July 11, 2025 • 10 mins
With the day off yesterday and teeing back into action tonight, the Silver Boot series rolls on as the Astros get ready to conclude the first half of the season taking on their interstate rival, the Texas Rangers. Weighing the odds considering the Astros position leading the division and roughly 4 away from leading the American League and a few variables pertaining to injuries, Sean and Dan take a moment gauging how should the Astros' approach this final series and the mindset they should have rolling into and coming out of the All-Star break.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As the Rangers now in third place at nine and
a half games back of the Astros and only three
and a half games back of a wild card spot.
But Shawna mentioned it that the urgency, and you've talked
about it all this week and even before the sweep
against the Guardians, that you needed to be able to
keep this thing going. And I mean Dana Brown even
(00:22):
mentioning with you on Wednesday. You know what's the message
and the messages, you know, put on the gas pedal,
finish it off and then get your rest for a
few days and then come right back to it where
you know it's it's a sprint to the finish at
that point, if.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
They all count, should play them all the way you're
supposed to. And they're fortunate they're going to come out
of this thing, haven't. You know, kept the lead and
maybe extended it even if they don't play well. But
these next three, for their own psychological aspect and against arrival,
you shouldn't take much or a pregame speech or warning
people about the All Star break for them to want
to play. You're at home, You're playing three games against
a rival, a team that is going to challenge you
(00:57):
for the division. If they're healthy and you've you know,
continue to get these injuries, or if there's a fall
off in this I wouldn't let it. Fester I said
before the series, the last one, and I'll say it now.
Going into an All Star break with one in five
with the Dodgers, nobody can I don't care if they're
the best team in baseball. There's no way you can
tell me that being swept back to back series isn't
(01:21):
doesn't tell you that there's concern there as town is there.
I'm sure they'll come out of it. You lose six
in a row, I don't care. If you're the best
team in baseball, you're going to go in and if
they don't perform well this weekend, you're going into the
All Star break. If you're a Dodger, like, damn, what's
going on with us? Just enough to creep in to
bother you. And even if they keep their lead and
(01:41):
they go one in five and these last six, so
they'll say they if they lose the series and they're
one in five the last six games, well you're not
going into the All Star breaks, ain't man? I love
where we are, you love the record, you love the lead,
but you don't love the way it's the performance is going,
and eventually if it continues and you lose that edge,
(02:02):
the competitive edge, that edge that this team's had for
a year after year. Whatever you question them, they always
find a way to say, oh, of course they're focused,
so I trust it. But just the overall human nature
part of this, you will not feel good, specially when
you continue to come back in your shortstop and your
designated hitter are still not playing. So that's something that
(02:23):
I don't think you want to come out because all
it takes is another losing series in Seattle to get
themselves right. And now the leads three and a half games,
so I would now you've got a chance to extend it.
It's not like the Mariners think what should be doing.
If you win the series or sweep at them and
the Mariners have trouble getting out of their next series,
you will have gained two or three games on both
(02:44):
teams in the division because you got the head to
head with them. And if the Mariners in a tough
series they have well, it's just that you lose the
division or all of a sudden the second half kicks in.
They will point back to this. If they don't play
well this series and they squander it, lose this series,
they'll point back to this. If this lead shrinks and
second half they come out slow and say we had
(03:06):
to do better after we swept the Dodgers. Don't make
a birdie against the Dodgers and then go double bogie,
double bogie. You ain't winning no tournament. So there's latitude. See,
I've always believed when you're winning, that's a good time
to correct and getting people's ass it is when you're losing,
it's a good time to put their arm around somebody
and let them know we're gonna be okay. That's a
lot of arms around the Colorado Rockies, and that's a
(03:28):
lot of once in a while keeping your team on edge,
to say we're six and a half up, we're seven
and a half up, let's get to eight. Let's get
to eight and a half. We'll get our rest. And
the rest is coming around the corner. You're home, you're
not traveling. You get to eat your home cooking. The
ballpark gets Texas. Even if you were tired, it's the Rangers.
If you were tired and worn out, it's the Rangers.
(03:49):
You don't need a red bull. That is your red bull.
