The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada Talks Astros Push in the AL West

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Joe Espada Talks Astros Push in the AL West

And it's 1230 on Sports Talk 790. We are happy to be joined as we are every Tuesday in this radio program. Matt and Ross with the manager of the Houston Astros. Joe Espada joining us from Anaheim. Skip, when you laid down in that bed last night and you looked up at your ceiling, before you close your eyes, you go, hot damn, how about that? Yeah, yeah. It felt like we still won from the Angels last night.

incredible how we stay in that game, we fought, and our guys were able to prevail. Good at Bats at the end. Christine Javier was the player of the game. He's five-inning, seven punches. I don't know, man. It just feels like this guys, you know, obviously I've been here for a long time, and I know the heart and the toughness in this group, but I think, again, once again, this team stays together and we're able to pull that one off.

The reality is this, Joe, in baseball, especially when you are in an Uber competitive playoff chase, and you were certainly last year. It's the amount of games you give up late that you just kick yourself versus the amount of games that you stole from somebody. And you know what? Sometimes it's nice to steal one, especially on the road, especially against a team that has given you a little bit of problems over the course of the year. Yeah, no, yeah, yeah. You know, it's, you know, this team, especially when you come here to L.A., you know, they have a, You know, they got some hitters in the top of the order that you have to make pitches because they can hit the ball of the ballpark. They're pitching the month of June has been one of the best in the big leagues.

Like we ran into a really good young arm yesterday, and he gives us a tough time. But we knew that if we could stay and take it out of the game and we could get into a bullpen. We got a shot and we did. You mentioned Christian Javier. Do you check on him? because look, relief is still relatively new to him. He's still relatively new off coming off the injured list, but he just kept throwing BBs getting you out.

His pitch count was low. Do you have your pitching coaches? Does Christian go to talk to him to say, can you give me one more? How did that transpire to eventually get him five innings for him last night? Yeah, so, you know, he's done the relieving in the past, and he's been good at it, you know, doing 22, and in the early years in his career.

But, you know, when he comes to, you know, last night, I check up on him. We see he's still throwing the ball really well. I ask Christian, how's this stuff coming out. You know, you see how the hitters just not seeing it well. In the position that we are in, we use a lot of our relievers in Chicago. So we're keeping a really close eye on him. And once the game started getting closer and closer, then now we could start tapping into a high-leverage relievers,

but just the fact that he went out there five innings and continued to throw the ball in the zone and keep his, you know, his pitch count low, he gave us a chance. And not only helped us win last night, but I think you also put us in a better position to win today, which that's what we're trying to do, win seriously. With Javier pitching as well as he did

and EMI struggling the way he did, the natural thought would be one replacing the other in the rotation. Just your thoughts on EMI and how you're feeling about him and keeping him in the rotation long term. You know, what we really trying is to get, you know, EMI to consistently, you know, throw the ball, like in the zone, like he goes one really good start. And then he struggles the next one.

Like, we're trying to figure out what is it that's causing that struggle. Is his preparation? Is he focused? What is it that just not allowed? him to Chris Heath's bullpen, you know, I was talking to Vasquez during the game. He's bullpen, like getting ready for the game. It was lights out. It was incredible.

Like you never thought that that was going to happen in the first inning. So he's trying to figure out what happens in between, like in between starts. Like what happens from the mound, from the from the bullpen mount to the game mount? Like what happens there that we could help him with. Now when he comes to his next start, we're going to sit down a day and discuss what we're going to do. next. Obviously, we don't have many games left. So we need to have some consistency out of our rotation

because what happens when you have stuff like those, it trickles down and puts you in the top spot for the next remaining games and we just don't have how many games left to sustain and be patient enough to get

someone time to turn things around. We're going to sit down with them today and we're going to figure out what happened yesterday and and then we'll go from there. You know, it's funny, Joe, you've been with us for three years now doing these weekly visits, and I catch things you say, and the term you like to say is having conversations with, and I think clearly you're going to have a conversation with him.

Those conversations, I would assume you are because you're a positive human being in general, but there's, as you said, you're down to less than 60 games, you're in the fight of your life. You can't sugarcoat much more, can you? No, no, no. You know, and, you know, I, when I have conversation with some players, there is a side of me that you guys probably, you know, don't see. And it's the, you know, I have to be firm and I have to be show them that, you know, it's go time. It's this, you know, the leash gets shorter, the shorter the season gets. There needs to be a sense of urgency where we need it as a team.

And we are chasing our, the goal to win the division. And it's, it's time to go. It's, you know, we need, we need performance. We need outs. We need wins. We need people step on the gas pedal and we need to roll. And those are the tough conversations that I have with some of our players. And, you know, you get reaction from them and it lights up, you know, at fire or,

I'm always looking for their reaction, right? How they take it, what they say. But this is a time of year where it's go time, guys. It's August. We have less than 55 games to go. So we need results. Astros, manager Joe Espottalus here on Sports Talk 790, and it is go time one week away from the trade deadline.

