Brian McTaggart Talks Astros Sweep vs Rangers. " This Is The Astros Blueprint To Victory"

Brian McTaggart Talks Astros Sweep vs Rangers. "This Is The Astros Blueprint To Victory" 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Eleven three on Sports Talk seven ninety Matt and Ross
with you, I'm gonna spend ten quality minutes with our
good friend Brian McTaggart of MLB dot Com will open
up with a nice soft one for you. Here, Brian,
you get the silver Boot for a day.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
What are you gonna do with it? Silver boots for
the day.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Well, I think I'll take it to BUCkies and let
people take pictures of it. Because a few years ago,
when they won the Silver Boot in Arlington, the Rangers
handed the boot to the Astros and an Astros front
office employee. The Astros were going somewhere else, I was
going home, so they asked me if I could take
it home to Houston, and I told them I would
stop at BUCkies with it on the way, and ended

(00:46):
up I didn't have to take it. But I regret
I never got that chance to take the Boot the BUCkies.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
I mean, because I'm I want to say, if there's
anybody that has seen as many Silver Boot games in person,
it has to be you, right, don think so?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
I mean, I think I've seen pretty much every one
of them since since probably ever.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
So yeah, I'm saying, I mean, I'm trying to give
you your flowers here, my friend just say, yeah, I've
been every one of them because I own this town.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Baseball wise, yeah, well I don't know about that.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
But it's been a weird series because the Rangers used
to kill the Ash for years and years, and now
now the Astra is a one at nine in a row,
and it's pretty hard to believe these teams now have
the exact same record against each other in the regular season.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
So it's been a it's been a fun rivalry all.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Right, before we get to the on the field play
for those that are just catching up. But I've been
out of town a little bit the last couple of days.
But looking at your Twitter and the stories, what does
your gut tell you about Jordan's injury situation and what
does your gut tell you about the East Sik Peretti's
potential return.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Uh, my gut tells me Peretis will return, and I
think it could be soon, and Alvarez will not be
back until playoffs at earliest, and I think they might
have to go a little ways and play else. I
mean what Joe Spottas said yesterday pregame about Parretta's all
seemed really positive if you're the Astros, And I think

(02:09):
Joe even used the word soon that he could be back.
So even talked about, hey, can he run, you know how,
you know he's but two months removed from that hamstring?

Speaker 2 (02:19):
Can he run? And Joe said, well, I'm not gonna
ask him to run.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
They're gonna need him bat and if he grounds shortstop,
you know he's gonna jog the first base if he
but if he hits.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
A homer, you can jog around all the bases. So
they're gonna have to be smart with the way they
use them.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
But yeah, I think I think there's a pretty good
chance within the next few days we'll have Perettas in
the lineup. But I don't see a returning before the
playoffs at the ear least, and even then, I think
it could be you know, Division Series l ces before
they have a chance to get him back.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
And what about Jordan. Oh that's what I mean. I
meant Jordan. Yeah, I meant your Yoda. I don't see
Jordan on return. Okay, yeah, yeah, sorry, I got the
names right, Yeah, all right, I think it'll be it'll
a little bit, all right.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Brian mctagger at MLB dot Com with us here on
the Matt Thomas Showood Ross. So, I mean, look, it's
easy to say how they do it well.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
The bats showed.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Up, and we have been trying to at least Ross
and I for a better part a month. Is it
gonna be the pitching it's gonna carry. Is it gonna
be the relief? Is it going to be the defense?
Is it gonna be the health of returning players that
have been gone for a long while. To me, this
felt like this was three games where the Astros offense
just showed up. It's a kind of a up and
down roller coaster team offensively this entire season, and right

