- 2 hours ago
Seth and Sean discuss the Astros losing again to be swept by the Mariners, lay out the pitching and injury problems, and wonder how this team can get fixed.
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00:00And grounds this one to the right side. Naylor, the hero of the game, will flip it to Cole Wilcox.
00:06Josh Naylor with two home runs and five RBIs leading the offense as the Mariners sweep the Astros for the
00:12first time since August of 2018 in a four-game series.
00:15As they win today by the final score of 6-2, the Astros have lost eight in a row for
00:20the first time in 13th season.
00:22Everything goes through injuries, you know what I mean? I don't want to attach our failures to injuries.
00:27Our failures are because we're playing s***y baseball. Simple as that. There's no way around it. There's no excuse.
00:33It's just we're a good club playing bad baseball, and that's what's happening right now.
00:37So we just got to go home, regroup, make adjustments, and play better.
00:41Carlos, I respect you. I respect you trying to take accountability for this.
00:46And to be clear, two things can be true. The injuries are piling up big time, and you are playing
00:55crappy baseball.
00:56Both those things can be true, and they've been definitely true for sure the last two days because there's been
01:03no offense,
01:04and they give up six runs in each of those games. That's not good. You can't do that.
01:08You can't give up six runs every time. Now, six runs is actually an improvement over what their ERA has
01:13been all year.
01:14They gave up six runs yesterday, and I believe their ERA went down.
01:18So there's that. Welcome in, everybody.
01:20They didn't walk as many people yesterday.
01:22As many people. Right, right, right. Yeah.
01:27They hardly walked anybody. They just kept giving up hit after hit after hit.
01:31I actually like that a little bit better. At least it means they're throwing the ball over the plate.
01:34Well, we also get to – there's one thing that's happening on this long road trip.
01:38I'm not a statistician, Sean. How many games did they have in Seattle? Was it 27?
01:42It felt like they were there forever.
01:44It was four games they had in Seattle.
01:46Okay. I'm sure it wasn't 27. It felt like they were in Seattle forever.
01:50One, two, three. It was four. Four games.
01:55So, as it happens on a bad road trip that you might take with your friends, sometimes people start to
02:01test your nerves a little bit.
02:02Yeah.
02:03I started – I felt guilty yesterday because I was getting really annoyed with the broadcast.
02:07I, like, I didn't want to hear about Julia's travel plan.
02:09Oh, we love the broadcast. We love those guys.
02:10I know. I know.
02:11Yeah.
02:11Just like when you love somebody but you take a road trip with them.
02:14Yeah.
02:14And things are – your travel plans are all screwed up.
02:17Really, you've been gone –
02:18Because I don't –
02:18Really, you've been gone for ten days, not just four.
02:21You know, it's been –
02:22Yeah.
02:22You've been on a road trip for over a week with them now.
02:24It's been bad.
02:25But the Seattle part was really rough.
02:27So, yeah, I just – the part that got me yesterday was, you know, them talking about their travel plans
02:35and their packing and unpacking strategies and all of that.
02:38But especially – like, Callis was trying to frame things, and I think pretty accurately, and pointing out that Burroughs,
02:45yet again, had a little bit of bad luck.
02:49But also, as Callis was laying out how, you know, how easily they didn't – some of these runs might
02:57not have been scored, he included the botched play of Burroughs not covering first base.
03:03Well, he did.
03:04He just – he declined to take the extra two steps that he needed to get to first base.
03:08Yeah.
03:08Well, the union – the union didn't negotiate those last two steps for him.
03:12He's only going to put in so many steps, Seth.
03:13Yeah, so that runner's on base and then ends up getting driven home on a home run, and Callis included
03:21that as some of the bad luck.
03:23And they're like, no, that's – that was the pitcher himself that made that mistake.
03:27Right, right, right.
03:28No, you don't get that mulligan or that pass on that run score.
03:32Mike Burroughs was unlucky that Michael Burroughs didn't cover first base on that play right there.
03:37You know?
03:38Yeah.
03:38That's what – that's what – that's what Callis – you look very frustrated this morning right now.
