8-9-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

Hey, Rob Bradford here. I have set out on a mission with my good friends at FanDuel to prove what I have known for some time. Baseball isn't boring. Now I have a daily podcast to prove it with some of the most notable people in the baseball world, screaming baseball isn't boring for the mountaintops, or at least agreeing to come on our show.

Players, managers, GMs, and yes, even the commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred. It has been a constant wave of baseball to both powerful voices. So join the revolution, subscribe and soak in baseball isn't boring.

Listen on your Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll be glad you did. How is it already the middle show of the work week? Wow. Also, something I'm starting to see more and more on our social media, which makes me giggle a bit, but also gives me agita. I could potentially break out in hives just talking about it, but I'll take my chances.

Many of you, I've seen many of these tweets and Facebook posts. Are you doing Survivor Island this year? We're not even within three weeks of the NFL season kicking off yet and you all are asking about Survivor Island. It's because you know I'll be out in week two, right?

Shoot, I forgot last year. How far did I get, Jake? I've never gotten past week six.

That's the thing. Never gotten past week six, so it had to be that. I know I made it to the second month of the NFL season, but I've never gotten past week six. I lost week two, I remember. I picked the Browns over the Jets in that nightmare fourth quarter.

Why would you ever do that? I wouldn't touch a game like that with a 10-foot pole, although that was also the Hall of Fame game, which is kind of interesting. So it was a brutal reminder. It's definitely not rigged, which means anything can and will happen. So yes, we are going to engage in another rousing rendition of Survivor Island. And we'll have two probably because we usually can't fit all the peeps on the same island. That's coming up.

It's not pressing. Between now and then we'll do another Hall of Flame induction. That'll be fun. We still have fallout from college sports and all the various realignment, the scrambling, the defections from the Pac-12, the Big Ten, the Big Twelve, now the SEC, even the ACC, thinking about how the rich can get richer and whether or not the Power Five is about to shrink to a Power Four. So we'll talk about the college sports realignment. But if you missed my conversation with Brian Fisher on our show last night, huge deal to get the intel and the impact and the implications of what we've seen the last month in college sports. As always, our podcast is available for you seconds, mere seconds after the show is done every weekday morning. And that includes this one, The Hump Show, here on After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Please find us on Twitter, After Hours CBS, if you'd like to send your questions for Ask Amy Anything. You got a couple hours. I know Jay had some candidates from last week. He was planning to keep some of the questions that he didn't get to because he liked them.

So you may have some competition even as you send new, original, creative questions. So look for the bright orange box on either our show Twitter or our Facebook page. And if you don't hear the segment live, well then you do want to go and check out the podcast again. You can find the link every weekday morning right on our social media. Our phone number is 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4CBS. We aren't going to spend a ton of time on it, but producer Jay, did you happen to grab the clip of the Baltimore Orioles fans organizing a chant to free Kevin Brown?

This is incredible. We still, at least to the best of my knowledge, have not gotten any definitive word from the Orioles management, from the ownership, from Massen. We haven't gotten anything about where Kevin Brown is and why. And I'm thinking unless he punched his boss in the face or did something else that's completely asinine, just completely offensive, that the team owes him an explanation, owes the world an explanation, right?

Because we are owed our explanation. We still don't really know why Kevin Brown got suspended because it makes no sense that he would get suspended over highlighting a fact and also giving the Orioles a compliment, a benchmark as to how far the team has come in its play at Tropicana Field. Such an innocuous stat and yet that is reportedly the reason that the Orioles suspended Kevin Brown.

So be careful, Orioles. Your fans, they're loud and they're proud and clearly they love their Kevin Brown. Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! I mean, it went on forever.

It went on forever. Camden Yards erupting in these organized chants to support Kevin Brown. Apparently, Orioles fans are not going to take this sitting down. It blows me away that this happened in late July and it wasn't until someone leaked it, either the Orioles front office or Massen or maybe Kevin himself, not sure. The news is not breaking until Monday, August 7th, even though he had been off the air most of this time going back to July 23rd.

More than two weeks he'd been off the air for the most part. But now there's all this support around Major League Baseball and Camden Yards. Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Even the TBS play-by-play announcer, Brian Anderson, this was a nationally televised game.

