Gwynn & Chris On Demand
Gwynn & Chris Sept. 24th, 2024 Hour 4: Sammy Lev from Dodger Stadium
And we are in our final hour of Gwyn and Chris today, 97 through the fan. I'm Matt Scravey. Braid to print it with me here for the rest of the show. Gwyn and Chris, Tony Gwyn Jr. getting ready for the game tonight. Game one between the Padres and the Dodgers up there at Dodger Stadium. Chrisello on vacation. He will be back next week. And I'm going to start this hour off. By the way, we're going to talk to Sam Levitt as well at around 540. He is up at Dodger Stadium. So we're going to check in with him, but I'm going to start with some good positive stats. And that would be Fernando Tatis Jr. at Dodger Stadium, because if you don't know, he has a plaque there for having one of the longest home runs in Dodger Stadium history. But he's also been very good at Dodger Stadium and 130 played appearances and basically 31 games. He's hitting 314. He has a 981 OPS. He has 11 home runs, 22 RBIs, eight walks. And he has, let's see here, no triples, four doubles, basically, Fernando Tatis Jr. likes hitting at Dodger Stadium. So that's a good thing for us to have going into tonight's game brain. Yeah, should be. And I'm looking forward to this game. I like the line of the Padres put out there tonight. You know, with Tatis batting in the two hole, got pro for batting third rise at the top. I mean, this is, this is, this is where it gets fun. And Major League Baseball is last week. It's got to come down to, got to come down the last couple of days that determine playoff seating and playoff clinching. But for the Padres, take care of business tonight. Get yourself in the playoffs, pop the champagne tonight at Dodger Stadium, pop up and then think about the next two days and trying to get, trying to, uh, trying to potentially put some pressure on the Dodgers before they go to Colorado and try to win a division championship, but got to control what you could, you got to control the controllables that you can control, go out there, get the dub tonight. And I have to worry about as much going into this weekend. Um, you know, in Arizona, get that, get that playoff, yeah, another good stat for Fernando at Dodger Stadium. Out of all the stadiums, obviously he's hit the most home runs at Peko Park. Second most home runs at Dodger Stadium. Third most RBI is in his career at Dodger Stadium. So again, he really likes to hit at Dodger Stadium. It's going to be Michael King tonight against land and neck. Now here's a not so good stat that I'm going to tell you about show. Hey, Tony versus Michael King. It hasn't, they haven't really faced each other that much because Michael King's only been in the National League West here for one season, but 12 played appearances for 17 batting average, 1.250 OPS and three home runs. No, I'm sorry, the OPS is even higher than that. So Shohei Otoni is someone. I mean, how do they attack him tonight? Do they, do they pitch around him? Do they just go right at him? I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do. I would like to see Michael King go right at him. I know that Michael King has the confidence to do that, but he's one of the most dangerous hitters in baseball. Yeah, he's one of the most dangerous hitters, obviously in baseball, definitely in that lineup. And, you know, I don't know what necessarily you do. I mean, I would, I wouldn't really try to avoid him too much. I can't imagine them trying to, you know, walk, walk him to start potentially walk. Because if you intentionally walk him, you'll end up at third base in two pitches. You will with the amount of stolen bases that he has had. So go after him and, you know, take a chance. Remember, when Michael King made a start at Dr. Stadium earlier in the year, even though he got shelved, the Padres end up coming back to win that game. They've had, had a lot of success against LA this year. So we'll see what Michael King's got. I know he's thrown his most innings he has ever thrown in his career in a single season. You know, these are all playoff games. Regular season ended on Sunday. We're in playoff mode now. And that was a good opportunity to see what Michael King's got. And at this part in the year when you start putting together your playoff rotation, 12 and nine records for Michael King this year, 3.04 ERA, 198 Ks. And Michael King, the start you're talking about back at Dr. Stadium when he got shelved, but they ended up winning. Believe that went to extra innings. And I believe Jackson Merrill kind of made his first foray into saving the Padres and doing great things for the Padres. He, I think he shot one through the 5.5 holds. He did. Absolutely. That's how I come back, which was great to watch. It was. Now, AJ Castleville put out an MLB.com article. And it's about the Padres potential postseason rotation plan in 2024. And I've talked about this a couple times, but you know, I think in a wildcard series, it's going to be cease, Darvish and Musgrove. But you do have other guys that could start if you needed it. Like Michael King could definitely be one of those three. Let's talk about Martin Paris because he has been incredible for the Padres in the month of September, only three starts, but 1.08 ERA in the month of September. In August, he had a 3.41 ERA, but he also won two games. Martin Paris came from the Pirates. He was having a pretty mediocre year, pedestrian year with the Pirates, comes to the Padres. And he's now one of those guys that when they get through the rotation, he's not an easy pitcher for teams to face. No, he's not. But you know, I think he's probably going to end up in the bullpen when it comes to the rotation. You know, I know in on the round table, they discuss potentially start Michael King in the first game and kind of mixing it up. I just, I don't think you really need to mix it up that much. I think you go with you, Darvish and Dylan Cease and one of the first two games. I think you, you know, go with Joe, especially in a game three, if it has to be a winner take all in the wild card, there's nobody I'd rather have out there than the San Diego kid representing a city to go out because you know, you're going to get everything and more out of Joe Musgrove in a situation like that. And then, you know, you go down, you go down on the list of potential other spots, but I like putting the rotation