The right quot.
Dodgers Playoff Baseball is back, and with it an annual postseason tradition scam is back.
Baby.
This is Sax and Cakes in.
The a APPA go with Proway.
Dodger legend Steve Sacks is joined by your favorite Dodger pregame host, Tim Kates. If you want to talk Dodgers, get in on the show on eighty six six nine, eighty seven two five seven now. While the Dan Patrick Show streams on the Ihearts radio app. We've been banished to the Internet until this Dodgers playoff run concludes. Here they are broadcasting live on AM five to seven LA Sports. It's Tim Kates and Steve Sacks.
Here we go.
It's Sax and Kates on a Wednesday morning, October sixteenth. Good morning, Southern California. Get ready for Game three of the National League MPION Chip Series as the Dodgers have met are in New York. Later on tonight. First pitch right here on A five to seventy LA Sports is coming up at five eight Moronggo Casino.
Dodgers on deck.
We'll get it all started at four pm. I am Tim kath joined by a two time World series champion, former Rookie of the Year, and one hell of a guy. He is Steve sack Saxy. Good morning, Good morning, Tim. How you doing. I'm doing good. You sound like you're a little nervous for Game three. A little apprehension in your voice right now, usually your mister positive going into a big game here in the postseason. How are you feeling going into Game three tonight?
Absolutely frightened? Are you really no? I'm kidding?
Oh my gosh, writing you gotta be worried. Because you're worried, I'm even more.
Listen, listen, bring it okay, listen, No problems, no problems. This is a big game, no question about it. The winner of the Game three has gone on to win sixty nine percent of the series. But no worries, man, You're You're right where you want to be.
Uh.
You gotta start it going today. No bullpen game and the Dodgers are locked and I look for.
Them to do some big things today.
Yeah, we got a lot to get to over the next three hours. We're gonna hear from Dave Roberts coming up in just a couple of minutes. We're gonna hear from Walker Bueller, the Game three starter coming up next hour. Rick Dempsey was gonna check in at seven point thirty this morning. David Vese is in New York, it has been since well two days ago, and so he'll check in from New York City. Get the pulse of what's happening there in New York. Certainly it's a NFL season.
The Jets and Giants are a big topic. The Yankees are up two zero in the ALCS. So where does this Mets Dodgers series fit in in New York right now? With all the fan base, And we got your phone calls at eight sixty six ninety seven, two five seventy eight six six nine eighty seven two five seventy coming up in about fifteen minutes, We're gonna dive deeper into
this show. Hey Otani is struggling at the plate and what the Dodgers should or should not do with him at the top of the lineup here in the postseason. That's coming up. But this Dodgers team in New York since the early mornings really of yesterday's Saxi flying in after Game two. They had to workout last night at City Field, and I didn't realize it, but because we're here in southern California. It is fall, and the temperatures are starting to drop around places on the East Coast.
And so to see the Dodgers work out last night and they had beanies on and sweatshirts on, and you know, they're not running around and cut off T shirts and eighty five degrees. It's it's in the fifties in New York Saxy.
Yeah, fifties and sixties, which is great weather for them back there. For the Dodgers, not so much. But remember when when guys come into professional sports, you see it, you know in football all the time. Well, they're playing in Green Bay, it's gonna be freezing. How much is this an advantage for Green Bay? You know, as opposed to a team like Tampa. Well, you know what, there's a lot of guys that play for Green Bay that got drafted out of Florida State and got drafted out
of USC and whatnot. So this isn't like their whole lives. Ay, they all of a sudden have adapted to some weather in Green Bet. You know, It's the same thing with baseball. I mean, there's there's plenty of guys that have played in cold weather when they grew up guys in the in the Northeast, and there's guys that haven't, So I don't think that makes that big of a difference. Yeah, you play in it more in the year than the other guys do, but overall it's not going to make
a huge difference. Especially the guys from the Latin American countries. They're not used to it at all.
I think mentally, more than anything, for me, it really triggers the fact that this is postseason baseball. When you start watching the Yankees and Guardians last night, and to see guys in long sleeves and see the fans bundled up, and to see the Dodgers again working out Crosstown in Queens last night at City Field, it just it's postseason baseball. I mean, it's not eighty five degrees anymore and sunny and putting the sun block on and worrying about sweating
on the field of Dodgers Stadium. It just it feels like postseason baseball. There's something to it that the colors are changing back East and it's getting a little cool. I just like it.
I like that change, yeah, I do, because it just sets a reminder of when things growing up when you used to rush home from school and the games are on TV during the day during the week, and it was cold back East, and you know, it's great. It really brings to light really what's at stake now. And I can guarantee you the weather was not gonna be bad back in New York. I mean, I'm here in fifties and sixties, which is kind of pleasant for a
lot of guys like that. I liked it very hot, the hotter the better, but a lot of guys like it kind of more of a temperate, even keeled type of a weather. But I think what we're gonna what you're gonna see is the weather's not going to be an issue. Even if it was cold, it really wouldn't be an issue. There's so much at stake that you don't even really notice it. It's not like during the season or too hot in spring training. You know, this isn't gonna make a difference.
