September 24, 2025 • 11 mins
Still trying to buy themselves a playoff spot with 5 games left of the season to go, the Astros' decade reign over the postseason appears to slowly diminish as they drop Game 1 of their opener last night against the Athletics with a final score of 5-1. Having entered this crucial stage of the season now and comparing a few identical events to last season's early drop-off in the postseason, many would argue the Astros have entered a decline in the recent 2 seasons. Not liable to pull out of must-win situations similar to last night's game and still unable to put up runs with runners in scoring position, Dan and Ari evaluate last night's loss and where this now puts the organization moving forward, posing the question of what the future could begin to look like.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning here Sean Salisbury's show. We're not gonna let
this ruin our vibe. No, No, you want to get
three hits. You want to have two of them be
basically infield singles and another one being a seeing I single,
and the other team is able to actually put meaningful
contact on the baseball and win a game. Then you
go right ahead. And then if you want to afterwards
(00:22):
talk about the urgency in the clubhouse and everything, you
go right ahead. You've had a lot of time to
be able to do that, and now you're in the
situation you're in and it's validated Ari Alexander and for Sean,
good morning, buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Morning. Just does not feel like there is a sense
of urgency, does it, Especially when you were playing a
division opponent. You know you have six games left to
make the playoffs. Your season is over if you don't
get this done. And the same narrative that we hear
out of the Astros every year, and they've earned the
benefit of the doubt for almost a decade of you
stay calm, you stay even keeled, been here before, know
(00:57):
how to handle it, and that you know worked for them.
Hashtag built for this, Yeah, worked for them. Year after
year after year, except last year it didn't. They got in,
they won the division, and then they got smoked by
a Detroit Tigers team who frankly did not have enough
pitching to compete in the playoffs. You heard what aj
Hinch said, when they set up their pitching, it's trek
(01:19):
scooball and then it's pitching chaos that should not be
winning you serieses in the playoffs, and the Astros got
smoked by that team, and so I think some of
the mystique has worn off. The whole Astros is an
inevitable thing after last year doesn't apply because they got
knocked out in the wildcard round, and I don't think
(01:39):
teams are scared of them anymore. And the benefit of
the doubt is starting to wear off. When you have
a down trend World Series win, ALCS loss, Wildcard loss,
you see a specific down trend, the benefit of the
doubt starts to erode. And when you have six games
left to save your season and you come out looking
(02:02):
like that does not feel like there is a sense
of urgency, and it does not feel like the message
of it's fine, we've been here before, it's not good.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Enough well and it's also you have to be able
to prove it because at least in the past, Like
let's take twenty twenty three, this was where I think
we kind of started to sense that maybe this thing
was starting to take a downturn, where you know, we're
going into the final week of the season and you've
got series against the Mariners and against the Diamondbacks, and
you're like, wait a minute here, Like you know, we're
(02:32):
not supposed to be in situations like this, Like we're
already supposed to be clinched, moving on, getting ready for
home games in the postseason, YadA, YadA, YadA, all that
kind of stuff, and you had to grin and Barrett,
you had to scratch and claw all the way to
the end. I mean, you found out that Saturday night
after you beat Arizona that you were into the postseason,
but you just didn't know where. You didn't know if
you're gonna have to go on the road as a
(02:53):
wild card or if you're gonna be home as one
of the division winners. And luckily the Rangers were beaten
by the Mariners that so you were able to win
the American League West. But I mean, I guess that's
the closest that we've had, because like there is a
legit possibility, and last night even made it even more
of a possibility that. I mean, you heard Jeff Blum
(03:15):
and the guys say it on the TV side. You're
probably gonna have to win out now if you're going
to have any chance whatsoever. The division's over. It ended
last night the Mariners win. So you're four games down
with five to go, it's over. They're not gonna lose
two straight to the Rockies. All they need to do
is when one of these five games and they're in fine.
But I mean the Guardians continue to push. And as
(03:37):
much as we're feeling bad here, I mean you mentioned
Detroit like a j hinch for the guys that are
talking the live microphones up there in Detroit, imagine how
that conversation's going right now. Astros had a seven and
a half game lead, Detroit had a fifteen and a
half game lead.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I mean, that's one of the worst collapses of all time,
and you won. You got to give credit to the
Cleveland Guardians who were dead in the water. They're like
last year's Detroit Tiger sell at the deadline, dead at
the water. Guardians gave out Shane Bieber, who's going to
be a big piece in the American League playoffs for
the Toronto Blue Jays, who have clinched right like all
these teams that for years have shown no ability to
(04:19):
win when it mattered, The Blue Jays are a good example.
