Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about ALCS Game 4 and NLCS Game 3, with an emphasis on Max Scherzer’s must-win mentality and why his hyped-up mound and start-day demeanor stops just short of scanning as too intense, the Dodgers’ likeability (or lack thereof), and repetitive promos. Then (as Meg sporadically exclaims about the beginning of ALCS Game 5), they discuss how the Tigers should approach Tarik Skubal’s contractual/financial future, followed by a postscript featuring snippets of real-time reaction to the Mariners’ Game 5 comeback and Shohei Ohtani’s instantly legendary, pennant-clinching Game 4 two-way display.

Audio intro: Daniel Leckie, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Ian Phillips, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to sign up for Patreon
Link to Scherzer’s must-win quote
Link to Sheehan on Scherzer
Link to The Bandwagon post
Link to Petriello on catcher fatigue
Link to Defector on Piazza
Link to MLBTR on Skubal
Link to MLBTR Skubal poll
Link to Monfort message

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the effect of road dominance on the postseason spectator experience and discuss NLCS Game 2 and ALCS Game 3, touching on Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s throwback complete game, the historic playoff production of Kiké Hernández, the less surprising excellence of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a budding Dodgers backlash, pitcher usage when a team is trailing, how to handle Humpy, and much more. Then (1:16:22) they answer listener emails about the ethics of October rooting, what to call two-game sweeps, “representing” the tying run, great takes on great pitches, and players who lost “local hero” status.

Audio intro: Harold Walker, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to sign up for Patreon
Link to 2019 road dominance
Link to 2023 road dominance
Link to playoff OPS ratios
Link to Arozarena playoff wRC+
Link to Hernández playoff wRC+
Link to Paine on the Dodgers
Link to Castellanos defense
Link to Kiké quotes
Link to QT commercial
Link to #6org post 1
Link to #6org post 2
Link to #6org post 3
Link to Salmon Run cast
Link to Humpy story
Link to MLBTR on Hedges

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley revisit Meg’s experience of Mariners-Tigers ALDS Game 5 and recap the first few games of the Championship Series round, touching on postseason broadcast booths, the Mariners’ mauling of the Blue Jays in Toronto, Pat Murphy’s burnishing of the Brewers’ underdog image, broader narrative-building about the Brewers-Dodgers series, whether the Dodgers intentionally took it easy during the regular season, the GIDP heard ’round the world, starters moonlighting as relievers, Blake Snell, and more, plus closing banter about manager news and Pete Alonso’s contract target in his second crack at free agency.

Audio intro: Jimmy Kramer, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Tom Rhoads, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to sign up for Patreon
Link to Meg’s 2386 postscript
Link to playoff win expectancy changes
Link to Humpy article
Link to Humpy video
Link to worst BsR w/30+ SB
Link to AL team Gold Gloves
Link to NL team Gold Gloves
Link to The Bandwagon on Gold Gloves
Link to GIDP video
Link to GIDP article
Link to Cooper on the GIDP
Link to Turang on his near-HBP
Link to Stathead on 100-pitch playoff games
Link to jacked Jays fan
Link to Robles play
Link to Passan on the NLCS
Link to Murphy’s “eight guys” quote
Link to Defector comment
Link to Craig on the Dodgers
Link to Schildt story
Link to Hinch story
Link to Alonso report
Link to Sam on “seeking”

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley announce their playoff livestream plans and then break down Game 4 of the Phillies-Dodgers NLDS, including their musings on Orion Kerkering’s game-ending error and the events that preceded it, whether baseball would be better or worse without its tragic on-field figures, the Phillies’ future, and the intimidating Dodgers. Then, after a few thoughts on the Brewers and Cubs, they banter about baseball’s culture of pitch-tipping paranoia (53:29), the effects of high-tech pitching machines (1:09:20), the upcoming MLB free agency of NPB slugger Munetaka Murakami (1:17:00), and potentially encouraging comments about MLB’s path to a unified package of broadcast rights (1:20:58), plus a postscript message from Meg (1:30:05) about the Mariners’ ALDS Game 5 victory.

