After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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That's BetterHELP.com slash positive. Hey, is that the new iPhone 15 Pro? Yeah, it's made with titanium and the Pro camera is epic. Just got it at T-Mobile. Nice. Yep, and I got their Go 5D Next plan, so now I have the freedom to upgrade my phone every year. Whoa, I gotta get to T-Mobile. Get our best deals on iPhone 15 Pro at T-Mobile.com.

One-year upgrade requires Go 5G Next plan, financing new qualifying device, and upgrading in good condition after six months with half paid off. It docked on me on Thursday night with an elimination baseball game, for the Braves anyway. But two rivals and a team on the brink and the crazy arc from a year ago that now plays itself out in two post seasons in a row and the size of the markets. Only baseball playoff game on the schedule, all of those factors with the star power like Bryce Harper, of course, Ronald Acuna, the ace on the mound, Spencer Strider could go on and on about the two teams, Braves and Phillies. But it dawned on me, wow, the baseball game might have more viewers than the football game on Amazon Prime, and that would never happen at any other point and on any other night except for a Thursday where the NFL is now on Amazon Prime. Good for you, baseball. Enjoy it while you got it. Enjoy it on your Thursday nights because that's about it.

But yeah, that thought crossed my mind. There are probably more people right now in the United States tuned into, and I'm only comparing the two sporting events, not, and I know there was hockey too, sorry, but there's no way the hockey games, regular season hockey games could compete with the NFL on a regular network. And probably not on Prime either, but referring to these two sporting events, I know there are a lot of Americans who are watching the news this week when I'm not watching sports, I've also been watching the news and listening to the news primarily because of the war in Israel. But for those people who are watching sporting events, yeah, how many people picked baseball because it was easier?

Easier to access, obviously not a subscription service other than cable. I bet baseball is grinning, but here's what baseball is not grinning about, the fact that there are no game fives. We have not yet had a winner-take-all game through these first two rounds of the playoffs. No game threes in the wildcard, no game fives in the division series, and in case you didn't know this, though we have referenced this already this week, here's your baseball postseason nerd alert! There are no teams with more than 90 wins still alive in the baseball postseason.

Nerd alert! That whole winning a hundred wins in the regular seasons for the birds, or the Braves, or well the birds, the Orioles, that wasn't even on purpose. Definitely didn't work for the Dodgers, or the O's, or the Braves, but this is even more stunning because it's two years in a row at the hands of the Phillies and the way it played out. The Phillies win the opener in Atlanta after they can't even see the Braves from where they are in the division standings. 14 games back, do I have that correctly, 14 games back on the final day of the regular season, and one of the points that I'd made about the Braves, you're not going to catch the Phillies being intimidated.

They're comfortable in your ballpark too because they play there so often, really because of their personality as well, but there's no secrets between these two teams. Definitely no mysterious ballpark atmosphere for the Braves and their fans. But one thing I said about the Braves is you come out right away and you re-establish yourself as the team that was 14 games better than the Phillies in the regular season. But the Braves didn't do that, in fact they barely led in this series, well the three games that they lost certainly.

They were out pitched, out hit, out homeward, out scored, duh, out hustled, they were out everything and now they're out, they're just out. But to have it happen two years in a row almost the same exact way blows my mind. Braves had 104 wins this season, 101 last season, but at least misery loves company. The Dodgers, the big bad Dodgers are in the same freaking boat, lost to a team in their own division that couldn't have thrown a stone and hit them atop the standings in the NL West at the end of the regular season.

Gosh I usually refer to story lines and moments in football from the category of you can't make the stuff up, but it applies here. It does not pay to win 100 games in baseball, at least not this year, not last year either. Congratulations to the Phillies consecutive championship series for the first time since 2008-9-10. Seeking their first world series championship since 8 if they can get back there.

I mean you can't win it if you're not in it. It'll be interesting to see how many solo home runs we get between the Phillies and the Arizona Diamondbacks. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. If you miss the football game, I did watch it on Prime, I alternated back and forth between audio down on football, up on baseball, up on football, down on baseball. I had my laptop in my lap, oh haha, and I was watching football on my laptop and then watching baseball on my big screen. I mean it's not that big. You guys, there's many of you who have larger TV screens than I do. Jay, how large is your main TV screen in your house? It's 65 inches.

