The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Lose Again, Altuve's Struggles & Rays Perfect Defense

Episode Date: October 14, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers. I'm on my way I'm making. Is the Matt Thomas show. 12-0-1 in H-town. What's happening at luncht timers? Welcome to a Wednesday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

Hello, darkness, Miles. friend I've come to talk with you again because a vision softly creeping left its seeds while I was sleeping and the vision that was planted in my brain still remain the sound of silence

points the bat straight up to the sky Here's the first pitch, and he drives this one to right field, and that's going to be caught. Mike Hirmeier and right center field on the die. What a play by the race center fielder, racing into his left, and he pulls it in and saves a run or two for the raise at this point in time. The other way in center, one-one. Curve ball, and that's grounded, right side to Altovae. Throats the second on a hop, and it gets past Correa. and kicks in the left field.

Stopping at second to Rosarena and Jose Altuve, who did not commit a throwing error during the regular season, commits his third throwing error in the last two games. Ready, here's the O-1, and he slices one down the right field line, and that is caught by the right fielder Hunter Redfro. Man, the rays are playing some kind of defense in this series. What a play by Hunter Renfro diving toward the line that ball. slicing away from him and he comes up with a fantastic play to end the inning.

Two one and Tucker lifts this one in the short right coming in. Renfro coming in and he makes the bent leg sliding catch runners have to hold. Well what do you know another excellent defensive play by a raised player and that's the second out of the end. I really don't know. You know, it's tough to see this. It's such a great player and such a great guy. I don't know what it's called.

You can go in a defense. It's something where you can go on the offense. Physical turns mental. So, you know, we certainly got to get past this. They couldn't keep Florida silent. Simon and Garfunkel. A great indie Kalu classic. I thought that was John Denver.

No, it was not John Denver. You went the wrong way with him, man. What? You're supposed to play uplifting music, not this sad song. Guess what? What? They're still in him. You should be playing M&M's lose yourself where you get one shot.

The Astros could come back. What year would you expect a team to come back from being down 03, 2020? And now you have the whole city. sad. Your millions and millions of listeners are going to be watching the game without any excitement. You went the wrong way with that, my friend. The wrong way. So you're saying play this instead.

Hold on. One shot. They got one shot. One opportunity, man. Yeah. Yeah. To seize everything you worked for. Yeah. And Altoove drives this pretty deep in the left field going back of Rosemena at the wall and that ball is gone into the first row for Jose Altuve. Why not?

run of the ALCS and the Astros lead one to nothing. There you go. Oh, yeah. Altuvee, he's going to redeem himself. Yeah. Bregman, he's going to redeem himself. Yeah. Granky's going to pitch more than five innings.

Yeah. Michael Brantley's going to do this again. He's on the mound. His first pitch to Michael Brantley's lifted to left and deep and sent back at Rosarena at the wall and that ball is gone. Michael Bradley goes deep for the third time. First season, and it is 5 to 2, Tampa Bay. Oh, you should have cut that part out.

Oh. Dope. The Homer Simpson dope. All right. Now. And then when you opened your show, I usually listen to your opening just to get myself excited. Yeah. The game's not over.

The fat lady has not sung. All right. So let's do this. You've heard what I thought the series has been through three. You've brought a new song and new positivity to the table. let's find out what the peeps think it's time bird it's to pull i'm going to win this 713 212 5790 you get two choices let's go or it's over what are you saying it's over and i'm saying let's go let's go we can do this let's go we can do this or it's over we're resilient

Houston fan base resilient. They're going to cheer the Astros on to come back from being down 03. Let's go. 713-212-5-790. What are their choices? Let's hear. It's over. Or let's go.

Let's go. Let's go. I think I'm going to where this is in a sweep. What? You know the inspold unline. Here we go. Line one. Let's go or it's over.

Okay. Line two, insipoles. Let's go or it's over. Hello? Let's go. Oh, he said nothing. Line three, Instapol, let's go, or it's over? It's over.

Instapol, let's go, or it's over. Oh, how are you? So we got two it's overs. One, let's go. Line five, let's go, or it's over. Let's go. Let's go, Astros. Dump, bump, bu, bu, b'p, b'p, b'n.

Let's go, Astro. Two to two. Line one, let's go, or it's over. Go, Deer Park, Deer. We won. Now, what I did? It's first to four. Oh, my name.

It's a three to lead. My best seven. Let's go. And they get that from the Rice Math courses. Line two, let's go, or it's over. Indy, I love you like a stepbrother, man, but this is over, bro. Oh, dude. We got drama now.

This is the deciding game vote number seven. Like we're going to see with the series. I hope you're right. Line four, let's go, or it's over? Let's go. Let's go! The Houston fan base. They said, let's go Astros.

It's not over, Matt. It's not over. Andy just told me before the show. He says he wanted to invite all the audience to his house today where they're going to, you're going to cook, feed us. Yep. Get us massages. No. You can get massages.

You can bring some girls in. Oh, okay. So give out your address and we'll be at your place at more, 740. That's a late first pitch. I did the postgame show to $12.50 last night. It's 535, go to hell. 535, go to hell. Yes.

Okay, I got you. All right. Yeah, I need some more excitement out of you. I'm in terms of here for. It's not over. It's not over. As long as you've been reporting on spirits. Do you know how many times?

You've never seen a comeback. You've never seen an upset like this. time. No, I'm just talking about in all of sports. Oh. You've never seen an upset of comeback like this. This is 2020. Anything can happen. Al-Tube could be

I can only go off of what I've seen as a baseball fan since one time in the history of the American League Championship, or that manner, championship series history is a team down 3-0 come back and won. It was 2004 Boston Red Sox. That's it. Okay. You're saying Boston's better than Houston? No, I'm not saying

that. I'm saying that 3-0 is 3-0. Whatever Boston can do, we can do better. Don't, yeah, the Astros cheated, so the Red Sox. They just cheated differently and didn't have a fall guy. And they could come back being down 03. Matt, you have to forgive him. He played in a sport where you only had to win one game to advance in the playoffs. This is coming from a guy that just said being a gamer is very productive.

Well, I wouldn't just, I would frankly discount 80% of what he says. He said being a, but we'll get to that another. day. You said what? Being a gamer is productive. Entertainment's productive, Matt. Not really, no. It's productive if you're, I mean, do you want to, no, forget it. I'm not going to do it. No, I cannot, I cannot have an argument with a gamer. So did you do like I did and watch the entire football game, then switch over to the baseball game? No. Because when I switched over, it was still one zero. I would watch the entire baseball game and flipped over to Buffalo,

Tennessee. By the way, loving the Tennessee CFL uniforms. I didn't even recognize the uniform. They have gone through so many different color schemes and changes. Did you see the stiff arm from Derek Henry? He's just a beast. He's a straight beast. We have our gut feelings, which we do every Tuesday. Brandon's gut feeling yesterday was that Derek Henry is going to rush for $150 this week. Against the Texans. Against the Texans.

No, that's not going to happen. Are you sure? Now, he had a subpar game for not for Yari yesterday. Did score twice, but It wasn't like he was a robust big game. He's not, I mean, they didn't beat him up too bad. Just saying. Without Bernardric McKinney, man in the middle, he might be on to something. That's more of a bubble gut feeling. Gives you the bubble guts, just thinking about Derek Henry.

Mexican food gives you bubble gut feeling. No, fake Mexican food, like Taco Bell. They're not a sponsor of yours, are there? No. Okay, good. Yeah, Taco Bell. I had Taco Bell. I had taco Bena for lunch today.

Oh, I just thought you were low on carbs. You've lost all this weight. I am, but it's today a cheat day? No, it's just Matt's a fraud day. Oh. So do you stick your finger down your throat at the evening? No, I do not. So how do you eat so bad and you've lost all this weight?

I just don't eat as much. Crack? Crack. Crack what? Cocaine. No, I don't need cocaine. Have you ever met a fat crackhead? I never been a crackhead. Yes, you have.

You just didn't know. Okay, you're right. No one walks up and says, hi, Matt. My name is John and I'm a crackhead. You went to you of H. You've met some crackheads. What? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Tier 1 institutions don't have crackheads. I've been on your case. I bet there's more recreational drug use at Rice than there is at U of H. Oh, absolutely not. Are you sure? We treat our bodies like temples. Yeah, I've seen your bodies. The once-around's not good.

What's a once-around? Yeah, you drive around the campus once around. Oh. Is that similar to a reach-around? No, no, you're in a vehicle. You can't reach around unless you're with somebody in the car you want to be with. Yeah. All right, Andy, so you're going to watch the game tonight?

Oh, absolutely. I'm going to flip back and forth. What else you're going to watch? There's other football games tonight. Tonight? Seven straight days of football. What's Wednesday night football? Coastal Carolina taking on Louisiana Lafayette.

Stop. There's two undefeated college teams. Nobody cares. I don't like the way you minimize football. We're going to have to talk about that some other day. No, what do you mean minimize it? No, Wednesday night football doesn't matter in life. Two undefeated college teams are playing tonight.

Okay, coastal Carolina plays somebody decent, a mid-level, big 12. They're not undefeated. No, they're underfeated. Defeated. Who they beat? Who they beat? Who they play? I have to check.

Well, it can't be any good. ULL. They're ranked. They beat Kansas State, right? And they're ranked. A good Kansas State team. Yeah, well, not great. A decent.

A right Kansas State team. Okay. I'll give you Louisiana. ULL is ranked higher than LSU. Well, that's not saying much. We're talking about academics, or we're talking about athletics? Both. Yes.

Indie Kalu. So you're not going to watch any of the football game. There's no chance. I'm going to tell you. text you everything that's going on. No, you won't. I'm going to watch it. I'm glad you will.

You'll be the only one. It's on Wednesday night for a reason. The ratings may be higher than the Astros game. That's not true. Now, I can say last night, I'm sure Buffalo, Tennessee kicked baseball's ass. I'm not arguing on that. But there's no way that coastal Carolina Lafayette

is going to beat any baseball game. Outside of this market. Outside of any market. What about Louisiana? I don't even think people Louisiana care about Louisiana. Okay. Right? It's LSU and everybody else's chicken scratch.

That's a shame. Let's just support all their teams. Oh, you really? Yes. You think Louisiana Monroe fan should be a big, big contingent of fans and Bat Roots for Louisiana. If you're from Louisiana, you support your local college. Oh, is that right? So you support Texas.

Oh, you know, I support all Texas schools. Absolutely. To the point where people get mad at me. Annie Houston. You can't say that about U of H. You can't give them props because you went to rights. You should give them props. I do.

We're going to talk some college football today. Joel Kloth. I'll be on from Fox. He'd be with us at 1.30. Nice. And Dana Holgerson at 2 o'clock. Look, see? That's a radio show right there. We're going to, I got news for you.

We talk about all the sports. We don't just, just talk about one thing over and over and over and over and over again. I feel like you're taking a shot at somebody. I'm not. I'm just saying, we don't talk about the same thing. Over and over. It's called In the Trenches. We only talk football.

No, I heard you have Brian McTaggart on the show today. You had Craig Ackerman on the show. We spread it out. You have big sards on the show. But we emphasize the number one sport in the history of sports, American football. I'm super late for a break. Was this segment worth it to you? Oh, absolutely.

I think people like that. You're going to win a McCrone. I'm a McCrone. A McCrone. McCrone? Okay. I'm a five-time McCroney winner. 1216, Sports Talk, 790 with a word here for Big City Wings.

