Hour 1: World Series Game 3’s Wild Ride, plus FOX Sports’ Mark Schlereth

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0:31Rich Eisen:This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. This is the Rich Eisen Show. Hey, everybody. Can't get enough of the Rich Eisen Show? You're in luck. You can find us everywhere.

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1:29This is the Rich Eisen Show. This game was incredible. From the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles. Kelsey ties Priest Holmes. Today's guests, Fox Sports NFL analyst Mark Schlereth, ESPN MLB columnist Buster Olney, host of the Paul Feinbaum Show, Paul Feinbaum. And now it's Rich Eisen.

1:55Rich Eisen:We're thrilled to have you call and talk about, obviously, the game three for the ages last night, the Monday night football, Kansas City Chiefs dismantling of the Washington Commanders. Anything going on in the NBA? Anything on your mind? We're here for you. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial. We've got Paul Feinbaum on this program. We figured let's get a voice of college football, quite an opinionator to say the least, on what's going on with all these buyouts, all these coaching gigs that are now wide open in some spots across the college football landscape that previously were spots that people wanted to coach.

2:32Rich Eisen:And as I mentioned, there's you at 844-204-RICH-NUMBER-TO-DLE. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. How are you? Good morning, Rich. How are you? How are you, Jason Feller? Good to see you. I bet you are. TJ Jefferson, I see the candle is lit. What up, though? Good to see you all over there. And again, we're here for you. 844-204-RICH-NUMBER-TO-DLE. Now, listen, we are obviously a football-centric show. We love our baseball. But listen, there's very few things that would knock a Kansas City Chiefs Monday night football victory as they continue to get better and look like the AFC champion again and look like the Super Bowl contender that we've gotten them used to being.

3:10Rich Eisen:There's very few things that would just knock them off the front page, if you will, of this show. But listen, you know when playoff series happen, and certainly the World Series go down before they start. Seven-game series, you see the two words next to games five, six, and seven, if necessary. Very rarely has there been an asterisk next to a game three and say a game three B if necessary. A second game was necessary last night. An entire second game was necessary last night. 18 innings worth. Two different nine-inning games were necessary last night. to decide the, normally game fives are pivotal, but when 70 % of game three winners in a World Series tied one game apiece go on to eventually win the World Series, game three could prove to be the most pivotal, certainly based on what we saw last night.

4:06Rich Eisen:And it was more than just, again, a pivotal game of a World Series. It was one of the wildest games we will ever see. and that you know isn't recency bias that's a fact and i think we kind of got the sense last night that this was going to be unlike any other game when in the second inning bo bachette gets picked off of first base because the home plate umpire and mark wegner takes a little bit of extra time to call strike two on a three one pitch to dalton varsho who thinks it is ball four starts to walk to first base uh beau bichette celebrates the ball four by pirouetting and facing right field not knowing oh wait a minute the umpire did call strike two i'm now pick offable and sure enough tyler glass now flips to freddie freeman and he's out i've never seen anything like that and i'm 56 and i've been watching baseball for as long as I can remember and that was just the beginning because a couple base hits after that the Blue Jays still don't have a run and then former Blue Jays T Oscar Hernandez score gets the scoring going in the bottom half of the inning with a home run and then in the third inning

5:32just the first of many unicorn things the game four starter hits a home run game three

5:39Rich Eisen:for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Shohei Otani homers to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead, and that inning ends with Freddie Freeman thrown out at home, which was just the beginning of the cycle of getting thrown out at bases we were seeing last night. Literally, everybody got thrown out, it felt, at every base last night during this 18-inning game, fourth inning. Lead-off walk to Vlad Guerrero Jr. Bo Bichette hits one right to Tommy Edmund, and it goes underneath his glove, and Bo Bichette is running so slow, he makes Giancarlo Stanton look like Ricky Henderson. So that's a surefire double-play ground ball that's now in right field with two guys on.

6:29Rich Eisen:Of course, Alejandro Kirk is going to hit a three-run home run to give the Blue Jays the lead, and he does. I mean, this fire hydrant is unbelievable.

6:44Rich Eisen:And the Blue Jays add on another run on a sack fly. It's 4-2. Max Scherzer's on the mound, by the way. Future first ballot Hall of Famer for the Blue Jays. He wasn't the only one with such a resume to pitch in this game. Scherzer gets pulled. and a game four starter hits an RBI double and scores the tying run when Freddie Freeman knocks an Otani. Honestly, I cannot stress enough of what absurdity we're seeing from Shohei Otani. So it's a 4-4 game, sixth inning. Teoscar Hernandez is trying to get to third. He gets thrown out at third. first guy to get thrown out at third on the night innings over it's a 4-4 tie going into the seventh Bo Bichette knocks in Vlad Guerrero Jr.

7:44Rich Eisen:who scores by sliding head first and getting his hand in just before Will Smith can tag him out and I don't know how a man that size can just put his hand down and then hop up which he did to celebrate the Blue Jays having a one run lead until the game four starting pitcher for the Dodgers ties the game with his second home run of the night in the bottom half of the seventh. By the way, John Schneider had seen enough of Otani. Maybe for the rest of this series with a bat in his hand and the opportunity to swing it. Smart. Tied at five. Blue Jays top nine after they threatened Sasaki in the eighth.

8:32Rich Eisen:Varsho hits a screaming liner that goes off of Freddie Freeman's glove into right field and IKF. Kyner Falefa thinks, I'm going to third. Tommy Edmonds slides from his second base position towards the right field line to grab that ball, hops up and throws a seed to Max Muncy to nail IKF at third base. for the second out wiping out the blue jays threat and begins to redeem himself for that error earlier in the game game goes to extras top of the 10th lucas of the blue jays lines a double to right david schneider who looks like somebody i had 15 cards of in 1975 in the tops pack right the way he looks with that mustache and the glasses very 80s ball player honestly it felt like i had 15 of him in a tops pack in 1979 he's thrown out at home by a wide margin on a hernandez throwing edmund who makes another seed of a throw to will smith the blue jays tried a challenge to say that smith blocked the plate but i'm glad that was upheld he kind of did well he did when he fielded the ball he didn't and so when he's when you feel the ball you need to not block the plate right which by the way we were having described to us by the umpire former umpire that the uh i like that that was a good element it's great but john smoltz asked a follow-up question and he's answering the question as a batter is hitting right if that ball leaves the yard true fox has got an umpire nobody's ever heard of talking about a rule analysis i'm sitting there that was the most nerve-wracked i was for the television broadcast top of the 12th the jays load the bases and unbelievably dave roberts wants to go lefty lefty on lucas and the guy he's bringing in from the bullpen is clayton kershaw for not only his first ever extra inning appearance of his career, but a bases loaded situation to boot.

11:04Rich Eisen:And he gets Lucas to ground out as Edmund can only make this one play by grabbing the ball with his glove and flipping it with his glove to Freeman at first while Sandy Koufax is watching. what the hell Sandy Koufax was there watching Kershaw get the one out they needed from him and his wife who probably went to the game thinking oh this is great I'm just going to go to the game come out to the game come out to the coast now suddenly her husband's in the highest leverage situation possible and he gets out of it did you think he was going to blow it Dude, we all know what his history is. Answer the question.

11:52Rich Eisen:I thought it was possible. I don't want to register on you. I didn't. You're the only one. I've had some belief that there's just no way he was going to go out like that. And then we're settling in. Everybody's trying to swing from their shoes and end it. And sure enough, Will Smith, I thought he did. He thought he did. Everyone did. It all lands in the glove of Varsho in left center field. Freddie Freeman almost had one. It's the Oscar. And every single time Otani's coming up, John Schneider's saying he is 100 % not hitting right now. And a game four starting pitcher reached base all nine times last night.

12:39Rich Eisen:Got shot nine times. Nine.

12:44he's starting the night and sure enough like listen if you could have put on a piece of paper

12:54Rich Eisen:when this game went to extra innings how is it going to end right if you could put on a piece of paper how will this game end i swear to you i swear to you i would have written down freddie freeman walk off home run Maybe that's the PTSD in me from game one of last year's World Series is a Yankee fan bringing my boy Cooper Evan Eisen to the game only to watch that home run streak across our perfectly our field of vision down the right field line. And sure enough, in the 18th inning with Yamamoto just two days removed from his complete game, warming up in the bullpen in case he's needed in the 19th inning for the first inning of game three.

13:40Rich Eisen:of game three not needed as freddie goes yard straight to center field game or that is correct that is correct and the final numbers of game three of the 2025 world series i think we have it i think every single person who works at home uh on the rich eyes and shore most of them are all dodger fans probably arm wrestling to see who could create this graphic for us here on the program. Second longest game in postseason history. I think your game, what? Red Sox-Dodgers of the 2018 World Series? Game three, 2018. That's TJ and I watched the game. Six hours, 39 minutes long. Freddie Freeman now has the most walk-off home runs in World Series history.

14:24Rich Eisen:In back-to-back years, he's done it. 19 combined pitchers used, 609 pitchers thrown, 37 combined runners left on base. And one of my favorite moments of the night was Tom Verducci with a report for the broadcast, basically saying, hey, guys, we're running out of baseballs down here. I had no idea. I wasn't even thinking, like, are they going to have enough? Is someone going to have to run out to Big Five down there and Chavez Ravine and knock on the door and say, open up? I know you're closed. We need more baseballs. What, do they go get Warren? Right? Stupid. Take Warren's baseballs. Hey, baby, ball.

15:04Rich Eisen:I don't know. Just go to the fans in the stands and say, hey, we need that back. There's a callback rule in the World Series when it goes a gajillion innings. All those fouls you guys got. Can you just throw something back? Can you throw something back, please? Warren. Did you want to say Warren? The last stat. Again, it's Otani. He's amazing. Otani is the Game 4 starting pitcher. did i mention he's starting game four tonight just to say and he reached base nine times in a row because and just again let's talk about this for a few minutes at one point i think it was either taylor or xander asked a great question while we're watching this game which is um is there a rule in baseball about the number of times you can intentionally walk somebody and i you know mentioned no and the question of why came back and that's not a bad question to ask it really isn't chris because i understand there's a unicorn aspect of this we haven't seen it since barry bonds i mean aaron judge on occasion will get walked intentionally with third base open i understand that um but the fact that and baseball can discuss it you know that do you want to take the bat out of the hands of the one person that maybe every casual fan willing to stay up till one in the morning 12 30 in the morning two in the morning you know if these things happen that the other manager could just say four and the bat's taken out of his hands but the fact that john schnett this how this out of everything about otani can describe just how remarkable he is and how one of one he is.

17:03Rich Eisen:John Schneider was putting Otani on base intentionally, willingly, saying take it. In a tie game. In walk-off situation after walk-off situation after walk-off situation of a World Series game with Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman up next. That's not just like some 200 hitter. Pick your poison. Well, Mookie is probably less than that. No, I mean, Mookie is not, but he still bets. And you don't want to make, if you will, a bet on this will be the one time he doesn't turn it around. But come on, and Will Smith is no piker either. You're asking for a big inning. You're asking to not get walked off.

17:49Rich Eisen:That's true. By the best player in the game. By the way, I'm not saying he was wrong at all to do it whatsoever. ever but are you advocating for this or do you are you just throwing it out i'm throwing it out okay as john schneider was talking about afterwards his strategy and and basically it looks like you're you're done seeing otani as a hitter who's going to get a chance to swing the bat in this world series we're trying to pitch around them you know what i mean and uh you trust sir anthony to to make pitches to do that. And sometimes for pitchers it's hard to do that, you know, when you're kind of trying to throw a ball and didn't put it where you want to put it.

18:29But, you know, he had a great game. He's a great player. But I think, you know, after that, you just kind of take the bat out of his hands. And not to give away secrets, but that's pretty much what we should expect going forward. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

18:48Rich Eisen:Yeah. Yeah. Now, again, you, Chris, texted the group during the game. Is Otani better at baseball than Tiger was at golf when Tiger was at his best? Yeah, that was an interesting text. The early 2000s when he was just dominant. Wearing my shirts on everybody. Tiger slam. Yeah. Yeah. Great question. Great question. Because he also makes it look so easy. So did Tiger. I know. Otani, by the way, one of the few thrown out at second base last night, too. on a stolen base because the first intentional walk, he stole immediately and got thrown out because he overran the base because he's nine feet tall and can run like a deer, and that base isn't big enough to stop his momentum.

19:32Rich Eisen:And IKF wisely kept the tag on him. Good play.

19:39Rich Eisen:And if that's the case, if you think it is, golf courses started making their holes longer because of Tiger. They Tiger-proofed. the game. They tried. They tried. And so if that happened, then maybe, just maybe, you come out with a rule where you can't intentionally walk somebody more than three times in a game. Make the stadiums bigger. No, no, no. That's the comparison. Because it's not just that. It's not just the home runs. It's also doubles, triples, singles. But they didn't make the holes now par threes and they're 500 yards. I got you. I'm just throwing it out there. I understand. Because you want to see him hit.

20:18Rich Eisen:You want to see him hit. And after a while, you're going to just do that. Are they really going to do it the rest of the World Series? I hope so, actually. So leading off the game, they're just going to walk him? Yeah, why not? You want to be down 1-0? Or do you want to have a guy on first? It's unbelievable that we're having this conversation. Because Bonds didn't lead off. No. But had he... They probably would have walked him. They definitely would have. It's unbelievable. I just think we saw kind of a one-off. Like, we're not going to get another 18-inning game. There's only been two in World Series history.

20:48Right. You know? And I just wanted to point out the last time the Dodgers won an 18-inning World Series game at home with a walk-off home run. The Red Sox won it anyway. The other team won the trophy.

20:58Rich Eisen:From the AL East. So, I don't know. I mean, we'll see what happens tonight when Otani starts. What do you expect tonight? Because you kind of saw it. These guys were so exhausted. Even in the postgame, Otani is like, I just want to go home and go to sleep. do you think it's going to be a crisp game tonight are we going to have no runs that's the beauty of baseball it's the next day even though it's the same day um and and and we will see but you know it was crazy what we i can't i mean it's just this guy is magnetic he's magnetic he's telegenic he is so likable and i'll tell you the biggest winner outside of anybody else in the Dodgers organization last night was Michael Buble who got played nine times.

21:46Rich Eisen:It's the walk-up music. Does he get residual? I don't know. I hope you do, Michael.

21:53Rich Eisen:Intentionally walk him on Spotify. Jeez, what a night. All right. Let's take, oh, by the way, we've got Buster Olney, who is at the game for ESPN Radio, coming in here in our number two. What it is right now. 844-204-RICH is the number to dial right here on Disney +, the ESPN app everywhere, and ESPN Radio presented by Progressive Insurance. All right, so we'll talk football. We'll talk about the Chiefs Monday night or anything else with our friend Mark Schlareth back here on The Rich Eisen Show. The Rich Eisen Show podcast.

22:33Rich Eisen:A bandwagon fan. The biggest insult in sports. But this summer, during the FIFA World Cup, it's an invitation, America. Never watched soccer before? Perfect. Think a corner kick is a karate move? Sure, why not? Prefer sports where players can use their hands? Me too. Just here for the snacks? Now we're talking. So grab a bag of Lay's and jump on the bandwagon. We're undefeated. Lay's, the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. While the world watches the stars at the FIFA World Cup this summer, Hyundai has its eyes on the next generation of talent, future stars who are already turning heads at age 14.

23:11Rich Eisen:Because Next doesn't wait for an invitation, and neither do we. Hyundai has always moved the future within reach. We did it when we made advanced safety standard on every vehicle and engineered EVs with ultra-fast charging capability. Because the future isn't some far-off concept, it's already here. Next starts now. Hyundai, an official partner of FIFA. Rich Eisen here with some advice. If high-interest credit card debt is grinding you down, it might be time to call an audible with a SoFi personal loan. It consolidates your debt into one low monthly payment with no fees required. And with as soon as the same day funding, you can make the right play fast.

23:49Rich Eisen:Call an audible on your debt today at SoFi.com slash debt play. Loans originated by SoFi Bank N.A. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. NMLS 696891. Fast funds terms apply at SoFi.com slash debt play. mark slareth here on the rich eisen show back on espn radio presented by progressive insurance three-time super bowl champion all right mark um i don't think we're needing to wonder if the chiefs have turned the corner anymore the question now is how far can they go super bowl right i mean like we're seeing it sure we're seeing it in front of us right mark yeah well yeah yeah when you talk about how balanced they are right now how good they are right now like it's been it's been hey man that you know it was the offense that led them early in in kind of the Patrick Mahomes era and then it was the defense for a while and then you know and and now it's hey the defense is good and the offense is struggling and now and now they got all their weapons back the wide receiver position and Travis Kelsey's got some pressure taken off of him because you've got you know Rasheed Rice back and and you know you got Hollywood Brown who's healthy and now their running game all of a sudden is a little bit better and you watch what they were able to do even last night, and they put the whole thing together.

25:06And now it's a complete team. And even your first two drives, you've got Mahomes throwing interceptions, but then all of a sudden they put it together and they just roll. And the no-look pass and the amount of protection he had, the Chiefs are legitimate, and I think they're probably, even though they don't have the best record in the AFC, of all the teams that I've watched and studied, I think they're probably playing better than anybody else in the AFC right now.

25:37Rich Eisen:Can the Broncos knock them off, though? I mean, what we're seeing from them right now is exactly why the bandwagon filled up during the summer of people thinking, hey, the Broncos have got a real chance here. And they started fast, finally, on offense this past week. And Bo Nix is beginning to put it together. and the defense just handed Dak Prescott his lunch in a way that few have been able to do this year. So what do you think about the Broncos' ability to win this division anyway, Mark? I still think they have a shot. And Bo Nix is playing really good football. Last week was the first time he hit the deep ball, and he was money on target on the deep ball last week, which was the first time all season long that he's been able to hit that.

26:24And they actually ran the ball effectively. And they pared down to me some of the things they did they've been doing in the run game. They pared it down to where they had kind of a like concept, whether it was duo or power or counter. You know, double team is a double team on duo on power and counter. It's the same thing. So they had some like concepts that they coupled together, kind of pared down the run game a little bit. They were really good in the running game. The Pat Sertan thing is legitimate, man. It scares me a little bit. He could be out three to six weeks with a pictorial injury. He just shuts down one side of the football field and gives them the ability to bring the blitz, gives them the ability to rush the opponent's quarterback to lead the league in sacks.

27:08They've done that two years in a row right now. They're crushing everybody when it comes to pressure in the quarterback. A lot of that has to do with, you know, this symbiotic relationship between coverage and what Pastor Tan brings to the table and what you do as a defensive front. So that part scares me a little bit, Rich. How long will he be out? I don't know. But yeah, they're playing pretty good football right now. And, you know, you got the Chargers here as well.