Ben & Woods On Demand Podcast
Wednesday August 28th, 2024 - FULL SHOW
[MUSIC PLAYING] Now at T-Mobile, get four 5G phones on us and four lines for $25 a line per month when you switch with eligible trade-ins, all on America's largest 5G network. Minimum of four lines for $25 per line per month without a paid discount using debit or bank account, $5 more per line without auto pay plus taxes and fees and $10 device connection charge. Phones would be a 24-monthly bill credit for well qualified customers, contact us before canceling entire account to continue bill credits or credit stop and balance on a required finance agreement too. No credit to end if you pay off devices early, ctmobile.com. Can I wish a-- Just a nice hello across the sea to Christian Masquela. He's an Italian Ben & Woods Padre's fan. He's in Italy right now. He's in-- Not on vacation. Not on vacation. He lives in Italy. Wow. So we have Welsh Fryer coming out. He's on his way. And now we have an Italian Padre's fan. Yeah, welcome to San Diego, Christian. You ever come to town? You let us know. And of course, if we ever come to Italy, we'll stay with you. We'll have a great time eating all the delicious foods and whatnot. And he who streams us in the mornings on YouTube, puts you on our TVs at home, watch Ben & Woods as you're getting ready for work or school or your day. But also, Paul, you just let me know that we have a growing audience on Twitch. So if you're joining us right now on Twitch, thank you very much. Maybe we need to spend more time on Twitch. Maybe. Right now I'm at a total of zero minutes and seconds on Twitch, I think. Yeah, don't put-- we distribute the show to Facebook, YouTube, '97 threes, YouTube, Twitch. We make it to be more-- There used to be more, even more as well. So I can't really get in there and control all five or whatever platforms. So I kind of leave Twitch just stream the show out there and that's about it. And then I look and I go, there's many people watching on Twitch right now as we do on YouTube. Do you hear what he said though? Yeah, we need to-- We. That's why I started talking about all of the work that I do on streams. I just don't need to-- What do we do on Twitch? I know what Twitter does. I tweet. But what do you Twitch? Do you Twitch, do you send a Twitch, do you-- I don't know. You post a Twitch broadcast. You broadcast. Well, we're doing that then. But there's probably people commenting that we're not responding to. Are there comments on Twitch? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's really no different than like-- I mean, it is different, but it's very similar to streaming on YouTube. So we need to do a better job. You know, I'll wear that. That's my fault. I found you. Yeah. All right, I'll handle it. Ben's got enough fun to play. It's always good to see you. Ben does so much. I like that he said, I've got zero hours of-- Zero minutes on Twitch. Logs on Twitch. How many hours or minutes do you have on the other platforms that are named-- A lot of Twitter. I have a lot on Twitter. That aren't named Twitter. Not as much. One might say zero. How do you do multiple social media? It's hard. It takes a lot of work. It's a lot of work that we don't-- We have a tier one Discord. Yeah, I'm about that. Which is basically social media. And it's-- Discord and Twitch are different things. Correct. Twitch is more like a chat room message board-- more like a message board type setup. There's-- How's our TikTok? TikTok? Well, we had the one. I'm still getting comments on that Nick-- Castellanos one, by the way. And it's very hard to go live on TikTok. We'll get there, eventually. How's our LinkedIn page looking? Three. Making a lot of connections, job recommendation. I'll update our LinkedIn page next year when it's a contract negotiation. TJ said Discord is wild. And then Guzzinator said Discord is poppin'. It's a lot, man. It's fun. They have like 40 different channels, though, like-- During Padre's game, talk on this one during the Ben & Woods show, go talk on this channel, during the weekends. Go talk on this channel. If you want to talk about video games, go to this channel. It's a lot. It's kind of overwhelming. I stay out for the most part on Discord. I'll get tagged in things, and I'll go back and see it. I deleted the app, because I will set this at there all day. And you have to monitor it. It's a lot of work to do this. But yes, we do need to do more. We, the collective, we, need to do more. And I haven't posted on X and over a year, because I know Woods will go in there and he'll respond to everybody. I-- every single person. My-- our Instagram, Ben & Woods, private messages. I lay in bed at night. I'm like, ah, yep. Ha, ha, ha, no kidding. Oh, 100%. Yup. Oh, it's hard. Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. So genuine. Well, I mean, it's like you want-- they send something and you have to heart. Like, I don't want to just ignore it. Is that better than just not responding? I think it is. I don't know. At least they know I saw it. I mean, I try when I'm on Twitter, I'll try to hit likes, and anytime someone responds to me. But I don't even get to all of those. There's only so many hours in the day. I'll check my requests on Instagram, and it's like somebody that doesn't-- that I don't follow or whatever, and they write something. I'll give it the double tap. The mark says, I'm still waiting for your response from my letter I sent in the mail. You say that maybe as a joke? I don't know if you're kidding or not. We need an unpaid college student to handle this course. Hooray! Welcome, welcome, yeah. Trevor sitting in the studio didn't know that he was going to be responding to all of my social media posts. Trevor, the next-- Get three or four years. Get your ass to work right now. Yeah, it's funny. It's not funny, but I actually, like, when we were in our last marriage counseling session, I was talking to her about, like, I'm being pulled in a lot of different directions, and Hannah's like, you have to say no, and you have to ignore it, and I'm like, I'm not wired that way. I get that too. Shelly always said, you have to say no more. You have to, you know, you have to say no, you can't do all those things. It's hard. And you do more than I do. Yeah, it's hard. It's really hard to do, and I'm such a, like, a people pleaser, which I wasn't, but-- Which reminds me, we've got our member stream tomorrow. Yes, we do. Members in the chat, if you're not signed up, is a tier one full member you can do so, and join us for our live stream tomorrow evening at 6.30. All no holds barred. Yeah, anything goes literally. Member stream. Ben May, show skin on the Member stream. You don't know. You're usually at work, though. And you, he always wants to work. I will say it will be at work tomorrow, too. About the Member stream. He always wants to talk sports on the Member stream, and we try to avoid its, I mean, we will get into the weeds on the Aztecs, and the Chargers, and name it, you name it. You say, I should always be myself. Well, that's myself. I know, I know it is. It's trying to broaden you a little bit. It's not going to work. I know. You've tried for six years. I've tried for six years. I think I've done a pretty good job. So. Sports. So, sports for Rhyndorport. Sounds good. And get things started here with our edition today's edition of the Rhyndorport. Now tuned to them off. Greatest. Welcome to the Rhyndorport. With Paul Rhyndor. Hi, Paul. All right. Two stories from the world of sports that we haven't gotten to yet. We'll start off in Major League Baseball. And one story that you didn't know you needed. Are you laughing, the arts? It's the Rhyndorport. Hey, Paul, how you doing? OK, how are you? On 97.3, the fan. Are you ready to blast the mood? I need some help, please. That was good. Can I get a hoey? Oh, yeah. All right. All right. Even the Rhyndorport is 67% sports. That's true. Yeah. And somebody asked, Jake, why don't you guys livestream the Padres games? That's why he is why we don't livestream the Padres games. Oh, no, but he does the play vibe. We're talking, telling the story. Somebody asked us a question. We answered. Ben's like, yeah, it's a ground ball. Xander Boga looks like he's got this. We're in three different locations. Somebody might be a pitch behind. I said, dude, it is. I go, we don't do it because it's awful. What are the 11.15 tomorrow, first pitch? We specifically said tomorrow, tomorrow and after the game. That's exactly why. Because he will stretch his play-by-play legs during those. All right. We've got a couple of stories here in sports media. We will start off with an announcement from earlier this morning. Netflix has announced their newest sports series. It is basketball. It's called The Starting Five. It's going to be a 10-part series. And at first, I thought it was going to be for the upcoming year, like a hard knocks. It's going to be that hard knocks style, but looking back at the last season. And they're following five of the top players in the league. Throughout the season, on and off the court, injuries, family life, pre-postgame, all of that. And so Lebron James is the biggest name. That's a big one I'd say to get. Anthony Edwards. OK, fascinating guy. Jimmy Butler. Fascinating guy. Jason Tatum, just want to championship. Yeah. And Dimontis Sabonis. Get the different cultures. Yeah. Yeah. There are so many sports documentaries and shows now. It is. It's the Golden Age. It's like when reality shows hit. It was like one came and then two. And then you're like, why am I too many? There's too many. They're going to flood the market. I mean, like think about full swing, right? I loved the first season of full swing. I couldn't stop watching it. They had a couple of episodes with a couple of characters of Matt Fitzpatrick. I'm like, bro, I'd rather watch somebody eat cereal than listen to any more Matt Fitzpatrick content. He's most boring human on the planet. Nothing against a great golfer. I was like, it turned me off so many stories out there. I mean, right. And so I go. And season two starts. I watch five minutes. I was like, I can't do this again, man. I just can't do it. The Red Sox one's going to be phenomenal. Something I've been begging for for years. Behind the scenes of baseball, they never let you in. They expanded hard knocks by far the rock season with the New York Giants. And I didn't watch them. But people said it was actually pretty pretty hard. It was one of the best ones they've had in years. I didn't know, of course, they're