Looking ahead to the Cardinals series

Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing and Bubba Wallace. You know what's the worst part of a race? A rain delay. Sitting around, waiting for the track to dry is dull. But instead of waiting, we hang out with Chumba Casino. Social casino slots, bingo, solitaire, plenty of fun to keep us entertained. So why let a rain delay slow you down? Play now at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba! Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. PGW4 prohibited by law 21 plus terms and conditions app ly. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. And Bubba Wallace. You know what's the worst part of a race? A rain delay. Sitting around, waiting for the track to dry is dull. But instead of waiting, we hang out with Chumba Casino. Social Casino slots, bingo, solitaire, plenty of fun to keep us entertained. So why let a rain delay slow you down? Play now at chumba Casino.com. Let's Chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. PGW4 prohibited by Law 21 Plus Terms and Conditions app ly. Introducing Fidelity Trader Plus, the next generation of advanced Trading from Fidelity. Customize your tools and charts and access them seamlessly across desktop, web, and mobile. For faster trades, anywhere you go. Try the all-new Fidelity Trader Plus. Learn more about our most powerful trading platform yet at Fidelity.com slash traderplus . Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC, Member NYSE, SIP C. It's the amazing Rico Boronia Podcast with your host, Evan Rober ts. Holy crap, it was cold out there. Welcome to the first Drive Home Edition of 2026 of Rico Bronha. What a freaking day at City Field. This is the drive home Rico Bronia, the inaugural one of 2026. It was a long day. It was a cold day. And it ends with Luis Roberts Jr. giving us a Met moment in day number two as the Mets win an incredibly frustrating game against the Pittsburgh And let's begin with those that lasted the 11 innings. And I think Pete Hoffman is one of them. This is a tooling drive home. He's on his own car ride home. I'm on my car ride home. And it was a cold day. Like you felt the wind. You could see the wind. You could see how it was affecting a lot of the position players on different pop-ups, uh, none of which fell in, but you had a lot of guys struggling. So I think the game time temperature was forty two degrees, but you factor in the wind man, it must have been in the high twenties, low thirties. Uh, and then obviously as the time goes by because the game started off and it was flying right it was flying by David Peterson was really efficient Mitch Keller was really efficient and I thought wow it's gonna be a nice little two hour 15-m ginuteame on scratch out a run. We go home. No harm, no foul that it's really cold. And then the game really dragged from the fifth inning on because the Pirates had a million guys on base. They blew a ton of scoring opportunities. The Mets had a few scoring opportunities. They couldn't break through, and obviously the craziness of the ninth, tenth, and eventually the 11th inning. But you could see, I could see, Hoff could see, Al Cintron, who I was with today, could see that every inning, more people were leaving. Every inning, people were tapping out. They said, it's too cold. I can't handle it. And I gotta be honest, there was a time in my life in which this wouldn't have bothered me. But I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm 42. Maybe it's because I got a bad back. I'm not sure what it is. I was miserable. Like this was a freaking miserable existence. My feet right now are still frozen. I've been in the car for about 10 minutes. We got a little bit of a later start to the drive home, Rico, because we were both there configuring getting it up. And my toes right now are still frozen. With that said, I got the coldness out of the way. Let's get to the resilience of the New York Mets because this had a chance in the early goings of a long baseball season. This had a chance to be one of those losses we write down. Logtime Ricoers know what I'm talking about. The loss you write down because it's a brutal loss. I don't care if it's day two or day fifty-two or day ninety-two, because in the tenth inning of this g ame, when the Mets r ally. The'yre down a run because they give up the stupid man Fred man. By the way, I am destroying traffic right now. I'm on the uh service road of the Whitestone Expressway and everybody is bumper to bumper and I'm just I'm cruising along on that service road. Bye. Bye everybody. Yeah. I'm gonna skip that right to the White Stone Bridge. That makes me feel very good. It's one of my uh traffic hacks that I have at City Field. You take the side roads, you never get on the Whitestone Expressway. Even if there isn't traffic, no biggie, maybe you add another minute or two. But this is why you take those service roads. I'm passing 25th Avenue here in Queens. Oh, that traffic is so bad. Oh not my problem. Anyhow, you go to the 10th in ning and you're thrilled about the fact that they show the promise of rallying. You're thrilled about the fact that Mark Vientos, who comes up as a controversial pinch hitter for Carson Bench with two outs and nobody on, delivers a base hit to load up the bases. You love the fact that Luis Terenz, one of the only guys, the only position player that received an A grade in the Rico grades of last season, comes up only in the game because Mendy's getting speed for Alvarez when he I'm sorry. This is we'll get to Robert Jr. I'll you know wax poetic about him. We all know it's great. Game-winning home run. But when you have the bases loaded and nobody out, and you've got Lindor, and you've got Soto, and you've got Bo Bichette, and you're facing something called Hunter Brac co, who this is Al Centron's line, sounds like a porn star. Let's be honest. I mean, I don't know . Do we know Hunter Bracco? I think he was actually the last guy to make the Pirates. Congratulations to him. But you have the bases loaded and nobody out with your elite level hitters coming up, even I, as a negative Nelly, even I thought the game was over. Even I took my phone, put it in my pocket, and said, I think we're gonna win. What a great victory! Down one-nothing, bottom of the 10, Fientos, Terence. It was just a matter of who was gonna come through, and I'll I'll tell you a funny story. So attention, fans of jury duty, the groundbreaking comedy series is back for season two. 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And when Lindor hits that ground ball in which there's a play at the plate, and it's very close, the Mets actually challenged it to see if the throw brought Henry Davis's foot off home plate. The kid is saying, No, it can't end this way. And and I'm looking at this kid, Al's looking at this kid, and we're saying, it is 35 degrees outs ide. We just want to win. Like, yes, it would be very odd and anticlimactic to have it end on a fielder's choice and a slightly bad throw and a challenge like I I get it but no just win the game and this kid, this cocky kid, is saying no, we can see Soto get the game winner. Okay. Juan Soto, who did not have a walk-off last year, felt perfect. This is gonna be his moment. And of course, Juan Soto, and I don't know what he's thinking on the very first pitch. It looked like a check swing, little nubber. And that too turns into an out at the pl ate. Oh wow, the traffic's over. Okay. Yeah, there was a massive accident on uh right I'm looking behind me as I get on the highway and it is like shut down. And I'm sure there's a few people, maybe not live on the uh FAN YouTube version of the Rico, but certainly on the podcast version, who will be listening to this saying, My God, I wish you could have warned me. Because I sat in that traffic for 25 minutes. Again, service road, always your friend. So I'm getting on the White Stone Bridge right now. Anyhow, uh, what was I saying? Oh yeah. Lon Soto with the excuse me check swing, and then B Boachet, who is hearing the boots. And we'll get into a few things on Bo because obviously his defense was shaky in this game. He committed an error. He also had another offline throw in which Pol co play but it was one of those unnecessary backhands if you go back to the play he made it was very odd looking but he made the play but Bo had an uneven day defensively and obviously offensively he was miserable, including flying out with the bases loaded. Not that it was that inning is on Bachet, that inning is on Lindor and Soto. I mean let's be honest. They came up with bases loaded nobody out and bases loaded one out. So it's honestly more on them than it is Bo. But Bo is the first guy who's hearing the cat calls and I think he's hearing it for two reasons. Number one, he's not off to a great start. It's two games, which is stupid. You have one big game on Sunday and your batting average is fine, but again, I'm just explaining why there were boos at City Field. He's not off to a great start offensively in two measly games. And I think his defense is under a major microscope right now. Uh because I'm doing a drive home Rico, I cannot check the emails, but I'm pretty sure there's gonna be a lot of why isn't Beattie playing third? Uh Bachette's got a DH, Bachette shouldn't play third base emails. It is two games. I remind everybody, it's two g ames. Was he shaky in this game? Absolutely. I'm not gonna defend him. But I'm also not gonna bury him. Uh, that's for sure. But the offense in this game and the tenth inning, it was frustrating. I mean, they couldn't hit all day against Mitch Keller. They couldn't hit the pirate bullpen. They didn't have a lot of opportunity in this game. So when you have bases loaded, nobody out, tie game. We all expect that you're gonna win right there. And of course they don't. Uh the decision to pinch it uh,, Bench for Vientos, I'm kinda mixed about it. So I thought with two on and nobody out down or run I actually thought against the lefty, why not bunt with Carson Bench? We saw Bench try to lay down a bunt a few innings earlier. So I thought about that. I know you have Terence coming up, but I I actually trust Luis Terence. He's been a relatively clutch hitter. So I thought about the idea of letting Benge hit and laying down a bunt. Earlier in the game he faced another lefty and we were talking do you pinch hit for him there with Tyrone Taylor? And I was against that. In the tenth inning, Vientos needs to get his at bats. We need to give him that chance. I didn't mind it. That would be the way I would describe it. I didn't mind going to Vientos. I wasn't banging the table for it or banging the seat for it since I'm at the g ame. But I didn't mind going to Vientos, kind of using that bullet right there. And to his credit, he came through. I mean, let's not forget that. Mark Vientos ripped the base head. He came through. He set up what should have been the game winner in the bottom of the 10th inning. So it worked. And I think with when you pinch it for bench, it's got to be the right situation. I think a tough lefty late, even though I don't have Hunter Barco is necessarily the tough lefty, but it's also about getting Vientos the opportunities. You know, you look at the rest of the lineup and you ask yourself, where else would he be pinch hitting? If he's not starting the game against the lefty, he's not pinch hitting for Polanco. I don't even think he's pinch hitting for Beatty. I think Beatty's hitting. Beatty's facing these guys and he, deser ves to. So I think the one area where you are going to use that bul let is for Carson Bench. Uh, the bullpen. And then we'll get to Luis Robert Jr. I'm bearing Luis Robert Jr.'s uh home run only because we all know what happened. He had a home run. It was great. It was a walk-off. Uh people in my section reminded me that I need to brag on the Rico because I did call him. And I want to make it clear. Hey, you know what, screw it, let me get to Robert Jr., then I'll get to the other stuff. I didn't really call it. People want to give me credit for calling it in uh my section 318. Here's what I said. I'll quote it. I'm freezing my ass off Lub ob hit one to the moon so we can all go home and thaw out that's what I was saying. So it wasn't a prediction more than it was a plea. It was a plea to the gods. End the game. We're cold. We're tired . I got a puppy at home I need to take care of. Like I let's go. Let's do this thing. And he did it. So I wouldn't say I called it. It was a plea. And I think of of what we've watched over these two games, and I know we'll do a series ending Rico after Sunday's game, it will not be a drive home. It'll be a nice Rico studio series recap. But Luis Robert Jr.'s been the most impressive man. He has. And and a lot of it is maybe we were expecting like what is Luis Robert Jr. considering the two years he had in Chicago, but he's had some really good at-bats. And obviously this, I mean, you had a walk-off three-run home run down by a run in the bottom of the 11th inning. I mean, that speaks for itself. I don't need to explain the quality at bats, though he has had the quality at bats, or even the threat of the arm in center field. We saw it in the 10th and the 11th, a flyball hit the center field, and no one's running on Lub ob. I haven't decided if I'm gonna join in on the Lu Bob. I may just call him uh Robert or Junior or just Luis Robert Jr. I could call him by his name. But his at-bats have been great and, that was an awesome moment for him. I said this on Evan and Tiki. I don't know if it here on the RICO, but I'll say it here on the RICO. It's like he's been taken out of jail. You know, it's like he's been given a new life by being out of Chicago and being with this team. So I'm happy for him. I'm happy for ourselves because he's off to a wonderful start. And he really saved what would have been a frustrating loss. I mean I wouldn't have been panicking here on the Rico, but I think we would have spent more time pitching about Bobachette and more time, you know, destroying Juan Soto's at bat in the tenth inning, or even Lindor's at bat in the tenth inning. So I think Robert Jr. at least bailed out what would have been a very frustrating loss. So great moment for him. It was awesome seeing everybody celebrate. I will I I'll check out the videos and if Lindor and Soto even looked at each other, we'll keep an eye on that. But couple of th ings before I get to the rest of the game. One noticing thing is I love to have a speedster off the bench. You know, they use Tyrone Taylor as a pinch runner. Jared Young ended up coming in the game uh in right field. I'd like to have someone, because Taylor's a is a fast base runner, but someone who who can be a specialist. We had that last year with Luis San Jelacunia. I'd love to find that again this year. Tommy Fam is obviously eventually gonna be on this roster. Uh we didn't get a ch ance. E van Those trendy prebiotic sodas, they do absolutely nothing without enough good bacteria in your gut. Hi, I'm Tina, co-founder of Just Thrive Probiotic, the only probiotic proven to arrive 100% alive. See most probiotics die in your stomach acid, but just thrive survives, giving you real relief from gas and bloat, healthy immunity, better sleep, and clear skin. Plus, just thrive comes with a lifetime money back guarantee. So you have nothing to lose. Visit Just ThriveHealth.com slash podcasts and use code pod 20 for 20% off. Take control of your health today with Just Thrive. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing and Bubba Wallace. You know what's the worst part of a race? A rain delay. Sitting around, waiting for the track to dry is dull. But instead of waiting, we hang out with Chumpa Casino. Social casino slots, bingo, solitaire, plenty of fun to keep us entertained. So why let a rain delay slow you down? Play now at chumbacasino.com. Let's chumba. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. No purchase necessary. BGW point number prohibitive by law. 21 plus terms and conditions app ly. She loves it hot, he loves it cold. However you sleep, the pod by 8Sleep adapts to you. Get up to $350 off with code deepsleep at 8Sleep.com . I don't know what happened. We can't hear you now. Can you hear me? There you go. Oh, can you hear me now? Now I can hear you. Yes. You're back. Yeah, I was. Yeah, I was uh I took the phone call from my wi fe. Oh by the way, it's playing the Rico Brunia music off. Can you end that? Are we running into that problem again? No. I don't think so. Am I the only one hearing it? Hold on, let's see. Hey, it's running again . Yeah, you gotta stop the Rico bro in your podcast intro hoff. No, it it's it's going? Uh-oh. Yes, I hear it constant ly. I'll talk through it while you figure it out. U h yeah, sorry, my wife called and I tried to tell her that I am uh doing a RICO. She was very understanding. And she said, call me back later. They're on vac ation. So at least this time, for those that are not aware, uh, I think it was about two years ago we had a RICO where you did a good job, you got rid of it. We had a RICO where Hoff set it up and I had fell asleep because it was very late at night, and the entire time the Rico Bronya intro kept playing over and over aga in, it was very, very funny. Very frustrating, but very funny. And like Keith McPherson called, tried to help, Salicotta was cracking up. It was a it was a miscue. It happened. So it lives somewhere in the analys of the Rico Brogia. But as I'm hearing it again, I'm like, oh my God, I'm having a flashback. Anyhow, yeah, I tried to take a phone call from my wife to tell her uh I'm doing a Rico, all good. Anyhow, yeah, Tommy fam's coming back, and I'd like to have a pinch runner extraordinaire coming off the bench. By the way, Hoff, pop yourself back on. We have an iss ue. Me and you have an issue, Pete. Because it appears as if you're h ome. It appears as if you're not doing a drive h ome. Yeah, so so we do have an issue . All right. I uh I had to leave at the night at the end of the ninth inning. So I expected the game to end rather quick after like the ninth inning, I thought we would win there. And then I expected the tenth inning it to end. So I was driving home. I wanted to make sure that we were ready and all set, good to go. So when you got in the car, we were ready. Um and then twenty-five minutes later, the game ended and I pulled up to my ho use . Well, what is there a reason you left early like besides like why did you leave early? Uh I'm gonna ask you point blank. Why? I was with my son and he was complaining to leave. So I nice f nicely uh thanked the people that was with and we got out of there. By the way, I'm gonna I'm gonna risk sin killing you and I'll tell you why. So I was saying this to Al, who I was sitting with Al Citrano, you here on the fan. I said, if I took Spencer Jeb, either one of my sons, not that they would have asked to leave, because I don't know. I think like knowing my son's jet would have asked to leave, Spence would have been like, I'm good. We're staying the whole time. But my wife, and she's smart, would have called me up at some point or texted me and said you have healthy for them to be sitting in thirty five degree weather for four hours and being the good dad that I am and the good husband, I would have obliged. I would it would have been tough. Like it would have been frustrating. But once you bring up like health of child, I was not gonna like I wouldn't fight it. You know what I mean? Like if it was hey, it's late, come home. I would have been like come on. But I think once you think about it, I would have said yeah. So I I actually don't blame you. You know, your son was there. If he's cold, if he's not feeling well, I get it. It's a it's March. I was gonna say it's April, it's not even April. It's frickin' March. So I get it. But you missed the walk-off. Is there any part of you that feels bad that you weren't there for the Luis Rappa Jr. game? Yes. I I wanted to see it live. But I would have I might have left after that 10th inning because I was so pissed in the car when Ledore and then Soto and then Bushek got out. And by the way, listen, everyone was excited about all the contact that was made on on Thursday's game, that dribbler by freaking soda was the same amount of contact that Robert Jr. had on Thursday, and we got out. So it that that can't that's is unacceptable. I'm sorry. Well, think about it. We were about to lose the game on contact like that. I mean, the Brian Reynolds little nubber off of Dickie Lovelady. And credit to Dickie Lovelady. He pitched well. Like we got a call like it is. I mean, the run he gave up was a cheap run, and then he was able to get out of it with a huge strikeout. I mean, honestly, like Luis Garcia, he only gave up one run. And I think when you come in with the Manfred Man on second, getting out of it, giving up one run, I'm not saying it's great, but it's like acceptable. You know what I mean? Like it's acceptable. You came in with a runner on second and nobody out. So overall, like the bullpen really did a good job. Kudos to Waskar Brazabon getting the two big outs to bail out David Peterson. Luke Weaver had a good inning. Uh uh, what's his name? Uh Brooks Rayle had a great inning. And Devin Williams made me nervous. I was very nervous. Also, uh declaration we're not calling him dwell okay uh if you you call him dwell at your own uh peril as a guy who once had a de will on his favorite te am we're not doing D well, but again, credit to Devin Williams. He got through the inning. So overall, I think the pitching was pretty good. David Peterson was able to get in and out of jams. I thought Mendy had the right touch on when he took him out of the game. Uh this would have been a this loss would have been completely on the LD offense. Completely on the LD offense if they have lost this game. And one other thing, this is the beautiful part. The drive home Rico, I don't have the book in front of me, so I gotta use the old noggin. Jorge Polanco committed an error today. I don't give a crap that they called it a hit. That ball to first base that he bobbled and he booted, that is an error. And I was telling my section, I said, look, Evan Scorebooks calling that crap an error. So the new defense, the new guys, the guys learning the positions. Very shaky day two, if we're being honest. And what I'd like to see in day three is Brad Beatty play first base. I'm gonna continue to run Bo out there every day, as we should, but here's another option at first base. So on Sunday against another right hand er, either give Polanco a day off, DH him, whatever you want to do. I want to see Brett Beatty at first base. Any thoughts you have, Hoff, before we say ado. Yeah, I I because I know that you were gonna kill Bo Bouchette and a lot of people rightfully so we're doing the same. I I would like to say the same about Hory Polanco because there was a lot of misplayed balls, even though they weren't cold errors, he wasn't clean over there at all. And I was reminiscent of other first basemen I've seen in the past that that did a better job, actually, to be honest with you, uh names uh we will not include in this uh podcast. But like this experiment, I know we're only two games in. Hey, look at that. I know we're only two games in. Um I'm not gonna sit there and be Nancy Negative over here. But let's be serious. I I'm not impressed with this this defense that David Stearns has put together. It's it's not as impressive as it was supposed to be. Two days. And I don't want to remind you two days. Uh but you're right about Polanco. The almost got Luke Weaver killed on a ground ball to first base in which he flipped it behind him and I could see Luke Weaver's hamstring like exploding in that moment, which would have been something on day two. I remind you, I remind everybody in the audience, uh, it is early and you are talking about two guys that are learning new positions. So there are gonna be more moments like this as long as it doesn't cost them games, as long as it doesn't cause guys to get hurt, we can survive. But here's the bottom line with two games into the season and the team is two and oh that's what I know and they won two very different kinds of games. They won a game in which they scored a lot of runs and they won a game in which they showed great resilience. Again, this is a team last year that never came back in the ninth inning, and I know this doesn't qualify, but they came back in the 10th and they came back in the 11th. So this team showed a lot of fight.