00:00They've had five games on this road trip now. They're two and three. They've led in all
00:05five games. They've led it fairly substantial, substantially deep into all five of these
00:11games. Yeah. And they've only been able to close the deal on two of them so far.
00:16It's a, it's been, it's been frustrating yet now because of the Astros standing where they
00:24sit in the standings. I look at it with, is more encouraging in some respects. All right,
00:30you're playing, you're playing it down to the wire with really good baseball teams with this
00:35rotating cast of characters where Caratini gets his first start at first base. The last night
00:43he's been, he's played there three times this season, but that was his first start. That makes
00:47nine players who have played first base for the Astros this year. That feels like a lot.
00:51You've got Shea, Shea Whitcomb coming up with a double that gave him the lead and you're doing
00:58all of this while also Jeremy Pena is playing the worst defensively that he's played in his
01:02entire career. Like I feel, I don't know what the hell's going on with Jeremy Pena. I trust
01:07that somehow this it's, this is a flukish stretch that he'll get back on track. But
01:13the fact that they've been slugging it out with really good baseball teams and coin flip games,
01:19not overly distraught. I would love to, it would be awesome if they were, it'd be awesome if they
01:23were stacking up a winning record on the road versus these really good baseball teams. But man,
01:28they're, they're figuring out a way to get it done. It might be, I've seen a lot of people say
01:33that a lot of Astros fans say that they are maybe more emotionally tied to this team and proud of
01:40them than any in the stretch since 2015 just because, because of that, because you're getting
01:46these performances out of guys that you barely were aware of until just the last couple of months.
01:53Well, it's hard to find a team. I'd have to go back and look, but it's hard to find a team during
01:56this window of the last decade or so 2015 we'll use as the benchmark that's been hit with more
02:01adversity in season than this team. I mean, they hit one time, they had seven starting pitchers
02:06on the injured list. You know what I mean? Like, and you kind of almost forget because it's been
02:10so long now that yeah, Kyle Tucker's not out there. Right. Jordan's had issues in the last
02:15week L2 vase meeting rests. You know, it's just, it's a, it's one after the other, after the other
02:22of hits. So where you could, you could be saying, ah, here we go again. Ah, and yet a credit Joe
02:27Espada for keeping it all together and figuring out a way to, to just be competitive right this
02:33moment. Yeah. Because we'll be competitive. And then by the way, let's not forget, they were
02:3710 games back in the middle of June and they're leading by three and a half games. So it's not,
02:41this is not a team, Seth, we're not sitting here in a, at least not, not yet, but in,
02:47in a muck of five teams battling for the last wildcard spot, they've managed to put themselves
02:51back in a position where they control the division. Like it's, it really is. It really
02:56is remarkable. Am I feeling on the Baltimore series and the game last night? And I think
03:01the game tonight is going to be this way. Verlander and Nola tonight should be, you know,
03:05Verlander. I mean, I don't expect Verlander to go seven innings or anything like that.
03:10Cause he's still coming back from the injury. But on paper, that's like,
03:14that's a matchup you put on the WrestleMania poster. You know what I mean? With the two guys
03:17staring each other in the face, like this is going to be fun tonight. My feeling on the last five
03:22games last night in the Baltimore series is like, this is what post-season baseball feels like,
03:26you know, these are two good teams. And in the Oriole series, they were the ones coming up with
03:31the big hits. You know, they had 13 runs in that series and 10 of them were driven in on three
03:36swings. You know, they, when the time, when, when they needed a big hit late in the game,
03:41they got it. And the Astros were able to muck a split out of that whole thing,
03:43undermanned. And then last night, kind of the same thing. You're right. Like
03:46Shay Whitcomb is the one getting the big hit for this team in a game that finished three to two,
03:50like they're, they're pricing it together. Yeah. You know, Brian King comes up here. Yeah.
03:55The other two, the other guy that I'll give a credit to, I'll give him, I'll give him the July
04:01and August MVP for this team, Rob Manfred, because honestly, thank God for the ghost runner.
04:06I, this, this team right now, but again, this goes back to Dana Brown and Joe Espada,
04:12the way they're managing the roster. All right. You're, you're working with one less reliever
04:17right now than ideally you would, because you've got a six man starting rotation, but
04:22without the ghost runner, man, the Astros could be just devastated and having to go some long,
04:28more than 10 innings and a lot of these extra inning games they've had.
04:32I know everybody's always heaping praise on Rob Manfred, but let's, let's, let's hug a little
04:37bit more. They were for a year. I thought the pitch clock people were like into, like, I don't
04:42know. I thought a lot of people like kind of the speeding up of the game, but they, I think a lot
04:46of people did, but a lot of people were really against it out of the speeding up of the game.