What is today? Wednesday? Eight dollar of burgers at Big City Wings. Not only you get a burger of your choice, but you get a side of your choice. French fries, onion rings, teddy. tauts. It's all delicious and all of them ate. And how about this? Whiskey Wednesdays too. I know me some Indy Kluo like a whiskey once in a while. With a burger? Mmm. Mm-hmm. So you're going to have cheap whiskey, delicious whiskey, delicious burgers,

and cheap burgers at any of the eight locations. Find the one near you. Go to big citywings.com. Big citywings.com. Darrell Mori here. Let's go Rockets. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. All right. So Andy says, hey. we've got to be positive. And look, we are going to be as positive as humanly possible. They haven't been blowouts. Astros have had multiple chances to score runs.

They've had a lot of people on the base paths. Unfortunately, 31 have been left on base. Is that right? 31 people? Oh. Run in the scoring position yesterday was not good. They were one for eight, left 10 on base yesterday. I mean, I'm just dealing in the reality is that,

Yeah, there is a chance, but if you go to the history of league championship series, it's only happened once. A team down 30 in the series comes back to win it. I'm more concerned, frankly, about how this has happened. First and foremost, if you guys want to join us, you're more than welcome to do so. Come on and don't be a stranger to the show. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. If you'd like to join us through Twitter, you may do so as well.

at SportsMT and at Brendan Riley underscore. But again, it's easier to talk it out. 713-212-5-7-90. Joe Clyde at 130, Dana Holgerston, a 2. And then sometime after that, somewhere between, say, 2-15 and 2.45 today, we'll have Dusty Baker. So we will not do a believe it or not today because we don't want to use it or write it up and then not use it. So we will hold out that last 45 minutes of the show for Dusty to join us for a few minutes.

7-13-1-2-5-790. First and foremost, Tampa's defense. I mean, look, you guys are watching the games. They're perfect. It's like they've got a gold glover at every position, which they don't, but they've got a lot of good defensive players. Renfro's two catches in right field after coming in the game late, just magnificent.

Kiermeyer's been doing it for a career in Tampa Base, so that's no surprise. And, you know, everything that goes to third base is being scooped up, by Wendell with relative ease. On the other side of that, you have one of the better defensive second basements in baseball for the better part of a decade, having the most miserable defensive series

of his entire life. As Robert Ford mentioned in the highlight, Jose Al-Tube did not commit an error during the regular season. Granted, it was a small or regular season, but it was 60 games or whatever it was, however many he played. And he's got three.

And man, I hate the term Yips. Because when you think of Yips, you think of players that can't throw the ball to a particular base, and you can also think about in professional golf, really good, awesome golfers that can't make simple three-foot putts. And a lot of times, in both those cases,

they never come back from that. Now, I don't know the history of Yips and golf. I'm assuming that people change putters, change dance, go to a psychologist, just go to the putting green, but whatever. I don't know how many of them that get it that don't come back, but there are two players that come to mind in the world of baseball that have had the Yips, and they were never the same player,

Steve Sacks of the Dodgers and Chuck Knoblock of the Yankees. Two guys in important times of their careers with the Yips, and they never came back. I don't believe, and this is just my own personal opinion. And again, it goes to the lazy narrative that I continue to hear from national people. Well, he's obviously pressing over what happened during this cheating scandal and getting caught. Guys and gals, I think I'm speaking to an audience that's smarter than that.

You mean to tell me you play all those preseason games, spring training before the COVID came in, then you played 60 games, then you played against Minnesota 2, then you played four against Oakland. And you're telling me in game approximately 60 of Jose Al-Tuva that he's still thinking about the yips. this yips is because of the sign stealing? I don't buy it. Dusty Baker had said, and we'll talk to Dusty coming up in a couple of hours, sometimes you go through offensive slumps and sometimes you go through defensive slums. Now, I'm not saying that this could be something that could permanently hurt Jose's career

because the two players I talked about that had the case of the yips in the most important times of their life, never came back from it, frankly. But I'm also not saying that Jose Altuve's career is ruined and that he should only DH and that his days as a second baseman are over. I'm not ready to do that. It's been a lousy two games. He has three errors. Frankly, he should have only had two.

Yuley should have helped him out a little bit more in the game three mistake or game two mistake in the first inning. But still, it was a bad throw. Can't argue that point at all. So I will tell you right now as we speak that I do not believe this is something that is going to haunt the rest of Jose Al-Tuilli's career. But there are signs that it very well could be after what has happened so far with three errors in about a 48-hour stretch. I hope I'm wrong. But for this, well, he's wearing the world of the Astros' blame on his shoulders.

He's had two home runs in his Siri so far. So you're telling me that he is this, you know, mental midget in the field, and then he is this mental giant when he's at the plate. I don't buy that. I would lean more towards a terrible, terrible defensive slump coming at the absolute wrong time. Dusty Baker asked him immediately after the game, and he thought of replacing Jose defensively at second base. Dusty said, no chance, no way.

He's our second base one. Is that because Dusty believes in his? guy? Absolutely. Is it also a case where what would you do for a confidence level of a guy who's needed in both offensively and defensively to help out in a, you know, when you're down 3-0 in a series? Yeah, you're just not going to be as good. More times than not with Jose not playing the field. It just happens to be a lousy two-game stretch. Now, today if he has an error, then we can absolutely have that conversation. But I'm not ready to do it just yet.

1228. Are you ready to have a conversation? I hope you're not. But if you do, I get it. 713, 212, 579 if you want to get it on the show. We are open line for the first half of the program. So come on in. If you watch any of the Buffalo Tennessee game yesterday, the Titans got a lot of turnovers from Buffalo yesterday. Bill's played their worst game of the year, hands down, and the Titans took advantage of that,

and they still have a three-game lead over the Texans and the AFC South. They two teams play each other Sunday in Nashville. We'll get to a little bit of that. Jeff Van Gundy today is supposed to meet with the Rockets officials about the head coaching vacancy, but I would assume most of the conversation today should be about the baseball team and how this team went from this amazing hit the ball, spraying the ball all over the field type of team against the Oakland A's in Los Angeles. to a team that every time something is hit, it winds up on the glove in the most important times of a Tampa Bay raid defender. 713-213-2-5-790.

7-1-2-2-790. The Matt Thomas Show continues after a word for bronze roofing. They've been in the business here in Houston since 1987. That means they're doing something right. They want you to go check on your roof. I kid. They want to check on your roof for you because you've got no business. is getting on your roof. You're going to fall off that roof. You're going to hurt yourself,

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1234 Sports Talk 790. Dusty Baker joins us later in the show live. Here's him last night on Al-Tube's issues. You know, we're giving him all support that we can. And, you know, nobody feels, you know, worse than than Jose, because he takes it very serious and takes it to heart. I mean, you know, he's one of ours. And, you know, we've all been through this before.

You know, not in this spotlight like this. I mean, it hurts us all to see him hurting. And, you know, we'll give him all the support that he, you know, they need. Here's the thing, gang. I've told you about this before. A lot of athletes, a lot of coaches, a lot of front office people are jerks. You love them because they hit home runs and score touchdowns for your team, but they're not nice people. Jose Al Tuve is a good person.

He is a beloved teammate. He works his ass off. Guys under 5'9 are not supposed to be a 200 hit machine, all-star MVP guys. he's worked very hard at his craft. And he frankly isn't any different. And again, I don't have any sort of relationship with him. So I'm just going off of what I've seen in the clubhouse the last couple of years. And this year, obviously no clubhouse because we're not a lot in there.

But it's very easy to root for Jose Al-Tuve. This whole buzzer bit by ill-informed, dumb-ass national media is pissing me off every single day. Say what you will about the cheesley. and the signs dealing. Okay, you can't, you can't shake that. That's just, that's just part of who the Astros are. But this buzzer bit and this, well, he's worried about it now, 60 games in. He wasn't worried about it when he was swinging over the fence two times so far in this series.

It's very easy to root for Jose Al-Tuvae. You want to root for good guys. And what he's going through the last couple days absolutely sucks. Not only does it suck for him personally, but the team has not been able to. In the two games, where there have been errors, the rays have scored eight runs, one of three-run homer, and then they nickel and dime the hell out of the Astros yesterday for five in the sixth inning. By the way, Anoli Paredes. Oh, my gosh. Stop hitting people. Throw a strike. Do something. Boy, Jose Or Kitty did a really, really nice job keeping things close,

and then the wheels fell off the Astros. And the Astros still, after giving up that five spot, had multiple opportunities until Hunter Renfro catches a ball in right field. And until Wendell just grabs everything within 10 feet of him at the third base bag. Tampa Bay is playing the greatest defensive series that I've ever seen a baseball team play. You know how when you play baseball and you watch, your favorite team, you can always feel like if you get it out to left field, you can attack a

certain weak field. Or like, when the Astros had Carlos, Carlos Lee, you hit out there, it was a, oh, my God, you're going to have so much fun watching him chase that baseball around there and teams would score. There ain't a part of the field of race you can hit it to. They go, oh, there's a defensive liability. That sucks. But it's a lot of the, it's a huge part of the reason why the raise are up three and nothing

in this series. because they have such good players defending each of the positions. Brian and Pearland at 1237 on 790. Brian, good afternoon. Hi, MT. How are you? Good. What's going on?

Oh, not much. Hey, on this whole L2-Vay deal, the way I look at it is almost, you know, I used to be a former teaching golf pro. So the way I look at it is almost one of those of, you know, you can hit the ball great off the tee. But when you get a short iron in your, hand or you're chipping around the green. You know, it's the same game, same swing, yet you can't figure it out.

And it seems like it's the short throw that he's struggling with because he had a different one, I think right after he made the blunder in game two with Yuley where he got the ball closer to second base, like moving to his right. And he fired a strike to Yuley and just, I mean, hit him right in the numbers. And it was a perfect throw. So, you know, it's just everything that. went right against Oakland is going wrong against Tampa Bay. And it's, I mean, it's just, it's the break.

I feel bad for Al-Tube because, like you said, all this buzzer nonsense and all that crap. It's just, you know, the national media is just salivating over this. Like, oh, there you go. There's the karma. It's all that from 2017 coming back to bite you. But, yeah, it just couldn't come at worst times. And the hitting, you know, Bredman, I can't tell you how much.

ball is just absolutely tattooed right at somebody it's like my god you know five feet one way or the other that's a double into the corner or into the gap let me ask you this you said you were a former tennis a former golf pro is that what you said yeah so if i came to you and i had the yips with my with my putter i'm not making it a putt ever again i i just there's no length that i feel safe with It's Altuvae having spot inner problems where if Jose Altuvae really thought at the end of the day had the yips, he would never be able to throw the ball to first base again. It would be such a black in his head that he couldn't even effectively field his position at all under any circumstance. Yeah, that's the way. I mean, that's the way I look.

I used to have, you know, and I would have the same problems myself. And what do I just went back to the basics. I just started over again. I said, okay, let you know. Because odds are most of the time the yips turn out to be more of a mechanical issue or, you know, he's rushing it or he's just short-armed it. But then it becomes a mental issue. And, you know, the way I would always get myself out of it or I'd have, you know, golf coaches who I went to who would say, okay, let's just break it down. Let's go back to the basics.

Is your ball position correct? Is your takeaway correct? Is it? And you go back and, you know, you make a couple of three-footers. eight footers, whatever, you're like, oh, okay, well, hell, it was that easy. And I don't know if they take infield, you know, before the game. Every day. They do.

