Ryan Reynolds (1:55)

Yeah, I'm Good.

Grant Brisby (1:56)

Countdown top 50 free agents this off season, starting at number 50. Who do you got, Andy? Or is there something else to talk about?

Andy McCullough (2:06)

Brent Honeywell.

Grant Brisby (2:09)

You know, people ask me all month, what are you?

Ryan Reynolds (2:11)

Who are you rooting for? Are you rooting for?

Grant Brisby (2:12)

And I. They don't believe me when I say I don't root for anyone, but I really don't. And I just say I just want a good series. Like, it's. Like it's such a cliche, but I believe it. And that that was a good series. I'm ready to stamp that one of the better world Series that I have Ever, Ever seen.

Ryan Reynolds (2:27)

I got asked right away in the basketball group text if that was the greatest World Series of all time. And as I have previously written, 9,000 words ranking every World Series. I was a good person to ask. I have it. I'm sort of, like, armoring myself against recency bias here, so I might actually be under doing it. But I have it somewhere between four and seven, maybe five and seven for context.

Andy McCullough (2:54)

What are one through three?

Ryan Reynolds (2:56)

One is 1975, two is 1991, and three is, I think, 1924. And then four is 1986. Five is 2011, and then six is the Yankees Diamondbacks, 2001.

Andy McCullough (3:11)

2016 obviously comes to mind, but I don't recall how many of those games were actually that good until the last one. Is that right?

Ryan Reynolds (3:18)

That is what sunk that one. It was in the. It was in the top tier, the top 17, but it was like 10th or something.

Andy McCullough (3:25)

Now, how would you compare game seven of 2016 to game seven of this past last week?

Ryan Reynolds (3:32)

That is a great question. I did tell the group text that I thought that two of the 10 greatest games of all time were in this series. And how do you compare, man? How do you compare? See, the problem is that when you're watching it, you remember, like, remember that play where someone chopped it to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And then he flipped it to Sir Anthony Dominguez, and Sir Anthony Dominguez had to, like, find the bag with his foot. And it was a close play. When you're watching it, you're like this. That play is bonkers. That adds to the texture. But every game has those plays and you don't really remember them. So I don't remember which plays from 1991 were similarly tense today, two days after it happened, I remember all those. I remember the line drive to Max Muncie in the eighth, which won't make it into the history books. Right. But to us, it's still fresh. So it's hard to compare individual games. You know that precisely. I guess I would say that I. To me, 2016, I think I was more amped at 2016.

Grant Brisby (4:33)

What about 2011? 2011, the game seven, game six?

Ryan Reynolds (4:38)

I think that it would maybe be slightly easier. Well, it wouldn't be, but slightly easier to compare to. Just say that the three innings from innings to 11 were the three greatest innings of baseball ever. But then you do run into. You run into the 2011 game six, and then there was a patch of plays in 2000, in 1924 as well that are there, too. So I don't even know that you can say one of those is the best. I mean, you know, who. Who needs us to say one is the best?

Andy McCullough (5:06)

Yeah, I guess the argument for. And I'm just going to completely ignore your last point there, Sam, and say one of them is the best. The argument for this most recent game 7 is that while it lacked kind of the historic drought ending nature of 2016, really all I remember from 2016 is Raja Davis's home run and then a reported speech that I never saw by Jason Hayward. I have no recollection of how the Cubs went ahead after the rain came. You know, I. Like, I have no idea. And as I recall, there was really not much tension. There was not. There was, like, tension, but there was not much of an offensive threat put up by Cleveland in the bottom half of that inning because I think for a variety of reasons, like, they double switched a bunch of guys out of the game and all that stuff. So the absolutely, like, skull crushing tension of those last three innings, you know, the base is loaded in the ninth. Andy Pa has his catch. Was that in the 10th? I don't even remember.

Ryan Reynolds (6:10)

That ended the ninth.

Andy McCullough (6:12)

That ended the ninth. That was the. One of my favorite anecdotes that came out of that is Kike Hernandez was like, face down in the dirt for a bit, you know, for like a beat longer than you would have expected. And the reason why is he thought they had lost the World Series. Oh, like, he's like, oh, we just lost. PA has sort of picked him up and he was like, are you okay? And KK Said, did you catch the ball? And he goes, yes. And he goes, okay, great. And then he jumps up the dirt and sprints back to the dugout. But he thought they had lost the World Series. So I don't know. I just. If you're a Blue Jays fan, what's a worse loss? What's a worse way to lose? Because you. You can't really blame any individual. You can't really point to any sort of like every guy on the roster in his own little way got them to this point and then contributed to them not getting to the promised land, if that makes sense. Every player was essential in getting them to Game seven of the World Series, and every player was essential in them losing the World Series. You know, with the, like, when blame spreads, when blame distributes that evenly, it really is hard to live with. I feel like.

Grant Brisby (7:24)

It feels like Jeff Hoffman is not like the. The focal point because he can't just say, this is the reliever who did this. Dag. Now, it's just. It felt like he was caught up in a current that was sweeping everyone downstream.

Andy McCullough (7:37)

I mean, if you're gonna blame an individual, I guess you blame Jeff Hoffman. But it feels kind of cruel because, like, he hung a slider to Miguel Rojas. I mean, whom amongst us hasn't hung a slider to Miguel Rojas and not been punished for it? You know, that's. That's. It feels just sort of feels kind of cruel, I guess, considering he, like, got Shohei Ohtani out in the next at bat.

Grant Brisby (8:00)

I've listened to three decades of Mike Kruko saying, you can't walk this guy. Let him hit it. And if he hits it over the fence, you tip your cap. And you can't tip your cap in game seven of the World Series. You want to eat it.

