After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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Call clickgrainger.com or just stop by. Grainger, for the ones who get it done. Don't ask me why this dawned on me a couple hours ago.

I honestly have no idea. Except that every now and then, maybe once a week, I check the date. I don't mean the day.

I'm always either behind or ahead when it comes to the day. But I, for some reason, was thinking about the date. As in the 12th of October. Now, maybe it's because my brother and sister-in-law had a date. As in the 12th of October. Now, maybe it's because my brother and sister-in-law had their anniversary today. And so I was remembering, and oh yes, I already texted them, we're good.

But it dawned on me. Do you know what massive event comes up in exactly four months? On the 12th of February? This time, four months from now, we'll be talking about Super Bowl 57. It's exactly four months to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona. And so whether you think four months is a long time, or you think it's not enough time, just be sure you savor the football. Because four months.

That's it. Now, there's a lot of football to be played in the next four months. But I don't know how I feel about that. We're gonna cram so much into the next four months.

Think about it, though. My neighborhood, and this does not include me, already looks like a haunted house outside. There are so many Halloween decorations. I do not understand people, but if you love to decorate your entire yard for Halloween, I mean, I don't really do that for Christmas either, so I'm just not a big decor outside person. But man alive, in this day and age when electricity costs as much as it does, there's no way that I would be spending that much money to decorate outside. And of course, with Halloween, you can't have the decorations lit up during the daytime, because that defeats the whole point. Halloween is a nighttime event. You can't be, it can't be witching hour during the daytime.

So all that electricity, it's all I can think. I know, I'm such a party pooper. And totally boring. I do have little pumpkins around my house, though. And I have pretty fall flowers.

So see, I do have some things, and I planted baby grass seed. None of that is really Halloween themed, but it's not as though my house outdoors is not getting any attention. All that to say, we've got Halloween. Then we've got a relatively quick turnaround to Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, obviously New Year's, not to jump the gun. But four months will go quickly. On the sports horizon, we've already seen the start of the NHL season, and the NBA will follow in mere days. College football, all the conference battles, but of course the playoff rankings, the first set of playoff rankings will come out this month.

The World Cup is only a few weeks away. In my head here, I believe. I'm not going to do it, because I actually don't believe.

I want to believe, but I don't know if I do believe. Then of course there's the NFL. All sandwiched around Major League Baseball, which is right now the team, or the sport, excuse me, that's in its playoff month, its playoff run. There's a lot happening, both personally and professionally in my world, and those four months will fly.

But exactly four months from right now, we'll be talking about a Super Bowl champion. I have been saving this particular list. I do love lists.

Not rankings so much, but lists. Because I think they provide context, and they're fun. Do you know, this is not really a nerd alert, because you probably could figure it out. In fact, if I was going to be mean, I would ask producer Jay to answer this question.

Or maybe I will, maybe he already knows. Only four teams have reached the playoffs each of the last three years in the NFL. Do you know who they are? There's only four. Isn't that amazing? First of all, isn't that amazing that only four of 32 teams have reached the playoffs three straight years.

That's how much it turns over. And we tell you roughly half the NFL postseason bracket is completely new teams every year. So if you want to, you can take a stab.

But I don't want to put you on the spot, because I know how much you love that. I think I might be able to get two. The Packers?

50% is okay. Yes, Packers. The Buccaneers? No, not the Bucks, because before Tom Brady, they... What is it, the last three years? The last three years.

Oh, okay. This is his third season with the Bucks, right? Yeah. The Packers. Is this stuff the Chiefs? Yes, the Chiefs. And I want to say the Bills, but I feel like...

Yes, the Bills. That's three. Can you name the fourth?

Can I name the fourth? It's also from the AFC. Ravens.

No. Didn't they miss it last year? Oh, yeah, they did miss it last year. I thought they fell off the map last year. Yeah, they had a horrible end of the season. Yeah. Oh, man. I want to say Steelers, but they didn't make it, right?

No. They had that bad season. Didn't they have the year where they were 8-8? Yeah, that's when Roethlisberger was hurt. When Roethlisberger was hurt.

