The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian McTaggart Joins After Astros Take Game 2 In Toronto

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Brian McTaggart Joins After Astros Take Game 2 In Toronto

Time now to spend 10 quality minutes with our good friend Brian McTaggart MLB.com on the Astros beat. He'll be with the local nine in Atlanta for the weekend series against the hated Atlanta Braves. By the way, they've been, I think, fully eliminated from any playoff contention. And if you put tag on the screen for me, I appreciate it. Brian, it's a strange situation here. You've either got teams in the midst of a really die-hard, tough pendant race, or you got teams just playing out the string. So it's a completely mixed bag between now and the end of the year.

Yeah, I mean, the, yeah, you're right. I mean, they're going to play nine games against teams that are completely out of it. I mean, we all know those games can be a little bit dangerous because those teams have nothing to lose. But those are also teams that could be resting players or shutting guys down for the season. So they're definitely teams they should take advantage of, you know, especially at the end of the year going to the A's and the Angels. I mean, those teams have been out of it for a while. But it's all going to come down to next week's homestand.

I mean, that's massive. I mean, you know, three teams battling it out for the division title. The Astros are the only one of the three. They gets to play both of them, and they get to play both of them at home. The Mariners haven't been good on the road. You know, the Astros haven't played very well at home, frankly, in the second half of the season. So if they can win both those series, you know, I think it'll set them up very well in the final week to try to close this thing out. But, you know, if they go into this homestand next week and lay an egg, they're, you know, they could be in some trouble.

Because if they're now chasing winds and chasing the Mariners or chasing the Rangers, gets a lot more difficult. Every loss this time of year feels like it's compounded with frustration. I thought the setback two days ago really, really hurt, A, because of Garcia, B, because they gave up the game late. And the fact that you really had some serious doubts about the role of Brian and Bray in the ninth inning. And yesterday he came back and was really good. Not only did he get things done in the ninth inning, but he did it with a low amount of pitches. What do you notice?

What do you think about Brian Abrayu's ability? Very early on when he replaced Hater, it was great. But it feels like for a better part of a month, it's been difficult for him to kind of assume that role now that Josh has been gone. Yeah, and he's not alone in that. I mean, we've seen that through the years. When closers go on the IL or you lose a closer to free agency or whatever, sometimes there's an adjustment period.

Sometimes a guy comes in and just can't do it. I mean, I remember Will Harris taking over his closer. He'd been such a great setup, man, and just couldn't get it done. And they had to move him back to the setup role. I'm not going to say that's happening with the Brayu. But A Brayor's issue is just when he lets the lead-off guy get on base, he gets in trouble. And that happens a lot. I think he's let I think around 18% of the lead-off hitter get on base via a walk.

I mean, he's got really good stuff. He just needs to stay in the zone a little bit more. And he did that yesterday. I mean, he came out, you could tell that, I mean, that he was going to come in there and throw strikes and not spray the ball like he did the night before. And, you know, I think props to Joe Espada for putting him back out there. I mean, no one expected that he was going to be ready to pitch. But they needed him to go out there and, you know, he didn't probably have, you know, a lot left as far as pitch is going. And he went out there and threw strikes and dominated and got it done.

And I think that will be worlds for the confidence as bad as the loss was in Toronto. in the first game, I think last night's game was one of their biggest wins and probably the biggest swing of the battle of the season was by Yanar Diaz with that Homer in the ninth inning. How concerned are you about his velocity being down a tick or two? Not concerned. I mean, he was, you know, second day in a row. I mean, he's pitched a ton of innings again.

You'd love to get him more rest if you're Astros. You just don't have that luxury. I mean, they're just so thin in the bullpen right now. I mean, they're pretty much a bullpen man short than other teams because, McCullors isn't pitching at all. So I think we're just at that point of the season when guys are trying to give it everything they have and they're tired. And, you know, if they're Astros, you've got to hope you can maybe win the division by

two or three games and just shut some of these guys down on the final weekend. But with the way this thing's going, I don't think that's going to be the case. This looks like it's going to go down right to the wire. Brian McTaggart Astros.com with us here on Sports Talk 790. Great outing last night from Jason Alexander. I guess if we're calling it a fluid situation, but as of this moment, he could be your third starter in a playoff scenario,

just as we all predicted. Yeah. Didn't we all say that at the beginning of the year? They would get him off waivers and he'd be their third starter. I don't know. I wrote that, I think, maybe not. But yeah, you're right. I mean, if you look at their playoff rotation now,

it's clearly going to be Hunter Brown and Framber Valdez. I mean, despite all the things that's gone on with Framber last couple of months, he's still your second best option as a starting pitcher. He's a guy that's that dominated in playoffs before like he did in 22. So he's going to be your number two. But yeah, Alexander, he's probably your number three. I mean, we're not sure what Christian Javier is yet. You know, he's got going to get the ball today. He's certainly got a chance over the next 16 games or however many starts. He has three, three, four starts to maybe solidify his spot. But with the way Alexander

through yesterday, they had won his previous seven starts before that. just the guy that competes and throws strikes and doesn't do it overpowering, you know, throws that chains up to lefties and righties and just isn't afraid of anything. He's your number three starter. I mean, I think at this point in the season, he's probably earned that. And that probably speaks more to the injuries they've had to anything else, but also a tip of the hat to him for, you know, really coming here and making an impact. I was talking to Ross earlier in the day about Jose Altube getting the day off.

