The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - The Matt Thomas Show 10-09-19

Episode Date: October 9, 2019

The Matt Thomas Show w/ @SportsMT, @SportsRV, and @ProNickLow 10/9/19Ready for everyone's terrible Astros takes for Bitch and Moan Wednesday! (0:00)Joel Klatt : on Texas A&M "Easy Win For Alabama" (1:12:49)Jose Altuve and AJ Hinch Press Conferences (1:31:42)

It's larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 1202 and H-Town. What's happening in lunchtimmers? Good afternoon to you and welcome to a Wednesday edition to the Matt Thomas show from St. Pete and from Houston here. Sports Talk 790.

Hello, darkness. My old friend, I've come to talk with you again. And that's hit pretty well and pretty deep to left center field. Going back as Brantley looking up and it's gone. Tommy Fan goes yard and the raise go up one-nothing. Fans first home run of the series. That was planted in my- And that's lined in the right.

That's gonna get down for a base hit. Around third is Garcia. He will score as that ball goes all the way to the wall. Coming around third now, Darno. Now he'll get the stop sign for Rodney Lanars. It's an RBI double for Wendell and a 3-0-0-rays lead. And he rips this one to right center field. Long run for Kiermire, and he's going to play it off the wall.

It's a one hopper, and they're going to send Al-Tuvae. There's going to be a play at the plate. He is perfect from Adamas. They're going to have to check that one again. This ball's ripped a left center. Backing up on it, Brantley, he's going to run out of room. And that's high and away to the left center for Adamas, a homer. And the raise lead at 4 to nothing.

Look like a slider that just hung there. Just for the record, I am not as sad as his song is. I'm just a big fan of Simon and Garfunkel. So when Ross said, hey, can we play this? I'm like, okay, we can do it. Those highlights actually hurt my stomach, Matt. I'm not even kidding. Like, I mean, you're like physically ill?

I mean, just like a, just not, not like a, not even a gut punch. Like a gut hurt tap. It's not good. Like, I didn't feel good hitting hitting the button on those. Does it feel like the girl that you knew you needed to break up with when she got, she broke up with you first? No, that's relief. But no, you're sad now. Okay, maybe that's, maybe that's a bad example.

If we know he'd need to break up and she's like, you know what, it's over. I'm like, oh, thank goodness. But you were not, you were afraid to pull the trigger on that. And now she's left you and now you're by yourself. Yeah, this is, that sounds great. Okay. Maybe it was a poor example of my part. Hi, gang.

I'm still in St. Pete. We had to catch a later flight tonight because of scheduling and one out of everybody's shows. So we are here and we'll be with you until 3 o'clock this afternoon. Ross is back in our studios and ProNiclo producing a show. You guys are more than welcome. Rossi, we do have some good news for our audience today. We have two great giveaways. One we'll do in the noon hour and one we'll do in the one o'clock hour for a chance to win not only Cougar versus Cincinnati Bearcat tickets this weekend, but a gift card to Fleming.

Am I correct on that? You are correct on that. And hopefully nobody wins. Is there any scenario where that happens so that we can just go? Nope. It's a guaranteed win. We'll do our first giveaway at 1230. We'll do a second giveaway at 130.

Joe Clott, normally with us in the 1 o'clock hour, we're going to push him to two because what I thought we would do is we would lay the runway, whatever you want to call it, for y'all to chime in at 713, 212-5-790, 7-190.2-790, if you'd like to join us. 2.30 to 3. The Astros are having some press conferences over at Minute Maid Park, and we are attempted to get that feed for you so you can hear some of that. You look, I mean, we took calls for an hour and a half last night, so this is not like I'm giving you any fresh material, especially if you win this all day. But this sucks. It's not great. It's rather surprising, but it's not like the greatest shock of all time. Now, I will say this, Mr. Rilla Villarreal, if they lose this series, it will be the greatest shock.

It will be, and we were talking about this this morning at breakfast. No, no. And I don't want to spend a lot of time of this because Garrett Cole is going to help the Astros win. The Astro bats are going to be just enough, spirited enough to get... On Fayia? Great. Wonderful.

Yes. Good. Whatever you want to describe it. Okay. If this team would lose, this would be to me, let me give you my greatest Houston sports disappointment in no particular order, okay? Oilers blown the big lead in Buffalo. That might have been, that's the all-timer. Yes.

Followed by Fyslamma, JAMA, Jammah, losing on the buzzer. Yeah. The 98 Astros Padres series, massive disappointment. And then I'd probably go Rockets, Blazers, four with the Lillard shot to win it. And I don't know what five is, but guess what? It would be easy to put number five in it, and it would be this team not winning. It's shooting, missing 27 threes in a row against the Warriors in. choking basically if i mean i'm going to say choking away game seven even though you didn't have

chris paul you got to make a couple of those threes that's yeah i don't know if um to go to the finals and win the championship i'm putting it in there oh to you have the best dynasty uh in modern in modern in modern in history you know the last 10 years or so on the ropes and you go oh for 27 from three at home that did suck too that you're making me sad put it put it this way that's where we're putting a loss tomorrow in this group right there. And then, of course, U of H versus Southern Miss. Well, yeah, it's because someone who already had the job at A&M at the time,

but I don't want to bring that up. Just kidding. Thanks for Austin. This would be worse than the 98 one. Worse than 98? Yes. Worse than Lillard. Because in 98, the Yankees were just absurdly good.

So you don't know that you would have won the World Series. The Astros are far and away. not far in a way, but they are Tier 1 best team in baseball. Yeah, all right. So this would be to me. And I don't want to, we're not doing a lot of negative Nancy on this because it's, it's just not good for our mental and physical health. Can you let us grieve, Matt?

Well, that's what today's for. Okay. Today is a day where you can be completely irrational, have horrific baseball takes about how the team should bunt more. I can't wait. And that Justin Vernalender should never been on the mound yesterday and that Jose or Kitty would have prevented all this, the rookie. I want to hear more about how that Gary Pettis is a horrible third base coach.

I mean, if you're really going to do this to us today, Houston, you just might as well unleash your beast, so to speak. If you're really going to go over the top, Ross, it better be super over the top. I've got enough of that on Twitter last night. Yeah. Can I, let me just do it. Can I deal in the realities for you on a little bit? you and I have not spoken since last night.

Here's the bit. The Astrobat's been atrocious so far in the series, generally speaking. Yes. Really, really bad here in Tampa. I mean, really, really, really bad. That's the number one thing. Zach Granky was awful in game three. And not only what that did is it made you nervous about Zach Granky

is that it forced AJ to go, look, I've got to finish this bad boy off because I don't know what I have. And the fact is, Wade Motley's September free fall has hurt this baseball team. Granky's performance yesterday, or I should say two days ago was terrible. And now when it's done for the first time, it's absolutely put a shadow of doubt into what Justin Verlander is. And that's not fair to him. But it's just the realization of he was very average yesterday. Velocity-wise, Ross, it was good.

It was mid-90s. but location and spin off the slider the things that have made him so good he was it was all over the place it was hard to control and it and when it flattened out it became very hitable yep he wasn't himself the control wasn't there the the spin wasn't there he went out there and he battled I mean do we talk about how poorly he looked and how well he didn't do he his start was better than Zach Grinky's start um this game hey Ross this game was close you gave it could have been Yeah.

If you give up four runs, you should win. You should win. The Astro scored one run, and it was a Robinson Trenos, a late home run that didn't end up mattering at all. That was it. That's the offense they got going. There was never stringing along any hits. They only got six hits the entire game. Four singles.

They just never got anything going. And yeah, and then the time you got a double, it was Alvarez and you sent Al-Tube, which I'm okay with and the aggression and all that. It took two perfect throws. but it was just, the Astros just have seen snake bit the last two games. And you know what it is, Ross? It might be the circus tent that is Tropic Anterfield. Maybe that's just a venue that's just going to haunt them for the rest of their Astros lives.

All right, let's go to some phone calls next. Again, I wanted to be, if you really wanted to be this way, Ross, and you are, this show as much show as me, you were going to just unleash their beast today. We're going to let, we're going to hear all the awful, awful, hot fire bacon, sizzling takes today. Because tomorrow I'll have none of it. Okay, good. Today is grieving tomorrow is we rise from the ashes. Like a Phoenix.

12 o'clock tomorrow, as God is my witness, Ross, we're turning the double-crush bus on. We're getting it out of the back. Oil change. We're going to get the poles. Everything up there full of... Loved up with delicious Corrie's Light and Crawford-Bock. We're going to do all that.

We're going to get this done. We're going to get Big City Wings. put some wings on there. And those hikes. We're going to get some dosakis on there. We're getting some Locatellis, Italian food for the first floor. It's going to be quite the spread. We're going to eat and drink on the double-crush bus to open up the show Thursday tomorrow at 12 noon.

Question, though, Matt, is the double-crush bus going to be a post-blank reception, if you know what I'm saying, what people keep asking for? Fill in the blank. Post-blank reception. what they keep wanting. What do they want? We've gotten tweets. We've got a call about it on the board right now. A revival?

Do we have to do it tomorrow? Today or tomorrow? Oh, it's going to be done? Oh, it's tomorrow. 12.30 tomorrow? Okay. So let me tell you something. Get your hymns.

We are pulling out all stops. The bus opens at 12 tomorrow. The revival of 1230. Now, I want to party on the bus after the revival, but I get it. We're scheduling a show. These are both fictional acts. We got Dana Holgersen at 130 and Dr. Roto with two, so we got to have some sort of assemblance of order.

Let's do it with Dana. Let me tell you some. Dana will go on the bus with us. I feel very confident in that. Very confident. This is Carlos Correa. Back to Matt Thomas. That's a sports Saturday night.

It's your home. It's your home. double crush bus at 12 will move the revival to one o'clock give ourselves an opportunity to soak it all in so to speak is you ready i'm ready matthew the reverend sports rv will be on at one o'clock i'll be leading the double crush post at noon wonderful that's tomorrow today bitch and moan so we should call us a bitch and moan 790 oh my god a j put it in justin out there zack grinky sucks george springer's awful i mean i'm ready I just, I'm most like I can anticipate this stuff. I just can't.

Ross, the offense is bad. I mean, this is one of the most prolific offenses in Houston sports history. Yes. We mentioned this over and over again. Top two, top five in home runs, OPS, RBIs, runs driven in, walks, fewer strikeouts. Everything superlative and two days of awesome Tampa Bay baseball pitching-wise, and they've been awesome. Not household names, but awesome. Pagan, Poshay, Nick Anderson, who's, by rule, supposed to suck in Florida.

But if you have the name Nick Anderson, you're supposed to suck. Against a Houston team in the playoffs, yes. Yes, exactly. They're good. They're really good. But I ain't bragging on them tomorrow. Today I will. Tomorrow no chance.

Okay. Yeah, we got to decompress and grieve and then just get ready for game five tomorrow. Correct. Let's say hi to Jimmy at 1221 on 7-0. Hi, Jimmy. Hey, guys. How many Garrett Cole pitch game five at home? I mean, we just, you couldn't ask for a better scenario. So I'm not too concerned. And honestly, if we go on to win this series, playing these extra few days isn't going to be the worst thing. I mean, I think Ryan Presley, Granky, some of what we saw with them might have just been a little bit of rush. certainly Correa seen a few extra pitches.

