You're listening to the litter box a Detroit
Tigers podcast with your hosts Chet West and
Bill Patterson Here's what's on deck for this
episode and we've just finished our first margarita
we're having a second one Keith has been nothing
short of amazing. It was not the smoothest outing,
but good to see Galeck's laying back out there.
They were just drinking margaritas, eating tortilla
chips by the plateful. We've got less than two
weeks before playoff rosters are due to be set.
I ate copious amounts of tortilla chips yesterday
afternoon, and it was sort of by accident. A
little of my own doing. I ended up going out
for a cocktail. A little happy hour cocktail
with a buddy of mine. Sat out on the porch trying
to enjoy the end of summer. Got a couple margaritas.
Those slide down real easy. They're very good
at this place. And the next thing I know a chips
and salsa shows up. And I started eating chips
and salsa like there were gonna be none left
in the world. I went through an entire, this
guy's just sitting there watching me. I'm just
shoveling chips and salsa. Salsa's flying everywhere.
I've got it down the front. He just looks at
me. He's like, did you eat today? I'm like, I
didn't really have lunch. So I had the whole
plate of chips and salsa and the guy comes back
out and we just finished our first margarita.
We're having a second one. And that guy comes
back out and he's like, do you guys want more
chips and salsa? And I looked at where I go.
Yes, please. Yes. And he brings it out. I said
it kind of like, yes, please. We're in the middle
of discussion. Yeah. He said, yeah, bring it
out. And I kept eating them and this guy sitting
there looking at me like I've had four chips.
dipped in salsa in the last hour and a half,
you've had two plates and two bowls of salsa.
And I got home and my wife looks at me, she goes,
hey, what do you want for dinner? Nachos? And
I was like, yeah, let's do nachos. So we had
nachos for dinner. I make a whole baking pan
full of nachos for dinner, ground beef, the whole
works, cheese, queso, you name it. And I eat.
At least another half bag of chips on top of
that. I have like a tortilla chip adobe forming
in my stomach this morning. I have been up since
five o 'clock. I cannot. I barely I woke up.
I had that like I can barely breathe. I had to
roll out of bed. It feels awful. I'm hoping the
coffee does something for me. Anyways, letterbox
listeners, we brought you in a little different
this on this glorious Thursday morning following
a tiger's sweep. I ate too many tortilla chips.
Bill got nine hours of sleep apparently and slept
like a baby. I got like five and I feel like
hell. So we've got a ton to cover today. And
like I said, we just came out of a Houston Astros
series that we were kind of hoping we'd at least
win one game based on how we'd been playing.
And we go out and get a sweep and the Astros
only score two runs. Two runs through the whole
series. My co -host Bill, how are you on your
full night of nine hours rest? Probably didn't
eat two bags of chips like I did last night.
Now, now, how do you feel about the sweep? How
are you feeling today? It's funny how we each
celebrate in our own different ways. And let's
just talk about what's been going on because
I think we're being way too hard on this team.
That is now four series wins. We have the Angels
win, we have the White Sox, we have the Twins,
and a sweep of the Astros who, yes, we were hoping
for... two games, tops, you know, we knew that
we had scoobs going on the mound and, and actually
that was the tightest game of them all. But again,
the Astros are at a historic low. The last time
they had an offensive drought like this, it was
1985. So it's crazy to think just how cold and
almost putrid their offense has gotten right
now. It's crazy to think of how teams just flip.
Yeah. All of a sudden. I mean, the Astros were
one of the hotter teams a month ago. Where were
we then? We were looking at the series as like
a huge pivotal series in a season for us. Right?
Yeah. The only saving grace for the Astros right
now is that they're competition in their division.
The Mariners and Rangers have both gone stone
cold. But this isn't an Astros podcast. This
is a Tigers podcast. And I've got two players
that I really want to give shout outs to. So
let's give the accolades right off the bat. Colt
Keith has been nothing short of amazing in terms
of his OPS is the best on the team and is top
three in the major leagues the last 60 games.
