After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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We're still being charged for water that we can't use. Listen and subscribe to Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts from. It is definitely one of those nights where sports don't matter quite as much. I mean, we're going to talk about sports because, you know, that's what I do best. Well, that's what I do best at work. I would say I'm probably a better baker than I am a sports talk host.

You'll just have to take my word for that. But it is one of those nights where my mind is divided. My brain and even my eyeballs are watching the weather and watching the track of Hurricane Ian and seeing already that a good chunk of Florida is getting pounded by the rain of Hurricane Ian. And so I've got the radar up and I've got the news up in front of me.

And generally I have two TVs that are on different sports channels. But right now watching what is a category three Hurricane Ian that is even intensifying as it nears that Florida coast. But already heavy rains and wind and certainly the potential for deadly storm surge, not to mention spawning tornadoes. And it's Florida, right? So the majority of us in this country know people or are related to people who live in Florida. I have family members who live in Florida.

I have very good friends who live in Florida. I know a lot of people who are in the path of this storm. And so I've reached out to as many of them as I possibly can and let them know that I'm praying for them, asking them how they're doing. And they're prepping and they're bracing for this hurricane impact.

And I know we have multiple, I'm not sure exactly how many, but probably around 10, maybe even more, different affiliates in our Florida cities. And so we are happy to keep you company. If you want to reach out to us, we are here doing the show.

And I want you to know that you have a friendly voice and a familiar routine if that's what you need to keep you company overnight. So yeah, just following that storm track and looking at it, I know a lot of people have changed plans both in the sports world, excuse me, as well as outside the sports world. And I'm thinking of you and my heart is with you. And please, please, please be safe. Be smart and be safe because as much as it can suck to lose homes or to lose property or to have to be displaced, it is replaceable.

Much of that is replaceable and you can rebuild, but lives lost is obviously not replaceable. I was watching the storm come over Cuba. A lot of you know that I have ties to Cuba and I have an extensive familia cubana and the storm went right over the western half of Cuba, which includes Havana.

And the last I knew, I've seen a few pictures come out, not from my family, but I've seen a few pictures come out which just show devastating damage. Now, Cuba doesn't have the same infrastructure that's built up in the air, but their buildings are not, as much as they are in the Caribbean, their buildings are not necessarily equipped to withstand this type of a storm. And the last I heard, the entire island has lost its power grid. The entire island of Cuba, right now the power grid is out.

And so there are a lot of people, a lot of people who have already been impacted by the storm. I'm thinking of Puerto Rico as well and the devastation that was left there. And these islands, they really don't have the money. The people don't have the money to be able to rebuild. And so, again, I've only seen maybe four or five photos from Cuba.

That's pretty much all that was available when I was checking. Have not heard from my Cuban family yet. They don't even have quality and reliable internet when it's sunny outside, much less when it's a storm.

So waiting to hear from them. But, yes, this hurricane is leaving, just leaving a mess behind. So please be safe.

And if you can get out of Dodge, then get out of Dodge. It's not just the Gulf Coast. It's actually the whole midsection of Florida, Orlando, Jacksonville. I mean, there's so many millions of people who are in the path of the storm on up into Atlanta, of course, and then the Atlantic Coast. I'm getting farther north. I know my brother and sister-in-law were supposed to come visit me this weekend. We were going to do some fall stuff, fall festival and some hiking. And because Ian is expected to hit Virginia pretty hard, understandably, my brother and sister-in-law did not want to be driving back in it.

And so they've chosen to put off their trip a little bit. But lots of people changing plans and I'm sure there's a lot of anxiety and maybe even fear in the path of this storm. So thinking of you again, praying for safety and protection and just encouraging you to be safe.

Please be safe and be smart. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We're live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. Whether you're looking to purchase a new home or refinance yours, Rocket Mortgage can help you get there.

For home loan solutions that fit your life, Rocket can. So it is our hump show, middle show of the work week. And I always feel the need to hit the hump pretty hard when we get to football season, right? Like sometimes it hits me. But it's part of the football weekend.

