The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada on Astros Recent Surge and Building Momentum Forward

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

Joe Espada on Astros' Recent Surge and Building Momentum Forward

We've been lucky sports RV. Joe Espott is joining us three straight weeks after victories. Maybe Joe should talk to us every day after games. You know what it is us, isn't it? It really, it's got to be. Skip, it's got to be our good luck. Oh, we just lost him. Oh, okay.

Whoops. He's like, no, I'll never forget you guys. No, I'm not, I want no part of this. That was weird. What happened? Hey. Hey, Joe, come out. We were trying to brag about you.

That's great. He's like, all right, guys. You want to take all the credit? There it is. Let's put it back on hold. Hey, Skip. You know, the last thing I heard was victory. Yeah.

It's caught off, man. I said you've got to call us every day after games because all you do is talk to us when you win. So the least you can do is talk to us. No, it's great. It's great. Yeah. Another chance today to win another series. But, yeah, it's, you know, obviously, we're playing a lot better of late.

And we need to continue to do that. Continue to win series and continue to climb up. There are gray hair games, Skip. I don't have any hair up top, as you know, so I didn't gain any. You had to have yesterday really feeling good up for nothing. The bullpen doesn't hold, but then you get the lead back after giving it down. I mean, the little profito. I mean, that thing had about 15 different turns on that contest yesterday against the Blue Jays.

Yeah, it was a roller coaster right for sure. And guys continue to compete, continue to battle. Yeah, you know, we've been using a lot of assets the last couple of days, our pitching. It's been used a lot. But, you know, a lot of contributors. Loper Fito with a big homer, Ben Way closing out of the game after asking to throw like 20 pitches

a day before. You know, we're grinding. through this. It's a 13-game stretch, so we're grinding, man. But yesterday's win, it really felt really good with, after all the ups and downs in that game. My partner, Ross, asked Brian Bogusivik earlier today. It's a great question. We'll throw to you as well. So, Cam Smith has not had the consistency that I think he wants, or for that matter, you want. But when he hits home runs, they're majestic. How does a guy who is still trying to get some consistency in his major league bat come up with these Titanic blast?

My goodness, that just tells you how talented this young man can be. How can we repeat that swing over and over again? That's the key for Cam. When he does it, when he's short, direct, he can hit the ball to all field. That was a bomb.

For the people who haven't been in this ballpark, that's a long way to hit that ball. But he's getting him to repeat that swing, getting him to be confident to put his ace swing, day in day out on the pitches that he knows he can handle is that aspect that we need to help him with but does he have the talent the ability to do that? Absolutely.

And it's just, we need to be patient. We need to continue to give him opportunities and be patient because once he figures it out, he's going to be a star. Yeah, there has been some discussion, of course, about the mental battle for him as well because he was thrown into the fire. He's thrown into every day.

What has that been like for him? How he's managing that? And he does a good job with it. He does a really good job. He knows that we all have his back and support him. And my job is just to, you know, if he needs a day off here and there, I'm going to give it to him conversations with his teammates really help him get through the day, guys that are going through it as young players in a winning environment.

We have a few guys that have done it. So he leans on those guys just to get him through the, day-to-day. Astros manager, Joe Spotted with us here on Sports Talk 790. Just a general question because of the extra innings. What goes into the decision-making, especially road home, matchups especially bunting, trying to navigate kind of an extra layer of strategy for you as a manager when it comes to the extra men and extra innings? Yeah, a lot of things going to consideration. Obviously, how much pitching I have left, who I have left on the bench, you know, the necessity to play for one run instead of two. Just depends on how many bullets I have left in the bullpen to sustain.

