We All Now Know Brennan Miller, Jose Al"Toe"ve and Texans-Vikings Prep Underway

Adam Wexler and Adam Clanton talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on September 18th 2024.

• Brennan Miller... Not popular in Houston... At all...
• Astros win a marathon 10 inning game 4-3 over the Padres. 
• Jose Altuve continues to prove himself as a Houston sports legend. 
• Texans get ready for the Vikings in Minnesota. 
• DeMeco Ryans and crew continue to deal with injury issues. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team A team.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
It's straight up three o'clock here in Houston, Texas, which
means I've had a sufficient amount of time for the
second consecutive day to lower my blood pressure with regards
to something that happened in an Astros game. Adam Clinton
right here, wex over there, and yes you can see
us as we are in Space City Home Network as
well today. Where if you were watching that channel last night,

(00:41):
late into the night and you were expecting to see,
you know, a routine baseball game, you got anything.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
But and I would like to say.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Wex that there was just one incident or maybe two
at the most. I mean, come on, these guys are professionals,
after all, these umpires that have had a lot of
training and a lot of experience in some case at
calling a baseball game the right way. But not even
twenty four hours after my long winded rant about the
guy that was behind home plate in Game one of

(01:10):
this series, the guy behind home plate in Game two
last night was once again the center of attention for
all the wrong reasons. I cannot believe what I just watched.
And I can't believe that it was a West Coast game,
as I was like peeling my eyelids open. It's been
a long week already, just trying to stay awake, and

(01:30):
then the adrenaline started and I had no problem after that.
What a disaster in San Diego. Oh, by the way,
the Astros won.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, extra innings, no less. The Astros won extra innings,
no less than they only scored one run in the
opening half inning of extra innings and one They also
were probably scoreboard watching a little bit and saw that
the Mariners got embarrassed by the Yankees. So they have
a five game lead. There are eleven games of baseball
left to play in the regular season, three of which
will be against each other. And their magic number went

(01:59):
down to eight and then down to seven with those
two results last night. And yes, there's far too many
elements even for us to get into our shortened show
today before we get to Astros on deck, almost all
of them umpire related. If we spoke about last night's
game and eliminated all of that, you would recognize the
actual game for what it was. Playoff baseball. Two teams

(02:21):
that I think, really truly ought to believe and really
truly do believe they're gonna be the ones with the
hunk of metal at the end of the year. The Padres.
I said this earlier today only because I was on
earlier today, so I'll say it again. I think the
CS will feature the Astros. Of course, I think the
other CS will feature the Padres. I've made that prediction already.

(02:43):
The Padres are going to be in the NLCS, the
Astros are going to be in the ALCS, and this
absolutely could be what we're going to watch in the
World Series, and I think it would be phenomenal from
an excitement perspective, especially we know what this ballpark's like
in the World Series. It's it's battle tested. We know
what these fans are like during the postseason because they've

(03:03):
had so many opportunities to get out there, get loud,
get excited, and some of the most entertaining games for
fans of any teams, not just the Astros and the Braves,
or the Astros in the Nationals, or the Astros and
the Dodgers. It doesn't even matter who you're fans of.
The games that they've played in the World Series over
their four trips there. They're legendary, they're awesome. They're among

(03:24):
the best things that people have been treated to during
this Golden era. Certainly, I would hope most people believe
they're better than I don't know, all four of the others,
at least one of the others, the most recent one.
And then now we're I think the infrequency with which
the Astros play in San Diego, maybe you just don't
realize what an awesome atmosphere it is out there because
you only get there these three games this season. The

(03:45):
atmosphere there is almost unmatched for you know, the non
traditional baseball fans. They were up on their feet when
they're supposed to be. The place absolutely got lit on
fire when Manny Machado tied the game up in the
sixth inning with the two run homer off of Hunter Brown.
And that takes me to the baseball side of it.
Great starting pitching both sides, ace level material in a

(04:06):
playoff atmosphere. Who hit the big shot for the other team,
their best player, Manny Machado, the two run homer who
was up to up to bat to end the game,
their best player, Manny Machado. If that ball gets through
on one hundred and three point two miles an hour
off the bat. The game was going to end either way,
the Astros were gonna make the play in the game
was gonna end and they were gonna win, or it

(04:27):
was going to get through and the runner from second
was gonna follow the runner from third, and the Padres
were going to win five to four. In between, there
was a few other great baseball moments, you know, the
way the Astros scratched across those first two probably not
great baseball. The way each team scored a run in
the eighth on wild pitches, No, but again, the magnitude
of what is still on the line. They're still trying

(04:49):
to win. Their division would have been just two and
a half half games back had they won. The Astros
are still trying to maintain their lead in the division
so they can win their division. We'll see probably one,
if not two teams clinch playoff berths tonight, with Philadelphia
and Milwaukee having that opportunity to do so.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Philadelphia has the only there's still the only team with
ninety wins I believe, or they were a couple of
days ago at least, and they haven't clinched, but that's
that's how this is, and we'll always gonna win one
hundred games this year.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Well they need to have, they'd have to be up
by more than they're up there. They have a huge
division lead, but there's still eleven games left to play
for many teams, so the math just isn't quite there yet.
And then soon enough, all the teams will have clinched
their spots, the three division winners in each league and
the three wild cards that get along with it. So
twelve teams yet to get into the playoffs. I'm not
sure that anything that it looks like today will change.

(05:37):
Although a J. Hinches Tigers, they're knocking on the door,
they're knocking on Minute Made Parks door when they finish sixth,
the last of the three wildcard teams, and the Astros
finished third, the last of the division winning teams. Tigers
at Astros Tuesday might even be the opening game of

(05:58):
the postseason.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Well, of course it will be Houston and Detroit, that
bad boys getting played at one o'clock, two o'clock at
the latest. I think there's no way it's gonna be
under the lights, and there's no way a roof will
be open.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Well, there will be in one venue.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
But yeah, that is that's a delicious kind of side
note to all this. But yeah, you mentioned I wanted
to get back to something you mentioned about the atmosphere
in San Diego. First of all, I believe they have
the third most either attendance overall or sellouts or both.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
I can't They're win the fifties in terms of how
many games have sold out for seventy plus.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Yeah, you exactly having been to that park at a
Padres Dodgers game, I might add.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
So congratulations to you. You made it there and out
of there without any harm. You know what I was doing.
So let's just give you a little background here. And
I'm not saying because of the Padres fans necessarily, but
mixed Padres fans with Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Fans were fine. Padres fans were fine. That ballpark is awesome.
It's everything you hear about, you know you hear about, Oh,
San Francisco, you gotta go see that.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Pittsburgh. It's a great setting. San Diego is sick.

Speaker 2 (07:07):
The the what is it the gas light district that's
right around the corn gas lamp?

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Gas light?

Speaker 3 (07:12):
That's something different. Are you gas lamping me? Why are
you gas lamping me. That's good.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
No, everything from the outside to the inside, concourses, team
shops amazing, all that. Fans are electric. And then you
slam the Dodgers in there, who they absolutely hate. I mean,
what would it would be like the Rangers and the Astros.
I guess would be the closest thing in the in
the division.

Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, and Rangers Astros hate or Astros anybody hate in
their division. It doesn't really even scratch it. It doesn't
compete to that. But look, that was the game. Remember
the game. They know they're going to fight, They almost
want to fight. And it's not even the worst one.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Way where those people actually kill each other. Literally, they've
killed each other. Now in the parking lot, somebody died.

Speaker 3 (07:51):
You can't.

