- 2 hours ago
Seth and Sean kick off the show by talking about a blast from the past in Astros-Red Sox last night as we were treated to a vintage performance by Lance McCullers and the Astros beat the Red Sox 8-1.
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00:01towards second why not Jose Altuve did everything else tonight he'll make the play for the final out
00:06Ryan Weiss out of the pen with two shutout innings and the Astros win it eight to one
00:13yeah there you go Astros win last night eight to one getting the Red Sox series started off
00:18much better than the Angels series got started off as we welcome you in on a Tuesday hope you're
00:23having a great morning we're with you till 10 a.m this morning my name is Sean Pendergast
00:27his name is Seth C Payne we call him Pope Zaza uh Seth you know I last night it was
00:33weird watching
00:34the Astros game um you know I'm no spring chicken anymore and I'm watching that game and as I'm
00:40gradually watching that game I'm like man I feel almost 10 years younger watching this game what
00:46is this phenomenon that I'm feeling this extra burst of energy not that at the age I'm at now I
00:51don't
00:51feel great I feel great but when I feel 10 years younger it was a it was a back to
00:55the future night
00:56last night Lance Lance McCullers seven innings of one run ball Jose Altuve a couple of bombs
01:04and Carlos Correa just out there at shortstop playing vintage Correa ball I'm like this feels
01:12like 2017 all over again double plays turned by Correa to Altuve to a guy at first who wasn't Cuban
01:20but still and Correa with a with a turnstile play uh it was it was comfort food last night yeah
01:30it
01:30felt like oh yeah this is this is what I love this is uh this is this is except for
01:37the Cuban first
01:38basement part um this is exactly what it felt like I was almost hoping for a hurricane that was like
01:44bring on Harvey Deuce Harvey Deuce bring it out this is this is exactly what I've been missing
01:51I hope they trade I hope they trade for Verlander now is it Halloween already yeah where's where is
01:58Dallas Keuchel these days yeah and in some ways though too it was it was refreshing because Lance
02:06McCullers the different version of the pitcher he was in 2017 you know he's um he's a more efficient
02:12guy he makes it he mows down the first it was the first hit was in the second inning or
02:17the third
02:18it's the fourth fourth matter he went he went for like the first four or five innings he faced the
02:24minimum yeah because of a couple of double plays that was the double play in the second there and
02:27yeah so he's just mowing guys down just boom boom boom boom well and and nine strikeouts in seven
02:34in seven innings like that the look if you're just waking up this morning and you didn't you only saw
02:39the score or you just heard Todd Callis giving you the score in that cut to enter the show
02:45especially especially Seth given how inefficient the first four starts of the year were for the
02:52Astros including Hunter Brown who starts tonight Hunter Brown threw four and two-thirds shutout innings
02:57but there's a reason he was gone after four and two-thirds he was up over a hundred pitches so
03:01all
03:01these guys are running pitch counts up I mean hell I mean Emai didn't get out of the third inning
03:06so
03:06now you're talking about a bullpen that's been taxed for the last four days against a against
03:11a not of a team you're not counting on your bullpen being taxed against the Los Angeles Angels you're
03:16counting on that being a series where we're going to get out of the gates and guys are going to
03:20have
03:20normal usage and they don't and in comes the most unlikely of heroes based on how he pitched last
03:25year and that is the to me the the the a b c and d topic today with the Astros
03:33is Lance McCuller's
03:34performance last night and it's only one start I get it but it's not only to me it's not only
03:39the
03:39story Seth because of what the actual performance was a seven inning outstanding effort that gets
03:44you a win against a team that you're probably going to be battling with if the Astros are what
03:49they've looked like the first five games or three and two you extrapolate that out over a full season
03:54that's a playoff team yeah this is a team the Red Sox that you're going to probably be battling
03:58you know for playoff position or maybe even a spot in the playoffs itself so everyone is important
04:04against a team like this and Lance McCullers came out and not only gave you the best performance that
04:09we've seen from him in years literally his longest start since September of 2022 which is like two
04:16times ago of him coming back from some sort of catastrophic injury and he he gets you a win
04:23he saves the bullpen and then there's there's just the emotional part of it too and I don't know
04:28where Astro fans are overall with Lance I feel like Lance gets a lot of vitriol directed in him
04:32because he's injured all the time not because he's a bad guy he's a great dude I I found myself
04:38last
04:38night Seth watching this game and I'm curious how you feel about it I was almost watching Lance last
04:43night the same way I'm rooting for Tank Dell to come back from an injury right now where man I've
