Hour 1: Bobby Skinner

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Get your tickets now for The Dog Stars.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
That day of hope It's no surprise how fast civilization can disappear.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:09)
Go! Out there, kill or be killed. Jacob Elordi.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:13)
There are people out there. They need our help.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:15)
Josh Brolin. Shoot first, and inquire afterwards. Margaret Qualley.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:20)
Okay, tough guy.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:21)
And Guy Pearce. Arm up! The Dog Stars, directed by Ridley Scott. In theaters August 28th. Get tickets now. Rated R, under 17, not admitted without parents.
This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

**Jake Asman** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:35)
Listen live weekdays at 1 on the Espn New York app and your smart speaker.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:41)
No Michael Kay!

**Jake Asman** (0:42)
No Michael Kay. Jake Asman in for Michael, who's gonna call a Yankees game as the Yankees are going for a sweep, baby. Over the Seattle Mariners in about 35 minutes first pitch. We got a lot to talk about. We certainly will still do some baseball talk. I gotta give the Yankees credit. It was as down on the Yankees as I've been in a very, very long time. The last time I sat in the seat filling in for Michael. But to the Yankees credit, I went to the game Friday night. They're playing the Atlanta Braves. I'm thinking to myself, why am I doing this? It's the same thing. They're not scoring any runs down to nothing in the game. They come back that night, win the game and extra innings. And let's be fair, they've been a different team since. Now, they're still having issue scoring runs, last night aside, but last night was encouraging.
Austin Wells has been hitting a lot better of late. Trent Grisham finally showing a pulse. Two home runs last night. Three straight multi hit gains. Spencer Jones a great at bat to really get the Yankees going.
And obviously, the real rally for the Yankees, you could point to George Lombard being right involved in it. So there are some positive signs from a Yankee perspective of what we have seen from this team. The pitching remains elite. And that was part of the frustration by many, many, many Yankee fans, myself included, by Brian Cashman not getting enough bats didn't make any sense. We don't want to hear the excuses, oh, they're asking for Lombard and every deal. You could have added another bat without having to trade away George Lombard Jr. You could have added another relief pitcher without having to trade away George Lombard Jr. No Yankee fan is going to buy that. The only way to get any sort of improvement beyond what the Yankees did was to trade away their number one prospect. I just refuse to believe that.
But give the Yankees credit, and this is more of a give Aaron Boone credit because he's managing the team that Brian Cashman has put together that's deeply flawed, especially with all these injuries. They've been able to hold it together. As the Red Sox tied them going into that Brave series on Friday, all of a sudden, Boston's come back down to earth. There was going to be some sort of natural regression at some point. We're now seeing that. And the Yankees have a four-game lead over Boston now for the top wild card, which I think matters. I think the Yankees being at home in those three games matters immensely. Now, there's a stat that I've given many times when talking about the Yankees that under Aaron Boone, they have never won a playoff series when they've had to start on the road. So that would also include the wild card round, duh, if they're not in position to host those games at Yankee Stadium. So well, ideally, you of course win the division or in a different scenario, it's not going to happen because the American League is trash. The Yankees actually fell to the number three wild card spot, and they got to play probably the winner of the American League West in a wild card series. You'd prefer that over the Red Sox. But all you could do, if you're the Yankees, is do what they've been doing, just find ways to win and hope you get some of these guys, like Aaron Judge and John Carlos Sand and Cody Bellinger back. I don't think they're going to be able to catch Tampa, they don't lose. It's disheartening that that's the case, but the Rays do not lose baseball games. So if they don't lose, all the Yankees can do is try and just maintain the number one wild card spot, which they have now been able to put some distance between them and the Boston Red Sox over these last couple of days, which is great. Now, can they go for the sweep today? Well, they're going for the sweep, Jake, dawg. Can they win the game today and complete the sweep?