Geoff Blum w/ His Weekly Friday Visit, Stone Cold Locks, Chandler Rome Joins, & Previewing Texans Jaguars Week 3

Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on September 22nd, 2023.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adamraised by Girl Nolan and Lucky Multified the
magnificent roller coaster ride that is HoustonSports Chill lhdown for the only home grown

(00:25):
afternoon team is talking Your teams.Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the aighteen
You look at it, look atOh yeah, this is radio. You
listen to it on Sports Talks sevenninety astro's broadcaster Jeff Blom on seven ninety

(00:49):
is brought to you by Low TeaCenter. It is the eight team here
on Sports Talks seven ninety five fromMinute May Park. And you heard the
intro that means the man it's here. I feel like it's been like a
year since we've done a Friday withyou at Minute May because of all sorts
of different variety of things, butstupid three day trips. Yeah, like

(01:12):
that was odd. But also thisisn't This hasn't been a really good place
to be lately. No, inthe on last twenty games, it's been
a terrible place to be. I'mlying. Sure fan fans are getting it,
they're getting after it. Well.I told Blumber before the ship,
right before the show started, Isaid I don't know how you did this,
because I turned off a lot ofgames last week that we're played in
this building, and my text threatswere really grateful that you did that too.

(01:34):
By the way, I try toleave you alone this this last week.
I know it was really hard.No, just yeah, I don't
I don't understand what I mean.Hopefully it turns around. Obviously it can
always turn around in a heartbeat withthis ball club because they're so good.
But here at home, it's beenabsolutely crazy. It's amazing to me every
time in the last maybe month orso here at minute May Park, when
I fill out my scorecard, youknow, I'll put up I'll put the

(01:57):
record, I'll put the place they'rein, games ahead, run differential numbers,
and then the last ten games.And then I'll get to the home
and they're currently thirty nine and thirtynine at home. They broken. Yeah,
but I legit get bummed out.Yeah you should, because you know,
I love our seat here, Ilove the fans, and it's been
We're gonna have a three million youknow, fans coming through the gates here

(02:20):
at been in May Park. Yetthis is this is not a fair representation
of what this ball club is becausethey're so damn good on the road,
yet they're just mediocre at home.And it's wild to me to watch some
of that. I mean it hasbeen. Here's the thing we're taught like.
This scenario is a lot like lastweek, only it's better for the
Astros. We're talking about the twoteams they're trying to stave off playing each

(02:44):
other over the next three nights beforeyou go to see one of them,
and you're playing the Royals. Itshould be all good right now for the
Astros. But the Royals kicked yourass last week. Yeah they did.
You hope that you hope that thatsupplies a little bit of the you know
a little bit of the enjoyment ofcoming out here and playing in your ballpark
against a team that has lost onehundred and two games on the year.

(03:06):
And you have enough data now,you have experience, you have you know
sequences and tendencies, You've seen therelease points, you know what swing they're
where, they're attacking the strike zonewith their swings. So maybe maybe there's
enough of an adjustment being made atthis time around in this ballpark they will
be able to go out there becausethese are these are the last three regular
season games at home, and Ihope that provides a little bit of energy.

(03:29):
I think Yainer Diez and Mauricio Dubonmaybe it'll lit the fuse to be
able to finish off this last homestandof the season with a couple of wins
against the Kansas City Royals. Butconsidering what's happening just north of us in
South Oklahoma, you need to assumethat the Astros understand the situation that this
is a golden opportunity to take theseries, if not sweep the series,

(03:50):
and really put even more pressure onthat situation that's happening up there in Rangerville
with the Seattle Mayri's visiting there.Because the way it stands now, you
want the Rangers to actually beat theSeattle Mariners for obvious reasons. It suppresses
the Seattle Mariners, who might bewho are better than the Texas Rangers.
But if the Rangers can beat them, it pushes that team that owns that

(04:11):
wild Car or not the wild Cartiebreaker attains them, So you have a
better chance if you end up falteringand tying with the the Texas Rangers,
you end up going to that youwin the division because you win that tiebreaker.
Jeff Flum joining us here on SportsTalk seven ninety two, of course,
talk about your first place. HoustonAstros believe it their first place.
Houston Astros with nine games to gofeels like twenty all over again. Yeah,

(04:34):
even though these teams that we've beentalking about in the division sit there
with the same number of losses,it is still true. The Astros do
control their own destiny. If ninewins are in front of them, then
they are going to win this divisionand they will be the number two seed.
Seattle obviously can't win all of theirgames. If the Astros win all
of their since they see each otherthree times, and if it's the Rangers

(04:55):
that win all of their remaining games, well, then the Astros will win
the tiebreaker over the Texas Rangers.So part of it is still true.
Obviously, you take it one gameat a time. The Astros will played
one hundred and fifty three of themand sit in first place as Framber Valdez
gets the ball today, which meansFramber Valdez will get the ball again in
Seattle unless they have some alternative plans. But you would assume that's why the

(05:17):
rotation is what it is for today. And it took me till Game one
fifty four to feel confident and thenbe correct and predicting what Dusty Baker would
try it out there today, Iactually got it right. Today. We
already knew our team. Aldonado woulddo the catching, Mauricio Dubon is going
to be in center field, andmost of the other usual suspects will be
out there, with Peenia back upin the number two spot, a lineup

(05:39):
we had seen for quite some timewhen the Astros were putting a lot of
runs on the board. They didactually score quite a few runs in their
losses against Baltimore before coming up withjust two in yesterday's game. And I
think we all gave the obvious ourexplanation of it yesterday when we were our
Wednesday when we're on after the game, but being inside the clubhouse for as
many years as you have been,even though it wasn't a getaway day,

(06:00):
it was into an off day.It was into the final nine games of
the season. It had been astruggle fest, obviously against the same guy
again in Kyle Bradish, and theyfound away. They got the run on
the Painya double that was nearly athree run homer in the eighth, and
Yiner Diaz leads off the ninth witha double, Chaz Hits behind him gets
him to third, and Maracius says, just give me that first pitch ball

(06:24):
game over. Yeah, that wasa beautiful thing and the only reason the
Astros were in that game because KyleFresh pitched so amazingly well, like he
has every single time every time theCastros. And if you do get to
that ALCS matchup where it's gonna beatBaltimore and Houston, I think we know
who's gonna start Game one against theAstros because Bradish is so good. But
that being said, Christian Javier matchedhim, and I thought that was the

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best part about it is because youin order to stay in those games and
be able to beat bullpens late,whether it be scoring on a three run
home run or whether it's a walkoff base hit. The fact that Christian
Javier kept them in the game aslong as he did is what allowed the
Astros to come back and eventually tiethat thing up on that Jeremy Pain double
or right field, and then thebullpen did their job, which we expect

(07:08):
them to do, being shut downners was used in the appropriate manner,
which I loved, in a highleverage part of the batting order against the
Baltimore Orioles gets out of that,Presley has his shut down inning, and
then all of a sudden, wehave the opportunity to play team baseball.
After that leadoff double, you getJazz moving the runner over, which I
don't feel like happened in the firstthree or four games. And then,

(07:28):
like you said, Mauricio Dubon,even with Greg Kessinger on deck, they
went right after Mauricio Duboning. Likeyou said, wex it only takes one
pitch in the vicinity and Dubon's gonnaput a swing on it. Yeah,
once it got to the bottom ofthe eighth inning, it was empty the
bench time for Dusty Baker even aman short with Michael Brantley's situation, and
he used three guys and then eighthinning and then was ready to use another
should it be needed, when GregKessinger, like you mentioned, was sitting

(07:50):
there. Just one note bringing up, you know, that possible postseason matchup
if people haven't kind of figured itout. We keep saying the Astros and
the Blue Jays and the Rangers andthe Seattle Mariners. They're all fighting for
these very specific spots. They're fightingfor the two spot, the five spot,
in the six spot. That's itfor those four teams, for those
three spots. What that means isthe Astros are not going to play the

(08:13):
Rangers or the Mariners when they opentheir post season. It cannot happen.
And that's you know, obviously winningthe division, they could wait and see,
but they would not have to openthe postseason against one of those two
teams should they be playing to openthings up. That's just how the numbers
play out. And obviously seeing Seattlethis one more time, we'll see what
it looks like for between Seattle andTexas. Between now and then you brought

(08:35):
it up initially, do you reallythink there's something to the first three games
against Kansas City? You hadn't seenthem in forever, considering this is the
first meeting just a week ago thatthe Astros can pick up on, especially
starting today, a pitcher they've seenbefore and literally now with them they just
saw. Well. I think thatfirst time when they faced them up in
Kansas City is one of those situations, much like when they face the a's

(08:56):
you just kind of feel like youcan show up and beat those teams because
they're so terrible. But at thesame time, I think there's a little
bit different talent level maybe for theKansas City Royals, just because they've got
a Bobby Witch junior. They've gotVelaska's out there that's been hammering baseball since
he's come over to the Kansas CityRoyals, and they were playing at home,
so they had a little bit of, you know, a little vim
and vigor playing against the braining WorldSeries champions for the first time all season,

(09:18):
and they're in a good spot.They've been playing good baseball here in
the last ten or eleven games,so it's not like you ran into a
buzz saw, but you ran intoa team that was playing good baseball.
You know a little bit about himbecause obviously it was going to be advanced
reports, plenty of video that you'regonna be able to study. But at
the same time, until you getin that environment and you get punt,
I just hope that those first twogames against Kansasy were kind of that left

(09:39):
right combo where you kind of getstunned a little bit and then you kind
of get your breath back under andyour legs lock up a little bit and
you can stand there a little bitmore firm and fight back. That's what
I'm hoping for in this series,if they kind of learned a little bit
in that series to be able totransform a little bit and play better here
in these last couple of games.Not to take the focus off of this
Kansas City matchup, but just becausegoing back to what we were talking about

(10:00):
earlier with Christian Javier, I'm gonnaask you the same question that I asked
X yesterday, and I'm not goingto tell you what he said. I'm
really not gonna tell you what hesaid. Just think it's usually really really
hard to figure out what I sayto his question, So good luck.
Christian Javier's effort on Wednesday was alot to like about it. As you
mentioned, yes, is he back? No? Okay, well you guys

(10:24):
answered similarly, But I want tosee more. I want that just to
be a little bit of teaser.I want him to say, hey,
look I got a little bit back. Next time out, hey I got
a little bit more back, andthen by the time that by the time
we're popping bottles and going into whatevercity, we're going into play, We're
like, damn it, we're goingjustin Berlander from Brevaldez. Christian should have
been all season, and yet JPFrance has, you could argue pretty confidently,

(10:48):
instilled more confidence in you over thecourse of the season than a Christian
Javier, which is something I neverthought I would say, for like a
million different reasons, but that's acredit to JP Franz. It is that
dude pitched his us off and puthimself in a position to be able to
be in the conversation. But italso lends itself if Christian Javier can have
another start or two like he justhad, and then all of a sudden,

(11:09):
you have a solidified one two three, You get to a division series,
you get to a championship series,and you go, okay, now
we have to talk about a fourspot, and that's much that's much more
of a comfortable conversation for me.Knowing that you have a one two three,
you get into that four spot whenyou're potentially playing at home or on
the road, and you can say, well, I'm gonna start JP France
and then I'm gonna bring in aHunter Brown to blow the doors off everybody

(11:31):
in that the back part of thatfourth game. Yeah, or you start
Hunter Brown and you bring in JPFrance a bridge to some of those guys.
I think there's more opportunity for fora little more fun and creativity if
you do have a Christian Hivier pitchinglike he did yesterday the previous game.
I'm sad about Hunter Brown right nowbecause I know what he's capable of.
His stuff's too good. I'm stillI'm gonna hold out hope on him just

(11:52):
because he I think he's still learninghow to use his stuff. I think
we went through this with a lotof these guys, fromber being one of
them. So it's yeah, soit's not like all hope is lost at
all. It's just that I wantedI just wanted it to be, oh
yeah, we got baby Verlander onthe team now. It's because he has
wipe out stuff, right, itgoes out and your wipe out stuff.
You're going, hey, look atour shiny new toilets, kick ass.