04:46just
04:47let it all be damned I'm just rooting for the human being at this point right right because he's done
04:51everything right the entire way except for the part about getting injured as far as just his
04:55commitment to the to to his rehab to the team to the city of Houston like so much of that
05:03in a lot
05:04of people's minds and hearts has kind of fallen by the wayside simply because he hasn't been available
05:09and he hasn't been the same guy but there's so many things about Lance that are exactly what you want
05:14in a professional player what fans would want like a guy that seems genuinely committed to the
05:19organization and the but and I totally get the frustration because of the injuries because he
05:26got a contract that he wasn't able to keep up his his end of it for the vast majority of
05:32it because
05:32of injuries uh last night was really really good and I'm trying not to think too much about okay can
05:37he sustain this or okay what's this mean or whatever it was just a lot of fun last night and
05:42a lot of it
05:43a lot of it was rooted in some fundamentally sound things across the team I think the fielding the
05:50fielding has been spectacular at times over these first five games it's and that's something that I
05:56think is gonna sustain as long as Correa can stay healthy and hopefully you know playing on playing on
06:03natural surfaces playing at third base the majority of the time that maybe you're gonna get the a better
06:09version of Correa or a more consistent version of Correa and I think that's I don't think that's a
06:13pipe dream at this point it's not like he's 36 years old and this is just some kind of fever
06:17dream
06:18right I think that being back in minute made having a less taxing playing less taxing position and all of
06:26that you you're probably going to get a better version of Correa boy that that play you were talking
06:30about earlier in this segment where he went to the right field side of second base yeah and running
06:37you know running away from his arm spinning around and throwing it to first base that was the that was
06:43really the first moment in the game where I'm like man this just this just feels right this just
06:49there's Correa bailing out his best friend in an inning you know the two of them are very tight
06:54Lance McCullers and Carlos Correa and then you got Altuve hitting two bombs you know kind of after the
06:59game's out of reach but it's just fun that he's hitting a couple of bombs and this was like you
07:04know it
07:04was it was 2017 all over again and Altuve walked again last night yeah yeah yeah is it okay for
07:11me to be more excited about the fact that he has six walks now than I am about his two
07:14I'll tell you
07:15I'll tell you the bigger question is it too early to get super excited about the new hitting coach
07:21Victor Rodriguez the new hitting coach and you know Blum and Callis were talking about this on
07:25one of the weekend broadcasts aside from anything with Victor Rodriguez because you know as soon as the
07:32Astros are in a slump he's going to be the guy getting crushed right just the fact that for the
07:36first time in a long time they don't have co-hitting coaches and that you've got a you've got a
07:41structured
07:42tier where Victor Rodriguez is the guy that the message is coming from ultimately maybe just that
07:48dynamic makes a difference too not trying to take away or you know credit from Victor Rodriguez or
07:53anything it's still very early in the season but this is a crazy thing I just I just pulled up
07:57the
07:57MLB stat leaders right now and I got I hope that my uh my promo from yesterday that was talking
08:05about
08:06how frustrated it was after after the game number one because I said this is like game 163 of no
08:11offense do we need that pulled do I do we need to text the boss I would prefer after this
08:16last few
08:17games where the offense has been pretty damn impressive yeah I would prefer that that I not be up
08:22there after these last three games saying I can't believe they can't score runs you don't need that
08:27smoke just it's fun because remember these last few Astros seasons at the beginning of the season
08:32the Astros were nowhere to be seen on the leaderboard offensively or defensively right right now they're
08:37third in RBIs I'm just scrolling down interesting second and strikeouts Sean yeah the on the pitching
08:45side of things not on the offensive oh okay okay yeah you meant on the offensive side like that
08:51doesn't feel that way for all of the other issues the the Astros pitching is second and strikeouts I
08:56know if ESPN has updated this since last night okay um second and hits yep that's something we
09:02weren't seeing early in last season definitely not seeing that it's weird seeing an Astros logo
09:06peppered throughout the leaderboard yeah early in the season with some of this stuff that's good
09:10well and then then then look fifth and stolen bases uh there you go okay um that you know part
09:17of it
09:18too uh is not just you know that they're doing what they did last night it's and I'm going to
09:24talk
09:24about the offense right now we'll get back to Lance in a second we'll hear from Carlos Correa talking
09:28about his good friend Lance McCullers in a second it's it's not just the team that you do it against
09:35it's the pitcher that you do it against Ron Harris Suarez was a big signing for the Red Sox this
09:41off
09:41season he was one of the biggest free agents on the market yeah they gave him a they gave him
09:46a
09:46a six-year deal for nearly 150 million dollars and they took that guy to the woodshed last night
09:54so that's that's really that I mean and top to bottom there there are very few guys in this lineup
10:00that over the last few days aren't feeling it right now you know yeah that's uh well the the
10:05interesting thing too is you know Jordan boy Jordan's home run oh my god you want to listen to it
10:10Seth let's listen to it and then I'll give you the stat there's some of the stats I just gave
10:15you
10:15are cumulative stats and it's not quite fair because the Astros are one of only a few teams
10:19that have played five games already right but there's one really one really good stat that
10:25that the Astros have that they were nowhere near last year early in the season okay this was Jordan
10:30Alvarez hitting an absolute missile last night against the Red Sox I say this to opposing broadcasters
10:36sometimes I'm waiting oh baby oh baby he just launched one look out that is a Ruthie and shot
10:46way up the stands for Jordan Alvarez he's amazing he is amazing we talk about it and he makes it
10:54happen yeah those numbers will continue to go up against Boston the uh uh yeah go ahead go ahead no
11:03no I
11:03was just gonna say the last thing Blum said there the numbers continue to go up against Boston I
11:08didn't I knew he hit Boston well I didn't know this till they showed the graphic last night
11:12nobody in the history of baseball with x amount of at-bats I don't know what the minimum is
11:17has a better OPS against the Red Sox than Jordan Alvarez think of think about a how long the Red
11:22Sox
11:22have been around and b they play the Yankees all the time you know they play they you know they
11:28they've
11:28gone against some historical historical icons of the game the top five on there are like Jordan
11:34Alvarez and then like two guys from the 1927 Yankees and like another guy yeah yeah give it to me
11:41give
11:41it to me it's Jordan I I did a screenshot of the graphic I was so excited about it because
11:45this was
11:46before the home run they had that that graphic up right um Jordan Alvarez has a 1244 OPS yep versus
11:52the Red Sox yeah it's crazy uh Babe Ruth 1147 you got it Marcelo Zuna uh then Lou Gehrig and
12:00Frank
12:00Robinson yeah yeah better than all those bums right it's like it's like two guys from the 27
12:06Yankees Frank Robinson a guy who's won multiple MVPs yeah Marcelo Zuna who's kind of out of nowhere
12:11in that whole thing minimum of 100 plate appearances that what it is okay yeah yeah yeah yeah I get
12:16I love
12:16the Space City Network does a great job with the graphics I gotta historic I try to just start yeah
12:21we
12:22should do a segment where we do nothing but discuss the graphics during the game uh if I just go
12:26through and I'll pull all the graphics as I'm watching the game so uh right now the stat that
12:31I promised the Astros are fourth in OPS yeah so on base plus slugging fourth in OPS fifth I think
12:38in
12:38slugging overall so it's uh it's just a much different version that we've seen and this is by the way
12:44they
12:44spotted everybody two games I was just gonna say yeah they've had they've had eight runs nine runs and
12:5011 runs the last three games they've scored 28 runs the last three games on a lot of hits there
12:55haven't been many home runs until last night they have four of them last night but those two games
13:00against the Angels with the 20 runs there were no home runs in that game so they've been hitting
13:04hitting hitting hitting it goes to show you how god awful they were those first two games that the
13:09last three games of 28 runs only has them fourth in OPS well yeah and Christian Walker has turned into
13:16a
13:16double machine yes so that's another nice revelation early in the season is the way Christian
13:20Walker has been performing a double machine where the doubles that he's hit the last two days as
13:26Blum points out every time there's a deep shot hit that's either a home run or not the doubles that
13:32he's hit would have been home runs in most of the ballparks out there Christian Walker so these aren't
13:36hot smashes down the line like he's making barrel good contact to deep parts of the ballpark
13:42yeah it's look there's not a lot to hate right now after a game where you beat the Red Sox
13:46eight
13:46to one and Lance McCullers was uh was a revelation and that you know what in the grand scheme of
13:51karma
13:52Seth this might be this you know the balance sheet of this so I say karma karma's a karma is
13:57probably a
13:57bad way to put it because that implies that somebody in the equation that I'm about to lay out is
14:02a bad
14:02person and they're not but maybe in this the whole balance sheet of the baseball gods that maybe we
14:08might have lost Christian Javier I mean we're overreacting to one start with each of these guys