Yeah. Yep. I think just a few of those, he gets one good throw today like that, you know, turns a double play. It'll, it should cure him right up. You know, it's just one of those until he makes that routine play again, it's always just going to linger there. But, you know, he's a professional. He'll get out of it. I mean, it couldn't come at the worst time.

Yeah, it couldn't come at the worst time. And the difference is, and thank you, Brian, for the phone call, good conversation. The Rays don't have any of that. They don't have any yips. Matter of fact, routine players bore them. They need sliding catches. They need dives to the left and to the right. They need to go to the wall, put their hand on the wall, jump up in the air and grab a baseball.

Have you ever seen this many? scoring opportunities ruined by a sliding catch. There's like three of them yesterday. Look, my frame of reference in history runs hot and cold. Like, I can tell you something that happened 20 years ago, but something four days ago, I'd forget. I don't know why that is. But I don't remember in my entire life, Brendan,

watching anything in any sport. Like if, now the Ravens, when they won their Super Bowl in 2000, they were just one of the greatest defenses of all time. and they would just beat up everybody week after week after week. In basketball, I don't remember a series where no one could score because the defense was so good that you took this high-powered NBA offense and they could only score 78 points because the defense was so stifling. It probably happened.

But not to this level. Not to this. You are smacking the ball everywhere. And you are hoping that just one falls through. Like the Renfro catches. He slides, you know, legs first, right, the first time. and the second time. If any one of those balls does not get caught

and it gets under his glove and it rolls, the Astros are circling the base pass, right? Doubles, triples, scoring runs. He's getting to those every single time making the basket catches, keeping the Astros where they are on the base pass. I think as a baseball fan, you have this natural sense of,

like, when you see the ball hit, you get a pretty good idea of whether or not it's got a shot. I feel like that's being ruined in this series. I have no idea. Here's my idea is that wherever the ball is hit, it's going to land in a glove of a player. If it's not already on the ground, it's getting caught. The only way I don't feel that way is when Brantley and Altube

hit home runs. It's the only way you score. Somebody in the streets. And look at this. The Astros are hitting home runs. They're just hitting with nobody on base. All these solo blasts are doing them, I mean, relatively no good, unfortunately. Oh, man.

Look, the Astros were not favored to win this series. Let's not kid ourselves here. But I even think baseball stunned at the way they were smoking the baseball against the A's. A good A's pitching stamp, by the way. And they're down O3 in this series. I mean, it's just awful. I don't want it to end because I like having multiple sports to get to. I don't want to talk about the same sport over and over and over and over and over and over again.

I like variety of my shows. I like variety talking to you guys. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-7-90. So the Astros are down 3-0. Game 4 tonight. On deck will be from Carbock Brewing with Gordy and Connor. I will have the 10th inning show.

I went until 12.50 this morning. And most people are fairly optimistic because that's what we do. It's a weird optimism, but I get it. I get it. I don't know if I subscribe to it, but I appreciate it as compared to saying, Well, Dusty screwed this up or this did this. We all realize how good Altovae has been, and he's having, frankly, a mess of a season

that has been kind of bumped up a little bit because of his offensive numbers have picked up the last week or so. But these defensive errors are just so unlike him. 713-212-5-790. A message here for the Shell Federal Credit Union. My friends at Shell Federal Credit Union have offered me, and I took advantage of it, a auto loan. For 36 months at 1.99% you can get that.

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Jacks up a three hits. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Are you kidding? 1250 Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show. Can I just have one little small pet peeve about yesterday? So Altube is the ninth inning and he strikes out. Jeff Nelson is behind the plate. Been around a long time.

Very much respected umpire. And the Czech swing rule, do you know there's really no rule about the check swing in the book? In the book of rules. Doesn't surprise me. It sounds like baseball. It's a subjective rule that is best determined, frankly, by where the bat is as it crosses the plate.

and the first base umpire would see right-handed batters, and the left-hand-headed batters would see the third base umpire. Very rarely, I would think the home-played umpire gets a better view of it. Jeff Nelson calls out Jose Al-Tube for the check swing. Now, sometimes home-plaid umpires will do it when it's ridiculously obvious. And I don't want to be super homer on this because I try not to be super homer on anything. but do you think, Brendan, that Jeff Nelson went to the umpire's dressing room after the game, saw video of that and said, I should have checked my first base umpire on that,

because it looked like to me from the first base angle that he checked his swing. I don't know, man, when you won't even go for, because how many times in a close call like that do they not check? They always check. They always check. So he called it with such confidence that I think he probably didn't even second guess himself. Well, no, in the live in the moment, yeah, he didn't second guess himself. I'm telling you when he gets in front of the TV, because they can make him review every play of the game if they wanted to. How do you think Jeff Nelson felt about giving that boot?

I hope he realizes it was the wrong decision. Anyway, you know, let me tell you some. It was a mistake. It didn't end the game, which would really piss everybody off. But it was an out. It was a second out of the game. It was frustrating where it came. And it was frustrating to a guy that was looking to make amends for the defense mistakes.

but that's not Jeff Nelson's responsibility to make Jose's life better. That was just a, in the world of pet peeves, that was about a two on a scale of 10, maybe three. The biggest problem was is that you just, I mean, and I know Martin Melmano needs days off or time off, but Dustin Garneau cannot hit Major League pitching. Two strikeouts, I might have made a foul ball contact on a line. one of the strikes called? I don't remember because it's just a forgettable plate appearance or appearances.

If the Astros are going to win this series and win the next four games to win this series in seven, Martine, you're going to have to catch every damn inning. Sorry, them the brakes. You're just going to have to do it. Because putting Garnell out there is an automatic out and he can't

throw anybody out. Again, not a reason why they lost. The reason why they lost it, 31 men left on base in three games of the series. Flat out. And I'm curious how many in scoring position? Well, I mean, just yesterday, what was the runners in scoring position? What I tell you yesterday? They were in runners in scoring position.

They were one for eight. Because, I mean, there's a difference between the guy left on first and the amount of guys they're consistently leaving on second and third. But you know what, though? Think about the last two games. How many times were the bases loaded? How many times were the runners at first and second? Now, granted, first is not a runner's scoring position. moment, but the second base is, I don't even want to know the answer to the question you just

ask because it's going to just, I think it's just going to irritate us. To me, the series has been lost by not what the Astros haven't done, but what Tampa Bay has done, and that has filled their position beautifully. Luis and Katie, 1254 on Sports Talk 790. Hi, Luis. Hello, how you? How you doing? Good afternoon. Thank you. Good afternoon. I wanted to talk about out too, and again, it is very different, but when I was in high school, I went through something similar

to that. It was like, and it was definitely mental, because it wasn't an injury in my shoulder or anything like that. It was just, when you were going to throw, you were like afraid of it, you're going to overthrow the player or just throw it back, so you kind of tight, the ball very, very hard,

and then just like a small drop. It was something mental. The only thing that I'm worried, To be able to do, I am from Venezuela, so I follow Altubert, so I follow Al-Tubert every day, almost. And I've seen him not throwing hard only for the double play. So it's not like Correa. Correa throws hard, 100 miles every time he gets ball. You see Breggman, he throws, depending how hard is the grounder.

He could be maybe harder or softer. But with Altupe, I've seen him for a while that he's not throwing as hard as he can. But naturally, but naturally. Naturally, though, Luis, where are those two guys positioned? They're positioned on the left side of the end foot further away from first base. So I would think just by distance that everybody's teams, third baseman and shortstop, have more mustard on the baseball than the second baseman. But I'll let you finish your point.

Continue, please. Yes, but that's what I'm thinking. I think it's mental. I think, again, just getting into practice more and just throwing hard, just making – But again, I think it's what you just said. It's not, he's being part of the problem. It's not being the whole thing. The races have just been playing completely out of this world with the defense

and just being completely on time with the hitting because we've been hitting more than they had. And I really hope that we can come back. I really do. And I'm really, thank you on behalf of all the Venezuelan guys that are here, so we said a lot, that you guys, that people love here, I'll do it, because he's a humble guy. I just, Luis, he's one of my favorite athletes, maybe in the history of me talking about Houston athletes. And I thank you for the phone call. I just am such a fan of his.

His defense has caused problems. In innings where he has goofed up the baseball with two of the three errors, the team has given up eight runs. Now, the one that really hurts is the one that happened two days ago, where third out of the inning doesn't make the play. Next man up, it's Margo, he hits a three-run jack. So that one super stings, but also you could say, well, okay, Lance, you know what, this guy has been saving your bacon for, since you've been a major leaguer, help your guy out by throwing a pitch that doesn't send the ball over the yard. It's hard to, it's hard to come to that grip knowing that the pitch didn't even have to be thrown in that any we begin with, because if Altuva makes a good throw and you leave steps in

the bag, like you suppose. to the inning is over and that pitch is not thrown until the next inning. So it's hard to kind of comprehend that and say, well, Lance, if you've done your job. Lance knows that. Lance knows that, you know, just because an error happens behind you doesn't necessarily mean you open the floodgates up, you throw an Ephis pitch and the guy smacks it over the yard. But it is, it's painful to see how Tampa Bay has taken advantage of the mistakes that Jose has made. they're taking advantage of the mistakes the Astros are making.

The Astros can't take advantage of what Tampa's doing defensively because Tampa doesn't make and hasn't made those mistakes. Second hour, the Matt Thomas show starts in a matter of moments. 713-212-5-790. If you want to get in, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. More college football cancellations. We'll get to that. Joel Klat from Fox Sports in one half hour.

Dana Hogerson, coach your cougars at two. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Yeah. Is the Matt Thomas show. Brendan, if I've told you once and told you a thousand times, the key to success as a sports radio host is keeping politics out of sports and sports out of politics, okay? You don't necessarily believe me,

but I'm just telling you that's how I've been able to do it for 30 years. Nothing wrong with that. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing. Not my thing. But I got to call it a douche. Something called Senator Ben Sass. Is it Sassy? S-A-S-S-E?

I feel like the middle three letters are probably appropriate. So, Amy Coney-Barritt's hearings are going on, right? And she's about to be, or at least questioned to be one of the newest members of the Supreme Court. very serious, very important questions to be asked by both sides of the aisle, trying to figure out if she's worthy enough, whether she's prepared, all sorts of things about Affordable Care Act, about Roe versus Wade, about the election, lots of meaty, important things that are way more relevant to us

than silly old sports, right? Why did I go all country on that? Siliot, I don't normally do that. I don't know. You were using it as an insult to him, I believe. Correct. And I think it worked. So Senator Ass is from Nebraska.

And he was speaking today and decided, you know what? I'll try to mix in a sports metaphor with what's going on with these hearings. Here is what Senator Ass had to say. And I'd like to talk about the Houston Astros

who are miserable cheaters. Sorry, Cornyn. and Cruz, but both of the Texas senators sit on this committee. But I think all baseball fans know that the Houston Astros cheat. They steal signs. They bang on cans. They've done a whole bunch of miserable things historically, and they deserve to be punished probably more than they have been.

Oh, that's funny. But tonight is game four. Thank goodness the First Amendment protects that right. If you want to defend cheating, that is certainly the fraud. of the senior senator and the junior senator from Texas now rushes into the room to do some homerism. It was going so well. Awkward senatorial ash. I noticed that Ted is wearing a lone star state flag, but not an Astros mask.