Right, so mine's 55, I think. Yes, my new TV that I bought, gosh, this summer. Oh no, it was last summer, wasn't it? Because I put together that 75 pound TV stand all by myself. Where was Bob then?

Thanks a lot, Bob. Actually, Jay only volunteered like 17 times to help and somehow it never happened. I even came over to help, I think.

But it never happened. Anyway, I got my new TV because of Amazon Prime and the Thursday night streaming and it just, it doesn't look as good on my big screen and it seems to buffer on my big screen for some reason. So instead, I was watching football on my laptop, I was watching baseball on the big screen, then I was listening to one or the other.

Just, I had some other stuff to do on my computer too and I was upstairs getting ready for work. It's always the go-to when there's more than one big event happening at the same time as the radio is key. It's clutch, like Nick Castellanos. Oh, can I tell you Liam might be my favorite little personality now in these playoffs.

He is the best. Forget Taylor Swift. Liam is far more expressive and excited and I actually know he understands what's going on too. I think it's great that Taylor's got a new BFF or just a new BF, but have you noticed how she gets very excited over the most routine catches? She better watch out for that voice. I hope she's not yelling up there in the press box because sometimes it's not worth the screams that she's giving it. It's just what Travis does. Goodness.

If you yell and lose it over every catch he's got, you're gonna be, your voice is gonna be hoarse after a while. You might have to postpone the eras tour if the Chiefs make it into the Super Bowl. Well, no, no fears. There's now a movie about the eras tour. It got released today apparently.

That's, what a quinky dink. That she's on Amazon prime at the same time that her movie's getting released. My mother actually sent me a text.

Are you ready? This is so funny. This is how I know that it's become mainstream because my mom asked about it. She said, I wonder if the Taylor Swift romance rumors are for real or just PR for the Chiefs.

And I was like, Oh no, mom, you've got it backwards. It wouldn't be PR for the Chiefs. It would be PR for Tay. Not that she needs it, but I mean, it is, it is quinky dink.

I guess it's a mutually beneficial relationship. I feel like I've seen Travis Kelsey and I know he's done commercials and stuff in the past, but I feel like I see him more in the last like three, four weeks. I don't think it's about her though. I think their podcast is so popular. The Kelsey's new Heights podcast is actually among the top podcasts in the world. So for that reason, and obviously now it's getting a spike from Swifties, but even before that, because of all the pub they got during the run to the Superbowl with their mom and everything else, she was a special guest. Remember? So their podcast went from being top 10 at the end of last regular season to being the number one podcast in the world, crazy enough.

And that was around the Superbowl. Now it's back there again because of the extra downloads, but the two of them are a hoot. I mean, they've become really popular. I mean, Jay, the two of them play off each other really well. It's not that different than Peyton and Eli and just the type of chemistry and rapport that you can't teach. And you could throw a bazillion radio hosts together and it would take them years to come up with that kind of a rapport, but you put siblings together and they just know each other so well.

Yeah. It's extremely natural and it's authentic. And so the timing couldn't have been more perfect for the Kelsey's to release their podcast.

They obviously didn't know they would both end up in the Superbowl, but I mean, you want to talk about absolutely perfect timing. Donna's even in the commercial now, in the Campbell's commercial. The Campbell's commercial. How many times do we see it? Of course, again, it was on Amazon Prime tonight.

And so it's easier for them to throw these kinds of ads. But yeah, Liam is still my favorite family member slash cheerleader. Awesome. He's so cute. And you notice he's wearing the same type of headband or underneath his hat as his dad does. I mean, it's a different color, but you know how Nick Castellanos wears that headband?

It's underneath his hat. So his son Liam was wearing one too that was knotted at the back of his neck. Could you imagine just for a second, you're a guy, and you were once a young boy that I'm sure looked up to your dad.

I know that your dad is still one of your best friends. But can you imagine how Liam just must idolize his dad right now? Oh my gosh. Have you ever seen videos of Liam talking about his dad? They're out there. I have not.

