May 10, 2024 • 42 mins
Former Astro turned Space City Home Network analyst Geoff Blum joins The A-Team every week. This week, he is in Detroit. They talk about salvaging a game in the Bronx, Yordan looking like Yordan, what to expect in the Tigers series and what he wants to see from this team going forward.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
You look at it. Look atit. Oh yeah, this is radio.
You listened to it on Sports Talkseven ninety ASTROS broadcaster Jeff Blum on
seven ninety. It is brought toyou by low T Center. And just
like that, we're off and runningwith another Friday edition of the A Team
(00:22):
here on Sports Talk seven ninety,which, as you heard, means we
are joined by Space City Home Networkbroadcaster, astro's analyst Jeff Blum, wex
and ac here at Carbach Brewing Companyand Blummer, as I texted you when
we were talking about today's show,thank god they won one on their way
out of town because that was youguys mentioned on the broadcast. That was
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a much happier flight than it wouldhave been. Oh yeah, it is
good to be on with you guys, and actually I have something positive to
talk about because it has been roughhere of late, and there was still
some I mean, that wasn't theeasiest of wins either. I mean it
felt like more of a relief thatthey actually did win the game that a
celebration. Yeah we got one,but yeah, it definitely helps out on
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the flight when everybody's got a wunder their belt and you can enjoy the
beverages a little bit more, thesame sense of relief that Jordon had as
soon as he struck the ball inthe first inning and turned around and looked
towards the dugout. Yeah, andI really hope that that to look back
at the dugout saying, Okay,I figured out what was going on.
I could get this thing right andstart to really, you know, improve
the middle part of this lineup,because it's a lot to put on one
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guy like Jordan and say that ifhe goes Vigo, because we put so
much emphasis on just getting on base, kind of passing the baton and giving
these guys opportunities. But it reallyin the wins and losses. The difference
in numbers for your gone is exactlywhat it means for this team to go
out there and win. So he'sa big guy, he's got a big
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swing, and if he can continueto do what he's doing, it should
be good for the Astros because theydefinitely need some some more powerful offense and
put up some big numbers. Didyou ever think that we were talking about
a moment in time this season whereguys like John Singleton are helping to carry
the offense. You know what Imean, Yes and no, but yes
in the sense that you need thoseguys on the periphery to step up every
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once in a while because you knowyou're gonna have moments where Jordan or some
of these other big boys are gettingit done. So you need you need
your role players like the Singletons ofthe Two Bonds, you know, even
you know Jake Myers at times todo something. But considering the situation with
the Bray you're getting sent out andhaving John Singleton step up, it's pretty
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impressive, man, because for ninegames he's actually been a huge contribution to
this offense. With what four homeruns ten RBIs he's actually hit him in
some big moments. We could slideover to ad Adam J. Wexler on
my x platform for some of theJohn Singleton numbers. You know, I
had some time on my hands,Blummer and I decided to put the research
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team to work today, much likeyou guys do over on Space City Home
Network with some unbelievable been sitting onthese numbers. Your research team has probably
had their hands fulled just you know, your play well fully loaded, ready
to fire. Yeah, let's putit this, Yeah, Let's put it
this way, the Wexler research teamprobably hates me because I just constantly put
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in a work. I'm always like, you got I need more, You
gotta dig further, You gotta reallygive me something that's gonna wow the people,
and hopefully this does. You mentionedwhat is absolutely one hundred percent true
about the work for John Singleton.Some home run facts for Johnny s All
four of his home runs are multirun homers. Two of them flipped a
one run deficit into a one runlead, and both of those homers were
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in the sixth inning or later.Two of them have come on the first
pitch of it bat, two wereahead while he was ahead in the count,
so hitters advantage on all four essentially, and since becoming the starter,
like you just mentioned, he leadsall first basemen in homers and RBI.
Nobody has more than four homers,nobody has more than ten RBI, And
thanks to yesterday's home run, that'sthree consecutive of series finales that John Singleton
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has hit a long ball in.He is taking full advantage of this.
We'd love the story if it wereanybody that was a reserve and got the
opportunity his story is even more hardto believe in how long it went between
it Bats and the Majors and whathe did to be in this position,
and it's just this team absolutely needsit and it's awesome in every way you
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look at it. No, theywere in a tight spot and it was
kind of interesting, you know,with a bread you're going down. They
actually showed a lot of confidence inwhat John Singleton was going to be able
to do, because where would webe sitting right now if Singleton wasn't doing
what he is doing. It wouldhave been a revolving door at first base,
but probably between Yanor Diez Low,Perfido, Mauricio Dubon and maybe some
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other guys over there. So it'skind of been a blessing in disguise for
both the Astros and for what forwhat Singleton needed to do. It's been
a full circle moment. You talkabout the story out of base all for
three years, all of a suddenfinds himself back into the organization that originally
drafted him and gave him that bigcontract, and here he is contributing.
What I love about John is thatwe talked about, you know, the
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power, the home runs, thedistance that all the stack cast numbers that
come with it. He's had acouple of nice picks over there at first
base, and he's actually putting togethersome phenomenal at bats, taking some walks
and making pitchers pitch. No,he had a couple of key moments there,
one that you probably would have likedto have had back if you were
the guy throwing it at first base, and then that scoop yesterday late.
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But I mean, and again,you guys appropriately I think gave that home
run the do that it was.It was, you know, richly deserving
after he went off the facade ofthe third deck of Yankee Stadium. There's
cheap home runs to right field atYankee Stadium, and then there's the polar
opposite, which is what that was. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you
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were talking about the Anthony Polpi homerun that stack cast said it went three
point thirty, but I think itwould all about three hundred and fifteen feet
to sneak around that pole on theright side. That there was no doubt
about John, And there is thereanything better than watching John Singleton just bat
flip a home run instantaneously when heknows he gets it, as well as
he did, and then the halfTK absolutely lose his mind as it hit,
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you know, almost into the upperdeck. That was pretty impressive all
the way around. Yeah, TKwas venturing into your don territory when he
hit won around that same area aminute made. But yeah, I mean
that's that's from the hitting side ofthings. And then Renel Blanco, I
mean, this guy is just youtalk about a great story and it happening
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late in his career. Like everythingyou just got done saying about John Singleton,
you could probably turn around and applythe pitching version of that to Renel
Blanco. No, it's pretty wild. You know, in Latin America,
if you get signed after the ageof sixteen seventeen, you're basically a fossil
and there's really no chance you're gonnabe a Fillery triple A or something like
that. But Renelle was actually refinedhimself. And it's the same thing with
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Bromer about this Christian Haabier and someof these other guys that were signed at
eighteen or twenty two years old.You know, somebody saw something in these
guys and realized that maybe they're alittle bit of a late bloomer or they
just needed a little more refinement.But Renel Blanco is a guy that was
working at a car washing, youknow, waiting for a job to come
his way, finally gets one withthe Astros. He's got a powerful arm
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in the mid to upper nineties.When he needs it, the slider plays
at that level. But in beinginserted into that starting rotation, he needed
that third pitch to figure things outand get a little length out of those
outings that he was having, andthe changeup has been his best pitch.
And here he is. He's astopper in this rotation, and we knew
he was going to be good enoughto maybe be in the rotation. But
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if you think about it and goback to the start of the season,
if the Astros rotation is healthy,Renel Blanco's doing what he's doing for the
Space Cowboys, not the Astros.You know. One thing that actually I'm
not sure if you guys had mentionedit at all during this month of May
and not mentioned it here on ourshow either, because I was waiting for
the announcement and then I just neverheard anything, and I finally yesterday looked.
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I still can't figure out how hedid not win Pitcher of the month.
For the opening months of the season, it was like Barrios won it.
He had good numbers. A coupleof Red Sox pitchers had good numbers.
One of them threw a no hitterand all their other numbers were close
enough together that I would have thoughtthat would push him over the top.
But no, yeah, I wouldI wish you would have pushed him over
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the top too, because I thinkwhat's interesting. I mean, even if
you try and put it into context, Barrios's pitching for a team that's not
doing very well, the Astro.You know, Renel Blockville pitching for a
team that's not doing very well.But I don't think too many people understood
that he actually has six of youknow, he's contributed to six of the
astros thirteen wins, And if youthink about that, that's kind of a
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destructive number because there's only seven winson the other side of that ledger,
which gives you a little more creditto what Renel's doing in a situation where
things aren't going the Astros way.He's got out and basically forced to win
in his starts, and they countedon him to be that guy. Well,
not to mention after the no hitterhis very next start. He went
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into what the sixth inning and hadanother no hit bid very next time out.
Yeah, he's got that kind ofstuff. And then if you're playing
the right team to match up withthat change up, he should be devastating
to some of those teams. Idon't know if you guys heard the postgame
interview he had after his start,he actually mentioned to Julia he said that
that change up has been a goodfish from all season long, but he
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was worried that sitting on it,so he went to the sliders. So
it kind of gives you an ideaof the mind a little bit that he's
able to make adjustment. Yeah,very cerebral thing for him to say and
reveal about his approach. I thinkthe next thing we need to do before
we take a quick time out isto just get to the bottom of something
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that I just I've been thinking aboutsince this morning when I saw it,
and I knew you would have theanswer. What's going on outside your hopes
hell room window, dude? Imean, it's just another reminder that you
know, I am not on abig league roster anymore. When I get
the low floor overlooking the dumpster inthe alleyway. Oh my gosh, yeah,
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in Detroit, Detroit. May besure you point that out of all
places, you know, we landedDetroit, we go. The area we're
staying at is really a nice area. I love the place, and the
hotel is good. But we getin at one o'clock in the morning.