Andy McCullough (8:12)

That was actually what John Smoltz was saying. Like, if you watch the highlights, you know, you can hear him saying. He's like, this has to be an action pitch, which I guess means a strike. But he's like, this has to be an action pitch because you cannot walk this guy in front of Ohtani. And it's like, obviously you'd like to locate, you know, the breaking ball better than that, but, man, that was something. That was something.

Ryan Reynolds (8:33)

The theme that I'm gonna remember, I think, about this World Series or that I'm gonna be kind of wrestling with for the rest of my life. You know, you guys saw Caleb Joseph, you know, come out in the postgame, and he opened it with, like, you know, the better team didn't win. And, you know, he said, sorry if that's sour grapes, but that's what I feel. And I've been wrestling with, like, what it means to be the better team. Clearly, the Dodgers built the better team, like, started the season, built the best team, you know, like, they. They just built the best roster, but they didn't play the best. And then that's amplified when you compare how they played to how well they could play, if that makes sense. So it was like the whole World Series was like watching the Blue Jays play their, like, 99th percentile SIM, like, this is the best they can play. And then the Dodgers are playing, like their 12th percentile performance. And as a Blue Jay, you have to feel like there's something like, Sisyphean about that. Like there is no way that you can play better. And yet the bully team, or like the team that was the anti hero to much of the country coming into the Series, manages to win simply by being so far ahead of you at the beginning. And I think that. I don't know, Grant, I don't know if you felt echoes of 2021, when the Giants, you know, won 107 games and every day felt existential because the Dodgers were so good that you had no margin for error. And they finally break through, they win it in the last weekend, win the division, and it's still no relief because then the Dodgers are right there to knock them out of the postseason. And it's, like, just kind of painful to know that that guy exists, that there's, like, a final boss that you just can't get past, even when he's barely trying. And so, I don't know, I've been wrestling with what Caleb Joseph said and what Caleb Joseph meant and how I'm gonna remember these Dodgers. Am I gonna remember them as a great team that, you know, rightfully won, or am I gonna remember them as a somewhat disappointing team because they won while not playing that well? I don't know. It's gonna age some way or other in my head.

Andy McCullough (10:46)

These similarities with, you know, the New York Yankees dynasty are starting to become more apt. Because if you think about the Yankees dynasty, you know, what do you think about. You think about 96 to kind of break through 98, one of the best teams ever. And then they won a couple others, I guess. And I don't remember anything about those except for, I think Clemens threw a bat at Piazza. I mean, the. You know, the 2000 Yankees won 87 games, right? Like, that was. I mean, 87 games.

Grant Brisby (11:11)

What.

Andy McCullough (11:11)

You know, that's. That's third wild card territory, right, In. In our current, you know, era of theoretical super teams. And so. But the thing about those Yankees teams is that they knew how to win the game, which is an idiotic thing to say, but is actually true, right? Like, the Dodgers know how to win baseball games like this. They have demonstrated it over the last couple of years when they are not going well, when they're old and they're hurt and they're tired, they know how to win the game. And part of it is because they are, like, know, the most expensive roster in the sport. Part of it is they have, you know, the hall of Famers at the top of the lineup. Part of it is, you know, the culture created by Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman and, you know, the players in that clubhouse that, like, they have guys willing to sacrifice. I mean, we haven't even said the words Yoshinobu Yamamoto, which is interesting, because right now he is working through a second inning jam and I'm not totally sure if they should have someone up, but he is pitching. You know, he's kept him. He's holding the Jays at bay as we speak. But just creating a culture, like. And I, you know, I get it. Like, all these guys have gotten paid, you know, so they're not really risking a ton. But like Tyler Glass now pitching in back to back days. Blake Snell, you know, throwing on his, you know, going on his throw day. Will Smith catching 18 innings. And then Yamamoto just like going full Randy Johnson in a way that, I mean, that was sort of breathtaking to watch.

Ryan Reynolds (12:37)

Beyond Randy Johnson. Yeah, yeah.

Andy McCullough (12:39)

And he's a foot shorter.

Ryan Reynolds (12:40)

He's got to throw it a full foot further every time. Like, that's a lot more work.

Andy McCullough (12:46)

He's a small man.

Ryan Reynolds (12:47)

Yeah.

Grant Brisby (12:48)

I mean, the fact that you can get to, what, 12 minutes in before you talk about one of the single greatest World Series performances we've ever seen, especially in the context of starting pitchers not meaning as much in the modern game. And, and the World Series is supposed to be bullpens, bullpens. High leverage. High leverage. And he was his own bullpen. He was, he was freaky. And the thing about, when I think about this, this World Series and the Dodgers winning it, it doesn't feel inevitable to me. Like, I know what you're saying about they didn't play poorly, but they had the best team and eventually they knew how to win. It felt like there were so many things that they were throwing to the wall at the time. I mean, you can run all the numbers you want in Sasaki as your closer. You don't know how that's going. You can say, hey, you know, Yoshi, how's your arm? You know, can you. How many can you give me today in game seven? You don't know if it's going to work. And I felt like there were so many of those for the Dodgers that they didn't get for basically Kershaw's entire career. Like, it was all saved up for this last postseason for Kershaw. He got all those tipping point dominoes falling his direction.

Andy McCullough (13:54)

Yeah, he got the two John Elway second Super Bowls.

