7-5-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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For more information, visit ACT.com slash hyper gig for details. Hey, hey, happy 4th of July. Happy Independence Day. Happy birthday to our great nation. I actually love the fact that I got to celebrate the start of 4th of July with you. And now I get to celebrate the end of 4th of July with you. Saw a few fireworks on my way in to the office. Saw a bunch of traffic, but a gorgeous moon.

A beautiful yellow moon, nearly full, hanging in the July 4th night. I hope it was an awesome holiday for you. If all you took was July 4th, then great. You got a day off in the middle of the week. If you've had an extended stretch off. If you've had three days or four days for the price of one, even better. So welcome back if you are getting out of your holiday mode and back into work week mode. Or maybe you're still on vacation and you're going to do that the rest of this week to start your fun, your summer fun, some summertime fun.

We're just glad you're with us here after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I feel like a huge failure. I did not grill.

I did not do anything Independence Day worthy. I slept, which I needed. I talked to the phone with a couple of friends. I woke up to a ton of text messages, actually, from family and friends all over the country who were sending me little videos or memes.

Oh, my mom walked for the first time since her foot surgery, so that was pretty exciting. There was a video in the family group chat. Yeah, watch a little TV.

There was a Star Wars marathon taking place. I am such a bum. I really I didn't even work out. I was going to grill.

Tuesday is my off day. I was going to grill. And then it was so sticky and icky outside that I didn't want to fire up the charcoal grill. I didn't want to do anything except I cooked inside. I made a cowboy steak soup that we have a family recipe that we enjoy. And so it was steak.

That was my way of eating steak on Fourth of July. Otherwise, though, I was a holiday party pooper. But I do have days off at the end of the month.

I'd rather take them then than just take the one day off. So here we are. It's our hump show. For those of you who are working a regular work week, well, then it's your hump show as well.

Middle show of the work week. It is July 4th into July 5th. And if that means that your questions for asking me anything have some July 4th or holiday flair, that's amazing. Except I'm just telling you right now, I didn't do anything exciting for the holiday. I went kayaking last Saturday. I've got a kayaking trip with friends planned on this coming Saturday. So that's really where my summer fun is around this holiday. But as you know, if you've been hanging out with us, we've been here.

Everything is the same. So it is our middle show of the work week. And I'd love for you to send your questions for asking me anything. I don't know if Jay put the post up yet. Jay did not put the post up yet. So usually it's up in the evening. Sorry about that.

It's right now going up in the next couple minutes. But look for the bright orange box. And you will see that spot where you can send questions.

So on our show Twitter after our CBS, on our Facebook page as well. If you haven't seen the photo yet of the July 4th funfetti cupcakes, well that is on social as well. And there were a few of you that oh so honestly pointed out that you didn't think my frosting job was neat or cool. But most of you just thought the cupcakes looked delicious. They were delicious. Funfetti to share. It's got to be funfetti to share. So check it out if you haven't seen it yet on Twitter or Facebook. Our phone number 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We have got some rough news for the Angels. Man they are dropping like flies. This All Star break couldn't come quickly enough for Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani and other members of the Angels. So we'll get to that. Plus we're going to head to San Diego and talk to our Angels insider who will join us in the wake of what was a pretty rough 24 hour stretch for the Angels even as they try to keep pace in the AL West.

Also we've got just the latest from the Diamond, the Drama. We're going to talk about the red hot Atlanta Braves coming up. We've got a little football now. We still have a couple weeks left until training camps begin. But it's never a bad time to talk about football.

If you believe baseball is America's past, I'm fine. But I would say that there is more energy and buzz around the NFL and around football. A little more from Draymond Green. In his wide ranging interview with the podcast Peashow, which is Paul George. It was a couple hours of Draymond's opinions and insight and intel. And while we played some of the conversation on our last show, which pertained more to the Warriors themselves and his perspective on basketball as a job. He also talked about some of the top stories around the league. And so I want to share some of that with you as well. Mostly just good to have you with us. When I got home on Tuesday morning, my mom who had sent me a text about how the show went and what you talk about.

