VSiN By The Books | August 6, 2026 | Hour 3

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is VSiN By The Books on VSiN, the eSports betting network.

**Dave Ross** (0:14)
Top of the hour is VSiN By The Books, Dave Ross right here at the mid-gaming hall. Franklin, Kentucky, our closer, Jensen Lewis back home in Cleveland, Ohio. Got a big hour coming up here before we turn it over to Dustin Sweetilson and Kelly Bidlin again this week on a numbers game. Going to have the great Will Hill join us from Las Vegas out there in BetBash. Please like, subscribe to the VSiN By The Books podcast. Just had the great Mike Palm on talking about why he was all dressed up for the festivities today. It's going to be a lot of fun to be out there. Rob Bradford is going to join the program as well to talk some Boston Red Sox baseball. But Jensen, very quickly, I do believe we do have Rob on now. He's the host of Baseball Isn't Boring Podcast. Give him a follow on X at Brad F O and kind of to join us now on the Progressive Guest Line covers the Sox for WEEI in Boston. Rob, welcome back to the program.
I cannot believe in Jack Buck Voice what I've just saw with the Red Sox in this turnaround to the season. Can you tell us, did you see any inkling of this coming?

**Rob Bradford** (1:14)
Oh, my goodness. If I had a nickel, if I had a nickel, like we tried to figure this out for the last month and a half. And first of all, there's no people I'd rather be on with more than you guys. I appreciate it. You guys are the best. Thank you so much for having me.
But I'll just say this is that everyone's trying to figure out how did this happen? Because obviously it's historic. You know, you win 30 the last 35 games and you say, well, what happened? Like how did this turn? Because for instance, on July 7th, Sedan Raffaella said, we want to win the division. And we're like, what? You're 12 games back. You have a 0.9% chance of winning the division. You are last in home runs in the major leagues.
And then next thing you know, they're not going to the doorstep of the Tampa Bay race, which by the way, over that time have the second best record. So it's not like they've been sputtering. And, and so to come back to your question, how does this happen?
It's, it's just really just these guys finding confidence in the process. That is not a sexy answer, but there was no Carlos Santana being dropped in like Seattle in 2022 This was just simply guy finding their levels and then adding maybe a little bit of enthusiasm and confidence along the way. But by the way, with unbelievable pitching as well.

**Jensen Lewis** (2:44)
Yeah. The pitching has been amazing.
Let's also give a little credit words to, how about Chad Tracy just being dropped into an absolute hurricane of the way that this season started, steadied the ship. And since he was installed there on what, April 25th, April 26, only the Rays and the Brewers have more wins than the Red Sox in that time. I want to get you to the recent stretch. And of course, the big long win streak was one to behold, winning 15 in a row.
That really set them on the pace they were. But to do it without Garrett Crochet, just getting Ranger Suarez back, Sonny Gray has been phenomenal. I don't think this bullpen, Rob, gets enough credit. And as a former Major League reliever, we are usually the forgotten people. We cannot forget what the Kamis of Closers, Araldis Chapman has done, what Garrett Whitlock has done. And then some of the unsung heroes, your thoughts on kind of where this bullpen, you don't have these kind of win streaks unless you're closing out tight games and really being able to help out your starting staff.

**Rob Bradford** (3:44)
Well, Jensen, your instincts are keen as always.
And I will say this as a podcast who's co-owner or a brand who's co-owner is, is a former reliever and Joe Kelly. As somebody whose podcast is primarily made up of relievers because they're available and they get good personalities. I've always, always deferential to the relievers, but I'll say this. Chad Tracy said this yesterday. He thinks he has the best bullpen in the game. And now you have Eric Miller and here's the weird thing is that, so you have Chapman, you have Whitlock, you have slate and already, I mean, this is locked down stuff. It's already good.
And then when they trade for Eric Miller from San Francisco, everyone was hyper-focused on what you gave up in the fourth overall pick Marcelo Meyer. Like, how could you give up that guy, the shortstop of the future for a reliever? But then you see the guy pitch and like, oh, okay, we get it. Like, this is another weapon to an already pretty, pretty good bullpen. So yeah, I think we do focus so much on the starters, but the relievers actually during this stretch have probably been even better.