A whirlwind of New York sports excitement unfolds as host Chris Caputo navigates through the intricate landscape of playoff baseball, focusing on the Yankees and Mets' journeys in their respective series. The show opens with a thorough recap of the Yankees’ conquest over the Royals, featuring insights from Brian Palermo. Listeners are treated to an analysis of key players, particularly Giancarlo Stanton's critical contributions, while the duo also engages in a thoughtful exploration of the Yankees' offensive struggles and how they can overcome them against the Guardians. Caputo emphasizes the importance of timely hitting and the tactical decisions required in the postseason. The discussion seamlessly transitions to the Mets, who have captured the hearts of fans with their underdog journey in the playoffs. Guest John Hanson joins to dissect the Mets' strategies against the Phillies and their upcoming challenges against the formidable Dodgers. Key moments from the games, including Lindor's game-changing performances and the resilience shown by the team, are highlighted, painting a picture of a squad that refuses to back down. This episode not only covers the current state of New York baseball but also encapsulates the passion and fervor of the city’s sports culture, making it a compelling listen for fans everywhere.

Takeaways:

• The Yankees advanced to the ALCS after defeating the Royals, showcasing a solid bullpen performance.
• Giancarlo Stanton emerged as the offensive MVP for the Yankees during their previous series.
• In the upcoming series against the Guardians, the Yankees need to capitalize on early opportunities.
• The Mets are entering the NLCS against the Dodgers with a strong winning momentum.
• Carlos Mendoza's effective communication has been pivotal for the Mets' recent successes.
• Pitching will be crucial for the Mets if they want to compete against the Dodgers.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• New York Yankees
• New York Mets
• Kansas City Royals
• Cleveland Guardians
• Los Angeles Dodgers
• New York Giants
• New York Jets
• New York Rangers
• New York Islanders
• Detroit Tigers

The views expressed in the following program do not necessarily represent those of the staff, management or owners of WGBB.

Live from the WGBB studios in Merrick, New York, this is sports talk New York.

From the studios in Merrick, New York, this is WGB Sports talk New York.

I'm Chris Caputo here holding it down as my partner Mike Crudon, is away for the evening.

Brian graves on the other side of the glass helping us out, and we got a busy night of New York sports here in baseball, football, basketball, hockey, we've got it all.

So we're going to get to our guests right away.

If you had today to do something, hopefully you did it early, because tonight is a big night of New York sports.

We had the Liberty win their game, and they tied to series one.

One.

The Knicks and the Timberwolves played a preseason game, but we brought back Dante Devicenzo and Julius Randall.

And then at 815, 15 minutes from now, you'll have the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers starting the NLCS.

If you're looking for football, that's the Giants.

They're on at 820 tonight, looking to possibly get their way back in the NFC east.

And then tomorrow you got three games as well.

Rangers late, Mets at four, and jets and Bills at 815.

But we got a lot to talk about tonight.

We're going to start it off by talking about the American League championship Series and the New York team that is there starting their series in New York, and that's the New York Yankees.

So we welcome in our Yankees reporter, Brian Palermo.

Brian, thanks for checking in.

Hey, Chris.

Thanks for having me.

Always a pleasure to talk to you.

All right.

Yankees got through the Royals in four.

Didn't have to go the distance, kind of.

Your thoughts on the first series for the Yankees?

I'll take the words of one of the sports writers for Newsday said it, and the Yankees were just okay and it was good enough.

So, you know, he feels pretty good.

They definitely didn't play their best baseball.

Their bullpen was great, but, you know, the offense was okay, his starting pitching was okay.

So they were definitely carried by the bullpen a little bit, which is good.

But, you know, now you got fresh series starting.

Yep.

So you got Holmes, Weaver, Tommy kanely all not giving up runs, which I think helped the Yankees.

But let's talk a little bit about the Yankees bats.

And, you know, they got there, they got enough to win, and they had a couple of games where they put up a couple of runs.

But Stanton, I guess, would have been the offensive MVP, would you say?

Definitely.

I mean, that guy, he's just a presence up there.

You know, a big home run to give them the lead.

He had RBI in game four.

He's just something about him in big moments and you just feel great when he's up there.

And, you know, he had a great series and he's done nothing but hit in the playoffs since he got here.

So I feel great for him and hopefully it can continue.

We're going to talk some Yankees for a little bit here as Giancarlo Stanton.

Six for 16, four RBI's.

But let's talk a little bit about Soto and Judge Soto.

Four for 14, two ribies.

Judge, two for 13, five walks, but hasn't gotten a ribby.

And at this point, you know, the Yankees haven't needed it.

How much longer do you think the Yankees can go?

Not getting as much from those two.

I mean, not too much longer, but those are two professional hitters, arguably two of the best bettors in the world.

I know a lot of Yankees fans are getting worried about Judge just following twitter and hearing different things.

I'm not worried about him at all.

Some of the postseason statistics are a little staggering when you see a strikeout percentage and average.

So I'm not worried about him.

I'm very confident that he's going to be a big reason why the Yankees can make a deep run.

And Soto, he had a good game one, and they're pitching these guys a little different, so they got to adjust, too.

But I'm confident that they're going to hit.

We'll see what the Cleveland Guardians take from Kansas City's notebook of how to pitch them.

I would give Kansas City some credit.

I thought their starting pitcher pitched well or pitcher is pitched well, and it kept the games close.

And then, you know, in addition, we had a couple of guys come through for Kansas City, but I thought they held Bobby Witt in check, which I think was big for them.

This series coming up, give me a little bit of a preview of what you're thinking with the Cleveland Guardians coming in after a five game series win against the Detroit Tigers.

Yeah.

And honestly, you know, Detroit, they gotta give them a little shout out.

They played really tough.

They kind of had that magic going in and going into game five when they had scuba on the mound.

I was kind of mentally prepared to be talking about the Tigers tonight, but you know, the who is that?

Thomas hit a big grand slam and the Guardians held on.

