You're listening to the downbeat on ninety seven to one the Freak. I'm Kevin
with Danny and Mike Siroy. We got JJ with you. JJ will be
back there taking your calls two and four eight when seven seven eight seven one
nine seven one, keeping us on the rails so we don't screw up.
Thank you JJ for that. Thank you JJ. We have game five to
day and it's at four pm. Well I think it's a four oh seven
first first pitch. I'll be in the house today. So if you're out
at the ballpark and you see Kevin, just be like, what's up,
man, and I'll be yo, no little chat, maybe old cheers.
Mikey was there last night though. Yeah. He has offered us hope for
the Rangers to snap out of this two game skid, to save the series
and to still have a chance at going to the World Series. We will
discuss that now in Sports at seven, which is sponsored by boy Now.
Sports at seven. Sports at seven brought to you today by Hope. And
with that, here's Mike Siroy. Please give us some because mine is effing
waning. Thank you Hope for jumping on board with um. I'm gonna start
with this. I'm fine with it. I think we should. Yeah,
everybody knows what happened. The Rangers got absolutely smushed last night. Yeah,
embarrassing, almost and exposed. Did it feel that way on the telly?
It did. It felt like kind of Game three ish. It made you
know, and look the in MLB playoffs, it is such a momentum swing.
If momentum actually exists. Jury still out, but it's definitely an emotional
swing. And as confident as you can be after one game, you can
think your team is the worst team in the world after the next. Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's where a lot of people are at today.
They're probably looking at games one and two and being like, Okay, that's
what happened in Games one and two was the anomaly, long long outings from
starting pitching, a bull that didn't that bent but did not break, and
enough offensive output to push them over the goalposts. And then what you saw
in the last two games was, Oh, that's what that's the team from
the last couple of weeks. That's the team that lost this division in really
embarrassing fashion. That Okay, we're back to what we are now. And
I can't argue with that because that's what it feels like. Well, essentially,
what you just said is the root of the source of my optimism,
and it's that think. And this I don't know if this applies more to
this team than any other team in any other sport that I've you know,
followed closely, But the twenty twenty three Rangers the story is wild ride and
it always has been. And we have had the ups and the downs all
year long, so much so that we have thought, you know, oh
my god, is this team gonna just kind of go coast to coast and
win the division? And we had that, and then we have oh my
god, the free fall is on. Oh my god, we're getting swept
by teams we shouldn't get swept, and we're getting smashed by teams that are
good, like the Astros in the regular season toward the end. And then
there's been oh my god, they're missing the playoffs. The freight train of
the Seattle Mariners is coming. And there's been highs and lows, and in
each of those we've had moments of believing this team is good, Oh my
god, this team might be great, Oh my god, this team's not
losing at all. And we've had the moments of oh my god, this
team's missing the playoffs, Oh my god, this team's frauds. We've had
all those things ups and downs, and this series is sort of a microcosm
of this entire season in that, yeah, it started good. Oh s,
we're gonna win. We can win. We just won two games on
the road, and now we're in the one of those low spots that we've
had many, many of this year. And in every one of those low
spots to date, this team is fought back and they need to do it
again. But we have precedents throughout this season to believe that this team will
fight back. And whether it's Botchee keeping everyone calm and cool, I mean,
whether it's the more tangible things of all right, well, we're teed
up now with Montgomery and Evaldi, We're okay. Absolutely, It's not as
bad as it feels right now. And we've learned this season that this team
battles back from those low spots. And look where we are. I mean,
you've won two series essentially playing not at home. Ever, and maybe
this team, if you do only believe in Montgomery and Uvaldi, is built
for shorter series, of which we now have a three gamer in front of
us. That's sort of the root of my optimism is that we have had
to talk you guys off a cliff before that, thinking this thing is done.
When they were what what's the worst? They were three back, three
and a half back, and and they always find a way. And now's
the time they need us to believe in them more than ever. And it's
hard, and it's hard to believe in a team when they're losing. Hard
to believe in a team when their backs are gonna the wall, which they're
really not. I mean, you're tied, it's not like you're down three
to one or anything like that. You haven't even lost home field advantage yet.