He is the leadoff hitter that I have dreamt about
and wanted all season. He is our version of Stephen
Kwan, except for he can play more positions than
Stephen Kwan. So I have to give a kudo and a
shout out to Colt Keith for that. Player number
two, who I just don't think it's enough recognition,
even though we called it very early. Spring training
in this podcast, we said he would be your starting
catcher and we said he would be a player that
you'd love. Number 13, the catcher's number for
the Tigers, because formally worn by my personal
favorite Tiger Lance Parrish Dylan Dingler is
going to have the best war if all if the season
ended today outside of Tarek scubal on this team
and for a player playing in his first full season
He has been nothing short of amazing and those
are the two position players that I want to give
credit to I've got some pitching credit, but
I wanted to hear your thoughts right now I think
we need to do a Dylan Dingler appreciation pot
at some point in time. Just sit down and go through
the Dylan Dingler effect on this team. He has
been the one constant all season long. No real...
Slumping off. No real drought. He doesn't even
have the highest OPS on the squad He does I believe
currently if he's not there He's close to having
the highest batting average or he's really close
from like one or two depending on the day But
he's he's a catcher and we haven't seen a lot
of catching at this level for the Tigers in quite
some time He did DH in this series, which is
I mean kudos to him He's looking at him like
you've had his hot I got to get you in the line
of how often do we say that about you know catchers?
outside of maybe the Rushman a year ago or whatnot.
But it's the Keith thing. If Colt Keith is handsome,
Dylan Dingler is sexy. They're both fantastic.
I don't know why that just popped into my head.
That was the way I was kind of looking at it.
Like Colt Keith plays a nice, tidy ball game,
right? He has great plate appearances. He works
a count better than anybody. And not to say Dingler
doesn't, but Dingler just provides that. Charge
in that pop when you want it like he'll just
come in all of a sudden and start raking Kind
of reminds me the way carp was toward the end
of last year a little bit. Yeah, that's a good
analogy I actually think it was a combination
of corn tortillas mmm, whatever they fried them
in the excess amount of sodium your body's dealing
with and a little bit of tequila shooting up
to your brain. It could be that. Yeah. Yeah,
that's what I think. It could be that. Yeah.
It makes hell of a mixture, which I'm still trying
to get over as I drink my coffee here this morning.
The other side of this is we got to see. So I
mean, we had game one as a blowout and nothing.
And it was a great way to start this whole series
off. No complaints whatsoever. Might be my favorite
win of the season. And I know there's recency
bias. But it was one of those games that just
felt complete. Everybody contributed. Even the
guy that I'm harshest on, Trey Sweeney, showed
up. I mean, Trey Sweeney shows up after we bash
him for a month, right? And he's done this now
in a couple of games and I'm not getting excited
yet, okay? He had a couple even hard hit balls.
by Statcast Metrics. His average is creeping
up to 209, which is sad in one sense, but we're
getting a few points, right? Yeah, give him a
golf clap for that. But he has had a couple of
good games lately, and you know what he did in
this game, your favorite play, he hit a triple.
Which, let's just take a moment. I think it's
his second or third one of the season. The other
thing, and maybe we need to be hard on these
guys, Jack Flaherty. Just... I think he pitched
his magnum opus for the 2025 season. I think
he pitched his magnum opus for the last three
seasons. I mean, seven innings, three hits, no
runs, one walk, nine Ks. We have not seen that
Jack Fleary and that curveball was vicious. I
mean, filthy. It was as though he was angry at
the world, went out there and took it out on
the Astros. Beautiful game. Troy Melton. We had
a Troy Melton sighting. Troy Melton sighting,
one inning, nothing across, one strikeout. I
am loving everything I'm seeing from this guy,
whether he's starting or relieving. And we had
an Alex Lang sighting. Alex Lang, back to the
mound. Gets his inning of work in. Gave up two
hits, a walk, got a K, did it in 20 pitches.