So I'm glad you pointed out that the Royals, you know, their starting pitchers did really well because, you know, Reagan, Zlugo and their starting stats really, really tough.

A little different when you look at the Guardians, some of their starting pitchers.

I know Bieber got hurt early in the year by be tough.

He's a good pitcher in his sophomore season.

A lot of the other guys have been kind of journeymen like Matthew Boyd, but their bullpen is really tough.

Just watching some of their games.

That Cade Smith guy, he comes out throwing smoke and then they got guys like Gaddis and obviously they probably have the best closer in the game right now in class day.

So the key to this series is going to be to jump on them early, try to get a lead early.

And hopefully the Yankees bullfen's been good, too.

So you can jump on those starters and they can hold the lead.

That's kind of what I'm hoping, yeah.

Cade Smith pitch in all five games, 1.42 ERA, twelve strikeouts in six innings.

It's pretty good.

Their lineup.

Stephen Kwan went eleven for 21.

Josh Nailer hasn't really done too much for them yet.

You had a grand slam in game five from Lane Thomas.

David Fry had five RBI's and I don't think you've seen too much from Ramirez yet.

Tell me a little bit about what you expect from Cleveland hitting wise.

Yeah, Ramirez is one of the best hitters in the world and Juan is just always like I mean this in the best way possible as a compliment.

He's just a pesky at that.

I leading off.

He can run.

He's going deep into counts.

It's really tough to strike him out.

So he kind of sets the table at the top of the order there and then.

David Fry, he's had a great season.

I know I picked him up on my fantasy team this year and followed him pretty closely.

So he's a really good hitter.

But yes, Ramirez, I think he was hitting like 160 in the ALDS.

It's really hard to see that continuing.

He's going to get his hits professional and he's a premier all star, so you got to keep him in check.

But you know, they're a tough team.

They play the game, you know, the right way.

They can run a little bit.

So it's going to.

It's going to be a challenge.

Yeah.

And I think the edge has to go to the Yankees in the starting pitching.

So, you know, Cole was, was okay.

I think he was rattled a little bit the first game, gave up a lot of hits, settled in the second time around.

Schmidt I thought was okay, but the Yankees probably going to need a fourth starter this time around.

Tell me a little bit about the rotation, how you think it's going to work.

I still think they're the better starters.

So they announced it today, the first four games of the series, and it'll be Carlos Rudon in game one.

Cole game two.

Clark Schmidt in game three.

And then Louis Hill is going to start game four.

And he's been awesome this year.

So you got to love anytime he's on the mound with Derek Cole, he was shaky in game one.

Honestly, that kind of happens with him.

Whenever he has extended days off.

You know, the Yankees have in the by and he was like a couple extra days rest and that always throws off his command a little bit.

In game four when he was on his regular rest, he was much sharper with this command, and that makes a big difference for him.

So I expect him to be really sharp in game two.

Carlos Rodan, he came out, I was like, oh, my gosh, this guy is one of the best pitchers I've ever seen.

The first couple innings there, he struck out the side to begin it.

He was really fired up.

So he even said it himself.

Hopefully he can control his emotions a little better, but feel confident with him on the mound.

Like you said, Schmidt was good and he's going to be a while since he's last pitched, so hopefully he has some command early.

But he's absolutely electric stuff, throwing high nineties with a real good slider.

I do like their starting rotation.

Okay.

I haven't seen too much on the basis from, from Cleveland.

I don't know if they're going to be trying to steal.

I know they have.

Jimenez is a pretty good all around player.

You know, maybe he'll try to swipe a base here or there, but, you know, any other intangibles that you might see that the Yankees or the Guardians have an advantage in?

I know the Guardians are known to play a little small ball, you know, bumping and hitting, run, hit and run.

The Yankees don't do too much of that.

I know they had, I think, a sacrifice bump in the first series, but Cleveland plays great defense.

Their shortstop, Rokio is really good.

Jimenez is the Gold glover.

Ramirez has come a long way at third, and they definitely have a good defense as well.

We're talking to Brian Plummell.

This is Chris Caputo here on Sports Talk New York, we've got a big night ahead of us.

So for the Yankees, they're going to be starting off tomorrow night, and they'll get a couple of games in the Bronx before having to go to Cleveland.

So just kind of confidence level, where are you at as far as this series?

And also then we'll talk a little bit about the managers.

I'm definitely, definitely feeling confident.

The Yankees typically play well against the AL Central, but this time of year, you can't overlook anybody, can't take anybody lightly.

So I do feel good about their chances.

But, you know, Cleveland's a tough team, so the Yankees have had some battles with them in that postseason last, you know, two of the last two years.

So.

So I'm feeling confident.

Yankees going up against Stephen Voigt, who took over for Terry Francona.

And then you have obviously Boone for the Yankees.

Have you been okay with the way Boone has made the lineup and made changes in the first series?

Yes.

I mean, I personally would love to see Dominguez get in there in left field.

I think he has a higher offensive upside than Rodugo does.

Rodrigo played, you know, he played good defense, and that was enough to beat the Royals.

Right?

They didn't need that extra bat.

But as they go further, I'd like to see Dominguez get some more bats.

And then really, the only time that I had questioned Boone was when he kindly, keenly pitched the 7th.

And he came out in the 8th.

He struck the first guy.

He was like an inning and a third in like twelve pitches.

And Bobby Witt was coming up and I was like, all right, Kane Lee's rolling, and then he turns to Weaver.

And I was kind of questioning why he took him out, but then obviously it was the right ball.

So, you know, I'm liking the way Boone is managing right now.

I know I've questioned some of the things he's done in the past, but, you know, they won the series and that's all you can hope for.

All right, last thing, a lot of chatter from people, you know, me being a Mets fan, you being a Yankees fan, a lot of people talking about a possible subway series already.

What's your feeling as far as that?

Or, you know, is that something you just don't like talking about?

I mean, I kind of like to just think of it as one series at a time.

