The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Espada Talks Astros' Turnaround and Arlington No-No

Episode Date: May 26, 2026

Recently sweeping the Cubs and rolling back to the state of Texas, the Astros stop in Arlington for their 4-game Silver Boot rivalry against their division rivals, the Texas Rangers. Stunningly, the Astros shut out the Rangers with a final score of 9-0 at Globe Life Field following a combined no-hitter between Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert, & Alimber Santa. Shaking the rankings up a bit following the Stros' recent heater on the road, Astros manager Joe Espada joins Matt and Ross, revisiting the Astros recent trip to Chicago, along with where this momentum following yesterday's historic night in Arlington puts the team looking ahead to the coming weeks.  

All right, Skip, let's put this in perspective here. You've been in baseball all your life. I have watched baseball all my life. I've never took an bat, never swung a pitch. Nothing matter. That was the most improbable no-hitter that you will ever manage in your entire life and do not lie to me. And so, we were expecting that one.

That was crazy last night. I'm not going to lie to you, man. I didn't see that coming. That's for sure. You know, the way the game started, I, I don't. do not see the ending being a no-hitter. They not think, you know, winning is always an expectation, and we prepare ourselves to win the game.

But the way the game started being a combined no-hitter to be the outcome of that game, something that I did not see coming. The most encouraging thing, Imai gets in a lot of control problems in the first. Inducing double plays are a pitcher's best friend. You had Framber Valdez do it for so many years in this town, and for Ema to do that, really was a turning point for him as an Astro. Would you not agree?

Yeah, 100% the sinker twice. That ground ball on Nemo first inning, a couple of – Keith Fastball was a very effective pitch. He got a lot of ton of ground balls. He wasn't getting a ton of swinging. You did not get a ton of strikeouts. And our defense was game-changing throughout that game. You know, throughout the week.

I think even in Chicago, we play really good defense behind. behind our starting pitchers. But, you know, Emi, that first inning, then he settled, you know, continue to battle through that game, and then, you know, gave us six strong innings, pass a baton to O'Kar and O'Kor 2 to Santa. And the story is, the story is, it is what you saw. And a great team effort win last night for the Astros. When you decided to go to Santa, I know you wanted to put him,

I'm assuming, in a low-leveraged situation at some point because he wants to get his feet wet. You did just the opposite. What is the protocol? Because you've been around a lot of these no hitters. What is the protocol about talking things out, putting guys in, especially if you're doing it in the combined variety? Yeah, you know, going into the game and, you know, atoll Santa, just continue to stay ready.

I've gone through our bullpen, throughout, you know, the series in Chicago, going into the series at all Santa, you just to be ready because, you know, I, At some point, I'm going to call on his name. And, you know, if you really look at the run differential in that game, it was a low-leverage spot, but the, you know, the stage that we were in, the moment and no-hitter, this kid going to be a game in front of his family in Arlington. There was a lot of other things that, you know, I needed to, consider, but I trust this kid.

This kid, he threw the ball really well as being training. He's been one of our best relievers in AAA. And why not now? You know, let's throw him in there and see what he's made off. And his first impression was incredible. And just back to EMI for a second, just on a personal level, what was it like talking to him after the game, how he's feeling, and especially considering all the struggles he went through. Yeah, he felt really good.

Quality start his first one in an Astros uniform. Actually, you know, one in the answers room, I think, you know, but for me is the way he settled down, did not let the first inning affect the rhythm or his concentration. I continue to remind Emi to trust his defense, trust his catcher. We, you know, we are walking this with him. He's not alone in this. And he takes time, right, for him to trust the process that we, that is new to him, right? And I think yesterday's a perfect example that when we all work together,

we can help them, you know, through games. And yesterday was a perfect example of that. Astros manager Joe Espada was here on Sports Talk 790. You mentioned Vasquez. Just, I mean, just tell us how huge he's been, obviously, with the bat, and then, I mean, calling another no-hitter and just everything he's been able to provide, especially with Diaz going down. Yeah, you know,

We really wanted to add a veteran presence in the off season and in Christian Baskis, which was the name that I, that, you know, I brought up a few times as an organization. We discussed a couple of names just to cover ourselves from, if injury happened to Yanir Diaz, having Sally in the organization also just added more depth to our catching, to our catching depth. And he's been, he's been phenomenal. He knows his staff. He knows our program.

He knows how we prepare our pitchers to pitch what we, you know, our style of pitching. And he's a veteran. He's a veteran. He's a World Series champion. He's been in this fight with us before. So pitchers trust him. I trust him. So he's been great to have them around.

What do you all feed Nick Allen and Christian Walker the last handful of days? Whatever it is, can you send the recipe to me? You know, Nick, one thing about Nick is that, you know, always been a, always make good swing decisions, always being able to put the bear on the ball. You know, he can just do things that you need, especially in that bottom part of the lineup. And he catches the ball. You know, all those guys, him, she made, Christian Vasquez, safety squeeze yesterday, those guys can handle the back. and if we could create some traffic and put the ball in motion down in the bottom and create some habits for the opponents and then the top of the order comes up with people on base, I think we could be a more dynamic offense if we do it.