doing the bears with the training camp like they always do. I mean, it's in there's millions now. But the documentaries that-- I mean, they've watched the Steve McNair one. It's only an hour. Yeah, it's the untold series. It's unbelievable. I mean, remember when ESPN did 30 for 30? That was 30 documentaries. There probably had 800 at this point with the number they've done. Steve McNair was wild story. Dating a girl. The girl still shared an apartment with her boyfriend. OK, her boyfriend was the biggest Tennessee Titans fan and the biggest Steve McNair fan there was. Brax boyfriend. Yeah, they broke up and they still shared an apartment. They had a lease. So she's bringing Steve McNair over. He's like, he said he goes, I can't even watch football. My wife brings home Manny. And I'm still living in the house. I'm like, how's it going? How you doing? Good to see you. I'm more like Jake, but you know what I'm saying. Manny's my favorite player. So and I'm standing on like, how do I root for the Padres anymore? How do I root for how do I root for baseball? He goes, I can't even watch football. He's like, I gave up my ticket. I gave up. I'm done. I'm done. It is. It is so good. It's so good. Check that out. Sticking in sports media. You guys all saw the reports Jason and Travis Kelsey and their podcast, New Heights. I've been doing it a couple of years. And the heights that that podcast reached were ridiculous. Very number one podcast. During the season, especially, they are very good. I've seen clips. I've never actually listened to the podcast. But I know they do it. Like during the season, you do get, especially two brothers playing in the NFL. You get a lot of that behind the scenes stuff during the year. And my god, they have just signed on with Wondery, the network club by Amazon, for $100 million over three years. So that essentially means that someone thinks that they, their podcast, because we're essentially doing a show like they are, is like a billion times better than our show. Correct. Would you say that that's true? But the Kelsey brothers, one billion times better and more worthwhile than Ben and Woods. I mean, I know they've got a big name. They've got a good reach. But really, a billion times better. Yeah. I mean, I mean, you're like, what? You're talking about like radio mechanics? No, absolutely not. But as far as the audience reach, no one's a billion times better at anything than anyone else. Who's listening to that, though? To their podcast? Football fans. Is it football fans with these? I think in the last year, yeah, they'd like quadrupled their market. Yeah, with Taylor. Travis, dating Taylor Swift. But he's also one of the top players. He's a first Balabao, a Famer. $100 million. Going for a three-peat in the Super Bowl. I mean, there's-- So if one of us started dating Taylor Swift, we would immediately-- Elevate. We'd have more than 300 people on Twitch watching us. Oh, yeah. Who's going to take one for the team? Not me. Very happy. Is Travis Kelsey still living there? And he's like, I used to be a huge Ben and Woods fan. Now I can't even-- Yeah. My girlfriend's bringing home Ben Higgins. Imagine that. Well, I mean, yeah, never mind. Just keep moving on. All right, finally, we have talked about this in the past. Airplane etiquette. There's always-- not always, but typically, you'll see somebody maybe go hit the food court on their way to boarding the plane. And they'll bring Panda Express or Wendy's or Chipotle or something. That person should be on the no-flight list. That person should be on the good one. Is it because it smells too bad or too good? No, bad. It doesn't smell as good as you think. It's fast. It doesn't smell good. If you're not eating it, it's like Doritos. I love Doritos. But if somebody eats Doritos near me and I'm not eating Doritos, they get a shot to go. What's the best smell out there, though? Cinnamon. Cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon roll. You're going to bring cinnamon on on the plane. If someone brought like a tray of cinnamon rolls, but you didn't get to eat them, right? Wouldn't that be just as miserable? No. Like the whole plane smells like cinnamon. It would be amazing. Freshly baked cinnamon rolls. It smells incredible. It smells incredible. Well, I've got a new one here. And I think this person should be not just on the no-flight. They should be arrested, life in prison. There is a woman who went viral for making bread dough while on a plane. She was sitting in her seat. I'm talking mixing bowl, ingredients, the whole thing. And she was making sourdough bread on her flight to Spain. Now, at first, I was like, I guess that doesn't sound too harmless. Then I saw the video, which I'm putting it up on our stream right now. And, I mean, we're talking like the full, the mixing bowl. All of the equipment, she's just sitting there. How'd she get it through it? Like, how'd she get it all through a security? I mean, there's nothing that's not bad. It's not illegal, I guess, to carry a mixing bowl onto the plane with you, right? Anything you can fit in your carry-on bag? Right. Flower, a big thing of flour. Flower? Yeast. Yeast starter. It's just sourdough. Needing the dough. If that was something to do, tell some time on the flight. I'd lose my mind if I was sitting there. I don't know. I mean, freshly baked bread is another one of those great smells. I'm going to say this. Sourdough's overrated. I'll say I wear it. It's overrated. It's overrated. Doesn't taste that good. OK, so like sourdough, like sandwich bread, I agree with pass. If you've got like a hot sourdough roll with fresh butter, taste like feet. You like the taste of feet. No, I like-- It's why you like chalula. You said it tastes like feet. You've said this before. I also like feet. You also like feet. Maybe you're right. I just don't-- I think it's overrated. Damn it, diesel just got me. Aha. Yup. There's one exception to every rule. It's the sourdough Jack from Jack the Box. It's delicious. The slathered and butter grilled. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Hot sourdough with fresh butter. You get those rolls. You go to a restaurant that brings you that basket of hot sourdough rolls and the little pats of butter. I just think there's so many better options, I think. Than that? Yeah, Parker House, I think it's a better roll. Parker House is great. Biscuits are a better-- Biscuits? No. Kinks or wine. No, no, no, no, no. Go to no. Yeah, biscuits are better. Kinks or wine rolls are great, but they're cold. You're not going to heat them up. Heated up. Kinks or wine rolls are great. I can't believe she made this on the plane. I'm watching. Yeah, there it is on the thing. She said salt. She's kneading it in her seat, just playing with it all. It's pretty harmless, though. Mizzelle, what about soup in a sourdough bowl? A bread bowl. Overrated. Really? Yeah. Overrated. Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. I'll eat it. I'll eat it. Don't get me wrong. But if I have my choice, I'll probably just take another type of bread, I think. Wouldn't you? What's her-- where did she bake it? Or did she? Yeah, well, how did it get baked in one of the little-- I'm sure she took care of it. --of that after she was just making the dough. Well, they have those little ovens on the plane for being the galley. Hey, do you mind heating this up for me? I don't think they're allowed to use it. You can use it. I'm just a passenger. You just push the button and you say, why can you bake my bread? Yeah, have you never heated up King's Hawaiian rolls? I don't think so. Oh, my God. That's so good. So good. Now, somebody in the comments of that video that went viral said, hey, what about anybody on the plane that's allergic to wheat or any of the ingredients? Well, she's not throwing it on them. Could be exposed to it. I don't know. It's a wheat. Good boy. I'm not allergic to anything. I don't know. It's not either. [LAUGHTER] You don't need somebody else. You don't need somebody next to you throwing it around on an airplane. I think you actually have to throw it in a way. [LAUGHTER] He's the wheat. Here, do a bump of this wheat that I brought on. This is weird. That's just a weird-- I think it looks really cute. I'm allergic to do this on a plane. I can't go to the supermarket. It's a closed place, and somebody could suffer from intoxication. The flower can easily fly and spread. [LAUGHTER] Just don't make bread on an airplane. Yeah, I thought that was a-- I thought that was a-- Didn't know that needed to be said. You're like, why do we have to say that? There's probably a, like, a boot ant in the airport right there anyway. Bodeens? Yeah. Yeah, whatever it is. Boot ant, bodeen, whatever. I thought it went unsaid that you didn't have to-- I often like to clean my fish on planes that I catch on my trips, and I bring my knife out of-- Well, you can't give the knife out to me. That's true. That's true. It's the personal griddle. Yeah, it's like, what are we doing, man? It's just clout. Everything is just for clout. That's it. Make some fajitas. [LAUGHTER] You guys cool with this? [LAUGHTER] It's so stupid, man. It's just so stupid. I don't get it. I don't get it. Why are we doing this? Everybody forgets that there are other people around you. Have some self-awareness begging you. Yeah, peanuts. That's the only thing I need to worry about flying around to, like, expose somebody to. Weren't people allergic to peanuts when, you know, every airline handed everybody peanuts everywhere? The plane, you know, flying around? For, like, most of my life. Everybody stopped doing that. Yeah, but, I mean, did they kill? How many people did they kill in the 50 years that they were doing it? Leslie, just let me marinate my meat while I'm landing. We're going to a big barbecue. I'd like to marinate this carne asada as I fly. Everyone cool with that? It's just so stupid. Hibachi, yeah. I mean, doesn't make any sense. It's really getting to me these days. All right, stay tuned. We're going to look ahead. Podrace, Cardinal. Ruining my day. Continuing their series. More coming up after a check to Kelly's traffic here on 97.3 of the fan. When you think about businesses that are selling through the roof like aloe, all birds or skims, sure, you think about a great product, a cool brand and brilliant marketing. But an often overlooked secret is actually the businesses behind the business, making selling and for shoppers buying. Simple. For millions of businesses, that business is Shopify. Nobody does selling better