4:05
3-2 win by the Atlanta Braves. We have watched a couple of the terrific one-run contests in game twos of our division series coverage. Derek Jeter, David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Matt Vascersian. So about three and a half hours ago, we were all out here talking about how the Braves are faced with this monumental task. The Dodgers have a massive pitching advantage. You guys all picked the Braves to get crushed today. It was the Atlanta Braves with a couple of young guys that come out on top on the mound. I tell you what, I mean, it's just it's like the Atlanta Braves are just showing the rest of the world, hey, look, this isn't just a Dodgers walking through the
motions, getting back to another World Series and winning three in a row. They had to get through us as well. So, you tip your cap to the Atlanta Braves pitching staff. I mean, what a job. Absolutely. I call that the wonder of baseball, the wonder of the game because you don't expect a team like the Dodger to get shut down the way they did tonight. Especially playing at home and winning the game that they won last night. I mean, the offense was quiet. The pitching coming from the Braves was outstanding and they did what it takes to go back home one-on-one.
Yeah. And I think there's a little bit of a false narrative out there. I mean the Dodgers are the Dodgers but you know you look at the Braves season they lost what six or seven games less than the Dodgers but after this win this year the Braves have dominated the Dodgers 6 and2 and can we say Walt Weiss what a tremendous job a great leader did not panic with sale press that button he said you know not so fast we're going to leave the best pitcher for game three and now they're in position 1A Braves are lined up they're going back home for game three on Tuesday lined up with their number one and two starter with a pathway at least to what would be a huge upset. Back at the ballpark, Ken Ro Ros Rosenthal, easy for me to say,
standing by with Braves catcher Drake Baldwin. Thanks, Matt. Drake, let's start with Diddier Fuentes. He's 21 years old, came within one out of pitching four perfect innings. What made him so good tonight? Yeah, I mean, he just went out there, he was so poised. Uh, says a lot about him. Uh, he's been doing it for us this entire year. And I mean, you saw tonight. I mean, he went out there, threw strikes, he has incredible stuff. So, ton of confidence in him and he went out and showed it. When you came in today and you learned Chris Sale wasn't starting and you were going with a third straight bullpen game, what did you think?
Yeah, I mean, I think we have a lot of confidence in our bullpen. Uh they've been really good for us all year, a lot of leverage guys um all throughout it. So, I think our team had nothing but confidence and I mean they went out there and they pitched so well and I mean it shows I mean it says a lot about our bullpen. Series is tied. We're heading back to Atlanta. You've got Sale and Tyler Mali lined up for games three and four. What are you expecting at Truis Park on Tuesday night? Yeah, I mean I know that crowd's going to be awesome. Um it was incredible for the wild card series. So, we're fired up to be back in Atlanta and whenever sales on the mound we're feeling good.
Drake, thanks a lot. Congratulations. Thank you, Matty. Back to you. All right, Kenny. You know what an improbable win this is for the Atlanta Braves on one element here. Blake Snell's a two-time Sai Young award winner. Massive pitching advantage for the Dodgers. Ray Kerr and Deier Fuentes in particular outpitched the Dodgers in game two. Yeah, look, I think first of all going to the Braves offense, I think they did a nice job making Snell work a little bit early on. Think he had about 25 pitchers and that one run was key, especially for Kerr to give him a little momentum, a little breathing room. I thought he was excellent. He was deceptive. And what can you say about Fuentes? Turned 21 years old, the native
from Colombia, [clears throat] and was fantastic. Three and two/3, only that one hit, the home run, but really impressive win for this team. How about Ray Kerr? Let's just give it to the young man. I mean, he pitched game three against the Philadelphia Phillies. No one really knew, maybe outside of the Braves organization, that he was going to pitch in a pivotal game, too, when you're down at Dodger Stadium when the whole world's picking the Dodgers to win. And he went out and did the exact same thing. So, he deserves a lot of credit. He set the tone for the Braves pitching staff and just it snowballed after that.