I don't know. July 4th, fun facts. We played patriotic music. Yeah, we kind of take it easy, easy peasy, loopy and goofy on holidays. And it's because we want to be more laid back.

We know you're more laid back, so we want to match your attitude, your mood. We want to match that fun quotient, if you will. However, right now, not a whole lot of fun for the Angels, especially for Mike Trout. Who will miss the All-Star game for a third straight year. But more importantly, even as the Angels tread water, they've dropped seven of their last ten. They're only a couple games above.500 now. They're trying to keep pace with the Rangers and the Astros in their own division. But just as importantly, don't want to give up much ground between now and that baseball trade deadline because of the questions about Otani. Trout is back on the IL.

That stinks. And I'm just speaking from the perspective of a baseball fan because I want to see the Angels and these two stars on the postseason stage. And I get it. It's early July.

It's early July. But it stinks that with Mike Trout out of the lineup, they're down one of the top players in the game and they need all the help they can get right now. So I'm kind of bummed not only for him, but for baseball. Because to see those two hitting home runs back to back or just in general in the same game. They really developed a rapport.

They play off one another. Trout was starting to hit the ball better. But as he fouled off a pitch on Monday, he broke a bone in his wrist and is now headed for the IL.

Kind of knew it wasn't good. So it's another freak thing. Do you anticipate returning at some point this season? Of course. Of course. I've had a lot of guys reach out that's had the surgery before or had this injury before.

I don't know if I have to get surgery or not. But I know in the next couple days, I guess. But it's, you know, some guys came back in four weeks and some guys take it a lot longer just to see how my body heals. I think everybody in there knows, you know, you're going to have bumps in the road here once in a while. And we've had some guys go down. We've kind of had that motto since the beginning of the season. Things happen as the next man up and we keep playing.

No one's going to feel sorry for us and no reason for us to do the same. That is so true. It is so true. But why does it feel like it happens more to Mike Trout? I think about some of the other athletes in sports who are labeled injury prone. Carson Wentz is one of those. Jimmy Garoppolo is one of those. I think about the athletes that popped to mind when I say injury prone.

In fact, you can send me some of your suggestions or some of the names that come to mind. People might say that about Aaron Judge. In the NBA, would you say it about Anthony Davis? So athletes that are injury prone. Mike Trout, I made these comments last year and a few people got angry at me. It's a freak thing, kind of like what happens with Jimmy Garoppolo.

When a defender rolls up on your foot, it's not your fault. But why do these things always seem to happen to him? And same thing with Mike Trout, it sucks. Not only because of the Angels and because of how much fun it is to watch him when he's playing at the highest level. But it's frustrating because just when the Angels need it most, it seems like, it's not fair to say it's all the time or every time, but it seems like he's unavailable. Now I know in the past there have been times when he's decided not to come back at the end of a season when they weren't contenders.

That is not the case here for the Angels. They need him back as quickly as possible. And to add insult to injury, Shohei Ohtani had to leave his start early on Tuesday in San Diego.

Now again, we're going to head to San Diego at the top of next hour. But he had to leave the game with a blister. Remember he had to leave his last start because of a cracked fingernail. So it's become a pain in the rear and a pain in the finger.

To my understanding, we're putting an acrylic nail on there because of where it's cracked. And that might have just irritated the skin on the side of the finger. Just it felt like he didn't have command of his pitches going into the sixth.

We talked before he went out and he said he felt good, he warmed up, and he gave me a thumbs up out there. But obviously a few pitches in, when you try to get on some balls it probably feels a little bit different. And it affected some pitches.

There you go. I think it's a little different from what I've seen in my previous games. I think it's a little different from what I've seen in my previous games. I came out of the game because I was kind of in the moment and it was irritating. But mostly going forward the next three games. So on the pitching side I have nine to ten days for the next star so hopefully I can heal it by then. I don't know if this will affect him participating in the All-Star Game. He was voted as the designated hitter to start for the American League.

