Gwynn & Chris On Demand
9.25.24 Gwynn & Chris Full Show
And as you heard it, the Padres will go down in history as the only team to ever clinch a playoff berth with a triple play. And that was quite incredible last night. Welcome into Gwyneth Chris. There he is, Tony. I wasn't sure if he was, uh, we're having a little bit of issue with the lag on your connection. So how's everything going, Tony? It's going well. Uh, you know, it was a fun night last night. Padres clench the playoff spot. I sounded like they intend to try to run this down to the very end and with the chance of possibly winning this division. And so I think it's nice for them to be able to get that out the way. Now you kind of get back to just playing baseball. But man, what a way to end a ball game. It was a triple play, um, just the high baseball IQ of, of Manny Machado on that play. I mean, playing for the bunt and then kind of in a snap decision, being able to get to the bag, fire a bullet strike right on the right side of Croninworth. He gets to throw off and play at first wasn't even close. It was only a matter of, uh, if the guy at second had, had, had beat it. And after you got to see the replay slowed down, it was pretty obvious. That was a triple play. Great, great way to end that ball game. Yeah. And I was actually, I'm, I'm a huge radio nerd as everybody knows. And so I was listening to the call on the radio in the car and right before, cause I was like nervous. Robert Suarez is letting guys get on base and, and I didn't really know how many outs there were. And Jesse said, you know, what would be good right now is a triple play, but that's really a lot to ask. And so I'm like, oh no, no outs, guys on base, show, hey, Otani's coming up soon. And, uh, here, what were you pointing to? Uh, let's hear it again. And you got a figure or at least wonder is the plan then for Suarez to not get the opportunity to face show. Hey, Otani best case scenario, obviously would be Miguel Rojas somehow gets into a triple play. But that's probably asking for a bit much. And then I'm thinking, okay, triple play, uh, that's a lot. It's a lot to ask for. But then Jesse's call of him being like so surprised and shocked and excited and confused and everything. It was just perfect. And it was a perfect way for the Padres to, to coach the playoffs. It was just incredible all the way around. Yeah, man, it was, uh, it was, it was pretty, pretty sweet, man. I just, you can't, you can't make that up. Like that is a one of a kind. That's like a top tier play to ever clinch anything. You know what I'm saying? Like a triple play. Like that's just, it just doesn't happen. And, uh, to get it and watch the guys enjoy, they enjoyed it, man. Like you heard that a lot last night after the game that, you know, we, you should enjoy these moments, you know, and you get back to work after, but enjoy the moment at the time that it's happened happening. And, uh, they seem to do that very well last night. Yeah. And it was, uh, it was just great. How was the celebration afterwards? I mean, you were down there. You're getting sprayed with champagne. Everybody was extremely happy. What was it like? Uh, I think it was, uh, it was, it was everything you would expect. I mean, everybody was, uh, enjoying themselves. There was a lot of, I mean, my nice, my nice collared shirt was completely drenched after Tanner Scott got me, uh, pretty good. And, you know, it's, it's, I, I enjoyed it, man, being able to get the chance to be with those guys, uh, some video on the YouTube stream. If you want to watch our show, search 97 through the fan. See the joy on, uh, on everybody's face was, uh, this is this. Do you realize this is why they do it? It was such a great win last night, which is in so many different ways. I mean, the way the game meant a walk off triple play, which I didn't think was, was, was ever possible, but that was really amazing. The way that that game finished. And you know, you see the celebration again and as much as it's celebrating the entire year of what they've been able to accomplish. And, um, you know, as, as, as Kobe Bryant would say, jobs not finished yet. They could still accomplish a lot more things, uh, in the future. I'm glad they had a good time last night. I'm glad the game's at seven, 10 tonight, not a 1235 start. Uh, so these guys could, uh, to rest up and be ready to go, uh, for tonight's game. But I think for natities, junior said last night, he said, you know, I, I, even though we're going to have a good time tonight, I think we're going to be even better tomorrow and have a lot more energy tomorrow. And I think you could build off, off wins like that. And the way that they've been able to handle the Dodgers this year has been, been phenomenal. I mean, they've put together a lot of, a lot of great wins, um, you know, against LA this year. And, you know, they, they had that, they had that kind of monkey on their back for the last couple of years. And this year, they really, they really bucked, uh, that monkey off and, and don't have to deal with that problem anymore. So, um, they've, they've almost flipped it where, you know, the, the Dodgers now have to, you know, worry about these games. So, hopefully they can finish the job, keep putting the pressure on. And with the way that, uh, there's a hurricane rolling through the Southeast, you know, there's a lot of things that are, that are working out the Padres way right now, even more so than just a triple play. Yes. And I am going to be this guy today because yes, things were great. The triple play was great. But the circumstances that led to the triple play was not great. And I am not saying that Robert Suarez should not be the closer anymore. All I want is a discussion amongst the Padres as to what they're going to do. And I know that Mike Schultz is going to say he's going to stick by his closer. And that's fine. I think he should stick by his closer. But Tony, it's concerning to me as you know. Stop being concerned. You have Mike Schultz at the helm. He, he's, he's got this. He's got it under control. He does, he does, there's, there's not a guarantee he's going to come out and say that did Suarez is the closer. You don't know what he's going to say. You don't know. But the thing is, he has options to, at his, you know, you know, he has choices. So, I trust Mike Schultz to make whatever the decision is. Because I think he's earned that right at this point with all of the other decisions he's made throughout the course of the year. I mean, I remember a time where he was basically telling everybody to relax. And, and that this wasn't a roller coaster. And it turned out that, you know, the, the halfway point of the roller coaster was just a straight line just going up to towards the sky. So, you know, that is, I just think right now there's not a, to me, I think when the time comes for, or when the situation presents itself, that it's time to go, go a different route. I think Mike Schultz is going to go the, the other route. I think you're right too. I mean, I'm not saying, yeah, Mike Schultz is extremely smart. He's an accomplished manager. He's been very successful. So, yes, I will trust what he's saying. And if we're talking about Michael King, too, Michael King was great. He does have these, and I feel like the negative Nancy of the show today, but I will be, I guess, he does have these innings where he allows a bunch of guys on base. And then he ends up only giving up one run. And then he only gives up one run in the entire outing. Because this, this, this cares because I'm worried that the shoe's going to drop in the playoffs. And instead of the one run, it's going to be going to drop. Scrabby, I think you just like to worry about nonsense. That's what it feels like. This dude has, this dude has a top two ERA in all of National League, like, knock it off. Hey, what are we talking about? And I'm not saying this is a problem. I'm just saying there are these things that happen. Yeah, you know, there are things that happen every leaves fall off of trees. They have some place as we're speaking, right? Like, yes, things happen. But he is in those cases, he has minimized the damage. The dude has under a three ERA on the season. He just took down, I mean, yesterday he got into trouble early. And by the way, in large part, not due to his own anything he did, you know, and it's been like that over the last four or five starts they, Padres have seemingly made some type of error that have put him in a bind. And in almost all circumstances, he finds a way to, to get on out of it. So, you know, I think that's, the Suarez thing is much more of a, of a real issue than Michael King and his supposed issues in the first couple of innings. Well, the chat is telling me to turn off my mic. So, I will for the next maybe 15 seconds. I don't, I don't think just as much concern about Michael King either. I'm not being concerned. I'm not concerned about Michael King with something. The only thing with Michael King, though, is you don't even know if he's going to get a start or not. I mean, he might be the guy that goes to the bullpen. I'm not saying that's the right thing to do, but they have so many options as Tony was saying that it's going to work itself out. It's going to play itself out. Now, I will say this, my concern level on Robert Suarez is incredibly high because if he's out there closing games, I mean, he just does not look like he's very confident right now on the mound. In the last couple of months, he has had now this track record of the ERA continuing to rise. And I don't mean his season ERA. I mean, his month by month, ERA has been getting worse and worse and worse. And we'll talk about this later with, with Matt Snyder, but that is, that is a situation that will eliminate your season if you don't get that right. And to me, the way it's playing out, and I'm not saying don't use Suarez anymore. You have to use him. He's part of the team. He's a good asset to this team. But what I'm saying is, I think you need to, and I, and I like the math matchup base deal, but I'd go Scott against their top three guys in the order, whatever ending that happens to be, I'd go Adam with the middle guys in the order, and then I'd go Suarez with the bottom half of the order. Now, if you can do that, I mean, that's, that's a perfect world. And, you know, I, I honestly think when you get to playoff time, and Tony, you can, you can, you can, you can, you could prove me wrong on this because I don't know what the inside, I feel like in playoff mode, these guys are going to do whatever job is asked them to do to go get a victory. And if Suarez's job is to go in the seventh inning, I think he's going to say yes. And I don't think he's going to care about the closing role. And if they ask Adam to save, he'll do it, and Estrada, and anybody in that bullpen, whatever they get the ball, they're going to ask, they're going to be like, let's go shut him down. Exactly. And that's why I don't think there needs to be any concern, because if the time comes, you know, and listen, I also think we have to keep in mind there's still five games left in a regular season. That could, that's opportunity for Suarez to, to, to get it growing in the right direction. Now, if push comes to shove and you get like a mixed bag, you get a couple good, a couple of bad, come play off time. I have no doubt that if Mike Schilden thinks it's necessary, he will make the change. And as you said, I think that's what makes this team special, just watching them last night, is that I think that's exactly how it's going to go down, Brad. And he, if, if that is the case, it will, he will move aside and do the job that is asked of them. And I think that's one of the, the superpowers that this team has this year is that they pull the rope, we heard it from Manny after the game, they are pulling the rope all in the same. So when you get that, it's these, these worries aren't worries because the guys who are involved understand what's at stake. And they got, they got, uh, they got options, as you mentioned, and, and she'll didn't mess around last night. I mean, Morahone with two outs gave up a couple of knocks. He's like, we'll see it. We're going to the next guy. Well, you know, we, we got to win this game. He's also managed like that. Most of the year, he's managed with urgency. You know what? That's, that's, that's how you win ball games to the playoffs. I'm not worried from the managerial standpoint, but it is, if, if they didn't have Adam and Scott, this would be a way bigger of a problem for the Padres going into the postseason. Right. And, and that's, that's the beauty in the moves that, that AJ made. And listen, I think you also got to, you have to think to yourself, you want Suarez, right? Like, right. So you need these other games to get him going in the right direction. Right. You can't pull the shoot now, because guess what? You're going to need him. Right. You're going to absolutely need his eye. It may not be in the ninth inning, but you are going to 1000% need his arm. So, you know, we should all be in these next five games hoping he can get some opportunity where he gets it going in the right direction, because minus, you know, you remove Suarez from the situation, from the equation. Yes, you do have Scott, you do have Adam, but that's one less arm that you are dealing with. And we know, come postseason, especially in the bullpen, those arms are very, very, very necessary. So, yes, I would like to say before we head to break. And I'll go ahead, buddy. No, I'm sorry. There's the delay and all this other stuff. But I would like to say that I started this whole thing, and you can go back in the YouTube and say that I don't think that Robert Suarez should not be the closer anymore. I just said there should be a discussion. I didn't say anything about him being terrible or anything. And you guys aren't saying that, but I feel like that's how I'm being perceived at the moment. I'll say it. I don't think you should be the closer right now. I absolutely don't think you should be the closer right now. Hey, you know what, it's all fun and games until he gives up a three run bomb and all of a sudden your season is over. But as we talked about before, I don't think he's going to be upset if he loses the closer role in the postseason. He's going to take the ball and he's going to give the team what he's got. And that's the best part about this team. And they talked about in the post game with Tony how much they love each other. They're going to do their role, whatever it may be. They have no doubt. All right, let's step away. We got more Padre baseball, more playoff, you know, situations, equations. We got it all coming up here, Gwen and Chris, 222 on the clock. Tony Gwen, Jr. Chris, hello, not here. Matt Scrabie is though, prayed and befriended in the building as well. Adam Glue on the ones and twos. And things are still unclear in terms of this playoff picture for many different angles in the National League. Padre still chasing a division, possibly. There could be some change over there. You have the bottom tier, which is still clogged up. The Diamondbacks aren't quite in nose dive, but they're teetering, right? They are certainly seems like it. The Braves get a victory at home against the Mets in yesterday's game. So they pull a little bit closer as well. Speaking of that series as the folks on YouTube watching on YouTube can see there has been a postponement. There will be a double header on Monday, which is really the nightmare scenario for Major League Baseball, having to have a double header that could possibly decide a playoff spot that will decide a playoff spot. Probably not ideal. This team, whoever comes out of this will end up turning around and having to play a game the following day. And so it's not ideal, but what's got to be done? What's got to be done? Mother nature wins out when these things happen. It is ideal for the San Diego Padres. They take care of business this weekend. I don't care about this at all. It's good for the Padres. Magic numbers too for the four seed. The Padres get the four seed. I mean, you're looking at a bunch of teams that aren't going to know who they're playing, where they're going. If it's the Braves, the Mets, tax bullpen, starting rotations being out of whack. I mean, it's, you still have to take care of business, right? But at the same time, it's all, it's, it's, this is all good news in terms of a sanding, if you're a San Diego Padres fan. I mean, think about this Tony in a situation where if the Padres do well against the Diamondbacks this weekend and Arizona's in limbo based on results that have to wait for the Mets and the Braves, you could potentially have three teams that are battling for two spots with the Brewers and Padres waiting to see who they're going to play and not one of those three teams has any idea where they're going to go until the conclusion of game two, which will be at about nine o'clock, eight o'clock Eastern time on Monday to play games on Tuesday. And on top of that, if you look at the Braves, sale and freed are probably not going to pitch in those games on Monday because they got a pitch in the games over the weekend or they have a pitch on Monday to try to make the playoffs. But either way, they're either not pitching on Monday to make the playoffs or they're not pitching in the first two games of a wild card. There's a lot of strategy and involvement with this as it kind of affects the playoffs in the next week. I think that might be a little bit of an oversell. I think they, they regardless, the, the only thing that there is an advantage of is that one of those guys may have to pitch Monday. I'll give you that one. But in terms of who's going to be their opponent, where they're going. I mean, I don't think that's going to matter much. These two is going to roll in as the playoffs for crying out loud. They don't care if it's on planted Mars. They are going to go, we're going to show up and they're going to be ready to play. Now they may not have their ace on the mound, but that was going to likely be the case whether they played whether they got to Monday or not. They were going to not have, they're going to have to throw their best guys in order to, to get this to brave certainly are because they're the ones chasing the Mets. So you don't think travel would be a fact? I mean, if you don't know where you're going, you can't fly until nine o'clock Eastern. You're going to show up the morning of, I mean, and go play a ball game. I mean, that's, that's, I know that's, that's difficult for a lot of, I know it's the playoffs, but that might, that might be a little bit of a factor. It could be. I just have a hard time seeing that being a huge thing moving forward. But either way, uh, lot, lot to, uh, pack over the next five games, uh, between, you know, all of these teams, I mean, even in American League, you still got, uh, Detroit and Kansas City still duking it out. And this affects Kansas City this week. This weekend too. Kansas City is in Atlanta this weekend and that came on Friday might get postponed. He's very worked up about this. I can, if you can't tell, it's crazy. I'm just saying these, they, they, they got these charter planes, man. They're going to get, they're going to get out. They're going to have an easy time getting in. Oh, it's not horse and bug. You got the, you got the champagne factor toner. There could be pop and champagne when they make the, make the postseason partying on the plane, got to wake up, go the next day. I would. MLB will give them the 12 o'clock start for no reason. Yeah. I mean, again, they, they wouldn't be the first team that pop bottles the day before having to go into a playoff. It's just, it's kind of the, it's kind of par for the course, unless you're one of these teams that have clenched like the Padres and get it out the way. All right. What else we got today? I wanted to ask you about like their, the focus on winning the division now because they are, last night said that they were going to celebrate last night and now they're going to move towards winning the division and getting into the, we're going towards the playoffs and you Darvish even stopped celebrating last night so he can go and, uh, he can go and prepare. So as someone who's been in these locker rooms, Tony, how hard is it going to be for them today to turn around and continue to win and play like they have been to a man they all said last night that it's not going to be a problem at all. Like, Mike show wasn't worried at all about having to turn around and, and, and, and these guys being prepared. He, you know, they call it, they, they, you know, as, as I heard in that locker room, there's a bunch of killers in there, man. And so that means when the bell, when the lights are bright and, and, you know, the bell rings, there's some, there's just some gamers out there, man, they go, they go play ball. And so, you know, they had their fun last night. I have no qualms that there's going to be any issue terms of them being ready for this, for this game today. They, they are, they're dialed in. I