Hour 1: Yanks - Rays Matchup and Dan Orlovsky

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And a good afternoon, everybody. This is indeed The Michael Kay Show. We thank you for joining us on this Friday. It is October 2nd, 2026 Me and you for two. Those are the rules of engagement. The fastest moving two hours in Sports Talk Radio. Of course, it's fast moving because I have a great guest host. Not a guest host, great co-host. And that is you, the listener. When you call and you become a co-host and the membership number is 1-800-919-3776.

We have a lot to talk about today, but you know what day it is, right? You're aware of that, right? Yeah, it's a free for all Friday.

You don't just slough that off. That's a big deal. That means that whatever you would like to talk about today, it's on the board. You can do it. You can do it. We love Fridays for that reason. I know a lot of you are going to want to talk about the Yankees and the Rays, which starts tomorrow night. So that'll be our jumping off point. It's an interesting series. The Yankees and the Rays played 13 times this year, and the Yankees won six and the Rays won seven. And the die was cast in April when the Rays really handled the Yankees down in St. Petersburg. When the Rays beat the Yankees, the Rays pushed the envelope. They pushed the action. They make the Yankees make mistakes. And I'm sure that that's going to be the game plan in this one. The Rays don't strike out an awful lot. They don't hit a lot of home runs. You know what they do? They put the ball in play. And the more you put the ball in play, the better chance you have of the defense making a mistake. And that's any defense, not just the Yankees.

Now, I think the Yankee defense has improved as the year has gone on in some places. The shortstop, George Lombard Jr. has the skill set of a great shortstop, but he's also sloppy at shortstop. So while he can make a great play that the Yankees couldn't have imagined making for the last couple of years, he can also boot a ball that he should not be booting. So there's the possibility of greatness, and there's a possibility of, shouldn't have made that play. Then I look at the shortstop on the other team, and that is Taylor Walls. Taylor Walls is not a great hitter, although he hits well against the Yankees for some reason. I don't know why, but he's not a good hitter, but he does put the ball in play. He bunts, he moves runners, he's got speed, but I'm gonna tell you this about Taylor Walls, and you might laugh at me, because there are a lot of great shortstops in the game right now, and there have been a lot of great shortstops that I have seen over my 40 years covering baseball. Five as a rider, 35 in the booth. Taylor Walls, if he's not the best defensive shortstop that I've ever seen, he's in the top five. And I was so moved to tell him that. I've been meaning to tell him that all year. I walked into the visitors clubhouse at Yankee Stadium when the Rays had that four game set against the Yankees, and they lost the final game, the Rays did. And I just walked in, and I'd never met the guy, and I introduced myself, I said, you're the greatest defensive shortstop I've ever seen. He seemed stunned. And I started to doubt myself. He said, thank you very much. That's really, really kind of you. He was very nice the way he handled it. And I didn't want anything from him. I said, well, thanks, good luck the rest of the way. And I walked away, and I started to ask scouts.

And they all agree, he's phenomenal. So that's something to look for in this series. Now, Caminero at third base has gotten better as a third baseman, not a great third baseman. Not a great third baseman. So they've got some good defenders, they've got some bad ones. Chandler Simpson out in left field is a terrible defender. He has no arm, right? And he just doesn't track the ball well. You'll see he might make a big error in this series. He might make a big misplay in this series.