(03:34):
now they're catching it at a good time because the
bats against really good pitching. I mean, the Rangers line
their their rotation up for this series, and the Astros
beat some pretty good people to kind of push the
Rangers fur their back in the wild card chase.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Yeah, and I think that's the blueprint of how they're
gonna do this. If they're gonna make a long playoff run,
they're gonna have to jump out to early leads like
they did against the Arrangers. They scored the first inning
every time. They never trailed in the series. They're gonna
have to come up with clutch hits. This is their
blueprint to victory, and then just have their starting pitching
and their relief pitching be just good enough.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
You know.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
I think they set the tone in Atlanta with those
first two games. You know, remember they went into Atlanta
and I think they had scored four runs in their
previous eight games or something eight games.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Eight runs in the previous four games. I mean, they
were really struggling.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Scored eleven in that first game in Atlanta. Uh did
pretty well in the second game, but I think that
sort of set the tone.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
For where they're at now.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
And you know, some really good at bats against the
Gram in that first inning to get his pitch count
up to thirty five pitches, Jeremy Panya lane off, you know,
a couple of sliders early and then he was able
to able to get a you know, a double to
get that inning going. You go back to September sixth,
when they faced the Grom. Uhdu Grom came out pounding sliders,

(04:52):
struck out three guys in the first inning on sliders.
You could tell the Astros We're not gonna let him
do that. And that's gonna be crucial because they're gonna
face a lot of this this caliber pitching in the
playoffs and even this weekend against the Mariners. It seems
so they're gonna have to have that same disciplined approach.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
It seems like an X factor, of course, is also
going to be Zach Cole oh for his last five
but we know he's got some some lightning in his back.
Keep asking you about your gut feeling, I mean, uh,
how do you think this plays out for him down
the stretch?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
Ross It's gonna be interested because the kids obviously pretty fearless.
So I'm kind of anxious to see what he can
do this weekend. I mean, I'm sure he's gonna be
in the lineup once or twice. But then then again,
he he you know, these are very these are huge games,
and he's still trying to feel his way through the
big leagues and and uh, and he's facing all this
elite pitching when he'd barely been a triple A. I mean,

(05:43):
all of a sudden, he's facing de Gram and you know,
Luis Castillo and Brian.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Wu maybe tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
So uh, this is the best pitching he's ever faced
in his life, and he's he's having figured out figured
out in games that matter hugely to the Astros. So
but I mean, he's not scared of anything, so I
you know, I think Dashtrolls will give him a shot
at least in one or two of these games and
see what he can do.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
Brian McTaggart Astros dot Com with us here on Sports
Talk seven to ninety. On the pitching side, it feels
like this time of year, we're always talking about how
the playoff rotation is going to line up, So asking
you about that and then specifically with Fromber, if he's
really good the next couple of starts, I think he's
the two guy. If he's really bad, how much do
you think he can slide? And what if he's just
kind of somewhere in between.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, I still think if he has a couple of
good starts under his belt, then yeah, he's going to
be the number two guy. You know, Alexander can't take
anything away.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
From what he did.

Speaker 3 (06:39):
I mean, they're winning every time he takes the ball,
and that's what you want as well. And you know,
Christian Javier Is has two pretty good starts under his
belt now six innings. I think he's a guy that
maybe at the back end of their rotation, if you
need a four starter, would be in there as well.
But yeah, I mean, I think the next two starts
are pretty huge for Fromber to see just where he
will slot in uh in the playoff rotation. I mean,

(07:02):
a lot of it's gonna depend on how they use
them in that final week of the season or they
you know, do they have to use them in the
final weekend and in Anaheim if they have to win
those games and it looks like this thing definitely will
go down to the wire, and you know it might
that might decide for them how they line up their
playoff rotation for the wild card series if you know,
if they have to, you know, use Hunter Brown or
Fromber in the last couple of days of the regular season.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
What do you see with maybe Peretti is coming back.
How much jose L two a DH will we see
between now and the end the season, regardless of whether
or not the parties can come back.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
I mean, I think if Predis comes back, he's gonna
d H. I don't see him playing in the field.
I mean, he's not gonna play third base over Korea.
I mean, I guess, I guess he probably wouldn't DH
every game and then and then maybe that's when you
can get too Day back in the DH spot and
off second base. But I don't I don't think Peretti's
is gonna He's obviously not gonna play short, second or first,