Ryan Reynolds (13:57)

I guess you say it didn't feel inevitable. And that's where I have like, kind of two parts of my brain working simultaneously and against each other. Because on the one hand, you're right. Like, this victory was contingent on a lot of things and nothing about it was inevitable. And yet also the thing we thought was inevitably gonna happen did ultimately happen. And there's a part of your brain that thinks that, like, it was. And you can't really enjoy the contingencies because that part of your brain's like, they were always going to win. They're too good, they're too strong. They're too much bigger than everyone else, I think. I don't know. I think I would have enjoyed a different team winning this World Series in precisely this way. A little bit less. Like, I'm not mad at the Dodgers for it. They're great. They're also a great part of my life. But. But, yeah, I think there's a little. There's a little dissatisfied part of my brain that thinks, well, couldn't you have just played your best for, like, a whole season and a series so that I could celebrate, you know, that the, like, this achievement, that's, like, the biggest part of your life. I also want to note, Andy, about unselfish superstars. I also have been thinking about that, you know, Mookie obviously going to shortstop in recent years, we've seen other superstars that were not as willing to make much less demanding position switches.

Andy McCullough (15:16)

We've done multiple episodes about one guy in particular.

Ryan Reynolds (15:20)

Yeah, and it's not just that Mookie was, you know, like, that's a lot of work, and that. That, you know, is a lot of, you know, mental and physical fatigue. But he's set himself up to fail. Like, that was a potential outcome of moving to shortstop at 33, was that he could fail in front of everybody, and that's a hard thing to do. And I also think a lot about Freddy Freeman last October. You know, he was the World Series hero. And the key to that was that he played the through October on the bad ankle so that he didn't get rusty. And he was just out there every night, failing in public, out there every night, you know, just trying to stay fresh so that he'd be there when the ankle healed. And because of that, he spent three weeks sucking. And that's a pretty selfless thing to do as well. He was trying his best, but he had to be out there so he'd be there for the World Series. And, you know, he did. And that was a very selfless thing, too. And so these are all instances of players who are not just like, superstars, but, like, yeah, they are winning, focused superstars, team focused superstars. It's easy to probably make too much of those things, but they mean something to me.

Andy McCullough (16:26)

It's a cultural thing. You know, it's a It's a culture within the organization of like, of self sacrifice. And again, it's easier to encourage self sacrifice when everyone is making, you know, is on a nine figure contract. But I do think it's worth considering that the Dodgers selected some of these players for nine figure contracts because they felt like they would be willing to self sacrifice at various times. And, you know, also, like, as Grant has pointed out, ad infinitum, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman did kind of fall into their laps, but they also created the sort of culture where when that happened, they were ready to, you know, pounce.

Grant Brisby (17:05)

I guess I was thinking about if there were a 19th inning and honestly, like, because Dave Roberts is on TV saying maybe position player, right? That was. He said the words position player on tv, like, as an option. And to me, that was me thinking, when does Ohtani come into play? Like, how many innings do you have to play for him to just alter his Ohtani routine so much? You know, because it felt like a position player was just giving up. But I don't know. I didn't know the correct answer to that. I mean, there's clearly a reason why Ohtani wouldn't have been the guy to self sacrifice. They wanted to save him for his start, all the, all that stuff.

Andy McCullough (17:44)

Well, as you recall, the player who volunteered to pitch the 19th inning was Yoshinobu Yamamoto. There's a runner at second, but he's holding him. He's at 63 pitches through the third. We'll see how it goes.

Ryan Reynolds (17:57)

That's another thing that will live on in my brain forever is the Will Klein curveball to end the top of the 18th. And I just keep thinking about how, you know, it was a full count runners on second and third. It's probably, you know, he doesn't have many more pitches in him. And I just keep thinking he probably doesn't throw that curveball if Yamamoto is not in the bullpen, if it's Miguel Rojas coming in. I think Will Klein thinks that he can't walk this batter. Having Yamamoto out there actually gave him the flexibility to throw a breaking pitch in that situation, which is what he needed to get the out. Now, I could be wrong. Maybe Yamamoto wasn't coming in in that situation no matter what, but it seemed like Will Klein was throwing his last pitch.

Grant Brisby (18:41)

I don't want to speak for you guys about, you know, why you love baseball or why It's America's past 10, but I feel one of the reasons I love baseball is that it's a constant Series of tipping points. If this had happened differently than this, you know, if.

Ryan Reynolds (18:53)

Are we talking about Emmett Sheehan earlier in the postseason? It is.

Grant Brisby (18:58)

I mean, it's. It's just where you. You look and go, boy, if. If the Rays drafted Buster Posey, you know, and then you can go granular into. Well, if that pitch were just a little bit more on the edge, it felt like, especially Game seven, was just tipping point after tipping point and sliding door after sliding door after sliding door. That's why I think that game will resonate, is it's just like the embodiment of 500 million different alternate histories in that one game alone. And I love that.

Andy McCullough (19:28)

Yeah, I will say, just as someone who had to, you know, had the privilege of writing the game story off.

Grant Brisby (19:34)

That one.

Andy McCullough (19:37)

In the ninth inning, my left hand started shaking like I couldn't get my left hand going because I was just so sort of messed up, I guess, because. Yeah, I mean, I had as. As I texted you guys, I had a very tidy Boba Shet Vlad Guerrero lead the Blue Jays to the promised land lead that I wrote in the third inning, like an idiot.

Ryan Reynolds (20:02)

You're gonna send that gamer to, you know, to some country in Africa with the Toronto 2025 World Champion T shirts. Yep.

Andy McCullough (20:11)

Yeah, wait until you. Wait until you read my lead from the Rangers winning the World Series in 2011. That was all about how Wash knew exactly how to use his bullpen.

Grant Brisby (20:20)

I've got 1500 words on the. On the. Then Indians winning in 2016.

Andy McCullough (20:25)

Yeah.

Grant Brisby (20:26)

All based on that Sports Illustrated cover with Corey Snyder on it and going into mistake on the lake.

