Astros Starting to Heat Up & Pitching Getting Healthy

It's the Crawford Boxcast hosted by Chris Gordy and Ross Villarreal, as the guys discuss the Astros latest turnaround, having won 6 of their last 7 as the pitching staff starts to get healthier, and the lineup starts to producer more runs, leading to more wins. 

Episode Transcript

(00:09):
Astros fans cheers Rocky Luckey, Welcometo the Crawford box Casts. Proud Lead
born for you by Crawford Bach fromCarbak Brewy you're getting that bear, Oh
my godness. The Crawford Box Caststarts now. Here we go. Here's

(00:31):
Chris Gordy and Ross Viail. Itis an all new edition of the Crawford
box Cast, presented by Carbach Brewingand the Crawford back Chris Gordy here with
you, joined alongside by Ross Viialas we bring you another edition of the
Crawford box Cast. And Ross my, you know, like it's crazy how
things can change in a week.Last time we were talking, I mean

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there was conversations of is Joe spotA going to be fired? Which you
know, are they going to firethe hitting coach or the pitching coach.
Somebody's head has to roll because thisteam is just they can't win and it's
terrible and they're what eleven twelve gameswill five hundred doll a week later,
here we are. The Astros havewon four in a row, they have
won six of their last seven,and eighteen to twenty five. Still not

(01:15):
out of the cellar, but ina much better space than they were a
week ago. Yes, things,I mean since going to Colorado. They
had that stretch they won five outof six in the four game losing streak,
but now six out of seven,Like you mentioned, things looking a
lot better, and we figured theywould at some point. Alex Bregman looks
like he's waking up. He waszero for three last night, but before

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that three home runs in two games. You're starting. Pitching has been betters,
Guys are stabilizing in the bullpen.Josh Hater has been better, Brian
Bray has been better, and you'regetting more clutch hitting and lo and behold
that leads to more wins for thisteam that we knew was going to be
good. But we started getting worried, and we were all worried, and

(01:57):
rightfully so because of where they were. But at the end of the day,
especially in one hundred and sixty twogame season, talent wins out,
and so far this talented Astros teamis starting to look a lot better.
Yeah, and it's so interesting what'stranspired here. I mean, in just
the last week plus, we wentfrom you know, from ervelde Is getting

(02:17):
blown up against the Mariners in afive nothing loss with the offense couldn't do
anything to from berveld As being awesomein his last two starts, one and
a five to two win in Detroitand then Wednesday night, a three nothing
shut out against the A's Fromber's lookinglike, you know, Ace fromber the
guy that filled in for Justin Verlanderfor all that time when Verlander was away.

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Spencer Righetti picks up his first bigleague win the other night. You
know, even the back end ofthe bullpen has been better as of late,
with the combination of a bray you, Presley and Hater. And yeah,
while Presley gave up a run ina one nothing game that made it
one to one, you had togo to extra in and you still found
a way to tie it. Butoverall, just the pitching strength, You're
starting to get healthy and things startingto kind of come together a little bit

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more. Yeah. No, bythe way, Seth Martinez and Taylor Scott
have been really good out of thebullpen. Seth Martin, like, did
you ever think you'd be sitting hereand I'd be like, hey, Chris,
how about that six out saved bySeth Martinez last night in a three
nothing game? Of course, notbut he's been great, he's been huge.
I think if the Astros get towhere we think they could be by

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the end of the season, weneed to remember the heroics of those guys,
and then of course the heroics ofRonel Blanco if he can keep going.
Of course, after his ten gamesuspension, Yeah, and of course
that was kind of one of thethings that was, you know, kind
of a downer of this week withRonan Oblanco getting thrown out. We don't

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know what exactly happened, you know, we know their side of the story.
It was just rosen mixed with sweat. The umpires say, no,
it's more than that. MLB aftertheir quick investigation, says it was more
than that. So he gets slappedwith the ten games. But to me,
it's not necessarily the end of theworld because they because of who you're
playing right now, you were gonnago to a six man rotation anyway.
You get an off day next Thursday, So really it's only one start.