Tonight is game four in the American League championship series. And if Houston loses to Tampa, they will be done. and that leads people to feel kind of desperate at times, right? There are times when you have a game that's your elimination game. You can imagine people wanting to sort of reconsider anything they can reconsider. The ends might justify the means. And you could imagine that the Houston Astros, who've cheated in lots of ways in the past, was sign stealing, might try to go to the empire and try to persuade somebody to expand the strike zone

just for Houston in the game. tonight. That would obviously be inappropriate, right? One of the, that's 95 seconds of my life. I'm never going to get back, nor are you. Now, Matt, you never said to be a successful politician keep sports out of it. Senator ass, you just, you had diarrhea. He had diarrhea of the mouth. Is that right? I mean, was that fair to say? That was so long-winded and unnecessary. War-winded, unnecessary, and where's the end game on this? The whole clip is five minutes long.

I'm not giving Senator ass five minutes of this radio show. What was the point of that? I think he's implying somebody's desperate. I don't know anything about this guy, so I don't know what side he's on. Do you know that in that room where all those people are, that 12% of the people know what's going on with the Astros and Race in that room? I think that's fair. 12%.

I'm just throwing a random number out. I think that's fair. What a what a horrific example. So you know what I want you to do, Brandon? I want you to think of a way to bring up these Supreme Court hearings and time into the Astros and race since Senator Assas decided he wanted to do it. What a joke! And he's like, you know, I see Cornyn and Cruiser in here.

They're wearing Texas flags, but they're not wearing Astros mask. And then there's awkward senatorial laughing. You'll know what awkward media laughing, as we pointed out here on the show. That was awkward senatorial hearing laughing. What a mess. What an embarrassment. That was this douche trying to figure out a way to get his airtime in because, and again, if you heard that for the very first time,

you would have thought the Astros have spent the last 20 years cheating. 2017 suck. They cheated. Yeah, I get it. Should have been punished. more. Well, guess what? Then go tell Rob Manford that, uh, you shouldn't have given them immunity. Because I'm telling you, for the five millionth time, if the Astros were not given immunity, they would have said, prove it, B, prove it. We ain't talking. You're our word against Mike

fire's word, just like the Red Sox did. That's why I despise politics. Don't mix my sports. with my politics. Do not mix my TV news anchors talking sports in the middle of a newscast. I don't jump into your weather and pretend I'm a meteorologist. You don't pretend to be a lawmaker. I don't pretend to be a policymaker.

I don't pretend to know the protocols of the rules of engagement in Senate hearing meetings. You stay out of my world. and don't blabber for 90 seconds about something you know nothing about except your corn fed Nebraska Cornhuskers being a major disappointment in the Big Ten. That's what you should have spent 90 seconds about, not the Houston Astros and not trying for awkward Supreme Court humor.

Please, can we all just stay in our lanes? Especially, that, again, if you had no idea what the Astros had done, which I'm sure there's a lot of people that are in that room that have no idea what the Astros even did. You'd have thought the Astros have been running around ramped the last 20 years, stealing, wheeling, and cheating on everything in baseball. They did it for one year, probably two. Certainly not three.

And certainly not the way that this Gibboni tried to describe it. God, one of long-winded, full of generic, generic misinformation and bitterness. either push her through and put her on the Supreme Court or tell her she's incompetent and let her go. But don't put this woman through 90 seconds of awful baseball talk. I don't even know what her response was. I kind of want to know. Like, she had to think this was ridiculous.

Here's what I would have done if I was her. Amy, was it Amy Coney Barrett? Is that how he pronounced it? Everything's right now. Close enough. She'd probably go on. Is there a question in there? I think he said, is that appropriate, didn't he?

He asked if it was appropriate to cheat. I don't have anything on my notepad, according to what I did yesterday, but I should have put some notes about the Astros on my notebook because I'm not a really big efficient out when it comes to baseball. Do I need to be watching Game 4 for tomorrow? And you're from what state again? Nebraska? Who has under-performed?

Wouldn't it be awesome if she came back and said, hey, Senator As, What up with the Nebraska's lack of success in the Big Ten? Why hasn't Scott Frost turn that program around? Why hasn't your program been good since Tom Osborne's been the coach? Senator Ass. Good gracious. I apologize for the 90 seconds. You'll never get back.

713-212-5-790. Joel Clatt, bottom of the hour, here on Sports Talk 790. Right now, I want to tell you by Cromberg's Flags and Flagpole. These are the folks that have been giving us astro flags during the recourse of the regular season, and now they want you to visit them if you are looking for a state flag, a U.S. flag, a flag of maybe the country in which you're from or want to represent. Maybe you're in charge of a school's PTA and your school needs flags or banners for their respective schools. Then call Cromberg's right now and visit with Ron the president. Spectacular guy.

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Matt has Maddie Nation. Things are going to start happening to me now. You've made it. I'm somebody now. More Matt Thomas. Now. 118 on the Matt Thomas show. Sorry for the small political rant.

I despise politics and sports mixed. You may enjoy it, I don't. But I just had to say that because it's a guy pissed me on. I don't think that really counts as politics. I don't think it does either. He was talking sports. Yeah. He brought it into the conversation.

I just had to tell him he's an ass. He's not welcome on this show. I will not vote for him if he runs for president, if he ever wants to. If he wanted to come on the show and talk Astros, you wouldn't let him? Yeah, I would. It wouldn't be pleasant. I got to take it something and we got Joe Clack come at the bottom of the hour

so we're going to, bottom of the hour, so we're going to focus a little football. I got into a small Twitter, I wouldn't call it a spat, but a massive disagreement with John Heyman over the weekend. I saw that. And I don't,

and you, Brendan, you know me for what? You've been here six months? Yeah, I don't do a lot of that. I don't get into that. And I'm kind of proud of that. But I'm really becoming more and more disenfranchised with national media that I respected.

Bob Nightingale. I've known Bob when I was living in Minnesota. He was living there for a time. Now he lives in Phoenix. Bob's lost his damn mind, too. From grammatical errors to factual errors to crushing the Astros, calling it a base running blunder

that Jose Altubi did not score from third on that Renfro catch. You could probably argue it either way. but it wasn't a blunder, especially when you were down three runs, especially because you had two people on the base paths behind Jose Altuve. And let's be honest, since we watch the team all the time, Jose's success rate around the base paths is not very good. So I took exception to Bob Nightingale's tweet.

I took extreme exception to John Heyman saying that everybody likes Dusty Baker, but people around America aren't afraid to see the Astros lose. And I forgot what it was. I think I'm paraphrasing here. And I just said, John, why would you put that out there? What was the point of you to, is it because you want lots of likes because you're trolling the Astros? And he responds back to me, well, people around America seem to like it. So I responded back to him, paraphrasing that, okay, so you are proud of yourself for fanning the flames of hatred of the Houston Astros.

and all I said at the very end was I look forward to seeing your coverage of the Yankees when that letter is ultimately revealed to find out exactly what was in that letter that Major League Baseball and the Yankees are trying to hide and there's no doubt in my mind they're hiding something Brendan what has happened to our national media

and this isn't exactly an indictment against them going and attacking the assures this is about everybody has social media taken these people that I've respected and read and watched on television for just giving us the facts, ma'am. That's what the journalism was, just the facts. And becoming this, let's go run to our Twitter account and give opinions about every single thing in hopes that we get as many likes as possible. I go to Twitter because I enjoy interacting with you guys.

I think I've got some funny lines, but by no means am I an information source. I've never once in my life ever said, come to the Matt Thomas show for journalism. I think I do a pretty good job with interviewing people. I think I do a pretty good job with getting people on the show. But I'm largely here to entertain and to have conversations with people on Twitter and on the phones and with you.

We're a sports show. We're not journalism 101. But John Heyman and Buster Only and, you know, Bob Nightingale, they have become this highly over-the-top opinionated section where that's not what they're supposed to do unless their respective employers are saying, go out on a limb, start some stuff, get you some likes, get you know, be a little trollish, if you will. I never really thought about it till now, honestly, but it is interesting because all the big

baseball names absolutely give opinions. But if you look at the other sports, how often is Woge giving an opinion or sham? Well, Wosge gives opinions about politics and he gets his ass suspended. But even that was like in an email, right? Yeah. Like, he's not giving very many NBA takes. Schefter's not giving a lot of NFL takes. Sheffter gives very few opinions.

But in baseball, the big names are, it's not just here's the news. It is, here's my takes. Which again, their employers must like that. But it seems to me like baseball is the only sport where I can think that seems to be normal. You know why? Because baseball reporters feel like they're the ones that are supposed to protect their sport. The authority. They're the, we're the holier than that. We have been given a pen to write about America's pastime.

And we will be the police. We will call out our own. No. Bob Nightingale, you write for a paper that no one reads except when it's in the front door of your hotel on the road. John Heyman, I don't know what he does, except for some reason MLB Network has given him a platform because he's a New York-based writer and it's easier to get him there. Buster only has become this editorial king in the last five years.

Peter Gammon's never did that. But even when Peter did, granted, he had a push towards the Red Sox because that's a team that he covered for so many years. But it wasn't like he was an equal opportunity. offender against anybody except the Red Sox. I don't know what's happened. I don't know.

But all I know is is that I have been so massively disappointed with this national rhetoric about good for the Astros. They're down three nothing in the series. Good for Jose Al Tuve because obviously he needed a buzzer to defend his position. I mean, what has happened to logically thinking people that cover the sport on a national basis? Adam Schaeffer doesn't do it Woge doesn't do it at least for basketball Shams doesn't do it for basketball

but for some reason baseball hacks like to run to their Twitter account and give us the news followed by well that was the dumbest thing I've ever seen in my life shame on baseball writers shame on baseball media that they think that that's now what is important

Bob Nightingale get facts right Bob Nightingale do not have multiple errors in your tweets. We will leave you alone. John Heyman, if not for the MLB network, no one would know who you are. The MLB network, and by the way, the MLB network is owned by the MLB. How do the Asteros feel that an employee of MLB is taking jabs at them? Well, the MLB would say, well, you know, we want John to be John.

Not really. Because people that write for the MLB, MLB.com, they're careful not to criticize the sport. They're certainly not, they're certainly going to not criticize Rob Manfred, the boss. So this whole notion of, well, you know, John Heyman is John Hamon we can't control him. That's crap.

You will not go on MLB Network show and see any television reporter, any analyst, any host say, you know, Rob Manfred really screwed this thing up. He won't. They won't see. They won't say it, they won't do it because they'll get them in trouble. So I think that they, if they're going to do that, talk about the game. Talk about the X's and O's the decisions made.

But running your little Twitter account and editorializing how the rest of America's piss, the Astros advanced. You know what? Go to John Heyman.com or John Heyman podcast where seven people would listen. Then you can give all the opinions you want. But act like a grown-ass reporter if you're working for the MLB. because all teams, according to MLB, should be treated fairly, in equally. But you won't because you will not antagonize the Yankees

because the Yankees want that letter sealed, and so does MLB for some reason. There's hypocrisy everywhere in politics and in sports. And I'm just saying keep it even. Not one time if you ever heard me on this radio show defend the Astros for what their actions were in 2017. Not once. Never will. I'm the one, frankly, that said that there should be an asterisk next to the championship. Nobody else, you know, other people are saying, I'm just telling you, being honest,

there is a tarnish on the 2017 World Series. There just is. But I'm not going to belabor it in 2020 when everybody's behaving themselves and learning from lessons. And, oh, by the way, playing by MLB's rules that Rob Manfred set up. Funny, none of those national folks ever seem to bring that up. Never, ever, ever. Instead, you got Senator Ass who's trying to ask for greater penalties. There's just so much hypocrisy.