Andy McCullough (20:31)

All this is less about just how my game story got, you know, blown up and ended up being pretty mediocre. But it's more that, just like physically, I was struggling to absorb that game. It was. And so I can't imagine, you know, being a Blue Jays fan or a Dodgers fan trying to watch it, because that was just. Just tough. Just like a tough watch.

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Grant Brisby (22:57)

I have a good analogy for what it was like in game seven. I'll try and make it quick. The year is 1994 and we're at Lollapalooza and we have, we're working. My future sister in law's company is trying out this thing where they rent walkie talkies again. 1994, no cell phones. The business plan is to rent walkie talkies to concert goers so you can be like, hey, I'm at the snack bar, right? Eventually they'd make phones, but they give this all and they're recording it all in about, I'd say five minutes in we realized the security channel wasn't protected and so you could just move the walkie talkie over one and talk to the security channel. And so for about two hours we would call the security channel and be like there's a goose, there's a goose on the lawn. Lawn left facing the stage, stage left, goose on the lawn biting the customers.

Ryan Reynolds (23:43)

And.

Grant Brisby (23:43)

And you would see the security guards all swarm and look around for a goose and a goo. And so this went on for hours and eventually we. We got, you know, we flew too close to the sun. We're saying, like, Donnie Wahlberg is on a unicycle and, like, stuff like this. But that's how it felt trying to watch this game. Every second it was like there was just something, you know, a pitcher trying to step on first base. There was Miguel Rojas. Oh, he stumbles just a little bit before he goes home. Oh, and the catcher lifts up his cleat and puts it right back down. You know, it's like everything was like that. Everything was a goose biting people while they're trying to watch the Smash and Pumpkins.

Andy McCullough (24:18)

Grant, when. When you were saying the year was 1994 and you were at Lollapalooza and everyone was wearing walkie talkies, all I could hear in my head was Abe Simpson saying, The year was 1906. The President is the divine Ms. Sarah Bernhardt. All over people were doing a dance called the Funky Grandpa.

Grant Brisby (24:37)

Yep, that's right.

Andy McCullough (24:39)

We are so washed.

Grant Brisby (24:40)

Oh, my God, So washed. I have a walkie talkie anecdote about anyways, but that's how it felt to me how many outs in those, you know, final 18 outs were normal. It just. It felt like there. There were none of them, but I'm sure there were. If you go back, there's, oh, pop fly, harmless can of corn. Not many, though.

Ryan Reynolds (24:57)

The last two in the ninth were really when this game took off. Like, that was when went from, hey, this is a really good game seven to we will never stop telling people what we saw the Rojas force out at home. That instantly became a replay review that was. I would say that was not resolved. Like, we will never know whether that was the right call. That was a call stands. And you know, people today, this is hard to believe, but people this morning are still debating the lead that Isaiah Kiner Falefa took from third base. And. And they will forever. That's like part of baseball lore. Like, they're looking at the statcast data of how big his lead was at third base, whether he should have run through home plate, and, you know, all of that and then the next play. But that play is incredible. Like, I tweeted whatever fake tweeted that that play actually made me Gasps, gasp more than the home run. Like, I was more shocked at that play than the home run. And then immediately it's like, totally wiped out by the 9th inning ending catch that Pages makes, which is gonna be like, you know, you'll see that image several hundred times in your life going Forward. That catch is part of baseball lore. Did Pages do the right thing?

Grant Brisby (26:14)

There was conviction in his. How do I put it? He was willing to truck Kiki Hernandez and that's the only way that he catches the ball. I think he was expecting contact more than you might see. See, in a play like that where there might be a little bit of uncertainty. I think he knew who his left fielder was. Yeah, I think his ball, center fielder, you see, because Kike is facing the wall at that point. You know, for the most part, you see your left fielder facing the wall. That's all systems go.

Andy McCullough (26:42)

I do just want to say one thing about Isaiah Kiner Falafa, who, you know, basically, like, there was a. Some folks looked at like, the all nine or whatever it is footage and were like, well, his lead should be bigger. And then some players have chime just basically saying, like, no. And I'm not one of these, like, the players are always right guys. I do think, though, if there's like, one skill that Isaiah Kiner Falefa has, it's knowing how to play baseball. And so I suspect what he was doing was what he had been coached, what he believed was right. And while you can do all the, like, you know, the data on Varsho's ball suggests bo. It's like, dude, like, they didn't lose the World Series because Isaiah Kanerfalefa didn't take a big enough secondary lead. You know, like, that's just. Just a weird scapegoating that I don't understand.

Grant Brisby (27:33)

In a World Series where you had a very crucial play where a guy was picked off or doubled off second because he was too aggressive with his leads, that was a huge game changing, you know. Yeah.

Andy McCullough (27:44)

Playing against, like, one, like a team that the Dodgers, who, while like, I would not describe them as a great defensive team, are a, in moments of crisis, remarkably fundamentally sound team. Like a team that locks in as well as any I've seen when, you know, like, you know, they're not putting gold Glovers all around the diamond, and yet they make the plays. So I don't know. I mean, I just think. I don't know. I just thought that whole discourse was kind of strange.