I'm blank on the last one. Give it to me. It was last year's number one seed. The Titans? Yes.

Got it. So three teams from the AFC, one team from the NFC, but that's crazy enough. Only one team from the NFC has made the playoffs each of the last three years. We're not talking about ten years, even five years. We're talking about three years. Only the Packers have made the playoffs the last three years out of the NFC. People are coming here to play with me. Oh, for heaven's sake.

You just ruined all of that. So our nerd alert on this four-month warning until the Super Bowl is that there are only four teams that have made the playoffs the last three years in a row, which just blows me away. But I've been saving that because I think it really does underscore, A, how much turnover, B, how competitive, and C, the fact that you think you know but you don't know. We have no idea what's going to happen in the next four months, and that's exactly the way I like it. Four months from tonight, baby, February 12th. Be there, be square.

No one says that. I got you. 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 I'd love to connect with you on Twitter. I mean, I'd love to connect with you on Twitter if you're not a big fat jerk. So you can find me there, ALawRadio, on our Facebook page, too, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I forgot to mention this, and I didn't share the tweet, but you know on your anniversary of joining Twitter, every year they offer you a post that you can then retweet or quote tweet? It happened earlier this month. I've now been a Twitter user, for better or for worse, usually against my better judgment and against my will, for 11 years.

What is wrong with me? Do you know how many hours of my life I've wasted on this social media site? That's a lot of Twitter. 11 years worth of Twitter. My goodness. That's a lifetime.

It feels like it. When did you join Twitter? Do you remember? I think it was a little longer than that, honestly. 2009, I want to say.

2008, 2009. Good. I'm glad you were on it before me. Our Facebook page, as in our show Facebook page, it's not that old. It actually was started by producer number three here. It wasn't started.

Yeah. It wasn't started by either of the Toms. It was started by Ant. For those of you who remember, Anthony used to be, it was a brief stint. It was right before I jumped into the five night a week, as opposed to what I was doing, which was the three weekend nights. So he's the one that created our Facebook page.

And so it was born in 2014. Me on Facebook, I very rarely even look at my Facebook page anymore. In fact, I spend more time on Jay's Facebook page, well, not his page, but I spend more time on Jay's Facebook account than mine because that's the only way I can access our show page. But now it feels like it's mine.

I mean, you could have it, honestly. Yeah. Somehow I've become the only one who has control of the After Hours Facebook page through my name. But yeah, I have no idea either. Apparently they don't recognize the fact that my name, Amy Lawrence, matches the name on the page. It doesn't matter. It doesn't check out.

It's irrelevant. How often do you actually look at your own Facebook page? Oh my gosh.

And not in a long time, honestly. I'm sorry you're stuck looking at our show Facebook page. Yeah, I look at that.

And even that you don't look at very much. I do. I check it out more when I'm here. Do you? Do you see all the crazy bots that we've had lately? Yeah. I don't know where those are coming from.

We can't help that. It's the meta algorithm, something about when a particular post hits the mainstream or a different mainstream, it's on a different highway. I have no idea. I just know that every now and then we get one particular post that not only gets a ton of likes, way more likes than our normal, which is fine, but it's because there's so many bots on it and I have to go and block them all.

They're everything from my wife just left me after 10 years, but this therapy helped me. On a post about Josh Allen. Right. Or it's people who are not writing in English, which is fine, but you can tell that they're coming, I mean, they're bots, they're from Pakistan and like the emojis they're using and or there's others that are trying to sell things. And so, yeah, it becomes this one particular post this week. I'm not joking.

I've spent hours getting rid of the bots. Yeah. And the weird thing was that was the post where we actually didn't even use any hashtags or words like that, where it wouldn't catch somewhere else. Meta's stupid. It is. It's the devil. On Twitter, though, we it's porn bots. I can't even tell you. I'm those.

