May 19, 2025 • 14 mins
Winning their series over Kansas City prior to kicking off their interdivision rivalry against the Rangers in the Silver Boot Series over the weekend, the Astros split the series taking two of the four from their rivals with yesterdays final score resulting in a 4-3 victory. Revisiting a few phenomenal and clutch performances, Steve shares few things he loved from the weekend along with updates in regards to Hayden Wesneski and Yordan Alvarez moving forward.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Sparky. Always great to be able to catch up with you.
You get me Dan Matthews, and you get Gordy. This
time with you is normally it's you and Sean chopping
it up on Mondays. But let's talk about the four
games that you just had a chance to call from
high top there at Globalife Field over the weekend. Astro
is able to split the series. What stood out to
you the most?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But I think it's the pitching again, Hunter Brown was great.
The Astros lost that one, but Rombert continues to roll
all the quality starts that he provides, and you know,
he's so consistent to be able to get you deep
into the ball games. And that's so helpful now with
a couple of young guys in the rotation. Lance in
the rotation now, who hasn't completely gotten stretched out, So
(00:41):
guys like Romper and Hunter to get deep into the
ball games super important. And I like the way that
they're kind of spread out in the rotation now too,
which kind of helps you know, line up your bullpen.
The bullpens then unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, Sparky, we were just running through the numbers. I
mean it's phenomenal. We were just talking about you know,
Force Whitley has had a couple of minor league rehabs starts,
and he's knocking on the door to coming back, And
we were debating, who do you send down? I mean,
like Dubin's been he's got your zero through a couple
of return outings. You know, even Bennett Sussa, his numbers
have been really good. So it's like, I don't know
(01:15):
if there's an obvious guy to send down. But what
a difference a year makes too. I mean a year
ago at this time, we're sweating it out. You know,
Brian Abray you was not great, and obviously you know,
Josh Hater went through some struggles and all this, and man,
a year later, all these guys have been nailed so far.
And it just felt like as soon as they took
that one run lead yesterday, Steve, like you knew a
(01:37):
bray you and Hater were going to come in and
close the door.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, Chris, I mean, you feel confident that once you
take the lead late in these ballgames. And the Astros
have been so good coming back in these games, and
it's because of their bullpen. And I'll say even as
recently as spring training, I think that was the biggest
question mark for the Astros was who's going to be
able to bridge to get you. At that time, we
were thinking Taylor Scott in the seventh of Bray, you
(02:03):
in the eighth, and Hater in the ninth. So now
Brian Kings your seventh inning reliever. But everybody else, like
you said, has been so good that you wonder who
you're gonna sit down. Unfortunately, and I've been, you know,
privy to a lot of this, you know as a
player too. The guys who get sent down have options,
and they don't match up as well as maybe somebody
(02:23):
else in this particular series. So I know right now
the Rays have a few left handers in their lineup,
and lefties line up better against the Rays than righty's do.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Again, Steve Sparks joining us for his weekly visit here
on the Sean Salisbury Show. Jose L two Bay. We
were talking about a little bit earlier. Sparky uh one
for or excuse me two for his last twenty two
has not recorded a multi you know, hit game in
the past six games. I mean, seems like the struggles
are there. Are you seeing anything necessarily from him right
(02:55):
now that leads you to be concerned.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You know. I think whenever he he kind of so
called slumps or he goes to a little rough patch,
we see him come out of it with with crazy numbers.
So I would expect to get crazy. But what we
see preclude him getting really locked in is start to
go the other way a little bit. I think sometimes
(03:19):
he gets a little pull happy, you know, he'll start
to roll over, the ball gets deep, and we'll see
a lot of six to three putouts, five to three putouts.
