The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros at 11–18: Joe Espada Speaks on Team’s Early Challenges

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Astros at 11–18: Joe Espada Speaks on Team’s Early Challenges

1230. Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross via Rio with you. Matt Thomas had to step out. He is traveling with the Houston Rockets for game number five in Los Angeles. A must win game for the Houston Rockets. But of course, we also know Astros in action here on Sports Talk 790. 535 first pitch in Baltimore. Joe Espada, Astros manager, our weekly guest here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Joe, first of all, we're going to give you a week off from Matt. You're welcome. Appreciate that. Yeah, no problem.

And also, the question everybody wants to know, does the hoodie come back on in Baltimore? The what? The hoodie. What do you mean? What do you mean hoodies? Everybody's been talking about you wearing hoodies and when you're not wearing hoodies. And it's like, I don't know why everybody's fascinated with it, but they are. Oh, you know, yeah, you know, hooty, no hoodie.

You know, it's cold here and it's raining, so I'll have, I'll have, I'll have a jacket on. But, you know, I didn't, you know, I didn't, I don't know that. I will probably change it up a little bit, trying to get, you know, trying to get us going here. If something works that day, I might wear the next day, might do that. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you were talking last week about Correa mixing it up and Christian Walker with the mustache, yeah. Walker with a mustache, you know, trying different things. Well, I think you should probably keep your pants.

You know, that's what happens during long seasons. Yeah, pants up is probably better. All right, so I'll tell you who doesn't need to change anything right now. That'd be Spencer Erigetti. Obviously, you want to win the series, but you were at least able to salvage the win on Sunday. What has it been like, especially you, of course. You know, we know you've been through a lot. It's been a lot of injuries.

The pitchers, unfortunately, haven't been going deep in game. So how much is like an oasis in the desert for Spencer Arrigetti and what he's been able to provide for you? Yeah, he's been huge for us. You know, the strike throwing capabilities, the breaking ball right now, that curveball is giving hitters headache. But for me, it's just how, you know, how aggressively he is attacking the zone, how he's quickly being efficient through innings. He's been really remarkable to watch him, you know, goes to AAA with a goal with the plan, executes that plan comes up here and continues to roll, you know, taking us deep into the game,

allowing our back end to our bullpen to pitch in, you know, one innings and, you know, put us in a position to be, you know, pretty healthy moving forward in this nine-game stretch. Yeah, you have Kai Wei Ting on the hill starting for you. Is the plan for him to be in an opener type of role or he's gotten some length that? at some points in his career, or you're hoping for more of the latter? No, it will be opener. You know, hopefully he's efficient and he'll give us, he'll give us a couple of innings, and then we could hand the ball to our bullpen.

But he's been, you know, he's been really good. Hopefully, can be efficient, can throw strikes, you know, give us a couple of innings, will be great. What has been going so great from him? Because he's just been one of the guys you can also talk about the way Arigetti's been helping out starting-wise. He's really been a huge help, of course, in the bullpen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Number one, you know, he can mix all out of pitches. He can throw him for strike in different counts. You know, the Vilo has been there as a reliever, and that's something

that will monitor, you know, today when he goes out there, he starts the game. Use this of his sinker. They'll have lefties, right, he lefties are pretty, pretty evenly throughout the lineup. So watching him go out there and set the tone. use all his pitches. I'm interesting to see how he goes out, the same demeanor as he comes in out of the bullpen. I expect him to go out there, even if he's starting the game,

to have that same demeanor, go out to hitters, strike one, and then be able to put hitters away with, you know, with his repertoire. Astros manager, Joe Espada, was here on Sports Talk 790. You mentioned monitoring the velocity. What is the process with that? You guys are just every single pitch.

You guys have the iPads out there and looking at like spin rates and stuff like that. What are you doing in game in terms of monitoring pitchers and how they're navigating the game and then making your decisions on when to pull guys and stuff like that from there? Yeah, not necessarily when to pull the guys based on Velo, but, you know, obviously when you come,

when you are starting a game and you try and do go through a lineup once or maybe twice, you start saving some of those bullets, right? you might go after it a different way when you come in relief. You know you have a certain amount of bullets. You are gas through the pedal from that very first pitch. Obviously, today he will have a little bit longer leash. So just monitor on how he goes about it, right?