It's pitch black outside. I'm gassed. I go to bed and wake up
and I'm like, man, Iwonder what it looks like outside. I
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got to rip open the you know, the blind, and I'm just like,
holy, what the hell? Yeah, it was not forward to Yeah,
that's yeah, Michigan in May justjust fantastic. The only thing that
was missing there clearly doesn't need tobe there, that brick wall outside the
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window. You would think maybe theywould need a sign that says you are
in Detroit, but the photo makesit so obvious. I was gonna say,
who needs a sign? When apicture speaks a thousand words? It
really really does. All right,We'll have thousands more words coming up the
rest of the hour with Blummer.He joins us for his weekly visit up
until four o'clock, but right nowhe's going to join us to tell you
(11:18):
about what you need to be watchingtonight's opener of the three game series between
the Astros and the Tigers, andanything else you're taking in, whether it's
sports or otherwise. If you've gotfast speeds throughout your home, if you've
got a reliable connection in every room, and if you've got power for all
of your devices you're using even wheneveryone is online, then you probably have
(11:39):
Infinity because wall the wall Wi Fithrough the Infinity ten G network is going
to get you all that and awhole lot more. And as Blumber and
I have told you about a longtime now, that's the only way to
go when you want that reliability totake in any of what you're watching from
a Houston sports standpoint. No,And at this given moment, I have
four daughters driving back from school.So by the time I get done with
(12:03):
this road trip, I'm going tobe very grateful that I do have that
wadle wall Wi Fi because there's goingto be six people going crazy on that
whether we be streaming, playing videogames, or if I'm actually trying to
get my work done or my wifeis actually trying to search for another sofa
for one of her clients. It'sgoing to be madness and having that walla
wall Wi Fi is greatly appreciated.And of course every night when we're actually
(12:24):
have the ability to stream something orbinge watch. If we do have some
downtime, I've got my Exfinity thatI just speak to and tell it what
I want to watch and it popsonto the TV. So I'm grateful for
the convenience and the Wi wallda wallWi Fi on Exfinity. Yeah. Absolutely,
the convenience factor, as we've alwaysmentioned, is off the charts,
and that wall to wall Wi Fiis something you can get your hands on
(12:46):
as well. Now, through Junetwenty first customer is going to get started
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Exfinity, call one eight hundred Infinityor visit a store today Infinity for out
sponsor of your Houston Astros. There'sa space City Home Network's Todd Kallis,
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there's the at you got him.It's Adam Clinton and Adam Wegler. Clinton
stop impersonating me on Sports Talk seven. And you know it had to feel
good, Blummer to hear TK saythat last night when Josh Hater finished off
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a save opportunity. Can we talkabout that sequence? And I know Wex
is gonna jump in here. Hegot him there, it is, he
got him. The fact that Ilove doing that way more than I should.
It's great call. The fact that, uh, you know, Presley
had a little bit of a hiccupthere in the eighth and you yank him
for another four out save and Isay another because I was this his first
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four outside. I thought it wasthe second one. I thought he had
one earlier. It was an attemptedHe's pitched more attempted to get more than
three outs on more than one occasionnow. And there are a lot of
things to dissect about that particular situation. And the way that Aaron Boone has
set his lineup up, I thinkis pretty intentional and it's a smart thing
to do if you can with theyou know, Judge into Verdugo into Stanton
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into Rizzo, with the back andforth where the splits sometimes do payoff.
Presley going in in the eighth likehe normally would, though that means he's
going to face Aaron Judge, whoprobably probably, I'm not sure what the
numbers say. Probably has a bitof an advantage against Presley, and of
course I do know what the numberssay, and then goes to hater in
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the ninth, which is again,that's set up guy closer and maybe there's
consideration to flip it last night.But what did you think about the way
that it did play for the postRenelle Blanco portion of the day, how
Joe sent guys out there and howthey ultimately performed. Well, I think
that Brian Abray, you actually dida pretty good job. He looks like
you're starting to come back into forma little bit. For me, I
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just I've got to see more fromhis slider because last year he kind of
there was a different there was adifferent approach towards the hitter for me from
Brian a Brady. Last season itwas a little more, there was a
little more malicious intent, and Ireally haven't felt that from Brian a Bray
yet. This year. He's gotthe fastball that can get up to ninety
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eight ninety nine, and we finallystarted to see that in the last couple
of addings. But that slider thatjust kind of kind of tunnels out of
the hand real quick and then hasthat sharp late break that can can be
really deceptive to a right handed hittersand get the swing and miss when he
needs it. But he's starting toget that to come back a little bit,
and I was kind of curious,you know, at full disclosure.
You know, when we were inbetween and on breaks in the booth,
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TK and I look at each otherbecause we both have our scorebook, and
I think part of being a fanand part of being a broadcaster, and
part of what I did when Iplayed, you know, when I wasn't
playing every day was sit on thebench and try and manage the game along
with the managers so you're not surprisedby anything. And then you try and
be a little creative and see whatmight happen. And that was a pocket
where you saw two three, fourin that lineup coming on and you like
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you say, I said, AaronJudge has ridiculous numbers against Ryan Presley,
and he proved it again by hittinga ball four hundred and seventy three feet.
But at the same time, youknow, I think it was a
little more of Joe just saying thisis my this is what I've got.
This guy's my closer. You're gonnacome in and do your best to get
through the situation. Unfortunately it didn'twork out. But fortunately, on the
other hand, you saw Josh Hatergo out there and get a four out
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saved, and he kind of didit in dramatic fashion and maybe needed a
little bit of a confidence boost,and I think he got it when you
saw that last pitch at you know, ninety six, ninety seven elevated out
of the zone for the swing andmiss. The only thing I don't like
about that situation and having that fourout save, and granted it was to
protect Ryan Presley and that ballgame,but the fact that you come in this
first game here against Detroit and ifit ends up being a tight ballgame in
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the big ballpark like this, youmay not have you know, Ryan Presley
or Josh Hater available. So I'mkind of curious to see what Joe says
before the game. It's very muchthe case, and I think they're playing
games where today's game turns out tobe the most important game, and sometimes
it's obvious. Sometimes it's hard toplay that way knowing what's still in front
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of you. But it certainly seemslike, that's how Joe's deploying those guys
just so people are aware. AndI think some people have seen a change.
You mentioned it with the brayw andit seems clear just by watching.
But over the last fifteen days,each of those three relievers has an ERA
under two. Each of them hasappeared in exactly five games. The trio
has struck out twenty eight batters insixteen and a third innings, and they've
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only allowed ten hits in those sixteenand a thirty. This could be a
sign of things to come. Itcertainly looks that way with a braw We're
coming off a game where Presley gottattooed by Aaron Judge and couldn't find the
strike zone. But that also showsyou how good he had been. Probably
worth noting that Joe did mention theother day he had a little bit of
a back issue. It's probably whythere was so much time in between appearances.
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Seth Martinez also is not allowed torun in any of his last five
appearances of the b for a numberof different reasons. The starter's probably the
way they had pitched this year andhow many injuries they add. Maybe this
is a sign. Could this bea sign that the bullpen they thought they
might have is get a little gettinga little bit closer to being in place.
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I would hope so, And justyou know, and having the conversations
with Joe and fortunately being able todo that. You asked the question,
how you know, Joe if youthought about doing anything else trying to mix
up that bullpen, But you know, the answer is what else could he
do? These guys are out therefor a reason. There's a reason they
have the contracts that they do.Montero looks like he's pitching a little bit
better than he did last season,so that's an improvement and starts to create
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a little bit of length. Butwhen you get to the back end of
the bullpen and you have a onerun lead, two run lead, three
and run lead, you're gonna haveto go through the a Bray Presley Hater
routine. And if he's not ableto do that, or those guys can't
get it done, there's nobody elseto go to. So he's basically in
a situation where those guys are itand I think that hopefully with them understanding
that and getting their legs under hima little bit this season and building some
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of the confidence that they can expecttheir role to be exactly that to come
in and close out games. Butit would be kind of nice to have
two three runs and maybe have acomfortable outing so you can have some low
leverage situations instead of having every pitchmean something because the run. There's only
a one run lead. A lotof opportunities throughout yesterday afternoon to not have
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it be just a one run leador a two run lead, from three
to nothing to four to two midwaythrough the game when it felt like and
I'm sure it did in the boothfor you as well, it could have
been five, two, six,two, seven to eight two. They
did have three hits with runners inscoring position yesterday, three of their twelve
at bats. Somehow, two ofthem with a runner on second each did
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not bring the run home. Oneof them didn't even move the runner up,
as it was hit behind or infront of Jiner Diaz, and unlike
the day before, he decided smartlyto go back to the bag, so
low Braffito gets to first base.Then another single so well hit that again,
another run doesn't score. The guywho did drive in the run with
a hit with a runner and scoringposition was Jeremy paina he's taking well to
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batting clean up five for seven overhis two games, and wouldn't you just
say it's just a continuation of howhe has looked at the plate this year.
No, he looks really good,and obviously confidence is incredibly high.
And how about Joe's spot a weekever, you know that there were a
lot of talk, you know,just moving back into the two hole like
he was in you know, twentytwenty two, and you're going, well,
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let's just kind of let Jeremy Paineyget his feet wet, let him
just kind of, you know,stay consistent, let's not shake things up
too much. And then all ofa sudden, Joe just puts him right
in the middle of the lineup inthat four spot, and he's gone out
there and just continue to swing.But you know, I think a lot
of it has to do with thefact that Jeremy Painey has kind of created
a swing over the off season thathe's comfortable with, brought it into spring
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training, was able to get somehits with it, so he built the
confidence in that swing, and nowhere he is, you know, heading
towards the middle of May. Youknow, arguably the best hitter in this
lineup as far as batting average isconcerned. He and al Twove are the
best duo up the middle, orat least one of them, and all
of major ly Baseball. But Ijust love that Jeremy Peney's got some of
that confidence back after a tough sophomoreseason in the big leagues. And I
(21:07):
think what else is great about thatnew swing that he has, it's very
simplified, is that if he doesget in trouble, it feels like a
swing that he's going to be ableto tinker with a little bit and not
have to make these major adjustments togo out there and be more consistent.
