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Speaker 1: Who are we interviewing me? The host of the show.

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Speaker 1: I lost my voice? How are you feeling right now?

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Speaker 2: Really happy?

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Speaker 1: It's been a good night. I was at the game

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Speaker 1: tonight and the Dodgers clinched the division. It was really

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Speaker 1: just a blur fight.

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Speaker 2: So fifty thousand here at Dodger Stadium, the O two pitch, I.

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Speaker 1: Tested and bruise. What's do I'm broken? And Division tamps again?

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Speaker 3: Seasons Welcome to Dodger Blue Dream, a documentary about the

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Speaker 3: Los Angeles Dodgers baseball season, made in real time as

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Speaker 3: the season unfolds.

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Speaker 1: I'm Richard Parks.

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Speaker 3: The third and Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, the Boys

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Speaker 3: in Blue clinched a first place finish in the National

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Speaker 3: League West, and they did it at home in front

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Speaker 3: of a sellout crowd on the last home game of

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Speaker 3: the regular season, in a decisive seven to two victory

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Speaker 3: over their division rivals, the second place San Diego Padres.

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Speaker 3: This any sweeter beating the team that was chasing you

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Speaker 3: for this division championship, being those guys, I couldn't have

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Speaker 3: asked for a better script. Manager Dave Roberts addressed the

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Speaker 3: team in the clubhouse for a post game champagne celebration.

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Speaker 2: No one said this is going to be easy.

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Speaker 1: We went through hell with got and I want to

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Speaker 1: thank you guys for all sticking together, believing in one another.

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Speaker 3: No team that we faced is going to have more

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Speaker 3: five enough, Let's stick together and win eleven more days. Look,

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty four was the most highly anticipated season in Dodgers' history.

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Speaker 3: The organization spent one point four billion dollars. The new

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Speaker 3: death star Dodgers team, stacked with sluggers and ace starting pitchers,

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Speaker 3: became known as Major League Baseball's team to beat, but

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Speaker 3: things did not pan out. This is the Dodgers' eleventh

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Speaker 3: Division title in twelve years, but it feels like they

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Speaker 3: had to fight harder for.

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Speaker 1: This one than any in memory.

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Speaker 3: The starting rotation has been plagued by injuries, the offense

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Speaker 3: has been oft scrutinized for not providing enough support to

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Speaker 3: the big dogs of the MV three, and within Dodgers Nation,

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Speaker 3: there have been grumblings about the team's yearly struggles in

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Speaker 3: October and the perceived complacency of a perennial first place

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Speaker 3: team that falls apart when the stakes are raised. And

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Speaker 3: yet here we are on top, tested and bruised, but

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Speaker 3: still unbroken. As broadcaster Joe Davis put it, this all

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Speaker 3: important Padre series was a near simulation of postseason baseball.

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Speaker 3: It tested the weakness of our starting pitching and our

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Speaker 3: down the lineup offense, and our ability to deliver under pressure.

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Speaker 3: So now that we've done it, let's take a look

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Speaker 3: back at Thursday night's victory the clinch game as a

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Speaker 3: roadmap for the postseason.

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Speaker 1: First, let's look at starting pitching.

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Speaker 3: Headed down to Dodger Stadium for Game three against the Padres.

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Speaker 1: Walker Bueller on the mound.

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Speaker 3: Tonight on Thursday, we had Walker Buehler going up against

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Speaker 3: Joe Musgrove in the rubber game of the three game series,

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Speaker 3: and this sounds like a super hot pitching matchup from

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Speaker 3: a couple years ago. But things have changed. Walker Buehler

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Speaker 3: is no longer the flame throwing big game pitcher we

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Speaker 3: knew from a couple years ago. He's coming back from

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Speaker 3: his second Tommy John surgery, and we kind of never

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Speaker 3: know if Walker is going to be good the Padres.