But once we see him start to hit some balls
through the right side of the endfield, drive the ball
on the opposite field gap, and we know he's getting close,
and then I think you start to see the power
numbers increase, and it's all about you know, you know,
(03:42):
you can talk about that approach all you want, but
it's all about keeping that front shoulder close longer to
maintain that power so his hands are still quick, his
bat speed is still really good. I don't think it's
anything other than just you know, going through a rough
patch right now, and I think just you know, focusing
on going the other way for a little bit, probably
in batting practice too, we'll help him get out of it.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well about Christian Walker. You know, it felt like for
about a week or so there he was starting to
get a hit in every game and you're like, all right,
he's starting to come out of this funk. And then
an oh for five and oh for three and oh
for four and oh for four, and he kind of
slumped back again. Then Friday night we see the big
home run now was monster, you know, And on Saturday
gets the first inning, you know, hit drives in a run,
(04:27):
and then another oh for yesterday. I mean, is this
just kind of gonna be the ups and downs of
the season with with Christian Walker? And man, it's just
it's tough for a guy that's been, you know, in
his career, such a good hitter. But to see that
average right around two oh seven, it just makes you go, man,
is this is this what we're getting gonna get all
year from this guy?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, I think getting off to a slow start, and
he talked about probably pressing coming to a new team
and trying to impress and do things that he typically
wouldn't do in a situation where he was more comfortable.
He was with the Diamondbacks for such a long time,
and he might go through some rough patches, but you're
so comfortable, you're not trying to impress people because they
already know what you're like. So I think just the
(05:07):
fact that he's such a big threat in the middle
of the lineup for the Astros, I think we can
be pretty confident that he's gonna he's going to drive
in some very important runs like he did in that
Ranger series. Like you talk about the Averager an zero
four from time to time, but the three run Homer
and the single on the rbid the night before those
were big runs for the Astros. So I think having
(05:29):
him in the middle of the lineup, and then when
you get Jordon back, I think those guys provide the
biggest punch that that the Astros are going to be
able to run out there. So it's only a matter
of time, you know, you start to get healthy and
everybody gets a little bit better. I think when Jordon's
back in the lineup.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, And speaking of Jordon, I mean, for you, Sparky,
when does this start to kind of get concerning in
terms of how much longer we could be dealing without him?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Well, for me, it's concerning the first day he goes
on the IL because he's so important to the Astros team.
But I think the good news is right now that
there's still a couple of games over five hundred, and
I think whoever runs off twelve out of fifteen or
twelve wins out of fifteen games is going to put
themselves in a great position in this division. And I
think the Astros can do that because they haven't been
(06:18):
healthy as healthy as they would like, and they haven't
had guys like how Tuvey and Christian Walker, like we
just talked about, really, you know, get going like we
know that they're probably going to so you get your
done back in there. I love, you know, talking with
Dana Brown yesterday, the fact that they want to make
sure it's completely out of there. I think it is
(06:40):
the smartest, most prudent way to go about this so
you don't have to deal with this for the rest
of the season hopefully. I think it makes all the
sense of the world. The other thing you talked about,
and I kind of go back to what a surgeon
or our team doctor when I was playing with the
Angels said. His name was Lewis Yoakum and he worked
under doctor Job, who was famous for the time of
(07:00):
John surgery. But he said, if you start to touch
it and kind of prod an injury, like say a
hand or a shoulder, and you feel like, oh am,
I still sore while you're trying to heal, that kind
of bruises that area and that prolongs that injury. And
I think back to maybe somebody with a soft cast,
you know, and they're moving something around and they're feeling
(07:22):
whether or not it's getting better. That continues to aggravate
that injury, and it makes it longer and longer. So
I think you go in a situation and Dana was
talking about, you know, not shaking hands or I remember
him talking about arraghetti a few weeks ago they went
from a soft cast to a hard cast, so he
can't move his thumb around. If things like that, that
(07:43):
aggravate these injuries and prolong things, and these stays on
the iel for these players, and it's nothing more than
just trying to see whether or not you're healing or not.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Sorry, everybuddy, Steve Sparks part of the Astros broadcast crew,
and Steve, we found out yesterday after the game, you
know what we had all feared. Joe Spottock confirming Hayden
was Nesky, gonna have Tommy John surgery and gonna miss
a You know, a year plus is basically the recovery
time for these guys. And you know, we look at
the injury report right now. The hope is you get
Spencer Getti back at some point this year. But the
(08:16):
Apple TV crew put up the graphic and it was
Hayden was Nesky, Christian Javier Luis Garcia, JP Franz, Spencer
Ragedy and I'm going Sparky. That's a that's a starting
five rotation. Like to have that many guys out right now.