But again, a lot of itgoes back to zone control, because we're
still going to see him chase somesliders out of the zone, but we
don't see him chasing every single sliderout of the zone. He'll chase one
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and then he'll spit on one,and all of a sudden, he gets
a mistake out over the plate,and he's doing what you're supposed to do
with pitches you see in the zone. He's hitting him hard. Talking to
Jeff Blum here on Sports Talks sevento ninety, and we will continue for
the next half hour or so withhim as he is in Detroit where the
Astros are starting the opener of athree game set against the Tigers, and
a question about that specific not onlyteam but division when we come back next
(21:53):
here on the A Team Sports Talkseven ninety. I want to tell you
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(22:15):
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(22:36):
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(23:22):
Six on Sunday. Get in therethis weekend. Hey, it's a man
for all. You have every Rocketsgame Sports Talk seven ninety and streaming on
the iHeartRadio app home of Rockets Basketball, the A Team on a Friday afternoon.
Great place for both of the setsof Yakers here today to enjoy themselves.
(23:45):
AC and I are at Carbock Brewingfor the afternoon. It's an awesome
place to enjoy both the weather todaybefore it gets super duper hot, and
obviously everything they have here both behindthe bar and outside in the beer garden.
Staring at the taps. Right now, they filled something up in the
class. I don't know what itis, but I'll enjoy it. Coffee
and mine yours is spiked. Yeah, And Jeff Blum of course, is
with the astros there in Detroit.This road trip began with the flyout to
(24:10):
New York in advance of the Tuesdaygame, and of course everybody has seen
some of the broadcast teams Antics andNew York, Julia, Todd and Jeff
hanging out and enjoying their day.What is a day in New York like
before you get a series started.It's nice and we were actually pretty spoiled
with weather out there that first Ithink the first day we were out there
for that day off, it wasseventy two degrees sunny. It was nice
(24:34):
and calm in the morning, andwe weren't actually a pretty good spot near
Central Park where we can actually kindof roam around get into the park if
we need to or want to.But you know, I'm actually I'm not
as messed up as I was acouple of weeks ago. So I actually
got out, walked around quite abit and enjoyed it. Found some new
coffee shops, found some new foodout there, and it's a good time.
(24:55):
It was actually really pleasant because thestreets weren't packed with a lot of
people and you could actually embrace whatNew York has to offer. It was
a good time. I was aboutto say, that's probably awesome with the
weather you had. You could actuallysee the humidity here in Houston yesterday.
It was delightful. And you know, yeah, I bet Central Park was
awesome after you avoided all the pigeonsand the bums and everything else. But
yeah, New York's great. Good. Yeah, I was gonna say,
(25:22):
I don't know. Yeah, Ididn't see what you were referencing. I
mean, there is, it's abig city and there's a lot going on,
But I mean they I felt likeit was in better shape than I've
seen it in the past. AndI don't know it's because if there were
if it was because there were justa limited amount of people there because it's
May, and maybe they were anticipatingsome bad weather and we lucked out,
but it was easy to move aroundand there were actually some pretty delightful people
(25:44):
out there. Amazingly enough, that'soutside the stadium. Inside the stadium a
little bit different story. Now.The dirty little secret is that I actually
love New York City and have acomplete fascination with it. But Yankees fans
ruined that over the last eight years. So now we're in a fight.
It's fine, but hey, speakingof American League opponents, as we move
(26:06):
along to Detroit, Michigan, anothergreat metropolis. You're talking about the latest
example of an AL Central team that'slike probably good. I mean Cleveland and
the Royals have had their way withthe Astros so far. Well, I
guess actually the Astros won that Clevelandseries, but they're much improved. The
(26:27):
Royals absolutely beat up on the Astros. This is a This is not your
twenty twenty three Dad's Division in theAmerican League Central. No, they're doing
a good job, you know.Coming into this game, the Detroit Tigers
are nineteen and eighteen and they're theirfourth in the division. So that gives
you an idea that there's quite afew teams out of the five that are
(26:49):
playing five hundred baseball or better.You know, we saw the Kansas City
Royals earlier and they're probably one ofthe more talented. They might be the
most talented team out there. Iknow the Twins are very good ball club.
Cleveland's doing what they're doing, andthen we come in here to Detroit
and one of the things we heard, you know, in talking to our
old friend AJ Hinch, who's themanager now that Detroit Tigers, is the
fact that you know, if thisteam could ever get healthy and have everybody
(27:12):
on their roster active and available,they would actually be a pretty good ball
club. And they're proving that rightnow. Some of the numbers don't necessarily
dictate that they're they're swinging the batsextremely well, but they're pitching has been
great. Their bullpen has been lockeddown for Aj Hinch, and I think
what you're going to see in thisthree game series when you go from Maze
to Schooble to Flirty, that thatmight be the top three in his rotation.
(27:34):
And we all know that this isAJ's World Series against his former team,
so he's going to put the bestout there, and he's going to
make some moves that maybe he doesn'tnormally do. In a regular season series
to try and beat the Astros.That's what always makes it fun coming down
here to Detroit is the fact thatyou get to see some decent talent now
that everybody's healthy. Well, onething Ac and I talked about before this
(27:56):
road trip and really before the pastweekend when they closed out the homestead against
the Mariners, is you know,the Astros were obviously down and the offense
was kind of a roller coaster withwhat it seemed like they could do with
outrunners in scoring position and what theycouldn't do when they were But we had
talked about, well, what kindof pitching have they really faced, and
you know, teams pitching or elitestarting pitching, and it just really didn't
seem like there was a whole lotof that. It just was unfortunate the
(28:18):
Astros didn't take advantage of it.And that's completely different now. The Mariners
series was a trio of great startingpitchers and pitching staff. Clearly, the
Yankees pitching has been outstanding all year, the Tigers pitching, and you mentioned
their bullpen, it's one of thefive best bullpens in baseball by just about
every way you could look at it. They have clearly faced an uptick in
the pitching that they've seen, andeven though they've you know, they've lost
(28:41):
a few in one of you,I don't know that they haven't to me
actually taken to it very well.It seems like it doesn't have much to
do with who they're facing. It'sit's kind of all on them regardless.
Yeah, because we've seen in thepast they faced the best of the best,
and they won two World Series facingthe best pitching rotations or bullpens along
the way way in the postseason,So it shouldn't be a daunting task for
(29:02):
some of these veterans in that lineupfor the Houston Astros. I think that
we put up a stat the otherday and you can actually add to that
now. It's you know, thirtytwo of thirty seven games have been against
teams with a better than five hundredrecord, And you can qualify tonight like
that because the Detroit Tigers are nineteenand eighteen, so you faced probably or
I think you have faced the toughestschedule in all of baseball to start your
(29:26):
season, so that kind of getskind of is something going against them.
But at the same time, youknow, eight blown saves and losing some
of these one run games. Youknow that doesn't happen normally. When you
have the caliber of bullpen that theAstros have and they're pitching to their ability,
then you can add eight wins tothat win loss total, and all
of a sudden, you're playing fivehundred ball. You're contending for the American
(29:48):
League West. So we can throwall these excuses out there. Back to
the fact of the matter is thatthese guys are underperforming. We need to
see a little bit better out ofthem. This shouldn't be a shock to
the system, knowing that everybody istargeting the Houston Astros. They've been doing
it for years. It's just thatthey haven't been able to combine good hitting
with good pitching on a daily basisto go out and win ball games.
(30:10):
We actually talked about that earlier thisweek, how they've had that target on
their back long before this season,And you know what, it made me
think, I want to I thinkI might start asking you this question every
week until things get, like,you know, somewhat sorted out. What
is the mood of the team,Because you're with them more than pretty much
anybody, We're going to talk toyou on a day to day basis,
(30:30):
whether it's traveling or just around thehome stadium, Like, what is the
team like? Is it better,worse? Different than the last time I
asked you this question last week?Both this might be telling, is just
that that nothing really has changed.It's just the same guys going out there.
They're continuing to grind. I think, you know, just having you
(30:51):
know, we've if you've played thisgame long enough, you've been in situations
where things are not going your way. You get in the cage, or
you get on the mound and youtry and tinker a little bit and try
and find something that's gonna go outthere and compete, but ultimately you get
to the point where you reach thislimit of frustration and you know, something
clicks. It's that fight or flightmentality. You're either gonna sit there and
(31:14):
just say, you know what,I'm gonna put together the best bat I
possibly can. I don't give ayou know too, you know what's on
who's on the mound. They maywin that fight, but I'm gonna go
out there. I'm gonna bloody thema little bit before they knock me out,
or I'm gonna go out there andwin that fight, and I'm gonna
build off that and continue to moveforward. And I just haven't seen those
you know, I want to seesome of that anger. I want to
(31:34):
see some of that some of thatfight come back in these guys, because
in years past, when we sawthem come into ballparks, they would come
out with all their buttons unbuttoned ontheir dress shirts, chest would be out,
and they would just have this slowstrut as they walked into ballparks because
everybody in every fan base would boomthem. Every opposing team would be trying
to throw their best stuff to them, and they would just kind of tip
their cap and go, that wascute, and get a hit, and
(31:56):
all of a sudden they end upwinning ball games. And that's just what
I haven't seen in comparison to yearspast, is just a little bit of
that swagger or you know, alittle bit of that that edge to them,
and they're still trying to look forit. I don't know where they're
gonna find it, but they've gotto be able to go out there and
get it. It's that wrestling heelmentality that they you know, like you're
talking about, but you know,I think that's actually the best answer you
(32:19):
could have given us, is thatthere isn't a change, because that's what
you want to hear in any baseballteam, whether they've been successful or a
long time or not, the factthat they're going about their business the same
way from a consistency standpoint. Iguess yeah. And it's it's hard,
you know, because you want todo it as a team, but at
the same time, when you're strugglingas a unit, somebody's you know,
(32:43):
you can't sit there and look tothe guy to your right or left,
or look to the guy hitting behindme in the lineup or in front of
me and say, man, Ihope he gets it done. You've got
to have nine guys or twenty sixguys say I'm going to go out there
and get it done, and thenwhen I start to get it done,
the guy behind me is going toget it done. And you just hope
that it's contagious, because we talkabout hitting being contagious all the time,
and that contagion just hasn't taken holdof what the astros are going out there
(33:05):
and trying to do. And youreally hope that you know, with what
you wer don did yesterday with acouple of rockets, and then you see
John Singleton, you know, batflip of baseball and pimp it. You
hope that some of that kind ofstarts to, you know, spread around
that dugout and you get some ofthat some of that vibe back that says,
you know what, we are prettydamn good. Let's go out there
and try and make a run outof this thing. But for the time
being, when win the game yesterday, yes it was a sigh of relief
(33:29):
because you actually got through that gameand won a close one. But then
you wake up today and you go, okay, we just got to win
today's game, or win each inning. And I think once you start to
break it down and start to takesome smaller steps instead of trying to go
out there and get four hits inevery bat or strike out six guys every
inning, just keep taking that stepfrom inning to inning, winning each inning,
and hopefully that kind of snowballs intosome w's And when you're not thinking
(33:52):
about the bigger picture, you're winningthe smaller fights, and all of a
sudden you kind of wake up orlook at the big picture and realize you're
back in back in the fight thingsyou said on those last couple of answers.