You know.
I'm watching Game one and two of the Alcs the last two nights, and really last night, something stuck out to me in the Guardians Yankees game, in a high fly ball hit by Aaron Judge in the infield, I mean, this thing was a towering shot. If he hits it straight on the line, it's out of the stadium. But he hits it a towering fly ball right around the grass and dirt at second base, and the shortstop for the Guardians drops it. And the night before the Yankees
scored two of their runs on wild pitches. And I'm watching this Guardian's team thinking maybe the moment's too big for this Cleveland team on the stage in New York, facing the big bed Yankees, the Bronx Bombers with Judge and Stanton and man, the Guardians just can't match up. They seem to be hurting themselves and unraveling in the first couple of games of this series. And I watched this Mets Dodgers series, and yeah, the first two games, the teams that have made the mistakes here in these
games are the teams that end up losing. Pitching mistakes, defensive mistakes. Game one, the Dodgers get great pitching from sloppy play from the Mets, and the Dodgers win Game two, vice versa. It gets magnified in October Sex and I think that's people need to really understand, is how important every play is a dropped ball here, a wild pitch here can really get magnified here in the post.
Oh, there's no question about it. I mean that's why defense is at such a premium. Everything is magnified. And this is, uh, this is huge. I mean, you can't make mistakes like that. Especially. Okay, this is where it really kind of chaps my you know what, okay, castile is is see who was catching that fly ball?
It was Castile right the short stoud Oh rochio okay.
And the balls popped in the air. Why are you catching the.
Ball with one hand? I don't get it. Okay, it really ticks me off when I see that. And I guarantee you one thing. Here's what have happened when I and I don't want to get into the well when I played thing, you know, because I know it sucks when people say that, but but when I play, Look at if I did that, or Mariano Duncan did that, or you know Alfredo grit And did that. A middle infielder dropping the ball and then you walk into the dugout. I guarantee you the pitcher would slug you. You'd have
a fight. No, you would have a fight in the dugout, no question about it, and your teammates would just there would be there would be no holds barred. They would be up your you know what, and you might be excommunicated for a while. That's that you want to you want to trade in your guy card. You want you want to trade in your athletic card. Pull one of those jokers on on your team and embarrass everybody. That is a joke telling you what dropping a fly ball
with one hand that flat out sucks, that's all. That is so unprofessional.
And that happened early, and you want to be cool. Yeah, it happened early in the game last night in New York, and it didn't seem like Cleveland can rebound because a Mets tacked on two more. They tacked on one of the sixth a couple more in the seventh on a Judge home run, who, by the way, absolutely crushed the ball to center field. And the Yankees look like the team that are going to probably advance. And I know it's only a two nothing lead, but the Guardians just
don't look the same like they have all postseason. The moment is too big for this Guardian's team, at least it seems that way in New York. Maybe we'll see if the things change when it goes back to Cleveland and the Yankees need to get one of those wins there in order to really, you know, knock off this Cleveland team and finish off this series. But you know, again, it's just for Dodger fans who are wonder well Game two to Game one, how can things be so different?
Oh?
Man, it's a pitch here, it's a mistake there by one guy can change the momentum of a game and a series.
Question about it. I mean, it isn't a question about it. And the Dodgers is going to be looking to, you know who to kind of change things up at the top of the order. Besides, you'll set that table, you know, hit that ball in the gap, maybe a home run. You know, is it asking too much?
I don't know.
He did it all year long, and so they're gonna be looking for a big spark, and I think everybody else is too, And you know, I think we're gonna see something like that. By the way, the reference I made to Luis Castillo, that's when he dropped Alex Rodriguez's pop fly. Remember that with the Mets up by one and and you know he popped up that's back in two thousand and nine. But this was Rochio that did this. And I'm sorry. It's hard to get off of this thing.
When you see somebody do this, it's it's just really unprofessional. And I don't like to I don't like to say things about players because I know how hard the game is. But when you make the game triple hard by being super cool and dropping a fly ball, you got to God gave you two hands, why are you using one?
You know?
And and that really just burns my backside when I see guys do that.
When I see them not slide and.
Get tagged out because they didn't slide for some reason, or you drop a fly ball using one hand, forget it, man, that that is gotta go.
Not to go on a tangent here, but just to kind of sidebar all this. Does it bother you when you see guys slide into second base nowadays, and it's a smart play by the middle dfielders, keep on them, hold the slide, hold the tag. I don't remember there's ever being an issue in baseball and other level until recently. Guys over sliding second base never an issue.
It's a simple thing.
What just happened?
I don't know. I mean, why does everybody slide head first? Why are there's so many thumb injuries and hand injuries?
And then I mean they think it's faster, they just tag you on the foot, I mean, because your foot's up in the air.