Speaker 2 (07:52):
It is what it is. We don't kill fans in Houston.
Just saying, you know. So here's the deal. You remember
that game. I know you do. This was twenty twenty one.
This was I believe July, and the Dodgers were in
town and the San Diego Padres. I don't remember if
it was a walk off or it was just a
big hit late. This is the game where the meme

(08:15):
was born of the San Diego Padres fan wildly cheering,
and then Locke's eye with the Dodgers fan and tells
him he's number one about as explicitly as possible. And
it was one of the greatest memes I've ever seen.
That was the game we were at.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yes, the very firm, directionable, authentic you're number one is legendary.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
And it was only one, your number one. It wasn't
your number two. It wasn't a double rod situation. That
place was explosive. You're right, it's they there's It was packed, obviously,
but they cheered all right there about how.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Any one of these late innings unfolded. You'll take the
last inning, for instance, the Astros get a bleeder from
Kyle Tucker and it brings home the run and they
take the lead. They have runners on, they could get more,
they don't get more. And then Hector NAIs follows Josh
Hayter's lead and says, so, first pitch, wild pitch. Is
that what you do here? First pitch wild pitch, and
now the tying run is basically home. He's sitting there

(09:13):
ninety feet away. He loads the bases around a couple
of outs with a walk and a non hit by
pitch to Jerks and profar. So you got to not
only do you have to face Manny Machado with only
a one run lead, you have to face them with
the bases loaded and only a one run lead. And
he got him down in the count, so one two count.
Just take in your mind how many minutes this took

(09:35):
to unfold, from the wild pitch to the bases being loaded,
to recording the two outs, to getting to the Machada
at bat. That place is living on the edge of
their seats. You could hear it with Todd and Jeff
on Space City Home Network. You could hear it with
Robert and Steve right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
It's how long can we stay standing for the calls
of these moments? Is the atmosphere you have there? And

(09:56):
he absolutely blisters one and they the Astros had it
properly positioned. The replacement for the ejected Jose Altuve is
playing second base. He's in a major league game for
the first time in multiple months. Yeah, but after.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Scoring the go ahead run in the happening prior. Correct,
But we don't want to sell him short. It's not
even the first big you know what, cutting time he's
played in a game for the Astros, because he had
a play similar in the ALCS last year.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Yeah, brought that up earlier. He has been ready and
able and helpful, and he made the play. He made
a clean pick of the ball, short hopped it just
behind second base. What had happened earlier. Pania had made
the nice play on the infield bounder that Wade probably
should have tried to score on, but they did not
have the contact play on. And then Penya made these

(10:48):
smart heads up. I'm aware of the situation play. Look,
the runner back didn't throw to first, but rather through
to second to get the lead runner kept the double
play in order briefly, and again Nares got into a
mess and out of a mess without allowing a run,
a rare extra inning victory for the Astros. We've told
you all the particulars of where things stand now. With

(11:08):
eleven games remaining, only four of which are on the
road for the Astros. They'll wrap up the road trip
today with a little bit earlier start time in San
Diego than they're back home for seven games to close
out the home portion the Minute May Park regular season
portion of their schedule and we've given you everything of
great importance from the game other than two items the

(11:30):
entrance into the game batched by Brennan at home plate
for Josh Hater and the exit from the game botched
by Brennan Miller at home plate for Jose Altuve. We'll
do that next. How does that sound? That sounds fantastic.
How long should we stay on the air until tonight,
like twelve midnight so we can get all this in what.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
It's gonna take, and so we'll see if we can
pack it all in in an abbreviated version of our show,
because the finale of this thing starts in less than
three hours.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
We got more come up.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
Next on Sports Talk seven ninety.

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Speaker 1 (13:02):
The A Team continues one Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Shout out to my co host who was on a
little bit earlier on The Matt Thomas Show without Matt
Thomas and made the reference to step Brothers when talking
about last night's home played Umpire Brennan. You know what
Brennan says to me. It says to me that you
wanted to name your child Brandon, but you wanted to
be different.

Speaker 3 (13:32):
Edgy and so you.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Were like, maybe I'll do Brendan Na. There's too many
people have done. Let's just take the d out at
another in and call it a day. I don't like
that name.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
Last night, at eleven twenty five pm Central Time on
the X platform, a post was made at Adam J.
Wexler was the crafter of said post, said, this crew
is blank. I saw that I couldn't answer it because
I'd get in trouble. I'll two of a second ejection
due to the umps missing the ball being hit off
his foot, in reference to the time earlier this year

(14:03):
where the same thing happened. This time, instead of exploding verbally,
he took his shoe sock off, showed his toe to
home play Brennan Miller, who then ejected him. Period, is
this Brennan from Step Brothers. It's so good, it's so accurate.
Hits his first day on the job. He doesn't really
want to work, he's living at home. He's you know, a.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Middle aged kid. Great drummer though, great drummer. I just
that's such a perfect analogy though, because.

Speaker 3 (14:29):
He turned out he was a pretty good chef. Yeah,
well this is not a good umpire though, No, and
at least Brennan Miller is not grotesque both on and
off the field like his predecessor the night before. What
you saw the mugshot? You saw it, didn't you grotesque? Like? Yeah,
he didn't star in goonies. He could have. He only

(14:50):
had one functional eye when he took his mask off.
And no wonder he couldn't call balls and strikes. I can't.
I mean, above all these other things were about to
get into he was bad at balls and strikes. Yeah,
he was really had last night at calling pitches, which
is unfortunately he's in great physical condition. That's what I
was getting in. Yes, he's someone who can get from
point A to point B in a reasonable amount of
time and looks like he might have good vision. You

(15:12):
would think what he could not handle is, you know,
seeing al tuve. But more importantly, because it is totally
understandable that that is not the easiest call to see,
even though you're clearly the closest dumpire. But that's what
the other six eyeballs are for, and that's what I
think everyone should have the biggest issue with. It happened
to come on a night where he had so many problems.

(15:32):
It's easy to pile on there if that was say,
the only thing that the home play umpire did a
poor job of. What he did a poor job of
was letting the crew work, And I wish they wouldn't
have to be asked to help. If Chris Conroy, the
crew chief, or Brian O'Nora, who is over at first
base in this instance, and the third umpire in the field,
if you see it like they sit there and I

(15:53):
know he screwed it up, but I'm not going to
say if you see something, say something, you shouldn't want
to go that route. But I mean they should be
going up there and saying, look, let's have a conference.
I saw this, you didn't. I'm confident in my call.
The secondary part of this is we I want to say,
go to replay for foul balls of this instance, but
I can't even guarantee you they're gonna get that right

(16:14):
after you because they can't get something else right.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
I mean, like, there are so many things, like you said,
if it's one instant and here's there is a silver
lining to this for those of you out there who won,
well that's the obvious one. But for the future, I
think this stuff never gets changed until the absolute worst
case scenario happens. Now, this isn't the absolute worst case
scenario that would involve a playoff game being determined by

(16:39):
this mess, and that probably will happen. With the idiots
they have, that's what they are. They're idiots. Okay, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
You can't.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
You can't not do the most basic fundamental parts of
your job and look as incompetent as you do and
then not have somebody like me come on on radio
and television and call you an idiot, because that's just
that's the name of the game.

