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00:00All right, we're back at Comerica Park.
00:02Take two and three, two, one.
00:03Hi, Dan Dickerson.
00:03Hi.
00:05How you doing?
00:06Good.
00:07That sounds better.
00:07Yeah.
00:08All right, there we go.
00:0984 Tigers go 35 and five over 40 games.
00:11This team in their last 40 games is 29 and 11.
00:16This in some ways, though,
00:16because it was a defined baseball team.
00:18You can make a case this is more impressive.
00:21Yeah, I agree.
00:22I will never, the 35 and five,
00:24we're never gonna see it.
00:25That was ridiculous.
00:26Yes.
00:27But in terms of my years doing this,
00:28and since then, let's go since then,
00:30just because, yes, there have been other stretches
00:32like this where they were hot for 40 games
00:35and won more than 30 games, I think, in a couple spots.
00:38But where this started is the biggest thing.
00:41Those are teams that either had had success
00:44or were, I mean, almost all of them, right,
00:46had had success or they were off to a slow start,
00:49something along those lines.
00:51Not a bunch of kids who don't have
00:54a lot of major league experience
00:55who started this stretch eight games
00:57below the 500 mark in August.
01:00Right.
01:01And that's what makes it one of the most impressive.
01:02And the way they're doing it,
01:04and we've talked about it a lot on the air,
01:05but it's just so fun to watch this brand of baseball.
01:08It's a complete team baseball every game,
01:12meaning the base running, the defense.
01:14You guys were just talking about it.
01:15The good at-bats.
01:16I mean, it's quality at-bats.
01:18The run scoring's only up a little bit
01:20in the last 40 games by half a run.
01:22But it's a better offense because of all the work
01:24that goes into every at-bat, the bullpen work.
01:27I mean, it's all of it, the defense.
01:29I mean, we're seeing, there are about four or five plays
01:32in every game during this stretch
01:33that you can look back to and go,
01:34well, if they don't make that play,
01:35the whole game might've been different.
01:37Just go to Wenzel Perez last night,
01:39making that catch in the gap in a 3-1 game
01:41in the fourth inning.
01:42I mean, those kinds of things are happening again and again.
01:44But I feel like, and AJ and I talked about this
01:47on the show yesterday, it's a reflection
01:49of all the hard work that goes into every day
01:52to win one game, and they're buying into that approach,
01:55and then their commitment to making sure
01:56they're playing the game the right way.
01:58How do we explain this?
02:01The pitching that they've gotten
02:03since the All-Star break has been ridiculous.
02:05The earned run average for the team is like,
02:06I think it's under 3.1.
02:08It's amazing.
02:09But they've done it with literally two-fifths,
02:11or at best, three-fifths of a rotation.
02:14It's one thing to have an opener start
02:15every once in a while.
02:16But they've had like three opener starts
02:19for the better part of these two months,
02:21and they're getting it from guys
02:23that did not have a track record in the minors.
02:27Gunther and all these other, Hannafie and Herter,
02:31all had ERAs north of five at Toledo.
02:34But they come here, and they're in between two and three
02:38for their earned run average.
02:39How do you explain the big jump that they get
02:41from the pitchers that didn't show a track record
02:43in the minors, but in the major leagues,
02:46they're killing it.
02:47You know what I like is that, I mean,
02:48the run scoring environment is so different down there,
02:50so it's really hard to make sense of some offensive
02:53and pitching stats, because it's so much higher.
02:55It's a full run a game higher.
02:57So what I love about the Tigers is that they're looking at,
02:59all right, what are these guys working on?
03:02What can they add to our staff?
03:04What can we do to make them successful
03:06when they come out to the major leagues,
03:07maybe for the first time?
03:09Ty Madden had a 797 ERA at Toledo.
03:12And that was brought down his last couple starts.
03:15He did what we needed to see him do
03:17over a stretch of four starts.
03:18And when they realized he's got stuff,
03:20now he's in the strike zone.
03:22Five walks, 37 strikeouts in his last 24 innings.
03:24He has earned the right to be called up.
03:26So they're always looking for,
03:28okay, developmentally, what's going on?
03:30What pitch maybe has he improved?
03:32What sequencing has he improved?
03:34The pitch pairings, all of that.
03:36The game planning.
03:37And then, okay, he can help us.
03:41Lots of non-obvious solutions to what I thought was a,
03:44it was, I truly, after the trade deadline,
03:46I was wondering, with Olsen and Mize on the IL,
03:49how are we going to get through the month of August?
03:52And the fact that AJ and Scott came up with a plan
03:55that was like, okay, let's use openers
03:56for three different guys.
03:57I asked AJ one day, I'm like,
03:59what do I call this right now?
