The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada Talks Recent Challenges After Start Of Series vs Red Sox’s

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

Joe Espada Talks Recent Challenges After Start Of Series vs Red Sox’s

One of our favorite times of the week is to spend 12 quality minutes with the manager of your Houston Astros. One game lead over the Mariners in America League West after yesterday's win over the Red Sox. Joe Espada with us here on 7-90. Skip, good afternoon. Do you thank you for the time as always? We've mentioned it many a time so far on our show today. It felt like you were in game one of the ALCS last night at your ballpark. Agreed, right? It did.

It did feel like it. Yeah, the energy in the ballpark was it felt like a playoff, playoff game. The game itself, you know, the scoring, right, trying to keep maintaining that lead, trying to navigate, you know, through our bullpen. It really felt like a playoff game for sure. I'm assuming you have no update for us on Hater unless you do, and we'd love to hear it. But let's go back a little bit. Tell me what your conversation was.

when he first came to you and said, Skip, I don't feel good. It's not, that's a last thing you want to hear. From any of your pitchers, any of your players, yeah, it was not a great feeling. And we'll get more results here this afternoon. You know, I don't know what has happened in your world, and you deserve a much better faith than this, because I feel like every time something's going right,

and I tease you about having a bubble wrap guys, but man, oh man, I would say this. At least it's the shoulder, not the forearm and elbow, because we kind of hear when we hear that kind of stuff, we automatically think Tommy John. So who's to say? But what was it like you said navigating? And you've had to navigate quite a bit this year with a variety guys in your bullpen. Has that been your biggest, perhaps change from year one to year two is having to massage? Who's getting days off?

Who's throwing enough? Who needs to throw, that kind of thing? Yeah, it's been a challenge. You know, we have been blessed. We have been some guys that can actually have in really good years in our bullpen, guys who have been asked to do a lot with not having a ton of experience. And they have done a really good job. So that does make it a little bit easier.

But, you know, to keep everyone healthy and to try to win as many games as possible, and protecting your assets to finish the regular season has been, I think, one of the biggest challenges for me, definitely as a manager. You said something last night in the post game that struck me funny. You said that was fun, trying to go through that with all.

You have your leverage guys. I don't know how much of the fans agree, but clearly I love that attitude from you that, like, hey, this is just a baseball game and you're enjoying this late-inning strategy, especially being down your guys. It's kind of, you don't have any other choice. Right.

You know, it's for me, I was talking, you know, I know for, you know, as a fan, as as a manager, you want things to go smoothly and you want you guys to all be up and available. But that's not the reality of these game. And when I said fun is as more personal, the fact that, you know, I think about my career, my journey and be in a position to manage a team. in an organization that would be so successful and be in that spot. You dream about, I dream about those moments, right? That's what as a leader you want to lead players into putting them in a position for them to have success.

They have to get big outs, like Suza the last out in the ninth inning. You know, that's exciting because I know how hard he's worked for that. Delos Santos getting an opportunity to get big outs for us. He's been bouncing around all year. O'Kard. That's exciting for me, and it's fun to watch my players step up and have big moments in their careers. That, for me, I enjoy that aspect of my job. Christian Javier got the start for you. What did you see from him out there? Of course, settling in after that two-run shot from Bregman and just conversations with him after about

how he's feeling. Good. I was, you know, again, another player who has work. way back. I thought his stuff was really good. Aside from that tour on home run, I thought he stuff, you know, we saw his fastball up to 94, 95. He had the hop that we know when Javier is healthy, that that's the movement that we're looking on his fastball. He's breaking ball through some good one. His change is okay. Like we're going to work through those things, but he looked healthy. He looked like he became ready to compete. And moving forward, forward, I felt really good aware Javier he's at right now.

So these guys go through these rehab appearances down in the minor leagues, and they don't necessarily go deep into games, three and two-thirds, maybe four, maybe 70 pitches. So when you sent Christian Javier out there, you didn't know how much to expect from him, or did you guys kind of have a game plan to say, hey, I'm going to watch you through the first 50 and we can try to get you to 75.

Take us through what that is like, taking a guy that hasn't seen major league competition and then asking him to go beyond what you expect from a starter when it comes to number of pitches thrown. No, you're right. And another thing is, like you mentioned earlier, it felt like LCS game. That's also another thing that you have to take in consideration. There was a lot of stuff going on in our ballpark yesterday, the energy, the Korea coming back, the Breckman there, the, you know, you're as Javier as an individual getting back on the mound after missing a whole entire season. all those emotions play into your performance.