What's I mean?
Really?
I thought sliding feet first was obviously the better way. You're not gonna get hurt, you're not gonna mash up your hands. You can pop up way faster. It's called a pop up slide. You can see everything because the dirt's not going in your face when you slide head first.
That happens too.
You can slide and you can see the ball goes in the outphat just pop up and run a third. I mean they've been doing it for over one hundred years and then all of a sudden, one hundreds of years, and now all of a sudden banged everybody slide to head for You're not Ricky Henderson. Okay, there's there's one guy like that. Everybody else is not like that. But why are you sliding head first?
I don't get it.
And they don't even pop up slide anymore? Into the bag. They slide through the bag or on top of it, which is a mind bog Otani got thrown out already in this series for sliding past second base when he clearly had stolen the base and got there before the throw, but because he slid past the bag and it for a millisecond, didn't have anything touching the bag, and the hold was on him the entire time, replay shows.
He's out and the bags are bigger.
Yes, grab that thing, I mean it's huge, looks like a pizza box. You know, It's just I mean, we see it all the time. But the art of sliding, when you ever see a hook slide, why are guys sliding headfirst into home plate? You want to get your shoulder ripped off. I mean, if the ball and the player arrive at the same time, the rule is even in this you know day and age. You can sit down on that player and I see guys diving head first in the whole plate.
Are you nuts?
Well?
The bust or posey play has changed everything. Now guys are scared to go through a catcher near a catcher. Everybody wants to go round yeah, or try to avoid the tag at all. Costs because they don't want to be called for the uh buster or posy rule on both sides, either the runner or the catcher.
Another wim factor.
Clearly, you have to get a clear lane.
Don't we like to see? Don't we like to see the runner? Just evisceerate that catcher? Cancers got that sucker, you know what I mean? We you know what the weird thing about it is you you talked to catchers.
You know.
I talked to my brother about, you know, catching all the time. He was a big league catcher. You know what he told me. He likes the action. He likes the fact that guys can run into you. And catchers are like that. They they're like hockey goalies, man, they like the action. They like the you know that that uh that competition like that. But today it's just, you know, I.
Need a lane to go into.
And let's review it. Did he give him a clear lane to get you the at second base?
Oh my god?
Turning the double play today, I can't imagine how great and easy, much easier it would be back in when we were playing. They were trying to cut you in half, guaranteed, trying to take your legs apart today.
You don't want to engage the Chase utin twenty fifteen when he's out Ruben Tahana during the NLDS.
Dodgers and guess what, Chase did it exactly how you're supposed to do it.
But they changed the rule because of them.
Yeah, because he did it right.
So instead of having the the middle infielder get his rse out of the way like he's supposed to do and and you know, evade the runner coming down there, the guy's got you know, he's got a lot of spirit in his legs coming down, you know, trying to take you out. They've been doing it for one hundred and thirty some years and now all of a sudden
he does it right. Instead of teaching the middle infielder how to do it his job right, which is to get the heck out of the way, now it'll just changed the rule and make it so you can't hit that guy.
That's I don't know.
I don't like that not trying to say, well, the money's at stake, and you know what, so what how about the games at stake?
Absolutely, I'm one hundred percent with you. He is Steve Sacks. I am Tim Gates and Sacks and Kates in the am here on this Wednesday morning leading up to get three of the NLCS Dodgers in New York to take on the Mets. Walker Bueller, Lewis Severino, the pitching matchup, a lot of the talk yesterday at the workouts around show he Otani and where he is struggling at the leadoff spot for the Dodgers. Also Walker Buehler being a
big game pitcher in October over his career. Let's go back to yesterday and here from the manager of the Dodgers, Dave Roberts his thoughts to the media.
I think in totality with Walker, I would want the same effort, execution, focus, and certainly a different result. And I say that a lot of it was Walker's you know, not doing so Yeah, I think a lot of the same. And obviously in this situation series at one to one, you know, here on the road again, which we feel really confident in Walker, I expect he's going to come out with the same kind of conviction and focus.
Will Smith only has two hits this postseason. Is there an any thoughts about shuffling the lineup for the rest of the series.
No, there isn't. I just think that, you know, you know, early on, it's just funny how things change. Where there was a lot of concern about show Hay not being able to get hits with the runners in scoring position, and now we're all trying to find ways that he's have to get guys on base so we can hit, right. So I kind of find that comical a little bit. So I think that I don't think anyone can predict who's going to get on base in Game three or
Game four. So I feel that, you know, kind of there's some tweaks that I do make as far as you know, Tail Freddie the five, six, maybe the seven, eight nine. But to think that you know, I'm gonna move show Hey to the four or the three, that's just not gonna happen, Dave.
When you've looked at show haysfficulties that he's had in the postseason, they've been against Manaiah and you Darvisho are both difficult pitchers.
Deliveries are unnasual Tanner Scott, Right.
Do you see that as kind of like the all the other at bats have been fine?