Plenty of talent, never really the ability to win. The Mariners,
we all know, plenty of talent, never the ability to
win or get anything done. And now let's flip this
year because the American League for almost a decade has
been dominated by the Astros and then secondarily the Yankees,
and it feels like the Yankees are a wildcard club.
(04:40):
I don't see them catching the Blue Jays. They did
clinch the playoffs last night. The Yankees did, and that's
not what they're supposed to be. They're not supposed to
be a wild card team. The Astros, based on their
past decade of success, aren't supposed to be a wildcard team.
But that's what we're looking at is a hope of one,
not even a wildcard team, the hope of a wild
card team. And all you gotta do is beat the
(05:03):
A's who aren't good, but good enough to beat you.
And good enough to have pitching left handed pitching, by
the way, which is something the Astro should be good against.
Where through the first two thirds of this season they
saw lefties almost never because teams would make sure they
didn't throw lefties against the Astros because their two right
handed lineup was better against lefties. And so you have
(05:25):
a perfect opportunity last night against a lefty, solid pitcher,
not a world beater, guy that does not strike out
the world either. So he, just like the three pitchers
you saw in Seattle, throw strikes. Why is it such
a problem to hit guys that are throwing, that are
in the zone, that are throwing strikes, that are not
beating you with chase rate. For a team that chases,
(05:48):
you are now having pitchers play into your hands. They're
not gonna get you to chase and you still can't
hit those guys. You still cannot have the fire needed.
With six games left to save your seat to not
be the one team that broke the playoffs streak, you
are going to be the one team that broke the
division streak of the long one hundred and sixty two season.
(06:10):
Knowing that of the past since twenty sixteen, you're the
most disappointing team since twenty sixteen. Do you want to
be that team?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Of course not so play like it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, And I mean there's no time like the president
to try to do that. But I mean, you know,
as you're talking, I'm just reminded of last night where
I mentioned to Christian Walker two of the three singles
that you had, Yeah, I didn't stutter two of the
three singles. That's exactly what the Astros had last night.
You get out hit nine to three by the A's,
who are a good hitting team and playing in a
(06:42):
hitters ballpark. And that's another thing too. I mentioned Blumber
and TK you know, on the TV side talking about
it last night where Blumber I can't remember iFeel was
during the game or their postgame stand up, one of
the two where he was like, you got three hits,
and you got three singles in a hitter's ballpark, like
almost alluding to that's hard to do, like somebody would
lean into one and at least be able to put
(07:03):
in a charge to a baseball but like they didn't
look competitive whatsoever in that game. As soon as the
game got the three to one, I told myself, I said,
you can go to bed now, like you can turn
this off and go to bed. This is not going
to change, and it sucks to feel that way about
this offense, but there's zero reason to believe that this
offense has any hint of clutching them any hint.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You have no yord On Alvarez, you didn't have Jeremy
Payania last night. Who's going to get the big hit.
The only guy that really you've been able to rely
all year long to get the big hit other than
maybe Painia is Victor Carratini is your backup catcher, who,
by the way, is not signed after this year. That's
a guy they need to probably keep around because he's
one of the few guys for a long time this
(07:48):
year that's been doing all the right things.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
He's going to get starting. Looks like me and Sean
talk about that all the time. There is going to
be a club out there that brings him in almost
kind of. I would say that his career resurgence is
almost like what Travis Darnaut went through in Tampa Bay
and then he got signed by the Braves and brought
there and was able to have a pretty decent career.
But to your point, I.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Think Travis is a little different. I think Travis Darnaut
was a huge prospect who couldn't stop getting hurt, and
then he finally stayed healthy. Victor Karattini has been a
backup catcher forever and one of the better ones in
the league for a while. I'm not sure he necessarily
gets starting looks because there aren't a lot of teams
bad teams right Like Victor Karrottini is the type of
(08:30):
player who would be a starter on a bottom ten team,
and a lot of the bottom ten teams right now
are not teams that are going to pay extra for
various players in free agency right So, Christian Vasquez is
sort of the comparison. He had a three year, thirty
million dollar deal with the Minnesota Twins. But before Christian
Vazquez came and was essentially Muldi's backup, he was a
(08:51):
starter on a World Series team in twenty eighteen with
the Red Soixe.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And make no mistake about it, he was brought here
to be the starting catcher. It was just the manager
said a minute, no, no, no, I'm not taking my
field general out of there. What the hell's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah? So he he got that deal. I don't think
that Victor Karattini gets a three year deal. I think
that Victor Kartini gets a two year deal. And I
kind of think it happens with the Astros. They like him,
Dana likes him. He's done well here, he's done well
in the clubhouse. A two year deal or a one
plus one makes sense for him. But he somehow your
(09:25):
backup catcher, a guy that's never been a full time
starter in his life, is the most reliable guy you have,
not Christian Walker, who was your big splash free agent signing. Unfortunately,
it's not yours on Alvarez because he's hurt. Unfortunately, it's
not esak paratus, although it probably would be if he
hadn't missed the past couple of months. He's just coming
(09:45):
off of injury. It's a backup catcher. It's a backup catcher.
