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Seth and Sean kick off the show by breaking down the Astros' remarkable 11-9 comeback win vs the Pirates last night.
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00:00Ground ball towards short. Paying your charges. Makes the throw. Astros win 11-9. Scoring six in the bottom half
00:09of the eighth. Their best win of 20-26 came out of nowhere.
00:14Thank goodness it did.
00:17Indeed. Todd Callis, Jeff Blum on the call of Space City Home Network. That was the final call last night.
00:22Josh Hader getting the last out. That's right. We're going to play that music this morning.
00:27This was quite a win last night. I was this close, Seth, to going to bed in the eighth inning.
00:36It was 9-5.
00:37And then Nick Allen and Christian Vasquez, your 8-9 hitters, get back-to-back doubles.
00:42Vasquez continues his torrid pace with runners in scoring position. He's hitting over 400 with runners in scoring position this
00:48year.
00:48Your nine-hole hitter. And I'm like, you know what? I'll hang out for a little bit and see what
00:51happens.
00:52Top of the order's coming up. Got a guy on second. See what happens. You know, Payne gets on.
00:57And then all of a sudden, the leader in the clubhouse for the MVP award, according to writers on MLB
01:03.com, is coming up as a tying run.
01:05I can get with this. And not only did they tie the game, they won the game last night.
01:10That was 11-9. Six, all with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
01:14With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Jordan Alvarez is a hero in the game.
01:21And then I think, honestly, it just kept coming big and hitting the opposite for a guy that just seems
01:31like he's been pressing, pressing, pressing.
01:32The entire night, it was really a testament to exactly what they're capable of doing.
01:38And if they're patient and they make a guy like Paul Skeens throw 109 pitches in less than five innings,
01:44that was –
01:45And ultimately, the Astros in some really nice plays in the field versus the Pirates with some disastrously bad plays
01:54in the field,
01:55past pitches, all of those things. It was just – it was beautiful.
01:59That was a – Sean, I didn't realize until Matt Kawahara printed it that they had been 0-32 when
02:05trailing after seven innings.
02:06That feels right. They've not been a resilient team late in games.
02:09Well, no, and imagine – okay, imagine Brian Abreu coming in in that situation in the ninth inning as opposed
02:16to – who's that guy?
02:17Yeah.
02:18It's Josh freaking Hader.
02:19That's right, ma'am.
02:20Josh Hader comes back in for the first time this season.
02:23After 32 attempts at it, the Astros get a victory after having trialed after the seventh inning.
02:28Yep, yep. If you went to bed – and it was funny, Callis pointed this out a handful of times
02:35during that comeback and at the end of the game and after the game,
02:38like the fact that the people that stuck around were rewarded.
02:42It was – like people had left. They had checked out. It was 9-3.
02:46It was 9-3, and as you pointed out, this team had shown no signs of life even in close
02:50games late in games, let alone games that are down 9-3.
02:53So they scratch a couple together in the bottom of the seventh to make it kind of close, a little
02:58like the night before when it was 10-4,
03:00and they make it 10-6, and, you know, they start generating a little activity in ways.
03:05We'll get to the highlights here in a second because a lot of you probably missed it.
03:08But I said this yesterday about the game they lost the night before.
03:12I said, you know, the only good thing to really come out of this is they rallied in the ninth
03:16inning a little bit,
03:16so the Pirates had to use their closer, Soto, which they probably weren't planning on doing when they were down
03:2110-4,
03:21but they make it 10-6, and they get some guys on base, and now you've got to bring your
03:25closer in.
03:25So I said this yesterday.
03:27So that's a good thing.
03:28So this thing's a close game late tonight.
03:30Maybe the fact that he's got to go two nights in a row is a thing.
03:35And granted, the Astros needed a little bit of luck with that Christian Walker infield single that we'll hear here
03:39in just a second.
03:40But other than that, Soto's walking guys gave up hard contact to Jordan, threw a wild pitch.
03:45They tied the game.
03:46So, you know, that's kind of the cool thing about baseball sometimes is that a game that just looks very
03:52nondescript the night before,
03:53you lose 10-6.
