The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada Joins 790 Ahead of Yankees Series

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

Astros manager Joe Espada joins Matt and Ross discussing the series split versus the Angels, and getting ready for the Yankees series ahead.

Matt and Ross, very happy to be joined now by the manager of your Houston Astros. Nice win yesterday over the Angels. Couple of that with the Seattle Mariners losing to Tampa Bay. Houston enjoys a three-game lead, opening up a three-game series with the Yankees. Skip is with us. Joe, it's Madden Ross. Good afternoon to you. Congratulations on the win.

And I thought I wanted you to take our audience into the conversations you've had with Luis Garcia. And maybe not in just the last 24 hours, but the last couple of years. because a lot of guys could have said, you know what, my arm was not meant to be. And I thought some of your postgame comments kind of explained that this was a long, physical and mental grind for him to come back to where he was and was able to pitch for you yesterday. Yeah.

And, you know, during that period, you know, I've seen players in my experience where they start creating, you know, these doubts and insecurities about, am I going to be able to get back on the mound, right? especially after a few setbacks that he had throughout his recovery, and they start second guessing themselves. And for us, for me, who have known Louise for a very long time and knowing the character of the human and how strong mentally he is and a man of faith, you know, it's for us to continue to encourage him

that things are going to be okay. It's going to take some time. And when you see someone overcome those challenges and getting back, I'm, you know, seeing him back pitching again. You know, it's special because these guys have worked really hard to get to the major leagues, to have success of the major leagues. We have seen Louise being a really good pitcher here for many, many years, and just to see him accomplish what he did yesterday.

It was a very special moment. You know, Joe, I don't want to give away company secrets, but people are like, well, you know, his velocity wasn't as good as it was pre-injury. And I'm thinking, well, my God, his arm's been in a sling for a long period of time. and maybe he'll never be to that point. But have you been told about what that could be or is he going to be a guy that can tap out at 92? And let me tell you, Joe, as you know,

there are guys in Major League Baseball, as long as the command is good, you can live with 92 of the big leagues. You know, for me, this is what I tell everyone. We need to give him time. There's two years this guy hasn't pitched on a Major League mound. He has, you know, he has had setbacks. He's coming back from a very ugly injury.

sometimes he takes pitchers time to get back to their normal, you know, Velo and, you know, show what they showed two years ago. For me, I was just proud of the fact that he worked his tail off to get back on the mound and through six innings, I guess a good lineup, and we should celebrate that. The Vilo, all this stuff, we just got to give us some time. I think it's a very fair assessment. Joe, Spotted with us here on Sports Talk 790. you've had over the last week, Skip,

a lot of guys get on the base pass. The runners in scoring position numbers were just not to your level, and I'm sure the frustrations. Yesterday was one-off, but I think if you're going to win this division, you've got to have the numbers better. Is it an approach? Is it...

Tell me where it is. I don't even know what possibilities are about why this team has struggled at times, and especially in the last week, with getting guys on but not able to touch the pay station. Yeah, and you know what, for me, like we are getting, we're getting the guys on. So our approach when we're trying to get people on base,

understanding our capabilities and our strength, as individuals and as a team, we have really good approaches, but when people get on base, sometimes we tend to get away from who we are as individuals and know our strength and witnesses and also recognize what pictures are trying to do to us. So when we try to do a bit more of what we can do,

and we try to get the big hit when we don't really need to. We could just get what the pitchers gives us, let the guy on deck, get the job done. But sometimes in the heat moment, we want to be in that spot. We want to be the hero. We want to get the big hit. And I appreciate that about the players. We want to be in the moment. And we want our guys to have that desire to be in that spot.

But also, you have to kind of control yourself, your emotions and get pitches that you can handle. because the pitchers, they recognize that, and they're going to try to get us to, you know, swing at pitches that they're not our pitches. Astros manager, Joe Espada, with us here on Sports Talk 790. Yordon Alvarez, looking pretty good at the plate. Looks like he's drawn a lot of walks, had the home run as well. Just overall, how are your conversations been like with him?

