The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Can’t Get It Done in Game 1... Are Sousa and Walker Speaking Out of Line?

Episode Date: September 30, 2026

Astros Can’t Get It Done in Game 1... Are Sousa and Walker Speaking Out of Line

This is Matt and Ross in the morning. Good morning. It's Matt and Ross, and we are in the morning. On Sports Talk 790. Breaking ball ground at left side, right at Vargas. He fields and weighs tie, guns it over to first end time, and that is the ball game. The Chicago White Sox take game one of the American League Wild Card Series, defeating the Astros 6 to 3. He's crying now. It appears the Astros bullpen is crying

34,000 at the ballpark yesterday We're crying I'm crying Ben-ins-Huss is crying Among others A.J. Blue Ball is crying A.J. Blue Ball is really crying. Ryan King's crying.

Spotted haters are crying. Everybody's crying. We're all crying. Texans fans are crying. Hannah's crying. Cows is doesn't know what to cry about, so he's just there. He's handing her the

I'm supposed to be sad. I handed her the Kleenex. Aggie fans are crying. Oh man. You see that tweet put up by the Aggie's Twitter account? I did not. It's literally so when you put, it's like a

PNG with check marks, it makes it very easy to Photoshop and they put in zone, new end zone loading. And so it's easy to crop. Oh no. And everybody was putting, you Yeah, send an offensive coordinator. Oh, no. Pictures of dons.

Oh, no. Bison, buy out money. Can we score points? Oh, no. Oh, yeah. That was one of those things where whoever put this up had zero awareness. I guess they're getting a new end zone sponsor or something. Or they wanted to do some kind of throwback end zone thing.

It was pretty bad. So just a factor of happiness on the old man in Ross in a morrison. Morning Show at 605. They put the Spirit Halloween store for Kyle Field. Come on, Annie, fans, relax. You got Arkansas this week. You're going to be just fine. Okay, I'm glad we could chuck for five seconds because that was not fun yesterday.

In order to have a successful bullpen game, and look, you can win bullpen games. The Astros have won playoff games with bullpen games. Yes. It really honestly starts at the very top. It just does. You are correct. You know, man, I'm glad you mentioned that because I said that. exactly thing on my hit on Fox

26. What could go wrong for the Astros? And it would be the exact thing that happened. A.J. Blue Ball, getting two outs, walking three, and just not getting through any single inning. You wanted him for two, three innings. Then Miguel Uola for two, three innings.

That's covering six. Then you toss in Hayter and Abraeu for seven, eight. That's eight innings. And then any of whatever, Van Wye, maybe some Sousa, Hendrickson, whatever. Brian King, if you have that was the plan. The plan was two to three from Blue Ball, two to three from

Uyola, the plan derailed from the start. I like A.G. Blue Ball. He seems to be a really good dude. Good head on his shoulders. You nice young pitcher 90-something plus innings out of the bullpen. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but on that mound yesterday. It was, I mean,

bad from the jump. Sometimes, let me tell you about life. And you all know this. Sometimes the moment's too big. and this happens all the time in postseason competition. It happens in your workplace. It happens in choral competitions or dance competitions or and everything in life. When you go to a higher level to try to compete,

sometimes you guys can do it and sometimes they can't. First show I ever did on a Sunday was an NFL wrap-up show here on Sports Talk 790. I butchered the whole show for an hour to where our boss Brian Erickson called me in the office on Monday. It was like, are you okay? It's bad. Sometimes you do things poorly. In the fall of 1991, I was hosting a show on 700 for the first time. It was called Sunday Night Sports Forum.

It was 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. on a 1,000-watt radio station. And they said, you know what? You're going to get your first chance at it. And it was awful. And hopefully someday I'll get better so I can actually do it. Hey, you've improved, Matt. But point being is, and again, that's, there's. There's the, there's always a first time.

Absolutely. And AJ Blue Ball, his first time, you look like he sold himself. Yeah. And then you might want to say, hey, he shouldn't, Joe's spotter shouldn't have thrown a rookie out there in a playoffs for his first playoff start. And I can get that. Hagen Smith on the other side's a rookie. He looked fine to start the game.

He looked really good. Grant Taylor, again, I don't know five White Sox, to be brutally honest with you. Grant Taylor, let him hang. Grant Taylor is like, get out the way. 36 pitches his first inning, and they throw him out there for the ninth. He buzz in 100 mile an hour of sinkers and four seamers. He guess we heard a lot of. Steer rake.

Yes. Steer rake. Seven outs from Grant Taylor. That was, that's another thing, too, as we say, the other guys get paid, too. Five strikeouts. White Sox were incredible. It was a bullpen game, and their bullpen was better than yours. The defense for the Astros yesterday?

Christian Walker, I mean, that gold glove is there for a reason and it wasn't his glove. It was his arm that threw the ball all the way to kind of manufacture some for the White Sox early. Yeah. He had the bad throw, which he's had a couple of those down the stretch of the season. Bennett Soes is throwing wild pitches. You had run scoring there. A.J. Blueball walked three guys and then got pulled before the first inning was even over. Then

four of the next five guys gave up a run. Yeah. Brian King gets the final out of the first. Okay, but the problem is this. you didn't want to burn a pitcher. Yeah. After one and third of an inning, you can't. Especially in a bullpen game. Right. So people are going to get mad and be like,

oh, Brian King went out there, Minutuzza. They used eight pitchers. And why is Hayter and Abraeu out there? Because, well, Brayu hadn't pitched in a week. And you only had two guys left at that point. It was Hater and it was EMI.

And then same thing when it was Hater. Clearly, they don't like Tatsu Emi. And also another thing, that game was a chance to tie the game. You kept the game at three runs because you used your two high leverage guys. Abreu had not pitched since last Thursday. Hater had not pitched since last Wednesday. And they're both available today.

They're both going to be available today and tomorrow. It's going to be all hands on deck tomorrow. That's right. When the Astros win and bounce back. They can give you three days in a row. They only both threw 11 pitches and it was their first time pitching in a week. So did you burn them? I guess you can say they did.

They clearly want to. Tatu Iemi is radioactive. And then we have people telling us that Tatu Yomai should have started the game. I heard that call on the 10th inning show last night. Oh my God. I think a guy was drunk. Y'all would have lost your mind. In life, you have to think about process

and then think about results. Of course, results are important, results are mattering. But who was crushing the Astros for starting A.J. Blueball before the game yesterday. Not a soul. Not a single soul. No. It's about performance. Now, I always tell, and maybe the 6 o'clock maniacs don't know this, but I always tell you that Astros' Twitter is the worst.

and you guys lived up to your expectations. But I got your back on something. Okay. And we'll talk about the next segment of the show. And it has been a, it's been a miserable season. I mean, 81 and 81, and now you do that in game one of the playoffs. It's not a whole lot of reason for celebration. No, I'll give you that.

We will get to that in the next segment of the show. We get the sound at 630. We have shut your bum ass up at 830, which I guarantee, to be a few Astro fans calling in for a certain handful of players to something to shut their bum asses up. Believe it or not. But really, today is an open line day for a lot of, Um, yeah, astro bats were not great yesterday. I'd tell you what, though.

Six hits. You did pull the trigger on Velasquez, pinch hitting for Tremel, and he got a home run. So, hey, there you go, Joe. No, no, nobody's going to give him crap. Oh, okay. Well, you got six hits, five singles and that one pinch hit home run. Yeah. That's it.

That's not a lot of slug. 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, Matt. Is that good? It's not great. Okay. Not great. Oh, for seven, three double plays. Actually, three double plays defensively.

That's the thing that's crazy. The problem is, I got terrible news for you. It could have been worse. It could have been a lot worse. It could have been. They were in some jams. All right, let's go. Six o'clock maniacs.

Y'all are awake. You didn't sleep last night. You were mad. I get it. 713, 212. 5790. 713. 212.

5790 612. It's Matt and Ross in the morning on 790. So a variety of players were asked about the booze or lack of. of exceptional atmosphere. Now you tell me, Ross, you were there yesterday. There were several thousand empty seats upstairs. I was, yeah.

It was really light at 4 o'clock, then really probably between 4 and 4.20-ish, filled in pretty nicely. I would say, especially the bottom. From where we were kind of the club level, I didn't see the top. So I can't speak on that. But everything within my eyes was at least about 80% full. So when you said 34,000, even to start the show, I was a little surprised. I would have guessed it would be closer to like 37, 38.

But I guess it's because the top was not very full. No, the few angles that Peacock would put up there, the upper deck look like it was a lot of seats were open. And that sounds pretty. Look, I watched some of the Atlanta Philadelphia game yesterday. They had upper deck seats. Absolutely. Daytime baseball is a tougher get. Ticket prices go up.

Now, I did see the ticket prices for 10. day are very reasonable. You want to go today? You want lower level, first third baseline, you get in for 65 bucks a game, a ticket. So that's not terrible. That's great. That's really good, frankly. Hopefully not too bad after admin fees.

I don't know if that includes the fees or not, but that was off the MLB website. All right. So asked about his, this is off a Channel Rome's article, by the way, from the athletic. Alvarez said through an interpreter about the atmosphere, quote, it's what we expected. Frustrated we weren't able to get them. the victory that we wanted to give them. But tomorrow we're going to go try and go out and give them the when they deserve. Jeff's kiss.

I would say, I mean, I was in front of him when that was happening, covering the clubhouse. And I thought he was just saying, yeah, like he was saying it was good when he was saying it that way. All right. So then we're going to go to Christian Walker. Okay. It's extremely frustrating as a home player. We're here playing at home. We need cheers.

We need energy. We don't need booze. What purpose is that serve in the moment? Whatever fans are feeling, we're feeling it. Tenfold. We're the ones out there. We're the ones in this fight. We worked our butts off this whole season to put ourselves in this spot. And for guys that get booed, it's frustrating.

That was Christian Walker. Right message, wrong message. I, I, honestly, I got to be consistent. We crushed the Green Bay guy for the tight end for ripping on his fans. I'm sorry, this is big money, win or go home kind of style. You love the cheers and the hug. and the admiration, you have to take some of it too. I have never complained once about a crowd.

The only time ever, Jonathan, I never complained about a crowd booing is when a player got hurt. That's unprofessional. That's not classy. The Mariners last season. Well, it happens plenty of times in sports, but I mean, in particular, when a player gets hurt. All right.

So, we went from Chef's Kiss to Christian, you may want to rethink that. And then you got, Bennett-Susa. The fans are definitely spoiled with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs, and we have to earn that right to bring this back to this position.

That being said, when this team was in their first playoff series 10 years ago, Minut Made Park was probably packed. It makes a big difference. If we were in Chicago, I'd probably be loud as S. Ooh. Bennett?

I'm sure you're a wonderful human being. I didn't see this from Bennett-Souza. and I understand it's a frustrating game one loss but with the most complete respect I can give you shut your bum ass up you have sucked since you've come back people are paying 65 70 70 7580 I don't even know what the prices were

it was pretty cheap yesterday too you are a professional athlete booze come with the territory they just do I wish everybody was lovey does But if you think it's bad here, this city, ain't nothing compared to what Philadelphia would be booing you or Chicago would be booing you or New York will be booing if you were the home team. Yeah. And Bennett, let me make sure clear, Ross.

Bennett, you've sucked this year. You have absolutely sucked. And for you to go after fans, and again, asterisk Twitter, y'all are cancerous. I'm not, you're not perfect. Nor is Bennett. But don't get into the, it was probably packed card. Don't do that.

You're going to face the wrath that's like Green Bay Tideon faced. Don't do it. I mean, I will say one thing, I mean, he's right in the fact that there would be more people in the stands if we weren't so used to this. If we weren't so used to playoffs. Yeah, that's right. That's not incorrect.

I mean, and I don't even necessarily think that's a bad thing or wrong. I mean, it happens, as you mentioned, it happens in Atlanta. It happened in Atlanta in the 90s. It happens all over places. I mean, it's even kind of happen like a wild card for the Texans. Like, okay, yeah, wake us up when you get to an AFC championship game.

Do you not there? Let me ask you all this. And Ross, do you have friends too? Looks like all of us do. Do you have friends that said, you know what? If I'm going to spend postseason money, I'm probably skipping the wild car where it makes it very hard for me to get to that building at 4 o'clock.

That's another thing, too, is you have to budget. Absolutely. where you have, well, if they win this game, then I'm going to have to go to spend money on DS and CS and World Series. People absolutely do that. Astros fans absolutely do that. To wake me, wake me, as I just said with the Texans, wake me up when they're an AFC championship game.

Wake me up when they're in the CS. Division series, you need to be full. I get that. But Waldcard, four o'clock. And by the way, the team did not clinch a wildcard spot until Sunday 5 o'clock. Right. So you had to make some pretty fast. decisions here. You had to make fast plans. The game was at 4 o'clock. You'd have to take off a

half day of work. You'd have to spend the money. Traffic has been abysmal down there, by the way, all season long. I just, look, if you privately want to say these things, and I don't know if I didn't necessarily disagree with some of the things you're saying, I get that. But when the microphone is on, you bite your lip. You do not attack the fans, especially when you are terrible. Brian King, you didn't say a word yesterday. God love you. Yeah, I mean, maybe if you want to go with the wrong messenger thing, but I mean, reading the statement again, the fans here are definitely spoiled, correct, with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs. We have to earn the right to bring this team back to that position. That's correct.

When this team was in their first playoff series 10 years ago, Minutamed Park was probably packed. By the way, you call it Minutemade. This is funny. That's correct. It makes a big difference. Correct. Yeah. It can't be Ben, InSusa, Boys.

It just cannot. If you're Benet-Susia, you do not say a word. Also, if they had a 163, I don't know how much booing you would have heard. My guess would be zero. If you weren't skipping balls into the dirt off of Yainer-Diaz 30 feet away from home plate, I don't know how much booing you would have. If you weren't horrible in April and August and September, maybe you'd get the pass. Yeah, don't throw two wild pitches to score, let crucial runs score.

And you're probably not hearing booze. And it's Benetizusa. I mean, come on. It's performance-related. Nobody's ever booting anybody for doing good unless they are on the other team. Jason on 790, good morning. Good morning, fellas. How are y'all today?

Good, Jason. Let's roll. We've got to go. Let's go. If you come up to bat with bases loaded and you can't knock a run in, you deserve to be booed. If you can't go out there and pitch and get one out, you deserve to be booed. Don't tell me how to fan. If anything, I'm not going to let last night piss me off.

If anything, we're one more. day closer to Joe getting the boot. Have a good day, fellas. That's, unfortunately, that's the overriding sentiment. Yeah, that's another thing. Yeah, if you look, Joe Despotter is running this franchise in the ground, guess what? He's not going to be that much of a problem for a longer,

and then you can complain about the next guy when he comes. Yeah, because you will. You will. You're never happy with managers. You weren't happy with AJ Hinch. You certainly weren't happy with Dusty Baker, and you've not been happy with Joe Spada. Our buddy Sobs at 626.

Soobs, what do you got today? Three quick takes, man. first of all, with his new name, it Deacon Park O for 3 now in playoff games. Can we go back to Minutemate? I know it's not possible, but whatever. One for 12. D.S. Yordon and Al-Tube.