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Blanco's gonna miss and Hunter Brown willgo in that spot. And Hunter Brown
was much better out of the bullpenthe other day. Can he do that
again? If he doesn't, okay, so be it it's one game.
But Blanco basically is for all thepeople saying he was gonna miss two starts,
two saturdays from now was when hewas gonna be his second start.
He's just not gonna pitch that day. He'll come off and then pitch that

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next day, the Sunday, Soyou don't really miss that second start.
It's just a day later. Yeah, that's true and good and in theory
like, okay, yeah, you'renot missing a lot. But the question
is how effective is Renald Blanco whenhe comes back. You know, there
is this Twitter account called Astro's Stats, and they put up like his spin
rates from all season, from asrelative to his career, as relative to

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that start where he got ejected,and they seem pretty consistent. So hopefully
well, for whatever reason, whetherit was something illegal or not, I
tend to think it was because hedidn't even bother appealing the suspension. After
they confiscated the glove. You hadthe umpire saying it was the stickiest thing
he'd ever heard, in Las Diassaying this was not rosin. So I

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don't know if it was just aparticularly humid day and he was really sweaty
and he needed a little something extraand he was foolishly thought he could get
away with it. Not sure,but when he comes back, that's when
we'll know. The proof will bein the pudding. We're gonna look at
Reno Blanco. We're gonna watch hisstarts, and if he continues to be
effective and this resurchers can can continue, that'll be great. But it's certainly

(05:30):
something we're gonna have to keep aneye on. But as a practical matter,
yes, you're only missing the onestart, so that's good. But
how good will he be when hecomes back? Yeah, and a lot
of this comes back to, youknow, the old adage of everybody's doing
something. Yes, you get ridof the spider tack, but you know,
guys are onto the next thing.And you know people think the same
thing about the steroid are Oh okay, you banned steroids. We're gonna find

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the net the clear what's the nextthing you know to find to use?
So you know whether he was usingsomething. Time will tell, But yeah,
certainly the national narrative will be ifRono Blanco comes back and he gets
blown up at his return start,it's gonna be, Oh, this guy's
been cheating. He's been using somekind of sticky stuff and now they're checking
and you know, this is whohe is. But certainly something to watch

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there. But again, the goodnews here is we're gonna see as of
the time of this recording, we'regonna see Avier for the second time since
returning from the il the neck discomfort. He was not good last time out
in Detroit. Hopefully he bounces backmuch better. I mean, we kind
of saw this from Verlander had areally bad start with Yankee Stadium, bounce
back from it. Fromber had thebad start against the Mayors, he bounced
back from it, Aragedy arraghetty.The hope here is Javier, who's just

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an outlier, and he bounces backbecause he was really good through his first
couple starts of the season. Thatwas the return to you know, we
get vintage Fromber. We got vintageChristian Javier to start this year too,
and then it'll be huge And yeah, absolutely, I think that is certainly
a big storyline going forward. Ifhe goes out there and only throws a
couple of innings and gets chased,it's gonna be bad, not only because

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of you know, missing him inthe starting pitching, but fully, you
didn't use anybody but Seth Martinez outof the bullpen yesterday. But still you're
playing all these games in a row. You don't want to be using guys
three out of four days and stufflike that and having to continue to tax
that bullpen. So you need himto get give you some length tonight,
whether it be I mean at leastfive innings at a minimum, you'd hope

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you get out of Christian Javier oranything out of that, I would think
as a bonus as he's coming back, but save the bullpen and also give
you peace of mind with this rotationgoing forward, because if Haavier comes back,
Farmer's pitching the way that he has, Eric Getty looks like he's you
know, the gears are turning,he's figuring things out. Then you're talking
about Justin Verlander or Keat. He'sgot another start on Saturday and he'll be

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coming back, And I mean,yeah, this rotation is looking a much
better than it was a couple ofweeks ago. And then on the flip
side, the lineup, which hadbeen struggling to score runs didn't have a
problem hitting, but they're starting toscore runs as of late and finding ways
to win. And you know itstarts with Hoseel Tuove, who's still batting
over three hundred. He's at threetwelve on the season. Jeremy Pania,

(08:01):
who is among the league leaders inbatting average at three thirty three. Whoever
fixed Jeremy swing? Whenever that itfelt like such a spring training narrative.
Oh, Jeremy Pene has really workedon some things for us. That has
been one of the most impressive changeswe've ever seen. This guy is one
of your best hitters. Issus.Yeah, I've bought into the Jeremy.
Now, I didn't think he wasgonna be like pushing for the batting title.

