The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada on Astros Eight Game Losing Streak

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

Joe Espada on Astros Eight Game Losing Streak

1230. Matt and Ross with you here on Sports Talk 790. Let's take 10 minutes to talk to a man. That West Coast road trip. What a difference a week makes. I know. Well, if anybody that's got his glass half full, it's a manager Joe or spotter. Skip, good morning.

Good afternoon to you. How are things? I'm doing well, guys. Good afternoon to you. Hey, man, this is an easy conversation. So we'll just paint with a broad brush on this. It's just right now, and I'm not giving you any news you don't know, it's a perfect storm of injuries, having a lot of guys coming up that have maybe not ready for the rotation and or bullpen. You've had some everyday players go down.

No one can predict this, but how are you weathering this storm? Do you literally feel like you're staring at your roster every single day looking for the next possible change? You know, Matt, and this is the way I look at it. You know, from 2020 to 2025, we have started with a losing record the first 17 games. So we found ourselves same spot for the last three seasons, right? And we have weathered the storm when we have come out of this. Do we want to be in this position? No, but this is the position that we are in.

So we, you know, choose to run away from it or we embrace the challenges and we go. And when we fight through this, and that's what we're going to choose to get. that's what we always choose to do. We fight through this. Is our roster being changed every day because of injuries and some guys inexperienced in certain spots? Yes, but that's part of it. You know, we home.

We playing really well at home at the beginning of the season. So we flush it and we get ready for a homestead. That's certainly a very positive attitude. And I'm sure a lot of Astro fans appreciate that. Let me get to the thought about. when do you start trying I mean look your roster in terms of pitching is one thing do you start making subtle changes with the way you're playing in terms of guys in the lineup where they're positioned giving off days when you can to guys that are healthy are you not necessarily trying to reinvent the wheel but do you feel like there's something you could be doing to subtly change things or are you just saying hey we need to stay the course we are who we are and we're going out of this as soon as humanly possible you know what you know when he comes to our position player side of things. You know, we, we are, we have the best offense in the game. You know, we've, I've been able to get some guys off their feet, you know, even though we are going

through a really tough stretch. We choose to show up a little bit later so we could kind of rest and recover, kind of cut down in some of the early work just to make sure that the guy stay fresh and they're ready to go for at 7 o'clock. And, you know, on our pitching side, we, we, We're trying to help this pitchers, our pitchers, just to make adjustments, right? Way to go in the zone early in the county, get strikes, when to expand, you know, with their weapons. And it's been challenging, you know, and no doubt about it. But we have to continue to stay positive and encourage his guys to stay the course and remind him that he's, you know, there's a hundred and forty-four. games left. It's a very long season. And we as coaches, we need to make adjustments. We need to

help our players and navigate the stuff, tough waters. And hopefully this turns today. You know, we like I said earlier, I'm excited to be home. The guys are excited to be back home. And, you know, we could get in a hot streak here starting to get starting today against the Rocky. I don't think you asked Carlos Correa to give his analysis after the game, but I thought he was pretty blunt the way he said. And what was that like hearing that in terms of, hey, it's not about the injuries. We're going to stop talking about that. It's about us not performing.

What has Carlos's influence been for you as a manager, have a guy like that in your clubhouse, even with it being late last year when he rejoined the team? Yeah, you know, he has a point. You know, it's easy to point out on the injuries, but the injuries are the injuries. We still have a job to do. We still have to perform. We still have to execute. We still have to play our game.

And we got to find ways to win. If we just go by excuses of injuries, then we're going to find ourselves by our backs against the wall. No, you know, what Carlos is trying to say is that we have to play better. And we are going to play better. And that's always been Carlos Smith since I first met him when I first got here. in 18. It's about winning. It's about being prepared. It's about persistency. It's about discipline. It's about work ethic. And that's who we are. And we'll get back to that year starting tonight.