And that's why you as citizens hate media. Because you can't get it consistent. You just can't. And I'm not saying I'm the layer of consistency. I'm just telling you that I'm just as much as consumer as you are. I'm seeing the hypocrisy out there. And it sucks. Joe Clatt, right down the middle.

Fox Sports joins us in a matter of moment. 713-212-5-790 with a message here for Berkeley Eye Center. The LASIC savings continues. Their summer sale has been extended here into the month of October. We're talking about $1,200 in savings on your LASIC laser vision correction. Plus, you'll get a $300 pair of sunglasses if you text the word LASIC and get your LASIC from Berkeley Eye Center. Text the word LASIC, L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48-L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-L-A-S-I-K to 48-8. 484848 and I promise you

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L-A-S-I-K to 48-48-48. Betters, ballers, and bangers. This is Sports Talks, 790. Home for your home teams. 134 on the Matt Thomas show. We spend 10 quarter minutes with our good friend Joel Clatt. I believe Joel is still waiting to catch his flight from Dallas back to Los Angeles because the flight was pushed back because the game is still going on between all you and Texas. Are you still in the Metroplex right now?

No. And I do have to tell you, that's always one of the longest games of the year. So I did something smart and didn't schedule my flight until seven. So while a large portion of our crew did miss their flight and had to stay over, I was fine and got dinner and made my flight and was home by 9 p.m. Pacific time. Beautiful, right? Planning ahead, guys. I actually tweeted during the game, I was like, Joe, you better change your flight.

I know there's a lot of flights from DFW to LAX. So now that you've had a chance to decompress in that game a few days, What are you taking away from both teams right now? Oh, boy, that's a great question. Let me start with Texas, because I think that the biggest takeaway for me is the lack of progress. And I'm not just talking about wins and losses. I'm talking about the style in which they continue to lose games and to play. There is a consistent nature to the undisciplined longhorns.

and the missed assignments, the penalties that kill drives. And that's got to be frustrating. The fact that they right now don't have a consistent run game, I thought, was frustrating for them. The fact that their passing game has not been anywhere close to good in the last two weeks is frustrating. And the fact that the defense just continues to not be able to stop anybody, regardless of how many highly recruited players there are back there, I think is frustrating. They had a team that is clearly in a rebuild, clearly. I mean, like, plain as day in a rebuild at OU, their young quarterback gets benched in the second quarter,

and they still can't win the game. Like, that's problematic. On the other hand, what a lift for a team and a program that is clearly in a rebuild. And the confidence that they must be getting from playing more quality defense for 56 minutes out of the 60 for a young quarterback that finally made the plays down the stretch in order to win a tight ball game. For a run game that got back on track for a defensive secondary that took away the easy throw. The week prior, Brock Purdy at Iowa State just killed them by just receiving the snap and throwing really easy completion. out to the flat and the slot, little slant passes, and then they would go for big games because they would come up and miss the tackle. Those easy completions weren't there. They were playing

tight coverage, making it tough on Ellinger to get the ball out of the sands quickly, and that allowed the pass rush then to get home. And Ellinger was under duress. So I think this is a huge boost for them. I think it's something that they can candidly use in the recruiting trail and talk about the rebuild and how they're going to be right back at the pinnacle of the big 12 soon. And we'll see if they're able to get to that championship game. They're going to need some help, obviously. But if they play like they did on Saturday, I think, oh, you can and potentially will be, you know, anybody left on their schedule, including even Oklahoma State. So right now the top two teams in the league, because I happened to – I was in Lubbock with my son.

We watched Texas Tech and Iowa State. Is Iowa State and Oklahoma State the top two head and shoulders about everybody else in the division in the conference right now? I think Oklahoma State is, obviously. And just by record-wise, yeah, you're sitting there with Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Kansas State, is a team that should be reckoned with because that TCU team's not bad. And they went down there and it flat played some defense against Max Duggan. And think about it. Iowa State couldn't stop Max Duggan.

Texas couldn't stop Max Duggan. And there's Kansas State that come in and they play really well. So that Big 12 is crazy. If you had to ask me right now, who do I think plays for the Big 12? championship game this year. I believe it's going to be Oklahoma State against either of those two teams, Kansas State or Iowa State. And I think coming into this year, you would have told somebody like, those are going to be your three best teams. They've been like, this is crazy. But it's certainly frustrating. And if that's the case, trust me when I tell you this,

the people down at Texas are not going to be happy in a year in which this really should have been their year with the roster that they had. I don't want you to give away company secrets, but you kind of intimate a little bit. I may have been through your Twitter. I don't know where I saw it, but do big-time administrators or coaches or boosters want to lob a little phone call to you or a little email saying, hey, we're not happy with Tom?

Do you get that stuff a lot or rarely or none at all? Um, let me choose my words. Choose them. Carefully. Take them very carefully. I, um, I get. that type of contact enough.

Okay. And it happens, right? And I'm not, but I will say it has not happened with anybody around, affiliated with, or connected to the Texas program this year. Okay. We'll leave it that. LSU Florida, postponed, Joel. Florida's AD basically saying we got all the COVID we went to college station.

is that shade or are schools, even the super mega conference is not behaving themselves these last few weeks? Well, I know Florida was unhappy with the crowd size, and they believe that the announced crowd was not what was actually there and in person. Now, believe what you want to believe there. I would say that, like, shade or no shade, fault or no fault, I think all of us, all of us around college football fans included, would be incredible. naive to believe that this season was going to, you know, go on without a hitch at any level, right? I mean, I don't care if it's high school is trying to play, college is trying to play, regardless of the level, regardless of testing protocol, the NFL, regardless of protocol. Like, this was always going to happen.

And I think that what we should be more concerned with rather than just like, hey, there's a postponement. Yeah, it's a postponement. Will we rather see the game? Sure, I would love to see Florida and LSU both try to bounce back, in particular on their defensive side, which both those defenses played terror. last week, one against Missouri and LSU and the other there against the Aggies. But I would rather, and I feel like this has been lost, and I think it's a disservice not only to the public, but also just to the fan bases in general.

What's been lost is we throw out this news of these positive tests as if it's just like, well, it's all doom and gloom. And in reality, you know, it is for a period of time. And the overwhelming majority, you know, basically 100% of these young men and even staffers so far have come out of this and have been healthy. And I think that we should celebrate that fact and we should champion that fact and saying like, hey, this is this is a positive that we're getting through this. And while we have stops and starts and no one wants to see that, it's not the end of the world because we can and will get help. healthy and move forward with the season. But I think that there is a certain level of naive thinking to think that this was not going to happen. And even in the SEC, the almighty SEC, now, as far as the shade being thrown at, this is happening across the sport. Remember,

you know, I can't remember. There was a kid that came out on Twitter and it was like, hey, check Arkansas State because we were fine before we played Arkansas State. And then Kansas State had a spike after they played Arkansas State. And I think this is, this is, this. This is the problem when you get individual schools being responsible for their own types of protocols. Here's what's so fascinating, Matt. Did you know, did you know that it's up to the individual program, how they are adhering to the guidelines in terms of contact tracing and isolation and quarantine after positive tests? So some teams, this is absolutely true.

Some teams, if you're in a meeting room with a teammate that tests positive, regardless of if you were six feet away or not, you're out. Bam, like you get contact trace. There are other programs that are only isolating a contact trace if it's your roommate that gets tested positive because they're saying the six feet that we're adhering to within our meeting rooms is good enough to avoid the contact trace. contact tracing. So, and this is within conferences. See, we, I think we're under this assumption that every team within a said conference, SEC Big 12, whatever, is adhering to the exact same

protocols, and that's not the case. And I think that that's got to be one of the most frustrating parts about what's going on in the season. Well, what I'm noticing, Joel, is that all these conferences are bragging about their multiple tests per week. Okay, so you're having these tests. It doesn't necessarily mean that you're still following the rules the rest of time these coaches and kids are together, right? Well, that's exactly, that's exactly right. And like I was saying, there's no protocol. The SEC doesn't mandate like, hey, no team meetings, right?

Hey, you know, we're not, you can't do position meetings. Do you have the contact trace based on X, Y, or Z? All that's left up to the school. So now all of a sudden, these schools have their autonomy. And, you know, one guy gets it. and then all of a sudden, you know, they're talking about Baylor. Baylor is talking about how, like, a negative test, you know, was the first domino. A false negative, yeah.

That caused a big spike on their team. So I think everyone's trying to learn as they go. And unfortunately, this is not going to be the first game that's postponed. To quick wrap it up, A&M with, I tell you what, Jimbo can beat Florida, no matter what school he's coaching at. He loves beating those gators regardless. Mississippi State was impressive with their winning. LSU, but have been terrible since. Can the Aggies go on the road this week and beat the Bulldogs? I mean, absolutely. It's just a matter of which Mississippi State, which Mike Leach team are you going to get.

You guys there in Texas, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. There is an offense or a coach that has higher peaks and lower valleys than Mike Leach over the course of his career. It's one of the big reasons why there's a ceiling on his offense. There's a ceiling on him as a coach, and he's never won a division championship. There was only one year he tied for it with 2008. He was 11 and 1 won with that great time. Texas Tech team, right? Like, you can go out there and stop it. Now, if you don't adjust and if you let them get going, then it's going to be a long day. So I'm really interested to see how A&M can bounce back defensively, in particular after giving up, you know, over 400 yards and seeing how they play against that Mississippi State team. Well, I love you like a younger brother, and I religiously watched the 11 a.m. kick. I might be hard-pressed. I got to be

brutally honest with you. I just don't have any interest in Kansas, West Virginia. Although you get good moments of it. My man. My man. That might make two of us. Don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody. By the way, that Gus Gasms this week were over the top. Ellinger was just fantastic. I'll say what you will. Putting Gus Johnson and Joe Clot on an overtime game, multiple overtime game where Gus is going to lose his lunch. It was a great call. You guys had a great job, and I look forward to talk with you next week. I appreciate it, Matt. Have a good one. We'll see you later. Joe Clatt. The Kansas West Virginia game.

I love him, but come on. TGS Insurance will visit with them down the road. You should visit with them right now by texting the word money. MNEY to 23, 2323. The folks at TGS Insurance want to save you significant amounts of money, hundreds of dollars, if not thousands on your home policy. You text the word money to 23, 23, 23, 23. The folks at TGS will ask for your address via text.

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it's Matt Thomas. I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Merciless. Back to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. We've got a few minutes left in this segment before we get to the two o'clock hour and Dana Holgerson's going to join us for a couple of minutes. I just think the people in Vegas are being cruel to us. The new odds are out for who is going to win the World Series. Tampa Bay is a six to five favorite, so almost even money. Atlanta is 8 to 5. So how excited is Fox about a potential Atlanta-Tampa-Bah World Series? Miserable.

They may put the game on, they may put the games on FS2. I mean, no one's going to watch that, unless you just love baseball. Go ahead, TBS, you can have it. Yeah, TBS is your turn. Go ahead. The Dodgers are seven to two, so they think that they can potentially come back from a two-nothing deficit. The Astros are 40 to 1. So you're saying there's a chance.