The hope is, you know, you get some of these
guys back along the way. But it's it's wild to
think back to twenty two when they win that World
Series and they had a surplus to starting pitching and now, man,
(08:39):
it's like every every couple of months it's a it's
a catastrophic injury.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So what's the strongest part of the Astros team right now?
I mean, it's pitching, and it's also pitching death Chris.
I mean, they've got more guys in the minor leagues.
Look at Ujola and Blueba. There's a kid, Wilmy Sanchez
in Double A. That's an unbelievable reliever with one of
the best curve balls I've seen in the organization. They've
(09:05):
got depth. They've got Christian Javier Luis Garcia that that
I think that we're going to see in the second
half of this season if things continue to progress well.
So they're going to have an influx even though they've
got five guys you know that you're talking about, but
they still have some depth. And it goes back to
what I talk about this a lot.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Their development of pitchers I think is second to none.
They keep running these guys out here. I was impressed
with Colton Gordon. We'll see him again tonight, but he
followed a game Chris Bubach's pitched for the Kansas City
Royals the day before Gordon made his debut for the Astros.
They have very similar fastballs. You look at all the
numbers across the board, the little crossfire, the surprise factor,
(09:46):
the deception, all this stuff. I mean, this is another
guy the Astros are probably going to be able to
mold into something that's a really good piece. And then
you've got JP France and some guys they're going to
be coming back after that. So I'm not worried about
the pitching, you know, and I know it's think that
the West NETPCEW is going to go away for a
(10:07):
little while. But man, you talk about what Cam Smith
did you know when he came into camp in spring training,
wes Netski was just as impressive with just the live stuff.
If you get him back healthy, you know he's going
to be another shot in the arm for the team
maybe or hopefully just the right time. But more than anything,
you just want him to get healthy and the Astros
(10:30):
can go from there. But pitching, I'm not worried about.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You touched on it last time after the rough start
by Lance that you expected to see a bounce back
from him. How about Friday night from him?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, I think he's getting better and better and he's
starting to learn what he can do with his fastball.
And I think one thing that you have to keep
in mind, with a little bit less velocity, his two
seam fastball is going to mirror his change up as
far as the profile the movement of that pitch. So
I think him using the four seam a little bit
more to compliment that for that change up, I think
(11:04):
gives you two different looks, kind of like the Hunter
Brown effect, and then everything else plays off of that.
So he's learning what he can do with his arsenal
and his repertoire right now as we go. But I saw,
I saw some encouraging signs. Wasn't dancing around, And we
talked about this too. Is Catcher set up down the
middle early in the counts, just rely on movement, you know,
(11:25):
and rather than start at the corners and move in,
you just do the opposite. Start down the middle, get
ahead of the count and move outside and the inside.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
And if he could just take that step forward like
next out and give you five five innings, run ball man,
you'll feel you'll feel really good about where mccullors is
and where where he's going. Last before you, Sparky, the uh,
just the importance of them coming back and finding a
way to win yesterday, I just thought so important in
the division race. I know it's it's you know, mid May,
and it's very early to be looking at the standings,
(11:55):
but you know, I look at the Al East and
the Yankees are already built a five game lead there
the beginning, great pitching man for them to go into
San Diego and sweep the Padres. I just felt like
you wanted to keep you know, pace with the Rangers
and a minimum split. They do that, and obviously you're
gonna have a very important four game series with the
Mariners coming up this week when you return home, so
(12:16):
you know, just kind of talk a little bit about
that importance of splitting with the Rangers over the weekend
and not kind of digging yourself a bigger hole here.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Well, I think it's important to note that the Mariners
are doing this without their two best starting pitchers, without
Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, so that's impressive in itself.