together like that. I think you need experience. I think you need veteran experience to factor in as part of this starting rotation in in the postseason. And I think you can use Michael King in the bullpen. I think you can use Martin Perez in the bullpen as well. And if you got to get to a game four, look, you're way better situation with either of those two players, then you are in 2022 with Mike Clevenger and Sean Maniah. I mean, you're in a way better spot. So go with the vets. The vets have experience. They understand they've been in the big stage before. They've pitched in big games. They've pitched in postseason games. Go with Dylan Sees. Go with you, Darvish. Go with the guys that got you here. Don't try to reinvent the wheel or over complicate things. And then, and then when you got Michael King in game four, you're all dialed in. If you need to use Martin Perez out of the bullpen, or Michael King out of the bullpen, they got experience doing that with long relief. You got a lot of, you got a lot of great problems on your hands. I mean, these are all problems that are that I think a lot of teams in Major League Baseball wish they had. I guarantee you, they wish they had that. But you're right. I mean, 2022, thinking back to that year and shameless plug for 12 games in October, it's a podcast where I talked about, or I did a podcast one episode for each game in the playoffs, 2022. But I was going through it a couple weekends ago. And there were so many pitchers that I didn't even realize that the Padres had back then. I don't even know how they made it to the NLCS with the kind of staff that they had because it was basically you, Darvish and Joe Musgrove. And that was about it for them. But somehow they made it through, somehow they did. And this year, they're stacked. I mean, they got a good bullpen. They have a good starting rotation. They have a good lineup. I just saw on the chat, the YouTube chat, if you want to watch us on YouTube, just search 97 through the fan in YouTube. Chris said Eric Cosmer's podcast had Toddy talking about crushing that baseball at Dodger Stadium. That's where he said he was pissed off missing the playoffs. So he took out his frustration on that home run. It's, uh, I, I, I want to see it again. I want to see Fernando Touchis Jr. Just crushing a couple baseballs at Dodger Stadium. But really, is this a warm up for the, the postseason? Or are we just taking these as just another three games regular season? These are playoff games. You're playing playoff teams. You got to, you know, you're trying to still win. And in that clubhouse, they still believe they can win the division. I mean, math is telling me that it's going to be very, very difficult. But if you take it one game at a time, you know, and, and see what happens, the one thing that math doesn't factor in is pressure. And if you get game one against the Dodgers and you pop your champagne because you're going to the postseason, um, and you start going after them again in game two, uh, you know, all of a sudden midway through game two, they're going to start feeling the pressure about, you know, being the big dog all the time and being the big brother and dealing with the little brother coming up and, and, and trying to, uh, take what they have just had as theirs for years and years and years, you put the pressure on them all of a sudden, things start to change. And we know about the Dodgers handling pressure. Just look at their postseason experience. I mean, they, they fold. I mean, they, they, every time there's pressure with the Los Angeles Dodgers, historically they have folded like lawn chair. And the only time they didn't do that was in the shortened COVID season. And so, and which I find funny that the two championships that L.A. has gotten in the last couple of years, and I guess you can include the Rams and that, but not really, um, you know, uh, bubble championship for the Lakers, COVID year for the Dodgers. And as, as much as us in San Diego would have, would have taken that championship, if that was, if that was us raining, uh, holding up the hunk of metal as the commissioner calls it. Um, yeah, they haven't done well in the postseason because they can't play with pressure. And so, if you got pressure on the Dodgers going into the series, I like my chances if I'm the San Diego Padres, put the pressure on them to have to go to course field, which anything can happen and have to beat the Rockies all three times. Uh, and let's see what happens, but got it. You got to get that first step in beating L.A. tonight and get the champagne going in the dugout and then think about popping champagne a second time this weekend. Yeah, I, uh, I agree with that. And just for the record, I think the Padres have been playing like they've been in the playoffs for a couple of weeks now, maybe more than that, because they basically had to come out of the all-star break and win, win, win. And that's what they did. Now, um, someone on the chat says, I am scared to see Otani in postseason form. Brayden was talking to me in the break. Oh, it's never been in the postseason. Never been in the postseason. So we don't even know what postseason form of Otani is. Although it just scared me. Maybe can't handle the pressure either. Maybe you'll find the, maybe, maybe we'll see. Guys never played in a big game in his life. What are you talking about? WBC, baby? WBC me. That's true. That's true. I was just being facetious. I do think it's, it's, it's just kind of a funny joke with, with that. But I mean, look at last year, bookie bet. If I'm not mistaken, look, he bets didn't get a hit in the postseason last year or maybe got one against Arizona. So it's different. You never know. And when, when, when pressure happens, it, it really, uh, it's a big impact in the postseason. And, you know, Padres got a lot of veterans on that team that know how to handle playing in the postseason. And that's, that's what I think why they, I think they got a chance. I had a friend last night ask me, he said, realistically, not being the, you know, and he called me a bias radio guy working for the flagship, realistically, how far do you think the Padres can go? And to me, I actually thought about this when I was driving home from work two days after the trade deadline, thinking about the team that they had put together. And to be honest with