Oh my gosh, I wish we could find one. Yeah, it's amazing. He's always like, oh, my dad is the best. He works so hard, his work ethic. It's honestly really cool.

That is adorable. He really appreciates his dad. He's not just like, oh, my dad's a baseball player, and he's better than yours. He's cool.

He has reasons. It's cool. It's nice.

That's awesome. Unlike Charlie Kershaw, who idolizes Freddie Freeman. Liam actually loves his own dad. It was just, it's so cute to watch. It's so sweet to watch, father-son. So yeah, that's got to be so my favorite video from this entire baseball postseason so far is Liam.

And the mouth, I mean, can the mouth be open any wider? And every time his dad smokes a baseball, and boy, did he smoke a couple baseballs the last two nights. It must be pretty cool watching your dad hit a couple bombs.

Oh yeah, no doubt. And you've made yourself, you've made your way down to field level, so you're sitting right there. It's so cute. I love it. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

Generally, we usher in a football Friday, but of course during October, gets a little crowded in the center ring of the circus, and so instead we got to spend some time talking baseball, and we will do that coming up. Though, Chiefs Broncos did kick off week six in the NFL, and I don't believe in luck in sports. The Chiefs obviously played very good defense against the Broncos. Say what you will about the Broncos offense.

It's not as bad as you think. It's actually the Broncos defense that's far worse, but for the Chiefs defense to play as well as they did, giving up just one touchdown in the two-point conversion, the way that they not only generated three takeaways, but put extreme pressure on Russell Wilson, and part of the reason why Russ, now you know Russ made some poor decisions, but part of the reason why Russ was unable to get rid of the football as quickly as he would like, is because downfield the coverage by the Chiefs secondary was really good. The receivers weren't getting much separation. They weren't finding room either to improvise, right, to find an open space and and go back to the football so that Russell Wilson has a target, even if the initial route was blanketed, and they're really just two guys that he would be looking for. Jerry, Judy, Courtland Sutton, those are the top two receivers, but not really finding a whole lot of separation or finding open space, and so these are not just pass rush sacks or sacks that are because of the voracious pursuit of the d-line, the linebackers, yada yada. It's not just about the Chiefs going after Russell Wilson, it's about downfield him not really finding any open receivers or any targets, and so the back level of the defense is actually helping with the pass rush.

When they are covering the receivers and Russ has no one to throw to, he's milling around, he's looking, he's waiting, he's hoping someone gets open, he's trying to find a running lane, he's looking for anything. Not great that it's still on him not to make stupid throws into double coverage or yada yada yada, but the way the Chiefs were able to limit his options, short field, flat, mid-range, downfield, anything like that, he didn't even have a hundred passing yards. It felt like he had more yards in sacks than he did in passing, which is not accurate, but that's what it felt like at times, but yeah they they rushed for over 100 yards, but the Broncos couldn't find anything much downfield and he was under duress most of the time. Four official sacks, seven QB hits, a bunch of rushed throws, so credit the Chiefs defense. All that to say, if you tuned in for a brilliant offensive performance by the Chiefs, it's still not there. Yeah, Travis Kelce had a stat padding game, a fantasy game, other than no touchdown, but for Patrick Mahomes, still also himself making couple poor decisions, throwing an interception, and honestly there could have been a couple more, but they were only one for five in the red zone, and the Broncos only got into the red zone once. The Chiefs were one for five in the red zone.

That's not going to fly against better teams. They're not capitalizing on all their opportunities, but what we always say about Thursday night, you get your win and you get the heck out of dodge, or in this case they were in Kansas City, but at least now you get the heck out of dodge for a long weekend. Generally when NFL teams win on a Thursday night, they get a mini-buy. They get a couple days off, so they'll be able to get the heck out of dodge for a bit, knowing that they're now at five and one. So yeah, on Thursday nights, teams will take an ugly win. They'll take a one-point win if it's seven to six.