The biggest shocker that was watching a couple of Yorda bets with him reaching out of the zone, off balance. I mean, all season's been doing good, but he ended up rolling over, killing innings. Like, that was unlike Yordon, so I expect Yordon to be back today. and then in regards to the comments from the players like

I'm not going to lose sweat over it but you know it's funny how the response is kind of react to how the guys have been playing all year. You're done. Great response, great play. Walker, horrible. Susa, no comment. Anyways, hey, first time calling you guys in the morning. I love the new setup.

Congratulations on everything. Hey, Matt, can't wait for the rocket season to start. Me too. Go throws, man. Let's go ahead and win 42 today and win tomorrow two to one. All right. Thank you. Thank you.

make sure we're clear on this. Emotions are running high. I mean, you know, in fairness to the players, they were embarrassed, they lost a home playoff game, and you get to talk to them literally about 15 minutes after the game is over with. Yeah, and the comment, like, we're working our butts off to do the

best, yeah, okay, that's why you're paid a high salary. Yeah, I mean, you're, that's, we're kind of expecting you to do that. I mean, Ben, Susu's probably not making 20 million a year, but whatever... He's comfortable? Yeah, let's see. 910K. Oh, are you kidding me? That's like, that's like, Clint's money. That's great. Damn. Yeah. Yeah. So Benet Sousa, you're making 910K to have an ERA of 5. So that's kind of your

compensation. So people expect good things. My mother and I would debate about this when I was younger. Okay. What do you think about booze in general? I have, as long as I would say if with anything, there's a gray area, there's times where it's like too much, as you mentioned, when there's an injury, when I don't even know. When somebody's giving you a whole lot of success, For example, I would say you'd give more grace to say a Jose Altuve than a Taylor Trammel for a bad strikeout in a big moment or something like that. So it's contextual, but in general, I got no problem with booze. I just think that's as long as you're not, as long as you're respectful and you don't swear and make personal attacks at players, families or themselves. Booing is a right. You get to boo.

For professionals. And which now, frankly, it's college now too. But if it's like eight-year-old Timmy Johnson in the Little League, don't boo him. Yeah, and he wants to be called Tim as an adult now. Boo! Yeah, he wants to be called Tim now. He doesn't want to be called Tim anymore. That's when he was a 5 and 6.

He was 8 years old. He's now Tim. Okay. 628. The sounds at 630 are next here on Sports Talk 7. We want to hear your sounds, meaning your voice. And you can boo if you want to call the show and boo. You can boo us.

You can boo us. Yeah, Matt's highly compensated. Yeah, I'm very highly compensated. If you want to boo me for my work, you come after me. But I'm coming back at you. Come after me. That's funny. I'm a man.

That's funny. Well, that sounds very inviting. Well, it all sounds exciting. That sounds like a threat. That sounds stupid. And now, Matt and Ross bring you sounds at 630. All right, let's get to Joe Espati. He's like, man, you can't win a bullpen game when the first guy in the bullpen put you behind the eight ball.

Yeah, I put you in a, in a. tough spot for sure. You start counting the outs and it just really put you in a tough spot. You know, we're able to keep the game close, a couple of hits away from getting back in that game. So I thought we battled back after the, after that first two innings. And again, I want to make sure I'm very clear on this. I don't have a problem with Brayue and Hayter going that was a three run game. and it kept it a three-run game because you didn't allow the white Sox to get anything extra innings eight and nine because those two guys are filthy and Yonder Diaz had an opportunity with one swing to tie the ball game and literally they had not pitched since Thursday and Wednesday so seven days and six days your only other option at that point was Tatsu Imi clearly they didn't want to use him but did you get the feeling so it was a walk then the ground out with the air from Walker So the runner to third, then another walk, then the sack fly, then another walk,

and Joe goes out to get Blue Ball. You kind of feel like this is, I don't know that this is going to be their day, right in that moment. The only reason why I would not to completely 100% agree with you is that the White Sox only scored one run in anything. Yes. I mean, you were felt, well, as Brian King was coming on. With two on, confidence wasn't high. We'll put it this way.

But he got the strike out. All of you, I want you to think of. about what you thought about Brian King after he got the final out of the inning, the first. And then when he had to go back on the bump for the second, how much your emotions changed about one pitcher? Yeah.

Then he goes single, single, hits Colson Montgomery on him with two strikes. They're nine hitter. Although, I mean, dude's got power. Hit a home run later. 31 homers are this year. Of course, he also strikes out every time. 227 ones? He literally either strikes out or hits home runs.

Nuts. I think he's hit the major. major league record for literally strikeouts in a season. Pretty crazy. But just, yeah, not their day yesterday. AJ Blue Ball did not get off to a good start. Here's what he had to say in the clubhouse

after the game. Yeah, I think looking back on it, I was just trying to be a little too perfect out there. You know, they took good pitches tomorrow. I hope I get the same opportunity. And, you know, that they could swing at the same.

same pitches that they took the night. So, you know, got to take your cap and move on and you support it around. Yeah. Did it feel different in the playoffs? I mean, it's now still 60 feet, six inches, plate still 17 inches wide. You know, the adrenaline was there. It felt good. Huge out of BK coming in after me and getting those two guys out.

And, yeah. You know what, H.I. I wouldn't hold my breath. I mean, you're not going to be a prime option here. He's ready to go. I just wanted to cut it, so I got my question in there. I'm glad you did. You had the Woodward and Bird scene of Astros baseball. I like it.

Yeah, I'm out here. Helping out. Yep. So those sounds at 630. I mean... Yeah, just from that first inning, it was like, this is going to be an uphill battle. And then, yeah, as you said, I mean, Brian King getting out of the jam. They got out like some basis loaded jams.

They got the three double plays throughout. They could have been... That could have very easily been like a 12 to 3 loss. It could have been a lot worse. But again, the bullpen, late bullpen kept you close. Yola came up huge. I mean, one run over three. For Miguel, Yola, I'll take it.

Hendrick, I mean, look at what, I mean, just for a second, take a deep breath. And let me give you who they were. Yes. Blueball, rookie, king, a couple of years. Yola rookie. Hendrickson doesn't even touch a majorling mound until this week. Van Wye, rookie. French major leaguer.

Oh, these are all fringe. I mean, I don't expect anything. Sousa. A brainhainter, I mean, you know those guys. Yes. And it's all on the manager that, as you got, you just mentioned, the bad pitchers and the rookies and the French major leaguers gave up some runs. So who's on the team?

They didn't have an option. Unless you want to go all the way back to Burning Lambert, Sunday, but that was extremely defensible. No, it's 162. You didn't have the division 1. No, you didn't. All hands on deck. It comes down to execution. And now, again, if you wanted to, if you, problem is if you put Uliola in to replace

Blue Ball, you know, maybe that's what you do, but to start? No, to put in the to finish off the first inning. Oh. You're, I mean, when it's a bullpen game, that means members of the bullpener are you. used. King was going to be used. Sousa was going to be used. Either way, you'll

let the start. Three innings of one-run ball. Okay, who's next? Probably Blue Ball. And well, he struggled. I mean, is Blue Ball better than the fourth and isn't the first? Well, now we kind of know. We've got to go to the multiverse. I mean, we only live in this universe. Everybody was on board with Blue Ball. It was like, okay, I get it. Blue Ball's been a great reliever

for you all season long. 90 plus pitches, reliable. Can get you multiple innings. And he just he fell flat on his face. The moment was too big. And hopefully it will not be as big the next time he tries it. Bubba on 790, good morning.

Bubba shot the jukebox last night, didn't you, Bubba? All right, thank you, Bubba. That's good stuff. Bubba is our early 6 o'clock maniac call of the day. I'll relate what he was trying to say. Please. He was just saying, you know, we can cheer when it's entertaining. If it's not entertaining, we have every right to boo.

Correct. So that's what you were trying to say. Yeah. I'm telling you, when I was a kid, so funny that we bring this up, when I was a kid, like I'm not like seven or eight, but like when I was 14 or 15, my mom just hated it when people, when people booed the home team or booed the road team for that matter.

I'm like, I don't know, boo's an emotion. You don't like everything. Yeah, I just don't buy the sentiment, support your team no matter what. I'm sorry. Sometimes they suck. And they're highly compensated. I mean, highly compensated.

And honestly, and I'll tell you this, because I'm too, maybe I'm too big of a cheerleader, I was selling 81-81 a lot more than most people would. I mean, it is what it is. There are going to be people that are just to be like, you win the division, you get to wear the hat and you get to party like me. Like I said, and there's other people like, you know, why are you partying?

You are mid. Bennett Sousa this year had a negative. 0.6 war, 6ER, made 910K, and he's skipping pitches to allow runs to score. And he's getting emails. So, I mean, I got to restart That's okay

I'm sorry booing is part of it And again Rossi I can name you 10 other cities That would be way more Over these guys asked Yeah we're pretty chilling

H-town Yeah for sure It is Matt and Ross And we are in the morning On sports talk 790 At 713 212 5790 713

719 We have We played negative We put the White Sox highlights at 6. We'll play some better stuff at 7 for you to get you feeling stronger. She can play Velasquez's home run five times in a row. I mean, would you like to see? How about it holds out too big?

Despite O for 4, he hustled on the ball on that play. Yes. Got up to 31 feet per second, according to Brian McTaggart. That's insane. His average this year is 27 and a half sprint speed. He got up for the moment. He was like, I can't wear this over. I mean, just being right there, I was like, he is flying.

And then he almost got caught with his feet in the outfield. That was a weird challenge. By the way, you don't see that very often. Yeah. All right. 713-212-5-7-90. Look, it's our focus today. By the way, the Cubs got there asking about the Padres last night.

The Yankees crushed the Boston Red Sox. And the Braves come back to beat the Phillies. So that's what's going on through the first other three games of the Major League wildcards. 713-212-5-790. where Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790. 6.49 a.m. here on Sports Talk 790. Matt and Ross in the morning. With you all the way up until 10 o'clock coming up at 8.30. It's ain't nobody got time for that. It's last shut your bum ass up. I'm sure we'll have plenty of targets after yesterday's wild card loss by your Houston Astros.

6 to 3 to the White Sox. Hunter Brown on the hill today. It will be another 4 o'clock start as he will be. taking on Sean Burke, who's effectively been the ace for the White Sox staff all season long. So Ace versus Ace game number two, it is a must-win game. Yes, it is. We can't confirm, Matthew. Yes, you know, that's a second must-win game in the last week. Texans got a must-win game coming up. Okay.

It's a must-win. By the way, one more thing before we go to the back of the phones. Why can't Houston teams win in Houston? Rockets' last two postseason series losing home games on the Florida end series. Not great. Texans don't even get to host home playoff games. Maybe your crowds need to be better.

Oh, maybe Ben and Susa had a point. No, I'm going to say, I'm going to go coincidence. Astros have lost at least three consecutive postseason games. Is it the curse of the oranges? Ever since the oranges left the train. Why don't you step y'all's game up? Be a little louder. and stop booing.

Yeah. Get these guys fired up. It is weird, though. Maybe a home field in sports just in general is just overrated. Coincidence. No, I would say it's good, but it doesn't guarantee you anything. No, it does not. You would rather be home than not.

That's true. That's getting the plane. Yeah, you know. That's fair. Oh, look who's back. It's Bubba. He shut the jukebox. Hi, Bubba.

Hey, God. I just wanted to touch on the fact that a spot it just doesn't have this team mentally, I guess, where they need to be. in the sense of you are multi-millionaire entertainers. You're not entertaining your fans, so they're unhappy.

And the fact that you can't grasp that as a human being is bizarre to me. And the fact that you think that a city like Chicago doesn't boo, that's insanely idiotic to me. Can I stop people one second before you first? Because I wanted you to finish. That's all I had. Well, no, don't hang up.

You think Espada is emotionally responsible for the Astros players? He's in charge of our emotional state? Really? I mean, there's a lot of things he's responsible for, but his emotional state is not one of them. I mean, it's, you're in charge of the lineup, the day-to-day management. But not emotions. No, not mental health.

No, there's, no, no, no, no. Susie is 31 years old. He's a grown-ass man. He's been in several organizations. and he comes out and says he doesn't like getting booed and that's Joe a spot. It's fault. Bubba, come on. We can criticize Joe for things, but that's a stretch.

Let me defend my position. Please. Please, please, go ahead. Okay. AJ Hinch, he used to manage all of those guys so well. He would sit there in the town meeting, you know, for the season ticket holders, and he'd answer questions and explain how he works through all of their different personality disorders, basically, to get them to a place.

And that's why I respected AJ Hinch so much is because of how. how he handled the players in those situations like telling certain players, you're going to not start, you're actually going to come in as a platoon player. But this is great because you're going to have your hands raised on the mound for game seven. How cool is that going to be? And then this time instead, you're going to be starting the game and you're going to notch that World Series W in your record book. He would do stuff like that to mentally prepare these players.

That's what I mean. AJ Hinch, June 22nd, 2026, Tigers fans, boo Jemai Jones. Jemai Jones after the game. I think it's the first time I've ever been booed. I feel like fans forget they were trying just as hard as we can. But obviously it's a bad feeling. You don't want to get booed by your home fans.

So A.J. Hinch let Detroit Tiger players get booed. And then the fans got their feeling. Then the player got his feelings hurt. Look, let me tell you some. Baja. These guys are a bunch of babies. Correct. They're a bunch of babies.

That's right. Yeah. It's not junior, I mean, it's not the World Series. Little League. Correct. Yes. Major League Baseball, get over it. And the fact that you think Chicago is not going to boo.

Correct. Correct. Thanks, Bubba for the phone call. Thank you. No, no. It's right. Bubba, you're right. I'm glad I just found that.

Hold on. Let me defend his point real quick. Let's talk it up. Aspada has come on this show and said that he has to do psychological things with his players. He has to be, have an open door. He has to talk to him. That's a very big and emotional part that a manager does have to play.

So he's supposed to say. No, listen, because to the point is, if these guys are acting less way and the season they had and they aren't expecting some criticism from their own fan base, that as a whole of the team, that he needs to be preparing them and get that mental right for his team to be ready to win is the series. You can't just chalk it up because you got the ALS at 50. Like you got 500. All right, cool. How are we going to get this playoff win? Mental 4-2 is a thing.

Of course, in mental forward. too is a thing, but the fans, players don't like getting booed. That's everywhere. I just pulled up the quotes from the guy from the Detroit Tigers with A.J. Hinch. I mean, that's just how it is. Okay, but you got the Mika Ryans. Let's go to Texans. He's

hyping up, Will Anderson, even if they're losing. He's getting his team hyped up to play and get into his game back in the game. Yeah, Spot is always hyping his players. Are you kidding? Have you heard Joe Spot on our shows? He overly defends these you know what? But does it not seem like it? I

I just feel like I'm going to go in his defense and be like a spotter definitely has a role to play in this. He does, but he's not responsible for a player saying, hey, I don't think we should have been booed by the fans after the game. Yeah, but I guess more of his point was they don't seem mentally ready to be in this team. Oh, I could not disagree more. He had mentally ready to win four out of six to close the season. They're mentally ready to win game 162. So let's be honest. Okay.

So is Lucas. Come on. Let's be real here. Okay. I'm just saying. You know what? I can't believe he didn't have Bennett Sousa ready to go and throw his zero ERA all season. You should have got him ready.

Yeah. Yeah, I look, and we don't want to criticize the spot of for things. I get that. That's fine. We can go with not starting blue ball, putting Brian King in there, letting Brian King get a second inning if you want, but they had to use all the pitchers that they did. I mean, they used eight pitchers.

