August 29, 2025 • 20 mins
It's the Crawford Boxcast presented by Karbach Brewing as Chris Gordy and Ross Villarreal discuss the latest on the Houston Astros who continue to control their own destiny still two games up in the AL West over Seattle. They got Yordan Alvarez back into the lineup and he is already rounding into form working tons of walks and hitting a homerun. But the rotation needs to settle in - can you trust Javier and Arrighetti? Will McCullers succeed in the bullpen?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Astros fans cheers, Rocking Lackey. Welcome to the Crawford Box Casts.
Proud lead for you by Crawford Bach from Carbach. Brewey,
you're getting that bear, Oh my goodness. The Crawford Box
Cast starts now Here we go. Here's Chris Gordy and
(00:32):
Ross fail.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It is an all new Crawford Box Cast presented by
Carbach Brewing and the Crawford Bach Chris Gordy and Ross Verre.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I come in to you well.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We'll recording this on a Friday ahead of the start
of the Astros Angels series, playing react to from the
last week that included the Astros taking three out of
four up in Baltimore and then two out of three
against the Colorado Rockies, and also the return of one
your On Alvarez. But Ross, welcome in. We are coming
(01:03):
down to home stretch here. When we come out of
this weekend, we will be in September and that will
be the last month of the regular season for your Astros.
It it's crunch time, counting down the days to the
end of the season, trying to clunch a playoff spot,
trying to win the Aos, and trying to get a
good playoff seeding, so you can make a deep run.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
How are you Yeah, important stretch here for the Houston Astros.
As you mentioned you're getting into September. You did have
the opportunities and did capitalize on those, winning what is it,
five out of seven against Baltimore and Colorado.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You got a.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Big series really that you'd like to win again against
the Angels because after this it does turn up in
terms of the competition. You've got the Yankees, Rangers aren't
going away, you got the Blue Jays, and the big
series with the Seattle as well, and really like you
got the A's who have been playing really well, and
we know very well in Houston that they're not that
easy to beat up on. So in many ways important series.
(02:00):
He'd be really good for the Ashros to win this one.
They want to continue to keep the Seattle Mareniz at
arm's length here as we head into September.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, and as we start to look ahead, we look
back a little bit because you got some weird pitching
performances of the last week. I mean, basically, you know
that in that Baltimore series, you saw Lance mccullors go
on a very short outing. We saw Christian Haavier go
on a very short outing. We saw Spencer Aarraghedty bounce
back and have a good outing, although no run support
(02:31):
in that one, so he takes his loss. And then
the Colorado series we saw an uncharacteristic Hunter Brown deal
with a bunch of runs, yes several of them unearned,
but still giving up six runs. And then we get
Fromber bounces back into you know, what do you call
it to old school Fromber and then we got in
okay outing from Jason Alexander who for a couple starts
(02:54):
there was pitching like your best pitcher. So what do
you make overall where the pitching staff is because going
to this weekend Ross, Javier Arraghetty and.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Even hunder Brown, I think you need some good outings from.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, it is interesting and the Astros of course putting
Lance mccauler's junior in a bullpen role unless he's not needed,
then he could pitch Monday, but kind of as an
insurance policy and maybe not the greatest insurance policy ever
the way that he's been pitching. But Javier, who knows
he went five innings and three innings then down to two.
(03:25):
Hopefully he can bounce back. As his first start back,
he was pretty solid. I think it was what like
five innings and two run ball or whatever it was.
And then Araghetty. You're hoping to see some more link
out of him, even though that's never really been his MO.
He's a guy who's gonna strike out a lot of guys,
he's gonna walk a lot of guys, and he's gonna
run up high pitch counsel. That'll be interesting to see
as well. And it'd be nice to see Hunter Brown
bounce back, which I think he will be able to
(03:47):
do against this Angel's lineup. But it's been a fluid
situation all season long, at one point having as many
as eight starters on the injured list and getting all
these guys back and how good are they going to be?
And I think we'll see Luis Garcia up with the
major league club once the roster has expanded September. But
his velocity hasn't been good and his rehab starts, even
(04:09):
though he's been able to get some out, So that's
an interesting thing. And yeah, it's kind of like you're
under thirty games to go here and you still have
a lot of question marks about where this this starting
pitching staff is going to be and the complexion of
it can completely change within a week.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, damn.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Matthews and I we're kind of debating on who was
gonna be or when Luis Garcia was going to come back.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
He h you know, look at it.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He's made five rehup starts now and his last one
his best one yet the other night in sugar Land,
I think it was Tuesday night with six innings, giving
up one one run off, four hits with one walk
in five strikeouts. That's what's been interesting is you know,
I get it it's sugar Land and Corpus, but I
mean six strikeouts here, seven strikeouts there. I mean, his
(04:54):
swing and miss stuff is working. And so you're right,
I mean Dana Brown's brought up the velocity when it
terms of you know, he's throwing some very capable innings here.