you, I was like, this team is built to make a run. They're built to make a run. They have the bullpen. The big red flag was whether or not you Darvish and Joe Musgrove, one, we're going to come back and two, if they did come back, if they would be at the form that they were before they left. And the answer was they are. And so that was a major boost. And then the other thing was with whether or not Zander Bogart's was going to just continue to be on this, you know, down spin that he was on at the beginning part of the season. And he overcame it. And he's been a, a big contributing factor to the Padres in the second half. So when I look at this team, I honestly think, and I'm not blowing smoke and, you know, not, I'm not, I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid or being biased. They have a playoff caliber team that can go on a run. I like this team way more than I like the 2022 team. But that being said, I told my buddy, I said, hey, as dumb as this might sound, they are good enough to make the World Series and win a national league pennant. But with baseball being weird and they only get in three games in the wildcard, if they have to play a wildcard, they could easily be out by this time next week. And that's just how crazy baseball is. But if you stack up all the teams, I honestly think the Padres have probably the second best roster in the national league behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Just to back up what Braden was saying with some actual numbers in 2023, Mookie Betts in the postseason was 0 for 11 with one walk. That's a 0, 0, 0 batting average and 083 OBP and 083 OPS. In 2022, Mookie Betts was 2 for 14, 143 batting average, 492 OPS. And last year, Freddie Freeman went one for 10 in the playoffs. It's a different, it's a different animal, man. I mean, we've, we've seen the Dodgers for 10 plus years dominate the regular season and then run out of gas and then sit there on the field as the other team celebrating, scratching their heads going. How do we just lose to the Washington Nationals? How do we just lose the Arizona Diamondbacks? How do we just lose the Padres? Right, 100%. I mean, they, they have been the best team money can buy for the last decade and they honestly have nothing to show for it. That's very true. By the way, drinking the Kool-Aid is not the, I mean, it's what people say, but it was actually flavor aid. Flavor aid with the whole Jonestown thing. So I just wanted to clear that up, everybody. Kool-Aid just got sucked into it and they didn't mean to. All right, when we get back, we have some audio from Fernando Tatiz Jr. talking about Dodger Stadium. We still have Sammy Lev to go here on 97 through the fan. It's Gwyneth Chris filling in for, I'm Matt Scravey, filling in for Tony and Chris and so is Braden Soprano, Adam Klug with this as well. Be back shortly with Fernando's thoughts on Dodger Stadium next on 97 through the fan. A reminder to stay tuned for the Ecowater SoCal Padres pregame show is Sam Levitt next on 97 through the fan. Well, not next, but around 610 and Sammy Lev is going to join us here in about 15 minutes from Dodger Stadium to get us all caught up on everything that's happening up here. I like when Sam takes a picture from the top of the stadium because I know that he had to like huff it up there and he's probably in like the warmest, close possible. Not a Dodger Stadium. Yeah, you enter at the top and then it goes down. Oh, I entered from when I went, I entered from the press, the press up by the press box is at the top because you park up at the top part of Dodger Stadium and then you walk in and you're in the top level and then you can work your way down. Interesting. I haven't been there in a long time and I was also, yeah, anyway, we have some audio from LA and it's going to be a video. Yes, if you want to watch us on YouTube, you can just search 97 through the fan when you go to YouTube. But for Nana Tati Jr, last second, we told you how much he loves to hit at Dodger Stadium. But here is Fernando talking about this upcoming series against the Dodgers. Fighting is it to have this type of important baseball coming down the stretch here? It's amazing, you know, playing this, this game's, you know, just everybody paying attention. Everybody knows how important they are. So, you know, everybody just writes into the occasion and trying to be their best game. How confident are you guys come down here in the final week that's got the baseballs you're playing right now? Oh, we're definitely confident. But at the end of the day, everybody knows how hard this game is. So, you know, we're going to take our chances every day and we're going to take care of the day. And then we, you know, we pay attention to the other things when it's when it's time, but we definitely take care of business a day at a time. Fernando, obviously, this is a big series here. You've had a lot of big moments in this ballpark against this team from that perspective being here right now. What's your anticipation for this series? It's big energy, big energy all the way around. You know, everybody knows how good a team we're facing. So, uh, by everybody knows how good we are. So, no, we're just going to play really good IQ baseball there. All right. That was Fernando Tati-Shiner. Look at Sam Levitt jumping in there and getting a question and a really good question as well. Fernando may not sound like he's super excited, but if you see him on the field, he'll be excited. He loves hitting here. We've talked about it. But this is, it just shows you that these guys are playing this like a playoff game, as we said last segment and playoff atmosphere. I mean, you're going to play two playoff teams. What Fernando said about the big kick. You're playing two, you're playing two teams that are going to be in the postseason. You just, you're in playoff mode now. Joe Musgrove. He also was asked about playing the Dodgers. And here's what he had to say to the media. Joe, this was September baseball bill about how fun it is to have this kind of intensity right now. Yeah, I think this is kind of right where we want to be right now. We do really good teams facing each other and they're home turf. Pretty good matchup for us going in with our rotation and we've been playing lately. We feel good being here. What are you looking forward to in terms of the intensity