The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian Bogusevic Talks Astros as They Snap Eight-Game Losing Streak

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

Brian Bogusevic Talks Astros as They Snap Eight-Game Losing Streak

Time for us to spend 10 minutes with our friend Brian Bogusevic of SCHN, pre and post game shows. And, of course, the former Astro joining us here on Sports Talk 790. That was a sweat last night, Brian Bogusevic, but the Colorado defense didn't do its job. Astros took advantage of it. The bats came back and you got just enough from your bullpen to cover a large stretch of games to finally end that losing streak. Yeah, you know, watching that game yesterday is kind of like any port and a sense. storm. You take a win any way you can get it. You know, use five relievers and throw over 100 pitches, get a lot of help from Colorado's

defense. But, you know, whatever you can do to break the streak, kind of put that behind you and maybe not think about it anymore, go out there. And you're not going to be able to consistently win that way, but, you know, you can win a game like that and we'll take it. All right. Unfortunately, you have been through a few of those in your life. When he gets to that, I didn't mean to bring it that way. those lists come up. Every time those lists come up, I know, I know. I didn't mention the year. And you weren't solely responsible. But how do you shake when it gets a 6, 7, 8? What's going for your mind beyond the fact of what can I do? When do I start looking at teammates? And again,

you never have anything publicly about it. But just the thought about when it starts to get to that kind of level, what is the tenor like for a personal player and then obviously a group in the clubhouse collectively? Well, it's certainly not fun. And nobody's having a good time. going out there and, you know, you show up every day trying to have a fresh mindset and trying to approach the day as if today's the day that it's going to turn and to put in all the work, you know, from noon until 7 o'clock and then go out there and be like, oh, man, another loss. It happened again. It gets old fast. But the thing about this team and this clubhouse versus teams that are just perpetually bad, like some of those 2010-2012 teams,

they have guys who have had a lot of success, and they have had success as a unit. And they can look around and say, look, I know that I'm doing my part, and I trust that these guys are doing their part to get out of it, and eventually we will. So there is a little bit, it is easier to try to look ahead and see a light at the end of the tunnel when you have a group that's been so successful previously. But it just comes down to, are you doing the things that you need to do on a daily basis to try to get better and get us through this? And do you trust the fact that everybody else is also?

And I don't think that waivers in that clubhouse. There's a variety of things a manager has to do, Brian, when you're in a long losing streaks. And when you're also battling injuries, which unfortunately Joe has had to deal with a lot this year. How is it for him? Now, you've never done it yourself. I'm just curious what it's like from your perspective watching Joe try to massage this bullpen, which has been overused. It got used a lot last night.

And how do you kind of work through this knowing that the only way you really give guys time off is by asking inexperienced guys to give you six, seven innings when they don't typically have a history of doing that? It's difficult in a lot of different ways. It's difficult because your closers hurt and the guy that was supposed to fill. in for him is not himself. It's difficult because the starters are not going deep enough into games to allow you to kind of, you know, pick and choose your spots where you're using guys. You're just having to cover innings.

It's difficult because you have a lot of guys pitching, you know, big innings and pitching meaningful innings who don't have a ton of experience. So there's all of these different variables that you have to deal with. And, you know, managers like to go into games with, you know, a roadmap for the most part. And obviously things change as a game goes on. But you want to know, hey, I can generally expect to get this from my starter. And I know that I like these relievers against these different parts of the lineup. And hopefully you have in the back of your mind. And I know if I get to the eighth and the ninth, boom, you go, you know, a bray you hate her in years past. And

that's a given. There is no roadmap right now. So it really is, you know, day to day based on who's available and who's been overworked. It's inning to inning on, you know, just do I need to cover four out of the pen today or do I need to cover seven out of the pen today? And, and really, it's batter to batter because, you know, for the most part, you're thinking about relievers in one inning stints and maybe, you know, three to five batter pockets of the lineup. But there are plenty of times now where it's, okay, you went in there and you put out the fire to get out of, you know, basis-loaded situation, I got to run back and bring you back out there the next inning and see if you can get me three more. And if you do that, I might push you one or more

after that. And you're just constantly pushing it and you're constantly trying to find where the edge is and pull a guy right before he gets to it. And that's just, you know, it's really difficult to do once or twice. It's nearly impossible to do if that's what you're having to do with every matchup. Brian Bogussevick with us here on Sports Talk 790. So I guess as the rotation is comprised, your one, two guys, or maybe McCullors and Burroughs? It's kind of crazy to think about where they are right now. But, I mean, whoever's out there, they have to perform. They have to go deeper into games.