03:55There were little things that happened in that game that I think carried over into last night's game
03:59and helped you win that game last night.
04:01You know, like it's a good lesson to when you're down, even when you're down 10-4 in a game,
04:06boy, if you can just do something like make them use their closer, it can help you the next night.
04:10Right, right, right.
04:12Yeah, it was – and look, and Eric Etty doesn't – it's his first real blemish of the season so
04:18far.
04:18But also when he's facing – he's facing one of the best pitchers in the league and the Astros –
04:25the Astros take it to him too.
04:27Yeah, the ability to – the ability to one-two punch you now on this Astros between whether it's the
04:35pitching or the hitting,
04:37it's just been a much more complete baseball team.
04:39You know, we saw it in droves offensively early in the season while the pitching was absocious.
04:46Then we saw the pitching get it together in the month of May while the bats fell silent.
04:51And now with a combination of – I mean, if Cam Smith has figured some things out,
04:56Jordan is out of whatever the hell it was he was going through.
04:59He's four for five last night.
05:01It just feels – it feels like a much more complete baseball team.
05:05And, yeah, Hader coming back into the mix is a huge part of that.
05:09Huge, man, like huge.
05:10You get that lead last night in the bottom of the eighth,
05:13and you're not scrambling to figure out who's it going to be in the bottom of the ninth
05:17because it could have been any of, like, four guys.
05:19And you're right, especially since it's not Brian Abreu, thank God.
05:22And Hader comes in, and he looked like the old Josh Hader.
05:24That's the thing too.
05:25Like, there was no – you know, there didn't look like – no rust.
05:29You know, those seven or eight rehab appearances that he had seemed to have shaken all the rust off.
05:34He looked like Josh Hader.
05:35He had a strikeout.
05:36Nothing – you know, nothing treacherous in terms of contact or, you know, traffic or anything like that.
05:43One, two, three, ninth inning.
05:44Formula A.
05:44Nice.
05:45You know, Cam Smith's two-run triple that gave them the lead, gave them the 11-9 lead.
05:52And that was – I mean, that's Paul – that's Cam Smith, who on May 20th, he had a 6
05:57.05 OPS,
05:58so a good chunk below average.
06:00And the Pirates are thinking, all right, we got Skeens out there.
06:05Most pitches he's had all night, but certainly he can get Cam Smith out.
06:10And no, no, Cam Smith hits a triple and takes the lead.
06:15But he's – so for Cam Smith, since May 20th, he had a 6.05 OPS.
06:19Now he's up to 6.70.
06:20Okay.
06:21So he's rocketing towards being an average hitter at the plate, Josh.
06:25That's fine.
06:26Again, he had the big hit last night.
06:28He had a hit in RBI earlier in the game, too.
06:30So, yeah, here's – if you missed it last night, here's the anatomy of the comeback.
06:35We mentioned it.
06:36They're down 9-5 going into the bottom of the eighth inning, the Astros were.
06:41I forget which reliever was him, but he strikes out the first two guys.
06:44They look dead in the water.
06:45And then Nick Allen and Christian Vasquez get back-to-back doubles.
06:48So now it's 9-6.
06:49You've got a runner in scoring position.
06:50Top of the order coming up.
06:51Maybe you get it to – I'm thinking, okay, you know, Pena maybe comes up big here.
06:55And you get it to 9-7.
06:58And you see what happens with Jordan.
06:59Pena walks.
07:00So Jordan's going to get a look at it here as the tying run down 9-6.
07:05And Jordan comes through.
07:07Base hit, center field.
07:09Around third comes Christian Vasquez.
07:11He's going to score.
07:12It's a two-run game.
07:1444 with his fourth hit of the night.
07:18Keeps the line moving.
07:19Yep, that was – I mean, keeps the line moving.
07:22Now you've still got two guys on base.
07:24Now you've got the lead run coming to the plate in Christian Walker,
07:27who's got even more RBIs this year than Jordan Alvarez.
07:30So you feel pretty good about who's up.
