correct, consider one of his best vocal performances, which 1971 David Bowie song references one of the planets of the song. Life on Mars. Correct, which bands 2000 hit "Hanging by the Moment" was named the number one song in the house. Correct, Joe Walsh satirically sings about the excess. Life has been good to me so far. Yeah, very good. You guys both nailed that. One of your fastest ever. Guy was very sharp as well. I'm falling in need for more in love with you. No one even came close to missing one today. I guess I made that one just too easy. Five for five? Yeah, five for five. That category was called the Beginning of Life. And we have 10 for 10 and Guy qualifies. Woods feels good about it. And we move on from there for a new category tomorrow. Well done, everybody. Thank you. Frankie did a nice job as well. It's just a sharply played game this morning. All right, don't do this is coming up next. Jeron Duran. Jeron Duran's in the chamber. You realize games are televised and there's cameras and microphones everywhere. Everywhere, man. I don't know what Jeron Duran was thinking yesterday, but he's in some hot water. And I've got for due to this. If you haven't heard this yet, I got tagged in it 75,000 times yesterday. I will play you. The Colts fan who made a song for his team's upcoming season. And it's not an AI song. It's not an AI song. It's a real guy. Okay. And that always goes well. All I'll say is you better listen to the whole thing. Let's go Colts. Yeah. Go go beat those bolts. Yeah, it is pretty spectacular audio next. Okay. It's all that right after a check of traffic here on 97 through the fan. Don't you? Worried about letting someone else pick out the perfect avocado for your perfect and press them on the third date guacamole? Well, good thing Instacart shoppers are as picky as you are. They find ripe avocados like it's their guac on the line. They are milk expiration date detectives. They bag eggs like the 12 precious pieces of cargo they are. So let Instacart shoppers overthink your groceries so that you can overthink what you'll wear on that third date. Download the Instacart app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order additional term supply. We all belong outside. We're drawn to nature. Whether it's the recorded sounds of the ocean we doze off to, or the succulents that adorn our homes, nature makes all of our lives well better. Despite all this, we often go about our busy lives removed from it, but the outdoors is closer than we realize. With all trails, you can discover trails nearby and explore confidently. With offline maps and on trail navigation, download the free app today and make the most of your summer with all trails. Nothing is more important than getting a good night's sleep and when you don't get the rest you need, your whole day is thrown off. That's why it's so important to choose the right mattress. Playing on a purple mattress is truly a unique experience because purple mattresses are made with a gel flex grid. The gel flex grid is an innovative material that moves with your body to relieve pressure in areas like knees and hips, and support in others like your back. It feels soft where you want it and supports where you need it. Purple mattresses instantly adapt when you move. You don't sink in and get stuck like with memory foam, and thanks to over 1,400 air chambers in the gel flex grid, you will sleep cooler on a purple mattress. Purple has a wide variety of mattresses from the original purple mattress to the Restore Hybrid Collection that combines gel flex grid with coils, and the Rejuvenate Lux Collection, the height of luxury. With over 112,000 to 5 star reviews to prove it, visit purple.com to find the perfect purple for you and enter code podcast10 to get 10% off. 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. I'm Anna Garcia with True Crime News, the podcast. Every week, True Crime News covers breaking crime stories and the fight for justice. Listen to and follow True Crime News, the podcast, on the free Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Don't do this, who's brought to you by the Craft Taco and Serenal Valley. The best quality tacos in all of San Diego, Italian Paul, or just Italian food. Let's get this big without ever talking. Let's get this big without ever talking. That's good point. That's good. I'm sure it's good. Everything is called a B-Ball Hero or something. Everything got Italian food is delicious. And so is everything at the Craft Taco. Take a look at their Happy Hour specials today at thecrafttaco.com. What's the? You start us down in the baseball world. I got home yesterday and checked the Twitter machine and said, "Oh my God, Jaren Duran, man. You've really done it, buddy." He was Jaren Duran, outfielder, all-star MVP, by the way, center fielder for the Boston Red Sox. Comes up to the plate and is heckling him and says, "You're going to need a tennis racket to hit that one." And Jaren Duran, on a very hot mike, said, "Shut up, you effing, F-word slur, gay slur." Awful dude, just right there, as clear, loud as you can hear it. He issued an apology, the Red Sox issued an apology. It was also caught a couple of weeks ago telling a female fan to shut up. He's really, like, you got to tune it out, Jaren. And again, you know, I don't mind if you want