The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada on the Astros Slow Start After the All-Star Break

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

Joe Espada on the Astros Slow Start After the All-Star Break

7.9. We get to spend 10 quality minutes of the manager of the Houston Astros, and he joins us now. We were going to do it last Tuesday, but he insisted in getting a week away from us because it was the All-Star Break. Skip, first of all, thanks for joining us. How was the All-Star break for yourself? It was great, man. Thank you for

asking. Had a nice time with the girls. We got to spend some quality time, a little beach time. Down in Cinnamon Shores, a beautiful place. Actually, going there for the first time. So, good time. It was really, really, really fun time to disconnect and recharge for a second half. You know, I don't know if it's fair or not,

but there have been a lot of great baseball pundits, Joe, that say you are who you are right out of the All-Star break, and hopefully that is not the case of 2026 for your squad because it was a disappointing weekend, clearly against Baltimore. A great bounce back for you yesterday, but what is, and you've been doing this now for a few years, what do you have in terms of a mindset? You walk it and say, you guys are refreshed, let's go, let's look at the standings.

what's a proper approach for you as you try to get this team to play some more consistent baseball in the second half of the season? You know what? Those two things you said, players are aware of the standings. They're aware of where we stand. They're aware what we need to do. Do we go over certain things in our meetings prior to the second half just to prepare ourselves to play? Yes, of course. They know we lost all three games, but we had a chance to win two or three.

and we just couldn't, we came short. But I also look at, you know, their intensity, their focus, you know, how hard they're playing. They continue to play hard yesterday was a perfect example after, you know, getting swept by Baltimore. You've got to bounce back and you're going to come out and play well, and we did. You know, we are very much aware of the things that we need to do. we just need to be better, more consistent, and those are things that we work on every single day. And now you have to throw in the potential trade deadline, whether you're buyers or sellers, and hopefully you are not sellers that you are buying.

You're looking to improve this team for the deadline. And so that also creeps in. And as you said, these guys know are about standings. They also know that their agents are calling them and that they check on social media. So this is probably an interesting, turbulent and also maybe at times exciting run as you try to get back in this race. Yeah. And, you know, again, those are things that we can control.

You know, we know where we stand. And we know that the only way for us to sway our front office to buy, sell it, to continue to play better and continue to be in the fight. Let's not forget that we three games are first place in the West. Last time you and I talked two weeks ago, we were three games away in the West. So we are still staying in the fight. Do we need to gain ground? Yes, but we still in it with 60 games to go.

How do you feel about Ronel Blanco's start overall? You know, I think he looks strong. His stuff looked good. Those, you know, those two homers, one on a fastball, one on a breaking ball, kind of got the heart of the plate. Those are only mistakes. Second inning, a few walks. drove up his pitch count, but overall, he looked healthy. Up to 95, the shape of his pitches were

really good. Again, Ronel Blanco threw a ton of strikes like he always does, so the command, the control was there. But it was a good, it was great to see him out there. I know our heart of his work to get back to us, and just to have him backing our rotation, it's very important. Aschros manager, Joe Espada, was here on Sports Talk 790. Can you just kind of give us a little insight and what it is like to be at the front row of this season that Yordaun is having to where even when he goes into a slump, it's like the shortest slump you've ever seen. He just bounces back and how incredible he's been this year. You know, my goodness, I've been, my nine seasons here, I've been in the front row to it. the biggest moments I think in Hess's history, right?

I witness big performance, big home runs, big pitching performances by, man, so many guys that, you know, I think about the Verlanders, the calls, the no-hitters by Blanco and JV and, you know, Altuva's home runs from the postseason. And, you know, I'm forgetting so many of them. And Jordan, what he's doing right now in a position to win a triple crown, no doubt he is the MVP fight favorite right now and yes I love the moment and what he's doing on a baseball field

but what I enjoy most is about the person and who he is every single day how consistent he is as a human and ups and downs he hasn't had many slums I don't know what people are talking about slums you go off for 12 and he walks five times people call that a slum that's not a slump

he's still getting on base but we just used to give him you know, hitting hard and finding holes. And all those things are great. But this guy is just an incredible human. And he's having one of the best seasons I've seen eyewitness on a position player. I've never seen anything like it. Every time he steps on the plate, we are expecting him to do something special.

Joe, you've had a handful of folks that bat behind him. And, you know, we always think about, man, these teams are just not throwing balls or not walking him. It's incredible the amount of pitches he's seeing for guys that had a season. had. And I know the guys behind him embrace that opportunity, but even though they'll say, I'm ready to do this, I'm ready to help him out, I'm ready to make things more difficult, is there still added pressure knowing that maybe Yoron at some point will be pitched around more in the next 50 or so games, and the guy behind him is going to have to carry a lot of that weight for this Astros offense? Do you know what? I actually like the quality of a bus to Perretti

having behind him. I think Paredes is not an easy out. He still forces to make pitch. He's one of our best hitters who are men in scoring position. I tell folks this all the time. You know, regardless of who's hitting behind Yordan Alvarez, you don't matter who it is. You still not going to find someone who their opposite manager is going to think about, man, I'm not going to pitch your own. It's hard to find someone as good or better than Yoran for them to pitch him more. You know, this is the decision that opposing managers is going to have to make regardless of the proceeding behind them.

You know, you don't want to walk them because parade is going to give you another quality of bad. So for me, if Yordan knows what he needs to do, and as long as he continues to stay within himself and his approach, he's going to do damage. He's going to do it. Now he's going to walk. He's going to go to first base. For me, as Yorda, I don't want Yor Don to do try to do more than what he's doing. He is doing enough and more than enough just to come. carry our offense. You gave Christian Walker a pinch hit opportunity yesterday. Where is he at physically

right now? He'll start today. He feels a lot better. This is just something that we're just going to have to monitor as we go for the next two and a half, three months of the season. But he feels good. So, you know, glad to have him back in there tonight.

How is Tati, my feeling with the time off and what are you expecting from him tonight? Good. You know, he needs that slider to be on. They'll throw another six, seven lefties out there today. This is a Marlins team that they're, they're control the zone. They make a ton of pitches. We need strikes from the very beginning. And, you know, and as in offense, you know, needs to score first.

E might take us deep in the game. We've used our bullpen here a lot, the last four games. So hopefully, you know, E might come out after. after that break. He had a really good bullpen session. We'd be working on a few things. So I'm expecting him to be good tonight. Well, wrapping up, speaking of working in a few things,

it feels like that's what Hunter Brown has said the last couple of times out. The walk numbers, obviously, are way elevated than they have been in the past. Do you balance, hey, it's been a month since he's been back? Do you balance it something mechanical? Is it something that he's looking at? I mean, tell me what you're going through. As he shares you his frustration with his performance. comments with you. You know, he's such a competitor and he wants to be great and he's it

one of the best pitchers in the American League. So his expectations every time he goes out there is giving a six innings of no run baseball, right? But there's some mechanical issues that he's working through. You know, the time off potentially, you know, has something to do with it. But I do know one thing, he's going to figure it out and he's going to be good. There's a lot of baseball left and impossible to accomplish our goals without him.