It wasn't the smoothest thing on the face of
the earth, but. He loaded them at one point.
Yeah, it was not the smoothest outing but good
to see Galeck's laying back out there but also
don't want him to fall into just the pit of our
Below average bullpen at times. So hopefully
we see better things from him going forward your
thoughts It was good to see his full sleeve of
tattoos out there throwing hard. Yeah, he is
a swing -and -miss guy He is desperately needed
in this bullpen. So let's hope that out in one
was just getting some of the rust off because
it had been, you know, quite some time since
he had last pitched. The thing I wanted to bring
up in it previews game two as well. But it goes
back to Dylan Dingler is the word of like the
baseball insider word of Monday and Tuesday was
tunneling that flurry was tunneling that scubal
was tunneling. So the hitter comes up to the
plate, the hitter previously, whether it was
the last inning or or the previous batter gets
out on a slider or a breaking ball just in the
zone and so they're expecting to see something
like that and then the fastball comes in foreseen
locations perfect and then the next pitch is
a slider then the next pitch is a slider and
the batters were guessing in both games and a
lot of that credit not only has to go to Jack
Flaherty and Tarek Schubel, but it really needs
to go to Dylan Dingler, who's framing. And again,
for the uninitiated, that is where the catcher's
setting up the pitcher's location behind the
plate. He was master class in both of these outings.
And I just have to give a huge shout out. Not
only is he hitting, and to your point, Chet,
AJ Hinches used him on multiple occasions this
season as either a DH or a pinch hitter. days
that he is scheduled to be off to get some rest
because as we all know catching is extremely
hard on anybody's body and I just Again, the
Dylan Dingler appreciation train needs to continue
rolling Because I don't know that either of those
starting pitchers have the success they have
in either game one or two without that When we
talk about tunneling, just to go back to what
Bill had brought up there a minute ago, folks,
this is baseball 101, the term tunneling refers
to what a pitcher is basically disguising their
pitches. So a curve ball and a fast ball or a
slider, usually it's with a slider and a fast
ball, coming out of the hand look identical.
They come out of the same slot, the ball travels
on the same arc or the same path to the plate,
but the slider will break off at the last second,
whereas the fastball will stay flat, of course,
or move a little bit, depending on the type of
fastball being thrown, but that's tunneling.
So you're tunneling the pitch, you're throwing
it down a tunnel at the last second, it shoots
out of that tunnel and does whatever it's going
to do and surprises the batter. It's a great,
pitchers work on this to disguise what's being
delivered. Obviously, if you're going to throw
a slider and you can't disguise it and the batter
knows it's coming out of the hand, it makes it
a lot easier on them to pick that up. Game two,
you want to jump over to that one? Because that
was kind of a, that was a playoff atmosphere.
It really was. One -nothing Tigers, but 10 innings.
Comerica was rocking that night. This is what
happens when you get two pitchers at the prime
of the game. Hunter Brown is one of the best
pitchers in the American League. Speaking of.
Can we poop on the previous regime just a minute
here? Connor Brown is a local kid, went to Wayne
State, and I believe he was a fifth round pick
of the Astros. He was on the Tigers' radar, but
our former illustrious management staff neglected,
despite the fact that the Tigers were his boyhood
train. team and dream to pitch for, to draft
him in any way, shape or form. So Al, Avia. Avia
rhymes with tortilla, by the way, which are still
baking in my system right now. I just want to
throw that out there. You getting a little gurgle?
Percolating. Chet might be hitting the Pepto
today, folks. Yep. Anyway, where I was going
to go. Sorry, I didn't mean to break your thought.
No, where I was going to go on that is just a
1 -0 win. And that is 10 innings. It was exceptional.
Hunter Brown has had a long path here. He's had
injury stuff. He's had some stuff going out the
Astros and he's finally kind of showing that
promise that he had earlier on as a prospect.