Also, the folks in Vegas have put together, and again, this is just these websites are looking to get free runs. I'm not going to mention their website because they don't spend money with us. They want to spend money with us. We'll talk about them. There are odds out about the next Texans head football coach. Eric Banymi, even. Dabo Sweeney, 5 to 1, Josh McDaniels 6 to 1, Greg Roman 9 to 1. Lincoln Riley 10 to 1

Brian Daibol, 12 to 1 Byron Lefich 12 to 1 Matt Eberfluse? Who is that? I feel I should know that person, but I don't. 14 to 1. Robert Salah, 14 to 1. Romeo Cornell is 14 to 1? You can just go ahead and not bet that. Jim Harbaugh, 16 to 1.

Wink Martindale 20 to 1. Here's a sneaky one. Gundy 20 to 1. If I was to put money down, and I just ran through, I'm not going to do it again, but if I was to put down money in any of those guys, let's say I would narrow it down to three, I'd put a few dollars on Eric Bienemy, I would put a few dollars on Josh McDaniels, and probably I'd put a few dollars on Greg Roman. I think it's interesting how big the gap is between Bienemy and the second.

Why is Davos Sweeney second the list? just because of the natural ties with Deshaun. Also agreed, that's way too high. I think he'd be on there as just like a cute, like go ahead and give us your money option. Or you know what? Dark Horse candidate. I think Dobo would be a Dark Horse candidate.

First of all, Dobbo makes incredible money. Dabo has got basically every championship in the ACC for the foreseeable future. Who's the second best team in the ACC this year? Is it North Carolina? because it sure is helling Florida State,

they beat Miami to a pulp last Saturday. I mean, unless he loses his fastball as a coach, and unless the NCAA comes after Clemson for doing something wrong, or unless he just loses the fire in his belly to recruit, Daibble Sweden's going to win the ACC conference maybe nine of the next 10 years. He's built a factory of all-American, quarterbacks and NFL draft picks in a conference that, again, North Carolina, nice, what they're doing, surprising under Mac so quickly.

But Florida State is showing no signs of coming around. Miami's better, but they're clearly the number two team, if not the number three team in the conference because of what Clemson did to them this past Saturday. I wouldn't leave there. to go to the NFL where you're going to come to a football team that's got terrible contracts lit up and down the roster

and no first or second round pick next year if this is my first entrance into the NFL, I don't want that. If I'm Davo, I stay. McDaniels to me, remember that was a gut feeling I had a few weeks ago? I think he would be, I think him and be enemy are one and two for me.

I think you're right on that. I think you're right. All right. Dana Hulgerson is going to join in a matter of seconds. We'll get to him to open up this 2 o'clock hour. Also, sometime in the 2 o'clock hour, we are scheduled to be joined by

Astro's manager, Dusty Baker. Don't know when, but when he does, we'll tell you about it as fast as we as humanly can so you can tell your friends and neighbors, and we can talk some Dusty and Astros baseball. 156, the final hour of the Matt Thomas show starts after this. Is the Matt Thomas

show? 201 on Sports Talk 7. 90. We visit weekly with the head football coach of your school, my school, America's school, the University of Houston. Dana Hulgerson with us coming off of a 49-31 victory of the Tulane Greenwave.

Our visits with Coach Hulgerson are brought to you by the Joint Chiropractor, the official chiropractor of Houston Cougar Athletics. Dana, thanks for the time. As always, you and I talked about keeping things cool in the first five minutes of the game because it had been the first game of the season.

Were things cool at 24 to 7 or did you have to kind of take a time out, grab the guys and say, hey, we're better than this? You know, I really didn't have to do that. That's probably one of the things that I was most proud of of how things transpired last Thursday night where, you know, obviously, offense, you know, did some not-so-smart things in the first quarter. You know, defense had some missed assignments, which resulted in some points as well. But nobody was blaming each other. and nobody was fit and nobody was, you know, raising hell or any of that stuff on the sidelines that you see happening when, you know, when teams are frustrated and all that, they really focused on what we said, which was just kind of let it calm down.

And we had a pretty good second quarter, right? We were, you know, outscored him 14 to nothing in the second quarter, went to the locker room. I was like, kind of happened the way I thought it was going to happen. I mean, if I were to know that we would have gave them 14 points on offense, I would have just punted on first. down. But everybody in the locker room knew we were going to win when we were down 24 to 21 at halftime, you know, and then came out in the second half and played pretty good and got out there with the win. You know what you do? It's very simple. Your quarterback settles down. He finds a favorite or target like Marquois Stevenson, and great things tend to happen. Stevenson,

all I see him, and I've watched him now for a couple of years as you have, Dana, he touches the ball and no play just goes five yards. I think his yards after catch, his explosiveness, and then obviously what he does for you on special teams is one of the great assets you have in your football program right now. Yeah, he just needs to hang out of the ball. You know, he was trying to make a play there in the first quarter and do it to him out in the flat. You made a guy in this like he normally does and guided upfield and then put it on the ground in a pretty crucial situation. And that's something that we've been focusing on. I mean, one of the things that I talked to him about when, you know, he was making his decision to come back or not to come back last year was come back and get your degree first and foremost, which he's going to. He's going to have it here in December.

And then let's just work on some of the little things. I mean, obviously, you're fast and you're explosive. You can make some guys miss, but, you know, that doesn't necessarily always transfer over into the NFL. I mean, you've got to do little things right, like having great ball security, like becoming a better route runner. Probably the most proud I wasn't in that whole game was the actual route that he ran when he scored that touchdown. That was one of the better routes that he's had. I mean, he set that safety up.

He came out of his cut, took the right angle, caught it over his shoulder, and then he should in a dance once he did that. That could be a penalty moving forward. On the defensive side, you held Tulanda Underhunter. yards in rushing. They were lousy on third down conversions. And Peyton Turner, I felt like we were in the booth calling his name every five seconds. He was pretty good for you. Yeah, we thought he was ready to turn the corner. You know, he's played a lot of ball here. And, you know, he's a very unselfish player. He's been here for going on three and a half years. He's going to have his degree in December.

By the way, he's a 4-0 student here from Westside High School here in the city of Houston. But, you I thought he played pretty good last year. He just couldn't finish plays because he had some broken fingers last year. It's tough to grab a quarterback when your fingers are all broke up. And he didn't have a whole lot of help last year either. But I thought our D-Lyline was incredibly disruptive, incredibly improved. He was without a doubt. I've only been able to say this a couple of times.

Leaving the game, just the eye test, just the best player on the field was him. I mean, he just did things that looked different than some of the other guys. and people are you going to take notice. I mean, he looks like a pro, he acts like a pro, and he needs to continue to play like one here for the rest of the year as well. Dana, you usually get aches and pains after the first game of any season, regardless of when it starts. You mentioned earlier this week he had quite a few guys in that category.

How are you feeling health-wise going to the game here? Yeah, I still don't know. I mean, we're battling through it. You know, I don't think it's really anybody's fault. I mean, we've been just sitting here wanting to play a game, and I've been trying to keep them fresh and keep them healthy and keep them ready. And we've accomplished all that, but we haven't had any combat, you know. And so we had some combat last Thursday night.

I mean, Tulane's a physical team, and we match that physicality, and we were pushing those guys around a little bit. You know, their coach, Willie Fritz, said that after the game. Duane's not used to somebody pushing them around like that, and we did. But with that, you know, there's going to be bumps and bruises. And as good as we felt for the last couple of months, that's just not reality. And, you know, heading into game week and the weekly grind of preparing for a game and, you know, not feeling 100% but you've got to get your work done anyway and you've got to focus on what your opponent is.

And then you've got to recover the right way and get ready to go play. And then, boom, you've got to do it all over again the next week for the next eight weeks or whatever it is. So I just think it's a different mindset for our guys. And we made progress the next day. we made progress today. We will make more progress tomorrow and I think we'll be ready to play Friday night. From a logistical standpoint, having one game in the books has to help, especially with a bunch of kids playing their first game in a cougar uniform. And what was it like telling the kids where to go, where to be, what time to warm up? And now that that doesn't be necessarily a part of the conversation

against the cougars here. Well, fortunately for a couple of canceled games, we went through that about three times. That's true. I'm sorry, I even asked the question. Yeah, we didn't get the game played, but we got all the lead-up to the game. You know, the other thing, we got so many kids that were here last year, a lot of guys that redshirted last year that saw how it works and what to expect. So there's only a handful of them out there. You know, Dot, you know, the detackle, that was the first for him. Giovanni Stewart, the transfer from West Virginia,

although he's played in 100 games. I mean, that was his first game here. in Houston. De Anthony Jones 44 was his first game. Other than that, pretty much everybody else had been here. You know, so Lane Wilkins, who's going to be somebody that I think our fan base is going to enjoy really watching. You know, if they like Dane, they're going to like Lane equally as much. So there's just a handful of guys that hadn't been through it. You know, and now that they've been through it, I think the second time through it, it'd be second nature to them. All right, wrapping this up with you, Dana. Let's get to BYU. I feel like, and I'm not watched a whole lot of BYU on television.

They've been on, obviously, every week. The quarterback is insanely accurate. I think he's only maybe, I don't know, thrown 20 completions of all the times he's thrown. He's got a number one target in this Gunner Romney. It's a pretty good one-two combination. And there are a lot of folks, at least that I follow the, I used to work with Utah that said this BYU team, they feel like they could run the table and kind of make a statement in terms of maybe a potential or college football playoff, you'd obviously like to get in their way this week. Yeah, all that's true. You know, the quarterback's playing really good.

I think everything starts with them up front. I mean, let's don't forget, I think they're number three in the country in defense. So they've got a lot of guys coming back on the defensive side of the ball. They're same kind of deal. They're big up front and big and experienced and physical. You know, offensively, they're big up front and their physical. Their run game is important to them. you know, shoot, they're running the ball.

You know, they've rushed it 173 times and threw it 112. So they're two-thirds run game, and because they're so badgum big and they got good backs, and they can move it forward. They don't mind running the quarterback a little bit either, you know. So that just sets up big plays in the past game. You know, you mentioned Romney, but number five, I can't remember his name, but number five is the other guy. He's caught more balls.

It's not as many downfield, but he's kind of their gadget guy, so to speak. heck, they're missing their best player. That tight end is like a first-round draft pick, and he's not even playing right now. I can only imagine what they'd be like with him. But, you know, they've been – they've overmatched everybody they've played. You know, I'd like to think that Houston will be able to hold their own a little bit more than those other group of five schools in Lotech and Troy and UTSA.

I think we'll be ready. You know, I think we've got to the formula. You know, it's a lot like Tulane. We've got to be physical up front. We've got to – we've got to play hard and we've got to be sound and we've got to – We got a lot of work ahead of us, but a big, big challenge here to get better on Friday night. Lastly, what was it like being in a stadium that was largely empty? You know, you had a few fans there.

Everybody's had to kind of experience firsthand of having people in the facility. How was the vibe for the kids on the field, and did you even pay much attention to that once the game got underway? Yeah, you know, you really don't. I mean, you find comfort knowing that you got, you know, specific friends and some fans. family members up in there. I mean, that gives you some comfort early. You know, may wave to them, and then you just kind of forget about that. It's more about the game, you know, and I've been in stadiums where there's 100,000 people,

and I don't even know that there's really people up in the stands. So when you're in the middle of combat and, you know, trying to figure out what they're doing, you're calling plays, you're coaching, you're seeing what's going on. You know, the end-game stuff is always entertaining. I mean, there's some fake crowd noise. that just fills silence. There's music that fills silence. So it's not, there's not silence. And so you just kind of block all that stuff out in your coach. I mean, we wish we could put, you know, 45,000 people at TCDU Stadium, you know, make it really, really, really rowdy on Friday night.