(12:13):
And it was last September. Notso much September, but that's what you're
looking forward to. Yeah, exactly, all right. That's Jeff Blum.
He is on with us for theduration of this first hour as we are
live at Minute Made Park, Astrosand Royals getting it together for the second
time in as many weeks, thistime in the not so friendly confines of
Minute Made. They're looking to getat a game over five hundred with their
home record. Are your Astros andwe're getting you ready for it here on

(12:37):
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(13:43):
them The A Team from Sports Talkseven ninety sent you in. Hey,
it's the trilog Bunby. The ATeam continues with Clintons Blummer Sports Show.
All three of them are asses,though it is the eight team here on

(14:20):
Sports Talk seven ninety. They've gota new single, good I'm glad they
do? Did you you know whatsingle I'm good? I missed the most
from them? Which one is that? Do you go? Super Chargers?
They didn't single. Yeah, theyhad a charger song, dude, they
really, Yes, you're kidding methough I heard that song, but yeah,

(14:41):
they played a version of that.Yes, really, they had a
Charger song they played every home game, dude, do you kid me?
Those are like boys from the Souththey're all boys there. That's her boys.
They're phenomenal. They're the nicest guysever. When we went to San
Diego a couple of years ago,uh, we were supposed to eat lunch
with who for the lead sick.I don't know all their names neither,
but yeah, they were and they'rehuge Padres fans. Did you ever hang

(15:05):
out with them when you play?Ever had a chance, Never had a
chance. We're talking about pod obviouslythere he is. They they I knew
they were fans and they would bearound the ballpark, but I never had
the opportunity to run into them.I love their music and they were.
They were extremely good. They gota new single out and it's like it's
a banger, as the kids sayswould say, he's he's like rolls off

(15:28):
his tongue, do it that songslaps? I told you if you get
a bust and meal with it.Well, speaking of disappointing. So look,
do we want, like we werejust talking about this during the break,
we want them to win the division. I'm past my phobias of a
year ago where I was like,do you really want that much time off?

(15:48):
Of course you do now, butmakes a lot of sense. We
you know, we thought we wereasking you a ridiculous question the last time
we got together, like why can'tthey win at home? They've actually like
they've gotten worse at home since thatconversation, because I was a yeah,
But at the same time, youknow, everybody bitches and moans about my
mouth is terrible today you're teetering,yeah, right, if tongue they have?

(16:15):
What am I trying to say?No, I forgot what? Oh
everybody keeps complaining yes about the offense, yet it the offense has actually been
okay on the pitching is what it'sgone. But if you've seen the number
of home runs that they've given upin September two this point in comparison to
last year, of course he hasit's well you guys obviously had a graphic
on it the other day and thatwas one was all of September versus this

(16:37):
year's partial September, and the numberswere still unbelievable. They've hit a bunch
of homers. Just in looking atthis year, I think going into today,
it's thirty two home runs versus thirtyeight. I think they've hit thirty
eight in the month they'd given upthirty two, some crazy and they're pitching
again. This this series against Baltimore, I thought was a pretty good indicator
of that. When they got pitching, and even though it came on a

(16:57):
day where the offense wasn't great,that's the game they won. It broke
a string of eighteen consecutive losses.When the Astros scored five. Usually you
say things like that, or whenthey score three or few or they don't
win, you rarely get to thenumber five, because five as a win.
You score five, you win.They managed to go eighteen games all
the way back to the first weekof August, the last time they had

(17:18):
won a game while scoring five,four, three, two or one run
in a game that is virtually impossible. And again that spans all of their
games, not just here at home. But you know the whole idea,
and we're now getting our first inperson visualization of the batters I extra green
paint. Obviously, both teams playthe same number of games here and face

(17:40):
the same everything here, So ifit was an issue there, then it's
going to be an issue here talkingabout each of the dugouts and batters,
etc. And I don't think there'sgonna be much said about it beyond whatever
number of games are played the remainderof this year. I wonder if it'll
be addressed in a different way thisoffseason. I tend to not believe so,
but you know, as we're sittingout here, just because we can
paint, literally paint the picture forthe fans. So the section where one

(18:06):
of the Budweiser sponsors is right therein front of several of the eateries,
the Budweiser brew House, Pluckers,Wing Bar, and many other sponsors.
Those seats were behind a brick walland a big three sets of red banners
for Budweiser. About forty one percentof it now is painted green, but

(18:26):
in the seats where consumers still reside, they're wearing whatever it is they're wearing
to the game that day, Soit's not a full on total green everything.
Because people are still mingling around thoseseats, sitting in those seats,
walking around in those seats just likethey would at any other game. I
wonder if that's something because they don'twant to give up the real estate.
I would imagine that money, soa lot of things to move past because

(18:51):
the baseball is still I think firstand foremost the Astros are still putting out
a lineup that should be able todo what they've been doing for about two
months, which is not having muchtrouble scoring runs. And you know,
we go round and round about someof the lineup things. You know,
we're back to pain you at two. I think a lot of people are
for it in that while he stillcan't quite hit the ball over the fence

(19:11):
and he was dangerously close to thevery last swing that he had, he
still is hitting better over the lasttwo months, regardless of him he's been
up in the lineup or down inthe lineup. Having him at two,
I mean, is it a negativeto have that batter there? Is it
a negative to have your three,four, five, one more spot down
in the order? Or can youjust look at kind of the results and

(19:33):
say, for the most part,they've scored a bunch of runs when those
guys have been kind of one throughfive. Yeah. I like the idea
of Jeremy Painia in that second spot. And I've got a couple of reasons
why. The first one is toyour point that the fact he's not driving
the ball out of the ballpark shouldtell me that he's putting together some better
at bats, and he's not worriedabout driving the ball out of the ballpark,
so he's not gonna take these hilaiciousswings, try and do too much.

(19:56):
Pop out, not move the runner, not hit behind the runner,
take a couple more pitches and allowout to it. If he wants to
steal second base, to go aheadand steal second base. And then if
you do get a guy at secondbase, he'd be able to move that
runner over because he's actually been drivingthe ball the other way with some authority
and with consistency, So that wouldtell you that he's able to move the
runner to third base. For theguys hitting third, fourth, fifth in

(20:18):
that lineup, I also think thatgetting Alex Bregman out of that second spot,
unfortunately, because you do want himto get as many at bats as
he possibly can, you put himin that fourth spot. You know who
that makes a better hitter for me, Yourdan Alvarez. I know that Josiah
Bray's racking up urbis. He's set. You know, he's got the same
amount of home runs as he hadlast year, if not one more,

(20:41):
and he's driving in runs. Rememberwhen he had hit one but they yes,
but the overall consistency Reggie Jackson isdown on the field right now.
I'm sorry, go ahead. Theoverall consistency of Alex Bregman behind your Don
Alvarez makes him better. We're suchhorrible people. Hey, look it's I

(21:03):
can't say anything. I'm a fineperson, and I'm gonna jump off of
what Jeff said because I am afine person. We gotta go a break.
Jordan Alvarez batting third, which isthe majority of where he's been all
year. He's got a nine eightyseven OPS. He's only batted fourth in
a handful of games, so it'snot a huge sample size, but there's
one hundred point plus drop off inhis OPS as a fourth hitting fourth gets
on bas be guess who's hitting behindhim, Kyle Tucker RBIs. He's been

(21:26):
doing it all season. It's quitethe concept. We've got another half hour
with Jeff Blum if he doesn't leaveafter this segment, and we intend to
have fun with him, as wealways do each and every week here in
person, more often than not,on the eighteen at minute made part.
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ninety playing sports Talk seven ninety onNineheart Radio. Right right, I'll take

(23:07):
us in another contain ourselves. Jefflooms here with us on a Friday afternoon
from the ballpark. We go roundand round about a lot of good things.
Yesterday we had a conversation about what'sgonna be going on. You're almost
done with this flux doesn't like thatsong? Okay, dude, I used
to walk I walked up to thatsong, that version. Yeah I did

(23:29):
that. Whoa hell? Yeah,dude did he? I know it's LaRue
sang it, but I can't rememberthe name of the song. But there
was a hundred hundred pence and Ihad a bet on what song we would
come up to when he came upwith that LaRue song or whatever the heck
it was, and I'm like,I'll do it. He's like, no,
you won't. I'll do it.No you won't. You know.
Ten minutes later, all of asudden, we had a couple hundred bucks
on it. I made a phonecall, what a what a country?

(23:52):
Now batting? The whole thing wasgoing on, and yeah, I'm looking
at the dug out and I'm givinglike the money signed on a hundred pence
I'm like, pay up for onegame. One game? You know how
you out terrible. I was toobusy giggle to say, how do you
concentrate on an elite or at leasta major league pitcher when that STEP's going?
How many times did you do somethinglike that? That was the only

(24:14):
time because I took the offer.I was like them, I took the
money and ran. I'm god,I can't see sacrifice my career for that.
Yeah, it was clearly between twoplayers having a good time. Yes,
but that also has to spill outto anybody else who was paying attention,
right, Oh yeah, well thatwas part of the fun ist because,
like they would announce it, thesong came on and the entire stadium
just kind of went your attention,please, what is this? Yeah?
They all You could literally hear theentire stadium shut down and go dugout too,

(24:37):
right, Oh yeah, Well,not everybody in the dugout was onto
what was happening, So it's kindof like everybody that was sitting on the
bench was all of a sudden onthe top shelf, going what the hell
was going on? Up? Okaydude, Yeah, did did Visio ever
not come up to a you twosong, No like, not that I
know of ever. Dude, Iplayed with him for two years and two

(24:59):
years straight. I heard the samesong pride right. Yeah, Yeah,
I was hitting. I was hittingsecond behind bits, and I heard Mattallica
every time Baggy came up when Iwas walking back to the Batwreck. No,
I'm just kidding. I was prettygood those two years, but that's
a good place to hit. We'rejust talking about it with Jeremy. Happen
to know exactly the same thing,right, yep. I mean it's a
you know, the dangerous part ofthis lineup, luckily, has I think

(25:22):
been extended quite a bit over thecourse of the season with what Chas mccormicks
season has turned into, with GayerDaz season that's been turned in and the
fact that you have you can protectguys, but it also it's got to
do something for them. And Ithink you were talking about why it's doing
something for your don when he's infront of Brugnan, it's clearly doing something
for pain, which then in turnis for the team. That's how you

(25:44):
turn. It's not a coincidence,and I let my research team have the
weekend off. I guarantee you theif they have, If the Astros have
twenty three four run innings or more, or twenty whatever the number is,
I guarantee you eighty percent of themhave come in last eight weeks when this
lineup has been constructed in that typeof manner, and you also have the
guys hitting the way they are.Have you seen anything different from some of

(26:07):
these guys, because you know,yeah, I think we're just past they're
super offensive explosion. We haven't comeall the way down to where they used
to be because they're still I thinkscoring well. But anybody in particular,
you know, Chaz is a littlebit from a number standpoint down to touch,
and you know Bregman's down to touchover the last couple of weeks to
where this way high. But youknow, especially maybe Bregman's the guy I'll

(26:29):
focus in on. We see himmake those tweaks and changes so often,
but it does look like he hasmaintained that that same two handed approach,
and you know, maybe just theresults haven't been there. Yeah, Well,
Bregg Briggy is the same guy thatgoes out and gets he's got He's
got what five or six more walksthan strikeouts this season which is a lot
of fun to watch, and Ithink that's what makes his maybe his quote

(26:51):
unquote slumps a little bit less becausehe's able to get on base still,
but at the same time, youknow the consistency with a thump and you
know, driving the ball out ofthe ballpark. He's pick in his spots,
and I think he does a betterjob in that fourth spot of picking
his spots because he is going toget better pitches to hit behind Jordan and
ahead of Kyle Tucker because he's gonnahave that protection. I was trying to
remember a stat that I saw whenI was getting ready for the game today

(27:12):
that I think the Astros have morewalks than they do strikeouts, and maybe
the last four or five games,but there's a stretch man. I don't
want to exaggerate it too much,but I feel like it's double digit games.
It might be eighteen or twenty fivegames where they have not struck out
ten or more times. They've gottenup to nine, but they haven't been

(27:33):
in the double digit strikeout column offensivelyfor maybe twenty games or something crazy like
that. But that's the sign thatI like to see, because when these
guys are going well, you hearthe same cliche every single time. We're
just gonna pass the baton. I'mgonna let the next guy do it.
And that's when this offense is reallygood, is when they get their knocks,
they go to the first base andthen wait for the guy to get

(27:55):
a walk. All of a sudden, I'm at second base and there's a
double two run score and there's aguy back at second base, and that's
when things start to snowball. ButI think the walk to strikeout ratio and
the last maybe ten to twelve gameshas been outstanding, and that's when I
know this team is doing well,and that when that on base percentage jumps
a little bit, because then itjust takes one hit to put you over
and have that big three four runin. Yeah, they've been at the

(28:15):
bottom of the league again, andstrikeouts their third from best. Only two
other teams let's struck out less.And I think the streak you're mentioning they
struck out ten times Wednesday against Baltimore, they had that was twenty four straight
games nine or fewer strikeouts leading intoa win. Yeah. Yeah, but
in that vein does that. SoI'm not gonna ask you whether or not

(28:37):
you agreed with the day off oryour Dawn the other night, because all
right on Wednesday, because I meanthis time of year, you know you
can Well, let's be honest.I mean, you're on a championship team.
They're trying to be diplomatic about this. You're on a championship team.
You know you're gonna be playing deepinto September. You know they're gonna be
meaningful games. So you played yourDawn every single day for I think forty

(28:59):
seven games before he had the obliquestrain and had to go on the injured
list, and I think up untilthis point to play twenty eight twenty nine,
you know, games in a row, and then you give him the
day off. Why why didn't wegive him the day off in the middle
of August or once a week inAugust so that when we do get to
September, we don't have to sacrificethat game in the middle of the heated
Pennant race. He still came outpinch hit World Dubon saved our lives.