That won't hurt anything. So, you know, if we lose, bad. But if we win, I think ultimately it could be good. I mean, last year we blew through the Indians, and then we just ran into a wall with the Red Sox. So I'm trying to stay positive. And, I mean, I think at home with Derek Cole, you're sitting there for a better scenario.

And I think in the long run, it could help us. And then I had one point about the double-crush bus. Speaking from experience, I got older vehicles. I got six vehicles. And I don't want to tip my sources too much and land anyone in jail. But if y'all need an inspection, just hit me up. I know a way you can get an inspection that may or may not be exactly valid. So I thought I'd believe that with y'all.

Thank you, Jimmy. I know you're always here to provide service for our listeners and for the double crush bros. We thank you. How much, Ross, I'll be honest with it, I don't chalk up rustiness. This is... Rustiness. You know, talking about Kareh hasn't seen live pitching.

It's been a long time for Zach Grinkie. Zach's been the playoffs a bunch. This is not foreign territory today. No, I don't chalk that up to that either. And didn't Carl's Correy get his... The majority of hits in the first two games of the series? Yeah, he had one hit in game one and two hits in game two. Okay.

So, I mean, the hit in game one, it was kind of a, you know, he fisted out a blooper. But, I mean, game two, he had a good hit. He had some more strong at bats. but he's been, he looked kind of completely lost the last couple of starts. So, I mean, I don't know how much of it we want to attribute to his back. But I mean, AJ Hinch before the game yesterday said he's diving all over the place and that's how he knows he's good. So, I mean, we have to take them at their word, Matt, because we're not inside Carlos Corray's head. We don't know how he's feeling.

So if he's out there, he's open and available for criticism. So I think he needs to get it together no matter of and find a way. I'm just going to tell all this. I was in a clubhouse here in Tampa or St. Petersburg yesterday. there is no, at least openly, with the media in the room. There is no panic. There is respect, Ross, that has been given to about nine different Tampa Bay pitchers. That's what they've done.

But there is nobody, at least outwardly, saying, oh, we got to get this together. We got to fix this. They feel like they're going to, they jumped on the plane late last night, flew back to Houston. They're going to have an optional workout today. And they're going to send the Kosaiyung, what a favorite, to the mound with 42,000 screaming people, where the Astros have been the best team at home this year. The panic level in the Astros Clubhouse, at least publicly, at least what I saw on a scale of 1 to 10 is at a 1. I'm telling you, it's probably that way privately as well. I mean, these guys, I'm with you, Matt.

I've been, you know, if I've ever been around these clubhouses like I was in 17 and stuff like that, I got the same exact feeling that year. I mean, remember, this is a team who got down three to two to the Yankees and came home for two elimination games and stuck it out and won and went on to the World Series and then went on the road there in a game seven and won. These guys have seen some things, most of them. Of course, not everybody here is from that 2017, but it's seen 17 team. But the core of this team, the leaders in that clubhouse, the guys who know, I mean, I have no doubt that they're going to be calm. I don't think there's going to be any sort of an easiness or nervousness or at least once the game is starting, you get some butterflies. But once the first pitch starts, I know that the Astros are going to be ready to play. And that's why they have this championship pedigree and they have 107 games because they know how to win.

And I know they're going to be okay. And here's the thing. You're ready for this? You know, we've got a lot of people argue about the number of runners left on base and runners in the scoring position. Here's the problem in yesterday's game, Ross. They didn't even have that. If anybody probably should have pounced more on what the Astros or what's Tampa Bay. Do you know the Rays left 13 men on base yesterday?

13 men left on base. The Astros would have died to have that. They only left five because they couldn't get anything mustard. Six hits, four singles, the one home run and the one double. So that's why, again, when people call and criticize things, and, well, you know, this team's got somebody left on base going to kill them. Well, unfortunately, you got to get them. You got to get them on.

You got to get people on base to leave them. That's the core issue. So the minutia of the, well, they didn't do this and situational hitting and this, this, this. Situational hitting hasn't been there because there just hasn't been enough hits. I mean, Springer got two hits yesterday to bump his average to 118. Brantley goes goose egg. Bregman won for four, though he's hit very well. Alvarez has done himself.

I mean, the heart of the order, we're talking about 3, 4, 5, or 4, 5, 6, but no, okay. the outfield has been awful so far. And, you know, the fact that Correa's, you know, I only had those three hits early on in the series. This is where the Astro, I mean, if there's anything that needs to be done when the door is closed, honestly, is it need to shut the door and say, all right, let's wake up, let's go. Tampa's got really good pitching.

They've seen, I don't think there's anybody that haven't seen, or at least a semblance of. They should know everybody what's coming. And here's the fact, just like the Astros will do with AJ Hen. Kevin Cash Ross is going to throw the kitchen sink at Tampa. I wouldn't be surprised if Snell goes out there again trying to go for the save. And don't be surprised if Uncle Charting wants to come out there and beat his old team.

All hands on deck. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, Tyler Glassnell was really good in his first start, but there was a couple of hard hit balls early in that game. And then you had the Jose Altova home run. So, I mean, I think that even though he does throw, like, 99 miles an hour with movement, that the Astros can hit that guy. I think they can do it.

Or at least they can do it better than the Tampa Bay Rays can hit Garrett Cole. And that's just basically all you need. So just want to let you all know, tomorrow's games at 6 o'clock. It's going to go four hours. It just is. Yes. So just sit back, pack a lunch, listen to the radio, come out of the ballpark, and be ready for that. This is Carlos Correa.

Your Astros? Your rockets. Shoots for three. Your voice. Let's talk, man. Look. On sports, Doc, 790. Only champions play here.

The postseason baseball, I mean, this is as good as it gets. I mean, these series across the league have been incredible. And obviously, we worked all season to get home field. We have it for a reason. It'll be nice to get home. I love this series. I love the opportunity that we have. I mean, you get there in funny ways,

and sometimes it can create a little bit of drama for you, and sometimes it can create a little bit of stress. But I'd rather be here than at home in the world of not playing. So we'll take another opportunity to win a game. Garrett Cole in the Mountain. I certainly feel very comfortable with that. Anybody would put him on the mountain. Time to get some satisfaction tomorrow at Middemead Park.

We'll have the game for you at 6 o'clock on 790. Ross and I will have our double-crush bus at noon and revival at 1. And then a team will go 3 to 5.30. I'll join them for the final hour from Minute Maid Park. We'll be over at hometown bar and grill and then at 6 o'clock first pitch. And again, last pitch, probably Ross 10, 15, 10.30, right? 4 hour, 4 hour, 15, 15 minute game somewhere in that range, you think? with all the changes, my guess?

Garrett Cole goes perfect through seven, gives up a hit in the eighth, and then closes it out in the ninth game over and two hours and 48. First of all, that's a massive lie, and number two, you're eating something I can tell. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not eating at all.

Speaking of eating, Susan G. Coleman, Houston Dine Out for the Cure is this Thursday at either one of the two Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and wine locations. River Oaks and town and country are both participating. For one delicious day, local restaurants, bakeries, and coffee houses across the greater Houston area are pledging to participate in the Susan G. Coleman Houston Dine Out for the Cure. This event will unite local restaurants and Coleman Houston supporters during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Money that is raised during this day will help women and men who are fighting breast cancer every single day. And we appreciate Fleming's dropping off a couple of prizes for us on $100 gift card. and tickets to see the University of Houston take on Cincinnati. You don't have to do both on the same day, but why not? Enjoy some great college football and a great stake at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse. What I'd like to do right now is give out a trivia question, and this first hour is going to be a layup. The next hour will be a little more difficult.

You can call us at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. And the question is this, among all players for the Astros, Who has the highest batting average for a player that has played in all four games? Highest batting average of an Astro in the four-game series so far. If you know the answer, 713-212-5-790. Let's go to Carter in Umbal on Sports Talk 790. Hi, Carter.

Hey, guys, thanks for taking the call. Sure. I wanted to comment on, after the last couple of games in Tampa. what the Astros are doing at the plate. Looks like the approach, a lot of the times the first strike they're seeing they're taking and it ends up being the best pitch. They see that entire bat. Jose L. Tuve gets up there and he's ready to go from the get-go

and he's had a pretty successful series. And some players that were not accustomed to seeing what timid at the plate kind of are, Yordon being a prime example last night of the ninth, and he ends up swinging out of one hopper for strike three. maybe it should be a little more aggressive earlier in the back. I'll hang up and listen and looking forward to waking the strippers up after the celebration party on Friday. You got that right. Thank you very much of the phone call.

You know, it's hard for me, Ross, and maybe you can do it better than I can to talk in depth about a player's approach when we're talking about this is basically they're about their 180th game of the season, give or take, spring training, 150 or so major league baseball games, and now you're in the middle of October. So I don't have quite an answer for that of should their approach changes. Because my guess is, I don't think an Alex Breggman, I don't think a Carlos Correa, I don't believe a Jose Altuve, all of a sudden, changes their approach because it's Tampa Bay raise in a playoff game. They're just seeing some really good pitching. They're not trying to be more deliberate or trying to hit home runs every swing of the bat. They're just who they are over the course of the entire season. Yeah, I think, I mean, it's changing.

And their approaches are changing based on the pitcher because the Astros and A.J. Hinch and their team and whoever else, the whole staff, they have them well prepared. I mean, game one, like I was saying, against Glassnow, they were trying to ambush them. They were swinging early in counts. I will agree with the caller on the point that it does seem like if I were going to single one out to someone who seemed to be taking a lot of pitches and maybe just trying to get a feel up there. I think it's Carlos Correa. But, yeah, I'm not a hitting coach. just me sitting on my couch and this is what I'm observing. But I think there have been some times where they're taking too much.

But I think Carlos Corrie has probably been perpetrator number one on that. Yeah, I would say that's a fair point because I think he is, he's not seeing the ball as well as he would if he was playing on a regular basis. If you go look at, you know, ESPN will show you where the pitch comes in during the plate, some of their analytics on their website, you will see a lot of takes right over the heart of the plate. There's just the things that Carlos, when Carlos has played in a regular basis, remember, he's played less than 80 games this year. So he's just not going to have the fluidity of other guys that have played, you know, 150, 100 to 60 games. But that would be the one guy that seems to be more pronounced about having a difficult time seeing things over anybody else. It's not difficult to hit a baseball in this ballpark. You know, people were saying about lighting.