I don't want to look ahead to the World Series before we get there.

That's my personal philosophy.

I think it would be really cool for the city, obviously.

So I think it would be really cool.

But we might have some heated arguments.

In the office there.

But, you know, I think.

I think it would be a lot of fun for baseball and really help, you know, market the sport.

Yeah.

At least for New York.

I don't like it.

I don't like talking about it.

We could talk about it when we get there.

I like focusing on the task at hand as well, so.

All right, Brian, we appreciate you calling in, and, you know, in two weeks, the World Series will be over.

So the next time we talk, hopefully we're chatting about one of the teams having, at least one or two of the teams having a chance to have played in a World Series and maybe one of them winning it.

Yeah, I hope so.

And, you know, best of luck to you and your mets.

You know, they're getting ready for first pitch here.

So best luck to you, and it's always a pleasure talking to you.

All right, Brian, thanks a lot.

That's Brian Palermo checking in for our Yankees reporter.

We do have a phone call, and we'll take it now.

We have Bridget calling from Seaford.

Bridget, are you there?

Yep.

Okay.

What do you want to talk about?

Want to know your opinions on Jeff McNeil coming back and sending down Adam on.

All right, so the Mets decided to take Jeff McNeil off the injured list and give him a shot to play, and Adam Matovino was the person that lost his spot on the roster.

I think it's the right move.

I think that, you know, jeff is going to give the Mets some innings at some point.

I think he's going to play some second base.

They'd be foolish to put him in the outfield, but they weren't foolish to get rid of Adam Matovino and take him off of the roster.

I think it's a good extra man for them.

This way they don't have to pinch it all the time for Vientos at the end of the game, and you can use the speedster Acuna as just a pinch runner.

So what did you think?

Yeah, I thought it would be foolish to keep him.

I think Jeff could add a lot as a pinch, maybe a pinch hitter today.

Yep.

Even though he did not make the starting lineup.

I have opinions on Numero Ryan Stanek.

Yep.

You think he's been pretty well?

I think he's been doing pretty well this postseason.

He gave us some good innings.

Yep.

I think Stanik out of the bullpen is going to be an extra arm, especially if they have to use Diaz in maybe the 7th or the 8th.

I think they will go to Stanek.

So I think that's a good move.

Hopefully he doesn't have to throw too many peaches.

And the Mets are just about ready to start.

So I hope you're enjoying the game, Bridget.

Okay.

All right.

So enjoy the game, and thanks for checking in.

All right, we'll talk later.

Thanks.

All right, bye bye.

All right, so it is 815 here in the studios.

We have gotten through a little bit of Yankees chatter.

They'll be starting up tomorrow.

The Mets are about to start.

Jack Flaherty on the mound for the Dodgers Giants, about to start in about five minutes.

And we've got some chatter in the other side of the football stadium, and that is the New York jets, who decided on Tuesday to fire their coach.

And we're going to talk with John Santa Maria about that.

So.

Hey, John, thanks for checking in.

Hey, what's going on?

Is world getting ready for game one in Los Angeles?

It's exciting stuff.

I mean, for us to just have, like, picture in picture all over the place and watch all these games is going to be a lot of fun.

Absolutely.

Especially tomorrow.

Yeah, you got jets, bills at 815, Mets at four, Yankees at seven or eight, and Rangers at seven.

There's a lot going on.

Islanders at nine.

Yeah, there's a lot, lot going on.

Yeah, I forgot the Islanders at night, too.

So anyway, I just wanted to check in because Tuesday the Jets decided, I think, in somewhat of a surprise in people's minds, to fire Robert Sala and make their defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbricht, the head coach.

Can we just talk a little bit about how all this transpired after the jets had been in another country and came back and this is the decision they made?

Well, I was thinking, watching that game on Sunday, something didn't look right.

Something was feeling right.

Roger Stone, three interceptions is not characteristic of him.

So you knew something was going to change.

And I had said, well, maybe there is a real possibility that Robert Salah could be left in London, and what he doesn't really left in London, but they did bring him on.

What made me think of that, too, is these standalone television games.

You have those second guesses on things that maybe we got to do something.

We don't want to get exposed again.

They are playing on Monday Night Football this week.

The Bills did lose later in the day.

So I think that did help Woody Johnson's decision because, you know, first place is hard to believe.

Up for Grabs.

Let's remind everybody that they're playing for a lot on Monday night.

So Woody was probably thinking, the season is not over.

We need to do something and it's early enough in the season and we're not too far behind.

A lot of people.

This might be the best time to do something.

Yeah.

So, you know, I think he was probably the coach with, you know, the worst record to have gotten through at least three in almost four years.

He was 20 and 36 through five weeks of his fourth season, never above seven and ten.

So no winning records.

And, you know, what do you think the final decision was?

Do you think it was overall where the team was offense and how much of it, as much as we hear what was said and what wasn't said, how much of it came down to what Aaron Rodgers has as an input?

One, I kind of believe it was not an Aaron Rogers decision.

I think, and people had said this to me over the last few days, why wasn't this Donna New York?

There was no reason why it should have been done in the offseason.

Robert Sala had every right to come back and get a chance to coach his full completed team.

Now I'm going to make a comparison because the Denver Broncos did something very similar a while back when they brought Peyton Manning to Denver to help up steer the team.

The difference was when Peyton Manning was brought into Denver, that team had already come off a playoff first and a victory in the postseason.

Remember the Tim Tebow game back in 20?

But they felt, we got to the playoffs, we want to win a Super Bowl.

Robert Salah has not shown me enough that he coach team that's capable to go to the playoffs.

And you've seen those performances because a ten nine win against Denver, a ten nine morph against Denver could have very easily been a jet win.

If somebody else was running the show, you could see he was definitely a little bit in over his head.

And Woody Johnson wants the playoffs this year, and that was not getting done with Robert Salad.

Yeah, and, you know, at this point.

It only took five.