than Shopify. Home of the number one check out on the planet and the not so secret secret with Shoppay that boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning way less carts going abandoned and way more sales going. So if you're into growing your business, your commerce platform better be ready to sell whenever your customers are scrolling or strolling on the web in your store, in their feed and everywhere in between. Upgrade your business and get the same checkout experience as business powerhouses like aloe, all birds and skims. Sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com/autacypodcast. All lowercase. Go to shopify.com/autacypodcast to upgrade your selling today. Shopify.com/autacypodcast. ♪ It's been a long year ♪ After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan for Verizon AT&T at T-Mobile.com/keepandswitch. (upbeat music) - Up to four lines via virtual prepaid card, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit, service, boarded, 90-plus days with device and eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months. - Put an atom on in here? - Nah, I'm just checking on our computer issues and stuff. - The Houston Astros are picking up Dodgers cast off Jason Hayward. - Yes. - For the stretch run, we talked about that last week, whether we'd be interested or not, we said pass. - Oh, good. - And apparently they did pass, but he is a, reportedly, hasn't been officially announced yet, can assign with the Astros, who look like, to me, was one of the more dangerous teams heading now into the stretch run. They've expanded their lead over the Seattle Mariners, who continued to struggle. They lost again yesterday, I believed in me, to the Rays, I think. - Who did? - The Mariners. - Yes. - The Astros look like they're gonna probably cruise into the playoffs, can get nice and set up every single, they actually have a pitching problem. They have too many good pitchers right now. Like in the playoffs, they're gonna have to narrow it down because they have like six guys who are throwing well for them at the moment. - Well, they're, yeah, I mean, they've lost two, the Astros have lost two in a row, according to this. - They did lose to the Phillies yesterday. Aaron Nola shut him out for seven innings. - But they were a team that was gone. They were done. Like it was dead, buried, Bregman wasn't hitting, nobody was hitting, and look at them now. 70 and 62, eight games over 500. It's one of those things where like, we kind of made it a point in the off season to not come on these airwaves and say, just relax, Padres fans, it's early, it's early. There were, think about how many unknowns we had on our team. There's no way you could have looked at this and said, hey, relax, guys, it's early. They needed to play with a sense of urgency. They really didn't, they didn't. They just stayed consistently wanting to get better throughout the season. The Astros been, they've been there so many times. They absolutely, I bet you the faith in that clubhouse never wavered one time, that they had the right guys in place to get the job done. And look at them now, there's a lot of teams like that around baseball right now, but they really stand alone and nobody who wants to face the Astros, the playoffs. - Well, it's interesting because, you know, a baseball schedule, like a football schedule, is much when you play a team as who you play. - The beginning of the season, the Astros and the White Sox had the two worst records in the American League. Padres played both of them on their final home stand coming up in September in about three weeks. Now, Houston looks like a really dangerous team. You would have loved to have played them in April or May. - Yeah, 100%. - The White Sox still are horrifically bad, but those two teams have gone in completely different directions, but there was a point in the season where you could have thrown a blanket over their two records. In fact, I think the White Sox might have been ahead of them at one point in the season. And now, of course, they're probably 60 games behind the Astros. Padres still have both of those teams left on their schedule. - But think of, there's another team, the Atlanta Braves, man, again, two weeks ago, they're done. They're eight and two in their last 10. I mean, it's just, it's insane. Oh, we play the Tigers soon. Guess who's won eight out of 10 games, five in a row. It's playing them at the right time is so key, but you don't know when that's gonna be. - But you might be catching the Cardinals at a kind of a good time right now. They seem to be weakening and perhaps seeing their season slipping away over these four games, and we'll see if the Padres can keep it going. - Did anybody on this planet not think Tommy Pham was gonna deliver last night? - I had to, I put my deliver either of the two games. - Yeah, in late, both of the games. - I put my head in my hands 'cause I just knew Tommy Pham was gonna get a knock there. Didn't, Kate instead, and it was lovely to see, but that in and of itself spoke volumes to me about how different this season has been. Because last year, Tommy Pham, two run bomb for sure. But yeah, man, I just, oh, somebody asked, we talked about bringing Diaz to the main roster. He played last night, I think he had