And so that's what we were kind of kicking around.
Is there chances or a window where maybe he could
come back Monday and make that start Monday with you know,
the Labor day being a TVA opposite you say, Kakuchi,
(05:16):
So that'll be an interesting one come Monday. But yeah,
I mean it's starting to get crutched out. I described
it ross over the past couple of weeks. As you know,
there was twofold one you wanted to get healthy, and
then phase two you wanted to get right. Well, we're
in the we're out of the get healthy stage. Like
we've gotten all these guys back, We've got the callers,
we've got Javier, we got all these guys back, and
now it's about getting right. And that's where they a
(05:39):
lot of them are still kind of working their way
back out of spring training, you know mode almost for
some of these guys like Raghetti who hasn't pitched in
a while, and and same thing with Javier. It's about
getting these guys right because you're gonna have some big
decisions to make come postseason on what arms can't rely on.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, and you just don't Yeah, like you said, it's
a time crunch. You don't have a whole lot of
sample size. It is gonna be tough, and you know,
baseball is one of those things where you know, pitcher,
especially hitters of course, can be bad for half the
season and they're they're still really good hitters and pitchers
some of the same where they can be working through
them things. They get a couple of balls don't bounce
your way, you get squeezed by the umpire, and then
(06:16):
all of a sudden and inning spirals out of control
and everybody tells you you're horrible. But if a couple
of pitches could have gone your way, it can completely
change the complexion of a start. So they're certainly gonna
be evaluating, you know, velocity, spin rates, how guys are pitching,
and where they are physically and mentally, and they just
don't have a whole lot of time to get a
clear picture about where everyone's gonna be. It's gonna be tough.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
While we're talking pitching, let's talk a little bit about
the bullpen. Brian A Bray, who's done a great job
of holding down that closer spot in the last two weeks,
picked up four saves. Uh the ra I think is
the lowest it's been since mid May, so he's been
embracing that role. And then you know, with Bennett's SUSA
out within, they're just fighting guys to help fill in
(07:03):
at eighth inning. We've seen Brian King, We've seen kayleb Bard,
We've seen different guys used in those roles, even what
Della Santos, the guy that got off the scrap heat
from Atlanta. He's been pretty outstanding so far in a
handful of outings. So Bullpen is still overall kind of
getting it done here.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Yeah, it's certainly as we kind of talked about when
it happened, you don't feel you feel good about your closer,
Brian I Brady is your closer. That's good, But as
you said, that's after that is where it gets kind
of interesting, and you're not exactly where sure where things
are going to be, especially with Bennett's SUSA going down,
(07:43):
So I really am kind of worried long term about
where they're going to go with these guys. I mean,
you've seen some spurts of good pitching from kayleab Board
and Steven Okurt and those other guys, but you just
don't have long track records of guys that you can
really feel comfortable about at the end of games. And
(08:03):
Joe Spotto does a good job of finding the right
pockets of a lineups the right guys and then playing
matchups from there, but it's it's not a whole lot
to work with down the stretch here, And as we
just mentioned, you don't have. You have a lot of
starters who are working their way back into these games.
So you've had to use a lot of these guys
in the last couple of weeks in games where you
(08:23):
weren't necessarily hoping to because you don't end up with
a lot of blowouts because the offense hasn't been scoring,
you know, nine to ten runs a game, and even
when they were, like when they were scoring a lot
of runs against Baltimo Oriials, the pitching was giving up
a lot of runs. So you're not ending up with
a whole lot of mop up duty except for that
run Chaz McCormack at recently.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, no doubt. Let's hope we don't have to see
Chaz on the mound again anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Uh. We did get the biggest, most significant news. We
got your Don Alvarez back. We got them into the lineup,
and good things happened. What would you make of small
sample size, but just a couple of games back for
Jordon and he already went yard.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, it's funny. We don't know how close to one
hundred percent Jordon Alvarez is, but it seems like opposing
pictures thinks he's pretty close to how many? How many
freaking walks has he drawn? In the last couple of games,
He's been walking like crazy. He had that home run.
It's funny it just cleared the fence, but that's four
hundred and twenty one feet one hundred and seven miles
an hour off the bat as a big shot, and
(09:26):
of course we know it's very difficult to get one
out at center field at dyk In Park, and we
also know that Jordon Alvaz can do that and can
do that in big moments. But it was nice to
see that rocket off of his off of his bat,
and we've seen the patients at the plate that we
know that he can. He's seeing the ball well. It
seems like a very good judge of the strike zone
(09:48):
and seeing the ball out of posing pitcher's hands. So
that's all good, man. If it's just a situation where
he's going to be managing the pain. And he is
back in the lineup today, as is Jose Tuvey, who
had the day off a couple of days ago, so
you end up with a pretty potent top of the lineup.
