The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada Joins The Show Before Astros vs Blue Jays

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

Joe Espada Joins The Show Before Astros vs Blue Jays

Spend a few minutes with Joe, a spot of the manager of your Houston Astros, getting ready for, needless to say, a very important series. Really, frankly, all of them are important between now and the end of the year. Skip, it's Matt and Ross. Good afternoon to you.

Let me ask you, so, Brian McTagre put out of stat, since that July 4th sweep, your squad's 29 and 31, and look, it's kind of felt that way, but you've been able to maintain first place, and that's the most important thing.

What have you noticed in those last 60 games? Is it the injury bug has hit? Has there been too many lapses in offense? Kind of run us through why this team has been kind of stuck in neutral for the last couple of months. You know what? Thank for having me, guys, by the way. Sure. You know, for me, it's a combination of all of those things.

Obviously, we've been injured and we've been banged up and we have been able to sustain, you know, good play during those stretches. You know, I think that there is a moment. where we have seen signs of, okay, here we go. We can run, you know, four or five wins in a row. And then there's big some inconsistency with our approach and is being able, you know, we haven't been able to put a ton of gains in a row where we can see our offense really separating yourself from the rest of the league. You know, so I think we're trying to handle and trying to make some adjustments.

you know, right now trying to get our guys to, you know, be more consistent in the strike zone. You know, we're starting to get some good starting pitching, and there's times where we can be better at, you know, probably taking us deep in the game. So that inconsistency is something that has been part of our game for the last couple of weeks. But, you know, like you mentioned, it's a very important week. we have the talent and the desire to do it. And it's just a matter of just putting us all together. I'm curious, Joe, when you are on an off day on a road trip and you were in Toronto yesterday

and you see a player, do you give that player an opportunity to just get away from the sport or do you sometimes take the opportunity if you were to find XYZ player, whether he is the team leader or he is in a slump or not performing up to your expectations, do you pull them aside or do you try to stay away from baseball on the off day? No, I try to stay away from the game on the off days. I think it's better to do that maybe on the way from Texas here. It's an opportunity for me to maybe touch base with some of the players on the plane while they're trying to relax. You know, they're relaxing and they're playing cards or they're watching a movie and I ask him if I could go sit next to them and we could have a conversation,

something that they can kind of reflect during their off day and they could come back game day. just ready to go. But, you know, pulling guys to the side on an off day, I don't think it's beneficial for them. I want them just to relax, disconnect, talk to their family, and just relax, get the mine away from the game. You get Jake Myers back. A thought or two about his performance, and not that he's the doctor, you have to rely on your medical staff and your trainers, but you're also going to be spending some time talking to him about how much he can play and when you want him out there at 100% because look, as much as Jake's had a good season,

Jake not being 100% and playing at 70 probably doesn't do you or the team any good at this point. Right, and especially the turf in Texas and the turf here in Toronto. So we keep an eye on him. My conversations with him and also with the medical department just to make sure that we don't, we build him up to 100%.

But he is feeling good. he's in there tonight and excited to have him. We really need him in the center field. Astros, manager Joe Spotted with us here on Sports Talk 790. Since Jordans come back, he's played a good amount of left field, obviously with wanting to put Altuve in the designated hair spot as well. What is that like for you going forward?

Is it more of a fluid situation and plotting that out and planning it out and trying to figure that out on game-to-game basis? Game-to-game basis. Yeah, just the fluid situations. I want to keep both of them, you know, rested and healthy. You know, Jose playing some second base also allows me to have your donning as a DH.

And they're trying to keep them both obviously in the lineup and, you know, healthy for the remaining of the season. Also taking into consideration, you know, who we playing, who's pitching for us, the conditions like here turf, you know, how the condition of this ballpark being a little bit big on left field. So I'm trying to make sure that I put good defense out there, keep this guy's healthy, and try to keep a good offense on the field. Does it make it easier to do that with somebody?

I'll put it on the left I'm talking about. With somebody like Jake Myers who can cover so much ground and center? Well, 100%. I think he helps. He's helped his immense things. He can cover some ground. He's a good communicator. And the guy in left field knows that he's got someone that could cover his wings.

So it does really helps when you have Jake. in center field, yes. Skip, you've got a balance left of your schedule of teams that are, I mean, seriously in the thick of things, Seattle and Texas trying to chase after your championship. You've got Atlanta, the Angels, and the A's kind of just running their course out. Is it harder to get guys ready for those types of series where they have as much on the table as you do, or is it harder to get guys ready and mentally prepared for teams that are just playing out the streak?

guys listen anything can happen at any given night we don't we don't look at Texas any different than we look at the A's and the Angels and the brakes right now every team has a purpose

they're playing for something and is it you know playing for next season you know winning some spots on the roster like some of these younger teams it don't really matter we're trying to win series we're trying to win game one pitch at a time one game one game

amount of time, but anything can happen on any given night on a baseball field. How are you at the bullpen? Look, a day off is always a best friend of the bullpen. As things shape up, you've got guys in and out, obviously. Are you watching pitch counts a little bit more? Are you looking to extend guys a little bit more knowing that these games, regardless of the opponent we're just talking about, obviously mean a lot more as you're trying to hold on in this two-game lead?

You know, the off day yesterday, it helped. We also got some land from Hunter and Valdez, which also helped. You know, going into the series, we're in a pretty good, pretty good shape. You know, it's nice when we get our starters to give up, take us into the six innings. That's usually a huge help. But we're just taking one game at a time, leaning on our offense to, you know, give us some, you know, score some runs and give us an early lead and getting our starters to settle in and give us some quality innings and then hand the ball off to our bullpen.

That strategy is still the same thing. That's who we are when we plan our best. And hopefully we could get going this week, very important week for our ball club. And it all starts tonight with Luis Garcia. What has he told you about himself since coming back and now healthy and ready to be back in your rotation? Is he a different pitcher in terms of mindset, pitch selection, velocity? Or maybe it's just, you know, he's been way a long time and he's just kind of getting back acclimated to pitching at the major league level again? You know, I think we're not, you know, he's not trying to reinvent himself.

He knows which are his strength and his weaknesses. He knows the pitches that he likes to go to ahead of the count. He's always been really good executing a game plan and following a game plan. And things are not working, adjusting to that game plan. He's always been really good at that. You know, obviously, this is a really good Toronto lineup. He is going to have to execute and stay away from the middle of the plate to have success. But one thing about him is that he is healthy.

He feels good. The feedback that we're getting from him. It's super positive. And we're going to give him a good game plan and help him execute that one tonight. Great stuff, as always, Kip. Thank you very much for the time. Best of luck this week, and we will talk to you back in town next Tuesday. All right, fellas.

Thank you. I thank you. Joe Spada. Joppa.