September 11, 2025 • 10 mins
Following their Game 1 loss the other night, the Astros push to take Game 2 from the Blue Jays with a final score of 3-2, maintaining their lead in the American League West Division. Clutching up late in the 9th, Yainer Diaz takes the Astros over the top for the win with a walk-off home run, evening the series 1-1 with the rubber match set this afternoon. With the division race tightening and following their last two series losses, Sean and Dan assess yesterday's victory along with what the Astros must do to hold their division spot ahead of their two division rivals, the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As the Astros able to pull it off last night
with a three to two win in Toronto. Didn't need
extras this time. Jiner Diaz, thank you very much. Appreciate
your efforts. Jason Alexander even more, thank you very much.
Great stuff out of him as he goes a season
high seven innings. Love to see that out of him.
(00:20):
And I mean you take the good with the bad
and the bad in this one too. Is the Astros
obviously runners in scoring position. Yeah, still a little bit
of an issue as they end up stranding a lot
of runners again and they go one for eight with
runners in scoring position, but all is well, that ends well,
and that's a good thing too, because well, the Mariners
(00:42):
and Rangers they continue to do the not losing thing.
I mean, what if I said to about the Mariners
they don't lose at home, and then the Rangers just
continue right now to just not lose whatsoever as they
sweep the Brewers out of town. So playing good baseball.
But I mean the Astros just as a whole. Last night,
(01:04):
you get some key production out of guys that you
really needed out of.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I mean Jiner Diaz, we'll.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Talk about him as the show goes along, but it's
great to see him. Seems like the back end of
the road or the back end of the batting orders
seems to be the spot that Jiner loves the most
and he has really been able to thrive since moving
back there. But last night also a night off for
Jose Altuve by necessity, I think we can probably.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Agree on that.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
As Ramonirius gets the started second base, but then al
Tuove able to come in late in the game and
pinch hit, he strikes out. I mean, his at bat
kind of looks like the way that most of his
at bats have looked lately, and I think that was
kind of the goal was to get him off his
feet last night, maybe a mental reset, as you heard
Dana Brown mentioned yesterday as a possibility with Sean when
(01:58):
he was on with him for his weekly visits, And
I mean doesn't necessarily work out that way for the
bat that he had, but I mean Sean just last
night for the Astros. You know, as we've kind of
said all along, the pitching, yeah, it's there, but the
hitting well continues to be a little bit of an issue.
But at least the first part what was able to
(02:20):
carry them through last night.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah. But the one thing, even though they didn't rake
last night, you've been begging to have them hit at
the right time. Anderdeaz did late game, late inning win
to get the big home run into a bray you
to close it out after going with thirty pitches the
day before. And Dana Brown even had mentioned on Wednesday
(02:46):
that he didn't know if a braid was even going
to be available. Well he was, and he took care
of his business and it's a huge win, man. So
sometimes and I don't think you're going to get a
lot of both this year where it's or the trifect
of great pitching, great hitting and clutch hitting at once.
That has not been the norm for them this year.
But like I said, if they lose last night and
(03:08):
get fifteen hits, well they got eleven the night before
I got beat. So I'll take a game in which
they get a clutch hit from a guy who's had
an up and down season at the plate and win
a game late and that goes a long way. Take
them how you and get them, especially now when you're
inside you know you're in the teens. You have to
and momentum be damned, but confidence if they get that back,
(03:31):
it could be a different story down as we rolled
down the last fifteen or sixteen seventeen games and head
into the playoffs. But it was the timing of the
hit that mattered more to me than the number of
the hits. Now, obviously offense is going to have to
increase because you can't keep being in these type of
games and expect to win most of them.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Now, but I mean, I am going to push back
on that a little bit because that is what postseason
baseball is.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It's games like this. I didn't stay postseason. I said,
if you hit like this and you count on pitching
all t you're also face seeing better pitching in the postseason.