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Yeah, but I did buy intothere was gonna be some improvement because
he just, I mean, youknow, when we're out there in spring
training, talked about it a lot, and you know, and you know,
you've been in the clubhouse and beenaround too, Like Jeremy Payania is
this guy that he's competitive, Hehe works. He fits into this Astros
culture perfectly set by the l twoVes, the Bregmans, the Jordons where

(08:46):
and Michael Brentley before them before heretired, Like this living breathing baseball,
hyper competitive do whatever it takes toget better and improve. And Jeremy Paenia
is that kind of guy, andhe's young. He knows he disappointed last
year. I mean some things wentup, is on base went up,
his average went up, but thepower went way down. And I just

(09:09):
felt like I was buying in hewas going to have a better year this
year, in the best offensive seasonof his career, and so far he
is. So I don't know thathe's gonna win the batting title and how
long this is going to keep up. But we're not into a zero sample
size. Yeah we're over there.We're forty is a forty eight games at
or forty three games end of theseason, So yeah, you're at the

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quarterway point. Dude is still hittinglike three thirty tat is awesome. Yeah,
what's great is he's betten three tothirty three L two. Ve's betten
three to twelve having just a regularL two A type season. You know,
Yaner Diaz is two seventy one.He had cooled off a little bit,
but that still is about one hundredpoints better than what you were getting
from Aldonado. So again, likeYaner Diaz, one of the better hitting

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catchers in all of baseball. You'lltake that. And then you know,
like we mentioned, Bregman's starting tocome up average two twenty one, but
that's way up from one eighty ninewhere it was, yeah a week or
so ago. Uh, really,the only one we're looking at is,
you know, Jordon Alvarez. Theaverages dip to two fifty seven. If
we could just get jord On backgoing again and that find that pop and
he's sitting home runs, I mean, we're back to seeing one of the

(10:15):
most dangerous lineups in baseball, whichis what we thought they would be before
the season. Yeah, we wereall talking about and projecting and really having
as not necessarily counting on him,but Jose Oh Bray was a little bit
part of that. I'm like,man, this lineup is gonna be nasty
if they can hit. Now youadd in on your dias every day.
But yeah, Jordon at two fiftyseven, you said, now he had
gotten down on like two thirty nine, So he's bouncing back somewhat. I

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do think he's gonna be fine longterm. But once you get him going
and al tuove and that's the thingyou're gonna have always guys, slumping and
guys are hot at any point andgiven in the season, that's just how
it is. But Kyle Tucker isabsolutely mashing. Al Tuove is gonna be
okay. You get jord On going, bregmant is going, and then Pina
and then yeah, like you said, what are we going like seven deep

(10:58):
of guys where you just are there'snot going to be a break in this
lineup, and then the other guysdo. Bond's doing a good job of
i mean slapping singles. He's notgoing to hit a bunch of home runs,
that's okay. Jake Myers has beenhitting solidly at the end of the
lineup as well, Guys like JoeyLoperfito, Trey Cabbage getting hits as well,
like John Singleton doing his thing.This is I mean, this is

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there's just no break in the lineupfor the Astros when they're getting right and
you hang. You combine that withthe improved starting pitching, with the improved
bullpen, you're gonna see what we'reseeing right now. Winners of six out
of last seven. This is notgoing to be surprised. This is the
Astros of old that we've been waitingall this time to see. Yeah,
now, Kyle Tucker averages two seventynine, but among the league leaders in
home runs hit, and you know, we kind of glossed over. But

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Singleton, I mean, we've talkedso much about first base and we say,
can you just give us something?And he's giving you something the occasional
home run. I mean, you'lltake all of that from John Singleton.
Nobody's asking him to go be astud, all star, great first baseman,
just be serviceable. And John Singletonhas been that and hopefully he can
continue to do that because even withthe you know, Joey lit Braffido's batting
like two, three twenty like hisHe's going to be a spot starter still

(12:07):
in the outfield. And I loveit because it's gonna push the Chaz mccormicks
and Jake Myers to say, Ican't rest on my laurels because this young
kid has got some pop is gonnabe pushing us every day. And by
the way, Chaz is going throughhis rehab assignment to sugar Land right now
along with jose Erkety, who wasn'tgreat in his first start, but understand
it was the first start of theyear. He has he hadn't pitched at