What are your conversations like with Dana Brown? We know kind of looking just from the outside looking, in as far as pitching needs and an outfield bad and those types of things. Just your thoughts on the needs and your conversations with Dana. Yeah, so we, you know, obviously we have conversations daily on the roster construction and how can we make it better. I do say, man, that I'm just really proud of our players that we have in our current roster. they have stick together and, you know, we are two and a half games out of first place

with, you know, so many obstacles throughout the season. And I give my players so much credit for the win like last night, like contribution from a ton of guys. So we're always talking about how can we make it better. And, you know, but we have to continue to fight with what we have. and our guys are all in it. And that's what makes me happy. That as long as we stay together while our front office look for ways to improve our team,

you know, that's all I can ask from our team. Would you like to announce tomorrow's starter on this radio show right now? I'll announce it later. That does us no good right now, Skip. What are you talking about? This is our show. I don't care what's going on later. No.

I'll say this, and it's unfortunate about Spencer, but you do have some reinforcements in there. Obviously, Hayden has gone through the rehab performances. Give me a thought or two about Rennel. Look like really struggled early in the game to get his footing, but still, I'm still seeing some signs to say maybe two starts from now, this could be a different Renele Blanco, but at the same time, again, balancing the fact that you're trying to stay in this race

to win this division and or get a wild car. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think they, you know, he did struggle that first inning, gave up that home run. I think he's been hurt by the long ball. But if you look at the total work of it, he's going to, he's on the bowl well. Like, you know, even that game, he was going to the sixth inning. He had 74 pitches. So the body of work is being good.

Now, when we continue to move forward, I agree with you, I think the next few starts, he's going to be more, more, he's going to be sharper. And, and, but for me is the, the less games we have, the more effective we need to be early in the game and the more aggressive we might need to be making the right decisions in the middle of the game, trying to give our team a chance to win. Our bullpen is really good. Always being mindful of the workload day, they have endured so far. but we will be very cautious moving forward and I want to keep my eye very close on our starters just to make sure that we give our team a chance to win. I've got two questions left. Ross has one.

First, AJ Blueball, my goodness, you put that poor man through some tough spots there coming in for an injury, then he comes in for EMI. There is tremendous value in a reliever, sometimes high, but sometimes that low. AJ is giving you high leverage innings very early in contest. Yes, and that was high leverage. It turned out to be a high leverage game for him. Same thing as Havi. You know, after that first inning, nobody thought that we were going to win that game.

We thought so in the dugout. You know, we made the move based on, if we could get somebody just to keep us in this game, and Havie can keep us in this game, our offense is going to come back. We have shown that the whole entire year. There's going to be one inning where we're going to put a crooked number. We're going to get back in the game. And then somebody's going to be going to. to get a big hit. That's our thought process. That's our mind going into those games.

And AJ, 40-something pitches, heavy 70 pitches just to get us there and hand the ball to a hater with the lead in the ninth, just tells you a lot about our club. Yeah, and somebody who's been stepping up on the position player's side, just, I mean, how many nice things can you say about Jeremy Pena? He's had the injuries. He's been battling through that and fighting through the cramps and then going out there and producing at the level he way he is. And there's been a lot of talk about him, as growing as a leader, and you've been around him his whole major league career, if you want to speak on that as well.

Yeah, yeah, he, you know, obviously he made some remarks the other day after we got swept by Baltimore coming out of the break, and I think, you know, the players, the players hurt them. And I think, you know, and I told him, I said, listen, you spoke and you created a reaction from your teammates, and that's what leaders do. and I think it's important to recognize that he is taking over that responsibility and not only vocal but also with performance. He is, we are a different team when he is on the field. Obviously, Jordan is doing the incredible performance, you know, MVP caliber top of season, but Jeremy Peña right now, he is one of our leaders.

He gets our offense going. He plays the game hard. You know, we are a much, much explosive better club when he's in there. Last question. I think ultimately, if you're going to overtake this division, you've got to get more offense. Clearly, everybody's saying that right now. But Christian Walker, the first two months we have not seen probably in two months. You put him in the seventh position.

I would think this is a chance to gain some mojo time back. But knowing at the end of the day, Christian Walker, higher in the batting order, Christian Walker of April May is going to help you get over the hump. If you get over the hump. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, with the game yesterday, having the Urena in there really tough, righty-on-righty and just trying to put some lefties in between, trying to get those guys to walk, like Lamonte Way walk,

a big walk there in the game, trying to get Tremel squeezing there in between those righties, trying to get some offense going, trying to match him. these guys up putting him in a position when they can have some really good at bats. Walker has some good at bats at the walk and then a big knock there to start a rally in the ninth. But you're right, you know, and I think Walker will eventually will get there, trying to give them a breather in the last game in Chicago trying to keep them fresh. But eventually if we want to get to where we want to get to, we're going to need more

offense from those guys, and I think eventually we'll come. but you know i i like the way we are playing as a group right now i think that's the most important thing and those guys will step up and and they'll find their footing