I'm sorry, it only took five games, but they got a later buy this year.

You got to do this now.

Yeah, well, the jets right now ranked dead last in rushing only 80.4 yards per game.

But their offensive overall is not good either because they're not throwing the ball very well.

And I'm going to put some of the blame on Aaron Rodgers.

He is not playing well.

He's not hitting his receivers, making poor decisions of who to throw the ball to, interceptions.

And the sad thing is they're still in it.

They still have a shot with a win tomorrow night.

To be right in the thick of things in the AFC east.

And that's why I said I think Robert Sal was not doing a good job at adapting to change.

Whether it was, who knows what was true.

Was he going to fire Nathaniel Hackett?

I don't know.

Was he going to give Todd downing the play calling?

Who knows what's really true or not?

But clearly something had to be done.

Woody never did season coaching change, so he probably felt, let's try something different.

Maybe we need a spark.

Maybe Ulbricht will go in there, he'll have a different, which clearly already he said, we're going to go back and that's something.

And you know what?

Robert Sala could have done this two weeks ago and it cost him a job.

You could easily said, let's run the ball a little bit more.

Let's go to some sense.

Clearly that was not done.

Yep.

And do you think that the stripping of Nathaniel Hackett of play calling duties to give it to passing coordinator Tom Downing was something that was kind of part of the deal that maybe Aaron Rodgers knew?

Because when Aaron Rodgers spoke the other day, he's like, you know, he kind of hinted that there's more changes ahead and that he had spoken with Hackett.

So do you think that, you know, some of that stuff was, was already in the works?

Because this is, you know, Hackett's big champion is, is, is Aaron Rodgers.

But at this point.

Thanks for watching.

Remember something with Nathaniel Hackett, he did.

Not call the plays in green bet.

Matt Laflour did.

Okay, so you want to be mindful that, yes, he was the offensive coordinator and maybe them working on the game plan together and keeping the play calling at Hackett's hand, we'll see some different results.

Yeah.

And I thought before called the offense.

In Greenback, I thought they were going to strip Hackett of the playing calling duties even if Salah wasn't fired.

But I think that, you know, they're just, they're looking for something to spark this team and that's why they went with that.

And, you know, I don't know, I just, I never, even with Aaron Rodgers and the defense being kind of ranked close to number one, I never thought this team was, you know, destined to be a Super bowl team.

I just didn't see it.

Oh, I never said that either.

I said there's no reason why they.

Can'T get to the playoffs.

Right.

But at the same time, you know, this could be something that sparks them and then they go on a crazy run and become one of the hottest teams in football.

Who knows?

It could be.

Sometimes it takes a different voice calling the plays.

And the fact you're doing this before a week, six game I got, six weeks from now, when they still want to play for.

There's a reason why this was done.

Yeah.

I mean, Pittsburgh won today.

You're playing them next Sunday.

Baltimore won today.

They're back in the next.

Cincinnati's not playing well, so there's a lot of the AFC south you're probably going to get, only Houston at this point for the playoffs.

The west you might get.

So there is still a lot of time left where, and a lot of teams still got to beat up on each other.

So I think Woody knew what he was doing.

Okay.

And lastly, I know you want to talk a little bit about, you know, the possible other people that would have been available this past offseason versus maybe who might be available to take over if Ulbricht isn't the head coach in the future.

What do you think about that?

Well, if you want to look back to the offseason, I think the only way you would have made a change then is if you could have got your pawball here.

Yep.

Because I thought he was clearly the best candidate.

But yeah, that was probably not happening unless his father gave a seal of improvement for him to work with Joe Douglas.

Because, you know, why things didn't work out in San Francisco is because of a little bit of the power structure.

John, a quick switch over.

We're going to talk a little bit of Islanders hockey.

I know it's early, it's only been two games, but they didn't win either game.

Got a point for losing an overtime to this Utah hockey team, formerly the Arizona Coyotes, who did well and beat the Rangers last night.

But what have you seen so far and what kind of issues have popped up already for the Islanders?

Well, you could tell in the first game, and I was actually at UPS arena for that one.

Watching the game, you could tell Utah had a game under their belt already and you could see some of the little mistakes, whether it was turning a puck over or just a little sluggish, just because it was game one.

Utah had played two nights prior and you definitely saw a difference from their game as well, too, just because you had one under your belt.

A little slow defensively.

Patrick Law said they're still working on some of the defensive structures, so I would expect improvement over time.

They did play a good third period last night.

They just couldn't find a way to get a goal pass.

Ottinger John they had so many.

The puck was like rolling across the goal line.

They couldn't put it in.

It just seemed like one of those nights where it just wasn't going to happen.

Despite the shutout loss, I felt like they kind of played a solid game, but some defensive lapses and, you know, now you're at zero two and people are starting to ask some questions.

You get the avalanche, you get the blues.

So now that this brick wall we've kind of passed, what's, what's going to be positive for the Islanders?

They score five goals in one game, none the next.

What's, what's going to be positive for them moving forward?

Who have you seen on this team that maybe is new that's going to give them a spark plug?

You definitely see a difference in Anthony Duclair playing on that top.

100%, 100%.

Big difference there.

And I think you are missing the physicality.

You are seeing it a little bit.

You're missing the physicality with martin, but you know, you had to take younger Fisher golf number seven.

You see promise there.

Yeah.

You want to see a little bit more consistent play of the defense.

And I think even somebody like Scott Mayfield has to work back into his game because missed a lot of time that season was out since February.

And what about the goaltending?

Varlamov right now is the, is the number one.

What are we looking at as far as goalie situations throughout the season?

Well, we haven't gotten a time frame when Ilya so going to be ready to go.

We'll see.

Maybe he'll be ready to play tomorrow, but really.

But the good sign is that he has dressed.

Sounds like they had to bring one of the bridges, but they were able to put him on the roster, so you would think he could be ready whether, if it's not the Colorado game, maybe the one after.