You can go with that too. We went through the list of the top inning pitchers. This is not a good baseball team. I don't care who you get Casey's thing. who's the greatest manager ever? I don't even know. Whoever that guy is. Joe Tori.

Joe Tori will be in the shirt list. I guess we'll put him in the list. Tommy Lusorta. Sure. Why not? I guess maybe Joe Tori is going to get Minutusseu to go out there and have an ERA a zero.

If Tony LaRoussa is running this baseball team, Benesusa's going to go Tony LaRusa. That's because it sounds like I'm a Tony LaRusus is a Italian joint. Give me a Calzone, if you will. again, I will just go back to this, and I know people don't agree with me or us, Matt, the players got to get it done. Blue ball went out there and wet himself. And when you are Bennett freaking Sousa, just I'm unavailable for comment or just bite your lip.

There are things I want to tell people all the time that I'll have to bite my lip on. I'll be actually doing more than I do. I don't really think the comments, I mean, just going back and we're reading them like we did, they didn't really seem unfair. He was like, yeah, we're kind of spoiled and we work hard. Okay. Yeah. And so guess what? When you suck, you get booed.

And that's part of it. You know what? I would have flipped it and said, you know what? I can get it. People pay their hard earned money. Yeah. We've been a middling team all season long. We've underperformed or we didn't limit expectations or we're just average.

People had to get out of their, get out of work early, spend $50, $60 a ticket, go to the stadium, park. eat, drink. Yeah. And we're not giving him a good product. And you're down three and you're spiking sliders and throwing wild pitches back to back. People aren't going to be happy. Yordon said the right thing through the interpreter. He just did.

By the way, the Astros, our friend Grace checked in. The Astros have lost five consecutive postseason home games. Five. Mm. So you know what? In Houston, you aren't emotionally ready for this team. I want you to emotionally be ready to go. How about this today?

I'm going to emotionally cry. How about this? Today's a boo-free game. Okay. 10-0-0-0-stros. 7-3 will do that for you. Win, obviously. Yeah, Bennett.

Ben-it. I'm booing you from my house today in Kingwood. I hope you hear me. That's rude. I'm booing you as you walked to the mound. Oh, you know what? He's got a little shoulder soreness today. He may not be available.

I mean, after getting booed, he seemed to have worked. He got a strikeout and a double play. all right you'll boo you want but you know what we're going to play some positive highlights coming back we are

of who you'll stand by and find him Jonathan from years past Jonathan find the stuff for yesterday and Berkman highlights or something

this is Matt and Ross in the morning Brown ball softly hit third base side backhanded by Vargas guns it over to first and Altoouet is safe because Boracami came

off the base Alex Tosi with the Call and the Astros have a run. It's 6 to 3 Chicago. Good call, first date. After review, the call in the field stand. First time Kelly Clarkson's ever made an appearance on the Matt and Ross in the morning show. Turn it up.

Turn it up. We are doom and gloom in the 6 and we're probably doom and gloom in the 7 too. Kelly Clarkson is an amazing singing talent, which I respect. Yes. What doesn't kill you make you stronger, except if you blew him. He made them stronger. They threw two wild pitches, got booed, got a strikeout and a double play. Yeah.

Love it. Matt and Ross with you in the morning on Sports Talk 790. I feel like Ben, Susuza is going to get worn out at 8.30 and shut your bum ass up. You think so? I feel like Joe Spott is getting worn out by our callers about 830. Yeah, well. It's tense. It's just not great.

I'm not going to call it some managerial master class yesterday, but yeah, you went with Blue Ball. You walked three guys out of the gate so bad. I mean, could you see the sweat? It was almost like he got food poisoning on the mound. You know when you have to get food poisoning and you sweat and you wind up having to go to the bathroom shortly after? That's exactly what the AJ Blue Ball did yesterday.

And you pull him from Brian King, which everybody was pissed. But if you leave Blue Ball in there, and then he gives up a couple runs, then what do you say? There's no signs of AJ Blueball working out of the mess. Yeah, there is no winning. So, I mean, you had... And shout out again to Jordan Alvarez. Asked about the atmosphere at the game yesterday.

Quote, it's what we expected. Frustrated, we weren't able to give them the victory that they wanted to get... Excuse me. Frustrated, we weren't able to get them the victory that we wanted to give them. But tomorrow, we're going to try and go out there and give them the win they deserve. Boom. That's why he's the goat. Love that, man.

MVP MVP should be unanimous I know if he's going to get it that way but should be close now somebody in Kansas City he'll give Bobby Witt a vote That's probably true

Somebody in New York Cam Shillitla He was filthy yesterday Oh my God Dude's boss How many pitches do you see 117? He threw 117 good for him

What's okay Are you ready for a little guess here Hunter Brown number of pitches today 101 How many innings Six innings nine strikeouts two walks

one run today is a brown a hunter brown coin game gives up a solo shot why i mean white sox just have power up and down their line up and they also play small ball too a little bunt action oh speaking of which i didn't care for if we want to do joe spot up criticisms i didn't care for the tremel early

you're down three nothing and he hit a sackbunt with tremel now he's tremel it's horrible against lefties yeah it's horrible The issue is you don't want to give away Outs period for a team that struggles offensively. You're down three and you have a bad lineup. I didn't care for it, but it was to turn the lineup over to get to Pena and Alvarez.

So I get it. It's defensible. I didn't like it. Yeah. I didn't like it. Yeah. You can see why he did it, but you're already got too many ounces it is.

I mean, you've got too many automatic outs in the lineup. If you're down one, you're down one, okay. Yeah. And you're down one in the seventh, okay. But here's the reality of it, though. It's Taylor Tremel. It's Taylor Tremel.

And he executed the bun perfectly. Cam Smith got over and was like, yeah, I'm glad you moved the runover. Yeah, but then you give away a free out, Pena lines out, Alvarez Gion's out, you don't get it run. That was in the third inning. Just part of the storyline. Let's go to the folks and talk to some people. 713212-5-790. 7-13-212-750.

J-T with Matt and Ross in the morning. Hi, J-T. Good morning, gentlemen. I just have a question. I'm going to die a little bit on the hill of EMI with yesterday. So my question to you guys is, well, what do they say doing the same thing and expecting different results is what? The definition of insanity. Yes.

That's a fake quote, by the way. Albert Einstein never said that. But go ahead. Okay. So I'll tell you about bringing Brian King in yesterday. You want an EMI right there in an unclean inning in the second inning? 100%. And here's why.

Because I'll ask you this and I'll ask Ross this. And then you guys can tell me to shut my bum ass up when I get off the phone. So if Brian King throws strikes, what do they do to him? They hit him. And if Brian King walks people, what happens? he gives up runs runs I'll say this about EMI sure he walks people yes

if he throws and gives up hits and home runs well no I disagree and then he if he is effective can he give you more innings than Brian King I just don't understand how they just stop stop stop stop you just said if EMI is effective he's not been effective he's terrible

what is this effective as you're seeing he's more effective than Brian King he's been good on the bullpen but I mean those in the extremely low leverage. Anytime he's been starting or he's been in high levered spots, he's been wetting himself all season long.

And Brian King, you're watching, he's terrible. Brian King got out of that inning too. Yeah, Brian King got the final out of the inning. And then what happened in the second inning? And then he gave up like four straight hits. So you're promising me that's EMI could have easily done. I'm taking EMI. No, you, well, again, if it's about baseball economics, too,

we paid a guy $30 million. It's not. And not right now. It's not. Nobody cares when I It's the playoffs. I'm telling you. If Mike Burroughs were healthy and ready to go, if Ethan Pecco were ready to go, if Christian Javier were ready to go, Tatu I would probably not even be on the roster. Quite frankly, he's the 12th pitcher on the roster. Clearly, clearly last night, did you not see that?

They went to eight. They had nine available pitchers. They went to eight of them. Eight of them. What kind of trust do you think they have in Tatu Emai, J.T? I argue with the pecking order. I argue with it. You know in the, what is the most important stat in baseball?

Wins? Wins? ERA? No, I'm talking about pitching stats. You know. Field independent pitching. You just talked about. WIP?

You talked about XERA. Pitch count. No, you talked about pitch count. You said 101 pitches for Hunter Brown. And if he only throws 101 pitches, it's very simple. If he doesn't get through six innings today, they're not winning. If he gets through six innings, I think the Astros have a chance to win this. series because again you can't put these relievers in high leverage situations and expect different

results you just can't with that group i'm sorry the pecking order you i'm sorry the pecking order yesterday you you you you felt like brian king okay well you want him second was a throwaway well you're they disagree with you j t we're not going to throw away yeah you put brine king in again what did i say well who would you who was the second who was the second picture that said order. I put EMI. Why? What evidence do you have? He sucks.

J.T., he absolutely sucks. His only time he ever pitches is... I am answering about... I am answering the question. Tattoo Emi is a complete zero for this baseball team. J.T., you're watching something on a video game. You're watching Tatsu Emi play over? Yes, you are.

I'm going to argue on this. No. You're not going to argue with this. You're not going to argue with this. I'm not going to argue with this. I have the evidence. My evidence wins. I'm the judge. I'm the jury. And I'm damn well, the executioner.

And the executioner says, I'm not using Tatsui-I-I-I-I-ever. Ever. Okay. If Brian King has to pitch again. Take it easy, J-T. He's got to make it to the rocket season. Thank you. You're not changing your mind. That's fine. That is weird. Dude, falling on your sword for Tatsui-I-I-I-I? If you want to go with like a Yola, clearly they didn't want to use him in an unclean inning,

you want to go with, okay, let's see him on at Brian King. Again, we went through this list of pitchers earlier, Matt. A.J. Blueball, rookie who's unfortunately been losing some gas, but you had to go with somebody. Brian King has been good for you here and there, but he's a journeyman. Miguel O Yola, rookie, Hendrickson, rookie, Van Wye, French Major Liger, Sousa, Bad Year. These are the pitchers who are available to him. The only other one, and is it a Brayu hater who have been good. and then Tatsu Iemi, who's been a disaster coming over from Japan.

These are the pitchers that Joe Espada has on his roster. Disaster Emi, Bad Sousa, French Major League or Van Wye, French Major League of Henderson, French, French, French, French, French, rookie Uyola and Blue Ball, and then Brian King. Those are the only pitchers on the roster. So whichever way you want to shuffle the deck, the Astros aren't going to have a royal flush. You can put them out in whatever order you want.

It's a bunch of twos and threes. And they're not pairing up. You know what it is? I hate to say this. Uh-oh. That's the space Cowboys pitching staff out there. It is. That's just, you're absolutely right.

Right. But I'm saying it. You're saying it. It's fine. All those guys are space cowboy caliber except the Bray You and Hater. And those are the pitchers literally on the roster. That's it. It's it.

So you can say whatever. And clearly, J.T., the Astros disagree with you. If they had any, they had one singular drop of, confidence in Tatsu Emi, he would have been in there instead of any of those guys. So J.T. thinks he's great and he has been good. He has been good in relief. Since he's been in relief, he's been a good pitcher. But it's also been an extremely low leverage situation for the most part. They don't think he can handle himself in pressure situations and starting games that has been very clear all season. He can't handle playing the Angels in May. You're going to

put him in a playoff game to get key outs? Guess what? You might pitch today. You might see him today. He's available. You know what? You might see him tomorrow. Who the hell knows? He might see him.

I see what you did there. What? He might. Emi. So if you're in the JT fan club with Tatsu Emi, you might get your wish. You might just get your wish. Okay.

715 on Sports Talk 790. It's Matt in Ross in the morning. 713-212-5-790. You know, there are truthers out there. There are the Christian Vasquez truthers. They've been quiet for a month. Alper and Shangoon truthers. Those are never going away, I don't think.

There are the Joe Mixon didn't shoot himself in the foot, truthers. I'm sitting next to one. Hold on. You're, there's been zero reports to corroborate anything that you're talking about there. Jonathan, I saw the reports, didn't we, Jonathan? Where? on what publication

Weeklyworld News.com. Hood News.net. I don't know if we're ever going to have we have now one person. Now, granted, he's in Illinois, so maybe that's a little off. But we have a Tatsui Emai Fan club. Yeah. J.T.

They used eight pitchers out of their nine. They left one on the bench. Just go ahead and let's draw some conclusions here, Matthew. How confident are they in his abilities to go out there and get out? Here's the real question. If you don't like him,

I know that he was asked, Joe was asked about why, I guess he said strike thrower, which I don't see very many of them, but that's neither here nor there. They want somebody to go out there and throw strikes and he doesn't do great at that. So Blanco is a AAA, I think.

Blanco got optioned. Blanco got options. Heco has a hip issue and was used heavily on Sunday, so he didn't make the roster. Tatu I might wouldn't have made the roster. If Javier didn't have a grade two groinstring. Yeah. he wouldn't be on the roster.

And another thing, too, is, you know, injuries do play a part of this. Javier would have started a game in this series. He would have started, and you wouldn't have had all this mess. Not that J. J. O'H. would have been fantastic, but he didn't better than the alternative, which is a bullpen game. We hope he wouldn't do what Blue Ball did. Man, AJ Blue Ball's a good dude, too, but he just... I like Blue Ball.

I think he lost six pounds on a mound yesterday. Didn't lose any weight on a mound. He was sweating so profusely. It's like, oh, my God, I'm playing in front of these. sweating two of you're walking everybody people are booing me no they weren't booing yet they were booing later they did boo later it was more groans in the first inning like oh yeah like that christian walker throw oh i was like it's gonna be fine it's gonna be fine then he walked vargas in his sack fly then another walk and i'm like oh then you see first of all you had josh miller

has to lead the league in first inning uh mound visits talking under his breath i can't believe it Why don't you get some damn out, JJ? Come on. Q, you're on 790. Good morning. Man, how y'all doing today, so? Amazing.

Beautifully well. Hey, man, I want to push back a little bit. Yes. On some things. The only problem I had with using Abrio and Hader is that if it's a bullpen game, let the bullpen have it and what be will be but you don't risk the whole series which if you use your two best high leverage guys on a bullpen day when you're behind they've shown that they really not the same picture two three days in a row why risk the whole series and you already three runs behind but we can always say you can always play you can always

always say, well, Yada was one swing away from tie. That's exactly my point. He was one swing away from tie in the ballgame, which means you would have immediately gone to leverage. Hater and Brayor were going to be available today. Hater and Brayor were probably going to be, unless they throw like 20, 30 pitches today, each of them, they're probably going to be available on game three, too. And there's no guarantee you're going to be in any kind of high leverage situation today, so you don't know.

And they had not pitched since, Hayter had not pitched since last Wednesday, so it had been seven days and and Brayu had not pitched since the Thursday. And you know why that's happening? Because there's been no low leverage because there's been no high leverage. They're only used when they're up. Because you two, you two hate 100 or something pitches.

A hundred and something. What? He threw 11 pitches. He threw a lot. He threw a bunch in the earlier series. Yeah. And then you have an eight pitcher. He didn't pitch at all. You have an eight pitcher in Hunter Brown. You take him out, and he's only given up one or two runs, and then the pictures that you bring in give up several AR-15 shots in a row.

You know, things like that. That's what bothers me. See, because if he's an ace, stick with your ace. That's the reason you have the word ace. Aces in poker are the best, the weapons of mass destruction, the ace. Okay, why do we as fans and as media and everything, we accept Hunter Brown throwing six innings, and we happy with that.