Astros manager, Joe Espada, with us here on Sports Talk 790. Arm fatigue was the designation for Tatuya I. And that's not necessarily something we normally hear about. Can you just shed any more light on? that and how hopeful are you for a quick return? You know, so we are, we're doing more tests because like you said, it's not very often you hear that. So we want to make sure that we do some tests and check EMI's arm in general, see how he feels

days later, just to see if the strength is coming back as we go and to find out the answers of why his arm feels the way he's. feels. We'll see him today. We'll see how he feels and I'll have more information at some point today when I talk to the rest of our media. All right. Let's go with something positive. Obviously, the hitting has been very good. You mentioned best offense and baseball. Cam Smith has been a big part of that. What have you seen as far as his growth from first year on to now and the things you're seeing that are working for him at the plate? You know, consistency where he's a pro. I think you see him more.

He knows who he is. You know, he's not trying to change. You know, if there's an O4-Day, you don't see him trying something different the next day. No consistency with his approach. He's worked in the cage, you know, driving the ball the other way, getting his walks, starting to show some of that dynamic offensive attributes that we know they're in there on the basis, being aggressive, taking extra basis, stealing some bases. Right now, he's one of the best defensive right fielders in the game.

So he is coming home his own. But for me, it's just to watch him, you know, be the same guy every day, right? How he's listening to the coaches, how he's listening to the veteran players so he could stay consistent for all seven, eight months of this season, not for one half. And then, you know, having to adjust. because the league is adjusting to him so far. I really like where he's at right now, both mentally and physically. Joe, a spotter with a few more minutes here on sports talk.

So many. Joe, you've got Jeremy on the injured list, which means Carlos moves to that shortstop position, didn't play him yesterday at that position. How much have you and Carlos talked about how much he wants to play shortstop? Does he want to go back and forth? Does he need a day off in between? And what will be the routine until Jeremy comes back?

And, you know, Carlos will be playing some short, but he will not be playing shortstop every day. You know, he is our starting third base, and he can go and pick us up there, you know, doing this, doing this stretch while Jeremy is out. And because, you know, I got to make sure that he's physically able to stay in the lineup and be a force for us for the entire season. So I got to be mindful how often he plays there

and being able to get him off his feet every time I can't. You've got Colton going tonight for you in the opener against the Rockies. And then, you know, there's a lot of folks who are asking about when Spencer Arrogatti's coming back and when you'll get an opportunity. I'm sure all these guys, these reinforcements that you guys have built up will be eventually here. What is it like to see these young men get this opportunity? And I'm sure you're probably keeping aware of you need length. You don't want that bullpen to be overtax. But you're also worried about guys that are not normally starting for you getting into that pitch count, say, 75 or 80.

What's the balance between that, especially with young guys that are getting maybe their first or second starts of the season? Yeah, you know, I think that's the, you know, when they go that second time through the lineup, right? That's when they haven't experienced that so far these season. Colin Gordon did get some experience last year, so I expect them to be more familiar ways environment. You know, you mentioned Spencer at some point we'll be seeing Spencer. And then also, you know, we do have some guys in our bullpen that we might ask them to start a few games here and there just so we can keep everyone fresh. You know, but it's going to be, you know, it's something new for all these guys. And we just got to help them navigate and don't try to do more.

Just stay with it yourself. Do what you do best. These are your weapons. This is how you could deploy your weapons when you navigate some of these lineups. For a let you run. How bad is Brian and Bray you need a clean? one, two, three, nine pitch type of inning. I know that he's been there, done that for you for many, many years,

but it feels like this year he could use one of those in the not too distant future here. Yeah, he can. And I know he will here pretty soon. You know, he did get a zero on at the other night against the Mariners. So that's a step in the right direction. But we got to get him in the zone. We got to build his confidence. And we're going to slowly do that.

And because we need Brian. You guys know very well that we, without him. We can't get too far. But he's close. There's some mechanical issues that he's usage to can be better. And so we're adjusting some things and we're walking in through some of these issues. Skip, thank you for the time. Best of luck tonight and get those Rockies. We appreciate the visit as always. All right, fellas. Thank you.