I mean, it's not worth paying for Amazon Prime for seven to six, but right, in this particular case, not a real pretty win for the Chiefs, but that matters zero to none because you got the win, you're done now, you have a mini-buy, and you can regroup. So we'll get to football, but yeah, it dawned on me how many more people are watching baseball right now than NFL week six. Love to hear from you on Twitter, ALawRadio.

We will have the After Hours Game of the Week poll. I've been looking, I've been looking. And also on our Facebook page, our phone number 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4CBS. Our final show of the week, we're glad to have you with us.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS. Facts are facts, like how contributing to employees' financial security makes them want to work harder for their company. In fact, according to a 2023 study by Principal, 87% of employers say that better employee financial security means employees are more engaged and productive at work. The fact of the matter is that employees want to feel financially secure in their future. So consider this, Principal helps you invest in your employees by providing customized benefits and retirement plans to help keep your employees more engaged and productive. When you take care of your team, they take care of business.

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Actual range will vary with options, driving conditions and habits, vehicle and batteries condition, and other factors. Available in limited quantities and select states only. Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. 0-2 and there's a flying ball deep down the left field line towards the wall. 1-0 Braves. Shots fired here in the top of the fourth inning. And it's Austin Riley with another home run that might get 1-0 Atlanta.

Yeah baby. Here's Nick Castellanos. Castellanos batting right-handed the pitch to him. Swung on, hit well. Deep to left field toward the pole.

It is gone! Just inside the pole down the left field line. The ballpark is in a frenzy as Castellanos sprints around the bases. Liam has popped down to the bottom level again and the Phillies have tied it up and won. Sweeping across home plate. Points to Liam in the first row. And this place is alive once again.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. The lead for the Braves in game number four did not last long but they had it. Austin Riley with a loud solo home run. And Atlanta was on the board first in the fourth inning. And then Nick Castellanos ties it up in the bottom of the inning.

And Spencer Strider, he was battling all the way through. He didn't have any clean innings. In the first, what was it, four innings, he put a couple runners on base each time. So there are a lot of Phillies on the base paths. In fact they left nine on base.

And so he was seeing a lot of traffic. He was having to work himself out of jams. But initially the Phillies weren't able to push them around. In fact they were over with runners in scoring position. The only three runs they had came on solo shots. And Nick Castellanos had his first in the fourth. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

Yeah solo shots are plenty if your opponent is not generating any offense itself. The pitch swung on into the air deep to left field. Pilar turns. That one is going to be long gone. Just under the Lissio's bakery side in left field. Trey Turner is three for three tonight. And he's given the Bills a 2-1 lead as the fireworks go up over the bell and right center field. And the 1-2 to Castellanos. Swung out hit in the air. Blasted deep to left field.

No doubt about this one. Into the foot of the second deck a solo home run. Nick Castellanos has hit his second solo home run of the night.

And the Phillies are on top three to one. What a shot that was. And not just a shot but the bat flips. The back chucks.

The back demonstrations. Did you notice how Castellanos not just flipped it almost looked like he was doing some kind of a baton trick on the second one with his back home runs. Oh man he had a career year in terms of RBI and was able to contribute several critical hits and runs in the past couple games.

I'm I guess I'm a little surprised just because this seems like it would be something that must have been accomplished before now. Nick Castellanos the first player in baseball postseason history to ever have multiple home runs in back-to-back games. Think of all the sluggers who've come before him and yet it's Nick Castellanos.

Raise your hand if when you think about the best home run hitters in the game you think Nick Castellanos. But that's the great thing about sports. And we see it in the NBA frequently where a guy that you may not even know maybe you've never heard of him will go off for 40 points. These are all professional athletes. They don't hand out charity draft picks.

Right? These guys don't get, most of them, don't get a free ride into the majors. All of these athletes can stand in the batter's box. All these hitters can stay in the batter's box and blast of baseball.

They can all get hot at a particular time. But now Nick Castellanos is not only a Philly legend forever but he's the answer to a trivia question and not the guy that you would expect. Eat your heart out Shohei Ohtani. Oh actually I feel bad because I would love to see Ohtani in the playoffs.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Braves were threatening in the seventh with, oh no you should have known this was happening, Philly's fans. Craig Kimbrell on the mound. It's like déjà vu for every team he's ever pitched for. Two balls, two strikes.