Those are there. I haven't counted lately, but I can promise you that I have blocked five thousand accounts on Twitter easily. Now, some of them are porn bots. Some of them are just big fat jerks. I have very specific rules for my Twitter. If it's your God given right to be an ass, well, it's my God given right to block you anyway. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure that over the course of the last however many years, so now 11 years on Twitter and what I say, like eight years on Facebook, I've blocked thousands of accounts.

Sounds about right. But like Elon Musk, I believe most of them are fake and that these social media numbers are largely inflated. You got to do something not like us me and you, but like just, you know, the country or the world or Elon Musk to get rid of these bots. There is no need. Like, why are they here? I don't know. What's the point?

Do you think about them a lot? I mean, I don't. But when every time I go to a comment section or just want to see like a general human reaction to something, it's just, oh, by this, like, get the hell out of here, Jay, I hate to break it to you. Twitter is not a good representation of human reaction.

Thanks. I mean, just, you know, a real human would be nice and just a real human. That's the part about social media. It's not social. It's actually the opposite of social. And it's definitely not media unless you don't care if there's any truth in your media robots trying to solicit on the page, but at least they're not porn on Facebook.

I guess there's that. So on that note, beware if you find us on Twitter. Our show account is after our CBS and then our Facebook page too and our phone number 855-212-4227.

It's 855-212-4CBS. Man, there's a lot to get to and actually have some fun stuff that is off the beaten path. So we have a fantastic sad sap of the week. You're going to love this. Actually two of them. So that's all I'm going to say.

I haven't even told producer Jay this because I can't wait for his reaction on the air. And emojis. I'll explain.

It's funny, actually, and maybe there's a line of demarcation for ages and generations based on emojis, though I'm not sure I believe the science. Of course we're going to dive into all that you need to know, well, as much as I can get to, as much as I can get to that you need to know for week number six. But here's a tidbit. Survivor islands. There's two of them. We have a survivor island archipelago.

Did you know that we're rich here? We can acquire islands. We have Isla Nublar and Alcatraz. And how many people are left on Isla Nublar? Two. Just two. Two. Wow, that's a lonely island.

You better watch out for those dinosaurs. They're hungry and there's only two of you. Yeah, they're out there. On Alcatraz, there are only, what did I say? Three. Three left?

Are you sure? Pretty sure you told me three, because we were down to the final five, I remember writing that. Okay. So, all right, however it divides up, we're down to five people. I've never made it past week six, ever. So I have to survive this week, because all of the work, all of the effort will be for naught. It's not that I need to win. I do like winning, but I don't really care about that as much as just getting past week six. Yeah, it's not even about winning the whole thing at this point.

No, it's just about surviving past week six. I think you could do it. Do you? You think I can do it?

I do. My options are getting limited now. So what do we talk about? I'm waffling back and forth between the Buccaneers, who are on the road at Pittsburgh, but you know what?

I get nervous going to that same well. I just picked against Pittsburgh last week, although the Bills did slaughter them, but I just picked against Pittsburgh. You know what? This is what happens with the Jets. You pick the team that's playing the Jets too many weeks in a row, and you get burned.

Or too many years in a row, like I did. Yes. Oh yeah. The Jets have knocked me out of multiple survivor pools. So that's what I'm saying. Do I actually want to pick the next team that's playing the Steelers?

Is this a little superstitious right now? No, it's because, first of all, the game's in Pittsburgh. Second of all, I don't love what the Buccaneers offense is doing, and I know their defense is really good. Third of all, they're in Pittsburgh. Wait, I already said that. Third of all, Mike Tomlin.

He's a Hall of Fame coach. I don't... No, I hear you, but we looked at the matchups briefly, very briefly. We didn't dissect them that much, but that definitely stands out as the best one on paper right now. How about San Francisco and Atlanta?

That was the second one I think I liked. I haven't picked the Niners yet. But Atlanta has, you know, they're not that bad. What about the Browns against the Patriots? No? No? No. No.

We already lost using the Browns this year. Oh. No, we did actually. That was our office call. That was ours, yeah. Oh, so once bitten, twice shy.

You're like... I wouldn't trust them again. No. Yeah. Fool me once, shame on you.