04:00Is it a rotation?
04:01He said, well, let's just stop calling it a rotation
04:02and call it group effort days.
04:04And, but everybody's bought in.
04:06All those openers who were working one and two innings
04:08at a time have been critical too,
04:09but now you're setting a herder up for success
04:11instead of facing eight right-handed bats,
04:13he's facing maybe a lineup with four
04:15or five left-handed bats.
04:16Now he's having success.
04:18I think we can call it an Oprah nerf
04:20because you get an inning, you get an inning,
04:22and you get an inning.
04:24Bravo, Scott, very well done.
04:26Made the observation earlier,
04:27last night was another one of those games
04:28where Bally's is with a family
04:30of a kid who's making his debut.
04:32That's happened five times this year.
04:34You're not supposed to be in contention
04:36when you've got families and girlfriends
04:38and sisters and moms. Only five?
04:41I think it's more than that, but yeah.
04:42How is it that this group of players
04:45with all these guys making their major league debut
04:48and another one last night,
04:50it just, the math doesn't work usually with this formula.
04:54And I think what we're watching,
04:55you know, I talked to, I always remember the answer
04:57that AJ gave me when I asked him about hitting with runners
04:59in scoring position last year.
05:00You know, all that goes into that.
05:02He's like, well, we don't put extra emphasis on it.
05:05What we do is we try to give them
05:07to be as prepared as possible for the at-bat,
05:09take all the external pressure off
05:11so that now you're going to home plate
05:13knowing that that guy on the mound is in trouble, not you.
05:15And they do that in every facet of the game.
05:18I mean, I just think of Vierling last night
05:20and I know he's done this,
05:20but just look at the technique on that ground ball.
05:23Just the arm extended, scooping through it,
05:25running through the ball,
05:26Riley Green on the throw home.
05:27Same thing in the outfield.
05:28You know why?
05:29Because they touch the ball 40, 50 times every day
05:31before they go to the outfield to work on that,
05:32to make sure that's the single biggest thing
05:34you can do to stop runners advancing 90 feet.
05:36Get the ball in your glove, get it in the air.
05:39And they work on it relentlessly.
05:41So these guys just, they don't know anything else.
05:44And they're, but that's their,
05:45it's a reflection of all that hard work.
05:47And they just, that's why people keep saying,
05:49well, now the pressure's really on.
05:51That's not how they look at it,
05:53because they know they are prepared for the moment,
05:55whatever it might be.
05:56What do you attribute the change in Parker Meadows
05:59and how this team, seemingly when Parker Meadows came back,
06:02they start winning baseball games.
06:04Yeah, it, he is, I look at him as the,
06:07he really has been the catalyst.
06:08I mean, 096, Dan.
06:10Seven for 73.
06:12Let's be precise.
06:13I mean, and really struggling.
06:15I mean, they were spinning it and spinning it
06:17and spinning it.
06:18And for him to go down and to what,
06:20200 and some at-bats to get it to where it needed to be.
06:24And it all paid off.
06:25Think of that Suarez grand slam.
06:27I mean, that's a guy throwing 102.
06:29And he takes a moment after missing a three-one,
06:31steps out, calms himself down,
06:33slows himself down because he was trying to meet
06:36the speed of the pitch and hits the grand slam.
06:39He's doing it in all facets.
06:41And remember AJ, he was in the sixth spot.
06:43And he's like, you're going to move him to the leadoff spot?
06:45He's like, no, I kind of like him right where he is.
06:46Well, within a couple of days,
06:47he was back to the leadoff spot.
06:49And that's huge.
06:50Starting games with home runs,
06:51starting games with getting on base and running the bases.
06:54Or he'll hit ninth.
06:55Right.
06:56Doesn't matter.
06:57Right.
06:58Lefty on the mound, he's hitting ninth.
06:59And so it's, I look to him as a guy
07:01who has really led the way.
07:03But the defense, my goodness.
07:05I was talking about it today.
07:06I said, you guys just don't want a ball to drop, do you?
07:08He's like, no, that's our goal.
07:09You know, it's funny when the only thing
07:10you have to complain about
07:11is they didn't complete that no-hitter a couple weeks ago.
07:15So they're going to get this done?
07:17I mean, you got to love their chances to make the playoffs.
07:19No, absolutely.
07:20Absolutely.
07:21I just, I don't have any doubt about that.
07:23And they don't talk about it other than it's like,
07:25hey, if we just keep,
07:26it says you don't get there
07:28unless you keep doing what got us here.
07:30And they know what got us here.
07:31So you just take it one day at a time.
07:32But yes, do I think so?
07:33Absolutely.
07:34And if they do, I mean,
07:36it could be a problem with this pitching
07:38and the way they're playing.