So I take it serious. I'm treating this like it's
the Detroit Tigers last year in a short series, a
three gamer. The result of the last year's three sent
the Astros home. And I know we're not there yet,
but we are around seventy games to go. And don't
tell me psychological doesn't work, because the Astros have a
(04:09):
psychological advantage on a lot of teams because they do
exactly what they're supposed to when people question them. This
is a perfect time for them to take care of
their business against Texas and put their foot on their
throat and say, you know what, we lost three in
a row. We're not losing four and five in a row.
And do it against a rival. That's all the speech
you need. Well, it's emo me too. I like to
use the sports comparisons. I mean, let's just say, worst
(04:31):
case scenario here, you get swept. Isn't that almost like
a team that's just been getting drubbed in the first
half of a basketball game. They've been down by twenty five,
but then they go on like a fifteen to three
run right before the half, and they go into the
half and they say, Hey, the Wort's basketball is behind us.
Now we got these guys when we want them. Don't
you feel like.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
That'd be the Rangers coming out of this series only
six and a half games back to the Astros.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, and they've also seen the movie where they went
and won a World Series a couple of years ago,
so they understand what that feel like two so it's
not like they're foreign to it. And their managers won
a few himself, so that, yeah, there's no doubt. And
like that. And when you're down twenty five and you
close the gap and now you're coming out in half
the second half, and we see it happen all the time.
(05:14):
Sometimes you're looking at it and saying, there's no way this
just happened. They came down from twenty eight and one.
Either somebody's gambling and throwing games, which is a joke,
I mean that, But you start to thinking, there's no
way that the discrepancy. You played that well in one
half and that crappy in the next, and vice versa.
There's no way. And the next thing you know, that
team comes it's the best second half comeback in franchise history.
(05:35):
It doesn't, but that is what happens when And I'm
the gambling I'm kidding about. Although the hell it does exist.
Obviously we've seen it, especially recent accusation. There's no doubt
so it. But when you when you do that come
back and the other team gets hot, you start to think, well,
don't tell me that that team that went went into
half with a twenty eight point lead and it got
(05:56):
closed just before the halftime, and then they're still down
twenty and they come out lose by six. You can't
tell me that the run at the end of the
half didn't affect their second half. So, just for talking sake,
if the Astros got swept, I know we'll all make
the Yeah, but there's still six games in front of
first place, or five games or four and a half games.
(06:17):
But the truth of the matter is if we say that,
that's just to what we're trying to convince ourselves that
it's going to be okay you lose six in a row,
that you can't tell me cycle. I don't care how
good the Astros have played, how good they're pitching is,
and the history of the team, I'm not worried about
five years ago. Most of these guys weren't here five
years ago on this team, worried about this year, this now,
(06:41):
and you just don't want to let it creep in.
And losing six in a row, regardless of where you
are at least gives you some latitude because you were
in first place, not last place or second place by
twelve games going into the All Star break. But what
you do now is this the doubt gets in. Well
that's not the Astros, of course not. But this is new.
Got another young kid, Brian. A lot of these guys
(07:02):
had no idea about how the culture sustains itself until
they got in the building, and now they're being challenged
they've had It's like whoa some of these new guys.
Bryce Matthews wasn't here five years ago, so he's about
to face this too. High school. That's exactly right. What
a task is seat of high school? So I do,
and I know maybe I make a bigger deal of it.
I guess because I've seen it happen in another sport
(07:23):
to teams. I was on good and bad both ways,
and I could tell you this. All the tough guys
in a locker room, in a clubhouse and culture get
punched in the face a few times and lose six
in a row, you'll be tested and you go in there,
and I don't understand why you wouldn't treat this like
it's a three game playoffs series. It's the people you despise.
(07:45):
It's a team you can't stand. It's an organization you
want to kick their ass. If you were in last
place and you were going into the All Star Break
and you were playing your rival Dodgers Giants, and the
Dodgers were in the last place, not first, and the
Giants were first, and the Dodgers were Colorado Rockies out
of it. Most of the athletes I know now maybe
(08:06):
some quit and have their golf clubs in their trunk
at the midway point. Most of the ones I've been
around would take it personal and say we're in last place.
They're still going to be in a fistfight. They just do.
And you don't have to save that kind of attitude,
that kind of motivation for September or October November. If
you get into this World Series. I'm assuming that dates
(08:27):
go into early November again this year, but October, you
don't have to save that grind for then. Matter of fact,
that quite the opposite. You had a long season. You've
got plenty of time to rest and gather your breath
after you were intense after the Texas Rangers in this one.