Kimbrell ready. The pitch. Swung on hit in the air.

Left center field. Long run into the gap. Rojas is calling. He will reach out. Makes the catch up against the wall. And Johan Rojas has made his mark in this series. The rookie wanted to help the team win and he's done exactly that.

Wow. At the warning track a little leap. He makes the grab and crashes into the fence.

Right at the base of the angled wall. Johan Rojas saves it. And the Phillies hold the lead.

Again the 2-2. He swings in a fly ball out towards deep left center field. Back towards the gap. Phillies trying to get there. A leap and a catch on the wall by Rojas.

He had just enough room. He went into the padded wall in left field. Went up into the air and brought it down and he robs the Braves. You mentioned he's out there for his defense and that's one of the best defensive plays he's ever made in the big leagues.

And the Braves leave them loaded. The call on both the Phillies and Braves radio network and Marco Balletti's here in studio. I'm not sure if you could hear.

I think Marco is just in my ear. Is it actually possible to be in both of our ears or no? You can't do it at the same time. I could do it at the same time. Oh can you? Yeah I think so. Interesting.

Alright I wasn't sure how the old technology worked. Thumbs up. Anyway, Jay said the same thing in my ear that I said when I was watching this catch. And I wish I had tweeted it at the time so you could know I'm not making this up.

Then I thought better of the tweet because I thought people are going to get really mad at me and not understand the tone. That it had to be one of the most awkward game-saving catches I've ever seen in my life. It was so deliciously awkward. He's running. He's running. It's a weirdly timed leap. Almost like he didn't need to leap.

It looks so completely unathletic and yet it was brilliant. I don't think he knew how close he was to the wall or better yet how far away from the wall that he was. I think he thought he was slamming into the wall and he had another couple of feet. So it was it was a little awkward.

He didn't really judge it perfectly. And I think that's why part of the reason why you got some of the reaction that you got from him afterwards is because not only the moment but he realized that the play he made could have been a lot smoother and easier. Yeah it was it was obviously one of those moments that you you would dream of right as a kid and he's a rookie and that's why he's out there and blah blah blah. But yeah the way that he was like running galloping and then this weirdly this weird kind of like running leap. He was almost in slow motion at the end. It really was like I mean if he took three more steps he could have just camped under it and made the play.

Now it's up against the wall. It's not like it was an easy fly ball. It's still a ball. But he had more room than he thought and there was no reason for the leap but he made the play. Craig Kimbrell is now definitely buying Rojas whatever he wants for Christmas. And here is Rojas on that moment. I was playing a little middle away you know towards right field. Again I knew he was a good hitter but then you know when I was tracking the ball down I took my eyes off of the ball because I wanted to check where the wall was.

And again you know like we I mean we get ready for moments like that you know that's what we play for. I knew I had to catch that ball. He did catch it indeed and snuffs out the Braves last great hope but really cool moment. You can see his well the left fielder Marsh just about flips out screaming and yelling because Marsh wasn't that far away. He was a couple of feet to him and maybe he could see him too as he's running. I don't know if you probably can't hear each other. This is how a lot of times you have guys who are calling for the same ball and they run into each other because the crowd's so loud so you can imagine it would be hard for them to hear each other even there. But I wonder if Marsh or another outfielder could say to him or they do communicate you've got room you've got room you've got room. It's just I don't know that you could hear him in that moment anyway.

I would doubt it. Right. As loud as that park was. As close as they are to the fans. Yeah I don't I mean again they're not that far away from each other but I think Marsh was close enough that he you could see his eyes when you watch the replay. He's looking at him so he knows where he is and he knows he's going to make the play.

Right. Which is part of the reason he backed off a little bit at the end. I don't know if he heard him calling for it or if he just saw where he was and knew that he had a better track on the ball than he did.

Yeah good stuff. Amazing pitching too for Suarez for the bullpen other than Kimball making it exciting but that's actually I swear he's paid to do that. And to see the way that the the Phillies challenged Strider in this game initially and the fact that he was never really through an inning that was clean.

