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Speaker 1: One of our favorite times of the week is to

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spend twelve forty minutes with the manager of the your

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Houston Astros.

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Speaker 2: One game lead over the Mariners American League West.

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Speaker 1: After yesterday's win over the Red Sox, Joe A spotted

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with us here on seventy Skip, good afternoon. Do you

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thank you for the time. As always, we've mentioned that

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many a time so far on our show. Today, it

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felt like you were in game one of the Alcs

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last time at your ballpark.

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Speaker 2: Agreed, right, it did?

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Speaker 3: It did feel like it. Yeah, the energy in the

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ballpark was it felt like a playoff, playoff game. The

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game itself, you know, the scoring right and trying to

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keep maintain that lead, trying to navigate, you know, through

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our bullpen. It really felt like a playoff game for sure.

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Speaker 1: I'm assuming you have no update for us on Hater

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unless you do, and we'd love to hear it. But

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let's go back a little bit. Tell me what your

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conversation was when he first came to you and said, Skip,

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I don't feel good.

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Speaker 3: It's not that's the last thing you want to hear

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from any you know, any of your pictures, any of

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your players. Yeah, it was it was not a great feeling.

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And we'll well, you know, we'll get more results here

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this afternoon.

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Speaker 2: You know, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: What has happened in your world, and you deserve a

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much better faith than this, because I feel like every

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time something's going right, and I tease you about having

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a bubble wrap guys, but man, oh man, I would

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say this, at least it's the shoulder, not the forearm

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and elbow, because we kind of hear when we hear

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that kind of stuff, we automatically think Tommy John.

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Speaker 2: So who's to say? But what was it?

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Speaker 1: Like you said, navigating and you've had to navigate quite

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a bit this year with a very irony guys in

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your bullpen. Has that been your biggest perhaps change from

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year one to year two is having to massage who's

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getting days off, who's thrown enough, who needs to throw

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that kind of thing?

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Speaker 3: Uh, Yeah, it's been it's been a it's been a challenge.

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You know, I've been you know, we have been blessed

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we having some guys that can actually have in really

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good years in our bullpen, Guys who have been asked

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to do a lot with not having a ton of experience. Uh,

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and they have done a really good job, so that

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that does makes it a little bit easier. But you know,

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to keep everyone healthy and to trying to win as

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many games as possible and protecting your assets for to

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finish the regular season has been I think one of

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the biggest challenges, uh for me. For me definitely as

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a manager.

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Speaker 4: You said something last night in the post game that

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struck me funny. You said that was fun trying to

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go through that with all you having your leverage guys.

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Speaker 2: I don't know how much of the fans agree.

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Speaker 4: But uh, clearly I love that attitude from you, that like, hey,

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this is just a baseball game, and you're enjoying this,

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this late inning strategy, especially being down your guy, it's

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kind of, uh, you don't have any other choice, right.

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Speaker 3: You know, if it's for me I was talking, you know,

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I know for you know, as a fan, as as

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a manager, you want things to go smoothly and you

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want you guys to all be up and available, but

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that's not the reality of this games. And when I

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said fun is as more personal the fact that you know,

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I think about my career, my journey and be in

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a position to uh manage a team and in an

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organization that'd be so successful, and being in that spot

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you dream about I dream about those moments, right, That's

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what as a leader, you want to lead players set

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put him in a position for them to have success.

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They had to get big outs like suicide the last

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out in the ninth inning. You know that's exciting because

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I know how hard he's worked for that. Del Santos

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getting an opportunity to get big out for us. He's

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been bouncing around all year, okre or you know that.

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That's exciting for me. And it's fun to watch my

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players step up and and and have big moments in

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their careers. That for me, I enjoy that that aspect

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of my job.

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Speaker 4: Well, Christian Javier got the start for you, what did

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you see from him out there? Of course, settling in

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after that two run shot from Brugman and just conversations

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with him after about how he's feeling good.

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Speaker 3: I was, you know, again, another another player who has work.

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He's way back. I thought his stuff was really good.

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Aside from that too run home run, I thought he's stuff.

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You know, we saw his fastball to ninety four, ninety five.

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He had the hop that we we know when Javier

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is healthy. That that's the movement that we looking on

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his fastball. He's breaking ball through some good one his

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change it was okay, like we we we're going to

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work through those things. But he looked healthy. He looked

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like he came ready to compete and moving forward. I

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felt really good aware Haveavier's at right now.

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Speaker 1: So these guys go through these rehab appearances down in

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the minor leagues and they don't necessarily go deep into

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games three and two thirds, maybe four, maybe seventy pitches.

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So when you sent Christian Javier out there, you don't

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know what expects, how much to expect from him, or

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did you guys kind of have a game plan to say, Hey,

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I'm gonna watch you through the first fifteen.

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Speaker 2: We can try to get you to seventy five.

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Speaker 1: Take us through what that is like taking the guy

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that hasn't seen major league competition and then asking him

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to go beyond what you expect from.

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Speaker 2: A starter when it comes to number of pitches thrown.