And you got to see two guys at the top of their
game going against each other. This is what the
playoffs are going to be like guys. I mean, this
could be. That had a feel a playoff pitching
matchup feel to it of a game one of the playoffs
where the bats were just kind of like afraid
to come out of the cage and the pitchers were
just keeping them pinned down and then finally
of course we get a The one run that scores in
the 10th inning is basically a bases loaded walk
and you want to talk about Fitting for a game
like this that that would happen Well, this goes
back to game one though and the fact that because
Flaherty was so good that the Astros had to go
to their bullpen early after a weekend where
their bullpen was beleaguered and battered. And
so they really didn't have a lot left in the
tank. The only complaint I have for the Tigers
in game two is when the Astros' beleaguered bullpen
did come out, once Hunter Brown had finished
his day, the Tigers really couldn't do a whole
lot against him. I do have to give kudos though.
Guess who's getting on base again at a high clip?
Whom? That would be Glabar Taurus. Yeah, I had
a feeling this was coming. He was the hero. He
was the hero in the 10th. Somebody else has now
eight walks in his last seven games, and that
would be Riley Green. So the Tigers are taking
more pitches, which I also think this discipline
plate approach is helping them very well. This
is what they were doing in the first half. Exactly.
Discipline plate approach. And now we're back
to that. We had our... We had our, you know,
our drunk monkey month of not doing the right
thing at the plate and acting like an idiot.
And now we're back to taking pictures. They were
just drinking margaritas, eating tortilla chips
by the plate full all of July. I couldn't swing
a bat right now. I know. I think I would tear
something in my gut. What I would say is I, and
I want to ask you this question. I want your
opinion on this. I don't know if you watched
all the way through the 10th inning, but Caleb
Bort was the unlucky reliever who walked three.
He unlucky or unskilled reliever who walked three,
he relies heavily on the sweeper. OK, and the
sweeper doesn't really end up in the strike zone.
He had, I believe, a three, two count or he had
gotten to three balls and one strike or something
on Torres, and he gets this final pitch and Torres
is up there. waiting on it and you can tell Torres
is like it's either gonna be down the pipe or
it's gonna sweep and be out of the zone and I'm
gonna get the walk and we're gonna win and the
he threw the sweeper on the 3 -2 and I'm sitting
there and my wife was watching with me Charlotte
and she played softball in the day so she kind
of knows it's gone she goes why not throw the
strike there and make the guy get the hit like
why not put it over the plate See if you can
get the guy to hit into a you know ground out
or fly out or something and I agree with that
I sat there saying I said I'm like why wouldn't
you I mean what like what's what is the upside
of throwing that sweeper if Torres knows if he
throws the sweeper It's a ball like why not put
it over the plate Maybe even jump from the surprise
them with a fastball up and in or something like
I don't know it your thoughts I think it's safe
to say you married into the AJ Hinch mindset
tree. We've always known. My wife reminds me
of AJ Hinch all the time, let me tell ya. Yeah,
we know that you all kicked your coverage in
every way with Charlotte, and this just proves
it yet again. It's another exclamation point,
so kudos, Charlotte, you are correct. But you
would agree, right? Throw a strike there. See
if you can get him to drown out, fly out, like,
you know, you raise your percentages. I think,
I think. Gleiber knew he's like if this thing
doesn't look like a flat fastball down the pipe
I'm not swinging and it would swept way out of
the zone any rate one nothing win ten innings
exciting we got to game three seven two ball
game tiger win and turk scubal Tuesday became
the first pitcher to record 200 K's in 2025.
We really are just kind of blowing off his accolades
at this point, which is this affecting him to
be dominant. I'm sorry. I should have talked
a little more about Terrence dominance in that
game. Yeah. In the second year in a row that
he's done that going up against Hunter Brown,
who is one of his. competitors for the American
League Cy Young this year, I think, went a long
way towards Scubal repeating as the American
League Cy Young winner. Now, we still have some
baseball left to pitch. Yeah. Baseball left to
play, but I would say he's in the catbird seat
going forward. Yeah, Scoogle. First to 200Ks.
