Not Dead Yet! Phillies SMASH Dodgers 8-2. Can They Win the Series?

The Phillies have a heartbeat beating the Dodgers in Game 3, 8-2. The season stays alive for at least one more day. Hey there podcast pals from WHYY, it is hitting season and for the first time in many postseason games it really was hitting season out in Los Angeles as the Phillies pound the Dodgers late specifically Clayton Kershaw 8-2 and as a result the series is now two games to one in favor of the Dodgers. I'm John Stolnes from The Good Fight, you can follow me on xinbluesky at John Stolnes and we are going to recap Game 3 here for you over these next few minutes with a quick roundtable edition of the podcast. Justin Clu and Liz Roescher joining me of course, Justin Clu from Baseball Perspectives, follow him on bluesky at Justin Clu. Brother man, they did it, they managed to just, the heartbeat continues, the season is not over and they're going to live to fight another day on, what is it, Wednesday, Thursday night in Los Angeles. Welcome to the battle of the teams that do not want to use their bullpens. Yeah, just a real barn burner out there tonight. If I had appeared in front of you before this series had begun, just like through a portal or just blinked out of something or just stepped out from behind a tree, clearly from days in the future, and I told you, you have to listen to me, the Phillies are going to, like the way this NLDS is going to go is they're going to go down two and then they're going to go out to LA and get like completely flattened and that's going to be the series. And then another version of me came out and said, the Phillies are going to go out to LA, having lost the first two games, then they're going to win both those games and then come back and then they're going to lose at home. And then another version of me came out and was like, the Phillies are going to win those two games at home and then lose the next three. My point is, who would you have believed? What situation seemed the most believable? Because I think that they all are, would have been believable, which is a reflection of this team, is that you would have believed anything anyone said to you, which is why everything about what could happen, like going into tonight and then now after tonight, feels like we've seen it before. It feels like, it feels possible that like anything, I'm not, this is not like, I'm not trying to go with a full message of hope here because I'm, you know, we're all still very concerned and on edge. However, I feel like that, that, that was true. Like with all these different horror nightmare scenarios, people were kind of like throwing out there, like even if they do win tonight, like then this is going to happen and this is going to happen. What would be the cruelest, most ironic or funniest thing to happen? What would hurt us the most for the Phillies to do? And like anything up and down that spectrum seems like something this team would do. Because as I wrote for Baseball Perspectives this week, after being up at games one and two at Citizens Bank, this team has no narrative because it actively rejects every narrative. But that's what every fan and, you know, podcast is here to do, is to just talk about these narratives we've assigned them and they just, they just don't want them. They shake them all off. And tonight was a big part of that. Liz Rocher from Sabre's Baseball Research Journal, follow her on X and Blue Sky at Liz Rocher. Yeah, the narratives are being shaped. And for me, the big narrative is the power of the powder blues, right? I mean, that's the reason they won here on Wednesday night and took game three. It's the power of the powder blues, Liz. Am I wrong? MLB made a mistake allowing them to wear them. Yep. Their back. The Phillies have used that as a comeback tool. We should all be very proud of them for having it be a uniform at most. This should be their uniform at all times. Uniform and man, just some really questionable pitching tonight. They just, that they, they managed to take advantage of that. It's like, I'm like, oh, I know these guys. I remember these guys. These guys were the ones that win. Yeah. Where have they been? Well, huge credit to this team for winning this game three after the crushing losses in games one and two. I did not expect them to win here on Wednesday night. Oh yeah, to be clear, I was fully convinced this was the end. Actually, no. I didn't think tonight was going to be the end of the postseason because I had to keep reminding myself that game two wasn't the end of the postseason. Right. It felt like there was an actual other game to play. Yeah. Well, this is the first time these Phillies teams, and I'm going back to the oh seven to 11 teams to when they, when they face elimination like this, they generally don't win that elimination game. You know, I mean, they generally don't pick themselves up off the mat, but we've been calling this team resilient all season long and this was a resilient win. I mean, they, they knocked out Yoshinobu Yamamoto after into the fifth inning. He only completed four innings because they finally started putting their bats on the ball, having better at bats. You know, we can talk about whether or not it was good for them to get away from Citizens Bank Park, the hell hole that Nick Castellanos hates to play in. I know it's a very sad situation, but you're scaring him. I know. I'm sorry. Too loud. I spoke too loudly. But really, this was a great Rob Thompson game as, as much as I felt like he did not pull the right levers in games one and two, every lever that he had planned in game three worked to perfection. Aaron Nola had gave him two great innings at the start of the game and Rob Thompson, to his credit, stuck