think they've, they've, they've told, if anything, if you've been paying attention to this team, you know that just by watching them conduct business, like clockwork every single game it feels like. And the 20 year olds can bounce back quickly after, after a night out, the 30 year olds were probably wise in their decision making. Jackson's 21. So he is, I know worries about Jackson being able to bounce back at his age. Me neither. Me neither. But the Dodgers, Tony. I mean, some of the best, some of the best performances have come after, you know, a night of, a night of boozing. Jackson Merrill. Also, he had a great line. We're going to play some of these clips a little bit later in the show, but he had a great line and, and great thing about Manny Machado and how he works harder than everybody else. And he, and Jackson Merrill was fired up and he's dropping swear words and all of that good stuff. Yeah, listen, even when I was doing my interviews last night, there was, there was some couple times, but I, and you can't really, you know, it's not the time to be stopping them. You know, it's a, it's one slippage. They, they remember where they are and then they refocus and get back to it. But yeah, there was a little bit of that going on last night. You've talked about your relationship with these guys all year. What's it feel like to celebrate with this group in particular? These are my best friends. I love everybody in here. They're all my brothers. I'm a bad man. I couldn't have had a more fun first year. You know, we have my work to do. Job's not finished. I love that. He goes, what does Sam say at the end? He, Sam was like screaming his question because obviously it's loud, but that was hilarious. It's like when Adam was like, was it extra sweet? You mean you have to talk extra loud when you're in the clubhouse? There's music going? Yes. Yes. It was funny. The place was like Mr. Tempo last night. Um, before we had to break, Tony, I got to ask you about the Dodgers and how they, you think they feel right now? Are they, are they feeling the heat of the, the Padres winning the division? Are they not even really thinking about it right now? What's going on with them? Oh, yeah. No, I'm sure they're thinking about it. I'm sure they're feeling the heat. Certainly the folks in Los Angeles ain't let them, uh, not think about it. I can guarantee you that. So, uh, yeah, no, this is tough. It's tough times right now. Tough times. They was falling out of that, that stadium after about the sixth inning, sixth, seventh inning, starting to get light. And, uh, that's, uh, that was almost like a, the mercy rule right there and then to have them ended on a triple play. Man, it's like the ultimate slap in the face, um, last night. So, yeah, no, they, regardless of whether they want to be thinking about it or not, they, they, they're going to be, they're forced to think about it. And the, the tough part is that there's still two more games. They're right back, right back in the mix here tonight. Another glorious seven, 10 start here at, uh, Dodger Stadium. Is it extra sweet because there's against the Dodgers? How much champagne did you drink out of before you asked that question? None. What was that? Was that? Was that? That was when he played again two years ago. Is it extra sweet because there's against the Dodgers? It's not two Peter Siler, right? I think you see it. It's probably been a while. I had been Peter Siler after the Dodgers after we did the Dodgers a couple of years ago, and I was like screaming at him because it was so loud. So he's never heard that before. Rob Manfred, Rob Manfred, Rob Manfred, move over. Drunk Adam Klum. That is really funny. But no, I mean, it is loud. That's amazing. Why aren't we using that more often? We need to, we need to have that dialed into the whole board. Everybody uses it. It's kind of a bad idea. I know. I can't believe you've never heard that before. That's crazy. I've never heard of that. I've never heard that. That's, that's, that's wild. It's crazy work, right? Tony's gonna make you this ringtone when Adam calls him. Hey, is it extra sweet? Is it extra sweet that you beat the Dodgers? I don't know why I just make you put Adam right now. I don't know why I shouldn't be doing that because I'm usually the one getting made fun of and he's defending me. Let's let's hold on. Let's get to break. Before we all get fired, we'll get a chance to go get a chance to jump into some of those celebrations from last night. I was down hot in the action being sprayed. I got doused Tanner Scott crushed me with lots of, I think it was champagne. It was definitely champagne and it was, it was, man, it was ice cold, ice cold. But anyway, play some of those interviews for you when we return work with Chris on the other side. Welcome back into Gwen and Chris, Tony Good Jr. in Los Angeles, Braden Soprena, myself, Matt Scrabby here in the Odyssey Palace and Adam Clue here as well. Tune in every Thursday at 10 a.m. for 97-3, the fans commercial free Padres roundtable featuring Ben and Woods, Annie and Elston and Gwen and Chris presented by San Diego roundtable pizza for takeout or delivery. Go to roundtable pizza.com roundtable, the last honest pizza. So we will have the roundtable tomorrow and there will be a roundtable replay during our show tomorrow. So stay tuned for that. But we went to break giving Adam a really hard time about his interview with Peter Seidler. He said, it's extra isn't it extra sweet. You beat the daughters? Well, I think with Peter Seidler being kind of the focus of this season, we need to go back in time and hear Adam interviewing him in 2022. Did I do some in 2022? I'm here with the owner of the Padres Peter Seidler Peter. How does it feel to advance to the NLCF? It feels great. The players, the fans, they both showed up in the biggest possible ways. All season long, but especially these last two nights and the come from behind flinging game today. It could not have been better. Congratulations to our players. Is it extra sweet because there's like the Dodgers? Is it extra sweet because there's against the Dodgers? A little bit. They're the team that has dominated the last decade. And like we said, we you know who that dragon is up the freeway. We've got to slay it and we did it this year. And we will be a very good team for years to come. Oh man, that is, that is just amazing. My voice didn't crack your scratch. Yeah, that was amazing stuff in the voice crack and then the zoom in on Peter's ear. Is it extra sweet because there's against the Dodgers? Not as best. I'm so happy we get to laugh about this stuff now. But if you're, if you're telling me, because I'm a, I'm a person who believes in the extra terrestrial. I'm a person who believes in the unexplained. You can't tell me that Peter Seidler wasn't a part of that triple play last night. I don't care if you think I'm weird. I don't care if you think that I'm crazy. But Peter Seidler has been a part of this season. That's how I can explain some parts of the season. I can't even go there right now with what I just heard. My stomach is hurting. Your stomach is hurting. It sounds like Adam took like a 40 ounce to the head and decided to do interviews afterwards. Is it extra sweet because there's against the Dodgers? And then, and then Peter just went a little bit. This little answer was immediately a little bit. Oh man. I'm going to laugh about this for the rest of the day. I got to tell you. I got to tell you the chat that was losing. All right. We'll come back to that later because it's going to be hilarious all day long. But Tony got to interview a bunch of players after the game last night. Was it like that? Was it like that? Interview, Tony? I hope I haven't heard any of them. I hope I have not just been laughing my tail off only to find out that I sound the exact same way. So walk across her fingers on it. Here is your interview with starting pitcher last night, Michael King. I'm with Michael King starting pitcher of tonight's ballgame. And listen, Mike, Jesse and I have watched up from the top. You've had some bad luck over the last four or five starts. And I think the saying goes something like out after error. How were you able to kind of refocus after the first error of this ballgame? And you were still struggling to kind of command your stuff at that point. One of those games that didn't have anything upsetting because it was such a big game. But then, I mean, there's Bogey, I trust in the biggest spots of all. And so, Bogey, can you apologize afterwards? I said, that's a dumb comment that you cannot be apologizing to me. I knew he was going to have a good game. And yeah, obviously at the RBI, and it was really just a grind putting up zeros and making sure that we kept the lead. I know this is a team event right now, but we're going to talk about you personally. I mean, first year as a full-time starter, you rolled through it and made it look quite easy. I mean, talk about what has helped you get to this point this season. I think the leadership ahead of me having Darvish and Joe there. Cease has been doing it for however many years. And then Ruben. Ruben's been my rock through it all. I mean, I learned so much throughout the season. And even today, I was like, I'll be more efficient. I promise. And he was like, no, no, this is not a game to be efficient. There he is right there. He's like, it's not a game to be efficient. We got a full bullpen behind you. Just put up zeros and get out of there. You were able to settle in. You got through five innings of work. You handed it off to your bullpen, which has been phenomenal. And just when it started to look like it got rocky, it ended up going your way. A triple play to get you guys in here at a party. Talk a little bit about that. I mean, incredible. So far, it's been our guide the whole year. Obviously struggling a little right now. Whoo, joy. But like, you knew he was going to make pitches. He's a big game pitcher. And then there's nobody in that spot that I want to go to more than Manny and Manny cool, kind of collecting to exactly what to do. Triple plays freaking cool. Michael King, terrific season as a pod rate. You got more work to do. I mean, you guys are going to have some fun here tonight, but there's still some uncheck boxes. Oh, yeah, we're going to be playing in a Halloween. That's our goal. So and beyond, obviously. Enjoy yourself, brother. I love, love, love, Michael King. And I love that line where Bogart's came to apologize. Like, no, that was a dumb comment. That's a great answer right there. Love that. I could just imagine him like getting in my eye. That is a dumb comments, but good job, Tony. I was a good interview. Yeah, thank you. That one, that was my best one. I think they all progressively got worse because if you start, you're trying to remember like unique questions for set specific players in like real time, I'm just grabbing guys. So, you know, that you start at, you know, at least, at least for myself personally, I start thinking about like the questions I should have asked and like all the way back and figuring out, there's a couple I missed on Shilt that I wanted to ask, but all in all, you know, you want to, I think ideally you just want to hear from, you want to hear from those guys at that moment, especially the guys that we got. So, I'll hang my hat on that as opposed to the actual questions I was asking. I think your questions are great, Tony. Don't worry about them. And as I said before the show, and he said that there is plenty of time for you to keep asking those questions. They have a lot more in them. Hopefully. Yeah, that's the idea for sure. All right. Let's go to the next interview. Let's go with your interview with Joe Musgrove. And Joe Musgrove, you know, I remember him in 2022 when he went, you when you interviewed him and he was just so happy to be on this team. And I heard this last night and I loved it. So, here is your interview with Joe Musgrove. I got Joe Musgrove here. We didn't have a full complete show what I have in this guy. Joe, talk about this experience right now, man. This is a, you guys are starting to make this a habit. I'm digging this. I know, man, it's a little flashback to 22 with that feeling like. I think once you get in the post season one time and you get that feeling, you get a taste of playoff baseball, you want to be back every year. So, something that started back in, you know, November last year, finishing on the on the note that we finished on everyone's eager to get back at it. A lot of uncertainties with the roster is going to look like what the staff is going to look like. And I couldn't be happier with a group of guys that we got. Let's talk a little bit about you. You missed some time this year, took your time to get right and have perhaps thrown the best baseball you have this season. Watching it, watching this game from the bench tonight, just what were your emotions as Tony hits the two run shots? You guys get out to a four or one lead. Did you start to feel like this was inevitable? Yeah, I mean, it feels like that every time we're in a game, we get a lead, we feel pretty confident that we can hold it. And if we do happen to give it up late in the game, I mean, you know, our seven, eight, nine innings, the damage that we're able to do with the offense is gives you a lot of confidence. So we can get to the fifth, sixth inning, hand that ball over to the bullpen. We feel really good about our chances. But the group, this group that we have here this year, it's the most fun thing is like, is growing as baseball players with these guys, you know, we're really starting to understand the game. We're starting to understand how our team operates and the things that we need to do on a daily basis. And it's just fucking fun to watch it all play. There was Joe Musgrove. Adam got to it in time. But that was Joe Musgrove with Tony Gwen Jr. After the game last night, as you could tell, very excited that they made it. I was, I was, I was wondering what happened there. I was like, wait a minute, they interviewed it in like that. But I said, did I remember it all? Yeah, I did. I just did it. And you know what? I don't blame, I don't blame Joe at all, or any of these guys, because they're pretty good. Dude, there's, yeah, they're not doing it intentionally. These are, I mean, it doesn't matter for us, but either way, it's not like they're coming on there with the intent of dropping an F bomb, or whatever. Flavor for flavor. Flavor for flavor. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, you almost, you almost have to expect that in these heightened environments where, I mean, they're literally pouring alcohol on top of it. It's just bound to happen. You know what I thought was really great last night was when Jesse was trying to stall long enough for you to get down there and get in place. I felt, I felt for him too. I felt for him too, man. I was, I could hear him in my ear, but you know, they weren't going to move, you know, they came in, they were all excited, you know, position to get in their gear on. Mike comes out, says some, a couple of other guys speak, and you know, nothing was good. Nobody was going to be interviewed until after all of that went down. So, he had to stall for quite some time before I grabbed Xander, who was the first one we had. Yeah, and he was like, yep, I'm still seeing down there a lot of flashing lights, and the champagne has been popped. But yeah, it was really funny. I got to ask you about Jerkson profile last night. Does it surprise anyone in this room that Jerkson profile had such two great catches last night to save parts of that game? I mean, that's what he's been doing all season long. Exactly. So, it shouldn't surprise anybody. He has been, he's been so good this year in many different ways, and in different times for the Padres. And when it seemed like, you know, he was losing steam there, he picked it, he picked it right back up, and it has played and performed, you know, at a level that he had been performing all year long. And it's been, it's just been fun to watch Jerkson, man, finally kind of get going on this, and really put it to put a full year package together. Because at this point, this is, this is real, like this is who he is right now. Yeah, he's been great in playing really well. And, you know, I'm interested to see what they do with him in the, in the postseason, whether or not they take him out late in the game, you know, as a defensive replacement. I think he's done well enough to play the entire game. Obviously, got a lot of guys on that, on that team, you can get, get reps in and everything like that. So that would be interesting to see. But for me, Tonya, I'd like to know a little bit more from your perspective of being down there in, in the clubhouse. I mean, you've, you've been a player and celebrated. You've been now, now broadcast is celebrating. I'm sure you got to be down there maybe once or twice when your dad was playing. Does it ever get old for you to go down there? And what's, what's the experience like as you've done it now in kind of different roles? Has that changed for you? Is everything's the kind of the same down there? I mean, it's different because, you know, when you're, when you're on the team, like, you're, you got free reign, you know, your show, right? You get to, you get to do what you want to do. You get to spray champagne, you get to, whatever it is you want to do. It's your, it's your, it's your palace, basically, as a, as a, as a broadcaster, a team member, but a broadcaster, right? Like, there are invisible lines that I don't want to cross, right? I mean, I certainly didn't hit a baseball. I didn't hit a grounder to a player. I didn't flip a baseball. I didn't hit a baseball. So, you know, there's a certain amount of work that allows for you to be able to pick up one of those bottles and, and, and pop it open and spray it on somebody. And so it's different from that standpoint, but the one thing that is, is very much the same is the joy that is in that room. And I don't want to say a relief, but just like, uh, kind of like a, you know, a good feeling about accomplishing something that you set out to do six months ago. And at that time, you didn't know what the road ahead was. So there's, so you go through that journey. And when you get to this point, there, again, a sense of relief is not the right word because obviously you got to keep playing, but there is like this, uh, feeling of, of, of joy for an accomplishment that you literally planned six months ago. And, and, you know, everything went the way you needed it to go in order to get this point. And so that part doesn't change, right? I, I may not have flipped the ball, hit a ball, crew took a ground ball, hit a ground ball, but I certainly was here to tell, tell the story. And so yeah, you feel, you feel, you feel a part of that. And I think the guys respect that. They, they, they see, they see, when they see you there every day, it does start to feel like you're a part of the, the family in some way too. So it's, I, I enjoyed that very much watching those guys, uh, be able to celebrate the way they were. We talked us right to the break. That's perfect. That is great. Radio magic post. When we get back, I'm going to tell you about where the Padres are in the World Series odds after last night, and more later in the show from Tony interviewing some players, we're going to celebrate today and get ready for game two tonight on 97 through the fan. Let me join the show there. Welcome in Quinn and Chris. We're tired of hearing you already. Once that three 30 bus show up. We speed that up a little bit fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. Uh, Dylan sees Jack Flaherty, uh, facing off tonight. Good pitching matchup. Um, Jack Flaherty probably been the Dodgers best pitchers since he's been acquired. Dylan sees been on a nice little run here as of late throwing the ball really well. Um, and you know, the Padres continue to try to walk down the Dodgers for this division title. Uh, it would be, I mean, it, there was a point in the season where we were happy that the, the last three games are, we're going to be against the Diamondbacks. Now we're at a point in the season where we wish those three games were, were flipped, right? So that this series would be much like it was in 1996, uh, kind of, uh, an end all be all type situation. So that's not the case. Padres still looking to try to hop down these, uh, Dodgers, uh, their offense yesterday was stymied by, uh, Michael King. And when Dylan sees us on, he's commanding the fastball and then like kind of everything else kind of just kind of falls into place. It seems like a, and that's what you're looking for today when he takes them now. I think, uh, Jack Flaherty in that trade, I don't think the Dodgers realized how important that trade was going to be for them, uh, because he's become the guy in their rotation that they can rely on. And that's not a good feeling for Dodgers. And I'm fine with it. So there's my thoughts. Tonight's match is gonna be pretty good. I think straight. It's