Postgame Show: The Pitch Clock (feat. Jason Benetti)

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I've been really liking the cold open thing.

I don't have a burp.

So

we don't really have one then?

He did it.

He just did it.

Welcome to the pitch clock.

Here's the pitch, a two-part baseball segment combining a nostalgic baseball trivia game and an interview with an expert.

This is the pitch clock.

The pitch clock is back and it's september guys that means like next month there's playoff baseball how exciting is that uh chris cody is here you said september i said september's here i just think of football yeah i don't care about playoffs or next month but you don't care Taylor's here too.

We'll actually have Jason Bonetti with us, which is pretty exciting.

He'll be our 2025 MLB expert.

Speaking of football, Taylor, so sorry about your tar heels.

Hey, but what do you have for a trivia game for us today?

So we're going back to the 501 darts where you're trying to get as close to zero as possible.

A few amendments to the last time we played it.

It's going to be best of three still, but each round you'll get five guesses.

And you can't go past zero.

So if you do, you'll just stay at the number.

So if you were at 120 and it was 121, your guess, you're still at 120.

Okay.

And then whoever's at the lowest 2-0 after the five guesses is the winner.

Awesome.

All right.

So let's get started then.

The first game is going to be

games played as a Marlin.

Oh

boy.

Okay.

Hmm.

I kind of want to go pitchers here.

You see what I'm doing there?

Because I feel like it's harder to figure out like any good Marlins have played like more than 500 games themselves with a Marlin.

That's what makes it complicated.

Alright.

I'm going to go with

Sandy Alcantra.

I'm thinking he's going to be able to get away from the girl.

So Sandy is

second in innings pitched, I think, now.

But I'm just going by games, right?

This is just games.

Yeah.

Since 2017.

It's a good start, 2017.

Yeah, he came up in 2017 for a

cup of coffee.

Obviously had the shortened 2020 season and then missed a year with the Tommy John surgery.

So Sandy Alcantara has played in 165 games for the Marlins.

So Chris, you're down at 336

after your first guess.

Jeremy, your first guess?

Okay, so

this is where strategy comes into play because I kind of want to sit around the same spot as Chris.

And so, I'm going to take the guy who's made

the most starts or at least has the most innings pitched.

Ricky Nalasco.

Oh, wow.

So, Ricky Nalasco has pitched in 213 games for the Marlins.

Jeremy, bringing you down to 288.

Okay.

Okay.

Josh Beckett.

Chris.

Josh Beckett pitched in 106 games for the Marlins, bringing you down to 230.

All right.

I'm going to make a get, it's possible this player went over, but I'm thinking it's got to be close.

Paul LaDuca.

So Jeremy, you're at 288.

Paul LaDuca played in 205 games as a Marlin, bringing you down to 83.

All right,

I like my strategy.

I'm complimenting myself here before I even go.

Mike Piazza.

Mike Piazza is going to get Chris five games knocked off that total and bring him down to 225.

Okay.

I'm confused.

And it is my pleasure to welcome on this man who is a staple of the Dan Lebetard show coming on and doing impressions.

But we're actually going to pick his mind for a little bit of baseball knowledge here.

Jason Benetti, the voice of the Detroit Tigers, is with me now here on the pitch clock.

Jason, first and foremost, thank you so much for taking time out of your insane schedule to join us here.

No, Jeremy, glad to do it.

Really happy to be here.

And let's have a good time.

Yeah, let's do it.

So anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely fell in love with your Tigers at the end of last season.

I was watching every single game down the stretch of that team.

It was basically the most reminiscent playoff chase that I had experienced since the 03 Marlins of just a team doing everything fun.

But now they are presently, at the time of this recording, the best team in the American League in terms of their record.

They're the first American League team to 80 wins.

So, Jason, this season, as they've carried that momentum, what would you say are maybe the three keys that have made the Tigers the best team in the AL thus far?

And how will that maybe change their postseason fate from last year?

One, I would say, is the lockstep of the front office and the manager in how to use the roster.

You go trade for Kyle Finnegan.

A.J.

Hinch gets ahead of it and talks to Will Vest and Finnegan about who's doing what and how it might shape-shift over the course of time.

Rafael Montero shows up.

He had walked a bunch of guys before he got here.

He's doing that much less.

So I think the combination of those

prongs working together, but then specifically number two, and I'd never put him number two for anything, is Tarek Skubel.

Of course.

It's just like, I'm not going to lose unless somebody really knocks me over with abundant force type of guy.

And I think that does permeate the clubhouse.

And then I would say the third thing is just pressure.

Pressure on the base paths, pressure on batters from Scoobel, like pressure with a pretty deep lineup when they're healthy.

And I think the tigers sometimes can make people introspective on the map.

Like they make you think about what's happening to you in the moment.

And I think that is a sneaky, really good trait.

If you're sitting there from a Tiger's perspective as, you know, they march toward the postseason, who would be the American League team that you look at and you go, man, that might be the team that scares Detroit the most?

There's nobody that like, you're like, oh, let's line up to play this team.

I think the American League, like every American League team has a reason that you could say, ooh, I don't know, man.

Like, I don't know.

I think the one thing that you want is to not be in the wildcard round.

Yes.

I think the American League is deep enough that being the two seed should really matter for the Tigers.

That's just my personal opinion.

To me, though, I think there is great value in missing the first round and getting to the Division Series by being a top two seed.

That's what I would say is your best bet in the American League.

We're just a couple of weeks away.

from that chase really coming into form.

And you're right.

That American League wildcard picture basically changes every day.

And which of those teams seems the scariest to face is alternating, I mean, basically by the series.

So I can't wait.

I can't wait for this

final playoff chase.

It's going to be so much fun.

I want to have my last number be like 160, and then I just got to find that one guy that like played a season for the Marlins as a starter.

Just one season.

I almost now, because of that strategy, want to just go over knowing that I'm going to take that only guy he's going to think of from him.

It seems like as if there's one guy that's played for the Marlins and for one season.

Yvonne Rodriguez.

Yep, Jeremy's playing defense here.

Paud Rodriguez played in 144 games.

So Jeremy, after the third round, you're still at 83.

All right, give me Brad Penny.

Brad Penny pitched in 139 games as a Marlin, bringing Chris down to 86.

I'm going to go go with

Braxton Garrett.

Braxton Garrett has pitched for the Marlins in 65 games, bringing Jeremy down to 18.

Carl Pavano.

That's a good one.

Carl Pavano in his three-year career with the Marlins.

Oh, no.

86.

No!

What?

Oh my god, dude.

So the only way.

So the only way that I can

potentially do this is if I find someone who played 18 games.

I am just Mike Piazza.

Oh my, I'm a

genius.

Jeremy, your best case scenario is a push.

Yeah, hold on.

How do I do this?

How do I always deliver like this?

Troy Johnston.

At the time of this recording, Jeremy, you're at 18.

Troy Johnston has played in 26 games.

Jeremy, you're going to stay at 18.

Chris Cody wins with zero.

Wow.

That's crazy.

My favorite videos that I saw the entire last month across sports, and that was a video of you that we're going to play right now, where you were taking a golf cart between calling a lions game and then calling a tigers game later on.

I believe it was a 1 p.m.

and a 6 p.m.

So, as we're watching this video, like, how does it feel to have fans

basically show you how beloved you are in this city in this way?

And did you ever imagine that you would be in this particular spot as a broadcaster to get to kind of do

everything?

So, first of all, it was the world's shortest golf cart ride.

I appreciate you saying that.

I think Tiger fans and just Detroit fans in general are exceptionally smart.

I think

they've been trained and

they've been brought up with great announcers.

Like you just have to be really good at the job to fit in in Detroit because literally everybody is.

It's important to me to be in a place where people care about what I've dedicated my life to.

And I think that's just a human instinct.

I'm going to take a page out of your book on Twitter real quick, and we're going to do

first name you think of.

So, if you guys don't follow Jason on Twitter, he basically ends up posting from all the different places that he ends up being all the time to call all these different games.

He'll post a stadium pick and then first name you think of, dot, dot, dot.

So, I'm just going to name some teams and we're going to go first name you think of.

We're going to go rapid fire.

So, let's start: Tigers,

Miguel Cabrera, Yankees, Mickey Mantle, Arizona Cardinals,

David Boston.

Ooh, I like that.

St.

Louis Cardinals.

Ozzy Smith.

Kansas City Royals.

George Brett.

Kansas City Chiefs.

Travis Kelsey.

Miami Dolphins.

Dan Marino.

Miami Marlins.

Jack McKeon.

Oh, I like that.

I like the Jack McKeon answer.

That's the guy who's the face.

And he was recently inducted into the first inaugural Marlins Hall of Fame along with Jeff Konai and Jim Leland, and of course Luis Castillo.

That was a blast for us this year here in Miami.

But before we wrap up, Jason, the way we do this is I've been saying all year long, this is a golden era of baseball right now.

I genuinely believe it, particularly for the stars in baseball.

There's so much excellence.

Let's go ahead and do this.

I want to give the NL a little bit of shine since we've been sticking with the AL.

We talked a little AL last week as well with Mike Scherr.

So there are two guys in the National League who had really ridiculous months on two different sides of the ball.

Gavin Sheets was the National League leader in OPS amongst guys who played 15 games.

And then there's Hurston Waldrip, who's come up for the Braves and been absolutely dominant thus far.

We're going to go either Waldrup Sheets, if you'd like to focus on one of them.

Yeah, so you had me at Sheets.

He had a great start to the year.

I was thrilled for him that power plays that power is legit when you put him in good situations and i like there are really good people that i left with the white socks i really did appreciate but i also think it's fair to say that putting him in the outfield was not great and it affected his hitting i would say gavin leaves the white sock ends up being a free agent tiny late for san diego and like that dude always knew he had power so i'm thrilled for him.

I'm excited for him.

And I'm glad he's gotten a chance to do what he's done.

It's really remarkable.

He's had a really awesome season, and we appreciate the insight as someone who got to cover him and get to know him a little bit.

If you guys enjoyed what you just heard from Jason, particularly if you're down here in South Florida, Jason's going to be calling some of the games between the Marlins and the Tigers, which will be my last season on the Marlins broadcast.

So just find a way to like flip back and forth between the two.

That'll be a lot of fun.

Jason, thank you so much for taking some time to join us here on the pitch clock and we're gonna send things back over uh to this game between chris cody and myself

let's do round two now i'm very upset and i cannot believe that that's how things started

uh what's this one taylor i can't i'm like that is dude truly and utterly outside of when you correctly guess what was it like the ops of somebody to a not oh it was the war i think this one this one this is way crazier this is insane all right whatever whatever.

Tell us what the game is.

I can't.

I'm on a high.

I'm shook.

It's tough to follow that one, but this one's going to be games played as a Yankee.

Jesus.

I don't know.

There's so many guys that have immediately come to mind, but I have no idea how long they were Yankees.

You know what I'm going to do?

Andy Pettit.

So, Jeremy, to start, you were going Andy Pettit.

Andy Pettit was on the mound in 447 games for the Yankees, bringing you down to 54.

I

the 19th century.

No!

No!

Cece Sabathia.

Cece Sabathia pitched in 307 games for the Yankees, bringing Chris Cody to 194.

Ooh.

Cam Schittler.

Schlittler, but I'll accept it.

Schlittler.

Cam Schlittler has pitched in nine games.

Perfect.

So, Jeremy, you are at 45 after the second round.

That's what I'll take that.

I'm trying to find.

Give me Nestor Cortez.

So, Chris, Nestor Cortez has pitched for the Yankees 126 times

in his career.

So, you are down to 68.

You know what?

I'm just gonna...

I'm just gonna go over.

I'm just gonna say John Carlo Stanton.

Yeah, John Carlo has played in 718 games as Yankee.

Yeah, so, all alright, I'm going to stay at 45.

You're still at 45.

I went a cup of coffee with the Yankees.

I think I've got one in my back.

Randy Johnson.

I'm going to be really mad.

So if I get 68, I win.

I swear to God, if this is 68,

if this is 68.

It's not 68.

It's 67, Chris Code.

How do I do that?

He's down to one.

All right, Devin Williams, let's just go.

No,

I don't want to revel in this.

Devin Williams, tell me how many games Devin Williams has pitched in.

Jeremy, you're down at 45.

Devin Williams has pitched in 57 games at the time of this recording.

So you're still at 45 after the third round.

This is...

Chris Cody, if you have to be with one for the next two, but...

And this fourth guess, I'll guess Chris Cody.

Chris Cody did not play for the Yankees, so you're going to still be at one after the fourth guess.

Who pitched for the Yankees for two years?

Oh, man, Randy Johnson.

Oh, wow.

Garrett Cole?

Way off.

Way more than that, right?

This would have been his fifth season for the Yankees.

It's been that long, huh?

Well.

Yeah, but his first season was the 2020 season.

Garrett Cole has pitched for the Yankees 125 times.

Not even close.

Chris Cody, the brooms are out.

It's a 2-0 sweep.

This is truly and utterly...

Feels good.

For you to end up at zero and one is absolutely bonkers.

Perfect game.

Taylor, we're never playing this game again.

I don't know how many times I have to tell you.

Every week.

There's the purple.