It's a chance to breathe. Sometimes I feel the tired and feel the football fatigue a little more. And the deeper we get into the season, the more this hump show is. And so we've got a lot to talk about, but it was actually kind of nice to be able to focus on baseball more than what we've been able to the last few nights. And we're getting down to the point where there are seven games to go, eight games to go. We're talking about the last full week of the Major League Baseball campaign. Just as a side note, it does seem like the lockout is a total thing of the past, doesn't it? When was the last time you heard anyone mention, besides me, the lockout? It really feels like it was such a long time ago.

And as much as there was a little bit of cramming, some different games that were moved and some weird kind of scheduling snafus and scheduling quirks, honestly, that lockout didn't really affect a whole lot of anything. And so here we are, we're into the month of September, late September, excuse me, and it's happening. It's happening that we're seeing the postseason picture come together. It's definitely coming together.

So we're going to give you the latest. We've already got multiple division titles that have been clinched, but that's not the only thing. There are still some pretty spirited races for wildcards.

And obviously, best records have been up for grabs, though not anymore, we'll explain. And we've got a couple of pretty tight races even when it comes to the wildcards, but also one particular division, which is now a dead heat. If you're wondering, Padres just walked off on the Dodgers a few minutes ago, and that may not matter for the Dodgers, other than the fact that they're working on a franchise record number of wins.

So they don't get that. They're still, they're stuck, I'm going to use that word, they're stuck on 106. But the Padres are obviously fighting for a wildcard spot, a wildcard position. And so as Craig Kimbrel takes yet another loss, the Dodgers lose to the Padres in San Diego. So that's the, I think that the Angels, yeah, the Angels A's game was over before this one. So we'll get you updated on the latest. Plus Aaron Judge and why going a week without another home run is not as negative or not as sad as you would think.

So we'll get to all the latest in baseball. And then a couple of fun things that I thought we would mix in tonight. I stumbled upon this poll, though it was turned into an article. And I thought it was kind of fun, especially when you think about our audience, because so many of us are pet lovers and pet owners. And it seemed to me that the majority of the questions asked in this poll, I was on the, I was on the far extreme. And I say a lot of times that Penny has been running my life for more than 10 years now.

And I validated a little bit in that I'm not alone. Many of you have pets who run your lives. Anyway, this poll you might find, I think you might find amusing, but at the same time, for those of you who have pets, I don't know that it's anything that's real shocking or stunning. It always seems to me that there's this great divide. And maybe it's because I have people in my family who are not pet people. In fact, they won't even allow me to bring my dog to their house, even though Penny doesn't do anything now.

She really doesn't do anything. And so it's kind of funny. I guess we could use the phrase there are two kinds of people in this world. The people who have pets and let them run their lives and reorganize their entire lives around their pet schedule. That would be me.

And those who do not. So anyway, this poll was done for Chewy. It was done by a polling company.

But it was done for Chewy. And some of the categories that they presented to the thousands of people that they asked, they were kind of funny. So I thought we'd work that in too, along with Ask Amy Anything, because it is the hump show. So you can send your questions to our show Twitter, After Hours CBS, or to our Facebook page. Just look for the bright orange box. And while you're on our social media, we are still collecting your votes for the After Hours TD of the week.

So it's easy to find. It's pinned to the top of our show Twitter. I'm retweeting now just because I haven't retweeted it in a while. So it's now retweeted and we tweeted. We tweeted the retweeted. Oh heavens, it's going to be one of those nights.

I can feel it already. So send your votes to, again, Twitter, After Hours, CBS, or my account, and then also on our Facebook page. And our phone number is 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We had a woman who called last night. I cannot remember her name, but she, Roxy, thank you, Producer J. She called from San Diego. She was listening to our affiliate in San Diego, 97.3. And she called to say a couple of things that we were talking about that she agreed with. And we giggled a little bit together because that was fun.

That's what girls do, you know. And then she said, I'm not even a sports fan, but I listen to your show and I like your show. So that's a great compliment because I get that some of you think I should only talk about sports all the time, 24-7. And then you assume that when I'm not here at work, that's all I do is watch sports and talk about sports. Some guy actually wrote me a tweet last night when I was telling you the funny story about the guy that my friend is trying to fix me up with.