What a loss it would be if there were no Mike Trout and no Shohei Ohtani. The game taking place in Seattle coming up next week. I think it's coming up next week.

You can't ask me to look too far ahead. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah so all of this piling on top of the shoulders of Phil Nevin and the Angels and still got a game to play. Which Ohtani started but as a here had to come out early. First pitch on the way sends this one in the air to deep right center. Renfro's going back into the gap looking up going to one hop off the wall. Machado has scored.

Bogart's being waved in behind him. He's going to score. It's a two run double for Jake Cronenworth. And the 0-1 pitch hit hard in the air to deep left field.

Guess what he's done it again. Xander Bogart a two run homer. Now Cronenworth already two for two with a pair of doubles. He swings at the first pitch. To deep to right center field.

High and deep. Renfro watches. Going to go. Jake Cronenworth goes back to back with Bogart. His third extra base hit of the day and it's 5-1. The call there on the Padres radio network. And so they hit Ohtani.

Don't have any trouble getting to him. Again he departed after giving up back to back home runs to Bogart's and then Cronenworth. That was in the sixth inning. And Padres have their own problems. So they get the win over the Angels on July 4th but they're still languishing below.500. They're 10 back in the NL West and what they desperately need is a spurt. A spurt of wins.

All strung together. The Padres need to hit the ball and pitch the way their payroll would indicate they're capable of. You try to keep your spirits high and you keep the right intensity and the same effort going out there every day.

And it breaks you down when you're not getting the results you want to see. But we've kind of rode that out this whole year. Weathered the storm and I feel like we're starting to see a little better baseball out of us.

Joe Musgrove is now 7-2 on the season. Padres still 6 games below.500. But I would say that they're one of the surprises of the first half as well.

So we've seen a bunch of them. The NL surprises definitely would be the Central Division, the Reds who are now on top of the Brewers by a game. They've won three in a row.

The way the Pirates started was a story but now they've reverted back to form a little more. I would think the Cardinals are a huge story from that division as well. 15 games below.500. They're pitching.

They just can't seem to get it right. The Diamondbacks are a fun story in the first half. Right now they're on top of the NL West by 2.5 games. The Braves of course will get to them following this first break. But I don't know that they were a surprise considering a recent World Series crown as well as the 101 wins last season. In the American League, no losing records in the East Division but the Rays on top of that division. They're tied with the Braves for the most wins in baseball. Love what the Orioles are doing. Of course they're building on the end of last season so again not sure it's a huge surprise. The AL Central with the Guardians below.500, the Twins barely with their heads above water. And the Rangers too I think are a great story in this first half.

So maybe that'll be our question on this July 4th into July 5th. Nothing says America like baseball. Well, there's other things that say America. But on this edition of the show, nothing says America like baseball. What are the top surprises?

The stories that grab ya from the first half of the baseball season. And we've got a post up now where you can send your questions for Ask Amy Anything. Our show Twitter is after our CBS. Our Facebook page, super easy. Latest video version of Ask Amy if you want some inspiration. That's on our YouTube channel. A lot of you checking it out and giving us the likes.

And I know producer Jay also loves the subscribes. Guardians and Braves locked in a battle worthy of fireworks. Although probably not when the Braves hit a home run in Cleveland. That would be the wrong time to fire off the fireworks.

That happened on Monday night. Good to have you with us. Happy Independence Day to you. Happy birthday to our great nation.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports. AT&T Fiber presents a straightforward moment. Your wine? Thanks. I'll pretend I know what I'm doing before saying it's good. And I'll pretend I don't know you're pretending. Are you a good gillionaire?

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Visit att.com slash hypergig for details. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Music Trailing by a run here in the ninth. 0-2 pitch. Ozzie smokes one to right field.