03:42It's – it's brutal, man.
03:43I feel like you're on a road trip with me right now.
03:46Anytime – anytime that people are saying, hey, the first losing streak such and such since 2013, I remember 2013.
03:56I blocked it out.
03:56I remember a young – a young cub – I was a young cub sports radio host trying to get
04:02my feet wet in Major League Baseball
04:04and learning all of the things about how do you – how do you play this magnificent game of baseball
04:11the right way.
04:12Here's your Houston Astros.
04:13Yeah, this is your first look at the game right here, yeah.
04:16The last time they've had a losing streak this bad was a season in which the losing streak they're talking
04:22about was – how many games was it?
04:2415?
04:2515 at the end of the season, yeah.
04:2615 straight losses at the end of the season.
04:28I thought, well, you know, 2013, maybe Jose Altuve can give them a motivational speech about, hey, guys, last time
04:35we had a losing streak this long.
04:37We went on to – basically all I can say is –
04:39Pulled up the nose.
04:39You know, we went on to draft Alex Bregman by way of Brady Aiken.
04:42Right.
04:43You know, eventually – eventually that losing streak led to Alex Bregman.
04:46That losing streak got us the first pick in the draft, and we drafted a guy who had an elbow
04:51dysregularity.
04:52And then we didn't sign him, so we got a pick the next year, and it turned into Alex Bregman.
04:58Yeah, that's –
04:59Three years from now, guys, we might have a draft pick that ends up being part of a World Series
05:04run.
05:05Maybe.
05:05Yeah, maybe.
05:06Yeah, that's – that was – that was not fun.
05:08It's not been fun.
05:09The day started yesterday with all the news – like, the flood of news of all the – like, the
05:15injury – the injury assessments and all the guys going up and down.
05:20This – by the way, this whole, like, this guy's going down today.
05:23These guys are coming up.
05:25This guy – like, this – there's going to be a lot of this going on with this pitching staff
05:28of – you know, Jaden Murray pitched two days ago.
05:31Got optioned to AAA.
05:32They recalled J.P. France and Colton Gordon and Shea Whitcomb to replace Jeremy Pena.
05:38And J.P. France was right in the game yesterday.
05:40And Colton Gordon is starting tonight against the Colorado Rockies.
05:44So, they're 6-11.
05:47They awake this morning with the worst record in baseball.
05:50They're 6-11.
05:51I can't believe it was 10 days ago where we were like, I can't believe this person is disrespecting them
05:56by ranking them outside the top 10 teams in baseball.
06:00How dare they?
06:00We'll do a –
06:01They swept the mighty Red Sox, and that will be the highlight reel of this season so far.
06:05I have the power rankings for this week, for later in the show, just to tease ahead.
06:09There is one set of power rankings that has them as the second worst team in baseball right now.
06:14That had them in the top 10 last week.
06:17I don't know.
06:18I mean, it is – look, where do you go from – where do you go from being the best
06:25offense in baseball and yet with the worst record to get out of this with really no prospects of hope
06:35or help along the way from the pitching staff other than, all right, these guys, Burroughs can't finish the season
06:41with a 6.7 ERA, can he?
06:43I don't know.
06:44No.
06:44J.P. France, whatever.
06:46Anything's possible.
06:47You know what I was thinking back to yesterday, Seth?
06:49It wasn't 2013 because I don't think this team is as bad as 2013, obviously.
06:53Right.
06:54I was thinking back to the 12-24 start in Joe Espada's first season.
06:59A lot of those guys who are on that team are on this team.
07:02And I was going back and looking.
07:03I'm like, okay, what – because they're on their way to something like that right now.
07:07You know, 6-11 is basically – they lose tonight, and they're on pace to be 12-24 to start
07:12the season.
07:12They'll be 6-12.
07:13So, I went back and looked, and I remember the big thing was, man, as far as turning that season
07:19around, you know, guys started to hit.
07:20They're hitting now.
07:22I'm more worried about them regressing and hitting right now than I am them hitting, although the last two days
07:26have been bad.