To me, these are easy to get up for. If
you're playing the Rockies, I could understand why the Rockies
(08:48):
beach two or three and you're building the three games
before the All Star breaks is like, this is a joke,
but you're playing the Rangers. But if you were in
last place like the Rockies would do, or like somebody
else does, or like we've seen happen those teams who
spoil it and steal a win late in a football
season to ruin home field advantage for somebody when they're
twenty point dogs or fourteen point dogs. Twenty points would
(09:08):
be college. We rarely see that in the NFL, So
it's the same thing here. Hell, the pride in most
athletes alone won't let you not be ready for this.
And it's the Rangers, it's a rival. I would treat
it like I would treat it like the winner of
this series goes to the playoffs. That's how I would
manage my team. And if I was a player, that's
how I play it. Short of throwing one hundred and
(09:30):
forty pitchers for your starting pitcher. I just to me,
if this isn't important to you, and I'm speaking to
all of base, I know it's important to the Astros.
Now we'll find out how they perform. Sometimes the other
team's just better and you got to take the l
But if this isn't just as important to you as
a series in September, the series in September may not matter.
(09:51):
If you go kick the Rangers ass and then September. Hell,
if you got a ten game lead September, no, they
can win the series. We're still up by nine, so
it matters. And just pride alone. I'm not taking I'm
not getting knocked out by my rival. The ones that
I can't stand. If we were in last place and
we were playing UCLA and they were in first, it
wouldn't have mattered. It was Ucla. I don't want to
listen to their ass of their fan base for the
next year. You're not ringing that bell, right, So they're
(10:13):
going to get an opportunity to do it. And I
and if I was managing them and Joel handled it, fine,
I'm not but I would play so much urgency on
this series because I had sure love to go into
this series saying we lost and we didn't let it fester.
Now we swept the Rangers in our building. Now we
can go relax and feel good. I'll see you guys
after the All Star break.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well it's also too I mean, where you've had good
momentum on your side, you can also have bad momentum
on your side, and that's what the Astros are trying
to discourage against and trying to avoid. But anyway, if
you want to join us seven one three two one
two five seven ninety again the number seven one three
two one two five seven ninety as we continue here
on the Sean Salisbury Show on a Friday Sports Talk
(10:54):
seven ninety
As the Rangers now in third place at nine and
a half games back of the Astros and only three
and a half games back of a wild card spot.
But Shawna mentioned it that the urgency, and you've talked
about it all this week and even before the sweep
against the Guardians, that you needed to be able to
keep this thing going. And I mean Dana Brown even
(00:22):
mentioning with you on Wednesday. You know what's the message
and the messages, you know, put on the gas pedal,
finish it off and then get your rest for a
few days and then come right back to it where
you know it's it's a sprint to the finish at
that point, if.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
They all count, should play them all the way you're
supposed to. And they're fortunate they're going to come out
of this thing, haven't. You know, kept the lead and
maybe extended it even if they don't play well. But
these next three, for their own psychological aspect and against arrival,
you shouldn't take much or a pregame speech or warning
people about the All Star break for them to want
to play. You're at home, You're playing three games against
a rival, a team that is going to challenge you
(00:57):
for the division. If they're healthy and you've you know,
continue to get these injuries, or if there's a fall
off in this I wouldn't let it. Fester I said
before the series, the last one, and I'll say it now.
Going into an All Star break with one in five
with the Dodgers, nobody can I don't care if they're
the best team in baseball. There's no way you can
tell me that being swept back to back series isn't
(01:21):
doesn't tell you that there's concern there as town is there.
I'm sure they'll come out of it. You lose six
in a row, I don't care. If you're the best
team in baseball, you're going to go in and if
they don't perform well this weekend, you're going into the
All Star break. If you're a Dodger, like, damn, what's
going on with us? Just enough to creep in to
bother you. And even if they keep their lead and
(01:41):
they go one in five and these last six, so
they'll say they if they lose the series and they're
one in five the last six games, well you're not
going into the All Star breaks, ain't man? I love
where we are, you love the record, you love the lead,
but you don't love the way it's the performance is going,
and eventually if it continues and you lose that edge,
(02:02):
the competitive edge, that edge that this team's had for
a year after year. Whatever you question them, they always
find a way to say, oh, of course they're focused,
so I trust it. But just the overall human nature
part of this, you will not feel good, specially when
you continue to come back in your shortstop and your
designated hitter are still not playing. So that's something that
(02:23):
I don't think you want to come out because all
it takes is another losing series in Seattle to get
themselves right. And now the leads three and a half games,
so I would now you've got a chance to extend it.