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all all seasons. So I thinka couple more starts for Chaz in sugar
Land and uh and uh Orkidi aswell. Well, actually they're going to
Corpus. They're gonna do that bounceback and forth thing. But you know,
a few more starts for him,and you're right, I mean,
you know, this team starts toget back fully complete again, and then
who knows, post All Star break, you out of Luis Garcia and I

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know the dirty word Lands mccollor.It's not a dirty where fine, you
get him back at some point insome capacity. I think this team really
starts to look more like the teamwe projected. Now. The problem is,
as of those recording, you're stilleighteen to twenty five. You're still
seven games full of five hundred,still more digging to get out of.
And you know, look, welooked at the stretches schedule and said,

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when you get to Detroit and Oakland, this is those are series you should
win. But get Milwaukee in here, they're a little bit tougher. So
mind, you know, I scaredof Brewers. I'm just worried, is
this a little bit of fools goal? Because of who's play. I don't
think so, because, first ofall, you've had, at least coming
into last night, there was thethird most difficult schedule in baseball in terms

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of opponents win percentage. Then Ilooked at up earlier today in terms of
remaining schedule, the Astros have thethird weakest schedule remaining in baseball. Now,
unfortunately, Seattle's in first place andthey have the weakest schedule remaining,
but it's we're talking about percentage pointsfor eighty opponent win percentage for Seattle,
for eighty one from Milwaukee, foreighty three for Houston. So you have

(13:54):
one of the weakest schedules remaining.That number will probably even go down once
Milwaukee gets out of town from thisweekend. Then you got the Angels,
so the schedule is softening up,the team is playing better. I don't
think it's fools gold. I thinkI mean, maybe they needed a little
bit of a get right trip toplay the crappy Colorado Rockies, who just
swept the Rangers this week, bythe way, But yeah, you're gonna

(14:16):
play who's in front of you.And then I mean you just look at
the team and like what you laidout there's no reason in my mind that
if they continue to play up tothis potential, health of course needs to
stay the way that it is,because they haven't really had a whole lot
they've had injuries pitching wise, theyhaven't on a whole lot of injuries lineup
wise. If they can continue tostay healthy there, then we're talking about

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again. Yes, I do believeit. I am saying this. They
are seven games under five hundred,but I will say it a World Series
Championship contender. It's now time forour It's so hard to say goodbye to
yesterday. Segment presented by Carbuck Brewingand The Crawford Bach we say goodbye to
two astros this week. Ross onein Corey Jolks, who was a Tonian

(15:01):
born and raised in Houston, lovedJoe one of the best walk up songs
in all of baseball. He wouldgo with like a Dog Big Mo,
and then he would had most Citydon Freestyle by zero. Those are like
Houston institution songs. Went to mywife's high school. She bought his jersey
because he's the first player ever fromher high school to make the Big League.
Cy Fairsie something clear. It's oneof the clearest clear brook one of

(15:22):
those. But yeah, they theyend up having to outride him or option
him and rather than clear size.Yeah, one of these. You know
these days, like if a guyis gonna get claimed off waivers, you
usually say, well, let's makeit a trade and see if we can
get something in return. So CoreyJalks traded to the Chicago White Sox for
a minor minor league pitcher, akid who's like twenty, who's never pitched

(15:45):
above the you know, like thatlower and lower level. But uh so
you got something there. And thenBrandon Black who they had outrighted, who
was out of options. So whenthey brought back you know her not her
key, they had outrighted him.And so, uh they announced today that
he's been officially traded to Oakland forcash considerations. So whatever that means.

(16:07):
You know, you get a couplebucks of Brannavy live. But it's the
rare but fun when it happens tradebetween the two teams playing each other.
He's going to the other literally getsto walk over to the visitor dugout to
Yeah, that happened the Astros withthe Abraham Toro trade, well, Kendall
Graveman trade Toro going over to theMariners and they got back. They gave
away what is Joe Smith and Torogot back Montero and Graveman they just walk

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across the other other side. Andironically we're seeing Toro in the series for
Oakland. He's one of the besthitters in baseball this year, dude,
I mean the potential and then hewas with Uh wasn't he with another team
last year too? Was it theBlue Nun the Blue Jays? I can't
remember the Abraham Toro's been bounced around, but he's leading off for them.
As Justin Verlander would say, wherethe bleep is Toro? You never know