to the plan, said, Nope, you're not facing these guys a second and third time through the order, went out and got Ranger Suarez, who I was going to start to look for on a milk carton here pretty soon. And he comes in and gives them five innings, gives up a home run to Tommy Edmund on the first pitch he throws and then doesn't allow a single thing the rest of the way. Just an incredible performance by Ranger Suarez. And then after getting a three to one lead, thanks to a Kyle Schwerber home run in the fourth inning was absolutely wild. But after that, you know, they get the three to one lead and then they're just blowing chance after chance after chance after chance. It felt like the Dodgers were going to break through and Ranger Suarez just wouldn't let it happen. Just wouldn't let it happen until finally they broke through at the end of the game and they they win it comfortably eight to two here. So I want to do a little something we'll call three stars here, because, I mean, there's so many different players who had big moments, big games here, lots of little moments in this game that I think are worth talking about. But Justin, let me start with you. Who are you? Look, rank your three biggest stars like you would do for hockey. Right. Who are the three biggest stars in this game? Well, Kyle Schwerber's home run, I'm pretty sure I heard through a muted television. As far as like moments that woke up an offense, I think you can totally let that sort of a little more like hyperbolic theatrical language fly, because that's really what that felt like. He also passed Bernie Williams with his second home run of the night because he did hit two of them to move up in a third on the all time postseason home run list. So twenty three career playoff home runs trails only Manny Ramirez with twenty nine and Jose Altuve with twenty seven. So that was a big moment and, you know, nobody cares about that milestone in that moment, but that just adds a little more prestige to a real turning point for this baseball game at the very least. So I mean, you got to you got to give one to Schwerber. And then I feel like the other two have to go to your pitchers. Number two to Ranger Suarez and I'll give Aaron Nola number three because he didn't accidentally pitch underhanded in any of his two innings that he did his job. He did the job. He was brought out to do. And that's that's great, man. But like, you know, that's where we're at. But there are no any time that it does that it works. It's just like, that's OK, cool. But like, you know, you got to be ready. However, we don't have to. He did his job tonight and that was great. So he can get a star. And like you said, Suarez really delivering the pitching performance the Phillies needed, not just like passable or good, but like utterly dominant. Like he was unhittable Rangers tonight. Yeah. Off the board. Some of those breaking pitches were just like mind scramblers, just absolute like not cool. But I do want to give some stars out as well, because Dave Roberts and Clayton Kershaw, you got to give them their credit for delivering the Phillies this win. So yeah, I mean, I think you can point to some other people. But for me, those are those are your big three. I'm going to ask you, Liz, for years in just a second. But I do want to mention something that was it was questionable that Clayton Kershaw came out for that second inning because he did not look good in the inning in which he managed to escape. Dave Roberts announced after the game that Tanner Scott was unavailable in this game. He left the team for personal reasons and was not not disclosed exactly why, but Tanner Scott not at the ballpark for personal reasons, according to Dave Roberts. So their best left handed reliever was not available in this game, which is maybe why we saw Kershaw for a second inning coming out there. Liz, your three stars for this game, top three stars go. It's hard to find three different stars than the three that just in, but I'll definitely give a shout out to Alec Baum with timely hitting and an incredible just diving or like soaring leap to spear a a searing ball to left field. He just stabbed it out of the air. It was beautiful. It was the type of defense that you wish you saw more of. I mean, the Dodgers certainly wanted for defense tonight. They were. Is it just me or is every team just sort of coughing up all of their their defensive chances? The Phillies hit a lot of hard hit balls that felt like they were right at somebody tonight. But yeah, I mean, there were. I mean, that's that's part of I think the Dodgers like makeup is that they can they get they can get sloppy. They have been sloppy. They have not looked sloppy for two games, but that's been part of their game. But both of these teams are such mirror images of each other because the Phillies were sloppy in this game. I mean, you had a miscommunication between Baum and Turner in the ninth inning on a ground ball that went through that didn't end up mattering a whole lot, but it was still kind of annoying. And you had Kyle Schwerber getting thrown out at first base on on a ball that bounced at the plate. And he thought Turner was going to take off for third and he was going to take off for second at the time. It's still three to one was one of those golden opportunities that the Phillies seem to fritter away in Kershaw's first inning of work. So he got thrown out of first base and you had Brandon Marsh diving for a ball in the first inning that turned into a Mookie Betts triple. He also didn't read a ball off the bat correctly. I forget who hit it, but it blooped into center field for a single. Was that Edmond, too? Maybe I don't remember exactly who that was. But you and then Harper gets thrown out at