(07:57):
and you're not gonna take care off third. So preretis
is going to be DH only will he play every game?
It maybe depends how he feels, how he's swinging the bat.
But Joseel two Bay has played a lot more second
base in the second half of the season as he
did in the first, and I think of the playoffs,
that's where we'll see him. I think it'll be interesting
if they have a lead in a playoff game, you

(08:18):
know they do they pull Al two Bay and put
Urias or Dubon or somebody who's a little bit better
in their defensively.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
You know, that remains to be seen.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
But you know, having that bat pretis in the lineup,
if he can just work counts and use that pull
power and hit the ball close to the way he
did before he got injured, that could be a game changer.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
All right, size up the bullpen. It feels like to me,
especially with the way Brian King has pitched really all
season long, and the fact that somebody guys have been hurt.
He's your eighth inning guy, I'll bray you as your ninth. Generally,
give me your thoughts about what you've seen from this bullpen.
I would say the undertone to me is it's really
been heavily worked and you need somebody to give you

(08:57):
one or two of those guys this weekend, to give
you some link to give these guys a rest, especially
if they're gonna have to play another bullpen game sometime
next week out in California.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Yeah, they do, and I think the best thing that
could happen for them is if they if they can
run down the Tigers and get the number two seed,
which is now back and play. I mean, they're only
a game and a half behind the Tigers, and then
you get that buy and now you're gonna you're gonna
rest everybody.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
For five days before you start the division series.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
But you know, they have a couple of guys in
the bullpen now who can give them multiple inning outings.
We've seen it, you know, from Colton Gordon JP Franz
can throw two or three in in So you know,
I think guys like that could be important here over
the next week if if it's a blowout, or even
if it's not, if you just need somebody to give
you two innings to make that bridge, to get the
king and get to a break. You now have guys

(09:46):
that are capable of doing that. But you know, if
they have to fight tooth and nail all the way
down the next Sunday and use all these guys over
the week next weekend in Anaheim and then get on
a plane and go to Seattle or go to New
York or whatever, it could be really, really tough. So
I know there was one Astro's uniform member. It told
me he was watching the Detroit game closer than any

(10:09):
other score because they feel they can.

Speaker 2 (10:11):
Run down the Tigers and get that number.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Two seed, which would be absolutely massive because you would
get the days off and you'd open the division series
at home.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
One more question about the pitching aj blue Ball. Where
do you do you think he could start a game
in the postseason. Do you think he's just going to
be a long relief. What kind of type of role
do you think he has down the stretch and in
the postseason.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Yeah, I don't.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
I don't think he'll be a starter, but yeah, I
see him as long relief. Somebody gets in trouble, fourth
or fifth, you know, you bring in blue Ball to
you know, throw those three and inns, throw ninety seven
to ninety eight, get that bridge. He could be a
huge weapon in the playoffs. He's a fresh arm. He's
another one of these guys who's absolutely fearless. His stuff
plays up in the bullpen more than it does when

(10:51):
he was starting. So they don't have the you know,
the one inning relievers they had earlier in the season
with Susa and.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
Hater and or being out out. But now they have
these multi ending guys.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
And when you get to the playoffs, you can really
manipulate the way you use your bullpen where these guys
are real weapons. So I think blue Ball is going
to be a big part of that.

Speaker 1 (11:13):
All right, in thirty seconds, give me your crystal ball
thoughts about, well, how this weekend.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Is going to go down?

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, Astros, I think are playing their best baseball since June.
The Mariners are not a good road team. I think
they've had their hot streak. I think the Astros win
two out of three. That will set them up very
well to go on a road trip against two teams
that are out of it. So yeah, I think the
Astros win two out of three, get a little bit
of a lead in first base and first place, and

(11:41):
I think they.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
Win the division. I think they close this thing out.

Speaker 3 (11:43):
If they don't, they just have themselves to blame, because
after all they've been through here, they are with what
ten games to go, nine games to go, they're senior
in first place nine so they get they got a
chance to control their own fate here if that's possible.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Great stuff is always firm and look forward to hearing
with you and Ross tomorrow night before the Astros Mariners
series from Dakin Park. Thanks and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks,
tags appreciate it all right, all right, Brian McTaggart with
us here on Sports Talk seven on e