Is your most reliable hitter. When you go through that
lineup and you look at all the big names, Carlos Korea,
you just traded for the deadline. You traded for Jezu Sanchez,
not that you gave up a ton, but you traded
for him. You don't watch a Carlos care at bat
and go, all right, this is the guy that's gonna
(10:06):
make sure he's gonna get us the clutch hit. Victor
Caratini's the only guy you kind of feel confident up there,
going like, all right, he's gonna get something done.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Uncle Vic. The crew over at Apollo Media does in
company coming up with that professional hitter. He's Uncle Vic, he.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Is, he is. He's one of the more you know,
and he's speaking of remember the saga with bringing back
Michael Brandtley late two weeks left in the year, and
all right, he's gonna be the spark in the last piece,
Like no, same with Paradis if Paradis doesn't play well
this last week, Like, how are you gonna blame him?
He rushed back from a hamstring. He's like has sixty
(10:40):
percent running and that's gonna be the guy that's the
savior of your offense. Ill timed Jeremy Payne your left
oblique injury. Ill timed Jordan Alvarez body breaking down. Ill
timed Jose al two be slump to end the year.
Ill timed Cam Smith hitting the rookie wall at one
hundred and twenty miles an hour and basically being benched
(11:01):
for a month and a half. Now, who's reliable on
this offense other than Victor Carrottini.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It's a very fair question, and I think the answer
is one that most Astros fans probably wouldn't like, and
we'll discuss that here as we're just getting going on
a Wednesday edition that does Shawn Salisbury Show. By the way,
programming note, Dana Brown going to join us tomorrow morning
at nine thirty finding out from the team, so we'll
have that weekly visit with him tomorrow. But as I mentioned,
(11:27):
with the Astros, the urgency, where is it? Does the
manager finally is the manager finally putting the words to it?
We'll let you hear from him and let you decide
right here. It is a Shawn Salisbury Show on a
Western Wednesday Sports Talk seven ninety
Good morning here Sean Salisbury's show. We're not gonna let
this ruin our vibe. No, No, you want to get
three hits. You want to have two of them be
basically infield singles and another one being a seeing I single,
and the other team is able to actually put meaningful
contact on the baseball and win a game. Then you
go right ahead. And then if you want to afterwards
(00:22):
talk about the urgency in the clubhouse and everything, you
go right ahead. You've had a lot of time to
be able to do that, and now you're in the
situation you're in and it's validated Ari Alexander and for Sean,
good morning, buddy.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Morning. Just does not feel like there is a sense
of urgency, does it, Especially when you were playing a
division opponent. You know you have six games left to
make the playoffs. Your season is over if you don't
get this done. And the same narrative that we hear
out of the Astros every year, and they've earned the
benefit of the doubt for almost a decade of you
stay calm, you stay even keeled, been here before, know
(00:57):
how to handle it, and that you know worked for them.