They've been swinging the bats better than they have in
years past. Polonko has kind of been a resurgence in
cal Rawley all of a sudden, looks like he's probably
the best hitting catcher in baseball right now. So the
(12:46):
Astros are hanging in there, though Jordan Alvarez has not
been much of a factor at all this seven and
the Astros are still just two and a half games
back in the division, So splitting that series against Texas
where they've played really well. The Astros seem to feel
right at home at globalack Field and that's important going forward.
(13:06):
But I don't think anybody in this division, and I've
said this a couple of times, I don't think anybody's
going to run away with it. I think the biggest
determinant might be health, you know, at the end of
the day, you know, and I think eighty six wins
gets the end of the playoffs. But I think whoever
stays healthy, and that's why I love them being patient
with jord On right now. Make sure it's out of there.
(13:26):
Just get it completely out of there. You won't have
to deal with this for the rest of the season.
And as guys get a little stronger, Lance gets stronger,
and you go to the six man rotation to give
guys more rest to keep this afloat. I think you
can feel pretty good that the Astros with this great
pitching are going to remain in it because they're going
to be in every single game that they play in
(13:47):
if they get some timely getting in a few homers. Hey,
the Angels had eleven homers in a three game series
at stein Brenner Field. Maybe this is what the Astros
offense needs.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Here's hoping that's for sure. Monday's eight o'clock Steve's RX
joins us here on the Shawn Salisbury Show. Sparky. Great
to be able to catch up with you, buddy. Have
a great call tonight, and.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I hope your broadcast booth is big over there at
the little the little Steinbrederfield there.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, I was gonna say, do we know.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Anything about it? You know, we were here in spring
training against the Yankees and it's about it's about as
wide as is two cars that way.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
There you go, So you and Robert we'll get to
know each other even more than you already do here
over the next three days.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, it should be fun. There we go.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Steve Sparks again, you're the best, buddy. We'll talk to
you soon.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Thanks for having me, guys, all right, see it
Sparky. Always great to be able to catch up with you.
You get me Dan Matthews, and you get Gordy. This
time with you is normally it's you and Sean chopping
it up on Mondays. But let's talk about the four
games that you just had a chance to call from
high top there at Globalife Field over the weekend. Astro
is able to split the series. What stood out to
you the most?
Speaker 2 (00:21):
But I think it's the pitching again, Hunter Brown was great.
The Astros lost that one, but Rombert continues to roll
all the quality starts that he provides, and you know,
he's so consistent to be able to get you deep
into the ball games. And that's so helpful now with
a couple of young guys in the rotation. Lance in
the rotation now, who hasn't completely gotten stretched out, So
(00:41):
guys like Romper and Hunter to get deep into the
ball games super important. And I like the way that
they're kind of spread out in the rotation now too,
which kind of helps you know, line up your bullpen.
The bullpens then unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, Sparky, we were just running through the numbers. I
mean it's phenomenal. We were just talking about you know,
Force Whitley has had a couple of minor league rehabs starts,
and he's knocking on the door to coming back, And
we were debating, who do you send down? I mean,
like Dubin's been he's got your zero through a couple
of return outings. You know, even Bennett Sussa, his numbers
have been really good. So it's like, I don't know
(01:15):
if there's an obvious guy to send down. But what
a difference a year makes too. I mean a year
ago at this time, we're sweating it out. You know,
Brian Abray you was not great, and obviously you know,
Josh Hater went through some struggles and all this, and man,
a year later, all these guys have been nailed so far.