And he had 25 swing and misses in this game,
which is... My goodness. ...unheard of. The swing
and miss rates gotta be through the roof. Benetti
and Peaches were just... Well, Peaches is loving
this. Peaches is just like, this is my guy. I
mean, he was stocking the mound again. And I
swear, Scoogle's a big boy. They made a comment
in the telecast. He goes, Benetti said something
along the lines of, if... You know, they had
who was the who's the lineman TJ from he played
for the Packers. TJ Lang. Yeah, TJ Lang. He's
Benetti's partner for the preseason Lions games.
Bingo. So he had made a comment that Tarek Scoble
would be a tight end if he played football. And
I don't doubt that. And they have them listed
at 240. I think he's a bigger boy than that.
He's getting bigger, I think. Yeah. All the way
around, but he's like Tim Tebow size. Yeah. Yeah.
He's a thick kid. So we had an interesting matchup
in game three. Pramber Valdez comes in, who's
their number two and is a I saw him as like a
problem. I didn't think we were going to get
a sweep with this guy coming in. He's a lefty.
Which we struggle against he's he had a pretty
decent 330 something 320 something e ra before
this game He got lit up. He's a ground ball pitcher
as well That the tigers typically struggle with
but to your point chet. He had no location He
was walking guys and when he wasn't walking him
He was hanging balls in the zone and the tigers
feasted on I had to do a double I mean, I'm a
work watching the score and I had to do a double
take on the The first inning, 6 -0. I was like,
what? It's like, that's got to be wrong. And
I look in and it's just, it's a slaughter. Four
walks. He gave a four walks, seven runs and only
had two K's. And he got his hard hit. I mean,
they hit the, he gave up 10 or 11 hard hits based
on stat cast metrics. So these, they were rocking
him. Dingler had three hard hit balls, Baez two,
Ibanez had two. Jermai Jones, by the way, Jermai
Jones really starting to appreciate his work.
Is he an answer for leadoff hitter? No. Okay.
Keep Colt Keith there. Okay. For next year, I
think Colt Keith is your starting second baseman
and your leadoff hitter. And we still need a
everyday third baseman unless you're going to
platoon Wenzel Perez, Andy Mbanaez, and whomever
else there. I mean, Jermai Jones and other of
these guys are like a middling batting average
right now. And he's got an OPS well above 800.
He and Perez are interchangeable in the fact
that they both play good defense. They'll play
wherever you want them to. And the fact that
their OPS is so much higher than that of their
batting average. And that really is, I guess
we should probably give a shout out to this.
Baseball's changed immensely in the last few
years. Don't get a corn chip stuck there, okay?