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Missing home play or a ball strike, calls plays at
the play. These are part of the job that are
not easy, should be reviewable or challengeable, which I think
will have in place. It's it's really the other stuff.
You didn't let the crew help you. On the hip
by pitch you didn't get right clearly. I mean, the
replay was clear, ball hit him in his toe, and
that's why he showed it to him. But you also
had such a he had good enough vision to see

(17:21):
that their reliever, Adam had a bock, so he moved
the runner to third. Great, Well, he was watching that one,
but he didn't have good enough vision to see that
Josh Hater stepped off. Because it's okay to miss part
of that visually, it was not okay to argue about
it for as long as they did, to conference, as
long as they did to go for a rules Jeffer,

(17:42):
what the for ten minutes? Somebody has to be able
to see this. The clock is in it zero, there's
a runner on third. You're allowed to disengage. That's what
he did. End of story. What is taking you so long?

Speaker 4 (17:54):
To me?

Speaker 2 (17:54):
I think, well, so the initial bad call of you know,
the you know, the the clock violation was because I think,
in my opinion, he jumped the gun. He saw that
it was down to two, down to one. I'm just
gonna do this. You didn't get that last second.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
The reverse of NFL officials, yes, to see it hit
zero and are told to, yeah, just give him an extra.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Beat, which they do almost all half the time, two
or three times in the game on Sunday night. But
then to compound it and listen to Josh Hater's credit,
he didn't so chill, Well, well, yeah, he's Josh Hater, and.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
Then he yanked his first bitch.

Speaker 2 (18:29):
Well that's but why did he do that, and you're
making excuses for him. Sure, but it's a pretty good
excuse when this guy gets fired. What is your job
as a reliever, as a closer in many cases is
to get your arm fueled with the rocket jet fuel
that you need to do your job and go out
there and as quickly as possible start using it. Only

(18:51):
he got his all fueled up and then might as
well have put it in ice because he stood there
for how.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Long in real time? Nine ten minutes something like that. Well,
if we get to this topic again, tomorrow will be
more like fifteen, because it's probably like five and a
half or six. I wanted to actually rewatch off Watch,
but of course I wasn't recording it and accidentally changed
the channel.

Speaker 2 (19:12):
You just need to have it set up to where
you record every Houston sports game and then you can
get your wife to yell at you when her smut
TV doesn't get recorded because the DVR is flooded with
sports games that you haven't even watched a game, but
they're all there just in case something happens.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
In case she tapes over an Astros game, tapes over
with vander Pumper rules is.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
What that means. Is he's referring to a VCR. This
is called a video cassette recorder. It was popular in
the eighties and nineties.

Speaker 3 (19:37):
It was my bad. I forgot to put the VCR
plus code in to get it recorded. That's on me.
Do you know I impressed my parents were. I was
looking at the TV guide and I even had the
number sequence. I just forgot to put it in the
one that gets mail to us every week.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, that one. It's imprinted. Are these things called magazines?
I don't know if you've seen those either. You know,
I've impressed my parents were. In nineteen eighty eight when
my mom came home with a VCR that cost way
too much money, and at the age of like six
or seven, I was able to program that bad boy.

Speaker 3 (20:03):
They looked at me like I had six heads, Like
when Julia Guglia's husband brought home a Compact disciplayer.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Julia Guglia. That's funny. So anyways, go back to hater again.
I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. Hector
Narris doesn't get that same bad He didn't have any excuses.
But look, this guy is a power pitcher and his delivery.
Actually I think lends itself to what happened. If you're

(20:29):
not sharp because of whatever reason, yanking that first pitch
is totally plausible.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
Yeah, he was definitely asked about that after the game.
We'll let you hear what he had to say about it.
He talked a little bit, initially about the game itself
and obviously coming out with the win, and then was
asked that obvious question about how do you think it
affected you what took place there? How did you kind
of view things when you stepped off knowing the rules yourself,
though the umpire clearly didn't. This is what he said about,
you know, if the delay affected his first pitch coming out.

Speaker 5 (20:56):
I mean, I think at the end of the day,
it's like momentum based, right, Like I'm coming out in
the bullpen, getting ready to face face a guy and
then I gotta say for ten minutes, I mean, I
would say that's that would could probably be the biggest thing.
But at the end of the day he yanked the
slider down. I mean, it's not like I execute the
pitch right, So that probably would have happened either way.
Maybe who knows, but I'd say it definitely changed some momentum.

Speaker 4 (21:20):
A little bit early.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
Interesting the way he put it, that probably would have
happened either way. Maybe who knows. So he really didn't
say anything right there. I think he really was trying
to not say anything too harsh about an umpire when
he kind of did say what we all thought, Yeah,
of course it's it's it one thing. It definitely did.
You just brought him in in a key moment with

(21:42):
a runner on third in a one run game, in
the eighth inning in a wild ballpark, his former ballpark,
his former ballpark, against his former team, his former ballpark,
against his former team, where he never was asked to
pitch in two different innings in the same game, and
he's just sitting out there on the mound. They welcomed

(22:02):
him with their booze, they welcomed him back, and then
he's just sitting there, standing there waiting to throw what
it turned out to be only two pitches. First pitch,
as he mentioned, poorly executed, while pitch TI game, next
pitch line drive right back at you catch it ending over.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
I mean, it's the way everything unfolded last night. Absolutely unbelievable.
But yeah, I credit to Hater for how he answered.
You know, the post game questioning and when we come back,
you're gonna hear pose al Tuove basically do not the
same thing, but the way Jose al Tuove handled the
post game and frankly, Joe A spotted two because if

(22:42):
you watch Joe Spotty, you knew he wanted to say
I don't know about ninety thousand percent more than what
he was actually allowing himself to say.

Speaker 3 (22:49):
He just wanted to give credit where credit.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Was due to the guys in the clubhouse that got
that win, So credit for to him and really anybody
that had a microphone in front of his face last night,
and not limited to Grey Kessinger who's like files as
soon as he took his sock off, I got my
glove really rate line, not to be outdone by Josh

(23:12):
Hater's line.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
Rent free. That's what that means, wex you got another example. Yeah,
we're gonna have to hear that one again in this
upcoming segment too, just for a little bit of an
explainer for me. I'll want one every time, So this
was another opportunity to get once I'll take one.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
Well, the crowd was booing him and his first big
appearance since leaving San Diego to come back and pitch
with his new team, the Astros, and he was asked
about that afterwards and he basically said, huh, I'm living
rent free in their heads, which was true. So yeah,
you will hear from jose Al Twove, amongst others when
we continue to discuss straight ahead.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
The A ten on Sports Talk seven ninety.

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(24:32):
before the best models with the biggest discounts are sold
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they say together, let's drive and tell them. Adam Clanton
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Speaker 4 (24:49):
It's your home team, man, lifelong as fan here anytime anywhere.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
Ye, I love your whole team.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
We go to Rockular go just tell your smart device
splice Sports Top seven ninety on I High Radio. Thanks
Sports Talk seven ninety on Nightheard Radio.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
It is the A team here on Sports Talks seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
So funny, man.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
I just let's just say that I had some thoughts
on the homeplate umpire the last two nights very differently.

Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah, And one thing to add to it, just in general,
this crew works together at times during the year. It
has worked Astros games before. The Astros had some incidents
in a game in Cincinnati with the hit by pitch
debacle with Bregman, which was comparable the last night. It
was just the reverse guy was hit. They said he wasn't.
Then they reviewed it and still got it wrong. It
was the same crew. These are the types of crews

(25:46):
that are only recourse for I hope this doesn't happen
is just please don't put him in a playoff game.
And Olenora is last night's homeplate umpire. He has postseason experience,
World Series experience. It's been an umpire for a long time.
He took the option of opting out during the COVID year.
That was the year where we had the incident we were

(26:06):
talking about yesterday. But I would hope that their grading
system matches our eyeballs. There's enough umpires to handle postseason
games without a bunch of the umpires that decided, well,
let's go to the game tonight in San Diego. They'll
be there again this afternoon. Before we get to the
comments that we mentioned, the lineup tonight features the hobbled

(26:27):
Jose Altuve, somehow healthy enough to play tonight, but not
healthy enough after getting his toe massacred by a pitch
that went off his bat and then off his toe
last night. He's going to be the designated hitter tonight,
so that limits some of their other options. We've seen
a bunch of Kyle Tucker in right field. If he
plays right field tonight, it will be as a reserve.
Lineup looks like this Altuve, dh Alvarez and left Bregman

(26:50):
bumped up to the three spot at third base. He's
been playing a lot in the field lately, which hopefully
is a good sign. And he's playing the field today
on a from day, usually a high usage day for
his infield. He's batting third over at third, Yiners behind
the plate again for Fromer. He's catching and batting fourth.
Singleton's back at first. They got a righty on the

(27:10):
mound and Dylan Ceese on San Diego Peyna short. Hayward
in right field is a more comfortable position. Dubon has
Altuve spot over at second and Jake Myers back in
the lineup in center field. The Padres have changed things
a little bit. Profar is leading off tonight. That's good

(27:31):
for them, followed by for the Astros, Tatist Junior and
Manny Machado. That was there good by the way. That
was their two three four combination. Tatist Profar, Machado last
night into Merril. They've got Solano batting fourth and Merrill's
batting fifth, and then the four batters in the orders
tonight that aren't very good.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, yeah, I you know you have these theories every
now and again that come out, and it's interesting to
see how they play out. And there's a variety of theories.
It's not just predicting who's gonna be in c s is.
It's but I just was watching and help myself. I like,
this is what I really think. I like their pitching,
I like their offense. I think they're going to be
ready to win in the postseason this year.

Speaker 3 (28:09):
So well, I.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Say this is hot taky if you're if you're into
that sort of thing. What you're saying about the Padres
is why I think they have a better chance to
be there than the Dodgers. And let me tell you why.
The Dodgers are stacked as un stacked onun stacked and
you know, but all offensively. All we ever hear about
is show. Hey, that's all I ever hear about. And
I look at them and I'm like, they're gonna have

(28:32):
the same problem they always do. They got all these
big names, they spend all this big money, and they
have injuries to key guys, but they always seem to
be able to come through and have a great record
and get a high seed and all that kind of stuff,
and then when the playoffs come I'm not intimidated, but
are you?

Speaker 3 (28:47):
Nobody's intimidated by them. There's no reason to be.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
People right now, if you knew the Astros were going
to play one of those two teams in the World
Series for the whole thing, who would you rather play?

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Well, the two to one, the two top seeds in
the National League, while they're different teams now in personnel, Well,
they beat the Phillies to win a World Series, and
they beat the Dodgers to win a World Series.

Speaker 2 (29:07):
Where the Phillies two years ago are different than they
are now. They're clearly the Dodgers from seven years ago.
But I'm saying it's still the I'm talking about between
the Padres and the Dodgers.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
You're the So it's unfair because they're not afraid of anybody. Yeah,
but who would you prefer? I think the Padres are
playing the Dodgers in the NLCS if and again, Matt,
it's not set in stone where these teams are gonna
slot in today. Lot's how they're slotted in San Diego's
four in LA's two. So that on opposite sides of
the bracket probably means San Diego has to beat both

(29:36):
the Mets, and the Phillies to do it. But I
think that's gonna happen. And I know we get into
this a little bit because they're playing the Padres. We
did want to get you back into the incidents from
last night and the participants in those incidents. And that's
why in our show tweet today it features a bare foot.

Speaker 2 (29:52):
Well real quickly before we get to that, and we will,
We're gonna hear from Jose. I need to answer Ivan's
tweet who said please a flame. People like Ben Mallar
with his malar militia. Dude, this isnt all caps by
the way he's yelling at me. Dude is so delusional.
He believes his own lies. Even with cheating, we still win,

(30:13):
unlike the Dodgers truth hashtag Ben Maller, I gotta be
honest with you. I'm just not really that familiar with
Ben Maller. I mean, I know he does overnights on
our station and it's a national show. I've heard him
like twice in my entire life. I was not impressed,
and I said to myselfself, that's why this guy's on
overnights and he's been there for years. So if he
was really good I'm guessing he would do a show

(30:34):
when the sun's still out, but he's not, so he
just doesn't. He's in Consequentialve, and that's how he should
be to you two. But who is consequential as jose Altuvey?
And when something like this happens, it's just the umpteenth
example why this guy is one of the best guys ever,
not just in sports. And if you've ever met or
been around him, you know that's the case. I would
trust him with my child. Is that weird? Is that weird?

(30:55):
Like I think you think so? Yeah, you wouldn't trust
one of your children just to hang like, okay.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
Oh with Josel Tuove. Yeah, Oho, you're talking about Ben. No,
nobody would trust any child with him. No.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
I just feel like, you know, there's guys who you
perceive to be wholesome, and then we always go back
to wow, you never know these guys like Josel Tuve.
If if there was going to be something, I think
we would have seen it a long time ago, which
is why I get so hot and bothered when he
gets booed the way he does, especially in light of
the fact he didn't even use the sustum but Josel

(31:25):
Tuove standing in front of his locker last night, answering
questions about his foot getting hit and him showing it. Well,
this is what he said when he was asked if
he thought he was going to be thrown out initially.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
Not really.

Speaker 6 (31:39):
Sometime you get to hit and somewhere in the hand,
and did you take your bunting left to show that
you got hit? I was expecting to do the same thing.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah, So what he's saying if you can't really quite
make that out, you get hit on the hand, you
take your bat and glove off, you show the umpire. Hey,
look this is it. I'm I'm not even kidding why
I say this. If it had been his hand, I
don't think he gets ejected. That's how stupid this thing was.
That's how dumb it got.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
What if he was wearing two gloves and he had
to take both of them off, like his sock and
his shoe, what is the ojuh? Jose's gloves probably fit. Well.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
OJ's did too, until he got soaked with Ron and
mccole's blood.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Anyway, let's move on. I don't want to get in trouble again.
I see what you're trying to do.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
He went on to talk about what was going through
his mind as this was all unfolding last night.

Speaker 6 (32:27):
You know, it was going through my head that he
can't happen. You know, it's night inning, winning around on
second base, I'm bottling against a good pitcher, so as
the closer, so I'm obviously trying to get a hit
and drive the run in and win the game. So
you know, I get a football because he hit my
foot and you know they just took it away from me.

(32:49):
So I don't think that can happen. That it's four
guys on the on the field. You got to see
the shame of direction on the ball, and you know,
just make the right call.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
You know what. He brings up a good point. Jose
Altuve was involved in a seminal moment of a baseball
game in which an umpire who was not doing a
good job at his profession took something away from him.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Where have you heard that before? Maybe the twenty eighteen
ALCS when he hit a two run bomb and then
oh magically, those two runs are off the board all
of a sudden because you know, fan interference, because you know, Mookie.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
How many times does this have to happen to this guy.
And if he takes his foot, his sock off, his
shoe and sock off to show you, hey, you might
want to, like, look at this thing I got hit.
Don't throw him out because you know you're wrong and
you think he's showing you up. I guess he's just
showing you. He's not showing you up. And there is
a difference. More to explain coming up on the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
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Speaker 1 (34:20):
Adam and Adam are so Houston that it's weird to
not be wearing shorts.