Audio intro: Nate Emerson, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Liz Panella, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to sign up for Patreon
Link to FG Phillies-Dodgers gamer
Link to walk-off video
Link to Gelb’s Phillies story
Link to walk-off errors stat 1
Link to walk-off errors stat 2
Link to Yoda quote
Link to tweet about Call on Call
Link to Stark on the Phillies’ future
Link to Petriello’s post
Link to new meme format
Link to bunting etymology
Link to FG Cubs-Brewers gamer
Link to article on pitch-tipping
Link to Ben on the banging scheme
Link to Wilson’s chess quote
Link to The Bandwagon on Trajekt
Link to 2024 Trajekt Stat Blast
Link to tweet about Yesavage
Link to Ben on pitching machines
Link to home wRC+ by year
Link to road wRC+ by year
Link to MLBTR on Murakami
Link to Ben on Murakami/Sasaki
Link to Normandin article
Link to Kennedy comments
Link to Kasten comments

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the rampant overuse of the phrase “must-win game,” denying late timeouts, the Blue Jays’ victory over the Yankees, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a Yankees postmortem, Aaron Judge’s partial postseason redemption, the athletic (and managerial) highlights and lowlights of the other ALDS and the two NLDSes, the swan song of October Clayton Kershaw, postseason sacrifice bunting, Bryce Harper’s thoughts on childbirth, and more.

Audio intro: Alex Glossman and Ali Breneman, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: The Shirey Brothers, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Passan’s Phillies tweet
Link to Posnanski on comebacks from 0-2
Link to Vlad’s Yankees grudge
Link to Vlad and Papi
Link to Papi on Schlittler
Link to Rosenthal on Judge
Link to Sheehan on Judge
Link to Rosenthal on the Yankees
Link to The Ringer on Fox’s MLB panel
Link to “clean your clock” etymology
Link to Stott bunt explanation
Link to Harper quote
Link to Raleigh shirt story
Link to infield-fly call
Link to Stark fun fact
Link to The West Wing scene

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Meg’s recovery from illness and her ongoing emotional distress as a postseason spectator, then share their takeaways from the first two games of each ALDS and the first game of each NLDS. After that (51:15), Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie joins to talk about how he’s handling postseason stress, his thoughts on the Mariners season and playoff performance so far, the team he would root for if he weren’t an M’s fan, and whether he’d write a Mariners victory song, plus a postscript (1:31:15) on how Guardians fans are feeling.

Audio intro: Ian H., “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio interstitial: Cory Brent, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Dave Armstrong and Mike Murray, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to Langs on Yesavage
Link to Ben on first-year pitchers
Link to Passan on Roki’s reinvention
Link to FG post on M’s-Tigers G2
Link to DCFC’s Mariners post
Link to 2011 interview about DCFC’s name
Link to “Ichiro’s Theme”

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Ben Lindbergh brings on Michael Baumann, who immediately makes Ben regret it by subjecting him to a lyrical ode to Effectively Wild inspired by the Taylor Swift song “Wood.” Then they play “College Baseball Player or Make and Model of Car?” before recapping the three decisive Game 3s of the wild card round (with an emphasis on the absurdity of the Guardians’ immediate elimination after their historic AL Central comeback, a bad call on Xander Bogaerts, the heroics of Cam Schlittler and Ryan McMahon, and converting from Red Sox fandom to Yankees fandom) and ranking the four division series matchups. Then (1:15:44) Ben talks to Tigers TV broadcaster Jason Benetti about calling the team’s 2024 comeback and 2025 collapse, how to process their reprieve from elimination after a historic blown lead, players to pay attention to in the ALDS, and naturally, John Brebbia.

Audio intro: Benny and a Million Shetland Ponies, “Effectively Wild Theme (Horny)”
Audio interstitial: Philip Bergman, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Guy Russo, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to “Wood” lyrics
Link to reliever familiarity effect
Link to call on Bogaerts
Link to Padres postgame video
Link to Padres frustration
Link to ump scoreboard
Link to Schlittler fun facts
Link to Schlittler pitches piece
Link to Jeter catch
Link to McMahon catch
Link to Schlittler’s mom’s account 1
Link to Schlittler’s mom’s account 2
Link to article about Schlittler’s family
Link to Ben on first-year pitchers
Link to Ben on the Brewers and Jays
Link to 2024 Benetti appearance
Link to Brebbia EW episode
Link to Benetti’s podcast
Link to Cal award

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Ben Lindbergh brings on Hannah Keyser and Zach Crizer of The Bandwagon to banter in a hopefully not-immediately-dated way about the first two days of playoff action, including the Dodgers dispatching the Reds, Dave Roberts using “Strategy,” Aaron Boone’s perceived mismanaging, the flamethrowing Mason Miller and a playoff-pitch-speed conundrum, and more, plus conversation about how teams with byes are trying to stay ready, the league’s many managerial openings, whether running the Rockies is a good gig, the Rafael Devers trade in retrospect, and the best teams to bandwagon, followed (1:33:54) by a postscript.

Audio intro: Liz Panella, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: The Gagnés, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to The Bandwagon
Link to Episode 2105
Link to Hannah on the Phillies’ prep
Link to Phillies intrasquad game
Link to Ichiro scrimmage story
Link to Ben on the mid-PA pitching change
Link to Girardi on “Strategy”
Link to 2024 “Strategy” episode
Link to Vesia one-pitch K
Link to Vesia scoring quirk
Link to Anderson tweet about Miller
Link to article about Miller
Link to Miller video
Link to fastest postseason pitches
Link to fastest regular-season pitches
Link to Eno on playoff pitch speeds
Link to The Ringer’s postseason storylines
Link to Obama anger translator sketch
Link to Crochet vs. LHP tweet
Link to The Bandwagon on Boone
Link to Chisholm dive
Link to Cora’s follow-up
Link to Breslow on Devers
Link to Diamond tweet
Link to Sarris tweet
Link to Baggarly on Posey
Link to MLBTR on the Rockies
Link to manager vacancies
Link to Arrested Development meme
Link to DeLauter debut article
Link to DeLauter debut play
Link to Lemon/Bearden kiss
Link to article on the kiss
Link to 1991 Mets article
Link to streaks data
Link to SB distribution graphs
Link to SB distribution data
Link to Sacramento A’s jersey
Link to Keown on the A’s

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about their plans for playoff livestreams and an MLB attendance announcement, then recap the highlights of the last weekend of the regular season and discuss what excites them about the playoffs. Along the way, they rank the collapses of the Astros, Tigers, and Mets and banter about trade-deadline do-overs, playoff-clinching walk-offs, Game 162 incentives, whether tiebreakers are fairer than tiebreaker games, a smart save by a first-base coach, the scariest October teams relative to the regular season, the AL wild card matchups, two Alex Cora quotes, the potential for first-time champions, and more, plus follow-ups.

Audio intro: Jonathan Crymes, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Josh Busman, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to livestreams sign-up
Link to MLB press release
Link to attendance stats
Link to year-over-year attendance
Link to Marte robbery
Link to Rafaela triple
Link to Sam on walk-off triples
Link to Trout homers
Link to Trout streak
Link to Alomar Jr. intervention
Link to Kayfus walk-off
Link to Norby quote
Link to Mets/Marlins history
Link to MLBTR on Alonso
Link to Cora quote
Link to haters meme
Link to FG staff predictions
Link to preseason playoff odds
Link to other Cora quote
Link to mid-May Gleyber pull rate
Link to May 12 Gleyber game
Link to first-year postseason starters
Link to MLBTR on Toboni
Link to lowest K%+
Link to Adames dinger
Link to Episode 2350

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Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about the Mariners clinching the AL West, the benefits and drawbacks of MVP debates, the power of great players to enhance a season for spectators, the Cardinals’ and Giants’ reciprocal eliminations, the near-extinction of the 200-inning pitcher, the Nationals’ new head of baseball ops, and how predictive a track record of adept drafting is. Then (53:15) they answer listener emails about whether a player could/should ever challenge a ball/strike call that went their way, whether increased pitcher injuries have contributed to the lack of great teams, sticky-stuff inspections on broadcasts, how many pitches it takes to evaluate a pitcher, whether/why baseball managers incur fans’ wrath more than other sports’ coaches, whether teams are turning fewer double plays than they used to, and Trey Yesavage’s many 2025 teammates, plus (1:40:47) a postscript.

Audio intro: El Warren, “Effectively Wild Theme”
Audio outro: Beatwriter, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to 2015 MLB promo
Link to Ben on Judge vs. Ohtani
Link to Giants elimination story
Link to Cardinals elimination story
Link to pitcher IP leaderboard
Link to preseason pitcher IP projections
Link to Passan on Toboni
Link to MLBTR on Toboni
Link to WaPo on the Nats
Link to Ben on pitcher injury rates
Link to Ben on pitcher workloads
Link to Rodón quote
Link to MLB GIDP%
Link to Jays tweet
Link to quote-tweet
Link to Kenny Jackelen
Link to 2025 teammate leaders
Link to single-season teammate leaders
Link to listener emails database
Link to BP on Blalock
Link to Blalock leaderboard
Link to highest ML ERA (min. 55 IP)
Link to highest ML ERA (min. 100 IP)
Link to FG wOBA values
Link to BP location research
Link to FG playoff odds
Link to Darowski update

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