So it's not like the Orioles just managed to send a message to their own management. No, the Orioles and their fans screaming, Free Kevin Brown made this a national, a national noise. Free Kevin Brown!

Free Kevin Brown! It was on TBS. There were also comments about it on the Astros radio broadcast. But, get this, the Massen broadcast, which is the Orioles home network, did not acknowledge the chants.

Are you kidding me? Now I wasn't watching Massen because I don't have it where I live. But that's according to multiple social media reports. People who are watching Massen, and I know we have a lot of Baltimore fans who listen.

If you can corroborate that, great, love to hear from you on Twitter, ALaw Radio or on Facebook. But according to Social, Massen did not acknowledge the Free Kevin Brown chants. There were signs to Free Kevin Brown. This is not going away. According to Awful Announcing and The Athletic, he was suspended for comments about the Orioles' lack of wins the last three years at Tropicana Field against the Rays. But he highlighted that the Orioles had turned a corner in that respect. So, nothing yet.

The saga continues. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. We got that from where? AT&T Sportsnet, is that what you're saying? That was just Orioles Radio, I believe, just the chants. But I have the Astros announcers talking about the fans chanting. That's from AT&T Sportsnet. Can we hear it?

Is this fun? I think the fans in a rare move here in Baltimore are calling for the return of their play-by-play TV announcer, Kevin Brown. Good for them. There's been a lot of people speaking up. I know that you and I feel the same way, but just speaking for myself, I can't believe that he's not in the stadium right now.

That's a soft pick-face hit going the other way, finding some empty space. But I saw some of that going around the Internet, and I listened to that open from Kevin Brown about four times before I finally texted a bunch of people going, what happened? But all of a sudden here in Baltimore in the booth, facts can hurt feelings. And he was actually doing a very good job of complimenting this ball club on playing very good baseball against the Tampa Bay Rays. And in a moment when your team is finally in first place, gaining so much great attention, the front office chose to make that move, and it's disgraceful. That's the part that's so ridiculous is that the Orioles, at least as of last night, were tied for the most wins in Major League Baseball with the Atlanta Braves. And even though this move was made in late July, this is what people are talking about now.

Why would you call attention to yourself in such a negative respect? Why not celebrate the fact that the Orioles have turned a corner? Why not celebrate the fact that they are a World Series contender and they have so many great young players, good leadership? This is an opportunity for Baltimore fans, the Orioles organization, to be hailed, to be recognized for the work they've done to get back to the top of baseball. So why?

Why would you even mess with that? And did they really think, whoever made this decision, ownership, front office, did they really think that this wouldn't get out? That somehow they could keep it hush-hush and quiet, it wouldn't get out?

It's after hours on Facebook, on our show Twitter, send your questions for Ask Amy, anything. Now, the game itself appeared to be another Baltimore win. In fact, the Orioles had the Astros on the ropes. They were up 5-0 after two innings, but the Astros scratched and clawed, pulled their way back into contention, and then were seeking one big blow. 2-2 again, and Tucker hits it in the air pretty deep to right field.

That sends back McKenna at the wall, looking up, see you later! Kyle Tucker gives the Astros a lead with a grand slam, 7-6 Houston. A hundred miles per hour from Bautista, and more than that from Tucker to right field, and the Astros stun them! Tucker's fifth grand slam of his career. What an at-bat! You can hear the change in the tenor there at Camden Yards. On the Astros radio network, Robert Ford, Steve Sparks, 403 feet for Kyle Tucker.

It was a blast. Immaculate! Felix Bautista, who has his sixth blown save of the year, but otherwise has been really good. Remember, the Orioles have played a ton of games in which they've been one runs, two runs, really close games, which is why Bautista has been so important. And we know Brandon Hyde, he loves Felix, talks about him whenever he has the opportunity. But on this night, Kyle Tucker gets the best of Felix. He's a really good pitcher.

He's been doing it all year, and he's done it in the past. But, I mean, we fought off a lot of tough pitches and had really great at-bats just to give me that opportunity. So, I just was able to put a good swing on a pitcher over the plate and ended up winning with it. Just the determination. You know, that was the determination at-bat. And that's what hitting is all about.