And it just felt like as soon as they took
that one run lead yesterday, Steve, like you knew a
(01:37):
bray you and Hater were going to come in and
close the door.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah, Chris, I mean, you feel confident that once you
take the lead late in these ballgames. And the Astros
have been so good coming back in these games, and
it's because of their bullpen. And I'll say even as
recently as spring training, I think that was the biggest
question mark for the Astros was who's going to be
able to bridge to get you. At that time, we
were thinking Taylor Scott in the seventh of Bray, you
(02:03):
in the eighth, and Hater in the ninth. So now
Brian Kings your seventh inning reliever. But everybody else, like
you said, has been so good that you wonder who
you're gonna sit down. Unfortunately, and I've been, you know,
privy to a lot of this, you know as a
player too. The guys who get sent down have options,
and they don't match up as well as maybe somebody
(02:23):
else in this particular series. So I know right now
the Rays have a few left handers in their lineup,
and lefties line up better against the Rays than righty's do.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Again, Steve Sparks joining us for his weekly visit here
on the Sean Salisbury Show. Jose L two Bay. We
were talking about a little bit earlier. Sparky uh one
for or excuse me two for his last twenty two
has not recorded a multi you know, hit game in
the past six games. I mean, seems like the struggles
are there. Are you seeing anything necessarily from him right
(02:55):
now that leads you to be concerned.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
You know. I think whenever he he kind of so
called slumps or he goes to a little rough patch,
we see him come out of it with with crazy numbers.
So I would expect to get crazy. But what we
see preclude him getting really locked in is start to
go the other way a little bit. I think sometimes
(03:19):
he gets a little pull happy, you know, he'll start
to roll over, the ball gets deep, and we'll see
a lot of six to three putouts, five to three putouts.
But once we see him start to hit some balls
through the right side of the endfield, drive the ball
on the opposite field gap, and we know he's getting close,
and then I think you start to see the power
numbers increase, and it's all about you know, you know,
(03:42):
you can talk about that approach all you want, but
it's all about keeping that front shoulder close longer to
maintain that power so his hands are still quick, his
bat speed is still really good. I don't think it's
anything other than just you know, going through a rough
patch right now, and I think just you know, focusing
on going the other way for a little bit, probably
in batting practice too, we'll help him get out of it.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Well about Christian Walker. You know, it felt like for
about a week or so there he was starting to
get a hit in every game and you're like, all right,
he's starting to come out of this funk. And then
an oh for five and oh for three and oh
for four and oh for four, and he kind of
slumped back again. Then Friday night we see the big
home run now was monster, you know, And on Saturday
gets the first inning, you know, hit drives in a run,
(04:27):
and then another oh for yesterday. I mean, is this
just kind of gonna be the ups and downs of
the season with with Christian Walker? And man, it's just
it's tough for a guy that's been, you know, in
his career, such a good hitter. But to see that
average right around two oh seven, it just makes you go, man,
is this is this what we're getting gonna get all
year from this guy?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, I think getting off to a slow start, and
he talked about probably pressing coming to a new team
and trying to impress and do things that he typically
wouldn't do in a situation where he was more comfortable.
He was with the Diamondbacks for such a long time,
and he might go through some rough patches, but you're
so comfortable, you're not trying to impress people because they
already know what you're like. So I think just the
(05:07):
fact that he's such a big threat in the middle
of the lineup for the Astros, I think we can
be pretty confident that he's gonna he's going to drive
in some very important runs like he did in that
Ranger series. Like you talk about the Averager an zero
four from time to time, but the three run Homer
and the single on the rbid the night before those
were big runs for the Astros. So I think having
(05:29):
him in the middle of the lineup, and then when
you get Jordon back, I think those guys provide the
biggest punch that that the Astros are going to be
able to run out there. So it's only a matter
of time, you know, you start to get healthy and
everybody gets a little bit better. I think when Jordon's
back in the lineup.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Yeah, And speaking of Jordon, I mean, for you, Sparky,
when does this start to kind of get concerning in
terms of how much longer we could be dealing without him?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Well, for me, it's concerning the first day he goes
on the IL because he's so important to the Astros team.