to play back at fans who are-- Sure, sure, sure. Jackson Merrill did the hush, and they made that like, "Yeah, it's fine, it's fun." You're not throwing slurs at people, yeah. But, obviously, you got to watch your words a little bit. Yeah, dude. It's tough, man. It's tough. It's tough. It's terrible. You can't do it. It's not something you should say. It's amazing how people keep falling into this trap. I know, it really is, in, you know, where we are right now, it just doesn't make any sense. It's a word, you know, like Ben and I talked about. We've talked about it before. It was so prevalent when we were kids, so prevalent, and, you know, the more you realize how hurtful it can be, you're like, "Yeah, I definitely shouldn't say this." Even I, you know, I never use the D.F. word, but even I when I was a kid, it was so common when something would go, "Oh, that's gay." Yeah, five percent. You know, it's like, you know, I look back and I feel like that's horrible, it was horrible, and it was just so common when, you know, 1980s and just something to be said, it was just part of the lingo. Like, "Oh, that's cool." Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, well, obviously that's horrible and you learn and hopefully you get to be better later in life, but at this point in 2024, Jeremy Duran didn't grow up when we grew up. Correct. He grew up in a more evolved time, you would think, and it shouldn't be quite so easy for him to just throw out those words, especially in a public setting with cameras and microphones. Yeah, just awful. All fine. I'm kind of kind of going to grab back golf stories here for Don't Do This. I love the golf grab bag, dude. Start in the live golf league, which is suspended golf for Graham McDowell for one tournament. Find him $125,000 for using a nasal decongestant that contained a band substance. He said, yeah, he was stuffed up and he used a VIX over the counter, nasal decongestant without realizing it had whatever ingredient that he wasn't supposed to use. Just yeah, just like the VIX, I don't know, the nose spray or whatever, but yeah, that's a expensive mistake that he made. Is it a PED? What? Yeah, it's like a, they have amphetamines generally in those decongestants, not don't get to it. I did not know that. That's strong, but I think that's part of the ingredients that make. That's why they put it behind the counter and the lock glass. Yeah, but they also put shaving cream behind the lock. That's counter in the glass. What is that doing for me? That's different. Shoving shaving cream up my nose to try to get a hit. So that was live, but the PGA two were at a couple of interesting ones. First, I felt bad for this kid. Max Grazerman, who was trying to win his first ever tournament yesterday at the Wyndham Championship, he's up two, pulls out a shot from the fairway for Eagle. So he's got a four shot lead with like five holes to play and his very next tee shot, he's out of bounds and makes a snowman, a quad eight to lose his entire lead on one hole, then he gets it back with a birdie and then four putts for double bogey and loses to air and ride. And these were like three footers that were sliding, flipping out. Yeah, two, three footers, just look out again. It was excruciating. But the one that you caught your attention was what happened. Okay, because of the hurricane, they weren't able to play on Thursday and they had to try to squeeze in 36 plus holes on Sunday and eight, they almost did it. Everybody finished, but in the last group, as he's coming up 18 and he's not even in contention anymore, 46 year old Matt Kuchar was tied for 12 hits his drive and then says it's too dark. I'm not going to finish his drive though into the group, try to play, try to play up fast, but then hit one a little offline and goes, I don't want to risk it. It's getting dark for these old eyes. And he said, I am marking my ball, I will come back tomorrow and finish it. When everybody else, the winner of the tournament is done. Matt Kuchar made at least, you know, some staff and the greenskeepers and everyone come back tomorrow just for him to hit three shots. He's done. He made his par. He got his tied for 12 this morning after being the only person to have to come back for the tournament. Now, I mean, it's a lot of money, you know, it can be the several tens of thousands difference between, you know, 12th or 7th that we made a birdie or, you know, 17th that we made to bulky. But if you're, if everyone else in your group finished, they'll finish everyone finished older. Maybe he can't see as well break, but he's not in like it didn't come down. He wasn't going to make the FedEx go play off anyway. Right, right. One stroke was not going to make a huge difference in his life. My thing is, look, it is money. Absolutely. You made that point this morning when I got in because I said I'm not real money. I'm not a Matt Kuchar fan. He reminds me of so many people that I grew up with golfers that I, that turned me off from golf. He's that kind of guy. I'm like, bro, I hope I'm not one of those. No, you're actually a really fun, like, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're a fun guy to play golf with. Matt Kuchar reminds me of every dude I went to high school with that was a big golfer and kind of people, you know, like in my