Ryan Reynolds (28:11)

There were two parts of that play that would have been reviewed. You know, the first part is, when did Will Smith's foot come off the plate? And the second part was, when did Will Smith's foot go back on the plate? And I think we mostly focused on the 2nd and determined that, you know, too close to, say, call stands. And if you focus on that part, you think, wow, Isaiah Kiner falafel was an inch away from the plate. You know, if he just had an inch. So that's why it seems like it was that close. I don't know this, but I suspect that the first part of the play also would have been call stands, that they would have said, we can't determine exactly when Will Smith's foot came off the base relative to when the ball got in his glove. Probably this isn't going on in their mental, you know, process, but do you want to end the World Series on a replay review? I don't know that you do. I imagine that that if it had come down to did Will Smith hold the bag, hold the base long enough, they still would have come down. Kall stands. And if that's true, then Isaiah Kiner flofa is like several feet away from the plate at that point, and the lead is not nearly as consequential. Pages, I think absolutely did the right thing. It looks sort of crazy that he smashed into. I mean, I think that Kike Hernandez was going to catch that ball pretty easily. Like, he was by that point gliding with it. But he had a really weird body position on it. If you're the center fielder, corner of your eye, you see your left fielder who's, you know, Willie Maze in it, it probably doesn't, you know, look right. And I imagine that Pais has been yelling, I got it, I got it, I got it the whole time, and it's just too loud. He doesn't know if he's been heard. He probably hasn't been heard. But there's got to be a fear that if Pajes peels off, maybe Hernandez right then's like, just heard you say, I got it, and maybe he peels off. So were you gonna lose the World Series? Because two guys both let the other guy get it. I don't think you're gonna do that. So I think that Pajes did the right thing. He. He probably knew collision was coming, but not catching that ball wasn't really an option, and they made it fun for us.

Andy McCullough (30:15)

The press box at Rodgers center is along the left field line, which means that for balls that go into that corner, you're kind of in a blind spot. So for the Rojas homer, the Will Smith homer, and for that catch by Pajes, I stood up, you know, just to see what was going on. And I believe the noise I made when Pajes caught the ball was, yeah.

Grant Brisby (30:40)

I did the same thing when I broke My elbow where I was on the couch. And I like, that was. It's same thing. I stood up and I was like, what's gonna happen? This is it, buddy.

Ryan Reynolds (30:52)

My tiny sliding doors thing that I have not seen discussed to death or discussed at all, but that I'll be thinking about for the rest of my life, how it could have played out differently is I am somewhat surprised maybe that Addison Barger didn't try to steal second base. I guess I'm not somewhat surprised, but I think it was in play, you know, first and third, tying run on third. Do the Dodgers throw down? I suspect the Dodgers don't throw down in that situation. Even though there's not a lot of speed on either end of that double sp deal, I still think they probably don't throw down. Yamamoto was pretty slow to the plate, so he wasn't focused. It's not like he was trying to suppress that stolen base. And you know, with. With Alejandro Kirkup, the guy doesn't strike out. He's arguably the slowest man alive. You knew double play was salvation for the Dodgers, So much so that they didn't even play the infield in. Like, that's kind of mind blowing when you think about it. Bottom of the 11th, game seven tying run on third, and you play the infield back. That's how much you're counting on the double play. And you know, Barger's league average speed a little bit faster than that. You know, if you don't think the throws coming down, you know, you get the double play, you know, take the double play out of it. If, you know, Kirk hits that ball on the pitch that Barger's going, they're probably out of the double play. And because the infield is back, the throw can't really come home, probably. So I was surprised that it didn't come up or it hasn't come up more. And I'm going to be thinking about it for 60 or 70 years, God willing.

Andy McCullough (32:33)

There were. There were three stolen bases in this.

Grant Brisby (32:38)

Series, all by Josh Naylor, too.

Andy McCullough (32:42)

The Dodgers are not. Neither team's really, I guess, like a running team, you know, per se. The Blue Jays, I think, you know, we're in the bottom fifth or whatever of steals and the Dodger. But it's worthwhile to note that the Dodgers are old, right, and tired. And they started the season in March in Japan. And I think it's a real thing, the amount of fatigue they were feeling. And the Blue Jays were really beat up, you know, like Boba Shet could Not run. He could certainly hit. My goodness, he could really hit, but he could not run. George Springer, you know, was wincing with every swing. He looked like me getting off the couch, you know, just like in absolute agony at any moment. Kirk just kept getting hit in the hand. He got hit again in game seven. Even for the young players, they're at the end of a season that's longer than it's ever gone. They. They were all just looked exhausted, you know, and that's kind of what made the level of execution and talent in those final games so riveting. Is you. These guys were gassed. It was just really impressive to watch them. Like, obviously, Yamamoto emptied the tank. So many other guys did as well. I mean, Chris Bassett pitched every day. You know, he was going full Aaron Ashby, which was impressive. There was a lot of really valorous individual performances, I would say.

Grant Brisby (34:05)

Do you have one? I'll go first in case you don't have one. Off top of your head, is there a sliding door moment for you that is not the, you know, pages and K or Miguel Rojas kind of stumbling when he throws home or Miguel Rojas existing and living at all? The one that sticks in my head is the 30 pitch that Vlad swings at against Blake Snell in the bottom of the ninth. He's like, I'm gonna sit.

Andy McCullough (34:32)

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Grant Brisby (34:34)

Okay, it's all set up.

Mint Mobile Announcer (34:35)

Okay.

Andy McCullough (34:35)

I remember that I have my head down for a good portion of this.

Grant Brisby (34:39)

Totally understandable. So I'll set it up.

Ryan Reynolds (34:41)

That was definitely one of those where before contact, you thought it was gone. Like. Like, there are balls where you off the bat, you think they're gone and they come. Oh, yeah. This was one where before the bat, you thought it was gone.

Andy McCullough (34:53)

When I heard the sound, I was. Ty was like, okay, game over, you know, and then I looked up and he goes, wait, there's an outfielder underneath that.