14:12yeah but Christian Javier is Christian Javier is a carryover from really since he came back from his
14:19injury where he just hasn't been himself and then he's had some really bad starts where he's not even
14:24looked like a shell of himself maybe the balance sheet is that we get a much better version of Lance
14:29McCullers in this whole thing yeah and there's still the young guys there's still the potential for
14:34Erighetti and see what he is this year I mean the the the depth chart when it comes to intrigue
14:40is
14:41still pretty deep Mike Burrows we don't know exactly what we're going to get out of him but just as
14:46it
14:46is with a lot of promising young pitchers the Astros tend to do a pretty good job with it yeah
14:50we'll see
14:51what Erighetti is when he comes into the mix later on EMI of course um so that the the depth
14:58chart of
14:58intrigue I still feel good about the depth chart of intrigue yep and I'm sorry to delve into stat porn
15:03here
15:03Sean but I'm just I like stats I'm looking at the and again the Astros have played five games
15:09only three teams have played five games so far but still these are stats you wouldn't have seen last
15:13year right the Astros are second in the league after last night in walks right with 25 walks but
15:19they've got 14 doubles yeah already yeah it uh so the home runs great that they're gonna come in spells
15:28and spurts and everything but man it's just a it's been a revelation since game three yep and it's
15:35just something for anybody saying hey come on Seth it's early I don't care I don't that's been the
15:40bane of our existence these last few years is how slow they start yep so yeah I'll read too much
15:46into
15:46it they're getting off to a fast start offensively hell yeah I'll take it right now it's a fast start
15:52offensively that I think you're I your point with these with some of these stats is that it looks
15:58different than any offensive spurts they had last year yeah clearly there's better selectivity going
16:03on at the plate especially with Altuve man this Victor Rodriguez might be the guy who helps you get
16:08the maximum out of what are going to be a few years of Altuve they're going to be really hard
16:13to cost
16:13justify he might be the guy that gets Altuve looking like a more efficient younger version of
16:19himself in this whole thing who knows I mean so we'll five games in we promised it here was Carlos
16:25Correa talking about the performance of Lance McCullers last night I got to work out with him
16:30the whole offseason and I had to see his whole workout program from waking up so early to take
16:35the kids to school to go drive an hour and then come back to work out and just pretty much
16:40spending
16:40all day since 7 in the morning to 3 p.m. every single day in the offseason for him to
16:44be in that
16:45position to go out there and perform for for this team it means the world man I mean he already
16:50got
16:51paid and he didn't sit back through all the injuries through all the struggles through all the ups and
16:55downs he didn't sit back man he worked really hard his offseason and I saw firsthand and you know to
17:00see him pitch like he did today I mean brings me back to when we were in 2017 18 19
17:06and he was just
17:06lights out every single time that was that was the Lance that we saw today and you know I I'm
17:13very
17:13happy for him that's a really cool cut man you know you hearing because the one thing we know
17:18about with Lance is nobody has put in like maybe in the history of recent history of baseball nobody's
17:24put in more work coming back from injuries in proportion to the amount of actual gameplay
17:29they've given and and that's and I know that's what gets people I think people are more upset at
17:34Lance's contract than they are at Lance the person if you're upset at Lance the person I don't know
17:38what to tell you but but to hear from a guy who is right there alongside him putting in the
17:45work
17:45is pretty cool because that's really I mean 90% of what Lance has done the last four years
17:51is doing things in the shadows that nobody's able to watch because he hadn't been on the field all
17:55that much yeah well you know going back to when Lance was much younger the thing I always worried
18:00about with Lance is if anything there's there is such a thing as being too hard a worker when you're
18:04coming back from injuries it's really hard that for guys that are hard driving personalities like
18:09Lance there's a tendency to push push push push and it's because I've been through this it's hard man
18:15you just you fixate yourself you're constantly doubting whether you're working hard enough and
18:20meanwhile while the trainers are telling you to rest you're just pushing through it and sometimes guys
18:26like that end up having a hard time coming back from injuries and surgeries so there's maybe a little
18:32bit of maturity or just you know being being a little less dramatic about when you need to push
18:39and when you need to lay off maybe he's found the sweet spot for all that that would be great
18:43that
18:43would be great I said it before the a through d topic today is Lance McCullers what a performance
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