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Speaker 3: Joe Musgrove, on the other hand, is still very much

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Speaker 3: Joe Musgrove, big ears, often shiny, lanky, dude, dark beard,

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Speaker 3: low brimmed cap, kind of looks like a mercenary of

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Speaker 3: some sort. He's given the Dodgers trouble over the years,

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Speaker 3: and this matchup is a pressage of what we will

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Speaker 3: see in the postseason. Our lineup will be facing very

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Speaker 3: good starting pitching. We're going to be countering with something

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Speaker 3: of a question mark and fingers crossed. This wasn't the

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Speaker 3: Walker Bueller of old, blowing one hundred mile per hour

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Speaker 3: fastballs pass batters. Buehler only logged a single strikeout over

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Speaker 3: five innings, but instead he was pitching locating off speed

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Speaker 3: stuff and inducing weak contact and not backing down. There

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Speaker 3: was activity on the base paths, but Walker found a

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Speaker 3: way to get through it. When he was asked postgame

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Speaker 3: what was working for him, his response was nothing.

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Speaker 1: I was just competing. But at the end of five

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Speaker 1: innings he'd only given up one run. Evan Phillips came

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Speaker 1: in from the Dodgers' bullpen and gave up another run,

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Speaker 1: and in the meantime, Joe Musgrove had held us to

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Speaker 1: a google so by the time it was the seventh

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Speaker 1: inning stretch, it was two zero padres.

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Speaker 3: Now let's look at the down the lineup, offense, and

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Speaker 3: our ability to perform under pressure all on display during

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Speaker 3: one of the most exciting half innings of baseball I

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Speaker 3: have ever witnessed.

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Speaker 1: The bottom of the seventh months, he just walked. We

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Speaker 1: need to knock musk Grove out. We need to get

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Speaker 1: sent in on the board. We're down too.

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Speaker 3: If we're gonna make it deep in the postseason, we

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Speaker 3: need contributions from up and down the lineup. Will Smith

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Speaker 3: is a guy who doesn't love the limelight. He's one

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Speaker 3: of the best offensive catchers in baseball, but he's kind

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Speaker 3: of been struggling of late, and I couldn't remember the

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Speaker 3: last time he came through in a big moment. And

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Speaker 3: now here he was with Max Munsey on first base,

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Speaker 3: facing Joe Musgrove in the bottom of the seventh inning

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Speaker 3: and the Dodgers down by two runs. This was the moment,

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Speaker 3: the momentum shifted a no doubt home run to straightaway

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Speaker 3: center field to tie the ball game, Smitty doing a

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Speaker 3: two handed.

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Speaker 1: Bat flip, a rare display of emotion, and we're back

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Speaker 1: in the game. Will Smith on swing. Did I tell you?

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Speaker 1: I told you we were going to get to hellse inning?

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Speaker 3: It looks like I can breathe again.

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Speaker 1: Tommy Edmund struck out, but we knocked Joe Musgrove out.

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Speaker 3: We got two more outs, so if one man reaches,

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Speaker 3: we're gonna see show hey this inning. And when keyk

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Speaker 3: came in to hit for Gavin Lux, He's singled and

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Speaker 3: Andy Pages reached on catcher's interference, so there were two

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Speaker 3: on when show he came to the plates, Old Toddy,

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Speaker 3: who for the second game in a row, came to

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Speaker 3: bat in the late innings with a chance to give

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Speaker 3: his team the lead.

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Speaker 2: Ordered in the sixth, deady last night, looking for the lead,

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Speaker 2: in the seventh, looking for the division right side.

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Speaker 1: Bocks so.

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Speaker 3: And as he arrives at second, the broadcast cameras him

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Speaker 3: shouting out to the dugout.

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Speaker 1: Yeah FOLKSTI takes on the world. We had a three

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Speaker 1: to two lead thanks to our superstars.

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Speaker 3: Like if you listen to this show, you're familiar with

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Speaker 3: the narrative about Mookie Betts being accused sometimes of being

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Speaker 3: lazy or not caring enough, and more importantly that he

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Speaker 3: hasn't been delivering during the postseason and the big moments

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Speaker 3: for the Dodgers in recent years, and in this Padre series,

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Speaker 3: over the first two games, Mooki had gone oh for eight,

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Speaker 3: and earlier in the day on Thursday, Muki had had

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Speaker 3: the gall of recording a podcast interview with Fernando Tatist Junior,

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Speaker 3: the star player on the opposing team, on the day

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Speaker 3: of the biggest game of the regular season, so we

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Speaker 3: were all watching Mooki with more of a critical eye.

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Speaker 3: This was his biggest at bat of the entire season,

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Speaker 3: and when Mookie followed that by singling in two more runs,

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Speaker 3: I knew. Being down by two runs and coming back

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Speaker 3: like this felt like a metaphor for the entire season

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Speaker 3: show Hey starting the year with the eBay gambling scandal,

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Speaker 3: Mookie pushing himself to the limits by switching to shortstop

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Speaker 3: and getting hurt in the process and having to come back,

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Speaker 3: and Freddie who'd undergone so much with his son Maximus

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Speaker 3: in the hospital and now on the Men. All the

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Speaker 3: storylines felt like they were coming together in this comeback inning,

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Speaker 3: a billion dollar team that had been banged up and

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Speaker 3: beleaguered by injuries all season long finding a way to

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Speaker 3: push through. We were down, but we didn't count ourselves out,

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Speaker 3: and we got the key contributions that we needed from

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Speaker 3: our offense show hey, of course, when the moment couldn't

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Speaker 3: have been bigger, putting the team on his back and

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Speaker 3: adding to that contributions from Keik, will Smith and Mookie

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Speaker 3: the second of the MV three, reversing a narrative about

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Speaker 3: how he hasn't been performing well under pressure by coming

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Speaker 3: through with two huge RBIs and bringing to the plate

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Speaker 3: our third MV three Freddie Freeman, the big dogs have

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Speaker 3: gotten it done for us all year long, and with

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Speaker 3: a little help from some guys down the lineup, that's

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Speaker 3: how we got it done. And we did it against

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Speaker 3: the Padres bullpen that is nearly unhittable at home at

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Speaker 3: Dodger Stadium on the last home game of the season,

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Speaker 3: and you just felt that magic in the air with

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Speaker 3: Fab five Freddy stepping into the.

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Speaker 1: Box birthday mister consistency.

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Speaker 3: But then as he was running out a grounder and

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Speaker 3: trying to avoid a tag near first base, Freddie rolled

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Speaker 3: over his right ankle and ended up up on the ground.

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Speaker 1: Let us not go on now he's up up.

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Speaker 3: During an otherwise exuberant half inning, it was a concerning

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Speaker 3: moment as Freddy rose to his feet gingerly and limped

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Speaker 3: off the field into the dugout. It was a sobering

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Speaker 3: reminder that the problems we've had all season most likely

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Speaker 3: will persist and we will have to continue to find

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Speaker 3: ways to fight through adversity. When the seventh ended, we

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Speaker 3: were up five to two and our late inning bullpen

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Speaker 3: guys were nails. The bullpen has been so good and

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Speaker 3: it's such a huge piece of how this team can win.

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Speaker 3: In October, trying in then Kopek and sandwiched in between

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Speaker 3: a two run home run by rookie Andy Pajes to

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Speaker 3: make the lead seven to two.

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Speaker 2: So fifty thousand here at Dodger Stadium, we o two

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Speaker 2: pits tested in Bruce what's still unbroken in Division tamps.

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Speaker 3: Again, we have the best record in baseball, but the

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Speaker 3: way that we got there it just didn't look like

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Speaker 3: what you would.

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Speaker 1: Have expected back in spring training.

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Speaker 3: And now all we have to do to win a

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Speaker 3: World Series championship is keep it up, find a way

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Speaker 3: to win games, yes, but more importantly series three series,

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Speaker 3: the National League Division Series, the National League Championship Series

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Speaker 3: and the World Series. And winning a series with the

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Speaker 3: deficits this billion dollar death Star team has suffered is

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Speaker 3: both an art and a science.

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Speaker 1: Do I know how we'll do it?

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Speaker 2: No?

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Speaker 3: Do I think it's possible, absolutely, because what I saw

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Speaker 3: the other night gave me that hope.

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Speaker 1: Inch time for Dodger Baseball.

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Speaker 3: Dodger Blue Dream is written and produced by me Richard Parks.

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Speaker 3: Original music in this episode by Jonathan Snipes and William

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Speaker 3: Ryan Fritch. This episode was story edited by Caitlin esh

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Speaker 3: Special thanks.

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Speaker 1: To Elizabeth Parks Kivvy.

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Speaker 3: If you like the show, make sure to check out

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Speaker 3: our back catalog and please help me spread the word.

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Speaker 1: Until next time,