These guys have been here before. Right now, the Astros are seeing outstanding pitching from Tampa Bay is what they're seeing. I mean, we're talking about they are nickel and diamond of the death. And if there's anybody in Major League Baseball game that has done a. a very effective job of using the bullpen like they did yesterday, it's Tampa Bay because they were one of the first ones to do it. AJ mentioned us yesterday in the post-game press conference. If Diego Castillo wasn't an opener, the Astros would have been an even more trouble

because he was dynamic. I mean, he struck out three of the four batters he saw, three of the five batters he saw yesterday. I mean, that's nuts that, you know, that if a guy like that could ever be stretched out to say five, six innings, they'd really be dangerous. So my point is I'm not going to say I wouldn't walk up to Bregman and say you know Let's change your approach right now I just think it's a question of seeing it and right now the only person as you alluded to That seems like he's having a much more difficult time

Finding the right stroke in terms of pitch selection is probably Carlos Gray And that's a lot of it's because he just hadn't played very much Yeah and then I mean Jose Altuve was just hacking away at Diego Castillo Sinkers yesterday so I mean I think there hasn't been like a year uniform approach and people are being too passive or anything like that. And Yordan Alvarez, when he did swing and miss, I mean, he thought he was getting fastball because I can't even remember who was he, whoever he was facing kept hitting with high fastballs and hit him with a low breaking ball and he just wasn't ready for it. It was just a good piece of pitching by the pitcher. So, I mean,

these are just things that are happening. They're coming up against good pitchers. They are good hitters. But they're just not getting the right things going in the right moments. And even when you do, when Jordan Alvarez does, you know, hit a laser of a double, then Jose Al-Tuva is unable to score. It's just, you know, they can't get it going. Yeah. By the way, Tony in the Woodlands was our winner of our contest. Highest batting average among anybody that's played all four games for the Astros is Alex Breggman 385 so far through the first four games. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Let's go to line three and Nick and Cyprus on 7-90. Hi, Nick. Hey, guys. Hi. So, good time.

for my call because it's kind of dovetails right off of what you Matt, Ross, and Carter were just talking about. So one thing that I would add that I'm seeing a lot of, and it's coming from the mentality of somebody that played quite a bit to like a higher level, is that I'm wondering if we're getting a little bit of self-sabotage from some of our analytics. I think you're seeing, I think what you're seeing right now at the plate is a combination of two things. I think you're seeing a little bit of pressing. You're seeing a little bit of hero ball with somebody trying to have that moment. And what you're also seeing, I think, is in those moments, I think, when you do start to press

and it's not see ball, hit ball, you start to really rely on the analytics of what is supposed to happen at that, rather than just seeing it. And the best example that I can give as to thinking alternatively to it is if you think back to game seven of the ALCS, when Lance McCullors was rolling at the end of that game, it was a situation where, you know, by definition, by the book, Lance McCuller should not have stayed in that game. But Hinch recognized the situation. put him out there and kept him rolling. And I think, you know, when they're looking at that, there isn't enough of that right now out of the hitters.

They're going up there. You're watching people that are literally taking three strikes in a row and not even swinging the bat. I think I recall Springer doing that. Correa has had his struggles. So I think there's a little bit of pressing there, but I also think what there is is a lot of them going up there saying, yes, good pitching, absolutely credit to the,

the raise, but what are we looking for? What are we expecting? And then being baffled when they don't see it. And then they kind of look like they're just lost or in a haze at the plate. So that's all. Thank you very much for the phone call. We've got to get to a break. I appreciate it.

The only thing I will say is this. I think it's more of a soft contact issue, Ross. The strikeout, the race struck out eight yesterday. That's very much below average of an average of Major League Baseball game. So I'm not concerned about the number of swings and misses. I'm just not seeing lazy pop flies. I'm seeing routine grounders. I'm seeing the shift put in place.

There isn't that hard contact. It's not waiting for that perfect pitch. I think there may be a little bit of aggressiveness because, yeah, this building has not done the Astros well the last handful of years. Craig Ackerman here. When I'm not calling Rockets basketball, I'm following at SportsRV on Twitter. You're listening to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790.

It is a pitch. and moan Wednesday on the Matt Thomas show. This might be a regular bit, Ross. What's that? Bitch and moan Wednesday. No, I don't need it. Yeah, that's where normal life is like just bishing and mown all day. Why don't we want to do it for three hours on a radio show?

Thank you. Ross and Nick are back in Houston. I'm Matt here in, where am I in St. Petersburg? Back in studio tomorrow. We'll have the double-crush bus at noon and revival at 1. Dr. Roto will be on the show tomorrow. Dana Holgerson will be on. And then we're going to get down to Minutemate Park for game number five.

I mean, I'll be honestly, Ross. I'm stunned this series has gone five. I can't hide it. I mean, I'm respecting Tampa Bay, but I still thought the Astros would at least win one game here and be thinking about that series with the Yankees starting Saturday. By the way, we have a moratorium on talking about the ALCS until at least the end of tomorrow night's game. No predictions, no slotting of people, no worrying about what the Yankees are doing, nor worrying about who's going to start game one.

We cannot under any circumstance talk about the ALCS until this bad boy is done tomorrow night. Is that fair? Okay, I guess. If you want to institute that rule, game one, it'll be great for game one. Don't you think that's a problem? Is that we've been spending too much time thinking about the ELCS?

I think, yeah, I will say this, yes. In the way that there have been fans who were upset with Justin Verlander getting the start, they're like you're throwing off the rotation for the ALCS. I remember arguing with people and I was like, you have to win this series first. You can't just say, oh, well, they just go Jose Arkiti and they're going to win and you say Verlander for game one of the ALCS. You don't know that.

You have to win the series that's in front of you. It's not a schedule, Matt. It's a tournament. You have to win to advance. You don't just play five games against the race and go on to the New York Yankees. That's not how this works. Well, the fact is, as I brought this up on Twitter, especially with Verlanders struggling the way they did it early on. If your kiddie is the one out there, the rookie who's been on an innings limit coming off his injuries of the last couple of years,

if he goes out there and gets bombed, the easy narrative is, you got Justin Verlinder sitting there. It's three days rest. It's the postseason. Go out there and do that. So instead, I think AJ and Justin sat back and said, all right, we are going to go for the kill. This Tampa Bay team is serious. We know one thing. They don't like facing you.

So we'll try it. It didn't work. Yeah, it didn't work. And you know what? I still think it was the right. I said on Monday, I said, no matter what happens, I feel like this is the right decision. And we'll see how it plays out. And this is just, Matt, is there any, honestly, any other time better in sports?

This is a second guesser's delight. The Major League Baseball playoffs, more than the NFL, more than not. more than basketball, more than hockey or more than, I don't know, table tennis. This is when the second guessers and the armchair managers come out, it is right now. Because there are

so many decisions that you're able to second guess, and that's the time right now. Yeah, you don't second guess whether James Hardin should have played the final four minutes in the second quarter. The only time you ever really second guess in basketball is if a guy gets into foul trouble or he's in a massive shooting slump, do you go to somebody else? There's very minimal second guessing.

There's a fair amount of second guessing. the NFL. We overplay calling, challenges, timeouts, a thing. But baseball was built for people that just wanted to complain, or as we're saying today, bitch and moan about manager's decisions. Jimmy and the Woodlands at 1254. Hi, Jimmy. Hello, Matt. I enjoy your show. Before I had my comments, I've only talked to you one other time. That was a few months ago when you were thinking about moving the woodlands. And I said, move up here. And he said, well, there's too much traffic. I said, we'd send you to work in a limo and you said fall back.

I never, but I was serious about it. Well, that's nice you to say that. It's very nice you to say. I appreciate that very much. Anyway, what I was going to say about the game is thinking hurts the ball club. You can't overthink it. Just blow this game off. And yogi, Barra, yogiism is baseball is 90% physical and the other 50% mental.

And so, I mean, thinking hurts the ball club. And so just don't overthink it. Just go out there and relax because there will be an electric atmosphere tomorrow. Like make me think of love you blue days. And I think Cole will do a fine job. And I think that the Astros will survive and win game five. I think I'm right there with you, Jimmy. Thank you for the phone call.

I appreciate it. Let's go next to Clint in spring on Sports Talk 790. Hi, Clint. Hey, Matt Ross. How are you guys doing? Well, thank you. You know, I was thinking something. You look at 2017 and the Astrol playoff run.

You know, we got the key hits when we needed them. We got just enough pitching when we needed it. Hell, we even had an expired by the name of Charlie come over and basically beat the Dodgers in game seven. my point is, is when we face above average pitching, it can get dicey. So Cole better have a great start tomorrow because if he doesn't and they keep troding out the real good pitching, I think we're in trouble. I really do. Well, guess what?

And I echo your sentiment, but I'm going to tell you something right now. If you don't think Tampa Bay, Ray, that plane right now headed to Houston or the media or anybody that follows the rays aren't thinking about the fact that Garrett Cole struck out 15 rays, you're nuts. And by the way, he's on full rest. There is just as much worry about the race trying to do this a third straight day. Trust me, Ross, and I tell you this, there's no way in the world that Ray's plane right now as we speak are beating their chest going. We got this. Garrett freaking Cole hasn't lost since I was going to. to say I got a haircut. I don't want to get haircuts. That's a mood

conversation. He just doesn't lose. He's got to lose at some point. If he wants to have the legacy, he's not going to lose tomorrow. I'm confident. The Astros bullpen is lined up. Your heavy hitters are ready. Presley, Harris, Osuna. You got Joe, don't call me Will Smith available to you. Well, Joe, you already might call him Will Smith.

By the way, so I go get a drink or something a couple times in the game when I catch the FS1 broadcast. They're, God, awful. And I know I'm not supposed to rag on fellow broadcasters, because it's a tough business. But it's like, AJ Prisinski would rather be anywhere else. Him and Joe are kind of breaking down the state fair of Texas. It's just really odd.

Was it Pierzinski? He was like, yeah, I've been to the state fair for the game, but I can go to the game. And I guess that happens to a lot of Texas and OU fans. But why is A.J. Persinski going and hanging. out of the state fair with Tex and Fletcher's corny dogs and not going to the game. Yeah. And by the way, it's an American League Division Series.

This is the Saturday game of the week in early July, right? By the way, if the Astros do lose, I'm just going to have to go up to Saturday in the state fair and try to cleanse my mind and clear my mind and just go up to Dallas. Let me tell you, if the Astros lose this game tomorrow night, I don't know if I'm doing a show Friday. It'll just be three hours of silence. I have better ratings that we normally get. I mean, I'm not going to lie to you.

No, that's literally bad for ratings. Is it? Silence, yes. We would never win on a day of silence? No. Maybe we can flip. You know what we can do? What was the idea you had that you wanted to do Sunday nights at sunny?

You want to do disco mad or whatever it was? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me tell you something. If the Astros lose on Friday, there will not be a normal talk show. It'll be 70s Friday midday. I'm actually 100% down for that. No, no, no. Now, of course, the record companies and the rights licensing that will have to pay,

probably it's going to be a whole other legal red tape issue. That's right. But I think we should definitely do it. If the Astros lose, 70s, Matt and Ross spin records. Matt and Ross in the midday playing in 70s hits. Yes. Because God knows I'm not going to want to talk about what will be in top five as a Houston sports meltdown. We'll have one of those, we'll be like cushy FM jocks.

We'll do like 15 minutes worth of bits an entire hour, play a bunch of music, have a bunch of wacky, what's in Matt's box? How about this one? Seven one three? Did your wife put crunchy peanut butter on your sandwich today when she knows you're a creamy guy? Let's get to it next on Mick 790. What's the most awkward thing you've ever accidentally e-mailed your boss? 713, 212-5790. Let me tell you something.

I'm not lying to y'all. That's Friday show at the Astros Lose. Is the Matt Thomas show. 104 on Sports Talk 790, hour two or three. here in St. Petersburg. Ross is back in our Houston studios, along with Cronick-Lo. So Joe Clatt, normally in this spot, is going to join us in about 55 minutes from Fox.