Basically, it's about determination and want and desire and concentration. He's not going to be perfect, which he really has been almost the entire season. And tip your hat there to Alvarez, driving that ball off the wall and center, and then Tucker with an incredible at-bat off him, fouling off a ton of pitches. And handling a fastball, hitting it in the seats. So, Brandon Hyde can't expect Felix Bautista to be perfect.

But for a second, it's really not about this game. What I was thinking as I was watching it was, ooh, this could be a potential playoff matchup, the Orioles and the Astros. At the very least, even if the Astros don't end up catching the Rangers, who are on fire right now, we'll get to them momentarily. But even if the Astros don't end up catching the Rangers, the experience, obviously the Astros are defending champions, they've got the two World Series going back now to 2017, trash cans. They've got Justin Verlander back again. And they have won seven of their last ten.

The Rangers are going to be tough to track down. But regardless, you would expect that the Astros would get into the playoffs either way. Between the disappointment of the AL Central, where right now even the Mariners would be first place in the AL Central, the Blue Jays would be far and away first place in the AL Central. Even with the disappointment and the down year for that division, and the way that the Astros are pushing the Rangers to play their best baseball, the competition in the AL East, even with all those factors, the Astros right now have, they've got better momentum, they've made a couple of good moves, I would expect them to be a wild card.

And if they get in, when they get in, they're dangerous. Because of the experience, obviously, the defending champion is always a tough out, Dusty Baker, what he brings to the table. It's going to be interesting, these next seven weeks of the regular season, obviously the last seven weeks of the regular season, which teams position themselves, which teams really do surge and make a move. And I do think Baltimore has staying power as well, as does Tampa Bay.

We'll talk about Tampa coming up because the Rays have not given up, of course, on the AL East. Alright, on Twitter, ALawRadio, our Facebook page as well, Free Kevin Brown. Free Kevin Brown. Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown!

Free Kevin Brown! Oh my goodness. Fans, you are so creative. I'm very impressed. I would not have expected that, but I'm glad that every other outlet carrying the game referenced it, noted it, except for Masson. Are you kidding me?

Are you going to be an ostrich and just hide your head in the sand and expect the whole thing goes away? Please. Free Kevin Brown! Free Kevin Brown!

Free Kevin Brown! Hey, we've got a great treat for you coming up from Seattle. Jesse Bradley, our favorite former pro soccer player, goalie, who played internationally and has been not just our Men's World Cup correspondent, but has also joined us, I'm trying to think, what, four or five times over the course of the last year, just to weigh in on different topics and hang out with us.

And we had him on Father's Day most recently, which is a lot of fun, some encouragement for fathers of all shapes and sizes. And now joining us on this edition of the show, because we need to deliver the eulogy on the women, the U.S. women who failed to make it past the round of 16 for the first time in their World Cup history. So a lot to get to tonight.

He's about 45 minutes away between now and then. We've got a little more baseball. Also, Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, weighs in on this conference realignment and the changing college football landscape. It's the Hump Show. We got this after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. There's a lot of traditions that we've had for a long time in college football, and I think we're in a time of evolution for whatever reasons. And some of those traditions are going to get sort of pushed by the wayside, I think.

This is after hours with Amy Lawrence. Well, that is true. And that's been the reaction of a lot of college football and college sports fans around the country that the drastic realignment that has left the Pac 12 in a precarious position near collapse, especially if the ACC manages to then lure Cal and Stanford. If that happens, you're seeing the end, possibly, of one of the Power Five conferences. But as fans are reacting, what I keep seeing and hearing, and it goes back to when the SEC lured Texas and Oklahoma. Actually, it goes back even farther than that, when the SEC lured Texas A&M away from the Big 12 and people were lamenting the loss of Texas versus A&M. Now, they have renewed that rivalry, and obviously Oklahoma and Texas will be joining the SEC coming up next season. But it's the loss of those rivalries, the loss of the matchups that make sense based on geography and history and tradition. And you hear Nick Saban highlight that same thing.

It's After Hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Now, of course, Greg Sankey, as the commissioner of the SEC, he's overseeing the move of both the Sooners and the Longhorns to the SEC. So he's got some familiarity with what's happening right now, this drastic conference realignment. There was plenty of criticism back in 2021 at the surprise nature of our Oklahoma and Texas announcement. Yet from that point forward, we and those two universities and our entire conferences sought to be orderly in the process and respectful in our communication. And I think we've done that. It was going to be drastic.