We shouldn't be happy with that. We should be happy with giving six, but we should be happy when he goes eight or nine. Well, that's what an ace is supposed. Well, he doesn't do that. Very few pitchers do that. We're going to let you run. He had no complete games last year.

Hunter Brown did threw a complete game last year, but it was an eight inning in a loss, he's not, he's, that's, that's been, if there is a knock on Hunter Brown, is that he hasn't been hyper efficient

and gone seven, eight innings consistently. It's about pitch count. And when they, for a guy that missed quite a chunk of the bit of the season this year, they're going to, when that 90, 92, 94 number starts popping up,

Ross, the alarms go off. Yeah, last several outings, 101, 102, 101, 90, 91, 991, 98, 100. So, I mean,

but he's been 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, six and two thirds, five and two thirds. Yeah. So, So y'all agree with a spot up putting Hater, Abrae on him. I have no problem with it.

Josh had not pitched since Wednesday. Here's the thing. Agree with it. There's two different things. I'm not saying I would have done it, but I get it. You're keeping the game close. Yeah. You kept the game close.

Abraeu had not pitched since Thursday. Hater had not pitched since Wednesday. Hater's available today. Abreu's available today. Just worrying about the future, you worry about that when it comes. As you said, Matt, you're keeping the game close. And then today, we could very well be sitting in this chair tomorrow

and there's zero high-leverage spots today. What if the offense goes off for seven runs and then you didn't need them? And then if what if, how about this? What if he'd have put Tatsu-I-I-in yesterday and I Mai gives up two runs? Then we're sitting there saying, oh, you let the game slip away, Joe! So there's no winning. There's no winning.

I feel like there is. I would have to disagree on you. So both of you guys, I don't understand that. I mean. Why? What did it hurt? Bray you through 11 pitches. If these pitches are on the roster, use them and save your Aces and your high leverage for the next game.

We'll start off strong. Give our best possibility, our best risk to win. Save them for what? You have other people on the roster. You're saving for outcome that might never happen. They hadn't pitched in a week. You know why? Because there's been no leverage.

Tomorrow that might never happen either. Of course it might not ever happen. But then you wasted the energy. You didn't waste anything. They're available today. Recovery and arm strength and everything like that adds up. This is what they do. Absolutely.

They're available. They're asking Hunter Brown to do it. Why can't you ask Josh? Okay, what if Hunter Brown goes down today and he gives up five home runs and they don't need to either today? Then there was no wasting. But the thing is, you're dealing with the element of the unknown. Okay.

But you might as well, if you're down that much and your team cannot hit? How many games? Help me out here, guys. When did Diaz get struck out? Was that the eighth inning or was it the seventh inning? I think it was, they scored. the extra run at 8th. Bottom of the 8th? Yes.

So the top of the 8th, Jonathan. Yes. Your 8th inning guy kept the game at 6.3. Is that correct? Yes. If Diaz hits a home run, which he has had a great September, correct? Right? You're watching too?

Yes, I'm watching. He hits the home run. Makes it a 3-run blast. It's a 6-6 game. Yeah. You are now in a situation where you have tied a ball game. Who's more likely to keep the game at 6-3. Jose Ibrayu or Tatsuui-Iima? Then at that point, if your team can actually keep your, keep in the game, then I can understand putting Abraeo a hater.

They weren't keeping it in the game. He kept it at 6-3. The job was done. Keeping the game at 6-6, right? Like you just said, he gets that hit. Dio gets that hit. That means Brian O'Reyu did his job. He kept the game at 6-3. Answer my simple question. Who is more likely to keep the game at 6-3? Brian Abraeu or Tatuima? Brian? That's my answer. That's the answer. You kept it at 6.3.

You got people on the base, on the bases, and then you gave D as an opportunity with one swing of the bat to tie the ball game up. All right. We ended up this. Okay. So today, we talk about today. They're available. Okay.

And then, all right. Hayter and Arbriu are sluggish. They're not throwing, they're getting balls. It won't be because they pitched 10 pitches yesterday. Okay. Okay. But it adds up that is a factor. It's not a factor.

It's not a factor. They can go back to back. Yeah, they've done it before. I just agree to this great. 25 pitches, Jonathan? I got your point. 11? Brian and Bray, you pitched in 66 games this year.

So that's what? Not even, I mean, it's certainly close to a third. All right, back on the phones next. You guys got a lot of opinions. I love this. Because I am the judge, the jury, and the executioner. Whatever. 738, Matt and Ross in the morning sports talk.

790. Hunter Brown's going to go seven strong, Rossi. Maybe get to 105 pitches. 106. Astros are going to score nine runs. No high leverage tonight. We're all good. I got a gut feeling for today. Uh-oh. You will not see

both Abraeu and Hater. Ooh. And I don't care if you do. Pitch three days in row with the playoffs, baby. That's right. Rub their arm down. As long as they don't have to, as long as you're not in a situation where a Hater has to do two innings or something like that.

Right, right. But you never know. You never know. Josh Hater, I mean, even, well, of course he was hurt this year. But Brian and Brayu hadn't been hurt all year. He pitched in 66 games. Oh gosh, let me do a quick. 66 divided by 162.

So going by that, there's a 40% chance you need Brian and Brayu. And Brian's, Brian, of the two pitchers, is more acclimated to pitching back to back. Although Hader's than a two. 45 games for Hater Please can the offense just do something Yeah I mean I know Sean Burke's good Yeah I mean

O for seven with runners in scoring position Come on Cam Smith My turn to speak that into existence Sure why not O for seven with runners in scoring position How many singles? Five singles, one home run By a pinch hitter

By a pinch hitter Astros minus 147 today according to the sports book odds. Okay. On the phones, Donald with us on 790 and 740. Donald, good morning. Good morning. How are you all? Good. All right, so, fun hypothetical.

If you could each pick one to manage next year, Joe Espada, Brad Osmiss, Albert Pooholz, Martin Maldonado, and I'll just hang out. Thanks, guys. I don't know. I go, I'm sure, Maldi. Why not? He seems fun. Brad Osmastmas, I'm not. I don't care, really.

You put all four of those guys in there. If they got to throw out AJ Blue Ball and Brian King and if something Hendrickson's pitching? Yeah. Hendrickson? Good luck. Seriously.

And Tatu Yi Mai is imploding. And by way, picking up his option. Is he getting nowhere else to go? I don't know. Is Brad Osmond's going to get Minutuzza to not spike a bunch of balls in front of the catcher and throw wild pitches all night? It'd be cool. Yeah.

I'll go Maldi. Sure. It's a fun story. machete? I don't know. Does he want to be a manager? I don't know. But I'll always love him for day one in Houston.

They got Houston. Yeah. Brad has been a manager. Two different spots, I want to say. Didn't work out either way, place. Yeah, it was bad with the Angels, but it's the Angels. Detroit, too, right? I know he was Detroit.

I mean, Brad may be up for the general manager's job. He might not even made out of full season with the Angels. I mean, Brad might be the general manager. He's going to be on the list. And then people could call in and say, Brad, awesimus. Yeah. I used to have a radio partner

who could always call him awesimus. They're like, Brad's awesmus. No, but he was awesimus though. Yeah, one year, 2019 with the Angels. I can't, I mean, I know Albert Pooholz wants to be a manager. But there's no tie. I mean, no ties here to Hugh. Although, who know?

Again. I could see Jim Crane being like, yeah, Albert Pooholes whip the guys into shape and then hiring them. That could happen. Yeah, it's funny, though. The greats of the greats don't always become great managers. No. Because they try to say, well, I did it this way.

Why can't you? Yeah. It's like, why can't you just hit like Yorda? Exactly. Like who is, who among, like, Ken Griffey never managed? Oh, like the great greats? The great great. Pete Rose did.

Pete Rose was a mid-manager. Betting on games while I was doing it, so that doesn't really count. I don't know. Like, is there anybody right now in Major League Base? baseball that was a great great socha was a good player but not i wouldn't eat i mean stephen vogue was pretty good yeah but you but he's not going to hit halls of fame of anything no i'm trying to think i'm trying to pull up the the current i mean madame was good yeah but madly if mad at the bray fired a couple times it fell off he loses this series

they're gonna look they're gonna look for new manager and tom McCarthy's like eh they don't really. Rob Thompson was good. It was better. He's like the best manager I ever seen. You could tell Tom was like, man, I miss me some Rob Thompson. That was funny. It was funny. Let's go to Dave Roberts was me. Brian and Katie on 790. Hi, Brian. Hey, good morning, guys.

Hey, look on the bright side. Us realists out here, think, you know, we've only got one more day of this circus in town before they go their respective way. and the lockout starts, which people failed to talk about that a little bit. The reason for my call this morning was the hitting. You know, I think every caller before me has pretty much bit and shaped the pitching conversation with all their hypotheticals one way and the other. O for nine, the hitting, the run machine, it just wasn't there.

Joe Espada is about a snake bitten on the offensive side of the ball as he is, defensive side of the ball. I feel like we're talking about the Houston, Texas to some degree. But nonetheless, wanted to get your take on the 0 for 9 versus the 4 for 7, I think it was, for the White Sox. You know, they showed up and they did what they needed to do. The Astros obviously didn't. It could have easily, should have been a 6-6 ball game at multiple points along the route

yesterday, but wasn't. And like I said, guys, I'll hang. up but one more day for this cluster you know what of a mid baseball team and then we can get into the off season and the lockout and hopefully figure something out. Thank you guys.

All right, Brian. I hope it's not to come down to that. That was a sense of finality kind of phone call. I get it. There's a lot of people that feel that way. I do. You can be defeat us, but you got Hunter Brown on the hill, baby. Let's go. This shows were excited. This is big for Hunter Brown. I think. If you're going to go to Hunter Brown,

coin, we've got to see, you know, he wants build his resume. Yeah. He's got Scottie B on his back. Let's go. That's true. Will he walk out with a Scott Boris cap on like

Garrett Colden? He'll always give up eight runs and then walk out with a Scott Boris hat on? I don't know. 745, it's Matt and Ross in the morning on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-790. If you have somebody you want to tell them

to shut their bumasses up, we got a spot for you at 830 this morning here on Sports Talk 7-9. Morning headlines with this. Astros fall 6'3 of the White Sox. Braves beat the Phillies 5 to 3. Yankees crushed the Red Sox 9-0. Padres beat up on the Cubs 8-0.

And Benet Sousa says stop booing him. He's very sensitive. Krista Walker's like, we need you to rally behind us, not boo us. I would be curious to hear audio on this. I'm going to say he's very sensitive. He wasn't weeping, was he? Don't cry out loud. Just keep it in.

died. It's a 70s jam. Who was that? I don't know who it is. It's the only words I know of the whole song, so I don't want to make song words up. But of all the people, Benet Sousa, shh, sh, sh, quiet. Yeah, again, he got booed when he threw a second wild pitch.

Then he struck out the next guy and then got a double play. So it worked. Fire him up. And he's looking at the number of empty seats in the stadium. Well, yeah. I mean, he's not wrong. We are spoiled. We are spoiled.

And again, let's be completely human on this. If you have a certain amount of money and you are, it's expendable for you to use on sports. And games are more and more expensive. Yeah. Especially going to the ballpark, getting down there for parking was like $55 when it's like 20 bucks in the regular season. Yeah. Depending on where you are. And those drinks are 25, 30 bucks to pop.

Woo! How was meaty dining, by the way? It was good. What'd you have? Jerk chicken. and then we had some shoulder roast and some sausage and mixed vegetables. Man, you ate well. Yeah, then they have cake.

You know, they always have cake for the playoffs. It was free or you had paid this time. Using the playoffs, it's free. Correct. It was free. There you go. Because Ross. Normally it's $12.

It's not bad. It's the best $12 meal in the city. Honest it. Period. It is. Way better than the Rockets. I didn't say that, Trace. That was Ross. Rockets have gotten better, though.

Yeah. And the halftime tindies are clutch. The kids are called them tindies. I got you. All right. Put a little buffalo sauce on them. Nice. So you get fat and happy at Rockets games, too.

Oh, very fat and very happy. 713-212-5-7-90. All right, you guys have been green on the phones. And ladies, too, 7-13-212-5-7-90. If you're angry, mad, sad, we'll take all the emotions. And if your belly needs to be full, we're here for you. And even though we yell and we're emotional, I love all of you. That's what I want to say.

I love 98% of you. Okay. Yeah, I'd say strong 98%. Let's go to Charles on 790 and 755. Charles, good morning. Morning. How are you guys doing? Good.

Well, I have a true question after that loss, but I got to kind of shut your bum ass up. That's pretty contradictory. It goes for the fans, man. I don't miss any Astros games. I'm a their everyday kind of guy. And last night, we were quiet when we needed to be last. and then we get loud to boo our own team. Bennett, I don't think you need to call us out for it, you know, that is a little

oversensitive in my opinion. But we have one real advantage being at home in this series, and we are not taking advantage of it as a fan base. You just show up early. We need to be loud and we need to cheer on the Astros because this really is a team we can beat if we get our bats together. So go Astros. Take me to Thursday.

That's all I got to say. Thanks, Charles. I didn't see a team that could beat the Chicago White Sox yesterday. Now, I can see them beating them today. They beat them five out of seven times during the regular season. I didn't see a game yesterday. I mean, when Yonnier-Diaz strikes out with two on and thank God Jose Al-Tuvae hustled. Yes.

I mean, it was already going to be the margin for error was very slim when you're starting a bullpen game with A.J. Blueball. But then you went teetered to falling over. once he, I mean, he couldn't get out of the first inning. And again, I want... In his Brian King season. God. I get, I don't want to be disrespectful because that's not in my DNA. Okay.

But, but you threw the... I know. You threw the Space Cowboys at him. Blue Ball, King, Eola, Hendrickson, Van Wye, Sousa. How many of those have thrown a pitch? Now, did Blue Ball? Did he make the roster out of the gate? Okay, let's assume that he didn't.

Who threw in a non-rehab setting pitches for the space cowboys this year? King, yes. Yola, yes. Hendrickson, yes. Susan, don't know. Probably maybe just rehab for him. That's at least four. You threw four space cowboys in game one of a wildcard game.

Just gosh on that for a minute. I'd rather not. You know, Blue Ball did not throw a pitch in the minors this year. Good. So at least he's been a major league. And he's been good. That's another thing. That's why you went to him.

We all talk about Blue Ball starting. We were like, okay, cool. Get you a couple innings? He was supposed to get you two. Maybe if you're lucky three innings, probably two. Three from Yola, that's five. A brayu hater, that's seven, and then figure it out with the other two innings. Yeah, we figured it out.

All right. Blue Ball in August, ERA.56. It's good. September ERA 7.71. Only bad outings, though. He's running out of gas. Well, how many bad out? I mean, ERA with relievers is always volatile.

That's right. That's right. I'm just curious that it's game by game. 19th against Atlanta got bombed. Gave up a run on the 25th. Give up run on the 8th. Give up run on the 5th. Yeah, I mean, yeah.

But when you have short sample size, it means per game, per appearances, the numbers blow it up a little bit. But if you're going to brag about a 0.56 ERA, you have to also balance it out with an an ERA that's elevated. That's why ERA is, it's fluke. It is. Especially for middle relievers, for sure. All right.

We gave you positive, we gave you something stronger to listen to at 7 o'clock. Okay. We're asking you very simple question, Ross. Who's crying now at 758? Me. This is Matt and Ross in the morning.