Christian Walker's hit a couple of home runs recently and
(10:09):
that really linkedins this lineup, it makes you feel so
much better. Just plopping one of the best hitters in
baseball at the number two spot, which is where I
love jord On where he is tonight for the Astros.
It just makes everything so much better. And as I said,
right now, we'll see how close he is to one
hundred percent, but he looked close to one hundred percent
on the home run, and opposing pitchers are still pretty
(10:30):
scared of him.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I love this lineup, and we're just looking to the
lineup that just came out for the Astros tonight. I mean, basically,
this is a playoff lineup. The only thing difference is
difference is Mauricio Dubonis and center, whereas I think in
the playoffs that'll be Jake Myers. But it's paying you
leading off Alvarez behind him al twove third. I love
that because the first game back we saw jord On
(10:52):
batting third and Christian Walker fourth, and I just didn't
like it because it puts a lot of pressure on
Christian Walker to have it to deliver what you're on.
In between Pegna and Altuve, two of your best hitters.
It makes them have to face have to throw pitches
to yord On instead of getting in the Barry Bonds treatment.
So uh Korea fourth Walker five, Sanchez six yards seven,
(11:13):
cam Smith eight at Dubon night. That is a that
is a strong lineup.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
That is that is beautiful. That's that's what we kind
of envisioned. And if Christian Walker can keep it up,
we need the ironer Daz to hit a little bit better.
Cam Smith hit a home run, so so maybe that
can knock some cobwebs loose because he's been going through it,
we know for a while since his heart's uh, since
his hot start of the season. If you could get
cam Smith waking up a little bit and he's in
(11:40):
your eighth spot of the lineup, and we know the
talent that he possesses, in the power and and some
of the good plate discipline that he's shown flashes of
this season, this is really dangerous and this is this
is like the sexiest lineup of the season for the Astros.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, And I like what cam Smith said the other
day we sak with the media. They asked him about,
you know, about this whole thing, and you know, he said,
I'm starting to realize this game is way more mental
than I thought. I mean, it really is. It's about,
you know, putting in the work and taking care of
your body and the physicalness and all that and keeping
yourself healthy. But it's it's the mentalness of staying in
(12:15):
the mindset of you know, I've heard baseball players say
before God, it's I think I forgot how to hit
up baseball. Like it's just it really the mental grind
it takes on you. Cam Smith is going through that
as a rookie and hits the home run the other night,
so here's hoping he can kind of break out of
that funk. But yeah, I mean, this is this is
the lineup that that we had hoped for. And you know,
(12:36):
Jake Myers being pretty successful at the minor league level
right now, it seems like we're only days from getting
him back and this lineup can really take off.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah, it'll be interesting. And I like the what you
mentioned about camp Smith because yeah, I mean baseball, you know,
we we we got to sit at our couch and
we're like, why is this guy swinging at that pitch?
And why again he do this?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
And why?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
It's it's a freaking hard game, man, And it's the
mental game that the pitchers and catchers and and hitters
are all playing against each other, and the amount of
bad luck and short sample sizes and then self doubcn
creep in and all that type of stuff. It's tough, man.
So it's good to see cam Smith recognize that and
talk about that and hopefully get his confidence back.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So much of as a guessing game too, Like the
scouting report says the sky and a note. You know,
in a one to one count, we'll throw slider away.
So I'm looking, all right, I'm looking slider away. Wait
he went fastball. Wait the scouting report didn't say that,
you know. So it's just so much mental and guessing
and that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
It's well, even you could even get that slider away
that you're looking for, and then it's still it's a
moving frisbee at at eighty seven or whatever miles an
hour and you just you miss it by one centimeter
and instead of being a line drive into the gap,
it's a pop up. It's just so hard.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, no, you're right. And so again, you know, with
the lineup.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Back almost fully healthy, the expectation is, you know, let's
get some runs here. We saw basically in that Oriole
series seven runs, ten runs, nine runs, and then two
in the loss the opener against the Rockies one one
run and they lose. I mean there's a trend here Ross.
When they're scoring two runs or less, they're losing those games.
When they're scoring four runs or more, they are most
(14:16):
likely winning those games. And that's what they did each
of the last two games, scoring four runs. I look
at Tyler Anderson going tonight for the Angels, and he's
the guy who's given up four runs or more in
three of his last four starts, so that to me
would be the key to a successful outing against him.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
That sounds good.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
We've been here before, though, We're all excited about this
line up. You're facing a hittable pitcher and then blah,
but hopefully that doesn't happened for the Astros tonight. They
are favored minus one sixty five today against the Angels,
and this is I'm really really excited to see. Did
this lineup. I mean, as we said, like one through eight,
(14:56):
you are feeling really strong, and then yeah, if you
get Jake Myers back, who's on a rehab start or
in a rehab stint as well. I mean, even though
he's probably not going to continue to hit above three hundred,
considering coming to the season his career two thirty guy.
