Baseball Isn’t Boring
BIB After Dark: Everything You Need To Know About Game 1 In Toronto
13 Oct 2025
Chapter 1: What are the hosts' initial reactions to the Blue Jays' loss?
I know that, listen, Adam, I don't feel like it's copyrighted baseball and coffee after dark. I guess I think anything you do after 11 p.m.
is after dark.
I agree. We're winging it. And nowadays, up here, it's like 5 o'clock after dark. Right, exactly.
Well, there's no two people I'd rather be talking to than Rich Hill and Adam Montevino after game one of the ALCS, and I mean that wholeheartedly. And just to tell you, to give everyone a little about how loose and spicy this baseball isn't boring after dark is, I'm wearing my Vladdy Time t-shirt, which I haven't broken out in years as probably the fit will tell you.
And, and rich is, I need to pay my electrical bill. Apparently that's this situation. Well, let's be honest. You, you have a candle. So you have a candle. You're literally, you have a candle. But when you first had the idea for the candle, it was, oh, baseballs are boring after the dark. We're going to be dripping hot wax. Listen, I don't know.
And listen, Adam just got the baseball and coffee hat, which we're all envious of. Yeah, so it's a good-looking hat. It's a good-looking hat. Good job.
Do I need a safe word during this podcast? When the clock strikes midnight. All right.
All right. All right. Well, listen, as you can probably guess, I had this thing. I had this rant queued up. I actually tweeted something. I couldn't help it. So I gave a little bit of a tell. But the Blue Jays lose 3-1. I have a rant percolating in me. But you guys are my guests. And you guys have certainly know more baseball than I do.
So maybe you guys will say something that I'll change my mind. I doubt it. And if you do say something different than me, it's your prerogative to be wrong. Because I'm pretty dug in. I'm pretty dug in. All right, who wants to go first? Who wants to give their thoughts, their guttural thoughts on this game first?
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Chapter 2: How did Bryce Miller perform in Game 1 of the ALCS?
He was throwing the ball well. His pitch count was low. He easily could have given probably at least another three outs beyond that, if not more. And I just think I'd rather – you know, you lose the game – Maybe either way, but I think I'm more comfortable losing it that way and knowing that I have more arrows in my quiver down the run of this series.
I've just been through it now a little bit. What kills you in these seven-game series in the modern game is eventually you just run out of pitching. Just don't run out of pitching when you have an opportunity for a guy to eat some innings. That's my point.
The Blue Jays are saying, here, we're going to run out of pitching. There you go. Here's our avenue to run out of pitching.
That game tonight felt like, I mean, the last series against Boston, that whole series. They just didn't have any life. I mean, the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays didn't have any life. And I say that because the last series, or the second-to-last series, excuse me, against Boston where they, you know. Oh, yeah. Didn't really.
Oh, no, no. I remember that. Varshow hit it like a great, like they weren't scoring runs. Varshow ultimately hits a grand slam, and then all of a sudden it turns the tide. But you're right. They weren't heading up until that point.
I didn't understand, you know, Little being so hot and cold all, you know, season and bringing him in and overcooking those curveballs. I mean, obviously that led to putting Polanco in that, Rodriguez in that position to score, but Polanco, you know, in a position to get him in too. So, you know, I don't know.
I don't know what would have been a better move coming out of the bullpen, but I think the move, and we can all agree upon it, is that they should have kept Gossman in. That's for sure.
Well, the other part about that is you bring Little in, and we've said this a million times too, where, okay, it's the postseason. It's different. You're also reaching levels of the season you aren't used to. You don't know how Little's going to react. And throwing a 40-foot whatever that was probably would be a good sign for him.
Yeah, he's overcooking curveballs. He's excited. Yeah, you can see it, but I think that's where the experience speaks volumes in the postseason. And you want guys that have been there and done it before, or at least guys that you can tell that have a low temperature when they're in there.
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Chapter 3: What were the key moments that shifted the game's momentum?
What they did now is they put the onus on the offense to have to win them a game that they wouldn't have otherwise had to do. You know, tonight it's a weird game. They only strike out four times. This is kind of what they do as a team. But it was all just early weak contact. They weren't doing any damage. So this is like the other side of the coin with the whole put it in play.
you know, philosophy versus, you know, obviously strikeout, hit homers and stuff. Like this is the other side of the coin. When a guy's making quality pitches early and your plan kind of backfires, it can look like this. But I still like the skill set that this offense has potentially against some of these starters. These are really, really good starters that the Mariners have.
And if you're going to beat one of these guys, it's going to take a contact approach. Like they're going to have a game where five or six balls fall in. They have a big rally and they break a starter. They're going to need to do that now. Now it's imperative because of this loss.
But are they going to get that at some point if they're going to flip the series and then they'll get back on even footing? But yeah, it puts them behind the eight ball a little bit right away. You never want to lose game one, particularly at home. Yeah, and it's just like this was the matchup they liked. You know, this is ultimately the Mariners' what, fourth starter, fourth or fifth starter?
Oh, yeah.
Going against their ace.
Yeah, by the way, and, you know, the melatonin's probably still running through their system from the flight. You know, it's like, yeah.
I mean, they had them on the ropes in the first inning. I mean, you get 27 pitches, and then you come back, and what was it, the top of the fifth? They had a four-pitch inning. You had a four-pitch inning. Oh, fuck. I mean, it was, you know, in and out of there.
The point I think that Otto's making, too, is great because I think just being able to work these counts and not have such quick at-bats like they did tonight and being able to kind of grind down a starter or the pitching as a whole is, again, going to... prove to be valuable as the series goes on.
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of removing Kevin Gausman from the game?
But, you know, and, Adam, Rich and I were talking about this about what makes Seattle, you know, actually, listen, their offensive philosophy is different than Blue Jays. But at the same time, I like the dynamic.
of having these guys have the big boys that you have to get through when they're going well like obviously you know you had a rosa rent he hasn't really been going yet but cal raleigh julio rodriguez now you get even polanco in the mix and i'll say this i like this dynamic if julio rodriguez can hit like he did tonight and not like he did the other night
To me, that is a huge, huge difference because you have Cal Raleigh who's still on a tear. You have Julio Rodriguez. Then you have Polanco who, by the way, we talk about putting the ball in play. Well, how did they score that run? He put the ball in play.
Put the ball in play, hit a seam, hit a seam, and then goes to the outfield. The other thing I think, too, is the importance of the strike throwing in every series. We talk about it early on in the wild card and
throughout all of the playoffs the team that makes the least mistakes wins the team that throws the most strikes wins um and i you know you saw that as we saw that as a game was going on with the the walks there and the was it the eighth right yeah yeah yeah yeah The walks in the eighth, but I mean, it's also the discipline.
If Seattle's going to win this series, they need to have that discipline at the plate to go forward. Because I agree with both of you guys. I still think that Toronto has the upper hand in the series.
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But in order for them to win, it's going to take that throwing strikes and, you know, having great plate discipline.
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Chapter 5: How does starting pitching impact postseason success?
They might look like crap, but they'll hit some homers every now and then. It's not the Blue Jays' style. But Suarez, who... I'm screaming at the TV a lot of the time I'm watching him hit, particularly the other night in the 15-inning game. I mean, he's got one thing on his mind, but he does occasionally run into it.
It does happen.
So, you know, it's just – you look at it and you're like, man, there's a lot of pop in this lineup. There is. I mean, Randy, Raleigh, Polanco, Rodriguez, Suarez, there is a lot of pop. It's just, you know, I think – It's interesting. It's two different styles. One team's kind of waiting around for it to happen, and the other team's trying to make it happen every second they can.
And it's just, you know, sometimes the batted ball gods kind of matter here a little bit, too.
Who has the better bullpen, you guys think? Um... I think they're pretty similar, right?
Well, I would say Munoz and Brash are better than anybody that the Blue Jays necessarily have. I mean, Varlin, they use him as a fireman. He's been really good for the Blue Jays. But I've been kind of down on the Blue Jay bullpen, but then they went and won a game bullpenning against their Yankees. They went out late in the bullpenning.
Well, let me ask you this. And maybe this is way overthinking it. Why do you bring in Hoffman? I mean, you're up two, right? You have to play the next day, I think, right? Correct? Yeah, you have to play the next day. Yeah. You let them get a chance to look. I know they've faced him before, but still, it'll get a chance to look.
Why are you bringing him in? It feels to me, because they did this even in the game one of the Yankee series. They were blowing him out. They pitched him, I believe, for seemingly no reason. I'm just assuming he's the type of guy that needs to touch the mound every couple days. They just want to keep him fresh. He was very inconsistent this year.
I think the last thing they want to do is have him go three or four days without throwing. I think it's as simple as that.
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Chapter 6: What strategies do the Blue Jays need to implement moving forward?
So, I don't know. Is that just a jaded way to look at it? Because I will say this. When I do sit among the riffraff and the stands, it is fun. It's good, I guess. I don't know.
I am jaded. I think it's part of the ticket experience. You've bought the ticket for the experience. You want to feel the emotion of... Neil Diamond. Do you?
By the way, was Neil Diamond your safe word? You guys will never know. The Blue Jays won so bad. It's so bad, it's good, honestly. It's like...
No, that one's bad. That one, I'm sorry. It's cute, but oh my God, it's so bad. I mean, I was genuinely confused the first time I was there for it. I said, there's just no way they play this every time.
I honestly, this isn't a slight on the fans. I think the fans of Toronto are awesome. Amazing. But I do think other markets, if they played that, it would be over in two seconds. Can you imagine in New York or Boston or Philly or something? We're doing what? What's going on?
No, Philly, they'd shoot the speakers out. There's no way that would not make it.
Yeah. Well, listen, guys, I appreciate you jumping on. Thanks so much. Everyone made it out alive. So it's all good. So I will ask the final thing. Who do you got in game two? I'll ask this. Who do you got in game two for both game two ALCS, game one for NLCS? Adam, you first.
Yeah, Toronto has to win tomorrow. So I have Toronto. And then in the other game, I'm going to say Milwaukee's going to win game one. I just feel like they're going to, and it's just going to, it's going to make everybody in LA get super nervous right away when they lose game one. But I think LA is the better team, but I just think this is, this is what Milwaukee does.
They go in there and they score like six runs out of nowhere off of like a great pitcher. So.
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