07:27But the big thing I remember was Hunter Brown.
07:29Hunter Brown was awful the first two months – not two months, but like the first month and a half
07:33of 2024.
07:34Alex Bregman's last year here, because remember Alex Bregman gave him that talking to on the plane about use this
07:39pitch, use that pitch, whatever.
07:41And Hunter Brown immediately turns it around.
07:44Like, it clicks, and for the rest of the season, and then the following season, he's one of the best
07:49pitchers in baseball.
07:50So, as I'm trying to look at things that can change, like, the hitting – if anything, the hitting's probably
07:55going to get worse just because it can't be any better.
07:58And so, where is the – this is the futile part of the whole thing, is that where is the
08:04pitching that's going to flip – like, that was Josh Hader's first year.
08:08He was really bad at the beginning of the year and got better as the year went on.
08:11So, they're going to get Hader back, and presumably he'll be – if he's healthy, I'm assuming he's going to
08:17be what Josh Hader is supposed to be.
08:19There's just nobody on this – like, even Hunter Brown, when you watch him get a nine ERA, you're like,
08:23all right, well, he's – like, he's got elite stuff.
08:26You know, he's got – like, it pops.
08:28Hunter Brown's done it before.
08:30He's still a great prospect, but he's got a nine ERA, and then he changes some things, he tweaks some
08:35things, and then he's great.
08:36I'm not looking at anybody right now on this pitching staff.
08:39You know, getting Hunter Brown back, I guess, himself in June would be that thing, but there's just – there's
08:45so few solutions right now on this team.
08:47I guess if you look at the pitchers from 2024, you had Fromber, the good version of Fromber.
08:53Yep, yep.
08:54You had Hunter Brown, who you were just discussing.
08:57Yep.
08:57Ronell Blanco.
08:58Ronell Blanco, that was his first year, and he was their best pitcher for the first half of the season.
09:04Spencer Arrighetti, so there's another one.
09:06Arrighetti would be part of the potential savior crew.
09:09And he needs –
09:10And he'd be one of our saviors.
09:10He needs to be better than he was in 2024.
09:13And we're probably going to see him sometime in the next few days.
09:16So, I mean, that's the part where, you know, eventually Kikuchi came along.
09:23The – Imai is still unwritten.
09:27We don't know exactly what he'll be in Major League Baseball, but there's still hope for him.
09:31Hurt is what he is right now.
09:32Right, right.
09:32He's hurt right now.
09:33Spencer Arrighetti, you might see maybe a rising, young, quality pitcher.
09:40We've seen good things out of him.
09:41Yeah.
09:42Hunter Brown at some point.
09:43So it's not – we're not in an all-is-lost situation.
09:46As of right now, the AL West looks very winnable, but it's still very early in the season.
09:52It really is – it's a combination of – it's a combination of the six guys you brought in who
09:58haven't done anything.
09:59There's no excuse on health on that side.
10:02They're just, all right, I don't care who's currently injured and who isn't.
10:06Nobody's done anything impressive.
10:07Hunter Brown's the only guy who's done something impressive.
10:09That's the one injury excuse, like, legitimately that we have.
10:13But beyond that, yeah, there's just question marks abound.
10:17Jeremy Pena to the 10-day IL with a grade one hammy.
10:21Grade one is – the lower the number, the better it is, right?
10:24Like, the lesser the injury is?
10:26Yeah.
10:27Actually, you might know since you've had a grade one or a grade two something in your –
10:30Yeah, but I have a – no, yeah, that's –
10:33I'm not asking you.
10:33I never trust myself completely.
10:35It's kind of like the DEFCON deal.
10:38Right, right, right.
10:39Because I've been so trained in my head, we're like, no, everybody thinks DEFCON 5 is the bad one.
10:43It's actually DEFCON 1.
10:45I mess it up with the grades.
10:46Okay, well, Pena's out with a grade one hamstring.
10:49I'm sure some physical therapist will text in.
10:53You're correct.
10:54Tatsuya Imai to the 15-day IL with right arm fatigue.
10:57So there's no – this is the first fatigue we've had.
11:00We've had discomfort before.
11:01Tightness is the big one this year.
11:03Shoulder tightness with Hunter Brown and Christian Javier.
11:08Right arm fatigue with Tatsuya Imai.
11:11Yeah, I –
11:11Feels peculiar.
11:13Look, and you asked yesterday who's most at danger of losing their job right now.
11:17Is it Dana Brown?
11:18Is it Joe Espada?
11:19I think the entire pitching organization, from Josh Miller to the analytics people and everybody else,
11:27is going to be under the most scrutiny because, hey, you already revamped the medical side of things.
11:32But the actual initial injury and how much does pitch selection, how much does regimen, how much does all of
11:39that factor into it?
11:41Not to mention the coaching and analytics people as they're helping them work back from injury.
11:46You can't – you can't sit here and blame an orthopedist or a personal trainer who's not actually working on
11:53the baseball stuff with them
11:54for the initial injuries themselves that they've had year after year after year.
11:59They – it's another overhaul.
12:02They've got to figure this out because, man, guys go – guys go three – if a guy goes three
12:07games pitching six innings or more,
12:10it feels like he's Nolan Ryan these days.
12:12Well, that's how – that's how few and far between the durability is with the pitching.
12:16I'm glad you brought that up because that was Joe Espada after the game yesterday.
12:19Here was – here was Joe Espada.
12:21Again, this is a – this is the eighth loss in a row for the Astros.
12:25They went one and nine on this road trip.
12:27The numbers on this road trip are just so depressing.
12:30We'll get to – if you're in your car, we're going to depress you in a minute, just so you
12:33know.
12:34But this was Joe Espada with his thoughts on Mike Burrow's start – six innings, six runs, his thoughts on
12:40Burrow's start yesterday.
12:41You know what, I – you know, his stuff and the outing look better than what the lines show.
12:48You know, his fastball was really good through some really good change-ups.
12:51A couple of fastballs that kind of leak out of the middle of the plate for Naylor.
12:54But outside of that, man, he was aggressive in the zone.
12:56A ton of strikes.
12:57Yeah.
12:57No walks.
12:58I thought he, you know, threw the ball well.
13:00Other than the shooting.
13:01Sean, they were worried about all the walks.
13:03The Astros were – they had a bunch of those historical stats of, you know, no team's ever walked this
13:08many batters, et cetera, et cetera.
13:10Yeah, got them all.
13:10All of those annoying stats.
13:12So, hey, they only walked two batters yesterday.
13:15There you go.
13:16Hey.
13:16Well, this is the part that's frustrating to me is here's Joe Espada on Burrow's getting through six and then
13:22J.P. France coming in.
13:24Yeah, and J.P. Pico, those two innings, yeah.
13:26Kind of give us a, you know, a good time to reset and go back home and kind of, you
13:32know, fresh bullpen.
13:32This is the sign that you are rooting for a bad baseball team, at least on the pitching side of
13:37things, is – and I'm catching myself doing this, too, because this whole staff is so taxed right now because
13:43all they do is walk, guys.
13:45When you have – I'd rather – that's why I said, Seth, I'd rather have a pitcher who's giving up
13:49contact than a pitcher walking, guys, because at least when pitchers are giving up contact, there's a chance that the
13:54at-bat was only one or two pitches.
13:56When you're walking, guys, these are six and seven, and especially if they're fouling pitches off and then walking, you
14:03get some 10-pitch at-bat walks in there, and that's what runs the odometer up.
14:09This is the part that I hate where we are right now is we're not even judging the pitchers on
14:14how many runs they're giving up.
14:15We're judging them on how many innings they're pitching, right?
14:17Oh, man, he gave us six today.
14:20Yeah, he gave up six runs, and he couldn't cover first base on a play.
14:23You know, like, that's the part that's frustrating to me, and I catch myself doing it because this pitching staff
14:29is so overworked.
14:31I'm watching the pitch count on guys more than I'm watching the actual number of runs they're giving up right
14:36now.