Well, yeah, I mean you haven't if you win. If you
win today, well they still two in Houston, right, I don't know
how we quantify that exactly. Yeah, technically, I guess it would be
now Houston. Houston's eight and one at Global I Field this year. They've
scored seventy seven runs at Global I Field this year. It might be good
to get them out of here. That sounds insane, but that might be
where we're at. And ultimately this comes down to this, can you beat
Verland or twice. Can Jeordan, Montgomery and Valdi do there? And if
one of those guys fails, can Max Sures or Bell you out in games?
Okay? And that's not that's where we're at. That's for me,
that is not a terrifying consolation prize is to have Max Sures are climbing the
hill in game seven. Yeah. Again, the taste in your mouth is
the freshest, but that's not the only one you need to remember. Max
Scherzer he can find it and he's pitched really dominant games this season wearing Ranger
jersey. I don't know. I don't want that to happen. And I've
far more, much more confidence in Montgomery and Hellyvaldi, Like, let's give
the Evaldi a chance in Game six to win this thing, and we're gonna
be feeling pretty damn good. I mean, if they pull off today I'm
Montgomery, which shouldn't be insane of a request or a thought, then you
have the Evaldi climbing the climbing the bump on Sunday in Houston, and we're
like, all right, let's go. And if your worst case in that
scenario is a Game seven with yeah, We'll be scared if it goes then
to Game seven with with Sures or I get it, but I can think
of worse scenarios. We're okay. You don't just only taste the last two
games and think that's who this team is, because we've done it this year
so many times times and they've always found a way to rally and be alive,
be one of the final four teams and still be battling with the defending
champs. It's hard. It's hard for fans to buy in like that,
for most fans because it is such an emotional ride that the players they're that's
what they think. Good. Yeah, of course they are. They mean,
they're in they're living it every day. They know that steady hand and
measured, measured reaction is is the key to success, and that they yeah,
typically I'm not worried about them, you know, I'm not worried about
them at all at all. But we've seen it, and you know what,
seeing this team look like they're down and out. And and here's the
thing too, is got Verlander this afternoon. And it's not like Verlander's coming
off of a bad start. He was really good in the in the opening
game of the series. The Rangers are just a little bit better. What
was it two nothing game? Yeah, but shut them out something like that.
Yeah, yeah too. Zip. What it comes down to is you
got to get what do you need, Kevin to be successful starting pitching to
go six innings? Right, yeah, that's your starting pitcher. To go
six innings and give up two runs or less, and you're gonna be fine.
Avoid mental relief for this team. I mean, their biggest weakness is
that get some hits, get some hits, string some hits together. They
just send me into it going. Yeah, we may have a little sign
of that. Maybe it going. It's not like the offense fully died.
I mean they were trying to rally even after the Abrey you homer the mid
seven to three that seeger pitch uh secer hit hit where you lined it to
the first baseman was ripped. It was on two count. You know.
It sucks about the game. The most regrettable thing about the game to me
is you are in the fourth inning. It's not the Cody Bradford throwing a
three to two pitch over the middle of the play for a bray. You
to rip out of the part that hurts. It's the fact that heting started
with their number nine hitter, Martin Maldonado, and you had him O two
and you end up walking him. I mean day nning after the game,
he was like, he hits ninth in their order for a reason, I
can't walk him there. You know, Dane put Cody Bradford in a terrible
position. Here's Jordan Alvarez and Jose air Bray. You have fun, bases
are loaded, buddy, and I mean like you're not gonna win that.
Yeah, And it's just the way it went. I mean, he wasn't
trying to walk him, he wasn't throwing balls on purpose. He just missed.