so, it's so awkward with this like three different places. Anyway, I mean, you got, but tonight, I mean, tonight's, you know, very much again, you got to bounce back from, you got to, you got to, as much as, you know, you say the right, all the right things in terms of, you know, party last night and now it's time to go and go take care of business and, and continue this, you know, with five games left, um, again, another playoff level atmosphere and, you know, Tony, we got to watch a little bit on TV. We got to listen to you guys on the radio. I, you know, from your perspective, you have been able to witness a lot of big games in Padres history, either, you know, as a kid growing up, as a player in the organization, and now as a broadcaster. And I know it's kind of went with what I was talking about before with, with the clubhouse, but now you've been, you've been a lot of the biggest moments in Padres history. You know, what, what, what was last night like, you know, for you and kind of give us that local perspective, San Diego kid, man. I mean, growing up, watching this team, it's probably cool interviewing another San Diego kid and Joe Musgrove last night. And just with the history at the Padres have had, you know, what was last night like for you as, as a San Diego local and what was the, what were the vibes like at Dodger Stadium, a place that you've been so many times. I'll say this real quick. We were back at the hotel by like 1145, 1150. Perfect. You know, I would happen after everybody got here. I don't know, I went to my room. So, you know, I feel like I bet that you are Tony, I feel like I got sufficient. I couldn't wait to get out of that champagne laced lululemon shirt I had on that was soaked. But now I think, you know, at least from my perspective, I think yesterday was, I don't know, I think we've had different moments. I think the real moments, you don't start to have a lasting impact when you're doing it more often, right? Like, you're not just holding on to just, you know, these handful of moments that, that you have. And that's kind of how it's been for, for, for San Diegans. And the thing that kept coming to my mind yesterday, I kind of alluded to, into one of the interviews like, oh, I think it was with Joe, you know, this is, you want this to become a habit, like you want to be in the mix, have fun. Rather, you know, oftentimes we lock in on the stress part of, of being a fan. But how nice has it been over the last four years to actually be having conversations of going to the playoffs? I mean, we're actually having a conversation before we even get there about this team being a World Series like contender. Like, when has that ever, that wasn't even the case in '98 when the team was, was ended up going to the World Series. That's, it's, you know, maybe last year, there's some expectation that it could be. But even, I mean, as the season was going, it became pretty apparent that, okay, maybe World Series, we just, let's just try to get to the playoffs at that point. And so I say all that to say that the thing I was excited about was the fact that this could be, this is starting to be something that feels normal. You know, it, this wasn't something that it has ever felt normal here. And, you know, being in there yesterday, it was last night, it was like, yo, this is kind of familiar. Okay, I know what, I know what to do. I did this before. It was in, it was in San Diego. It was in New York. It was, you know, it was, you know, those type of issues, those things, because you've started to do them a little bit. It's, it's a good feeling. You starting to see it kind of come together. So, this story is still yet to be fully told. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. We'll see how it goes. You know, for a long time, the Padres never made the playoffs. So maybe Chris is going to have to change when he takes his vacations now because things are becoming a little bit more normal with the Padres going deep. I'm going to say, I think there's an adjustment that has been made here. I mean, what's the adjustment? He wins September instead of October. He usually goes in October. It's right. And like he's not here for the playoffs. Remember, I know we're talking about the playoffs is not actually starting yet. We still got the rest of this week to get through. He'll be back next week. So that brings him here for the actual playoffs. But the playoffs will have already started by the time he got back. So I'm going to come back. The second, I think he comes back on the second. Yes. Okay. So first, first, first day or second day of the playoffs. He's getting here for it, buddy. I think that I'm going to require him now from from going forward. He's going to have to take his vacation in like March. There's also a world. There's also a world where Christmas is zero Padres playoff games if they just win the division. That's true. It's true. Don't take that. Take that, Scravey. Take that, Scravey. I actually had a friend text me last night. And it's kind of funny because his his kid was three years old, I believe in 2022. So now that they've done, they've been to the playoffs twice in the last couple of years, he's used to them going to the playoffs. You know, lucky kid. I'd be great for the kids, man. That is a trip, right? There is a, there is a portion of folks out here that only know. Padres success. They don't know. But at the same time, you know, they've only, they've only had to hear about how bad things had been at some point. You know, let, let, let, let the youth of San Diego have a team like that because growing up for me, I mean, growing up for me, like, I, I was three years old in 98. And my favorite player for the longest time, Tony, was your dad. And then after, I only got to see, see the tail end of his career. And then after that, I, people would ask me like, kid, when you always ask kids, right? Well, who's your favorite player? And I never picked anybody, not on the Padres. And so for the longest time, because they had a new roster, almost every single year, it was Tony Gwen is my all time favorite player. And I, I only watched like three or four years of his career. And it was different jerseys all the time. And I remember, and I say this all the time, you know, coaching at Cathedral, I get to see, you know, when I get to school, sometimes they have like Jersey day or something like that. When I was at Cathedral, there was never a single Padres jersey worn on Jersey day. Nobody ever wore Padres stuff. Nobody and none of the kids were ever Padres fans because they weren't very good. And they had a brand new team every year. And now I go to Cathedral. And I bet you a lot of schools like this, there are Padres jerseys everywhere. And I think the coolest part about that is, is even though my childhood, I didn't get to enjoy like Padres baseball at a high level, and people around the country were in Padres gear. It is so cool what this ownership did in signing these big contracts and getting kids at a young, young age to know that they're going to have Machado on the team, their entire childhood and to tease on their team their entire childhood. I mean, it's so great for the, the youth of San Diego. And honestly, they're doing a great job of getting kids all over the country to wear the brown and gold. I can't but think about how many people want to trade all those guys that have. I know it's just about. It's so cool though for the kids now. It's really, it's really a great point though that, you know, it's, it is cool that this generation of, of kid gets to experience something that most of us didn't. And that's, that's kind of the whole point of this kind of turn and, and what the Padres again. But anyway, that was all to say that that's what the thing that I was thinking about when I was in, in the club house last night as we got as the festivities began. Again, 17 match up here game two between Padres Dodgers. You know, the one thing that stood out to me yesterday, and it's just that triple play, right? I mean, it was setting up for Otani, the, the alien to come up in a situation that would not have been ideal. And it had further, it further makes me believe that there truly is something magical about this Padre team. Like, I mean, yeah, yeah, you had a no hitter this year too. Yeah, I mean, how many times, you know, like, well, he's getting that stat. How many times you see those World Series champion videos, right? And they have all these guys, they have just had a triple play. Padres have had a triple play, a no hitter, a back to back to back sets of back to back to back home runs. Come back wins. Come back when from eight runs down. There's been 700 triple plays ever. There's been 300 no hitters thrown. There's been 300 sets of back to back to back home runs. And there's been over 100 come back wins from eight runs down. But the Padres are the only team to do all of those in one season. So, you know, it has been one of those type of years for his ball club. And it continues tonight. Padres Dodgers, let's get to break on the other side. Little daily gambit. Little daily gambit. We're going to hear a lot while from you, while you're transitioning over to the stadium, the stadium, Dodger Stadium, that is, we're going to hear your interviews. We're going to hear the big five. We have Matt Snyder coming up in this hour. So yeah, lots to go Tony. Awesome. Well, yeah, more Gwen and Chris daily gambit on the other side or some traffic. Well, that promo right there was enough to pull on my heart strings. I don't know about everybody out there. That was a good one, Adam. That was really good. You went and got all the work parts for that. Peter Seidler, Mike Schill. Man, we are in a really good mood here today on 97 through the fan. Matt Scravey, Braden Soprano, Adam Klug, Tony Gwen Jr. off to Dodger Stadium. We'll hear from him again here shortly. For an interview with Matt Snyder of CVS Sports. He was really excited to talk about the Padres and what they did last night too. So we'll get to that here in about 20 minutes. The sour is brought to you by indeed need the higher you need indeed their end-to-end solution helps you to attract interview and hire candidates all year long or all year round schedule and conduct virtual interviews right from your indeed dashboard. Learn more by visiting indeed.com/credits. All right, we're going to hear real quick from MLB network and Mark DeRosa. I really like Mark DeRosa by the way on MLB network. I think he's really good. He explains things in a really easy to understand way, but Mark DeRosa has also been a huge Padres supporter throughout this entire season. And this morning on MLB network, he talked about the Padres and I think you're going to like what he had to say. They win last night. They're just two back of the division. Remember they own a breaker? As we said, the division is still in play for this group and they believe too. And they're a problem. They are a problem. And I want to give love. We talked about who the pitching matchup we were most looking forward to. Michael King gave up a one spot in the first yesterday and bared down. He gave them a chance. Crohn's own got hot, took Knack deep on a change-up, gave him a lead back two to one. San Diego's good. Here it is. Tell me, tell me about the Dodgers' rotation. Yeah, they've served. Lyndon Knack and he is going to be a stud, but you always talk about asking someone to do something that they... I don't think he sees... I don't think... You don't? No, I don't. I think it's going to be Yamamoto, Flaherty, and Bueller. Yamamoto isn't... And bold. They got a hope that Yamamoto's can give them a little bit of length. And yeah, I reached on that. I'm man enough to say I make some mistakes. About about two three weeks stretch ago, I thought the Dodgers were like, "Ooh, they're a wagon. Here they come. They're bullpen sick. Otani's raking, Mookie's raking, and then Glass now went down." And I thought they could cover it and then just own it and never... They got a lot. I still like them, but San Diego's definitely a problem. I love that San Diego is definitely a problem. He's right. He's absolutely right. I think we've seen it all year. I think we've seen it here ever since the All-Star break. And I don't have confidence if I'm a Dodgers fan in my team heading into the playoffs. Yamamoto, like they said, Yamamoto missed a lot of this year. He has been good when he's pitched this year, but he's also missed a ton of the year. So I guess you could throw him out there and see what happens, but I'm much more comfortable with the Padres rotation and what they got going on. Yeah, the Padres are the... I think the scariest team in the National League right now that you would have to deal with. They are a problem for most teams in the National League. We talked about it yesterday based on how roster construction is. I start looking at pitching wins, right? Pitching and defense wins in the postseason. That's what everybody always likes to say. But on top of that, you've got to be able to swing the stick, too, and we'll get to that in a second. But you look at the pitching staffs aside from maybe the Phillies, but even that one's pretty, pretty similar to the Padres. There's not a pitching staff out there that I would, would rather have than the, than the San Diego Padres, right? I think the bullpen's the best. I don't think anybody in Major League Baseball has a bullpen that is better than San Diego. I think the starting staff, I think you can make arguments with other teams. They might have a better one, two, three than San Diego, but it's in the top and you start looking at the Dodgers and they're, and they're starting rotation and they're bullpen. They don't have it. I mean, it's, it's not a, well, it's not a bullpen that I think, and it's not a starting staff that I think the other teams in the national league would, would immediately swap with in the postseason. And you start looking at the other teams in the, in the postseason. I, the Brewers have a better pitching staff than the Dodgers do. The Diamondbacks are probably the only team that doesn't have a better pitching staff than the Dodgers do. Mets have a better pitching staff. We talked about yesterday, especially with Chris Sale at the top of the rotation for the Braves, I'd take the brave pitching staff over the Los Angeles Dodgers. Talk about a lineup construction. I mean, the top three in the Dodgers order is definitely the best in the playoffs. But after that, you know, I, I think it's a lot better than it's been, you know, after the trade deadline where they required Tommy Edmond and, you know, kind of move some things around, it looked a lot better. But, you know, from a start top to bottom, you know, the Dodgers, the Dodgers are not the, the world beater team that they've been in the past. They're not the, they're not the big dragon that needs to be slayed in the national league. If I have to pick a favorite, it's probably the Phillies. And then after that, I'd probably go Padres two. I think it's a toss up between the Brewers and the Dodgers. I'd probably go Dodgers three, go Brewers four. And then from there on out, you're going with the rest of the, the, the, the wild card spots. And I think it's probably the Mets and the way the Braves are playing right now, I think it's the Braves of the Diamondbacks. I mean, I, I think the Diamondbacks are going to play themselves out of a playoff spot right now the way they're playing. They got their ass handed to him last night. I mean, the Giants destroyed them. And that is a very bad loss for Arizona before the postseason. Trying to make the postseason. That's a terrible loss. Yeah. Awful. I mean, that is awful. But there's a lot of things going the Padres way. You know, you can, you can mention the divine intervention that, that, that, you know, that might be in play and everything else. But I mean, we talked about all of the, all of the situations in the stats that the Padres have put together. I mean, they, they are on a team of destiny type run. That doesn't mean it's a guarantee. Yeah, correct. Right. They still have to go out there and win the playoff games. But you got it. This is the most excited I've been as a Padres fan headed into the postseason and got five games left. And a lot of things can change in five games. And hopefully tonight's the deal. But as Adam Klug told us after, uh, after the show yesterday or during a break, I mean, he thinks the Padres are going to go in there and and wreak some havoc. I think they got the Dodgers number. I think there's something to be said about reeling and the pressure right now. I do. Who's got more pressure to win right now? These next two games, the Dodgers, the Dodgers of the Padres. The answer is the Dodgers. It's easier to chase than be chased. And the Padres right now are just playing free. They have nothing to lose. So they can go out and try to win these games and not have to worry too much. And we were talking yesterday about the lineup and about how the five, six, seven, eight guys in the lineup for the Padres are much more dangerous than the guys in the Dodger lineup. And if you look at last night, you have Jackson Merrill going one for four, Xander Bogart's two for four with an RBI. You have Jake Croninworth two for four last night, three RBI's in a home run. Uh, it's if those, if that part of the lineup gets going, this is an incredibly, uh, difficult lineup to get through for other teams. They're, they're, they're not going to look forward to facing the Padres in the playoffs. Jake Croninworth all year has shown that he still can hit when he needs to. And maybe the playoffs are something that Jake Croninworth loves to do, loves to play in because last time he had the winning hit against the Dodgers. And you've had a great playoff run. I, I, this team is in the perfect place right now. And it's good stuff. Pull her up the right direction. Um, you know, that's one thing, but let's go back to the lineup playoff caliber teams and world series caliber teams have guys like Jake Croninworth batting seventh. Yeah, I said that on opening day. I said Jake Croninworth at the end of the season at the Padres are going to be a playoff team and a world series caliber team will not be batting third. He'll be batting seventh. The people got so we love Jake. I'm like, I'm not saying it's because Jake can't bat at the top of the spot at the order. What I'm saying is world series caliber teams have guys, the caliber of Jake Croninworth batting seventh in their order. It length, lengthens the lineup. Donovan Solano batting eighth is drastically different than what the Podra Padres bottom three spots were at the beginning of the season. Oh, yeah. The bottom three spots last year in 2023. And even, I mean, if you look at, if you look at the playoff roster that the Padres had in 2022, it's very similar to the one they have now. And I think the one that's that they have now is better with the bottom half. I mean, you have, you have to have a lot of guys in the order that are all contributors and that are big bats from top to bottom. That's what world series teams have. And the Padres currently have that with Donovan Solano batting eighth. I mean, your worst hitter in the lineup is Kyle Lagashio, Kyle Lagashio, he's not a slouch. And then if you add Elias Diaz in there instead, Elias Diaz was hitting 270 when the Padres acquired him with the Rockies. Decide just let him go because he was a free agent at the end of the year. He was a, he was a all-star MVP, not too long ago. I mean, that guy might be batting ninth for you. That's great. That is so much better than a lot of different lineups right now in Major League Baseball. But that's, that's where your lineup was. I want to go back to the Dodgers too, the pressure that's on them. Because when you have a huge lead in the division, and when you've won the division so many times, and when you and your fan base, don't respect what's going on south of you because you've always taken care of business against the Padres. To be in the position they're in right now, it is, and if I was a Dodgers fan, I would be freaking out because it's embarrassing. You should never lose to the, to the little organization down south. You should never lose to them with the resources you have in every aspect of the organization. It is embarrassing to lose to the Padres. If you're the Los Angeles Dodgers with the history you have, with the clout you have, the money you have, the resources as I mentioned, and when you have to worry about losing a game like that, things can unravel on you and they can unravel quick. And if the Padres win tonight, the pressure tomorrow is even greater on the Dodgers. And if the Padres win on Thursday, you better believe they're sitting there going into Colorado playing tight and going, we better not screw this up because we have been the top dog in this league for so long. It's not given. And I feel like I know the Dodgers don't think it's given, but it's just the media has given it to the Dodgers for so long. And the Padres are finally doing it. You were talking about the beginning of