#4 Orlando Magic, Murphy's Law, 97!, Montero, Makeup and Wristbands.

[00:00:01] Can we talk about the absolute highlight of last night's ballgame? Right. Y'all believe it was the Orlando Arcia bat flip on a walk. That was absolutely amazing. I love seeing it from him. No matter what's going on, he's not going to change. What was really funny for me is that when I got on X Twitter yesterday, they have all those stories that they kind of have in the corner that they think would interest you. All of mine were brave stories, and one of them was titled Orlando Arcia's Controversial Bat Flip Sparks Debate. It was so funny. All it was was aggregated tweets from angry Phillies fans about what Orlando did. And it read really funny. I thought it was a fun moment. I'm glad he did it. You don't want him losing his mojo. That's Orlando. No matter what's going on, that's how he's going to be. And it was a big walk in a big spot, obviously, and the Braves were able to capitalize later in the game. Orlando leads off, what, the eighth inning with a really big double. That was important. It was an important run that eventually scored. So keep doing. I thought that was really funny yesterday and glad to see that he is still being himself. Austin Rielly got the break, maybe that he needed to get him going in the right direction. That was a terrible, terrible play by the Phillies. That fly ball that should have been caught by the center fielder, Rojas. You got a guy in Sosa who is starting his first ever game in left field. I know we robbed a home run from ourselves. Really annoying in the first inning. But Rojas has got to catch anything that he can get to. And that was clearly his ball. But he was called off by Sosa and he let him call him off. That drops. Think about this. The next batter struck out, the inning would have been over if they caught that fly ball. Instead, Austin's at second. Then you got the walk and then the Sean Murphy home run. And then we saw the huge double later in the game from Austin Rielly. So you never know what's going to get you going in the right direction. But that was a gift from the Phillies. Completely changed the game, and we'll take it all day long. So good to see that. And we'll continue to watch Austin and see if he's catching his flow. We talked about Shaun Murphy yesterday and bringing some thump to the lineup. My goodness, did he? With that home run in his first plate appearance. We saw him get on a couple of times. The glasses were the story all Of a sudden I see glasses on him. Hadn't seen him before. He told BG that he was trying something different. Learned later from Dave O'Brien that he had astigmatism the same way that Nick Allen has one. So who knows, man? This might be the latest trend and it doesn't take much. I know that fans were pretty critical of the season that he had a year ago after missing the first two months with the strained oblique. It doesn't take much to get off. Like you might not even realize your eyesight is not completely right and maybe something to do with it. I don't know. Nobody's out here making excuses necessarily for Sean Murphy, but none of it matters. He's off to a great start. He's obviously seen the baseball really, really well. So good news there for Sean Murphy. We'll see what that means and how this playing time situation is going to work with him and Drake Baldwin. I mentioned last night late, so I wanted to make sure that I got it in. Dylan Lee hit 97 miles an hour yesterday for the first time in his career. That's the hardest pitch he has ever thrown at the age of 30. I love that for him because I think there's been some criticism of his fastball at times. Of course his SL slider is really good. That's his go to pitch. That doesn't mean he can't use his fastball. I know it was a ball and he ended up walking Kyle Schwarber and I actually was okay with it at the time. I know it seems kind of strange left on left, but we saw what Schwarber did to Chris Sale earlier in the game. He hits lefties hard. He can. And so if he got ahold of something, we saw the long foul ball and kind of a get me over slider. I said it at the time, go be aggressive at a corner. If it doesn't work out, then you got the righty. And Days Bell Hernandez came in and used one pitch to get one out and everything was fine. It ended a ridiculously long streak for Dylan Lee that he had not walked a lefty. Didn't walk one last year. I think BG said it was September of 23 was the last time that he had walked a lefty. So he's been great. Obviously his role becomes more important in the bullpen, but I want to make sure he got a little love. Always looking out for the lefties and seeing Dylan Lee at 97 miles an hour. Jared Kelnick deserves some as well. He had great at bats yesterday. Man, he saw Wheeler really, really well. He was tracking the baseball well. He wasn't chasing anything. Had three walks in the game which were really important. Made a great play late again. I know he hadn't gotten off to a great start either, but it was really encour to see the quality of his at bats. Those are the things you look for as guys hopefully start to kind of get things turned around here a little bit. So good for Jared. I really like him a lot. I pull hard for him. He's a good guy. He's got all the tools in the world. I sent something out on X earlier today regarding Rafael Montero. I got to cover him when he was with the Texas Rangers. Saw some upticks in velocity, had that really good change up. Ultimately a couple years down the road. Got himself a really nice deal with the Houston Astros and then struggled so much so that they took him off the roster. They added him back later as he was in the big leagues last year year and then again this year. But the story is the split finger and we'll see how it plays. I don't think he's going into a prominent role necessarily into the bullpen, but like Hector Neris, looking for a guy maybe with a split to keep the baseball on the ground. Get a few more swings and misses coming out of that bullpen. So I don't think there's a lot to lose here. 34 years old and a pretty good arm fastball sits around 95, 96 these days, but the split is the story and he's only pitched a couple of games so far, so that ends up being a good pitch. And it does look like it has some depth to it. That's a reason to be excited. I don't know how you feel. Superstitions yesterday two things. I joked around about the wristbands that I wore during the game and took a picture of it and put it on exit. Trying to have a little fun. I will absolutely be wearing that again tonight. I brought a couple extras. I throw them out of the booth during the seventh inning stretch. But here's the other one. So I have a Polish last name, but I have more Italian blood in me than I do Polish. Why do you care about that? You shouldn't. But what it means for me is that I got greasier skin. I get a little bit shiny and I put makeup on and BG does as well. Before we do our open I forgot yesterday I completely forgot to do it. Didn't realize it until after, after we shot The Open. And then, of course, the Rays go out and win a game. So that means a wristband today. No makeup today. If I look shiny, you'll know why. But on a cooler day, like we had on a cooler night, it doesn't show up as much. But it gets a little warm and I start to sweat a little bit. I very much need my powder to get that shine away. Grant Holmes tonight, his second start of the year. I felt like he was really pumped up, maybe a little bit too much against the Dodgers. Remember, that was the team that drafted him. Here he was a little bit more than a decade later getting his first start against the team that took him in the first round. [00:06:22] Never got a chance to play for. So I don't know, but you don't see a lot of emotion from him. But I thought maybe that hard beat was racing a little bit faster than usual. This would be a good one for him. Certainly a test against the Phillies. It is a good lineup for Grant Holmes. We mentioned his change up last time and there's some lefties out there, obviously. So that'll be a very important pitch for him. Taiwan Walker is going for the Phillies. He had a nice first start for him. Six, I believe, five or six shutout innings after a disaster of a season last year. And they gave him a big contract that hadn't worked out. They put him in the bullpen, but they have a need right now. I don't know what to make of it. I'll take a closer look at his start when I get to the ballpark. But I think there's an opportunity here. But that was such a huge first Win another one tonight, obviously. Then guarantee yourself the Series because we have a great one for game three on. What is it? Thursday? [00:07:10] Thursday. [00:07:12] Jesus Lizardo going against Spencer Schwellenbach. And Lizardo's been really good. A new pickup for the Phillies. So lots going on. Great night last night. Hopefully we keep rolling here tonight. No makeup, wristbands on. Should be a fun one. I'll have my radio show today, 2 to 5 Eastern Time on Mo B Network Radio. For those of you that have Sirius and care to listen, me and ryan Spielberg's on SiriusXM, channel 89.