home in the beginning. And again, I think that was fine. I don't mind being aggressive there. And, you know, Hernandez makes a good throw. I get it. Well, Dusty Waltham waved him in. So, I mean, you know, that's not that's already banked a few runs. I mean, that's like I think the universally agreed upon OK time to get thrown out at the plate. Right, exactly. My three stars, I mean, in order, I think you've got to go, Kyle Schwerber, because I agree with you. I think his home run broke the seal a little bit. It got everybody to relax and because it answered it answered right away. Tommy Edmonds home run like that next half inning, Kyle Schwerber comes up and hits the ball out to lead off the to lead off the fourth. So that was a that was a big exhale, I think, for the offense. They just find it because they didn't look very good looking at taking swings against Yamamoto in the first three innings and how far he hit that ball. There's no way that only went four hundred fifty five feet. There's no way. Yeah, there's the Dodgers trying to stifle the length of that home run for sure. The real story. This is the new newspaper scandal. The real story of this game is the stat cast being manipulated by the Los Angeles Dodgers to chip Kyle Schwerber from 50 feet of home run distance on that. I believe it. It was his fifth postseason home run of four hundred and fifty feet or more since Statcast started tracking this in 2015. No one else has to has more than two. So, yeah, you had you had Schwerber with two home runs. So he's but he's my he's my number one. It's but it was really hard to give it to him over Ranger Suarez, who, again, was was just dominant in this outing. He's as that's as good as he's looked all season. And he's looked like that at various points this season. And when he's like that, he gets locked in. Man, oh, man, you don't you don't want to get in his way. I would love to give a start to Aaron Nolan, but, you know, he went two innings. But I mean, it was really important that he did his job and got out of that first inning without giving up a run. I mean, Betts hits the triple. He's sitting on third with one out, but manages to get to Oscar Hernandez out without allowing that run to score and manages to. That's actually nuts. It is crazy, right? Yeah, it's the kind of thing that it's like it's so in the Phillies favorite that I'm like, oh, boy, this somebody's paying for. We're paying for this somewhere. Like there's a there's a bill is now due somewhere down the line. Yeah. Yeah. And so, yes, I mean, lots of different lots of different angles from this game, too. But obviously, the main one, I didn't give you a third star. I might have to give it to Trey Turner as a star three, because he had a couple of really big knocks in this game. But I know maybe it goes to J.T. Real Muto because Real Muto hits the goal, hits the home run in the eighth inning that makes it a four to one game, gives you gives you that insurance that you that you needed. He had a double in this game as well. He his swing looked really good, really throughout the series. He's probably been their best hitter in the first three games in the series so far. He had the big triple, obviously, in game one that against against Shohei Otani Turner that we've been talking a lot about the top three, the top four hitters in this game, Turner, Schwarber, Harper and Alec Boehm combined to go 11 for 16 with two Schwarber home runs and five RBI and that's with Schwarber and Harper failing in a couple of key spots in the middle of this game. You know, the Phillies had some offensive opportunities here that they couldn't take advantage of. They had a runner on second with one out and didn't score guys. They had a runners on second and third with nobody out and didn't score Schwarber and Harper making outs in that spot and then runners on first and second with nobody out against Kershaw. That first inning, Schwarber gets picked off, Harper flies out and then Marsh hits a rocket that gets caught by by Taos Hernandez. You can't do anything about that. But even with those moments, the top four in this lineup and really the entire lineup, Liz, they did their job in this game, which is not something we could have said in the first couple of games. And you can see when they do their jobs, what kind of impact it has on this team. And everybody relaxes. Yeah, it felt good to not be worried for a little while. You know, they they actually had a lead and then they started adding to it like like it wasn't just one flash and it was over. They added to it later in the game, which made me feel good about, you know, a future game. They might be able to repeat this. You know, it seems more like the opening of a floodgate as opposed to just a one time thing that happened in the middle of the game because they got to this one pitcher. I mean, Liz, do you do you make anything? I mean, do you think there's something to what Pedro Martinez was saying in the post game show about they just needed a couple of games following the by to kind of get there, get themselves together? Sure. I mean, I could also say no. Like, I don't think what do you feel? What do you think in your heart? What do you know in my heart? Yeah, it feels wrong. They were just I don't know. I don't think that they needed a few games to get back in the swing of things, because that just implies that the the buy is terrible. It does. I don't think we need that anymore. Talk about that. Yeah, that is the implication. Yeah. Justin, what do you think? So this was a I'm not going to say it was a well-played game. This was a good game for the Phillies if they played a lot of games like this in the regular season where they definitely had their flaws on display, but their