the year of the lineup. Who was the five, six, seven, eight hitters or five, six, seven, eight number? I didn't, you had like Josh Bell, like, no, no, I'm talking about this year when they, opening day, sorry, I've left that part. I don't opening day. So the five, six, seven, eight, nine hitters opening day, Hasan Kim, which we will talk about because there is a possibility he returns this weekend. And that will add another person into the mix. Jerkson Pro for batting six, Campusano, seventh, Wade, eighth and Merrill ninth. And the reason Wade was in there because Manny was deaching, but you're right. Moving Jake Cronoworth all the way down. That is 100% the identity of a championship team is when you have to move hitters down because you got better guys behind him. And that person's better served in the seventh spot, with Jake Cronoworth this. And him batting third for most of the year, it kind of, it just wasn't working. So I like what you're saying. I mean, if you did indeed say that on opening day, Braden, that's pretty good prediction. Well, people got mad at me because I can't believe you don't believe in Jake Cronoworth. I don't not believe in Jake Cronoworth, but Jake Cronoworth is a seven hitter on a World Series caliber team. If you look at the Padres lineup, they put out against the Phillies in the nationally championship series. This lineup is better than that lineup. And you know, that lineup had had guys like, you know, Jake Cronoworth batting fifth. And Will Myers was batting sixth and Kim was seventh, Grisham was eighth and Nola was nine. But you had, you had guys in the lineup that could go out there and do some serious damage late in, in the ball game and, and, and, and are late in the order. I mean, those are the teams that, that win World Series. And if you go back and look at the last couple of World Series winning teams and the lineups they have, they got studs in every single spot. And the Padres currently are putting that together. Yes, we have a lot more to talk about with this Padres team going forward. But when we get back here on Gwen and Chris, we're going to hear from Matt Snyder. And we asked him for the national perspective on what the Padres did last night and what people think about them heading into the playoffs. So Matt Snyder, when we get back on 97 through the fan. Gwen and Chris, 97 through the fan back with you here on a champ or playoff clinching Padres station here on 97 through the fan. That was not the best way to say it. But there we go. I said it anyway. We have Matt Snyder coming up here in just second of CBS sports. But I wanted to say this, and tell everybody about this before we get into it a little bit later. But hostile and Kim is expected to work the next few days at the Padres facility in Peoria. And then he's going to join them at Chase Field on Friday. No one knows if he's going to be activated then or for the postseason. But it is looking like he is going to be coming back here. And there's a big conversation to be had about what to do. Now, Adam said this this morning from Kevin A.C. He said, if Kim returns the Padres could play him at shortstop and moves Andrew Bogart's back to second base, or they could play Kim at second base in order not to make Bogart's move again. Platoon and Kim and the left-handed hitting Jake Chrono with that second base is also under consideration. And as we said a little bit earlier, Braden, I think all of these guys on this team are willing to do what it takes to win and go wherever they need to go. But I got to think that maybe Zander Bogart's is a little frustrated with the moving back and forth from second base to shortstop and shortstop back to second base. I mean, I would prefer to see them keep him at shortstop because I don't think he wants to go back to second base. I'd leave him at shortstop, too. Here's the other thing. I mean, I never understood moving Kim to shortstop at the beginning of the season. You know, Granite, he was the better defensive shortstop than Zander, but he's a free agent at the end of the year. And you have Zander Bogart's under contract for 10 more years or nine more years, whatever it is. So at the end of the year, if you're not going to sign Kim to be your long-term shortstop, which you're going to have to give him a lot of money in order to do that. You're going to have to give him a why upset the guy that's on under contract for a long period of time again and moving back and forth. I mean, just leave him there, leave him at shortstop. If he's going to play, put him at second, Kim, you know, but right now, I mean, the lineup's doing well with what you got. And I just, I don't, I don't, I don't necessarily know if Kim is an upgrade to your order right now. Well, not, not with the way they who is hitting before he got hurt. I mean, defensively, he's definitely, you know, someone that they want on the field, but in the lineup, I don't know, he's going to give them, he hasn't played since what late August, he's going to have a month before he plays in a baseball game. But we'll, we'll get into this a little bit more as the show goes along top. It's a topic with many tentacles. All right, we're going to check traffic and then right after traffic, we have Matt Snyder of CBS Sports. Still enjoying last night's festivities, Padres, get it done. They clench a playoff spot and still have some unchecked boxes that they want to, to accomplish. And joining us to talk a little bit about it is Matt Snyder, one of our favorites and Matt yesterday last night, the Padres get the, the four one victory. And it looked a lot like a lot of their victories minus the ninth inning, but a triple play in the game. Just a high IQ play from Manning, which I will, what were your thoughts in that? It was amazing. And I, I thought, and I tweeted this this morning was, I don't know how many people appreciate the degree of difficulty on that play from a chateau, to, to have the ball come right to him and to get the third base so fast and to wheel and throw it off with strike the second with no margin for error whatsoever. It was an incredible baseball play. But that's, I mean, that's what you get with Manning, a chateau at third base. And that's what we've been seeing for years. So it's, that's why one of the reasons why he's going to be in the Hall of Fame someday, in my opinion. But that was an amazing way to end the game because it looked like, uh oh, a Robert Suarez meltdown is in progress. And then you get the ground ball triple play, all of a sudden, the Clemson playoffs, no less. I was trying to think of the most dramatic playoff clinchers. I thought back, if you remember 2004, Steve Finley hit a walk off Grand Slam for the Dodgers and it cleansed in a West for them. Like, if I'm going back to 2004 in my memory, that's a pretty darn dramatic clincher. But maybe it's not their only clincher because now they're eight and three against the Dodgers and only two games out with two games to go in Dodger Stadium. And, uh, you know, the Dodgers have three in Colorado and I know the Rockies are terrible, but we're weird stuff happens in course field all the time. So this division by no means is over. Talking about Snyder, CBS Sports here and the reason the triple play was so needed was because as you said, Robert Suarez. So I wanted to get a national perspective on Robert Suarez and whether or not you think there is more of a discussion as to the closer role of the Padres than, you know, people are having right now. It's just so difficult and Mike Schilt has a much better feel on a scene than any of us could have. The concerns are one that he's going to have a meltdown and cost you a playoff series. That's the biggest one. Two, if you remove them from the clothes, clothes roll, you shatter his confidence and you mess up what looks like it could be an amazing lockdown bullpen. And it's not just the obvious got Adam Suarez at the end. You've got Holling in that mix too. Several other really live arms. You could also argue you've seen enough in the past what eight weeks or so from Suarez to just say, don't worry about shattering his confidence because he should not be in high leverage situations the rest of the year. You have enough high octane arms that you don't need him in the high leverage situations. I would push back on that one because I kind of think you do. And he's shown how good he can be and it's so, so many not so many times. But it just looks like he has no confidence in throwing any off speed pitches for a strike right now. And his fastball while it is 100 to 101 is straight as an arrow. And anytime it to strike, it looks like the hitter's locking on it. And that was the case, I think it was Friday night against the White Sox. It looked like it was going to be the case last night. We've seen it so many times. The grand slam by the Tigers, I believe it was Parker Meadows. You've just seen it so much that I assume a lot of pottery stands are pretty worried heading toward the postseason. Got a few games left. Hopefully he gets some of these outings where he locks it down. He throws his off speed pitches for a strike. He gets a lot of strikeouts instead of hard contact right up people. But it does seem worrisome. Yeah, no, there's no doubt there's a starting to be. I think a few antennas raised up as he continues to kind of have these up and down performances. Matt, you know, this is the first time I can remember since I've been doing this job, going to opposing teams, ballpark and talking to the people who work around the stadium and hearing so much praise about this pottery team. A lot of them think that this team has a chance to take this, you know, pretty much all the way all the way. I mean, what do you, what is the pottery storyline on a national level right now? We know what it is here in San Diego, but this team looks like this is a World Series contender. 100%. They absolutely look at it. It's interesting. I went on a CVS 4JQR video channel last night to talk about the clunchers. And it was a study in contrast because when I talked about the Orioles, it was like, well, sure, they made the playoffs, but you can't trust them at all. They've been really fat since the middle of June. And I just don't see anything about that team that should scare any other team that they're going to face. The flip side to that was the pottery's who are, they lost the first game coming out of it. They also break to fall to 50 and 50. They're 41 and 16 to them. If teams started 41 and 16, we'd be talking about how that might be one of the best teams of all time. That's how well they're playing right now. And I don't know how much organizational depth they have right now. For example, if they went through all the injuries that the Astros went through or the Dodgers went through, but you know what? Who cares right now? Because you don't have to have that much going to the playoffs. You're going to play your studs every game. You need one through four in the rotation, which they have. You need four, five live arms in the ballton, which they have. You need a top to bottom lineup that is powerful, that can make things happen on the bases if they need to, that can put the ball and play if they need to. The Padres have every single element of a World Series champion. Now, we have seen teams like that get bounced in the first round. We've seen teams like that win the World Series. And it's interesting on the national league side, I think the Phillies could take a claim to being very similar to them. I don't know how the Dodgers are going to fare with that the way the rotation is right now. Who knows? The Brewers don't seem scary, but the Diamondbacks didn't last year and they ended up in the World Series. The Mets might well have those elements, especially if Francisco Lindor comes back. But at this point, they might not even make the playoffs. Look at the American League side. The Yankees probably have all those elements, but I don't know if anybody else does. I know everybody's scared of the Astros. I'm not quite as much. And I did the guarding or any of the wildcard teams don't really put a scare to me at all. So I would put there's going to be 12 playoff teams. I did Padres are top four, top three for me. Talking to Matt Snyder, CBS. I was going to say I would make the argument that the Padres had, you know, have the right kind of depth because, you know, they did have, you know, Darvish out for a long time. They did have Musgrove out. Toddy was out and they were able to have guys that may not be the same type of player, but certainly we're able to keep it afloat while those guys got healthy. 100%. Yes. And then once everybody did get healthy, now watch out. And that's what we're saying right now. Yes. Talking to Matt Snyder, CBS Sports. Sorry, Tony. I just got your text that you wanted to ask a follow up. So I tried to step all over you. But I want to ask because we are, we do praise the Padres and we should praise the Padres here in San Diego, but I want to ask someone who's not so close to the situation. What is this team's Achilles heel? What is going to possibly take them down in the playoffs? I mean, we've already talked about it, right? Okay, far as if that doesn't get figured, if that doesn't get figured out and she'll continue to stick with him. I don't know. And it's so hard to know right now, is that a flaw in the way Schultz going about it? Or is he right to stick with him because then he's going to get it figured out in time? But I just have visions of the end of a playoff series and other team hitting like a third-room bomb to knock the Padres out because of the way that these last several weeks have gone. And especially when you have alternatives like painter Scott, who has closing experience, like Jason Adam, who's very, very capable of getting the job done, I kind of wish he would have, two weeks ago, temporarily removed Suarez from the role to let him work things out so he didn't suffer like two or three more blown saves that probably hurt matters even worse. But again, it's so hard to tell. But I mean, anything else, look, teams can always get caught in flooky things that happen in small samples. So like if you look at the Phillies losing the Diamondbacks last year, three games in a row, and the Diamondbacks go to World Series, I don't think it was any one thing necessarily with the Phillies that you could have pointed out before. They just quit hitting. And if you looked at that offense, you wouldn't say, oh, man, I'm worried about that offense stop hitting. But in small samples, you look at this Potter's offense right now, I'm sure we could find where they just stopped hitting. And that could well happen at the wrong time. Yeah. For sure. That is a concern for every team that's going to go in there for sure. We've seen it happen back-to-back seasons. And on that, Matt, we're in the year three now of this format that I think has been a success to this point, except if you've been a number one seed has kind of been mixed results on that end. This has got to have been what Major League Baseball had in mind as you come down the stretch, right? I mean, you got a bunch of teams in this, both in American League and in the National League. Let's start through the National League. How do you think this one will end up when it's all said and done? Oh, man. Okay. So like I said, I feel like the Brewers probably are built more for the regular season than postseason. I'm not seeing a run in the Diamondbacks again. The Braves, I just I'm sorry. I'm sorry, man. I'm not saying, I'm not saying how do you think it will end up in the very, very, I'm just saying in terms of how do you, who do you, the lineup in terms of getting into the playoffs, those last couple of spots, how do you think those shake out? I'm sorry. I'm going to say the Mets hold on and find a way. They've just had such good vibes since the start of June. So I'll say that the Mets are the five. I guess I'll say the Diamondbacks, but it's really, I mean, after the Braves beat the Mets last night, it's just between those three teams. It's tough. It's tough to see who's going to get in. So I'll say the Braves get squeezed out. It just seems like they've been so cursed all season with all those injuries. And it just does not seem like their ears. So I'll say that somehow we end up with the Mets in the five spot and the Diamondbacks in the six, which means a lot of fun if the Padres do not win the NL West, which it would be way more fun if they won the NL West, frankly. But if they don't, they get to host them that maybe Joe Musco's ears will be red again. Man, that would be some sort of storyline. It would, it would make for a great theater for major league baseball to have those teams match up again, especially the way it went down the first time for sure. It was one of the dumbest, as always, man. Yes, it was. Yeah, there's still some med fans who actually bleed his ears had some type of illegal substance, illegal substance on it. Matt, thank you for your time, man. We'll catch up again soon. All right, take care. There we go. Matt Snyder from CBS sports, breaking it all down with us. Now Adam here, I just saw something from Manny Machado. And I didn't see this last night. And this kind of shows you what this team is all about because Manny Machado has always loved Hassan Kim. He has learned some Korean phrases. He's learned some of the language to meet Hassan Kim halfway. And after the game, when they were doing the interviews and stuff, he actually FaceTimed Hassan Kim to make him a part of the celebration. And I think that's pretty awesome. Adam is trying to work on the video right now, but I mean, that's the type of team this is when they say, Hey, we're a tight team. We got to believe him because I think they mean it. Yeah, I think I mean, I think that's a very loose term more times than not with a lot of different teams. Yeah, when you know it's it's a tight team, you can really feel it. And I honestly think this is the tightest. This group has been since a lot of them have been assembled here in in San Diego. So it's good to see. I think a lot of the youth movement as part of that, a lot of the veterans part of that. And the other thing too, I mean, it's always better when when you're winning. So that's also very interesting. Winning cures a lot of things. I've heard Tony say that multiple times. I love that so much. If you did see the video, you need to go back to the YouTube search 97 through the fan. And you can see that video because you see an A Z. Yeah, Manny Machado, or that's where hustle Kim is right now. We'll get into that a little bit. But we do need to take a little bit of a break. And we're going to play some Brayden versus the fans. We got prizes to give away. We have Eric Clapton tickets. We also have your qualification to Las Vegas. So if you want to get in line and play that 8332880973. Today it is Matt Scravey, Brayden Soprena and Adam Klug from here on now on 97 through the fan. Chris is on vacation. He's going to be back next week. Tony Goode, Jr. will be back for the big five here in about 35 or 40 minutes. And we are about to play Chris versus the fans. And Brayden yesterday took place or took part in his first ever Chris versus the fans. And it didn't go well for you, Brayden. Didn't go well. I only got one question. It was the hardest one. And question number three is the hard question predated my time too. Well, if you if you are on the line, you need to stay on the line because you have a good chance of winning. And if you win, you'll qualify for a chance to win our grand prize. A two night stay at win or Encore Las Vegas and two tickets to see Awakening. Awakening, the thrilling spectacle at win Las Vegas dazzles audiences with soaring aerialists, bounding acrobats, high energy choreography, comedic moments and more. At the heart of this compelling story, a hero must confront the forces of light and darkness in a quest to save the world. A mythic adventure on fold set amid the most technologically immersive theater ever designed. Tickets are on sale now at awakening.com. Also, if you win, you will win a pair of tickets and it'll be in your hands. Well, not in your hands on your phone to Eric Clapton at Pichanga Arena on October 8th. Limited tickets remain at AXS.com. So without further ado, let's get into Brayden versus the fans. The rules for the game. You have to make it through three questions. Each question will get more difficult. If you get the question right, you move on. If you get it wrong and Chris gets it right, you're eliminated. But if Chris gets it wrong, then you move on to the next question or you win. And of course, I mean, when I say Chris, I meant Brayden there again, Ron Burgundy. One more time. Chris vs. the fans is presented by SD fat loss lose 20 to 30 pounds in just 60 days. Visit SD fat loss.com to schedule your free consultation. And if you are a first time, play let us know before you get into it and you'll get the first question for free. You know, one thing I like when Adam works in studio, if you're watching the YouTube stream, he loves to put his hood on his head. He's a cold and he's a hoodie guy. It is kind of cold in here. So I'm wearing this pullover. You're wearing a t-shirt. So you must not be too cold, Brayden. How about that, cold? Okay, there's a there's a community alt 94 nine hoodie back there. I've been sitting in here for a long time. That's been sitting in here a long time. I don't even know who wears it. I think it's too small. It's a it's not hurt or so. It's almost ripped out the unit over here. But yes, here is our alt 94 nine community hoodie. That's like a double X. Let's see. It's a it's a large. Okay. Yeah, I could fit me. I'm not cold now. Okay. Well, if you need it, it's right here, break you. All right, let's get into the game. Let's go to our first contestant. And I am going to go with Peter in UTC. Hello, Peter. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Are you ready to play? Yeah. All right, here we go. Question number one. How long is an MBA shot clock? Do I have a life on or no? You do not have a life on a question number one. 35. 35 seconds. That is incorrect. Braden, do you know? Is it 25 seconds? That is incorrect as well. Wow. You were still alive, Peter. It's 24 seconds. Oh 24 seconds. I don't watch the ever I was gonna say you ever watched a basketball game before. I watch college basketball. College basketball is 35 seconds. So that would have been correct, Peter, if it was college. No, I don't watch the NBA. It's boring. All right. I only watch college. All right. Well, you've you're moving on. No matter what, Peter, here we go. Question number two. What equestrian sport is played on horseback and features two teams using mallets to hit a ball through goal posts. Polo is correct. I need to be a little bit more dramatic on that one. All right. We're here to question number three. You get this right or Braden gets it wrong and you are going to be qualified for a trip to Las Vegas and you will also win those tickets to Eric Clapton. Here we go. Who is the only NBA player who has averaged a triple double four times in their career. LeBron J. I think he said LeBron James. That is incorrect. Stay there. Braden. What was the, can you repeat the question? Who is the only NBA player? Who is this? Chris Ello over here? You remind me so much of him sometimes. Yeah. Pay attention, Braden. Who is the only NBA player? How do you do? There he is. I miss him kind of. Not really. Who is the only NBA player who has averaged a triple double four times in their career? Over the course of a season, I assume, averaged a triple double would be Russell Westbrook. Doesn't matter because that is correct. The question I got from a book. So that's a good question, Adam. They didn't specify in the book. So all right. I'm sorry, Peter. Braden gets that right and he spoils the dreams of Peter for going to Eric Clapton. Shouldn't have told me to pay attention. That would have thrown it for you. That's right. Figure it out. We'll see you. All right. Let's go to our next contestant. We'll go to Cesar in San Diego. Hello Cesar. How's going, guys? Pretty good. Are you ready to play? Let's do this. All right. Question number one. What is the nickname for the famous NFL play that involved New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez running full speed into the back of a teammate? Sports better not top 10, but bumble. Yes, that is correct. I wonder if that's what happened to Mark Sanchez. Still one of the funniest things in the world. That happened. Hey, by the way, a side note, Mark Sanchez, I like him on football games. I think he's fun. I don't know about you guys, but I do. All right. The Sanchez. Question number two. That's Gary Sanchez. That's Gary Sanchez. All right, Cesar. Here we go. They cut. They called Mark Sanchez the Sanchez. Did they? Yeah, it was in New York. He was there before Gary Sanchez. All right. What French soccer player recently signed with Real Madrid for a five year deal worth $16 million annually? Embop A. Embop A is correct. Nice job. Here we go. Final question. I have no idea who Embop A is. You have to know who Embop A is. You're not one of the biggest athletes in the world. Adam knows who Embop A is. I don't want to suck her. It was a handsome song, right? Embop is what you're thinking of. If I haven't thought about Embop in forever. Kids, Bob. Anyway. All right. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Cesar. Who is the most recent player to win the NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season? Cam Newton. Cam. No. You didn't win. You didn't win. Give him some leeway here. Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning. Correct. Braden. Who is the most recent player to win the NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same season? Patrick Holmes. That is correct. Wow. Sorry about that, Cesar. Patrick Holmes is correct. Breaking hearts over here. You are breaking hearts today. Good job. I studied last night just in case. You did. You just read a trivia book. That's right. I found the one that you were looking at. I studied all the answers. Let's go to Bill in San Diego. Hello, Bill. Hey, how you guys doing today? Oh, pretty good. Pretty good. Here we go. Question number one. What does the Mets in New York Mets stand for? Mega Pawdian. I'm sorry. That is correct. Mega Pawdian. Yeah, very good. I'll give it to you. Those those good enough. Here we go. Question number two. How many times has Tiger Woods won the Masters? Two numbers. I'll tell you five. Five is correct. Nice job. That was pretty impressive right there. All right. Final question. We've done this a couple of times now, so maybe you can get past Braden here third and final one. What old time player was nicknamed Houdini of the Hardwood NBA player. Good name, or you can say, you don't know. John Hammers, check. Okay. That is incorrect. Braden. What old time NBA player was nicknamed on record? No chance of the hardwood. I don't know. Pistol Pete Merivac. Oh, at least he gave me an old school name. That is incorrect. And Bill is the winner is actually Bob Coosie. Yeah. Thank you so much for playing, Bill. You are going to be qualified for a trip to Las Vegas, and you will be getting those tickets for Eric Clapton. You never heard of Bob Coosie? I don't know if you've noticed. I don't watch the NBA, and I don't watch soccer. You've never just come across the name, Bob Coosie, and all your sports dealings? No. Okay. If it's NBA related, I probably just, I don't care. I think it's incredibly boring, so I don't watch and I don't pay attention. What makes you think it's incredibly boring? It's boring. Just to say, this is so boring. I don't understand. I'd rather watch paint dry, then watch the NBA. Wow. Wow. What about college basketball? I love college basketball. What's the difference? Passion. Okay. You get me there. They play hard. You get me there. Sometimes. The pageant. Now it's kind of changing a little bit with this NIL. The pageant tree. We're going to talk about the NIL. We also don't have an NBA team, so I've never gotten an NBA team. Well, that's true. Standing on an NBA team during my lifetime would be like, Oh, cool. We're going to talk about this UNLV NIL situation with the quarterback in the big five, but it's becoming a complete mess. And even stuff has come out since we started the show, but the basic gist of the story is the quarterback for the team decided he was going to leave the team after three games and do a red shirt year because he was promised, allegedly, promised $100,000 from UNLV for NIL. And he was only allegedly paid $3,000. The college, on the other hand, says that they were being strong armed for this money. And we talk about it in the big five. Braden has a pretty good perspective on the whole thing, but it's getting kind of crazy. Yeah. Well, and Tony alludes to this as well, and it kind of makes a lot of it's, I understand the path that they've been on. You know, the thing that really drove this off the rails was was the whole situation of not being able to make money off your name, image, and likeness. And that and the thing that was weird was like, you would have like a track athlete committed to a school that while in high school had like a YouTube page, and it did really well, and he couldn't continue it because he wasn't allowed to make money when he got to college. And that was utterly ridiculous. He was doing something separate. Yeah, I mean, so like those situations, and there was a lot of those situations where they were unable to make any type of money. And the situations of like, you couldn't buy an 18 year old a meal if you were the school, like I'm recruiting and stuff like that. Just, just such ridiculous rules that didn't account for really common sense. But it, but now it's like they've used that and they've turned it into the pay for play, which is drastically different than just a kid making money off of his name, image, or likeness. And it's, it's created this dynamic in this world where everybody's chasing the bag. And that's basically it. I think that's a major contributor, why the NFL product has gone down. I think it's a major contributor, why a lot of sports products have gone down. Because the good players are staying in school now. No, we're setting a precedent where if you do not make your team or whatever, they leave. I mean, you just at the first sign of adversity, it's we're out. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that. But yes, we will get into that. It's out of hand. It's been out of hand. It was out of hand before the NIL stuff. It's even more out of hand now. And it's, it's, it's going to get worse. Yeah, it will. But that conversation happens in about 30 minutes or so. When we get back, I'm going to tell you the one thing that's made bumming me out about this, uh, Padre season when we get back here on 97 through the fan, we have a line up everybody. Thank you for getting the lined up sounder. And it's not much different from last night. The only difference is that Elias Diaz is catching tonight instead of Kyle Hagashiyoka. So it goes a rise at the DH and then Tati's profile, Machado, Meryl Bogart, Croninworth, Solano and Diaz, Dylan Seuss pitching for the Padres, Jack Flaherty pitching for the Dodgers. So why not run it back, right? I mean, come on. All the people that were afraid that they're going to be hung over today. Just come on. Yeah, they'll be all right. They're going to be fine. It's going to, you know what? They can sleep until like at least noon. You know, Tony had to be up a little bit earlier so he could record the show with us, but they can sleep for as long as I'm glad the game was at 7 10. That's as much. That's, that's, that's, that's where I'm at. All right, before we went to break, I said that I'm going to tell you something that's bumming me out about this Padres season. And I have been seeing, I've been one of the bigger champions out there for Jackson Meryl rookie of the year. And I've been championing hard all season long saying that he is more impressive to me because he is an everyday player playing a position he's never played before. And it's his rookie season. And he's still hitting over 290. And he's hit over 20 home runs. And he has almost 90 RBIs. But I am seeing the tide turned back towards Paul Skeens. And I hope I'm wrong. I will gladly wear this. But I'm feeling my feeling is that Paul Skeens is going to win the rookie of the year award. He's been great. I mean, I'm not saying that he's not deserving of the award. Last night he went five innings or the last time he pitched, he went five innings, gave up two hits, nine strikeouts. His ERA on the season is 1.99. He's 11 and three is 167 strikeouts, 0.96 whip. But when we were going at, there was an article about the top 20, let's see, breakout players in 2024. And they wrote that Paul Skeens was one of those players. And here's the quote. This rookie is on quite a ride. There are several were the candidates for NL Rookie of the year. But if I had to pick one, I'd go with Skeens. Not only that, Braden, the odds now were in favor of Jackson Merrill for a long time. Paul Skeens is back on top in Vegas in regards to the odds. So I don't know how you feel, but I feel like they're going to give it to Paul Skeens. And I will forever feel like Jackson Merrill was robbed of this award. Yeah, that's why I don't like awards. I think they're dumb because of things like this, narratives like this. There's no reason Paul Skeens should win the Rookie of the Year award over Jackson Merrill, who is making a huge impact on a team that is going, is making, is going to the playoffs, a team that is one of the favorites, you know, that a lot of experts are picking to make a run in the playoffs, but potentially win the National League pennant, a player that plays every single day, a player that switched from shortstop to center field, who had only played about 40 games and double a ball before making this gigantic impact. I don't understand the logic in this to give the award to Paul Skeens because what he's hyped, leave the hype. We love the hype. I mean, he's really good, but he didn't play a full season and made in Major League Baseball. He didn't play the full season. He's still qualified for the year. He doesn't qualify for Cy Young. He doesn't qualify for the ERA title. He pitches every five days. His team is lousy. I just, I don't understand. And I don't even think like it has to be a, your team doesn't have to be great in order to win, but baseball wants to do this because they think it's hype and they like, they like the hype. They like the, they like the Livy Dunn aspect. I mean, it's, it's the story and it's a narrative for all the Aztec fans out there that I'm sure got upset about the Heisman when Marshall Falk should have clearly won the Heisman Trophy and they gave it to Geno Taretta instead is awards are dumb. They're dumb. I don't necessarily think I can go to awards or dumb because I do think awards means something and you can look back on it. But you're right in this case, like this award is a popularity award this year. If, if Jackson Merrill was, if Paul schemes was not there with Jackson Merrill, then it would be an easy award to give the Jackson Merrill. But Paul schemes is more popular in the eyes of Major League Baseball in the eyes of voters because apparently, you know, he's making history with what he's doing as a rookie pitcher. But at the same time, Jackson Merrill is doing it in a high pressure situations and he's changing the game on both sides defensively, offensively. And I just can't think that Paul schemes could have as big of an impact as Jackson Merrill has had on his team this year. And you said it, his team stinks. The pirates are not good. Paul schemes can't save that team. Jackson Merrill at one point this year, when they were in Pittsburgh, by the way, had a couple of home runs that did save this team at the time. And I think that's it's going to go to Paul schemes because of the popularity contest. But I said so, and but the thing is, this, this, what's also makes dumb about it. They attached incentives to these awards, right? We talked about that yesterday. That is a first round draft pick for the Padres that might go to the pirates because of this above who's voting. I mean, there's a lot on the line here. So I, I don't understand the schemes over the Merrill conversation. Merrill has done so much more and has done it in such a huge, a longer span of times and more of an impact. That's why I don't. I don't. That's why I think well, awards are dumb is because of these situations right here. Yes. All right. Well, I got that off my chest. I hope I didn't anger too many people. I know that we have a phone call, but we also have to get the break because the big five is on the way. And I asked Braden and Tony for their thoughts on one player who has struggled a little bit and his name is not Robert Suarez. And so I'll, I'll talk to them about that in the big five next when we come back on 97-3 the fan. You know, for a lot of people to say a rookie of the year doesn't matter. There is certainly a lot of chatting going on on our YouTube chat about rookie of the year. Welcome back into Gwen and Chris, everybody. I'm Matt Scrabie. This is 97-3 the fan. Real quick, let's sneak in a phone call from John in East County. He would like to talk about the MLB awards and the whole Jax and Meryl situation. What's up, John? How are you doing? Hey guys, how's it going? Pretty good. You know, one solution, one solution of the whole thing is I think the players should vote. Get rid of all the sports writers all the bias and just let the players vote. And I think that way you'll get a true, you know, feeling of exactly who's who, and what's what, you know, nobody knows better than the players. And I think a lot of these sports writers are definitely biased. Are you the players to vote? I think that's a good idea, John. Thank you for the phone call. I don't mind that either. Yeah, if you are getting vote, but I was gonna say in college football, they have a thing where obviously it's called the coaches poll where the coaches vote and they don't have time to watch all of these different teams because they're focused on their own and it. But I would think that players talk. You play everybody though. Yeah, you do play everybody. You play everybody so you could be like, you know, I've seen these guys know who's good and who's not. I'm seeing them in all star games and stuff like that. And there'll be like players probably in the division that will probably vote more for guys in their own division than other divisions. I think it'd probably be balanced. Or friends or, you know, I'm sure there's bias in that too. I mean, there's no like clear cut way to figure it out. But Jim Bowden sitting on his couch right in his article saying that schemes is the guy doesn't necessarily make me feel like he, you know, is any better at deciding the rookie of the year than all of us. Let's go to Tyler real quick and point Loma. Adam and I keep hitting the button together and one of us puts them on hold one of them splits one. Anyway, Tyler, what's up? How are you doing? Hey, good. How you guys doing? Good. Good. What's on your mind? Yeah, first really quick shot to the YouTube chat on the reason my thoughts aren't in there because I'm driving right now. But I'm just like the whole Jackson Merrill versus Paul skiing thing is so annoying to me because I feel like everybody knows we're in an era of baseball where MLB itself is saying, hey, the pitching's gotten really good. It's going to keep getting good. And we're literally making changes to the rules of the game to incentivize offense. And so why is a breakout offensive performance from a rookie getting devalued for a performance by a rookie pitcher? It just doesn't make sense to me. I think what Jackson Merrill is doing is far beyond what Paul's teams is pulling off. But at the end of the day, you know, if I had to shoot between two awards, I'll take World Series MVP for Merrill over a year any day. I love that Tyler and you drop the drop the mic on that one. And by the way, I would much rather have a World Series title than a rookie of the year title as well. But because Jackson Merrill deserves it is the reason I am going to keep fighting for it. All right. It is now time for us to go and get into the weird world of the Big Five after traffic. No traffic. Adam already told me that. Here comes the Big Five. It's that time of the show when we check on the latest in sports, only the most important topics and questions are brought to light. Stop what you're doing and listen. These news stories will astound and amaze you. The one. The only. Oh my god. Who the hell. Keshe. The Big Five starts now on 97.3, the fan. All right. So we got topics all over the place today in the Big Five. But of course, we're going to be starting with a Padres topic in our first number five. And I know that we are celebrating last night and we are looking at the positive. But I have had many questions asked to me about Zander Bogart's in his last five games. He has three errors and he hasn't quite looked 100% comfortable at the shortstop position. But Braden, you're up first today is his latest play at shortstop. A big deal, little deal or no deal. I really think it's that big of a deal. So I'm going to go with in between little deal and no deal potentially. Baby deal. Baby deal. I think there might be a little bit to him moving back to shortstop. But the reality, the guys are pros pro. I mean, he's one of the best professionals the Padres have had in their organization the last 10 to 15 years. And that's not saying the Padres haven't had a lot of pros. But that's just saying how great Zander Bogart's is. I think he's going to get back to his normal playing spot at shortstop where he feels comfortable. And I don't think it's that big of a deal. I mean, he and he went out and owned it during the post game celebration. He said, I'll get the shortstop thing figured out. Don't worry about it. So I'm not worried about it. The guys won multiple World Series. He's he's been he's been there. He's done that. I think he'll rise the occasion. I don't I don't think it's a big