It was going to be jarring. Really, anyone who was a fan of the two schools leaving or the Big 12 overall. And if you missed my conversation with Brian Fisher of Fox Sports last night, one of the things I asked him about was how the Big 12 also sat on the precipice. I kind of feel like the Big 12 has found a new life here because not that long ago, it was the Big 12 that was on the verge of losing its status and collapsing. And instead now, it's the Pac-12 that's in the same position. So can the Pac-12, who took some of the best coaches, some of the best personnel from the Big 12 when it was floundering, can it now find its way forward? But the hard part is not knowing where college sports, and right now we're talking college football, not knowing where it goes from here, how it rallies, what does it look like? I mean, that's a question that I asked Brian Fisher specifically about the Pac-12, but really about the landscape overall. What happens next?

And Greg Sankey doesn't know either. Well, it remains to be seen, but how many FBS conferences will exist in 30 or 60 days, particularly as we head into next season, if you want to lengthen that timeframe. We've been engaged in the right kind of conversations around future media opportunities, around the logistical issues and decisions related to the first round of games on campus, and how do we move that into bowl games, but we do have changed circumstances. Right now we still have 10 FBS conferences, but there's obviously a great question about whether that will remain.

And yeah, that could create a thought in my mind and I think in others about some level of adjustment being made. Commissioner Greg Sankey of the SEC on the SEC Network. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. So you will remember your reaction and really it's widespread around the country in seeing the news about Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten, about Utah, Arizona, Arizona State following Colorado to the Big 12, about the Pac-12 now being left with just a handful of schools once the dust settles.

Well, Greg Sankey had a reaction as well. I will point publicly that I think the speculation and some of the pronouncements we've seen since that time about growth or directional growth is problematic. And even for me with the security of the Southeastern Conference, whether it was Friday afternoon or through the day Saturday, fielding phone calls, which really were more conversations. What do you think is happening?

There's nobody calling me, you know, seeking or demanding entry. A lot of commentary publicly. You know, it just wasn't one of those great feelings to work in college sports in my experience.

Hmm. Not one of those great experiences in college sports, in his opinion. Well, then why expansion at all, right? Going back now, we've seen multiple rounds of conference realignment and expansion of the various conferences, including the SEC. The SEC, I don't want to say they were the original, because, again, we've seen multiple rounds of this over the last, what, 10, 15 years.

But it's not like Greg Sankey can sit in this place where he's holier than thou and say, oh, well, we're above the fray, we're good the way they are. No, the SEC has also expanded and included teams. In fact, taken, well, invited teams from the Big 12, going back to Missouri and Texas A&M, and now, obviously, Texas and Oklahoma, who are poised.

So what about the reasoning behind it? Here in the SEC, we wanted college football to be strong nationally, and we've not seen a West of the Rockies participant in the playoffs since, I believe, 2016. And so the expansion was about making sure we brought in Western football. Well, now what's happened is Western football has come into other conferences. The net of that is circumstances have changed, and I think it's wise for us to take a step back and reconsider what the format might look like, given these changed circumstances. So you hear Greg Sankey talk about expanding conferences, but also expanding the college football playoff. And I asked Brian the same thing, what does this mean for the playoff?

Because it certainly seems like we'll have a situation where the rich are just getting richer. Will there be a cap on the number of teams from a particular conference who can make it into the playoff? And I know that doesn't seem fair, right? Because if you are looking for the best teams, well, then who cares where they come from?

But we've run into those questions before. Should there be multiple teams from the SEC in what is currently the college football playoff, just the four teams? But as it expands and moves forward, what if there are seven teams out of the Big Ten that somehow could be deserving of the expanded bracket, could somehow be deserving of a spot in the playoff?

Should there be a cap? Should they make this about conference champions and some of the kind of wildcard teams, if you will? It's not as though sports are always fair, right? I mean, even thinking about some of the pro sports and how often... Well, we were just talking about how often you'll have a division that's really down one year and yet it does have a champion who makes it into the playoffs, whether as a losing team or as a team that has a worse record than some of the others in divisions where it's a lot more competitive.