He's going to be calling the OU Texas game. Ross, I'm going to let you guys blather about that for a few minutes, right? You are all prepared? Locked loaded? OK. I'm nervous about that one, Matt. Yeah.

Why? You're 10.5 point dog. That's that right. Why do you got to bring that up? You're Mr. Vegas. You know, are you serious? You're concerned that your defense can't stop them. Is that correct?

What is the total in that game? It's got to be like 70 something. Yeah. All right. So we'll get to Joel Klaat at the top of next hour. 76! And this spreads up to 11. Okay, so that's 4630.

4630? Ooh, that seems, ooh. That's not how that works. Mm-hmm. It'd be 43 and a half to 40, a 32. And two and a half. Yeah? Would you take it?

You would not want a 43-32 final. I would not. Because that would mean your defense is, with Todd Orlando, one of the most highest-paid defensive corners in the country, is not particularly good. At least he's got a nice square head and a haircut you can set your watch to. You've gotten surly on bitch and moan Wednesday. All right. 2.30 to 3.

There's an astro player going to be speaking to the media at MinuteMade Park. I don't know who that is. So your guess is as good as mine. And then AJ Hinch is going to talk at 245. So we'll have those two press conferences carried for you here back half of our number three on the radio show. We have another prize giveaway for Fleming Steakhouse. We'll do that coming up at the bottom of the hour. 713-212-5-79 if you want to get in.

7-13-212-5-790. When Ross have Nick get Dream Weaver music ready to go, because I think you and I need to kind of figure out how we're going to dream of what's going to happen tomorrow. So when the song is ready, after we take a phone call or two, let's really anticipate what's going to happen tomorrow night between 6 and 10.55 p.m. because the game's going to go 4 hours and 55 minutes.

So be ready for that. Let's get a couple of more phone calls in. Let's say hi to Josiah in Beaumont at 107. Hi, Josiah. Hey, guys. Hey, I'll let you know this much. I'm freaked out right now, man. I don't see the Astros back waking up, not against the baby draft,

not against none of those worthless psycho relievers that the race have. I just don't see it happening. Unfortunately, Garrett Cole, he's not going to think twice about this game when he's retired on the beaches of California with his smokeshow wife and 250 mil in the bank next week. Meanwhile, it's used to be stopping at the Fred Hartman Bridge at the top every time we pass over looking down at that water wondering what's worth like is. I just, I don't know, man.

I'm freaked out right now, and I need to be talked off the ledge because I don't see nothing good in our future. I'm out. Bitch and moan Wednesday. Do we have the music ready? Yes. Fired off. Rosh, you go first. Matt, I'm seeing Garrett Cole.

Seven and two thirds innings pitched. Surrenders one home run. Probably to G. Manchoi because the Astros just cannot get him out. And then Garrett Cole walks the first two batters of the eighth. Will Harris comes in, takes care of business. On the offensive side for the Astros. Yorda and Alvrez. Hits a home run and a double.

Michael Brantley gets like one clutch single But in a couple of walks Seeing I Yes Then let's see what else How about this? Robinson Tcherinos another solo home run Roberto O'Suna closes it out

Astros win 4 to 1 I have Tia Carrera Give me a back rub right now ironically now Prime Tia career or because this is a dream So I mean is it or is it current It's prime Tia Carrera for sure I see the race getting out to a two-nothing lead and the Astros pouncing in the innings five, six and seven to

win the game seven to four. Mm-hmm. Boom! Boom! Now back to my teakura back rope. Wasn't she making the news for something recently? I don't know. I've only thinking of her from 1989.

That's all I'm going with. Maybe 90. It was awful. We love him, Josiah. He's one of our better ones, but man, he just depressed. the hell out of us, right? Yeah, it didn't make me feel great. That's okay. You know what? People are panicking and he said he's freaked out right now. But that's why we put on Dreamweamer and Tia Carrera references. That's true. We make 30-year-old movie references here on the Matt Thomas show.

Well, let's move forward here. You want to go, who's 2019? I don't know. I don't know. I don't care. If Tia Carrera is wrong, I don't want to be right, Matt. That's true. If you don't, if you don't love Tia Carrera for all she that she is, you're not a welcome on this show, and you're no longer part of the 790 Matt Thomas family. Hey, it's Lance McCullors. Back to Matt Thomas. Turnball, swinging a misstack three. On Sports Talk 790, your home for Houston Astros baseball.

We know they're a good team. We've known for a long time to win that many games in the American League East without Blake Snell for most of the year, without Tyler Glassnow for most of the year. And maybe a couple other guys is really impressive, and now they're here at full strength. And, you know, so, so it's been a good battle so far, and it will continue on Friday. Boss, how about you? What now? That was the immortal words of Garrett Cole speaking right after A.J. Hinch met with the media down here in St. Petersburg yesterday.

Okay. Sounds like he's ready, Matt. He didn't hear what he said. You're very busy. No, I heard what he said. He was talking about how the Tampa had some, their really good team. they had people out and all that type of stuff. I thought you said boss and not Ross, I'm being honest.

I wasn't totally sure you were talking to me. No, you're Ross. And the bosses are our audience. They're the ones that are running. That's true. All right, 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790. Joe Clat from Fox is going to talk some OU Texas football with us at the top of next hour.

Plus, congratulations to him. Ross, he is the new voice of the XFL on Fox. Joe Clat? Yeah, he and Kurt Menafier going to do the games. Oh, really? Yeah, nice. And they're going to do, like, what, game of the week? Or how is that going to work?

I think so. Okay. So they might be calling some Houston Roughnecks games. Well, here's the thing. We're going to lunch with him. Right? Okay. And he's going to buy because he's a huge Fox expense account.

Okay, wonderful. That's really the key. Let's go to Tony and Katie at 121 on 790. Hi, Tony. Hey, guys. Hey, I know what's wrong with Astros. I got to figure it out. We've got to listen carefully.

it's called baseball. It's just baseball. Opportunity, luck, a few hits. I mean, that's the only sports that people make the Hall of Fame going three for ten. I mean, that's a low percentage. So, I mean, we just need three hits and around one inning or three consecutive hits the course of runs. We can strike fire at any time. I mean, you can get cold at any time and get hot.

So I think everybody's freaking out. I'm a little nervous too, but at the end of the day, it's just baseball. And I think we need to worry more about trying to figure out of our way to catch. keep cool next year, not worry about tomorrow. You got it. I'm going to be really honest with you. Thank you, Tony. Ross, and the audience listening to us,

it's a lot easier to think about winning tomorrow than is keeping Garrett Cole. I'm just going to tell you that pretty, very confidently on that one. What in tomorrow is way easier? You just focus on the game that's in front of you, Matthew. That's what the Astros need to do. That's what Garrett Cole's going to do. And that's what all these players are going to do.

I have confidence in to do that. And do not think about him wearing a San Diego Padre or an Anaheim Angel shirt next year. Don't do it. Probably angels. Likely angels. Just by guaranteed angel. That's what tomorrow.

Focus on tomorrow. Okay. During the revival tomorrow, we will not mention Garrett Cole, angel pitcher, ever. He's ours, at least for the foreseeable month. 713-212-5-790. Let's go to Gerard, southwest side. Girard, what's going on with you, friend?

He's a man of few words. Hello, Gerard. Hey, how's it going? Great. You hear me? Very clearly, yes. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, just call and give a quick thing on the Astros, man.

I think Wolframen bought it up toward the end of the season, Blummer. You know, they're playing the teams like the Angels and the Mariners. They're playing teams of that. You know, the offense was, you know, kind of hit and miss. They should have been doing a little bit better. against the pitching that they were going against. So we kind of saw this hit at the hell end of last of this season. But with that being said, man, you know, Tampa Bay did what they were supposed to be doing.

They won two games at home. We won the first two games in Houston. So we've got to go back home and hold serve tomorrow night, man. That's what they got to do, man. Hopefully, Gary Cole, who's been the best pitching baseball this season, can give us a good game pitching, and then hopefully get some timely hits. I'm hoping Brantley can come alive, man. He's been struggling about the last month and a half.

And I think he was on that Cleveland team that Astro swept last year. And I don't remember him really doing that much in that series. But hopefully he can step up and give him some good hits, and timely hits, and hopefully the offense will come alive. Now, this is my starting line because I'm AJ Hinch. I was back Springer 1, Altuve 2, Regman 3, Alvarez, 4, Bradley 5, Randy 5, then Gurriel 6, and then Corrella 7, and then you go with Tucker 8

and then you go with 9-on-9. That'll be my starting lineup for tomorrow. It probably gives itself the best chance to win. So that's just about two cents on the Astro situation.

Thank you. Unofficially Ross 140 on the clock? That's what I've got it at. Hello? He ran through the entire lineup. Nobody else does that. What do you think about

his thought that I think he's not the only one that's voiced his opinion that Kyle Tucker should get a shot? He's going to be a shot. going to start, I think. Maldenado, by the way, is Cole's personal catcher, so he is right about that too. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

Josh really looks lost. And it's not like his defense is so spectacular that you're willing to take the loss. The whole outfield's been atrocious offensively. He won hard to Jim Manchoa in his first at bat. But look, I was making the point earlier about how I don't think these batters are lost or the big moment too big. Remember when Kyle Tucker swung at the first. pitch that he saw and it was above his head. One of my greatest tweets ever.

What was it? I said that Tucker was trying to hit the piñata. Yeah, that's actually pretty funny. That's exactly what he was trying to do. He was trying to hit the pinata. That's what I'm saying. So if we're saying that there is an astro that maybe is a little bit too green for the moment, I think that might be the guy.

And I will say this. AJ does go. Look, there was so much talk of Springer, moving down the order a couple of years ago. He stood firm. Nothing beats winning a clubhouse by staying with the guy, but the problem is the expectations of George in that spot. We're just moving him down in a few spots in the order. This time around, it's can AJ defend putting him in the lineup

because he just hasn't done much offensively at all. And Reddick was horrible either was in the last year or the year before in the playoffs and he stuck with him there as well. The leash will be short. Let's just be honest. The leash on every single player is going to be. extraordinarily short. Thank you for the phone. Call Gerada. Always good to hear your voice, whether it be Astros or his Rockets Recaps. Terrence in the Galleria at 126. Hi, Terrence.

Hey, guys. How's it going? Good. I'm in a little bit of a nervous, you know, state of mind, but I think we need some positive vibes going around this town, and I don't know if Matt Thomas and Sports RV can get it going with maybe a revival or get us on the bus. Let's get going. I think we got this. Their pitching's not going to hold up as long and our bats are going to get hot. I think we need a little bit more positivity and I think that should be the

theme for today. Positive vibe for the Houston Astros and let's go get it. Terrence? Terrence. What the hell were you doing between noon and one today? First and foremost, this show today is bitch and moan Wednesday.

Okay? That ain't changing, bra. but we just spent the first segment of the show today in the noon hour talking about the bus is going out tomorrow at noon and the revival at 1 o'clock and you just called to think I got a great idea I'm going to call my buddies Matt and Ross and we're going to figure out a way to do the bus and Ross what about doing a revival that sounds pretty cool too Matt people are busy sometimes you know no or not this let me tell you something you have to if you're an astro fan if you're a sports fan if you want great entertaining radio. Well, you won't find it, but I'm saying, otherwise, you still have to listen to us. You cannot not listen to this show

in the most important times of the year. You must listen to us when we are going to give you Astros like Amata. When other people are giving you backup linebacker talk, you listen to us. There's no other bus around town. There's no revival. This is where it's at.