I just like, I kind of feel like it's DOA. But my friend's trying to fix me up with this guy and he was explaining to me about the New York Giants and a lot of the information that he was spewing at me was completely and utterly wrong, which I kind of laughed. I mean, whatever, it's no biggie, but- We don't have time for that. Some guy, some guy wrote me on Twitter and was like, I think you should just drop it. You shouldn't be debating with guys about sports because nobody can match your, very few of them can match your sports knowledge.

Are you kidding? I don't even tell people what I do for a living. That is the worst moment in any potential relationship, meaning with a guy, is the second they find out what I do for a living, they're no longer interested which of course weeds out the duds. But I don't talk about what I do for a living when I'm not at work. And I don't talk about sports when I'm not at work. I was hanging out with a group of 12 friends earlier, church friends. I mean, every now and then they'll ask me a question about sports, but even, I mean, no.

When I'm not here or working, I don't talk about sports. So yeah, there's such crazy misnomers. I once wrote this blog post about the, shoot, how did I phrase it? Well, there was one that I did that was like frequently asked questions, which was kind of fun.

I need to share that one again. But there was another blog post that I wrote about the most common and giant misconceptions about what I do for a living. One of them is that I'm rich. Like ha ha, yes. If rich means working paycheck to paycheck, yes, I am that.

I am rich in knowledge, rich in wisdom, rich in experience, which mostly just means I'm old. So that's one misconception. But another one is that I have assistants, someone to do my laundry, someone to drive me around and I just call them up and ask them to do stuff for me. Yeah. And then there's another one, which is that all I do is talk about sports, think about sports, sports is not even the most impressive thing about me.

So no, anyway, it's kind of, that part is kind of funny. So when I tell you that I care more about the weather right now than I do about the sports, you're just gonna have to take my word for it. So yeah, we'll do some fun stuff tonight, some kind of cleanup and getting organized for the football weekend. We'll do a healthy QB news. Steve Nash speaks out about his, well, his superstar player who wanted to get him fired. Let's just call a spade a spade. Superstar who said it's me or it's him.

He goes or I go. We've got Aaron Rodgers who this week on Pat McAfee gets to talk about facing Bill Belichick and the Patriots and wouldn't you know Bill Belichick actually will rave about, well, he calls him the player, but he will rave about athletes who are as good as Aaron and have had such a great impact on the sport as he has. So there's a lot to do, but we're gonna start with two more division titles clinched and the baseball postseason picture coming together. So find us on Twitter after our CBS, also on our Facebook page, send your questions for Ask Amy anything.

And then at the same time, you can vote for TD of the week. It's good to have you with us. Happy to keep you company here after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. And it's a home run. It's over the wall. It may have hit the top of the wall, maybe even the glove of the center fielder Mitchell, but it's a home run to center field for Andrew Kisner, a two run shot and the Cardinals lead four to nothing.

Yep. As swings and he drives it down the left field line, a base hit that scores Carlson, Tommy Edmond stops at second and yet as going after Milner's first pitch drives in a run, making it six nothing Cardinals. The long will take off for second base.

No, he doesn't actually. And there's a comebacker. Helmsley has it on the mound runs toward first flips the golf spin and the Cardinals can celebrate a central division title. Beating the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, six to two to win the NL central.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. On Cardinals radio, the final call fittingly is the great John Rooney as the Cardinals finally clinched the NL central title. And they do it by winning on the road at Milwaukee, which means their celebration moves into the visitors clubhouse is not out there on the field with their own fans. I remember going back to before they started the weekend series in Los Angeles. So this would have been right before Albert Pujols hit home runs, number 699 and 700 last Friday night, I heard that the Cardinals had 12 games remaining and nine of them were on the road. So they were playing only three at home and nine on the road. But a division title is a division title. And for Albert Pujols, not only is it his eighth division title, it's his 10th trip to the playoffs.