How he uses his pitches, how he sets up hitters. Those are the things that we'll monitor. You know, he's been a started before. So it's going to be interesting to see how we attack his lineup. Speaking of monitoring pitchers, you've got Tatsui I Mai at Double A Corpus Christi. Before we even get to the baseball stuff, you know, there's been some talk about him getting over here and integrating and just getting adjusted to being in the United States. What has that been like for him or anything you can report the last couple of weeks of just, I mean, before he can go out there on the mound, just getting him comfortable as a human being. Yeah, you know what?

I think he has, it's been better. And I think, you know, this is a process going to take, you know, a long period of time. And we are here to help him through that. I think the adjustment has been a lot better. The routine, just pure routine, going to the weight room. And now that he has his full staff that helps him get ready for a bullpen, weightlifting, I feel he seems to be more complete when he comes to. to his day-to-day, you know, functioning operations, you know, he seems to be doing better.

You know, his relationship with his teammates continue to grow, and we continue to support him. But it's been, it's been fine. And as you mentioned, he's starting today in Corpus. We're excited about that, see how that goes. And then we'll plan to what's next for EMI. But today, you know, today's a big day for him. He really wanted to get back on the mound. He's getting an opportunity to do that today.

Yeah. Is there any expectations or pitch count or anything or any type of word on what you guys have as far as expectations? You know, four or five innings, a number of pitches will be depending on where, where he, how efficient he is and how he feels. You know, he was pretty built up before he suffered the dead arm. So, you know, we feel comfortable with him and just going out there four or five innings and see where where he takes him. Astroats manager, Joe Espada with us here on a Sports Talk 7. Let's go a little bit to the hitters. A couple of guys to highlight.

I'm going to start with Isak Paredes. He's obviously got off to the slow start. He had talked about that. But now it looks like he's rounding into form. And, of course, pulling the ball and hitting over the fence to the left field side, which we know he's very good at. What's been going well for him? No, I think he just needed some time.

You know, sometimes we want guys to. to in bat number 10 or 15 other season to show and and you know and produce right away. Sometimes he takes a little bit of a time. And, you know, he's starting to heat up. He's starting to see the ball really well. He's starting to swing at the pitches that he knows that he can do damage. And he's doing some damage. On the flip side, Cam Smith has been scuffling a little bit off to the hot start of the season.

What are you seeing from him at the plate? He needs to continue to make adjustments. I think the elite is making adjustments to him again this season. Seeing pitches in his hands, breaking balls away from him. He continues to walk. He continues to show some patient trying to get his pitches. But, you know, this is, again, just adjusting, trying to put him in some spots where I know he can have some success against certain pitchers. But it's just going to take some time this kid's young, and we just have to be patient.

And I continue to give him opportunity to support him. because he's going to be a monster once he figures all of this out. Joe Spotted was here, Sports Talk 790. I don't want to kind of like go down the list of everyone who is injured and just ask for updates there. But I'm just curious like, what is that? And this is not your first time doing this. Obviously, we know last year with all the injury issues and stuff like that.

What is just like that for you as a manager to try to, on one hand, don't want to anticipate or mark down the calendar because things can always change and be fluid, but also have. having to check up on all the guys. Yeah, and for me, the most important thing is just staying present, right? Like, you know, we have a roster right now that I feel good about, and they put in these guys in a position to have some success. It's the most important thing while we get the rest of the guys back.

And, you know, I check in with the rest of the players, you know, I check it with Pena. You know, Pearson, he's coming back, who's pitching tomorrow. I try to check up with all this individual Javier and Hunter. and I continue to talk to them and make sure that they're on the right track and let them know that we are looking forward to having them, but not to rush their process because when they get here, we want them to stay. And, you know, it's conversations daily, check with the trainers and our strength coaching staff

just to make sure that those guys are getting their work in. Having those guys around their teammates is important. I want all those guys to feel like, you know, we are all a team, and we're going to pick each other up. But, you know, it's a lot of work. And it's unfortunate that we have to, you know, go through this again. But we find ourselves in a spot that we know that we've been here before, but we know how to overcome all these obstacles.

We've done it and we lean on one another and we're going to fight through it. All right. That is Joe Espada manager for your Houston Astros. Joe, thanks for the time. As always, we'll talk to you next week and good luck in Baltimore. All right, guys. Thank you.