And it starts at 12 noon. Not when your boss says you can go to lunch, or when you need to take a break, you must listen. It's Houston required listening noon to three. That's it. On a bitch of him on Wednesday. You're okay, Matt? I feel great.

You really are, yeah. You were living up to the name of the show this Wednesday. I am ready. Carlos Correa. Correa drills this one. 790. Get your shows on the radio. And that ball is gone.

Sports talk 790. It's your home. Faster baseball. A trick question for you for the, Fleming's gift card and the tickets with the Cougars versus Cincinnati this Saturday. That'll be the game of the week, right? There's no other great college football games besides Cincinnati Houston. Is that accurate?

LSU Auburn, OU, Texas. Nah. I don't know. I think there's another big one. I can't remember what it is. Penn State, Iowa. Sounds like a great Big Ten sloth. Yes.

Michigan, Illinois. Oh, Alabama A&M, that's right. Nope. Cincinnati Houston is the number one. Clearly. why is it on ESPN 2 then? Well, because... I heard rumors that they're actually trying to put it on the Ocho.

No, there's no chance of that. Yeah. Here is my trick question. For the $100 gift card to Fleming's and the tickets for the Cougars and Bearcats. Who is the first Tampa Bay Devil Ray slash Ray to be enshrined in the baseball Hall of Fame with a race cap on? Hmm. You know? Do you know?

Do you know? Do you know? 713-212-5-7-90. If you think you know the answer to that question, first person to get it wins the $100 gift card. Carl Crawford. It's a trick question, but it'll still work. 7-13-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Let's go to Joel, North Freeway on 790.

Hi, Joel. How you doing, Matt? Good, Joel. Matt, the last time I called, you know, bitching and moaning, the last time I called in was the night that the Astros were so bad. And the guy, you know, ran across the field, jumped the fence, went up that fake Ivy and outran the police. And that was the highlight of the game. And I called in and kind of went off on your show and scared the guys that were in the truck with me, my son's friends. Yikes.

Because I was so mad. I was mad at Dave Clark, our third base coach, because I felt like he didn't care and all that stuff. And that's when we were bad. And that's the time to call him. bitch and moan. Right now, we're in good shape. We're hooking a wagon, the coal train, and we just need to keep our confidence up and have the passion to do that with the big fan support tomorrow. And let's say, keep in mind, I still remember the bad days. I've been a fan for one of those 40-year guys, and, man, I'd rather be a fan today and not have to bitch and moan than a fan in the past. I'm going to tell you something. I got something that I've not told

anybody else today, Joel. I'm just going to tell you because you've been a long-time listener. Are you ready for this? The Astros are going to beat the race tomorrow. I agree with you. I agree with you. Just know this is going to be a dicey game on the edge of our seats for every one of the first pitches. But guess every pitch.

That's why we watch postseason baseball because we love the drama. And at the end of the day, with Garrett Cole and 42,000 people at Minutemate Park in the ballpark, Astros have won more games in than anybody else in terms of their home winning percentage, they're going to win the game, period. I'm with you. I'm with you. And I say, we're just going to keep it in perspective instead of whining because they want a wine. They should have been whining 10 years ago or 7 years ago. That's when we were bad and had a reason to wine today. We're a great team, and we just need to go out and prove it tomorrow.

Thank you very much for the phone call. I appreciate you listening. Thank you again. And just remember, I told you. I'm not guarantee. guaranteeing it, Ross. This isn't a 19 billion star collection. Noor Thomas, I'm just telling you, they're going to win the game tomorrow. Do I have a little more hesitation, perhaps, on the Astro-Janky series, especially if Zach Granky shows up in game one like he did in game three here? You bet. He'll be home, right, man? Like you said, all the anxiety will be gone. He'll be, he'll be in the confines of Minutemate Maid Park, and he'll be everything will be A-O-K. I like it. I like it a lot.

713-212-5-790 7-1-3-212-5-790 oh now you know what I'm getting word that our question was erroneous is that right yeah so you asked so wait you were thinking Wade Boggs yes his plaque he has a Red Sox hat I thought he went in as a ray I thought you had that plan because you said it was a trick question yeah that's right I thought it was a trick question it was a trick question it was very tricky. I thought it was Carl Crawford. No, no. I've never given away a wrong question before in the history of giving away trivia question. Today's a day. I mean, this is a bitch and moan Wednesday. This is exactly what

it happens on a bitch of moan Wednesday. Oh, okay, Michael Connor said he wanted to, they wouldn't let him. And now I believe players don't even get the choice that the Hall of Fame decides who you go in as. Right. Well, damn. They will take your suggestion, though. If you say, hey, I really want this, they might take it. They will take it under consideration.

Okay, you know what? Dylan, did Dylan in the Greenway Plaza get that right, Nick? Is that correct? Yeah, he beat your Twitter question. He knew. All right, you know, I'm going to give him props right now. Let's put him on line two. Line two is Dylan in Greenway Plaza.

Dylan, you expose me for a fraud. Congratulations. Thank you. It's not so difficult. Yes, I'd actually looked at the answer to the question two days ago. Oh, why didn't you text me before I even asked the question? Now I feel terrible. Yeah, I know there was some business about how Wade Boggs possibly worked out a contract with the raise to become the first Hall of Famer, but he ended up backing out of it.

Dang. Well, what I know at least. Let me tell you something. You do the due diligence, and you are rewarded with $100 to Fleming's and the tickets for the Cougars game. Congratulations, my friend. I appreciate it. Thank you. I'll put John Hold.

That's it. How about that? I'm serious. I've done trivia questions in my life for like 20, like 90s. percent of my career. I don't think I've ever given away a question that was just flat out wrong. I feel like an ass. Oh well, the most important thing is this is all for a really, really good cause. Susan G. Coleman Foundation, dine out for the cure. It's at Fleming Steakhouse. It's going to be tomorrow.

So if you didn't win today, go have dinner at Fleming's, River Oaks and Town and Country. One delicious day of local restaurants and bakeries and coffee houses, all trying to raise money during national breast cancer awareness. The money helps women and men who are fighting breast cancer every single day. So go out tomorrow night, October 10th. While you're watching the game, stop by Fleming's, I'm sure they'll have it on the TVs there. River Oaks and Town and Country for Susan G. Coleman, Houston Dine Out for the Cure.

All right, 141 is our time. We've got another segment of phone calls to get to. We're going to get some college football in with Joel Clyde at the top of the hour because it's a huge college football weekend. A lot of big, interesting matchups, of course, highlighted by the game that Joe will be calling Texas NOU from the Cotton Bowl on Saturday. When I listen to the Matt Thomas Show, I don't even understand the eclectic nature of the show, the dichotomy, the ostentatiousness, the perfunctory that sounds about as smart as LeVar Ball. Back to the Matt Thomas Show, whoever he is. 146 on 790.

Weight Boggs, not a member of the race. in the baseball Hall of Fame. However, the Ray's website actually does list him as a Hall of Famer, only the actual Hall of Fame has him in as a Boston Red So you were partially right.

I was sort of right, right? Well, if you're looking from the perspective of the Tampa Bay Rays, you're right. Can you name five great rays, Ross? I'll go Boggs, Crawford, David Price. Evan Lungoria.

David Price. Jose Kinseko, Fred McGriff, the crime dog. Scott, I got people in the, in my St. Petersburg studios are just throwing Ray's names at me. Blake Snell's going to end up there. He won't a, he won a siong. Blake Snell, when you want to Sion, you're automatically a great right. Charles Alfred Morton, the fourth. Can Uncle Charlie get rocked tomorrow, please?

I mean, nothing against the guy, because he's swell and he's our uncle, but he needs to get rocked tomorrow. Uh, that would mean, well, how much is he going to pitch? Do you think I know they answer that question? Do you think Kevin Cash knows he answer that question? Oh, I got another all-time great Ray, Brandon Backy. Brandon Backy is not a great all-time Ray. What? Jeff Blum is a better Ray than Brandon Backy is.

That's true. How about this one, Julio Lugo? Hulio, Aubrey Huff. We can, we're just rat. There's not another radio station in this marketplace that is rattling off Rays like we are. Joe Cladded 12 minutes. Let's go to Robert and Katie on 7.9. Hello, Robert.

Can you hear me? Yes. All right. Well, I just want to talk about last night's game in the ninth inning. I felt we almost were ready to come back. And I want to take that momentum that we were starting to get in the ninth inning and bring it on Thursday. You could tell him the fans in the eyes,

that they were really scared that we were going to come back like we always do and win it. We are the best team. That's why we were the first place team and have the home field advantage. And that's why the home team had scored the most run, you know, so far. So we can do it. I have no doubt. I don't want to hear any excuses. I think Springer's going to come out with an opening home run.

And then out two ways going to back. back it up, and Bregman's going to steal it with three. Three homers right off the bat. So I just want to tell everybody out there to stick with your team, and we're still number one. I think the energy, thank you, Robert. I think the energy at Minutemay Park is going to be awesome. I mean, it is supposed to be. These are deciding games of series.

You're supposed to be highly charged. You're supposed to be amped up. I'm not the biggest fan of the waving of the towels because everybody does it. sort of like the t-shirt bit come playoff time, but you know what? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Major League Baseball does it. By the way, they were doing the wave yesterday at Tropicana Field. Like they would do in Houston.

Yes. I couldn't wave bus because it's not my home territory. And the Astros were getting their ass kicks, relatively speaking. What are you going to do? Get a megaphone out? How would you wave bus in Tropicana Field? Well, I would take people's canes from them and walkers and stuff. You'd throw out free packets of, what do you call that?

The dental glue? Oh, uh, dental glue. Fix a dent? Fix a dent. I think it's fix it out and forget it, correct? This is what I think of the phrase is. Yeah. The whole, the, the, the feels just terrible.

Michael and I went walking around. The place sucks. It just does. I mean, I'm very confused by the A, B, and C and D rings. Or what, what can, can someone explain that to me? concentric circles in the middle and each of them do a different thing. It's like you're playing a video game or something. It's like you're at top golf in the middle of Tropicana Field.

It doesn't make any sense. You know what it is? It's a pinball machine. Yeah. You get certain points for hitting certain ring to the stadium. That's what I'm saying. It doesn't make any sense. L.J. in the Heights at 152.

Hi, L.J. Hey, Matt. How you doing? Thanks for taking my fall. You got it. Yeah, man. Listen, yesterday, it sucked pretty bad, obviously. But, you know, honestly, I feel like you got to give a lot.

credit words to you. They made three or four defensive plays that were really, really, really good plays that kept runs off the board that could have completely changed the complexion of the game. I feel extremely confident about tomorrow. You've got Garrett Cole in the mouth, 50 strikeouts the last time you pitch. I don't think they're going to be a, you know,

he's on short rest. I expect them to look good. And we're an awesome home team. I feel like we're going to win the game. I feel like the bath will come back alive. I was encouraged to see Springer getting hits yesterday. I thought Brantley's best at that in the series since game one was his last at bat, he just missed the home run.