Think about those years with the Angels where I think they went one time in 2013 and didn't win any games and now goes with the Dodgers in 2021 and back where he belongs with the Cardinals in 2022. Definitely a huge step, you know, but I think, you know, everybody here is looking for stories about the black community and you don't want to wait until, oh, I don't know, February. Then check out beyond black history month, the podcast that tells inclusive stories year round, like how today's labor movement is connected to the civil rights movement and why black neighborhoods keep getting hit with water crisis after water crisis.

We're still being charged for water that we can't use. Listen and subscribe to Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. How's your mental health? I'm listening with Charlie Puth. I just surround myself with my family.

And if you don't really have a big family, just surround yourself with some of your closest friends. And it's pretty amazing how other people can lift one up just from their energy alone. Mental health in general is not to be looked down upon. It's a very serious thing. And it's important that your mind is healthy just as much as your body physically is healthy. More at I'm listening.org. Talk saves lives.

I'm listening reminds you that you are not alone and that talk saves lives. There's a new national hotline for mental health related to stress. Nine eight eight. When you call or text nine eight eight from any phone, you will be connected directly with trained counselors in over 200 crisis centers nationwide.

They can get you the help you need anytime, anywhere. Nine eight eight. The new national suicide prevention lifeline. Talk saves lives. And with nine eight eight, talking is only three digits away.

Find out more at I'm listening.org. You know, we just decided a great group of guys, you know, to be back in the playoff and hopefully finish our mission and that's winning a championship. You know, at the end of the day, you make all the money, you make all the memories, but there's nothing better, you know, than playing deep in October. You know, I had the opportunity to be in two World Series, winning two, three World Series winning two.

And hopefully, you know, my last year here, you know, get that same opportunity, you know, that I have in 2011. The main goal, you know, when I say in spring training, it was about our organization, our team, the way that we go about it. Yes, we celebrate opening day, you know, but after opening day, you know, it's like, hey, our mission and our mission, you know, just try to get to the playoff. Here we are, you know, and hopefully, you know, we can continue to play well. And we are a pretty dangerous team.

Feels great. I mean, I love these guys, man. They've always had my back. I've been, you know, we talked about it. I told them, you know, I shared with them early on. I was like, hey, man, I've never won the division, man.

That's what I want to accomplish first, and then we'll make our way down. And, you know, they've been reminding me constantly, you know, throughout the whole week, like, we're going to win this division for you. We're going to win this division. So it's been really cool. It means a lot, but it's not about me, man. It's about this group. Nolan Arnato, who now with the Cardinals, has in fact played on a division winner.

But how about that? Had never played on a division winner before. 90 and 65, that's the record for the St. Louis Cardinals. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Heard the entire, or a good portion of, the locker room speech from Oliver Marmol to his team.

And they were quiet and they were listening, but they were all holding their hands over the top of champagne bottles, getting ready to shake and spray. And he made the point that they want to send Albert Pujols, Yachty, or Molina. He didn't mention Wayno, though he did mention Wayno's accomplishments this year, and the fact that he and Yachty had just set the record with the number of games started as a battery. But he specifically honed in on Albert Pujols and Yachty or Molina and how much they want to send them out with a championship. And that really is going to be an echo for this team. There were other guys who mentioned it as well, coming up with a special ending for those two legends. They're amazing, and I mean, you heard it, I mean, with Yachty and Albert just being there last year, I mean, we definitely didn't want to let them down and still don't.

Hopefully we can send them out the right way. Of course, it's not just Yachty and Albert Pujols and the fact that they're on their way out. It's also a guy like Paul Goldschmidt who you hear wanting that fairytale ending MVP candidate in the National League, two for four with two more RBI against the Brewers. And so we'll hear a little more from them, but I want to mention specifically this turnaround for them because it's been really stark over the last couple of months.

These are the deets, though. Going back to July 31st, so we're talking roughly two months ago, they were four games back of the Brewers in the NL Central. And since that time, 37 and 17. So one of the best records in Major League Baseball going back to the end of July where they really put the pedal to the metal. So we'll get inside that clubhouse and let you hear from Marmel as well as more with Pujols. And I'm so glad that he got number 700 out of the way before they got into this final week because it obviously would be major pressure.