Oh, one. And that's lifted to center, right center, racing over Spence and Smith Smith gets there, makes the cat. Antanachi. tagging. The throw goes to the plate not nearly in time. Antinacci in with the head first slide, and the White Sox have a 1-0 lead. 0-2.

And that's lifted out on the left center field, and that's going to get down for a base in. That'll score Braden Montgomery, Chase Midroth around third. He scores, a two-run single for Sam Antanachi, who has a fist pump at first base, as he's given the White Sox a 3-0 lead. It's muscled in the center, back on its spence. Still chasing, and he runs out of room. It's a home run for Colson Montgomery. On an 0-2 pitch, Montgomery, the 24-year-old makes it a 4-0-0-0-0-0. 2.

Bouncing ball softly hit. Paredes can't get it. Fielded by Pena, and he doesn't have a play anywhere. A run scores as Murakami comes home to make it 5-0-0 Chicago. With Paredes going after that baseball, No one was covering third. That was Pena's best shot after he fielded that slowly hit ball. Alaska's waiting for a three-two from Grant Taylor.

Here it comes. Breaking ball, grounded left side, right at Vargas. He fields it weighs high, guns it over to first end time, and that is the ball game. The Chicago White Sox take game one of the American League Wildcard Series, beating the Astros six to three. Maybe Journey can come back and sing a new song called Who's Booing now? The answer would be Dykin Park. Bennett Suz ain't going to have any of that.

Christian Walker wants no part of that either. Jordan Alvarez is like, we're sorry. We'll be better tomorrow. Tomorrow being today. Hmm. Maybe they will be. Sorry. It's just sad.

I mean, I'm arguing with these. People are still mad that Brian King got. You had to use eight or nine guys. Brian King was not at the pitch at some point. Brian King, by the way, had not given up a run in six out of his last seven outings. I said, and trust him. Of course, you didn't trust him, but it's a desperate situation. Desperate times.

Do you think Joe's bottom is like, man, it's awesome. Hey, guys. Hey, guys. 100%. That's what he else says. Hey, guys, 100%. I want to use Brian King as much as possible. Oh, my God.

It's the first inning. And Blue Balls walked three hitters and he can't get out. I can't wait. I'm sprinting out of the dugout to call for the lefty. Brian King, come on in. Woo! He's going to save our season, baby. Brian King time.

No. No. Brian King, come on down. Here on the bullpen is right. Did I miss Joe spotted doing cartwheels to go call Brian King out of the bullpen? I thought even when he was doing flips over and over and into the mound was kind of a little bit of a false positive. He kept putting a crown on his head. Yeah, I thought it was crazy.

You know what he did? He got the loud. speaker, he says, bring in the king. Good God. Yeah, he didn't want to do it. You got to use who you got. Eight out of the nine guys, he literally eight of the nine available pitchers got used.

What do you do? You don't sell bullpen games anymore. Especially when your first one fails. A.J. Please, AJ, you get a two innings. Why are you throwing somebody balls? Their guy was a rookie. Hagan Smith got

got the job done. I think Grant Taylor just dragged. Well, I'm not going to finish that sentence. Five of his what, seven outs, six outs, seven outs were strikeouts. Let's take a look at the old box score. You want to? We haven't done a box

score talk yet. Don't look at the wrist. Cam Smith one for four. Okay. Lucas Spence, one for four. I had a hard hit single. Christian Walker, O for two, but did draw two walks and through the bat after one walk. He was like, man, I got me a walk. he worked some nice walks.

Yanieri, 0 for 4 with two strikeouts, including the last one, which was very painful. Would have had the tying run at the plate, or would have scored the tying run. You went, yeah. Osal Tubeo for 4, Peretti's 1 for 4. Alvarez 1 for 4. Pena 1 for 4, the run scored. 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, 6 men left on base. 5 singles.

You got one pinch hit home run from Nelson Velasquez. Full credit, of course, I imagine. Did Joe Spada for that? He has not received a great call on that one yet. No. Well, full credit for Joe's spot on that one. I was like, Nelson Velazquez, okay, sure, why not? And well, it worked. He rocketed one to the Crawford boxes.

And then your team went 0 for seven with runners in the corner position. Out of side of that, pinch hit home run, you got five singles. That's it. And again, if somebody else says this today, they're bit stealing. You sent four space cowboys of the mountains yesterday. Four of them. Four space cowboys played a meaningful role in the, American League

wild card playoffs. You know what it boils down it means too? It's not a good baseball team. I just, we just listed, you said four space

cowboys, they had nine pitchers available. And then your other guys Emi and Blue Ball who's a rookie. And Uyola who's, well,

we've mentioned that he's on the space cowboy list. Then Benet Tusa who's been falling apart. It's a brayu and Hater and then it's a bunch of guys. Yeah,

a bunch of guys that got you 81 wins. Frankly, probably more than they should have. Yeah, they're just guys. You know what they are? They're 81 and 81.

That's what they looked like yesterday. Hunter Brown's your ace. Get back on track. Let's go. And I hate to tell you this, and I think I've said it a couple times already, you have two. Last night could have been worse.

Oh, yeah. Too many men left on base for the Chicago White Tucks. They left nine on base. They left nine. Now, they were also four for 11 with 100s in the scoring position yesterday. Three, what is it, three double plays? They had three double plays.

The Astros were able to pull. They had traffic on the base paths almost every single inning. Terrible. Well, this is the nature of the wild card. And this is the nature of sports in general. One day you're down. Tomorrow we'll be up. All right.

You're feeling better. Bluebaugh, you can rest today. King, you can probably rest the rest this postseason. Uliola's out today. Hendrickson's probably out today. Van Wye can throw. Sousa, I don't care if you throw. By the way, Bennett Sousa.

And Joe, I don't know if you're listening to show or anything. Astros executives, putting Benetius on the mound and A will not be a good idea. It's fine. It's not fine. Most players are like Tim Kirchon. Most fans, I don't know, I think because you screamed earlier. You lost her voice a little bit.

That's right. It was funny. Save yourself. Wins a rocket season, sir? It's first preseason game is in like two and a half weeks. Okay, you're good. Thank you. Yeah, I mean, most fans are, of the 34,000,

how many are athletic subscribers? They were fine. Oh, so you think he's going to, you think when Bennett's Sousa hits the mountain next time, that no one will say anything except, let's go Bennett. What depends on the situation. I'll be cheering him on. I'm wishing him the best. You know what?

Nobody likes getting booed. I don't like getting booed. Yeah. I've done bad shows and I get booed. I get booed when I walk in. And Ross is like, oh, you're here today. Boo. So nobody likes it.

I get it. I really don't care about what he had to say. He's not wrong that Chicago would be full, that we're spoiled here. We've had nine out of ten years in the playoffs. be full because Chicago doesn't go to the postseason very often. Exactly. That's another reason. If they went 10 years in a row, it wouldn't be as full. White Sox fans, they don't do that. Yeah. Now, there's a standard of excellence here that's not elsewhere.

Riggily would be full at $40,000 for a 4 o'clock game. Yes, I like to drink. I don't think the South Sideball park would be. And I like to stumble off the red line and go get drunk on them. Yeah. Let's put things in context here. Yeah, exactly. By the way, if you go to a White Sox game, you're getting in the stadium as quickly as possible and living as fast as possible. Make sure your wallet's chained.

Oh, I wouldn't even bring a wallet. Just bring it a... Oh, really? Well, I don't know. You have to bring a wallet, I guess. Well, I mean, these days, you can cancel the card pretty quick. You can't fire the gunfire when it hit your belly. I left my card somewhere and they went to the Waterburger and the convenience store.

Did they really? Would they get to eat? I didn't see the receipt. It was just like 25 bucks. Did you get Waterburger points off your app, though? I hope so. All right. 812 is a time.

is going to join us. He is one on the line. The rest of you want to come in and join us. 713-212-5-790. Matt and Ross, we are in the morning. Sports Talk, 790. We're hearing good times and in bad. And today's not a great one. So, again, if you

did not catch it, there were three quotes in Channel Rome's article again about, well, let's just put this way. The name of the article was Astros players blast their own fans for booing, not showing up for playoff law. Now, I don't think channel writes the headlines. A quote from Bennett Sousa, shut up and know your role.

That was harsh. Okay, no, he didn't say that. Just kidding. Don't put that in new assistance. You're right. I know, right. Write that down, 1130 for Friday. Sorry, Bennett. It was a joke.

Ben. Is he Ben, or is he Ben? Benny. Benny Sousa? Benny Sousa? Sounds like a big band leader from the 1930s. All right. And Benny Sousa is going to be at the mechanic.

Henley Dance Hall tonight. Don't know. Mani Sousa. Mani Sousa. Yeah, right. Okay. So here's how you handle it. Yordon Alvarez.

Okay. The future member of the Mvrushmore. Is he already on there? Who's there now? Bissio Bagwell Tuvae. And there's an open spot. There's no open spot. The franchise has been around since like 65.

put a fourth up there Cesar Cedino it's too hard Jimmy win I think if Yordon wins another MVP I think honestly I'm partial

to Oswald I guess just because I know I'm clenching my teeth I don't mean to but I'm just clenching I know All right back to what I was saying

So Christian Vasquez Is the fourth Asked about his thoughts About the atmosphere Alvarez said through an interpreter quote It's what we expected Frustrated we weren't able

To get them the victory that we wanted to give them, but tomorrow we're going to try and go out and give them the win they deserve. Oh, hell yeah. That's my guy. Your Honor's my guy. Christian Walker.

Didn't do himself any favors. Let's see. Let me get the quote here. It's not an excuse, in my opinion. Each year it's its own thing. Talking about the lack of the crowds. Right. You can't assume a team is going to win 100 games every year.

It's really, really hard to get to the postseason. We had a lot of things go right along the way. We also had to face a lot of adversity. You can call it not an excuse all you want, but it's just human nature. De Astros have spoiled us. Yeah. First year of the playoffs? Well, that was a wild car.

That was a one wild car game on the, or no, they had the, then they had the DS series. Actually, they won the wild car with the Royals. I don't remember how many of those games were here in Houston. But yeah, it's ready to go. 17 crowds were insane. Yes. And electric. And then, yeah, 23.

It was like, eh, 24. Here's more from Christian. More from Christian. It's extremely frustrating as a home player. We're here playing at home. We need cheers. We need energy.

We don't need booze. What purpose is that serve in the moment? I don't know the exact purpose it serves. That's some frustration out. Whatever fans are feeling, we're feeling at tenfold. We're the ones out there. We're the ones in the fight. We worked our butts off this whole season

to put ourselves in this spot, and for guys to get booed, it's frustrating. Again, you never win when you attack fans, even though some of them are numskals, i.e. Astros' Twitter. Bennett Sousa, meanwhile... You have the strongest comments. You have them here because I'm trying to go with here. Oh, I'm not going to lie to you. I was pretty pissed off in the dugout when I came in about the booze. This team has laid a lot of the line to be in this position to give the fans a playoff game, a playoff series.

We want their support. They cheered 90% of the game. Did they boo for nine straight innings? No. No. They booed when you threw a wild pitch and then a run scored. And then you threw another wild pitch on a strikeout. Now, I mean, you got the strikeout.

And that's not even necessarily booing Bennett Sousa. It's booing the situation. And then you got a double play. More Bennett. The fans are definitely spoiled with a lot of ALCS and World Series runs. and we have to earn that right to bring them this team back to that position. That being said, when this team was in their first playoff game series 10 years ago, Minutemade Park was probably packed.

It makes a big difference. If we were in Chicago, I'd probably be as laud as S. That's all, I mean, all the things he said are fair. But again, the White Sox don't have the playoff success of the last 10 years the Astros. It's a different ball game. Let me tell you something. If the Miami Marlins won't have the playoffs, I mean, they'd have 40. That's a bad example.

Seattle drew very, very well. They made the posies in last year. I'm just telling you, time, place, how you phrase, and more importantly, who you are. Altova can probably get away with it. Yon Alvarez, politely said what he wanted to say and got the message across. Wild card is not the expectation. 81 and 81 with the wild card is not the level of this standard of excellence that has been set here. And if you're Ben-At-Susa, you don't have.

You don't have that cachet. And that's what it comes down to. Yeah. How much he said it was true or not, he doesn't have the cachet. He doesn't. But also, I mean, he, I'm sure he was asked a question and he gave an answer. So I don't have a problem with it. I don't.

I do. You have to shut your mouth. And I know that's a rude thing to say. There's a lot of things I want to say about a lot of things in life. You have to, you can't say everything you want to say. You're going to pay the price. I get his feelings because he put his blood. Even though the results have not been good.

He's a negative.6 war player this year making 910K. Precisely. But he puts his blood, sweat, and tears in and he's got his opinion. If Josh Hayder says it, maybe there's a little bit of a different situation. I totally agree. I'm sorry. But I'm not going to fault a guy for giving his own thoughts on something. Giving his opinion.

Even if I disagree with his opinion. Yeah. You're entitled to your free speech, but you're also entitled for the other people to have their free speech back. They're entitled for me to think he's wrong. Would you like you? here when Nelson Velasquez hit a two-run homer. Would you like to me to read some tweets off a channel Rome's article?

Oh, God. Some mean tweets? They're mean. Oh, dear. Let's see here. Yeah, I can't read these. STFU. Go to hell. See, it's his right to have his opinion.

And I feel he's very well within the right fan's rights and be like, shut your bum ass up, Binnit? Mm-hmm. Christian Walker's getting it to. Brit, y'all are 81 and 81. Hey Bennett. Fell flat on your face in game one.

Hey Bennett. Maybe you should play in Philadelphia. He ain't lying about that. Susan needs to STFU and pitch. He has no cred to voice anything. Save it for the leaders in the clubhouse. If he never pitched in a series or for the club again, thanks for the memories. See you.

Kevin says, great strategy. Take the absolute weakest part of your team, middle relievers, and throw them out there to start the series. What was the other option? Don't spike balls of the shortstop and you won't get booed. There you go. They cheered when, I don't know, Brian King got out of the first inning. They cheered when Miguel Uyola was very, very good his first couple times out. They cheered when Benetizusa got the double play. I'll read one more and it's not the nicest one more.

Here we go. Al-Tuvez-A-Lodd did say this. Benet-Susa can eat my ass. Don't say that. I'm done. Ray in Montana on 790. Ray, good morning. Hey, guys. Good morning. I just wanted to throw a name out as far as the next manager, and you guys can tell me to shut my bum ass up early if you want.

I don't care about you booing me or whatever. Good. What about Josh Redick? And then also as far as Sousa goes, he's got to understand. The only winner we've had in this town is the Astros. We never had a championship other than the Astros. And don't say the Rockets, because that didn't count.

Everybody knows it didn't count. What? Why didn't count? Michael Jordan wasn't in. He was only in, he only missed one season. He was back for plenty of that second season. He was dropping 50 in the garden and then got beat by the magic who the rocket swept. Here we go.

It's called facts. I'm sorry. We got facts. an opinion. This is facts. At least you could bring it up like my sister did with the Spurs on their first championship and it was a strike season. Yeah, it still counts.