family, not my dad, my dad's great. But I, I just see them and I'm like, oh, you're just annoying. You just have that annoying golf thing in you. But when everyone else in your group finishes, just finish, man. And yes, the condition Patrick can't lose. Yeah. The conditions Thomas has a little bit of it. The conditions are not ideal. They're not. And it's a little bit dark, but everybody else fishing. Now you're going to make everybody, not everybody, but more, if you know, more than one person come back to watch you hit three and they're mostly volunteers. So they have to, you know, hold their lives again for another morning just to come back and finish the scoring, finish the, you know, everything that needs to get done for that golf tournament. It's so annoying. He's so annoying. He's also the guy that stiffed that caddy when he won a million dollars or something. That's right. It was a temporary caddy. He didn't give him the 10 percent. He's getting what he agreed on. He gave him like five grand or something. Yeah, that's true. Terrible. He's just terrible. So yeah, that's, that's definitely a don't do this. This is a doo doo doo doo. Dee Dee mega doo doo. In my opinion. He's saying, he's like, would you, I thought you hated when fans make videos and wraps and stuff and songs about the team. It's not my team. So I don't care. So I'm going to play them for my enjoyment. Don't do this for the Padres. People listening out there, please don't. I'm begging you. Things are going pretty well right now, but this Colts fan wanted to put out a little, little Diddy for his team. They're going to be taking on, or they were taking on the Broncos yesterday, I do believe. So he wanted to get this out there to the public and listen, wait till the end is the best part. This is our Colts, this is our team. We bleed blue, this is our Colts, whether we lose, we love them for the shoe, beat the Broncos. Yeah, that's the part right there that I really, really, the nay that I really like. I don't like how he says, I have a good, oh, holy night guy by going there, didn't he? Big time. This is our Colts. Shouldn't it be? These are our Colts. Yeah. These are our Colts. These are our Colts. This is our team. Let's hear it again, Frankie. One more time. And listen to the nay. You know, now in Europe, sometimes they switch the R and is on the sports team, like Rial Madrid are a great team. Rial Madrid are a great team. I don't know. You can say the Colts are a great team. The Colts are my team. The Colts is a great team. Do that in Europe sometimes. I don't know. I don't think you can say the Colts is a great team. I don't know exactly how it works. But in this country, I know how it works. That's not how it works. This is our Colts. This is our team. We bleed blue. This is our Colts, whether when I lose, we love them or the shoe, beat the Broncos. Let's show them who the real horse is. This is our team. So he wrote the song specifically for the first free season game. Yeah, he was not like a season long so it's just one free season game. I hope he does it for every opponent. Beat the Raiders. Like I want it so bad for every single game. He will be a featured guest on Ben and Woods. You can count on it. I thought that was brilliant. This is our Colts. It's going to make me nuts the rest of the day, by the way. But instead of saying we love you, which would have rhymed, you went with them. We love them. Also, I don't think he was, I don't think he was really concerned about the rhyming bit. No. Good points here. But it was right there. Good points here in the chat. It does sound like Tom DeLong from Blink 182. Think about Blink 182 if they were Colts fans. One more time, Frankie. You don't have to do this again. Yeah. Think about Blink 182 singing the Colts song. Ladies and gentlemen, Blink 182. This is our Colts. This is our team. We bleed blue. It's identical. This is our Colts. Whether when I lose, we love them for the shoe beat the Broncos. That's show them who the real Morse fans is, our team, your Colts. It doesn't melt the apple juice in the hallway. My mom got mad. She got so mad. It made me so sad. If you haven't seen it. I didn't. You might be listening right now. I mean, tell me I'm wrong. If you haven't seen the video, you have to see it. It's incredible. So that was don't do this. Win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win, win. It was so awesome. It was so awesome. Jeff. Jeff in the Chats. Jeff in the Chats. I just watched the viewer number go from 391 to 380. We should kill the 11 people from that song. I saw it jump above 500, so I think people love it. That was it. Don't do this for Monday, but it's already heard. It's over. All right. Let's talk about the good games from this series in Miami. And Jackson, Merrill, I mean, rookie of the year, MVP, just put him in the Hall of Fame right now. Just let's just skip the whole process coming up next with Ben and Woods, a 97-3 to fam. I think it should be pointed out as we jump into a discussion of Padres wins on Friday and Saturday that the Padres won 16 of 18 games for the first time in franchise history. After Saturday's game, 16 and 2 had never been done in the 55 years of Padres history till this team did it, starting the second game after the all-star break through Saturday. Now, obviously, they