deal. All right, Tony Zander Bogart's recent shortstop play a big deal, little deal. I guess baby deal or no deal. Baby deal. I don't think this is anything. I don't want me because when he first moved over there, he was pretty much flawless. He just hit a rut here in the last week and a half where he's had made some errors. But the first couple of weeks he was there, he didn't have any and he made every play and some plays that he probably shouldn't have made. So, you know, I think he's just in a little bit of a rut. Braden perfectly said he's a pros pro. He'll figure it out. No doubt. The baby no deal. No deal. No deal. I'm not even a baby deal. No deal. No. All right. All right. Number four. Now that the baseball season is coming to an end, Black Monday is coming for some managers and CBS sports put a list together of managers that are on the hot seat and there were only actually three managers on this list. So the three are Bud Black of the Rockies, John Schneider of the Blue Jays, Oliver Marmal of the Cardinals. Tony, do you see any of these managers being let go? It could be two Cardinals maybe. They could they could go different route, you know, based on how they've operated before. I can see them definitely doing it. It is my job. So they did. And he had far more and he had far and he had more success. So and then who was the other one? John Schneider. Who was the other option again? Bud Black. That's the other one because they had high expectations. Yeah. I don't know about Bud. I don't think Bud is in much of danger as the other two because, you know, what are the Rockies? Rockies actually have some kind of players. They have developed their little bit. So, you know, other than that, they really have much. You know, the big signing they made hasn't worked out at all with Chris Bryan. Unfortunately, he'd been banged up. And so, yeah, I just this is not where we're else is you going to go. I think I think he'll be fine. I think the other two though, expectation and, you know, how they've operated in the past, but tell you that those two could be in trouble. Brandon, do you see any of these managers being let go? I think Schneider's gone. I think it's 50 50 on Marmal and I don't think Bud Black goes. I just like Tony said, I don't know what the point in firing Bud Black would be. Bud Black has been given a lot of poor rosters over his career. An entire career. An entire career with an exception of 2010, of course, Tony. That was a good spot. Yes. That was a great year. And for the Padres, but thank you, thank you, thank you. But, you know, Toronto, they had high expectations. I mean, that was supposed to be a team that was supposed to compete for division title and a team that's going to be, you know, make it run in the playoffs. And, you know, they had good, they have a good roster. I can see, I think Schneider's going to be gone. Marmal's kind of 50 50, but I mean, that's another year in a row where the Cardinals have just kind of been disappointing. I mean, the Cardinals have been an organization that is constantly and consistently been in the postseason. And this is two years in a row where they haven't really been close to being in the postseason. And as Tony said, they got rid of Shilt there in St. Louis for, you know, within he had way more success than Marmal has had. Again, the Cardinals, more of an aging team with some young guys in there, but still a team that, you know, talent-wise probably should have been a lot closer to a playoff spot. So if I had to rank him in order, I'd go, Schneider gets fired. I think Marmal's probably 50 50. And if the Rockies fire blood black, I don't know what they're doing. No one knows what they're doing, Braden. That's the point of the Rockies. You know what tells me about why the Cardinals are going to fire all over Marmal was the attendance that we saw when the Padres went there and there was no one in the seats. And when Butts aren't in seats, people make changes. It's not good. Especially for an organization like the Cardinals that, you know, usually has tons of people there. Yeah. All right. Chiefs tight end Travis Kelsey has eight catches for 69 yards through his first three games this season. And many people are wondering if anything is wrong with him. Here is Todd McShae talking about what he thinks is the issue on the Ryan Rusillo podcast. Are we not allowed to say that he's out of shape that he's been partying all off season? He's been jet setting around with his the most famous person probably in the entire world. The coverage and the respect he gets is the same. The athlete is not. Now, is he going to work himself into shape during the season? Yeah, I'm sure he will. He's he's an unbelievable competitor. He's one of the best to ever do it. But he's not the same guy right now. I'm not blaming it on Taylor Swift. I'm not blaming anything. All I'm saying is when you win two Super Bowls, you've got the whole tour that happens after the Super Bowl. There's no one else doing more commercials. I don't think in the league and he and my homes are up there. But I think Kelsey's doing more commercials and things. He's been at more events doing more things socially. It's impossible to carry that schedule and still put in the same amount of time for football. Well, there you go. That was Todd McShae. Braden, you're at first on this one. And do you think it's OK to criticize Travis Kelsey for this? For his lack of performance, I think it's fair to criticize off the field off the field stuff. I mean, I think it's it's an interesting conversation. I don't necessarily know if it's 100% the blame for this particular deal. But you know, a lot of guys have to have to, you know, go through the business side of things too. And I think, you know, I don't think it's really an excuse, you know, for, for Travis Kelsey in terms of his production. I, you know, I think it's kind of a lower blow on the, you know, to say like, well, he's won the two Super Bowls and all this other stuff and Dayton Taylor Swift. I think it's an easy cop out to be honest with you. The real reason why Travis Kelsey is not doing well is because I drafted him on two fantasy teams. So, I drafted him at home. So if you want to know what Kelsey's not playing well, it's because I drafted him and I literally was sitting there going like, you know what? Because I'm not a huge, I'm not a huge Travis Kelsey fan. There's nothing to do with Taylor Swift. I just, I haven't really been a fan of him in the past. And I was like, yeah, two things can happen here. One, he's going to help my team out. Or two, I just curse him on accident. And it works out in my favor on that on that particular case. But I, I will say in Travis Kelsey's defense, it's because Brayden subreddit drafted him in fantasy football more than him having to go through all these other off field stuff. But I do think that is, you know, that does catch up to a lot of athletes throughout sports. I don't think it's Kelsey's fault, but it's a very difficult task to do to be everywhere that he needs to be and also perform at a high level. It's very difficult. Tony, what's it like? Because I know you do a lot of commercials and stuff. How do you get everything, keep everything done? Just kidding. Just kidding. Do you think it's okay to criticize Travis Kelsey for this? I think it's poor taste. I don't think it's poor taste to criticize him. I think it's poor taste to make it about what he would jet setting and whatever else he said in that little clip. I think it's fair to say he looks out of shape. I think that's, you know, that's that's within the bounds. I don't think he, I mean, he didn't break a law by saying what he said, but it just seemed like a poor taste. It took, he took a pot shot like a little blow to say jet setting. Yeah, it was. It was a little pot shot. But, you know, it's not egregious. You know what I'm saying? But he took a little pot shot, for sure. All right, Todd McShane, I think like the, because I said this before the year, everybody. I said this before the year. Number two. You said what before the year? Travis Kelsey was going to struggle because he's more concerned with off the field than on the field. It should have this on who's the blame yesterday. That's not true. You don't know that. Maybe just because he struggled is not immediately true. Maybe he's just old. Can we accept that? Yeah, maybe he's maybe he's out of shape. He's like 36 now or something. Wow. Is he 36? He's pretty, he's pretty up there is what I was about to say. He's 34. Oh, he's 34. He turns 35 on in October. Yeah, no, I used to get some, he got some tread on them times, though. Hey, you know what? It's a long NFL season. He just, he needs to put it together to the end. He hates himself. I just hate the chief so much. Just hate so much. Yeah, I know. They just, they text the Niners. That's why. Number two. UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka is leaving his team just three games into the season because of, well, some are saying it's because he didn't get the money he was promised by the school. His statement on X said, quote, "I've decided to utilize my red shirt ear and will not be playing in any additional games this season. I committed to UNLV based on certain representations that were made to me, which were not upheld after I enrolled. Despite discussions, it became clear that these commitments would not be fulfilled in the future. I wish my teammates the best of luck this season and hope for the continued success of the program. Now, his reps are saying he was promised a minimum of $100,000, but he only received $3,000. And the school is saying that his reps are strong arming or trying to strong arm the school and to paying him money. So did you see the UNLV statement? Yes, they said that they were approached by his people. Go ahead. Do you have it in front of you? Yeah, it said football player Matthew Sluka's representative made financial demands upon the university and its NIL collective in order to continue playing. UNLV athletics interpreted these demands as violation of the NCAA pay for play rules as well as Nevada state law. UNLV does not engage in such activity, nor does it respond to implied threats. UNLV has honored all previously agreed upon scholarships for Matthew Sluka. UNLV has conducted due diligence and will continue to operate its programs within the framework of NCAA rules and regulations as well as Nevada state laws. A lot of he said she said yes, yes, very much. So Tony, good luck. Somebody's lying. Yes. Do you? Um, I guess I'm just going to change my question question and go, who's to blame here? No, just one question. What are you going to ask? I was going to say, do you think what he did is okay? But who's to blame is the better question? I don't know. I don't think anybody knows who's to blame. Just kind of getting he said, as Brayden said, he says she said going right now and nothing to prove one side is right or the other. He very well, him and his representation, very well could be trying to strong arm this school or we certainly have seen schools renege on, say, you know, given what they said they only give. So I think in due time, we'll get the true answer. But this is just as part of the the new way we do things. These are bound. These are issues that are bound to happen and we'll start happening more. Tony, do you think that what he did was wrong? What did he do? We don't know what the team left the team left the team. What did he do? Let me transfer. Oh, that part. Uh, I mean, yeah, I mean, I personally would, you know, I wouldn't be playing for money. You know what I'm saying? I think that's where it starts. Like, I get it. You want to get a bag right now. But, you know, you're supposed to, you know, at least in my perspective, I'm gonna put me wanting to play the game over, you know, whatever the amount of money is. Yeah, Brayden. Things with this, Carl Reed Jr. of 24/7 sports. These college football analysts had this report last night. Um, all financial commitments for UNLV's quarterback, Matthew Sluka, were completely met, but after wins against Kansas and Houston, Sluka's family hired an agent and they collectively feel that his market value has increased per source. Again, it's more, he said, she said, in this day and age of college football, you have to look at it both sides, right? I mean, I think it's more of a, what's, what's the saying? You know, don't, don't blame the player, blame the game kind of attitude. And, um, you know, I, I think a lot of college football players now and college athletes are interested in money, probably a little bit more than, than playing the game in some sort of sense. And you know what, who's, who's to, who's to blame them for what the, the environment is. I mean, if you look at Sluka, he is in his last, he's got one year left of college football. He's not going to be good enough to play in the national football league. He has an opportunity potentially to make a couple hundred thousand dollars. There's reports and again, rumors that other schools have contacted him and saying like, Hey, if you read shirt, we could pay you X amount of dollars to transfer to our school. So if you have a kid that is not going to pull, go pro and not going to play in the professional leagues and has an opportunity to make three hundred thousand dollars at a different school next year. If you got one year of eligibility left, you know, what kind of decision you're going to make there? Are you willing to just leave? Again, you're making a choice here. You're willing to quit on your team that you're three and oh with that has a chance to make the college football playoff to make three hundred thousand dollars potentially next year. There's no guarantee or, you know, do you stay and you keep playing with your, with your team? There's so much to unpack on this that it's, it's, it's a difficult decision, I think. And the reality is who's to blame at the NCAA for not having any guidelines to this Wild Wild West mix that is out there? I gotta say, I enjoy being given a different perspective. I had, I mean, in that situation, that's, you're right. That does, that does kind of complicate it. It makes it a little bit more complex is, you know, I think oftentimes people think of these athletes as, oh, they're going to the league no matter what, but here's a situation where as you said, this dude is not going to play football beyond college. Why not get a head start in life after, after playing and being able to capitalize on it? Why you can't? It's a great point. But it is a part of partly the NCAA's fault for not have, the first being unrelenting in their rules, which really led to athletes pushing for this and then not reacting fast enough to what was going on. And so this is, this is part of the part of the deal now. It's, it's an interesting topic of discussion that, you know, we can obviously get into more on a different day. But you know, to me, I, I, you're still, it's, you know, it's the whole Josh Hader thing, right? Where it's, you know, you can leave for the bigger contract, which is fine. And that's his right. But then at the same time, don't expect Padres fans to cheer for you when you come back. I mean, that's, it's the give and take and you're willing to make that decision. So if you're willing to, you know, I, I mean, he's still quitting on his team in a, in a way, but again, he's looking out for himself in the long term. So it's, it's very interesting. It's a, it's a tough decision that I think a lot of parents, obviously, and kids have to deal with right now with the way it is because they didn't make any rules. Um, you know, do you think what I, what he did is okay? I mean, I think there's something to be said about a guy that's throwing completing less than half of his passes to go out there and demand more money after three weeks on a three and O team and go, I'm out. And then just abandon his team, who by the way, are like, is expected to play. They're, they're not that this matters with gambling, but their line went from their favorite by five to now they're even with Fresno State. And they had another player just announced that he is leaving the fourth leading rusher on UNLV. He got one carry against Kansas. He said the same thing. His promises weren't met. He's out. How many more of these players going to do that? Tony, here's the other thing too. Don't, don't be surprised if you start seeing a bunch of teams having guys enter the transfer portal after this week, because you can play the red shirt for games and still get a red shirt. And so we are far from done with this. And I, you know what? Who's the blame? It's the incident of life we're not putting in rules and just letting everything just go to chaos in college up left. We might have to bring this up tomorrow again just to expand on it a little bit because it seems like there's more there. I love the, I love the Josh haters shot. It's great trying to sneak in there somehow connecting it. It wasn't me for once. I don't have a drama, Josh Hader, but there's so many Padres fans that boo him because he left. I mean, the reality is, and you know, you take a lot of time. I have to get moving guys. I'm sorry. We're going to have to say, I don't think he expected to get cheers. Yeah, well, that's not and I, I don't think we, Padres fan should boo him. I think it's a waste of our time. All I know is going forward when anyone does something selfish. I'm going to call him a sluka. I'm just going to be like, you're such a sluka. Number one. Okay, nothing. Uh, Josh Allen said after he threw four touchdown passes on Monday night, it's a fun and wonderful thing when you got a bunch of guys that don't care about the stats. They don't care about the touchdowns. Now a lot of people thought he was talking about Stefan Diggs, who's now playing for the Texans. So he was asked about it today and he said, quote, I know there's a lot of people talking. I'm not trying to tear anybody down. I've loved everybody that I've played with. I love 14. I still do, but everyone wants to keep making this thing a thing. We're so focused on what's going on side of our building, blah, blah, blah, blah. Braden, do you think he was talking about Stefan Diggs? Not really. I don't really don't think so. Come on. I don't I don't really think he I don't really really did. I think we're trying to make it a big deal out of nothing. I mean, you can say what you want, but that's the problem with assuming things. What does it do, Scravey? I can't say it on the radio. Yeah. Well, that's I mean, that's that's that's that's where you're at right now with with some of this. I think we're trying. I think the media is trying to pull something out of this and it's not. I mean, the guys say we're focused and he's worried about his team. I don't know what the the point of that would be in to take a shot at one of his former teammates. Tony, see, Braden, what you don't know is this is this is right up Scravey's alley. This is how his brain operates when it comes to these subjects. So it's not a surprise at all that this is the question and yes, Braden, if it wasn't you, it would have been me that's if it wasn't you, it would have been me that said that said, this is one of those topics that we have no idea and it's probably a big, overblown pal of nothing. And so I don't know. Therefore, we'll just leave that. We'll move on. Stefan Diggs is a Sluka. We know this. He's hard to play with. Okay. Josh Hader, Sluka, Sluka, Stefan, they were just throwing just strays at so many athletes for no reason. I mean, it's kind of it's kind of crazy. This is this issues with Scravey way. There was issues with Stefan Diggs. Josh Allen said it's a fun and wonderful thing when you guys when you have a bunch of guys who don't care about stats, which everybody said that Stefan Diggs cared about. He hasn't been on his team. Oh, he hasn't been on his team. My brain exploded. He hasn't been on his team since last year. We're talking about last year. That was last year to quote Mike Leach. Thank you very much, guys. That's it for the big five. When we get back, we're going to get you set for game two. We're going to hear some more fun interviews that Tony did in the clubhouse after they clinched their playoff spots. So stick around with us on 97 through the fan. Welcome into the final hour of Gwen and Chris here on 97 through the fan. I'm Matt Scravey. We got Brayden Suprentent here with me. We also have Adam Klug here with me and we will have Sammy Levitt with us at around 545 later this hour. He's going to update us on what's going on up at Dodger Stadium. Talk a little bit about last night. I'm glad that we asked him if he had his poncho ready because he needed one and he did have his poncho ready. And it wasn't a curse. And it wasn't a curse. You're right. We have to bring that to his attention. But I think it's time now to focus on tonight. And when I say that, we're going to go back to the Otani at Bass from yesterday. But tonight is a big night for the Padres and they're two games back of the Dodgers for the National League West title. And Dylan Sees is going to be pitching for