strengths were enough to overcome them. It was good that they won. I disagree with Liz right now. I have not come back from my biggest concerns about the team at this point. I am not convinced that this was perhaps the start of something. I do think this there are reasons to think this might have been an isolated incident. I'm not saying they can't score again tomorrow or tomorrow, but like there are reasons to look at this. I don't know. A little more like there's something called I'm calling the Lance McCullers Junior Zone. And those last like five runs the Phillies scored in this game came in what we call the Lance McCullers Junior Zone. The Phillies looked great after game three of the twenty twenty two World Series. I left the stadium thinking they pretty much had it locked up from that point on because they teed off on the Astros, except they didn't. They teed off on Lance McCullers Junior, who Dusty Baker made a point to leave in the game to absorb these innings. And whether Dave Roberts agrees or not, Clayton Kershaw is cooked. We now know there is a reason he came in for a second inning, but you know, he's not in there creating and he's not in there creating an expanding garbage time because it's part of some kind of plan. It's not what they wanted. And he was left in the game. You know, they did. They didn't scramble to relieve Kershaw. Roberts was just kind of comfortable punting this one. Yeah, he let him wear it absolutely wild. The Phillies tore him to shreds. And while that was great and like, you know, I actually they scored the perfect amount of runs. I was like, OK, this is good. No more, because then we're going into too many runs today means no runs tomorrow. Territory. And that was great. Yeah. So that was very comfortable and everything. But at the end of the day, it was all mostly off Clayton Kershaw. I think the more important runs came early when the Phillies were getting to Yamamoto, a pitcher who they did have problems with earlier that showed an ability to overcome an obstacle that has already presented itself to them. Whereas Kershaw is it's kind of like an old horse in a field. It's about to be led into a truck, you know, like, yeah, though, I will add, I will put a positive bow on this more positive. Where is that truck going? Is that this team, any team, but this team specifically, that's what they're supposed to do against a pitcher in that state. And you know, I feel like this is definitely bias, but, you know, it feels like the Phillies are the one team out of 30 that gets like utterly knocked out, knocked out by a pitcher who's just been like getting crushed by everyone else just because like they've never seen him before or something. So that they that that's not the case because they've obviously seen Kershaw before that they handled him the way any professional baseball team should at this point and just kept hammering and hammering and hammering is a good sign. And to Pedro Martinez's argument, that's a great opportunity for some slick live batting practice when Clay Kershaw, I'm not even like being totally sarcastic, like that's a great way to like, okay, solid contact or like, I'm going to like, I'm trying to do this and a pitcher who's really struggling is going to make it more easy for you to accomplish what you're trying to accomplish at the plate. So, no, I totally agree. I think that totally serves a purpose and can be viewed in that way. But yeah, as soon as they were like really teeing off on Kershaw, the first thing that popped into my head was Lance McCullers, Jr. Yeah, I mean, Kershaw had a good season as a starter this year and a surprisingly good season. But you and I both know that that's a different, that's a different man who comes into postseason games wearing Clayton Kershaw's jerseys. It is. And, you know, it's obviously his stuff you can just see is diminished. He doesn't have the fastball that those other guys have. It's now he's allowed five or more runs in a postseason inning four times in his in his playoff career. That's the most five run innings allowed by any pitcher in postseason history. This is a good time to also mention the quivering voices with which the broadcasts talked about Clayton Kershaw's bad trip by the Phillies the following inning. My God, I've heard some, you know, when an old player who's going to the Hall of Fame, at the end of his career, like, yeah, we heard plenty of times with Pujols and Maglina and Rivera and all these guys, Jeter, obviously, who's going on tours, you know, everybody's, you know, gifts and the announcer's just like, what a perfect, perfect man. We all know Clayton Kershaw is not a perfect man, but that aside, the basically I'm going to call it unprofessional and undignified way that these these guys in the booth were talking about Kershaw after the Phillies have teed off on him, like they had just watched him get like trampled by I'm really on horses trampled by a team of horses on live television, just like, get it, get a grip. You are adults. Like, I'm not even saying this as a Phillies fan. Like, do you hear yourselves? And he's going to the hall with not even an inch of blemish on his name. Look, he's going in the hall. No one's arguing that, but like to delete the bad things that have happened in his life and also that he doesn't have the reputation of a guy who is terrible in the playoffs. This is universally canon. Everyone knows it. You've probably seen it happen live multiple times. Mr. Broadcaster, what are you talking about? Brian, you're a bad part of his career. Like, what's wrong with you? Not an inch of blemish. You think everybody went into the hall of fame is like, oh, and they were perfect. They got a hit every time. Absolutely no bad at bats. Just, you