Trey Turner had never had a hit off him before but had three tonight. Castellanos obviously with the two home runs both off Strider and so the the way the Phillies were aggressive and they attacked it fits their personality. That's who they have been.

That's who they are. I credit Bryce Harper for a lot of that. Certainly management went out and spent a ton of money to be able to put this group together but well within the rules of baseball and the guys they brought in clearly care about each other.

I mean Bryce has been saying that. We talk about chemistry in sports and how it's sometimes generated by winning but not always. You could have a winning team that doesn't have chemistry. This team has both. It's got the it factor if you will that chemistry that's not only born out of winning but because they all genuinely fit together. And Turner even though he had a really tough what first two-thirds of the season at the plate. He's always a great fielder although he did have an error tonight so but he's he fits in with anyone because of his defense and his speed and then to see the way he picked up toward the end of the season and the Phillies fans lifting him up with the billboards and the chanting and everything else when he was down. I mean it's clear that there's a love affair going on with this team and with the fans which certainly does help. So 104 wins this season for the Braves.

101 wins last year. Don't do you a bit of good once you're in the postseason but man it's got to hurt even more considering the fact that the ouster comes at the hands of the Phillies again and you know they're not going to take it easy on the Braves. I don't know who decided this was a catchy ditty but it was being sung in the clubhouse.

Go Pills, hold her up tight, against the wall, make a little love and all night. Turn down and all race in Dickson land. F*** the Braves!

Putting their own little addendum there into the song. Oh dear. I do love rivalries in sports though and this one just got spicier the last two years.

I don't know. It's crazy to me that the Braves could generate so little offense. I know Zach Wheeler, Aaron Nola, they've got playoff experience. Perfect place for Ranger Suarez to be where he was in each of these series. Just wow Braves. Yeah you know what, I gotta be fair. I've been watching this and seeing the body language and even seeing Orlando Arcea talking to the crowd.

You see that video that went out there. I'm sorry they got in their head. Every single one of them.

I mean you know you were kind of poking at me a little bit and some of it was a little tongue-in-cheek but I really mean it. This team was soft. They look like after game one when they lost game one they were afraid to go to Philly.

Shell shocked. They looked like yeah. I understand that it's an intimidating ballpark and the fans are nuts. You're professional athletes. You're playing the fans. What the hell is wrong with you? You've won a championship not that long ago.

You've been through the ringer. They looked scared and that's hard to say about a team that's won a title and a team that you're playing in your own division. They looked intimidated at every part of that fill it up. They wanted nothing to do with the Phillies. This is two years in a row and that's not this is not something where you know people all the change the flame out of playoff format and you know what do you get for you with sorry when the team's got your number the Phillies wanted the Braves. The Braves wanted anyone else but the Phillies. That played out on the field. It definitely did and that's what I'm talking about with the with the Phillies. That attitude that toot if you call it the aggressiveness the attack it never waned it it never let up and the Braves ran right into it again but they can't say they were surprised this year maybe last year although not even then because they're both in the NLEs and I don't think you can be.

You play each other how many times a year like there's no way. I agree with that. You know again this year you definitely have no excuse and as you knew you couldn't afford to lose one on your own field and I think that was part of it. I think they knew after game one you could see I think that's part of the reason why they reacted the way they did after game two. It was almost like they knew they saved themselves because there's no chance they could win two games of Philly they'd be lucky to get one to be able to come home. That was the vibe that you got from the Braves and that can't be the way you go into a playoff series. They truly looked intimidated by the atmosphere at Citizens Bank. That is not a good look for Atlanta.

Well and I have said this over and over I'll say it again. I do not think it's good for a team to go six weeks without playing a game that's meaningful in that atmosphere where you have to win. To me not to have that edge to not be comfortable in the uncomfortable.

I don't think it's a good idea. As experienced as they are to me the Phillies had to be in that space and they thrive in that space. They do and I mean that there's an argument on both sides because as much as yeah you want to stay sharp at the other point you don't want to have to grind it out all the way to the last day because you can wind up exhausting yourself where you go into the playoffs and you're on fumes.