But if he can get you around two seventy five,
just get him on base, and he's got the speed
if he's fully healthy, to steal a base and score
(15:19):
from second and all that type stuff. And then if
you can flip have him at the end of the
lineup flipping things over for the top.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
This is going to be really.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Really dangerous and some good stuff for the Astros down
the stretch offensively.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
And so as it stands right now, they sit still
at the top of the als. The Seattle Mariners are
two games back in the standings, and you know, as
we look at the schedules here we say the Astros
you're playing four against the lowly Angels. I've said to
Dan Matthews earlier this morning we were on the radio.
I said, you know, look, I just want to split
at minimum, split this four gamer, But if you want
(15:53):
to get greedy, you want to take three out of four,
go for it. I think that that is well within
your your range of expectations.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Yeah, greedy, three or four is really what you need,
because I mentioned that it's you know, it's time for
some big boy baseball in September. No more Baltimore and
Colorado and Los Angeles. It's taken on the Yankees and
the Blue Jays and the Mariners and really trying to
take it to the rest of the American League and
go and win this division and show that maybe you
(16:22):
can make some noise in the playoffs, because it has
been some scuffling about. It has been you know, getting
swept to Detroit, losing that series to Baltimore before winning
this one, and and you just don't have enough time
to figure everything out. But the Astros are gonna have
to find find a way, which they've done all year
long with all these injuries and all that type of stuff,
and they're gonna have to step up in some big games.
(16:44):
Got a lot of national television games coming up as well.
I'm excited to see how this goes. And like I said,
this would be a nice little runway up into this
tough stretch coming up in September.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, and you look at the schedule and you get
the Yankees coming in next week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. But
I want to say they like six in a row
they're starting to keep up a little bit. You know,
all three of those games, by the way, on national television, TBS,
Prime Video and MLB Network of course. Then you're off
to Arlington for three, up to Toronto for three. That's
gonna be really tough. But then you're down to Atlanta,
(17:14):
who stinks. Just watch them? What did Kyle schwar Wer
get four home runs the other night against them?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They stink.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Then you come home for the last home stand and
it is important. It's three against the Rangers and then
three against Seattle. I just pray to God Ross when
then we start that series on September nineteenth, that this
thing still isn't at two games, because we will all
be having a heart attack going into that final series
with Seattle.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
If you're still maintaining just a two game.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Lead, well maybe you're gonna call me a sick individual.
I kind of think that sounds cool, man. I Like,
I know, like five to ten games is much more safe.
But something on the line in the latest September I
think it's cool. It's like playoff baseball before playoff baseball.
Because this season is such a freaking long slog of
(17:58):
one hundred and sixty two games. Yeah, let's have an
important series in Seattle and go up there and win
that one and have a good one and make those
Seattle Mariners fans cry. That sounds exciting to me.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, it'll it will be. It will be a tough
one again. That's to finish out the home stand of
the season with the Rangers and the Mariners, and then
you're on the road for last six in Oakland or
in Sacramento I guess against the A's and last three
and Anaheim against this Angels team. Just kind of stinks
that we might be looking at a you know, clubhouse
(18:31):
celebration on the road wrapping up another ALS title, possibly
in those last six games of the season on the road.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
But it's okay.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
We'll get them celebrating here when they come back and
win potentially a Wildcard Series or alc Alds Alcs and
onto another World Series win. So yeah, look, we're in
a good spot with the Astros. Just need to keep
this thing going as they currently stand at seventy four
and sixty overall. But make sure you guys when you're
watching the Astros and heading out to the ballpark. I'll
(18:59):
be at the ballpark tonight having a high school Crawford
Box from our friends at Carbock Brewing. They just do
it right when it comes to watching the Astros, watching football,
watching whatever you're watching, doing so with a Crawford Bock
from our friends at Carbock Brewing and Ross. We'll be
about back out of Carbock real soon as the weather
starts to not be so blundery. It's nice to get
out there in that beer garden and kick your feet
(19:20):
up in a lawn chair or under the covered patio and.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Enjoy Crawford Bock from Carbock Brewing. But load up on
the Crawford Boch.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It is almost that postseason time that we love drood
on our Astros drinking a Crawford Bok Ross. Any final
thoughts on the way out.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Uh yeah, One quick thing, the don't sleep on that
a series being a cakewalk. They've won seven of their
last nine. Just swept the Detroit Tigers as well. They're
they're kind of heating up, man. They've been sneaking back
there in the bottom of the American League West.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They got some young guys that are hungry and really
wanting to make a name for themselves.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
So chill out, Oakland. We don't need you getting all
good Now I'm Sacramento. No, I'm calling them Oakland. Still,
you're still the Oaks.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
To me for rosspor Al, I'm Chris Gordy. This has
been the all new Crawford box Cast, presented by carbox
Bery
Astros fans cheers, Rocking Lackey. Welcome to the Crawford Box Casts.
