The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada on the Astros Pitching Struggles and Ongoing Challenges

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Joe Espada on the Astros Pitching Struggles and Ongoing Challenges

Every Tuesday here on the Matt Thomas show at Ross. We spend 10 quality minutes with the manager of the Houston Astros. Drop the opener to the Dodgers last night. Game number two tonight. We'll have it for you all of the on deck show from the ballpark at 6 o'clock, first pitch at 7 and 10. Joe Espada is with us on the show. Skip, a good afternoon.

Thank you for the time. More of a macro view of this. Running a bullpen game is it much more harrowing than I think it is. I mean, you'd love it to be a perfect formula, but unfortunately, it feels like more times and not it's not. Yeah, it's never a good, you know, it's got to go as a plan, right? And unfortunately, that wasn't the case yesterday. But we, you know, we are in a position where we have to try to piece it together until we get, you know,

the rest of our guys back. And sometimes, you know, it goes, it goes well. You know, I think in Boston the day before on Sunday, it was, you know, it played out our way. And then yesterday was one of those days that it just didn't play out the way we wanted. And unfortunately, when you can't get Oka out of the first inning and pushes everybody up a little bit, I know Ryan Weiss was a guy that really wanted to come into camp and be a starter.

The numbers just haven't bared out. What are you noticing about him? And I know there has been some talk about maybe a move down to Sugarland. And I don't know if you've made that official gist yet, but just a thought or two about Ryan, because I know when I talked to him during Astro Fest, he came in not only looking forward to being a major league for the first time, but maybe cracking your starting rotation. Yeah, you know, and if you look at his outing yesterday, right, you know, how he was ahead often. And then once he got to that 0-2-1-2 count,

just not being able to execute and finish the hit or executing a pitch more of a chase pitch just kind of leaving pitches like out over the plate like in the middle of the plate where good hitters are going to handle and that has been one of the issues for for Ryan right now that you know he is trying to work through when you have plus stuff the way he does hitters should not be squaring your pitches up the way they've been up late, right? He should be able to wipe them away. In 98-mile-pourer fastball, he's got a change-up, he's got a sweeper. Like, he's got the weapons to do it.

But in this level, once you get ahead of this hitters, you've got to get him out of the box. You have to. You can just let him get back into the abbat because then you empower them just to take over the abbat. and then it becomes more challenging for you to put him away. The one guy you can discuss that is kind of embraced this opportunity, I think is A.J. Blueball, and I hope that everything is okay with him in terms of the amount of pitching you've used him for, but he used him in a variety of avenues in the last week or so

and every time he's come through for you. Yeah, he's done the ball. We know he could give you that one inning, like that one inning he comes in and just really efficient, and then he can give you multiple. football innings like he did in Boston. You know, but he's been really good. The same thing you could say about K.W. Tang, you know, the guy that comes in out of the pan, and he just, it's just a good bridge.

They keep you in the game. They give you quality in and quality out. Lefty, righties. You feel comfortable when they're out there on the mound. Joe, Espato with us here on Sports Talk 790. Yarn Air Diaz was pulled late yesterday. Where are we on him right now? What's the injury?

How did it come into play? and I know you've brought up to say there Salazar, but that's obviously you're looking for some additional depth in that position right now. Yeah, and you know, he'll go on the, he'll be on the aisle and we will do we'll doing more tests today

and you know, but right now the initial diagnosis was that left side, that left side, that obliques and happened during BP he was pretty sore yesterday when it happened and then like doing the game. game, you know, he did feel a discomfort throughout the day. So he tells you that it's going to be something that it's going to take some time for him to recover from.

I hate that I have to be the doctor to you or you're the doctor to me, but these obliques have turned out to be fairly serious injuries. I know that Jake's gone through that as well. What's happening? Are you noticing a train with guys maybe trying to put too much torque into their body during these spring? Is there a particular reason why or is there just the natural progression of playing six days a week in Major League Baseball? You know, and it's throughout the league. It's an injury that is happening very frequently. You know, we try to monitor the amount of swings, the amount of work.

They do hydration, nutrition, right? You know, how their bodies are holding up. And, you know, this might be few reasons why this. injury is happening, he's happening throughout the league. This is a very common injury right now in Major League. Is it troubling to you? I mean, and I could also go back to the number of arm injuries, not only you're going through, but baseball.

And I know everyone's worried about their own individual teams, and you can't worry about the injured list of Atlanta or Toronto or anybody else. But when do you guys as managerial bros just kind of sit back and say, can we do something about this? Because it feels like, and looking at Tark Scoobel now is going to be gone for a while for the Detroit Tigers. I don't have you and AJ are going to wrap about that. But your sport is so beautiful, but it's not beautiful when you're using, no disrespect.

But you've got a lot of 4A players right now that are trying to take up for these major superstars. Yeah, yeah, it's not ideal, right? It's happening too often. And, you know, fans come to the ballpark to watch, like you mentioned, the terrorist school bowls, the Hunter Browns. Right, those other stars of this game. and these injuries are happening more often. You know, guys are getting nastier. They're spinning the ball harder.