Okay, so we'll, we'll kind of take a back seat on the islanders and just give them a pass for now.

I would say you get the point in the one game you're on a road trip, maybe you kind of come back.

What was the feeling like in the arena, though, the other night?

Was it kind of too early to or.

Opening night was pretty hyped up.

A lot of people were excited, especially with the new light behind the one area, the network, by where the organist hangs out.

So that was a pretty cool feature.

I think everybody decided to keep Josh Bailey get his tribute video.

Okay.

Yeah, I think that's more curious to know if he did he finally put his retirement papers in.

Yeah, right.

Be interesting to find out.

So again, we're talking with John Sanders.

So, John, we got a minute or two?

Give me your thoughts on where the Mets are at, how they've gotten here, and what your feelings are moving forward.

Well, I think Carlos Mendoza clicked a lot of the right buttons with managing here in the playoffs.

They show no fear whatsoever, whether it was the Phillies, whether it was the brewers.

And it's just one of those things right now where a lot has gone right.

And they just got to find a way to convenient.

This is going to be a tough series with the Dodgers.

You got to take it one pitch, one battle, one inning at a time.

Are you nervous when you watch these games or confident or somewhere in between?

Definitely a little bit of both.

Especially to like watching Sanga pitch.

It's right now, top one, upside, bottom one, one out.

Luke is on first.

Freeman's up.

You wonder how much are you getting from Senga?

Yeah, I think you might get three or four max from him, maybe 65 pitches.

And I think that's going to determine if you potentially use Peterson or McGill to start game five.

Okay.

Yeah, I could see that.

But I also think they might go back to Senga because he's better at starting and then using one of the other two guys in relief.

But it depends on how the series goes.

I mean, it really does.

But I think Senga like, they like Senga.

They like his stuff.

He had one bad pitch against Schwarber, but otherwise he pitched well.

Yeah, it's just tough.

When the guy was in the last.

Round, the Phillies bullpen was a problem.

And if you could get to the Dodgers starting pitching, the Dodgers bullpen is even more backed up because the Dodgers are down to.

They really only have three starters.

Yes.

And they have clarity.

They have Yamamoto, and they have Walker Bueller.

Right.

And they.

Two of those three big injuries this season.

Bueller coming back from Tommy John surgery, and Yamamoto miss a lot of time as well.

Yeah, but their bullpen has been good the last couple of games.

They shut out, you know, 20 something innings in a row.

They shut out the Padres and, but.

They did have, they had a hard time hitting in those two games.

Yeah.

But it'll be interesting because I, they haven't even named a game two starter because they're just not sure if they're going to need them tonight.

But anyway, we'll see how it goes.

I see they already got two on and one out, so hopefully we'll get out of this inning.

But I appreciate you checking in, John.

All right.

Have a good one.

Enjoy the game.

Go ahead.

That was John Santa Maria, and we're going to take a break.

When we come back, we're going to talk with Jon Hanson about the New York Mets and their series with the Dodgers.

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Now back to the show.

All right.

Welcome back to WGB Sports talk New York.

I am your host, Chris Caputo.

I am filling in as Mike Widow is on the road tonight.

So we're going to be talking some Mets baseball here in the second half of the hour.

And we're going to break down what the Mets have done and also what's going on as they face the Dodgers in the NLCs.

So to do that, we are going to bring in our Mets reporter, John Hanson.

John, thanks for stopping by and talking to us.

Hey, Chris, thanks for having me.

All right, so I know right now we're in a tough situation.

Base is loaded, one out.

The biggest part, I would say at this point, John, is three walks, right?

Yeah, three walks.

Senga does not have any control right now.

I think his 1st 17 pitches, 14 have been balls, although Smith just flew out to shallow center and Taylor was able to keep Betts at third.

So if Senga can wiggle his way out of this, that would certainly be a big plus for this Dodger lineup.

It's one guy after the other.

So.

Yeah, but they didn't hit the ball.

Well, against San Diego, you know, you got guys like Will Smith hitting 118 and Muncie 167.

So if he could settle down, I know he's only thrown four strikes out of 17 pitches or 18 pitches, five strikes, whatever it is.

I mean, we could get through this and get him a couple innings and see what we do.

You got Otani out and, you know, I'm going to miss, I'm going to manage or micromanage, you know, every pitch here.

But, you know, this is a big situation for the Mets.

I think they were probably the hottest team in baseball for months, but also going into the playoffs because remember, they had to win a game.

Last time we talked, the Mets still had to win one out of two games on a Monday just to make it in.

And think about the way that game went, John, where the Mets came back and winning eight seven and Lindor hitting a home run after Diaz blew it.

And you know, the Mets have done a lot in the last two weeks.

We could sit and talk about a lot of that stuff.

So give me a little bit about what you thought were the highlights over the last few weeks.

I think the best synopsis is.

Chris, the last time we spoke was two weeks ago tonight.

The Mets have arguably had three of their top ten moments in that two week stretch.

That just tells you all you need to know about what has happened.

Starting off, like you said with that game 161 in Atlanta, which was probably the most incredible two or three innings of baseball until you got to Wednesday night or Thursday night in Milwaukee, which was, you know, their 9th inning was incredible there as Muncie just hits a base hit here, two Dodgers are going to come in to score and Freeman is hobbling like crazy out there.

But right now LA is up two nothing here in the first in game one.

Back to the last two weeks.

It was just incredible.

The team would never say die again.

You go back to that game 161, they had the big 7th inn capped off by Nimmo's three run homer go up six to three.

They have a very, very rough 8th inning where the Braves end up going back up seven six.

And then Lynn Dork comes up and hits that iconic home run in Game 161 to propel the Mets to the playoffs and lets them take game two off because every Mets fan, as we talked about the last time we were together, game 162 would have been a nail biting fest.

It was easy for the Braves to win but if roles were reversed, I'm not sure it would have been that way.

I mean, the Mets put up a fight I like what Joey Lucchese, you know, gave our bullpen a break and did some nice things.

But, yeah, that was a tough situation for the Mets to go into Milwaukee after playing doubleheaders and, you know, flying back and forth different times and to be down to their last inning and to watch Pete Alonso hit that home run just made it even more intense.

And then fast forward a little bit, John.

You know, the Mets get another series, and this time they had to go up against their foe, the Phillies, and took care of them in four games.

Talk a little bit about what the Mets did well in that series as well.

At the end of the day, the Mets beat up the Phillies bullpen.

They controlled the Philadelphia lineup, really, outside of Harper and Castellanos.

The rest of the Phillies team only hit 130 for the entire series.

But the key was, you look at game one, where Zach Wheeler dominated that game for the first seven innings.

The so called Philly vaulted Bullpen came in and the Mets controlled them again.

They put up six runs on the Philly bullpen in game one, really set the tone of the series, even in game two, where Diaz struggled.

And the Phillies ultimately came up to win that game.

But you saw what the Mets did against their bullpen there, including Vientos hitting the two on homer to tie the game in the 9th again.

The Mets ultimately lost, but it just shows what they did.

They put constant pressure on that Philadelphia bullpen and then Harper and Castianos, you could see every time Harper came up, he was grinding that bat harder and harder, trying to hit a five run home run the whole time.

And the rest of that lineup did nothing.

And the Mets just really just kept beating them down in that bullpen, and it really took the life out of Philadelphia.

Agreed.

And I think that they even had some life in the game they lost, where, you know, they had tied the game up and then lost it on a walk off, but got a lot out of the Mets that day.

And I think one of the budding superstars who cannot come out of the lineup is Mark Vientos.

I think he's just given the Mets so much in so many different areas, and, you know, this team really just has a never say die attitude.

They're just not going to quit no matter what the situation is.

The problem could be, though, John, is some, you know, you do that too many times and eventually you just can't crawl yourself back out of that hole.

Yep, totally agree.

At some point, they're going to have to play from in front in order to have a couple of, you know, kind of ho hum victories.

But I do think that this series versus LA, because it's a seven game series, you do have some time to breathe.

It's nothing.

Game one in a three game series is obviously crucial.

Even in a five game series, you want to get off to a good start because it is a short series.

In a seven game series, you do want to come out and try to get one of the first two.

But the reality is, in all of these series, seven game series, it's not really a series until you lose your first home game.

The Mets can breed a little bit here, which they have not had the ability to do really in the last month.

So Flaherty hasn't been great for them, you know, over 60 ra in a post season, not great in the regular season.

You know, he's their one guy.

And then Bueller could pitch two, could pitch three.

And then after that, really, it's Yamamoto.

And I think the Mets are going to get a bullpen game, whether it's game two or game three.

Starting pitching edge therefore goes to New York.

You think so?

I think so.

Just with the depth of what they have.

But again, the Dodger bullpen has been excellent.

They've had 25 consecutive scoreless innings.

Right now, the Dodgers as a pitching staff going into the second and here.

So their bulletin was very good against San Diego, certainly neutralized them and gained four and five of their division series.

But yes, the starting pitching edge definitely goes to the nets.

When you look at, you know, Senga today, tomorrow they're going with Severino.

I'm sorry, mania tomorrow night.

I apologize, mania tomorrow night.

Severino to Quintana.

And then, you know, five, six and seven if necessary.

You know, you play it by ear.

You'll be interested to see what they decide to do with Senga, depending on how this finishes tonight for game five.

But yeah, the starting pitching edge absolutely goes to the Mets, bullpen to the Dodgers.

I would say for those of you doing picture in picture, New York giants down seven, nothing to the Bengals.

Joe Burrow took off for a 47 yard touchdown.

Those of you watching the Mets, Pete Alonso down, and the Mets are losing 20 in the second inning.

John, we bring back Jeff McNeil, and obviously Aravino wasn't doing anything.

Anyway.

Give me a little idea of how you think Mendoza is going to use all of his players now.

That you have an extra position player?

I think so.

McNeil's on the bench tonight.

I think you're going to see what happens with Iglesias here.

Iglesias has slowed down a little bit, even though he's certainly the heartbeat of the team.

I think Mendy will find a way to get McNeil into the game at some point here in the series to get him some attacks.

My guess is if Glacier struggles here today, I could see McNeil getting in there tomorrow.

You could see, depending on how winter or Martinez do, you could see the enthusiasm as the DH at some point.

But I do think that they will figure a way out to get McNeil some at bats here.

And I agree with you, Otto, he wasn't even used at all in the wild card, I'm sorry, in the division series.

Not even sure he was using the wildcard series either.

So I don't think that's a big omission.

I think having McNeil in place of Ottomino is definitely the way to go.

Yes.

And I think the Mets have done enough in the postseason that they're not going to use their bullpen in situation or guys in their bullpen in situations that they haven't been in.

I'm not a big fan of bringing Diaz in in these situations where guys like Peterson can throw another inning.

I'm just a little bit unsure of how that's going to play out in this series because, you know, Mendoza has made the moves and his team has backed him up, but I don't even feel like it's always the best move, but he's gotten himself out of it.

And I think, you know, this series, there's going to be other guys that have to step up for the Mets, and it might be another pitcher like Stanik.

It might have to be another guy, you know, out of the bullpen that maybe hasn't pitched in the past and they're going to be asked to do things.

But I think the first thing that you and I have talked about is the Mets need to get a split here and get at least one game in Los Angeles to make this a series because you don't want to be down zero two coming back to New York and thinking to yourself, we got to win all three.

Yeah, totally agree.

It's imperative that they get a split here if they're going to have a long series.

There's no doubt about it.

I think if you just look at the history of seven game series, you really want to be, if you're the Mets, you want to be up three two, coming back to laden next week.

That's really the, that would be the ideal scenario.

If you can't close it out in five as they're going to go down here.

One, two, three in the, in the second Dodger, still up to nothing.

I just wish the Mets would treat it as if it was every game was a do or die because that's when they play their best, is when their backs are up against the wall and they do a little bit more.

So, you know, everything going on with the, with the Mets and they kind of make their way through.

And I would just say, number one, we could talk about this in the off season, but Francisco Lindor needs to be the captain of this team.

He has been pretty much, besides Shohei Otani, the MVP of the National League, he's done everything right, including in the playoffs, just watching him before putting his hand on Sengas back and going out there and telling Diaz, hey, listen, no more.

I got this.

Just show us.

Go out there and do it.

Because he's been a show me guy, but he's also stepped up and said the right thing.

Anybody asks him, I think he is the right person for this job right here, and I think he's going to be the reason why the Mets make it to the World Series or else they won't.

Yeah, I totally agree.

Lindor really has blossomed into the leader of this team.

There's no doubt about it.

He is the heart and soul of that team.

Him and Nimmo, you really can see that those are the guys that people look to.

JT Martinez has also done, I think, a great job as a veteran leader working with some of these guys hitting.

But from a standpoint of who the ball club looks to, there's no doubt about it.

It's the shortstop.

He is without a doubt the leader of this team, which, by the way, we've always wanted.

Right?

We've always, the Mets have always yearned for that guy.

Even if you go back to all those years we had Piazza, Piazza was never that guy.

He never wanted to be that guy.

It wasn't until you brought in guys like Zealand Ventura that got Piazza to kind of settle in and be a little bit more of that guy when he had other guys around him.

But Lindore, without a doubt of, is a bona fide superstar in this game and the undoubted leader of the New.

York Mets 516 620, 312 40 if you got a question for myself or John or you want to just give us your opinion, you can call in.

We are talking about the New York Mets, who are starting a series with the Dodgers.

So I don't like this stuff, John, and I'll talk about it probably a little bit later.

Whether you're on the call with me or not, all I keep hearing is, oh, my gosh, the Yankees and the Mets are going to meet in a world series and this is going to be great for the city.

These are the best two teams in this.

Why do people have to bring it up?

I mean, all I just want to focus on is, are we going to pitch to Shohei Ohtani?

Can we pitch?

Find a way to get Freddie Freeman to roll the ground ball so he can't beat it out, and instead everybody's talking about the Mets are the best team, the Yankees are the best team.

They have to get there.

If the Yankees don't, then it's a disappointment.

And the Mets, like, why does it have to be Yankees?

Mets talk when we're in a championship series.

Yeah, I agree with you, Chris, and I think they're on two different planes.

I think that when you look at the Yankees, I do think it would be a disappointment if they don't get there.

I think that the path to the World Series was kind of laid out for them, having to only go through the AL central.

When you look at the Mets, it's a little different.

They were the 6th seed, got in on game 161, probably was not favored against, they were not favored against Milwaukee, not favored against Philadelphia, not favored here against LA.

So it will be disappointing if the Mets don't get there.

To me, it's disappointing versus a disappointment.

But I agree.

I think the talk of it has to be Mets, Yankees.

I think that's more just for talk radio.

I think that's more for the tabloids in the city.

But at the end of the day, whatever, two teams are the last two standing for the World Series, those are the ones that deserve to get there.

The Mets obviously have their work cut out for them versus Los Angeles, and I would say the same throughout the Yankees with Cleveland.

Yeah, we're going to talk in two weeks, and at that point, the World Series champion will have been decided.

But I think at that point, people will probably be up in arms as to which team was better at that time as opposed to just crowning a champion and moving on.

Kodai Senga only throwing eight strikes in his 1st 28 pitches walking another batter.

I think it's time to get somebody up in the bullpen.

But I think, John, that hurts our chances moving forward because if you have to go to the bullpen in the second inning of the first game of the series, you're looking at, you know, depleting certain guys in your bullpen really bad.

Yeah, I would probably, the thought was that they were going to go to Pearson from Senga.

I would probably consider getting Tyler and McGill loose.

Yeah.

And you might even just probably finish.

An inning with Danny Young and then start the next inning with one of those two guys you talked about.

Yeah, probably makes, it probably makes more sense.

You don't want to.

If Senga can only get you through this inning, I don't know if you really want to burn Peterson for the third, fourth and fifth and then still have to figure out a way to get potentially twelve more outs out of your bullpen, that would be certainly rough.

For sure.

They're going to have to go back to the drawing board.

I know he's not hitting particularly well for average, but how do you think the Mets deal with Ohtani this series as far as pitching to him, when to pitch around him?

I think you have to just pick the spot like right now with him up with a runner on second, lets down 20.

I think you have to be very, very careful with him because he is as he just starts a base hit past Alonso.

Dodgers are now up 30.

I think you just have to be careful how you, if you can have Otani keep the ball in the park, youre doing a good job because that's really the key.

I mean, the guy is such an incredible power hitter.

But then the issue is if you walk Johnny beach, you have bets and then Freeman in the lineup just does not give up, especially the first three hitters.

And then if you walk him, he's going to steal bases.

So you put yourself in a situation of basically giving him a double or a triple just by putting them on base.

But in that spot just right there, John, he hasn't been able to find the plate anyway and then you're just going to hang on a pitch.

I think it's poor planning that I don't think the Mets were ready for to start this game.

But we're not going to get down on the Mets.

We're going to keep our heads up and think about the positives of hitting a grand slam in the 6th inning against the Phillies closer.

Those are the positive things that no matter what happens, I know being at that ballpark what it felt like.

And I know that I'm going to leave this season knowing the Mets gave.

Us a lot, 100% when you go back to being 22 and 33.

Oh, and five, they have given us a really, really good season.

It'll be a special season if they can close the deal.

But it has been what was described by many as a year of transition.

They have certainly done a great job getting all the way up here to the NLCS.

I still think they can finish it.

Like you said, these guys don't give up and, you know, a three run deficit is not that big of a deal.

I am surprised Reed Garrett just came out of a bullpen to finish this inning.

So again, you're burning the guy in a circle of trust.

However, you do have to get out of this inning because three nothing is manageable.

Five, nothing, six nothing.

Then that gets to be a problem.

Not for the Mets, though.

Even five, nothing.

Six nothing.

They find a way.

And I think that's what's been the best about this is, you know, no matter what has happened, they played the Braves that game, 161 down 30, and then just plugging away.

John, I can go back to the game in Toronto when they were getting no hit in the 9th inning and it starts off with Francisco Lindor again hitting a home run to tie it.

Mets put up like six runs that inning.

There's just no quickness team and there's just another guy after another guy stepping up.

I've been happy with the at bats that Marte's been giving.

I've been happy with, you know, every once in a while seeing, you know, the catcher.

Alvarez put up some good at bats.

Even Pete Alonso, when it comes that time, he's putting.

He's putting a bat on the ball and either getting a single or hitting a key home run.

So I think, you know, the Mets have found ways to win games that maybe in previous years they would have been totally out of.

So it's been a good run.

And I think that in order to keep this going, you're going to need some more of that magic, the OMG, the grimace.

All that stuff has just been so good that I think we just need a little bit more of that and maybe out in LA, maybe somebody finds it.

Absolutely.

I agree.

Alonzo has been very good since his home run off to Devin Williams.

He had a couple of home runs in Philadelphia at a double in game four as well.

So Alonso's played well.

He continues to pick the ball really well at first base as well, so you can't really ask much more from him.

Vientos, again, has been very good.

Alvarez has done a pretty good job catching the ball.

Love the way that he blocks the ball, but he has been effective.

But you're right about Marte.

Marte has been in every key rally, whether it was in game 160 or Philendor's grand slam in game four versus Philly getting on base.

That really changed the dynamics of that team in 21.

But you really do see how important marque is.

He is a professional hitter, very good ballplayer.

Definitely a key to some of the Met success.

Yeah, I think so.

And I think the Met starting pitching has been really good.

My last question for you, what about a possibility of having a game against the righty where McNeil plays second, Iglesias at third?

You get a DH out of Vientos and you don't have to take them out for a defensive replacement.

You think that's a possibility for the Mets at some point?

Or does that hurt Vientos confidence by them saying, hey, listen, we don't really trust you in the field, and then it affects his bat?

No, I don't think so.

The one thing again, you look at what Mendoza has done here as the manager of his team.

He communicates with these players every day, and I think if he ever.

Yeah, and if he went to Vientos and said, hey, we're going to try this today, we're going to keep your bat in.

We're going to have you DH doesn't mean you're not going to be at third base tomorrow.

I don't think there's any harm in doing that, especially if they do need a spark.

And again, you have to get McNeil in the lineup.

But again, I think it's probably more likely that you will see Alvarez just throughout.

Otani at second for the, it looks like to be the third out of the second, and Ohtani was a little slow to get up there.

I think the way Mendoza manages this team and the way that he communicates with his players, I don't think it would be any issue at all for the anthos to dh a game.

Yeah, I think so.

I think you're right.

And I think you know what Mendoza does the best is communicate.

Let these guys know, hey, I'm going to need you at this time.

This is where you're going to be my man today.

And, you know, they always know.

And I think he's pulled the right strings as far as defense.

You know, at the end of the game, it's going to be Tyrone, Taylor, and Wright.

You're going to have Bader in center and Nimmo in left, and you're going to probably put in Acuna at second and move Iglesias to third.

It's just guaranteed.

That's what they do every single time.

I'm telling you, John, he's pulled all the right strings.

When, like the one game I called you and I was just like, I understand there's nobody left, but you got to put Harrison Bader in as a pinch runner.

Even though we have for Avientos, even though we have no other infielders left.

He does it, he scores the winning run, and it just works out.

There's just this thought process.

I know Buck Showalter always thought about those things, but you got to have a rhyme and a reason and let these guys know what their role is.

The best move that David Stearns has made, without any question, is finding Carlos Mendoza.

I was, and I think I've said this before on this program, I was extraordinarily annoyed with how the Mets treated Buck Showalter.

I thought it was wrong.

I thought he was kind of the fall guy for what had gone wrong in the front office and bringing in the 40 year old pitchers.

And I was very skeptical of Stearns hiring a manager because when he got to Milwaukee, council was already there.

So Mendoza is Stearns his first managerial hire, and so far it looks like it is a absolute gold golden choice because Mendoza has been everything you could have hoped for this year.

The players love him.

He takes, you know, he has control of that room.

Like we talked about his communication style with the players, they all appreciate it, and he's been excellent.

You can even see in the celebrations the way that.

The way that the environment that he has built in that locker room, again with link door, with Nimmo, it's a special group they have.

I hope they're able to finish the job here over the next two weeks.

It would be amazing.

We're going to talk in two weeks, and hopefully you and I are talking about something special that happened with the Mets.

If not, we'll recap and we'll enjoy what we had.

So thanks for stopping in, John.

We appreciate it.

All right, Chris, take care.

Talk to you soon.

All right.

That's Jon Hanson, our Mets reporter, checking in as we're capping out this show.

We had a great time tonight.

We spoke with Brian Palermo about the Yankees, Johnny sticks, Santa Maria about the islanders and the Jets, Jon Hanson about the Mets.

I'm just going to finish with this.

I really thought that, you know, people enjoy listening to their own announcers.

You may not like listening to my voice, but if it brings you soothing, you enjoy it.

People do not like listening to some of the voices on Fox Sports.

They do not like listening to some of the voices that are on, you know, tbs.

And I think at some point they need to get a home announcer.

Just allow that guy to announce the game, because I know that I like listening to Howie Rose on the radio as well.

So that's going to do it for tonight.

We'll be back in November, 2 weeks from now.

Sports talk New York, this is Chris Caputo signing out.

Have a good night.

Let's go, Mets.

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