That's true. You don't go five deep. So I didn't
say playoffs. I said in the last fifteen sixteen seventeen games,
you'll take these wins. Three to two is exactly what
I said, late wins more. Now, you can have a
pretty loss, but it's still a loss. Nobod's gonna look
(04:13):
back and say, man, we lost nine to eight, but
boy we exploded, But they will remember three to two
and a break. You come in after pitching the day before,
and the guy that I mean has been in your
crawl most of the year, yiner Dias coming up with
a big hit late in the game. So yeah, playoff
baseball is exactly like that. There's one small problem. You
got to sustain it to get to the playoffs first.
(04:34):
And with this, they're in position, but you're not. I
assure you, somebody's gonna score more than three or four
runs against them as we rolled down and Toronto may today,
and they may get it from somebody else or Texas
or Seattle. So the hitting is going to have to improve.
But if you tell me they're going to win three
to two games fourteen out of the next seventeen, I'll
take it all day long. Even if there's five hits
(04:54):
in a game now, I mean especially two.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean you mentioned the result there if it's a
W for the Shrows, well, I mean, like I've said
numerous times, there's no there's no college football playoff committee here.
You don't you don't have to impress anybody with a
style of win. It's just did you win and were
you able to get into the postseason. That's the whole thing.
We'll get to a break you in just a second,
because I mean, just what a bounced back performance by him.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
But the confidence part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I mean, I've got to believe that clubhouse was pretty
fired up after this one, because Sean, these are games
they've been losing lately, and last night they found a
way to win. So you almost wondered, is it unlocked
something mentally with this team.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I don't know. I mean, I yeah, it was a
big win, and it was the timing of the win
that I think. You know, listen, I think you gain
more at least the teams I've been on scraping out
a win in a fourth quarter than you do when
you beat somebody forty one to seven. It's like, Okay,
those those aren't the norm. So you take them and
(05:54):
you love them, and they're more relaxing on you. But
you gotta get back into because most in football are
within a touchdown. In baseball, it's within a couple runs.
So I think you can carry something like this and
it could kick in say okay, we run at the
right time. Now they've done that, especially in the season,
they were winning a lot of run run games against
good teams. They were they were as a matter of fact,
for the first what fifty sixty games or seventy games,
(06:16):
they were near the top of the league and being
able to stave off to when they got a lead,
they held it and were able to keep it and win.
And that'll be as you get to the playoffs. You're
gonna win three, two, five, four, two to one or lose,
and that's usually what it is because of the pitching
you face. But they how they want it. Will it
carry over? I don't know, because every time they get
a win like this, or they can win a game
(06:38):
or two in a row, we asked the same thing,
Oh is this the thing that's going to kickstart them?
And then for three straight games they'll be in one
run games and lose two of them and win one.
So I really don't know. I don't know what's going
to kick start the bats, because as we see, momentum
gets stopped when a good pitcher goes out there. After
you win, this one goes out there and shuts you down. Well,
then momentum was one game, So I don't know how
(07:00):
they're going to respond. I know this though, they got
to be able to feel better going to the ballpark
today winning three to two than they do when they
lose a game or they don't hit or they get
you know, three hits and no runs and make an
air and have a couple of bad base running airs
or performances should I say on the offensive side, But
the timing of the win last night was more important
than score nine runs and winning that way. I guarantee
(07:23):
you they win nine to one. It's like, okay, Toronto's now.
You're not going to bet Toronto nine to one very often,
so you just say it was our night and it
wasn't theirs, which everybody has. But when you have to
scrape out a win like this and then close it out,
I think those are bigger. And I know it's cheesy
and sounds cliche, but those are bigger character wins. I know, well,
at least in my life they have been. I learned
far more from those than I do. When you kick
(07:44):
somebody's ass and you're staring into the stands at halftime
because you know this game's over, you don't learn anything
from it. So and they've had a lot to learn
this year and how to overcome a lot, but nobody
feels sorry for him, and a win like that is
huge for them. And like I said, no matter what happened, tonight,
they're still going to have to face the guys that
are chasing them and stave them off one way or
the other. And both of those teams, and the Rangers
(08:07):
and Seattle can pitch and can also hit when it's right.