Proud lead for you by Crawford Bach from Carbach. Brewey,
you're getting that bear, Oh my goodness. The Crawford Box
Cast starts now Here we go. Here's Chris Gordy and
(00:32):
Ross fail.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
It is an all new Crawford Box Cast presented by
Carbach Brewing and the Crawford Bach Chris Gordy and Ross Verre.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I come in to you well.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
We'll recording this on a Friday ahead of the start
of the Astros Angels series, playing react to from the
last week that included the Astros taking three out of
four up in Baltimore and then two out of three
against the Colorado Rockies, and also the return of one
your On Alvarez. But Ross, welcome in. We are coming
(01:03):
down to home stretch here. When we come out of
this weekend, we will be in September and that will
be the last month of the regular season for your Astros.
It it's crunch time, counting down the days to the
end of the season, trying to clunch a playoff spot,
trying to win the Aos, and trying to get a
good playoff seeding, so you can make a deep run.
Speaker 4 (01:20):
How are you Yeah, important stretch here for the Houston Astros.
As you mentioned you're getting into September. You did have
the opportunities and did capitalize on those, winning what is it,
five out of seven against Baltimore and Colorado.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
You got a.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Big series really that you'd like to win again against
the Angels because after this it does turn up in
terms of the competition. You've got the Yankees, Rangers aren't
going away, you got the Blue Jays, and the big
series with the Seattle as well, and really like you
got the A's who have been playing really well, and
we know very well in Houston that they're not that
easy to beat up on. So in many ways important series.
(02:00):
He'd be really good for the Ashros to win this one.
They want to continue to keep the Seattle Mareniz at
arm's length here as we head into September.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Yeah, and as we start to look ahead, we look
back a little bit because you got some weird pitching
performances of the last week. I mean, basically, you know
that in that Baltimore series, you saw Lance mccullors go
on a very short outing. We saw Christian Haavier go
on a very short outing. We saw Spencer Aarraghedty bounce
back and have a good outing, although no run support
(02:31):
in that one, so he takes his loss. And then
the Colorado series we saw an uncharacteristic Hunter Brown deal
with a bunch of runs, yes several of them unearned,
but still giving up six runs. And then we get
Fromber bounces back into you know, what do you call
it to old school Fromber and then we got in
okay outing from Jason Alexander who for a couple starts
(02:54):
there was pitching like your best pitcher. So what do
you make overall where the pitching staff is because going
to this weekend Ross, Javier Arraghetty and.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Even hunder Brown, I think you need some good outings from.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, it is interesting and the Astros of course putting
Lance mccauler's junior in a bullpen role unless he's not needed,
then he could pitch Monday, but kind of as an
insurance policy and maybe not the greatest insurance policy ever
the way that he's been pitching. But Javier, who knows
he went five innings and three innings then down to two.
(03:25):
Hopefully he can bounce back. As his first start back,
he was pretty solid. I think it was what like
five innings and two run ball or whatever it was.
And then Araghetty. You're hoping to see some more link
out of him, even though that's never really been his MO.
He's a guy who's gonna strike out a lot of guys,
he's gonna walk a lot of guys, and he's gonna
run up high pitch counsel. That'll be interesting to see
as well. And it'd be nice to see Hunter Brown
bounce back, which I think he will be able to
(03:47):
do against this Angel's lineup. But it's been a fluid
situation all season long, at one point having as many
as eight starters on the injured list and getting all
these guys back and how good are they going to be?
And I think we'll see Luis Garcia up with the
major league club once the roster has expanded September. But
his velocity hasn't been good and his rehab starts, even
(04:09):
though he's been able to get some out, So that's
an interesting thing. And yeah, it's kind of like you're
under thirty games to go here and you still have
a lot of question marks about where this this starting
pitching staff is going to be and the complexion of
it can completely change within a week.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah, damn.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Matthews and I we're kind of debating on who was
gonna be or when Luis Garcia was going to come back.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
He h you know, look at it.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
He's made five rehup starts now and his last one
his best one yet the other night in sugar Land,
I think it was Tuesday night with six innings, giving
up one one run off, four hits with one walk
in five strikeouts. That's what's been interesting is you know,
I get it it's sugar Land and Corpus, but I
mean six strikeouts here, seven strikeouts there. I mean, his
(04:54):
swing and miss stuff is working. And so you're right,
I mean Dana Brown's brought up the velocity when it
terms of you know, he's throwing some very capable innings here.
And so that's what we were kind of kicking around.