It's not like the Mariners think what should be doing.
If you win the series or sweep at them and
the Mariners have trouble getting out of their next series,
you will have gained two or three games on both
(02:44):
teams in the division because you got the head to
head with them. And if the Mariners in a tough
series they have well, it's just that you lose the
division or all of a sudden the second half kicks in.
They will point back to this. If they don't play
well this series and they squander it, lose this series,
they'll point back to this. If this lead shrinks and
second half they come out slow and say we had
(03:06):
to do better after we swept the Dodgers. Don't make
a birdie against the Dodgers and then go double bogie,
double bogie. You ain't winning no tournament. So there's latitude. See,
I've always believed when you're winning, that's a good time
to correct and getting people's ass it is when you're losing,
it's a good time to put their arm around somebody
and let them know we're gonna be okay. That's a
lot of arms around the Colorado Rockies, and that's a
(03:28):
lot of once in a while keeping your team on edge,
to say we're six and a half up, we're seven
and a half up, let's get to eight. Let's get
to eight and a half. We'll get our rest. And
the rest is coming around the corner. You're home, you're
not traveling. You get to eat your home cooking. The
ballpark gets Texas. Even if you were tired, it's the Rangers.
If you were tired and worn out, it's the Rangers.
(03:49):
You don't need a red bull. That is your red bull.
So I take it serious. I'm treating this like it's
the Detroit Tigers last year in a short series, a
three gamer. The result of the last year's three sent
the Astros home. And I know we're not there yet,
but we are around seventy games to go. And don't
tell me psychological doesn't work, because the Astros have a
(04:09):
psychological advantage on a lot of teams because they do
exactly what they're supposed to when people question them. This
is a perfect time for them to take care of
their business against Texas and put their foot on their
throat and say, you know what, we lost three in
a row. We're not losing four and five in a row.
And do it against a rival. That's all the speech
you need. Well, it's emo me too. I like to
use the sports comparisons. I mean, let's just say, worst
(04:31):
case scenario here, you get swept. Isn't that almost like
a team that's just been getting drubbed in the first
half of a basketball game. They've been down by twenty five,
but then they go on like a fifteen to three
run right before the half, and they go into the
half and they say, Hey, the Wort's basketball is behind us.
Now we got these guys when we want them. Don't
you feel like.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
That'd be the Rangers coming out of this series only
six and a half games back to the Astros.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, and they've also seen the movie where they went
and won a World Series a couple of years ago,
so they understand what that feel like two so it's
not like they're foreign to it. And their managers won
a few himself, so that, yeah, there's no doubt. And
like that. And when you're down twenty five and you
close the gap and now you're coming out in half
the second half, and we see it happen all the time.
(05:14):
Sometimes you're looking at it and saying, there's no way this
just happened. They came down from twenty eight and one.
Either somebody's gambling and throwing games, which is a joke,
I mean that, But you start to thinking, there's no
way that the discrepancy. You played that well in one
half and that crappy in the next, and vice versa.
There's no way. And the next thing you know, that
team comes it's the best second half comeback in franchise history.
(05:35):
It doesn't, but that is what happens when And I'm
the gambling I'm kidding about. Although the hell it does exist.
Obviously we've seen it, especially recent accusation. There's no doubt
so it. But when you when you do that come
back and the other team gets hot, you start to think, well,
don't tell me that that team that went went into
half with a twenty eight point lead and it got
(05:56):
closed just before the halftime, and then they're still down
twenty and they come out lose by six. You can't
tell me that the run at the end of the
half didn't affect their second half. So, just for talking sake,
if the Astros got swept, I know we'll all make
the Yeah, but there's still six games in front of
first place, or five games or four and a half games.