Not that he can't handle the pressure, but this extra layer. And I don't know if it's casting a shadow so much because people have been really excited and supportive, but it still weighs on the team, weighs on the fans wanting so badly for Pujols to experience that moment and reach 700. So I'm glad that's out of the way. We're seeing a little bit of that with the New York Yankees, though they also had cause for celebration on Wednesday night, Tuesday night.

It's Tuesday night, sorry, Tuesday. Here's the 0-2. Line, base hit. Right center field in the alley. Going to the right center field wall. Scoring easily as Hickey Hicks to second, he holds on with a double.

And the Yankees take a 4-1 lead. The pitch is grounded to the open side. It's a base hit to right field.

No one was playing there. Scoring is Hicks. Judge stops at second.

Trevino deals. A ground ball in the infield to Gleibert-Torres. Throws to first. End time. Ball game over. Eastern Division in the American League over. Yankees win. Yankees win.

That's John Sterling on Yankees radio. So they're at 95-59. And by beating the Blue Jays in Toronto, on Tuesday evening, they lock up the American League East Division. And remember, there were a couple of days where this was down to 4-1. Maybe not 4-1. 5-1 games. It was right in there. Where it had gone from its 15 games.

And down to a single digit number. And I had some guy on Facebook who was betting me something or other that the Rays were going to win the division. And I kept saying over and over, yes, you're going to have runs made by the Rays, the Blue Jays, even the Orioles never got to the point where they were in second place. But the Red Sox were there for a while earlier in the season. The problem is those four teams behind the Yankees make this the most difficult and challenging division from top to bottom in baseball. And so those teams were going to kind of take each other out and cancel each other out. One would have a run, yes.

But ultimately, because the teams are so good, the other one would step up and interrupt that run and then go on a run of its own. And so the issue is that nobody was going to get close enough to the Yankees after the first half that they had. But it did take them until just outside the last week of the regular season to be able to clinch. So the way that they've done it, a lot of it has to do with getting healthy, with getting guys back in the lineup, and also getting more action outside of just Aaron Judge for a while. He was the only guy that was hitting, really the only guy that opposing teams had to be worried about.

That is no longer the case. In fact, tonight is a great example. He goes over one with four walks. Four walks. Though he did see, let me see if I remember this correctly, 33 pitches, 14 of them were strikes. So not quite half, but it's not as though he's not seeing any strikes, and on every single one of his at-bats, he went to a full count.

All five of his at-bats went to a full count. So he's seeing a lot of pitches, but for obvious reasons, pitchers are careful and cautious around him. But what's different now than what wasn't happening, say, a month ago, is that the guys behind him are not hitting. He says because that's changed, or because that's not the case, that he's fine with walking four times in a game and scoring two runs.

That's what this game's about. Especially when I'm hitting the leadoff, anytime I can get on base for the big boppers behind us, I feel like something good is going to happen. It's awesome to see the discipline that he's showing and just the consistency of at-bats while he's going through this with all the attention around it. I keep saying he'll get there, he'll get it, but to see him rack up quality at-bat after quality at-bat is impressive. So he is sitting on 60.

I'm not going to use the word stuck because I feel like that's unfair. But he's sitting on 60 and there are some at-bats where he doesn't see great pitches, but there are some when he takes swings and when he is just missing. He's getting hits. The man's still batting well over 300.

Last I saw it was still 314. Most importantly though about Aaron Judge and the reason why he's so popular, not just with his teammates but in baseball, is that his individual accomplishments are not greater than the team's goals. It's very important. Going into the spring training, this was the first step to our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to go out there and win a World Series, but it starts here winning our division.

Playing in the AL East, this is the toughest division in baseball. We've gone through a lot. We've had a lot of ups. We've had a lot of downs, but that's what happens in the baseball season. You don't go out there and win every single game. You try to, but I think it's about how you respond to the bad times and the good times of this team day in and day out. We never got too high.

We never got too low. They showed up consistently day in and day out so it's been special. Did the wild card game last year, but I've never really been in the playoffs so I'm really excited. Definitely celebrate the victories and stuff.