Speaker 4 (34:28):
Well Barbie queuing on Christmas Day.

Speaker 1 (34:31):
Adam Clinton Adam works on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
It's the A team here on Sports Talk seven ninety. Ah. Man,
the older I get, the more people's quirks and just
things are just I don't know, there's just funny. I'm
with you, man, I'm with you with what we were
talking about during the break. Okay, So all this mess
last night, it is easy to forget. We've talked about
it already. It is easy to look past, forget, get

(35:03):
caught up in on all and not realize you just
shaved off a lot of the fact that you need
to to get to where you want to go. The
initial goal winning the division, Ben Verlander Magic number seven. Yeah,
if you go four and seven the rest of the way,
we just win the division. The Seattle has to go

(35:24):
nine and two to prevent you from winning, starting tonight
against the Yankees, where Aaron Judge just bludgeon them last
night again.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Yeah he got the early RBIs the fortieth home run
of the year came later from Juan Soto and it
was rather a one sided affair. The extremely unintelligent baseball
decision by Victor Roebliss to try to steal home on
a three zero before three to zero pitch with the
bases loaded in the bottom of the first inning.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Was it was rather common. It was making the rounds
on social that's when you know it's really bad. But
that's I'm not even I mean I saw it and
it's yeah, it stands out because you don't see that
very often.

Speaker 3 (36:04):
But this is that's who they are. He's the only
one that's really been killing it lately. He has been
on an absolute tear. He's constantly getting on base. He's
been hit by a pitch like five times in the
last couple of weeks. But it just arrangers with who
I called their best pitcher, Brian wu They got clobbered.

Speaker 2 (36:21):
That's saying something, by the way, because he is I
agree with you, or he has been of late at least,
But that's how fast things can change in baseball. Like
George Kirby's the name that comes to mind no matter what,
then he should that's your ace. That's the guy you
think of of a lot of guys in what I
still think is the best rotation in baseball. But like
the Astros are just coming off a stretch where they
lost six of eight. Well now they've won five of six.

(36:43):
That's how baseball is. He went through it last night.
He'll probably bounce back in the next meaningless start because
it'll be one of his last ones for the year.
And like I said, I still think we're on track,
believe it or not, to have that series next week Monday.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
I mean it's Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
They're coming to town Monday for a three game six
I don't think it's gonna matter.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Yeah, another game with the Padres, then four with the Angels.
They finish up with the Yankees, and the idea that
they'll have more than a six game lead when they
arrive here with six games remaining is pretty alive. It's
a five game lead right now with all those games
I just mentioned still in front of them. Again. The
Astros finish up on the road today. Seven of their
final ten are at Minute May Park and the next

(37:25):
seven after today. Last year, that'd be a nightmare, by
the way, I know, and not this year. It's the reverse.
For the Seattle Mariners, they had a big group of
home games. They were on the plus side with eighteen
games to go on the home games, well, they just
played them all and now it flips. Six of their
final nine are away from Seattle, including that trip to Houston.
It is still possible. Those final three games of the

(37:46):
season are important to both teams. I keep saying that
it could actually be important to who gets to rest
and who has to play, because Cleveland's still chasing the Yankees,
but they're also trying to not get caught by Houston.
As much as it'd be great to be the one
seed versus the two, there's not as big of a
difference in being the two seed versus the three because

(38:09):
you avoid the wild card series. So they're still trying
to distance themselves from Houston to lessen the pressure on themselves.
When the Astros come to town with three games to play.

Speaker 2 (38:19):
Yeah, look, I think that you know, when all is
said and done, I don't know where it's gonna stack up.
I don't know where the Astros will be. Where are
you going to swat these guys? I don't know where
that's gonna be. But I do think that, you know,
I was fairly confident, and when I said that the
last time last week, the Astros were in the midst
of that six of eight stretch where they were losing
more often than not, and they were frustrating losses too,

(38:41):
And it's one thing to lose it's another to have.
Like if I think take last night, is it not
the case in any sport, not just baseball. You lose
a game where that kind of stuff happens. There has
to be a winner and a loser in every contest.
Right If you lose the game in that way, it
can almost seem like it's more than just one loss,
or it carries over, or it takes on something. Now

(39:03):
I'm not saying that Padres are that team. I think
just preing this in mind. The loss is one thing.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
The game ends with one of the Padres who reached
base inaccurately because they asked him to go to first
even though he wasn't it. That's what I'm talking. He
screamed it. Every official that was anyone should have. He
yelled at the home played up for calling it. He
yelled at the first base ump who's the crew chief
when he was standing at first base. Then he yelled
at the second base umpire when the game ended. They
were really ticked off about how the umpires impacted their

(39:30):
ability to win out. Granted they put a runner on base,
loaded the bases, all set it up for Manny Machado,
It's not the end of the world. But the guy
that maybe they wanted there even in that situation, the
bat like Altuve, the bat was taken out of his
hands on an incorrect call. Well, but both teams got
it last night. It wasn't.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
I mean, it wasn't like the Texans game, for example,
the other night, where like all the penalties were based
especially late. Did it, yeah, whatever, they did it beside
the Bears on one of those plays. But like, I
feel like, how about the Manny Machado walk that should
have been a walk.

Speaker 3 (40:03):
The first pitch was so far outside Manny. I those
are the kind of plays where it makes me angry
that the hitters just have to take it. He crushed
that by the way, I mean that ball is nowhere
near the zone. Of course I should be at first
base instead, I have to refocus on in a bat.
I can't say anything to you because you're gonna run me.
That's It's just it's ridiculous. They asked these players to

(40:23):
just sit there and do nothing. Take it when you
have done such. It's not It wasn't close. The second
pitch was probably a strike. It was close. It was
on the edges, it was on the black, It was
probably even the right call, So I don't know that
many needed to walk to first a second time or
throw his bat the two this guy had two.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
He hits the the it had home run distance, but
thank goodness, it was just to the right of the
foul pole. And he takes his tenth time out of
the at bat, Like, why even have the rule if
you're not going to enforce those for foul balls.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Sometimes it's a little they're a little lenient, even though
he clearly wasn't running to first because everybody knew it
was foul the moment he left his usually when they
start the clock is a little bit.

Speaker 4 (41:02):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
By the way, you know me and my sports eight
I just talked about it twenty four hours ago. Uh,
there's a lot of it to go around. I do
for some weird reason. Maybe it's because I saw him
in person when I was at pet Coo back in
twenty one. Maybe I don't know what it is. I
don't And listen, you've got Machado, not the most likable
superstar or star in Major League Baseball, tatis his the

(41:26):
luster is a little bit off after the you know
he cheated too. I don't know if you guys remember
that nobody nobody cares. Right, no cares.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
I don't want to say it more emphatically, nobody nobody cares.
But the Astros get booed. Still, you're twenty nineteen, not
allowed to play for eighty games because you are a cheater? Okay,
no problem.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Yeah, and he didn't, he didn't get booed anywhere, doesn't
get booed anywhere. But because the commissioner of Major League Baseball,
who employs these sang goons we're talking about, handled it
so poorly that the Astro's best player or the face
of the franchise, who had the least amount to do
with it, gets booed lustily in the same gym as

(42:05):
Fernando Tatiss gets cheered for. It's just unreal how bad
Rob Manford is as a commissioner.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
He's the worst by far.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
And that's saying something because I'm not generally a huge
fan of commissioners in most sports leagues. Keep Roger Goodell credit.
He knows his role and plays it like a fiddle.
But yeah, I just something's got to be done, and
yet I feel like it's going to take almost a
playoff game being decided by this kind of humor to

(42:35):
get something changed.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
I really myself a strong Major League Baseball Umpires Association
and union. Yeah, I'm not to tag him on Twitter.
It's why a lot of umpires continue to perform poorly
by MLB's grading system. The same umpires are near the
bottom of the list every year in certain categories, and
their job is always waiting for them the next year.

