00:00because in the National League wildcard conversation there seems to be two teams
00:04trending in a couple different directions and we spent 20 to 30 minutes on the Friday show
00:10last week of the Just Baseball show talking about how the New York Mets are back coming off of a
00:14sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies but lo and behold those rotation problems that we've been
00:19talking about for two months they didn't go away across the three-game stretch New York dropped
00:23three or four to the Marlins in New York meanwhile the Cincinnati Reds are playing exciting baseball
00:29they just walked off the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday afternoon in Cincinnati since August 1st
00:36the New York Mets as it stands right now the Mets they were under 500 by a wide margin and that was
00:43after they hit mind you a franchise record I think 53 home runs in the month of August they have never
00:50hit more than 50 homers in a single month until now they led all of Major League Baseball and Team OPS
00:56in the month of August by about 30 points but a staff ERA of 508 is not going to do anything for
01:02you so since August 1st the New York Mets have a record of 12 and 17 Cincinnati has gained a game
01:09and a half on them in that point at 13 and 15 what do you make of that final spot is it who wants it less
01:16yeah it's crazy because I thought I thought if the Reds didn't make the comeback that they made
01:21on on Labor Day I mean four to two they push them across in the ninth walk it off Novi Marte with a
01:27big hit there to to score two and walk that off uh I would have thought man you might be you might
01:34be done I just because it just it felt like all of a sudden go to five games and during the final
01:39month it's going to be tough you have a couple more games against Toronto which isn't going to be easy
01:43and you start it with a kind of a heartbreaking one where they were in control for a lot of the game
01:48and end up you know potentially blowing it fortunately they fought back but they had a
01:53lot of opportunities here over the last couple weeks to close the gap on the Mets and they haven't
01:56really and that's the part that's frustrating I think if you're a Reds fan but I'm also just
02:01fascinated by this Reds team as a whole like what what is this direction what what do they do next
02:06year if they come up short I there's so much that I want to talk about with them but in terms of how
02:11they can make this thing happen this year I really think it's going to take them playing fine like
02:16obviously they can't shoot themselves in the foot but I think it's going to really take the Mets having
02:20this collapse of some sorts that we know they are capable of as a franchise it's different people
02:26every year so I think it's a little silly sometimes to talk about it but I do think that the shadow
02:31kind of hangs over you and you feel it right but I think the pitching situation with the Mets right now
02:38is really the only way that the Reds can get back into this is if they just cannot get out
02:43and they continue to you know struggle pitching wise and I think they know that and that's why
02:47they brought up Jonah Tong who's going to make another start as well but a lot of reliance here
02:52on on rookies and but I do feel like it's it's kind of going to be whoever loses it and at this point
02:58the Mets would have to really lose it to give it up yeah but I they are trending in that direction
03:03and to your point like we were struggling to see okay if they do cough it up how do they cough it up
03:08and you know Ryan Finkelstein joined us last week the you know host of Locked On Mets and of course
03:13the editor-in-chief at JustBaseball.com and he said it's because of the starting pitching it's because
03:16they won't pitch and I feel like that became even more clear over the weekend if the Mets do cough up
03:22the final wild card spot it will be because they cannot get good starting pitching there is a world
03:28where they sneak in and they enter a three-game wild card set with Nolan McClain starting game one
03:35and Jonah Tong starting game two those two were not on the major roster on August 10th yeah that's
03:41amazing to think about but Carlos Mendoza said they have to have a conversation about next steps
03:46regarding Kodai Senga David Peterson was an all-star he's been throwing like a front-line starter
03:51he has had a very bad month of August it concluded with two innings of eight-run ball
03:56on Saturday against the Marlins in New York there's not a lot of endearing qualities right
04:02now about the veterans in that rotation Clay Holmes do you feel comfortable with him starting
04:06a game right now Mania is starting to tick up a little bit I guess but if you had to name a
04:12three-game wild card series rotation it's probably McClain one Mania two Peterson three do you feel
04:19awesome about that Mania was wasn't great today I the offense has been amazing but it's over
04:26coming the pitching so I don't know I have no idea again this team had an 870 team OPS in the month
04:33of August 870 and they were five games under 500 in August
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