They're throwing the ball, you know, harder than ever in this sport. And, you know, we carry enough arms in your pen when you try to do the best you can, trying to give this guy's opportunity for them to succeed and manage the bullpen in a way where you give them enough rest. but when you go through stretches like the one that we've been going through, you know, it takes you tall in some of these guys and you're trying to manage at the best way you can, trying to give these guys time off as best as you can. But it's throughout the league, man.

These arms are hitting this, you know, these moments of fatigue and it's just wearing down on good clubs. Joe, you've got your own worries and own battles with the Dodgers across the dugout from you tonight. But how keen of an eye or correspondence where you have with what's happening in Sugarland? You've got three different guys that you could desperately lead here in the not too distant future to come help out your team. They're going to pitch tonight for the Space Cowboys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a big day there in Sugarland today.

We'll be keeping close eye on on what's going on all there today. Three arms that we desperately need. important arms. So we are going to monitor them and then see how they feel post-game. EMI will start that game. Josh Hayter will throw in the middle and then Pearson will finish

the game. And then, you know, hopefully things go well and we can continue their progression and hopefully we can get EMI here at some point after that next start. And I know they're not going to lie to you. So I want to preface this. But they need to be as open and honest with you because, my God, your rights out of your notes page or your media notes is

still full of injuries. You're balancing openers the last couple of days. The last thing you've got to do, and we all want them back, but you can't rush them. So tell me about their DNA. I know that EMI, obviously, the tired arm and being acclimated, Josh has been gone

a long period of time. You brought him Pearson to be a guy that could fight for a roster spot. They're desperate, but you're also desperate to win, but you're also desperate to keep guys healthy and out there going back and forth between Houston and Sugarland with players. Yeah, and that's the balance that you have to keep You know, we need them here, but we need them healthy, and we need them healthy for the duration of the season.

And they're pretty honest. You know, Josh Ador is someone who takes really good care of his body and he's very transparent about how he feels. You know, EMI, we don't feel right now like it's the, it's an arm injury. It's just more trying to get him going again, get him throwing more strikes and just be more efficient. So when he get up here, he could take us, give him some quality stuff. And Pearson looks really good. He's someone that can give you, you know, a start can throw out of the pen. So we'll have a better idea of where we go after tonight after that game in Sri Lanka.

I'm going to talk to Bryce Matthews here shortly. He has embraced the center field spot as best he can. What is it like watching him? He's an athlete, so he's going to be able to do some things. But the limited time he has played as an outfield of major leagues has obviously been documenting. committed. Learning in Boston is quite a trick and he was able to do very well for you this past weekend. Yeah, especially, you know, never been there and how he was able to adjust to the position and goes, you know, credit to his athleticism and his coachable mindset where he can put to play

whatever you ask him to do because he understands, you know, the position, but also how to position himself how to adjust, how to read swings, play balls off the wall, finding the wall once he gets to the warning track. You know, baseball IQ has play immensely here in his development. And like he said, he has embraced Senate feel, and he started to swing the bat well, too. I think the power and the speed, it's real, it's trying to get him just to be more consistent and make more contact so he could be like a real threat offensively. Two last questions. Jose, you put in the five spot the last week or so. Look, he's going to do whatever you ask of him, and that's always been who his DNA has been.

But I'm curious, what kind of pitch selection he is getting? Is it any different in your mind as you watch him batting fifth as compared to maybe first or second or third in this Astros lineup? No, we've been monitoring that. He's been pitching. He's been pitched the same way. I think for Jose right now, it's just a little mechanical adjustments that he's. He's making hitting the ball on the ground more often right now that he was doing the first couple of weeks of the season.

You know, but he's getting good pitches to hit. And, you know, he's hit some balls hard. You know, I think he's got a five, six game hitting streak. You know, I know that it don't look like that, but he's got to hit the last five, six game. So he is getting that hit and he's getting on base. he just we need to get them to be you know get to be your base a little more multiple times per game but I think it's just you know a week where all hitters go through you know they go to a stretch of games where

things don't fall and that don't happen for you but he'll get hot here pretty soon and last question I always thought at the end of the day otani would be more of an everyday hitter as compared to pitcher but the numbers this year are fantastic I don't know if you want to give us an intelligent report but the young man and otani's got a point 60 ERA. What are you noticing today that maybe you didn't even did last year or so while he was pitching? No, that he's, you know, he's healthy. I think, you know, he, after that one year where you're trying to get back from, from an arm injury, I think the year, the second year after you come back from the injury, your stuff just kind of clicks in your arm, it's 100%. He's, you know, he's healthy and he's doing the ball really well. You know, he's, you know, he's one of those very rare

talent, unique talents in this game. And, you know, we have, we've had some good at bets against him in the past. We've seen a lot of him. So we're going to go into this with a pretty good idea of what he's going to try to do. Skip, thank you for the visit. As always, we'll visit again next Tuesday. And good luck tonight.

I'll see you at Duncan Park in a few hours. Thank you for the time as always. All right, thank you.