the Padres tonight. Jack Flaherty is pitching for the Dodgers tonight. This is going to be a dandy and it's it means a lot. I mean this these next two games for the Dodgers and the Padres will determine basically the entire season and how they end up. And I can't even believe we're sitting here right now with five games to go in the season and the Padres are right on the doorstep of tracking down the Dodgers for the division. So all work to do. I mean, if you look at the odds of winning the division, it's at 12% right now to win the division. Again, if the Padres win tonight, win over the Dodgers tonight and all of a sudden it will it will move up just a little bit. It'll go up to 18 or actually it will go up to about 30 something percent with the win tonight. So and again, continue to put pressure on the Los Angeles Dodgers. The more pressure you put on them, the better it's going to be going into the weekend with the Dodgers have to win in order to prevent the Padres from potentially doing something. But again, Padres control their own destiny. So they got five games. They win five in a row here to finish the season. They will be division champs and have a first round by get get a loss anywhere in there. And all of a sudden, you got to start relying on some other results. But take care of what you could take care of, control your controllables and we'll see what Dylan still sees has tonight against Jack Flaherty. Is that something that you tell your football team? Control your controllables control the controllables a couple times here in the last couple days. Definitely. I like it. It's a good way of putting it because you're right. There's some things that you just can't control and you can't worry about those things. Yeah, my guy got that. Well, we'd say it as a program all the time control you can control. And you know, when I'm working with Brock Ungrich over at USD, he says it all the time to his his baseball team control you can control. I mean, you can't worry about things that that you have no impact on. And however, every other team participates, those though and how they play as you have no say in what that is. So go out there and get the job done, win tonight. And we'll see what happens tomorrow with more pressure. One thing that I think is true for at least this season is the Dodgers don't seem to be as confident when they play the Padres. The Padres have been so good against them this year. And with the Padres right there, I have to think that the Padres are living rent-free in the Dodgers head in that clubhouse. And Chris Rose agrees with me. He on his podcast was talking about this very same thing. Sorry, Adam, I didn't. Don't think I'll be asking Mickey Roe about hitting into a game ending triple play and leaving Choe Heo Tani on deck in a 4-2 game. So now the Padres, not only do they clinch a playoff berth, they're two back of the Dodgers in the West. Now I want to ask you, since the Padres leave the season series eight three and knock the Dodgers out of the postseason two years ago in the division around, does San Diego have a quote "mental upper hand" against Big Brother up the I-5? Yeah, yeah, I don't know if there's no other way to really put it. Yeah, they do. Does that mean they're gonna like win a series against them if they play them? Like no, it doesn't mean that for sure, but you'd rather go into a postseason series with those victories under your belt. They're not just two games back of the Dodgers for the N.O.S. or two games back of the Dodgers for the best record and baseball. If say somehow surpass the Dodgers, they'll get a buy. We've talked about it like there. They have that feeling or still of saying, "Is this the Padres year?" They got all the momentum in the world right now. I think the Dodgers would say, "Listen, it doesn't matter. Yeah, they've taken care of us this year. They knocked us out of the playoffs. That stuff doesn't matter." You go to the other clubhouse and they're gonna be like, "Well, yeah, it matters because it would matter to me if I were on the losing side of it." I mean, they illustrated that perfectly and I believe that was Trevor Plouffe with Chris Rose there and he would definitely know he's been in clubhouses and all that stuff. But whenever I asked Tony these things, he's always very dismissive of whether or not a team is letting another team in their head, but I can't think of any other way. Tony did say earlier in the show that, yes, the Dodgers probably are thinking and feeling the heat that the Padres are putting on them right now. But I'd much rather be the hunter than the hunted. Well, yeah, that's always a lot more fun to hunt instead of be hunted. Oh, yeah, no one wants to be hunted. But that being said, the way, I just, I find it amazing that we're even talking about this after a couple of years ago and it seemed like the Padres could never get over the Dodger hump until they did it in the postseason in 2022. So I think from that point forward, I think the Padres, at least the core group of players that are part of this organization right now that were there in 2022 and before and the ones that are under contract for a long period of time, they know, as Joe Musgrove said, they know what they've matured as a group. They know, you know, what it means to win baseball games. They know how to, they've, they know how to have put these, these wins together. And you know, I think they flipped it a little bit where they've punched the Dodgers in the mouth. They're not intimidated by Los Angeles anymore. And whether or not they'd, they'd ever admit to that is a different story. I don't think the Dodgers would ever admit that they're thinking about the Padres at all. You know, what, what people say in the media is a lot of different than what they're thinking on the inside. But you know, the fact that the Dodgers are, you know, the Padres have had their number this year and they're there. And it's been a tough battle for LA, you know, this season. And hopefully that continues because this team's still a good ball club. The Dodgers are, they're still the best team in the National League. And they have the best record in all of baseball and the Padres get at any point. I mean, the next two days could go, could go rough for the Padres. You never know. But take care of business tonight and you're being a good spot. I mean, you're only a game and a half behind the Phillies for second best record in the National League. Two games behind the Dodgers are the best record. They already passed the Brewers by a game as well. So with a division championship would come a first round by and you know, the number one seed is still in play. If we continue to put things steps on a ladder of different things to accomplish going into the week. I really think to the, I mean, Dave Roberts has an incredible amount of pressure on him because he's been managing this team for years and years and years and years and years and years. And they did win the World Series in 2020. But mostly Dave Roberts is 10 year with the Dodgers has been them falling short of a World Series title. So I have to think that Dave Roberts is feeling the heat more so maybe than the players because I don't know that they're going to fire him, but he cannot come up short again if you're in his mind. I can't come up short this year or else I might be gone. I mean, we don't know what the relationship is. We don't like with with the Dodgers in the front office. But you know, a lot of the time, these front offices do run a lot of the organization in terms of what gets called. And if if Dave Roberts says yes to a lot of things and the Dodgers continue to win and let the front office run things, then he'll be the guy that still continues to be there for, for Los Angeles. I mean, I agree with you. Eventually, I don't know how many times you keep rolling it out there and getting the same result in the postseason. But you know, I honestly, I think you got to, you got to, you got to think about what, you know, Sarah said last year on Ben Woods about, you know, the amount of games that you need to play to make it a fair shot in the play. The playoffs are a crapshoot major league baseball without, you know, baseball is just baseball-y things, as we like to say on the Annie and Elston show. Baseball-y things. And he says baseball-y things all the time. I mean, what, what, Chris Ellows, what did Chris say on the round table? He said, the only thing you can keep the Padres out of the spot is just baseball. I mean, that's, that's what's weird about baseball. So, you know, a lot of it is baseball things. And sometimes you can't control that. And I, I don't necessarily know if they have a better answer for a manager spot, but now I definitely feels the pressure and be embarrassing to lose the division when you had the lead and you've done it all every year. And it's almost been like a guarantee with the exception of the one year the Giants got hot out of nowhere. But, um, three years. Well, I'm talking about more recently. I was like two years ago. Oh, yeah. Oh, great. I see. I'm because they had one like 10 straight. And they were like 106 games or something and same like that. Right. So, I mean, it's only a matter of time, I think, eventually, but they have pressure on them. They, they, they were the team going into the season that was expected to win the World Series because they spent so much money. They got Otani and the team was loaded. The Padres cut payroll. They relied on a lot of rookie, right? I mean, they, they, they were hoping Jerrickson profile was going to have a good year. He was cut last year. The Rockies cut him last year. And now he's one of the, now he's an all star for the Padres. Uh, back in the Padres organization. So, um, I like this underdog mentality the Padres have. I know they're getting some hype now. I don't think they're going to buy into it. They, they seem laser focused and go out and light up Jack Flaherty tonight like they did, like they've done in the past and hopefully put more pressure on the, on the Dodgers come Thursday. I don't think there's any individual figure in all the baseball who's got more pressure on them for the postseason than Dave Roberts. Aaron Boone. Aaron Boone's got a lot of pressure because he's the Yankees manager. I could see Aaron Boone having more pressure than those. Cliff, you know, a gap between whoever's number three. Oh, yeah. For sounds of pressure on those guys. Yeah. Uh, a little bit of an update on, we were talking about earlier, there's this hurricane on the East Coast is really, really messing up everything sports related. And of course, we are more concerned about the people and everybody being safe and all that, but it is going to mess up a lot of the baseball seedings and possibly the playoffs in college football. But Joel Sherman is tweeting that if the Diamondbacks are eliminated over the weekend and the Mets and the Braves have not yet settled seating, it will be the commissioner's discretion whether to play Monday for seating purposes. Uh, so Rob Manfred would end up making that decision from David O'Brien sn, Brian Snicker, the manager of the Braves said it was his understanding that if Monday's second game isn't needed for postseason purposes, meaning if the picture is already finalized after game one of the double header, then the Mets and Braves would not play the second game Monday. So the Padres could, I guess in a way help the Braves and the Mets. And that's probably the team that they're going to be playing. You know, as of right now, they're playing the Mets. So if the Padres are able to eliminate the Diamondbacks over the weekend, then the Mets won't have to play or the Braves or the Mets won't have to play that second game and we'll save them a little bit. But that's the situation right now. I like the Joker in this situation. We need as much chaos as humanly. I like chaos. I love chaos and I love chaos when it doesn't affect my ball club. And right now, this is, this is chaos for the Mets and the Braves. We taught, we've discussed this a lot off air, obviously with Adam being our resident Braves fan and saying it's BS. It is BS. You know, the fact that they would make a major league baseball team potentially had to play two games on Monday and then travel late Monday night to a location that neither team knows where they're going. And, and, and, and potentially one to Milwaukee, one to San Diego, vice versa. The Diamondbacks could potentially be waiting around to see where they have to go. Three teams in limbo the day before they're supposed to play a playoff game, which we know they're not going to just purposely put the two nationally games at night. Yeah. Right. They usually stagger it. But we'll see. Maybe that will be the, the, the saving grace for these teams with the commissioner. But we know that that's not necessarily the best decisions come out of that office over there in New York. No, but it's, it's, it's a problem for, for probably three teams. So right now I'm hoping that you go into the weekend or sorry, you go into the, yeah, you go over the weekend and whatever the results need to be with the Diamondbacks and the Padres, the Atlanta Braves and the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets and the Milwaukee Brewers. I hope that it's, it's a situation where there's no guarantee the Diamondbacks are in the playoffs unless something happens in Monday's game and they're all kind of around the same spot and tide, uh, where that game, that last game matters, because I think it's only going to be a benefit to the Padres in more ways than one. And it's not just the Braves with the amount of games they're going to have to play because they might miss Friday's game in Atlanta with Kansas City. That affects Kansas City who's battling for a playoff spot. I mean, there's a lot of, a lot of moving parts to this that in terms of seating and you probably won't know where everybody's going until after the conclusion of the second game on Monday. You know, back when I was doing pre and post game before Sam Levitt came here, we had a game that the Padres played in Atlanta and it got rained out. It was like a five hour rain delay. They finally rained it out. I came up with a solution for this and it was to put a tarp over truest field in Atlanta. Adam, why does your team not have a roof on their stadium? All stadiums have a tactical roof. Yes. Well, I don't know about all plenty of ball part of teams that don't have, and it makes no sense to me because they have to deal with all this chaos. Well, you're trying to call up specific teams for not having domes or you're saying all teams should have domes. I don't think all two. I like baseball being played outside, but in Atlanta, we're in Atlanta. It's a different circumstance because they get a lot of rain during the summer and they have a lot of rain now. It's hot, retractable roofs. Then you get the best of both walls. Yeah, there you go. All right. You'd be like, so fine. Open air facilities. This is like what we were talking about yesterday was separating the rookie of the year into a hitter in a pitcher. And you're like, this doesn't happen all the time. We shouldn't change the rules because it happened once. Just because there's a couple of rain delays in the 2024 season doesn't mean every team in this in on in a certain geographic location needs to go out and build a new stadium or a new retractable dome. I'll stitch some tarps together and send it down to truest part. Even if they had a dome, they probably wouldn't play anyway because it's a they have a state of emergency. And I say, hey, it's a state. I know, I know we're we're just having fun with this conversation. Not everything has to be taken so seriously people. When we get back here on Gwen and Chris, we are going to tell you the one Padres player that could be added to the post season roster. So we'll reveal who that is when we get back on 97 three, the fan. This hour is brought to you by indeed need to hire. You need indeed their end to end solution helps you attract interview and hire candidates all year round schedule and conduct virtual interviews right from your indeed dashboard. Learn more by visiting indeed.com/credits Matt Scravey, Brayden supreme Adam Clue here on 97 three the fan Gwen and Chris Chris will be back next week. And Tony will be back with us tomorrow. Brayden will also be joining us tomorrow for the final game between the Padres and the Dodgers. Okay, when I went to break, I said there's going to be a possible addition to the post season roster for the Padres. And a lot of people guessed it on the chat. It would be Hassan Kim. And from an update earlier from Kevin AC, he said he's a Kim's expected to work for the next few days at the Padres facility in Peoria. And then join the team at Chase Field on Friday. They're not sure when he's going to be activated if he's going to be activated Friday or if he's going to be activated for the post season. But there is a lot of questions as to what will happen when Hassan Kim comes back. And if he gets back on this team, if he's ready to go, major question is, where does he play? Does he play second base? Does he play shortstop? We briefly talked about it earlier, Brayden. And both of us agreed that Xander should stay at shortstop. But where I guess the better question for us is where where can they put Hassan Kim to, you know, give him the best chance of succeeding? Would it be second base or shortstop? I'm, I'm thinking second base because of his shoulder injury. You know, it's not going to be easy for him to throw across the diamond. He tried to throw a couple weeks ago, and they said that he couldn't make it from shortstop to first base. Not that he couldn't make it, but his arm wasn't as strong. So I would think second base might be the more natural position for him once he comes back with that injury. Coming off the bench. No, I mean, you've moved Jake back to first. You put a house on Kim's second. I'm saying I'd you want to come off the bench. I wouldn't start him. Absolutely not. I don't, I don't think I don't think you could just throw him back in the lineup. He's missed a significant amount of time. He's not a better hitter than than the guys that are currently in the lineup, aside from the catcher, but you need to catch her in there anyway. But I still rather have Diaz in the lineup than Kim. I think he'd be a good defensive replacement late in a ballgame. Maybe a pinch run guy. I mean, he's there for the vibes. They love the vibes. They're for the vibes, but I just, you know, the way that everybody's hitting right now. I'm not, if I'm an opposing team, I'm not afraid of hostile Kim coming up to bat. I'm not not in a playoff game. I mean, right now your lineup's legit. You got good players all over the place. And I don't think hostile Kim is not a good player, but I don't think he's better than the guys that you currently have in the seven eight nine spots. He would come off the bench. I wouldn't mess with anything. I would like to amend my point or my decision on where you should play. If he comes back this weekend and gets some at bats, you may consider putting him in the lineup for the postseason. But if he does not come back this weekend to get any at bats, I'm not comfortable with him trying to get re-aclamated to the game after being away for over a month in the postseason. It's just not something that I think many players would be good at. And it's not setting him up to succeed. So that's maybe I'm thinking about this right now. Maybe why he would come back this weekend? I mean, I get, I can't get him up to speed. Yeah, you can't get anything going on in the minor leagues right now. You have to, he's going to be thrown into the fire. And with the way he was hitting earlier this year, I'm not comfortable with throwing him into the fire in the postseason. I'm not, I'm not taking salon on the lineup. So, I mean, that's, I honestly, that's what I think it comes down to. I mean, I'd have a rise comfortable with his, his first base play though, Solano. Solano? Yeah. I mean, we could talk about defense all you want. But at the end of the day, you got to be able to swing the stick in the teams that do well in the postseason swing the stick. The Phillies, the year they went to the World Series, were one of the worst defensive teams in baseball. They swung the stick. They made it to the World Series. You got to swing and you got to pitch. And if the pitching's good, you're not going to have to worry about, you know, the defense per se. And it's not even like Solano's like a major liability at first base. He does a solid job at first base, but you could also use probably a rise at first base if you really wanted to. I know a lot of people like having Jake Krone with it first, like, oh, he's a really great first baseman. Well, no s. The kids are short. They got kid. The guys is shortstop. If you put any shortstop, it made you league baseball at first base. He'd be a great first baseman. He's a shortstop. Of course, he's great at first base. I don't think Kim, it's going to come down to, would you rather have Kim in the lineup or