But those have migrations, right? Like that changes in pro sports so often where one division is down and then the other one is up and it flips on its head the next year or, you know, not too far down the road. I mean, college football, if the whole idea is to, as Greg Sankey says, to expand the playoffs so that you're including teams from west of the Mississippi and you're having a western presence so it's not so heavy on some of the power of five conferences and some of the teams that we see over and over again. If you're trying to appeal to more fans, you're trying to broaden the playoff, then there should be some type of rule. But that kind of goes against what we're seeing with these humongous bloated conferences like the Big Ten, like the Pac-12, of course the SEC with its expansion.

Will the ACC expand as well? And so my opinion, the two things are kind of working counter to each other where the playoff is supposed to be inviting more, right? It's supposed to be balancing and leveling the playing field for those who can compete for college football's biggest prize. But then you're going to run into, hey, there's more teams in the Big Ten that are deserving. There's more teams in the SEC, maybe, or the Big 12 that are deserving. How do we choose a mid-major or choose a team from another conference that doesn't have the same presence and probably isn't as good and leave out some of these, I don't know, five, six, seven teams from the Big Ten? Have we not seen it in college basketball?

Marco Belletti's here in studio. Not that we're talking about an expanded March Madness bracket, but this is the argument we run into over and over in college hoops is, you know, ten teams from the Big Ten into March Madness. And what about the other schools that, well, they maybe not have the same ability to compete because their schedules, their conference schedules don't allow them to match up against the type of competition. So you throw them into the bracket and a lot of times they do compete. I just don't know how this works with the expanded playoff because you're going to run into the same issue.

There are going to be teams from these power conferences that are likely deserving of getting in, and yet that defeats the whole purpose of making it more teams. Yeah, I don't know if they care. I think that's the biggest part of this whole thing.

I mean, this is all, you know, the money grab and trying to figure it all out. I think they'll deal with that when it comes, but I also think that when you're looking at the expanded, I don't know how they're going to do the conference championship being the automatic bid. I think that's the biggest thing because I don't think they care if there's five teams from the SEC that make the playoff. I don't think that really concerns them. Plus, I also think that they're going to cannibalize each other a little bit.

All these big giant conferences, you're going to wind up, they're going to play each other, so they're going to wind up knocking each other out even though they're probably deserving and there'll be a team that's a lesser team. Well, right, that's the point. They can still be better even if they are cannibalizing each other. But that's, again, that's the conversation. But I mean, again, what are they going to do? So you can't have a three loss team when there's a team that's still undefeated. So they're going to have a hard time justifying some of these things.

But again, I keep coming back to the same concept. And so the thing I think in my head, I don't think they care. I really, truly don't. I don't think any of college will do anything for the bottom line. Yeah, you're going to hear the schools complain and bitch and moan when they get left out.

But you're not going to hear them complain when they get their money from their check from from the TV rights. So I don't think in the general, in the broad scheme of things, I don't think that really matters to them anymore. That's not great for competition, though.

I don't think they care. I really don't think any of this is about competition. No, it's definitely not. It's definitely not. And that's why, like everybody's talking about tradition and rivalry.

They don't care. None of this is about anything but money. It's straight money and it's dirty. And that's the business that we're in. And it also is going to lead to, unfortunately, I don't want to say lesser games, but it's we're going to lose something along the way.

Of course. You can't have these kinds of things. College football is losing its identity in some cases. It's losing its soul. Again, I don't think they care.

Did you know college football had a soul? No, they definitely don't care. I don't think they care. I really don't think they care.

I mean, if they truly cared, then a lot of these things would have been looked at and thought of way beforehand. Not just the movement and all that kind of stuff, which we've seen over the years, but like you go back to even before when they had the college playoff or the BCS or before that, when we had to guess who the national championship was, the national championship team was at the end of the year. I mean, your national champion was what?

We don't know. Like, oh, yeah, I think I think they were the best team, right? Like, we didn't know the season would end. You'd have 400 feet of teams would be like, yeah, no, no, no.

They were a little bit better. OK. Like, I don't think college football ever truly cared about anything but money. But the bottom line more and more. Yes, we definitely are. We definitely are that.