Is there chances or a window where maybe he could
come back Monday and make that start Monday with you know,
the Labor day being a TVA opposite you say, Kakuchi,
(05:16):
So that'll be an interesting one come Monday. But yeah,
I mean it's starting to get crutched out. I described
it ross over the past couple of weeks. As you know,
there was twofold one you wanted to get healthy, and
then phase two you wanted to get right. Well, we're
in the we're out of the get healthy stage. Like
we've gotten all these guys back, We've got the callers,
we've got Javier, we got all these guys back, and
now it's about getting right. And that's where they a
(05:39):
lot of them are still kind of working their way
back out of spring training, you know mode almost for
some of these guys like Raghetti who hasn't pitched in
a while, and and same thing with Javier. It's about
getting these guys right because you're gonna have some big
decisions to make come postseason on what arms can't rely on.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, and you just don't Yeah, like you said, it's
a time crunch. You don't have a whole lot of
sample size. It is gonna be tough, and you know,
baseball is one of those things where you know, pitcher,
especially hitters of course, can be bad for half the
season and they're they're still really good hitters and pitchers
some of the same where they can be working through
them things. They get a couple of balls don't bounce
your way, you get squeezed by the umpire, and then
(06:16):
all of a sudden and inning spirals out of control
and everybody tells you you're horrible. But if a couple
of pitches could have gone your way, it can completely
change the complexion of a start. So they're certainly gonna
be evaluating, you know, velocity, spin rates, how guys are pitching,
and where they are physically and mentally, and they just
don't have a whole lot of time to get a
clear picture about where everyone's gonna be. It's gonna be tough.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
While we're talking pitching, let's talk a little bit about
the bullpen. Brian A Bray, who's done a great job
of holding down that closer spot in the last two weeks,
picked up four saves. Uh the ra I think is
the lowest it's been since mid May, so he's been
embracing that role. And then you know, with Bennett's SUSA
out within, they're just fighting guys to help fill in
(07:03):
at eighth inning. We've seen Brian King, We've seen kayleb Bard,
We've seen different guys used in those roles, even what
Della Santos, the guy that got off the scrap heat
from Atlanta. He's been pretty outstanding so far in a
handful of outings. So Bullpen is still overall kind of
getting it done here.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Yeah, it's certainly as we kind of talked about when
it happened, you don't feel you feel good about your closer,
Brian I Brady is your closer. That's good, But as
you said, that's after that is where it gets kind
of interesting, and you're not exactly where sure where things
are going to be, especially with Bennett's SUSA going down,
(07:43):
So I really am kind of worried long term about
where they're going to go with these guys. I mean,
you've seen some spurts of good pitching from kayleab Board
and Steven Okurt and those other guys, but you just
don't have long track records of guys that you can
really feel comfortable about at the end of games. And
(08:03):
Joe Spotto does a good job of finding the right
pockets of a lineups the right guys and then playing
matchups from there, but it's it's not a whole lot
to work with down the stretch here, And as we
just mentioned, you don't have. You have a lot of
starters who are working their way back into these games.
So you've had to use a lot of these guys
in the last couple of weeks in games where you
(08:23):
weren't necessarily hoping to because you don't end up with
a lot of blowouts because the offense hasn't been scoring,
you know, nine to ten runs a game, and even
when they were, like when they were scoring a lot
of runs against Baltimo Oriials, the pitching was giving up
a lot of runs. So you're not ending up with
a whole lot of mop up duty except for that
run Chaz McCormack at recently.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, no doubt. Let's hope we don't have to see
Chaz on the mound again anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Uh. We did get the biggest, most significant news. We
got your Don Alvarez back. We got them into the lineup,
and good things happened. What would you make of small
sample size, but just a couple of games back for
Jordon and he already went yard.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, it's funny. We don't know how close to one
hundred percent Jordon Alvarez is, but it seems like opposing
pictures thinks he's pretty close to how many? How many
freaking walks has he drawn? In the last couple of games,
He's been walking like crazy. He had that home run.
It's funny it just cleared the fence, but that's four
hundred and twenty one feet one hundred and seven miles
an hour off the bat as a big shot, and
(09:26):
of course we know it's very difficult to get one
out at center field at dyk In Park, and we
also know that Jordon Alvaz can do that and can
do that in big moments. But it was nice to
see that rocket off of his off of his bat,
and we've seen the patients at the plate that we
know that he can. He's seeing the ball well. It
seems like a very good judge of the strike zone
(09:48):
and seeing the ball out of posing pitcher's hands. So
that's all good, man. If it's just a situation where
he's going to be managing the pain. And he is
back in the lineup today, as is Jose Tuvey, who
had the day off a couple of days ago, so
you end up with a pretty potent top of the lineup.
Christian Walker's hit a couple of home runs recently and
(10:09):
that really linkedins this lineup, it makes you feel so
much better. Just plopping one of the best hitters in
baseball at the number two spot, which is where I
love jord On where he is tonight for the Astros.