Where's the trophy? Hey, Ray, I got to do me a quick favor, Ray. Go to Google.com and put in who won the NBA championship in 1994, 1995. And whatever answer it says there, that's your answer, Ray. I don't know. That Netflix

series with the Bulls. Yeah, all the one. Do you know who commissioned that Netflix series of the Bulls? Michael Jordan Oh yeah I wasn't trained I didn't have you know I wasn't in shape in 1995

I trained for baseball He's dropping 50 in the garden He averaged 30 in the playoffs Okay And the team in 94 went away By the way They're pretty good They won 55 games without them

With What do you think about Josh Reddick Other than shut your bum ass up You know Ray I don't know if he wants to do it I don't get leadership vibes from him. He's got two kids that he's very active in their lives. Yes.

So I don't know, Ray, if he wants to necessarily step away from that. Yeah, he's pulling up in like Spider-Man Lamborghinis. I think he's more like just kind of having fun rather than like the strong leadership 162 grind type of guy. Just my feel. He, the leadership that he brought to the team, we've been missing since he left. His attitude. And also, as far as his kids, he's got the money for. nannies, come on.

Oh, Ray, come on. All right, now we're done. We're done. Ray, that thin air Montana's getting to your head. Love Montana. Beautiful place. I've never been and I really want to go.

Oh, you need to go. They have nice hotels there. Oh, my God. I kind of had to go to a resort. No, you're going to be in the frontier eating can of beans. Hmm. All right. It's, oh, this is going to be loaded here.

Here we go. There's not one nice... Yeah, there's not one nice hotel in the whole state. Not one? Ridiculous. Fancy Matt. Of course there is. Okay, listen to me very carefully. What? The glacier resort is very nice. You stay there. It's kind of expensive.

How many stars? I don't know how many stars it is. Well, look it up. Gosh, you're the fanciest of mats. I am. And you know what? You're just getting these five diamonds on the Rockets dime anyways. Yeah, but I'm an employee. I'm a five diamond guy. Otherwise, you're Mr. Red Roof. Not the Red Roof. I'm a courtyard, man.

All right. 713. By the way, I'm writing that down. Ray and Montana for next segment. 713-212-5-7-9. If you want to tell somebody to shut their bum-asses up, I have an idea of who may, you may want to bring up a couple of folks. Championships don't count.

Yeah, please. Ray, come on. Ain't nobody getting time. Hey, nobody getting time for it. Hey, nobody getting time for it. Hey, nobody getting tap. Sousa can go pitch in Ethiopia. Maybe he can throw a clean inning.

He sucks and wants to criticize fans for being over it. They had no business making the playoffs, if not for being the worst division in baseball. How's the Ethiopian baseball league? Damn. Ooh! Oh, there was the Ethiopian clowns, a famous barnstorming professional team from the Negro Leaks. They later became the Indianapolis Clowns. There you go.

All right. Thanks for that tidbit there. We're always trying to teach you history here. Yeah, we're the most informative show and radio. I think that's... I mean, we make a lot of mistakes. Yeah, we try. We make a lot of mistakes. And inform.

I shouldn't have said EA, but I just did. I'm just not going to say it again. Shit your bum ass up, man. I don't know what you're talking about. Good. I'm glad you don't. I'm glad you don't. Delete that from the podcast.

No, it's fine. Everybody knows what it means. Shit your bum ass up, man. Jonathan, you look quick on that, aren't you? You know, thumb slip, you know. All right, Jonathan, what do you got first up? We'll let you do this. We got phones that go to.

You know what? We had a caller when I was making my point, go and tweet and told me to shut my bum ass up. What? So I'm going to tell him, shut his bum ass up. I love you piping in with your opinion, John. Even if I disagree with you. It's all love. I got to get my own look back.

I get my look back. I mean, I love you, but you're 80% of your opinions are terrible. It's great. And the cougar sucks. Hey! Hey! Was it like a cougar fan? I don't know.

I don't know. You assume. By the way, please come to the game. I'm Saturday. The weather's not going to be great. We need you there anyway. Yeah, what's going on with this rain and flood events going on? Yeah.

We're getting like 15. Emails. Hurricane Polo. Shut up. It's not a hurricane. I thought the season was over. No, I think it goes into November. But I think it's kind of...

Oh, it's Tropical Storm Polo. Marco. I knew you were going to say that. Jonathan, did you play Marco Polo when you were a kid? Yeah, who doesn't? Kids playing that? Fishies out of water? Fish... What's the difference?

Really quick. That's when you're playing Marco Polo in the pool and you try to sneak out. and if they hear you splashing out, you can call a fishy out of water and they're out. Oh, see, we didn't call it that. I forgot what we called it, but I know that. Okay. Fishies out of water.

Marco. Polo. Good times. Well, Tropical Storm Polo is like in, and, sorry, I'm sorry. Sorry. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Shut my bum ass up. Shit your bum ass up. It's over Chihuahua, Mexico. So there you go. All right. I think we've, done enough on our own. Anything else you want to get to? No, I'll go with Ray

Montana. 1994. Google it. Who's NBA champion? It's not anybody else's fault that Michael Jordan quit. There's no guarantee they won. And also, he mentioned last dance. What did Michael Jordan say about going to play baseball after the 93

finals? I was exhausted. Oh, I was like in a fishbowl. Everywhere I went, everyone was just looking at me and talking to me. I was exhausted I couldn't play anymore. He retired because he was done. If he had played in 94, who knows,

they probably wouldn't even have made it to the finals because he was all exhausted. And he was told to go away for a year because of gambling deaths. I knew you were going to say that. I agree with Matt on this one. Thank you, Jonathan. That's how you know you're a wise man behind your ears.

That's how you should know you're wrong. You're going with the shot foot, unconfirmed, and you're going with the any... There's literally multiple investigations done. It's the most ridiculous thing they'd ever heard doing any kind of digging that there was a gambling game.

Cover up. Cover up. Ridiculous. All right. Sure, why not? We're full of cover-ups in sports. Anyways, whatever reason you want to say, according to the last dance,

I was exhausted. I was so tired after three straight finals. I had to retire. Okay, cool. So he retired from two years. And then he came, or I'm sorry, year and a half, went to go play baseball.

Actually, it was pretty good at baseball, considering all things considered. And came back in 95, and he averred like 30 a game. in the playoffs. We played. Shut your bum ass up, Ray. Shut your bum ass up, man. J-Tan-I-N-O-N-O-U-Tutser,

Shut your bum-ass up, man. Shut your bum-ass up, man. When eight of nine pitchers come off the bench and you're stumping for the one guy who didn't in a playoff game? You know, it made all the difference. How to look yourself in the mirror

and be like, maybe that shouldn't be my guy. You think he watched them for the, like, pitchers? No, I don't know. Sheena. What's the matter with you, Sheena? So, Colin regarding a caller from the Dan Matthews show yesterday, who said, The woes of the Astros this season is because everybody knows women are bad luck, and that girl in the dugout.

I want to tell him not only is that ignorant, but that is dangerous to put out in the world. My daughter has played seven seasons of Little League baseball. She's entering kid pitch, planning to strike out all your sons this season. she's been booed, she's been teased. Last thing she needs is some ignorant, misogynistic a-hole telling her that she's bad luck for her team. You really think that Benizusa spiked two balls yesterday because there's a woman in the dugout, a woman, not a girl. You really think that Christian Walker is barely north of the Mendoza line, batting average since July

is because of the woman in the dugout you think blue ball couldn't get out of the first inning because of the woman that is ignorant and just because you can't be in proximity of someone of the opposite sex without becoming a blubbering fool and none of them

wants to even share space with you doesn't mean that every other man can't deal with it. So figure it out and shut your bum ass up Also, while we're at it, don't voice your opinions in public. Don't vote. And for the love of God, don't procreate. Shit your bum ass up, man.

Damn, Sheena brought it today. Hey, that's hype. Who is she talking about? A caller to the Dan Matthews show? Yeah, I guess so. It wasn't Dan, was it? No, not there. No.

I guess who's the woman? Is there like a staffer? She's strength and conditioning. Oh, okay. Yeah. I thought I'd mean like Julia Morales or something. No, no, no, no, no. Okay.

And that's why they're losing? By the way, you're going on the game today. You should do the play ball. If she did it yesterday, you should do it today. Did she say play ball, y'all? Play ball, y'all. Did she say that? No, I don't know.

I wasn't there. I was there, but I was eating me at that time. Eating that jerk chicken. No, I got the, uh, I had some cobbler with a little bit of soft serve vanilla. Oh, damn. They ought to open up the media room. Ben and Sousse would be a happier man. I'm going just to eat today, and I'm coming.

I'm back. Now you're going to lunch with us. Oh, damn it. You want to skip our lunch? No. All right. Hell no. Did you see,

barbecue? He's trying to flake on our lunch. No, I'm not. No, hold on, Flake Thomas. See, I knew he was going to angle too. Hold on Flake Thomas. Mr. Texas is going to get some barbecue today. Mr. Texas.

Oh, you're going to have to choke down some brisket. Oh, I don't want brisket. It's not my favorite. Kick out of Mr. Texas. Shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. I'm always choosing Texas. You'd rather.

You'd rather have him a rib than Mr. Brisket. You're disqualified from being Mr. Texas. Same laugh. Austin on 7.90, what's the matter with you, Austin? I just have, you know, Lincoln Riley after Saturday night's game and all of his interviews he's been doing. And then to come out and say they didn't see Desmond Stevens running around on the sidelines and in the field and that you weren't aware of it and had no knowledge of it.

Shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. Very good, Jason. Or Alston, thanks for the phone call. Anita, Chase and Gio. We'll go to UNO2. Anita, Chase, and Gio. The rest of you, come on in.

Tell some people to shut their bum asses up. I'm fired up today. It's nice. I don't like why. Are we going to be fired up tomorrow when the aster's win today? Hell yeah. We're going to have just as much firemen. brimstone. People are going to call him Joe a spot a genius. Yes. And Joe we trust.

Yeah. I want to see that hashtag out a bunch today. Brian King closes it out in the 12th. Astros win. What? And you're going to cheer. And let me tell you, so you're going to cheer for Ben and Susa. You need to. I'm going to. I want him to get out. I want Ben and Susa and Brian King to get out. You know what? The thing is, you know what? And Ross and I disagree about things over the years. We get mad at each other for like 30 seconds. I'm, as soon as the show is over at the 10 o'clock, I'm done with Benazusa. I'm fine. I hold the grudge. I don't hold the grudge. I don't I'm the anti-grudge holder. Oh, sorry.

Turn your microphone off. Sorry, I will. You cackling to the background. Okay, yeah, this is you. Bye. All right, let's go. You got some people want to tell them to shut their bum asses up. We also got a couple of mixed calls in of other things beyond that.

So, look, we're taking calls all the way. We are a caller-friendly show. We actually like y'all. I mean, other shows don't even want to take calls because I like to hear themselves talk. I won't mention names. But you know who you are. you ain't got no listeners either we love you all

you're laughing over there for you're one of a kind Matthew that I am let me tell you something when you speak at my funeral you will say a lot of things about me most of them will be nice

I know at the funeral I'll be nice now at the reception oh it's all hell no yeah Jonathan when I die he'd be like oh Matt was such a great guy

and then even in the liquor starts getting poured. Oh, he was such an a-hole and he just said this and this, this. I don't even think I really have any good, like, Matt Thomas' stories. Good. It makes it easier. Like, if I ever get roasted, oh, thank God, I don't even know stories on me.

We can do right now. Oh, I'm going to. Everybody call me in. Oh, I can write a roast. Remember, if we have a roast of me, I get last chance. Of course. All right. But I'm definitely, I have such a sense of, I don't want to be ripped for two hours.

I rip you for four hours every day. Anita on 790. Good morning, Anita. Good morning. How are you all doing? Amazing. Well, I really enjoy your show. And I just had one thought that I wanted to add to this discussion about the young player that is like not being very respectful of what the fans are going through and trying to compare it to 2017.

That person was probably only about 2012. 12 years old back then, but this whole city, not only did we have a way over 500 team at the time, but we had just survived Hurricane Harvey. I mean, emotions were at an all-time fever pitch. The Astros were out there in the community, raising money and donating. I mean, they were just part of the community, and the community responded in the postseason with being there for them 100%. The youngsters don't need to be talking about that. I agree with that ex-guy who said that he would respect Jose Al-Tuvia if he were saying anything. And that's the reason, because he has the perspective, first of all, to appreciate the difference between 2017 and now.

And second of all, to not disrespect the fans. Perfectly said. Thank you, Nita for the phone call. We appreciate it. Shit your bum-ass up, man. By the way, I forgot to tell you all. Do you all want an Astros win today? Ross, you want one?

Oh, yeah. What are you? All you got to do is follow me on Instagram Oh my God At SportsMT Get you a game two victory False promises

At SportsMT Twitter Instagram You follow me on both those You get If you follow me on both You get a two and a three win If you only follow me on one You only get one victory

Okay Yeah follow me on Instagram too I would appreciate it You can see my hit From Fox 26 is on there Also post game video Yes I did stay awake for it With Dan Matthews on the field after the game.

We broke down game one. How long was video? I thought it was like 90 seconds. That's too long. All right. At SportsMT. Instagram and Twitter. If you want two victories for your local baseball team.

And my picture's from Mount Rainier. You can see those as well. At Sports RV. You took it. You're a good photo. You're a good photojournalist. Just a good photographer in general. I'm trying to improve.

Thank you. All right. I'm paying attention. I'm paying attention. I'm paying attention to my thirds. Chase on 790. Good morning. Good.

night strippers. First off, Susa, you're awful. You're straight up garbage. You are cheek. Secondly, this is for L-T-MPO. $35 for a margarita at a playoff game. Shut your bum-ass up, man. Shut your bum-ass

up, man. Is something $35 now? $35 for one margarita, not top show. Did you get a floater, chase? Not a double, not a floater. This is a standard frozen margarita for 3469. Oh, my God.

I bought, hey, hey, and I bought two of them. But I'm just saying, shut your bum ass up. Shut your bum ass up, man. Ah, Chase, good. They added $10 for the playoffs of them, man. Can I tell you all something? It's a sign of growing older, which sucks. I am not drinking margaritas probably ever again.

Ever again? Very sweet. I had a half margarita. I was at a restaurant last week, and a listener bought me a margarita, and I had half of it, and I had Harper on the rest of the night. It was terrible. I'm like, sorry, man. I'm getting old.

It happens to all of us. So what I'm going to do is if you, if you do see me drinking a margarita, which you probably will at some point. Slap it out of your hand? Well, just say go get you an acid. Knock that out beforehand. Yeah. You can do that. But I mean, I shouldn't have a half of a margarita and be like having the acid reflux for two hours.

Sorry, Matt. I know. I'm sorry for myself too. Geo on 790. Geo, what's the matter with you? All right, guys, great stuff as usual. Let me start out by saying this, though. If you guys do ever decide to have a roast for Matt, please invite me.

I'll lay it on, juggerna. Hey, hey. Hey, I love you, man. I love you, though, man. Look, listen, let me get myself out the way. All right, so first of all, the guy raised saying that the Houston Rockets' his championships didn't count. Shut your bum ass up, man.

Shut your bum ass up, man. Yeah, that makes no sense. Ben and Sousa, look, man, you hold no weight to say what you said, man. Look, what do you think is going to happen, dude? We suck right now. Of course there's going to be booze, man.

Come on, man. Shut your bum ass up. Ain't nobody got time for that. And last but not least, to all the fans, you know, getting all worked up on social media, calling in, you know, guys, come on, man.