(29:23):
Well, the reason I brought thatup, though, is you know,
we're talking about this offense. We'retalking about not striking out, We're talking
about all the good things. AndI'm like, is that like maybe the
strangest, most out of body experienceyou've ever witnessed when he just stood there
with the bat never coming off ofhis shoulder in the night and stared at
three straight strikes. But that's that'swhat your don can do. Yeah,
And if you're if you're Brandon Hide, this won't happen in the postseason,

(29:45):
obviously, But if you're Brandon Hydeand you're managing a game like he managed
the first game of that three gameseries, and with the understanding that Michael
Brantley was available. We didn't findout until before Game two that he wasn't
available. But the way that BrandonHyde managed that first game was complete fear
of Michael Brantley coming up in asituation. That's why he had that lead.

(30:06):
Ciano Perez get loose, I thinkthree or four times for the potential
pitch hit that we never saw.But then you get to game three and
you have the potential of bringing upa threat off the bench in Jorda on
Alvarez, and you could see whathe does to the game because he is
such a threat every time he digsin. You only have to face him
once. You're not gonna give hima pitch to hit, You're gonna put
him on base and forced and forcedDusty to bring in a runner and you

(30:26):
burn two guys. But at thesame time it's beneficial because it's somebody on
base. Yeah, it's hard tobelieve it that, you know, seven
straight pitches to Jorda and he hasn'tswung in any of them. The three
straight strikes and then the four straightball, Yeah, that was odd.
He is in the lineup tonight,as we mentioned earlier, he'll be the
DH and he'll bat third in frontof Alex Bregman, behind Jeremy Paania.
They'll see Cole Reagan's for the secondtime in the span of a week at

(30:48):
three with Kansas City last week,with the Royals taking two of those three.
In fact, the Astros will tryto break a stretch last three series
have all gone the same way.They've lost the first two before winning these
series finale. They'd like to,well, if nothing else, flip that
and grab two wins of these threebefore they head out on their final road
trip of the season. First stopSeattle the customary Thursday day off, and

(31:08):
then they will wrap up the season, well, they get to they don't
have to play National League Baseball becausethere's no such thing anymore, but they
will play a National League team whois likely headed to the postseason, and
they see the Arizona Diamondbacks to closeout the season. They could be celebrating
in the Arizona Visiting Clubhouse for thesecond time in a handful of years,

(31:29):
as they did that a few yearsago. But we'll get to a little
bit more with that, Jeff.As we continue here on the eight team
on a Friday from Minute Made Park, we'll tell you about Campbell's pest Control
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(33:01):
continues with Clinton Blumber. You know, I'm pretty sure all three of them
are asses. Though, just becausewe have you here and it was a
good conversation yesterday, General rated alot of interest in some of our listeners.

(33:22):
I got one text about it yesterdayfrom the missus. She said,
no, no, no, classiccorny Dog all the way. We're talking
about state Fair. Oh yes,this is a good topic and how everything
is fried, including the State Fairthis year when that whole week obviously weekend
Texas, oh you, et cetera. They'll trot out a bunch of new

(33:43):
fried foods, including a fried fireball. Shot'll be you you name it,
if it hasn't been fried before,it will be considered it. You don't
I mean not to like, no, not really, I mean you're making
beer on on a huge screen game. I'm yeah, I'm normally like Irish
car bomb or something, you know, like let's drop some jamison into a

(34:05):
guinnis and see how much we candrink this. This segment just got dark.
Yeah, well, what's got issues? It's true. I mean,
I'm not Why am I gonna messaround If I'm gonna do a shot,
I'm not gonna do something that tasteslike, you know, peppermint for malde
hyde. Oh my god, Ihaven't. It will preserve you so much
better when you pass out. Anyway, Sorry, from the inside, I
just wanted to get a pro oran anti stance on you know, fair

(34:28):
food, Like, are you downlike you're in No, because it's not
as I'm not a deep fried guy. No way, man, Well my
thing no and no I let's theoreo deep front. Nah. Here's the
deal. My problem is not necessarilythe oreos or anything. Is that that?
What is that? What's the thingthat? Like they put the powdered
sugar in the strawberries on top ofthe funnel, thank you? Yeah,

(34:49):
well that's that's how. That's howinto this I am. I smell those
are those smell amazing? Yeah?But here's the deal. I've got a
fundamental leg. I've got a daughterthat leg. It's a april of the
fair carnival mutant. You can hitsomebody with it all dude, yeah,
when you're done. But like,I have a fundamental problem. If it's
supposed to be frozen, like hebrought up cheese cake or of course ice

(35:13):
cream, why peanut butter cup?But those aren't necessarily those are We'll bring
it back inside the stadium because occasionallyon road trips and a lot of times
here, especially when you were outin the Crawford boxes, you'll get a
firsthand look at some of the fairthat's being sold in here in the stadiums,
because they're there are a lot ofsimilarities to what they'll pedal at a
carnival or a state fair as theywould in here for this type of crowd.

(35:37):
Like, do you really want tomentally send Todd a thought cloud that
says, will you talk for thenext three minutes so I can eat this?
Oh yeah, dude, I've talkedabout killings burn ends up here.
That's not fair food. But Imean, I love me some killings burn.
I heard that conversation. That's fantastic. And you had to go all
the way over there to get rememberthe Yeah, we were in the well,
yeah, I got well that's howyou burn the calories. Boy.

(36:00):
We were in the Crawford boxes forthat one game and they brought I mean,
chef Scott here is in hemely good. Yes, and he brought out
some nachos with like brisket on youbreak if you can combine the text mets
with barbecue. Yes, Oh gosh. The last I went to the one
of these in Austin this year,the Longhorns, and that was the food.

(36:22):
All the people around us, justrandom students or whatever. It was
like four or five different people.They kept coming down with brisket nachos,
one after the other the other.I'm like, my god, those look
good. By the way, sinceyou brought it up, are you guys
out here? I mean you're notup here during the game, are you.
I was gonna say that would betorture. Why don't you barbecue?
Literally right, why don't you guysdo more broadcasting the Crawford boxes. Did

(36:45):
you enjoy doing it that night?I did. It's a different vantage yeah,
I mean, obviously it's a differentvantage point, but I did enjoy.
You know what I was surprised atwhen we were doing it in center
field. The fans were all overus. That was a very polite crew
in the Crawford boxes that day.You know why because their heads on a
swivel. Well, yeah, youif you had tension while you sit there

(37:07):
to watch that, you have to, Yeah, because I I there were
certain hitters. You could tell howI felt about a hitter every time I
put my glove on. No.So remember the game right after Harvey,
when they played the double header againstthe Mets. Yes, we were in
the Crawford boxes for the first game. And George Springer scalded one about two
seats to my left. Well,I was gonna say, if it's a

(37:27):
low line drive, you're and theguy, the guy I believe caught it,
but his hand hurt the rest ofthe game guaranteed. It was like
because there's not that's not far fromhome plate relatively speak. And if you
it's not like a foul ball,it's like it's partially hit or if unless
you're down the line, off thefoul line where a guy actually turns on
it but hooks it foul. Butlike if you're sitting in the Crawford box
and a ball is coming to it'scoming to you like on purpose and with

(37:50):
authority. Bragman, those are thetwo call flocks you want to watch for
there, Yeah, or get thatone that's just gently lofted in the air
and just kind of places itself inthe cross careas in Game five of the
World just messled itself of that oneseat at the course to stand there at
herme plate for like an hour tomake sure it was it was out.
We missed the rafters and everything.But also it's good visual for TV.
The astros could be playing Carlos Correaand his twins in the opening round,

(38:16):
not Carlos first week. He'll beactive by things. Yeah, that's why
they put him on the DA protectingil end up the season. By the
way, he like almost every shortstopin baseball, awful offensively, worst year
I've ever seen for the shortstops acrossthe league. But Jeremy pa July five,
are you kidding me? Two?Five at bats or something. Jose

(38:37):
A Brave was like, hey man, you might want to hit one.
Here's my bat. Well, wealways appreciate the time with you. We've
got two about three hours here,about two hours till turn it over on
deck. What could what would youtell the people maybe could help them,
you know, perk up little electrajuice electra Yeah, Bud yeah. Would

(38:59):
you would you like to send ashout out to people like that? For
me on here with it. Iget complimented when I wear my smaller T
shirts and how well they look,and I say, hey, they don't
test in the booth. That's whyI go to Lowtcenter dot Com to keep
the physicality up. Obviously, itencourages me to go work out. It
gives me the energy, uh,the recovery from the low T Center and
getting the getting makes you sure.My testosterone levels are great is what keeps

(39:21):
me going. And obviously they takemost major insurance. They are all over
the greater Houston the area. Checkout LOWT center dot com just because I
do. Go put your medium shirton and claim free wins. Yeah,
who is that? Hey? Theywin the first two games. I'm I'm
doing the game Sunday topless, noway, essentially one hundred dollars you want?

(39:44):
T K wouldn't let me like yourwalk up music that one time?
Oh yeah, well yeah, it'sa little bit different. They wouldn't let
you, would they not? Eight? Well eight astro's might. Yeah.
Astros have been very They put upwith me extremely well not so much.
Well, it's gonna be their network soon. So just allegedly checks his
watch. That's the best, getmy watch. Sorry about that, Blumber,

(40:10):
Thanks as always, and we willcatch up with you very very soon.
It's good time, boys, theseare good times. We'll be talking
again soon absolutely four o'clock hours straightahead. Here on the eight team,
two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adamtalking your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam

(40:30):
Wexler are the eighteen. Hey,it is the eight team here on Sports
Talk seven ninety hour, number twoof three from here inside the ballpark minute
made is the venue. Astros Royalsis the matchup over the next three days.

(40:54):
And uh, kind of like whatwe were talking about is we think
Jeff Blumb once again for joining usfor that first hour as he does usually
every Friday here when it's a homegame. You know, if you win
all three of these games, youshould be in good shape regardless, just
because of the fact that those othertwo teams are playing each other right now

(41:15):
as it pertains to the division win. I just I can't feel comfortable saying
that because we shouldn't even be talkingabout that right now, because they should
have made Hay against this very sameteam and the Oakland A's before them,
or was it before I can't rememberwhich order they played them in last week
as Kcy Baltimore back to Casey.Yeah, I just that's that was just

(41:37):
a lost time. Just keep thisbecause the Rangers were losing and the and
the Mariners were losing all of thosegames. Yeah, they You know,
at the beginning of the season,you might be able to say the same
thing on the flip side. Theymanaged to roll through Atlanta, they blew
through Baltimore, they blew through Tampa, winning seven of those nine games.
If I'm not mistaken, I'm noteight of those nine. And that was
probably pretty unexpected, especially for whothey were or the Astros at that time,

(41:59):
but even more on expected to gotwo and four against the Royals in
the A's, winning just a gamein each of those two series. It
would certainly paint a different picture here. Franvra Valdez gets the ball tonight.
JP France gets the ball on Saturday. Hunter Brown's gonna make the start on
Sunday. Cole Reagan's throws for theRoyals tonight. They're gonna throw Jordan Lyles,
who is in search of his eighteenthloss this season, on Saturday afternoon.