that's going to be here in this series? The atmosphere is going to be intense and I will get quite a few people from making the way up from San Diego this place. Obviously, I have plenty of Dodgers fans, so it's always a fun place to play, especially at the end of the year when you're playing for something a little more. You guys have played well against the Dodgers all the season. Well, you're playing great baseball right now. How confidence are you guys? Just you're going down the final stretch. Yeah, good. I mean, we've got two tough teams to play over six days and, you know, we're not downplaying at all, but our confidence is pretty good. We've been, you know, playing really well. We've, you know, found ways of manufacture runs. We've gotten quality starts from our guys and both things have been doing their job. You know, bench guys coming out, getting the base when we need to get it. You know, our hitter is doing a job that needs to get done late in the game. We're just playing in a really smart, good team baseball. So we feel confident coming out here. We're going to get everything we got. I was Joe Musgrove up at Dodger Stadium and it's, it's kind of wild to think it where we started the year where they were struggling. I said this a little bit yesterday where they started the year they would win three and everybody was excited and then they would lose three and then they would win three lose three. We're 50 and 50 at the end of 100 games. Yeah, it was just a rollercoaster that Mike Schilt didn't want to say the word rollercoaster, but it was a rollercoaster. And now they have found the next year. And this is not, and I went over this yesterday, this is not the team that we know. This is a completely different team. And I feel like this team is ready to win. I think so too. I think they're calm too, which is the best part of it. You don't want to ever, you want to get over locked in. I mean, there's, there's been a lot of times in, in my experience with, with, with sports that when sometimes when you got a loose group that's, that's confident and calm, they're going to go out there and kick some ass. And when you got guys that might be a little bit too locked in, all of a sudden, you know, a little bit of stress starts to take over, you know, from the human element side. So they seem confident. They don't seem rattled. They're not messing around, but they're, they're calm, cool and collected and it should be a good game tonight. And again, you win that first one, pop the champagne, you're in the postseason, and then you put the pressure on LA for the next two games to, to, to try to overcome that division. Again, it's going to be a tough task. Nobody's saying it's going to be easy. But when tonight, Padres chances to win the division jumps from 5% to 10%. That's pretty, and there we go. If they sweep the Dodgers, it jumps to 42%. I would just, I mean, no, we all want them to win the division, but that would just be oh, so sweet if they won the division. Uh, one of the things that you said right there was that they seem calm or calm and loose and, and a lot of the comments about the Manny Machado interview from last Friday was that Manny seemed very relaxed and he seemed like he was in a good place. So, hey, keep doing what you're doing, Padres, because you are doing, you were putting yourself in a really good spot. This hour is brought to you by Ailesmith 394 p.l. Ailesmith 394 p.l. The official rally pint of the playoff push. Catch all the San Diego baseball action this week at the Ailesmith tasting room in Miramar. Enjoy specials on 394 and more while you cheer on your team with fellow fans, don't miss the excitement. When we get back, Sam Levitt up at Dodger Stadium, we're going to get his thoughts and ask him what the energy is like up there. So, he joins us next 97 through the fan. This is the final segment of today's show, Gwyn and Chris. I'm Matt Scravey bringing some credit here as well. And Adam Klug, as Tony would say on the ones and twos, we are going to be talking to Sammy Levitt here just in one second. We need to go actually. Okay, I'm getting the. Okay, are we going to traffic Adam? He's doing. Oh, it's not ready. Okay, I got you. Let's do the lineup real quick because we haven't done that in a little bit. Michael King pitching for the Padres, Lucerise leading off deaching for Nanda Totti's junior second playing right field, jerks and pro far playing left field batting third, Manning Machado playing third, batting fourth, Jackson Merrill, center field, batting fifth, as Andrew Bogart, shortstop batting sixth, Jake Cronoworth, second base batting seventh Donovan Solano, first base batting eighth, Kyle Higashiyoka catching and batting ninth. Now Adam is is Sam ready to go. All right, let's go up to Dodger Stadium because our guy Sam Levitt is there. Sam, thank you so much for joining us. How is the energy there? Because Fernando, as you heard said, there is some big energy up there today. Yeah, the energy is really good. I mean, nice crowd filing in Padres are taking batting practice right now, but good energy inside the clubhouse earlier today. Certainly, I think it's no secret to these guys. What this series means, the opportunity they have, I at the same time, I think I get a real sense that none of these guys want to want to make it bigger than it already is, but obviously a great opportunity for this team. And look from their perspective, I think it's keep doing what you've been doing both in general and against this Dodger team. Padres have had a lot of success against the Dodgers this year. They're playing great baseball. So it's a big series. I think everybody here understands what's at stake. The opportunity the Padres have, but you know, you take it a game at a time and I very much think that's the way this group is thinking right now. Yeah, I love the playoff energy up there Sam. It seemed like the players were calm, cool and collected, which you always like to see, but you know, I mean, the focus, but also calmness. I mean, what was the what was the the the aura down there in the Padres clubhouse? Yeah, the same. Really? I mean, I think these guys really don't want to treat it any differently than they've been treating games as of late or against the Dodgers earlier this year. Again, I think there's, you know, to this group right now, I'll say overall, and