I need you as my co -host, buddy. And batting
average is something now that every pitcher can
spin the ball everybody can throw four pitches
for sure some can throw as many as six or seven
getting on base is key and I know it's a you
know money ball axiom so on and so forth that
being said the Tigers do it as well as anybody
in the big leagues and that's why this series
was so important is because we saw the Tigers
of the first let's say two and a half months
of this year up until the All -Star break and
the other part is This was three key games that
will help the Tigers hopefully get one of the
two buys come playoff time. You do not want to,
whether you're the Tigers, whether you're the
Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, Blue Jays, whomever
else have to play a three game set against anybody,
winner take all, either at your park or at somebody
else's park to open the playoffs. And if the
Tigers can get that buy, I feel real good about
their postseason chances. A lot better than I
would if they don't get that by. So that is just
something that I want our listeners to keep focusing
on. I know right now the Tigers have a 10 game
lead in the division. The Red Hot Royals, who
had previously, they lost yesterday, but had
won five straight before that, come to town this
weekend and then they play the Royals again next
weekend at Kauffman. Essentially, that's a knockout
series for the Royals. The Tigers can end their
season by winning both those series. With that,
I again cannot say how much standing watching
I will be doing and you will be doing and other
fans will be doing, hoping and praying that the
Tigers do get one of these two buys. And I, brother
-in -law Brett, sent this the other day and I
started kind of getting goosebumps and getting
a little excited. Yeah. The Blue Jays are the
other team. Can you imagine American League Championship
Series between the Blue Jays and Tigers? They're
only four, four and a half hours apart, stadium
to stadium, Roger Center to co -America. Two
fan bases that used to play each other often
in the American League East. Familiar foes. Yeah,
I don't think the ratings will be good because
A, Canadian ratings don't translate to Nielsen
ratings like American cities do in Detroit. Was
part of the worst watched World Series ever against
the San Francisco Giants that is still Secondary
into the fact that as a fan base we would absolutely
eat it up So that's what I'm hoping for as we
look forward and we've got a three game set against
the Royals The other issue that I think we want
to focus on is that the Tigers have an off day
today They have Thursday off days the rest of
the season. So they are going to be well rested
They have games in hand against just about everybody
they play. And they have more off days than I
believe all the three other teams in Major League
Baseball. And those three teams are not in the
catbird seat, sitting on top of their division
and hoping for a first round bye. So, interestingly
enough, and you're talking a lot about the playoffs
right now, so I kind of want to interject and
bring something up. We've got less than two weeks
before playoff rosters are due to be set. August
31st, 1159 p .m. Eastern Time. Anybody who's
gonna play in the playoffs gotta be on your roster
at that juncture. The 40 man. The 40 man. Tommy
Canley was missing in action during this series
this week. Hasn't pitched since last Friday,
I believe, against the Twins. He is coming up
in the news as a possible, possibly his spot's
in jeopardy. right now in the 40 men. They brought
Hanifee up yesterday, which that whole thing
was mind -boggling. They sent him down. Nobody
really knows why he got sent down. I mean, it
was to make room. I mean, there were a couple
of strange roster moves and pitching moves that
happened. We lost a decent reliever from AAA
that we had to remove and end up losing to the
Nationals. Jackson. Yeah, there's a lot of things,
not Luke Jackson. It was a different guy. He
hadn't pitched up at the big club yet, but he
had potential and I cannot remember his name
at this point, but I can look it up. But at any
rate, Kenley, what do you think? Is he making
the playoff roster? Is he a guy you want on that
roster? Do you think he can get it back to where
he was at the beginning of the season? There's
probably a better way of putting it. No, but
I do think he'll be on the 40 man You think he'll
be on the 40 man. So you think he'll be around?
Well, the alternative is he's 35. He's out of
options Unless he gets hurt if you don't have
him on the roster Then he's free to go somewhere
else and I'd rather not pitch Tommy Cannelly
Then have to go against Tommy Cannelly. That
was good for the first eight weeks of the season.
That's my that's my thought OK, all right, so
maybe he stays on the roster in your eyes. So
what it was is it was a it was a weird move when
they added Luke Jackson. Maybe that's what you
were getting at. Yeah, they added Luke Jackson.
They ended up losing Hanafi down to triple A
and P .J. Poolean left. They had to leave the
organization to make room. P .J. Poolean then
went on to pitch in relief to the Nationals like
a day or two later. They picked him up. Off the
wire. And he gets a scoreless inning and looks
great. And he was a guy that was looking really
good in AAA. So this might have been a Scott
Harris bungle here. And when A .J. Hinch was
asked about it, he's like, what happens happens,
you know. We got to move along. Yeah. Harris
and company got torched for this. Yeah. And all
sorts of baseball media. The local media wasn't
as harsh on them as the national media was. Some
of the East Coast writers, Red Sox, Yankees,
Mets. Phillies torched him for it. But thus far,
I would say Scott Harris, as harsh as we were
on the dumpster dive, Kyle Finnegan, paired with
Will Vest, has been nothing but a relevation.