Hashtag built for this, Yeah, worked for them. Year after
year after year, except last year it didn't. They got in,
they won the division, and then they got smoked by
a Detroit Tigers team who frankly did not have enough
pitching to compete in the playoffs. You heard what aj
Hinch said, when they set up their pitching, it's trek
(01:19):
scooball and then it's pitching chaos that should not be
winning you serieses in the playoffs, and the Astros got
smoked by that team, and so I think some of
the mystique has worn off. The whole Astros is an
inevitable thing after last year doesn't apply because they got
knocked out in the wildcard round, and I don't think
(01:39):
teams are scared of them anymore. And the benefit of
the doubt is starting to wear off. When you have
a down trend World Series win, ALCS loss, Wildcard loss,
you see a specific down trend, the benefit of the
doubt starts to erode. And when you have six games
left to save your season and you come out looking
(02:02):
like that does not feel like there is a sense
of urgency, and it does not feel like the message
of it's fine, we've been here before, it's not good.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Enough well and it's also you have to be able
to prove it because at least in the past, Like
let's take twenty twenty three, this was where I think
we kind of started to sense that maybe this thing
was starting to take a downturn, where you know, we're
going into the final week of the season and you've
got series against the Mariners and against the Diamondbacks, and
you're like, wait a minute here, Like you know, we're
(02:32):
not supposed to be in situations like this, Like we're
already supposed to be clinched, moving on, getting ready for
home games in the postseason, YadA, YadA, YadA, all that
kind of stuff, and you had to grin and Barrett,
you had to scratch and claw all the way to
the end. I mean, you found out that Saturday night
after you beat Arizona that you were into the postseason,
but you just didn't know where. You didn't know if
you're gonna have to go on the road as a
(02:53):
wild card or if you're gonna be home as one
of the division winners. And luckily the Rangers were beaten
by the Mariners that so you were able to win
the American League West. But I mean, I guess that's
the closest that we've had, because like there is a
legit possibility, and last night even made it even more
of a possibility that. I mean, you heard Jeff Blum
(03:15):
and the guys say it on the TV side. You're
probably gonna have to win out now if you're going
to have any chance whatsoever. The division's over. It ended
last night the Mariners win. So you're four games down
with five to go, it's over. They're not gonna lose
two straight to the Rockies. All they need to do
is when one of these five games and they're in fine.
But I mean the Guardians continue to push. And as
(03:37):
much as we're feeling bad here, I mean you mentioned
Detroit like a j hinch for the guys that are
talking the live microphones up there in Detroit, imagine how
that conversation's going right now. Astros had a seven and
a half game lead, Detroit had a fifteen and a
half game lead.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
I mean, that's one of the worst collapses of all time,
and you won. You got to give credit to the
Cleveland Guardians who were dead in the water. They're like
last year's Detroit Tiger sell at the deadline, dead at
the water. Guardians gave out Shane Bieber, who's going to
be a big piece in the American League playoffs for
the Toronto Blue Jays, who have clinched right like all
these teams that for years have shown no ability to
(04:19):
win when it mattered, The Blue Jays are a good example.
Plenty of talent, never really the ability to win. The Mariners,
we all know, plenty of talent, never the ability to
win or get anything done. And now let's flip this
year because the American League for almost a decade has
been dominated by the Astros and then secondarily the Yankees,
and it feels like the Yankees are a wildcard club.
(04:40):
I don't see them catching the Blue Jays. They did
clinch the playoffs last night. The Yankees did, and that's
not what they're supposed to be. They're not supposed to
be a wild card team. The Astros, based on their
past decade of success, aren't supposed to be a wildcard team.
But that's what we're looking at is a hope of one,
not even a wildcard team, the hope of a wild
card team. And all you gotta do is beat the
(05:03):
A's who aren't good, but good enough to beat you.
And good enough to have pitching left handed pitching, by
the way, which is something the Astro should be good against.
Where through the first two thirds of this season they
saw lefties almost never because teams would make sure they
didn't throw lefties against the Astros because their two right
handed lineup was better against lefties. And so you have
(05:25):
a perfect opportunity last night against a lefty, solid pitcher,
not a world beater, guy that does not strike out
the world either. So he, just like the three pitchers
you saw in Seattle, throw strikes. Why is it such
a problem to hit guys that are throwing, that are
in the zone, that are throwing strikes, that are not
beating you with chase rate. For a team that chases,
(05:48):
you are now having pitchers play into your hands. They're
not gonna get you to chase and you still can't
hit those guys. You still cannot have the fire needed.
With six games left to save your seat to not
be the one team that broke the playoffs streak, you
are going to be the one team that broke the
division streak of the long one hundred and sixty two season.
(06:10):
Knowing that of the past since twenty sixteen, you're the
most disappointing team since twenty sixteen. Do you want to
be that team?
Speaker 1 (06:18):
No?
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Of course not so play like it.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, And I mean there's no time like the president
to try to do that. But I mean, you know,
as you're talking, I'm just reminded of last night where
I mentioned to Christian Walker two of the three singles
that you had, Yeah, I didn't stutter two of the
three singles. That's exactly what the Astros had last night.
You get out hit nine to three by the A's,
who are a good hitting team and playing in a
(06:42):
hitters ballpark. And that's another thing too. I mentioned Blumber
and TK you know, on the TV side talking about
it last night where Blumber I can't remember iFeel was
during the game or their postgame stand up, one of
the two where he was like, you got three hits,
and you got three singles in a hitter's ballpark, like
almost alluding to that's hard to do, like somebody would
lean into one and at least be able to put
(07:03):
in a charge to a baseball but like they didn't
look competitive whatsoever in that game. As soon as the
game got the three to one, I told myself, I said,
you can go to bed now, like you can turn
this off and go to bed. This is not going
to change, and it sucks to feel that way about
this offense, but there's zero reason to believe that this
offense has any hint of clutching them any hint.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
You have no yord On Alvarez, you didn't have Jeremy
Payania last night. Who's going to get the big hit.