And that's the human element. Sometimes you you get him and sometimes you
don't. You know, when you uh and when you hit a fly ball
to the center fielder, yeah, if it was ten feet one way,
then it's a base hit in the alley. You're not trying to hit it
directly to the center fielder. It's just the it's it's man, It's largely
a game of luck and a game of chance, right, yeah, it
is. And this is this is the burned soul. And I think you're
trying to to stop me from thinking this way, Mikey and I actually appreciate
that. But there's a bit of us as Ranger fans who have almost been
falconed twenty eight to three. Granted wasn't that big of a thing these to
Super Bowl twenty eight three, but we lost the World Series in twenty eleven,
and then just all the things that kept saying yesterday, the just crazy
stuff that this organization has thrown at us since we've been alive. It makes
you just not expect anything good to happen, and that's not the right way
to be. Their margin of error is now gone, Like at some point
Chapman or Spores or the clerk's probably going to blow a game. That margin
of error is gone now. And you had that at two oh, so
you know, I know, but if I told you before the series started
this thing, we'll be tied to too. I've been like, that's probably
about right. We said that's about right, and you probably would have taken
it. Yep, yep. Yeah. And you've had that this year already.
You've had those moments and I don't even need to say this, but
you realize that anything that's happened in this franchise's past does not affect what's going
to happen today. It does. That all lives between your ears, Kevio,
and in the brain of scorned Ranger fans. And we do this with
the Cowboys all the time, all the drought and whatever. The last doesn't
matter. It does not matter. And these guys were barely born. Ye,
things happen. They don't care. Those guys. To those guys,
Troy Aikman's a dude that they grew up watching, you know, call games
on Fox. Yeah, he's the TV star. Yeah. You're telling me
the fact that this team couldn't pay for their own baseballs twelve years ago in
bankruptcy court and they were out of gum and sunflower seeds. That doesn't matter.
That doesn't matter. You're telling me the fact that the one Major League
Baseball team who holds the record for slowest strike throwne the Texas Rangers, when
brock Holt through a thirty one mile per hour fastball one time. You're telling
me that has nothing to do with today. That helps me a little bit.
But you're still wearing the shirt of the team that did all that stuff.
That is I mean, it's like okay, but that doesn't matter that
we're probably gonna suck. There's no overarching curse, there's none of this.
No, it's that's bad for us to talk about on the radio and stuff
for you ranger psychos distress. It does not affect what's happening today. What
does matter is Jordan Montgomery was pretty good to the mound and pitching good baseballs.
Today there's no Boogeyman. There's no ghost of the Astros. Now there
is monsters walking to the plate that are really good at smashing baseballs. Alvarez
is ridiculous. Did anybody honestly think that that lineup was going to remain quiet?
Right right after the first two games? We said that, I mean,
after the first two games, we hadn't lost a playoff game. We're
gonna sweep our way through the entire thing. Was there any doubt in anybody's
minds that if if they got to our middle relievers, that you were gonna
show a lot of holes in that in that in that bullpen. Yeah,
it was gonna happen. Right, All of these things are true. You
know, all of these things have happened consistently through the year. The Astros
are really effing good. The Astros can knock the snot out of a baseball.
The Astros have a pretty decent bullpen. You know, we can do
the same things though, you know, we have some a couple of really
good starting pitchers, and our guys can hit as well. Now, the
fact that Astros are defending champs, I mean that adds confidence. Yeah,
I mean there's something real about that, about having been there and kind of
knowing how to comport yourself as seven straight alcs. This is the last on
the broadcast that was out two Bay's one hundredth playoff game. Yeah, one
hundred. He's on the whole season. But but and they have Dusty Baker
to keep them calm and all this stuff. But we have Bruce Bochie and
it's working. The series is even, it's probably where it should be even.
And we're playing at home today with our one a best picture. We
need Country Shippy to throw some gravy today. And look, I think this
is kind of a loser's thing to say, but I'm gonna say it anyway.
But you're not even supposed to be here, Hey man, don't say
that not supposed to be We're supposed to be there and not in March.
You weren't. We had no, We're supposed to be here in March.
In March, oh in March, Yes, in March. Okay, yeah,
so you started the year with this thing. You were not looking at
this year to be knocking on the door of the world effing series. Right.
And the other thing I would remind people is a very norm thing.