Great. Yeah. And I have to say, Charlie Morton
was serviceable yet again. He's not great. He's
not going to wow you. It was interesting that
he and Chris Paddock chatted intently for two,
two and a half innings yesterday and the camera
just kept going back on them. That has been a
very, very shrewd, let's say, pickup. It wasn't
sexy. It wasn't ordering the second plate of
nachos or tortilla chips. No, that's not sexy.
I can tell you that right now. It's getting a
small bowl of chips with really bad paste salsa.
Probably. that you need to dump salt on to even
have any flavor. But Charlie's serviceable, and
I think that's what you're getting at. Like,
he's doing the job. And I think Charlie is a
nails guy, meaning Charlie will come out of the
bullpen, Patrick will come out of the bullpen.
And so they got guys that AJ can work with. And
I'm not sold on Patek yet, but Martin, I'm good
with him. You don't have to be sold on them.
I don't know that I am either. I still think
for what was given up, they were shrewd, smart
moves. And I went through Prospectus last night
before I went to bed, my nine hours. And the
Tigers top prospects remained virtually unchanged
pre and post deadline. And outside of the Mariners,
they have the healthiest farm system and in MLB,
I'm excited for the fact. The Blue Jays also
have a healthy. I would love to see the Tigers,
Blue Jays and Mariners be competing at the highest
level in the American league the next few years.
And if we can just put to bed the Astros until
possibly the playoffs, their farm system is decimated.
Yeah. Yeah. Everybody's either up at the show
or... Pretty far away. They've had some pretty
good pickups. I mean cam Smith was a good pick
up for them from the Cubs I they've got some
young guys. I'm not there. They're not barren
below the no no no or anything now, but they're
definitely not Tom They definitely don't have
the farm system. I Let's see what happens with
this KC series I'm expecting two out of three.
I'm expecting to here we go again We're expecting
two out of three and if we only win one game,
we're gonna come back as angry hosts again for
you guys on Sunday. But let's see what we can
do. Our bats are heating up. Our pitching is
rounding the corner here, looking like they want
to be in the postseason at this point, so let's
see what happens. Let's see if we can cobble
together a couple more wins, like I said, on
the way out of this thing. My goal is we don't
get swept in any series, and we take at least
one game from each team, and I think the writing's
on the wall like we've got a postseason berth.
I don't think I'm jinxing anything by saying
that it would be very difficult in this final
stretch to lose a postseason berth. That said,
there you go. It's out there. Blame me if it
happens. I expect them to win most of these series
going out. You? Oh, absolutely, yeah. And Prospectus
agrees with us. Playoff chances are 99 .6%. 99
.6%. Yeah. And we do have all three starting
pitchers named for the weekend. You're going
to feel good about Friday. Yeah. Casey Mize,
you're not going to like Saturdays. It's your
guy Chris Batik. And then Flaherty will be on
the Bump Sunday. So mixed bag there. The good
news with this all is that the Royals are to
be determined because they had to use the bullpen
last night and they pitch today. So the Tigers
are going to come in very well rested. Another
key thing about the Astros series is, yes, we
did have a, you know, Great Tyler siding and
in terms of Melton and we did Get Alex Lang back,
but the bullpen was not taxed by any stretch
So we're going into this series fresh after that
travel west to a triple -a ballpark in Sacramento
Also into Kaufman Stadium and then after that
the Tigers don't leave the Eastern time zone
Well, I tell you what we're gonna wrap it up
here. We've given you all sorts of info off this
past beautiful sweep we had this week. Bill,
I'm all set. You're all set. Go Tigers. May your
digestive system do its work. Let's hope. All
right. That's going to do it for this episode
of the Litterbox, a Detroit Tigers podcast. Thanks
for hanging out with us. We're Bill and Chet.
We'll be back soon with more Tigers Talk. If
you're enjoying the show, be sure to follow or
subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. And hey, if you got a
minute, leave us a quick review. Till next time,
Go Tigers!