Going back now is Brennan at the wall. Ozzie's out for flood. It's his second homer of the game and we're tied up in the ninth. Ozzie leading the charge with his second homerun of the ballgame. And a 5-5 game here in the ninth. I'm just going to say this. The Braves right now, it's inevitable. Getting you to the good half of your week.

It's the Hump Show on After Hours. Music I hope you made baseball part of your July 4th, 2023. I know Braves fans wouldn't miss a game right now. Ozzie Albies with his second homerun against the Guardians on the shores of Lake Erie, so in Cleveland. In the ninth inning, it sure looked like the Braves were going to bring back that flair for the dramatic. And snatch defeat from, well snatch victory, yes snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. On the Braves radio network, Albies with his 22nd homerun.

And then the Guardians decided they would be the team that would put on the show. Not just in the bottom of the tenth, but the top of the tenth with the defense to keep them in it. Now it's up to De La Santos. The pitch. Swing and a little blooper into center field. Charging hard to straw, he'll make the catch. Tagging, coming home, Hilliard. Throw to the plate, on the fly.

Tag is made by a diving fry. They did it! What a great throw by straw. On the fly to the plate. And a diving tag by catcher David Fry. It doesn't get any better than that.

Wow! And the Guardians continue to go toe to toe with the Juggernaut Braves. We are tied at five, going to the bottom of the tenth. If you have not seen this play, it's an outfield assist to home plate. Where David Fry had to grab the ball and dive to his left across the base path. Where the runner, Sam Hilliard, was attempting to score in the top of the tenth. It is brilliant.

Make sure you check it out. It's all over social media. I saw Guardians tweeted it, Major League Baseball tweeted it as well. And you hear the call there with Tom Hamilton on the Guardians radio network. So yeah, this could have been the go ahead run in the top of the tenth for the Atlanta Braves. Instead, the score remains tied because of that mild straw throw on the money to Fry. Who on the fly is able to dive and tag Hilliard for the out.

Well, Guardians still needed some offense in the bottom of the frame. The pitch, Fry with a line drive to left. Rosario going back toward the line.

He can't make the catch! Base hit, game winner! In the scores, Rosario, David Fry being mobbed at second base. A walk-off, two out, RBI single to left by David Fry. And Cleveland's got its fifth walk-off win of the year.

And they shacked the Atlanta Braves in ten innings tonight, six to five. Off the bat, I was like, oh, yeah, it's for sure a hit. And then I was watching Rosario run after her. I was like, oh, God, he's going to catch this thing. I had my hand in the air. I was like, I need to put my hand down because he's about to catch it. But, yeah, whenever I saw it laying pretty fired up. Is it David Fry night in Cleveland?

It might be. He has that diving tag, really a bang-bang play, a diving tag at home plate to preserve the tie in the top of the tenth. And then he has the walk-off hit in the bottom of the tenth to give the Guardians the win desperately needed, but also to end that win streak for the Atlanta Braves at nine.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. The perspective of Miles Straw in the outfield as he relays that throw home. Fry made a great play.

You know, it was kind of a little to the right a little bit. And, you know, he put his body on the line and dove. And, I mean, that's what ball putters do. I mean, he put his body on the line. And, you know, I'm appreciative of him to see De La Santos and Fry fired up after that. I mean, that was huge, especially for Fry to win the game.

It's hard enough. I don't know if people probably have a true respect for how much is going on in a guy's heads or can go on when it's happening that fast. That was an unbelievable play all the way around. I know bang-bang is not generally the phrase that's used in these situations, right? It's more about a play at a base, generally first base, where the ball is coming into the first baseman, but you also have the runner who's right there. But, this was a bang-bang in terms of David Fry's catch and then the reaction. So, he snags the throw from Straw and then immediately dives to his left and does it in such an athletic way that he can tag Hilliard.

So, yeah, it was pretty incredible. And then he has the chance for the walk-off hit. For the Braves, no one's going to cry for them, right? Because they've been able to string together not just the nine wins in a row. They had won, oh gosh, I think it was 24 their last 27.