But to enjoy this absolutely, you're on the biggest stage at home. That's
another thing losers say too, you're in the ALCS. No, I would
tell fans to enjoy this. Don't just be stressed all day. Oh,
we're screwed. We're screwed, we're screwed. Playoff baseball. You need to
have blood pressure up. You need to be unhealthy. There's something about that
I disagree with you there. You need to be stressed out, you need
to be pulling hair out, you need to be thinking about your credit score.
I think I think the emotional ride is a huge part of playoff Baseball.
I'm different than I was twelve years ago. I'm a little more flatlined
these days watching this, just because I kind of want to expect the worst
and if the good thing happens, it's like, hell, yeah, way
to go, little Rangers. Y'all did it? Finally, congratulations. But
if they don't, it's like, all right, we're good. You.
Also, because A Bally did not ebb and flow with this team too much,
it's take on to get to know them. But like, think back
to the years of twenty ten and twenty eleven and then there were a lot
of up and ups and downs in those years too. We don't remember them,
but there were. I didn't. I snapped out of it and there
because there's a rally Mantis in Baltimore, Well I didn't. I didn't.
I didn't invest days and hours with this team like I have in the past,
just because I don't. I don't want to freaking go through the the
Waltz to set up my illegal streaming components to watch them on a day to
day basis. I'll do it for the MAVs, but not for this.
It's just too much. So yeah, no, I don't have the I
don't have the time investment into this team in twenty twenty three that I have
in the past I have. You're right, Oh, go ahead, what
about the vibe? If they had dropped the first two games in Houston,
and then they won the last two games here. Oh dude, right,
oh my god, you know what I mean. It's just it's all kind
of what we just saw, and we freak out about what we just saw.
It's almost in a way better that they won two in Houston and dropped
the first two. Being a two three two series, they kind of you
can convince yourself, there's no way they're going to lose three in a row
at home. They've got to take one of these and then it's a coin
toss. Astras are our daddy, as this ballpark, they are our dad
dad. Maybe it's that until Jordan Montgomery changes all throwing gravy starts squirting gravy.
Yes, you see country basket before he goes out. It's this pregame
meal cream gravy Montgomery, by the way, the gravy and the country basket.
At least back in the eighties, powdered is that right? Yep,
just mixed with water over a stove. You can go for some creams.
It's fine. Yeah, it's great. I love salted. Since we got
everyone to wear two different color shoes for sures ers start the other day,
and that worked so well. Should we all make sure we have cream gravy
in our lunch today. I'll find a way. Yeah, Actually thinking,
I'm thinking about going up early and going to the actual Hurtado and just launching,
not the one in the stadium, the actual one. I didn't get
any of the crazy food. All I got was one jumbo dog. You
didn't have a torta. I didn't even find torta egg torta. I don't
even know where that stuff is. I'm sure it's not that hard to find.
I don't seek out the torta in real life, so right, I
don't want a twenty six dollars torta. I have three blue I have three
who oh, go ahead. I need to just finish on Montgomery because assuming
he's pitching, well, did will they effing leave him out there and get
him to one hundred pitches like his last three starts in what eighty nine ninety
ninety one pitches like within this very tight window? But that time you knew
you were gonna need him again this series. I mean, assuming he kicks
ass tonight, he's gonna have plenty of rest time like one oh five,
one ten, like don't do the bullpen thing, today if Montgomery is dealing
and he depends on the score though, right, yeah, I mean the
gunnyes is sports, Chapman and Clerk should be able to go, like they
will be able to go. Yeah. You just don't want to have to
burn any of those other dudes, right, But if you have the opportunity,
I think stretch out Montgomery a little bit further. Maybe it's a dozen
pitches, but for real, he's been exactly ninety eighty eight, ninety three,
ninety four in his last like they have that window. Fine one hundred
and five, but you know, yeah for reel one hundred and five,
seriously, like he can do it. I have some questions about some things
you might have seen or not seen at the game last night. Now you
went with ten bros. Did you brows? Were you at your seat by
you know games started seven? Were at your seat at six forty five,
six fifty? Yeah? I saw national hands starting lineups, good presentation there,
all that stuff. It's fine, how they go. Okay, we
had Mike Young thrown out the first pitch to Colby Lewis. Yes, Mike
Young with the silk salt and pepper beard. Yeah, Now was it a
laser or did he bounce it in? He did it smooth. He just
casually went up and looked real cool, like he always does. It looked
like a strike from my perspective. But judging balls and strikes from deep right
right field is not easy because there's a lot of pitches where you're like,
oh, but I have no clue inside outside. You know, dude,
if I'm an ex ballplayer and i get to throw out the first pitch and
I'm not eighty one, I am spiking a curveball and making that catcher do
some damn wark. Yeah, I think knuckleball is the answer. McK him,
earn it, throw your dirty knuckler. Rest in peace, Tim Wakefield.