Thanks, but no thanks. Only twice. You're chicken the Browns. Let's see. I don't think the Jaguars are going to lose three in a row, but man, the Colts are terrible, so I don't really know about that game. How about... Ooh! How about the Vikings in Miami?

Yeah, I could see that, but again, a team I'd never generally trust is the Vikings because they're always so Jekyll and Hyde week to week. They're four and one! I get it. I get it.

But it hasn't been the prettiest. Kirk Cousins is performing quarterback sneaks! Then pick the Vikings.

I don't think I could do it, but... Huh. What about the Giants? Should I pick the Giants against the Ravens? Probably not.

Probably not. Um, let's see, the Bengals in New Orleans? We know who's playing quarterback for the Saints yet? We don't think it's Jameis, but it doesn't matter because Andy Dalton's actually playing well. The problem is they have, like, everybody's injured. All the receivers are injured, it seems like. Do they find the Bengals?

Except they do have Taysom Hill, nevermind not touching that. Uh, Philly Dallas? Can Dallas actually win five in a row and do it in Philadelphia? Wait, I already picked Philly, nevermind, I can't do that one. Um... I wouldn't touch Seattle, Arizona.

Ooh! Did I already pick the Rams? Oh, I did, crap, because they're playing Carolina this week. That would so be a win. Or do I go with the Chargers against the Broncos? Ooh.

What do I do? I mean, I guess in that scenario, either your Broncos win a game and look good, or you still want to survive it. Alright, why did you have to say my Broncos? I'm trying to disassociate myself, I did not want Russell Wilson. I've been honest from the beginning, this was not, as a fan, I was not feeling it the way everyone else in Denver was. It's true. Oh, goodness.

I still think the Buccaneers or the Niners are the best two options. Yeah, I just, I'm nervous because this is the week. This is the week. And then next week I'll be nervous again too.

Okay. Well, that was fun. So we're going to do a bunch of goofy stuff wrapped around baseball playoffs, which we'll get to next. We've got two even series in the National League with the American League back on tap coming up on Thursday. And then we've got NFL week six. Oh, it's an important week. And it's four months to the Super Bowl.

So just chew on that for a bit. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Two outs, nobody on, just underway. Two balls and a strike to Machado. Here's the pitch from Kershaw, Manny hammers it in the air down the left field line. If it's fair, it's gone and it is a home run for Manny Machado. Homeward against him in the 2020 National League Division Series.

And now again in 2022, Andre strike first, it's one nothing. Three balls, one strike. And there's a high fly ball to center field. Grisham going back to the wall.

He looks up and he's gone! A home run! A Machado home run in the top of the first, a Freddie Freeman home run in the bottom of the first. And we're all even at one.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Right away there were fireworks between the Dodgers and the Padres. So everything that happened early on was with the long ball. And it was really about not having guys on base when you were giving up the long ball. So both Clayton Kershaw and Hugh Darvish got hit for a couple of home runs. Man, the blast by Manny Machado from Clayton Kershaw.

He was on the board first. And they were still tied at three in the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium. Ball's getting hit all over the yard, but the Padres threatening, and now a ground ball into right field and a base hit. That's going to get Cronenworth home, and the Padres going to go back in front. A bounding ball through the right side, an RBI single for Profar, and a 4-3 San Diego lead in the sixth. It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio, and thinking about our Padres fan base listening on our San Diego station, 97.3 The Fan. And so I know there are a lot of people who would love to see these Padres capitalize, not to mention considering what's happened in the San Diego sports scene over the last couple of years. The Padres have spent a lot of money.

There's a lot of fans that are kind of holding onto them as the great hope. And against the Dodgers, are you kidding me? We can't get away from them. I used this stat the last couple of nights. But before Game 2, the Padres had lost 24 of their last 29 games against the Dodgers.

They're the big bad, just up the highway. Except in this one, once Dave Roberts pulled Clayton Kershaw out of the game, and he did so after five innings. Clayton had allowed three runs on three hits. He struck out six. In fact, his last two innings were 1-2-3 affairs. And yet, he went to his bullpen after the fifth inning.