a double in his debut. - Triple A? - Triple A, I think. So yeah, he smoked a double apparently. I don't know. Campi had a couple more moments last night. You also had some really good moments last night. Drove in the tying run. He also had a couple of key blocks in the game, late in the game. So I don't know what their plan is with Diaz, but again, he's not going to sign here if he doesn't think he can get playing time and be on a postseason roster. - He didn't sign here just for one last week. - In El Paso, yes. - It's exactly right. He expects to be on this team soon. - This hour in '97 through The Famous brought to you by Floor & Decor Unbeatable Price's unmatched in-stock selection. Floor & Decor has more styles of laminate, vinyl, tile, wood, and stone. For anyone looking for the right look at the right price, your next beautiful space is at Floor & Decor. Floor & Decor Unbeatable Price's unmatched in-stock selection. All right, we will look at today's interesting matchup in game three of this four-game series between the Padres and St. Louis Cardinals in our final segment that is coming up next with Ben Woods on '97 through the family. We'll be right back. ♪ I keep stress in my mind ♪ - Congratulations to Ken! Heard the sounder called in won the tickets to see Kansas at Humphrey's body. Coming up on September 22nd, you can get your own tickets at ticketmaster.com. Keep listening. I think tomorrow and Friday, we've got a couple more pairs to give away with our call-in-to-win sounder this week for the Kansas tickets at Humphrey's. And then don't forget, we're off on Monday. - Yeah, buddy. - It's a national legal holiday. - We have to be, we have to be. - This is, I'm not going on vacation or anything. Ben's not going on vacation. - It's not Paulie's favorite holiday. That, of course, is memorial day. - Love memorial. - Love's a good memorial. That's his favorite holiday of the year. Bless you. - Oh, sorry about that. - Thank you. - Where'd that come from? - I don't know. I do not know. - Peanut Holler's Peanut Holler's Peanut Holler's. - Peanut Holler's Peanut Holler's Peanut Holler's Peanut. - Holy throwing weed around in here. (laughs) - Pakin' bread while I... - Yeah. - Careful. - There's a radio show. - Sorry about that. - All right, let's look ahead to the matchup tonight, game three, the Padres Cardinals series. We'll do that after our last check of traffic here, on 97.3, the fam. So we're all hoping, I'm sure Joe is as well, that he is just as locked in, as he was on Friday night, against the New York Mets, when he gets back out onto the mound later today, in St. Louis, another 4.45 start, 3.45 eco-water so-count pre-game show, as Joe Musgrove takes the mound, he was so good, so good in that start. He was pretty good in his first two starts, off the injured list, but man, what vintage ideal Joe in his last start, bottle it, hold onto it for the next two months, and we'll enjoy that World Series parade at the end of the year. 'Cause he looked pretty much unbeatable in his last start. Now, will that hold? Will it not hold? I've got no idea, you know, hopefully though, whatever Joe feels got locked in, you know, on the mound, he'll be able to recreate that tonight, and going forward as much as possible, the rest of the season. Yeah, it's going to be another toasty one, not quite as bad. The humidity may be worse though, because it's supposed to dump rain there in St. Louis a little bit today. You saw Dylan Seuss last night, having a little bit of struggle, getting a grip on the ball, you know, the same can be said for Joe Musgrove. He needs to spend it to be successful, you know, when he and he was, he was spending it Friday. I mean, just disappearing, the command was so much. Just for Higgy and him to be on the same page like that was just incredible to watch. It's such a aesthetically beautiful game that he pitched on Friday night. I mean, my God, it was just perfect. The offense showed up the whole thing. So this team is playing with a lot of confidence, man. A lot. So listen, don't panic if he gets down early. Don't panic if you can't locate early. He's going to make adjustments. Now you've got me worried. I wasn't going to panic. Why did you even bring it up? I'm just saying. I'm just saying, if these guys have shown us anything, man, it's their ability to fight. And you know, you'd like to see them. The starters get off to a bit of a better start every game. I mean, it does. You can't play from behind every time. But I do feel like this team, especially, they just-- they grind, man. And two runs is nothing. You know, two runs is nothing for those guys. They've found an ability to limit damage to Ben, avoid a lot of big innings. Knock on wood, keep all that rolling tonight with Joe. And you know, the bullpen, probably-- they're wrapping up that stretch of 18 and 18 here. They still have, what, seven games to go. So I mean, they're, what, seven, six? Six. Six games to go. Looking at the bullpen usage right now. Tanner Scott's toast. Tanner Scott, if I might show them, like, don't ask. Don't throw where your flip flops. Stay in the air conditioning in the hotel for that. Stay in your hotel room, bro. I don't even need you on the field. Like, we had that-- we told that funny story last year about the