Specifically on those two guys, what do you think has gone wrong and can go right with them? Well, I think what's gone right is their stuff looks good. I mean, Burroughs, if you just look at the spin of his breaking balls and the velocities of his fastballs, they look fine. McCullors his stuff certainly looks better than it did last year. And similar to what was encouraging in spring training, they've gotten in trouble with location within the strike zone. And there's been so much talk about walks and everything. And obviously, first and foremost, throw the ball over the plate. But it's got to, you got to have quality pitches, especially if you're going to pitch deep in the games,

especially if you're going to try to get through lineups, you know, multiple times. You've got to make quality pitches. And when those guys in particular have gotten hit, it's when pitches end up in the middle of the zone. And nobody's going to, you know, live 100 pitches on the edges and on the corners. But it's just if you're going to rely on guys to be, you know, what is essentially the top of your rotation right now, they've got to be able to go out there and just execute at a greater level. because the stuff is good enough to get deeper in the games. I don't know that it's going to be, you know,

an automatic seven innings every time you go through the one and two spot, but it's got to be more efficient in the zone and then more quality in the zone as well. And on the starting pitching front, Tatsuya I imagine you heard his comments about adjusting to coming over from Japan. and it's just interesting and curious situation where he says he has arm fatigue, the imaging is clean, but he was I-held as well. What do you make of all that?

And just him at some point, unfortunately, especially with paling with everything else that's happening with starting pitching, you need him to try to figure this out, adjust as soon as possible, and get healthy, and then, oh, by the way, be effective when he's on the mound. Yeah, so a lot of stuff. First and foremost, it looks like a guy who's not having a very good time right now, who's not very comfortable in his surroundings and is just struggling, you know, baseball-wise struggling and just struggling to adjust. I can sympathize.

I went the other way. I went from, you know, the U.S. to playing in Japan. And all of the things that he's talking about, I dealt with them in reverse. And they're real and they affect you, you know, not to the point to that you can't perform. but adjustments are real off the field. I will say this in just, you know, listening to his comments and especially just the way he was talking yesterday. So when I was over in Japan, a question that we got asked all the time

by managers, coaches, media, fans, whoever was how's your conditioning? They would always ask us, how's your conditioning? And they would want like a percentage. It was a strange question. But at first, I hear, I hear, conditioning, you know, through my interpreter. And I'm always, you know, like, I'm healthy. I'm in shape, like 100%. My conditioning is 100%. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm, I'm in shape. I just got to hit better. But what I found later is it's a question that they ask when they want to know

what's your conditioning relative to like the best version of you as a player. You know, are we seeing 80% performance, 90% performance? Are you at 50%? And it's like this all-encompassing thing. that is how are you feel? Are you healthy? Are you comfortable off the field? Is your girlfriend mad at you? What's going on? And so it's this weird, like, all-encompassing number that they're, and I got to the

point where I would just make up things. I'd be like, I'm at 74% today. Like, it didn't mean anything to me. But it is a very real thing for the Japanese players to answer these questions about just how do you feel kind of holistically and as a whole? and the adjustment plays a big part in that. So I'm sympathetic to a guy who's talking about his struggles, not just on the field, but also trying to get comfortable off the field

and also understanding that that's a real thing that they answer on a regular basis over there. And I wonder if, you know, through question to interpreter to player back to interpreter and then answering the question, if, I mean, things get lost and, tweaked and stuff. So I wonder if he's just trying to express that he's not feeling right and really just feeling like himself at this point. Brian,

it is a... It doesn't think of the fact that you've got to pitch better. Yeah, I mean... It is what it is. Yeah, it is what it is. And as I talked to Ross about it last hour, and look, when you want to play the very best, you go to the major leagues. No disrespect to the Far East game. No disrespect to the Mexican leagues. But there's

a difference between those two leagues that is brought up and what you have in the major leagues. So, So if you want to go do this and you want to make the large amount of money, you want to play against the best, there's going to be some ups and downs to it. You know, when you are compensated and when you wouldn't go get Scott Boris as your agent, he's going to go get you the best deal possible to make you the most money because that's what you hired him for. So I think there's a little wiggle room to feel sorry and empathetic. I mean, we're not all cold as human beings, forgetting about baseball fans.

But I think the leash is fairly short on this. because this is a guy that was supposed to be brought in to basically replace Framber Valdez. The Astros made a concerted effort not to bring back Framber Valdez because they had a plan B. And this plan B so far has not worked out. No, at the end of the day, it's a bottom line league, and it's a bottom line world that we live in. And it's not a try hard, do your best league. It's a do good league. And you are expected to perform, and you are compensated well for that performance.

and whether or not you're comfortable with the hotel situations and the travel situations, you know, that is for you to deal with and figure out in order to perform in the way that you are expected. So, yes, at the end of the day, it's all about what can you do out there for the team on the mound. But, yeah, there's a lot going on there right now. Bogie, thank you for the time. As always, we really appreciate your weekly visits with us. Enjoy your work on SCHN. And we'll talk with you again next week at this.

time. All right. See you guys. Thank you. Brian Bogus-Sevick with us here every Wednesday at 11 a.m. here on Sports Talk, 7.9.