I do, I do, And I think that you know, I, you know, certainly. I think I appreciate the guys that he's faced and understanding that that's probably some of the reason why whatever his production or average or whatever anyone wants to look at, he's faced some tough pictures and they're pitching them very tough. So for me, I'm looking at tomorrow. I feel really good about tomorrow. Probably not going to see Minio till game six, if there is a game six, and so yeah, I mean, I feel
good with it. But I do feel that he's got to continue to, you know, manage his hitting zone regardless of who's pitching. And I do think that he can hit anyone, as we all know, but he's still got to be kind of stubborn in his own and I do feel that he's got to get back to the big part of the field, and if he can do that, it should bode very well for all of us.
All Right, there's Dave Roberts talking about the lineup show Hey Otani, and of course Walker Buehler getting the start in Game three, and I like what he said that if Walker just does what he did in that Game four against the San Diego Padres or game three, excuse me, against the Padres down San Diego, where he didn't get a lot of help. They had the big inning with the Dodgers battle back and chipped away at that game. If he could just do what he did there, maybe
get some help on the defense this time. They liked their situation with Walker, which absolutely he pitched well. I loved the toughness that he's had in that game.
Three now, yea.
I liked his I like the body language with Walker. You know, look, Dave said the exactly the right things. Whatever he was saying. I was thinking, I wonder if you know this is going to come out of his mouth, and it's right. He's for me, He's he's spot on. I can tinker with this over here, maybe seven, eight to nine a little bit. I'm not I'm not messing with the the the glut of our lineup. That's really
the most important parts. Leave it there, and and look, if you can point out Tanner Scott, if you can point out, well, he's gone, he's not in the he's not in the in the mix anymore. But if you can point out.
A couple of guys that he has trouble.
Hitting, like you know, manayah, there's no question Okay, man, you can pick out two or three guys. I can pick out many many more that that are that I can remember that I just didn't have any success with that are really really tough to hit. If you can pick out two or three guys, that's pretty darn good, you know. So there's always gonna be guys like that, and that's what makes a professional. As you battle through it,
you figure out a way. You work this dude like a rib and then you find a way to get a hit. You find a way to get on and let maybe somebody else take take the you know, baton uh and you know that has more success against this particular pitcher. And though that's what the Dodgers line ups about. That's it's an eclectic lineup. It does it different ways and they'll figure it out.
Game three tonight at City Field in New York. He is Steve Sacks. I'm Tim Kats. Want you to be a part of the show at eight six six ninety eighty seven two five seventy eight sixty six nine eighty seven, two five seventy Coming up next hour, Rick Dempsey will join us. Coming up at eight o'clock hour. David Vetse will join us from New York. At the end of the show, Steve's Keys to a Game three win. Your
phone calls. In between all of that, we'll hear from Walker Bealer next hour up next though your calls, and we'll hear from Sho Hey O Taani. Everybody wants to point the finger how he can't get on base without anybody on base. He's only driving in guys, when they're out there. We'll dive deeper into that in your phone calls.
Thanks for being with us. It's a Wednesday morning here in southern California as we anxiously await Game three of the National League Championship Series right here on your home with the Dodgers a FI seventy l A Sports saxon kate to the am on a five seventy LA Sports Here a home is show, Hey Otani and the Dodgers. Game three of the NLCS coming up from City Field to New York later on this afternoon. Dodgers on Deck
will get it all started at four pm. First pitch at five eight power by Zenchi Sushi, Fast, Fresh and easy, Walker Bueller, Luis Severino. The pitching matchup. We'll hear from Walker Bueller coming up in about forty five minutes. Rick Dempsey, former Dodger catcher part of the eighty eight World Series championship team, will join us at seven thirty this morning. David Vassa live from New York, will join us in the eight o'clock hour. Heard from Dave Roberts just a
little bit ago, Showe Aotani. The big story right now Saxy and his uh well, inability to get on base when there's nobody on base, certainly when there's ducks on the pond, so to speak, when there's guys on base for him to drive in Shoe Aotani has livered with a base hit or a home run or driving the ball for the outfield. He is six for eight with a home run and three walks with runners on base
this postseason. That's really good. Those are tremendous numbers. But he's zero for nineteen with ten punch outs when there's nobody on base. It's it's a glaring difference when there's runners on base and his approach, it would seem at the plate and the equality of bats he has compared to when there's nobody on base, it seems like his at bats changed. Is that an accurate way to describe it.
Well, the pitchers, their approach to him changes. They have to come to him. You know, he expands a little bit. He I was surprised that he expanded as much as he did off of you, Darvish, because he likes to tinker with people just a bit, and that's kind of a calm way of putting it. But that's what he does. And you know, with people on base, he's got to come to you. Otherwise you're going to walk and then you leave it to the you know, you leave it
to Mookie Betts to take care of you. So that's a great predicament that Dodgers put people in when you can get people on base. However, when there's not, they don't have to pitch to him. And he's been expanding
a little bit. I mean, I like what Dave Roberts said, He's got to use more of the big part of the field, meaning that you might want to eliminate everything from right center field to the foul pole and just work on everything to the left of that and gear yourself maybe left of center and try to stay on and track the ball a little bit longer. And listen, this guy's got majestic power. He can hit the ball out to left field just as easy as he can hit it out to right field. He doesn't have to
pull the ball. He's got unbelievable power, and so he can go out that way, make a mistake, and still hit it out. So that's kind of the approach that I think is more going to be more productive for him.
This may sound stupid, but as a hitter, if you're Otani and you're struggling with nobody on base, but yet you're productive with runners on base, can't you make it a mind game? Can't you go up there with the approach mentally that all right, there are guys on right now, and go up there thinking differently, if it's as simple as that, or is it as simple as that?
No, it's not.
Well, it's not quite as simple as that. Hitting is a very very hard thing to do. But you have to try to tighten it up a little bit, don't expand as much, and try to really keyhole pitches. And what I mean by key hole is you got to It's it's a metaphor for you know, making sure the ball is within you know the size of a key hole down the middle of the plate looking for you to be aggressive in your zone until you got two strikes.
Then you got to expand a little bit. But for those first two strikes, I would not give them anything. I would look center to left center and be very aggressive.
In my zone.
But but don't try to yank off everything and pull it to the right. Stay on there and track that ball a little bit and try to line that thing up the middle or to left center. If he gets undered a little bit, he's it's gone. That's the kind of power he has.
Let's go back to New York yes Day show. He Tani met with the media and then before Game three and talked a lot about what the media his struggles at the play.
I know you've said before, you know men on base base is empty, that your approach hasn't changed. But do you feel that you're getting pitched to any differently in those two situations, And if so, do you think maybe moving down the order might help that problem at all?
Hmm? Not so many cons still, can you see?
Regardless of however, there are pitching to me. My plan is to stay with the same approach as much as possible and not really be too focused on how they attack me in terms of the lineup. That is not my job to consider. I'm gonna be as flexible as possible with the with regardless of any situation or anywhere in the lineup that I am placed in.
Heki has been open about how sometimes he doubts himself when he's not performing at the level that he expects from himself. Do you ever have that self doubt?
Main interested Joho?
I say, what I really focus on is how I feel at the plate, and if I'm feeling good and the results aren't there, then I'm not too concerned because there's luck involved. Now, if there's a situation where I don't feel good at the plate and I'm not doing well or it's not leading to good results, then it's something that I look into to make sure, you know, physically, mechanically, making sure that that's all fine tuned.
All right.
There is Shootani with the media yesterday, Saxy. You kind of get a feeling that he's a robot at times at the plate. He's just so mechanical and doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low. But you do have to realize he is a human and this is a guy who's going to go through slumps. He's going to go through struggles and it's a game of tinkering. And he even admitted he's got to figure out sometimes the mechanics, uh, if they're not going right, if he's chasing pitches, whatever
the case may be. But the one thing you're not going to do to showy Otani is mess with him mentally here in the postseason. By doing that, that would be changing his spot in the line of you are never going to do that.
No, he is a he is a mental giant. He's so strong mentally, and that's what so much of hitting is. He understands. You notice he used the word feeling up there, that's what hitting is. He's exactly right. His answers were spot on. They're exactly what you know professional hitter does. He talked about the feeling, he talked about you know,
micro changes, not not big drastic things. And he talked about results, his results, meaning you know, if he's barreling up the ball and hitting it hard and not getting to hit his his results are still good as far as what he's able to put out, Like he said, a lot of it's luck, some of it is and I think I thought his answers were spot on, absolutely perfect.
I'm watching MLB Network right now and they they're going through his stance at the play against Manaya, against you Darvish, against other pictures earlier in the season.
Nothing wrong with his stance.
And going back to even when he was with the Angels last year, and they're looking at hand movement, where his hand starts, where his hands, where his head is facing. They're dissecting everything right now, trying to figure out why he hasn't got a hit with or with with nobody on base. It's funny, that's funny.
See, this means absolutely nothing. Zero.
That's all eyewash. It means nothing. He you know what, it's just a funk that he's in.
Uh.
He has hit a couple of balls hard that didn't go through. It's it's you're talking about such a micro, small part of the bat that he has to connect on instead of you know where he is now, and you know you don't go change in the whole thing. I mean, come on, really, this guy's this guy's gonna be the MVP. He's the best player on the planet. You don't you don't do big changes with that. I mean you just kind of ride this thing out, and you know what, he's making subtle changes, sure, and you
know that, and most of it's probably his approach. And I don't think anything physically, he's calm at the plate, he's relaxed technically, just an absolute powerhouse. Technically, maybe approach a little bit, maybe I would say, you know, gear more towards the center of the field, just like Dave Roberts said, that's it. I mean, nothing major. There's nothing major wrong with this guy at all.
Nothing.
I know.
You can't control where the ball goes per se when you're up to bad and like, well, okay, I'm gonna try to hit a home run here. You know, you can't really can dictate that. The game dictates it. But Shoey O'tani is probably the closest person I've ever seen to somebody doing that. And I say that because in the last month of the season, he was chasing the fifty to fifty mark, fifty home runs, fifty stolen bases, and there were times where you can tell ye he
was looking for the long ball. Here's a couple of pitches he was trying to hit the ball out of Miami Stadium, like five hundred feet and there's other times you can tell his his swing and his approach at the plate was different. All right, I'm just gonna spray the ball the other way. Why because he wanted to
get on base and wanted to steal second. He, to me, is the closest person I can think of in recent memory, to somebody that can try to do what he wants to manipulate the ball to get it to where he wants to, so he can either steal a base by getting on via a single or hit a home run.
I'll give you another person, and I'll give you an example.
There are somebody else that's like that, looks very much like that. That's that talented, and that's the guy that hits right after him. Mookie Betts is that. And he put it on display when he lined that little punch single to right field. You remember that against the Padres. He tried to do that. There was a gap over there, and there was a runner on second, and he played pepper with tattoos in right field, and it was a It was a blatant example of how somebody can kind
of guide it that way. And you know, almost with precision, as far as you know, all things considered, But I think Otani has the ability to do that as well, and there's nothing wrong with the hitting situationally a matter of fact, I think it's a huge advantage for that team.
Yeah, I look at what his struggles are zero for nineteen with nobody on base, compared to what he's you know, success with runners out there and the ability to drive
in runners. I wonder if he is trying to do too much when there's nobody on when he's trying to, you know, get a home run to get the Dodgers on the board, and you know, they're down one nothing after the first inning, and he's trying to be that guy to hit a home run, just like he did against the Padres where they were down three to nothing, and all of a sudden, who's the guy hits the three run home run to tie it, and everybody's feeling good about themselves again because show Hey saved the day.
He doesn't need to wear a cape all the time every at bat and go up there and be the hero.
I'm sure there's Hey with that kind of jack that he has in his bat. I'm sure there's plenty of times where he's hit home runs where he's tried to hit home runs. There's been audio, there's been well actually video of Mickey Mantle talking and saying he tried to hit every ball he could as far as he could. He tried to hit a home run every time up. And this is a guy that hit three fifty four sometimes, you know. So he said that. I mean, he's on tape saying it. So, yeah, is there anything wrong. No,
that's what these guys do. They're home run hitters, you know, and they that's not that's not uncommon for these guys to do that. So I'm sure he does. But you're looking at something that's not a huge, huge change. Yeah, probably just a little bit of an approach change, and that's it mechanically.
No, leave him alone. He's perfect.
Now that we're like forty eight hours after Game two and sham and Iya's performance, even Dave Roberts alluded to show Hey struggles against him. You know, we kept hearing it afterwards about yeah, look he's Chris say, I'll look at that wind up and how difficult it is because he's you know, it's basically a pitch coming from closer to the first base side than anywhere on the mound and it's so difficult to see, especially as a left
handed hitter. I just kind of hope they never see Sham and Aye the rest of this series, because apparently Sham and I has become the second coming now in baseball and as we come, unhittable.
Yeah, well, that's a beautiful, wonderful tag to put on somebody, because now he's got to face this Dodger lineup again, which was the most prolific offense in all of baseball. And I'm thinking, I'm sure if you ask Sean and Iyah that he's gonna say something like I haven't talked to him, but he's gonna say something like, well he did, he got the best of them this time, but it's it may not be that that way next time. And he knows how prolific this lineup can be. One mistake
that he could make could change the whole thing. And I won't I don't want to look down the barrel of that Dodger gun. That offense is a monster, and let's not, you know, forget how prolific this offense can be. And they all know that.
And I think you're gonna start seeing some more of that.
Age sixty six nine eighty seven two five seventy. He is Steve Sax I'm Tim Kates. It's Saxic Kates in the am as we were leading you up live and local to Game three of the NLCS Dodgers in New York to take on the Mets. You're looking for the Dan Patrick Show. You can find it on the iHeartRadio app. Reigan and Rodney coming up at noon today, Petros some money at two flex back because of this early start.
Dodgers on deck begins at four o'clock. First pitch at five oh eight, a pivotal Game three of this NLCS winner goes up two games to one of this best at seven series. How you feeling Dodger fans going into this Game three? Start Walker Buehler on the mound? Which Walker Buehler will we see? Can this Dodgers offense at the top of the lineup wake up after an zero for nineteen performance in game two. We'll get into it.