(42:21):
But probably pretty cool for him tobe pitching at Minute Made Park,
maybe for the last time, afterbeing drafted by the Astros in two thousand
and eight and managing to pitch aslong as he has, especially as no
offense, but as unsuccessful as hehas been. It's funny you looked out
on the field a little bit earlierand Zach Granki was on the field and
came in with his two boys,and Justin Verland came out of the dugout

(42:43):
and went out to home play justbecause that's where he was, and they
were standing and talking for a while, and when Lyles had started the other
day, I thought this can't beright. But I felt like looking it
up, there's only a handful ofactive pitchers with one hundred losses, and
you would think, oh, yeah, of course Verlanders them, and of
course Granky has them because they pitchall the time and they've been pitching for

(43:04):
decades and they do. They areamong that very very small list. Well,
Jordan Lyles is on that list becausehe loses. And again it's just
it's amazing the staying power he hashad without producing a lot of He gives
his team's innings and they've been ona lot of bad teams, so he's
helped his team by not having them. I mean, he'll he'll eat a
game, he'll throw six innings,give up five runs, and they won't

(43:25):
think twice about it. He's doneit for multiple teams. He's doing it
now for Kansas City. It's upto the Astros to make sure that that
matters tomorrow when he pitches today,Ryan Stannic will be available to the Astros.
Was expected they would be able tomake that move as soon as he
was ready and able, because hewas ineligible until the fifteen days had expired.
And now they have so off theil and back onto the active roster.

(43:47):
Joel Kunel back off and I wouldn'texpect we would see Kunel again,
and also not for the postseason rostereither, but those decisions of yet to
be made. We'll see how impactfulthat can be. Quite honestly, some
of the games where Kunel hadn't beenused over the last ten to twelve days,
those were probably standing innings literally forwhen he was used in what part

(44:07):
of the game they were. Certainlyif he could pick back up where he
was when he was pitching recently beforethat injury at first base, that would
help this bullpen a good deal.We mentioned how strong the bullpen looked in
their most recent game, didn't reallyget into too many of the specifics,
and talked about it a little onWednesday from carback when we did the show
after that Wednesday win. But it'sbecause they were throwing strikes. They threw

(44:29):
very few pitches, any of themall four of the relievers that they used
were extremely efficient because they were poundingthe strikes on and whether they were getting
strikeouts or having guys hit their pitches, they were pitching from in front of
the count. They were able toget through multiple innings, two of them
with Hector Nerris when he was calledon, and obviously a Brey getting his
four outs, and then Pressley neededkind of an outing like that. There

(44:52):
was obviously a pressure situation again andgood to see him do that. He's
not pitched well out of the bullpenover the extended seven eight last apearances,
and that certainly can't continue, notif they're going to win some of these
games, which I would expect willlikely be close again Kansas City for three,
the games mean nothing to the Royalsother than what will their final loss
total be, and then that's overbecause you only play teams that need to

(45:14):
win. After that, Arizona willprobably not quite have clinched a playoff spot.
But it is possible mathematically there willalready know they're going to the postseason
by the time you get there forthe final three games. It is not
possible that Seattle will know that withhow many games would still be remaining in
the season, maybe further into thisseries that could be the case. With
the bottom line is your opposition afterthese three games will need to win as

(45:35):
much as you will need to winto try to both claim a playoff spot
or quite simply claim the spot.I think everybody thinks they need and deserve
and are the team that should haveit, and that is the division win
and the number two seed that goesalong with it. It changes dramatically your
outlook, but again it does meanyou will start a postseason series with the
other team batting because you'll be athome, and as we've seen over these

(45:59):
poor results at Minute Made Park,countless games have started with the Astros going
to bat down, the Astros pitchersgiving up runs at the top of the
first inning, and they're playing catchupsometimes for the rest of the day and
never making it. So you'd liketo see both better starts literally for the
duration, but right out of thegate, especially if you're going to be

(46:20):
starting the postseason at home, that'salways off. These games the most important
ones, obviously a lot of chatteron the Astros, and deservedly so.
Our Friday before the latest opportunity forJamiko Ryans to win its first game as
a head coach in the NFL,and obviously with the Houston Texans, they
are not favored. They are morethan a touchdown underdog, probably around eight
and a half is what you're seeingtoday as they go to Jacksonville. And

(46:42):
they made it official with their injuryreport on four players. No surprises,
but no less unfortunate. All fourof them defensive starters who will be out
for this game, Three of themin the secondary. No Derek Stingley Junior
with the hamstring injury. I wouldnot be surprised if tomorrow we see the
Texans announced that he has headed totheir injured list IR and somebody else is

(47:05):
added to the active roster, notjust for this game, but obviously for
the roster spot over the next fourJalen Petrie is out for this game again,
his second missed game after being hurtand the opener against Baltimore. Tavier
Thomas will miss his first game,but with the hand injury that he suffered
against Indianapolis, quite possibly headed tothe injured reserve as well if they think
it's gonna be a four week ormore injury. That's three of the five

(47:29):
secondary starters and now Denzel Perryman willmiss his first game of the season has
not been able to practice this weekwith the ankle and wrist injuries. There
will be super duper young with theirlinebacking corps. Henry Totoa has already moved
into a starting role with Perryman outthere, and he may in fact slide
into that spot he vacates. ChristianHarris. I don't know if everybody had

(47:51):
noticed his snap count and his performancedown this year. That goes back to
an earlier of the week topic thatwe never addressed. What I'd like to
tell you I was wrong about ChristianHarris would be number two on that list.
I thought him in Demiko's defense,how he could be utilized with be
tremendous. Two weeks in, it'sbeen anything. But I don't know if
there's a blame to hand out,but it just simply hasn't been there.

(48:15):
He's been on the sidelines for alot of their STAPs and that's not really
helpful if that's if he needs tobe on the sidelines. So that's even
worse. One of the players youhoped would come out of last year's draft
class even better. In a betterdefensive scheme, but they'll definitely be looking
for more of him this week.And the only other injury that it's kind
of an unknown heading into game dayis that of Laramie Tunseil. His knee
injury has him limited all week,but he was limited again today and they're

(48:37):
so called walk through listed is questionable, So that's usually means he's probably going
to give it a go in warmups and they'll make a final determination for
the game in Jacksonville, I wouldguess, and that's all it is that
he will be out there with whateverelse of their offensive line they can muster,
would probably put, could potentially putto George fat on the side opposite

(48:59):
him, slide Josh Jones back onthe inside with Jared Patterson and Shaq Mason
in their customary spots on this makeshiftoffensive line. They'll try to open holes
for Damian Pierce, and they havehim be able to do that for three
two games so far. You're comingoff a three hundred and eighty four yard
passing day for CJ. Strout,but they'd like to be a little bit
better when it comes to putting pointson the board. Nine points in the

(49:21):
opener twenty points in their loss toIndianapolis and playing from behind almost the entire
season not a recipe for wins.No, you know, it's kind of
funny you mentioned that since you werejust talking about the Astros being down from
the jump. But I just andwe're gonna discuss this coming up in the
Stone Cold locks Trevor Lawrence like hehas to have a monster day tomorrow,

(49:46):
right unless they just I mean,it's possible he'll find the end zone for
the first time since the opener.Yeah, I'm not. That's fine,
That's all well and good. Theyhave played a good team, you know
that had a good defense, yes, Kansas City if Yeah, well us
they did get the debut of ChrisJones. So and you know, think
about their first three games the JacksonvilleJaguars. They opened with Anthony Richardson is

(50:10):
his first ever start. Then theygot the best quarterback in the NFL.
Now they're getting CJ. Stroud andhis third ever start. So you know,
it's quite the roller coaster, butyou know, quite the talent.
I mean, all three of thoseguys are have proven they can play in
the NFL, one more than theother two a quite a bit. But
literally and Sadly, as I bringup yesterday's conversation, one of them will

(50:32):
not be playing in the NFL onSunday, and that's Anthony Richardson. Not
able to get through concussion protocol.Hopefully he will be okay because we don't
know exactly where things are with him. Suffered a concussion in Houston last week
and left that game early. AndBryce Young will not be playing this weekend
for the Carolina Panthers either. It'san Andy Dalton game the Panthers, and
just you know what could have beenthree starts into his NFL career, he's

(50:55):
now on the sideline, so ifnobody wants to see that, and hopefully
it's nothing too significant. As thePanthers traded all the way up from number
nine to number one to land BryceYoung the red rifle getting another start in
the NFL. He is becoming acockroach, much like Cole McCoy did,
doing a great job of finding away to matter in this NFL for a
long, long period of time.We'll get to our stone called locks next.

(51:17):
First we will hit you with what'sgoing on with our friends over at
the official Personal Injury Attorneys for Universityof Houston athletics, Stuart Jay Guss Attorneys,
and we point you in their direction. If you've been in involved in
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(51:38):
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(51:58):
Whenever time comes for you to makethat phone called them for whatever has happened,
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(52:22):
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at the five key Wheel Store.Touchdown used to new folks, but just

(52:45):
another day at the office. Getinto the end zone and it is con
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down to UVC in Alvin and youtell them the eighteam cent. Hey,
this is killer b Craig Visio.I've a three thousand hit pop. You've
got killer raise in the afternoon thoughthey have three thousand less hits. Oh
we're having some fun. Adam Clintonand Adam Wexler on Sports Talk seven ninety
Remember that magic eight Paul A nicelittle shaken look at this I'm getting late

(55:24):
tonight, And they can answer,guys, given you can trust whatever it
said, or you could trust thesetwo guys named Adam it's a crap shoot
either way, but these are yourstone cold Locks. Stone Cold set up

(55:47):
a very literal intrail to our ourStone Cold Locks segment. AC has decided
built stone Cold Look today, today, every day. Kill in your gear,
not just look. But we gotfive games to hit you with.
I must make the announcement for thefirst time in the history of Stone Cold
Locks, I am coming into theaction following a winless performance. You went

(56:13):
over, never gone over before,and all the years we've done this,
and you still lead. Probably I'dleave by one game because I had a
horrible week. Again. It wasbad week all around. I won none,
you won one, The absent Danwon two. I see a lot
of red and not a lot ofblue. We all missed the Texans game,
after all winning the Texans game inweek one. We'll see how we
fair this week. Our college footballgame of the week is Ohio State at

(56:36):
Notre Dame, one of a handfulof really awesome ranked versus ranked team matchups.
Is about as good as it getsand a rarity on the schedule,
and that these teams, obviously Ihaven't played a lot over the course of
their respective and storied histories in collegefootball Ohio State at minus three and a
half of an over under a fiftyfour need a player prop and two other
wildcard games to go along with ourTexans selection. There at an eight and

(57:00):
a half point dog going into Jacksonvilleover under a forty four. Dan was
nice enough on his day off tosend in his selections, which I'll read
a rapid succession for you, misterneighbors. If you didn't see what he
did last week for LSU receiving thefootball, maleik he had over ninety and
a half yards in about five seconds. That's the way to what looked like

(57:22):
was gonna be a three or fourhundred yard receiving day. It's unbelievable what
he did. He's over under thisweek in a very big game against Arkansas
on ninety and a half, sohe will take the over on that.
Our game of the week Ohio StateNotre Dame. He is playing the Buckeyes
to cover that three and a halfnumber against Sam Hartman and Notre Dame Florida
State. Most everybody thinks they're gonnawin that game, and the line is

(57:45):
tiny at minus two. He willdo the smart thing, as you'll hear
for me later as well. He'staking Florida State minus two at Clemson.
I would have stayed away from thisgame for sure, but he's gonna play
Deon Sanders team to not cover thethree touchdowns. Really, Oregon is minus
twenty one at home against Colorado,who's obviously playing without Travis Hunter. A

(58:07):
lot of emotions I think have beenpoured into their three games, and they
extended a game three with the upovertime affair with Colorado State and somewhat of
a rivalry game obviously, so maybeplaying to some of that. Oregon I
think is a very good football team. I'm still surprised the number was that
high, and thus surprised that Danwill take it that high. I'll hang
on to his text in selection tillthe end. Whyn't you hit me with

(58:30):
your four other games? Well,I'll start with the college game of the
week, or yes, the collegegame of the week that we have here,
which is the Ohio State Notre Damegame. Fifty five and a half
was the latest number I saw,and I'm gonna take the under on that.
I'm gonna give the defense is morecredit than that, although I feel
I guess dirty's not the word,but I just feel like this college football

(58:53):
season is already so wild, particularlyfrom the scoring standpoint, and that usually
happens closer to the beginning of aseason more often than not, I would
say, and the team's kind ofregrets to the mean, if you will.
But I think in this one that'sgonna be an early example of that
happening. Give the defenses a littlebit more credit than that, and I'll
give a under on the fifty fiveand a half. As far as my

(59:15):
other two games and my prop.While I'll start with a prop, I
mean, it's going to kind ofgive you an idea of what I think.
Trevor Lawrence passing touchdowns one and ahalf? Are you kidding me?
Like it's a mash unit in thetext and secondary. He's very good throwing
the football, and I just don'tthink that they're going to deviate from a
very obvious game plan. So I'msmashing the over on that. But I'm

(59:39):
taking a couple of unders on myother two games. The Rams at the
Bengals, Joe Burrows not playing,and even if he was, he's out,
well, let's say he is forsure playing, what do you expect
I expect them to be smarter thanthat and not play him. But I

(01:00:00):
don't. I can't tell you whatthey're gonna see game time at this point.
Well, he rolled out to practicetoday carrying his shoulder pads and helps
was like, oh my god,I think they might Oh whoa, maybe
he's playing. They don't know.Is it questionable though? Yeah, I'm
sure it will be Okay, it'snot doubtful. In other words, not
yet. I just that is amatchup that screams under, even at forty

(01:00:24):
three and a half. I justI strongly feel that you know, he's
got that extra day till Monday.Yeah, that's great. I don't see
it. I just don't see it. So you're taking the Bengals under m
Okay, what's the number? Fortythree and a half, all right?
And then the Falcons at the Lions. I think this is another game that

(01:00:49):
screams under for very different reasons.Now, as someone who owns Bijan Robinson
on his fantasy football team, maybeI'm going against what I want to happen.
But I just steel like the Falconsare not a very good football team
overall. I feel like the Lionsneed to get some credit defensively as well,
and so with a number at fortysix, I will actually predict a

(01:01:10):
tight game between these two. ButI'll also predict the under in that one.
All right, save that Texans pickfor the end. I'll hit you
with mine player prop. I thinkthe Texans made their offensive plan very clear
last week, and I absolutely loveit. When it comes to the passing
game. These are the three wideoutsthat are gonna be on the field,
and we're going to target them incessantly. All three of their top wide out

(01:01:31):
saw the ball a ton to seean over under number for both Robert Woods
on receptions and Tank Dell on receptionsat three and a half. I mean
Dell is targeted ten times a weekago, and considering he gets open a
lot and they're probably gonna have tothrow the ball quite a bit, and
they might even want to throw theball. I'll take Tank Dell over three
and a half receptions for my playerprop. I like Sam Hartman going to

(01:01:54):
Notre Dame. I did from theday that he announced he was headed there.
I know he's only going to playthere briefly, so it'd be ridiculous
to say he's like the best quarterbackthey've ever had. He's one of the
best passing quarterbacks that's ever put ona Notre Dame uniform, and he's been
there for, you know, ingame for a month. I think that's
the reason why I will take NotreDame to cover that three and a half
Like that hook, do you thinkthey can win that game? Kind of

(01:02:15):
think they will win that game.So obviously as a three and a half
point dog, I will take them. Mentioned the Florida State game that Dan
was taken at minus two, Iwould do the same, so I will.
I don't understand the logic with NickSaban when he went to the podium
this week and talked about how heliked the leadership and the way that Jalen

(01:02:36):
Milroe reacted last week to watching histwo inferior teammates play in his place for
no good reason. And I guessNick got what he wanted for some reason.
He played the number two and numberthree quarterbacks a week ago in a
rainstorm for a half and then ina let's just get out of here game
against South Florida, and now he'sgoing back to mill Row. And I

(01:02:57):
think with the combination of Millrow andthe fact he's playing one of his former
coaches, and it's all miss andtheir quarterback play is so good. I'm
probably being teased by this and I'mgonna miss, but I'll take the over
in that game. I think Milrollcoming back to that offense with his dual
threat capabilities, should get Bama's offenseat least a little bit rolling, more

(01:03:19):
rolling than they were a week ago. And obviously their running games should be
a whole heck of a lot betterto fifty five and a half. So
I will take it at over atfifty five and a half. Dan's gonna
take the Texans to cover the eightand a half number. I will hint
on what I'm going to select sincethat surprises me. But I'm not taking
the Jacks to cover either. I'mjust gonna take the over at forty four.

(01:03:43):
I'm smashing the over as well.Come on, come on, like
the Texans are gonna be playing frombehind you, you really have to kind
of anticipate a super low scoring Texansteam. If it's gonna go under,
it would be really really hard forI think the Texans defense is now broken
down as they are on the backend. To hold them down, it
would take a lot of turnovers totake turnovers that you know, put the

(01:04:04):
team in a long field, becauseagain, if the Texans turn over the
Jags and it's in you know,inside the twenty, inside the red zone,
well they're still gonna score. Thenall you're playing is the over.
So I'm with you on that.He hasn't thrown an interception yet. And
since you pointed that out about abillion times this week, he's going time.
Now, I was billion, Iwas counting. You miscounted. All

(01:04:25):
right, so we all took well, I took the over, you took
the over, and Dan he's alludedto the over. He's protextings. Yeah,
all right. So there it isour stone cold locks of the Week
at the halfway point of a Fridayedition of the eighteen here on Sports Talk
at seven ninety. Before we stepaside, I gotta tell you guys about
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(01:05:57):
Shoot, that's a tremble here everyRockies going on the with the iHeart
Radio rad You got the home ofthe Rockies Sports Talk seven nights back way.
You're here for Minima Park for theA team continues. Wex and AC

(01:06:20):
with you a little bit on thematchup itself between the Texans and the Jaguars.
Obviously have not spent a tremendous amountof time on exactly what's gonna be
on the field on Sunday for theJaguars. With their injury report today have
significance day. Jones is now officiallylisted as out. He's one of four
targets for Trevor Lawrence that has seenat least thirteen targets over the course of

(01:06:45):
their two games. So it's fairlysignificant loss five catches a week ago,
but they're left with plenty in reserve. I think the Texas will absolutely have
their work cut out from them.Probably surprise a few people that Calvin Ridley
is actually their third leading receiver interms of number of catches. He has
ten, eight of them coming inweek one. Kansas City did a really
nice job the week ago. TrevorLawrence looked for him quite a bit and

(01:07:08):
just did not connect a whole lot, but that meant he went to Christian
Kirk even more. He had amonster game. Kirk's got twelve catches,
Ingram's got eleven catches, Ridley hasten, and Ridley the only one of
them with a touchdown. Four touchdownsfor their offense so far this season,
I mentioned earlier in the show.All came in Week one against Jacksonville.
We're unable to find the end zonewith the field goals against the Chiefs and

(01:07:30):
their seventeen nine defeat, and they'vethrown the ball a lot. Travis Etienne
is going to shoe his fair shareof work, but a lot of their
plays are designed pass plays. Imean, Trevor Lawrence does have twelve runs,
the majority of which are scrambles.He's dropped back seventy three times this
year. He's been sacked six times. And where the Jaguars are probably lamenting
things most offensively is their inability tostay on the field an awful twenty five

(01:07:57):
percent conversion rate on third down sofar this season. They're lucky their defense
has been just touch better, sothey've gotten their opponents off of the field.
So it hadn't heard him a tremendousamount early. But if that continues
and if the Texans defense with honestly, you could say five starters out for
the game because in my estimations,on Ridgeway very likely would be the guy
starting next to Malie Collins if hewere healthy, but he was RR already

(01:08:19):
on IR for Houston. And nowthe four players that we mentioned earlier,
Perryman, Petrie Thomas, and StingleyJunior are all out. It's five players
who, well, if nothing else, they're a part of the strong group
the Texans would play. And that'sa big hit. It's the same kind
of hit they're taking offensively with theiroffensive line. I'm gonna kind of go
towards history and hope that even injust one season, Damian Pierce has got

(01:08:43):
a couple of things that he likesabout what he sees in how the Jaguars
attack them. The Texans running game. I know they're gonna throw the ball
a lot. I think they're clearin their intentions that they think they can
move the ball. So they're goingto do that, but they know they
can't do that every week. Theyknow they can't rely on that. Only
they have to be able to runthe ball. They're going to continue to
try to find I think where pocketswhere it fits. But I also think

(01:09:04):
Bobby Slok's got to be a lotmore creative. They ran up the middle
almost exclusively with whomever they handed theball too. They also need to stop
handing it to Dare and Andrew Beckno offense. I'm glad that Andrew Beck
was able to convert on fourth down. I'm glad Dare was able to convert
on third down. They gave eachgave them a carry and a fourth and
one in a third and one situation, but the additional carry they gave to

(01:09:27):
each of them, four of themfor those two players probably don't want to
do that moving forward. And honestly, I think the split between Devin Singletary
and Damian Pierce is one I'd liketo see more unbalanced. Pierce is just
simply better and with their line notwhat you'd like it to be. Devin
Singletary is not going to find anyholes in it, and I don't know
if Damian Pierce will, but he'smore likely to do. I want to

(01:09:49):
talk about what it will, andI think there's a way. It's a
very very slim chance, But Iwant to talk about a way that Texans
can steal this one, particularly onthe road. They got a lot going
against them, and the injuries areobviously the top of that list. But
I want to do that when wecome back. I just want to talk
about a team that's actually having aworse season than the Texans. And I
mean, really, this is it'sactually getting out of hand, and we're

(01:10:11):
only going into week three. ButI'll explain that as well as we wrap
up the four o'clock hour coming upnext Channeler Rome at the top of the
hour when we get our number threeunderway as well. Right here on site
at Minute Made Park. It isthe eight team Sports Talk seven ninety and
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(01:11:41):
seven one three, six nine fourthirty four thirty three. Hey, it's
Craig Ackermans are thirdly popping the polypropylaidback to the A team with Adam Wexler
and the Twitter troll Adam Clinton.I'll be into it with somebody I'm not.
I don't try. I don't lookfor fights. Why I get Adam

(01:12:06):
and Adam are on Sports Talk sevennineties out here at minute May Park watching.
Yeah, well we're not talking aboutany of that crap. We're gonna
get to who's having the worst weekever in the NFL that doesn't live in

(01:12:28):
Houston coming up a little bit laterin the five o'clock hour. But we
are taking in some VP right now. Yander Diez happens to be the los
astro in the batter's box. Heis wearing that atop his head, by
the way, so or a handfulof his teammates, including Hector Nerris as
the poor baseballs too well. AsI've mentioned a bunch of times this year,
some feature of taking in VP,whether you're on the field or in

(01:12:50):
the seats is they have added theadvanced stats to the big board and you
can see exit v low spray angle, launch angle, and distance. And
I was mentioning with the yiner's secondtrip in the box here the first one
and three consecutive swings one oh seveneight one oho eight seven and one oh
eight even on ball's hit straight awayor to the opposite field. Well,

(01:13:14):
he just hit one of the bullpenat nearly one hundred and five. And
the swing just like it is ingame, and the power it's effortless.
That was one eleven point two.He just crushed one of the Crawford boss.
He hit the Haliburton signed well abovethe Crawford box. It is so
it's such easy power. It issuch fun to watch. And Dusty will
have his bat available off the benchtonight should he deem it necessary? Why
do you do that to me?It's like you're trying to make my head

(01:13:35):
explode on live radio. I'm justtrying to describe the situation. Yea designated
hitter tonight is Jordon Alvarez, MauricioDubon is the center field or the other
seven usual suspects are in the lineuptonight? And again Paini's in the tool
the OBRAYU McCormick, Dubon, Maldonadogoes six, seven, eight nine.
I think you guys can figure outthe rest. Speaking of Jordan Alvarez,

(01:13:58):
he obviously got the day off theother day, and Dusty explained it.
You know, talking about maybe yousacrifice one day so you have the next
nine with ten games remaining. That'swhat he was talking about it and mentioned
he was in the lineup today.Is Dhing has done that quite a bit
lately And it was among the thingsthat was discussed with Dusty before the game.
This is what Dusty had to sayregarding Jordan Alvarez and and being the

(01:14:19):
DH and if anything is up,how do you think? And he even
wanted to maybe stay away from Jordanin left field over the last week or
so or is that just a productof better? No, No, I'm
in one of sailway. Fine,he's he's been. He's better for us

(01:14:40):
way now than Dhu. Is hebattles of kund of ailmentergy, it's better.
The response from Dusty if you didnot hear twice, was he's better
a Dhing for It's it's better thatway. So it did sound like it's
possible. I don't want to readbetween the lines or trying to make something

(01:15:01):
that wasn't there, but definitely seemedlike it's possible that he could be dealing
with something was not that long agoas we were just watching Yiner launch balls
towards the Crawford boxes. That littlecut out there provided some bit of a
hazard, you could say, ifyou were called. I believe it was
the Sunday night game against the Padreswhen he and Mauricio Dubon were headed back
into that corner and the ball wasgoing to elude both of them. On

(01:15:25):
his chase, he had that kindof scary looking fall and skidded into falling
on both of his knees. AndI don't believe he's played in the field
sense, And that was also theline of question you heard with him dhing
and hopefully it's a you know,I don't think it's impacted him at the
plate if there is anything going on. We've seen him still hit well,
we've seen Hi hit the ball overthe fence, and obviously he was awesome

(01:15:47):
at the plate in his last appearance, standing there and watching four pitches so
we could reach first because nobody wantedanything to do with him, and he
was able to take that intentional walkbasically in the eighth inning of Wednesday's game,
but he was immediately replaced by thepinch runner. Yeah. Well,
and we were talking about this alittle bit off air with Blumber earlier he
said, you know, even whenhe hasn't gotten hits, the powers still

(01:16:11):
there, like massive power, likebetter than Yiner power. But we've seen
that when he's healthy, we've seenthat when he isn't healthy, you know
that the exit vlow is going tobe there. So that's a good sign.
It's just, man, I hateto think that there is something up
in whether it's a knee or somethingwith his leg, foot, toe,
just again as a non doctor andonly speculating because I really don't know.

(01:16:36):
I mean, that's the only thingI can think of. When he went
down, was there something that tookplace there? Remember, he did not
come out of the game. Hestayed in the game that day obviously was
able to continue. And again he'sbeen in the lineup almost exclusively for about
two months straight. The day offthe other day, like Dusty said,
was kind of what he did withTucker. These guys have been in the
lineup so much, so much focushas been on why isn't Yiner out there?

(01:16:57):
Why isn't Chaz out there? Andthrough all of that, Altuva,
Bregman, Tucker and Alvarez basically gothardly any innings off, let alone games
off. And I think some ofthe earlier in the year for altuv and
Alvarez probably made it a little easierto stomach. And I think he feels
like he's still getting maximum out ofBregman and Tucker the way that they are
able to manage their way through aseason. They only have to manage their

(01:17:18):
way through nine more games plus postseason. So I'm sure Dusty, as he
answered there was was just trying tomake sure that's exactly what they're doing with
Jordan. It's just you want everybodyfiring on all cylinders. You want everybody
obviously clearly healthy going into the postseason. So that could be a damper on
things. But you know what,if he's in the lineup and he's producing

(01:17:39):
and he's not in the field becauseof it, the active best left handed
hitter in baseball, he's all right, Corey Seeger, Uh, It's okay.
If he can just dh that meanshe can still swing the bat.
If I never see Corey Seeger inthe lineup again, I'd be fine with
that. The only thing I haveneglected to say about Corey Seeger over the
last couple of weeks is he's ina battle with Shoheo Tani. He could
still end up with the PS leader, might even win a batting title,

(01:18:01):
and he might even still get zerofirst place votes for MVP. I don't
care how many games Showhay's missed.At the end of the season, I
cannot imagine any of the thirty voterssaying that he is not the MVP.
Oh, you don't think there's gonnabe giving him some credit. I'm giving
the voters some credit. Evan Grant'sdefinitely voting for Corey Seeger. He's missed

(01:18:21):
games too. Yeah, well hedoesn't pitch. I know, hey,
listen, you're talking to the you'repreacher of the choir. I will even
say it. Even if the Rangerswin the division, I don't think people
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the Houston Astro Astro Astro. Thisexclusive Astro's segment on Sports Talk seven ninety
is brought to you by Exfinity tenG, the Next Generation Network. Yes,
let's go, Hey, let's goguys. Well, we start the
third and final hour from out hereat Mini Made Park Football at five with

(01:20:23):
Channel of Rome. Who you gotOle? Miss Alabama? Easily the most
popular guy in the building? Whoyou got lsu Arkansas? Oh Els?
Who's gonna kill him? Is thisthe end of the Saving dynasty? Though?
Oh? Texas at the wheels inmotion? If Lane, if Lane
goes in there and they and theywin in Tuscaloosa, that could be that.
That really could be the Does anyonetalk more trash in Nick Saban's general

(01:20:44):
direction than Lane Kiffin? I don'teven think it's trash. I think he's
just trying to get in his head. But I also don't think Lane probably
doesn't understand that Saban doesn't read youthat. Do you like Lane? Did?
You don't deal with him at all? I know? Because so the
offensive coordinator when I covered Alabama wasBrian Dable. Oh my Goshama, five
titles with the Patriots and now he'swith the Giants. Pretty good run.

(01:21:05):
He's had. He's had a betterthree weeks I think than his past three
weeks of men. But yeah,I didn't really deal with him. I
I enjoy that, like he's greatfor the brand, Like if you hire
him, he's great. And youknow, he seems to have like settled
down a little bit his personal life, which I don't think. I don't
think his personal life is ever ahuge problem, but he does seem to

(01:21:25):
have like settled down, figure somestuff out and grown up a little bit.
But the Twitter, his Twitter accunthilarious. As you know, this
could be a great conversation, butwe will segue into Astros conversations. You
can I could talk to you forthree hours every day. Beat righter for
the Astros. For the Athletic thefinal home series of the season, three
games against Kansas City, a teamthey just lost to two out of three,
three straight series where they've done thattwo out of three. It seems

(01:21:47):
intentional, and I'm sure it isthat the rotation was set up as such
to have fran Ber Valdez get theball today and have he and Justin Verlander
be ready to pitch in Seattle.Obviously, they need to take care of
business starting tonight, Framber has lookedbetter. You know, seven innings has
become a fairly regular occurrence for him, the last nine starts six times.

(01:22:08):
Yeah, but I think the reasonthey wanted to pitch tonight is the guy
that they're going against, Cole Reagan's, has been really, really good.
The Astros got to him in KansasCity. I think they scored four or
five runs off of him, Butthat's the outlier. Cole Reagan's a guy
that this is the guy that theRangers traded to the Royals to get a
roll that as Chapman. So whatsort of karma would it be if Cole
Reagan's comes in and shuts the Astrosdown today and helps inadvertently helps the Rangers.

(01:22:32):
Well, rollis Chapman's not gonna helphim? Well? Probably not,
but yeah, so I think thathad something to do with it too,
that they knew that it's gonna betough to score off Reagans, and they
wanted their best guy to be oppositehim to keep the Royals, or hopefully
for the Astros, keep the Royalssubdue. But yeah, Farmers look better.
The home runs are still kind ofperplexing to me, just as a

(01:22:54):
sinkerballer. Some of it is velocity. He needs to get his velo a
little bit down so it's not aseasy to elevate the ball. And when
the when the velos high that hedoesn't get the downward movement on his sinker.
I mean, you don't get thedownward movement on your sinker just kind
of stays up and that allows youto elevate. So but with Frombert,
like every fromber start, if hecan keep his head in check, if

(01:23:14):
he can keep his emotions in check, they can stay focused, then it
should be it should be a goodmatchup for them, because the Royals are
not very good. Just a minuteago, our listeners ourselves got to hear
what Dusty Baker told you and therest of the assembled media regarding Jordan Alvarez.
A couple of questions about his availability, being that he has been a
DH fairly regularly over the last handfulof games. This response was that it

(01:23:35):
was what's best for the team rightnow. Do you think anything is going
on with Jordon. We did noteearlier with Jeff that I did see him
out there earlier. I honestly didn'tknow who it was because it's normally the
pictures that are out there throwing early, but it was actually your don which
again I'm not here every day,but it didn't seem like a normal occurrence
for him. Yeah, that's notnormal. And then it certainly wasn't normal

(01:23:55):
that head trainer Jeremiah Randall was presidingover the throwing session, you know,
pretty intently. So Dusty was askedstraight out if he's hurt, and all
he replied with was it's best rightnow that we d h him. If
he is compromised in some way thathe cannot play left field, that is
a tremendously bad development for the Astrosbecause what it does is it essentially means

(01:24:18):
he's got a DH every day andthat removes almost any place to play yiner
Dias. Well, it removes anyplace to play yiner Dias as the Astros
are currently constructed and as they wantto go forward. So I think that's
a huge question that Jordan's probably haveto answer at some point. Is he

(01:24:39):
healthy? Can he go out thereand play left field if they ask him?
And you know, I'll be honestwith you. Actions to especially when
it comes to injuries with this team, you know, actions to me speak
louder than words, if they can'tput him out there in minute made parks
left field behind one of the oneof the sports most high rated groundball pitchers

(01:24:59):
something and that he can't be outthere for whatever reason. I don't know
what it is. I don't knowwhat body part. It'll probably take me
six days to figure that out.But it's just if this is going to
be something going that extends into October, it's not gonna Yeah, And when
you said it, because I was, My next question was gonna be is
there a worst possible time on thecalendar? And I suppose a week from

(01:25:23):
now could be worse, seeing ashow that's just later and closer to a
potential playoff start wherever that's gonna be, if it's even gonna start that soon,
because if they win the division,they're gonna have a little bit more
time off, which would be goodnews. But like, you don't want
to be hearing any of this kindof stuff in late September about a guy
that's important to what you're trying todo as he is. Well, yeah,
but I would actually I would alsoadd that, like and Dusty says,

(01:25:45):
it's all the time, and he'sright, Like this time of year.
If you're not battling through something,then you're not playing hard, You're
not playing you're not playing intense enough. So at this stage, everyone is
battling through something. The fact thatJordan something is apparently limiting him defensively is
a problem, and it's something thatyou know that they're gonna have to either

(01:26:09):
change the dust. He's gonna eitherhave to change his rigid not gonna pinch
it from Aldonado before the eighth orninth inning, or they're gonna have to
maybe see if he can the Yinercan place in first base to get Yaner
Diaz is bad in there because otherwiseI don't see a place for him.
Hey, we were talking about thatwith Blummer. Is Yiner at first base
just like that much of a kryptoniteor is it like something that is because

(01:26:30):
it looks But I know what you'regonna say. You're gonna talk about a
brave But you know, we allknow the answers all of these questions.
Opposing scouts, scouts that are advancingthe Astros right now for potential playoffs situations,
Scouts that are here to see freeagents. You know, I asked
them and they tell me that YinerDiaz is not good at all at first

(01:26:51):
base. Oh boy, And Iask you know, I mean, because
look, I see the same thingyou guys see. He can feel the
groundball, he can catch it.It's more of when there's a ball hitt
into the gap, where does hego for the cut in the relay?
A lot of times he's late tothose cuts and relays. It's a lot
about holding guys on first base andthen getting in the position after to be
ready for the next pitch. There'sa lot of nuance that opposing And this

(01:27:15):
is not me just pulling this outof thin air. This is what I've
heard from scouts that watch a lotmore and know a lot more baseball than
I do. They are not impressedwith the Ironerdas at first base. Now,
could there come a point when hisoffense is just too great and the
value he provides offensively is just toogreat that he's got to be in there.
Maybe, But we're nine games leftin the regular season and it hasn't

(01:27:38):
reached that point yet. I don'tknow that it's going to reach that point.
Going Yeah, we've seen him overat first a little, certainly in
warmups, and there have been someissues even there, we've seen him with
do you mentioned, you know,throws from the pitcher pickoff throws? Two
of those that got by him,though I don't think either one of them
was particularly good. And I'll askthis again knowing the answers. Is the
chance of you asking Justin Verlander beforehis first postseason start a zero point zero

(01:28:01):
percent that one of your questions willbe, what will it be like throwing
to Yiner for the first time ever? No, he Look, Yer,
Yaner's not catching Verlander or Valdez.And if if if Alvarez is supposed injury
or whatever is compromising him, ifhe's not able to play left if he's
not able to play left field,Yinder Daz will not start the first two

(01:28:23):
playoff games if the Astros get there, And presuming that Verlander and Valdez are
there to start those first two games, how does it feel to know that
hearing you say that makes me dieinside? I mean, I maybe would
point you to and look, thisisn't gonna make anybody happier. But like
Malda NADOs, it's not. He'sbeen hitting. He's hit a lot,
he's been hitting better, like thisis not. I mean, he is

(01:28:45):
Yaner the better hitter, guests Andlook the same opposing scouts that tell me
some stuff about Yiner first base,they're not sold on his catching either.
And look, this guy still hasand I know Dusty, he's been saying
it, and he's right, andhe is right. He's got a long
way to go. This is nota finished product. This is not a
guy that I think could handle rightnow. You know, catching one hundred

(01:29:06):
and twenty hundred and thirty games inthe big leagues, says the everyday guy.
And you know he has he gottenbetter, yes, But and again
all the public all week and consumeis the framing metrics is the pop time
is the throws. And I hateto be the bearer of like kind of
bad news. But like the otherday when Hunter Brown was had his bad

(01:29:27):
start, didn't the Orioles steal fourbasses off of the I Das? Like
everyone thinks that putting the iron dasback there, all of a sudden,
no one's gonna run. I justwant to also have the same thing to
balance that out with, Who's whois the base stealer really stealing the bass
off? Right? They're stealing offthe pictures if their pictures are terrible at
holding runners. And that's something thatDusty is acknowledged, and it's something that
the Orioles. You just saw theOrioles exploited here a minute made part.

(01:29:50):
If they play the Rays in thepostseason, He's are going to exploit these
guys. Yeah, I mean therule. I mean it's gonna have fifty
stolen bases in this series this weekend, right, and it's not and everyone
every time someone steals a base,it's all the look who's behind the plate?
Like, No, the pictures haveto be quicker to the plate.
They have to hold runners better.Could the catchers make better throws, sure

(01:30:11):
yes, But to say that puttingthe iin ideas back there would eliminate the
running game is just not true becausethere are three pictures on this staff for
Keetie Javier and Hunter Brown. Youcould put Johnny Bench, you could put
Mike Piazza, put jam put Jayt real Muto, but whoever you want

(01:30:33):
back there. They don't give thecatcher a chance to throw a guy out.
Having gone through a lot of differentthings that they've dealt with heading into
these final nine games, looking atthe opposition over the final three series,
the way they played at home,the way they play on the road,
the fact that they're playing Seattle andArizona and the Rangers and Mariners remaining schedule.

(01:30:54):
The Astros sit in first, theywent out, they win the division.
What do you really realistic think theirchances are from claiming this division title.
I think they do end up winningthe division. I think I can't
see and maybe look, maybe Iget proven wrong, but I don't think
I think that Mariners Rangers series theseseven games. I think it's gonna be

(01:31:15):
like a four and three. Oneteam's gonna go four and three. I
don't see one team running away withsix and one or seven and Ozero.
You know, I just maybe it'sbecause I just watched them for six years,
Like I refuse to believe that thisteam can play this poorly at home,
and you just kind of keep waitingfor them to flip the switch.
You know, you saw it inthe twenty twenty postseason. You know when

(01:31:38):
they played that sixty game season.They just played like garbage for sixty games,
like no one it didn't look likeanyone wanted to be here. I
get it was a tough situation fora lot of people, nobody was here.
But then but then they get theyget in the playoffs, they flipped
the switch and they go like you'veseen it in other times too, when
like they've looked, they've looked down, they've looked. I mean, look
at the twenty twenty one ALCS whenI don't think after Game three at Fenway,

(01:32:01):
anyone thought that team had a chance. They flipped the switch. They
had, they had no starting pitchingleft. They flipped the switch Fromber pitched
the game of his life and thenthey won and went to the World Series.
So I think there is a switchthere to be flipped, and I
would bet that they're going to dothat. But again, like i'd be

(01:32:21):
disingenuous to say, like actions tome speak louder than words, and watching
how this team's played in September,it's they're gonna have to play better.
I mean, And everyone can handring and I wrote this the other day.
Everyone can hand ring about Alvarez sittingout the game on Wednesday, they
can hand ring about Dusty's yin erDas decisions and all, like they've got

(01:32:42):
a pitch better. Yeah, they'restarting pitching in the second half, and
especially in September has been awful,Like they're going no way. It doesn't
matter who Dusty puts out there inthe lineup, They're going nowhere if they
don't pitch better. And I thinkit's got to start with Fromber tonight.
I think you know it's they're gonnago overlooked a little bit, but I
think getting good starts from France andBrown the next two nights are crucial because

(01:33:06):
I mean, you kind of expectto win with Fromber on the Mountain tonight,
and you know they're facing two lesserpictures on Saturday and Sunday. But
it puts a real tough It makesit real tough for an offense when they
get behind early. Like you sawthat Oriole series. They were behind early
in every game like three or four, nothing like. That's tough on a

(01:33:28):
lineup to think, man, wegotta go out there and score ten runs.
And that's when you start pressing,That's when you start swinging too big.
And that's maybe some of what you'veseen from the offense and why they're
so inconsistent. So I think wecan talk to her Lu and the Face
about whether Yin or DS should play, what the lineup should look like.
Any of that, Like, theyneed to pitch better, and they need
to pitch better starting tonight. ChandlerRome of the Athletic. He is a

(01:33:49):
fantastic writer and I don't care whatanybody says in this building. He's a
fine American and a great human being. You can catch him on Twitter at
Chandler Underscore Rome. He joins useach and every week. Chandler, appreciate
the time. We'll do it nextweek. The Jacks cover on Sunday.
I think there's a pretty decent chancethat you do, say, smash the
over. Well, caw be growingsteaks or burgers after that, fame.

(01:34:11):
Well, that's a great day tobe a Texan either way. How's my
cow? I like Ross's better Ross, Ross's his Forrest Gump. Well he's
kind of is Forrest Gump. Andthat's why Chandler is the best all right.
In case you missed it, comingup next from Live out Here at
Minute May Park, it is theA Team Sports Talks seven ninety Wood House

(01:34:31):
Day SPA. Look, you gottarelax. Playoffs are on the way.
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area participating locations of Woodhouse Today experienceone of their unique packages at Houston Woodhouse
Spas dot com. Hey, it'sBlumber. The eighteen continues with Adam Clinton

(01:35:17):
and Adam Wexler. Oh, there'smore asses on this show than a certain
mix a lot video. I'm likeyour mother would not be proud right now,
baby's got those hot takes in caseyou missed it. You're ready for

(01:35:39):
this one. I'm ready. I'vebeen dying to do this story. What
was your favorite part of the town? Remember that movie? Is that the
one with drama and Ed Burns.It's the one where Ben affleck Acson and
writes and directs a movie that's inBoston. Remember that one. Smart.
Yeah on his part, remember rememberwhen he and is it Jeremy Renter?

(01:36:00):
That sounds right? And I don'tknow who the other two Yahoo's were in
the Gang of Guys that but nothis vestus buddy robbed all the banks?
Matthew, what's his face? Damon? Matthew, Damon was not in that
movie. What was your favorite scenefrom that film? Some heist? Probably?
Yeah? Which one? The onewhere they took the equipment? Uh?
No, they were robbing money,but they took the famous from from

(01:36:25):
a professional stadium stadium? Yeah,that one. Are you done? Fenway
Park? I haven't seen the town. I told you. When will they
make a movie about the guys whostole a hundred what was it? Okay,
hundred thousand dollars in equipment? Sonot one hundred thousand dollars Soldier Field?
Yeah? I actually went to ChicagoNews television story to watch the story

(01:36:50):
of thieves took one hundred thousand dollarsworth of equipment from Soldier Field apparently overnight
Wednesday night to third I please readthe particular Okay, so the burglary of
maintenance equipment was discovered Thursday morning.Lucas Sarah the director of Marketing and public

(01:37:11):
Relations of Soldier Field, told sourcesstolen this is the good part. Were
ride along mowers John Dear Gator utilityvehicles that belong to a contractor, not
the stadium or the Chicago Bears,which begs the question does this guy have
tractor insurance? And will the Bearsand or Soldier Field replace his equipment because

(01:37:35):
they are found liable for losing itwhen the thieves got past their stellar security
line of defense to steal John DearGator utility vehicles and ride along mowers.
Now I do know just a tinybit about Soldier Field, just where it
is and what's around in what cityit's in where the most lawless people in

(01:37:57):
America live and shoot each other routinelyon the weekends. And I've seen the
news story, and so the veryfirst part of it, they just show
one of those John Deer tractors,one of those gators. I'm like,
did they put the right video upbecause I didn't know the particulars yet,
But yes they did. It wasn'tone of theirs. It was just an
example of what one is show.That's to me, it seems like this

(01:38:17):
is what they were after Yeah,they ripped down a fence so they could
do this because they knew the stuffthey were looking for. They wanted to
drive out these pieces of machinery,so they had to rip down the fence,
get the fence down, get inthere so they could drive these vehicles
out like they didn't like load them, load up a bunch of stuff and
drive away in their car. Theydrove the vehicles they were stealing out and

(01:38:39):
they did that by you know,busting down on one of the fences.
But the fence went into this bigwooded area and I'm not sure exactly and
that's what I mean, like wheresoldiers feel is it looked really really odd.
But yeah, they Earlier in theweek, the Bears were talking about
a false report about their facility beingrated during the week where their defensive coordinator
had to resign due whatever personal issuesare going on right now with Alan Williams,

(01:39:03):
and that happened and all of thatunder the specter of their quarterback having
to readdress the media after his scheduledQ and A at the podium. He
asked them to come over to hislockers so we could talk to them a
second time to tell them not totake his words out of context, that
sounded a lot like he was blamingthe coaches for his robotic play and his

(01:39:25):
inability to kind of play free playthe way he knows how to, and
so he tried to set the recordstraight. The bottom line is he hasn't
run the ball at all by design. That seems dumb, and a lot
of people think they will at leastget that fixed for one week, but
they've gotten off to a miserable startafter earning the number one pick in year
two of just saying they earned it. Well, any time you do that,

(01:39:45):
it makes me think about how dumbthe Texans were that they not only
went for it, or that theynot only scored a touchdown that put them
ahead in a game that all theyhad to do is lose, but they
went for two and achieved that aswell, thereby relinquishing the number one pick
to the Bears, who earned nothingthat day. Texans earned the number two
picks. By the way, incase you missed it, I forgot this

(01:40:09):
whole show. We've done like nearlythree hours in minute made for anticipation of
a series against the Royals, andwe have not mentioned the huge advantage the
Astros having this series. Salvador Perezis still concussed. Yeah, he's forgotten
about that. You missed some time. He's not. I don't know who
doesn't know this. He's not acatching position obviously, is not a very

(01:40:30):
strong offensive position the league. Why, there's a handful of offensively gifted players
at that position. He's a legendman. He is alleged because I love
him not having what I would callit particularly good here. He's okay,
he's a lot, but for ateam who doesn't have a lot of offensive
punch, it certainly is missing.Bobby Wood Junior is stellar and he will
be out there to that. Yes, missing Salvador Perez is something of consequence,
and if you did not hear earlier. Ryan Stannik is now active again

(01:40:54):
for the Astros, off of theirinjured list and taking the place of Joel
Konel. Welcome back, James Hatfield. Looking forward to seeing you out there
on the bump. Hopefully that willwork out. I do think he was
missed with some of the innings thatwere given to others that he likely would
have taken had he been a partof that active roster. Yeah, I'm
hoping, h Look, I justwant to sweep of the Royals? Is

(01:41:15):
that too much to ask at thislate stage? I will add the town
to my queue. Wait, youhave seen the town for the third time
this segment. Why didn't you justtell me it Lake Lively movie? I
would have definitely seen it had onthat. Well, let me tell you,
you're gonna love her role in thisfilm. She is she get off
early or something? Is she mean? I thought about saying something, but

(01:41:36):
since we're not a satellite show,I can't. What's the what's the kid's
name in the American Beauty that likesthe I've seen American Beauty? Why would
I have seen that? I don'tknow? You shut up, Ross.
I was gonna say his dad wasin the movie. I'll see his dad.
That kid really Jimmy, Robbie,whatever his name? Mary? I

(01:41:59):
can't remember his name. All right, We will continue here on the A
Team Sports Socks seven ninety final halfhours of Drug Dealer. Well, yeah,
there's some drugs dealt on the town. Well, there's some drugs consumed,
let's put it that way. Definitelyas them, John Hamm and her
have a conversation at a bar involvinga piece of currency that is very suggestive.

(01:42:24):
Is it rolled up Tyson nice andtight? It's it's folded and then
unfolded, unfolded and got it?Yeah? Check check Please. Hey,
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Alvin, Texas UVC Power Sports Tractorsnow Doors. Tell them the eighteen from
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on Sports Talk seven ninety four theiHeart Radio apps Home of your Astros.

(01:43:59):
Then it makes Mark again our homeon a Friday afternoon edition of the eight
Team WEX and eight City here withyou. Appreciate both Jeff Blum and Chandlome
joining us a bit earlier. TheRoyals in the midst of BP for their
game tonight, seeing just how manyl's will end up on their ledger this
year, they popped up over onehundred before the Astros met them the first
time and are continuing to work theirway down the ladder. The Astros again

(01:44:21):
technically did not face the hundred lossa's considering they couldn't hand them their hundredth
loss until well the end of theseries when they got them for just that
one time. We'd like to notsee a third consecutive series, fourth consecutive
series, excuse me go that routewhere they've lost two out of three,
and just from a historical standpoint,talking about the Kansas City Royals in the

(01:44:43):
early two thousands, They had astretch of four years in five where they
lost one hundred or more games.They are now in a stretch of three
years and six, though one ofthem was the COVID year, and even
the Royals couldn't lose a hundred gamesin a sixty game season, because now
their third one hundred plus loss seasonin those six and at fifty one and
one oh two, heading into theirfinal stretch of baseball games to close out

(01:45:04):
this campaign, they are on paceto have the worst team in Kansas City
Royals history. Are you being onpace guy here in September? Well,
I hope the Astros can help youmaintain that. Just I'm just trying to
point Nina, Well, keep inmind, this team should be like the
Orioles. So the Astros just played, they went through a stretch of that

(01:45:27):
they drafted well and near the topof the draft, they developed well,
and all those players reached and theyare the newest version of the Astros.
There's really no good reason why theRoyals shouldn't have been able to do that,
but they've just done a terrible jobof it. Because beyond Bobby Witt
Junior, they have a bunch ofplayers who look like maybe they'll be major

(01:45:47):
leaguers, but that's it. Well, they just don't have a lot of
other guys that, Okay, he'sa year away from being a star.
And we watched the Astros go fromone Rookie of the Year candidate to the
next springer in Korea and Bregman andTucker and it's the same thing the Orioles
are doing. But from a windlow standpoint, the Royals have been there
ready to do that and heaven andI think whit Merrifield's one of those guys

(01:46:08):
that they thought was going to beone of those and he's no longer there
obviously, But like, what's uncleSlappy? Hey? Who wants to single?
Who wants to steal the days?But here's the deal, Well,
the Astros went through that several guysthat you thought were gonna be off.
One of them's on the roster againfinally. But look like, what do
we always talk about with the Orioles. And I don't know that you can

(01:46:29):
say this to the In fact,I don't think you could say this about
the Royals now perfect No, ButOrioles have always had the rap of bad
ownership. Their owner is a pieceof crap in a lot of ways,
and we just saw the latest exampleof that a few weeks back with their
broadcasting crew. I don't think theowner or the Royals ownership is known as
having bad ownership, but they're obviouslyprobably got the reputation of not being one

(01:46:51):
of the bigger spenders. But thereit's a small market team. I mean,
it's very much the cliche of MajorLeague Baseball because you can draft well
all you want and all that kindbut at some point you're gonna have to
foot the bill for some of theplayers. Well. As much as it
pains the Astros fans, it isjust about the only thing most thirty year

(01:47:11):
old, thirty five year old fortyold Royals fans have at all. Twenty
fourteen twenty fifteen back to back WorldSeries appearances, they have not been to
the playoffs since, and they havenot been to the playoffs since nineteen eighty
five. They've been won the WorldSeries since nineteen eighty five. George the
playoffs twice in the last two playoffsin the last two years. Yes,

(01:47:34):
it's unrealized. This is bad.They have been for such a long Nineteen
eighty five was basically forty baseball seasonsago. I was four and I'm two,
been to the postseason two times.Yeah. I don't feel bad for
them though, because screw you fortwenty nine, Cosmer, you suck.
And again, if this conversation wasbeing listened to by any of our radio

(01:47:57):
listeners in Kansas City, they wouldprobably be finding a way to reach us
and say, hey, hey,hey, we got the Chiefs. Did
you have the Chiefs? The onein one Chiefs list the one in one
Chiefs. Let me ask you onegame ahead of the Texans in the playoff
chase. They've got Taylor Swift too. If you this is a tough question,
I'm gonna put you on the spot, but I don't even care.

(01:48:18):
If you had to sacrifice this runby the Astros to get a Texans Super
Bowl victory, would you do itthe whole run? Yeah? No,
two World Series wins, four WorldSeries appearances for one Super Bowl trip,
then thank you. Let me trade, let me, let me let me
do a let me do it adendum. Yeah, reconstruct the question completely.

(01:48:40):
You gotta trade one of the AstrosWorld Series championships, but you get
a Super Bowl championship in its place. That seems totally reasonable. No,
it doesn't. That's the wrong answer. The World Series championship you're taking away
might just be a total soul crushingWorld Series loss. So they've been to
the World Series the same number oftimes, to the postseason the same number
times. We've had all those sixseasons of awesomeness and all the posts.

(01:49:03):
It was the Washington one, right, and then maybe they just came up
short in the World Series. Allthat for the first ever appearance in a
conference title game for the Texans,and the first one since nineteen seventy nine
for any team in Houston, andthen the first win in such game for
any of them, and then anappearance and a win in the Super Bowl.

(01:49:24):
Yeah, Titans had a lot offailing years, do you hear,
didn't they? And the Titans didn'thave a lot of failings. Well,
they also went to the playoffs sevenconsecutive years without reaching the conference titles game,
which is a feat un almost unheardof. Are you talking about the
Titans of the Texans? Now theTexans you think, yeah, they have
managed to miss the conference title gameall their years of existence. So not
just say seven, I'm saying theoilers make for those years the Oilers made

(01:49:47):
the playoffs seven consecutive years and playedin zero conference years. Again, Uh
huh, wait, well, youcan't bring that up and then not give
me the years just because you're thefinteen ninety somethings and two thousands, I
don't know, well one did that. Yeah, but so that was That's
what I'm saying, Like it wasso seven you said, yes, seven

(01:50:09):
seven h seven, but the lastone of those was what ninety four?
Sure you're just terrible at this?Yes, noted? Well, at least
you know all right. Final segmentof the show, Final segment of the
week, Live from Minute May Parkis coming up next year on the EIGHTEAM.
Yeah, the Titans, Oilers,Gamblers. We're already in break and

(01:50:31):
uh, Texans can only hope tobe just as elite as the team that
went to the playoffs secutive seasons withoutmaking the conference title game nineteen eighty seven
to nineteen ninety three. For thosethat were wondering. But I'm talking to
you about being elite, and thatmeans taking your I'm looking for a new
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(01:51:38):
over there, tell him Adam Wexlersent you buy. Adam and Adam are
very very dedicated fans, such bigfans. In fact, one of them
actually pays for his favorite porn,paying for porn. Now that's dedication.
Folks, back to eighteen premium onSports Talk, You're gonna get your money's

(01:52:01):
worth. We are under ten minutesuntil Ross Veriale takes over. Well,
actually that's not true. And specialguest Brian mctager. Yeah, but what
I say under ten minutes, Butreally that's not accurate because the intro to

(01:52:24):
the Astros on Deck show is likefive hours long. Sponsors oponsors, love
all of them, so we keepus in business. One last thought on
the other team, as they getset for the Jacksonville trip. They'll fly
out to Jacksonville tomorrow, knock outa game between twelve and three, and
head on back to Houston. Inwhat manner will they head back to Houston?
Will they get a w against theJaguars? Will they cover against the

(01:52:45):
Jaguars? Will they get throttled againstthe Jaguars. The likely scenario, and
I do need to pay off onthat tease from many segments ago, is
that they get slaughtered. But youknow, the tendency is when you don't
have a good running game and youget behind and all that kind of stuff,
you just gotta keep throwing. Andthey're gonna know that and they're gonna
pin their ears back and all thatgood stuff. But I like, in

(01:53:08):
the very small sample size we've seenof c. J. Stroud, I
like his chances if that's gonna endup being deforced in this case game plan.
Who is it that we were talkingto? Was it stand or was
it another? It had to havebeen stand where he's like, you know,
I like what I saw from himfrom the standpoint of, you know,

(01:53:29):
he looks like he belongs out there. He doesn't. In other words,
this doesn't look like it was amistake or that they shouldn't have taken
that guy, or they should havetaken another quarterback in this draft, or
they should have weighed or whatever.And I agree with that. And he's
the fact that he's, you know, much bigger than Bryce Young as a
huge plus obviously in my books.You've heard many many times on the show.
But the thing is like, he'sgonna have to You've talked so many

(01:53:51):
times about Yep, yep, that'sthe one. You've talked so many times
about how none of these guys aregonna have good seasons. They're all gonna
be learning on the fly. Therethe record is out the window and the
rookies. The rookies, right,I should have clarified if you're the Texans
right now, And I know youjust saw Anthony Richardson come in and run
for two touchdowns and a half beforehe basically even broke a sweat and then

(01:54:14):
had to leave. But like,you can't feel bad about that choice this
far in, which is very verynot far in, But like, if
that's what happens this Saturday or thisSunday, I'm okay with it because if
nothing else, it's going to bevaluable experience, which is what this season's
really all about for him individually.Anyways, Yeah, same for all three
of those guys. I would absolutelyagree with that last statement. They gotta
keep him healthy, gotta eliminate thelower the number of hits. And you

(01:54:38):
know it's something I'll be tracking andwe'll be talking about every Monday. Was
the what was the count? Howmuch punishment was there? And I can't
tell you that c J. Stroudknows how to make it happen when it
comes down to winning time, whenit looks like in a fourth quarter of
a close game, because he hasn'tbeen one of those games yet. He's
been in a game where the otherteam just came after him the whole game.
They weren't afraid of the Texans runninggame, which it's the effectiveness of

(01:55:00):
play action. And he was hita bunch, and he threw for three
hundred and eighty four yards, andhe continued to move the team down the
field. Now, granted their redzone work wasn't great. I don't necessarily
put all that on their quarterback play. When a couple of penalties eliminated some
of their very very good plays.One of them was in the end zone
and the other one would have puthim at the two yard line, which
turns the red zone trip that couldbe seven into a red zone trip that

(01:55:24):
was either three or in their caseon one of them, none when they
missed the field goal. So there'sa lot of different ways you can look
at it. Got to be prettypleased with how he throws the football.
And no matter how great Anthony Richardsonis running the football, and I'm not
saying he's not going to be agreat passer. I'm just saying you can't
win unless you can also throw thefootball. And I think Jalen Hurts is

(01:55:45):
at least a recent, very goodexample of that. I know he can
run the ball very well. Iknow he's great in the red zone from
a running standpoint. But if hehad not elevated his game and did not
show the ability to keep defenses honestand to be able to accomplish whatever they
want just by throwing the ball,then they're not going to win. They
would not have one, they wouldnot be NFC champs, they would not
have basically run the table on theseason after their slow start. It's just

(01:56:10):
that there isn't any way in theNFL to do that, and Anthony Richardson
will be no different if he canthrow the ball. And I just don't
think we've seen enough in two games, since he only played parts of Game
two and you only dropped back ahandful of times against the Texans, very
good first drive throwing the ball.I don't want to eliminate that, but
I just want to you know,I would have said this no matter what
he's done. There's there's just moreto see, and there's obviously much more

(01:56:31):
to see with Bryce Young also againnot playing with the team that seemingly has
quite as is quite as bereft oftalent because he was drafted by the team
that finished ninth, not last theCarolina Panthers, but unfortunately we'll only get
to see one of them this weekend. The other two quarterbacks are out Anthony
Richardson and Bryce Young both hurt thisweekend. Make it the week three,

(01:56:51):
couldn't even make it compleatue three.I don't neither one of these again,
should be long term. One isnot a physical shoulder, knee whatever.
With Richardson, it's unfortunately a concussiondoing a QC kinetics spot. Two people
who suffered concussions at an Archie Stadiumare not playing this week because the center
Ryan Kelly, is also not goingto return this week for the Colts.

(01:57:13):
He left last week's game. Myanswer to the question I gave you would
be similar. I don't think they'regonna get throttled. I also don't think
they're gonna cover, so it's kindof a tweener answer. I just don't
think it's gonna be where you're playingfrom. They were playing from two touchdowns
behind right all Sunday last week.I don't necessarily think it's gonna play out
that way, but maybe by theend of it, a tip of a
similar result. A thirty one twentyone result, a thirty four twenty four

(01:57:36):
result, it would be a winand a cover. I just might not
view it as a getting throw.Who was the guy that ross had on
earlier today from Jacksonville h Rick belowhe said, thirty four seventeen is what
he was the inn he covers theteam. Yeah, but he was given
an out that he doesn't have toworry about making people in Houston upset.
Well, he didn't worry about makingpeople in Jacksonville upset last week when he

(01:57:59):
picked the Chiefs. But that's justbeing good business. That's crazy picking the
chief stuff beat the Jaguars. Whatdo you What do you think? Speaking
of guys with concussions, once again, I think it was a concussion.
It's definitely concussion protocol. Salvador Pereznot playing for the for the Royals here
tonight, but the Astros doesn't matterwho's catching for the Royals. They need
to win all three of these gamesgoing into that series against Seattle. We'll

(01:58:19):
see what happens tonight tomorrow on Sunday. All right, as we mentioned,
Astros on deck with Rossi coming upnext here on Sports Talks seven ninety for
David Artist filling in for Dan Matthewsback at the ranch and for Wex and
myself here on site. My nameis Adam Clanton. It is the eighteen
here on Sports Talks seven ninety.We'll talk to you guys on Monday afternoon

(01:58:42):
at three talk about everything that happenedthis weekend with the Astros, Texans,
College and all points in between.Have a great weekend everyone, Astros Baseball
coming up next