But that's been the story of this division and been
the story of this team all year. What night are
they going to show up and get all three phases
taken care of? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
And we mentioned Brian to Bray you where he's able
to bounce right back and get a three up, three
down ninth and you see that, And you know, I've
made the example before of the movie Bad Boys, remember
with you know, Mike Lowry getting on Marcus, you know,
Martin Lawrence's character for driving, and finally he drives aggressively
at the end of the movie and he yells, from
now on, that's how you drive. Well, Brian and Bray
(08:40):
you you're Marcus in this scenario. From now on, that's
how you close.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah. It was a pretty impressive.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Like, I guess the fact that they had the faith
to go out there and run him out there again.
I like it. I mean it's okay, I mean, guy,
who's that Dude's a monster anyway. Hell, the ball that
was hit back at him to made what the second
out of the ninth inning. It's like like taking a
pellet gun to a horse. I mean it bounced right off.
(09:07):
He popped up and then goes and tells him, puts
a smile on his face and go get the final
out as well. So he was impressive and I'm looking
for that in my closers, one of them. And can
you go another day? You damn right, I can go
another day, and he did so Now I doubt that
he's going to be available tonight, although he made pretty
short work. It didn't take a thirty pitch inning to
get out of this one. But he may not be.
(09:29):
But I like the fact that Listen meant the mentality
of the closure's got to be you're willing to go
five days in a row if that's what it takes.
Although that's not realistic and doesn't happen, but if you
have that, then things will change. And for a guy
like that that, you know, endo the inning, somebody you know,
staring at a third strike and pumping it up there,
it looked really good. And it also gives this team,
(09:52):
I think a little more faith to know that you
can count on him in the ninth inning.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Now it is good to know that, and I mean
especially to with the bullpen without Hey, without Suza even
or two, I mean a guy that you'd counted on
later on the season. It's nice to see that you
have Brian Bray, you put together that performance last night.
Nice to see the Astros be able to win. But
as I mentioned at the beginning of the segment, the
only problem is, well, the Mariners and Rangers continue to
(10:17):
not lose. So the Astros need to continue to try
to handle their business on their own. And we'll handle
business here on the Sean Salisbury Show with you involved
at Sebon one three two and two five seven ninety
against seOne three two one two five seven ninety. As
we mentioned with Joe Aspata, and you know you really
could say he let him hang last night. We'll discuss
(10:39):
we'll talk about it right here. It does a Sean
Salisbury Show on a Thursday, Sports Talk seven ninety
As the Astros able to pull it off last night
with a three to two win in Toronto. Didn't need
extras this time. Jiner Diaz, thank you very much. Appreciate
your efforts. Jason Alexander even more, thank you very much.
Great stuff out of him as he goes a season
high seven innings. Love to see that out of him.
(00:20):
And I mean you take the good with the bad
and the bad in this one too. Is the Astros
obviously runners in scoring position. Yeah, still a little bit
of an issue as they end up stranding a lot
of runners again and they go one for eight with
runners in scoring position, but all is well, that ends well,
and that's a good thing too, because well, the Mariners
(00:42):
and Rangers they continue to do the not losing thing.
I mean, what if I said to about the Mariners
they don't lose at home, and then the Rangers just
continue right now to just not lose whatsoever as they
sweep the Brewers out of town. So playing good baseball.
But I mean the Astros just as a whole. Last night,
(01:04):
you get some key production out of guys that you
really needed out of.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I mean Jiner Diaz, we'll.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Talk about him as the show goes along, but it's
great to see him. Seems like the back end of
the road or the back end of the batting orders
seems to be the spot that Jiner loves the most
and he has really been able to thrive since moving
back there. But last night also a night off for
Jose Altuve by necessity, I think we can probably.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Agree on that.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
As Ramonirius gets the started second base, but then al
Tuove able to come in late in the game and
pinch hit, he strikes out. I mean, his at bat
kind of looks like the way that most of his
at bats have looked lately, and I think that was
kind of the goal was to get him off his
feet last night, maybe a mental reset, as you heard
Dana Brown mentioned yesterday as a possibility with Sean when
(01:58):
he was on with him for his weekly visits, And
I mean doesn't necessarily work out that way for the
bat that he had, but I mean Sean just last
night for the Astros. You know, as we've kind of
said all along, the pitching, yeah, it's there, but the
hitting well continues to be a little bit of an issue.