So, Brian Snitger with, I would say, the perspective that you need to have over the course of a 162-game season. It was a baseball game, yeah. It was a hard-fought game that we ended up a run shy and battle back to put ourselves in a good position to win the game and, you know, get paid to play, too. When I went home and tied the game up, I was like, okay, we have a great chance. I'm happy.

See, everybody got a fist bump because we were happy. The two outs in that situation was huge. So, Ozzy Albies was expected that they would deliver and they nearly did, if not for the Guardians. Funny stuff on Guardians Twitter. So, these are some of the phrases that they use with their videos as they're kind of showing you what happened in the 10th inning. One of them is David Fry is him in all capital letters. Another one is American Fry.

That one I like. So, yeah, if you want to see the videos, you can check them out on Guardians Twitter. Before that, it was the Ahmed Rosario game, but after that, David Fry stealing his thunder. And, yeah, the Guardians definitely need this. They need that spark before they go into the All-Star break. Like today, we got a complete team in there.

Beaver gave us a good start. Bullpen came in, did a really good job. Ahmed does an unbelievable job hitting the ball over the yard, getting RBIs, and then really good defense helps us win the game. And we got an awesome clubhouse, and whenever we're down, we still feel like we got a good chance to win. Maybe a surprise that the Guardians, who were really the bell of the ball, spoiling the party, if you will, last season, the youngest team in Major League Baseball still won the AL Central.

That was 2022. Not going to catch anybody off guard this season, and they're below.500 in a division that is very winnable. Very winnable.

Maybe that's one of the surprises for you in this first half of the 23 campaign. We're asking you on Twitter, after our CBS, our Facebook page too, love to hear your reaction to the top surprises of the baseball season so far. We're just past the midway point. And with the All-Star break coming up, minus Mike Trout, I hope not minus Shohei Ohtani, that would stink, but maybe he can still hit at least once with the blister on top of the cracked fingernail. We know Aaron Judge won't be participating. Clayton Kershaw won't be part of it.

They're naming replacements every day. But I still do love baseball's All-Star break. So that's coming up. And then the deadline. The trade deadline is not that far down the road. It's end of July. Why am I talking about the end of July? I actually won't be here because end of July I will be on vacation. But the 31st, it's the last Monday of the month.

Not that many Mondays between now and then. So we'll start to see, coming out of the All-Star break, I think teams with a sense of urgency, the jostling, for position to be sure, but trying to determine whether or not they are buyers and sellers. And in this age where there are three wildcards in each league, you're always going to have more buyers than sellers. In fact, more buyers than there are chips to go around. And it's always intriguing and I think adds a little bit of urgency, but maybe some anxiety as well for those clubhouses that they're not exactly sure if they're buyers or sellers.

Meaning the players don't know if they're buyers or sellers. And you're not sure exactly which way the front offices will go. So all that happens in the month of July when there's a little more tension around baseball. It starts to become not all-out scoreboard watching, but it starts to become a stretch of the year where, yeah, you can't just say, oh, it's such a long season. Nah, this is where moves are made and where teams are positioning themselves for the end of summer on into the stretch run. The Arizona Diamondbacks hosting the Mets, so we'll get to that coming up.

The Dodgers and the Pirates. We've got football still ahead. Also Wimbledon with the number one player in the world on the men's side in action. Hope that you enjoyed your Independence Day. Did you see some fireworks? I'm not exactly sure what was happening right off the highway as I was driving into New York City. It was not the Macy's fireworks show. That was long done, thankfully, because I did not want to deal with that traffic. But there's a hotel right off the side of the highway where I was leaving Jersey and coming into Manhattan where we're located. And it seemed like there was just somebody in the parking lot that was firing off a bunch of their own fireworks and made me a little nervous. It was popping right next to the highway. If you were listening to our show last night, you know that in addition to talking about the amount of money spent on fireworks every year in the United States of America, we also had a stat.

Nearly 16,000 people end up in the hospital because of injuries related to fireworks. I really hope that's not you and you're not listening from the hospital right now. Send us your questions for asking me anything that comes up later in the show. It is the hump show middle show of the work week because we're still in our routine. Introducing L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com. Your solution to combat the negative effects of sitting at a desk. Sitting at a desk eight hours a day is as harmful as smoking.

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Visit L2R Smarter, Safer, Faster.com and start moving today. We missed you. Welcome back. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. The Domo on three and two to DeLuca. Fly ball to left. And the kid from Agoura Hills hits it out. The pinch hit home run for Johnny DeLuca. A fine time to hit his first big league home run. How about that?

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. He could already see him holding that trophy, taking his team to state. I'm not sure what's more American than baseball, maybe fireworks. Not that we have the corner on the market of fireworks. But we do spend a lot of money on fireworks. July 4th with all of its celebrations.

But that's how it should be. Independence deserves to be celebrated. The birth of our nation, no matter how many years old, definitely deserves to be celebrated. I hope you had a great holiday. If you're coming off of your holiday weekend, your extended weekend, well, we're glad to keep you company. If you are one of those people who waits until the last possible second to end your vacation, I know that's the case in a lot of big cities where you got to deal with traffic, well, might as well wait until the last second to get back home.

So plenty of people on the roads. And if that's you, thanks for hanging out with us After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Cool to be able to get your first home run in the big leagues on July 4th, an unforgettable moment. But the Pirates not quite ready to allow the Dodgers to continue their dominance in the series. Here's the 0-1. Swing and a line drive up the middle, base hit.

Stumbling to cut it off, Altman. Ciwinski's in and the game is tied. Jared Triolo ties the game with an RBI single in the ninth inning.

Here's an 0-2. Swing and a ball fought off, hit to left. That's going to be down for a hit. That run is in. Here comes Triolo to score. And the throw comes into second.

He scampers in. Josh Palacios saunters his way to a two-run pitch hit double. The Pirates lead 9-7 here in the ninth. A three-run ninth inning at Chavez Ravine for the Pirates and they stunned the Dodgers and maybe, maybe the fireworks meant a little bit more to them after they come away with the win. This is what you dream about, man.

In the backyard when you're a kid, you want to step up there in the ninth inning with the game on the line to get that hit. That's what you look forward to. So sometimes it doesn't work out, but we trusted our approach. It worked out there. We had some fun.

Fourth of July. Big crowd. Great stadium. My parents are here. It's awesome. I'm sure they're out there smiling.

So it's awesome. Jared Triolo with family there. Both those cuts from AT&T Sportsnet. As for the Dodgers, they saw Pittsburgh rally three different times to tie this game and it was Evan Phillips who ends up blowing the save. I really felt confident that I could help the team win a ballgame tonight, so it's really unfortunate that we came up short and I couldn't do that tonight.

These things happen. We'll move right along and it really hurts without a doubt, especially after Johnny hitting a big home run for the team like that. I really felt like that was a momentum shift we needed and I could come in and finish the game for us, but it just didn't work out that way tonight. I thought after he walked those guys, the stuff started to get better.

He got a punch late. So I don't know if it was workload or whatever, but if the player says he feels good, then you got to trust it. And quite honestly, we didn't have anyone else. Oh, kind of cut Dave Roberts off there, but he says, quite honestly, we didn't have anyone else. And that goes back to Clayton Kershaw not making his start and the way that they've been using the bullpen.

They're having to juggle different guys in different arms to try to make it to the All-Star break. So, Roberts coming off a night in which he earned career win number 700, seized the Pirates' rally. And I would have said the Pirates were the first half surprise of the baseball season if they'd still been above 500, if they were still hanging around in that NL Central. I know that there's still a long way to go and the Pirates could get hot again. They faded to six and a half games back now of the Reds, who might at this point be the surprise of the first half.