know, clear eyes, dead center, home runs nonstop. Every bit of his career was we talking about. He's got he's he's plenty of money. He's going to be OK. Guys, he's going to be fine. So I just, you know, you got to call it out because that was absolutely that is the worst announcer tongue bath I think I've ever heard in a live game. Wow, it was it was awful. It really, truly was. I mean, it was not a there was no objectivity going on whatsoever in that moment. It was like they were watching. I don't even care. Objectivity. You can toss that aside to do what I get what they're doing. Like, it's his last time. And that's probably got what you were talking about. Totally fine. Yeah, absolutely. You're going to give it got to give him his due. But boy, they really sunk to like new lows, like children, moon eyed children with tears in their eyes just gazing down at the field. I'm sorry. I thought I was done. Go ahead. Yeah, I thought. Yeah, it's OK. I want I want to talk. I'm going to digress to another topic if that's if that's kosher with everyone. That's fine with me. OK, awesome. I want to talk about Rob Thompson's and the moves that he made in this game, his decision with the starting pitching. But there was also another move that that with it was another Bryson Stott bunt late in this game. You had runners on first and second and nobody out. The Phillies are just obviously real mute. So I'd hit the the solo home run. So it's now four to one and start off the left hander. Bunce the runners over to second and third with with one out. Now, this for for some reason felt like the right move to me the other night. You could feel it viscerally. It was the wrong thing to try and do. But in this situation, Bryson Stott bunting these runners over with Trey Turner coming up at the top of the order here and then Shorbo and Harper after that. It's four to one. You're moving two runners into scoring position at that point where a base hit scores you two runs instead of just one. And Trey Turner comes through with a base hit to the opposite field and scores those two runs. It all worked out the move by by by Rob Thompson there, in addition to the pitching move that he made at the beginning of the at the beginning of the game, going with Aaron Nola and then Rangers Suarez to back it up. This was a game where, Liz, everything worked in Rob Thompson's favor. Every button he pushed was working. And that is not the story from the first two games of the series, obviously. No, it did work out this time. And I guess it all had to, by the law of averages, at some point work out. I don't necessarily think it means it was the right move just because it worked out. But, you know, it all worked out like it's hard to say more than that, because, you know, we've all been proven wrong from the game before. Right, especially with the start, but which I just continue to disagree with. I said out loud, we're bunting. We're bunting again. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe he was doing that again because I think Scott already had a hit in that game. But I think I yeah, look, give give Topper this much. He doesn't hear you. If you don't like this decision, he does not hear you. Does not care. So, OK, fine. I think the lesson here is that Thompson is a manager who views bunting or maybe just Bryson Stott bunting as a tool in his toolkit, and he will use it as he sees fit. I don't think it's necessarily like he called for it the one game and it was wrong and he called for it this game and it was right. I think it's more like he views that situation. And in that situation, Bryson Stott bunting is like taking up a lot of the pie chart in his head as far as like what to do in this situation. I think you're just getting a good idea of like what his brain looks like when he's operating there. And I know a lot of people disagree with him, but ultimately, Topper's choices work better when the Phillies are playing better and they were playing better tonight. Yeah. Yeah, they did. Aaron Ola, Ranger Suarez, that move worked out beautifully. There are a couple other moments in this game that I wanted to talk. I wanted to talk about a couple of key moments in this when the game was really close for the first seven innings. You had a situation here where you had the Dodgers were starting to threaten against Ranger Suarez. You had Max Muncy coming up to the plate with runners on first and second and one out. This was when Will Smith gets a hit to right center field and then Marsh missed played the blooper to center, put runners on first and second again with one out. Harrison Bader, the Phillies are really missing him. Oh, so much. And defense. Because he for sure did really want to catch that one. I was like watching a golden retriever land in a puddle. But the best thing you could possibly say about this in any situation, it's he really wanted to catch that. You can't just you can't dispute it. It's definitely true. But the difference between this game and the first two games is Max Muncy did not come through with the big hit in that situation. Ranger Suarez gets in his kitchen a little bit and Muncy rolls the ground at a second base that the Phillies turned beautifully. That's a big spot in that game. Ranger Suarez just coolly walking off the mound, a little smirk on his face. No fist pump. No histrionics. Just like, man, I'm I'm I'm Iceman. And that's just what he does. And when he was dialed in like that, that Max Muncy double play ball was a huge moment. Muncy now 11 for 70 with a 564 OPS against lefties this season. That's a 157 batting average as well. Oh, I mean, Liz, I think it's kind of surprising. Dave Roberts let him hit in that spot. I don't know who else he had on the bench right handed, but