07:32Christian Walker, got a little bit of luck.
07:36Off the end of the bat.
07:37Could be in a tough spot.
07:38Loud's got a long way to go.
07:40Walker is safe.
07:41Ball gets away.
07:43A one-run score is Cole to third.
07:45The Astros are within a run at 9-8 on a little scrimmage to the right side.
07:50Yeah, that's the thing.
07:51I mean, you're right, Seth.
07:52The little things the Pirates did to help the Astros.
07:55Like that errant throw allows Cole to get to third.
07:59Yeah.
07:59And I know, you know, it's two outs runner at third.
08:01So it's not like you can get a sack fly or anything like that.
08:03But you can get a wild pitch.
08:06That one's wild.
08:08It's going to go off the glove of the catcher.
08:10And we're tied at 9.
08:12Zach Cole scores to tie it up at 9 on the pitch that went off of the glove of Henry
08:18Davis.
08:19But it probably will be his seventh pass ball of the year.
08:22I mean, just a wild sequence.
08:25Yeah, and as you had mentioned, those were all off of Soto there.
08:28You know, they'd had to use them the night before.
08:31And they ended up using three relievers in that inning.
08:34Did they end up using three relievers in that inning?
08:38Yeah.
08:38Yeah, just to get out of it.
08:40Yeah, because Soto, yeah, they ended up taking – Soto didn't get anybody out.
08:44Look, Soto did not retire a single hitter.
08:48And so Bidoua had to come in and finish up the eighth inning for them.
08:52Yeah, but that was the wild pitch scores the tying run.
08:56So now you've got Paredes at the plate.
08:59He walks.
09:00And so now you've got two guys on with Cam Smith up.
09:03And Cam Smith comes through in a big, big way.
09:06Cam with a base hit.
09:08Astros will take the lead.
09:10In the score, Christian Walker.
09:13Here comes Paredes.
09:15He is going to score as well.
09:19A 11-9.
09:20What a comeback.
09:22Two outs, nobody on.
09:23And the Astros put up a big bottom of the eighth inning with six runs.
09:28This is unbelievable.
09:30I got the chill bumps, man.
09:31This is my first chill bumps of the season.
09:33Well, and it was a packed crowd.
09:36It was really – what a great evening.
09:40I mean, if you woke up this morning and you saw there was an 11-9 game,
09:45I don't know what your knee-jerk reaction to all of that is.
09:48You probably worry about the pitching and this and that.
09:51But it was about as – usually after an 11-9 win, there's a little part of you that's like,
09:58I don't know, but they allowed nine runs.
10:00I'm cool with it, man.
10:02I'm very cool with it.
10:03Oh, yeah.
10:03Partly because four of it came from Arregetti, which I – like, that's fine.
10:08You're going to have games like that.
10:09He's been immaculate this year.
10:10And it was a grand slam, too.
10:12Yeah, yeah.
10:12I guess – you know the other part of it is that it was versus Skeens.
10:15Yeah.
10:16That's the – the fact that the Astros scored 11 runs and did a lot of damage versus Skeens
10:23and were able to, you know, ultimately close it with their actual closer who's been missing for almost a year.
10:30That was – that was an awesome baseball game for Wednesday night.
10:32Yeah, no question.
10:33Like, the good – and I don't know if you're just talking about them winning.
10:36Like, the good coming out of that game – put your hand over the final score.
10:39Yeah.
10:40Just the things that happened in the game.
10:42There was more – there was way more to be encouraged about.
10:46Like, to your point, I'm not discouraged about Spencer Arregetti.
10:49Right.
10:49Like, he's been amazing this year.
10:50I think whenever he goes out and pitches again, they got the A's this weekend.
10:54I'm guessing he'll pitch in one of those games.
10:56If not, you know, whoever they play the – Arregetti's fine.
10:59I am not worried about Arregetti.
11:01Getting into Skeens is big.
11:02Skeens hasn't been as good lately as he's been since he became a big leaguer.
11:06But he's Skeens still.
11:08You know what I mean?
11:08Like, he's still Paul Skeens.
11:10And so getting into him, it was really good.
11:13You know, the – I like what you pointed out, too, that it's not just Cam Smith getting the big
11:18hit,
11:18but it's him kind of going with the pitch and going the opposite way
11:21and not doing things where it looks like he's pressing, coming up big.
11:25Cam, for his kind of mediocre statistical performance as a major league hitter,
11:31he's had an inordinate number of times for a young player where he's come up big late in games with
11:37guys on base.
11:38He is a guy that I do relative to his – for a guy with a 670 OPS, I trust
11:44him a lot in situations like this.
11:45I think there's times where you have to remind yourself that, man, all right,
11:48this is a guy that probably in a lot of organizations would have spent a good chunk of time last
11:52year in AAA.
11:53He'd still be there now in a lot of organizations.
11:56Yeah, yeah, well, and especially after some of his trouble, yeah,
11:59he would have been sent down to AAA at some point.
12:02So he is still a young guy who's working through a lot.
12:05He's extremely young, but it's just impossible to ignore his tools.
12:10It's – I guess you – there's – but it's natural to worry about a guy when he looks lost
12:15at the plate.
12:15Sure.
12:16When he just – he looks like he just might not be getting it.
12:20Man, he's really – he's worked through a lot of things.
12:22And as of late, over the last couple weeks, he really looks like he's starting to figure some things out.
12:26Yep.
12:27Here's Joe Espada on the Cam Smith triple.
12:29Staying in the zone, fighting, you know, it's good stuff.
12:32Soto had some really good stuff.
12:34Using the big part of the field.
12:37You know, what I like about Cam is that he embraces those big moments.
12:40He likes them.
12:41He wants to be in them.
12:42Yeah, that's just what I was saying just now.
12:44I think he's – I think he's a guy who enjoys those situations like that.
12:48And it was good to see him come up big.
12:50This was also – to your point earlier, Seth, about them getting Skeens thrown 109 pitches
12:55through not even five innings.
12:56Skeens doesn't even make it through five.
12:59Espada talked about the importance of that, getting into that Pittsburgh bullpen.
13:02You know, another thing is getting their high leverage in the game, back-to-back days,
13:08and then going tomorrow, potentially some of those guys are down tomorrow.
13:12So just – even if this started yesterday, us fighting through that,
13:16they're getting Soto in the game, and then using Soto today.
13:19Like, there's a lot of things that put us in a better spot for tomorrow.
13:23And it all starts with us grinding and bat through Skeens
13:26and then getting through the bullpen.
13:29And we use a lot of assets to get through that game.
13:32But to come out with a victory feels really good.
13:35So, yeah, that's one of those – it's 162-game season.
13:40I get it.
13:40But that is one of those wins there.
13:42It feels like, okay, this can be something that really, you know,
13:45kind of flips things for this team a little bit.
13:46I'm going to cherry-pick even a little bit more selectively than Matt Kawahara did.
13:50He had given Cam Smith's stats since May 20th.
13:56If I really extra cherry-pick, I'll go since May 19th.
14:00So he's played 14 games, and he's got an 870 OPS.
14:03Yeah, it feels that way.
14:04Hitting 292.
14:06Yeah, he's really – he's just been a completely different guy.
14:09Yep, yep.
14:10And he's had stretches like this before.
14:12So, you know, it's been up and down for him.
14:13But this is good.
14:15Eventually one of these stretches is – if you're an optimistic Astros fan,
14:19eventually one of these stretches that Cam's having, like you just pointed out,
14:23is going to turn into what he is.
14:24You know, it's what he was drafted to be.
14:26It's what he looks like.
14:27I mean, he's just so – tools is a good word you use.
14:30Like, he's very toolsy.
14:31You know, the problem – part of our problem here, just as we got spoiled with having
14:36five awesome pitchers for a long stretch of time, we got spoiled by Jordan Alvarez
14:40and almost what our expectations are for what a rookie looks like at the plate.
14:44Yeah.
14:45Because remember, Jordan Alvarez went through that period where, oh, he's got to adjust
14:49to the adjustments.