Celebrate tonight and then back to work. Jameson Tyone goes into the 8th inning, allows just a couple runs on 7 hits to the blue chase. He's now 14 and 5 so they weathered a pretty serious storm, did the Yankees and a lot of that came in the form of a dried up offense, a non-existent offense outside of Aaron Judge, but the pitching is getting healthier. The bullpen is in a good spot right now and in addition the bats are, well as Aaron Judge calls them, the big boppers behind him. We've got Marco Belletti here in studio.

Just a question, and I actually don't know the answer to this. He's certainly moved around a bunch in the lineup, but why keep him at lead-off? Right now, the reason is DJ LeMayhew's hurt. That's their lead-off hitter, that's the guy they want on top. So you feel like it's because he's hitting for average, they want a guy to get on base? Before, Judge has hit second basically for the last, I don't know, 3 or 4 years. And the Yankees, the idea of second, that's where you want your biggest hitter, you know get a guy in front of them, that's the new age, that's the new 3 hitter of back in the day or the new 4 hitter, whatever it was. And the Yankees had DJ LeMayhew in the lead-off spot, a little bit of Andrew Benintendi, both are hurt.

Now, LeMayhew may or may not he just started to ramp up today, he started to take some swings for the first time. If he's not there, I think Aaron Boone's thought process is, what he's done is basically take his 4 probably best hitters and just throw them at the top. And put Judge at front, and let's see if he can get on base to start it, and Anthony Rizzo right behind him. Now it was before it was Judge at 2 and Rizzo at 3, and then usually Stanton at 4, now instead it's Judge, Rizzo, and then he's actually putting Gleyber Torres, because he's the only one that's hot right now. Stanton hasn't hit for about 3 months, so he's put him at 5. Oh hey, he had a walk off Grand Slam not that long ago. And that's his first hit basically since the All-Star game.

So, and he hasn't done anything since. So that's why he's still batting 5th. I think the Yankees in a perfect world would love to go, if LeMayhew's healthy they'd love to put him at 1. If he's not, you'd probably see Judge, Rizzo, Torres, and Stanton. I mean it's working, because Judge is getting on base. His on-base percentage is off the charts in the last couple of weeks. And that's the big thing, I mean you want guys that get, look, you don't want a guy that's got 60 homers hitting lead off. I understand the concept, but at the same time, you want your best hitters to get the most at-bats possible. And the two guys that the Yankees want, and you can add in Gleyber right now because he's hitting, is Judge and Rizzo. So if they're going to be the two best guys, I think Aaron Booth's looking at it going, do I have to have one out in the first before I get them to the plate?

What's the difference? I might as well start with Judge. And you could say well, he could have driving more runs if he had 3rd or 4th. That thought process is there if you get guys on in front of him.

No one was hitting. Yeah, as I said, he was really a vast wasteland. In the vast wasteland of offense, he was the only one.

He was the oasis, if you will. And if you believe in this, the 8 and 9 hitters, they always look at it as another lead-off man, because once you turn a lineup over, you only hit lead-off once. They're putting guys that are 8 and 9 as singles hitters.

The Trevino, the World, the IKF, the Isaiah-Kanifilefa. So the thought process is even if everything flips over, we got guys that could not get on base at a huge clip, but singles hitters, maybe they're on when Judge gets up to 2nd and 3rd time through the lineup. So 95 and 59, though the Houston Astros have clinched the best record in the American League, so presumably the Yankees would be the 2 seed.

I guess I would have to look at that though, because I'm not sure. What is the Guardians' record? It's done. The Yankees clinched the 2. Alright, so the Guardians obviously have clinched the AL Central, so all 3 of the divisions in the American League are clinched though. The wildcard, those are up for grabs.

And then in the National League, we've got 2 division titles that have been clinched with the Cardinals tonight, but 1 race that could not be tighter. We'll get to that coming up. Send your questions for Ask Amy Anything to our show Twitter after our CBS or the bright orange box that's on our Facebook page.

Good to have you with us. It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Looking for stories about Black culture, Black news, all Black everything? Then listen and subscribe to the podcast Beyond Black History Month. From influential news makers like Soledad O'Brien. I try to use Twitter to explain, this thing is not good, but let me explain to you why it's not good. And let's talk about what framing is.