But at least the first part what was able to
(02:20):
carry them through last night.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah. But the one thing, even though they didn't rake
last night, you've been begging to have them hit at
the right time. Anderdeaz did late game, late inning win
to get the big home run into a bray you
to close it out after going with thirty pitches the
day before. And Dana Brown even had mentioned on Wednesday
(02:46):
that he didn't know if a braid was even going
to be available. Well he was, and he took care
of his business and it's a huge win, man. So
sometimes and I don't think you're going to get a
lot of both this year where it's or the trifect
of great pitching, great hitting and clutch hitting at once.
That has not been the norm for them this year.
But like I said, if they lose last night and
(03:08):
get fifteen hits, well they got eleven the night before
I got beat. So I'll take a game in which
they get a clutch hit from a guy who's had
an up and down season at the plate and win
a game late and that goes a long way. Take
them how you and get them, especially now when you're
inside you know you're in the teens. You have to
and momentum be damned, but confidence if they get that back,
(03:31):
it could be a different story down as we rolled
down the last fifteen or sixteen seventeen games and head
into the playoffs. But it was the timing of the
hit that mattered more to me than the number of
the hits. Now, obviously offense is going to have to
increase because you can't keep being in these type of
games and expect to win most of them.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Now, but I mean, I am going to push back
on that a little bit because that is what postseason
baseball is.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
It's games like this. I didn't stay postseason. I said,
if you hit like this and you count on pitching
all t you're also face seeing better pitching in the postseason.
That's true. You don't go five deep. So I didn't
say playoffs. I said in the last fifteen sixteen seventeen games,
you'll take these wins. Three to two is exactly what
I said, late wins more. Now, you can have a
pretty loss, but it's still a loss. Nobod's gonna look
(04:13):
back and say, man, we lost nine to eight, but
boy we exploded, But they will remember three to two
and a break. You come in after pitching the day before,
and the guy that I mean has been in your
crawl most of the year, yiner Dias coming up with
a big hit late in the game. So yeah, playoff
baseball is exactly like that. There's one small problem. You
got to sustain it to get to the playoffs first.
(04:34):
And with this, they're in position, but you're not. I
assure you, somebody's gonna score more than three or four
runs against them as we rolled down and Toronto may today,
and they may get it from somebody else or Texas
or Seattle. So the hitting is going to have to improve.
But if you tell me they're going to win three
to two games fourteen out of the next seventeen, I'll
take it all day long. Even if there's five hits
(04:54):
in a game now, I mean especially two.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean you mentioned the result there if it's a
W for the Shrows, well, I mean, like I've said
numerous times, there's no there's no college football playoff committee here.
You don't you don't have to impress anybody with a
style of win. It's just did you win and were
you able to get into the postseason. That's the whole thing.
We'll get to a break you in just a second,
because I mean, just what a bounced back performance by him.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
But the confidence part of it.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
I mean, I've got to believe that clubhouse was pretty
fired up after this one, because Sean, these are games
they've been losing lately, and last night they found a
way to win. So you almost wondered, is it unlocked
something mentally with this team.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
I don't know. I mean, I yeah, it was a
big win, and it was the timing of the win
that I think. You know, listen, I think you gain
more at least the teams I've been on scraping out
a win in a fourth quarter than you do when
you beat somebody forty one to seven. It's like, Okay,
those those aren't the norm. So you take them and
(05:54):
you love them, and they're more relaxing on you. But
you gotta get back into because most in football are
within a touchdown. In baseball, it's within a couple runs.
So I think you can carry something like this and
it could kick in say okay, we run at the
right time. Now they've done that, especially in the season,
they were winning a lot of run run games against
good teams. They were they were as a matter of fact,
for the first what fifty sixty games or seventy games,
(06:16):
they were near the top of the league and being
able to stave off to when they got a lead,
they held it and were able to keep it and win.
And that'll be as you get to the playoffs. You're
gonna win three, two, five, four, two to one or lose,
and that's usually what it is because of the pitching
you face. But they how they want it. Will it
carry over? I don't know, because every time they get
a win like this, or they can win a game
(06:38):
or two in a row, we asked the same thing,
Oh is this the thing that's going to kickstart them?