lost yesterday, so they weren't able to complete their first-ever 6 and 0 road trip in franchise history, but 16 and 2 is incredible. That is baseball that we have not seen on this level, in this town, in the entire franchise history of the San Diego Padres. It's such an unreal run. It's such an unreal run. And I mean, how many of those games of eight of those 16 wins? Six of them, you felt like could have gone the other way without some way to do it easily. You know, 16 and 2, 10 and 8, big difference when you can, you know, pull some of those games out of the fire. So we'll talk about those games that they pulled out of the fire coming up right after this check of traffic, a 97-3 to fan. Now, let's start with the series opener on Friday, first game of the weekend. Padres going with Martine Perez on the mound, and for the second straight time, since they acquired him with the trade deadline, with minimal expectations, at least from the fan base. Perez was outstanding. Seven innings, three hits, two runs, both of them on back-to-back solo home runs by Jake Berger and Jonah Brides struck out six. Incredible, man. I mean, give Perez a lot of credit, but I'm also given Ruben Nable and the Padres staff a lot of credit for accentuating the positives and getting him really locked in with his new team and his first two starts, outstanding effort there by Perez. Think about the, the, the fringe buys last season, the rich hills of the world, and you just had no confidence zero when he would toe the slab. None. I mean, none. You're like, what's he getting? What's he got? Anything in a third in him? Martine Perez is a dog out there, straight up is a dog. Yeah. Two little blips on the radar, man, but went seven. We needed that so badly for him. The fact that Martine Perez is giving us the most length from our starters right now, yeah, reason to be concerned, I think, but thank God for him, went out and, and 100% kept you in the ballgame, Benny, and, and did more than that, and he pitched way well enough to win that ballgame. Now, offensively, they didn't get anything done against the Marlon starter, Edward Cabrera, who went seven innings, no runs, four hits, three walks, four strikeouts, and while he came into the game with a high ERA, he had some nasty stuff. There's no doubt about that. I mean, it's not like humiliating that they weren't hitting that guy. He was, he was pretty nasty, but they finally got him out of the game and the Padres rallied against the, the Marlins bullpen on Manny Machado's RBI double in the eighth inning. And then of course, in the ninth inning, again, Jackson Merrill comes through with the game tying solo home run to force extra innings and then the Padres scored four in the tenth Tyler Wade with a nice base running from Thurgwell. Nice that he scored. Yes. Nice that he scored. Smooth, you know, elegant. Not so much. He smashed his face into the dirt. That's a beautiful, beautiful moneymaker. It is. Split that nose right open. What about us? But, you know, a warrior is, is Mike Schilt called him and all of his guys, Manny followed with a two run double, Padres score four runs and go on to win six to two, but they wouldn't have got there without Jackson Merrill stepping up in a big spot once again. I liked that Schilt called the Friday night win the AJ Preller game with Martine Perez acquired at the deadline. You had Brian Hoeing, Jason Adam and Tanner Scott all throwing scoreless innings of relief. So yeah, man, the, the AJ Preller game for sure, brilliantly managed way to hang in, you know, for the guys and, and wait till they got their opportunity and they didn't let it slip through their fingers, man, at all. And that was, that was a nice one, man. Martine Perez was, was outstanding. So they follow it up then on Saturday with another wild one. This time, of course, the Padres jumped out to a three nothing lead for Matt Waldron, but a disastrous fifth inning, which Waldron and Jeremiah Estrada combined to allow six runs to see not only the lead evaporate, but more and put the Padres in a big hole in that game that once again, Jackson Merrill would scoop them out of with the game time to run home run in the eighth inning at that point, you're starting to wonder why are the Marlins even pitching to this guy? Yeah, you can't just, I mean, you're not going to work around him. I mean, he's a rookie and I know he's hot and I know he's clutch, but how do you handle Jackson Merrill? If you're an opposing team at this point, they got real careful with him in the ninth inning. They got careful with him again yesterday. No one wanted to be the guy that gave up another home run to Jackson, but they did get him out there in the ninth inning yesterday, pitched to him, got him to pop out. So he's not, I mean, he's not apparently infallible, but still you felt like he was going to come through in those situations, which is crazy for a kid that's 21 years old. Yeah, you know, and it took us a walk to when he needed to when they did pitch around him. We talked about that last week, very patient at bats, very good at bats from Jackson Merrill almost every time he goes up there. I think the thing that you can look at, if you're going to be concerned about that game, I think you have to, to talk about Matt Waldron, he's got a 508 ERA in his last seven