Is he just back to the same old Yorda, or is there still a little bit of work to be done? Yeah, you know, I think he, you know, he is physically and mentally in a good spot. I think we need to still monitor his workload. He has missed four months before returning. And we want to make sure that we have him there for this, you know, for this month and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, if we get to that point where we could play deep into October, we want to make sure that we, we, we build him, how, we're building him up properly. Um, because we want to keep him from the long run.

But right now what I've seen is that bats have been really good. He feels good in the outfield. His body feels good. But we got to still monitor his workload here as we try to get him back. And some of the players who are also working as self getting back here to our lineup. Yeah, what is that like for you as we go down the stretch? Because we know that this organization has always wanted to give guys days off so that you can make sure that they're fresh come October.

And there's been very good results in a lot of deep October runs with that. So what is it like for you day-to-day working with players and trainers and trying to balance keeping guys fresh, but also the pressure of a division race? Yeah, you know what? It's, you know, our workload prior to the game is also very important kind of cutting down on the amount of early work that we do. You know, our work in the weight room has changed. It's more like a recovery, doing some extra stretching, trying to get these guys a little later arrival to the ball. part trying to get them to sleep a little bit longer and trying to stay home and

and just try to monitor their workflow that way. You know, also giving this guy, I'm using the DH spot to kind of, you know, get these guys off their feet a bit. So we, you know, it's a, it's a grind here, but there's ways that we can do it where we can use our, you know, giving these guys a day off here and there and also kind of monitoring our work. You know, these guys, they have a routine, making adjustments to their pregame routine. So where we're not, when 7 o'clock starts refreshing, we don't feel fatigue.

Skip, I think being even keel as a manager works, whether you're talking about a game in April 15th, July 15th, or September 15th, which will be coming up for you in the next couple weeks. You are still in a division race, three-game lead. How do you manage the, I'm still Joe Espada, I'm still the manager, I want to make sure the clubhouse, as normalized as possible, but we're down to about 30 games left to go. You're holding off two teams in division, sense of urgency. How do you go through that and how did last year as your first time doing that helped you towards you think this year is September run?

You know what? For me the experience here, the last year, you know, 70 years that I've been here, I've always seen our guys just being the best towards the end. And it's because we have done a really good job of setting a foundation where we know and we trust our process, our work. Our players, you know, they want to see their leaders to be calm and composed and understanding that, you know, we know the job that we need to do, right? And for me, it's preparing these guys to compete every day, providing the information they need every day to be the best versions of themselves, you know, pushing the job. things back a little bit so they could stay home and guys, listen, you know, spending a hour or two with your family.

That really, it helps me when I'm around my family and my kids and take your mind away from the game, especially when you're down the stretch. Because when they get here, it's all hands on deck. They walk through those doors and it's go time. And I've seen that in their eyes and in their work. But also there has to be a balance where they can, they can relax. And I want them fresh when they're walking here and understand that. you know, we have to all be in this together.

We all have to be all in this together, and we are. And it's a special group, it's a special clubhouse, and I'm very always, you know, working really hard to protect what we've built here for the last seven, eight years. You've had to use a variety of starting pitchers. You've had numerous up and down players at AAA to here and back and forth. You've had different guys. It feels like to me, Joe, that there is still some roster spots. Again, I'm going to put the car before the horse here for you.

for the playoff run with the series development and going to the postseason. I feel like there's going to be competition during this time. Is that a fair assessment to say that there are no, there are some gimmies, but there are probably a lot more guys that should be thinking about what they do in September for you if they want to play for you in the postseason. You know what? This is the way I, this is our conversation with my players is, you know, they're doing everything in their power to get to the postseason.

When we get to the postseason, when we're blessed to get to that point, we'll make those decisions but right now is if you do your job and you play your best you're making a case for yourself and and that's all it matters playing 40 days game doing whatever it takes to win today's game and tomorrow we'll take care you know we'll take care of itself great stuff as always good luck with the astros and yankee series coming up and look forward talking to again next tuesday we appreciate the time as always