I mean, that's not going to happen. But at the end of the day, it's just about getting out there and doing your job. Great visit as always, Frank. Congratulations. Let's make it to and all on Friday. We appreciate the time this afternoon. Yeah, thanks, bud. We'll see it, man. You got it. Dana Hogerson, Houston, Houston Cougar coach, presented to you by the joint chiropractor, the official chiropractor of U of H athletics. 211.215.7.9. A little aggravated last night. Dana, with us now, hopefully Dusty Baker in the next 40 or so minutes. You can join us right now if you'd like it. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-2-7-90. A little aggravated last night, very disappointed in the Astros. So to take the edge off after our 10th inning call-in show, maybe a little sip of Balcones.

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2.15 on Sports Talk 790. We have had the pleasure all season long to visit with Dusty Baker. We wish you'd been able to forge a little bit of a relationship, but COVID and Zoom have kind of interrupted that a little bit, but we've always appreciated him spending at least some time with us throughout the course of the season, and he's with us here on 790.

Dusty, it's Matt. Good afternoon. So many things I want to say, but I'll just say it right out the top. You've run into, and you know this, this Tampa Bay team has not cheated you. They have played excellent baseball. They have defended their position well.

They've gotten the key out. So it's not like anything gimmick he's happened or the umpires have overly favored them, although the Altube Strike 3 was a joke in the night, but that's not in the hearing or there. You're just playing a really good baseball team and you've come up just a little bit short. I mean, give us your assessment in the series.

Well, my assessment is, you know, they got a lot of interchangeable parts. You know, they got like a couple guys that can play first base, third base, like three centerfielders. They got a very good bullpen combination of right-left. But, you know, we could have won all three of these games. You know, like we get a hit in each game, you know, hit batsman or a ball that, you know, that falls in there or their balls tip off our guy's glove. And like I said, we could have won all three of these games. So, you know, I'm not going to take credit from them,

but I'm not going to give them too much credit either, you know, at the same time. You know, when you're hot, things are going your way. When you're cold, you know, things aren't going your way. We turn cold like all of a sudden, you know, as far as getting breaks, as far as finding, you know, some holes. And so, I mean, this thing is, It's not over yet. You know, I mean, we're not conceding nothing until that final out.

So, you know, my boys are some fighters here. They got a great attitude. And, you know, we just got to find some, you know, get some breaks. Are you, and have you been a guy that does a lot of speaking before games? And would it be out of character if you didn't speak before a game and then maybe you spoke on a game? And what is the last routine bit for you as a manager with this team in particular, knowing that this is a clubhouse that knows each other very, very well? Well, I mean, you know, I think as society, I think we need too much, period.

You know, I mean, you know, most of the time you're a state in the obvious. It's not like we have a bunch of rookies here that need to hear it. You know, these guys have had their backs against the wall. I mean, they know what happened to the Yankees a few years ago, you know, with the Boston Red Sox. So I'm kind of torn between having a, you know, a meeting and go around and just talking to the guys individually and just giving them support. You know, right now they need support, you know, as much as anything. And, you know, it's a matter of you got to have faith. I mean, that's what I've learned in this game.

You know, the more faith you have, you know, the better things turn out. You know, just like I never forget when Derek Jeter is sitting next to you. to Booney in New York, and he said the ghost will come. And you've got to believe, I mean, we don't have a ghost, but I believe that, you know, we've got the Holy Spirit behind us. And there's a lot of people that are pulling against us, but there are a lot of people that are pulling for us. You know, I urge them all to, you know, pray for us and that things work well and come out well.

And, you know, we just do, you know, one game at a time. next thing, you know. I mean, in my mind, it'd be tied three to three and going into game set. Well, of all the sports that we like to watch, streaks happen in baseball more than any other way. You mentioned the personal conversation. Can you just give us a small glimpse of what it's been like talking to Jose the last couple of days? Well, yeah, no, I mean, not really.

That's kind of between me and Jose, you know? But, you know, you just want to just, you know, you know, hug him and give them support. And, you know, Jose, you know, is a very, very spiritual guy. A great guy, everybody in the clubhouse was pulling for him. And I mean, even a guy yesterday asked me, you know, am I going to play him today? And I'm like, how you don't play, even entertain the thought of not playing Jose out too And so I'm just hoping that, you know, like he finds the, you know, the strength inside to put all this behind him because it's all temporary.

I mean, I mean, this all seems so so permanent at the moment. But when you look at, you know, all the deaths that's happened, you know, Jimmy Lee Solomon and, you know, Jimmy Wend and Seaver and Bob Watson and, you know, all my friends. that are passed, you know, on the past couple weeks, I mean, you know, we put a lot of importance on it, you know, which, which it is important, but it's, I mean, this is all temporary. And so, you know, the, you know, the less importance that you can put on something, the less pressure that you have, you know, less pressure that you'll put on yourself. So, let's just, let's just think positive. And certainly that is the case. And the question has been brought up, and I've been listening

to your Zooms after games and people say, does Jose have the Iips? When I think of that, Skip, I think of Steve Sacks and Chuck Knoblock's inability to throw the ball even to first base. I thought you phrased it well, and I want you to expand on a little bit if you can, that guys go through offensive slumps and defensive slums. You played the defense for many years, obviously, there aren't your career. You obviously might have had a slump at some point. How do you go through a, get rid of a slump when it's the most, important time of the season when all the eyeballs on the sport are watching you in particular? Well, you know, a friend of mine sent me something from Steve Sachs yesterday.

And he said it's not the Yips. It's not mental. It's, uh, see what it's actually safe because he, I mean, he's one of the experts on talking about the subject. He just said that, you know, you've lost confidence. And, uh, you know, confidence is the key in this sport. And, uh, you know, you can lose confidence stealing bases. if you get thrown out a couple of times. You can be old for age hitting or throwing a ball or catching a ball. And, you know, the main thing is you've got to be confident. And it's hard for us to give somebody confidence.

You know, the confidence comes from within and comes from the spirit. And, you know, Jose, I mean, that's the only reason why he's made it as far as he has, you know, with the guy that's, you know, short of statue. They told him he was too little. All his life he's been told he's too something. And so, you know, like we love Jose Al-Turray. And, you know, quite frankly, you know, talking about it's not going to help him. You know what I mean?

And so, you know, let's change the subject and hopefully Jose wins the game for us today. Well, I'm going to give you something to positive talk about because I believe you're going to win this baseball game. And I'm going to ask you, have you thought about who he was going to start for you in game five tomorrow? No, not really. We've got to win game 40 first. Yeah, I mean, it's all hands on deck. Yeah. Then we'll worry about game five tomorrow. I will say this. I know Anoli struggled yesterday replacing Jose, but the bullpen for you, and frankly, your starters, have really made your life pretty easy in terms of figuring out who to step on the mound for you. Well, yeah, it's never easy. But, you know, Anoli, you know, it may have looked like you struggled. But, I mean, What he had was the two-strike blues yesterday. You know, like he had two strikes on almost everybody.

He had one and two on the flyer on Diaz. And then he had 0 and 2 on Kiermire and hit him with the pitch. Let me see. He had 0 and 2 on the window. And he hit that ball off of Gregman's glove, which would have been a double play. So it wasn't a real struggle. and he hit Adamus in the finger, barely tipped him in the finger.

So it wouldn't have a little stronger. I mean, this kid was throwing the ball great. And, you know, it was just a matter of inches or a matter of hitting people at the wrong time. Well, Skip, I look forward to hearing who your game five starter is going to be in about, say, seven hours or so. We'll just leave it at that. How about that? I appreciate your time. Thanks a lot, and good luck, because I will talk to you soon.

All right, thank you. You got a Dusty Baker with us here on the Matt Thomas show. I'm going to guess it's going to be Christian Javier, right? I don't think you're, if you're going to win the series, you're going to have to go to seven. You don't need necessarily bring somebody out on short rest. Now, maybe game seven becomes a hot mess, but that's way way way down the road. But in the scenario where they need to say Grinky only goes four or five, it's, you know, certainly possible. How do you not go, Javier?

You've got to keep the game alive. That's right, because he would be your freshest arm and your most effective arm so far coming out of the bullpen. I mean, if Crinky goes deep, you don't have. have to think that way. But if he has another short outing, I think, especially if you're winning, you've got to seriously think about going to Javier. Probably right. Thanks again to Dusty for joining us

here on the show. We're not doing believe it or not today because I wasn't prepared for it because we didn't know when Dusty was going to be on, so it kind of worked out that it's just you and me the rest of the way, meaning you, Brendan, me, me, and you guys out there too. So if you want to comment on anything that Dusty had to say, come

on in and join us. 713-212-5-790. I believe it's not Yips. I will buy into the defensive slump because my definition of Yips is the inability to even attempt to throw the ball and get it over there. Where today, if there's a routine ground ball to second base or in around that area, Jose picks it up and can't throw it to Yuli, that would be a mental block that can't be fixed right now.

But I will say this. If there's anybody in the world that needs an error-free game, it's certainly the Astros because the rays have taken advantage of the Astros mistakes, and it is certainly Jose Al-Tubei. 226 on the Matt Thomas show, you and me the rest of the way. 713-212-5-790. Open lines.

Come on and y'all tell me about it. What do you think? We had an instipole earlier today that when 4-3, the series continues. What does your gut tell you about tonight? 7-13-212-5-790. If you want to reach out through Twitter, it's at SportsMT and at Brendan Riley underscore. I want to tell you about home equity loans you can get today from the Shell Federal Credit Union.

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ShellfcU.org. Apply online, visit with the folks there. You'll appreciate the home equity loans and everything financial they can help you with from the Shell FCU. Welcome home to Shell FCU. 2.32 on Sports Talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show, 713, 212, 5-790. Thanks again to Dusty Baker and Dana Holgers. That's not bad getting two head coaches back-to-back on the radio show.

Appreciate those gentlemen spending some time with us. Tomorrow, the radio show, Dr. Roto's with us for his normal Thursday visit. Boy, has this NFL Tuesday night game kind of screwed you up? Because my fantasy leagues, I'm in two of them, which is one too many. Yesterday was supposed to be Waver Day. Now is today Waver Day? even checked. It depends on who you're using. You're playing on ESPN, aren't you?

I'm in one ESPN, and one Yahoo. I believe both of them are have moved it to Thursday. I use a much smaller app for the crazy people that still did it today. That doesn't seem fair, does it? I don't know. I guess it doesn't matter.

The app I use is for like the diehard fantasy people so we're like on it too much anyways. We're paying enough attention. Can I ask you how much it is to play in your league? What if I told you my main league is free? Then I'd have to slap you. I've been in the league for 15 years. These are people I grew up with.

Doesn't matter. You play for something. I have leagues for money, but the league that I care the most about is free. Yeah, you're a dork. I love you, but you're a dork. Look, man, I understand it, and I understand how crazy it sounds. But, like, I'm 27, and I've been in this league for 15 years. Like, I started the league.

Well, you're all a growing man now. I don't care when you started. It's time to put a couple of, You know, shackles on it. But the thing is, like, we don't need it. It's so intense without it. Why would we add it? Because we've discussed it.

Okay, so how many leagues are you in total? Four? And what's the most expensive league? 50 bucks. Huh. Mine is weird. I'm in one league that I just joined because a bunch of listeners and neighbors are in it. It's $25.