If we add some of these guys that could do things with the bat. And it certainly made a difference because in a game where you went 9-0 where that should have been the start, I'm forcing the Rangers to make mistakes, keeping the linings alive, it was about the pitching. So needless to say, look, you still have a lot. a long way to go. The West is easily to be approached, but you have to be feeling better today than when you and I visited last week. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, I've seen a lot of progress and consistency in our pitching. You know, there's a good, there's a good tempo to our game that when you're in the dugout, you feel like, you know, catch your

pitcher on the same page. Our offense understands what they need to do. We run in the base aggressively. We're getting some timely hitting, I think, for example yesterday the first inning, you know, Peña gets on still second. There's a ball hit to the right side. Yordon Alvarez's backslide. That's team baseball. And I'm starting to see that more consistent the last 10 days, right?

So now it can get complacent. We've got to continue to prepare ourselves, continue to execute. But we are in a much better place now that we were last Tuesday when you and I spoke. Obviously, it looks like Yordaun's. feeling pretty good with the big swing yesterday. Everything okay as far as him or how much are you monitoring him? Yeah, we're going to continue to monitor your Don. You know, yesterday I came in, felt pretty good.

He took early BP. He swung the bat really well. He was moving around well. But I'm checking in every morning. I want to make sure that this is not a lingering thing that can get worse. So the first thing when we get to the ballpark, I'm going to check up on him. and then we move forward. It is nice to see that he was able to swing the bat

so nicely after gave him the Sunday off. All right, one small thing, Joe, and don't get mad at me. Cam Smith's challenge rate is not good. Listen, I... Hey, hey, everybody else is good. I'm okay. And let me tell you some,

I love Cam Smith. We are team Cam Smith on this radio show. But for the love of God, Joe, he's not having a great month here. is it we are all aware of Gansmith challenging the last couple of weeks you know but but something that we try to when we walk to when we when we go through this challenging system we keep score off all the players correct so we want to make sure that we bring it up we bring it up collectively like you know The last thing you want to is tell a young player, don't do this because you're not good at it. No, it's just make sure that you're aware that when you're using your challenge systems, the ball is, when the ball is taking the entire, in an entire box, maybe it's your posture,

maybe what you're looking for the pitches that you're trying to attack. So we attack it that way instead of being, no, don't do it anymore. No, it's like make sure that if your window is there, those pitches are actually strides. So maybe we need to change our sites. Maybe we need to change the location of what we're looking to attack pitches so you know exactly what you're challenging and not. So it's more of a correction, more of a teaching than slapping somebody in the hand and say, dude, don't do that anymore. Because that's not, you don't learn that way. But we are very much aware.

And trust me, Kansmith, is very much aware. So you cannot charge him like $250 for a kangaroo court as basically what you're trying to tell the audience. No, no, no. We just try to make sure that he knows that we could be better if maybe he changed, you know, where he's looking. If he's looking in that area to strike the baseball and he thinks the pitch is off or up and the ball is in the box, you know, maybe we need to change something different in the tunnel how he's looking. for pitchers because it's not exactly working the way he is is attacking the zone. We're trying to attack him more of an approach than actually just stop challenging.

We don't want to do that. All right. I'm going to leave with one more high note. Kai Wei Ting has been a hero for you. You're stretching him out a little bit. How is the arm? I'm going to assume like you do with everybody. You're working with communication, but you got six from him.

And every time it feels like you have given him the ball every fifth day, at least for the other six day the last week or so. He is giving you a little bit more. Where do you think for the, I don't care about beyond this year. Where do you think he can help you the rest of the way between now

and the end of the season? You know, we have to see, you know, obviously once we get Hunter Brown back, you know, there is, you know,

having Lance, you know, also working his way through the IL. This, this is a fluid process here. We'll see where we at. later in a couple of weeks, but right now when he comes to Tang, really like his, the way he's attacking this zone.

I think I'm always looking at that 80, 85 pitchmark for him because he needs the sweeper to sweep. He needs to thinker to do what he needs to do. So I'm always constantly looking at the shape of his pitches and making sure he's not out there for five, ten, pitch is too long where one pitch can, you know, when he's self, he's just not really doing what he's supposed to do. So he's one of those guys that you've got to really keep close eye on. But right now, as to start it, he's doing a really good job, and he'll stay there for the time,

Ben. Great stuff, as always, Skip. Thank you for the time. Good luck tonight and keep the streak alive. We'll look forward to having the game here on 790 and talking with you later in the week. Thank you for the visit as always. All right, fellas. Thank you. See you. Joe Spada with us here on Sports Talk, 790.