he had to have someone else. I don't know who he had, but I mean, I guess he loves to trust his veterans. Max Muncy is definitely a veteran now. And, you know, he just like the other decision, you know, that Topper made like this is just a Max Muncy goes here. This is where Max Muncy goes, despite his absolutely atrocious record against lefties this season. I don't know. I mean, he maybe he had someone better on the bench, but like he like there are a whole bunch of other guys that he took that he that he put into the game. So maybe he he he did run out of guys, you know. The other moment, Justin, I wanted to mention was when you had gosh, I lost I've got a whole bunch of notes. They're just kind of scattered around in front of me here all over the place. But oh, yeah. So in Rangers, Suarez's last hitter going up against Shohei Ohtani, I think it was was it the third time he was facing Ohtani? I can't remember if it was the first time or the second time or the third time. I think it was the third time he faced Ohtani Ohtani. It's three to one. He hits a fly ball to deep left field. It looked to me off the bat, Justin, like it was going to be a fly out to medium left field. And that ball just it kept going and going and going again in games one and two. Max Kepler runs out of room there. And that ball sails over sails over his head and out of the ballpark. Not here in game three. He's right up against the wall and makes the catch. And now Shohei Ohtani is just he's in the throes of it here in this series. The Phillies continue. The Phillies continue to pitch him well. One hit in this series for Shohei Ohtani. He'd end up being the game winner in game two. But they are they are having they are doing a great job with him so far. Yeah, it's one of those factors that goes into, you know, if you if you listed a couple of the components of this series, it would really sound like the Phillies had the advantage. It's a real shame that they're down to one in a series where they've managed to keep the best baseball player on planet Earth from being a factor in a prolonged way. Yeah. And I mean, I feel like that's that speaks to this team's strengths. However, the the Dodgers do have like, you know, eight other hitters on a regular basis, and some of them are pretty good. Teoscar Hernandez has been, I think, kind of a nemesis for the for this series. But I will say that I not to like take a left turn away from exactly the content of your question. But I feel better playing the Dodgers than I ever did playing the Mets last year. I could not get comfortable during that series. This series. I think you're right that these these teams are more mirror images of each other. And I for that for that reason, I feel like this is this is a more evenly matched series. And the Phillies being in Los Angeles is less of a factor than being in New York last year. I agree with that 100 percent. And I think the Phillies have more comfort. The Phillies, I think, know they can beat this team. I think they know they can win in Los Angeles. They took two of three in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, coming back late in both of those games and some seesaw battles and, you know, getting some clutch hits late. I don't think now it's a different Dodgers team right now because they are trying to I mean, if one of their starters gets knocked out after three or four innings, they've got to use the bullpen, right? They don't have a choice about that. And that's what happened here in game three. That's what you're hoping to do is just get get Tyler Glass now out the game for a starter, get him out early, get Otani out early. If you get it to a game five, just so you can get to the bullpen and you can't allow the Dodgers to use all these other starters that they have as relief pitchers. And that's why the playoffs are different than the regular season for the Dodgers. They didn't have most of these guys for the most of the regular season. Like Blake Snell was out for four months and came back in August. And now and now he's pitching like this. They didn't have Shohei Otani in the starting rotation for most of the season. And now they've got him and they've got him as, you know, five, six inning guy thrown 100 miles an hour. So like you didn't have the Dodgers are a different team now than they were at the beginning of the season. But the Phillies just beat these guys two out of three in Los Angeles. They have had their number over the years. They've had Otani's number over the years that Otani has been there. Really, over these last three years, the Phillies have played them really well. They have a winning record against the Dodgers and they have kept Otani down one for 14 in this series. The Phillies against Otani. So that's that's a huge number. As much as we talked about Turner, Schwarber, Harper, Otani, they they're not letting him face any right handers like to just with the exception of Aaron Ola in the first inning in this game. They are not. I mean, that's why you saw them bring in Tanner Banks, like with even though Tywin Walker couldn't get through the ninth inning. They're just you're not facing a right hander. I don't care. We're not doing this. We're not going to let you even think about getting hot at this point. The last last thing this team needs is like, oh, right. And we're not even actually doing this with Otani fully awake. So, yeah, you can go ahead and just keep that keep that situation out of control. That's going to do a lot for tomorrow. Well, and look, as we start to look ahead to game four now, one of the things that this late rally did scoring all those runs off of Clayton Kershaw did what you know, what the Dave Roberts, I think, was letting Kershaw wear it to kind of