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he's bouncing around? Uh? Iknow it was the Brewers last year,
That's what it was. I didsee Tony Up, who had been playing
with the A's, is over withthe Cubs now. I think so he
got he? Oh? Is he? But the Cubs picked him up because
he got dfaid when they when theOrioles called up Jackson Holiday. Yeah.
Either way, it's good to seesome former Astros doing their thing. Just
don't just don't hurt the Astros.One more thing here, Ross before we

(17:18):
get to our final thoughts, thereas Chayler. Roam reports there's an epidemic
sweeping the Astros as Alex Bregman hasgotten hot. Here he is wearing a
headband and apparently it's sweeping through theclubhouse. Tray Cabot, Cabbage, Joey
Lo, Brafito, Jake Myers,and Great Cassenger all taking batting practice currently
and all wearing headbands. Well,is it a headband or a bandana?

(17:41):
Because McTaggart says bandana, So I'mnot sure. Kind of yeah, I
guess headband. You think of likewhat Lebron wears. Sara said, she
made a good point. You knowwhat, maybe Singleton needs to get credit
for it because he's been wearing thatGod's plant. He's been wearing that a
while. So I don't know whogets credit or what. I don't care.

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It's working for Alex Bregman even thoughhe went over three yesterday. Before
that, he was on a sixgame inning streak. So it's working.
Keep it going, baby. I'llsay this as we kind of wrap up
Oakland, I predicted, Look,you had to take three out of four
in this series. Javier goes tonightif he's off, so be it.
If you lose this game, sobe it. You would like the sweep
though, it'd be great to getthat over Oakland. But thoughts on Milwaukee

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coming in this weekend because this isa pretty good Milwaukee team, and you
know you're gonna have to go withHunter Brown in game one of this series.
Yeah, gonna be a little bittougher. I'll have to go.
I'd have to look at what theprobable pitchers are. So yeah, Hunter
Brown, Freddie Peralta on Saturday.Then you have Oh Verlander, I'm sorry

(18:47):
of Friday. Then you have BryceWilson and Justin Verlander on Saturday, and
then Sunday it will be Spencer Arraghettiversus Colin Ree Ray Ray. Yeah.
Two out of three. Yeah,I mean that's that's what you're hoping for.
That's two out of three against Milwaukee. A Hunter Brown. Last time
he went out, Yeah, hecame on in relief of Favier right and
it was was a five innings andone run ball. So if he can

(19:11):
at least be solid, then thenI'm down with that. Milwaukee though,
slight favorite minus one twenty five onFriday, and they've won six of their
last nine. They took three outof four against Saint Louis and two out
of three against Pittsburgh. So,uh, bur cruise pretty good. Bur
Cruise pretty good so far. Sowe'll see what happens there. But uh,
the good news after that series forus, you get the Angels,

(19:32):
you get the A's, get theMariners out in their house. You get
some Angels, you get some youget some more angels, you get all
the Angels game, you get someGiants, you get the Tigers again,
get the white socks. Okay,Yeah, there's a lot of dumb let's
I mean the goal. I thinkwe had kind of joke saying the goal
was to get back to five hundredby the All Star break. You're still
seven back, still work to do, but I'd say that's probably should still

(19:53):
be their goal, and it's prettydoable. Yeah, I totally agree.
And now in a four game winstreak, let's get it five tonight.
Any closing thoughts here, now,just I believed in this team. I
still do. I think they're goingto be Okay, I mean, barring
health and all those types of things. You've gotten rid of the the you've
removed the absess that was jose A. Bray. You in the middle of

(20:15):
the lineup. Other guys have gottenhot, and we know that Bregman's a
slow starter, so I don't think, you know, he's just going to
hit thirty home runs or something likethat, but he looks like he's getting
right. Alvarez is going to getright. I'm feeling pretty good about the
team, and it's tough not toafter they've won six out of the last
seven, and shout out to theRangers, they snapped their five game losing
streak and finally won a game.So which is so fascinating ross is all

(20:37):
this digging out, You're still you'refive and a half back of the division
lead because Seattle and Texas are notrunning away with this thing and they're keeping
that door open. It's yes,if you could just build back to five
hundred by the All Star break andyou're maybe a half a game, two
and a half games out, you'llbe in a great spot. Fewest wins
for a division leader in baseball theMariners, second few is the Brewers.
All Right, that's going to doit. For this edition of the Crawford

(21:00):
Box Cast presented by Carbox Brewing,Hey, you know it when you see
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every time get your hands on aCrawford box. This has been the Crawford
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