Your phone calls. We'll hear from Walker Bueler next hour, Rick Dempsey, next hour, David Vast saying to eight o'clock hour, thanks for being with us on this Wednesday morning. AFI seventy LA Sports, Sex and kateson am here on a five to seven y LA Sports. Thanks for being with us on this Wednesday morning as we lead you up to Game three in the National Championships Series. Dodgers in New York Mets tied at a game of piece Marongo Casino. Dodgers on deck starts at four o'clock, first pitch at
five oh eight, Saxy. It's gonna be posted on social media in a couple of hours. But we got a fun thing tomorrow on the show and Friday on the show that we'll be doing. It's for the fans. One lucky listener on Friday is gonna win a two hundred and fifty dollars gift card to the Dodgers Clubhouse Store at Universal City Wath. They got everything you want Dodger related the official Clubhouse store of Amphi seventy LA Sports.
All the Dodger gear you want it. You can make your own jerseys, create them, you can buy your favorite Dodger players jerseys past and president. They got all the Dodger postseason gear that you would want. So Friday we have a two hundred and fifty dollars gift card for one lucky Dodger fans before Game five tomorrow. I'm very excited about this. Yeah, tomorrow, one lucky Dodger fan is gonna win an autograft Dodger jersey signed by you, Steve Sacks.
Get something worthy. Come on, you know it's going to be.
It's an autographed uh Dodger home white jersey with the stitching Sacks on the bag. Number three. It's a game jersey that you can get the Dodger club House store. It's beautiful and uh, you already signed it. I don't know when you did, Saxy sometime in the last year or so, when you were down here and ye yeah, Dave weis our marketing director. He's got the autograph jersey. You signed it on the number three in the back of the beautiful looks like a gray sharpie or white sharpie.
It's it's beautiful.
Well just I yeah, Look the thing about that is that jersey I remember, just remember I remember now from Dave Weis that jersey right now? Is you know it's not worth Uh? I guess it's not worth a ton. Oh stop, but five years from now, tim, it's gonna be worth a lot less. Oh come on, So I'm serious, Come on, serious, and it is worth a lot, and for one Dodger fan in particular, they're gonna have a treasure to have for them for the rest of their lives.
Okay, something they could frame maybe and put up in their home, something they could share along with their family and you know, just enjoy looking at every time the family gets together.
And make a dartboard out of it. No, come on, that's what I would do.
So one lucky fan tomorrow is gonna win that autograph Steve Sacks Jersey. So we're very excited about that. And on Friday the tw hundred and fifty two hundred and fifty dollars gift card to the Dodger Clubhouse store at Universal City Walk. More details will be posted on a FI seventy la Sports Twitter, Instagram TikTok. All that stuff coming up later on this afternoon. Game three is later on this afternoon, Walker Bueller and Luis Severino the pitching matchup.
It's interesting in hearing from people in New York, and David Vass will talk about it a little bit later on in the eight o'clock hour, since he's there and has boots on the ground, so to speak. The buzz about the Dodgers. Mets is come completely taking a backseat to the Jets and Aaron Rodgers and defact Da Adams being traded from the Raiders to the Jets, behind the Giants as well, because football is king, and even behind
the Yankees and Guardians. So you've got three professional teams, two NFL and the Yankees ahead of the Mets and Dodgers series. They're in New York. They're getting like the small headlines in the newspapers and are getting like the final thirty seconds on the local sports there in New York. So it's interesting to see where the Mets fall in line in New York. And you played in New York, you are a Yankees. It's a Yankees town.
Yeah.
Well, the fact that Yankees are in it now I can see it. It might take a back seat. It's kind of like, you know, Padres and Dodgers, you know, I mean, Mets are Padres and Yankees are Dodgers. It's kind of like that in how they in their stature whatnot. But there's hey, there's some reth bit new York Mets fans. Brother, I'm telling you what. That place is going to be loud tonight.
And that's a.
Beautiful ballpark, that new park. It's better than the landing strip that they had at Shay. You know when the planes would fly over and you could hear them saying, if there's anything we can do to make your flight more enjoyable, please let us know. I mean that's how close the planes were. They'd be flying over and you'd come up to bat and you're, O, god, can I step out a minute?
Really?
But now it's it's it's just better. It's just a much better part. It's beautiful. Yeah, so this is gonna be uh, it's it's now a fun place actually to go and play. I would assume as opposed to plane.
In the dungeon.
When you guys went to New York and played the Mets, did you don't stay in Queens? No, you stay in in Stane Manhattan. You stay in Manhattan. And we've heard of players that'll maybe take the train out there. Is that something you partook in?
Yeah?
Was it always a cab? Was it always a team bus for you? Did you ever get on that that that train and take it out to Queens and Yellow Shay Stadium?
I used to take the so I wouldn't take the subway now, but back then, now you get a car or whatever, you don't you don't want to take you don't want to get on the subway. Now, I guess it's not not too good. But yeah, that's what we would do, and you'd get there litle bit early. You don't want to get there, you know, leave later in the afternoon, gets to clogged up. But it's a it's actually a very fun place to play. Fans are very very knowledgeable about the game. They get it and they're
on it big time. But I want to get back a little bit when you said they, you know, the Raiders traded DeVante Adams. I'm not I'm not digging that because you know up here in nocal Man, you know, like it's it's it's forty nine Ers then Raiders. So you know, I'm kind of into the Raiders, but they're just man, they're gonna be lousy, now, really lousy. Then they don't have a quarterback, so you can't win if you don't have a receiver and you don't have a quarterback.