Grant Brisby (34:59)

Anyway, sorry. Did you go back and look at that pitch? To see in my mind's eye, middle, middle, 95, middle, middle. That was a change up 85 miles per hour outside of the zone, up and in the other batter's box. And he, like. In my mind's eye, I was just like. Because he had that look of, I'm sitting dead red. I'm going to get that 30 fastball. And he just. He still just missed it. Still just missed it. That's the one that's going to be stuck in my head now. Andy, if you have another sliding door.

Andy McCullough (35:29)

I can only really do this through like what my experience is. And so unfortunately I can't really watch these games at a granular level like because I'm just so consumed with trying to construct a game story which I know makes you think, well, why would I read a story written by you if you're not even watching the game? And to which I would say, Yamamoto just gave up a double. No, he's staying in. Yeah, I mean, come back to me. Let me think.

Ryan Reynolds (36:00)

The one other thing I would note, this feels so like happened several years ago, but you know, Ohtani as a pitcher, he, he kind of had nothing and he survived the first two innings despite really just spraying the ball all over the place. You know, runners getting on. You know, you had that decision to send George springer on the 32 pitch to Guerrero in the first inning. I know, I'm, I'm like really talking ancient history here. George Springer probably can't steal a base and so he's, you know, just sort of like, well, we're gambling, we're gambling that it's more likely that Guerrero hits grounder and we stay out of the double play then that he's going to strike out and we strike out into a double play and you know, the gamble went wrong. And so Ohtani gets out of that inning and then he loads the bases in the second and gets out of that inning. And obviously the Blue Jays spent most of the game with the lead. But this didn't have to turn out to be a close game at all. And early on it definitely could have gone left instead of right because yeah, I mean Ohtani, that, that just wasn't his. It turns out that that isn't his. His preferred scenario, a small sliding door.

Andy McCullough (37:12)

Moment and that I probably would have just let Trey, you, Savage Finish the 8th. I probably would not have asked Jeff Hoffman to get four outs. I don't think a four out save is unreasonable. Jeff Hoffman's a totally fine reliever. He didn't have a great year. But the peripherals are, you know, the peripherals are encouraging except for the home runs and that's kind of how it played out. But I probably just would have let your Savage go get Tommy Edmond. Tommy Edmond is a switch hitter who bats but wrong sided against you Savage because his stuff, you know, because of the way the splitter plays. So yeah, that's probably what a small moment that I think just asking Hoffman for three outs feels more reasonable than asking him for four. Even if a four out save is totally within the norm. I just, that felt like Slight over managering, I guess, but again, that's a very small moment that is hard to say either way, you know, but that's what I love.

Grant Brisby (38:17)

There's 700 of those small moments about that, and there's. There's no right answer. I will say that when we were talking about game six, game seven, we're wondering if we were going to see any of the Dodgers levers. And we did. We saw Justin Robleski. You know, he, he came in, he got four big outs, Emmett Sheehan. I mean, it's. Once you saw Ohtani wasn't going to get out of the third inning, you start like, you start going, okay, if the Dodgers are going to win this. And it felt right that they were going to have to go to someone who wasn't Tyler Glass. Now, they still went to Tyler Glass. Now, I was a little offended that we didn't get to see Clayton Kershaw in game seven. I, you know, I understand why I felt that would. That was too good to be true, I guess.

Andy McCullough (39:01)

But did you happen to catch his perspective on the end of the game? So he's warming up. You know, he throws left handed. So this is back to the, to the diamond. And he's going to go face Dalton Varsho, you know, to go left on left because they're not going to pinch it. Varsho. And so he had lost track of the outs. And so Alejandro Kirk hits into the double play and Kershaw, like, gets the ball back and it's like, all right, I'm going in. And Josh Barton, coach is like, we won the World Series. Are you sure? Oh, okay, great.

Grant Brisby (39:35)

I think between that and Kike, I think we could probably just tell the Dodgers they didn't win.

Andy McCullough (39:41)

And probably that's again, that is why Yamamoto is still pitching.

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Ryan Reynolds (41:09)

So they used seven different pitchers in the final two games. And if I'm not mer, if I'm not mistaken, five of the six of them were starters this year. They started the year as starters and then Robleski was a starter until basically this year and probably in almost any other organization is still a starter today. But the Dodgers just have so much starting depth that, you know, they moved him to relief, too. And I don't know that having 8, 9, 10 starters is a viable copycat plan for other teams. But it is really striking that the Dodgers really proved that all relievers are unreliable and that the best you can hope for is to have way too many starters available to come into the seventh inning when you need them. So, yeah, just putting that out there. All starters, $160 million they spent on pitching the seventh game in the World Series this year.

Andy McCullough (42:04)

If River Ryan and Gavin Stone come back next year the way Emma Cheon did this year, people are going to be so pissed at the Dodgers. They're going to be so mad at the Dodgers if that works out for them.

Ryan Reynolds (42:18)

So, you know, we talked, we joked throughout the season that the Dodgers were the only team that mattered, that they were going to win the World Series if they, you know, put anything together. How do we feel about 2026? Are the Dodgers the only team that matters in 2026?

Andy McCullough (42:33)

I mean, I think it always does depend somewhat on the off season. You know, I don't want to say too prematurely. You considering like they might sign Kyle Tucker. Yeah, I think that it really takes a lot out of you as an organization to win it once. It takes a lot out of you to win it twice. I think that they're going to be a year older in all of the key positions. Yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess, you know, going for a three peat is a bigger story than going for back to back. And I do suspect, you know, we had our way too early power rankings that came out today and obviously the Dodgers were, were first. They would have been first if they had lost game seven. But you know, they were first. And so I would withhold judgment on if they're the only team that matters based on what happens this winter. But if I had to predict how the winter is going to go, they will be the only team that matters, if that makes sense.