Gabe Kepler blog. When he was talking about, are we really doing things the right way in baseball? There's so much tradition. There's so much-- he basically called it eyewash, right? A guy like Tanner Scott, who has thrown 44 pitches in three days, high leverage. He's done. Why does he have to come to the ballpark tonight? Jake Croninger is probably more likely to pitch than Tanner Scott. Yeah, I would say yes. I'd say that's a fair bet. And we know how unlikely it is that Jake Cronworth is going to pitch. So it is funny when I think about that. Wouldn't that be smarter to say, bro, kick it. Kick it in the hotel room. You don't have to do anything tonight. You're not pitching. Don't worry about it. Come get your treatment. You're running, or whatever you need to do. But you don't need to be here, because we're not going to use you. Jason Adam, 35 pitches in the last three. Hoing 33. More home 28, Suarez 27. He got a day off last night. I'm sure he'll be back and ready to go. Strata, he's fresh and healthy and looking good. Yuki Matsui through 18 last night. And Sean Reynolds is kind of lightly used. Last time he pitched was on Friday. So it's a bit dicey. But if you can get some sort of length, six, seven innings from Joe Musgrove again, there's style. I think Hoing's probably available. Yeah, yeah. He's kind of the longer-- He only threw 2/3 of an inning last night. Well, pitches. Usually they go longer, so I'd imagine they saved him knowing they might need him. Who knows? Again, today, I would think Joe, though, through 75 pitches last time out, probably could have gone even a little bit more. Certainly expect him in the '80s to '90s if things go well today in game three of the series. The Cardinals will be going with another right-hander, Andre Palante, who Katie Wu said, you know, pitching well is coming off three really pretty good starts against the other royals, the Dodgers and the Twins. Just five runs allowed, and his last three starts total. Beat the Dodgers, beat the Twins last two times out. Has had some control issues this past month, more walks this month than he's had in other months, was in the bullpen early in the season. Padres did see him for an inning in a 3-2 loss at Peko Park on April the 3rd, but then he went into the starting rotation at the end of May and has been a fixture for the Cardinals since then. So would you make any lineup changes? If you're obviously Higashiyoka is going back into catch for Joe. Well, I'm 100% putting Croninworth back at first base. Croninworth back at first, he had his DHD yesterday. Her eyes can DH. Yeah, I'm doing that. Are you still Mason McCoy, even the right-hander, just Tyler Wade, get a start at some point? I'm rolling Mason McCoy because his defense is miles better and he's finding a way to get on base. He's absolutely earned. If he's healthy and ready and fresh and wants to play it, I'm sure he does. This is a 29-year-old rookie, Ben. I would keep rolling him out there. Feels like it's been a while since Jerkson's got a day off. Is there anybody who gets off their feet in the heats and humidity? I would not. I mean, I would hate it, but I understand like, it's hard because tomorrow may be better. The day game may see more of a B squad bombers lineup tomorrow. Well, especially if you're going for this four-game sweep. And they're in this pentate race. They're in a pentate race, but it's also like, does it do anything for you, Ben, Paul, the fans out there? You really can't play these games like game sevens. You just can't. You have to consider what's coming up down the road. And you have to give guys days off. As much as it sucks, you have to do it. Guys are going to need breaks, especially playing two games in a row in that place, in that dump, with that weather. Forget it, man. They have to be smart about it. I'm sure they will be. But yeah, I would assume that you're going to get some guys off your feet the next couple of days. You've already earned the series split on the road, so-- Yeah, man. I mean, you've got to get at least one of these, too. Yeah, you take your out of four, you're happy with it. But you don't want to drop both of them. Of course. And you've got Musgrove and King on the mountain the next couple of days. You've got a chance to win all four. You really do. The way you're playing. Yep, you really do. And finish the job, and then on to Tampa Bay, and then back home. And then finally, they're off on Tuesday. And it's different. I mean, they're not fighting for their lives right now. They have a 97.1, so close. According to Fangrafts, 97.1-- A win today. It may blow right past 97.3. Yeah, so the 97.1% chance to make the playoffs. Do you keep that in your-- you're not fighting for your playoff life here. You're not the Mets. You're not the Red Sox. If you're a Met star, you're not getting a day off. Nor should you. This is why they pay you. You're fighting for your life. You're trying to make the playoffs. You're trying to get hot at the right time. But I think if you're Mike Schilt, an AJ Preller, and the holistic approach of figuring it out, they do have a lot of faith in all 26 guys on the roster, I really think you have to play. You can't play like you're going for the division. Again, I think it's the faith they have in all of