I'll bring over to the other sideand have questions about one the John
Singleton Homer and the other the Astrosswagger. Jeff Blumm here with us for
the first hour of the program ona Friday, as per usual, he's
(34:14):
in Detroit with the Astros that theyget started with the three game series with
the Tigers. Will have that gameforty first pitch here on Sports Talk seven
nine. And of course Ac andI live out at Carbock Brewing on a
Friday. Are you kidding me?Love it? It's the best. And
you know what else is the best? Something's so nice. I'm gonna tell
you about it twice in the samehour. See what I did there.
Infinity and their wall to wall WiFi only on the Infinity ten G network.
(34:36):
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So if a few TVs are running, and an iPad and a few
(34:58):
cell phones, and and let's seewhat else is hooked up to my I've
got a pool hooked up to aWiFi. I've got things that you just
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(35:45):
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today Exfinity, proud sponsor of yourHouston Astros, Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler
back to Houston's eighteen on Sports Talkseven ninety. It is the eighteen,
(36:10):
It is Friday. We are alivefrom car Bock Brewing, and of course
we're joined by our special guest eachand every Friday afternoon, Jeff Blum.
I can't believe he talked all overa chevell Yeah, you talked all over
that Chevelle groove. Yeah, andyou didn't didn't let Blum hear it?
Oh? Was that the first timeyou've heard that song that I wrote?
But it has the same effect everytime. Oh man, there's no there's
(36:32):
no song like that for you.Wex There's nothing that turns you on.
Huh Oh. I'll betting my wifewill be here soon. I'll ask her
that same question. I got this, so thank Adam Wexler's coming to the
appreciation dam in minute made park yourattention. Please, It's fine if you
(36:52):
guys want to come up with awalk up song for me, that's all
I'm Are you going to tell youwhat it is? I can't wait to
hear it. It's Tom Sawyer,It's Tom Sawyer. There's no doubt in
my mind it's Tom Sawyer because youlike Rush, and that's the coolest sounding
intro to a Rush song for anat Bata's worth his salt. He's gonna
play it the next ten second.Just totally redeemed himself if he actually likes
(37:15):
Rush. It's it's hard to sayI would Homer every at bat, but
if that was my walk up song, pretty good chance that I would.
Well last year, no, butthey are pretty awesome. You you know,
we just discussed this the other day. Blumber the home run that you're
not hit to the flight deck inToronto last year. Oh dude, I
did. I did a medley ofRush songs for that Good Morning video and
(37:36):
that was the song. But thatdoes bring me exactly to where I wanted
to go. Because last night's gameof course right here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety with the Astros, yourexclusive home. But it was a three
TV broadcast night. For last night'sAstros booth, well, there's no question
had it. It's not the Yankeeslocal booth, and it's not the Astros
(37:57):
local booth. It's the national booth. And they got an extra. They
were the worst booth because Bob wason the call, but anyway, somebody
got it, dude, like threeof them. So the verbal equivalent of
kicking a puppy. The good newsabout all that is all three networks,
essentially they're getting the same look.So when Marcus Stroman throws that pitch just
(38:20):
a bit higher in the strike zoneand John Singleton gets a hold of it
and acknowledges after the game, Iprobably can't hit a ball any better than
that, any further than that.And the camera shots that everybody that's watching
gets sees the flight of the ball. Here's Todd screaming about it brilliantly going
off the facing of the third deck, and then the immediate cutaway to the
steps and the ledge of the astrosdugout and the biggest, baddest left handed
(38:45):
home running hitting astro of all timeis in awe of what John Singleton did.
And you guys, I know youwere amazed by it, but seeing
him Jordan amazed by it, it'slike the greatest thing ever. Yeah,
And on our show, I've gotto give a little credit to our director
who's on the road with us.Kelly Donaldson did a great job and he
(39:05):
caught that moment that your Don wasshocked, and I don't know who had
the idea to keep a camera onhim, but the fact that it was
available in that moment, because wewere all pretty impressed with your Don hitting
that laser off the set into thesecond deck, but then you had John
Singleton's step up and hit one offthe facade of the upper deck, almost
getting into that the last deck atYankee Stadium. And to have that kind
(39:25):
of reaction from a man who normallyhits the ball about four hundred and fifty
feet every time he steps in thebox, that was pretty special. That
was a lot of fun to watch. Whenever I see your Don in off
of something, you know, it'spretty damn good. Yeah, and I'm
sure that Bob Costas was upset thatthe Yankees couldn't pull off the season sweet,
but that was a big read.You know how about that three straight
(39:46):
games it's won nothing because of ahome run Kyle Tucker the first two nights,
and then you've got your Don onthe third night. But when Singleton
hit that home run, you kindof started to feel like, all right,
maybe they can't screw this up.No, And you know, I'll
go down and talk to the hittingcoaches every once in a while, and
I'm like, you know, it'sreally kind of cool that you guys get
that first run on the board.Becauld you give me like six just to
(40:08):
make sure we have a chance toget through the first inning, because you
know, if Wex's research team,because I don't know the numbers directly off
my head, I have a prettygood idea it's close to it's close to
thirty two to thirty five runs inthe first inning on the road for the
Astros that they've given up. Sothey've been climbing this uphill battle offensively the
entire time they've been on the road, and it's kind of, you know,
(40:28):
dictated with that win loss record andsome of the numbers on the road,
but the fact that they went outthere you could actually physically feel both,
you know, in the booth andI'm sure in that dugout when John
Singleton hit that two run home runto give the Astros three runs instead of
one, there was a little bitof sigh of relief. And then you
see Ronelle take the bump on thebottom of the first and you're going,
Okay, we got a shot toget through this, and actually maintain a
(40:51):
lead and try and work through thefirst inning, because the first inning for
the Astros on the road has beenabsolutely horrific. It's been bonkers. And
unfortunately, the day before Righetti couldn't, the day before that, Verlander couldn't.
And obviously Ronelle got into trouble,but out of trouble with a strikeout
and then the double flay ball andthey were in business and off they went
to a victory, a good flightto Detroit, and that's where they are
(41:15):
today, and we got the gamefor you coming up and just a bit
you'll have the game of course onSpace City Home Network. And as always,
we appreciate you joining us and ourlisteners love the hour you spend with
us. We appreciate those that makeit possible. Yeah, I wish I
was hanging with you guys out there, maybe having a little pop before the
game. But yeah, it's goodbeing on with you guys too. And
I will a lot of credit toJeff Witzett Vision Group. They've been right
(41:37):
by me obviously. You know,there's certain things in your life you can
control. Sometimes it's not the Isight, but if you can go in
and get that consultation right with doctorJeff Witzit. That's part of the beauty
of the Witchet Vision group is thatyou're gonna sit down with the actual doctor
that's doing the procedure and have theconversation, ask the questions you need to
have done, and then they willget you in there and have their state
of the art facility take care ofyour eyesight needs. And then, of
(42:00):
course low T Center has been fantasticfor me as well, because I like
working out still and I also likesleeping. Taking that shot once a week
has helped me get my sleep andrecover from some of my workouts. So
fellas, if you want to maintaingreatness both on the field and off the
field, get in there and gocheck out low Tcenter dot com. All
right, Blummer, we appreciate itas always. Tell aj hello for both
(42:22):
of us, and we'll see youwhen you get back to town. I
definitely will, and I look forwardto seeing you guys too. Good stuff
there from Jeff Blaumil see him onthe broadcast tonight obviously, as the Astros
and Tigers getting on the opener ofa three game set. We'll have you
ready for that with the Astros ondeck in about an hour from now
You look at it. Look atit. Oh yeah, this is radio.
You listened to it on Sports Talkseven ninety ASTROS broadcaster Jeff Blum on
seven ninety. It is brought toyou by low T Center. And just
like that, we're off and runningwith another Friday edition of the A Team
(00:22):
here on Sports Talk seven ninety,which, as you heard, means we
are joined by Space City Home Networkbroadcaster, astro's analyst Jeff Blum, wex
and ac here at Carbach Brewing Companyand Blummer, as I texted you when
we were talking about today's show,thank god they won one on their way
out of town because that was youguys mentioned on the broadcast. That was
(00:44):
a much happier flight than it wouldhave been. Oh yeah, it is
good to be on with you guys, and actually I have something positive to
talk about because it has been roughhere of late, and there was still
some I mean, that wasn't theeasiest of wins either. I mean it
felt like more of a relief thatthey actually did win the game that a
celebration. Yeah we got one,but yeah, it definitely helps out on
(01:04):
the flight when everybody's got a wunder their belt and you can enjoy the
beverages a little bit more, thesame sense of relief that Jordon had as
soon as he struck the ball inthe first inning and turned around and looked
towards the dugout. Yeah, andI really hope that that to look back
at the dugout saying, Okay,I figured out what was going on.