All right. Coming up, we'll talk more about it. But we also have a little bit more from the baseball diamond tonight. The Angels are trying to stay relevant, riding a seven game losing skid into Tuesday evening. The Rangers are hot to trot. Got to deliver the eulogy on the U.S. women's national team, even as the World Cup continues down under.

And so our friend Jesse Bradley will join us from Seattle at the top of the hour. I'm thinking I'm going to have to talk to Messi. Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi as well. Just because how can you talk soccer right now without talking about Messi? Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi, Messi.

Messi has landed in the U.S. and we may never be the same in MLS. On Twitter, After Hours, CBS, also on our Facebook page. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. 65 RBIs for Corey this year. And here's another blast deep out into right center field. Bleday and Ruiz are at the wall.

They look up and it is gone. Corey Seeger with his 19th home run of the year leading off the seventh inning here tonight. He gives Texas a 5-1 lead. Rangers lead 5-1 and Leody strokes one high in the air to left center field. That's deep but Ruiz at the wall leaps and can't get it. It bounces off the wall and back toward the infield around third and in to score is Grossman. And all the way to third at the standup triple is Leody Taveras.

There's a swing by Soderstrom and a roller out to low. He feeds Burke covering the ball games over and the Rangers have an eight game winning streak. They beat the A's tonight 6-1. Getting you to the good half of your week.

It's the Hump Show on After Hours. The Rangers are staying on top of the AL West. So far, despite the best efforts of the World Series champions, the Rangers have got the staying power that has allowed them to be out in front. And remember, they got Max Scherzer at the deadline so Mad Max ends up at the top of the West. And then you've got Justin Verlander, his teammate not once but twice with Detroit in the New York briefly. He's with the Astros so it'll be kind of fun to see how this race shakes out.

Because the Astros have been there, done that, the Rangers have worked for years now to try to put together a competitive group and lo and behold, they have finally done it. Now, I haven't heard this yet but producer Jay tells me that Max Scherzer made some comments about his new team that Jay actually finds offensive as a Mets fan. Jay, I haven't had a chance to listen to this yet but you tell me, why is Mad Max Scherzer so offensive to you? I think he takes a subtle, maybe not so subtle shot at the Mets in the front office.

Hmm, well let's hear it. Winning's great. Winning's fun. This is what you play the game for, to be in these types of situations, to be in playoff atmosphere and we're definitely in the hunt. So you've got to keep playing great baseball all the way through. It takes just a total organizational effort to be able to even have a chance at that.

Things have got to break your way. And so as much as that's a dream right now, the focus is on the day-to-day. And you believe that that was not about playing good baseball with the hottest team on the diamond. Do you believe that was more about the team he left behind? No, I think he's excited. I think he's happy to be in the situation he is and he's obviously starting off his time in Texas well. But I don't know, I just feel like that was a little backhanded at the Mets there.

It takes a complete organizational effort. He's still mad, I think, when he talked to Cohen and he talked to Billy Eppler and they told him they were going to punt on next season, 2024. I think he's still kind of a little salty about that whole thing. But he got what he wanted, though. He waived his no-trade clause so that he could end up with the Rangers and now he's in a pennant race. Yeah, it seems to have worked out, but I just think he's just salty about the whole thing. I don't know.

Interesting. Alright, Bruce Bochy. They love having Mad Max on the mound.

Oh, he threw a beautiful game, didn't he? Good mix going, located well. It's fun to watch. He's so intense out there and even before he pitches, so good job by him. You know what he does so well is he's so prepared and he has such a good mix. He knows what he wants to do on every count, those type things.

Terrific job. Offense, nice job by them. Top of the order, Corey Big Day. Oh, meaning Corey Seeger back in the lineup, right? So he goes three for five with a couple RBI. Marcus Simeon before that had a couple of hits as well, drove in one and plenty of support for Mad Max, who lasts a full seven innings. Only throws 89 pitches actually to get through seven allows a single run on three hits with a half dozen K's.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Alright, same division. We talked about the Astros. What about the Angels? Even as the Rangers were adding to their win streak and extending it to eight, the Angels were at home against the Giants attempting to end their longest skid of the year. Here's Drury, who's 0 for 2, strikeout flyout, the pitch. He swings at that one, lifts a high fly ball. It's carrying deep out into right field, back at the wall, and that ball is gone. Out of here, a home run.