But I think the good news is right now that
there's still a couple of games over five hundred, and
I think whoever runs off twelve out of fifteen or
twelve wins out of fifteen games is going to put
themselves in a great position in this division. And I
think the Astros can do that because they haven't been
(06:18):
healthy as healthy as they would like, and they haven't
had guys like how Tuvey and Christian Walker, like we
just talked about, really, you know, get going like we
know that they're probably going to so you get your
done back in there. I love, you know, talking with
Dana Brown yesterday, the fact that they want to make
sure it's completely out of there. I think it is
(06:40):
the smartest, most prudent way to go about this so
you don't have to deal with this for the rest
of the season hopefully. I think it makes all the
sense of the world. The other thing you talked about,
and I kind of go back to what a surgeon
or our team doctor when I was playing with the
Angels said. His name was Lewis Yoakum and he worked
under doctor Job, who was famous for the time of
(07:00):
John surgery. But he said, if you start to touch
it and kind of prod an injury, like say a
hand or a shoulder, and you feel like, oh am,
I still sore while you're trying to heal, that kind
of bruises that area and that prolongs that injury. And
I think back to maybe somebody with a soft cast,
you know, and they're moving something around and they're feeling
(07:22):
whether or not it's getting better. That continues to aggravate
that injury, and it makes it longer and longer. So
I think you go in a situation and Dana was
talking about, you know, not shaking hands or I remember
him talking about arraghetti a few weeks ago they went
from a soft cast to a hard cast, so he
can't move his thumb around. If things like that, that
(07:43):
aggravate these injuries and prolong things, and these stays on
the iel for these players, and it's nothing more than
just trying to see whether or not you're healing or not.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Sorry, everybuddy, Steve Sparks part of the Astros broadcast crew,
and Steve, we found out yesterday after the game, you
know what we had all feared. Joe Spottock confirming Hayden
was Nesky, gonna have Tommy John surgery and gonna miss
a You know, a year plus is basically the recovery
time for these guys. And you know, we look at
the injury report right now. The hope is you get
Spencer Getti back at some point this year. But the
(08:16):
Apple TV crew put up the graphic and it was
Hayden was Nesky, Christian Javier Luis Garcia, JP Franz, Spencer
Ragedy and I'm going Sparky. That's a that's a starting
five rotation. Like to have that many guys out right now.
The hope is, you know, you get some of these
guys back along the way. But it's it's wild to
think back to twenty two when they win that World
Series and they had a surplus to starting pitching and now, man,
(08:39):
it's like every every couple of months it's a it's
a catastrophic injury.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So what's the strongest part of the Astros team right now?
I mean, it's pitching, and it's also pitching death Chris.
I mean, they've got more guys in the minor leagues.
Look at Ujola and Blueba. There's a kid, Wilmy Sanchez
in Double A. That's an unbelievable reliever with one of
the best curve balls I've seen in the organization. They've
(09:05):
got depth. They've got Christian Javier Luis Garcia that that
I think that we're going to see in the second
half of this season if things continue to progress well.
So they're going to have an influx even though they've
got five guys you know that you're talking about, but
they still have some depth. And it goes back to
what I talk about this a lot.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Man.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Their development of pitchers I think is second to none.
They keep running these guys out here. I was impressed
with Colton Gordon. We'll see him again tonight, but he
followed a game Chris Bubach's pitched for the Kansas City
Royals the day before Gordon made his debut for the Astros.
They have very similar fastballs. You look at all the
numbers across the board, the little crossfire, the surprise factor,
(09:46):
the deception, all this stuff. I mean, this is another
guy the Astros are probably going to be able to
mold into something that's a really good piece. And then
you've got JP France and some guys they're going to
be coming back after that. So I'm not worried about
the pitching, you know, and I know it's think that
the West NETPCEW is going to go away for a
(10:07):
little while. But man, you talk about what Cam Smith
did you know when he came into camp in spring training,
wes Netski was just as impressive with just the live stuff.