And, you know, you would think those days off would be few and far between, especially this late in the season. Combination of things, day game, night game. You have turf field. Every one of these games are impactful. Oh, by the way, he's in a slump. The base running situation wasn't great the other day going from second to third and extra innings.

I'm guessing Jose went to him and said, I'm ready to go. I want to play. And I think probably Joe said, I'm going to go ahead and just give you the chance to sit back and relax on this one. I felt like yesterday was as much a mental day for Jose as compared to just getting him off his feet. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I think there were a lot of reasons that, I mean,

you just ran them all down while you want to sit him. And, you know, you did get the, get the pinch hit at bat. But you're right. He needed a break. And Joe said that, you know, he talked to Altube after the game on Tuesday. I'm sure it was that point that, I mean, Joe had probably made up his mind. He was going to give him the day. And they probably talked about it after the game.

So give him a chance to, you know, go to bed with a clear head and come to the park yesterday and not have to. you know, worry about getting ready or, you know, studying the starter or all that. And, you know, this, you know, he's a guy that's, I think, played in more games than anybody else. So it's been a real grind for him and he has not played well for over a month now. And Jose Al-Tube is a very prideful guy. I know this is probably wearing on him big time. But he's also a guy that can turn it around in a dime where we could see him go like, you know,

seven for 16 in a series and an absolute carry a team. So that could happen, you know, this weekend. Atlanta, who knows, but certainly they need him to get going here over these final 16 games because he's going to hit high in the lineup. He's going to be in the middle of some of their, you know, with Alvarez. And if they can get him going, they make him feel a lot better. You mentioned Lance McHawler Jr. a couple of minutes ago. Is he just mop up low leverage? You need an arm to throw an inning because it feels like, and you kind of alluded to it, that just isn't a defined role for him right now.

Yeah, I think so. I mean, we saw him come in, you know, I don't know how long ago. It was the X rating game a few days ago. And, you know, he hasn't, I don't know if he's even warmed up since. I think it's pretty clear. He's probably not going to make the playoff roster. And then, you know, they might have to have some difficult conversations about him in the offseason. But it was just clear. He just, he just doesn't have the stuff. I mean, he's just, you know, he's throwing 92, you know, hitting 93. You know, you know, he's getting some swing and miss. he can pitch a little bit, but the fastball just isn't there. And he's not throwing enough strikes. And it's probably extremely frustrating for him. And this is probably a low point of his career. But yeah, it certainly looks like, I don't know, mop-up is one way to put it. I mean, I hate to say that about a guy. But the Astros don't blow any teams out.

And they generally don't get blown out. So there's no opportunities to throw a guy out there in a six-run game. They just don't have those. So they got to keep going to the same guys over and over. And, you know, it's clear to a spot out with the way he's used his bullpen. he's not one of those guys. Yeah, as you mentioned, we talked about a brayu, but the rest of the bullpen as well,

they end up in these high leverage situations, and it's going to continue to happen. I mean, I would say there's a lot of concerns on this team, but especially in the pecking order out of a brayu, I just, it's hard for me to have real confidence in this bullpen down the stretch here. Totally agree. I think losing Hater was just a massive blow to this team. I mean, you could put Bennett, Sousa, and Orr in there as well.

but losing Hater, you know, a guy who's having a tremendous season. Now you're moving guys into roles are not used to. It just takes a key arm out of your bullpen. And I agree. I mean, I think that's the real issue they're going to have is just closing out games. And, you know, if their starter goes six innings, how do you piece together those final four innings? And then how do you do it again two days later in pressure situations in the postseason? Against they're going to be playing very, very good teams, Toronto, Detroit, you know, Seattle or whomever.

So that's going to be a real challenge going forward. I guess there's still a chance Hager could come back. I don't think he's even throwing yet, so it seems unlikely. But, yeah, I think that's just the one issue they're really going to have to overcome. And that's why I really don't see them making a long playoff run. It's just with the injuries they've had to the bullpen. So let's wrap up our conversation with a little bit of a glass half full situation. They have had all these things from runners in scoring position to slumps to injuries to bullpen to

whatnot. and they're still sitting here with a game leading the American League West. If they are to survive this, if you were to write the storyline of, wow, these last 15 games were so good because of, how would you fill that out, do you think? Or how does it have to happen? I think they're going to have to, I think it's going to come down to hitting. I mean, they're just going to have to get a few guys hot.

They're going to have to out slug a few teams. They can't come home and go, you know, two for 30 with runners and scoring position in a series. They're going to get beat. they're just going to have to, I just think they're going to have to outscore out slug teams. I mean, their pitching is what it is. You feel good when Hunter Brown takes the ball. Not sure about Valdez. I mean, Alexandria, you feel pretty good.

Beyond that, who knows? So they're just going to have to find a way to score runs and not getting these prolonged slumps. Not only not getting slumps, but come through in the clutch. I mean, the runners in scoring position cannot be an issue. So to me, that's what it's going to come down to is just can they, can they hit? Can they hit over these final six? games enough to get them to that division title. McTaggart, great stuff. As always, friends, safe travels to the ATL and we'll talk you with you again next week.

All right, thanks, guys. That's Brian McTaggart, MLB.com with us here.