To why Game of Thrones fans can believe in dragons, but not a Black Targaryen or Valerian technically. Find Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. How's your mental health?

I'm listening with Charlie Puth. I just surround myself with my family and if you don't really have a big family, just surround yourself with some of your closest friends and it's pretty amazing how other people can lift one up just from their energy alone. Mental health in general is not to be looked down upon.

It's a very serious thing and it's important that your mind is healthy just as much as your body physically is healthy. More at iamlistening.org. Talk saves lives. Looking for stories about Black culture, Black news, all Black everything? Then listen and subscribe to the podcast Beyond Black History Month. From influential news makers like Soledad O'Brien. I try to use Twitter to explain, this thing is not good, but let me explain to you why it's not good. And let's talk about what framing is.

To why Game of Thrones fans can believe in dragons but not a Black Targaryen or Velaryon technically. Find Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. That is a fair ball and that's a home run. Back to back homers by Arcea and Acuna and the Braves are up 4-2. And the delivery swung on, belted deep center Robles on the run.

He's still running. Back to the infield that's off the center field wall. One run is in. Contreras from first is going to try to score and he will standing up as the relay is dropped and a long 400 foot double off the center field wall by Eddie Rosario makes it 6-2 Atlanta. Helping you get to the back end of the work week.

Welcome to the Hump Show on After Hours. Beware the World Series champions are scratching, fighting, clawing and not ready to give up on that NLE division title. Regardless of what happens in the last week of the regular season, both the Braves and the Mets are headed to October but the Braves are surging.

This is what they do. Sometimes I feel like they should be 10 games up in this division with the number of extended win streaks they put together which should speak to you about the staying power of the New York Mets. So, Ronald Acuna with a pair of solo shots. Orlando Arcea also homered.

Michael Harris a two run triple and you hear some of the highlights on the Braves radio network as they're watching. No, not with their devices. No devices allowed in the dugouts. We know that is a big time no-no when it comes to Major League Baseball.

However, it's absolutely the case that they were getting updates. If not scoreboards there in the stadium then of course these guys are all getting updates. Runners from the clubhouse all that kind of stuff.

Or even guys who are not playing who are going back in the clubhouse and watching games to see what's going on. So here we are with exactly seven games left in the regular season for both the Braves and the Mets and they are in a dead heat atop the NL East. Same record.

97 and 58. So we'll talk about the Mets and we'll get their reaction. But certainly if you're Brian Snitker obviously waited a long time for his first World Series title last season well he's got to be thrilled to see Acuna finding that stroke and finding a rhythm.