And, you know, who's coming up for them in the next, in the bottom half of an inning, you know, home road, different, right? On the home, we always have the last bat. on the road, you have to try to play for potentially one more run. There's a lot of things that go into those decisions. You know, who I got coming up, who can handle the bat. Just so many factors right now, trying to deploy, you know, the players that I have and put him in a position where I know they can succeed and give us an extra run or two. But, you know, just trying to manage day by day and keep these guys in the

in the hunt. You are sending Mike Burroughs back on the mound today after the quick trip down to the bullpen. The reality is, Joe, your bullpen spent, you know that I don't give you any breaking news. Not only is he going to try to get his spot back in the rotation, but he's going to have to wear it. He's going to have to give you what, and hopefully it's good, but gosh, Almighty, I mean, he's got to give you probably 90 pitches at least tonight, you would think, right? Yeah, and I, you know, Matt, if we go, if we look at he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, logs like he's outings

he's out there getting his 95 plus pitchers like he takes him the fifth six inning yeah um the outcome might not what is not what he might have wanted to be but he keeps you in ball games uh and that's what we actually need from him today and I think that that one inning out of the past

he feels way more refreshed reset um kind of gave him a good low and hopefully you know he goes out there and he picks us up today. He's, you know, his change, he's really good against his lineup. He's going to have to use his two seamer against the right-handed pitchers. He's a tough line on navigate, but he does have to stuff to do it.

And hopefully he gains that form that we have saw earlier in the year. You also this week used Yority in the left field two straight games. Part of that it's got to be you want more offensive punch from your outfield. Part of it probably is because he loves to play the position. So take us through what that has done because you did not have used Alvarez in back-to-back left field very often the last couple of years. And also we had a 13-game stretch

and I have to get some guys off their feet by, you know, the day at home, the last game of the series, by doing that up to her, was able to DH. The following day, I was able to DH Paredes. And then that also allows me to use Delgado, move them around the field. You know, Delgado pick up Jeremy yesterday at short. So doing his 13-game stretch, I need to give these guys a breather.

And, you know, you're done, feeling strong, feels good, you know, able to pick us up and let feel for two games. It's huge. And moving forward, we might have to ask him to do some of that once the second half starts at home. So I could keep Walker. I could keep Peretti. I can keep Al-2A. All those guys healthy, I'm just going to need him to, you know,

potentially play a little bit more left field the second half. All right. Before I let you run, Christian Walker's had a good first half for you. The numbers of last month have not been spectacular. Balance for me, a day off for him, because he hates him, as most play, major league years do, from maybe moving him. He's getting one today. So there you go.

Oh, there you are. Look at you giving us some breaking news. God love you, Skip. There you go. What about moving line-up-wise? Does that do much for a player? I know everybody's different, but tell me about lineup. adjustments as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I'm considering doing that. He's here today. He's going to

hit early. And I'm going to have a conversation with him. But listen, you know, regardless of moving someone in the lineup or not, I look at the process that he has in place. If you look at he's about the outcome, yes, they haven't been there. But if you watch yesterday's game, right? He gets himself a good hit his county hits a ball over 100 miles per hour right at the shortstop. He hit one, you know, warning track. If he doesn't spain off on that pitch, it's a home run. So he's getting himself in good hitter spots. The outcome is not there.

What I try to monitor the frustration in the human, right, in the competitor that he is. I want to make sure that he understands, hey, every hitter goes through a little stretch where they can't, you know, balls don't fall for him. And for me, it's just managing more that frustration because he's such a competitor. And I think that off day today will help. And then when it comes to stacking the lineup, you know, I'm changing things up a little bit today. So trying to find some rhythm in some of these guys, trying to get some of these bats going starting the second half. So, you know, it's always looking for ways to, you know, continue to improve our team and put these guys in a position where we can continue to win some gains in some series.

So who you playing at first base in today? Who's getting the job? All right, as well. Okay, very good. Lastly, Coach, Skip, thanks for the time as always. And tell Nate Pearson, he's a lot to make one error once in a while. But if he does that, again, he's going to have to have an hour of PFPs every single day. That throw yesterday, I mean, it took years off my life, honestly. Probably did for you as well.

It did. It did. But, you know, we'll do some PFPs whenever we get back off. You got that right. Let him rest first. Skip, thanks for the time, as always. You got it, guys. We'll see you.

All right, Joe Spada.