Here's an analogy for you, Matt. Astros fan this year has been like this. You're riding around in the hoopty. I'm talking about 95 Camry hoopty. All right. You're running out of gas, running out of gas. You're barely getting by, man.

You finally decide, oh, hey, look, there's a gas. We're going to make it. So we make it, aka the playoffs, only to find out you forgot your wallet at home. That's exactly how this season is gone, man. And that's what I got, man. Wait a minute. Gio, Gio, Gio. I am Mr.

analogy. That analogy sucked. What? It was terrible. The season has been right on. The season has been right on. The season has gone. Johnlin Ross.

Tell Gio that was a terrible analogy. See? I'll give him a C. Sorry, Gio. Oh, see, you're being nice. You're being nice because you called him juggernaut, but that made me laugh. Shut your bum ass up, man. Shit your bum ass up, man.

Ashros are more like a 96 Cadillac or, oh, like 17 Cadillac. 17, it was nice. Can we say 22, but it actually makes me feel better. Why? 17 counts. It does count. Hey, just say, you shed your bum ass up. Ray and Montana Part 2.

up, man. Google it. Who are the 2017 World Series Champions? It's Houston Astros. I was there. Get these colors in. Go, go, go, go. The 17 Cadillacs, got lost a little bit of shines, got a lot of miles on it right now. Dave, on 790, what's the matter with you, Dave?

Yo, I, okay, so good morning to y'all, and I just wanted to go, first and foremost. I believe, so let me give you some background. My wife is Japanese. We're big baseball fans, as she is. and I think there's some superstition behind this season and it goes to IMAI. So, I Mai's first game.

I love TK. I love Blummer and I love Julie. I think they absolutely deserve to be where they are. But the name pronunciation, it's throwing us off. You can tell me to shut my bum ass up. That's fine. What is the proper one? Well, we hear it all the time.

It's Tatsuya. Tatsuya. up. And we think that there's some superstition that because it was pronounced wrong from the get-go, that that's why he's had a bad season. That's why the whole team fell down. It's just our little. Hey, let me tell you something. Dave, thank you very much for calling. You seem like a very nice person and your wife's probably a beautiful woman, but shut your bum ass up. Hey.

Shut your bum ass up, man. Stay louder for the ones in the back. That's what I'm talking about. Thank you, Dave. We'll see you later. What it was incorrect and what was correct. I was confused. He never got to the point. Tatuya. Tatu I, Ma. Okay Well, he might be on a bench all series That's the superstition All right

Keith, Shelly, Gary, Philip We're going to continue on We're going all the way I hope Gary's coming after you Gary, the last time Gary Cole told us about What rises in his bedroom in night Oh yeah, that was weird Y'all got good, that was funny

I'm not giving him credit for anything No, it's, you've got You know what you got, Jonathan You got fourth grade humor is what you got Yeah, I don't need to hear about 70 year olds getting it on Yeah I mean Gary

You're going to get a pacemaker and get all sorts of medication going? No, thank you. What makes you stronger, Ross? I don't know. This is Matt and Ross in the morning. And the Astros have a run. It's 6 to 3 Chicago. Series is not over.

It is the best of three. But I think I watched at least two of the series yesterday, Rossi. And they said that if you win game one, the chances of you winning the series are like 80%. Oh. What have you got a Hunter Brown on the mound? Honey, bad, bad Hunter Brown. Baddest cat in the whole damn town.

Ready to fuel us up. Yeah. And Joe Spottie goes again, we'd be like, turn around and you walk back right on back. Let's go, 150 pitches. That guy kind of tersed in Oakland over the weekend. Hunter Brown, I'm sorry. You don't have the cachet.

You're not Justin Burlander. I know. You're not Max Scherzer. I know. Shut your bum ass up. Love you, Hunter. But you're not Mr. Eight Innings. Why don't you stay, Hunter?

How many times did he go eight innings all season long? Zero, I'm going to guess. Would you like a gross message I received through Instagram a few minutes ago? Gross? Gross. Is it referencing what you were referencing earlier? Nope. Okay, because that was gross.

No. I'm going to, I am going to tell you that Heather sent this to me. Good morning, Heather. Seven innings once. once. Eight innings zero, zero complete games for Hunter. Get back Joe Brown. You ready for the grossest?

Yes, sure. Why not? All right. As soon as you play this, as soon as I finish reading this text, Jonathan, you're going to play anybody at a good time for that. Did you see the first basement on the Red Sox

pick a scab from the back of his neck on national TV and eat it? I'm happy to send you the video. It is so gross. I cannot believe he did that on national TV. I respond back to Heather. Good morning to you, Heather. I trust you, but I don't want to see it. Ain't nobody got time for that.

Shit your bum-ass up, man. I'm just putting that in new existence this morning for y'all. People are trying to get their breakfast, man. So you're saying, Jonathan, you never had scabby skin for a part of your meal. Shit your bum-ass up, man. It's probably high in protein. Is it really? I don't know.

It's calorically fine. It's organic materials. Back on the phones. It's all organic. This is against my better wishes. Gary in spring. Gary, what's the matter with you? Hey, good morning, guys.

Two things real quick. The game yesterday, generally in baseball, when one team pitches better than the other, and that same team bats better than the other ones, they usually win. So you can't say it's one person, this, one person, this and that, this and that, the other. The other team did better, played better.

better and they were better and that's why they won. Anybody that has any other reason other than that, just shut your bum ass up. And the other thing was on the lady that called in that has her daughter in little leagues. I'll try to put this as delicate as I can. I heard that call yesterday when the guy called in and said the problem was the lady in the dugout. And so I called after that and I took that lady's place. I love that lady. She's beautiful in the dugout.

And everybody in that dugout loves her. so but ma'am if you're going to call in talking about girls and playing with boys sports please don't sound like you're about to cry you need the man up and just i don't want to say shut your bum ass up want you to keep calling but don't sound like you're about to cry when you're talking about girls playing in boys sports and that's all i got shit your bum ass up man why not we're all emotional yeah Justin verlander was emotional and jonathan i liked it you didn't You hate the dude.

I don't like the dude, but I like the moment. No, because I'm about to take that asterisk win. No, no, because Ross is going to get a win. No, I should have won that. What are we talking about? Verlander. Verlander and you screwed up on to tell the truth on Monday. Oh.

How much I thought it was a good moment and Jonathan thought I was lying? Jonathan. Go to the next color. No, we're on Wednesday and we're talking on Monday. You brought it up. No, Matt did. Oh, sorry. Shelly on 790.

Shelly, good morning. Good morning, guys. How are y'all doing? Amazing. This is the crazy Shelly with the golden retriever dog that determines whether the Astros are going to win or lose. And yesterday, she rolled and we lost the game, and she was very disappointed because she listens to the radio with me every day. and we listen to it every day to the broadcast. What's her name?

Gracie. Gracie. And she rolled this morning. So I believe the Astros, if I was to put my money on it, I'm going to bet that the Astros are going to win today. Okay, that's a special, a Kalshi special. Thank you, Shelly, for the phone call. Golden Gracie?

Gracie says go on a couchy and take Houston in the prediction, over Chicago. I thought she said Gracie was wrong for game one. She was, but Gracie can't be wrong twice. Okay. That was Martin Gale system. Keep doubling your bets. I like it.

It's going to double down. Sometimes you do. Philip on 790 at 9-10. Philip, what's the matter with you? I don't know, man. Where do I begin? Honestly, by the time he called me, I'm almost out of loss for words. One thing I wanted to touch on,

actually two I'm collecting my thoughts now so Chandler Rome right why is he such why is he

why does this article read like a like just a depressing like it it makes me it makes me see the city in like gray like in like fog you know it's like

why does it read so so like with melancholy and just what's like what are you talking about man like you're counting this out who paid you to write this because it just doesn't seem like obviously the quote

is a quote but everything else is editorialized in his opinion and it's just like what do you know it's just his observation is the way he described him like yeah well I mean did you read the story I'm assuming correct? Yes

talking about the one with the Sousa quotes and all that yeah so tell me where did he go wrong? Well, I'm not saying he went wrong. I'm just telling you that the way that he the I guess the

flavor of his article and not with the Susan quotes, but just how he described the fans being antagonist after after year. You're going to have to compose your thoughts little bit, Philip, because the story, the story was about the fans booing. And so if the story is

about the fans booing, he went and got reaction. He got Yordaunt's reaction. He went and got Benetius's reaction and he got Christian Walker's reaction. I mean, he's not, he's not there to write puff pieces. And, you know, you don't often see a Houston crowd boo anything at home, especially in a playoff game. So it was a story. I mean, and he's not there to, to write the Astros lost the Red Sox 6 to 3 because this happened, this happened. He's looking for other things to write because the athletic doesn't write

story A, A, B, by this margin. He's so good. I'm reading it again and it's, I'm not seeing any hint of too much negativity or anything like that. Chalindler Rome's not going to have pom-poms for the team. Yeah, I mean, they lost and they got booed. I mean, if he's upset about the team losing, I mean, I feel like

Chandlerone should be kind of melancholy. That was like, especially the statements he got from the players, like, you know, not hyping up the fans. They're blaming the fans. The quotes worth the story, right? John, that's what it was. The quote's worth of the story. This is a forgiving city, calmer and more composed than Chicago, Philadelphia,

or other places where underperforming teams are inundated with invective. Chandler's good. It's good stuff, Chandler. Playoffs always gets up for the playoffs, too. He loves the playoffs. He loves, can't get enough of the playoffs. Can't get enough. We call Chandler Mr. Playoffs.

Yeah, I mean, look, and, he did discuss roster construction. Roster construction is an F this year. It's an absolute F. You've had no legitimate outfield. You've had a pitching staff that has been woeful. And you've been basically carry 81 victories based off of Josh Hader having an incredible season,

a bounce back for Brian and Bray, and your top three hitters. Their lack of depth and dismal roster composition is hamstrung Houston all seasons. Tell me true words when I've never spoken. Scott and Robert will get to you. Are we continuing shut your bum ass up again? Man, this is, this may be a, this is like a four segment around Shut Your Bumass Up.

That's great. That'd be nice. More shut your bum asses up on the line. Let's go. Robert in South Houston on 790 at 921. Robert, what's the matter with you? Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my call.

Hey, Damico Ryan, Bill O'Brien, 2.0. Dude, it starts with me. It starts with me. Come on, bro. Shut your bum ass up. Get these guys where they need to be. Because I guarantee you if CJ Shroud had the Chiefs coaching staff or the Rams coaching staff, they would have won the Super Bowl last year.

And that's all I got guys. Hey, have a good day. Shut your bum ass up, man. We didn't discuss the Texans today. Did we even mention them once? No, do we need to? Have we let, let me ask you all a question. Have we let you down with our Texans coverage?

what's the practice report looking like? It'll be out later today. Al-Z's Asha-R may be missing some time. Oh, great. You know nobody got time for that? No. To-O-T-O's still on IRR. Get some reed, get some reed-blank and you get some reed,

get some reed blanket chip. Can you read and get you a big old tall boy and talk some reed black and chip with you. You know what? Shut your bum-ass up. Since we're still here. Shut your bum-ass up, man. No, it's not. Too late.

You can't shut my bum-ass up when the music is not playing. I just did it. That's true. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-9-0. We got a lot of elements on the show tomorrow, but we figured today would be a good day to just spout off, and then tomorrow, we'll get in them deep dive

and them Texas versus Cowboys. We are your unofficial home of Texans football, sports talk, 7-90. Scott, on 790 at 9-22. Scott, good morning. What's up, Matt Ross? Long time to talk, guys. So I was at the community today. So, you know, in terms of Christian Walker and Ben,

at Susa, they can definitely shut their by masses up. So, yeah, I mean, especially in Christian Walker's case, you can understand the organization that you play for. If we were the Yankees or the Phillies or the Red Sox or whoever, they wouldn't complain about the fans doing

a bad product on the field. The Astros are one of the most successful teams in baseball over the last 10 years. This team is not good. You know, I'm a huge Astros fan. A lot of my friends and family are huge Astros fans. Everyone's been, you know, every game coming up, you know, leading up to the playoffs.

So we're a game ahead. We're tied with the Rangers. And I haven't cared. I've been keeping up with it. This season died for me when we went three and six in that homestand. We fired Dana Brown the next day. The team admitted they aren't good. They proved that they aren't good. And here we are on the playoffs. To act like they fought and clawed their way to get here, no, nobody won the division and they had to give it to somebody. And they gave it to us. We have the worst record in the history of any team in baseball to be in the postseason. And yesterday, like the last eight straight home playoff games that we've lost, we're down right away. You knew we were going to lose right away. I know Ross, you said we were going to have to use all the pitchers. Brian King was left in

way too long. And especially, it makes it even more frustrating. When Yola comes in and mops it up with bases loaded nobody out, he could have been put in in a pitcher or two earlier because of how bad Brian King is. Christian Walker throws a ball away. Diaz has balls pass them. Jeremy Pena doesn't know what to do with the baseball. It was sloppy bad baseball. It gets booed.

And the stadium was, yeah, it wasn't full to the, it wasn't full, but it was, you know, there was a lot of people there. And it got loud, they tried louder than it would during a regular season game for, you know, random plays here and there. I mean, you know, again, for me, what this team should have done, and I keep receipts from what I talk to you guys, I know it's been a while. I called in more in the afternoon show, but at the trade deadline, Ross, correct me if I'm wrong.

You and I have both agreed the Astros should have traded, have sold. And Matt, I didn't think you thought they shouldn't, but they should have. That doesn't, just because they made the playoffs, just because it doesn't mean that they still shouldn't have sold, just because whether they would have won or lost yesterday, this team isn't good. But hold on, hold on, Scott. You're talking about selling. What was to sell?

From the Houston Astros? Yeah, tell me. Astros could have left the trade deadline with the best farm system in baseball. Okay. So the only players you could have traded were Hunter Brown and Jeremy Payne. You're not trading Yon-Avarez. You're not training. Okay.

Okay. Then if you, well, you make you say you're not, but you could have. No, you're not training in the history of baseball. An MVP Canada has not been traded in the middle of the season. That's ridiculous. I mean, you said a lot of things you said was, but no. And you know what? No one gave the Astros a division.

The division is the division. You had, somebody had to win more games than somebody else. Does the division suck? Yeah, I get it. But they still earn the division championship. No one said by default because the Astros are good, we're giving you a free pass to the playoffs. Somebody had to win more than others.

And I know. AOS is terrible this year. I get that. No, it's not, it's terrible. They have the worst record of any team in the history of baseball to be in the postseason. This is a city. And they're taking out a team at six games above 500 before the end of the sea. I mean, they ain't taken on the 27 Yankees in the wildcard here.

The White Sox are not great either. They just haven't been better than the Astros were yesterday. I mean, look, I'm as critical as it comes when it comes to these things. But the Astros were favored to win this series. They still can win this series. And they've got enough players to do that, which means then they go take on a Cleveland team, who's, by all accounts, mid in terms of the division championship. There is a pathway.

Now, obviously, they've got to get it fixed right away. there is a pathway for them to win this series and give a puncher's chance of winning the series in Cleveland. There just is. That's ridiculous how to think there there isn't. Based off of their performance this season, they've shown time and time again,

they don't string things together. And even if they do make it to the ALCS because the American League is weak, it wasn't the right decision-making for the future of the organization. The future of the organization, Scott, is going to be if Jeremy Payne and the Astros sit down and they cannot work on a long-term contract,

it would be in the best interest of the Astros to trade Jeremy Pena. I have been over and over and over and I've said. But no, they shouldn't have. They were in a position to win a division and go to the playoffs, and that's what you do in baseball. You play to go to the playoffs. I mean, respect. I disagree.