14:50No.
14:51Oh, you know, pitchers have figured him out and now he's got to – it was every step
14:54along the way with Jordan, it was, oh, okay, they started pitching him different,
14:59so he made the adjustment and there we go.
15:01Yep.
15:01It was such a smooth – that you start – that you almost in your mind think, yeah,
15:05that's what a really good rookie looks like.
15:07Dude, he's a rare –
15:07And then you have to remember, oh, he's one of the –
15:09He's one of the best hitters of his generation.
15:11Yeah, he's one of the three best hitters on the planet.
15:13Yeah.
15:14That's – yeah, he's a different breed, man.
15:17He is a different breed.
15:19Spencer Arrighetti, congrats to him.
15:21You know what?
15:21Hey, Ben, let's acknowledge Spencer Arrighetti.
15:25Acknowledge me.
15:26Pitcher of the month for the month of May in the American League.
15:28Here was Joe Espada before the game on Spencer Arrighetti winning Pitcher of the Month.
15:32No, I'm not surprised.
15:33Heck of a month.
15:35Come a long way, he's just a starter, adjustments he's made.
15:38You know, he's our best starter right now.
15:40You know, that's when a player understands that he needs to work on certain things.
15:44You know, he didn't take any – you know, did not get pissed off about it.
15:50He just said, you know, I'm going to go back down there.
15:52I'm going to work on a few things that I need to work on,
15:53and then I'm going to go back up there,
15:55and I'm going to be the pitcher that we all know that he can be,
15:58and he's been phenomenal.
16:00I wouldn't say he didn't get pissed off about getting sent to the minors.
16:03He kind of mentioned one time that he was a little pissed off about it,
16:06but he channeled, Seth, his pissed off-edness appropriately.
16:09I felt like the quote that he had, I felt like it was a really reasonable one.
16:13He said, you know, something along the lines of, yeah, it's natural that you're going to use that.
16:18Yeah.
16:18So it wasn't like he was being a baby or a brat about it or anything.
16:21Right, right.
16:22So even after last night, he's still sitting on –
16:26No, he's under two still, I think.
16:29Let me look at the box score.
16:30I thought I saw he was at 1.92.
16:34Yeah, 1.94.
16:35Oh, okay.
16:36So he's still sub-two ERA.
16:38He didn't do too much damage.
16:39You stay underneath that two-handle, and you're pretty damn good.
16:42Of course, Ocho weighing in as a wet blanket.
16:45Errogetti doesn't have ace stuff, but he's getting ace results with above-average stuff.
16:49Okay.
16:50Whatever.
16:51He's getting the results.
16:53He does have some nice off-speed stuff, man.
16:55Well, plus Errogetti's always – the thing about, you know, Errogetti is he's kind of pissed off in general while
17:01he's pitching.
17:02Yeah.
17:03So I would be kind of disappointed if he had started off the season not on the major league roster
17:10and was totally cool with it.
17:13Yeah.
17:13No, no, he's lost his edge.
17:15Yeah.
17:15Yeah, you've got to have that competitive fire.
17:17So the Astros win last night.
17:19If you're just getting up, you're just getting in your car.
17:21You probably reacted the same way my wife did when I went in the bedroom and told her, hey, the
17:25Astros won.
17:26She woke up.
17:27She's like, what day is it?
17:28How long have I been asleep for?
17:29They were down 9 to 3 when I went to bed.
17:31That was a good one for keeping you.
17:33Well, I was kind of – I had dozed off.
17:34I was tired yesterday, and I dozed off right around when Errogetti started letting up his runs.
17:39Yeah, I did too, and I woke up.
17:41I don't – I'm not even joking.
17:43I dozed off.
17:44I dozed off in the fifth inning, and I woke up in the seventh inning, and I'm like, all right.
17:49Yeah, the seventh is when Perretti's kind of made it – he made it 9 to 5.
17:53I'm like, all right, well, I'll hang around for a little bit.
17:55And I'm glad I did.
17:56So that was big last night for the Astros.
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