That's nothing. Our 790 league is $175. Yeah, I heard about that. That would be a tough one for me to swallow. have done it, but that's a lot of money for fantasy football. It's, you do something once a week, $175 is nothing, but free. Do you have a belt? Do you have some sort of T-shirt you wear?

So actually, it started on the street I grew up on, right? Only people who lived on that street. So the street sign that I grew up on is our trophy. Okay. Which is currently at my place. Well, congratulations. Thank you. I'd rather have money.

Yeah. It is teach his own. And even 175, I'd play in a higher league if I could. No. But I will, this will be the one only year I play in two leagues. I just, I don't know which, like, I've got one team is two and three and one team's three and two. I'm just mediocre. When you consider the fact that it is for a, most league's 13 regular season weeks, it's really not that bad.

No, it's 12 bucks a week. That's one meal out. But I'm playing so much daily fantasy on top of that. Oh. See, there's where your sickness comes in. I don't even do that. I'm glad I don't. 713-212-5-7-90.

Let's go to Michael and pass it. Get-down-Dena on the Matt Thomas show. Michael, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Hey, thank you for having me on. Sure. I wanted to mention Jose Al-Tube. Yes, he's made some crucial throwing eras.

But the guy is a superstar. The guy is an iconic player, probably one of the most iconic players to ever play for Houston. I think Jose deserves a pass. I think if a couple of balls drop and a couple of key hits, we'd be talking about the aftos being up 3-0 instead of down 3-0.

So regardless of what happens tonight, we should be talking about how well our pitching is done and how much this team is overachieved this year. And whether they win or not tonight, they've had a really fantastic year. Thank you very much. Thank you, Michael. I don't think anybody is discounting what you just said.

But nobody wants to think about consolation prices when you're still in a series, especially when you're in a series that you think one hit changes everything. I'm not trying to dumb it down. I don't think I am. But the reality is, if any of those amazing plays by Tampa defensively in any of the three games, if one of them scoots by an outfielder, if one of them trickles off their glove, it's a difference in at least one ball.

game. And I'm telling you, I think being down 3-0 and being down 2-1 is a world of difference. I really do. Because at 2-1, you're like, okay, we're back in this bad boy. You're down 3-0 in a series, and you're thinking, well, is today the day it ends? Because here's something that Brendan, I've not brought up on the show at all today, that we've got to start really seriously thinking about. The next time the Astros lose, will be the last game that likely George Springer plays for the Astros that Josh Reddick definitely doesn't play for the Astros.

I mean, I shouldn't say definitely, but I can't imagine coming back. And I don't think Michael Brantley's coming back either. Because I don't know if the Astros philosophy would be to pay a mid-30s outfielder who has been really healthy as an Astro but has had a history before that of not being healthy any sort of major cash.

I think they're very confident in Kyle Tucker being an everyday outfielder for this team, whether they're being left or right field, and then maybe they go chase after some cheaper money in free agency, knowing that they've got Carlos Correa to pay down the road. I don't mean to get all sobering on you here at 238, but we've got to be sober here for a second. And think about the fact, especially in George's case, this might be the last game he plays.

unless the Astros have a philosophical change of heart and decide that that's the number one thing. Because right now when you ask James Click, and I don't think Jim's been publicly discussing anything, I think he's been kind of out of the side of mind during all this entire thing. When teams want to get deals done, they typically get them done in the spring training of the year of the contract. And they know that if you leave spring training without a deal signed, that's an open invitation for that player to go find another location. Or maybe George just said, I don't care what you pay me.

I don't want to play for the Astros anymore. I've had a good run here. It's been a great time. We've won a World Series. We've gone on a bunch of playoff games. We've restarted a franchise that was dormant for basically 10 years. But I want to go somewhere else. He could be thinking that too.

And that no amount of money the Astros will want would be good enough. So that's why we have to continue to root for this team to keep winning because that sobering conversation I just gave you at 239 could start as soon as tomorrow if they lose. I'd really like if we can at least wait until next week on that.

You know what I'm saying? Give me a few more games. Let me finish off the week. I'm trying to think who else would be up. Uli's been signed for next year. Bregman's locked and loaded. Correa's still got another year and Al-Tubei's got is locked and loaded.

I'm trying to think anybody else. The outfield is up in air. I don't think Brad Peacock and Chris Devinsky are back, which means you've got to figure out of these young kids that have been throwing this year. And hell, you don't even know what the rotation is going to look like. Is Framber Valdez the new ace of this baseball team? Is Jose Orkidhi the number two on this baseball team in 2021?

Does Zach Granky in his 30, what does he make, over $30 million a year? Is he now a back end of the rotation guy? All of these are too many questions. I didn't mean to pose at such a late part of the show. you're right let's save this for next week you're previewing what you hope is not tomorrow basically

that's right now we'll get to some football for sure Texans getting ready for the Titans but yeah I just I just gave you a forecast of what Astros offseason talk is going to be on this radio show

it doesn't feel right it does not feel like the series I've watched should have us starting to talk about that right now you know why because you haven't seen 7-1, 9 to 3, 8 to 2 you've seen ninth inning runners on the bases with key guys of the plate it was eighth and ninth yesterday yeah and so many men left on base so many hits so few

runs here's what we're going to have to do final segment of the show is is going to be completely non-sobering maybe we get we can come back with go go astros something to get the people fired up because i don't want this season dead i don't want the raise to play a perfect series and celebrate four consecutive wins. I want them to have it leave. Can we get two errors? How do we put a proper voodoo curse on the Ray's glove for at least one game? What can we do as a society, Houston, Texas, to will the raise to commit not one but two errors?

A double air game. Can we get that? let's discuss it in the final segment of the show. And what can I do? What am I as a major market radio host prepared to do? What can I do? What can you as a major market radio listener do to at least inspire two Tampa Bay heirs? Don't you think they're about due?

That's what I felt like yesterday. Those balls are about due to land. They landed all right. They just landed in Tampa gloves again for the third straight day. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Get in. Final segment, Matt Thomas Show, 242. Well, the message here for the Woodhouse Day Spa.

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Houstonwoodhousepaws.com HoustonWodhowspaws.com. Got to change it up. No! You're still a good feeling, don't you? Don't even know they're the words. The words. Turn it up!

We gotta go Spanish rest away, we gotta do it. Astros number... If anybody knows an Italian version of the song, we'll play tomorrow. Nice. German! I'll play non-English a rest away if I have to. Do you think this work? Playing non-English versions of Go-Go Aster

It's worth the try. Again, if anybody has any German, Portuguese, I guess Latin would be a little bit of a challenge. Nobody speaks Latin, I don't think. Helped with your SATs back in high school, but other than that, it didn't do much. All right, that's what we're going to do.

We will play Spanish Astros, go-go Astros as long as they keep playing. Hopefully we're playing it multiple times between now and the end of the week. Jim's in Spring Branch at 250 on 790. Hi, Jim. Hey, yeah, I love that. on Vomino Sastros. I've got a voodoo doll that I bought in New Orleans that I'm willing to stick pins in.

Really? Now, where did you buy this voodoo doll? Somewhere in New Orleans, I don't remember where. There was heavily drinking involved. I tore my ACL falling off a bar stole on Bourbon Street. Other than that, I thought my be, huh? Said no one else? Yeah. My not quite wife then said, came out to me. He says, I love you and barely touched me. I just hit the floor like a sock of potatoes and ACL torn. You got to do me this favor. If you're going to really do this, two things have to happen.

One, you've got to make some sort of makeshift raise uniform and put it on the doll. And then you've got to take a picture of and send it to me. I don't have anything that Ray related. I've got a Tampa Bay Blue Jay ashtray that I bought at the old stadium. A Tampa Bay Blue Jay? What is that? No, not Tampa, but I mean, Blue Jays, Toronto, Toronto. Oh, that'll do us no good. All right, well, it was the thought that counts.

I'm going to stick some pins in it anyway, okay? Okay, fine. I'll accept that. All right. We'll see you. All right, man. All right, buddy. That's what I'm talking about. So, so far on our list of things we've done

is we've played Go Go Astro Spanish Ferson, and we've got a man who has a doll that he purchased in New Orleans at a voodoo shop after tearing his ACL, after falling off of a bar stool and he wants to put a bunch of pins in it. That man just wanted an excuse to put pins in his voodoo doll. Yeah. The problem is you have to dress the doll.

Do you not? At least like write the name on there or something? You know what you do? Get some like, not scotch tape because that's clear. Masking tape, right? Perfect. Yeah. Just masking tape the whole damn doll, several layers.

And then put T.B. Right across it. Stick the pins and call it good. Good enough for me. Yeah, you got an improv here. First pitch is like in five hours. So you don't have time to go dress it up. But do something to let us know that it's not just a normal doll that you just,

because maybe people thinking you're putting pins in dog because they represent your wife. We need to represent Tampa Bay and their terrible. Matter of fact, he should take this masking tape and put it around their hands. So they butcher everything. we go. Or at least put the pins in the hands. You got to do something with the hands. Yeah, so the ball falls out of the glove instead of staying in the glove, especially

in Hunter Renfro's glove. I wonder if Kevin Kiermeier's playing that he got hit pretty hard with the hit by pitch. I'm not saying the line. It's a little early for that, but yeah, that's what you got to do. Put the pins in so we know it's an anti-Tampa doll. Dosecchi's 253 on 790. D.E., what do you got? Hey, Matt, tell you what we can do

with that doll? Yeah. This is probably Hispanic culture, if you believe. I don't believe in it. But what you're going to do with the doll after you do all the, whatever you guys are talking about, you're going to get an egg that's not cooked and put it on the stomach and just rub it. That's an old Mexican or Latino that used to do back in the day. Okay. So take an egg that has not been cooked and rub it over the belly of the doll?

Yes. Why can't we crack the egg and have the egg? spell out on the doll. Which are a way to do that. Hey Matt, let me ask you about the two errors if the thing about the errors that Tampa has done is that not only if Tampa was to make two errors but we will have to capitalize on those errors and go from there because you know somewhere somehow we're going to have a little bit of luck coming our ways but I'm proud of

my Astros I know all too is going through the the doldrums I guess like Mala to say, but we also have to appreciate Al-Tuba because remember in 2018, the dude went all out playing and basically won it late. And you don't hear too much about that. Like we are hearing nowadays about the Aves or whatever you want to call that. But Al-Tu is going to be okay. Let's go get the Richter tonight, Matt. It's good to talk to you. And greetings from Mrs. Doseki's. Okay, take care of. Hi, we'll see you later. God bless you too, my friend. Love the Dosaki's family. The son, the wife, the mom, the dad. They all listen to the show. I appreciate that very much.

Okay. Let's call our shot. We got a minute and a half left to go on the show. See, I had him 5-1 early lead holding onto a 7-6 victory. That didn't work out. So I will flip it just to change the vibe. Tampa wins a series by the final score of 6 to 3. Oh, you think it's over? No, but I got at least say something like that. Okay. I think that... I'm just trying to reverse my own jinx.

For what? Maybe the first... time the series they score when in a scoring threat. I'm going to give them a 4 to 2 win today. Keeping along the lines of low scoring. Okay, I got it. Adam Wexler, Adam Clayton are going to entertain you for the next three hours. Then

on deck at 6, I will have the 10th inning call-in show and I will go as late as necessary hopefully celebrating an astro victory. For Dusty Baker, who joined the show. Thanks to Dana Hogerson for joining the show and Joe Clyde. I'm Matt Wexclanton. The A team.

on 790.