The only guy that really you've been able to rely
all year long to get the big hit other than
maybe Painia is Victor Carratini is your backup catcher, who,
by the way, is not signed after this year. That's
a guy they need to probably keep around because he's
one of the few guys for a long time this
(07:48):
year that's been doing all the right things.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
He's going to get starting. Looks like me and Sean
talk about that all the time. There is going to
be a club out there that brings him in almost
kind of. I would say that his career resurgence is
almost like what Travis Darnaut went through in Tampa Bay
and then he got signed by the Braves and brought
there and was able to have a pretty decent career.
But to your point, I.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Think Travis is a little different. I think Travis Darnaut
was a huge prospect who couldn't stop getting hurt, and
then he finally stayed healthy. Victor Karattini has been a
backup catcher forever and one of the better ones in
the league for a while. I'm not sure he necessarily
gets starting looks because there aren't a lot of teams
bad teams right Like Victor Karrottini is the type of
(08:30):
player who would be a starter on a bottom ten team,
and a lot of the bottom ten teams right now
are not teams that are going to pay extra for
various players in free agency right So, Christian Vasquez is
sort of the comparison. He had a three year, thirty
million dollar deal with the Minnesota Twins. But before Christian
Vazquez came and was essentially Muldi's backup, he was a
(08:51):
starter on a World Series team in twenty eighteen with
the Red Soixe.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And make no mistake about it, he was brought here
to be the starting catcher. It was just the manager
said a minute, no, no, no, I'm not taking my
field general out of there. What the hell's wrong with you?
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Yeah? So he he got that deal. I don't think
that Victor Karattini gets a three year deal. I think
that Victor Kartini gets a two year deal. And I
kind of think it happens with the Astros. They like him,
Dana likes him. He's done well here, he's done well
in the clubhouse. A two year deal or a one
plus one makes sense for him. But he somehow your
(09:25):
backup catcher, a guy that's never been a full time
starter in his life, is the most reliable guy you have,
not Christian Walker, who was your big splash free agent signing. Unfortunately,
it's not yours on Alvarez because he's hurt. Unfortunately, it's
not esak paratus, although it probably would be if he
hadn't missed the past couple of months. He's just coming
(09:45):
off of injury. It's a backup catcher. It's a backup catcher.
Is your most reliable hitter. When you go through that
lineup and you look at all the big names, Carlos Korea,
you just traded for the deadline. You traded for Jezu Sanchez,
not that you gave up a ton, but you traded
for him. You don't watch a Carlos care at bat
and go, all right, this is the guy that's gonna
(10:06):
make sure he's gonna get us the clutch hit. Victor
Caratini's the only guy you kind of feel confident up there,
going like, all right, he's gonna get something done.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Uncle Vic. The crew over at Apollo Media does in
company coming up with that professional hitter. He's Uncle Vic, he.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Is, he is. He's one of the more you know,
and he's speaking of remember the saga with bringing back
Michael Brandtley late two weeks left in the year, and
all right, he's gonna be the spark in the last piece,
Like no, same with Paradis if Paradis doesn't play well
this last week, Like, how are you gonna blame him?
He rushed back from a hamstring. He's like has sixty
(10:40):
percent running and that's gonna be the guy that's the
savior of your offense. Ill timed Jeremy Payne your left
oblique injury. Ill timed Jordan Alvarez body breaking down. Ill
timed Jose al two be slump to end the year.
Ill timed Cam Smith hitting the rookie wall at one
hundred and twenty miles an hour and basically being benched
(11:01):
for a month and a half. Now, who's reliable on
this offense other than Victor Carrottini.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
It's a very fair question, and I think the answer
is one that most Astros fans probably wouldn't like, and
we'll discuss that here as we're just getting going on
a Wednesday edition that does Shawn Salisbury Show. By the way,
programming note, Dana Brown going to join us tomorrow morning
at nine thirty finding out from the team, so we'll
have that weekly visit with him tomorrow. But as I mentioned,
(11:27):
with the Astros, the urgency, where is it? Does the
manager finally is the manager finally putting the words to it?
We'll let you hear from him and let you decide
right here. It is a Shawn Salisbury Show on a
Western Wednesday Sports Talk seven ninety
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