(06:17):
But the truth of the matter is if we say that,
that's just to what we're trying to convince ourselves that
it's going to be okay you lose six in a row,
that you can't tell me cycle. I don't care how
good the Astros have played, how good they're pitching is,
and the history of the team, I'm not worried about
five years ago. Most of these guys weren't here five
years ago on this team, worried about this year, this now,
(06:41):
and you just don't want to let it creep in.
And losing six in a row, regardless of where you
are at least gives you some latitude because you were
in first place, not last place or second place by
twelve games going into the All Star break. But what
you do now is this the doubt gets in. Well
that's not the Astros, of course not. But this is new.
Got another young kid, Brian. A lot of these guys
(07:02):
had no idea about how the culture sustains itself until
they got in the building, and now they're being challenged
they've had It's like whoa some of these new guys.
Bryce Matthews wasn't here five years ago, so he's about
to face this too. High school. That's exactly right. What
a task is seat of high school? So I do,
and I know maybe I make a bigger deal of it.
I guess because I've seen it happen in another sport
(07:23):
to teams. I was on good and bad both ways,
and I could tell you this. All the tough guys
in a locker room, in a clubhouse and culture get
punched in the face a few times and lose six
in a row, you'll be tested and you go in there,
and I don't understand why you wouldn't treat this like
it's a three game playoffs series. It's the people you despise.
(07:45):
It's a team you can't stand. It's an organization you
want to kick their ass. If you were in last
place and you were going into the All Star Break
and you were playing your rival Dodgers Giants, and the
Dodgers were in the last place, not first, and the
Giants were first, and the Dodgers were Colorado Rockies out
of it. Most of the athletes I know now maybe
(08:06):
some quit and have their golf clubs in their trunk
at the midway point. Most of the ones I've been
around would take it personal and say we're in last place.
They're still going to be in a fistfight. They just do.
And you don't have to save that kind of attitude,
that kind of motivation for September or October November. If
you get into this World Series. I'm assuming that dates
(08:27):
go into early November again this year, but October, you
don't have to save that grind for then. Matter of fact,
that quite the opposite. You had a long season. You've
got plenty of time to rest and gather your breath
after you were intense after the Texas Rangers in this one.
To me, these are easy to get up for. If
you're playing the Rockies, I could understand why the Rockies
(08:48):
beach two or three and you're building the three games
before the All Star breaks is like, this is a joke,
but you're playing the Rangers. But if you were in
last place like the Rockies would do, or like somebody
else does, or like we've seen happen those teams who
spoil it and steal a win late in a football
season to ruin home field advantage for somebody when they're
twenty point dogs or fourteen point dogs. Twenty points would
(09:08):
be college. We rarely see that in the NFL, So
it's the same thing here. Hell, the pride in most
athletes alone won't let you not be ready for this.
And it's the Rangers, it's a rival. I would treat
it like I would treat it like the winner of
this series goes to the playoffs. That's how I would
manage my team. And if I was a player, that's
how I play it. Short of throwing one hundred and
(09:30):
forty pitchers for your starting pitcher. I just to me,
if this isn't important to you, and I'm speaking to
all of base, I know it's important to the Astros.
Now we'll find out how they perform. Sometimes the other
team's just better and you got to take the l
But if this isn't just as important to you as
a series in September, the series in September may not matter.
(09:51):
If you go kick the Rangers ass and then September. Hell,
if you got a ten game lead September, no, they
can win the series. We're still up by nine, so
it matters. And just pride alone. I'm not taking I'm
not getting knocked out by my rival. The ones that
I can't stand. If we were in last place and
we were playing UCLA and they were in first, it
wouldn't have mattered. It was Ucla. I don't want to
listen to their ass of their fan base for the
next year. You're not ringing that bell, right, So they're
(10:13):
going to get an opportunity to do it. And I
and if I was managing them and Joel handled it, fine,
I'm not but I would play so much urgency on
this series because I had sure love to go into
this series saying we lost and we didn't let it fester.
Now we swept the Rangers in our building. Now we
can go relax and feel good. I'll see you guys
after the All Star break.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well it's also too I mean, where you've had good
momentum on your side, you can also have bad momentum
on your side, and that's what the Astros are trying
to discourage against and trying to avoid. But anyway, if
you want to join us seven one three two one
two five seven ninety again the number seven one three
two one two five seven ninety as we continue here
on the Sean Salisbury Show on a Friday Sports Talk
(10:54):
seven ninety
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