It just makes everything so much better. And as I said,
right now, we'll see how close he is to one
hundred percent, but he looked close to one hundred percent
on the home run, and opposing pitchers are still pretty
(10:30):
scared of him.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
I love this lineup, and we're just looking to the
lineup that just came out for the Astros tonight. I mean, basically,
this is a playoff lineup. The only thing difference is
difference is Mauricio Dubonis and center, whereas I think in
the playoffs that'll be Jake Myers. But it's paying you
leading off Alvarez behind him al twove third. I love
that because the first game back we saw jord On
(10:52):
batting third and Christian Walker fourth, and I just didn't
like it because it puts a lot of pressure on
Christian Walker to have it to deliver what you're on.
In between Pegna and Altuve, two of your best hitters.
It makes them have to face have to throw pitches
to yord On instead of getting in the Barry Bonds treatment.
So uh Korea fourth Walker five, Sanchez six yards seven,
(11:13):
cam Smith eight at Dubon night. That is a that
is a strong lineup.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
That is that is beautiful. That's that's what we kind
of envisioned. And if Christian Walker can keep it up,
we need the ironer Daz to hit a little bit better.
Cam Smith hit a home run, so so maybe that
can knock some cobwebs loose because he's been going through it,
we know for a while since his heart's uh, since
his hot start of the season. If you could get
cam Smith waking up a little bit and he's in
(11:40):
your eighth spot of the lineup, and we know the
talent that he possesses, in the power and and some
of the good plate discipline that he's shown flashes of
this season, this is really dangerous and this is this
is like the sexiest lineup of the season for the Astros.
Speaker 3 (11:52):
It really is.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, And I like what cam Smith said the other
day we sak with the media. They asked him about,
you know, about this whole thing, and you know, he said,
I'm starting to realize this game is way more mental
than I thought. I mean, it really is. It's about,
you know, putting in the work and taking care of
your body and the physicalness and all that and keeping
yourself healthy. But it's it's the mentalness of staying in
(12:15):
the mindset of you know, I've heard baseball players say
before God, it's I think I forgot how to hit
up baseball. Like it's just it really the mental grind
it takes on you. Cam Smith is going through that
as a rookie and hits the home run the other night,
so here's hoping he can kind of break out of
that funk. But yeah, I mean, this is this is
the lineup that that we had hoped for. And you know,
(12:36):
Jake Myers being pretty successful at the minor league level
right now, it seems like we're only days from getting
him back and this lineup can really take off.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Yeah, it'll be interesting. And I like the what you
mentioned about camp Smith because yeah, I mean baseball, you know,
we we we got to sit at our couch and
we're like, why is this guy swinging at that pitch?
And why again he do this?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
And why?
Speaker 4 (12:56):
It's it's a freaking hard game, man, And it's the
mental game that the pitchers and catchers and and hitters
are all playing against each other, and the amount of
bad luck and short sample sizes and then self doubcn
creep in and all that type of stuff. It's tough, man.
So it's good to see cam Smith recognize that and
talk about that and hopefully get his confidence back.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
So much of as a guessing game too, Like the
scouting report says the sky and a note. You know,
in a one to one count, we'll throw slider away.
So I'm looking, all right, I'm looking slider away. Wait
he went fastball. Wait the scouting report didn't say that,
you know. So it's just so much mental and guessing
and that sort of thing.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
It's well, even you could even get that slider away
that you're looking for, and then it's still it's a
moving frisbee at at eighty seven or whatever miles an
hour and you just you miss it by one centimeter
and instead of being a line drive into the gap,
it's a pop up. It's just so hard.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Yeah, no, you're right. And so again, you know, with
the lineup.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Back almost fully healthy, the expectation is, you know, let's
get some runs here. We saw basically in that Oriole
series seven runs, ten runs, nine runs, and then two
in the loss the opener against the Rockies one one
run and they lose. I mean there's a trend here Ross.
When they're scoring two runs or less, they're losing those games.
When they're scoring four runs or more, they are most
(14:16):
likely winning those games. And that's what they did each
of the last two games, scoring four runs. I look
at Tyler Anderson going tonight for the Angels, and he's
the guy who's given up four runs or more in
three of his last four starts, so that to me
would be the key to a successful outing against him.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
That sounds good.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
We've been here before, though, We're all excited about this
line up. You're facing a hittable pitcher and then blah,
but hopefully that doesn't happened for the Astros tonight. They
are favored minus one sixty five today against the Angels,
and this is I'm really really excited to see. Did
this lineup. I mean, as we said, like one through eight,
(14:56):
you are feeling really strong, and then yeah, if you
get Jake Myers back, who's on a rehab start or
in a rehab stint as well. I mean, even though
he's probably not going to continue to hit above three hundred,
considering coming to the season his career two thirty guy.