I mean, because we have a lockout coming up, he's going to become less valuable if there's a year that we're not going to be playing with less service time for the other team. I mean, you play to go to the playoffs or do we play to win championships? in Houston. The standard is the set. You can't win a championship unless you win playoff games. I mean, nobody goes, you don't get to skip the playoff run.

You have to win playoff rounds. There have been lots of great teams. I've got to get to other phone calls, Scott. Thank you for the debate. Good stuff. You plan to go to the playoffs. There have been worse teams of worse records that lose in the playoffs. I'm talking to what I mean is...

This is the worst playoff team record-wise ever. I'm saying that teams with better records have lost in playoff series. Three games are a crapshoot. Five games. Now, seven games, usually the better team wins out of a seven. but not always. Not always, no. Yeah, you can go.

But as far as what he was talking about selling, I wasn't like full on breakdown to sell Yordon selling. I would be open to trading Pena or even Paredes or Walker or whomever. Even AJ, maybe AJ Blue Ball depending. Maybe Peter Lambert depending to where they were when they weren't contending. When they got to rounding into form and they won, what was it like 12 out of 14 they won or something like that? then I was like, okay. And I think Dana Brown did a fine job of not being a seller, not really being a buyer,

getting Dalton Varsho for Spencer Argeti, which didn't cost you anything. Because they're in a tough spot no matter what. Because your farm system is such in a horrible, horrible state, that's why I would have been okay selling off a couple of pieces for some prospects and trying to contend in the next couple of years. Would have been no problem. Because I don't think this is a very good football, a baseball team. They'll do it.

I mean, keeping Jeremy Payne, if he doesn't sign a, in this offseason is a tactical baseball error. I want propania sign long term. I don't think Jim Crane's going to do it. I want Brown sign long term. I don't think Jim Crane's going to do it. So if that's not happening, then yeah, you do have to figure out fielding a competitive team somehow

unless you're just going full nuclear war blowup. I wouldn't want that either. Which I don't want that either. Nobody wants the suffering that comes with a rebuild. That's why you played it out. That's why they should have been more aggressive. They should have gotten more pitching at the deadline. And Dalton Varsho was an absolute...

By the way, were his wrist ever healthy one being here? I don't think so. How does that happen? Not since eighth grade, I think. Dalton Varsho's wrist been bad since the eighth grade? I just made that up. No, they were good last year. Great last year.

It was great. So why didn't somebody do some serious testing on that? I was dealing with incomplete information when I got feeling he would have an OPS plus of 100. League average. He couldn't even get close. And Jonathan was using some bad information when he thought Tatsu Emi would have a bullish second half. Oh.

Okay. No, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hey, he was good out of the pen. All I said is that we had to give him one more year. That's all I said. Don't worry.

He'll be taking that one more year. Maybe another one. He's opting in. He's going to opt in. He likes the cash is giving in. 930. Sports Talk 790. I'm running to you.

opting in let's get you back in the clubhouse for a couple of comments I listened to the 10th inning show with Wex yesterday Jeremy Payne had some stuff to say maybe that's a good stuff to play here if you don't mind Not cut up but I'm going to play the whole thing

I was curious of this one Joe Spada was asked about when deciding to pull everyone's favorite Brian King God Just hit her to hit her You know Still got seven innings to cover

Miggie came in and did a really nice job putting that fire away and keeping us in the game. Yeah, he did. Hit her to hear. You throw him out there for a second. Hold for the best. Couple hitters get on. Then you get Miguel Yola up.

And then a couple more hitters get on. And then you got to put them in. Sucks. All right. Jeremy Pena was kind of pissed off. Here is Jeremy Pena's post-game comments. I'm the only option to turn the page. You know, we've won two games in the row before.

So let's turn the page and show the tomorrow. There was just kind of the challenge presented by the series of arms, different types of arms. I felt like there was a wall pitch game by them. You know, our pitchers also did a great job of getting out of big situations. You know, they kept the game within reach. And, yeah, it wasn't enough. So we're going to turn the page and show tomorrow.

Did you guys have much of a book on smooth? It's a big league. You know, you got information on everybody. Who was the message from Joe when you guys got in here, you know, knowing that you have two more, or the possibility of two more, and knowing that this team has the ability to really turn the page pretty quickly? What do you mean? A message from Joe. Did you guys, what was the message in the locker room?

And did you guys talk at all about, okay? Oh, we don't need to talk about that. You know, we know what needs to get done. We need to show tomorrow, win some games, do it die. You know, there's not really anything else to do. Jeremy how would you describe just the stuff you guys saw from football? Just their pitching set off. I mean, it's a big league.

You know, everybody's got good arms. And we do too. So, yeah, it's a matter of just competing. Put together good at last. And, yeah. All right, there you go. That's another thing. I mean, we're talking about Astros, Astros, Astros, Espada, Spada.

I mean, Hayden Smith was great. Hagen, I'm sorry. Hagen Smith was really good. And then at the end, Grant Taylor, just, he was buzzing on a hundred mile on hour fastballs. He's been one of the better. Those are two of the best relievers in baseball that they bookended this game with. And they got it done and they seized the opportunities. Their offense was better than you and their pitching was better than you.

You lost the game. Yeah, the game really, I mean, frankly, as I said multiple times earlier in the show, 6-3 is not indicative of where the game should have been. It could have been 9-2. It really could have been. It could have been a lot worse. A lot worse. And that's why, again, when you're in a 6-3 game with two runners aboard

and you got Yarnier-Diaz, who's been one of the hottest hitters on the team, with one swing to tie the ball game, because he's been hitting some home runs. I mean, it's not crazy for us to say that. That's why, to me, not a terrible decision to use Brayu and Hayter. situation. Keep the game close. They started with Hagen Smith because he's a lefty and he

can get Gordon out a couple times and that's what he did. He took care of his business. 713-212-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. We're not doing believe it or not today because we want to give extra time for you guys a call in and ladies two. So we've got two lines open if you

want to come in and join us. 7-13 212-5-7-90. Mike's in Dallas at 940. Mike, good morning. Hey, good morning, guys. Look, I want to I read this athletic article and I'm a little still a little frustrated about it

like I'm in Dallas I've been an Astros fan my whole life going as 38 years old going to games in the 90s with my grandpa and for to be called a spoiled fan

like it just irks me man like I have to hear I live in Dallas not by choice because I fell in love here and stuck around and look man I have to hear Rangers fans

chirping in my year all year long my roommates from college people at my work people at my church i'm not spoiled ben and susa has a 6.0 era this season or something crazy like that and he threw a few balls in dirt christian walker i'm sorry man i love you i'm i actually really like christian walker as a player i think he's a gritty dude but that's the name of the game dude like you have to play well for the fans to adore you and it's harder than ever to be a fan man it's harder than ever to be a fan man it's harder than ever to be a fan. It's expensive. It is mean in those Twitter streets. He has had like a 6.645 OPS plus, or sorry, OPS since the All-Star break. He had that really bad throw to Pena

that could have gotten us a double player, at least, you know, it advanced the runner. So I'm like, I'm getting a little heated about this. And you know what the biggest thing that bothers me, man? the biggest thing that bothers me is poor yordaun like i feel like we wasted quite possibly the greatest season of yordawn's career because and i watched a lot of games man i'm 38 years old and i'm using mom and dad direct tv log in to watch like 150 astros games this season i was going to be with eyeballs i had a lot of eyeball torture this season and and we i feel like we wasted yordawn's opportunity for a triple crown it's so hard to win an MVP. in the AL. It's so hard.

And the bottom of the lineup, it just felt like they couldn't get on base. And, you know, that also hurts Jeremy Pena. Like, I get Jeremy Pena's frustrations. And Yordon, his comments in that article, I loved him. I loved him because he was like, we get it, we expected that, we didn't

play well, and we want to do better tomorrow. And so that makes me feel bad as a fan, is that I feel like we wasted Yordon's season. And then it just kind of, those comments from from Walker and from Sousa, they worry me. All right?

I'm a psychologist. I'm an organization psychologist. I know a thing or two about culture. And it's indicative to me that we're starting to see a breakdown of culture. All right. I think we're starting to see a breakdown of that team's culture. And it pushes me a little bit towards like, do we just break it all down? Because look, I have no doubt that Christian Walker's comments, you know, hey, we worked our butts

off, I have no doubt that they worked hard. You can't be an MLB player and not work hard. But you were the turd that floated to the top of the toilet bowl in the A.O. West. More of the incremental variance of you making the playoffs was because the other teams were bad, not because

you worked hard. Yes, you have to work hard in the MLB. That's a fact. But more of the outcome was determined by the fact that the Rangers were booty and the Mariners were super booty. And that's because we're here with the historic, worst record of any MLB

close team. You go back in time 149 years and they would not have made the playoffs with this record. 149 years, they wouldn't have made the playoffs. So look, I'm mad about it.

I didn't like yesterday's game. I still think there's a path if we can lock in and do it. But it was very, very frustrating as a lifetime fan to read those comments and be called spoiled. Man's over. Mike, that is a championship rant right there.

I mean, that was absolutely perfect. The turd that floated to the top of the AOLS. Speaking of the time before a break. 81 and 81. Again, I want to make sure I'm very clear about this. Things that Sousa said, are we spoiled? Yeah, of course we are. Teams that win 10 years of postseason are spoiled.

There's 34,000 there for a playoff game. game. It's low. There was 30,000 at Truis Park in Atlanta. Yep. So they're pretty spoiled, too. But two years ago and 24 for the, for the playoff wildcar games, it was 41 and 41, basically. It was like 40 and 6 and 8. I just checked. There's just, first of all, there's not a lot of faith. There's, there's less faith in this year's wildcar team and the one that would play the Tigers two years ago. If data won 95 games and we're feeling about, they're going to make a run, then yeah,

I think there would have been more people in this stance. a lot of energy and also again when you are undecided and unsure of of who this team is yeah I'll put some money in for some tickets for a division series game but I'm not so sure who this team is

except we know that they are they're 81 and 81 and when the game is wobbling from the very first inning yeah people are going people are going to be and people can boo and impatient and then boo

when it gets to 6 to 2 and then if you're Ben at Sue or you're Christian Walker or you're anybody. You just, you go to the manby, Pambi, generic, we're going to come back and fight hard the next day. It was like, at least to my knowledge, one moment of booing. And that was when Benet's Husa was,

or no, I don't know, maybe Christian Walker got booed too and a through the ball. Yeah, yeah. So it wasn't, but it, and I want to say most of that part, we were just like, oh, my, like, in disbelief. Like, oh, my God, what, it was like groaning to me more than booing. A groaning a boo. but Nelson Velasquez is a home run you cheer Jose El Tuve is laying out of ball

When Yon Air Diaz was at the plate Crowd was on their feet were they not Altuve safe at first on throwing air People were fired up Call upheld People screaming at the top of their lungs So give them something to cheer about They will cheer it's not that difficult

Nobody walks into a same going Man I'm in a good mood to boo I can't wait to boo this team today No and by the way we are soft ass here in Houston We ain't Philly. We ain't New York. We ain't Chicago. Ben and Soussa, go find out what those cities are like.

You really want to find out what Boone's like? Go check that out. All right. One final segment, if you want to get in, we are here for you at 713-212-5-7-90. 7-13-212-5-7-90. No, believe it or not, today. We'll push that until tomorrow. We want to get in at least, try to get two more calls in here if you want to join us.

7-13-212-5-7-90. All right, last call for a call if you want to get in here. at 9.52, it's Manon Ross. Hunter Brown will throw it today for the local nine. On deck? Well, really, our pregame coverage starts, I think Dan's at the ballpark in eight minutes. Yeah. What is he doing there? Nobody can get in this early, right? He's hanging up. Getting the vibes. What are the vibes? During BP? Joe Spada speaks at 1230. Yeah. Astros player at 1215. Okay.

I don't know. I assume. Normally it's the next day starter. So I guess maybe Wesneseki. 1245, hopefully, wishing that to be the case. Hunter Brown spoke yesterday, so he's ready to go. Ready to rock. Sean Burke's going to throw today for the South Siders. Sean Burke. We wouldn't know about Sean Burke. He's good.

11 and 7, earning of 3.34. 185 strikeouts in how many innings? He's been very good. I'm just saying. 172 innings, 185 strikeouts. It's fine. Oh, God. All right, how are we feeling, Ross?

Tell the truth. They're going to win. Yeah, I mean, I can't go from Astros winning 2-0 to losing 2-0. Jonathan, I didn't hear you. I'm sorry? Oh, well, you're going to get Dan from the ballpark right now. Oh, hi, Dan. What's going on?

What are you doing? Yeah, hello. Well, I mean, how else am I going to be able to take calls about certain members? Are you sweeping the concourse? I am not right now. Although somebody yesterday spilled like a pretty good amount of ketchup in front of us. I ask Gordia. I go, why does it smell like ketchup?

Which I like, I like, I like ketchup. I just don't want to smell, yeah. You don't want to wear it for a clone. It's kind of like, you know, like I like mayonnaise on burgers. I don't like mayonnaise itself, like looking at it. It's disgusting. I got some breaking news for you guys. In the world of potato salad, I'm going to go mustard over mayonnaise.

Yeah, it's easy. That's an easy pick. Always, always. But here's a wild card there. Have you ever had baked potato salad? Yeah, very delicious. Oh, amazing. Amazing.

So the Astro is a game too today. So let's set the scene. You're on 10 to 2. You're on the concourse. There are like employees. Yeah, including one walking by right now. And what else is out there? Grounds crew is tamping and raking and dragging and dragging

and probably going to get like a street sweeper through here any moment. So we've got a bustling crowd, man. It's all good. What time of the gates open up today? So I thought they were going to open up at like 130. yesterday, but I believe it's 2 o'clock is what Gordy's telling me. Oh, Gordy's there with you, too? He is, correct.

All right. I will look forward to listen to your show today, 10 o'clock until 2, and then Astro is on deck at 2 o'clock. Make sure you don't keep Ross too late at the stadium tonight. I know you guys did a video after. Apparently it took like an hour for you to do that old 90-second video. Get him out of there faster. No, I was telling him to leave.

I told him to go. That's true. I did, now I did. Yeah, I was like, I was like, Ross. Well, then I said we had a slap. something up on a social media, you know. We did. See, you're always thinking about the company. You're always... Yes, I am.

I appreciate that. Thank you, Dan. I know that, by the way, too, we got, you know, Chicago reporters listening and critiquing our sports radio, so if you guys want to stick around until 10 o'clock, it would be much appreciated. What are they saying? Are we doing a good job or no? They're talking about Astros fans, whining. Yeah, bingo, bingo, that one.

Which, I mean, you cover the white socks. It's not exactly like you've been covering a successful organization. Damn. 81 and 81 If you're a member of the Chicago. If you're the Chicago Media, good morning. Thank you for listening.

I mean, you have options. No, absolutely. Fans are little spoiled. We love to have you. I mean, would you rather listen to us or would you rather listen to Rosenberg or Rosenstein, whatever the guy's name is in Chicago? Rosenberg and Rosenstein. That's up next here on Sports Talk 7.

I'm a Dan for the ballpark. We'll talk to you tomorrow at 6. Sports