do you rather have Solano in the lineup? I think Solano's bat is more important than Haas on Kim's defense. And I would have Solano in the lineup in the postseason. And then if you want to use defense late and you want to use a defensive replacement, you bring Kim in late into the game, you can reshuffle the infield if you want, put Kim at shortstop. You can move Bogart's over to second. Krone worth could play first. You get Solano out of there in the, in the late innings when you need defensive players. I think that's, that's worth, you know, what it is. I, I don't think Kim's a great base runner. But he is, but he is fast, but I don't really want to see a pinch run. And I don't want to hear Chris Ello bitch about it the next day of it. He gets thrown on the base pass because of him, pinch running. So I don't think, I don't think in a world series level lineup, Haas on Kim is a part of it from an offensive standpoint. I don't think his defense overcomes his bat compared to what the options currently are to have in the lineup with the bat. I do agree with you. I do. I think that Donovan Solano has been someone. I mean, he's been in it for the last couple of weeks for the last more than a month. And Donovan Solano has come through for the Padres many times. This year, I, Haas and Kim has struggled all the way around. He struggled at the plate, struggled offensively, struggled running the bases. So I'm glad I don't have to make these decisions because then who are you going to take off the roster? Yeah, you got to take somebody out the roster, probably Nick Ahmed, I guess, poor Nick Ahmed. Is it, is it 25 or 26 for the postseason? I don't remember it expands, right? Or does it go back down expanded for the, it expanded for the 26. It says it was 25 prior to 2020. All right. So he had Moby dot com. Yeah, it was 26 man rock, but it's up to 28 right now, isn't it? For September, don't you get like two extra roster spots? Yes. So it's back to 26. So you're going to have to take two guys off anyway. So walkridge and Ahmed, probably. I take lockridge on a playoff roster. He's a good base runner. Yeah, absolutely. And I trust him more in the base pass of what I've seen a Haas and Kim do this year, because there's been a couple times where we're like, what in the world has happened. But you're going to have to take somebody off the rock. You're going to have to take two players, Ahmed's probably definitely off the roster. And then you'd have to find somebody else off the roster. You get to take Tyler Wade off after you've made the entire team the entire year. Now Tyler Wade's too important to this team. Well, then you got lockridge too. Well, that's going to be a tough decision for them. Do you want the pinch run? I mean, somebody going to go on the injured list. We don't have like a Matt Carpenter on the team, where it's just expendable. You know, I mean, you're you're you're you're you're roster right now. You're not going to it's not going to be Diaz or Higash yoga. It's you know, it's going to be probably Nick Ahmed, but then you need somebody else. And then if you add Kim, you're going to take a third person off the roster. That is a good point. That's a lot of people to take off a roster, honestly. I mean, usually you're making moves one or two guys, maybe, maybe three guys, but going into the postseason. I don't want to mess with the vibes. I don't want to mess with the vibes. All right. That is it for Braden today. Thank you so much, Braden, for coming in and hanging out with us today. You'll be back with us tomorrow. We'll see what's happening with the Padres. But when we get back, I am going to talk to Sammy left. He's going to get the scene set up at Dodger Stadium. We're also going to we're also going to go over if we have time, some of the most important games of the year for Padres in regards to the championship leverage index. So that's all up next here on 97 through the fan. But really tell us how good they could be this season. I'm Zach Gell. Final segment here on Gwen and Chris. Matt's going to be with you. Adam Pluke still here with me. Braden Soprena is off and he is going to be doing his soccer play by play. So he'll be back tomorrow to help us finish up this Padres series against the Dodgers. We're going to check in with Sam Levitt here shortly in just a little bit. He is down or up at Dodger Stadium. And he will give us a little bit of what's going on up there. Rod on the chat says, quote, AJ Preller, HSK defense is a key to playoff run. Now, if he really did say that, it's going to put AJ Preller into a little bit of a corner. But we were just talking about whether or not Hassan Kim should be put back in the lineup, come off the bench. And some more even saying in the chat that this, you know, Kim might not have, might not ever play a game as a Padre again, which is really dramatic. But we'll figure it out because on Friday, it should have some, we should have some decisions from the Padres on what they're going to do with Kim. Let's go to the phones real quick before we go to Sam Levitt. Mike in Carl's bad was wants to talk about last night's game. So what's up, Mike? How are you doing? I'm doing great. Oh, he's crazy. Very, very good, especially after last night. And now I understand that you were out there. Yeah. So we'll start on Sunday. So my son and I have been numerous Padres games. We are lifetime like forever Padre. And he's 12, plays a lot of baseball. On Sunday, we were bunked because we couldn't make it to any of the games last week. And I said, hey, putty, you want to go to and he goes, yeah, let's go. Didn't it finish the sentence? Okay. So we get tickets to go on Tuesday. My daughter is twin sister wants to go to. So the three of us go. We are sitting in the middle deck right at first base. And I can't make this up. About the fourth inning, my son looks at me and he goes, hey, dad, have you ever seen a triple play live? I'm like, no, no, I've never seen a triple play. I don't even know if I've seen one on sports center, right? And you know what happened. I'm telling you, that last inning, we're sitting there and we're surrounded, of course, by Dodger fans. And they're going berserk. And I'm about ready to vomit. Seeing what's probably inevitable. And that play happens. And I kid you not, you could hear a pin drop in that stadium. It was freaking awesome. And what was really cool, honestly, all these Dodger fans turned to me and they went, wow, I got a couple high fives. I thought they're going to be pissed. They were smiling. They're like, did that really just happen? And they were just in shock. Yeah. And we walked out of that stadium peacefully. And no one gave us any crap. Got a bunch of high fives, like, wow, that was amazing. Well, that's a great story, Mike. And that's something that you and your kids are going to remember for the rest of their lives. I mean, did you did you take them? I'm gonna tell his kids. Yes. Yes. Did you take him out of school for this to get up there or? No, we just we I picked up at school, right at school. And then we made it up. Well, hey, that is awesome. And good dad points right there. And thank you, Mike, for calling because I remember when I was a kid, there was a Monday night football game. 49ers against the Broncos. It was, it was Steve Young against what I mean, John Elway. Jerry Rice was making his return from an ACL injury and he caught a touchdown. And I can tell you right now that was one of the best memories of my childhood. And I think your memory, Mike, is going to be a little bit better because it had a triple play involved and it had the Padres clinching a playoffs. But I guarantee you that's something they remember for the rest of their lives. All right. Thank you, Mike, for the phone call. Time to go up to Dodger Stadium. But first let's check our traffic report. Sammy Lev is with us. Sam, how did you survive last night? That was amazing stuff. I saw all of your content. I said, go to his Twitter at Sammy Lev. You'll see a bunch of great videos. But how you doing, buddy? Scrabie. I'm doing well. Beautiful night here in LA. Padres taking batting practice and getting ready for another big time game here at Dodger Stadium crowd filing in. It is a Clayton Kershaw bobblehead night. So what typically what's known to be as a later robbing crowd. I think you're a little bit earlier here tonight because of the bobblehead giveaway. But as far as last night, I mean, it was obviously a tremendous ending. As you can see, for those watching on YouTube, I had a poncho on ready to go. Really, that poncho was useless. And I realized later, I realized later in the night as we were in the clubhouse, like all the veterans, you know, the AJ Casavilles, the Kevin ACs, the Dennis Lynn's, Bob Scanlan, Mudd, Tony included. You know, nobody's got poncho's on. They just, you know, they get wet. So I think hopefully when I'm in there the next time, yeah, no poncho just made things a little bit more difficult. But it was a great time. Good celebration. This team deserves it. And now they have to turn the page and focus on tonight. And I felt like last night, those guys understood that already that there is still work to be done. I think this team understands the opportunity they have in front of them here tonight and tomorrow and what it could possibly mean. And certainly they've got a guy until in season the mound today who could deliver a big time out. And he was sensational in that last start against the Astros. So last night was fun. But I think officially right now, all the focus on today's game. Yeah, and that's very true. Because you Darvish even was a guy who was like, I'm done celebrating. I got to go prepare for my my star. I don't see the same way. But I mean, let's put it into perspective that the beginning of this season, I don't think anyone really thought the Padres were going to be competing for the division title at the end of the year possibly. But most likely not. And now they're on track. If they win out, they're gonna win 96 games on the season. Like how incredible has this run been? Yeah, I think the second half in particular has been just outstanding. I mean, talk about a team just firing on all cylinders and you're right sitting at 91 wins with five games remaining. I don't know that a lot of us even after the trades for season arise and watching the up and down nature of the first half. I don't know that any of us could have predicted this team to win 90 plus games. And if they do play really well in the final five games, win in the mid 90s in game. So it's a testament to this team, the way they've gelled, the way they played, the moves that AJ Preller has made, not just before the season, but during the season at the trade deadline, fortifying this bullpen, getting guys like Solano and Braulta in here, pushing the right button with Jackson Merrill, knowing that he was ready at a spring training. I caught up with AJ last night and I'll tell you, the more and more I think about it, that guy deserves a ton of credit for the way he put this team together and how well they've played what a cohesive unit it's been. So it's a it's been a little bit of everything gravy. I mean, this team's just playing really well. Every phase, starting pitching, relief pitching, offense, they've hit all year. It's hard right now, no matter what happens tonight and tomorrow here in LA, look, if they can win tonight, it sets up just a super intense game tomorrow. Yes. And then you see what happens in Arizona, you see what happens tomorrow first. But regardless of what happens, I mean, I think if you're a Padres fan right now, you have got to be feeling really good and really confident with where they're at. Now the wild card series, it's tough. It's a three game series and you get off to a bad starting game one. All of a sudden, your backs could be against the wall. But I think you're a Padres fan. If you're listening in San Diego right now, you should be really proud of what this group has been and what they've accomplished. But you should be really excited about the potential of this group. I mean, this is a group that can hang with anybody to me and they're proving it's a in day out right now. And you got all the talking heads out there saying that the Padres are the most dangerous ones that that teams should be worried to face in the playoffs. And I think last night kind of showed me, you know, AJ's moves for Tanner Scott and Jason Adam, I want to focus in on Tanner Scott because Shohayo Tony has been the hottest hitter on the planet here in the last month. And he came out, he doubled on the first pitch off of Michael King. And you thought, okay, this is going to be a Shohayo Tony game again. And then he walked in his next appearance. Then he made now on a great catch by jerks and pro far. But here's where I think it proves why AJ Preller deserves more credit because the left-handed Scott, why did I forget Tanner Scott, he came in and he struck out Shohayo Tony on three pitches. You go lefty against lefty, great pitcher against the best hitter in the game. And Tanner Scott won that battle. And that proves to me why AJ Preller needs more credit. Yeah, I mean, look, let's talk about that seventh inning. Because before the triple play, Scrabie, I think you can make the argument when they're leading four to one in the seventh inning last night. When Scott comes in, he gives up a base hit to Gavin Lux, then the double playoff to that of Rojas, then he strikes out Otani. Before that triple play, you could very well make the argument that the double playoff the bat of Rojas to make it two outs and nobody on for Otani was the play of the game. I'm being serious. You think about what the situation is. If Rojas gets on there, then you got Otani up, two on, nobody out, bets behind him, Freeman behind bets. Even if you don't get two outs there, then you still got Otani with bets, the time run waiting on Zeck. I thought aside from the triple play last night, Scott getting through that inning after giving up the lead off hit and getting that double play out of the nine spot from Rojas. I thought that was massive. Look, it's going to be interesting moving forward. As you mentioned and talked about Tanner Scott to, you know, see what they do with the ninth inning in safe situations right now. Yeah, we'll play what Mike Shope had to say earlier today. He used the term interchangeable parts when talking about the bullpen and I do get the sense now we saw Suarez last night, but I do get the sense that this is going to be about moving forward where the lane is in that particular part of the lineup. It may not be about oh, it's the seventh inning. It's time for Scott. Oh, it's the eighth inning. It's time for Adam. Oh, it's the ninth inning. It's time for Suarez. I'm starting to get a real feeling that it's going to be much more about where in the lineup are you? Where is the lane for all three of those guys and where do they make sense and not so much about? It's the seventh inning time for this guy, eighth inning time for this guy. That might be something, you know, you'd see in the regular season in June if Suarez was struggling, but right here right now as we come down the final stretch, I think you may start to see that a lot more of where guys fit in in the final few winnings rather than beginning dictating who's coming in. So it's going to be fascinating. Bowl pin for the most part has been great. Look, the bullpen was great last night. Yeah, of course. I mean, aside from the three hits given up by Suarez to start that ninth inning, it was great. So I know a very long answer. No, you're good. All different kinds of directions, but yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how the Padres operate the back end of this bullpen in the final five games of the regular season. And but no doubt they have a luxury of options back there, which is like you said originally, a credit to AJ Preller and what he did at the deadline. So we have the lefty situation figured out with Tanner Scott. Now, if we're going into the ninth thing and it's a righty, righty, righty, we need a righty matchup. Are we going Jason Adam or are we going Robert Suarez at this point? I know we just got to talk about it, but I think there's an argument to be made that Jason Adam might be the better choice at this moment in time. Yeah, I mean, so the thing about Adam is he gets righties and lefties out, right? Again, I think, look, Robert and Adam are both good options to have out of your bullpen. Would it shock me to see a Robert Suarez come in in a high leverage spot in the seventh inning and the Padres save Adam for later in the game, maybe even a save opportunity in a game coming up? No, it would not shock me based on what's being said right now in that term interchangeable parts when it comes to the back end of this bullpen. So look, I think the misconception when people have talked about some of the struggle Suarez has experienced, I mean, he's not going to be relegated to mop up duty. I mean, so if he's not pitching the ninth inning, well, it's going to be somewhere else. I mean, even somewhere higher earlier, like, yeah, I mean, to me, he's going to come in in close games and high leverage spots, probably when you have a lead, I mean, forget about the order for a second. And that's why I think it is very, very important, regardless of if he's pitching the ninth inning or the eighth inning or the seventh inning, they got to get Robert Suarez back on track because he's very important to this bullpen, regardless of what inning he's pitching in. Very true. I reminder to stay tuned for the Ecowater SoCal Padres pregame show with Sam Levitt next on 97 through the fan that gets started at 610 last one for me, Sam. We were just talking about the news. The Hassan Kim may be rejoining the team here in Arizona or for the postseason. He's definitely going to meet back up with the team in Arizona. So our conversation was, what do you do with them? A Brayden wanted to have him come off the bench. I sort of said, maybe you put him at second base because of the injury to his shoulder. But the more I think about it, the more I think that coming off of the bench is the best thing. But what are your initial thoughts on where Hassan Kim should go once he gets put back on this roster? Well, I think you bring up a really interesting point. And I have this conversation with Annie and Elston earlier today. We didn't really touch on this part of it. You know, is he is him with the throwing to a point where he can play the infield, right? Like I would assume he's not going to be back on this roster unless he can confidently make a throw from shortstop right if he's got to play there. So let's assume that he's healthy enough to play the infield. I don't see the Padres, and I don't think they should. I don't see them moving Zander back to second and now flip-flopping that. I really don't. I think Zander probably stays at shortstop. That's not for sure. Who knows? Maybe maybe he goes to second base. But I would be hesitant to move Zander back after he's already moved him back to short and he's had to transition now a couple of times. I see Kim likely is somebody who's either in somewhat of a platoon with Jake, you know, maybe he's facing left-handed pitching or somebody coming off the bench and he's coming in for defense and he's pinch hitting and he's an option to start. I don't know that you're taking Jake out of this lineup half the time right now. So it's going to be interesting. It really is because I think a lot of us have operated as of late, like Kim's not coming back just based on the schedule. But we'll see. I would not move Zander, though, from shortstop and back to second base again. That's me. I wouldn't do it. But who knows? We'll see what happens. Well, you are a smart guy. So I'll listen to you, Sam. Yeah, I'm not as smart as the guys in that duck out. What's coming up on the pregame show? Coming up on the pregame show. We'll hear from Mike Schilt. We'll hear from Fernando Totti's Jr. And I had a good four or five minutes with Jeremiah Strada as well. Really good stuff from Jeremiah who, by the way, you want to talk about big moments in last night's game comes in in the sixth inning for one game two on and tying one of the played in Tommy Edmond through one pitch got a pop up and that was it and a Strada was really important in that game. And he's been a big part of this bullpen and he's been really good as of late. So Jeremiah, he grew up in the Coachella Valley, you know, was very familiar with the Dodgers and the Padres in this area. So it was actually his first appearance here at Dodger Stadium last night. So he was telling me about that, how cool it was to have last night, what the game was. So yeah, good stuff with him. And we'll talk with Jesse as well, coming up in a bit. All right, thank you so much, Sam. Everybody stay tuned and listen to the eco water. So Cal Padres pregame show starting at 6 10 p.m. Sammy Lev, the hardest working guy in Padres radio. He's always doing stuff. Thank you, Sam. All right, we just have a few minutes left here on the Gwen and Chris program on 97 3 the fan.