And then for three straight games they'll be in one
run games and lose two of them and win one.
So I really don't know. I don't know what's going
to kick start the bats, because as we see, momentum
gets stopped when a good pitcher goes out there. After
you win, this one goes out there and shuts you down. Well,
then momentum was one game, So I don't know how
(07:00):
they're going to respond. I know this though, they got
to be able to feel better going to the ballpark
today winning three to two than they do when they
lose a game or they don't hit or they get
you know, three hits and no runs and make an
air and have a couple of bad base running airs
or performances should I say on the offensive side, But
the timing of the win last night was more important
than score nine runs and winning that way. I guarantee
(07:23):
you they win nine to one. It's like, okay, Toronto's now.
You're not going to bet Toronto nine to one very often,
so you just say it was our night and it
wasn't theirs, which everybody has. But when you have to
scrape out a win like this and then close it out,
I think those are bigger. And I know it's cheesy
and sounds cliche, but those are bigger character wins. I know, well,
at least in my life they have been. I learned
far more from those than I do. When you kick
(07:44):
somebody's ass and you're staring into the stands at halftime
because you know this game's over, you don't learn anything
from it. So and they've had a lot to learn
this year and how to overcome a lot, but nobody
feels sorry for him, and a win like that is
huge for them. And like I said, no matter what happened, tonight,
they're still going to have to face the guys that
are chasing them and stave them off one way or
the other. And both of those teams, and the Rangers
(08:07):
and Seattle can pitch and can also hit when it's right.
But that's been the story of this division and been
the story of this team all year. What night are
they going to show up and get all three phases
taken care of? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
And we mentioned Brian to Bray you where he's able
to bounce right back and get a three up, three
down ninth and you see that, And you know, I've
made the example before of the movie Bad Boys, remember
with you know, Mike Lowry getting on Marcus, you know,
Martin Lawrence's character for driving, and finally he drives aggressively
at the end of the movie and he yells, from
now on, that's how you drive. Well, Brian and Bray
(08:40):
you you're Marcus in this scenario. From now on, that's
how you close.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah. It was a pretty impressive.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Like, I guess the fact that they had the faith
to go out there and run him out there again.
I like it. I mean it's okay, I mean, guy,
who's that Dude's a monster anyway. Hell, the ball that
was hit back at him to made what the second
out of the ninth inning. It's like like taking a
pellet gun to a horse. I mean it bounced right off.
(09:07):
He popped up and then goes and tells him, puts
a smile on his face and go get the final
out as well. So he was impressive and I'm looking
for that in my closers, one of them. And can
you go another day? You damn right, I can go
another day, and he did so Now I doubt that
he's going to be available tonight, although he made pretty
short work. It didn't take a thirty pitch inning to
get out of this one. But he may not be.
(09:29):
But I like the fact that Listen meant the mentality
of the closure's got to be you're willing to go
five days in a row if that's what it takes.
Although that's not realistic and doesn't happen, but if you
have that, then things will change. And for a guy
like that that, you know, endo the inning, somebody you know,
staring at a third strike and pumping it up there,
it looked really good. And it also gives this team,
(09:52):
I think a little more faith to know that you
can count on him in the ninth inning.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
Now it is good to know that, and I mean
especially to with the bullpen without Hey, without Suza even
or two, I mean a guy that you'd counted on
later on the season. It's nice to see that you
have Brian Bray, you put together that performance last night.
Nice to see the Astros be able to win. But
as I mentioned at the beginning of the segment, the
only problem is, well, the Mariners and Rangers continue to
(10:17):
not lose. So the Astros need to continue to try
to handle their business on their own. And we'll handle
business here on the Sean Salisbury Show with you involved
at Sebon one three two and two five seven ninety
against seOne three two one two five seven ninety. As
we mentioned with Joe Aspata, and you know you really
could say he let him hang last night. We'll discuss
(10:39):
we'll talk about it right here. It does a Sean
Salisbury Show on a Thursday, Sports Talk seven ninety
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