I thought of the whole game, our best at bats were in the ninth inning. So I feel pretty good about it. I feel pretty good about where we are going forward, too, because I really like Granky pitching at home as opposed to his next game after that last outing being in Yankee Stadium. Give him a game in a comfortable environment, you know, that's not so bad for his anxiety, you know, let him get back on track. And then you get Cole pitching in Yankee Stadium, which I think gives you the best chance to go out and win there.

I like how things set up for the Yankee series. And then you've got Verlander in a potential game seven at home. So look, we're going to win tonight. We're going to beat the Yankees. We're going back to the World Series. It was a rough opening round, but nothing has changed. We're the best team in baseball, the best freaking team ever. Ghostrose.

Mike drop. Ross, rack him. Excellent call. Best facts of the day. I'm feeling a little bit better. That guy, whoever that was, fired me up. L.J. You know what?

Our bitch and moan Wednesday lasted less than two hours. I got a feeling. I can make my last a little bit longer. No, because you know, I can't. Oh, that's true. We got Joel Clayton. We got the Astros Press conferences at the bottom of the hour. Joel Clat is going to convince me that Texas can beat OU, hopefully.

There's no way. What? I mean, there's a way, but not likely. You know what you always say? Trust Vegas, 10.5. You probably told me there was no way last year. They were underdogs last year. They were underdogs when I went in 2015.

How did you think the Texas past secondary was against West Virginia? Hello? Sorry, Matt, you were breaking up. Connection bad? Yeah, we're having issues. Yeah, I figured. All right, let's go to Ben and Sugarland at 153. Hi, Ben.

What's going on, guys? What's you got? Man, I'm just excited for the Astros. You know what? I love the home run, the three-home run caller guy. But, you know, get that back path a little straighter. Let's get some runners on. And, oh, yeah, that's what.

it was, can you guys look up how many pitches were thrown by either team in the wins versus the losses? I'd like to see, you know, if we're looking at a lot of pitches and we're fouling off pitches. No. You guys checked on the salary. Ben, no, Ben, listen to me very carefully. We're not Wikipedia. We are a radio talk show. Are you, Ben?

Are you a smart guy? Ben, are you a smart guy? Well, Ben. Just get me a place from a double crush for us tomorrow. You're going to get a spot, Ben, and you're going to bring a computer to do your own homework. We're not doing your homework for you. We're not your cliff's notes. Oh, go Astros.

Go Astros. Go Astros. Radio on the biz. See you later. Yeah, by the way, I'm just going to sit the last 30 seconds of this hour to tell you. We are not going to look things up for you. Unless it's a specified Google MT. Yeah, if it's a Google MT segment, I'll be honored to.

We've got to do another one of those. Can you all, hey, can you all find out what they did in the six inning with runners at first? No, you can do it. Matt, how many average batters are they leaving on base in the playoffs on a road? Why do you sound like no one or Ryan? Do I? Well, I don't know. Allied siding and windows.

So we're not Googling things for you unless it's a Google MT segment. Now that's what I call a nice question. That's enough. Put down the mic. We're going to Joe Clatt to talk some college football. Let's go. And now we're talking college football. with Joel Clatt. Brought to you by Dos Ekes.

Official beer sponsor of the college football playoffs. All right, 2 o'clock on Sports Talk 790. Matt Thomas is with you from St. Petersburg. Ross is back in our Houston studios. And we appreciate Joel backing up an hour for us because, first of all, he's got a big time game. We're all going to watch this Saturday between OU and Texas. But first, congratulations, Mr. Clatt. You are now part of the XFL broadcast team on Fox, which means you're going to have to come to Houston a couple.

times this year. Yeah, I can't wait. I can't wait to get down there to H-Town. I'm always connecting in Houston. Now I finally just get to fly in and actually do some work there. I'm excited about it. We'll see how the league does, and I think that it's on much better footing, at least in this stage, than the AAF. So I've got to tell you, I'm bullish on the XFL. I think that it can do some damage in the spring. Well, I'm a huge Oliver Luck fan, and I love his business acumen, and I just hope that everything works out. Nobody should expect it to be the NFL, but just give us a little nibble for the springtime, have it be close competitive games, and I think people will watch. And I think marketing will be a huge part of it, and anything Vince McMahon touches is going

to be heavily marketed. So I wish you, and I wish the NFL a lot of success. It'll be nice to have a Houston team to kind of root for as well, and it'll give us a little way to, I guess, segue between the pro and college football. Let's get to your matchup this Saturday. You're actually coming south for the second time this year, so we're happy to have to have to. you in this part of the country. OU in Texas, as you know, my partner Ross is a diehard Longhorn fan. He's scared the death about the Texas secondary against Jalen Hertz. Should he be?

Well, yeah, all the injuries back there are not great. Okay, so they've got three starters that are out. Now, if this was Oklahoma with three starters out, I would be more concerned about their secondary because Texas has just flat out recruited better in the secondary. They've got a number of four-star and five-star players that are in the death. them playing very well. I thought that the corners played incredibly well. Yesterday, or excuse me, last week against West Virginia, including, you know, they picked them off four times, four interceptions against West Virginia. So I think that the 126, when it comes

to past defense, I think that's a misleading stat. They played a Lotech that wanted to throw it all over the place. Joe Burrow went absolutely crazy. They've been up on teams and those teams have had to totally abandon their run game in particular against Oklahoma State. Remember, when they held Chuba Hubbard to like 38 yards rushing or whatever it was. I mean, so I'm not trying to totally write off their past defensive struggles, but I don't think they're as large as people think. Now, is Oklahoma going to be able to score points? Yes.

Do I feel like this is going to have to be a shootout? Yes. And it's a good thing for Texas because they do have an offense that can get in a game like that and succeed with Sam Ellinger at quarterback. So Texas's secondary is certainly going to be under a microscope, but I, I, I, I, I, would not put it past either of these two teams to be able to hang with the other once a shootout kind of arises. Hey, Joel, one of the things, if you're on Longhorn side and you're trying to be optimistic,

you tell yourself, well, Oklahoma hasn't played anybody. But I don't know how much you can play into that because maybe the competition hasn't been great, but they've been blowing them away. What do you just think overall philosophically when you say, oh, this team hasn't played anybody? But if they're playing teams that aren't up to par, but they're just absolutely destroying them, I think that still can show you something. I could not agree more. All you can do is play the team in front of you,

and all you can do is try to be as dominant as you possibly can once that game arises. You're right about Oklahoma. They have been sensational this year. They have been as good as they have been in any of the previous three seasons on offense. And Hertz has been amazing. Their defense has shown a substantial amount of improvement. They're actually in the top five in the country and third down efficiency on both offense and defense, which, excuse me, they're the only team of the country that can say that.

When you look at some of those other teams, like Clemson, they haven't played anybody, and they've struggled at times, right? They only put up 331 total yards against North Carolina. And in the previous three games to that, North Carolina was averaging their defense giving up 436. So that's not being dominant against someone that I would say is not a very strong opponent. I think Ohio State has played somewhat of a weak schedule until last week with Michigan State. Well, what have they done? They are right now number one in scoring margin in terms of the country at plus 243. Next closest is Penn State at 198.

So you can definitely go out there and bury your competition and put to bed the argument about schedule strength. Having said that, there's no doubt that Texas is more tested. And if you're going to say that there's an advantage, I think it's, it would be towards Texas in the sense that they have been tested. They're constantly in one possession games dating back to last season, and they're comfortable in those environments, and their quarterback plays really well in that environment. So OU has not been tested at all.

They have been fantastic, and I think if I was Texas, I would hang my hat on the fact that maybe we can get them into an uncomfortable situation that they don't normally see, which is a one possession game late. Joel Clatt, Fox Sports, our Wednesday visit here, as he will call OU and Texas on Fox this Saturday. Speaking and not being tested, Alabama has not. Will A&M pose one this Saturday? No, no. A&M is one of the more overrated teams in the top 25

along with Wake Forest and Virginia. You know, and you can just look at, you know, everyone says like, well, you know, they've lost the good teams. Yes, but they've also basically gotten blown out. The scores in both of those games against Clemson and against Auburn were misleading. And the way I know that is Clemson was ahead by 21, three scores with 10 seconds left. Auburn, you know, with six minutes left was still up 18 points.

It's basically three scores. You look at the three wins for A&M against the two and three Texas state team, an FCS team in Lamar, and Arkansas by four, and Arkansas the previous week got beat by seven against San Jose State. So A&M is just not a very good football team, and I don't think that they're going to challenge, Alabama. I just really don't. Tua has been sensational, 76% with 16 touchdown passes in his last three games. They are dominant on the outside, and I don't think A&M is going to be able to keep up with

them, and I think that this is going to be a fairly easy win for Alabama. When you watch Kellyn Mon, is he making too many mistakes for a guy that has as many starts as he has? Yeah. I mean, he's thrown an interception in four of the five games. To me, you want to go stretches during the season, in multiple games in a row where you're not committing a turnover. And he's done it in basically every single game. He threw one in the end zone last week against Arkansas. He's been sacked seven times in his last couple of games. So, you know, they need to show some improvement.

And I think that's probably the more frustrating part for Aggie fans is they thought that this was going to be a better team. And I've even said it can be a better team and not show up in the wins and losses arena. but to some degree when you watch Texas A&M, I don't know if you can convince yourself that they are better than what they were when they were playing a one possession game at home with Clemson a year ago. So I'm sure that there's some frustration,

and part of that is the fact that Mon seems to have hit a wall and is not progressing through that to the next point in his career where he is being efficient with the football, throwing more touchdown passes, and ultimately being cleaner down the field. Before we get to the big SEC game, I want to ask you, a former radio partner and I used to argue about whether or not Baylor could come back with all the things at Art Bryles.

And I'm sitting here, they're looking at 5 and 0. Granted, they haven't played a real tough schedule. But I was always a Matt Ruhl fan when I used to cover U of H games against Temple. He's got them number 22 in the country. Smoking mirrors on this, or is he building something really special in Waco right now? He's a good coach. I'm with you on that. He's a good coach.

Now, do I think that they're going to compete for a Big 12 title? No. Do I think that this is somewhat of smoking mirrors? Kind of. But remember, they did beat Kansas State. They did beat Iowa State. So this is a team that is a good team. I like Brewer a lot.

Charlie Brewer, he's doing the exact opposite of what a guy like Helen Mond is doing. Brewer is 11 touchdowns. Matt, zero interceptions. You know, so I think he's been cleared to play this week. I know he got banged up in the fourth quarter, but I believe he's been cleared to play in this week. I think Texas Tech is an interesting challenge now because Jet Duffy, that quarterback who came in for Bowman, who's been hurt, he kind of won that job against Oklahoma and the blowout loss. And then he threw, he went bonkers against Oklahoma State in a big win.

So this is one of those moments for Baylor that they're going to feel real happy about themselves. They're going to feel very confident about themselves. And they better watch out because I think Texas Tech is a team that could come in there and potentially sting you if you're not careful. Does the winner of the Florida LSU game get a serious look at, hey, we're going to be in the college football playoff? I mean, is it too soon to say with these two teams? Or is 7V5 a pretty good buildup for this match at a time? I think Florida has to win their division at a minimum to get in. I don't think you're going to see Florida lose this game and then still go to the college football

playoff unless they were able to beat Georgia. So I think it's a little bit wait and see. For LSU, you're just putting yourself in such a pickle because you've still got Alabama looming on the schedule. And if you lose this one, then you basically have to run the table. You know, we'll see. There's a lot of really good teams. And I think no one conference can lay claim to having the deepest conference or the best conference this year. I think Penn State and Ohio State are incredible.