Brewers are a game back, so those two teams right now are the ones setting the pace in the Central. We're asking you the big surprises from the first half of the baseball season on Twitter, ALaw Radio, or After Hours, CBS, and then on our Facebook page too. And while you're at it, you might as well send us your questions for Ask Amy Anything. Really enjoyed hearing from so many of you about the Funfetti July 4th cupcakes. That was an artistic photo that I posted, if you haven't seen it, that's still up there on Twitter and Facebook. And a lot of you were paying attention to our July 4th show coming into Tuesday morning. I really do enjoy working holidays. One big reason is because I love the icons that you get when you use the hashtags.

So the American flag popped up when you used Happy 4th or Independence Day. Yeah, I'm a shill for icons and little emojis that come up with different hashtags, make their rounds during the calendar year. Also, because we are working, we thought it'd be fun to share a video version of Ask Amy Anything. We're all about some summertime, that is available on our YouTube channel and the link is on both Twitter and Facebook.

So see, there's plenty to do. If you head to our social media, you can send your questions for tonight's edition of Ask Amy. If you need some inspiration, the video version of Ask Amy and also our midway, because it is the midway point, our midway baseball question about the big surprises. I would say another one of the huge surprises in the negative respect is the Mets. And coming off of a season in which they won 101 games and made the playoffs and then they add Justin Verlander.

It's been tough sledding, of course, they had a brutal June, can they turn things around in July? 1-2 to Marte, swaying a high fly ball to left field, Carroll going back to the track, he turns and it's gone. A three run go ahead home run for Starling Marte. The 2-2, swing and a miss, and that ends the inning.

So Scherzer strikes out Christian Walker on a change up, pitch, hard ground ball to short, Lindor to his left, has it, flipped a second, end time, game over. Mets win and hold on for dear life to do so in the ninth with an 8-5 decision over Arizona. On Mets radio, this is a victory against the leaders of the NL West who, 14 games above 500 at this point, so the Mets desperately needed it, their third consecutive win. And Max Scherzer, though he has to battle to get through six innings, he allows four runs on five hits, three home runs, so we're not talking about vintage Mad Max, but because there's plenty of offense, the Mets are able to win again.

I don't know that Mets fans should be really excited about them pulling themselves back into any type of a playoff race yet, but at least there's hope. And the mind says, we've got to continue to play well and continue to win. Everybody's got to do their job across the team in order to get wins. Today's a perfect example, it took a total team effort, total team win in order to beat that team. It's going to be like that for the rest of the way, and so everybody's got to do their job and when we play well as a team, we all click, we can play with anybody in this league. I think great, I don't know, honor, whatever, watching him pitch in a game like that as opposed to when he's carrying everything, and to get through that, a really good team that's playing really well and keep us engaged in the game and not give in and going back out and pitching that sixth inning, a lot of guys wouldn't have, or couldn't have, I should say.

Essentially, as we've, that's Buck Showalter, who was on the hot seat last week. As we've gone through this first hour of the show and I've thrown out this question of surprises from the first half, I keep coming up with them. So from the National League, the Diamondbacks on top of the West, the Central, with the Reds and Brewers duking it out, but of course the Cardinals at the bottom of that division, also a major surprise. In the National League East, the fact that it's Braves and Marlins, and Marlins are eight games back, even though they've won seven in their last ten. But the Rays have set such a pace that now they've tied the Rays for most wins in baseball, and even with the Marlins playing above their heads, or maybe they're a big surprise for a lot of people, they're still eight back. The Phillies, who won the pennant last year, are 11 and a half back, and the Mets, because of what was a brutal June, even these three wins notwithstanding, they're 18 games back. So in the National League alone, it seems like what was up last year is down this year, and vice versa. What would you say are the top surprises, surprise, of the first half of the baseball season? Find us on Twitter, After Hours, CBS, and on our Facebook page, send your questions for Ask Amy Anything as well, we'll get to that a little bit later on.

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