The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Breaks Down the Astros Series vs the Angels

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Brian McTaggart Breaks Down the Astros Series vs the Angels

Do you sense frustration? Look, you'd be frustrated, generally speaking, if you were the manager filling out the lineup card. But do you sense it from Joe trying to figure out what combination, who to put guys in certain spots so they can at least try to have a little better opportunity to thrive in that particular hole? Like, I'll give an example, Cam Smith batting in the bottom third of the lineup. Yeah, and he moved up a little bit yesterday. But yeah, I mean, the four spot, the cleanup spot sort of been a revolving door. We've seen, I mean, I don't know how many guys have had bat fourth, but, you know, Varsha was there for a while. I mean, you know, Cam's hit there. It's, uh, it's been, uh, you know, a lot of it has to do with matchups and who's hot,

but yeah, you get past the top three in the order with Pena Alvarez and Paredes and then, uh, just a drop off. Ideally, you have Christian Walker hitting there and driving in runs like he did in the first half. That's not happening. But sure, he's got to be frustrated. And they go out and get Dalton Varsho and, you know, what, he's like six for 47 as an astro and just not getting it done. So, I mean, he can only roll out there. The guys, he's been given and he's trying to patch it together the best he can every night. It's been a few weeks since the trade deadline took place. And obviously Dalton Varsha was the only member that was the changeover.

Any sense? Not that you want to necessarily speak for 26 guys in a clubhouse, but any sense of we should have done more, could have done more, understand the situation we're in, any feel about how the players thought about how things went down before the August deadline? not really for players i mean i've heard any players come forth and uh you know any chatter about we should have done more i mean players do say that from time to time but when they come out and say something like that it's almost an indictment on the team they have now and that hey we're not good enough to win it now we needed some help but i i do know that in the dugout um in the

you know the coach's office there was definitely frustration when they didn't get a bat another bat, especially when they didn't get another arm. And some other teams went out there and made some trades. You know, I think there was real disappointment there just with, boy, we could have done more. And we know, we had a couple deals on the table that didn't work out. The price for pitching was very high. We know that. But we saw some guys move like Foster Griffin, didn't take a King's ransom to get him. And boy, he would look great in an Astro's uniform. Hard to say, because we're not in the negotiations. We don't know what the nationals wanted or what the Astros would have offered, but it certainly feels like they fell short at the trade deadline. And I think if you gave

the players truth serum, they would probably agree with that. Let me ask you about Ethan Pecco yesterday. Pitch count high, not surprising for a first time start, did not give you four, which meant the bullpen was absolutely fantastic yesterday. Any sense right now, whether or not this was a one-off or he's got a chance to at least get one more opportunity to stake his claim in the starting rotation. I think he's got a chance to stay. I mean, they're about to start a stretch when they get to New York, 13 games in a row.

I certainly suspect, though, they'll try to go to six-man rotation. I mean, I don't know who those bottom two guys are going to be, but, you know, it looks like there were some nerves early on. He was spraying some balls. You know, the fastball command wasn't there early. At one point, he had thrown 40 pitches, 20 balls, 20 strikes. Settled in a little bit, but, yeah, the pitch count got up really high. but when he's in the zone,

he got a lot of swings and misses. So I think there was something there to, it deserves another shot and see what you got. They really don't have many options. I mean, it's clear that Emi is completely out of their plans, it seems. I mean, he's pitched twice this month, and that's been in relief.

So, and, you know, Javier, he's going to keep starting just because you have a few other options. Bottom line is, they don't have many other options. So, yeah, I mean, I think Pecco will get another start. and I think he showed some signs that maybe he's got some stuff that can get big league hitters out. I know you'll be at the ballpark later this afternoon. Anything more than what you've heard except for the x-rays on Jeremy Payne were negative, correct? Negative. I did see Jeremy, we didn't get to talk to him after the game.

I didn't see him walking out. He didn't have any brace or anything on the, it hit him right on the knuckles. So, you know, the fact that x-rays were negative, I think maybe he takes a day or two off. they cannot afford to lose this guy again. I mean, when he's in the lineup, they're 43 and 33, and when he's not in the lineup, they're 21 and 30. I mean, that shows you the value of Jeremy Pena. That's a really drastic difference.