It just kept carrying off the bat. Drury is 15th homer of the season. The Angels add on and now lead it five to three.

And they are able to hold that lead. Yes, so the win streak has begun at one. The seven-game skid is over. Terry Smith on Angels Radio. Lucas Giolito, he helps the Angels get back into the win column. But certainly the bats, seven runs on 12 hits.

Man, that has to feel like a load off even though they faded in the wild card race. We've talked about it all week. We play the same game quite a bit and we've had a lot of gut punches this week. If you're in every single game and you lose that many in a row, it bothers the room. It hurts everybody. I mean, I said it to you earlier.

I mean, you guys don't want to cover this stuff, you know what I mean? I told you all in spring training, we're going to try to make this a little more fun for you. So we've certainly put ourselves in the hole, but we can all dig out of it together.

Giolito is new to the Angels, but he believes that the playoffs are still well within reach, though they are seven out of the third wild card spot. We can get on a roll. We can do well. So, you know, you never know. It's all about just believing and, you know, everyone pulling from the same route. You know, keep putting together wins like we did tonight.

We'll see what happens. Just below 500, so they're actually right now sitting on a losing record. Could Mike Trout change that?

Well, he doesn't think that the Angels are dead, gone, buried, done. We lost some close games. We've had some bad bounces. You know, I think, you know, I'm not trying to pinpoint on one specific thing each night, but, you know, we've been in these games. It's been close games, you know, but the guys are, you know, coming in here, you know, battling, you know, just it's, you know, it's baseball. So why are we hearing from Mike Trout? Oh, I kind of skipped that part. Mike Trout, who's been out with that broken bone in his wrist, right? It's wrist, hamate, the hamate bone, if you'd like to look it up.

You'd like to Google it. He's been out for what feels like forever. I guess it's been a month and a half.

I'll have to go back and look at the exact date of his last game. But, yeah, he is at least doing baseball things. Still day by day, hitting every day, progressing every day, and, you know, once I feel comfortable to, you know, not alter my swing and the pain tolerance is pretty low, I'll be out there. Except the problem and there's still no timeline.

That's the part that sucks. He's doing baseball things, he's hitting, he's trying to deal with the pain and managing the pain after his surgery. He's been out for more than a month and yet we don't have an exact date. We're just kind of a bummer because there are only, what, seven weeks left in the regular season. So without Mike Trout, how do they keep going forward and try to pull themselves back in it? The biggest thing is just keeping the vibe up. You know, you can easily come in here and just, you know, be down all the time.

And that's miserable. You know, I think coming in here, you know, the guy's been doing a great job just trying to turn the pages every day, coming in before the game and, you know, going out there and, you know, fighting. Yes, it is the attitude, the mentality that they have to keep. But the problem is the American League has a bunch of contenders and we have talked about this ad nauseum, really. The AL East has every team above.500. That includes the Yankees now who've actually put another win on the board.

They've really been scuffling. They're in the basement of the AL East and yet they right now are two and a half games ahead of the Angels in the wild card race. The Red Sox, actually, I guess the Red Sox are in the basement of the AL East. The Yankees and Red Sox have swapped places without looking at the standings. That's the case based on their results the past couple of days, right? So they've switched places. But either way, it's the Yanks, it's the Red Sox at the bottom and both those teams are still ahead of the Angels in the wild card standings. So they've got so much ground to make up, but it's not just about the ground.

It's about the teams that are ahead of them and the number of teams they have to compete with to make it to October. All right, we're going to switch it up, delivering the eulogy on Team USA at the World Cup next here on CBS Sports Radio. The official Winning Time podcast from HBO is back.

I'm Rodney Barnes, executive producer on the show. Magic and the Lakers are back to defend their title. Join me as I break down each new episode with sportswriter Jeff Pearlman and the actors, directors and key collaborators who brought the 1980s Showtime Lakers to life. It's not about basketball.

It's about winning. Listen to HBO's official Winning Time podcast on Sundays after the show airs on Max. Go to ShipStation.com slash audio for a free 60-day trial. That's ShipStation.com slash audio.