starts. He's a little bit of regression there. I'd say from Matt Waldron, certainly he was the guy that when he needed him to was giving you a little bit of length, but the guy that felt good in the first few, and he did and then just all fell apart. It just fell hard. Yeah. And, you know, his ERA ballooned up because Jeremiah Strata came in and immediately surrendered a couple of those base runners that he had led on, but Jeremiah Strata, yeah, another one to be a little bit concerned about right now, Benny. Last seven outings. He's got a 90 ERA, 520, 70 ERA in his last 30 games. You know, and it, I don't know if it for him is the fact, so he was the setup man and was pitching really well. Then he got sick. He got sick. His vylos there. It looks like his stuff there. It's just low patient. Then he came back for a while pitching good again, and now they're bringing him in earlier in the game. Yeah, like the fifth struggling. But I saw it suggested is he actually better when you pitch him in like higher leverage situations than early in the game. You need to put him back in the eighth inning, but potteries have so many options. I just don't see that happening right now. You know, and it's one of those things where I don't think it's an ego thing or whatever. It's just a mindset of like, all right, well, this is my role. I have to accept it, and I need to execute when I am called upon to do so. I thought Johnny Bredo unsung hero of Saturday night coming in, going two and a third, and it was immediately sent down after that to keep that bullpen carousel rolling right along. But Sean Reynolds came up to replace him. But you know, two and a third scoreless was desperately needed. And you know, the offense found a way to battle back. And of course, Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill really came through, and it was it was awesome man. Yeah. So yeah, the Machado play in the show. That one was the play when he threw out the runner at the in the in the bottom of the 10th inning to help Tanner Scott get the save and prevent the tying run to score. But I want to point out, even after Jackson Merrill's home run, game wasn't over yet. Louisa rise had to go ahead infield single, then Jake Berger had another home run off Adrian Moore home to tie it, then a rise had another RBI chopper in the 10th inning, and it was reported over the weekend. And this isn't surprising, I think at all, that Louisa rise has actually been tealing with a torn ligament in his thumb, but he's been playing with it for the past month. Now, I think you can clearly tell, at least from where Louisa rise was when they first acquired him, the at bats, you know, he's, it's not quite as sharp. The liners aren't quite as frequent. He's still hitting like two 80, you know, with the thumb injury as opposed to, you know, the normal three 300 plus without it, he's not 100% Louisa rise, but the doctors say, Hey, you can play through it, you know, as long as you can swing the bat, you're okay. So they're letting him go out there and, you know, he got the job done on Saturday when they needed him to make contact. He's certainly not the best version of Louisa rise right now, though, because I think that thumb injury is obviously bothering him and you can see it just on the swings and the foul balls and the tips that, you know, he's shaking his hand constantly. It's not, it's not helping him at all. That's, that's for sure. Now he's in a tough position too, because what's his contract status? We have him for one more year, but he's, he's are eligible. Yeah, right. So when you're arbitration eligible, what do you do? What do you need to put up numbers? Correct. You want to play and, and you can't put up numbers being on the IL. And if the doctor tells you, you're okay to play through it. It's going to hurt like a son of a bitch, but you're okay to play through it. I, I think. I'm pretty sure surgery, which is an option that went into season. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't think Padres want that either. No. I think you'd rather have a rise at 75% than no, arise at all. You said this about Manny earlier in the season and he got healed. He had the surgery. If Elias could have the surgery and then, hey, he'd be back 100% by, you know, September 15th or whatever, I'd say, man, maybe it would be, go ahead and do it. I don't think he'd be able to come back at all though. I know. So at this point, play through it. Give him what you can. Maybe you have the surgery, you know, the day the playoffs are over. Do you get ready for the next season? If you can. Do you play him in the field less? I know. Which hand is it as throwing? I mean, is it as throwing? I haven't noticed any difference in the field. I mean, maybe that catch at first base. Is that part of the thumb hurting? I don't know. I think it's, I think it's his top hand when he hits because he's got the thumb. That's right. Yeah. So on it, I don't even know. I mean, he's not top and he catches with his left hand. He's a right hander. He did. Just a couple of times a week anyway. Yeah. I mean, do you just never have him in the field? He's not one of your better defenders. He's not a good defender. He doesn't want to be just a full-time D8. I understand. I do. I absolutely understand. And I do think, you know, there's a