So even though he's not swinging it well right now, he's still a guy that can turn it around at the drop of a hat. You want him at the top of the lineup. So it wouldn't surprise me if he doesn't play today. But, yeah, they definitely need to get him back there and get him going more than anything else because he, you know, he hasn't hit for about three weeks. A few more minutes here.

at Brian McTaggart of MLB.com on the Astros beat. I thought last night was a true indication, maybe what the Astros are in a nutshell. Why are they a game above 500? Well, offense is not doing much, but that bullpen last night ate up some serious innings. We're talking about a combined two hits between five Houston relievers. Great.

Just great work out of the bullpen. I mean, all, every guy they ran out there. The, you know, Susa is pitching a lot better. You know, Ocurt's been Ocurt, a Breu back to being a Breu. And then Hader's been phenomenal at the end. I was crunching some numbers today. Remember how bad the bullpen was in April?

And that was because the starters weren't going deep. But in April, they had a 663 ERA. And since then, since May 1st, the bullpen is a 293 ERA. I mean, that's a really good number over a long time. So that has been the one unit, I think, that is reasoned there in first place, you know, in addition to being in a poor division, it's just their bullpen has been so good at picking up these starters. when they go four or five innings.

I mean, is this sustainable here over the last five weeks? I guess we'll find out. But you get to the playoffs and you have a bullpen pitching like this, gets a little bit of the entering. You know, a guy like A.J. Bluebaugh, who's putting more innings than any other leader, that's a guy that could be a huge weapon in the playoffs, going two innings, two and a third. So if the bullpen can keep it up and they can just get the two guys going

and get the top of the order, find some consistent starting pitching, that's a pretty big checklist. you know, they can close this thing out. And frankly, you know, the Rangers or Mariners don't look like they want to win this division either. You know, part of the reason I think you stay away from a bullpen game is because the starters, the other guys on those other nights are not going deep. So you would think, man, you could put this together for seven or anything. Maybe you win a September game during that stretch of 13 in a row.

But you can't do a bullpen game when that bullpen is being used as much as it has been. And I know that Joe has tried to give them relief, and that's why you see guys like Uliola go up and down and whatnot. But they're just not getting a stretch of two or three days where they're not having to use a bunch of arms. Yeah, and every game seems tight. So you're bringing in your leverage guys. It seems like almost every night. I mean, they haven't really had a blowout since, you know, I don't know when. So it's, you know, every guy's got to be ready every night.

The best thing they could do is go out there and get a couple of blowouts this weekend and, you know, rest some of these bullpen arms. let Emi come in and eat up some innings and see what he's got. But, you know, every game, it's like two to two, three to two. And it's, you know, they're scratching and clawing for runs. And you're deploying every one of your high-leverage relievers. And they're doing a great job. But, you know, you can't do that night after night. Like you said, if you're in a stretch here where you go to a six-man rotation,

and you're like, wow, we only have five starters. Let's do a bullpen game. And you blow them. And, you know, the next game, the starter goes three innings. And, you know, you're in a little bit of trouble. So tough spot pitching-wise, but they've been navigating this pretty much all year. I mean, it's been like this from the jump when guys were getting hurt. So they just got to navigate it another five weeks and get to the finish line.

My last question is something that I think you can change your opinion on a week-to-week basis, but I'll ask it for you right now. Getting your crystal ball out, are we looking at these three teams doing what they're doing for the next five to six weeks or at some point? And I feel like I've been asking for somebody to do this in this division for basically two months. is there any one of these three teams that can really try to pull away or do you think we're going to be right down to the last couple of days with a team scratching to get to say 83 or 84 wins to be just good enough to win the division?

I don't have any reason to believe we're not just going to see this down the stretch trying to get to 83, 84 wins. I will say that the Mariners have a really tough schedule right now. September, their schedule is pretty easy. So I think if you're looking at one team that, again, I mean, I keep waiting for the Mariners to get their stuff together and they just don't. But if they can, with the easy schedule they have, they could be the team that even though they're, I think, seven games under 500, could still make a run at this a little bit just because their schedule is so easy. But,

yeah, I see this being just a pillow fight to the end. And, you know, if you get to 85 wins, you're probably going to win the division by two or three games.