So, you know, he's pitching in AAA. The lights are not as bright as it in the major league game. We're in a pennant race. I'm looking closely to see how he reacts and how he acts from, you know, doing that. Not only the pitch count, but I'm also looking at his effort, how he's breathing in between innings, my conversations within, how you feel, how he's handling the whole thing. There's a lot of stuff that goes on that goes into my evaluation.

of his performance on that day. You're about to hit a slippery slope because you've got 40 or so games left, give or take, and then you've got a one-game lead. You've got just a few days off. You've got some stretches of games coming up where you'll play 10 in a row or 13 in a row or something like that, and you're accustomed to that. How do you feel like you're going to balance off-time with, damn, we need to win this game coming up,

and I need my full lineup in there as often as possible. Yeah, and, you know, I think I will use my DH, the DH spot to give those guys off their feet some. Also, I will start asking these guys to show up to the ballpark a little bit later and trying to make sure that we sleep in, we recover and do all that kind of stuff. You know, we do have 40 games left. We do have some guys that are getting close to coming back, so that also can help give some of these guys a breather.

but it's, you know, that's another thing I need to watch closely. If we're going to be in a position to make a push year at the end, we need this guys to be in a good spot physically. Astros manager Joe Espato was here on a sports talk 790. Spencer Erigetti throwing for you again. How do you assess where he is now and what he needs to do tonight? A little bit of bad luck in his last start. He also did get the 16 whiffs, but the four infield hits.

but also did get hit hard. Yeah, and you know, and I think, you know, I expect him to be much better today. You know, commanding his pitches, getting to the lanes that he needs to get to get some swinging misses, to get some quicker out. This is the line, the rest of the lineup, you have to pitch ahead in the count. You can't fall behind these guys. They don't grind a bat. They put the ball in play.

They hit balls hard. You know, I expect them just to have a couple of lefties in there today. So you got to be on top of your game. you've got to have confidence on your pitches, on your game planning, and being able to throw your pitches in different counts for strikes and expand when you have to. You know, I see the Spencer throw the ball really well against these guys last year in Fenway. I remember that start, and I know he can go back there and do it again.

Speaking of starting pitching, Jason Alexander was brilliant for you over the weekend. Look, when you're on the cusp major leaguer, sometimes battling between AAA, in manger leagues. You've got to just take whatever role you're given. But has he done enough in your mind to say, all right, let's get that arm ready for every fifth day as compared to bouncing back between middle relief and starting? You know what? I think he's done well enough to get an opportunity for a next start. Things changes every single day. Like you mentioned, we're going to have a long stretch of games here coming up after Thursday. So we might need to change some things up just to keep everyone fresh,

to keep everyone, you know, strong. We do have some guys really close to coming back, some starters really, you know, closely coming back. So those guys will also play a factor in our push. All right, to let you run again. Let's reiterate. So do you feel like when you get to the ballpark today, you'll get a better feel of Josh

or what have the officials told you in terms of how long it's going to take for them to evaluate what it was causing the soreness? Yeah, so we're going to do more testing this afternoon. So, you know, by two, three o'clock, hopefully I have, you know, a better diagnosis of what, you know, what the discomfort is. So, yeah, I'm just, I'm here right now. So, you know, hopefully we get some good news, you know. You don't want to ever want to hear one of your pictures, you know, shoulder, elbow, like you mentioned, right? But hopefully we get to speak to the doctors and we get some good news.

I'll say this, Skip, and you know this. Abreu's been nails for you this year. You've got four saves out of Benitz-Susa. I mean, of anything, and look, nobody wants to lose Josh Hater, but you've got some great lieutenants that are ready to help out of necessary. Yes, yes. And I think yesterday was a perfect example, hands-on deck, you know. I'm going to be using everyone at different times doing the game,

different pockets, righties, lefties, and they'll be ready. These guys, they understand where we are at right now in the season, and they know they need to pick Josh up. Thanks for the visitors, as always, and I hope you get some good news out of Josh. We appreciate the time as always. All right, guys. We'll see you.

Joe Espado with us here on Sports Talk 7-9.