I could get this thing right andstart to really, you know, improve
the middle part of this lineup,because it's a lot to put on one
(01:27):
guy like Jordan and say that ifhe goes Vigo, because we put so
much emphasis on just getting on base, kind of passing the baton and giving
these guys opportunities. But it reallyin the wins and losses. The difference
in numbers for your gone is exactlywhat it means for this team to go
out there and win. So he'sa big guy, he's got a big
(01:48):
swing, and if he can continueto do what he's doing, it should
be good for the Astros because theydefinitely need some some more powerful offense and
put up some big numbers. Didyou ever think that we were talking about
a moment in time this season whereguys like John Singleton are helping to carry
the offense. You know what Imean, Yes and no, but yes
in the sense that you need thoseguys on the periphery to step up every
(02:10):
once in a while because you knowyou're gonna have moments where Jordan or some
of these other big boys are gettingit done. So you need you need
your role players like the Singletons ofthe Two Bonds, you know, even
you know Jake Myers at times todo something. But considering the situation with
the Bray you're getting sent out andhaving John Singleton step up, it's pretty
(02:31):
impressive, man, because for ninegames he's actually been a huge contribution to
this offense. With what four homeruns ten RBIs he's actually hit him in
some big moments. We could slideover to ad Adam J. Wexler on
my x platform for some of theJohn Singleton numbers. You know, I
had some time on my hands,Blummer and I decided to put the research
(02:53):
team to work today, much likeyou guys do over on Space City Home
Network with some unbelievable been sitting onthese numbers. Your research team has probably
had their hands fulled just you know, your play well fully loaded, ready
to fire. Yeah, let's putit this, Yeah, Let's put it
this way, the Wexler research teamprobably hates me because I just constantly put
(03:15):
in a work. I'm always like, you got I need more, You
gotta dig further, You gotta reallygive me something that's gonna wow the people,
and hopefully this does. You mentionedwhat is absolutely one hundred percent true
about the work for John Singleton.Some home run facts for Johnny s All
four of his home runs are multirun homers. Two of them flipped a
one run deficit into a one runlead, and both of those homers were
(03:38):
in the sixth inning or later.Two of them have come on the first
pitch of it bat, two wereahead while he was ahead in the count,
so hitters advantage on all four essentially, and since becoming the starter,
like you just mentioned, he leadsall first basemen in homers and RBI.
Nobody has more than four homers,nobody has more than ten RBI, And
thanks to yesterday's home run, that'sthree consecutive of series finales that John Singleton
(04:02):
has hit a long ball in.He is taking full advantage of this.
We'd love the story if it wereanybody that was a reserve and got the
opportunity his story is even more hardto believe in how long it went between
it Bats and the Majors and whathe did to be in this position,
and it's just this team absolutely needsit and it's awesome in every way you
(04:24):
look at it. No, theywere in a tight spot and it was
kind of interesting, you know,with a bread you're going down. They
actually showed a lot of confidence inwhat John Singleton was going to be able
to do, because where would webe sitting right now if Singleton wasn't doing
what he is doing. It wouldhave been a revolving door at first base,
but probably between Yanor Diez Low,Perfido, Mauricio Dubon and maybe some
(04:46):
other guys over there. So it'skind of been a blessing in disguise for
both the Astros and for what forwhat Singleton needed to do. It's been
a full circle moment. You talkabout the story out of base all for
three years, all of a suddenfinds himself back into the organization that originally
drafted him and gave him that bigcontract, and here he is contributing.
What I love about John is thatwe talked about, you know, the
(05:11):
power, the home runs, thedistance that all the stack cast numbers that
come with it. He's had acouple of nice picks over there at first
base, and he's actually putting togethersome phenomenal at bats, taking some walks
and making pitchers pitch. No,he had a couple of key moments there,
one that you probably would have likedto have had back if you were
the guy throwing it at first base, and then that scoop yesterday late.
(05:32):
But I mean, and again,you guys appropriately I think gave that home
run the do that it was.It was, you know, richly deserving
after he went off the facade ofthe third deck of Yankee Stadium. There's
cheap home runs to right field atYankee Stadium, and then there's the polar
opposite, which is what that was. Oh my gosh. Yeah, you
(05:55):
were talking about the Anthony Polpi homerun that stack cast said it went three
point thirty, but I think itwould all about three hundred and fifteen feet
to sneak around that pole on theright side. That there was no doubt
about John, And there is thereanything better than watching John Singleton just bat
flip a home run instantaneously when heknows he gets it, as well as
he did, and then the halfTK absolutely lose his mind as it hit,
(06:17):
you know, almost into the upperdeck. That was pretty impressive all
the way around. Yeah, TKwas venturing into your don territory when he
hit won around that same area aminute made. But yeah, I mean
that's that's from the hitting side ofthings. And then Renel Blanco, I
mean, this guy is just youtalk about a great story and it happening
(06:38):
late in his career. Like everythingyou just got done saying about John Singleton,
you could probably turn around and applythe pitching version of that to Renel
Blanco. No, it's pretty wild. You know, in Latin America,
if you get signed after the ageof sixteen seventeen, you're basically a fossil
and there's really no chance you're gonnabe a Fillery triple A or something like
that. But Renelle was actually refinedhimself. And it's the same thing with
(07:01):
Bromer about this Christian Haabier and someof these other guys that were signed at
eighteen or twenty two years old.You know, somebody saw something in these
guys and realized that maybe they're alittle bit of a late bloomer or they
just needed a little more refinement.But Renel Blanco is a guy that was
working at a car washing, youknow, waiting for a job to come
his way, finally gets one withthe Astros. He's got a powerful arm
(07:21):
in the mid to upper nineties.When he needs it, the slider plays
at that level. But in beinginserted into that starting rotation, he needed
that third pitch to figure things outand get a little length out of those
outings that he was having, andthe changeup has been his best pitch.
And here he is. He's astopper in this rotation, and we knew
he was going to be good enoughto maybe be in the rotation. But
(07:44):
if you think about it and goback to the start of the season,
if the Astros rotation is healthy,Renel Blanco's doing what he's doing for the
Space Cowboys, not the Astros.You know. One thing that actually I'm
not sure if you guys had mentionedit at all during this month of May
and not mentioned it here on ourshow either, because I was waiting for
the announcement and then I just neverheard anything, and I finally yesterday looked.
(08:07):
I still can't figure out how hedid not win Pitcher of the month.
For the opening months of the season, it was like Barrios won it.
He had good numbers. A coupleof Red Sox pitchers had good numbers.
One of them threw a no hitterand all their other numbers were close
enough together that I would have thoughtthat would push him over the top.
But no, yeah, I wouldI wish you would have pushed him over
(08:28):
the top too, because I thinkwhat's interesting. I mean, even if
you try and put it into context, Barrios's pitching for a team that's not
doing very well, the Astro.You know, Renel Blockville pitching for a
team that's not doing very well.But I don't think too many people understood
that he actually has six of youknow, he's contributed to six of the
astros thirteen wins, And if youthink about that, that's kind of a
(08:48):
destructive number because there's only seven winson the other side of that ledger,
which gives you a little more creditto what Renel's doing in a situation where
things aren't going the Astros way.He's got out and basically forced to win
in his starts, and they countedon him to be that guy. Well,
not to mention after the no hitterhis very next start. He went
(09:09):
into what the sixth inning and hadanother no hit bid very next time out.
Yeah, he's got that kind ofstuff. And then if you're playing
the right team to match up withthat change up, he should be devastating
to some of those teams. Idon't know if you guys heard the postgame
interview he had after his start,he actually mentioned to Julia he said that
that change up has been a goodfish from all season long, but he
(09:31):
was worried that sitting on it,so he went to the sliders. So
it kind of gives you an ideaof the mind a little bit that he's
able to make adjustment. Yeah,very cerebral thing for him to say and
reveal about his approach. I thinkthe next thing we need to do before
we take a quick time out isto just get to the bottom of something
(09:52):
that I just I've been thinking aboutsince this morning when I saw it,
and I knew you would have theanswer. What's going on outside your hopes
hell room window, dude? Imean, it's just another reminder that you
know, I am not on abig league roster anymore. When I get
the low floor overlooking the dumpster inthe alleyway. Oh my gosh, yeah,
(10:13):
in Detroit, Detroit. May besure you point that out of all
places, you know, we landedDetroit, we go. The area we're
staying at is really a nice area. I love the place, and the
hotel is good. But we getin at one o'clock in the morning.
It's pitch black outside. I'm gassed. I go to bed and wake up
and I'm like, man, Iwonder what it looks like outside. I
(10:35):
got to rip open the you know, the blind, and I'm just like,
holy, what the hell? Yeah, it was not forward to Yeah,
that's yeah, Michigan in May justjust fantastic. The only thing that
was missing there clearly doesn't need tobe there, that brick wall outside the
(10:56):
window. You would think maybe theywould need a sign that says you are
in Detroit, but the photo makesit so obvious. I was gonna say,
who needs a sign? When apicture speaks a thousand words? It
really really does. All right,We'll have thousands more words coming up the
rest of the hour with Blummer.He joins us for his weekly visit up
until four o'clock, but right nowhe's going to join us to tell you
(11:18):
about what you need to be watchingtonight's opener of the three game series between
the Astros and the Tigers, andanything else you're taking in, whether it's
sports or otherwise. If you've gotfast speeds throughout your home, if you've
got a reliable connection in every room, and if you've got power for all
of your devices you're using even wheneveryone is online, then you probably have
(11:39):
Infinity because wall the wall Wi Fithrough the Infinity ten G network is going
to get you all that and awhole lot more. And as Blumber and
I have told you about a longtime now, that's the only way to
go when you want that reliability totake in any of what you're watching from
a Houston sports standpoint. No,And at this given moment, I have
four daughters driving back from school.So by the time I get done with
(12:03):
this road trip, I'm going tobe very grateful that I do have that
wadle wall Wi Fi because there's goingto be six people going crazy on that
whether we be streaming, playing videogames, or if I'm actually trying to
get my work done or my wifeis actually trying to search for another sofa
for one of her clients. It'sgoing to be madness and having that walla
wall Wi Fi is greatly appreciated.And of course every night when we're actually
(12:24):
have the ability to stream something orbinge watch. If we do have some
downtime, I've got my Exfinity thatI just speak to and tell it what
I want to watch and it popsonto the TV. So I'm grateful for
the convenience and the Wi wallda wallWi Fi on Exfinity. Yeah. Absolutely,
the convenience factor, as we've alwaysmentioned, is off the charts,
and that wall to wall Wi Fiis something you can get your hands on
(12:46):
as well. Now, through Junetwenty first customer is going to get started
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Exfinity, call one eight hundred Infinityor visit a store today Infinity for out
sponsor of your Houston Astros. There'sa space City Home Network's Todd Kallis,
(13:09):
there's the at you got him.It's Adam Clinton and Adam Wegler. Clinton
stop impersonating me on Sports Talk seven. And you know it had to feel
good, Blummer to hear TK saythat last night when Josh Hater finished off
(13:30):
a save opportunity. Can we talkabout that sequence? And I know Wex
is gonna jump in here. Hegot him there, it is, he
got him. The fact that Ilove doing that way more than I should.