14:37That's where we are right now with this pitching staff.
14:40It's a terrible place to be.
14:42Yeah, the thought I had yesterday was that this game, at least, it feels like it's mercifully short.
14:48I don't know what the total game time ended up being, but I remember I turned to Brandy, and I
14:52was like,
14:52I've come up fifth inning already.
14:54Yeah.
14:54Yeah.
14:55This is how our misery isn't extended.
14:58Yeah.
14:58I feel like I'm being euthanized.
15:00Thank you, Mike Burroughs, for euthanizing me.
15:03Thank you for your lethal injection.
15:05The other thing, too, about this game yesterday, Josh Naylor accounted for five of the six runs with two home
15:10runs.
15:12He was batting 102, I think, with one extra base hit, maybe no extra base hits coming into the game.
15:17He was awful, and his first two at-bats, he goes deep.
15:21His second one was a no-doubter.
15:23Yeah, the one to Naylor with the guy on second, he throws a fastball high in the zone, and Naylor
15:30goes after it.
15:31And so it's clear he's on the attack.
15:33You saw the same video I did.
15:35Did you see the video of that guy?
15:36Yeah, the pitching breakdown.
15:37I love the people that talk sequencing and everything, the smart baseball people.
15:41I do, too.
15:42He's like, okay, so he's on the prowl for that fastball.
15:45What do you – should you throw your changeup that's working so well for you?
15:48No.
15:49Naylor tells him, serve up the fast.
15:51Give him the heat.
15:52The juice.
15:53Give him the heat, Mikey.
15:54Yeah.
15:54Yeah.
15:55Yeah, that was an interesting video because I'm not a pitch sequencing guy at all, really.
16:00Like, that was – and for those who don't know what we're talking about, and I apologize,
16:05I don't have the guy's name in front of me on Twitter.
16:07I'm sure if you –
16:08It doesn't matter.
16:08Yeah, it doesn't matter.
16:09If someone wants to see it, go search it.
16:11It's pretty good.
16:12It's about a two-minute video, and he adds the second home run in, too.
16:15He's most frustrated about the first home run and the sequencing.
16:18This guy who was doing this video after Naylor hit the first home run,
16:23and he's doing the recap of it, sat there in silence for, like, 25 seconds.
16:27He was so mad.
16:28He was so mad at Yiner Diaz for calling that pitch and Mike Burrows for throwing it.
16:32The fastball right down the heart of the plate to Josh Naylor.
16:36Yiner ended up getting a couple challenges right yesterday, at least.
16:39Yippee.
16:39He's got his average up to 50% on his challenges.
16:44Unless I missed someone after his first couple.
16:47Yiner's got the only two RBIs the last two games also.
16:49Did you know that?
16:51Yeah.
16:51He had a home run two games ago.
16:52Yeah, that's another one where I get it like, okay, I don't want to hear about the Yiner bomb.
16:55Not until – nope, nope.
16:57I don't need to be served up a Yiner bomb.
17:00What are the rules on Blum's home run one-liners as the guy is rounding second base?
17:06What are the rules on that?
17:07He's not allowed to do it unless it's to a guy that you feel good about right now.
17:11That's what I would say.
17:11I was going to say moratorium on all of it until they're at or above 500 as a baseball team.
17:16Well, it's hard, though, too, because –
17:18He has to be entertaining.
17:20Well, is he going to punish – you know, you don't want to punish everybody because the pitchers are so
17:25awful.
17:27So, offensively, including – even though Yiner hasn't been a part of it, he's been along for the ride,
17:32they remain – even though they – it's slowed down a little bit, but they remain one of the best
17:39offenses in baseball.
17:39Yeah, I get what you're saying.
17:40It's just a tale of two cities right now.
17:42It's a Yiner thing.
17:42It's not a Blum thing, I guess, is what you're saying, kind of, right?
17:45Yeah.
17:45You just can't do the Yiner bomb thing.
17:46All right, I can live with that.
17:49All right, so the Astros are 6-11 on this season, and it's bad right now.
17:54It's bad.
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