If you get him back healthy, you know he's going
to be another shot in the arm for the team
maybe or hopefully just the right time. But more than anything,
you just want him to get healthy and the Astros
(10:30):
can go from there. But pitching, I'm not worried about.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You touched on it last time after the rough start
by Lance that you expected to see a bounce back
from him. How about Friday night from him?
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Yeah, I think he's getting better and better and he's
starting to learn what he can do with his fastball.
And I think one thing that you have to keep
in mind, with a little bit less velocity, his two
seam fastball is going to mirror his change up as
far as the profile the movement of that pitch. So
I think him using the four seam a little bit
more to compliment that for that change up, I think
(11:04):
gives you two different looks, kind of like the Hunter
Brown effect, and then everything else plays off of that.
So he's learning what he can do with his arsenal
and his repertoire right now as we go. But I saw,
I saw some encouraging signs. Wasn't dancing around, And we
talked about this too. Is Catcher set up down the
middle early in the counts, just rely on movement, you know,
(11:25):
and rather than start at the corners and move in,
you just do the opposite. Start down the middle, get
ahead of the count and move outside and the inside.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
And if he could just take that step forward like
next out and give you five five innings, run ball man,
you'll feel you'll feel really good about where mccullors is
and where where he's going. Last before you, Sparky, the uh,
just the importance of them coming back and finding a
way to win yesterday, I just thought so important in
the division race. I know it's it's you know, mid May,
and it's very early to be looking at the standings,
(11:55):
but you know, I look at the Al East and
the Yankees are already built a five game lead there
the beginning, great pitching man for them to go into
San Diego and sweep the Padres. I just felt like
you wanted to keep you know, pace with the Rangers
and a minimum split. They do that, and obviously you're
gonna have a very important four game series with the
Mariners coming up this week when you return home, so
(12:16):
you know, just kind of talk a little bit about
that importance of splitting with the Rangers over the weekend
and not kind of digging yourself a bigger hole here.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Well, I think it's important to note that the Mariners
are doing this without their two best starting pitchers, without
Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, so that's impressive in itself.
They've been swinging the bats better than they have in
years past. Polonko has kind of been a resurgence in
cal Rawley all of a sudden, looks like he's probably
the best hitting catcher in baseball right now. So the
(12:46):
Astros are hanging in there, though Jordan Alvarez has not
been much of a factor at all this seven and
the Astros are still just two and a half games
back in the division, So splitting that series against Texas
where they've played really well. The Astros seem to feel
right at home at globalack Field and that's important going forward.
(13:06):
But I don't think anybody in this division, and I've
said this a couple of times, I don't think anybody's
going to run away with it. I think the biggest
determinant might be health, you know, at the end of
the day, you know, and I think eighty six wins
gets the end of the playoffs. But I think whoever
stays healthy, and that's why I love them being patient
with jord On right now. Make sure it's out of there.
(13:26):
Just get it completely out of there. You won't have
to deal with this for the rest of the season.
And as guys get a little stronger, Lance gets stronger,
and you go to the six man rotation to give
guys more rest to keep this afloat. I think you
can feel pretty good that the Astros with this great
pitching are going to remain in it because they're going
to be in every single game that they play in
(13:47):
if they get some timely getting in a few homers. Hey,
the Angels had eleven homers in a three game series
at stein Brenner Field. Maybe this is what the Astros
offense needs.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Here's hoping that's for sure. Monday's eight o'clock Steve's RX
joins us here on the Shawn Salisbury Show. Sparky. Great
to be able to catch up with you, buddy. Have
a great call tonight, and.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
I hope your broadcast booth is big over there at
the little the little Steinbrederfield there.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
Yeah, I was gonna say, do we know.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Anything about it? You know, we were here in spring
training against the Yankees and it's about it's about as
wide as is two cars that way.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
There you go, So you and Robert we'll get to
know each other even more than you already do here
over the next three days.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, it should be fun. There we go.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Steve Sparks again, you're the best, buddy. We'll talk to
you soon.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Thanks for having me, guys, all right, see it
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