it's not just about this series. I think there is a real quiet confidence to this group, and I really feel it. I think you can really feel it when you're inside that clubhouse. It's been there for a while. There's just a quiet confidence and also I would say sort of a looseness to this group. I think this team understands who they are. I think they understand the opportunity in front of them. And I know all this stuff sounds cliche, but I think it's something that you could really feel building throughout the season. So, you know, to me, I think a lot of guys down there gave off the vibe today that, you know, they don't want to treat it any differently than the way they've been treating games. And they just want to go out and play the baseball they're capable of, which is most important. And if the Padres do that, then yeah, I think there's a legitimate chance to do something pretty special in this series. If they play the baseball, they've played the entire second half and the baseball this team is capable of playing. So, I'm going to say I'm Levitt of the Padres pregame show. You can catch him on the eco water SoCal Padres pregame show here coming up at 6 10 p.m. from Dodger Stadium in Sam. We have Michael King on the mound today for the Padres. He have landed NAC on the mound for the Dodgers. Now Michael King we're very familiar with. What can you tell us about land and NAC? Because I know he's a rookie and know he doesn't have as much experience this year. But also, I remember the Padres kind of struggling with the newer pitchers. So yeah, Scrabie, you know, that was a story last year. And maybe it was a storyline a little bit early this season. I don't feel like that's been nearly the storyline it was earlier in the year certainly in 2023. They tend to have a lot of trouble with guys that they never faced before. But as of later, it feels like the Padres when they face, you know, starting pitchers that that are vulnerable. They've for the most part been able to take advantage or at least get the guys out of the game to get into a bullpen. I mean, we saw that the other day with the rookie that was on the mound for the White Sox. They got him out of the game and then got to the bullpen. As far as Lane did NAC in particular, he's 27 year old rookies been up and down between the big leagues in Triple A this season. Had a good start against the Marlins his last time out. The one before that in Atlanta was not very good. Gives up home runs doesn't give up a ton of hits, but gives up home runs. He's given up 48 hits in the major leagues this season. 12 of them have been home runs. So a quarter of the hits he's given up have been homers. The Padres haven't faced them this year. So that's something I asked Mike Schultz about before the game. We'll play that during the pregame show. But look, it's a talented right-hander somebody that could be a part of the Dodger rotation moving forward. But he's been up and down between Triple A. You know, here tonight, I think there's no doubt about it. It doesn't mean anything as far as, you know, you know, on papers one thing is my point. But like on the field, how do I want to say this? I wrap myself into it. This is my daily life. This is what I mean to say. The pitching match up today between Michael King and landed NAC favors the Padres. There's no doubt on paper. That's the truth. King has arguably been their best pitcher all year. And NAC is a guy or a rookie who's had some good moments and some not so good moments and a guy they've never seen before. And he's been up and down between Triple A. So advantage Padres on paper. We'll see what happens. Michael King said, you know, tough starts against the Dodgers this year. He also was tremendous in his last start against the Dodgers, albeit a while ago. So going to be interesting on the pitching side of things here tonight. Let's talk about an offensive side then, Sam, obviously a lot of stuff built into the pregame show. You don't want to tease too much of what you're watching for. But pretty good lineup tonight for the San Diego Padres and kind of the structure. I would imagine this is something very close to what a playoff lineup would be like. What do you think is the big key offensively for the Padres today against NAC and, you know, trying to jump on these guys early? Yeah, I think number one man, he's obviously really important. He went over in the final two games of the series against the White Sox. In fact, he was one for 11 in that three game series. And look, that's not to take anything away from Manny. He's been tremendous for a while now. But hey, Manny against the Dodgers. This season has five home runs and 38 at bats. He typically is very good against this team. He's been very impactful against the Dodgers this season. So getting him going again, not that, you know, one kind of cool series is taking him out of his hot stretch. But yeah, it kind of got overlooked because they won all three games. But he only went one for 11 with a single in that series against the White Sox. So getting him going again and look, they got to do what they've been doing all year offensively. Put the ball in play, you know, string hits together again. This stuff sounds so cliche, but I think this Padres team has the talent right now, both on the pitching side and on the offensive side. Like, you know who they are and you know what makes them ghost, bringing hits together. They do hit the home run. They pitch really well out of the rotation. Their bullpen for the most part has been sensational since the trades for for Scott and Adam. So back to your question, braided on the offensive side. I think Manny's big part of it. But you're going to look, I think you're going to need moments in this series. Like, you're going to have to have some guys have some moments just like, you know, they've done all year whether it was pro far during the the Mr. relevant series earlier in the year here in LA or it was Merrill, you know, and Manny having the big moments back at home or a rise with the walk off single. Like, you're going to need guys to have moments offensively. I think that's a no doubt part of this series. Sam Levitt is up at Dodger Stadium right now, getting ready for his pregame show here just a second. But I'm getting a lot of questions, Sam, about where you are because on YouTube, it looks like that you're in some