Immediately, the Padres were able to get the nose out in front, and then they relied on their own pitching and defense. Tim up the middle. Cronenworth around to the right. Those are your middle infielders. First pitch swing and grab ball to second base. Cronenworth charges to second for one.

Kim to first. Oh yeah, hits in time and a double play. Robert Suarez comes into a first and third, nobody out situation. He strikes out Justin Turner, and he gets an inning-ending double play off the bat of Gavin Lux.

Here's the 2-2. Smith swings, loops one into center field. Grisham had him played perfectly, and he's there to make the catch and end the inning. No runs, two hits, and the Dodgers leave them loaded.

Well, they certainly had plenty of opportunities. The home team goes 0-8 with runners in scoring position and leaves 10 men on base. And you hear Jesse Agler there on Padres radio. Yet again, Dodgers are threatening in the eighth inning, and Josh Hader comes in to begin the process of earning the save, but he had to get out of trouble in the eighth. Runners lead at first and second, two down in the bottom of the eighth. Here's the 0-1 pitch. Barnes swings, hits it in the air, center field playable.

Grisham drifting back, a little bit towards right center. And just in front of the warning track, he makes the catch and ends the inning. No runs, a hit, and the Dodgers leave a pair. Hader trying to end the game on this pitch. 3-2 to Will Smith. Here it is, and a swing and a fly ball to right field straight away.

Soto had him played perfectly, backs up a couple of steps, and he makes the catch. This ball game is over. An absolute classic between the Padres and the Dodgers in Game 2 of the Division Series. It is won by San Diego 5-3, and this thing is tied 1-1, heading home to Petco Park.

We talked about this. The Padres haven't had a home game with their fans at Petco Park in years. So this is an opportunity for them to be able to bring this new look team in front of their home crowd at Petco Park and see if they can get their own. Dodger Stadium is a great home field advantage. See if they can get their own home field advantage.

See if they can somehow create their own juju against the big bads just up the highway. Bob Melvin certainly helps, and I know they made some changes at the trade deadline, and it took a while before Juan Soto settled in. It took a while before they were able to find a groove. Even Josh Hader, different pieces that they brought in. You can't just snap your fingers and have chemistry and know that it's going to work even if you buy the best players or trade for the best players on the planet.

So it took a while. But once the Padres found that groove, once the Padres got comfortable, we know their bats are dangerous, and we see what they did pitching-wise against the Mets. So now going toe-to-toe with a team that has had their number for quite a while. But I've said it before, and I was watching it play out on the field there in Los Angeles. The fact that these hitters for the Padres are not intimidated by Clayton Kershaw. Beats Clayton Kershaw, for heaven's sakes. There's nothing in baseball he hasn't done. And yet these hitters have seen him.

They faced him. They're familiar with Dodger Stadium. That place alone can be intimidating because of the noise, the fans, but also it's Dodger Stadium. It's iconic.

And yet they face each other so often that all of that becomes a non-factor. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio, so Bob Melvin bringing that leadership at the top. Of course, a lot of experience, and he told Josh Hader this is how it was going to go. He's ready to play. So he didn't do it during the regular season, kept his workload at a minimum. He saved those type of things for the postseason. He was all for it. He knew that any runner on and two out, he was going to be coming in for four outs and did what we expect him to do.

Exactly that. Allowed a hit and a walk. Also had a strikeout, but ultimately the Dodgers did not score against the Padres' bullpen despite the fact that they had opportunities and they had ducks on the pond.

There were a couple opportunities two innings back to back that we had an opportunity situationally to push a run across to tie the game, let alone potentially take the lead, and we couldn't do that. They've been waiting for this for a while, and they've supported us all year. It seems like every game we get between 35,000 and 40,000 people there. The drama that took place during the regular season, I think we had 10, 12 walk-offs or something like that that they were a big part of.

They incentivize us. We feel like they're part of us, so to be able to reward them, get home, and have some playoff games for them, it feels really nice. Bob Melvin talking about those fans, we are headed your way to Petco Park. As for Clayton Kershaw, he didn't have his curveball that snapped the way that it normally did.