Okay, so I have three things I won't know if you saw or
if this happened at the stadium fire. Did you see Dirk? Did they
put him on the jumboach They put him on the jumbo tron? Everyone freaked.
He was sitting next to Michael Finley and a local comedian, Brian DeMars.
Okay, and of course we're like, son of a Bedamars? Does
he do it? How? But has he done it for all these years?
Yes, they showed Dirk and the crowd went banana Luca absolutely. One
halfening later they showed Luca and the crowd went banana as well. And then
you saw a hand on his shoulder shaking him and I think he was sitting.
Yeah, he was one seat in front of Dirk. But they wisely
split up the celebration and gave one one video hit to Dirk infintly and Bran
and then the next inning they gave a solo hit to Luca. Who were
they louder for Dirk? Okay, last one? Did you see banana man?
Only? I think this morning on social media? Did I see banana
man? Who? I definitely look closely to see if it was you?
What there is a banana man? Did you not see Bananama? Did not?
Like I said, after became seven to three, I was probably looking
at my phone more than my TV. Yeah, yeah, I didn't notice
until someone texted me though. It should have been very notice because in the
sweet level behind home plate, not directly behind, but still in the shot
before it is a guy in a banana costume before every pitch. I mean
you could see him regularly oh yeah, wow, have banana costume, and
occasionally the banana would not be there, and then you would notice that someone
else is in the banana costume. Some type of elaborate bit was happening in
a banana costume behind home plate last night. As dumb as banana suit is,
it's equally genius. My favorite comedy bit stupid that I'm now like,
it's hilarious, My number one favorite comedy bit of all time. And I
think it was like a two thousand and seven Flower Mountain High school games.
Two kids ran on the field and it was a banana chasing the gorilla.
Yeah, I think I remember. And it's amazing because banana leap frogs the
fence and the gorilla has a little trouble getting over the fence as the cops
are chasing it during a game. It is spectacular. And this day I
seek out people who are showing a banana costume or a gorilla costume for Halloween,
and I just like want to ask if I can borrow it or if
they'll to take part in the bit with me to recreate because it's just amazing.
Imagine a banana running down a hallway here in the office, chasing the
gorilla. Banana needs to eat the gorilla. Can we change can we change
the cliche man's bite man bites dog to banana chasing your gorilla. Well,
we got a real banana chasing the gorilla situation here, ron, But in
a sea of red and blue and orange and white, the banana's hoot just
pops. That was outstanding. When you've got a suit of some sort of
some sort of fruit and or vegetable at home and you're going to the game
today, mister egg a planteau, please plant egg plant, egg plant,
egg We need an egg plant three four? What about the pickle? See,
the eggplant won't pop that much. Pickle will pop, right, The
pickle would pop way more than the eggplant today. Yeah, if you want
to just go dress as a pickle, I don't want to know. But
that's great. That's great for us. It's something I want to do.
Is how do we know that it's We can't quantify it for me. Okay,
so I can quantify that you don't have a banana suit. Why not
do you just have pickle and egg? Play plan? You got one more
right, I got a few other side might like a rabbits the grouse.
What do you where you store this crowd? Where do you keep it at
your house now, I got a key to Costume Worlds that back back closet.
Okay, that's enough of that, Rangers. Thank you, Rangers,
said Sport seven. Brought to you by Hope. Coming up next Parker University's
scuttle Butt and which I have once again another update on the Oklahoma City Missing
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