Grant Brisby (43:29)

Yeah, I don't know about only. I just see them being older. I see them not having that conveyor belt of young players, you know, going back to Will Smith. I don't think you've seen anyone 3/4 as good as Will Smith come out of the organization. I think that might catch up to them. But also when I was doing research, like Shohei Ohtani is under contract for them next year and beyond. And the same with Yamamoto. Like they're coming back to the Dodgers. It's wild. And so when you have Ohtani, maybe you are the only team that matters.

Ryan Reynolds (44:01)

There are some really key pieces that feel like they're, I don't know, they could be at the cliff. And so you do have to, you don't, you don't know what you're going to get from them in the same way that you felt like you did, you know, before this year, on the other hand, the lack of a young player conveyor belt, that could just be a blip, like a fluke. They do reliably produce top minor league talent. They do currently have the best or second best farm system in baseball. And it's not clear whether like the, you know, the fact that like Dustin May and James Altman and several other players didn't quite, you know, turn into stars says anything about the next crop. They could very easily develop a couple young stars. They could also really make a commitment that this year when they go out to upgrade the major league roster, they're going to get younger and more athletic, that it's not going to be 34 year olds.

Andy McCullough (44:59)

Soundboard, baby.

Ryan Reynolds (45:00)

Yeah, so I don't want to say, well, Freeman and Betts, you know, they're coming to the end of the line, therefore the Dodgers are cooked. Because I think they're aware of that. The Dodgers are aware of that. And they're not going to just like re sign Draymond Green, say, that's enough.

Andy McCullough (45:18)

Yeah, you know, Grant, wait until they trade for Tarek Scubal.

Grant Brisby (45:23)

Yeah, I can see that coming. I could see that coming.

Andy McCullough (45:26)

That actually that'd be pretty tough. I don't think that their front office would mesh well transactionally with the Tigers front office. But that is the sort of thing that they're capable of doing. They can, you know, they have achieved the thing that Andrew Friedman always talks about, optionality. They can do anything and they do not have to do anything, if that makes sense. I do think if you were, if you were trying to, you know, extend this into a real sort of hegemony, you know, over the sport, you would have to find a way to, as Sam said, get younger and more athletic. But that is challenging to do because, you know, you're not moving Freddie Freeman, you're not Mookie moving Mookie Bounce. You got to bring back Max muncie. It's a $10 million club option. So then it becomes you got to get a new outfield, basically, or you need to sort out what, what to do with the outfield. I think. I don't know if they will move to Oscar Hernandez and I don't know what that would do for the, the vibes, the chemistry, the culture, all of that. But from a strict how do you get better perspective, that feels like the obvious decision in their outfield. Kyle Tucker for me is like, I would not feel super comfortable if he is the highest paid player on my team. I don't think he has face of the franchise type characteristics as a player. And I think if you're giving out a nine figure agreement, you kind of need more than just, you know, some red on the savant page and the occasional bold ink on the B ref page. If you're the Los Angeles Dodgers, you don't need a face of the franchise. You've got several. Miguel Rojas, if you. So if you were a team who, if you're a team who you thought, wow, we could pay Kyle Tucker $250 million and bat him six that not feel stupid about it. You're the Los Angeles Dodgers now. Does he want to go to la? Does he want to deal with all of the, you know, the sort of hassle that it is to play for the Dodgers, who can say? You know, we don't really.

Grant Brisby (47:19)

Is he a coward?

Andy McCullough (47:23)

By the way, Grant, have you heard, have you heard Roki Sasaki's entrance music?

Grant Brisby (47:27)

No, I don't think.

Andy McCullough (47:28)

Oh, my God, it's so good. It just goes by Rocky. Rocky. Miguel Roas picked it out. It's just so. Yeah, so I've just had him.

Grant Brisby (47:38)

You're dancing with Roki by la.

Andy McCullough (47:40)

Rocky. Rocky. It's so good. Yeah, I think, like, I don't know if they're going to sign Kyle Tucker. They might be just doing their standard issue Dodgers stalking horse thing where they're just trying to drive up the price for Someone by just hanging out. But, like, again, if you were looking for the world's best number six hitter, which I kind of think Kyle Tucker is, you know, not bad.

Grant Brisby (48:03)

I mean, what were they willing to pay for Michael Conforto after all the competitive balance? Tax penalties, like $40 million or something?

Ryan Reynolds (48:10)

Or something.

Grant Brisby (48:10)

Yeah.

Andy McCullough (48:11)

Yeah, they do. And like, I do think also that they probably don't want to be as excessive about the spending, if only because it starts to affect your draft and things like that. And they are conscious of those things. You know, they are hopeful that there will be another wave of guys coming, you know, like Hope DePaul some. You know, it's kind of unclear about Dalton rushing. I don't know if he can play the outfield, so I don't know. I don't know. They can do anything.

Ryan Reynolds (48:37)

The one other big off season suspense is how many ace votes will Yamamoto get? Did those two and two thirds innings get him? 30. Well, I don't know how many people you pull. Will he be unanimous now?

Andy McCullough (48:50)

No, he won't be unanimous. I do think he'll score really highly. It's hard to be unanimous. You'd be surprised that.

Grant Brisby (48:56)

You know how there's freaks like you in front offices.

Andy McCullough (49:00)

Well, I don't vote, but. Yeah, but I know, trust me, there's. You run into. You run into a guy who's like, well, how many games did he win?

Ryan Reynolds (49:07)

Yeah, I mean, you remember that guy who. I don't know if this guy's still a thing, but that, like, movie critic who would ruin every great movie's Rotten Tomatoes by being the one? The one? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like the one guy who hated There Will Be Blood. I don't know. Is that like. Are you pulling trolls? Like, isn't everybody just wanna, like, not be the one jerk who doesn't recognize Yamamoto after this?