We had six strikeouts and multiple times worked his way out of a jam, but again, the familiarity and the fact that the Padres are not intimidated, it certainly works in their favor. I definitely had some traffic all day. It could have been a lot worse, for sure.

I think there was a lot of traffic all day. I had to make some pitches, had to pitch out of jams basically every inning. There's a few mistakes in there.

They got hit hard. Obviously, the home run manny was a mistake, and the two-strike hit that Profar got there was a mistake. And then I left the slider up to Soto, too, that he got a hit on.

So I definitely made some mistakes that they made me pay for. Clayton Kershaw starts game number two after Julio Urias had the opener moving forward. There's a travel day. They don't really need to travel, but definitely like the idea of getting a breather before they would play this weekend. It's really odd, actually, to have the day off in between games one and two of the American League. Who knows what baseball is doing. I know they're crunched because the season started a week later, and thus the playoffs started a week later.

Oh my gosh, Marco's rolling his eyes right now. But yeah, I never will understand what it is that they're doing with their playoffs other than they think this is when they can make the most money. I think it's to not have a day where there's no baseball, but it's an easy fix. Don't have four games start on Tuesday. Why don't you just do two on Tuesday and two on Wednesday, have one league start one day and one the other.

You want them all starting on the same day. The only way to not have a day without baseball is to do this, and for some stupid reason they think this is a better option, to me just wait another day. It's dumb.

It's odd. I know the idea of starting on Tuesday so you can avoid football, that's what they obviously want to do is they wouldn't start on a Monday. They don't want to start series on a Sunday because you're running into the NFL.

Fine, but then Tuesday, Wednesday. I agree with you. You also take away the idea was supposed to be that whoever won the top two seeds get an advantage, right? Well not if you've got to take off the next day, you can reset your rotation. If you come out of the wild card, where's the advantage? It doesn't make any sense. That's true.

Good point. So here's what we have on Friday then. The Dodgers are going with Tony Gonsolin and then Padres will counter with Blake Snell who of course we saw in what was a game two.

That was the game that producer Jay was at at Citi Field. So that's the Friday night matchup. Now they're going back and forth, it's just very strange the way they're doing it to have a day off. So the American League is getting a day off between games one and two, but not traveling. And then they'll get a day off between four and five when they would have to travel. And this is not something that baseball can control or have any idea about, but there's a glut of rain headed right toward the New York City area.

It's supposed to come up the coast and some friends in Virginia, they're about to get hit with it. And so there may not be a game in New York on Thursday evening. Which would make two, three, four... Don't say double header. No, no, no. Seven inning double header. Oh, no, no, no. Baseball's bright idea. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. No, but it would make it game two, three, four and five in a row without any days off because you'd have to push it to Friday.

Again all set up by having a day off in between game one and two and then a day off between games two and three. It doesn't, it's weird. I don't like it. It's an easy fix. It's not like it's... I know, I got you. I don't know. How do we get it to where there's no, we don't want a day without any baseball so how do we figure this out? Oh, well, we have a day off. Just start one series late. Like, what is so hard?

Which I feel like they've done in the past. I don't... It's mind blowing sometimes where you look at these leagues and you're like, can you just sit down for five minutes? Can we just talk about this and figure it out instead of just knee jerk with stupid reactions? Just, it's easy. It's easy to fix. Yes.

All right. So depending upon how it works out, we may or may not have a double header on Thursday. In fact, Atlanta and Philadelphia had to wait through a lengthy rain delay.

Didn't affect Kyle Wright. We'll talk about the Braves and the Phillies, the other half of the NL after our update. And top of the hour, you heard the call, Robert Ford and Steve Sparks losing their minds at Minute Maid Park when Jordin Alvarez walked off in game one for the Astros.

We had to. We actually reached out to both of them. We were so fortunate to be able to get a reply from Steve who hasn't been on the show in a while as a former big league pitcher himself. But I had to get the inside scoop of what was happening in their broadcast booth as they're calling that Jordin walk off yelling at the top of their lungs so good. Double your pleasure. I love Steve. So top of the hour, we'll look at Astros and Mariners with Steve Sparks.

You are listening to the after hours podcast. One ball and two strikes Wheeler ready to bring it and the offering on the way round ball right side that gets through in the right field off the glove of Hoskins. Here comes a Cunha one nothing Atlanta Wheeler ready to open chopper up the third base line. Going to be a tough play. Wheeler's got it has no play Dansby scores to nothing brains make contact and something might happen. And that's exactly what happened for Austin Riley.

Here it comes. And he racks it up the middle base hit past a diving start. Here comes Matt Olson.

He'll score RBI base. And Travis Darnold three nothing Braves about this two out approach by Atlanta here in the sixth inning. This is after hours with Amy Lawrence Ben Ingram on Braves radio. We're talking about four months from now having a new Super Bowl champion while the Braves are still the toughest out in baseball the defending World Series champions and they were feeling a little bit of a sense of urgency after dropping the opener to the NL East rival Phillies back at it though delayed by rain until about seven thirty Atlanta time.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS sports radio. It was still scoreless until the sixth inning and all three runs for the Braves come with two outs. That's huge. I love the fact that it was very atypical of the Atlanta lineup. They hit the snot out of the ball. The Braves hit a ton of home runs. We're talking Dodgers like Yankees like they're not big into small ball.

That's not how they operate. But first and this was a scary moment actually Ronald Acuna gets on base with a hit by pitch. Really I think there were scans or tests that were done no structural damage but he you think he's going to be sore in his left ribs come tomorrow. So Acuna gets hit by a pitch to start the rally quote unquote. Then Dansby Swanson draws a walk and then after that it's three singles in a row including a ball by Matt Olson that Reese Hoskins was unable to field cleanly. And so that was the rally. That was the power boost by the Atlanta Braves.

And yet that's what they needed because their pitching and their defense was so dang good on Wednesday. 0-2 Terrell Muto popped up shallow left Dansby out Eddie in and Dansby dives and makes a tremendous catch over the shoulder spectacular play by Dansby. How in the world did he do that.

I don't know. He comes up all smiles and somehow he squeezes out number three out in medium depth left center field. Amazing play.

Pitch on the way popped up down the left field line towards foul territory Riley back against the top. Holy smokes. Wow. What a catch. Austin Riley with a catch of his life.

No way. No way he caught that that is incredible. Over his shoulder onto the tarps snow coning it and then sliding down the front of the tarp. We had Dansby's catch which was unbelievable and Austin's too on the tarp was I say they could be showing both of those for the next year. They're just unbelievable plays. Love to hear the fans behind the Braves radio call and the two catches if you haven't seen them in fact producer Jay if you wouldn't mind finding them on our show Twitter after our CBS because you need to see these or right now FS1 is replaying Phillies and Braves they're in the bottom of the third still no runs across the plate.

There were only three as I say because the Braves were flashing the leather but they also had Kyle Wright on the mound. He only allowed two hits over six innings he struck out six and was unfazed by the rain delay. It was kind of fun to hear what these guys do when they can't get out there on the field. I like to keep it pretty loose anyways so for me I just kind of check out a little bit and enjoy the time the teammates you know watch some TV play on my phone a little bit so just trying to keep it light and loose you know once it was time for me to once I had enough time I knew roughly we were going to start then I was able to get back into my normal pregame routine but I think for me it was just about keeping it keeping it chill and hanging out with the guys. Weather the rain delay you know just how he went about and that was huge for us I mean we needed to kind of get to our back end guys and you know he did that was pretty impressive what he did tonight.