It's great call. The fact that, uh, you know, Presley
had a little bit of a hiccupthere in the eighth and you yank him
for another four out save and Isay another because I was this his first
(13:52):
four outside. I thought it wasthe second one. I thought he had
one earlier. It was an attemptedHe's pitched more attempted to get more than
three outs on more than one occasionnow. And there are a lot of
things to dissect about that particular situation. And the way that Aaron Boone has
set his lineup up, I thinkis pretty intentional and it's a smart thing
to do if you can with theyou know, Judge into Verdugo into Stanton
(14:13):
into Rizzo, with the back andforth where the splits sometimes do payoff.
Presley going in in the eighth likehe normally would, though that means he's
going to face Aaron Judge, whoprobably probably, I'm not sure what the
numbers say. Probably has a bitof an advantage against Presley, and of
course I do know what the numberssay, and then goes to hater in
(14:35):
the ninth, which is again,that's set up guy closer and maybe there's
consideration to flip it last night.But what did you think about the way
that it did play for the postRenelle Blanco portion of the day, how
Joe sent guys out there and howthey ultimately performed. Well, I think
that Brian Abray, you actually dida pretty good job. He looks like
you're starting to come back into forma little bit. For me, I
(14:56):
just I've got to see more fromhis slider because last year he kind of
there was a different there was adifferent approach towards the hitter for me from
Brian a Brady. Last season itwas a little more, there was a
little more malicious intent, and Ireally haven't felt that from Brian a Bray
yet. This year. He's gotthe fastball that can get up to ninety
(15:16):
eight ninety nine, and we finallystarted to see that in the last couple
of addings. But that slider thatjust kind of kind of tunnels out of
the hand real quick and then hasthat sharp late break that can can be
really deceptive to a right handed hittersand get the swing and miss when he
needs it. But he's starting toget that to come back a little bit,
and I was kind of curious,you know, at full disclosure.
You know, when we were inbetween and on breaks in the booth,
(15:39):
TK and I look at each otherbecause we both have our scorebook, and
I think part of being a fanand part of being a broadcaster, and
part of what I did when Iplayed, you know, when I wasn't
playing every day was sit on thebench and try and manage the game along
with the managers so you're not surprisedby anything. And then you try and
be a little creative and see whatmight happen. And that was a pocket
where you saw two three, fourin that lineup coming on and you like
(16:03):
you say, I said, AaronJudge has ridiculous numbers against Ryan Presley,
and he proved it again by hittinga ball four hundred and seventy three feet.
But at the same time, youknow, I think it was a
little more of Joe just saying thisis my this is what I've got.
This guy's my closer. You're gonnacome in and do your best to get
through the situation. Unfortunately it didn'twork out. But fortunately, on the
other hand, you saw Josh Hatergo out there and get a four out
(16:26):
saved, and he kind of didit in dramatic fashion and maybe needed a
little bit of a confidence boost,and I think he got it when you
saw that last pitch at you know, ninety six, ninety seven elevated out
of the zone for the swing andmiss. The only thing I don't like
about that situation and having that fourout save, and granted it was to
protect Ryan Presley and that ballgame,but the fact that you come in this
first game here against Detroit and ifit ends up being a tight ballgame in
(16:48):
the big ballpark like this, youmay not have you know, Ryan Presley
or Josh Hater available. So I'mkind of curious to see what Joe says
before the game. It's very muchthe case, and I think they're playing
games where today's game turns out tobe the most important game, and sometimes
it's obvious. Sometimes it's hard toplay that way knowing what's still in front
(17:08):
of you. But it certainly seemslike, that's how Joe's deploying those guys
just so people are aware. AndI think some people have seen a change.
You mentioned it with the brayw andit seems clear just by watching.
But over the last fifteen days,each of those three relievers has an ERA
under two. Each of them hasappeared in exactly five games. The trio
has struck out twenty eight batters insixteen and a third innings, and they've
(17:33):
only allowed ten hits in those sixteenand a thirty. This could be a
sign of things to come. Itcertainly looks that way with a braw We're
coming off a game where Presley gottattooed by Aaron Judge and couldn't find the
strike zone. But that also showsyou how good he had been. Probably
worth noting that Joe did mention theother day he had a little bit of
a back issue. It's probably whythere was so much time in between appearances.
(17:53):
Seth Martinez also is not allowed torun in any of his last five
appearances of the b for a numberof different reasons. The starter's probably the
way they had pitched this year andhow many injuries they add. Maybe this
is a sign. Could this bea sign that the bullpen they thought they
might have is get a little gettinga little bit closer to being in place.
(18:15):
I would hope so, And justyou know, and having the conversations
with Joe and fortunately being able todo that. You asked the question,
how you know, Joe if youthought about doing anything else trying to mix
up that bullpen, But you know, the answer is what else could he
do? These guys are out therefor a reason. There's a reason they
have the contracts that they do.Montero looks like he's pitching a little bit
better than he did last season,so that's an improvement and starts to create
(18:37):
a little bit of length. Butwhen you get to the back end of
the bullpen and you have a onerun lead, two run lead, three
and run lead, you're gonna haveto go through the a Bray Presley Hater
routine. And if he's not ableto do that, or those guys can't
get it done, there's nobody elseto go to. So he's basically in
a situation where those guys are itand I think that hopefully with them understanding
that and getting their legs under hima little bit this season and building some
(18:59):
of the confidence that they can expecttheir role to be exactly that to come
in and close out games. Butit would be kind of nice to have
two three runs and maybe have acomfortable outing so you can have some low
leverage situations instead of having every pitchmean something because the run. There's only
a one run lead. A lotof opportunities throughout yesterday afternoon to not have
(19:22):
it be just a one run leador a two run lead, from three
to nothing to four to two midwaythrough the game when it felt like and
I'm sure it did in the boothfor you as well, it could have
been five, two, six,two, seven to eight two. They
did have three hits with runners inscoring position yesterday, three of their twelve
at bats. Somehow, two ofthem with a runner on second each did
(19:44):
not bring the run home. Oneof them didn't even move the runner up,
as it was hit behind or infront of Jiner Diaz, and unlike
the day before, he decided smartlyto go back to the bag, so
low Braffito gets to first base.Then another single so well hit that again,
another run doesn't score. The guywho did drive in the run with
a hit with a runner and scoringposition was Jeremy paina he's taking well to
(20:04):
batting clean up five for seven overhis two games, and wouldn't you just
say it's just a continuation of howhe has looked at the plate this year.
No, he looks really good,and obviously confidence is incredibly high.
And how about Joe's spot a weekever, you know that there were a
lot of talk, you know,just moving back into the two hole like
he was in you know, twentytwenty two, and you're going, well,
(20:25):
let's just kind of let Jeremy Paineyget his feet wet, let him
just kind of, you know,stay consistent, let's not shake things up
too much. And then all ofa sudden, Joe just puts him right
in the middle of the lineup inthat four spot, and he's gone out
there and just continue to swing.But you know, I think a lot
of it has to do with thefact that Jeremy Painey has kind of created
a swing over the off season thathe's comfortable with, brought it into spring
(20:45):
training, was able to get somehits with it, so he built the
confidence in that swing, and nowhere he is, you know, heading
towards the middle of May. Youknow, arguably the best hitter in this
lineup as far as batting average isconcerned. He and al Twove are the
best duo up the middle, orat least one of them, and all
of major ly Baseball. But Ijust love that Jeremy Peney's got some of
that confidence back after a tough sophomoreseason in the big leagues. And I
(21:07):
think what else is great about thatnew swing that he has, it's very
simplified, is that if he doesget in trouble, it feels like a
swing that he's going to be ableto tinker with a little bit and not
have to make these major adjustments togo out there and be more consistent.
But again, a lot of itgoes back to zone control, because we're
still going to see him chase somesliders out of the zone, but we
don't see him chasing every single sliderout of the zone. He'll chase one
(21:29):
and then he'll spit on one,and all of a sudden, he gets
a mistake out over the plate,and he's doing what you're supposed to do
with pitches you see in the zone. He's hitting him hard. Talking to
Jeff Blum here on Sports Talks sevento ninety, and we will continue for
the next half hour or so withhim as he is in Detroit where the
Astros are starting the opener of athree game set against the Tigers, and
a question about that specific not onlyteam but division when we come back next
(21:53):
here on the A Team Sports Talkseven ninety. I want to tell you
guys though about where I was gettingaround or what I was getting around in
all day today. Had several errandsto run and was comfortable every step of
the way. You know why becauseof my ZR two courtesy of Classic Elite
Chevy Sugarland, the GM dealer ofthe Year thirteen consecutive years, putting me
(22:15):
into the greatest truck that they haveever built with a Chevy logo on the
front of it. The ZR twoedition of the Silverado is absolutely spectacular.