But if he can get you around two seventy five,
just get him on base, and he's got the speed
if he's fully healthy, to steal a base and score
(15:19):
from second and all that type stuff. And then if
you can flip have him at the end of the
lineup flipping things over for the top.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
This is going to be really.
Speaker 4 (15:26):
Really dangerous and some good stuff for the Astros down
the stretch offensively.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
And so as it stands right now, they sit still
at the top of the als. The Seattle Mariners are
two games back in the standings, and you know, as
we look at the schedules here we say the Astros
you're playing four against the lowly Angels. I've said to
Dan Matthews earlier this morning we were on the radio.
I said, you know, look, I just want to split
at minimum, split this four gamer, But if you want
(15:53):
to get greedy, you want to take three out of four,
go for it. I think that that is well within
your your range of expectations.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Yeah, greedy, three or four is really what you need,
because I mentioned that it's you know, it's time for
some big boy baseball in September. No more Baltimore and
Colorado and Los Angeles. It's taken on the Yankees and
the Blue Jays and the Mariners and really trying to
take it to the rest of the American League and
go and win this division and show that maybe you
(16:22):
can make some noise in the playoffs, because it has
been some scuffling about. It has been you know, getting
swept to Detroit, losing that series to Baltimore before winning
this one, and and you just don't have enough time
to figure everything out. But the Astros are gonna have
to find find a way, which they've done all year
long with all these injuries and all that type of stuff,
and they're gonna have to step up in some big games.
(16:44):
Got a lot of national television games coming up as well.
I'm excited to see how this goes. And like I said,
this would be a nice little runway up into this
tough stretch coming up in September.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, and you look at the schedule and you get
the Yankees coming in next week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. But
I want to say they like six in a row
they're starting to keep up a little bit. You know,
all three of those games, by the way, on national television, TBS,
Prime Video and MLB Network of course. Then you're off
to Arlington for three, up to Toronto for three. That's
gonna be really tough. But then you're down to Atlanta,
(17:14):
who stinks. Just watch them? What did Kyle schwar Wer
get four home runs the other night against them?
Speaker 3 (17:19):
They stink.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Then you come home for the last home stand and
it is important. It's three against the Rangers and then
three against Seattle. I just pray to God Ross when
then we start that series on September nineteenth, that this
thing still isn't at two games, because we will all
be having a heart attack going into that final series
with Seattle.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
If you're still maintaining just a two game.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Lead, well maybe you're gonna call me a sick individual.
I kind of think that sounds cool, man. I Like,
I know, like five to ten games is much more safe.
But something on the line in the latest September I
think it's cool. It's like playoff baseball before playoff baseball.
Because this season is such a freaking long slog of
(17:58):
one hundred and sixty two games. Yeah, let's have an
important series in Seattle and go up there and win
that one and have a good one and make those
Seattle Mariners fans cry. That sounds exciting to me.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Yeah, it'll it will be. It will be a tough
one again. That's to finish out the home stand of
the season with the Rangers and the Mariners, and then
you're on the road for last six in Oakland or
in Sacramento I guess against the A's and last three
and Anaheim against this Angels team. Just kind of stinks
that we might be looking at a you know, clubhouse
(18:31):
celebration on the road wrapping up another ALS title, possibly
in those last six games of the season on the road.
Speaker 3 (18:37):
But it's okay.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
We'll get them celebrating here when they come back and
win potentially a Wildcard Series or alc Alds Alcs and
onto another World Series win. So yeah, look, we're in
a good spot with the Astros. Just need to keep
this thing going as they currently stand at seventy four
and sixty overall. But make sure you guys when you're
watching the Astros and heading out to the ballpark. I'll
(18:59):
be at the ballpark tonight having a high school Crawford
Box from our friends at Carbock Brewing. They just do
it right when it comes to watching the Astros, watching football,
watching whatever you're watching, doing so with a Crawford Bock
from our friends at Carbock Brewing and Ross. We'll be
about back out of Carbock real soon as the weather
starts to not be so blundery. It's nice to get
out there in that beer garden and kick your feet
(19:20):
up in a lawn chair or under the covered patio and.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Enjoy Crawford Bock from Carbock Brewing. But load up on
the Crawford Boch.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
It is almost that postseason time that we love drood
on our Astros drinking a Crawford Bok Ross. Any final
thoughts on the way out.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Uh yeah, One quick thing, the don't sleep on that
a series being a cakewalk. They've won seven of their
last nine. Just swept the Detroit Tigers as well. They're
they're kind of heating up, man. They've been sneaking back
there in the bottom of the American League West.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
They got some young guys that are hungry and really
wanting to make a name for themselves.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
So chill out, Oakland. We don't need you getting all
good Now I'm Sacramento. No, I'm calling them Oakland. Still,
you're still the Oaks.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
To me for rosspor Al, I'm Chris Gordy. This has
been the all new Crawford box Cast, presented by carbox
Bery
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