I think Texas, Oklahoma are incredible. I think LSU, Georgia, Alabama, maybe Florida is in. that are incredible. I do think it's going to be incredibly tough for Florida to basically get the upset last week, then come right back on the road in Death Valley and win this week. I just don't expect them to play to the level that they were able to play last week, and therefore I think they're going to get beat. All right. Go-to food at the state fair in Dallas. Is in your mind what? I'm a big fried Snickers guy. I mean, Snickers is my all-time.

favorite. So that's where I'm going to head immediately Friday morning when I head out there. What about you? Where do you go? Do you ready for this? I have never gone to see fair in Texas. I swear to God, I'm not lying here. What are we doing here? You got to get the Fletcher's corny dog first, Joel. Come on. Well, you know what? There's something to be said for that. And then the fried snickers for dessert. There you go. Boom. You know, I'm fine. I can get down with that. I can't get down with I haven't been. What do you mean?

You know what I'm doing? You know what I'm doing, Joel? I'm chasing a baseball team trying to win a World Series. That's what I'm trying to do right now. Well, well, come on now. They better pick it up after losing game four. Oh. Okay, so you got the XFL.

You're doing the big game on Fox. Yeah, I swear, I want you to get everything that you want. You're doing the PGA. Just don't ever host a game show or we'll have to end our friendship. Why? Because I want to host a game show. I do. Me.

I've been thinking about this for four. 47 years of my life. Matt, that seems selfish. Are you new here, Joel? Yeah, Joel, have you not met me? I love it. All right, you can't give me an outcome on all you, Texas. But real quick, wrap things up.

How does Texas pull off the upset? I think Texas just needs to be themselves. Like, I think this line is crazy. What is it, 10 and a half? 10 and a half. That is way too big. I'll be shocked, shocked if either team wins, by more than a possession.

We'll leave it at that. Hey, friend, great to hear from you as always. Safe travels to our state, and we'll talk next week. Thanks, but, bye. You got it. Joe Clot, Fox Sports. This is Cougars head coach Dana Holgerson. Matt's kind of like Shasta without putting on a costume.

He's a big old... The Matt Thomas show continues on Sports Talk 7-9. Dana Holgerson will join this radio show tomorrow at 1.30. Dr. Roder will be on from 2-2-2-30. many questions for Dr. Roto that will use as part of our conversation. You can email me, mT, at sports790.com. That's mt at sports 790.com. Or you can send me a tweet at SportsMT, and I'll get Dr. Roto to answer your questions as part of our half hour segment.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-5-790. If you want to reach out that way, we can take some more of your phone calls. We have an astro player coming up to the podium in about 10 minutes. AJ Hinch is going to speak at 245. and then the A-team will take you 3 o'clock until 6. Let's get back on the phones and talk to our buddy Larry and Laporte. Larry, you cannot be happy with the Astros offense so far.

Is that correct? Well, what I want to do is kind of take it on a different level. All right? We need to make the home team advantage mean something. What we need the fans to do tomorrow is sheer like hell every time the athos hit the field. In other words, you want to make it hard for them to let you down. Also, at the same time of cheering for them, it gives a negative attitude to the opponent. We need to cheer like we've never cheered before.

Let's make the home team advantage means something. We cannot lose this game tomorrow. We are too good of a team, but we have been sitting back on our hills. It's time for us to go get it. We can't leave cold train out there by himself. We got to do it tomorrow. If we don't do it tomorrow, wow, we don't waste it a hundred and seven game plus. You are spitting out facts, my man.

You got to be, now let's just recap things. You want the fans that are going to the game tomorrow to be really, really loud as compared to just normal loud. As it been all year. I want it to be the loudest that has ever been. In other words, we want to make the home team advantage means. something. All right. I think,

you know what, Larry, I can't agree with you. It's kind of hard for the players to fail when you're cheering from. Being an ex-player, I know how it feels when fans are behind you. So we need to be the loudest we've been all year.

And I guarantee he told you to make a difference. Thank you, Larry. I wonder, Ross, if people would cheered me more if I'd have better shows. I would think so. Ooh. Mm.

Ose L'Altuvae is going to speak to the media here in the bottom of the hour, so that's who you look forward to in the nature, hints after that. You know how you see that? I literally love Jose Al-Tuvei, or I really do those kind of... You know, he hasn't changed a bit since the day he first became an Astro Ross? Do you understand he has made a lot of money and maybe still underpaid under superstar level that he is? He's the same human being. He hits with a lot more power.

Well, I'm talking about just the human side of it. How about this? The folks at ESPN yesterday, they said he ran, you know, in that play that he got thrown out at the plate. He ran one mile per hour faster than he normally runs. Really? So there was, it wasn't like he was, I mean, the throw to get him and the tagout was so superlative that even a faster than normal Jose Altova couldn't score on that play. They were both so perfect throws both of them. And that's exactly what it took to nail him right as he got to the plate.

And I love the fact when somebody said, what do you describe the plate? He goes, well, Yoron hit the ball too hard. And he said, literally, you know, he hit the ball too hard. Wait, that's what I said when I tweeted. Yeah. If it takes one more bounce, it's an easy score. If the ball takes some sort of funny angle, the rays executed it like they were executing spring training skills. You know how you do that to kind of challenge?

Right, right. That's what they did. That's what I tweeted. At Sports RV. You're not hit it too hard. I'm glad me and Jose are on the same page. Well, you guys are Iron Deed on the homepage. How about the fall ball that was caught by a Buccaneer out in right field yesterday?

That's right. O.J. Howard. I haven't seen a minute. His second catch all season. I was going to say, I don't think I remember watching him do that very often as a buck, right? No. That's too funny. Boy, way.

By the way, Tampa TV people today are beside themselves. All the news anchors are wearing raise gear. everybody is like Hey the team's leaving for Houston right now Here's a live shop Of Tampa International Airport And I'm like

You folks couldn't give two craps About the race six weeks ago TV people that love On sports teams makes me sick You gotta own it from the start right How many Astros fans were there Like six years ago Yeah because the team sucked

The race have The race have gone to the World Series And they've drawn 15,000 That's true, that's true. The Astros got better and the people have come back. And we are a baseball town now. And we might be an NFL town if the Texans go to the Chiefs and give the Chiefs their second straight home loss.

Yeah, if both teams are really, really good in championship level, I think it's a football town. But, well, you know what? We don't know that at this point. I'm ready to debate that with you. We'll get there when it happens. It's been since the early 90s. Oh, has it been that long?

Well, the last time I remember all. three kicking ass at the same time. I'm sure there have been other times I've done it too. 86, the olderers were starting to go to the playoffs on a regular basis. It didn't make the Super Bowl, unfortunately. Rockets made the Western NBA finals, and the Astros played the Mets and the National League. I mean, I remember one year with all three going. I was too.

I'm sure the Rockets, Astros, and Texans have done it. Yeah, they have. Right? Has there been a year in the last decade where all three have been the playoffs in the same year? Probably. Well, yeah, last year. Yeah. Well, there you go.

Texans, AFC South champions, Brian. Yes, sir. Rockets make the playoffs. Not granted, the NBA making the playoffs. A teams do it. It's not like you're not waving a flag or something. Yo, this is Bunby. And my wife is the biggest fan of the whitest man in America.

Matt Thomas, Matt Troy. Reckless, ratchet, and don't give a fuck. Welcome back, Matt Thomas show here on Sports Talk 790. Now, Tom, for Jose Altova on the podium ahead of game five. We believe in ourselves. You know, we have great hitters. Like I always said, this is a team full of, good players. So we're going to go ahead and prove it tomorrow.

On the right? I know the raise have some really good pitchers, but are you surprised at how much the lineup has kind of struggled as string hits together and get big innings in this series? Well, you said that they got really good pitching. And playoff doesn't get really easier. So we're going to try. We're going to do our best tomorrow.

We know we have to get a bus together and scores around. That's the only way we're going to win. And like I said before, tomorrow is most win for us. So believe me that we're going to go out that and do everything we can to make it happen. Richard, on the left. How good is their bullpen? What have you been most impressed about? And what's the challenge when they just roll one guy out after another after another

instead of being able to fit in against one guy? Well, they're really good, obviously. I said it since the game won. They pitch really good. at home and like we play really good here. So that's good for us because I guess we're playing here. So this is our chance to go to pitch good, play some good different and win the game. But yeah, they're really good.

Third row on the right. Jose, you've dealt with this for a few years now with the travel and you know, you're in one city or another city. And you deal with it during the season. But in the playoffs, do you ever get tired at any point? then get re-energized when it's game time? I mean, how do you kind of find that balance? Well, maybe during the season in September, you get, you know, it's normal to get a little tired

because it's a really long season. But it doesn't happen in playoff. You know, the energy so up and, you know, you want to go ahead and play. The guys, even right now, we're just talking about how excited we are. We've been here before. We've been in this situation before. So it's going to be a big.

game and I know we're going to do it really good. Second row on the left. As a leader of the team, is there anything you say to the guys? Or is it just kind of a thing where you guys all know what you have to do? Well, I think we're all in the same page. When we lost the game yesterday, we all have the same thought. OK, we're going home now. And I think everybody knew that.

But it's not just coming here. It's because we know how good we play. I'm home. We have a lot of leaders in that clubhouse, believe me. What I like the most is that we all go in the same direction. We want to win the game. We want to do everything we can. And I'm not worried because the guy still confidence and what we can do.

First round the right. So how how do you want to confront a fifth part of a game, a quarter of elimination, a part of a team that has a pitcher very dominant? How do you, how do you know, how do you know, continue with the press conference here Jose Altuvae speaking with the media ahead of game five. We're about to get a whole lot of Spanish, but that's okay. He's saying he's a leader of the team. Guys know what they need to do.

I think he's right. I mean, they know what it's at stake. These guys have been doing these games for a long time. So Jose Al-Tuvae, leader of the club, as Justin Verlander said to the media the other day, he knows what these guys have to do and they'll be ready. back to Jose L Tuve here at the podium for ALDS Game 5 at home, Minutemate Park. And to respond to your other question,

are things that happen. And the important of the post-temporada is that no important the numbers, no important what you're going to do in... Okay, Ross, he is saying it's a must win, apparently. I think so. I don't know Spanish that well, but I'm assuming that it's going to be,

that is a must-win situation. We need you to translate for us, Matteo Thomas. He's saying it's a must win. We have to win this game or we don't play anymore. We rock. Tampa sucks. A bunch of old people. The stadium's crap.

42,000 screaming people. We're going to hit the outside pitch from a... And we're back to English. As far as kind of on what Richard said, when you kind of don't know from inning to inning what pitcher you're going to see, does that require more in-game adjustments for you guys from an offensive standpoint as far as your approach is concerned? Absolutely. And I think you're asking this because, you know, it's really hard to not know who you're going to face next about.

We face, I think I faced four different guys yesterday. So they're all different, and they have something really special. You know, Castillo have a good sinker ball. Anderson have a good curveball. Then the other guys have something that, you know, they made them really good. So, yes, you have to be maybe, I mean, we all focus and we all really paying attention to the detail of the games, but when you're facing too many pictures like that, maybe you have to, you know, keep tracking or keep, you know, to focus on who you're going to face.

Third row center. Along the same lines, we know that facing a pitcher for a second or third time in a game, advantage is the batter. What about in a series when you get to see? a pitcher for a second or third time. Can that make a difference? You can go either way. You know, in the game, like I said before, as much as you face one guy, you are getting a little bit more comfortable. And that's why we never got really, really comfortable yesterday when we have to face four different guys. In the series, it can go either way. You know, you're

facing him, but he's facing you too, so you know what he's doing, but he also know what you're doing. But tomorrow is going to go in North Side. I know that. You know, we're ready to swing the bat, and we got some guys like that about to get really, really hot for the rest of the playoff. Third row on the right. So you said earlier in the year when you were in the midst of your hot home run streak that this is not me. I'm not comfortable with this. You ended up with 31. You've got two in the playoffs. How much of the power approaches now, I've seen. difficult part of the way you approach the game. Tough question. I don't like talking about homers and you know that, but yes, I ended up with

a lot of homers and it makes me happy because you're helping your team and, you know, I think as you get older, you become maybe a little bit smarter. You know what, you know, they're doing to you the last couple of years and you know what you've got to go to look for, you know, Now, last year, they throw me a certain pitch, and I was taken, and now I start swinging and so I think that's why maybe I'm hitting some hummers. Third row again. Jose, how much does, if you go back to 2017 when you were down three, two to the Yankees, you lost three games there and came here and won, winning game seven at Dodgers Stadium?

How much does that help you, especially the guys who have been here, know, fully believe, that you can do this in any type of situation because you have done it before? Yes, I mean, big time, believe me, because. I remember we won two games here, we won there, lost three. And Carlos Beltran told the team, hey, guys, don't worry, we're going home now. And they don't want to go play there. So we came here, we won the last two games of the series,

we moved forward. So for me in playoff, to have some experience, like you've been in this situation before, that's crucial that help you a lot. So like I said, we know what we do. We know the situation we're facing tomorrow. It's going to be loud. It's going to be really close.

But we've been here before and that might help us. A couple more standing on the right. Thank you. Jose, good enough, if you can respond, the question that you asked at the beginning the press conference from... Oh, wait, they're at Minamette, right? Yeah, they're at Minimede. I'm still the one in Florida.

Hey, let's take a time out here and come back and let you hear AJ Hinch's press coverage. You ready for that? Sure. This is Craig Vizio. Vigio. Back to Matt Thomas on Sports Talk, 790. Oh, we're having some fun. You're home of the Stros.

Thanks. Biz, appreciate you. Always so talkative that, Bish. Yeah, hey, tomorrow, 12 o'clock, double-crush bus, right? Yes, sir. One o'clock, the revival. Okay. One-30 Dana Holgersson.

Wonderful. Two o'clock to 230, Dr. Roto. Beautiful. Ross's rotten five. Okay. And a damn well better be in Astros victory. Let's just be honest, right, Ross? Well, if they lose, I'll get to go to Dallas and go to the OU game, so.

Oh, so you're playing sympathy to the crowd then. What do you mean? So people aren't going to be like, you know what? We don't want you to go to Austin. We don't want you to do Dallas. We don't want you to go to the state fair. We don't want you to get you a corny dog. We want you to, really.

And just relax and enjoy the excitement that is championship baseball in Houston, Texas. Yeah, that'd be great. But 68 degrees at the state fair in the greatest college football atmosphere in the country all year with delicious corny dogs, bacon margaritas, and ice cold, refreshing dos ecches. Sounds pretty good as well. And you're not going to have a Saturday show because the 11 o'clock kick on. Correct. Well, this feels like a win-win for you.

I think so. I think you should stay. All right, AJ Hinch now at the post. and Matt, let's go to him. Head of ALDS Game 5. AJ, obviously the lineup has not produced the way that we're accustomed to seeing. Could you envision any, you know, changes or maybe tinkering again with the order tomorrow? Maldenado's going to catch.

That'll change. That shouldn't surprise anyone with Garrett going. But I kind of see it a different way. I see it as their pitching has really been exceptionally well, or done exceptionally well. And our guys have had a few games here to see. see these guys over and over again. So I don't think now is the time to really turn your back

on one of the best offenses in the big league just because of pitching staff has had a run of success for a couple games. We'll go with the same guys. And then knowing that the race staff has been so good, obviously you guys have struck out a little bit more than we've seen you. Have you seen anything different?

Have you seen more chasing? Have you seen just from your guys? Well, last night in one particular strikeout, I never talk about Jose strikeouts, but when you see 99-mile-hour turbo-sinkers almost hit the back knee. I've seen that a little bit this series. I've seen some, you know,

some areas up top with some high velocity guys. I've seen them pitch in certain areas. And I've just seen a really good series between two really good teams, a potent offense, a really, really well-matchup-driven pitching staff. And I've seen four games play out where both teams have won two games. So, you know, look, I think you can, break it down. We'll have plenty of time to break it down after tomorrow's game on however it plays out. But I like our guys. I like our chances. I think we're coming back to home where we play very well.

And now that we've seen their entire bullpen a couple times, it'll be a fun game tomorrow. Brian on the left? With Cole going against the same team in the span of just a few days, what do you think the challenges are for him? Or is he just so dominant that he just kind of has to stick to his game? Well, Glassnow is going against the same team as well. So I think the advantages or disadvantages are on both sides where we, I don't think there's a lot of secrets this deep into the series. I think both guys are really good. I think our guys, one of the best, if not the best in the big leagues,

at adapting and reading swings and reading approaches and seeing what they're going to bring as well. But I think this is why you play. Just because you have to play somebody back-to-back and face them two times in a row, So that's the nature of playoff baseball, and you've got to beat teams three times in a five-game series to win. It happens to be they get to face the same pitching, and so do we, and the team that scores the most tomorrow is going to win. Richard, on the left. With Tampa-based pitching, is it both the quality of the stuff and the fact that they sometimes tend to run a different guy out there every inning that makes it so challenging?

The different guy every inning is one way to put it. I think it's more about the quality that they're able to produce. I mean, you see what Anderson's throwing, you see Castilla, you see Rose Slyder, you see Snell come out of the bullpentho in 96 again. He hadn't done that since his injury. You know, you see, you know, all sorts of different variations. I mean, they made it perfectly clear they weren't going to let guys see a guy multiple times. And that's, you know, statistically and from a competitive standpoint, the way to go.

If you really want to be the most effective, that's the approach to go with. It's hard to do that over 162, but in a five-year-old. game set, you're seeing them play out their script about as well as they possibly could. So it's up to us to make the adjustments. We've seen these guys now, so you kind of can't have it both ways. You can't say it's difficult on one guy seeing a guy over and over again. And then on the flip side, when you get to see a guy over and over again, you got to, you know, you got to try to find a way to put up good at bat.

So I love it. I love that we're here. I know the way we got here is nerve-wracking just because you don't want to get to a game But we fought all year to have a better record and to win our division to get this particular game at home. And they've got to come into our house and beat us again. And, you know, with coal in the mound, I don't know who could be more confident than us. Second row on the left.

We've talked a lot about playoff experience throughout this series, but not just playoff experience, but the fact that y'all have been in this exact situation that elimination games before. Do you think that will help you guys? Well, I mean, you know what will help us is by playing with the lead and score more runs. That'll help more than any sort of experience. I think coming into the game or the reaction to the last couple games, that's where that experience plays up a little bit. But I don't necessarily think they're going to be scared off just because they haven't been in it.

They've already played a couple elimination games this season. So I think much of the talk about experience at this point, I think everybody's just going to bring their best into tomorrow's game. So we're comfortable that we've got to come out with one. of our best pitchers pitching and in our home field and win a deciding game. And no, it's not our first time that we've been through this. This is a, but the most important game of the years tomorrow. First row on the right.

Hey, Schupper. Alvarez and Norquidi, both rookies, both in their first, first season and perhaps very challenging situations, especially Alvarez that has to be on bat every three innings. Have you talked to him regarding, you know, that the situation? Have you, you know, tell them what kind of guidance do you give them as the manager? And lastly, and with all respect with the Tampa race, in case everything goes well tomorrow, do you think that the fact that the Astros has been contingently playing all the way to a game five and that the Yankees ended up sweeping the Twins will be an advantage for the Astros

because of the constant playing, competitive playing that you guys have? Sure. No, I appreciate the question. I'm not going to address anything beyond tomorrow's game. I think tomorrow's our center focused, and I understand the appeal of the what-if, But when it comes to Alvarez, I don't have to say a lot to these guys. I mean, he's pretty tested. I'm going to put him in the five hole and let him do his thing. I mean, I love when he's up to bat. I think they showed him how they like to pitch him.

They're throwing him velocity up. They're throwing up some chase breaking balls. He might be the one guy in a lineup full of guys you should be afraid of that they're probably the most afraid. I see the most action around his at-bats when it rolls around. And that's a lot of respect that comes his way. But he's got a groomed. He's got a room full of guys in there that can help him.

He's not nervous. He's not going to scare off. He had a rocket last night that he's had his fair share hits in this series. So my job will be to support him. I'm going to put him in the five hole tomorrow, let him do his thing. And he may have the biggest swing of the game tomorrow. I don't know.

Fifth row center. Obviously baseball is a game of adjustments. And you talk about having seen these guys now throughout the series. And then, of course, in the regular season, when you do have that extra. element of not knowing pitching-wise. Do you maybe game plan a little different as far as scouting reports, information that you give your hitters? Does that look a little bit different in-game as far as adjustments, different things like that? A little bit. You know, the end-game stuff is

really based on what we know is happening at that point. We know we have a little bit of time when they're getting their guy warmed up. We know, for example, Anderson's going to come in against Altuvae or Bregman or Poche is going to come in against Alvarez or Brantley or However, they're going to match their guys up. They only tip their hand when they take their jacket off and they start warming up and then we kind of know where that's going to be. Going into a game, I think at this point,

if you're surprised by anything that they're raised, do, then you haven't really done your homework. I mean, this works, those guys are in there right now going through different matchups, and I'm playing out a million scenarios, which I think brings up a really key point is, you know, the pressure tomorrow is awesome. and it's on both of us.

And who's going to be able to get the lead? Who's going to be able to get out of the gate and kind of take control of the game? They're going to want to take our crowd out of it. We're going to want them to be loud as hell. So that's the fun part of your prep going into the game. And how long does Glassnell go? I don't know.

When will Snell get up at some point? And when do they go to their Castilla and Anderson and the same crew that they've done? I mean, that's how they've won. And it's how they usually win. but we're well prepared to audible when we need to and we know who they're going to bring

who in against us. All right, that's AJ Hitch from MinuteMade Park. Thanks to the Astro Social Media Department for helping us with the feed of that. You can get all the information you want on Astros press conferences at Astros and on Astros.com. All right, tomorrow back in studio with Ross

and Nick. We'll have a full show, as we mentioned. We'll get the double crush bus going. We'll have a revival and get you ready for game Fine. So will Adam and Adam, they'll do it next. They're a part of the 18th. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow at noon.

Thank you for listening. Astros home, Sports Talk 790, 18 next. Thank you, sir.