I highly recommend getting into one,and you know what, tell them to
make it a Duramax. Get thatDuramax diesel engine in there, and you
are going to reap the whirlwind,and you know, reap the benefits of
(22:36):
everything it can provide. The obviouslythe pick up and go, but the
reliability, the comfort, the space, and everybody in the family is going
to be comfortable in the cab ofthat thing. The leather interior, the
bow sound system, everything that youcould want and more packed in to the
best truck Chevy has ever made.Classic Elite Chevy sugar Land, Classic Elite
Chevy Highway Six. Two places youcan go to this weekend that you're gonna
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be able to get into a vehiclelike that or anything else on the menu
for you. Whatever you are inthe market for, they've got it for
you at the best price, andthey'll show you what it means when they
say, together, let's drive.Own and operated by Jeff and Tiffany Sebastian,
tell them, Madam Clanton from SportsTalk seven ninety centy into either location
this weekend. Classic Elite Chevy sugarLand on Saturday and Classic Elite Chevy Highway
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Six on Sunday. Get in therethis weekend. Hey, it's a man
for all. You have every Rocketsgame Sports Talk seven ninety and streaming on
the iHeartRadio app home of Rockets Basketball, the A Team on a Friday afternoon.
Great place for both of the setsof Yakers here today to enjoy themselves.
(23:45):
AC and I are at Carbock Brewingfor the afternoon. It's an awesome
place to enjoy both the weather todaybefore it gets super duper hot, and
obviously everything they have here both behindthe bar and outside in the beer garden.
Staring at the taps. Right now, they filled something up in the
class. I don't know what itis, but I'll enjoy it. Coffee
and mine yours is spiked. Yeah, And Jeff Blum of course, is
with the astros there in Detroit.This road trip began with the flyout to
(24:10):
New York in advance of the Tuesdaygame, and of course everybody has seen
some of the broadcast teams Antics andNew York, Julia, Todd and Jeff
hanging out and enjoying their day.What is a day in New York like
before you get a series started.It's nice and we were actually pretty spoiled
with weather out there that first Ithink the first day we were out there
for that day off, it wasseventy two degrees sunny. It was nice
(24:34):
and calm in the morning, andwe weren't actually a pretty good spot near
Central Park where we can actually kindof roam around get into the park if
we need to or want to.But you know, I'm actually I'm not
as messed up as I was acouple of weeks ago. So I actually
got out, walked around quite abit and enjoyed it. Found some new
coffee shops, found some new foodout there, and it's a good time.
(24:55):
It was actually really pleasant because thestreets weren't packed with a lot of
people and you could actually embrace whatNew York has to offer. It was
a good time. I was aboutto say, that's probably awesome with the
weather you had. You could actuallysee the humidity here in Houston yesterday.
It was delightful. And you know, yeah, I bet Central Park was
awesome after you avoided all the pigeonsand the bums and everything else. But
yeah, New York's great. Good. Yeah, I was gonna say,
(25:22):
I don't know. Yeah, Ididn't see what you were referencing. I
mean, there is, it's abig city and there's a lot going on,
But I mean they I felt likeit was in better shape than I've
seen it in the past. AndI don't know it's because if there were
if it was because there were justa limited amount of people there because it's
May, and maybe they were anticipatingsome bad weather and we lucked out,
but it was easy to move aroundand there were actually some pretty delightful people
(25:44):
out there. Amazingly enough, that'soutside the stadium. Inside the stadium a
little bit different story. Now.The dirty little secret is that I actually
love New York City and have acomplete fascination with it. But Yankees fans
ruined that over the last eight years. So now we're in a fight.
It's fine, but hey, speakingof American League opponents, as we move
(26:06):
along to Detroit, Michigan, anothergreat metropolis. You're talking about the latest
example of an AL Central team that'slike probably good. I mean Cleveland and
the Royals have had their way withthe Astros so far. Well, I
guess actually the Astros won that Clevelandseries, but they're much improved. The
(26:27):
Royals absolutely beat up on the Astros. This is a This is not your
twenty twenty three Dad's Division in theAmerican League Central. No, they're doing
a good job, you know.Coming into this game, the Detroit Tigers
are nineteen and eighteen and they're theirfourth in the division. So that gives
you an idea that there's quite afew teams out of the five that are
(26:49):
playing five hundred baseball or better.You know, we saw the Kansas City
Royals earlier and they're probably one ofthe more talented. They might be the
most talented team out there. Iknow the Twins are very good ball club.
Cleveland's doing what they're doing, andthen we come in here to Detroit
and one of the things we heard, you know, in talking to our
old friend AJ Hinch, who's themanager now that Detroit Tigers, is the
fact that you know, if thisteam could ever get healthy and have everybody
(27:12):
on their roster active and available,they would actually be a pretty good ball
club. And they're proving that rightnow. Some of the numbers don't necessarily
dictate that they're they're swinging the batsextremely well, but they're pitching has been
great. Their bullpen has been lockeddown for Aj Hinch, and I think
what you're going to see in thisthree game series when you go from Maze
to Schooble to Flirty, that thatmight be the top three in his rotation.
(27:34):
And we all know that this isAJ's World Series against his former team,
so he's going to put the bestout there, and he's going to
make some moves that maybe he doesn'tnormally do. In a regular season series
to try and beat the Astros.That's what always makes it fun coming down
here to Detroit is the fact thatyou get to see some decent talent now
that everybody's healthy. Well, onething Ac and I talked about before this
(27:56):
road trip and really before the pastweekend when they closed out the homestead against
the Mariners, is you know,the Astros were obviously down and the offense
was kind of a roller coaster withwhat it seemed like they could do with
outrunners in scoring position and what theycouldn't do when they were But we had
talked about, well, what kindof pitching have they really faced, and
you know, teams pitching or elitestarting pitching, and it just really didn't
seem like there was a whole lotof that. It just was unfortunate the
(28:18):
Astros didn't take advantage of it.And that's completely different now. The Mariners
series was a trio of great startingpitchers and pitching staff. Clearly, the
Yankees pitching has been outstanding all year, the Tigers pitching, and you mentioned
their bullpen, it's one of thefive best bullpens in baseball by just about
every way you could look at it. They have clearly faced an uptick in
the pitching that they've seen, andeven though they've you know, they've lost
(28:41):
a few in one of you,I don't know that they haven't to me
actually taken to it very well.It seems like it doesn't have much to
do with who they're facing. It'sit's kind of all on them regardless.
Yeah, because we've seen in thepast they faced the best of the best,
and they won two World Series facingthe best pitching rotations or bullpens along
the way way in the postseason,So it shouldn't be a daunting task for
(29:02):
some of these veterans in that lineupfor the Houston Astros. I think that
we put up a stat the otherday and you can actually add to that
now. It's you know, thirtytwo of thirty seven games have been against
teams with a better than five hundredrecord, And you can qualify tonight like
that because the Detroit Tigers are nineteenand eighteen, so you faced probably or
I think you have faced the toughestschedule in all of baseball to start your
(29:26):
season, so that kind of getskind of is something going against them.
But at the same time, youknow, eight blown saves and losing some
of these one run games. Youknow that doesn't happen normally. When you
have the caliber of bullpen that theAstros have and they're pitching to their ability,
then you can add eight wins tothat win loss total, and all
of a sudden, you're playing fivehundred ball. You're contending for the American
(29:48):
League West. So we can throwall these excuses out there. Back to
the fact of the matter is thatthese guys are underperforming. We need to
see a little bit better out ofthem. This shouldn't be a shock to
the system, knowing that everybody istargeting the Houston Astros. They've been doing
it for years. It's just thatthey haven't been able to combine good hitting
with good pitching on a daily basisto go out and win ball games.
(30:10):
We actually talked about that earlier thisweek, how they've had that target on
their back long before this season,And you know what, it made me
think, I want to I thinkI might start asking you this question every
week until things get, like,you know, somewhat sorted out. What
is the mood of the team,Because you're with them more than pretty much
anybody, We're going to talk toyou on a day to day basis,
(30:30):
whether it's traveling or just around thehome stadium, Like, what is the
team like? Is it better,worse? Different than the last time I
asked you this question last week?Both this might be telling, is just
that that nothing really has changed.It's just the same guys going out there.
They're continuing to grind. I think, you know, just having you
(30:51):
know, we've if you've played thisgame long enough, you've been in situations
where things are not going your way. You get in the cage, or
you get on the mound and youtry and tinker a little bit and try
and find something that's gonna go outthere and compete, but ultimately you get
to the point where you reach thislimit of frustration and you know, something
clicks. It's that fight or flightmentality. You're either gonna sit there and
(31:14):
just say, you know what,I'm gonna put together the best bat I
possibly can. I don't give ayou know too, you know what's on
who's on the mound. They maywin that fight, but I'm gonna go
out there. I'm gonna bloody thema little bit before they knock me out,
or I'm gonna go out there andwin that fight, and I'm gonna
build off that and continue to moveforward. And I just haven't seen those
you know, I want to seesome of that anger. I want to
(31:34):
see some of that some of thatfight come back in these guys, because
in years past, when we sawthem come into ballparks, they would come
out with all their buttons unbuttoned ontheir dress shirts, chest would be out,
and they would just have this slowstrut as they walked into ballparks because
everybody in every fan base would boomthem. Every opposing team would be trying
to throw their best stuff to them, and they would just kind of tip
their cap and go, that wascute, and get a hit, and
(31:56):
all of a sudden they end upwinning ball games. And that's just what
I haven't seen in comparison to yearspast, is just a little bit of
that swagger or you know, alittle bit of that that edge to them,
and they're still trying to look forit. I don't know where they're
gonna find it, but they've gotto be able to go out there and
get it. It's that wrestling heelmentality that they you know, like you're
talking about, but you know,I think that's actually the best answer you
(32:19):
could have given us, is thatthere isn't a change, because that's what
you want to hear in any baseballteam, whether they've been successful or a
long time or not, the factthat they're going about their business the same
way from a consistency standpoint. Iguess yeah. And it's it's hard,
you know, because you want todo it as a team, but at
the same time, when you're strugglingas a unit, somebody's you know,
(32:43):
you can't sit there and look tothe guy to your right or left,
or look to the guy hitting behindme in the lineup or in front of
me and say, man, Ihope he gets it done. You've got
to have nine guys or twenty sixguys say I'm going to go out there
and get it done, and thenwhen I start to get it done,
the guy behind me is going toget it done. And you just hope
that it's contagious, because we talkabout hitting being contagious all the time,
and that contagion just hasn't taken holdof what the astros are going out there
(33:05):
and trying to do. And youreally hope that you know, with what
you wer don did yesterday with acouple of rockets, and then you see
John Singleton, you know, batflip of baseball and pimp it. You
hope that some of that kind ofstarts to, you know, spread around
that dugout and you get some ofthat some of that vibe back that says,
you know what, we are prettydamn good. Let's go out there
and try and make a run outof this thing. But for the time
being, when win the game yesterday, yes it was a sigh of relief
(33:29):
because you actually got through that gameand won a close one. But then
you wake up today and you go, okay, we just got to win
today's game, or win each inning. And I think once you start to
break it down and start to takesome smaller steps instead of trying to go
out there and get four hits inevery bat or strike out six guys every
inning, just keep taking that stepfrom inning to inning, winning each inning,
and hopefully that kind of snowballs intosome w's And when you're not thinking
(33:52):
about the bigger picture, you're winningthe smaller fights, and all of a
sudden you kind of wake up orlook at the big picture and realize you're
back in back in the fight thingsyou said on those last couple of answers.
I'll bring over to the other sideand have questions about one the John
Singleton Homer and the other the Astrosswagger. Jeff Blumm here with us for
the first hour of the program ona Friday, as per usual, he's
(34:14):
in Detroit with the Astros that theyget started with the three game series with
the Tigers. Will have that gameforty first pitch here on Sports Talk seven
nine. And of course Ac andI live out at Carbock Brewing on a
Friday. Are you kidding me?Love it? It's the best. And
you know what else is the best? Something's so nice. I'm gonna tell
you about it twice in the samehour. See what I did there.
Infinity and their wall to wall WiFi only on the Infinity ten G network.
(34:36):
You heard Blummer and I talk aboutthis earlier. If you have walda
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So if a few TVs are running, and an iPad and a few
(34:58):
cell phones, and and let's seewhat else is hooked up to my I've
got a pool hooked up to aWiFi. I've got things that you just
even more to think about that arehooked up to the Wi Fi, not
to mention, you know, andsome of it's hardwired. But again,
when you've got the Wi Fi thatis so reliable, you can afford to
not have to think, oh man, I have to hardwire every single room.
Exfinity gives you that ability with walWi Fi only on the Exfinity ten
(35:23):
G network. You can get WaldawallWi Fi from Exfinity for a reliable connection
throughout your home. And now throughJune twenty first, astros fans can get
started, as I mentioned before,with gig speed Internet for just twenty five
dollars a month and that's for twoyears with no annual contract and free Wi
Fi equipment included when you add unlimitedmobile. Three ways to go about getting
(35:45):
the ball rolling, do it intime for Mom this Mother's Day. Go
to Exfinity dot com, call oneeight hundred Exfinity, or visit a store
today Exfinity, proud sponsor of yourHouston Astros, Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler
back to Houston's eighteen on Sports Talkseven ninety. It is the eighteen,
(36:10):
It is Friday. We are alivefrom car Bock Brewing, and of course
we're joined by our special guest eachand every Friday afternoon, Jeff Blum.
I can't believe he talked all overa chevell Yeah, you talked all over
that Chevelle groove. Yeah, andyou didn't didn't let Blum hear it?
Oh? Was that the first timeyou've heard that song that I wrote?
But it has the same effect everytime. Oh man, there's no there's
(36:32):
no song like that for you.Wex There's nothing that turns you on.
Huh Oh. I'll betting my wifewill be here soon. I'll ask her
that same question. I got this, so thank Adam Wexler's coming to the
appreciation dam in minute made park yourattention. Please, It's fine if you
(36:52):
guys want to come up with awalk up song for me, that's all
I'm Are you going to tell youwhat it is? I can't wait to
hear it. It's Tom Sawyer,It's Tom Sawyer. There's no doubt in
my mind it's Tom Sawyer because youlike Rush, and that's the coolest sounding
intro to a Rush song for anat Bata's worth his salt. He's gonna
play it the next ten second.Just totally redeemed himself if he actually likes
(37:15):
Rush. It's it's hard to sayI would Homer every at bat, but
if that was my walk up song, pretty good chance that I would.
Well last year, no, butthey are pretty awesome. You you know,
we just discussed this the other day. Blumber the home run that you're
not hit to the flight deck inToronto last year. Oh dude, I
did. I did a medley ofRush songs for that Good Morning video and
(37:36):
that was the song. But thatdoes bring me exactly to where I wanted
to go. Because last night's gameof course right here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety with the Astros, yourexclusive home. But it was a three
TV broadcast night. For last night'sAstros booth, well, there's no question
had it. It's not the Yankeeslocal booth, and it's not the Astros
(37:57):
local booth. It's the national booth. And they got an extra. They
were the worst booth because Bob wason the call, but anyway, somebody
got it, dude, like threeof them. So the verbal equivalent of
kicking a puppy. The good newsabout all that is all three networks,
essentially they're getting the same look.So when Marcus Stroman throws that pitch just
(38:20):
a bit higher in the strike zoneand John Singleton gets a hold of it
and acknowledges after the game, Iprobably can't hit a ball any better than
that, any further than that.And the camera shots that everybody that's watching
gets sees the flight of the ball. Here's Todd screaming about it brilliantly going
off the facing of the third deck, and then the immediate cutaway to the
steps and the ledge of the astrosdugout and the biggest, baddest left handed
(38:45):
home running hitting astro of all timeis in awe of what John Singleton did.
And you guys, I know youwere amazed by it, but seeing
him Jordan amazed by it, it'slike the greatest thing ever. Yeah,
And on our show, I've gotto give a little credit to our director
who's on the road with us.Kelly Donaldson did a great job and he
(39:05):
caught that moment that your Don wasshocked, and I don't know who had
the idea to keep a camera onhim, but the fact that it was
available in that moment, because wewere all pretty impressed with your Don hitting
that laser off the set into thesecond deck, but then you had John
Singleton's step up and hit one offthe facade of the upper deck, almost
getting into that the last deck atYankee Stadium. And to have that kind
(39:25):
of reaction from a man who normallyhits the ball about four hundred and fifty
feet every time he steps in thebox, that was pretty special. That
was a lot of fun to watch. Whenever I see your Don in off
of something, you know, it'spretty damn good. Yeah, and I'm
sure that Bob Costas was upset thatthe Yankees couldn't pull off the season sweet,
but that was a big read.You know how about that three straight
(39:46):
games it's won nothing because of ahome run Kyle Tucker the first two nights,
and then you've got your Don onthe third night. But when Singleton
hit that home run, you kindof started to feel like, all right,
maybe they can't screw this up.No, And you know, I'll
go down and talk to the hittingcoaches every once in a while, and
I'm like, you know, it'sreally kind of cool that you guys get
that first run on the board.Becauld you give me like six just to
(40:08):
make sure we have a chance toget through the first inning, because you
know, if Wex's research team,because I don't know the numbers directly off
my head, I have a prettygood idea it's close to it's close to
thirty two to thirty five runs inthe first inning on the road for the
Astros that they've given up. Sothey've been climbing this uphill battle offensively the
entire time they've been on the road, and it's kind of, you know,
(40:28):
dictated with that win loss record andsome of the numbers on the road,
but the fact that they went outthere you could actually physically feel both,
you know, in the booth andI'm sure in that dugout when John
Singleton hit that two run home runto give the Astros three runs instead of
one, there was a little bitof sigh of relief. And then you
see Ronelle take the bump on thebottom of the first and you're going,
Okay, we got a shot toget through this, and actually maintain a
(40:51):
lead and try and work through thefirst inning, because the first inning for
the Astros on the road has beenabsolutely horrific. It's been bonkers. And
unfortunately, the day before Righetti couldn't, the day before that, Verlander couldn't.
And obviously Ronelle got into trouble,but out of trouble with a strikeout
and then the double flay ball andthey were in business and off they went
to a victory, a good flightto Detroit, and that's where they are
(41:15):
today, and we got the gamefor you coming up and just a bit
you'll have the game of course onSpace City Home Network. And as always,
we appreciate you joining us and ourlisteners love the hour you spend with
us. We appreciate those that makeit possible. Yeah, I wish I
was hanging with you guys out there, maybe having a little pop before the
game. But yeah, it's goodbeing on with you guys too. And
I will a lot of credit toJeff Witzett Vision Group. They've been right
(41:37):
by me obviously. You know,there's certain things in your life you can
control. Sometimes it's not the Isight, but if you can go in
and get that consultation right with doctorJeff Witzit. That's part of the beauty
of the Witchet Vision group is thatyou're gonna sit down with the actual doctor
that's doing the procedure and have theconversation, ask the questions you need to
have done, and then they willget you in there and have their state
of the art facility take care ofyour eyesight needs. And then, of
(42:00):
course low T Center has been fantasticfor me as well, because I like
working out still and I also likesleeping. Taking that shot once a week
has helped me get my sleep andrecover from some of my workouts. So
fellas, if you want to maintaingreatness both on the field and off the
field, get in there and gocheck out low Tcenter dot com. All
right, Blummer, we appreciate itas always. Tell aj hello for both
(42:22):
of us, and we'll see youwhen you get back to town. I
definitely will, and I look forwardto seeing you guys too. Good stuff
there from Jeff Blaumil see him onthe broadcast tonight obviously, as the Astros
and Tigers getting on the opener ofa three game set. We'll have you
ready for that with the Astros ondeck in about an hour from now
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