(42:57):
You know what's great about last night?

Speaker 2 (42:58):
He was rated at what eighty nine percent as far
as his job performance. That's not good for an official,
But it sounds good, doesn't it. If you got an
eight nine percent on a test. I'm pretty sure that's
the case. I'm pretty sure that was the number that
he was ranked. So we will continue to discuss. Then
we'll get you ready for the rubber game of this series.
It's all still ahead here on a Wednesday edition of

(43:20):
The eighteen.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
We's back here with you. Let's talk about the great
people and the great vehicles available to you at Classic
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(44:10):
sugar Land. As they say, together, let's drive. It's Classic
Chevy Highway six open on Sundays, Classic Chevy sugar Land
open for you on throughout the week and of course
Saturdays as well. Make sure when you head on over
there you tell them Adam Wexler sent you on by.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your teams
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler r DA Team A team.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
I feel like we spent a little bit of time
on the wild game last night, Astros winning four three
barefoot baseball. Good for the Astros. Sergeant Hulkam making appearance
in the Good Morning video as Hey, you everybody knows
the big toe. Everybody knows.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah, but that was your contribution when I saw your
tweet life. If I'm gonna put something in the Good
Morning video that it wasn't my original idea, I have
to make that clear, so I will give you and man,
I should have had this up because I didn't know
we were gonna do this right here, somebody suggested blinded
by the light, which is what top three in most

(45:19):
incorrectly interpreted lyrics on the face of the planet of
songs ever written right.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
Wrapped up like a word, nobody seems to be able
to figure out, revved up like a duke, wrapped.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Up, revved up, not wrapped up like another Well, I
can say it now we're off TV, right, can I
not say it? Come on, let me say it's just
a product. It's wrong, it's not wrong. Is I'm not
a bag after it? That's not the song.

Speaker 3 (45:41):
So yes, there was a win and thus a Good
Morning video. And we did have jose Al Tove taking
his sock and hishoe off. He is in the lineup
this evening. We had an astros on deck here in
a half an hour from ber Valdez looking for win
number fifteen, looking to get the Astros win number eighty
three on the season get to fourteen games over five hundred.
At G thirty six, they were still twelve games under

(46:02):
five hundred as they roll through the eleven games remaining
now game one point fifty two. This evening, they're trying
to get to fourteen games over five hundred, playing a
team that's twenty games over five hundred. With Dylan Cees
on the mound, two guys who've recently thrown major league
no hitters. I expect, much like last night, both these
pitchers will be on and it will be as entertaining

(46:25):
as last night, although not all of it under the lights.
Like last night, the Astros are taking care of business.
The Texans are still undefeated and favored to stay that
way this weekend. Practice report from today went as expected
in the backfield, and it's not good news, but it's
the expected news. If you asked me that neither your
number one nor your number two running back were on

(46:47):
the field for practice today, that's Joe Mixon, who suffered
the ankle injury on the hip drop tackle in the
game against the Bears this past Sunday night. Did briefly
return to the game but ultimately ended the game unable
to return to the game. And Damian Pierce was out
last week, and I would suspect that's probably the same
story for this week. Also put Brevin Jordan on ir

(47:08):
which is rather significant. He's not just their number two
tight end behind Schultz in terms of snap count unless
Stover has definitively passed him. He's a very good blocker
and has been very important to what they've been doing
on the run and is out there on the field
many times specifically to do that for this team. They
signed Irv Smith to the practice squad. They have a

(47:29):
second tight end on the practice squad. One of those
two people will almost assuredly be elevated to the game
day roster for their trip to Minnesota and game at
noon on Sunday against the fellow two and zero Minnesota Vikings.
But the official practice report to thus injury report for today.
We'll share that with you when it arrives. Otherwise, the
Texans overall are probably in pretty good shape. There's a

(47:51):
couple other players who are injured. Chris Boyd got injured
during the game, though stayed on the sidelines, and I'm
not sure the extent to which he could be limited
throughout the week not available for the game. They added
di'angelo ross a cornerback, probably for that very reason to
the active roster, signed him off of their practice squad.
And we're obviously in the part of the season where

(48:11):
there's still two games away at a minimum from a
Christian Harris return, and you're still four games away from
the return of Diniko Autry to their defensive line, where
guys are really being taxed. They're performing exceptionally well. Depending
on which analytics service you like the most. Will Anderson
and Daniel Hunter did a phenomenal job this week and

(48:33):
overall in the season, least from the pass rush win
rate numbers. There's only two teams in the NFL that
have a pair of players that are ranked in the
top twenty and that statistic. Seattle is one and the
Texans are the other. Will Anderson in the top ten
and Daniel Hunter eighteenth. Anderson is seventh. Much of that

(48:53):
buoyed by their respective efforts against Caleb Williams and the Bears,
but many expect it's more a sign of things to come.
Constantly in the backfield being disruptors. And again then the
numbers people still see and only understand sacks. That's it.
There's so much more to being an effective defensive lineman,
not even just a number you can put up. Even

(49:15):
setting the edge, which they now ask Jalen Petrie to
do many times from his position in the slot where
he's almost a linebacker, depending on what personnel group the
other sides using and what particular plays they might be running.
But both Hunter and Anderson did a good job setting the edge.
They clearly did a good job of getting into the backfield.
They have continued to put pressure on both quarterbacks and

(49:37):
as a whole. I did not expect this, and I'm
sure you heard me talking about this, especially with the
weak one opponent. I didn't think the Texans were going
to be able to stuff the run as well as
they have. And don't be fooled by the overall numbers
the Texans have. You've got more running yards to quarterbacks
this year than two running backs this year. They faced
DeAndre Swift as a lead back, and they faced Jonathan

(49:58):
Taylor as a lead back. Taylor ran for thirty yards.
Swift ran for eighteen yards on fourteen carries. They've absolutely
owned the line of scrimmage in the run game. All
of the other runs except for two, were scrambles. There
were two designed runs if I'm not mistaken for Anthony Richardson,
you know, either our pos or just a straight keeper

(50:19):
or a straight option play. Those are legitimate running plays,
although not traditional, but pretty much everything else is well.
Caleb Williams escaped this, escaped that and ran for eight yards.
He scrambled for twenty four yards after nearly getting to capital.
Those types of plays with Anthony Richardson. And I don't
think Sam Darnold's gonna do that quite as often. I
don't know if he does, he's gonna get his block
knocked off Film' think Trevor Lawrence is gonna do it

(50:41):
when they're back at home. The two teams they play
after that to get through that first six, Josh Allen,
Josh Allen, will he does that's the right word. And
then I'm still not certain what the Patriots will be doing.
I'm sure they're happy with the way their games have gone.
They nearly went to to oh, but it is gonna
be time for Drake. Drake May's first start coming against

(51:02):
the Texans. It quite possibly could just on where they
think their future is and what they think he's learned
by not getting reps with the Ones. But whatever that's
off in the future. First things first, see how the
Vikings describe the health status of Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison,
their top two wideouts. Both are not going to be
one hundred percent for the game, but it seems to
be trending towards both being available for the game, which

(51:24):
is obviously good news for them and well, not so
good news for the Texans.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Justin Jefferson is I mean the elite of the lead.
He's one of the top I mean three or five.
Where do you go on the lecos one and then
maybe Jefferson, well, the numbers don't lie right now. He
leads the league in receiving yards, So now I would
the point of that being eighty percent of Justin Jefferson
is awesome, better than like ninety nine percent of everybody else.