sort of room where if you push the wall over, you see the auxiliary press box down there. So below the below the the main radio booths in the press box and all the production stuff upstairs, they have on the load level a number of really nice booths down here. So in fact, our great Spanish radio team, Spanish language radio team, we have right to my left here. So they're getting ready for the game. So I'm actually going to take my laptop. I'm going to spin it around because it's a great, very impressive when you look at it this way. But if you was great, look at this way. Wow. So it's actually it's a great spot. It really is. It doesn't play for all those. It doesn't look all very impressive when you're looking at it this way because they're sort of just makeshift well, not makeshift, but they're, you know, they kind of built it right here with with wood and it's really fun. But the view is great. I mean, it's a great view of the game. So the view is absolutely incredible. Great. I would imagine I would imagine it's better than I mean, that press box up there is tight. That press box was designed for smaller people up there Sam. It's very tight space up top in the press box. You could be on your get your own little booth down there. It's way better. And there's, you know, with Otani and Yamamoto, there's there's a ton of media here. Oh, yeah, so much. I mean, it was like that when we were in LA earlier in the year. I think it's even maybe a little bit more so now. So yeah, it's, I'm sure a lot for everybody to to handle up here. All the reporters, all the media and figuring out, you know, spaces to put everybody. So hey, I love this little booth. I got down here very thankful to be here tonight. Thank you so much for the Dodgers to put you up there. That's very nice of them to cramp space up top. But I want to know, I mean, I know it's still kind of early though. And we kind of got the vibe check already, Sam. But you know, the last couple of times I've been up to Dodger Stadium as a fan as a media member, it's just been a little bit more and more and more brown and gold showing up at the ballpark. And I know it's very difficult for us to overcome what the Dodgers have been doing down at Pekko Park a long period of time. But what's, what's the, how many Padre fans made a trip up there at least early on? I know it's a late arriving crowd got a battle to traffic on a Tuesday. What do we think? It's a little hard to tell right now because it's still pretty, you know, sparsely, you know, occupied in the seats. But I see a Fernando Tati Jr. Jersey to my left to see a couple of people down in the bowl. I see a couple of people down the right field behind there. They're scattered so far. I'll be interested to see what it looks like once this this place is a little bit more full as we get towards first pitch. But I thought earlier in the year when they were here that there were a good amount of Padres fans here and I'm sure there there will be tonight. I mean, this is just a huge series and obviously really easy to get to for a relatively easy to get. So you got a lot of traffic if you're coming up right now. But yeah, look, I bet there will be a lot of brown and gold in the stands here tonight and already. I see some. Yeah, I see some already here. I see a lot of city. We'll have to get the full report of the post game shows and everybody's popping champagne for a Padres playoff clinch. You hope so. Did you bring a poncho? I'm a little I'm a little nervous to like, you know, say anything. But look, look, look, look, look. It is what I'm reaching into my bag. I'm reaching into my bag. Hold on a second and I'm going to show everybody that's watching. Please tell me. Yes. My way here. On my way here yesterday, last night, I did buy. He did. He got one. Hey, that's that's good though. I did buy ponchos. And I will say this. And again, I want to make clear to everybody listening and watching. I'm not trying to jinx anything here, but you got to be prepared. You got to be prepared. So and I got an old pair of sneakers. See, that's good because I didn't wear it. Let's be honest. You got to be ready. You do. I didn't wear a poncho in 2022 and my clothes were soaked. I got sprayed in the face with a bunch of champagne. It was still amazingly fun. But then I look over at him. He's got some like great Britain poncho on. I'm like, where in the world did you get a great Britain poncho? I still don't know where he got it. Sanders had an extra poncho and he gave it to me. Was it extra sweet because it was a great Britain poncho? Adam will never live down the extra sweet comment. But anyway, thank you so much, Sam, for joining us. And you are going to look, you got to be ready. I'm not trying to put any jinxes out there. But hey, well, we all know, we all know what's at stake. You got to be ready. Before he goes, Sam, what's the, what just for all the fans out there? I mean, there's there's a way for the Padres to clinch tonight without having a win, correct? Yes, there is. There is, I believe. It's not that quick. Yes. So so and I read this this morning and I meant to try to confirm this. Yeah, I mean, this is what I'm reading from MLB here was the Padres can clinch a playoff berth with a victory tonight or with the Diamondbacks winning and the Mets winning tonight. Now the Mets were losing early against the Braves. But look, you know, it goes back to what we've talked about now, I think for a couple of weeks, like, you know, look, Padres take care of their own business and they're going to be fine, right? They're going to be totally fine in this thing and maybe have an opportunity to do something pretty special here, even in LA. So, you know, yeah, it'd be kind of nice for the Padres to clinch it with a win and, you know, not have to do, you know, champagne celebrations after a loss. Sometimes you got to do it. We did the last time in 2022 when they were Sam Levitt goes champagne. It doesn't. Yeah, it doesn't make it any less sweet to me. By the way, let's get there first. Let's get there first. All right. Let's let's say I'm go. He needs to get ready for his pregame show. Thank you, Sam. We'll be talking to you soon. All right, guys, you got it. All right, Sam Levitt there at his little cubby in Dodger Stadium. He's a little cubby. It is nice, though. When he turned around, I think Adam's trying to fix the