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Speaker 3: No, you're right, And another thing is, like you mentioned earlier, earlier,

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it felt like LCS game. That's also another thing that

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you had to take in consideration. There was a lot

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of stuff going on in our ballpark yesterday, the energy,

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the Korea coming back, the Bregman there, the you know

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you're as xavier as an individual getting back on the

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mound after missing the whole entire season. All those emotions

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play in your performance. So you know he's pitching into

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play the lights as they're not as bright as in

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the major league game. We're in a pennant race. I'm

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looking closely to see how we react and how he

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acts from you know, doing that, not only the pitch count,

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but I'm also looking at his effort, how he's breathing

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in between innings, my conversations within, how you feel, how

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he's handling the hole. There's a lot of stuff that

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goes on that goes into my evaluation of his performance

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on that day.

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Speaker 2: You're about to hit.

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Speaker 1: A slippery slope because you've got forty or so games left,

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give or take, and then you've got a one game lead,

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You've got just a few days off, you've got some

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stretches of games coming up where you'll play ten in

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a row or thirteen in a row, something like that,

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and you're custom to that. How do you feel like

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you're going to balance off time with damn. We need

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to win this game coming up, and I need my

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full line up and there as often as possible.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, I think I think I will

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use my DH, the DH spot to get those guys

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off their feet. Also, well, I start I will start

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asking these guys to show up to the ballparks a

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little bit later and trying to make sure that we

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sleep in, we recover and do all that kind of stuff. Uh,

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you know, we we do have forty games left. We

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do have some guys that are getting closed coming back,

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so that's also can help give some of these guys

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a breather. And but it's you know, that's another thing

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I need to watch closely. We if we're going to

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be in a position to make uh push you at

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the end, we need these guys to be in a

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good spot physically as shows.

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Speaker 4: Manager Joe Spotto was here on a Sports Talk seven

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ninety Spencer Raghetti throwing for you again, how do you

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assess where he is now and where what he needs

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to do tonight? Little bit of bad luck in his

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last start. He also did get the sixteen whists, but

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the four in field hits, but also did get hit hard.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, and I think I think, you know,

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I expect him to be much better today. You know,

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you know, commanding his pitches, getting to the lanes that

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he needs to get to to get some swinging misses,

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to get some quicker out.

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Speaker 4: Uh.

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Speaker 3: This is the line is the rest up the lineup.

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You have to pitch ahead in the account. You can't

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fall behind these guys. They go grind the bats that

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put the ball in play. They hate balls hard. You

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know that. I expect them just to have a couple

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of lefties in there today. So you got to be

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on top of your game. You got to have confidence

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on your pitches, on your game planning, and being able

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to throw your pitches in different counts for strikes and

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expand when you have to. You know, I've seen a

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Spencer throw the ball really well against these guys last

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year in Fenway. I remember that start, and I know

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he cannot. I know he can go back there and

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do it again.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of starting pitching, Jason Alexander was brilliant for you

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over the weekend. Look, when you're on the CUSP major leaguer,

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sometimes battling between Triple A and Major leagues, you got

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to just take whatever role you're given.

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Speaker 2: But has he done enough.

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Speaker 1: In your mind to say, all right, let's get that

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arm ready for every fifth day is compared to bouncing

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back between middle relief and starting.

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Speaker 3: You know what, I think he's done well enough to

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get an opportunity for our next start. You know, things

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changes every single day. Like you mentioned, we're going to

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have a long stretch of games here coming up after Thursday,

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so we might need to change some things up just

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to keep everyone fresh, to keep everyone uh, you know strong.

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We do have some some some guys really close to

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coming back from starters, really you know, close to coming back,

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so those guys will also play effector and in in

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in our in our push.

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Speaker 2: All right to let you run again, let's read it.

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Speaker 1: So, do you feel like when you get to the

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ballpark today you'll get a better feel of Josh or

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what have the officiaians told you in terms of how

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long is going to take for them to evaluate what

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was causing this.

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Speaker 2: Sore on us?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we we're going to do more testing, uh

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this afternoon, so you know, by by two three o'clock,

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hopefully I have uh, you know, a better diagnosis of

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what you know, what what the discomfort. Uh is so yeah,

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I'm just I'm here right now. So you know, hopefully

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we get some some good news. You know, you don't

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you don't wanna ever want to hear one of your pictures,

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you know, shoulder elbow like you mentioned, right, But but

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hopefully we we we get to speak to the doctors

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and we get some some good news.

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Speaker 1: I'll say this, Skip and you know this a bray

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who's been nails for you this year. You've got four

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saves out of Bennett's sussa I mean of anything. And look,

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nobody wants to lose Josh hater, but it's you've got

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some great lieutenants that are ready to help out if necessary.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yes, And I think yesterday was a perfect example.

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Hands on deck. You know I'm gonna I'm gonna be

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using everyone at different times, doing the game, different pockets, right,

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these lefties, and don't be ready. These guys they understand

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where we at right now in this season and and

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and they know they need to pick Josh up.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for the visitors always, and hope you get some

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good news out of Josh. We appreciate the time as always. Ah, right, guys, Thanks,

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We'll see you Joe spottle with us here on Sports

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Talk seven and