The Tampa Bay Rays OBLITERATE Atlanta Braves in a Statement Series

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where ODO comes in, an all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing all in one powerful platform. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs and best of all, no spreadsheets. Stop managing software and start managing your business with one unified system. Try for free today at oju.com slash locked on. That's odo.com slash locked on. Well, the rays look pretty play off ready in Atlanta. You are locked on raise your daily Tampa Bay rays podcast part of the locked on podcast

1:03network. Your team every day. I'm Kevin Weiss running things solo today. You'll see Zini will be back in the fold together for Friday's episode later on today's show. The rays are facing another key injury in a few minutes. Junior Caminero is bound to get some AL MVP votes, but to start, the rays are firing on all cylinders in the ATL. Yes, the rays are seemingly earning back the approval of Kevin Cash against the rays. We remember that Kevin Cash was not too pleased, not too happy with the performance of the rays in the Ranger series where the race split to out of the four games, but had an opportunity to take three or four. They pretty much had a missed opportunity on Sunday when they law they were down five to one and then they couldn't pull out a victory.

2:04And it seems to be one of those things where Kevin Cash is so beloved as a manager, as a coach, as a mentor, and as a teacher. I feel like the rays as a group were like, we cannot have Kevin Cash disappointed in us and saying that to the media. We need to get back in his good graces. And boy or boy have the rays done that in spades against the rays on Tuesday and Wednesday. Very similar victories. You look at tonight's victory, Wednesday nights victory, seven to win. And you look at Tuesday nights victory, a seven, one win, just dominating fashion from the pitching staff and the offense pretty much all around against a Braves club that again is leading the national league east. This is not the Rockies. This is not the athletics. This is not a sorry club. This is a Braves team that very well has the potential to go deep in the playoffs and

3:08make something of themselves. So for the rays to take advantage of the off day, get recuperated, get refreshed, get mentally focused and then and then to go into Atlanta. And when the series, I mean, you hope that the rays can complete the sweep on Thursday afternoon. But I would say that the rays are in a pretty good spot right now. And you just have to love overall what you saw offensively. If we look at both games, there's really a lot of similarities and similarities if you want to look at it. You build a lead early, you keep adding to it, you get home runs, key hits, key RBI's, key sack flies. I mean, just really the entire lineup top to bottom performed. In fact, if you look at Wednesday night's game, every member of the starting lineup contributed in terms of reaching base, maybe not everybody got a hit, but everybody got

4:11the line moving. And then of course, there were guys that were more impactful than others. But I think what was really impressive was the bottom of the order in game two and then game one, that was buttressed by four dingers, junior came in arrow, Liam Hicks, Yandhi Diaz, Richie Palacios spread throughout the entire game, first inning, third inning, eighth inning, ninth inning. There's the offense very well rounded top to bottom. That's huge. But also a key likeness in game one and game two of this brave series is the starting pitching. Buddy Peralta, another outstanding start. We'll talk a little bit about a little bit more about him in a moment. Another outstanding start for him in a raise uniform. And then Griffin jacks getting off the schneide, finding his stroke, finding his confidence and getting settled in five innings pitch one on run.

5:15I know he had a walk. I know he didn't have a ton of strikeouts, but really that's all you can ask for from Griffin jacks who has worked a career boast in terms of innings pitch workload coming back from injury and to get through five innings pretty much unscathed. I think is a huge building block for him the rest of the season and into the postseason. And it certainly helped that he had a lot of run support early on in the game to allow him to get settled in and comfortable. Now going back to Freddie Peralta, oh my gosh, this is now three straight six innings starts. And what was really impressive about him in that game one of the brave series was overcoming a rough first inning through a bunch of pitches just did not look all that great. And then from the second inning on he retires 14 of the 16 he faces allowing only a pair of two out singles and throwing 60 pitches from inning two on.

6:22Peralta is the real deal. Look we know that he had his hiccups upon being traded to the raise, but this is the exact reason why the raise got him at the perfect time to deliver that punch in the later portion of the season and then hopefully keep it up into the post season. And it's really pretty simple, I think. Peralta gets to the raise. Yeah, takes him a little bit to find his footing, but slight mechanical change getting comfortable with the new team and Kyle Snyder regaining his confidence, being aggressive. Hey, throw the change at bottom of the zone through the fastball top of the zone and you'll be good kid. And what we should really focus on with ready for all to going forward is he is a work course. So I do not expect him to slow down or pitter out at the end of September or into October.

7:26This year he's got 153 innings pitch. You look at his last couple seasons. He can go the distance. 2025, 177 innings, 2024, 174 innings, 2023, 166 innings, not to mention that he's pitched in the post season in six different seasons. Now there's been some mixed results, but he has had some success in the post season. And the fact that he's been there, done that. And he's now with such a good group of players around him in a great support system. I fully expect him to thrive when October rolls around. So you have to be, I mean, have to be in a good mood if you're a race fan based on what we've seen on Tuesday and Wednesday. And odds are, I mean, with the momentum rolling in the race favor, you should be able to keep it up in the day game on Thursday.

8:27If they lose, fine, hey, chalk it up to the braves, they're still a good team. At the end of the day, the race did what needed to be done was winning the series against a really good ball club on the road. And they've done exactly that. All right, moving on, junior Caminero, he's starting to make Jordan Alvaro as sweat, just a little bit, just a tiny bit, making Jordan Alvaro as sweat. A big thank you to our friends at Amazon for this limited break. This back to school season spend less on your kids with Amazon. We all know how crazy the back to school shopping experience can be. It starts with a few items on the list. And then suddenly you're shopping for supplies, clothes, lunch, gear, tech. And about 10 other things you didn't see coming and it adds up fast. And when you buy clothes for back to school, then your kid has a growth spurt two weeks later. And you're right back where you started.

9:28Sometimes it genuinely feels like they're growing faster than your budget can keep up with that. So remember, with Amazon's low back to school prices, just spend less on your kids because every dollar that you don't spend on them is a dollar you haven't spend on them. Shop back to school at Amazon and spend less. Thank you for listening to the Lockdown Race Podcast and making us your first listen of the day. We appreciate it. We are, of course, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network out there. Junior Caminero remains a legit AL MVP contender. Look, I'm not going to mince words here. There's still no doubt and no question that Jordan Albrez remains the AL MVP favorite. Huge odds in his favor and is still extremely, extremely, extremely likely to take the award. But at least junior and company is keeping it interesting.

10:31For the record, Jordan Albrez, as the AL MVP favorite has negative 5,000 odds. I guess that's how you say it to win the award while junior has 14 to 1 odds of winning the award. So Jordan for right now is a landslide for getting that honor. And if we're being frank, if we're being honest, deservedly so. He's had a tremendous, tremendous season. As of this recording, 38 dingers, 311 badding average, 428 on base percentage, 593 slug, 121 OPS plus the WRC plus is absolutely through the roof. But junior Caminero is keeping it interesting. He recently got his 39th home run, which is above Jordan Albrez. And Jordan Albrez is dreams of winning the triple crown are starting to slightly fade as Peter Lonzo leads the American League in RBI, followed by Jordan, and then followed by Junior.

11:36And then as far as batting title, Jordan could still take it, but Junior's teammates, Chandler Simpson and Yandee Diaz are on the heels of possibly unseeding Jordan and batting average. So I would say Albrez has a slightly uphill battle to win the triple crown, but he should still be in a great position to win the MVP award. Having said that, I still think Junior will command a noticeable amount of votes and is likely to have the raise highest ever finish for the award, for the MVP award that is. Like, Jordan gets it top overall, number one, the number two, it really should be Junior. And as far as getting some of those trickle down votes, if you will, we have to remember that the BBWA, the baseball writers association of America say that five times fast, not easy.

12:43They vote on the MVP award. So never underestimate the variance, the insurgency, the unpredictability of all voters, but especially voters and writers in the BBWA. And I think there's some things working in Junior's favor, the fact that he really could play all 162 games, the fact that he plays a position every day, unlike Albrez. Albrez is mainly DH. He's got 121 games at DH and 23 in left field. While Junior is kicking it every single day at third base. And it's crazy. You see the growth in development of Junior. I mean, from last season to this season, from the beginning of this season to now in September, I mean, just the other day, in one game, we see a 455-foot home run, we see an infield

13:44single, and then we see him leaping to snag a very hard hit liner at the hot corner. I mean, there are games where Junior certainly looks like an MVP. Continuing on that, for the record, Junior does actually lead and is above Yord and Albrez in fan graphs war. Junior is at 4.6 and Yordon is at 4.4. So I think there's a few votes here and there to be had in Junior's favor. And I don't know if this plays into the minds of the voters or a couple voters or some voters. However many voters there are out there, and I know it's an individual award, of course. But perhaps there's a little bit of consideration that Junior is playing for a team that had

14:46middle-ing expectations entering the season and is now the best team in the American League. Whereas the Astros, who very well could win their division in the West, but they're basically a 500 team, just hovering around 500. So maybe that gives Junior a couple of bonus points as well. But all told, I mean, we've talked about it episode after episode throughout the year, just how good, how valuable, how important, and how critical that Junior Caminero has been to this ball club. And he's only getting better at 23 years old. I would imagine by the time he's 29, by the time he's the same age as Albrez, that he'll have pretty much as many, if not more, silver sluggers and all-star burst. And he is going to rack up the accolades left and right, if this holds for it. And you just have to wonder and think, man, how much better would Junior's numbers be?

15:47If A, he was D.H. only like Albrez, and B, he had protection from the beginning of the season and not having to wait until late July, in early August, to get some semblance of protection from the likes of Liam Hicks. So just credit to everything that Caminero has done so far this year. And beyond the MVP award and the possibility or likelihood that Junior gets the most home runs in the American League, that's still on the table. We need to watch out for a couple other awards amongst the race. I mean Drew Rasmussen, he might not be a favorite for this eye young, but a strong finish could push him up some ballots. Camin Cash could win that third AL manager of the year award.

16:47And then Brian Baker is absolutely going to receive consideration for the BBWA's first AL reliever of the year award. So those are some things to keep mind of and keep track on as the race go through the rest of the season. MVP, Saiyong, manager of the year, reliever of the year. Am I missing anything? Oh, yeah. A World Series title would be nice as well. Just getting back to the playoffs. I mean, we are just look up what the magic number is. We are not that far off from clenching that playoff bird and then some more work to be done to win the division, but clenching that playoff birth for the first time since 2023. Man, it seems like forever ago since the race were last in the playoffs. I guess that's what happens when you go through spring trainings and play 162. It's a lot of games that you have to sit through, watch, listen, engage, attend and realize,

17:54oh, this team's not going to the playoffs. But 2026, this team absolutely is. However, I do have to be a Debbie Downer in the next few moments. I'll explain why next as another race player bites the dust. Well, learning to business shouldn't feel like you're trying to connect a bunch of systems that were never designed to work together in the first place. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales and somehow none of them talk to each other. Well, that's where ODO comes in. ODO is in all-in-one business management software that brings every part of your business together in one powerful platform. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, everything works in one place. And ODO is one platform to manage, grow and scale your business. The dust organizations know that success isn't just about talent. It's about having everyone working toward the same goal, kind of like the race in 2026.

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21:02They're calling it a right hip flexor strain. And the way he described it was kind of violent. He was like, it felt that a bomb had went off in my hip. I'm like, that doesn't sound too good. Are you sure you only need a 10 day IL Stint? You don't need longer buddy? Well, hopefully he's back sooner than later. And he marks the fourth race player to go on the IL in the last five days, joining as we know, Shane McLeanahan and Relievers, Garrett Clevver and Mani Rodriguez. All those guys are hoping to return this season. Now, I think for the interim, for the short term, the race should be fine. I mean, we've seen what Jorge Mateo can do getting the bulk of the time at shortstop. The race also recently called up Nick Madrigal from AAA who's got a lot of major league experience six seasons in the bigs. He can play shortstop. He can play second base, particularly against lefties. He can kind of play all over the diamond.

22:03It is pretty telling that the race opted to slot in Madrigal over Carson Williams. Carson Williams probably needs some more cooking in the minor leagues before he's ready to take over at starting shortstop one day. But it just goes to show you how important and how critical Taylor Walls is to this team. I'll tell you what, as much as we complain and bring issue with his batting average to 18 and lack of overall offensive punch, you're going to miss that defense if it's not in the playoffs. And one day, we're really going to miss Taylor Walls because day in, day out, I think sometimes we get a little bit spoiled because he set the bar so high. He's always ready and always in position to make a play.

23:07And he makes a play on some of the most difficult and possible chances and opportunities. There's a reason why he has a 3.1 more this season. There's a reason why he leads all major league short stops with 19 defensive runs saved. As I mentioned in the last segment about possible award winners or consideration for raise players, I mean, there's also a slight chance that Taylor Walls gets more goal glove consideration. It's crazy to think that the race haven't had a goal glove winners since 2019 when Kevin Kiermeyer did it as a center field. But my point is that Taylor Walls, while not flashy with the home runs like Junior came in arrow, not flashy with the stolen bases like Chandler Simpson, he still makes an impact

24:08defensively as we know. And despite some of these shortcomings offensively, he's still been key in terms of these small ball offensive approach of the race. Because don't look now, but Taylor Walls has 21 stolen bases and he's only been caught three times. So the base running is there. Plus he has a majors co leading 12 sack butts. That's before he got hurt. So he does a lot of the quote unquote little things that keep this team moving and running. And I would be willing to bet that every player on the race, particularly the pitchers and his fellow infielders and even the outfielders because he he's prevents a lot of balls from going into the outfield that they want Walls, meaning the shortstop position.

25:10He's that safety net. He's that warm, comfortable blanket defensively and for the pitching staff. Freddie Pearl to feels a lot more comfortable having Taylor walls behind him. Shame a clean of hand feels more comfortable having Taylor walls behind him. All the pitchers feel comfortable having him behind them. So look, hold your Taylor Walls jokes. He's he's been around the block. He's been here for a while. I would imagine the race will probably keep him for a while until Carson Williams can properly prove himself. But when October begins, you're definitely going to want Taylor walls in some capacity. Yeah, I understand you might want to limit his at bats, but you want that glove in the infield for sure 100%. And with the injuries, the the overarching point is, I mean, let's hope. The injury bug kind of stops and settles right now because as we know, when you get

26:16to the playoffs, sometimes it's not, hey, you know, well, we know the playoffs are a crapshoot generally, but sometimes it's not the best team or the most talented team that wins the dance. The team that's managed to stay healthy and is playing hot at the right time that wins the dance. So let's hope that Shane McClain and Han will be ready to start a postseason game. Let's hope Garrett Clevver and Jury and Manie Rodriguez can be available in some capacity. Is there a chance that Ben Williamson or Jake Freley can make it back before the end of the season in the playoffs? So let's let's hope and pray and wish that no more injuries pop up between now and then, but I just wanted to make a point of what Taylor walls has done overall this season.

27:19The overall value is extremely important. And in lieu of hitting home runs and getting on base and hitting for a high batting average, there's a lot of items that don't show up in the box score that he contributes to helping this team win ball games. So that's all I want to note. And there's going to be a time when I don't know if it's next year, two years, three years from now where Taylor walls isn't out there at shortstop. And a ball is hit to whoever that new shortstop is in a play isn't made. And you're going to be like, man, Taylor walls would have scooped that up. He would have turned a double play. He would have dove deep in the hole to snack that. So I think that's something that we need to probably as a group be a little bit more appreciative of with what Taylor walls provides.

28:21So on that note, let's hope that walls gets healthy sooner than later. Let's hope that those other guys get healthy sooner than later. And let's hope that the rays can sweep the braves. And that would make for a very fun Friday episode for Ulysses and I. And on that note, we hope you all have a wonderful day. Stay safe and we will talk to you on Friday. Thank you for making Locked On Your First Listen Every Day. For your second listen, find the All Night Locked On MLB Game Night. Every game, every night until a World Series champion is crowned. Get local analysis on a national scale. Find MLB Game Night on Locked On MLB on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.