video. I guess I could do it, too. I don't know why I'm not doing that right now. I'll remove Sam. There he goes. Nope. Sam's back. Nice guy. Oh, if you want to see the view, you just need to go to YouTube, search 97 through the fan and like go three hours and a half, three and a half hours into the show, and you'll be able to find it. I do remember it being extremely weird when the Padres clinched a playoffs in 2022 and they lost to the White Sox that day. I don't know if you were in, you were in there that day, right, Adam? I know you were in there for the Dodgers, but the the actual clinching of the playoff wasn't it kind of a weird feeling that everybody was celebrating, but they lost at the same time that day? Yeah, it felt weird. But again, you know, that's the worst. It felt it was a dampened celebration, but a celebration nonetheless. Yeah, let's still a celebration for sure. And everybody, it's a season long celebration. It's not like what happened. That's why I know that the Padres have their eyes on the prize in terms of winning the division. But I still think they're going to celebrate, you know, clinching a playoff spot, even though there's more to accomplish. Hopefully later this week, they're still going to celebrate this because it is an accomplishment to clench a playoff berth. It's better. It's better to do it. It's better to clench on your own right and not wait on teams to lose. So I'm just saying this right and I'm just saying there's been a conversation about whether you celebrate just clenching a playoff berth rather than clenching the division title or something like that. And I'm saying, I think that if they are lucky enough to clench a playoff berth, they'll celebrate. And then if they clench the division, they celebrate twice. That's awesome. Hey, the champagne companies are not going to go out of business here in the next couple weeks. Braves up five, nothing on the Mets, mid six, Cubs up 10, two on the Phillies top eight for all the fans out there that want to win six straight and potentially get the onesie. There you go. And we talked about the twins in that game earlier today. They're losing four one to the Marlins. Yeah, we can get to the American league here in a second. Brewers over the pirate seven to two, not really much of an impact on the Padres in that one. And then the Giants and the Diamondbacks will play at the at 640. They should be starting. They should have just already started. They're starting to start. Yeah, they'll start about. I mean, the game isn't for like another seven hours. So yeah, that's, that's going to be a problem for us. No, I'm just kidding. It's at seven 10. It just feels a little bit later than usual. It's a half hour than half hour later than we usually have with the Padres starting at six 40. But a reminder, stay tuned for Samuel Evs, eco water. So Cal Padres pregame show at six 10 on 97 three, the fan. Again, this team seems ready to get this done. I don't want this to hang over the head of the team for a little bit. I mean, you said it, they can, they can still lose and clench at the same time. But just get it out of the way. Do it tonight. Jump on this rookie pitcher, get some runs early and then hold on the rest of the game with your bullpen, especially if you, if you could jump on the Dodgers and make it a laugh for in this game, you know, that really puts the pressure on LA for the next two games. And with every coming inning that you win and game that you win in this series, it puts more and more pressure on Los Angeles, not to choke away the division that they've had a lead for for such a long time. Especially in the last kind of weekend of in the last weekend of the year, last weekend of the year. Let's talk about something that we haven't talked about today. And it's baseball related. It's nationally West related, but Charlie Blackman has announced he is going to be retiring from baseball after this season. Now for Padres fans, this is an, this is amazing news because Charlie Blackman has just destroyed the Padres for a long, long time. But I think this is a bigish deal because he's been a long time player for the Rockies. We've watched him with that team forever. I don't think he's a Hall of Fame or anything like that. But I think it's a big deal. His big deal. He's played for the Rockies for a long time. Obviously, I'm not going to, I'm not going to miss him as a Padres fan, but a good player nonetheless. And you know what, maybe he'll walk off the Dodgers three days in a row of the weekend. We can build him a statue here. He's like a Rockies ring of honor type guy, not a Hall of Fame. Yeah, yeah. Rockies ring of honor. Yeah, I did your entire Charlie Blackman's number. I know that. Yeah, I would say so. I mean, tell the Rockies story with the same 19, I think. Oh, he's 19. There you go. I think that he should definitely be a ring of honor guy with the Rockies. Oh, why? Why? Part of that organization for so long. You know what? One other thing that we haven't talked about yet and today and I didn't talk about it yesterday, but CJ Abrams getting sent down by the Nationals and we were all joking on text because we had heard that he was sent down because he was at a casino all night and then he showed up for a game and he wasn't prepared for the game, all that. And we were joking about it like, Oh, hey, we need a picture of him sitting at a slot machine with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. Well, we got the next best thing, which is him sitting at a roulette table looking very depressed. And I got to say, I'm a little concerned for CJ Abrams. I think that this is very from what we've seen. It seems out of character for him. And I don't want to see him go down a bad path, but this is not good to be out all night. It could see you have maybe 10 days at this point when he's doing this until the season is over. You can't wait 10 days to go out all night in a casino. And there's the picture on Twitter right now or on a YouTube right now of him looking down at the roulette table. Another side note, roulette is not the game you want to play if you're gambling. I mean, you make a lot of money if you hit, but for the most part, you're losing all of your money all the time. Anyway, I think this is a big deal. The the Nationals said that they sent him down to kind of teach him a lesson. The GM said, not on