save some of the other arms in his bullpen. But by doing that, by allowing the Phillies to score five runs in the eighth inning and make it a blowout, he didn't have to use like before that inning. We were looking at a six out save from Johan Duran in this one. Or getting at least at least coming in and trying to get Betts, Tasker Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the eighth inning. And then maybe they go to Kirkering in the ninth. But they were going to they looked at that eighth inning as the most important inning because you had those two right handers coming up in that spot. So I don't know what Thompson's ultimate plan was going to be. I know he's talked about allowing Duran to get more than go more than one inning. I two innings is a lot. Getting six outs is a lot. He's done it. He's gone multiple innings in the postseason before and done it with some success. I don't know what the plan was. We'll never know exactly what the plan was in this. I don't want to know. No, I don't want to know. Thank God we won't know. Those two scenarios you just described are so hair raising. I'm so glad they were not a part of the action. God, but that's but that's where the offense scoring all those runs comes in so handy. You didn't need to use Duran at all in this game. So now and you didn't need to use Matt Strom in this game. You used to Ryan Kirkering in this game. But again, Kirkering look, he didn't throw many pitches in this one. They were all low, low stress. So he'll be available tomorrow. Tanner Banks through one pitch. He'll be available for game four. You'll have Duran available for multiple innings or multiple, you know, four or five outs, however many you want. You can use him for more than one inning tomorrow and you'll have Matt Strom. Again, I don't I don't feel confident in Strom. I don't you know, I don't feel confident in some of these guys. But you didn't you were able to use Taiwan Walker in the ninth, you know, and he got you two out briefly in Tanner Banks for one pitch. So you it has helped set the bullpen up for game four and allowed, especially with Duran. Justin, it gives them flexibility now with him to be able to call him in the eighth inning. And again, if they have to go through Betts and Tasker Hernandez in the eighth inning, they can use him in that spot or try and get five outs. If it's like they get to him with like two outs in the eighth or something like that. Yeah, I mean, this game looks weird in the box score, but they're really the Phillies really did themselves some favors here because, yeah, now you get a fresh start with Chris Sanchez in game four with their ace and you get, yeah, a still fully juiced Duran coming out of the bullpen. So when I, you know, when I opened the show, saying the two teams that don't want to use their bullpens, part of it is that I think both both teams are aware of the vulnerabilities in their bullpens. I don't think the Phillies is as like so far gone as I've seen the Dodgers be this this postseason and late in the regular season. But the more they can avoid it, either by like in an effort to save arms or keep certain arms fresh or just keep guys who aren't as reliable from being factors in the game, they're going to take every opportunity to do so. And tonight they really just kind of skipped and danced around having to use anybody that would. And again, obviously, the offense plays a huge role in that by giving them a big enough cushion to not have to be too concerned about who was on the mound or too strategic about who was on the mound. They could be more strategic about who's going to be on the mound in game four and hopefully game five. So that was a huge favor they were able to do themselves. And yeah, I do think I do think that that that's going to be a bigger, a big factor in whatever baseball they have still ahead of them. So, Liz, the game four matchup, Christopher Sanchez, of course, the Phillies ace to five. Oh, we are on the season. We'll go up against Tyler Glass. Now, three one nine era. So he's had he had a good season. He wasn't available the whole season either. One good thing about glass now starting a game for is they can't use him out of the bullpen in game four either. So you've got to use him as a starter. I don't know if they'd use Blake Snell out of the bullpen. I guess they could. Dave Roberts, if that idea pops into Dave Roberts said he's going to do it. I think you probably would. You will do anything this man. We've seen him make some baffling decisions over the course of his postseason career. So as we as we finish things out here, how do we feel about game four, guys? Is it the power of the powder blues? Like, is it simply just the powder blue magic? Is it getting away from Citizens Bank Park? Do the Phillies have the pitching matchup advantage here in game four? Liz, how are we feeling now that the Phillies have shown they've proven they can win a playoff game? They can score more than three runs in that playoff game. And maybe they've planted a little seed of doubt in the Dodgers. You know, they wanted to get it done. And the Dodgers don't want as much success as they had at Citizens Bank Park in games one and two. They don't want to go back there for game five. So a lot of people were saying that in game three, you know, like the 2004 Red Sox, you know, Phillies won game three. How are we feeling about game four? I'm feeling cautiously optimistic. It's Chris Sanchez. Yeah, I mean, what? I mean, I'm going to feel cautiously optimistic. I think they I don't think their time in the playoffs is done yet. So I'm I'm placing my hopes on Chris Sanchez and an awakened offense, let's hope. Justin, same question. Well, here at this point, at the raggedy edge, no one's really