lot, there's a lot of, of people talking right now about, well, you should bench this guy or maybe get this guy out of the lineup. I think your lineup is better with Louisa rise in it, even at 75%. I agree. I agree. I do. Now, the Donovan Solano scene is an interesting one as well with Hassan Kim struggling with the bat. What do you do? Who is your shortstop? And I sat in the dugout yesterday. It's not Donovan Solano. I'll tell you that. It's not Donovan Solano. He's not playing short. As much as you'd like to just put him right in there. That's not going to work. So Donovan Solano in the field can play first, second in a pinch, but he hasn't done it much lately. Correct. The last couple of years. Tyler Wade is not. You're starting every day short. No, it's easy. He's just not. He's not. So. Not with that face. Move to your move Zander back to short, crony the second Solano at first. But again, I was going to play against lefty. He is going to play against lefty. He's going to play against lefty. He's going to play against lefty. He's going to play against lefty. The question is, do you want him playing against righties now and who do you take out of the lineup? Which left-handed hitter? Crony netting. Or are you taking out against righties? Maybe crone. You're already taking crony out against lefty. It's lefty. So Jake Croneworth is just not. He's the best player. He's not a player anymore. Yeah. He's your number three either. That doesn't work either. There's just not a lot of solutions. And it's weird on a team with six short stops. He's a great pinch hitter. He had a pinch hit home run again. I mean, well, why take him out of the role that he's thriving in, play him as much as you can against lefties, pinch hit him the rest of the time. Well, he said it last week, man. And again, I know in MLB the show, it's easy. You just put him in there and you watch his stamina and see how it goes. This is different. He's 36 years old. You know, I don't know that he can be an everyday player and Rob nails it in the chat. So the answer is Fernando Tati's junior. We just don't know when he will be back when Fernando Tati's junior comes back. This is a different ball club. And yes, I've seen all of, I know all of the numbers. I know their record with him. I know their record without him. I know all of it baseball is weird, man. It's weird. The Washington Nationals get rid of Bryce Harper and win a World Series. The Atlanta Braves lose a kunya for the year. They win a World Series. It's not an indictment on either of those players. It's just the way baseball works. Fernando Tati's junior coming back is going to help this team tremendously. It's going to lengthen the bench. Peralta can then be your, you know, pinch hitter, lefty against righties, whatever. It's going to make the bench better. Fernando Tati's coming back. I'm not putting him in short, by the way, I'm not, but him coming back to the team is going to make this team better. Ray makes the point. Tati said short might limit his running in the outfield. Now doctors will tell you more, but with the stress reaction, I know what they're worried the most about is that running, that pounding, boom, boom, boom, I don't know if diving's not as bad. I mean, that usually is harder on things like the shoulder, which of course he's injured that as well. Do you want him at shortstop? I know he's continued to take ground balls. You know, this entire time he's been a right fielder. He still takes infield. I think there's a lot more. There's a lot more, there's a lot more standing around out in the right field than there is playing short. You're more active at shortstop. Yeah. You have those long sprints toward, you know, foul territory that you're pounding your knees and pounding that femur that has the stress reaction. Yeah, you don't, you know, I'm not a doctor when it comes to saying what would be easier or harder on, on his leg when he comes back. And I don't know, maybe when he comes back, there's no worry at all. You don't let him back until there's no worry whatsoever. Right. And then it doesn't matter where he's playing. Yeah. At least physically. Yeah. There's just so, there's so many, so many options that Mike Schilt has, I just don't know which of them are the best, right? Because again, Donovan Solano's really not an everyday player in my opinion. And neither really is Tyler Wade, you know. And so at this point, maybe you just said, you got to roll with Kimmy and hope he figures it out. It's not the best recipe for success, but we know it's in there. We've seen great defense from him before and we've seen good offense from him before. I just don't know what's up with the guy right now. All right. When we come back, second half of Ben & Woods on the way, we get in season Sammy joining us in our eight o'clock hour. Some point, we'll talk about the end of the Olympic Games in Paris. It was pretty, pretty fun Olympics, actually. All of that ahead with Ben & Woods, the 97-3, the fan. 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 ad. Trying to figure out what to eat for dinner yet again? With no 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. I'm Anna Garcia with True Crime News, the podcast. Every crime tells a story. Every story demands justice. 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