my watch. Are we going to be doing these things? And there is some pushback by people in the Washington DC area thinking that this was not the right move. I personally think it was the right move. I don't know the details of the situation. So I can't comment. I mean, I don't. I mean, you have to you have to get all the details are right in front of us. You don't I don't know. I mean, I don't I don't know. I'm not gonna go down the path of whether or not he has a gambling problem. No, that's not what I'm saying. He looks depressed and you're concerned about him. I'm concerned up all night at a casino. I mean, you're okay. Let me take that back. I'm inferring on some things. I do not think he has a gambling problem. I think I once the details come out, I can make a better judgment. But is it is it a good look? No, absolutely not. It's not a good look. But there's a reason why, you know, I think there's a reason why the Padres, you know, and I've been told a couple of things about why they traded CJ Abrams because they had Jackson Merrill coming up. And obviously from that perspective, I mean, the what you can infer from the situation is priorities are not up to par with with with being a major league baseball player. Now that him being out of the race and the national being out, I just I don't know what's going on in in his life to make him have to go out there and do that. I don't know what his relationship is with the organization, you know, to send him down for it. I think there's more to this story than just going, he was at a casino. So we're sending him down. I mean, I, I think there's more to this, this, this situation than just he was gambling until eight in the morning, which obviously is, is very concerning if you're the Washington nationals. But I think there has to be more to this story. But if you're, but in scrapes defense, I think it's fair to say he might have a decision making problem, right? Without saying gambling problem or substance distribution. I think just decision making an immaturity problem, immaturity. There we go. There's there's an immaturity problem. It seems like and I want to see CJ Abrams succeed in this league. And this is not the way that he's going to do that. All right. It is time to stop down and check our legal identification. Hey, this is Mike Schill, the pod race boy here on San Diego's number one sports station, 97 three, the fan and honesty sports station. I meant, uh, station identification, not legal identification. I just pulled out my driver's license till, you know, show everybody. I didn't know the night, I didn't know 97 three, the fan was all up to drive yet. It's not, it's not actually, it's only seven years old. It's only seven years old. I think this comment is funny. Tap said, uh, maybe they got a bomb buffet at the casino. CJ Abrams was hanging out there. So, um, all right. We're getting set to give you or pass you off to Sam Levitt here. He's up at Dodger Stadium pregame show starts at six 10 p.m. The eco water. So Cal Padre's pregame show. And let's, let's finish with this Braden because we've done a lot of prepping for the game tonight, but we talked briefly about this at the beginning of the show. Six games left in the season. The pirates DFA'd rowdy to Les who has been, you know, he had, um, he had a contract reportedly that said that he would get $200,000 bonus at 425 played appearances. His time with the pirates ends at 421 played appearances. They're not going to pay him out this bonus. I don't know what you could do about this. And Tony said earlier that it's just going to hurt the pirates in the long run because big name free agents aren't going to sign there knowing that they don't have their best interest to heart. But something I did the pirates need to do something about this. This is going to be bad news. Breaking news, big name free agents weren't going to sign with the pirates anyways. That's true. How much money did you say he'd 200,000? I mean, you know, it's, yeah, you're letting, you're letting a nickel hole up a dollar for the Pittsburgh pirates. I remember, I just like, yeah, that's, that's literally what you're doing right here with this move. I mean, what's, what's saving $200,000 going to do? I don't, why cut him with 60 games left? I mean, it's 200. We're talking about 200 grand right now. I believe a couple of years ago, or maybe more than a couple of the Yankees were in a situation where I think C.C. Sebastian was like a strikeout short of his incentive and they paid him anyways, even though he didn't technically reach it. The Yang. That's what you do. Take care of their guy and pay him the pirates DFA. It's, it's the same thing as like A.J. Preller avoiding arbitration with all those guys, right? I mean, it's just like, it's, it's a bad look. I don't know what you gain from this. If you're the pirates aside from saving 200 grand, but if you're saving, like what, you gain nothing from this. Yeah, it's, it's not, there's no, there's no positive to this. It's like, hey, look, we saved the organization 200 grand. I mean, you could have done that just keeping them on the team and not playing them. I mean, I don't, I don't seriously, I don't know. I don't know what the end goal is here for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's obviously a bad look, but as Adam alluded to, I don't think a lot of big freedoms are going to some of the pirates anyway, because they had the same, they had a, they had a, it took forever to get Brian Reynolds signed and he had, you know, he threatened, got to trade me and, you know, we saw the rumors of the Padres and potentially trading. Plus usually for Brian Reynolds, they got to Brian Hayes deal done, but I don't get it from the Pirates perspective. All right. That's it for today's Gwen and Chris. I'm Matt Scravey. That's Brad Sabrina. Adam Clue with us as well. We are going to send you up to Dodger Stadium. Sam Levitt is standing by to start his eco water. So Cal Padres pregame show. Padres can clench a playoff spot tonight. We could be talking about a playoff team come tomorrow, same deal tomorrow, by the way, it's going to be myself, Brayton, Supreme, Tony Goode Jr. to start the show and Adam Clueg as well. So have fun with the game tonight, everyone. We will be talking to you, hopefully, with a pod rate or with a playoff team in tow tomorrow on 97, three, the fan.