The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Intense First Game Match-Up vs Phillies

Episode Date: June 25, 2025

Brian Bogusevic Joins The Show After Intense First Game Match-Up vs Phillies

Sports Talk 790. Your Astros win 1-0 over the Phillies. We're going to spend 10 quality minutes with the main way joins us every Wednesday here on the show. Space City Home Networks. Brian Bogus Sevik. Brian, one-nothing. We've seen quite a few of those over the course of the year. How many times have we seen and how many times have we not shaking our heads over the fact that Jake Myers batting cleanup for the local nine last night?

Yeah, that was a little unexpected showing up at the ballpark and looking at the lineup. I think it just kind of speaks to where the organization, where the coaches are at with, you know, some of the guys who've struggled early, right? Christian Walker, Yiner, those guys, they've been waiting for them to turn it around. You know, we're going to be here in a couple days and it's going to be the halfway point. You know, at some point, your leash has run out. And when you're writing out the lineup every day, you've just got to take the guys that are swinging the bat the best. And I know, you know, your four or five hitters prototypically aren't going to be Jake Myers and Cam Smith,

but they're both swinging the bat well. and you've got to get guys behind Pena Paredes-Eltuve who are going to potentially drive and run. It didn't happen yesterday, but, you know, it's not a terrible idea. It is interesting how the game worked out yesterday. Ranger Suarez, I mean, the ERA is about a one this month. Frymer gives you quality starts. You know, I don't know if today's baseball fan wants 100 of those kind of one-nothing games,

but I was in tune with it because I, first of all, appreciate what both guys did. and secondly, I wanted to see who was going to flinch first. And of all people, Cooper Hummel was the man to be the hero for the local nine last night. Yeah, I think you know, if you're a true baseball fan, you really appreciate games like that because, you know, everything, you have to do everything well in a type game like that. It was obvious from, you know, the first couple of innings that that was going to be a low-scoring game. So all of a sudden, you know, you've got to play good defense.

You know, you've got to run the base as well. You can't make a mistake pitch. you know, over the middle of the plate. You've got to really tighten down when there's runners in scoring position. And that's fun baseball to watch, in my opinion, when both teams have to be on it. And you're a lot of times watching a 10 to 9 game, it can be a little bit sloppy. And it just all gets kind of washed away with all the runs that are being scored. I enjoy a game like that. But yeah, Major League Baseball doesn't want to see that every night.

No. How did Farmer do it yesterday, where he was kind of avoiding disaster? They, Philly's got on the base pads a lot through some, a few hard knocks, some of the walks, and that's something about nine, nine walks for Framber over the last couple of games, but every single opportunity presented itself and he came through and didn't let anybody cross the pay station for Philadelphia. Yeah, first of all, you know, he had really good stuff yesterday. His command wasn't as sharp as we've seen at times, but just the pure stuff, the movement on the

fastball, you know, the break on the curveball was all really good. And when you have that good of stuff, you know, you can just keep going to the well and eventually you'll be successful. But I think what was really important yesterday was he kept a really level head. You know, he had a walk, I think, in each of the first three innings. There were a couple errors mixed in. So, like, there's a lot of traffic on the basis. And sometimes, you know, as a pitcher, you can get into those situations and you think, okay, I got to get nasty. I've got to go for the strikeout here.

I've got to, you know, put a little bit more on this fastball and hump up a little bit. he just kept his cool and kept making pitches. And when he does that, you know, you're going to get ground balls. You're going to get double plays. You're going to get yourself out of the inning. And I thought he did a really nice job navigating some tough situations by keeping his head and not trying to do more and not making situations worse. Brian Bogusevick with us here on Sports Talk 790 and the big series with the Phillies

and the Cubs coming to town as well. Players and coaches and everyone will always say publicly, yeah, we want to win every game we take them all the same, but how much truth is that, as you as a former player? Like, when it's the Phillies and Cubs coming in town, is there a little extra juice? I think so, but I think it probably, it comes more externally. You know, you get there and there's a little bit of a buzz in the stadium. It's crowded. The fans show up earlier.

You know, there's more stimulation from that standpoint. You know, guys know that they have to be on top of their game. You're playing a good team. You're playing a first place team. You're going to see a ton of really good pitching. So guys can feel that. But it's not like it's, okay, now we're going to try harder. Now we're going to, you know, really focus on our scouting reports and, you know,

dot eyes and cross-tees. That stuff is happening regardless. And I just think there's a little bit extra juice just because of the buzz that's in the stadium. But, you know, it's, it really sounds cliche to say it's one of 162, but it really is. And especially this time of the year where you've got a bunch of games behind you. So you're kind of in the, the drag of the season. but at the same time, you know, you're so far from the end where you're not really scoreboard watching or anything.

So, yes, in the clubhouse, it's just one of 162. But, yeah, you can feel the little bit of extra juice when you know that the fans are into it. Both Bryce Harper and Yordon Alvarez missing from this series. And we were talking about in the last hour, Brian, about, we've talked a lot about pitching injuries. But position player injuries, I think it feels like are up. I don't know if you agree with that, but we were just kind of thinking, is it guys? just pushing their bodies to the limit, or are we just kind of noticing the injuries and it's always been like that? Probably a little bit of both.