parsing anything or breaking anything down anymore. I mean, this is the most primal baseball. You're going to see the Phillies play and the fans experience all year long. So trends and history and projections, they might all factor into the decisions about who's who's out there and when. But ultimately, this is just going to come down to whether or not the Phillies can win one ball game. That's going to be their struggle for the rest of this series. And, you know, potentially in the rest of the postseason that they may or may not be a part of. So I guess to answer your question. Yeah, I mean, obviously, I feel more confident about them winning the series than if they had lost tonight. That's so fair. But I'm not all the way back. And I was just sitting here while you guys are talking and being like, oh, God, what if they win game four? And I was like, wait, why? Why is that a bad thing? I know that's playoffs are weird, man. We're so it's. Yeah, it's so wild. My conclusion is this. If it's a great win, gives me more hope that they can win tomorrow. You can see more, more, more of the ways that they could win tomorrow. The image of them winning is fresher in everyone's minds, and it just seems more possible. And if nothing else, it was just nice to see them win again. Yes, it was. Really was nice to see them finish on the winning side of a playoff game. That's true. And I will say I do think it helped them to get away from Bank Park. I do think it helped them, especially as they as they kept kind of coming up short in some of these big situations. We've seen them have games like this where they do come up with and fail to produce with runners in scoring position, but they keep getting runners in scoring position like they continue to have those opportunities. And then they finally like the dam finally breaks. And that's what happened in game three. We've seen them do that in the regular season this year. I don't know that that would have happened at home the way the way they're feeling right now. So might not be the worst thing. Shadows are going to be a big issue in game four. This game is going to start three o'clock L.A. time, six o'clock, just after six o'clock Eastern time. So get ready for a lot of talk, a lot of talk about the shadows. A lot of talk. Yeah, it's great. I have more to say about Clayton Kershaw as well. So it'll be it'll be shadow talk. Kershaw talk. Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be a great broadcast. You brought it up. We might as well just throw it in at the end here. Hey, Nick, buddy, you get paid tens of millions of dollars to be at that ballpark. People throwing the booze down are paying to get in there. They can make whatever sounds they want to make. And you got to play. So hit the ball. You'll probably hear less booze. Yeah. A lot of mental weakness there from from him. And I got to say, Alec Boehm talking about, too, you know, like, you know, there's big you're trying so hard. It just gets to you. Everything is heightened and you're so hyper focused that you're professional baseball players like that. If you don't want to be in that moment, just hand it off to somebody else, man. And we're supposed to let him play. I mean, goodness gracious. People have been getting booed in every stadium across baseball and postseason, regular season. This isn't just a Philly thing. This is a frustrated thing. And there's a way to cure that. Like, come on, man. You're going to now this is like Castellanos bringing up all the communication issues right before the playoffs. Like, we're going to do this now. We're going to do booing talk now. Get in the box. Hit the ball. It's not not so angry. Yeah, there's there's no angry. And he knows and he knows he won't be here after this year. So I think it's kind of greasing the skids. And I do appreciate Bryce Harper coming out and basically saying, like, yeah, I don't agree with that. I want to play. And maybe that was pandering. I don't know. Bryce loves to pay. No, it's not. At this point, we have to move past the pandering. Yeah, I think it's been here for so long. Was that not an old quote? I could have sworn that was something he said before where he was like, you know, they asked about it. He was asked about it in Los Angeles on Wednesday. I think it was on Wednesday before the game about about the comments and responded directly to them. So so the Bryce comments were certainly fresh. But yeah, so the Phillies win game three, guys. They are still alive. They will play game four in Los Angeles again. It is a six oh eight Eastern time start time. Christopher Sanchez against Tyler Glass. Now, again, the season on the line, it will be for this game. And if there's a game five, but the Phillies have given themselves hope they are still alive. They are still breathing. There is still a pulse on this 2025 Philadelphia Phillies season. That's going to wrap it up for this edition of hitting season. It's a game three recap. Don't forget, we will be back in some capacity to wrap up game four. If they win, you know, well, it'll be an immediate reaction if they don't win. You know, maybe we take 24 hours and kind of lick our wounds. But we'll we'll certainly talk about game four. And so you want to make sure that you're checking out for that. This episode will be on the W.H.Y.Y. YouTube page, as will all of our postgame recaps. So you can subscribe to W.H.Y.Y. on YouTube and then you'll get this show and every other podcast we do during what we hope will be an elongated playoff run that was given a little more hope for that here after winning game three. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in. We'll talk to you next time, hopefully after another game for when right here on hit and season.