Rich on the Padres’ Cubs Sweep & Phillies Dramatic Game 2 Comeback vs the Braves

If you do not have the lead on the Padres going into the fifth inning, you are finished. That was the consensus on the show after San Diego swept the Cubs, and it is a scary thought for whoever comes next.

The comparison the crew landed on was the Brewers, San Diego's next opponent. "Everybody throws 105 miles an hour and their off speed is around 95," came the description of both staffs. The two teams are built very similarly, though the room gave the Padres the edge in pop. The Cubs, in this telling, were done in the first inning because they could never get the lead.

San Diego is also simply fun to watch. The crowd chanted "holy sheets," and then a homer followed. "Don Orsillo's got that town wrapped around his finger," as one voice put it. Then Mason Miller comes out of the bullpen, and it is like Wild Thing, except better. He touched 103 the night before.

Rich could not let the Major League reference pass without a footnote. That movie's matchup, he pointed out, was Cleveland versus the White Sox. Look it up.

Then there is Phillies and Braves, which Rich called epic. Lead changes late, managerial decisions to sink your teeth into, and one swing of momentum that defined Game 2. A ball found Bryce Harper, went off his glove, and the lead swung away. Then Kyle Schwarber cranked one out "as only he can," and Harper went back to back to tie it. Philadelphia took the lead and won it in extra innings, a 10-inning game without a ghost runner, Rich noted approvingly.

The show played Harper's full answer on how he turned the page from that play, which Rich said they almost never do with a two-minute sound bite. Harper said he was thinking about what he would tell his son Krew in that situation.

"You try to flush it as quick as possible," Harper said. He talked about playing big games in front of 3,000 people yelling at him from the time he was 10 years old, and said in the postseason it does not matter what you did the at-bat before. "Everybody's going to make mistakes at some point, but it's how you come through in the next situation. So, it's not that serious to tell you the truth."

"Being present, man. I love that sound," Rich said. He noted Harper came up as a 19-year-old with Washington and is now 33 in year 15, the kid on the cover of Sports Illustrated in high school who was anointed the next great baseball star. "All he's done is live up to it," Rich said, running through rookie of the year at 19 and two MVPs. The one thing missing is a World Series ring.

Harper also has a big fan in the room, one whose wife Sarah does not share the feeling. "All he does is come up huge in the postseason. Dude is an absolute gamer," came the endorsement. Rich, with all due respect, had his own rooting interest: as long as Don Mattingly, his favorite player of all time, can win and move on, he is putting his thumb on that scale.

The crew noted Harper has now played in Philadelphia a year longer than Washington, eight seasons to seven, and is eight homers from 400. "He's going to the Hall with a P on the hat," one voice said.

One last question was for the Dodgers fan in the room: in your heart of hearts, which team would Los Angeles rather see? The Braves were called the more complete team, while the Phillies have the Schwarber and Harper one-two punch at the top of the lineup, Alec Bohm starting to hit the ball hard, and Jhoan Duran, who was called a better closer than Raisel Iglesias right now. Nobody was sure. It was called a coin flip, with some leftover residuals from past postseason meetings in the mix. The final lean: "I kind of think they'd rather see the Braves."