04:50I am like hook, line and sinker into the biggest, the biggest question is all right. The injuries to
04:54the pitchers and like, how long can they sustain this? And like all of that, how much is it
04:59affecting the pitchers? We'll see. Yeah. And when you say, thank God for the ghost runner, you're
05:03saying in spite of the fact the Astros lost last night, they didn't have to use four more guys to
05:07get to the 13th inning or something like that. Plus though, I do think as much as I used to
05:12comply, I used to kind of complain about the old hardliners that were always promoting the demise
05:19of small ball and baseball. There's been a lot more small ball on this team and it does, man.
05:24And those critical situations, it gets fun when you got to, you got last night was a perfect
05:30example of it had gone the Astros way. You've just, you know, Schwarber sit around and, you
05:35know, it gets that and it sucks in the moment, but for baseball, I think it's good. We've seen
05:41more bunts. We've seen more just gamesmanship and strategy in those 10th innings that it's,
05:47it's weird because you know, one of the most gimmicky of the rule changes has also led back
05:53to some of the more old school decision-making. They have, I wish the Astros are a little better
05:58at it. I I'll be honest. I like it selfishly just because the games are over it. Like last night,
06:03eight 40 extra inning game. It's done at eight 40. Anybody who's awake right now,
06:08I think probably appreciates it. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. This isn't me
06:12telling the nine 30 audience. So what was me? I have to get up early. These are all,
06:16if you're listening, you'll our pain, right? Look, we, everybody listening and us talking
06:21right now are people who have to also contend with these AL West road games. So I like there's
06:28a, there's a higher likelihood that at any given night on an AL West road game, you're kind of
06:32like, all right, you know, yeah, I can stick around for the end of this game. So it's because
06:36it's, it's, it's, it's over. And then they lose an extra innings and you're like, I stayed up to
06:421130 for this. My wife is going to get yelled at because I'm moody today for this. Right, right,
06:49right. Here's Joe Espada. His thoughts on last night's game. Yeah. You know, I thought we were,
06:55I thought we play well, you know, we were in the game there, you know, or one hit away from,
07:00from winning that game. But yeah, you know, that's what happens. You play,
07:04played these type of teams and everything is closed. Every play matters. Every pitch matters,
07:09every bat, you know, matters. So again, turn the page, got another one tomorrow.
07:14Yeah. It's playoff baseball, man. I mean, these are, these are the types of teams you're going
07:17to be seeing in October. So that's, that's kind of how I look at it on, on the interwebs yesterday,
07:23Seth, because the Astros were playing their first game in Philly since game five of the world
07:28series back in 2022, they were there was a lot of reliving going on yesterday. And if you recall
07:37game five of the world series in 2022, late in the game, I believe in the eighth inning,
07:44cause Presley was in featured this center field McCormick on the move. He's at the track. He's at
07:52the wall. I said, remember that was a Chaz catch. That's the Chaz never has to pay for a drink ever
08:04again, play. He can be bad for the next, however many years and Chaz McCormick will still be loved.
08:10Now Chaz is putting that to the test this year because Chaz has not been good this season.
08:14And this is where, this is what dawned on me yesterday. I was watching that play Seth. I'm
08:18like, damn, and Chaz was a player back then, man. Like he was an integral part of this team.
08:23He had secured that starting center field spot. That's one of the biggest plays and most memorable
08:28plays certainly in recent Astros history back in 2022. And it may, you know, it made me think of,
08:35it made me think of Damien Pierce. Cause cause I, it made me think of Damien. A lot of people
08:42have been comparing Damien to Hosea Bray. You, and I hate doing that because Hosea Bray, you
08:47was bad at his job from the time he got here and overpaid too, by the way, to be bad at his job.
08:55So I don't want to put that evil on Damien Pierce. I watched Chaz make that catch again yesterday.
08:59I'm like, man, I just, that guy was so good in 2022. I just wish he was good like that again.
09:04Cause that is a memorable play. And I'm like, man, I feel like I just played Mad Libs. Who,
09:09who was I saying this about like two days ago? And it was Damien Pierce.
09:13Damien Pierce was great in 2022, like Chaz underpaid in 2022, like Chaz and making memorable
09:20plays in 2022. Like that play where he trucked Evan Jags probably the same week as the world
09:27series. You know what I mean? It was like six games into the season or whatever it was. He
09:32probably did it like the same day Chaz made that catch. That's who people, that's who Damien Pierce
09:37is. He's Chaz. He's not a Bray. You stop it with the Bray you. And it's, you know, I mean, there
09:41were people that were upright, you know, I would go on with the afternoon show and they couldn't
09:46believe that I was pulling for Myers in the competition of McCormick versus Myers because
09:52what am I an idiot? So it is, I guess the biggest difference, I don't want to get overly technical
09:57here. The biggest difference between the Texans and the Astros situations there is that the Texans
10:02did not win a world series in 2022. So you have that added element to it that with Chaz, it was,
10:07man, he came up big in a big moment. He felt like, oh, he's got that it factor or what have you.
10:12Yep. Yep. I just, man, like yesterday I'm watching that catch. I'm like,
10:16I wish this guy were as good as he was in 2022. I'm like, I just said that like two days ago.
10:20Who did I say that about DP, man?
Comments