He's going to keep getting better too as he's out there figures things out you know he's going to continue to develop and grow and gain confidence and with that arsenal that he's got I mean he can be a force for a long time. It really just goes back to the confidence I feel like I had the confidence to to picture the stage you know they're a really good lineup and I knew that but I knew that if I executed then I was going to give myself a chance and I really believe that and you know again we I go back to Travis too Travis called a great game I have a lot of confidence in him which allows me just to be free and just pitch so I give him a lot of credit as well but yeah it's crazy what a confidence can do for you. Agreed confidence is the key when things are not going your way confidence is the reminder that you've been there done that this is nothing new confidence carries you even when all hell may be breaking loose or plans don't work out the way you thought they might which is pretty much life so I love that from Kyle Wright and what a gem for him exactly what the Braves needed they certainly can win on the road especially in a place like Philly where they're familiar but they didn't want to fall into an O2 hole that's essentially a death trap if you're talking about a five game series. So Wright then gave way to the bullpen it was Kenley Jansen who got the save his first of this postseason for the Atlanta Braves but has a ton of experience of course from his days with the Dodgers. As for Reece Hoskins and that misplay at first base it was credited a single to Matt Olson obviously kept the rally they hadn't scored any runs at that point but they had the two runners on the hit by pitch and the walk and so he's kind of beaten himself up a little bit because he feels like that could have been the end of the inning.

It's a play that I've made before I'll make again didn't make it tonight. I think if you ask Reece he'd say should make that play I don't know whether he didn't get a good read off the bat or but you know it's probably a play that you should try in front keep it in front of you if you can I don't know whether he had time to do that. Take full responsibility for that like I said if I execute that pitch I think he's swinging over it and you know it's that's on me that's not on him at all and that's when you execute. So Zach Wheeler not upset says that play is not Reece's fault in fact it was me I didn't execute the pitch the way I wanted which meant Matt Olson got a different part of the bat on the ball it's so technical and it's such a minute detail but that's what we're talking about at the highest level with hitters and with pitchers of course because depending upon which way it's spinning or where it's located obviously a lot of these hitters are guessing most of the time what they're going to see you don't have a whole lot of time to think about it to process it's very reactionary but to hear that from Zach that's not on Reece I didn't put the pitch where I wanted to so Olson was able to get a different swing on it than what was intended. Okay nerdy stuff and I totally love it I dig it so for Zach he allows those three runs on the four hits and a walk in his six innings pitched and we've got ourselves a pair of tie series in the National League do we have time to hear from Dansby Swanson because Jay and I both love this this is him talking about that catch that he made out in shallow in the shallow outfield and was three guys converging and he's the one that ended up diving for it.

I was trying to throw a flag on myself because I feel like I made it look way harder than it needed to be I was running out there and I felt like maybe it was because it was a breaking ball but it kind of like kept spinning away from me and I slowed down just enough to check Rosario to see where he was so that we didn't you know have a collision and once he just kind of looked at me like hey brother it's yours or nobody's I just went for it it's all you and practice should get my parents in here because they threw me a kajillion balls just like that like all the time growing up over my head and I was like the epitome of the kid that would throw a tennis ball off a wall and ricochet it and you know run and try and catch it over my shoulder probably throw a lot of tennis balls onto the field to disrupt my brother's baseball games but I feel like I've been doing that since I was you know five years old. Such a likable guy D&B and really the Braves have many of them but to hear him talk about it and think about those days when he was a kid just playing with a tennis ball and the number of times maybe he envisioned that moment in a postseason game and wowzers did he flash the leather when everybody else said hey man that's you just that's all you it's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Anywhere fans go to cheer on their team there are behind the scenes MVPs ensuring everything is game day ready. We see you Joe fixing seats so every fan can enjoy every game and Ali who keeps her stadium running smoothly from the moment the first game starts to the last play of the season. At Grainger you're our MVPs and we're always here for you with supplies and solutions for every industry and 24-7 customer support. Click Grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done. Anywhere fans go to cheer on their team there are behind the scenes MVPs ensuring everything is game day ready. We see you Joe fixing seats so every fan can enjoy every game and Ali who keeps her stadium running smoothly from the moment the first game starts to the last play of the season. At Grainger you're our MVPs and we're always here for you with supplies and solutions for every industry and 24-7 customer support. At Grainger you're our MVPs and we're always here for you with supplies and solutions for