So there could be two sides to that. Bottom line and I don't care if you got four days off or four weeks off when you're supposed to be a team that's as talented and as good as the Braves are you can lose on the field that happens. Bad matchup, run into a buzzsaw, two pitchers that just light you up and there's nothing you can do. They didn't look like they had the right mental attitude through the entire series.

That to me is just completely 100% unacceptable. We're going to hear from both the Braves as well as the Phillies and not when they're singing a song to the Braves but actually talking about this series that puts them right back into the championship there. They have an opportunity to return to the World Series.

Can they capitalize? You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Strom is ready and the left-handers one two swing and a miss he got him. Phillies come racing out of the dugout as Matt Strom has saved it and the Phillies have beaten the Braves in the division series for the second year in a row. The Phillies will return to the National League Championship Series. It wasn't easy and it wasn't conventional for the bullpen tonight but they got the job done a three to one win over the Atlanta Braves who for the second year in a row finished way ahead of the Phillies in the regular season but fall way short in the postseason.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Lots of different voices on the Phillies radio network. The primary one's Tom McCarthy, Scott Fransky and they have a chance once again to call games and action in the NLCS back-to-back appearances in the championship series for the Phillies and man a couple of stats that blow me away they out homeward the Braves. This is the Braves who set a new record for home runs in a season in the National League out homeward the Braves in this series 11 to 3. Nearly 46,000 fans on hand that created an electric energy in that ballpark.

It was amazing to watch even on tv it translates. I can't imagine why the Braves would be intimidated. They knew what they were in for but the problem is once again they lost the series opener. Seven consecutive series opening wins for the Phillies.

It goes along with that attack mode. It goes along with their aggressive approach. Now they can be extra but that aggressiveness serves them well when it comes to challenging pitchers and even going back to Bryce Harper's base running gaffe.

Most of you were not on the same side as Jay and I. Sure Bryce needs to know better blah blah blah except if that ball drops he's scoring from first base and I like the gamble. I think it goes along with his personality and I think it goes along with the personality of the Phillies overall.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. So Bryce Harper actually had a scary moment there in what was it the eighth inning maybe where Matt Olson is running up the base pass and as Bryce is making a play his elbow is to the outside of first base so much for bigger bases and Olson rams right into him and he looked like he was in a ton of pain so he was asked about it on TBS. I'm good. Just hit my funny bone. Feels better now I imagine. Have you ever noticed it's not funny when you hit your funny bone? Why is it called that? It's not funny at all. It's the worst. It's the worst exactly. I want to put that on Twitter. Why is it called your funny bone when it's not funny at all? I almost blacked out once when I hit my funny bone playing basketball. Never forget it.

Yeah I can see that about you. So for these for these for these Phillies goodness. Now I'm gonna be stuck with that in my head. I wish we had better post-game audio from Nick Castellanos but the interviews that we were able to grab from him he just wasn't really well he didn't hear a question and so for that reason he just kind of stood there and waited.

Nick nobody in major league history has hit two home runs on back to back postseason games but you just did and you guys are headed to the NLCS. Where's the question or not? That's your question.

Okay thank you for telling me. I thought you'd be happy with that. I am man but we got eight more wins.

I mean I say this a lot but the verse can be true. I talk to young reporters young broadcasters about this. You ask a stupid question there's a good chance you're going to get a stupid answer. You ask a yes no question be prepared for yes or no.

When you don't ask a question sometimes you got to be prepared that you're not going to get an answer. That's actually radio or tv 101 uh Matt Weiner on TBS but he played it off very well. What about the Braves? Why so much of a struggle at the plate Brian Snicker?

So we're not we can't hear from Brian Snicker. Okay can't hear from Brian Snicker but a lot of people talking about the layoff for the Braves and I think that's a cop-out but I get you could be a little rusty but this is game number four. The layoff doesn't continue through game number four of the national league division series. Over five with runners in scoring position on this night. Eight Braves left on base but they scored eight runs in four games. Eight runs in four games. This was a potent offense. It had speed, it had power, it had pop, it had productivity and a lot of it disappeared in this series against the Phil's. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio.