4-3-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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Rules and restrictions may apply. This is After Hours with In Lawrence. I still, still have a hard time believing that it is early April now and it's coming up on Easter weekend. So if you are one of those people who gets together with family over Easter, maybe it's extra time at church.

A lot of churches do Good Friday services and do Easter Sunday services. Whether you're traveling at a bunch of kiddos in my fourth and fifth grade class at church who said they'll be on the road this coming weekend. So sometimes it goes into spring break. It happens to be in New Jersey, at least in my part of New Jersey, that a bunch of the schools come out of Easter weekend and go right into spring break. And so it's one of those weeks in which people are out of their regular routines. It's one of those weekends and following weeks when maybe you are on the road, you're driving or you're moving around, visiting different family, friends, taking a vacation, whatever it is.

So we would love for you to take us with you when you go. If you cannot find us or you don't want to go to the trouble of finding us on one of our great affiliates and we have 300 plus affiliates around the country. You can always listen on Sirius XM or the SXM app, which a lot of people listen. That's actually how I listen when I need to listen to the network. We also have the Odyssey app and it can be difficult to navigate. But once you find after hours, you can bookmark it or here's a trick.

I'll give you this trick. If you go to the CBS Sports Radio website, so cbssportsradio.com, it takes you to the Odyssey website because that's our parent company. And right there on that front page on cbssportsradio.com at the bottom of the page, you'll see Listen Live. So whether it's on your phone or whether it's on your laptop or your device, all you got to do is hit that Listen Live and it takes you right to the place where you can hear it via the Odyssey website. There are a bunch of different apps. People use the TuneIn app. Other people, you can use the iHeartRadio app. There's a lot of different ways that you can find us. Podcast is always available 24-7 on your own time. However you listen, we're portable. We go where you go when you go. But also I do love when people are out of their regular routines.

Maybe they've never heard the show before and they haven't heard us in a long time and they will end up finding us. And my general rule of thumb is give me two weeks and you'll be hooked for better or for worse. I actually had a friend say to me recently, I listen to your show a bunch, it puts me to sleep.

That's fine with me. If what you desperately need is sleep, and this is coming from the queen of I can't sleep. This is coming from the queen of just having spent two of the last three weeks with awful sleep pattern.

I mean awful. To the point where I was in tears a couple of days because I couldn't sleep. So if what you need is to sleep, I understand that. I feel your pain.

I feel your need. And if the show helps you sleep, great. That is a compliment to me actually. It probably means that I'm not bursting into my obnoxious laughter as much as possible. Or maybe that's music to your ears.

It's like subconscious, subliminal. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Now coming up, we'll get to the men's college basketball final four. A buzzer beater in one national semifinal. Talk about a stunning moment.

In fact, I look up now and I'm watching it. I'm watching Lamont Butler right now hit the shot that not only put San Diego State into its first national championship game in men's basketball, but also stunned Florida Atlantic. Dusty Mays owls were on their way to that national championship. And San Diego State has got this never say die attitude and a lot of maturity, a lot of experience. It's well documented they're one of the oldest teams in college basketball.

A lot of guys that stuck around for such a time as this. So we'll get to men's college basketball. But a lot happening in the NBA.

If you missed it, it was quite the barn burner. I went down to the wire between Golden State and Denver. Now the Nuggets are trying to secure the number one seed in the West, so they have been playing these last few games now. I think it's three in a row without Nikola Jokic.

Don't know how this hurts his MVP candidacy. Certainly the Nuggets are not playing their best basketball right now, but without him they're not the same team. So fighting, scratching, clawing, trying to protect their territory from a Memphis team that is kind of languishing right now. Sacramento has played extremely well. Denver wants that home court advantage of what is sure to be a Wild West that mimics what we've seen in the regular season. Golden State is not good on the road. And even when they play two or three quarters of really solid basketball away from home, it seems like they have that one blippy quarter, that one stretch where there's a huge letdown. This was a neck-and-neck game.

Again, there was no Nikola Jokic, and it was kind of fun back and forth. Curry fires away for three. Front rim tipped out by Lamb. Grabbed it to Klee. Klee dropped it, picked it up, feeds Payton, touched past Curry, left side three out of the way.

Got it! The Warriors stayed with the play, and they trail by one. Murray has it. The ball reported midcourt circle. High right side over to Aaron Gordon. Gordon hands it off to Murray for three. Go in.

Got it! That's big. 102-96 Denver. Loose ball comes down to Aaron Gordon. Denver's got the numbers. Five on three. Murray three.

Let's go! 105-96 Denver's big lead of the night. They're up by nine. That's Jason Kosmicke on Nuggets radio.

Before that, the voice of Tim Roy on Warriors radio. Now, if you did not see the final, we'll call it 20 seconds or so, whoa, you've got to go back and watch. Whether you check us out on Twitter, After Hours, CBSJ, if you want to, when you have a chance, retweet the Klee Thompson 3 that was made.

Okay, so think final 20 seconds. Nuggets are up by five. Steph Curry has had an off-shooting night.

We'll hear from him coming up. He air balls a shot, right Jay? Didn't even touch the rim.

So he's top of the key. Again, Warriors trailing by five. He air balls a three. I don't remember exactly who it was, but someone underneath the hoop almost catches it from going out of bounds.

It doesn't grab rim. And so it comes right down underneath the hoop. A Warriors underneath there. Dante DiVincenzo.

I shouldn't say that twice fast. Dante DiVincenzo. He's underneath. He manages to flip it out to Klee Thompson, who is deep in the right corner. Klee's got a defender standing, I mean, draped all over him. And he falls into the corner almost out of bounds. He one foots a three from behind the backboard and it's nothing but net.

Incredible. So that brings the Warriors within two. 1-12, 1-10 with time left on the clock.

Here we go. Three pointer wins the basketball game. Klee Thompson for the win.

Missed it. Rebound Thompson. Two seconds left. Blocked at the three point line.

Bunch of ball Murray. And the Golden State Warriors can take that L on the way out. Denver survives without Nikola Jokic. And they take down Golden State 1-12 to 1-10. Oh man, what a game.

Again, Jason Kosmicki on Nuggets Radio. The Warriors have no one to blame but themselves. They botched and coughed up a 15 point lead in the second quarter. By halftime, the Nuggets were within three. And then Denver opened up the fourth quarter on an eight to three run. However, the Warriors were able to come back.

And in fact, it was DiVincenzo who had 18 points in this one. He was on a bit of a streak a la Steph Curry. And then you have the triple that Thompson hit from the corner behind the backboard that pulled them within a bucket. There was actually a jump ball in there too with 10 seconds to go. So it was a frenetic finish. Klay had multiple looks at it.

The first one appeared to be online. I think he thought that one was going down. I don't know if we have any reaction from him actually. But he thought that it looked like he thought that one was going in. The rebound pops right back out to him. And then Jamal Murray blocks his second three pointer attempt to preserve the two point win for the Nuggets. And for Jamal Murray, who has 26 points in the eight assists, no bigger stat against these Warriors than that defense in the block shot. I think our energy, honestly, we just brought the right mentality.

Even when we did mess up, we looked to fix it and communicate it out. And we just did it all game. You know, we made adjustments defensively and that was the key, to be honest with you. Jamal had a great block. Pwop played well all night. CB played well all night. They came in and gave us energy that we needed.

So kudos to those guys. That's Bruce Brown, who's a defensive guy himself, but also ends up with 14 off the bench. I do love the perspective of Michael Malone. And it certainly takes that over the course of what is a very long season.

This even keel, big picture perspective. The Nuggets had far and away been the best team in the West for the last, what, three months. It's an 82 game season and they now have most these teams have three, four games left tops. This is the last week of the NBA regular season.

You're battling injuries, you're battling fatigue. Of course, you're getting every team's best shot when you are the one at the top. You're the sitting duck, right? But they want that number one seed. And now the magic number is just one.

The magic number now is one with both Memphis and Sacramento losing today. But I think everyone in this room fully understands the regular season doesn't mean anything. Oh, it's been great. I love the fact that we've been in first place since the middle of December. We've seen a lot of guys step up throughout the season. You know, but this is all geared towards the postseason and how we perform.

And and I know when the season's over, that's what's that's how we're going to be judged. It's not a we were number one in the regular season. So what I mean, like last year, Golden State won. They were a three seed. Boston was a two seed.

The seeding doesn't really matter to me. Obviously, having home court throughout would be tremendous, but we have to show and prove in the playoffs. And that's that's our goal. The Warriors are the defending champions, but they are nine and 30 away from home. That is.

I mean, I don't even know how to process that. Nine and 30 away from home. Do you know they have 38 losses this season? 30 of them have come on the road.

What an incredible disparity. And yet and they have been closer. They've been better on the road. The defensive intensity often is not the same. That's one of the things that Steve Kerr has lamented. But also recently it's been about the mistakes, the unforced errors, if you will. Once a shot turnovers, just bad shots. I give Denver a lot of credit. I thought they played really well defensively, but we had control the game mid second quarter and and just handed that back to them. And then then it's a game.

And, you know, we gave them life and and they took advantage of it. Steph Curry had an uncharacteristic off shooting night. If I remember correctly, he missed his first five threes. Now that doesn't say much because generally he can flip the switch. I mean, he's that good and he's taken that many shots.

But he finishes two of 14 from beyond the arc. And I credit Steve Kerr always. He has great wisdom. And I do love the fact that he is such a fan of his players.

And I don't mean like fanboy, fangirl. I mean, he believes in them. He very often will deflect credit to them, of course. But he he recognizes the responsibility that they have on their shoulders and also that these are players that have more experience.

Well, a lot of experience, like what he went through as a player himself, but more experience than really they would need in all of these situations. Is there any scenario that we haven't seen Steph Curry navigate? I mean, he's seen it all.

He's done it all. And so Steve says, hey, Steph's entitled to a few of these shooting nights because of the fact that generally he's automatic. Most of the questions I know and when we lose and you got to kind of point a finger what went wrong. If we obviously knew what to do about it, we wouldn't we wouldn't do it. So it's just a matter of executing, being mindful of what it takes to win that that particular game that night. You know, maintain our momentum that we've worked hard to create in the first half, but weren't able to do it. Still, the grit and the fight allows us to be one one shot away from stealing a game that we had no business being in. But, you know, we got to come to a realization, like if we're going to win or do anything, you know, in a playoff kind of scenario, a game like tonight can't happen. They keep saying that.

Right. We've heard that from the Warriors over and over. This can't happen.

We can't play like this. The turnovers have always been a problem with this team. And by this team, I'm referring to the Warriors, right? I mean, this group around the core, Klay, Steph, Dre, Andre, that group is your core.

It's changed around them. They've got different role players and different guys who come in and out. But the style of basketball lends itself to a lot of mistakes because they're trying to ride that line between aggressive swinging the basketball with speed, with precision, trying to get the defense off balance, find the open man. But at the same time, you can get a little fast and loose with the basketball. Right.

And so they're kind of playing on that edge. Also keep in mind, and I know that it's been a while since we've seen him, so maybe it's out of sight, out of mind. They're still without Andrew Wiggins, who's away from the team for a personal issue.

It sounds like it's a family issue. I have no idea. The Warriors have not indicated what it is. I have not seen it reported anywhere, but he's been away from the team for, I'd have to go back and look at the exact day.

It's been weeks. So without Andrew Wiggins, they're definitely a different player, a different team. Sorry. Still, it doesn't excuse the mistakes on the road. It doesn't excuse the lack of defense on the road. And it certainly doesn't excuse the fact that it's not the same intensity or urgency away from home.

Thank you, Jay, for looking it up. It's been six weeks since we've seen Andrew Wiggins. He's a huge piece of their championship run last year. We're going to get to these Western Conference standings and also a few of the other games on Sunday that, once again, catapult teams up or down, climb the ladder up or down in the West. It's not so, but here's what we know with a week to go in the regular season. Denver, Memphis, Sacramento have all clinched playoff spots in the West. And Phoenix is winning now. It's playing really good basketball.

Kevin Durant is back. They have not lost with KD on the court yet. Phoenix in the fourth spot has created a little separation between themselves and the Clippers, who are in the five spot. Clippers and Warriors, exact same record in the five-six spot. The Lakers, half came back of them as well as the Pelicans. So Lakers and Pelicans, exact same record, half came back of the Clippers and the Warriors. The Timberwolves, the Thunder, the Mavericks, and the Mavericks are sinking fast, but they're all still within arms' reach, arms' length of that 7-10 tournament. And actually the Utah Jazz are theoretically not out of it either. But from Clippers in the five spot all the way down to, we'll say the Mavericks, you're still talking about just four games that separate all those teams.

From five through 11, it's just four games with one week to play. Let's go! It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, and then also on our Facebook page. Hope that you enjoyed your weekend. Got a lot done, lots of prep.

April's not so. And we'll be here for all of it on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. 100-94 with 10.25 left to go. CP3 gives it to Durant, right wing. He penetrates to the baseline. Up fake for the fly-by and then cans another jumper over Jalen Williams. Give KD 24 points to leave the Suns.

And it's 102-94. Double-double again for DA to go with his 13 points. And the Suns lead his five with the ball. Chris Paul, around the stream from eight, swings to an open Durant, left corner three. Money for KD!

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The Phoenix Suns with another victory. Kevin Durant to the rescue. They're now 6-0 with him in the lineup, and they've won their last five as the Suns put a little bit of distance between themselves and the pack. The Wolf Pack in the West.

It's the Western Wolf Pack, if you will. And this one on the road in Oklahoma City, which was of course where, well it wasn't where Kevin Durant started actually, but it was his first franchise. Remember the Seattle SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City. And the Thunder is where he had his initial success, his early success, including a trip to the NBA Finals, but also made the jump from OKC to Golden State where he won finally his first two rings and a couple of NBA Finals MVP. So the fans in Oklahoma City still, not, they're not over it, let's be fair. But Kevin Durant is now a member of the Phoenix Suns, which you know, really speaks to the journey that he's had, and it's been all self induced.

13 of 21 from the floor in this one. 35 points to pace all scorers, and he definitely heard it from the crowd in Oklahoma City. I mean I understand it, you know. I meant so much to this community just for me to leave like that. Early on I didn't get it, but I get that the NBA team is a part of your community.

A player is so entrenched in your community. You know, you feel closer to them, so I get it. I mean there's still emotions, there's still some people who don't like that I left this franchise, but it was more love this time than it has been in the past. So I'll just focus on that.

I have so many great memories here, so many people I've met that just changed my life, changed my view on life, so I'll forever be grateful to be a part of this organization. I like his optimism. I like his glass half full approach, maybe rose colored glasses, because maybe they've stopped yelling cupcake at him, but they definitely seem to boo every time he had the ball in his hands for an entire game. But he did have 13 points in the fourth quarter to help the Suns pull away, and the team as a whole, the Suns as a whole shot nearly 57% from the floor. When you have Kevin Durant out there, it changes everything.

It's another guy that you have to defend vigorously. In addition to Devin Booker, who had fewer points but 10 assists, Chris Paul, double figures, DeAndre Ayton, a double-double. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. A stunner when we think about how the Timberwolves have been playing lately, they've kind of stubbed their toe, and for the Portland Trail Blazers, they actually... I had high hopes for them.

I will say that. I had high hopes for them this year. I thought that they would be able to capitalize and move forward. Yeah, it's been tough.

If they're not stuck in what feels like concrete, wet concrete, trying to pull themselves free of this mire and this muck that holds them back, they've just had a disastrous last month, which has been really bad. This is Flea for This Little Light, a podcast about falling in love with music. I started a nonprofit music school about 20 years ago called the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music. The reason that I started doing this podcast was music education. I'll be speaking with Rick Rubin, Thundercat, Stewart Copeland, Margo Price, Corey Henry, Cynthia Erivo, Sheila E, and Patti Smith.

Please listen and follow This Little Light, a presentation of Cadence 13, on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. But I suppose misery loves company. On Blazers radio, without four starters, including Damian Lillard, how did the Timberwolves let this happen?

This is at home. The Timberwolves needed this win. And for those of you who follow these types of numbers, this was the largest upset in the NBA in 30 years when we're talking about the spread.

You know, my general rule of thumb here on the show is storylines, not betting lines. But this is significant because the Blazers were without four starters, including Dame. And as I said, it's been a disastrous tumble for them, a precipitous fall from grace, whatever grace they had. They've lost 11 of their last 12 games coming into Sunday's affair in Minneapolis. They were down a dozen points in the second half, still rally to win. The Timberwolves should be ashamed of themselves. This is the kind of game that you cannot lose this point in the season.

Nineteen and a half point underdogs. Now, does it matter when they get on the court? No, but generally Vegas is right because they keep track of the guys who are out there, the guys who aren't. And Chauncey Billups team, it's one of those reasons that analytics cannot ever predict what's going to happen in a game. They can be a tool.

They can be a compliment. But very often they're wrong because you cannot measure human heart in a game that shouldn't matter to the Blazers, probably doesn't matter to their fans. We're talking about a group of guys who don't often get opportunity.

So maybe that's kind of the deal. They're desperate. They're playing for jobs. They pull off this unlikely, improbable, nearly impossible victory over Minnesota. And even though it means a whole lot of nothing to the team, to the franchise, Chauncey Billups is proud. Very proud of all of them. You know, they all played well. Every single person that got on that floor tonight, they gave it all they had. You know, and that's all I want from our guys to play as hard as you can, play unselfish and be a good teammate and just see what happens.

You know, you never know. Night to night. Portland's second win in a month. And as for the Timberwolves, well, there's something to be said for catching the team at the right time. Chris Finch just lays it on the line. They've dropped three in a row.

They're in a bad, dark place right now. We have too many guys not playing real well right now. And this is kind of who we've been all season in these types of games. And we do it again. And, you know, obviously the timing of it is extra painful turnovers, extra possessions, fast breaks. You know, a lot of things that we haven't been doing for a while kind of reared their head in the last two games.

And, you know, they just outworked us. So the Wolves had won, if I remember correctly, five in a row going back, say, to last week or a week and a half ago. Now they've dropped three straight, six of their last ten, and they are, they're dropping like a rock. They're down to the nine spot. So, again, Clippers and Warriors, same exact record right now, are sitting in the 5-6. So they'd avoid that play-in tournament, which happens next week. Lakers, Pelicans, same exact record. They're in the 7-8 spot right now on the outside of that top six.

All right, so top six protects you from having to play the extra games. LeBron James has returned. Remember he told us that the foot specialist that he consulted, that he worked with, was the LeBron James of feet. I would assume that's the biggest compliment that LeBron can give anyone. And here are LeBron, Anthony Davis is playing out of his mind right now.

He's playing so well. And LeBron likes where they're headed. Davis says they have all the right pieces. LeBron provides the engine and the leadership, and it's all coming together. We just want to put ourselves in a position to be able to compete for a championship.

A championship? You know, but it takes, it's a journey, and obviously we don't have as much chemistry as a lot of other teams that's trying to compete for a championship or have aspirations to win a championship. But, you know, I like we've been building over the last month or so. Even when I was out for the four weeks, I like we were building, and I'm happy to be back in the mix, and we're still building. So these last few games, four I believe, one, two, three, four. Yeah, four games are very important for our team. It's, you know, not only on wins and losses, but like the chemistry side of it as well. We want to continue to build what we've been building over the last month or so. So let's see what happens. Here is the cold, hard truth about the Lakers.

And you may remember we talked about this going back, say, I don't know, what is like a week and a half ago, Jay? That the Lakers had the, among the teams in the West looking at this stretch run, had the easiest record. Easiest record of their, like if you compile their opponent's winning percentage or losing percentage, they had the easiest record. So they've won 10 of their last 14. LeBron, as he points out, missed a month.

Now he's back, but he's the one who dropped the word championship. And he also points to the fact that because our lineup has changed at the trade deadline, they drastically changed their roster. They don't have as much chemistry as other teams, but the way they're playing right now, I think it's about sense of urgency.

It's about a bunch of professionals recognizing there's a task at hand, so you put everything else aside. So, James with 18 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds, a triple-double, the 107th of his career. In case you're keeping score at home, he moves up to fourth on the all-time list. Anthony Davis, though, is the, he's the killer right now. He is playing incredibly well. I'm back to myself before the injury, but we're all playing well.

We're making it, the guys are making it easy for me, letting me have a lot of space to the top of it. And then when I don't find the guys, making it like playing, they're making shots. So everybody, I think our whole team is in a great rhythm, and we're playing like a basketball, fun basketball, and it's fun and exciting to watch.

D'Anthony, I was going to say did, then I was going to say Anthony, it came out D'Anthony. Anthony Davis had 40 points with nine rebounds and two blocked shots in their most recent game, and, this is what I'm talking about, he's crushing it right now. He's averaging 39 points through the first three games of this Lakers road trip. The thing with him is he can get these high percentage shots because of his length, his reach. A lot of times when he's close to the basket, he can not only jump over guys, but he can just reach over them.

He's a space eater, and he's so difficult to defend without fouling him. 65% shooting right now, 65% in three games. So as much as it helps that LeBron returns, and remember, LeBron comes back, that means the defense can't just game plan for AD or D'Angelo Russell. The defense has to guard LeBron, honestly, which means AD sees fewer double teams, or fewer rotations. He's got more space to operate.

But 65% shooting. Right now he is the hot hand. Get the ball poppin'. AD's got the ball poppin'. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio.

Love for you to find us on Twitter, ALawRadio. I have seen some of you asking me about date night on Friday. I don't know, I feel like we have so many sports to talk about that that's really... How about some baseball? Way more interesting than my... Way more interesting than my date night. Shoot, I hope Bob didn't hear that.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. One of Mike Trout's passions is golf. He swings at this one and blasts the ball to dead center field, and this ball is trout of here.

Hit it out the dead center. Angels have homered in back-to-back innings and the lead grows, it's now 5-0. Johei at the plate, he swings and he blasts the ball that's going to get out as well as Otani says, Hey, I can hit him out too. And that is his first home run of the season, back-to-back homers, 6-0 Angels. Trout didn't even get a chance to wear that hat very long, Otani's going to have to put it on.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I'll have to do some digging and find out the onus, the reason for the cowboy hat. But right now, with the Angels, as you hear Terry Smith on Angels Radio reference, when you hit a home run, you get to wear the straw cowboy hat. So Mike Trout goes deep with his first of the season and on his heels immediately is Otani. Think about being the opposing pitcher and having to face those two back-to-back.

What? That's tough. And as it turns out, in this game, they get the better of the Oakland A's. This is a lineup with the potential to be really good.

Ken Waldichuck, by the way, is the ace pitcher that gave up the hits. But the fact that they have not been to the playoffs since 2013, it just speaks volumes. If, if, and it's a huge if, what if, sorry, that sounds like I'm yelling. What if the Angels can make the playoffs for the first time in a decade?

Does that keep Otani in town? Well, it probably lends the Angels to not trading him away at the deadline if they're in playoff contention, number one. Number two, they're going to be battle tested because they play in the same division as the World Series champion, the Olympian Astros and the Seattle Mariners, who finally ended their playoff drought last year. Number three, it's likely that the Angels will be willing to offer him more money and pay him a salary or make a commitment to him. That is commensurate. Excuse me, hiccup.

I never know why. With what other teams might offer him. It's not like the Angels don't spend money. Think about it's the Anthony Rendon contract.

Is that the one that was so crazy? So, and obviously the Mike Trout deal. This is an owner, Artie Moreno, who will spend money. He will.

Otani might be far more likely to leave if he feels like they aren't a playoff hopeful or contender year in and year out. Well, Tim Anderson, Tim Anderson, Tyler Anderson, sorry, does the job to start and you get the big home runs. In the fifth inning.

And then the cowboy hat has to get passed around. I just like it when Mike Trout is smiling. I like it when these guys are not just knocking the snot out of the ball, but when they're winning, because I think it's better for baseball. It's a good time. We need to do more of that.

You know, it's just, you know, being a part of having a show behind you, you know, anything can happen. So, you know, it was a fun, fun series and we just got to take it up to Seattle. Remember how they started the season, though, and Mike was telling people not to freak out because they scored one run against the A's?

Well, that's a thing of the past. They lost to the A's in their opener two to one. They then proceeded to beat the snot out of the A's in Oakland, outscoring them 19 to one in the second two games of the series.

So as you hear Mike Trout say on Valley Sports West and you hear now Logan O'Hop, the new catcher. Yeah, it's a lot of fun when you can put up offense like that. I think we showed exactly what we're capable of doing, like I said, and I'm just really grateful to be a part of it. It's way too early to start making evaluations, assessing what we see. It's way too early. The beauty of a 162 game schedule is that anything can and will happen. What have we seen even the last few years? Weren't the Nationals 12 games below 500 or some such nonsense when they rallied to win? That was in May, but they rallied to end up winning the World Series. The Phillies made a managerial change last year that they were below 500 and were with a fourth place in the NL East at one point. But they didn't even finish at the top of their own division. Right.

So anything can and will happen. It is a marathon. It is not a sprint except for that year, except for the covid year in 2020. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio while we're talking about guys knocking the snot out of the ball. Do you see what Klay Thompson's brother Trace did on Saturday night? So this is in support of Clayton Kershaw making his debut for the season. He's not the opening day starter. He wasn't even the starter for game number two, but he is still Clayton Kershaw. And he picks up his win.

He was really sharp. I think he just won six innings. Most pitchers right now are just going five or six because managers are being very careful. And think about the number of starters who've already hit the IL. Robbie Ray being the latest one start for the Mariners and then on the IL. So it's it's a concern this early in the season with the season starting a full week plus earlier than it did last year.

There's concern, obviously, and care. And so you've got you've got different ways to be looking at the teams in these early days, but nothing should stick at this point. Only that most often the hitters are ahead of the pitchers. And we're seeing a lot of long balls fly out of the park. And the pitch swung on and drilled a deep left field and that ball is gone. He had a line drive.

I didn't think it was going to be high enough. He had a line drive home run into the lower seats and left center right near the visitor's bullpen. A judge in blast. No, he rounds third. All rise.

Here comes the judge. Stand and swings, drills one. The deep left center field up. Ball is high.

That is far. God. Oh, what a shot. Oh, what a shot. That is a stand Tony and home run.

A blast drilled a deep left center field. Giancarlo. No.

Equals to Barlow. Yeah, geez. Weird. I mean, that's that's that's why every time he comes in after one of those, I just tell him, yeah, you're weird. You're you're different. I mean, he hits it and and and you know, it's going over the batter's eye.

It's like, where's this thing going to go? And I mean, he's he's different. He's different. He calls him weird. I do that sometimes. I call myself weird.

That's accurate and appropriate. But I also call people that I care about weird. Dork. I call my brother a dork.

It's a term of affection. So when Aaron Boone says that Giancarlo is weird, essentially, he means that he's an aberration. There's no one else like him. I mean, he punishes the baseball. Just he pounds it into submission. And yeah, sometimes similar to Aaron Judge and the best sluggers in the game. But sometimes the second the ballies is back, you know, it's gone like out. So welcome to twenty twenty three rust rippling. He gives up two homers to both Aaron Judge and Giancarlo state and they get tattooed. And the Yankees with John Sterling make quick work of the Giants this weekend. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.