I think we haven't give enough credit to the uh Brave pitching staff. They hold on to the in the first game the Dodgers got away winning that first game but they stopped the top of the line of the first fourth batter three for 14 in that first game. Tonight they were four for 14 one RBI. They have been doing an outstanding job against those monster that you know that often from the Dodgers is incredible but they haven't been able to come through and you know what they play fundamental baseball that's like synonymous with the Braves way right they do not beat themselves and by the way there's a lot more in the tank they're 1-1 and they're sitting here with Akuna who hasn't done much who's one of the best players on the planet
you hope if you're the Braves fan Chris gets going on game three and Akunia there is a chance this may not get back to LA there is a I'm just saying there's a chance. I didn't give you percentages. Look, if you told Walt Weiss that he was going to face TKO and Blake Snell with opener and get out of that 1-1, he'd have taken that all day. He's a genius. He knew it was going to happen. Let's drill down on some specifics here. Bottom of the fifth, nobody out, runners at first and second. And the Dodgers had a chance to get right back in the ball game. Dantrell, there was a dude that
came in the game for the Braves that had made only three outings since mid June and Robert Suarez was fantastic tonight. You know, Robert Suarez is the prize jewel in that bullpin along with the glasses, but he has ice water in his veins. This felt like this was the ball game and this was the chance for the Dodgers to swing the momentum back in their dugout. 100 miles an hour to jam Will Smith a lazy fly ball. Nobody can advance and then all of a sudden throwing that nasty change up down and getting a fly ball. But this is the fast ball down to the zone 101. Taylor is
still a threat and he gives that fist pump saying that's the ball game right there. This bullpin is very talented. But also what I see about this clubhouse is they love and respect Chris Sale because they knew they had to get a bunch of outs today in a hostile environment. It didn't feel hostile because from Ray Curry to everybody else, they were outstanding at taking the crowd out of the ball game and now all of a sudden the momentum is swung back to Atlanta. So now they have Chris Sale. He's going to be on full rest and so it's going to be tough sledding once again for the Dodger offense. There were offensive heroes for the Braves of course in game two. Michael Harris II became just the fifth Brave to record a
double and a triple in the same postseason game. He had a terrific game, too. Headed back to home, his home state with a 1-1 tie. Michael joins us postgame. Congratulations on the win tonight. Michael, talk about the vibe in the clubhouse before the game. You guys felt loose and it really showed tonight. Uh yeah, that's that's kind of the our whole mentality going into it. Stay loose. Obviously, they won yesterday, but uh we believe in ourselves and we know uh all we got to do is take one and go back home. So, yeah, I think most of the day we took a lot of time watching the football. It's NFL Sunday, so uh we got a lot of a lot going on with our fantasy team. So, we're trying to keep up with that.
Michael Harris, Alex Rodriguez here. First of all, congrats on an amazing season and even better postseason so far. My question is, first of all, you're an Atlanta guy. What a dream [clears throat] story. I heard you were at the World Series uh a few years ago watching your Braves team. My question to you is over the last two months, you've hitting about 320. What has been the biggest difference for you to play at this level? Um, just trusting my stuff. Uh, going out there and getting my A swing off. Um, sometimes you got to go up there and take your A swing. If you miss, then you got two more strikes. And, um, just kind of battling, putting the ball in
play and making the defense work. Um, like I said, just trusting my stuff and trying to get good pitches to hit. Hey, Michael, Big Poppy right here. Congratulations, homie. Great job tonight. Hey, I want you to tell me what was the mentality in the clubhouse coming into this game tonight knowing that you facing you guys were facing an incredible ace like snail and after losing that game last night. Uh yeah, after losing last night, we gave it our all. We fought hard. uh we I guess we were one swing away from tying it. So we knew uh we were never out the game and all we had to do is come in today and put pressure on him to be able to
even the series and head back home and potentially give Sale the ball. So um yeah, we just knew we had to make him work. S I mean Snail is a phenomenal pitcher. Everybody on their staff is phenomenal. So we just had to make him work and put some pressure on him early. Michael, what's up? This is Derek. Congratulations, my friend. I just want to ask this question. And we're talking about mindset. Coming into this series, it seems like the whole world, all they're talking about is the Los Angeles Dodgers going for a three repeat. And you guys have sort of seemed to just fly under the radar. Your mindset, your mentality, is it you guys want to play the spoiler or you're just not necessarily thinking about the Dodgers?
You're just out there trying to prove to the rest of the world that you have the best team in baseball? Yeah, we can't necessarily worry about um I guess what's being said about teams on the other side. that we know what we have coming into spring training. That was our mentality to uh kind of be together and trusting each other. Obviously, in spring training, we were already counted out as the underdogs and not even supposed to win our division. So, we've already done that and now we're just trying to put pressure um on the Dodgers and take this series as well. Hey, Michael. Alex again here. So, you're a local kid like I said earlier.
You're living literally the American dream. How does it feel like to go back home in front of your fans, your family, and who was your favorite player growing up as a Bray fan? Uh yeah, it feels crazy. Uh like you said, I was in the seats for those playoff games and then uh just knowing how loud it was then in the seats. Uh just being out there and being able to do something to be able to make them scream again is kind of like a feeling I can't even put into words. And uh I was a big Jay guy growing up. we were from the same uh county, city or whatever. So, uh we had a lot of similarities in our game growing up. A lot of people would tell me I look like him or play like him. So,
uh I'd say him and pretty much anybody on the Braves. I was a Braves guy. So, yeah. Hey, hey, K. It's Poppy back again, man. I heard you were watching football today, huh? I hope you were watching on Fox. Hey, by the way, how you fit TND today? Uh I came in projected to score 150. the person I'm playing, he lost before the weekend was started. I my team's we got we got some dogs. I got Jir Gibbs and uh L. So I got two dogs on there that are carrying my team. Good day for you, man.
Braves win. You get two knocks. Fantasy League team wins. Have a Sunday. Michael going home. Magic City, here I come. WE CAN MAKE IT RAIN, MICHAEL. COME ON. KEEP IT GOING. DON'T ANSWER THAT, MICHAEL. OH, NO. Your career is going off, man. If Big Poppy shows up with that act, you know, close the door. Way to go, Michael. Thanks for taking some time with us. Congratulations on the win. Thank you. So, you know, Michael Harris, I love the question you asked him. He's an Atlanta guy. What a terrific story. And by the way, you want to feel old when you ask a current player, "Who was your favorite player when you were a kid?"
And he says, "Jason Hayward." I know who was still playing last year. Feel like I'm 100 years old when I hear a response like that. But he is really the heart and soul of this team. Free swinger, aggressive local guy, fan favorite, and possibly, and this is saying something on that roster, possibly their best offensive player. Oh, and possibly their best overall player. But you know, I know the great Bobby Cox is not around anymore, but I'm telling you, Bobby's looking at this kid saying, "This is a kid I wish I got to manage." Cuz he's a Bobby Cox type of kid. And what I mean by that is plays game the right way, respects others, respects the game, and plays the game beautifully, and what a humble, soft-spoken young man.
It seems like he just gets better every year. You know, he came up a few years ago, won rookie of the year. He continually improves. What I like to see is he has fun. He enjoys himself. You see him out there dancing on second base. He looks like a young David Ortiz. Don't say that. Don't say that's right. We got the move. But I got to tell you, man, I had to give him a lot of credit. Being a young buck like him and making the adjustment throughout the league, throughout the year, it's something very special to see in a young player. I mean, like you guys say, he has been carrying the offense all year round. And you know, Matty, having a quarterback like that is like having Jeter at shortstop or, you know, a
shortstop and a center fielder is like having a quarterback. You set your whole team around that and you're very close when you have a center fielder like that for the next, you know, five or seven years. Braves are a good team, but this was an upset win for Atlanta in game two. They're going back to Truis Park with a path headed back to Atlanta for game three on Tuesday. And after game two, Ken Rosenthal caught up with Atlanta shortstop Mauricio Dubon. Thanks, Matt. Mauricio, your bullpen was outstanding tonight. What impressed you most about the assembly line of relievers that we saw?
I mean, the 21-year-old coming and throwing three innings like that, you know, and it sucked. I gave it up a home run and everything, but nothing happened. Um, he just came in and, you know, takes a lot of balls to do that. You had the big RBI single in the first inning against Blake Snell. What was your approach against Snell tonight as a team? What did you guys want to accomplish? Yeah, you know, make it work. Honestly, just make him work. You know, he's a good pitcher. you know, it's tough as nails in the poses and everything. My job was trying to put the ball in play, honestly. You know, bases loaded, you know, try to put a bomb
play, try to put pressure on the defense and ended up working out. You played for some really good Houston Astros teams. You played all season for this one. What makes these Braves so special? We don't give up. I think that's the big one. We don't give up, you know. Um, that's the mentality, you know. I think everybody gets along, too. Everybody pulling for each other, you know, you come in, you sub or I think that's the main mentality we have, just passing the baton. And I think you know just the guys like you know love it and care for each other. Mauricio congratulations. See you in Atlanta.
Thank you. Thanks Matt. Back to you. Sets up a dream game three pitching matchup. Yoshobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers. His postseason exploits still fresh in our mind. Chris Sales done it to the Dodgers out of the bullpen in 2018 as a Red Sox. He's done it to the Dodgers as recently as earlier this year when he out pitched Yamamoto in a August contest. Give me your takeaway on this matchup for game three. Well, Chris Sale is the right guy at the right time. I mean, like you said, complete game in August, five hit uh complete game against the Dodgers and he also when you were in the team no popular 2018, he made the last out at
Dodger Stadium. So, there's some good history there. The what I like most about Chris in this matchup is he neutralized the lefties. You have Otani, you have Muny, you have Freeman, and you have Tucker. So, that's good news. On the Yamamoto side, you saw what he did last World Series. And by the way, Yamamoto be pitching game one for 29 other teams. This going to be one of the most fun game to watch. You're talking about two Titan that they have performed at the highest level in the playoff. I mean, when you go to Yamamoto, it's still fresh in our mind what he did during the
playoff last year. And when it comes down to Chris Cell, everybody know that this guy is going to be right on top of his game, just battling for his team, especially playing at home the next game. You would anticipate runs being at a premium. I mean, you got two of the best pitchers in the game going. Look, when the series started, we were all talking about Yamamoto. Should he be pitching game one? Now, the Dodgers are sitting pretty. they have a chance to just cancel the momentum the Atlanta Braves got from Steel in this game and then if you're the Atlanta Braves you're feeling good. You have two teams on flights cross country both of them feeling great
which doesn't happen a lot of the time. Absolutely. And remember what Joe Tory used to always tell us game three the most pivotal game is the game where he would pitch Andy Pettit and that was a swing game and I it's safe to say that the winner of game three will probably advance to the ice round. I'm getting goosebumps already. Goosebumps, baby. Can't wait to watch this game. Because your predictions have been so wrong. They're bringing Verlander in here next week to try to get things right for you. Great. We need help. Yeah, we need a lot of help. I wish I was here today. We need who cashed in as one of the youngest players to collect a walk-off hit in postseason history. Verduchi with Cheurio postgame.
Seems like you love these moments. What is it about these moments that you absolutely love? I'm not sure what it is. I just think these moments are made for me. So, I think it gives me a little extra adrenaline and that's what uh gets me through it. The strike to ball breaking ball take was um just unbelievable take from uh Jackson there that kind of gets lost in the at bat after you know [clears throat] the end result. But just good at bat after good at bat is uh kind of what we've done this year. He's put a couple good swings on us. He's batting lead off for a reason. He's their best hitter. Uh and sometimes those guys come through and he's come for come through for the Brewers so far.
Cardinal role is pretty much you know beat yourself and I beat myself today. You know I mean a base hit with nobody on doesn't doesn't win them the game. A base hit after you walk the bases loaded does. One of the best closers in the game is the guy that the Brewers got to for the win. Uh kind of reminds me of the Kirk Gibson walk-off homer against the A's. There's always an atbat before the atbat. Mike Davis drew the walk in that game. The Kraken, your guy Gary Sanchez drew a very important walk and it caught your attention today.
Look, closer are very well known by attacking. closes are very well known by using their fast at their best. Miller have one of the best fast in the game. No disrespect to the Kraken, but he's not swinging the bat at his best like he used to. He's not playing every day. He playing once in a while. You got 104 in your back pocket. You cannot lose that battery. Let me show you this at bat right here. Ball two. Seems like he having issues locating his fast ball. He go to the slider. Okay, fine. Another slider. Fast ball. Another slider. I mean, you can lose the batter right there. You got to attack him. You can put him on base.
Look at this right here. Slider for cheer. Now you Now what? You got to come. You got to come with that fast ball. You got to give it to him. And that's what got him in trouble. I feel like he wasn't attacking like he normally. He had no feeling for his fast ball tonight. His fast ball was all over the play. And when you got that 104, believe it or not, you got to use it. You know, Poppy, when you look at that, and I agree with all your points there, but what screams at me is, first of all, if you take the lens out a little bit, he threw 22 sliders, only three swings, and one miss. When a guy's throwing 104,
105, that's not supposed to happen. You're supposed to swing and miss because you're cheating to get to the fast ball. And when you look at Gary Sanchez, Vaughn at before 20 3-1, they're just taking the pitch almost like the Statue of Liberty with no intention of swinging. Now, I'm not sure they had something, but if I'm on the San Diego team, I'm looking at that and I'm a little um curious, right? I'm not sure what's happening there. So, I'm sure they're going to go into the video and realize, is Miller tipping? Is he doing something? Because that's not supposed to match those takes. Yeah. Yeah, I think sometimes when you're facing guys, you eliminate one pitch.
Maybe they sat there and said, "Look, we're just going to give him his slider. We're only swinging at fast balls here. The problem is you just can't in the postseason especially, you can't walk guys." And he walked three guy. He gave up a hit to Cheerios, but it's the three walks that killed him there. Like, you can't give free passes in the postseason. And you got to give it to Cheerio. I mean, how many times are we talking about him showing up in big moments in October for the Milwaukee Brewers? He's the guy that they wanted at the plate and he came through. He's playing with a lot of confidence. And but with Mason Miller, I don't care if you know he's throwing a fast ball.
The guy's throwing 104 miles an hour. It's not easy. For the fans out there, if you want to go to watch batting practice before a game, the BP pitcher throwing about 60 miles an hour right down the middle. You know what's coming and every swing is not a hit. It's hard to hit. And if you throw 100 miles an hour, just go attack. Uh I think it was the walks. You give Cheerios a lot of credit, but you can't walk that many people in October. To your point, G, we play with Gary Sanchez, and Gary Sanchez, you spell it, aggressive with a capital A. He's swinging from the time he comes out of the dugout on deck circle. He had zero intention at swinging. And this at least is what it looked like.
Mhm. That's what I was going to go to. Okay, I understand that you walk jealous. Okay, fine. But you had to force the Kraken to swing the bat. He didn't took one swing and that was got him in trouble. And to your point, G, you made a great point. the three walks to face the hottest hitter maybe in baseball right now, right? But we just saw it with um Fuentes. He gave up a solo home run a thousand miles, but the Braves win. If you give up a solo, it's tie game. You walk three, now you lose a game. You cannot walk people late in the game. From a San Diego perspective now, Poppy, they hadn't lost back-to-back games in over a month. They're going back home 02. They've been very good at home.
What's the mindset for the Padres's now? They got to come with everything they have because let me tell you in a three out of five game series you cannot allow anyone to push you against the wall like that especially without pitching a staff that they have. I mean you put yourself in a situation now that if you get there you're going to have to face Jacob Miseroski the nastiest pitcher in all of baseball. So that's why you got to execute. They had to lock that game in tonight. So they fly away just like the Dodgers one-on-one feeling comfortable with the starter, you know, going home this and that. But they put themselves in a situation now they had to come with everything they going to be
a spike home everybody every game from moving forward. It's a long flight home, man. It's a long flight home because you're going to sit there thinking that you had a chance to win not only tonight but last night as well. They had a chance to win two games. They came back and beat you. Look, I've been on a team that we lost in a fivegame series, the first two games at home and then went on the road. It's one game at a time. You can't think about coming back and winning three games. You have to think about winning on Tuesday night. That is it. Listen, the Padres's have won three in a row many times, but to your point, you got
to worry here about the micro. And the micro is one game and you just have to take it because they're they've won 23 of the last 28. San Diego knows they can win two in a row and their only job is in one then another and get one back to Milwaukee then anything can happen. That offense need to wake up also. Yeah. Do longsuffering Padres's fans might remember 84 down 02 in the NLCS to the Cubs. The Garvey homer in game four to tie it then the Gatorade glove and they end up winning the series. Maybe some of that magic is in store for the Padres. And this one is kind of fresh. We're told that it the film is barely uh baked.
Let's go into the Fox MLB vault for something that just happened today. Nice and simple game. We got baseball against football. First question, Poppy. 75 seconds. Go. Spike the ball. Spike. Touchdown. Go. Next. Touchdown. Yes. Two for two. Ah, hand off. You can use words if you want. You can talk. Sack. Tackle. There you go. All right, Bobby. Grab a seat here. The correct number is four that you got. That's what you have to be. You go over here.
You need five to win. You got 75 seconds to do it. We got this, boys, first one up. Here we go. You there's three guys on base and then you hit a home run. Grand slam. Yes, that's one thing. What am I doing? You darting a lawnmower. You eat this. It's the number one concession thing you buy. But uh the one here in LA at the stadium at stadiums the session. Yeah. BUT WHAT'S NEXT? It lands in play in front of the fence on the That's all dirt. Come on, man. It's all dirt. HAVE YOU GUYS NEVER WATCH? NO, YOU HAVE PASSING TRACK. SO, WE'RE just going to wrap it here.
All right. It wound up being a tie. I can't believe that. Four. Do that forever. Matt, I got it on video that Grunk was cheating. You guys were Come on, man. He was telling them. There's two things. One, we told you multiple times that you could actually talk. Oh, you don't guess like that, man. That's where you could talk. Come on, man. And the second thing is Terry Bradshaw had a mirror and he's looking THROUGH THE MIRROR.
OH, SEE, TERRY. Only problem is he can't see it. He couldn't see it. Still couldn't see Man, that's deflated, man. By the way, we tied and he didn't even use words. We should get the win. I thought it was only sickness. Like this. I thought it was only sickness. Come on, man. See, now everybody knows why Justin Verlander has been invited here to sit on the desk on Tuesday. They get a rematch with an adult, Matt. We need an adult. Come on in. Verand Justin Verlander joins him on Tuesday. Kevin Burkhart back. We'll see you for game three coverage Tuesday on FS1.
GABBY, I SEE YOU WHEN I SEE YOU. TERRIBLE. See you Tuesday, y'all.