You know, we hear a lot more of the day-to-day stuff regarding, you know, the 29 teams that aren't in our city. So we can feel that a little bit more. But, yeah, you know, where strength and conditioning has gone over the last 10 years, you're really pushing the envelope. Guys are bigger, stronger, faster. They work out more. They push themselves harder. And, you know, as you push yourself towards that edge a little bit, every once in a while it goes a little bit too far and you get banged up and,

and, you know, you get injured. I think also teams are more willing to be cautious with players and guys feel a little bit of something. And you're immediately say, okay, we're not going to push it. You know, we're going to sit you down for a couple days or we're going to put you on the IEL for 10 days and get ahead of it. Because, you know, there's so much volume throughout the course of the season that, you know, And with the length of the season plus the expanded playoffs, and there's just more of a path to getting into the playoffs, and the goal is really to be healthy in that full strength at the end.

So I think teams have also figured out that, you know, weighing the option of pushing a guy during the middle of the season versus laying back and having him healthy at the end, it's more valuable to do that. Bogie with us here on Sports Talk 790. The Astros have been very fortunate over their history to have great. 8th and 9th inning guys. This a Brayu

hater combo, sub 2 ERA, winning games, very, very rare poor performances. I mean, bullpen in itself has been a hero all year long, but these guys have been an outstanding one, two combination that I think

that the Astros obviously said we think we can spend some serious money on Josh, and it'll be well worth it. Last year, good, this year phenomenal. Yeah, you know, you try really hard not to take it for granted, but it feels pretty automatic, right? It feels like once you get to those two guys that you're going to get two zeros and the game's going to be over. And, you know, the kind of stuff that they have, the power stuff, overwhelming fastballs, overwhelming sliders, it allows for margin of error for them.

And even on days when they don't have their best stuff, they're still going to win most of the time because it's just that good. I mean, you miss a spot with 99. it's still 99 and really difficult to hit. And when you have two of those guys, you know, you can make an argument that there are other, you know, pandems at the back of the bullpen that are as good as those guys or have been as good. But I don't know that you can really make the case that there's anybody

that's been definitively better than those two. Everyone says, all right, what do you do at the deadline? Do you stand pat? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. You got the second best record in the American League. You got some guys coming back. and then there's always this conversation about the Astros need another left-handed bat. Now, clearly if Yoron comes back, whatever it is, and he picks up where not necessarily

left off pre-injury, but the normal Yor-Dun we're in, let me ask you this, as we speak to you today, even with Yoran still on the injured list, how desperate do you believe the Astros are, if they are at all, for a need of a left-handed bat in their everyday lineup? I wouldn't call it desperate, but I would say it would definitely be useful. even with you know assume yordon comes back and he's healthy and he's jordan and he's producing like crazy and you've got that big lefty bat right in the middle of the lineup i think you still need another one you know a lot of times we'll see this team you know put out a very right-handed lineup

against the power right-handed pitcher particularly right-handed pitchers with good sinkers and it's really difficult to score runs you know you need that balance not just because you get the platoon advantage of going to the other side but oftentimes just having the lefties in the lineup to make the pitcher throw to different locations, make them use different pitches, make them go to their changeups more, you know, getting them off of their spot a little bit can create mistakes. You don't want to run out a lineup there, even with Yordaun in it, where there's eight other right-handed hitters where a pitcher can just go sinker down

and sinker down and in slider, I got you, and just do the same thing over. You're not, you know, you have to make them go all over the strike zone because that creates opportunities for them to screw up. That creates opportunities for them to be off with something and then you get the advantage. So, yeah, even if it's not an everyday type of bat, even if it's a guy who, you know, can come in and platoon with somebody or just be an option to give somebody a day off and give you a matchup advantage every once in a while, I think it would definitely be a welcome addition. Talking about the bats the Astros do have, we were also talking about batted

ball luck in how it's been pretty good for Pena and Myers, but it's been pretty bad for guys like Altuva, Walker, Yiner Diaz as well. Can you just, you as a player and then now you as an analyst of the game, just how much, if at all, do you pay attention to those types of things? You do because you kind of want to know what's going on. And, you know, everybody's always looking to make an adjustment. and everybody's looking to, you know, change something to try to get better. And, you know, if you're going out there and you're doing everything the way that you're

supposed to do it and it's just not finding a hole, then you have to kind of sit back and say, okay, I don't need to make change just for changes sake. You know, eventually things will turn in my favor. So, yeah, you want to be aware of that. But at the same time, you know, you don't need those numbers to know whether or not you're executing your at-bats. You know if you're swinging at good pitches. know if you're making quality contact.

You know, yeah, the numbers might reinforce it one way or the other, but you really have a good feel for where your swing is at regardless of what that number says. Brian, great stuff. As always, thank you very much for the time. We'll talk again next week. And what is your TV schedule the next handful of days? I'm on the rest of this series, and I am off for the weekend. Wait a minute.

You're not going to be there for the Kyle Tucker Ryan Presley tribute Friday night? I will not I'll have to I'll have to catch a replay That is nearly as dedicated As we thought you were That's fine

Let the man enjoy a weekend You know what You know take the family out For a nice dinner They deserve it All the time you spend away at the ballpark Or I'll be sitting at swim meets all weekend Oh I see you know what

You're dad of the year Thanks bogey for the time as always All right see you guys We'll see Brian Bogussevik