07:39They are-
07:40You've been playing playoff baseball for six weeks
07:42in terms of how you,
07:43this is how pitching gets used in the postseason
07:45if you don't have a Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer
07:47at the top of your rotation.
07:49This is how it gets used.
07:50Short starts, and then it's not ball guys anymore.
07:53It's two and three inning guys
07:54and you're mixing and matching.
07:55And if you can get Reese Olsen, who pitches today,
07:58if Reese Olsen returns to the form
08:00that he had earlier in the season-
08:01And he can go four and five.
08:02Yeah.
08:03I mean, now you start,
08:05if and when you get into a playoff situation,
08:07you throw Scooble and Reese Olsen out there.
08:10That is a hell of a one-two combo that you can do.
08:12Absolutely is.
08:13And I think that's why today's start is important for Reese
08:16just to maybe work a little bit deeper into the game.
08:18He's still building back up,
08:19but to have him paired with Scooble,
08:22remembering how good he was earlier,
08:23you're right, that's huge.
08:25Obviously Scooble's been the MVP of this team
08:26because he's doing things we haven't seen in a long time.
08:30But what about Tyler Holt?
08:32Oh.
08:33I mean, doesn't matter where you put him.
08:35We run out of things to say, but we keep saying them
08:37because you just have to-
08:38Different players, different skills.
08:39There's nobody quite like him.
08:4193 innings last year, if you include eight innings at Toledo,
08:45he's at 94, I think, now, or 93 again this year,
08:48all in relief.
08:49The starts are relief appearances, right?
08:51Yeah.
08:52There's nobody like him.
08:54And the fact that you can rely on him,
08:55he just went through a stretcher,
08:56gave out two runs in 47 innings,
08:59and is not with great stuff,
09:02except that he knows how to get people out.
09:05He's incredible.
09:06He defies all the things that I think about pitching
09:09in terms of low strikeout guys,
09:10you hold batting average on balls and play low,
09:12it's gonna correct.
09:13It doesn't correct because he knows what he's doing.
09:15Final thing for me, when they traded Jack Flaherty,
09:17we all started researching number eight,
09:19number 22 prospect, and the Dodgers system's coming back,
09:22and you go, okay, this eight, eh, I don't know.
09:2422, throw in.
09:26The 22 prospect from the Dodgers is manning the infield
09:29and help leading this team to a postseason break.
09:31And think about what front offices talk about.
09:34You target guys from organizations
09:35that have deep farm systems
09:37and do a good job of player development.
09:39They like the job.
09:40Scott Harris talked about this the day that he debuted.
09:43They like the job the Dodgers did with him
09:46in terms of developing him as a hitter,
09:48even if it hadn't been obvious yet.
09:50He showed it at Toledo,
09:52but now he's showing, especially against lefties,
09:54that he can be an everyday guy.
09:56You get the podcast with Benetti.
09:58You guys do a great job.
09:59Well, thanks, he's so fun to work with.
10:01You guys are absolutely interchangeable.
10:02I mean, you on TV, it's a seamless transition.
10:05It's great to hear.
10:07I think you guys do an amazing job.
10:09What's it like with him and that whole crew
10:11to work with when you get going?
10:12I don't know, it's just a good day at the ballpark
10:14when you see Jason Benetti.
10:15I mean, he just adds so much.
10:16The person, the personality.
10:19You know, he tells corny jokes.
10:21He makes plays on words, and then he looks at you like,
10:23I know that was bad, but you can't help but laugh.
10:26I just, I love working with him every day.
10:29He's added so much,
10:31and it's a broadcast team with radio and TV.
10:33How was it like to have Bobby Scales save your life
10:35last week in the ball camp?
10:38That was a hot shot.
10:39You notice I was leaning back.
10:40I was waiting for the carom,
10:41and I wanted to make sure I didn't get hot,
10:43and there's Bobby Reed.
10:44Are you kidding me?
10:45And did you see what he did?
10:46Let the ball travel.
10:47He's got huge hands.
10:49Bobby's got massive balls.
10:51That hurt, he's like, no, I just...
10:54That was amazing.
10:55Best catch I've ever seen in the booth.
10:56That was great.
10:57Dan, you're the best.
10:58We're so happy for you.
10:59We're happy for all of us.
11:00People ask what you're like all the time,
11:02and I go, God, he's such a jerk.
11:05One of the nicest guys you'll ever meet.
11:07Have fun today.
11:07Thanks for making time.
11:08I know you're busy.
11:09Absolutely.
11:10No, I love coming out with you guys.
11:11Dan Dickerson, outside Comerica Park here.
11:13Carson Anderson continues, 97-1 the ticket.
11:16You guys hear me talk about...