Speaker 3 (51:46):
And again similar way to look at things, depending on
what your service you like to look at. I'll say, pff.
The numbers for Kamari Lassiter off of this past game
are incredible and the Ryans and Matt Burke said we
have no respect for your receivers and your targets. We're
going to send everybody and we're going to keep our
dbs in one on one man coverage beat us. And

(52:09):
they couldn't do it. DJ Moore couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
When I only bring this up because a we're on
the topic of the whiteouts that will have already faced
the Texans and will be facing them in the case
of Justin Jefferson this week, did you see what DJ
Moore had to do. He had to do damage control
for his body language. This was a whole article on
ESPN and other outlets because he was giving he was

(52:33):
asked about it.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
He was in this article.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
It describes him as unaware how his body language was
being perceived until he saw video clips of himself circulating
on social media. This is the most twenty twenty four
social media centric quote you could ever hope to hear.
I shouldn't have shown as much, but it's a part
of the game. Like I said, we were one play

(52:56):
away from the game changing. Yeah, no, you weren't and
couldn't connect. Nobody on offense could connect with the one
play or get the one place started to get us
on track.

Speaker 4 (53:05):
And go up.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
It's football.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Everybody's gonna have their ups and downs and frustrations. This
is my favorite part. Every chance the camera got they
caught that angle. I usually sit on the bench like
that anyway, So I don't know what that's about. And
it's described as showing him appearing to look sullen while
sitting on the bench, which the wide receiver intimated was
a mischaracterization of his body language. Let me tell you

(53:28):
this when he says every chance the camera got, they
caught that angle. The camera can't catch that angle if
you're not doing it.

Speaker 3 (53:36):
So so continue on with the part where he said
that's how I normally am.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Yeah, I tried, well, he said, I usually sit on
the bench like that anyway.

Speaker 3 (53:45):
Like that anyway? You mean when you're also trying to
catch passes from Justin Fields, Yeah, who he actually backed
last year in advance of should they be going for
the number one pick? Should they be going for a quarterback?
Which one of them is gonna make them better? And
he was very in favor of I don't think those
guys are better than the guy we already have, So
why don't we do something else?

Speaker 2 (54:03):
He said, Now, Caleb himself said, I tried to give
him the ball, and if I threw it a little
less wide and gave him a little bit more time,
he would have made the play.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
Let's just stop right there. If I gave him a
little bit more time.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
You didn't have that time to give him because Danielle
Hunter and Will Anderson in any other host of Texans
defenders were in your kitchen all night long, eating your
food and then throwing the leftover scraps on the floor
for their dog.

Speaker 3 (54:29):
But that is the right thing to say, is the start.
He took it on Himselfie, He took responsibility, you know.
So hopefully that's a good vibe comment we're delivering about
Caleb Williams point. So we don't have to mention man
that post game exchange. We should definitely talk about that.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
I could not care less, and you know what, neither
can the people who are actually involved in it. Caleb
Williams wasn't not taking advice from CJ.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
Stroud. CJ.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Stroud wasn't being rebuffed. He didn't say the wrong thing.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
When did a guy who's just the month older than
you become the mister wisdom? I mean they're the same age,
not in football years, they're not. You can't in NFL success,
they're not. You cannot have it both ways. You can't
say I want these.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Guys to be more sportsman like or be have more camaraderie,
or I want to be more of a killer, whatever
side off.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
You saw it, and hopefully many of our listeners did
this past weekend. That was one quarterback exchange that probably
people are misinterpreting or doing with it what they want.
And I think they're similarly reacting to what happened after
the Colorado Colorado State game. Colorado State quarterback, whatever he
had said or intimated over the course of the week
is something that whether it's bulletin boorn and miss here,

(55:39):
oftentimes the other team hears it, the other team remembers it,
and definitely shoud or Sanders, member of the Sanders all
over it. And so when the Colorado State quarterback in
defeat came over to shake his hand, I don't even
know that he was really gonna say much, but he
came over to shake his hand after the game, and
should already said I'm not having it. You can't do
what you did and say what you said, and he
has got all right, all right, and he just walked away.

(56:01):
Regardless of how you feel about that, it's okay.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
That is so much more of a thing than what
people are trying to make this between CJ, for sure and.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Anti things to talk about, they're no different than us.
We could definitely make something out of nothing if you'd
like us too, but we prefer not to because we
believe it was very much a nothing in that situation.
I'll continue kind of looking at the matchup here mid week,
first day of true work against the opponent as both
teams hit the field here on a Wednesday, the tu
Ando Vikings the Tuino Texans coming up on Sunday. Of course,

(56:30):
that'll be part of our stone cold locks coming your
way at four thirty on the Friday edition of the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
Adam and Adam are so Houston.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
They still can't successfully manage their roundabouts on Maine.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
Hey, this is h Town, not London Town.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
To Adam Adam work on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
We are one segment away from the Astros on deck
sho Astros Padres round three. Is this not the most
heavily anticipated rubber game of a regular season September matchup
in recent history? I'm just kidding, there's probably one last
year put it.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Out there pretty good. It has been entertaining. It has
gone just as advertised. They caught Darvish last night, King
and today Cease, which just about as good as the
Padres could throw out there. All things considered, if you
look over the whole of the season and they've come
out with exactly what they needed. The Padres have gotten
excellent pitching and the Astros have managed to split the

(57:34):
first two games of the series. Obviously, the Astros starters
have only given up two runs apiece. A little bit
different fashion Arraghetta giving up two over five and just
getting through five innings a little bit of a chore
for Hunter made that one mistake I was talking about.
Hunter made one mistake, sent it over the fence. You
had a shot going into the fifth inning, and it
was a pretty good battle with Machado, although one that

(57:55):
should have ended in a walk. I'm not sure how
that inning goes if the first two batters reached and
there's nobody out, which is what should have happened, because
he threw four balls out of the zone that Machado
did not swing at. That's usually a walk in Major
League baseball or any baseball, but it didn't happen that way.
He got a couple of extra pitches he had to
throw to him, and the last of those extra pitches, well,
he hit over the fence. So you don't have to

(58:16):
worry about anybody being on base and in trouble. But
it also would have been to nothing, and other than Merrill,
you would have been through the roughest part of their order.
But facing Meryl with two on and no out wouldn't
have been a great place to be either. The Mariners
are continuing their series with the Yankees. They lost last
night eleven to two Miller throws. Today against Cortes still

(58:37):
an evening game, so most likely the Astros game will
long since have been over before we get there. Much
more on the Astros and the Padres and everything else
that will get you ready for baseball when we get
you for the Astros on Deck Show about ten minutes away.
A couple of other notes on the NFL. As we
get to Wednesday, it means the week starts tomorrow with

(58:59):
Thursday night football. Kansas City did today what the Dolphins
did yesterday, made it official with their long term injuries
to was put on ir by the Dolphins yesterday. Isaiah
Pacheco was put on ir by the Kansas City Chiefs
today added a familiar name in Kareem Hunt, but probably
will lean on Steel and Samaji p Ryn in the

(59:21):
initial stages of their what do we do without Isaiah Pachecko?
What are you doing without Isaiah Pachecko? Well, luckily I
it's good and bad, and I face this problem. Most years,
we have a roster of nine starters and then five
to seven reserves, depending on what leg you're in. I
have a league like that where we have six reserves,

(59:42):
a fifteen player roster. I had a pretty good week
and my bench still outscored my starters. And because of
one decision that I made playing DJ Moore not playing
Marvin Harrison Junior, that cost cost.