Full disclosure, I work on the Raider radio broadcast. I do the pre half in postgame show O cool and as a studio so you know what I'm saying, then absolutely right now, it's gonna be a tough they don't have a running back. Yeah, it's tough. Lit so that they can't run the ball right now, they can't throw the ball. Aiden O'Connell is uh looked not great in his last start taking over for a gardener.
What have you minshew? I mean, I thought he was off to a pretty good start.
He he can make plays sometimes and other times he looks like a quarterback that just doesn't have enough touch on the ball. He misses a guy wide open, over phasing for an interception against the Broncos, and what should have been a thirteen to nothing lead fourteen nothing for the Raiders. All of a sudden it was like twenty eight unanswered points by the Broncos and the Raiders. Who was that game two weeks ago? And it's just, uh,
it just kind of got magnified. He makes one or two bad plays and the wheels fall off the Raiders and so they gave they gave the reins to Aidan O'Connell and it didn't work out last week.
But I mean, if you're gonna get in the if you're gonna get in the mix, and I know we don't belabor the point, but you gotta get a real quarterback.
You gotta, okay, you gotta, I mean draft some high guide them. I mean that's they wanted to.
They desperately wanted one of the four quarterbacks in the draft this last year, but they just couldn't get up in the draft. They couldn't trade up and get into one of those slots to get it. So by that time they picked, uh, those four quarterbacks were all gone. So they went with Brock Bauers, who was a stud, super tight I mean, that guy is unbelievable and it will be a star and already's having a great rookie year and could be the front runner for the Rookie of the Year.
Isn't Michael Meyer on that team too.
Mayer's on the team's deal lible personal issues right now, so he hasn't played the last few weeks. You talk about a great tight end, I don't know. To dame, that guy was phenomenal stud. Yeah, well, they're healthy and they're right. If they can get a quarterback, they can give him the ball. I think they'll be okay even
without Davonte Adams. But yeah, it's like taking It's like taking one of the big three out of the Dodgers lineup when you lose Davante Adams, Yes, stand up and you gotta find somebody forge to get those catches, to get those yards, to get those touchdowns, and then baseball to get those hits. Kenny and Tarzana is here on scam Saxon. Kate's in the am on this Wednesday morning before Game three. How you doing, Kenny.
I'm doing terrific, Fellos.
How are you today?
Hey, Kenny doing a little nervous. I don't know what to feel going into Game three? Walker Buehler's got me leading both ways.
Wow.
Well. On the other hand, I guess show Hayes has some pretty good success against Severino. I mean he hasn't sayed them too many times. I think you got eight times. I think got a couple of ops with it with a dinner and going three for six. So hopefully, uh he will turn that around. But you know, fall probably more nailor sport is a game of streaks, and you know, through most of the season, Show Hate didn't do well with runners from scoring position and that was a big concern.
And then of course in play August he just went on an absolute care and hit really well with runners from scoring position. I've actually happy that between Andrew Friedman and Dave Roberts, they decided to go back to traditional baseball, and they're bunting now more often and virtually there are no buns during the regular season, which is given Show Hate the opportunity to hit with men in scoring positions.
So I think things will ultimately be okay. And just going back to what you said in terms of hitters, you know they used to say Tony Glynn obviously Steege based him many times, as well as Echiro. They could have hit particularly each hero could have hit a lot more home but they were just such magicians with the bat. They went the wing, went for the five and a half hole. But I think they'll kind of team break out of it. But you never know, because other guys
have struggled in the postseason. We're tremendous hitters too that hopefully we'll get it done today and for the rest of the series.
Thank you guys, Thanks Kenny, appreciate it.
Yeah.
Dave Roberts, when we heard from him earlier, said it the pendulum swings and for show. Hey, He's right. Earlier this season, up to the All Star break, he couldn't drive in runs. He was terrible runners in scoring position. And now it's slipped the other way.
Yep, Tim boom, Yes, sir, that's my.
Boom. Oh you're grooving now, yeah, I'm grooving.
Okay, No, you're exactly right about that, Tim, And I know we'll get more about it after the break, but exactly right. And that thing, that little tidbit about not wanting to hit the ball out of the ballpark because you're a magician with the bat. Absolutely, players were like that. There was a couple of guys, none better than Wade Boggs. He was unbelievable, like that, prolific power, but didn't want to hit thirty or forty homers. He wanted to hit three forty every year.
Sassin Kates in the am. He is Steve Sacks. I'm Tim Kats. One hour down, two to go, leading up to Game three of the NLCS, right here on your home of the Dodgers, am FI seventy I Sports