their bench players and everything else to get the job done. Yeah, get Solano in there and figure out a way to get him some ABs. Blue Meanie says champions don't take a day off. That's not true. That's just not true. This isn't football. You can't think that way. You don't want to burn these guys out the last 28 games, going for a division. You just don't. You don't. That's why Scott's not going to throw it in. That's why Suarez didn't throw last night. If you're fighting for your playoff life last night, Robert Suarez is your closer. Yes. Yes. Yeah, I agree. It's hard to do. It's hard to rationalize, but I think you have to be smart. But the really good teams find ways to win even when they are careful with their play. Correct. And the potteries have done that. The potteries have done that a ton this year. How many times does the bottom of the lineup come through? Last night was another example. I mean, just I'm just telling you, you have to be smart about it going down the stretch. 97.1% chance of making the playoffs. Play for that. If the division falls to you and you can get it, Chrome HPC says no days off. It's not true. It's just not, I don't think you managed that way. I don't. That's especially in an 18 game, an 18 day stretch. That's my personal opinion. You may disagree. That's absolutely fine. After this stretch, Paul, you look at the calendar to your left. And once they get to Tuesday, how many off days are left in September? There's quite a few, right? Three, four, five, four, four more off days. And so that's at least an off day. We got one off day, most likely before the playoffs. Or maybe four or five, depending on where you finish in the standings. Tyler says he's torn. He says he's torn. And I feel the same way. I mean, you know. But you'll be able to be more aggressive if you're in a pennant race in September with those off days. Then you can't right now in 18 games in 18 days. Correct. And in 100 degree humidity. It's just-- All right, hang on, hang on. You've got to be a little bit careful. What the hell's going on? I just checked fan graphs. Our odds are now down to 96.8. What happened in the last hour? Well, in that case, yeah, Jersey doesn't get out there. Everybody's got to get out there. But the Cubs scored in the top of the first inning in Pittsburgh. I don't know how that affected the Padres. 0.3% playoff odds, but they took a 1-0 late. But the reason that's interesting, a little rookie of the year update, that run came off Paul schemes. Oh, amazing. We gave up a sharp double from Ian Hap. Washed. A hard ground out from Michael Bush and an RBI single from Cody Bellinger in the first inning. So you won't be throwing a shut out or a no hitter today. What score to zip? One nothing Cubs in the first inning in Pittsburgh. And schemes, they haven't shut them down, but they have given them a little extra rest. Now, I still see his top pitch velocities here on the Statcast Savant, still 99.7, 99.6. So he's still throwing hard, had four swings and misses. But has given up a run already to this. So washed right now. And he's got to do something really spectacular at this point. That's 1-1 now. Well, I mean, it doesn't matter what the offense does. It's only matters what Paul Skeens does at this point. And I think Jackson Merrill has firmly taken control. Now it's up to Skeens. He's got to do something to change the narrative again. The narrative doesn't change between now and the end of the season. Jackson Merrill's your rookie of the year. Fair enough. Now, Skeens goes out and throws a no hitter and three shutouts. He might be able to change the narrative again. But right now, it belongs to Jackson Merrill. Look, I hate being the voice of reason on this show. It's not my strong suit. But I do think they need to play smart. They will. They know what they're doing. They know what they're doing way more than I do. Way, way, way more than you do. Ben, I know it's hard for you to wrap your head around. Paulie, all of us-- I've always known that they've known more than I know. I think yes, I do. Didn't you say that you were as handsome as Tony Gwen Jr.? I think your thinking is skewed sometimes. That's all I'm saying. That's subjective. So you can beat professional golfers. Steve Sugarmodo. I'm just saying, I'm the best day of my life, never. And his worst day. Yeah, if he breaks his leg on the first swing, you might have a chance. All right, that's it for us today. Annie and Elston are coming up next. We have a bonus, like, extra 15 minutes tomorrow as we lead it to Aubrey's baseball. Good for us. No round table, and we still get screwed. Four Paul Ryan, up to Stephen Woods for Trevor over there. Thanks for stopping in studio. I'm Ben Higgins. Have a great rest of your Wednesday from all of us here in '97 through the fan. So long. [MUSIC PLAYING] After investing billions to light up our network, T-Mobile is America's largest 5G network. Plus, right now, you can switch, keep your phone, and we'll pay it off up to $800. See how you can save on every plan versus Verizon and AT&T at tmobile.com/keepandswitch. Up to four lines via virtual prepaid guard, a left 15 days qualifying unlocked device credit service boarded 90-plus days with device an eligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.