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Me his first quarter would have probably one of the
things kills were all of his point Yeah, because after
that he didn't do much, did he? He didn't do anything?

Speaker 3 (01:00:03):
One thirty he had, yes, twenty nine Fantasy points, a
couple of scores and for watch, one hundred and thirty
yards in the first quarter, not the first half. Yeah,
great toe tap at the back of the end zone
for Harrison Junior, and then he had the sixty yard
touchdown reception as well. But Kyler Murray looked amazing. Yeah,
it was probably a tactical mistake anyway, because you just
look at who's there, well, who's throwing, who passes. I

(01:00:25):
got scared by the one for four, four targets, one
catch week one of Harrison Junior, so I thought I'd
wait another week to see if they could get on
the same page. Well, they got on the page, same
page immediately. It's probably something moving forward that will continue
to go like that, you know, looking at the other
games briefly as we get into the week and as

(01:00:45):
we get into what Thursday night is, and we already
kind of went through and we'll do it again on
what the AFC South is looking like. I think we're
about one week away. If the Jags followed the Bills
on Monday Night and both the Colts and Titans lose
this week as their slight favorites in each of their games,
and the Texans are favored to win, I don't know
that they'll win. I was just asked on X if

(01:01:05):
they would and I actually said yes, but it's probably
on CJ. I mean, if they're up three games, three
games into the season on everybody in their division. Yeah,
I'm gonna be pretty much done giving you an AFC
South roundup, and it will be which of the other
undefeated teams in the conference remain that way? Did the
Chargers get to three? And oh did the Chiefs get
to three? And oh did the Bills get to three?
And oh does the Steelers get to three?

Speaker 4 (01:01:25):
And Oh?

Speaker 3 (01:01:25):
That's really what's gonna matter as we start. I mean,
I know it sounds ridiculous. Yeah, you're three weeks into
the season, but we're sitting here today saying the Astros
have only eleven games remaining. Texans only have fifteen games remaining. Yeah,
it creeps up on you. It takes a long time
to play them.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
Did you say Tennessee's a slight favorite over Green Bay
a quarterback situation?

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Yeah, because of Malik Willis and Jordan Love did. According
to their practice report and visual, he was practicing today
on a limited basis, which means he's a little bit closer.
Probably maybe it's even a game time decision that he
could actually return this week, but it's it seems rather
quick for the injury that they described that he took
late in that opener.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Are you ready for this prediction just looking at the
schedule and based on what we're talking about here within
the division.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Yeah, I'm ready. I think Chicago goes into Indianapolis and
wins that game.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
And the reason I think that is because Anthony Richardson
will make mistakes and doesn't even necessarily have to be
pressured to do so.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
At times. He made three of them last week. Chicago
gets after the quarterback. Ask CJ.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Stroud about that, he'll tell you they don't have I mean,
I would probably rank Indianapolis's offensive line from a pass
protection standpoint a little ahead of the Texans, but not much.
It's not like you don't think of, like, oh, the
great offensive lines in the NFL in twenty twenty four.

Speaker 3 (01:02:46):
Oh, it's definitely the Colts. It's not definitely the Colts.
Some of the advanced numbers suggest they've been pretty good
in years past, recent years, and then they've gotten off
to a pretty decent start. Clearly some of those numbers aren't. Yeah,
they cleared the way for Jonathan Taylor to run for
thirty yards the opener, but he did have a much
better game. It's a little surprising how poorly they did
scoring the football last week. With Taylor running the ball

(01:03:08):
the way he did last week, he went back to
being one of the best all round backs in the league.
Hundred yard rushing was a big part of the passing game,
but they didn't find the end zone of the very
till the very end of the game. And it wasn't
necessarily because of him. It's because of what Richardson was
able to do with his feet. That has to change.
They've got to be able to turn their rushing offense
for both of them, into touchdowns, into drives, into playing

(01:03:28):
from in front. Yeah, that's what they couldn't do against
the Texas. It's the same thing they couldn't do a
week ago against the Packers team in a super low
scoring game. Being slight favorites like they both are at
home probably means if you ask the oddsmakers, who which
team do you think is better? That basically means they
think the road team is better because you haven't you've

(01:03:49):
given them the kind of the advantage of being at
home and they're just slightly favored. But it also means
possibly Malik Willis is getting a second win in a
row and Caleb Williams is getting the Bears too in
his rookie season.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
I mean, stranger things have happened like Well, for example,
if Jacksonville goes into Buffalo and wins, that would be
considered strange. They're gonna get clobbered.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
I feel like if I were still participating in a
survivor pool, I mean, I don't want to waste Buffalo,
so maybe I still wouldn't do it. But I feel
pretty confident in Buffalo winning that first of two. This
is a week we got two Monday night games. They're
a five point favorite. It's actually gone down a little bit.
They're playing at home, Jacksonville at Buffalo, and not long

(01:04:31):
after they'll kick off in Cincinnati with the Kamis and
the Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:04:34):
Well, this is more about Jacksonville, though we already kind
of know. I mean, we don't necessarily know what Buffalo is,
but we do because it's Josh Allen. I'm just saying
from a wide receiver, you're.

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
Still gonna have some shootout games where their defense is
kind of gonna get worked over. I think that's where
they maybe suffered the most, and maybe on their offensive line.
I don't think they suffered so much by losing Digs.
It's that they don't have Digs and they don't have Davis,
so everybody other than his tight end Kincaid and a
little bit with Shakir, it's a new thing for the
other guys to get it going. But at the beginning
of the season it might not be where it's gonna

(01:05:03):
be later in the year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
But to me, this is about what I have seen
this season from Jacksonville. It's not well, that's why I'm saying.
It's not like they've gone against world beaters. Yes, Miami
with Tua is very different, but they don't have him
right now. And the Dolphins had a last second field
goal to win that game. It was but it wasn't like, oh,
Jacksonville was impressive and they just barely lost. They played

(01:05:24):
from in front and lost.

Speaker 3 (01:05:27):
They found a way to win to lose, is what
I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
And then the second game, obviously we saw if you
lose it to Shaun Watson right now, that's embarrassing. That's
just where we're at in his career, and that was
at home. I just don't see them going to Buffalo,
especially in getting anything done. I think this is a
fair statement and I definitely believe it. The most disappointing
team in the AFC South is Jacksonville. They have the
same record as the other two Ophers, but Tennessee's disappointment

(01:05:51):
lies in two critically ridiculous mistakes by their quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:05:55):
They lost by a touchdown both weeks. On one of
those game winning touchdowns, he threw the ball to the
other team for pick six and then he took points
off the board, as you heard coach Callahan say yesterday
with his other boneheaded turnover. Now, not to mention they
have zero expectations. Team has played fine. The acquisition of Pollard,
going with Spears in replacing Dereck Henry. It's fine. Their
defense is excellent. They're not as disappointing because they could

(01:06:18):
easily if not they made they just did something dumb.
Lawrence isn't playing good football. The Colts are into game
seven and game eight. Ever for Anthony Richardson, give him
a break a little bit and see if they can
get things going. But a little more time to talk
about full show tomorrow and similarly on Friday, as we
get you into another series for the Astros. But first
things first, we'll get you into this series finale and

(01:06:41):
finale of the road trip for the Astros. The Astros
on Deck show Padres and Stros comes your way next