Andy McCullough (49:31)

Again, like, if you're looking at, man, I can't believe I'm doing this. He hasn't thrown 175innings in a big league season.

Ryan Reynolds (49:39)

I think if you add up the pinning seat through, he's quite a bit over 175innings this year.

Andy McCullough (49:45)

Yeah, he just struck out the side to get through the fifth.

Ryan Reynolds (49:48)

So he might have 300 innings this year by the time you do the.

Andy McCullough (49:52)

Poll now, he is, you know, he's instantly. I mean, he's American badass for sure. He reaches that, you know, sort of lofty characteristic. I mean, just one of the. Like, for me, I would say he's an ace. I don't know if he would be unanimous.

Ryan Reynolds (50:09)

37 postseasonings added to the 173 regular season. You're. You're not willing to add those in your hardline, you know, standard. You're not willing to add those and say, he did throw two.

Andy McCullough (50:19)

I'm telling you right now, if you ask me, who are the aces in baseball?

Mint Mobile Announcer (50:22)

He.

Andy McCullough (50:22)

He is. He's joined the list. It's Skubal Skins, Crochet, Yamamoto, Web.

Grant Brisby (50:29)

Right. All right, this. This has been episode number 190. We're going to be back on Friday. And you know what? There's 28 other teams in baseball. Let's talk about some free agency. Let's talk about some lists.

Andy McCullough (50:42)

We're definitely not going to talk about the Blue Jays.

Grant Brisby (50:45)

Blue Jays, man, I am so sorry.

Ryan Reynolds (50:48)

Loved this team. One of my favorites. One of my favorites. And what a great postseason, you know, run. I mean, really going to remember these way more than I remember the, you know, 2006 tigers or whatever.

Grant Brisby (50:59)

When Sam said, hey, we talked about the Blue dudes for like five seconds last week, that was the worst I've ever felt recording a podcast. Like, there was that one time where we were doing World Series and we forgot about the Twins until. But we taught ourselves that was the worst I'd ever feel. We just spent an entire lead up to game seven talking about the Dodgers. We were right to do so, but.

Andy McCullough (51:19)

I still felt bad I was on the Dodgers side after the game. But I do, you know, think the emotion that, you know, you saw coming out of the Blue Jays demonstrated just what a close bond they had. And it's a unique feeling when, like, you think you should have won the World Series and you didn't, you know, like, that's. To get that close. They were heartbroken, you know, like, they were. There were guys just visibly crying on camera, you know, while going through this. And that's just, you know, it's. It's painful to watch, but it's also like, it's kind of why we like the sport. You know, we. It really means a lot to know that the guys playing it care as much as the people watching it.

Grant Brisby (52:00)

I think about the Charlie Brown and Linus sitting on the curb and asking about McCovey. Why couldn't he hit about two, two feet higher? That's an all time great comic strip in terms of baseball. But then he followed up two weeks later with, like a sequel. It's the same thing. But the joke was, instead of three feet higher, why couldn't have hit it two feet higher? And that, like, Sticks to me about Blue Jays fans are just gonna be sitting on the curb with Linus Van Pelt next to them. Just thinking of all the what ifs. Brutal.

Ryan Reynolds (52:26)

Anytime you lose to another person, it's humiliating. If I lose a poker hand, I feel a bit of humiliation. I'm actually. I realized the other day that one of the things that I'm most worried about dying is that I'm gonna be embarrassed to be dead. Like, oh, this guy couldn't even stay alive, right? Like anytime you fail, there's this like judging yourself too harshly kicks in and you feel humiliated. And I just want to say, like, that's what's so painful about this for the Blue jays is they 100% deserve no humility here. Like they, they shouldn't have to feel beat. They played so friggin well and I don't like them feeling that they lost. So it's a shame that we couldn't just like create a little like Black Mirror style simulation that they can live in where they are the champs.

Andy McCullough (53:17)

You guys watch Breaking Bad?

Ryan Reynolds (53:18)

Not currently.

Grant Brisby (53:19)

I mean, like I did new episode last night.

Andy McCullough (53:22)

Have you guys watched Breaking Bad? Yes. When Hank arrests Walt in Ozymandias and he gets to put the cuffs on him. Hank gets that. Like he doesn't get. He doesn't get this to the full satisfaction, but he gets that moment, you know, that's like the Boba Shet home run, right? Is like, look, Uncle Jack and the boys are coming around. You know, they're coming through the desert. But or no, was that in. He rested mentally. Excuse me. Ozymandias is when he is when Jack and the boys officially take charge. But either way, they're coming through. You can see him in the rear view.

Ryan Reynolds (54:02)

I like that. That's a good. That's a good comp.

Andy McCullough (54:04)

You get that moment and that's not enough. But sometimes that's all life gives you.

Grant Brisby (54:09)

So Breaking Bad, you know the character in that, Todd.

Ryan Reynolds (54:13)

Yeah, sure. Logan Webb.

Grant Brisby (54:15)

He looks like an angel.

Ryan Reynolds (54:15)

Jesse Plemons.

Grant Brisby (54:16)

All right.

Andy McCullough (54:16)

Oh, God.

Ryan Reynolds (54:18)

Let's go.

Andy McCullough (54:19)

I fell for it.

Grant Brisby (54:21)

Episode 190. We'll be back on Friday. We'll talk about other teams, free agents, stuff like that. Kyle Tucker, Cedric Mullins, I don't know. We'll be back. See you then.

Andy McCullough (54:32)

I believe the noise I made when Paes caught the ball was. I was very wrong.

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Grant Brisby (55:09)

Thanks.

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