That kind of looked like the old Ronald right there. So I got to think that probably staying away from him and the DH and everything might he's moving around like that knees feeling pretty good knock on wood. Now the way that it works out the Braves will be guaranteed the number two playoff seed in the National League if they finish ahead of the Mets because these but it applies to the Mets too right. The Mets they've had the lead in this division for the majority of this season though a couple of times we've seen the Braves leapfrog them briefly only to have the Mets pull them back again but however this works out the Mets and the Braves have seven more wins than the Cardinals as of tonight which means the winner of that division will end up as the number two seed second only to the Los Angeles Dodgers who are sitting on those 106 wins and obviously the goal with a really long season like this one is to be playing your best baseball and to be as healthy as possible and if you can clinch your division or clinch your playoff berth maybe lock up your seed before the end of the regular season have a couple of days I mean it would be great to have the buy right these teams understand how valuable the buy to be able to line up your pitching is huge though so if you can get it done without having to wait until the very last day of the regular season well that's a positive and so to see them playing the way they are the hitting that we're seeing from the Braves lineup right now and Acuna is just one example he's got hits in seven of his last nine games and he's not just hitting for average but he's hitting for power driving in a lot of his teammates so with Brian Schnitker with the Braves having the most recent experience of winning the World Series and understanding what it takes I mean do they need to win the division no they would be dangerous as they are because of the amount of experience and because of the defending champion it's always the toughest knockout but certainly it would be a nice perk and and potentially just a result of them playing as well as they are it's just the way this thing goes you know we've been through those spells before and always seem to you know have a way of fighting out of it and coming back and that's good tonight Now as for the Mets they lose to the Marlins by the way there is a three game series between the Nationals not the Nationals the Braves and the Mets coming up this weekend in Atlanta the Hurricane Hurricane Ian is expected to go over Atlanta and it is expected to do that on Friday and Saturday so well Friday evening it's supposed to be crossing the border from Florida into Georgia so there would already be rain for sure on Friday evening and when it comes to the weekend you're talking about that storm going right over the Atlanta metro so we'll see whether or not that affects the baseball coming up this weekend but yes they are scheduled to play a weekend series and it is going to be two teams who both can win the division and we just saw this last year right with the Giants and the Dodgers going down to the very end the very last day of the regular season still vying for the number one spot that division title so it's kind of fun baseball wants it this way but this is a perk they added the wildcards and they they changed the wildcard formats so that they could involve as many teams as possible through the course of August and September and having fewer teams be sellers of the trade deadline so that's one piece of it but having the races extend all the way through the stretch meaning that you've got more fan bases who are engaged because you have more teams that are involved so Mets now are sitting in that tie and yes they've felt the Braves presence breathing down their necks that hot probably stinky breath too breathing down their necks but at the same time this is good adversity for them it's a great test if you really do want to win in October well then you better be prepared for any type of challenge that comes your way. Our guys have you know worked hard to create an opportunity and you know turn the page and it's about tomorrow night in Lazardo and hopefully Ty can have a good outing and give us a chance Couple games left man it's almost a week we still need to play hard and we need to continue to play hard man and tomorrow's another game so we need to win tomorrow and we go from there man. So Carlos Carrasco did struggle in this game and that's part of the reason why the Mets were able to well part of the reason why they fell into a tie with the Braves but again we've seen them beat back every challenge even when the Braves have taken over by a half game here or there the Mets have been able to surge ahead I feel like this has all been great preparation the Mets have had playoff appearances of course even went to a recent World Series but we're talking about an entirely new lineup from that one not all new pitchers I mean Jacob DeGrom has been around which is great but for the most part this team and the leadership on this team has almost completely turned over so they've had possession of the division lead for all but a handful of days this season and they've seen challenges from the Braves from the Phillies and they've been able to withstand that so it's huge for them because again you need all of that staying power and all of that ability to perform under pressure once you get into the playoffs Pete Alonso three run home run that happened even in the Mets loss and so not only is he a guy that you have to watch in October but he's the first Met with multiple 40 home run seasons how about that the number of amazing hitters and just the tradition of Mets baseball and yet my effort level was outstanding he's the first Met ever to have more than one season in which he's belted 40 home runs so yes keeping an eye on Hurricane Ian for a lot of reasons we've already had some sporting events that have been postponed or moved and we'll see what happens with Mets and Braves but that is what's on the horizon in Major League Baseball and that is a race that starts over it starts over right now with seven games to go in the regular season it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio How's your mental health? I'm listening with Charlie Puth I just surround myself with my family and if you don't really have a big family just surround yourself with some of your closest friends and it's pretty amazing how other people can lift one up just from their energy alone mental health in general is not to be looked down upon it's a very serious thing and it's important that your mind is healthy just as much as your body physically is healthy more at I'm listening.org talk saves lives I'm listening reminds you that you are not alone and that talk saves lives there's a new national hotline for mental health related distress 988 when you call or text 988 from any phone you will be connected directly with trained counselors in over 200 crisis centers nationwide they can get you the help you need anytime anywhere 988 the new national suicide prevention lifeline talk saves lives and with 988 talking is only three digits away find out more at I'm listening.org looking for stories about black culture black news all black everything then listen and subscribe to the podcast Beyond Black History Month from influential news makers like Soledad O'Brien I try to use Twitter to explain this thing is not good but let me explain to you why it's not good and let's talk about what framing is to why Game of Thrones fans can believe in dragons but not a black Targaryen or Valerian technically find Beyond Black History Month on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast from