Astros Moving Forward, Viability and Division Placement

The city, Oh the creative, creative, creative. Welcome to another Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety Dan Matthews Live and Local Beach Town breakdown on the world that matters to you? Does Houston Sports World? All these great Houston fans here, We love you all, So finish up on that to do list, Load up the cooler, because you can't drink and talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is Space City Saturday.

Here's seven nineties Dan Matthews. You know it's think big boys guy. I am Dan Matthews. Gonna be with you here for the next couple of hours Space City Saturday. Thanks some Doug Pike for getting us started today. You know it's funny. I didn't even know that Doug was in studio as I was driving in. I was listening to the show and I'm about to walk in, and you gotta be careful with those outdoors guys. Man, they

got all the weapons. I mean, I'm lucky I didn't get a crossbow or something, you know, pointed at me as I tried to walk into the studio to start prepping for the show. But Doug's a nice man. I think you would have let me have a pass. But anyway, thanks to Doug for getting us going today, as we have got a lot for you here. Of course, we are going to be massively astros loaded on this show because these next couple of days the largest couple of days of the

season, and we have all of that for you. You can jump in on the phone lines if you would like at seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven one three, two, one two five seven ninety is how we can get you in on the conversation. As I meant, we're gonna have a lot of astro's talk. As a matter of fact, I'm

gonna go ahead and make a proclamation right now. I would probably say conservatively eighty five percent of this show today is going to be astros because I mean, that is the largest topic of conversation that we need to talk about on the program today, so we will do that. Of course, recap last night's two to one win over the Diamondbacks. WHOA, it got a little

hairy. They're late, didn't it. I mean it's one of those things that you have the al twove air and then you have the moreno double, which it's funny because I think like a lot of us now if you were watching it on TV, which I was at the house in the Woodlands, and I've got Direct TV stream as my viewing package, and so of course when you stream, you're behind a little bit, and of course the atticipation is killing you, right, So I then get on my MLB app and

I'm you know, I've got my girlfriend's brother, you know, he's watching the game with me, and he's like, you're watching the head, aren't you. And I was like, dude, I can't help myself, like I've got to know what happens. And of course the moreno hit, you see runs and I'm just thinking to myself, I'm like, no, no, no, you didn't do this. You didn't just tie this ball game up. And then I see a run scores and I'm like, okay, well not great, but still you're still in position to be able to win

this game. You don't want to go the dreaded extra innings, which has been exactly that, a dreadful situation for the Astros this season. I can't remember exactly what the number is in terms of the record, but it ain't good. And they were able to avoid that with Jose Altuve able to get redemption for his error earlier in the inning with the Jace Peterson little rollover tapper

to the right side, nice little easy throw to jose A Bray. You in the Astros are able to line up for handshakes and high fives and be able to inch even closer to a playoff spot. So it's gonna be a huge one again tonight. You get another really good pitching matchup for this game coming up a little bit later on on seven forty and also right here on

Sports Talk seven ninety. There's gonna be a lot of gymnastics today in a good way if you will here on our great family of iHeart stations, because I mean the listening pleasure that is going to be at your disposal for everything today here across our great stations of us right here on Sports Talk seven ninety, also to KPRC nine fifty, and also News Radio seven forty kt r H. As a matter of fact, six o'clock on deck gonna get started over on News Radio seven forty kt r H, as we will have that

starting for you over at six o'clock, and that's gonna lead you up to the seven ten first pitch from the deserts of Justin Verlander against Merrill Kelly. So we will have all of that for you right here on Sports Talks seven ninety. Coming up at one thirty, you're gonna have the Long Warns and Kansas. A matter of fact, with that game, I am going to

get into some college football today. I mean, that's gonna be in there in that little fifteen percent if you will, like I said, like I said, eighty five percent of this show today is going to be Astros. And if you have some angst, if you have some happiness, if you have any of those things, please again seven one two, one two five, seven ninety, let's talk through it. Let's do it, all right, That's what I'm here for for these next two hours. Let's do it.

Let's have some fun, and we will do all of that. But of course, last night you can't talk about that game without talking about the yeoman's work. And that's the second time this week that on Twitter, I have thrown that out for the followers out there and anybody else that can see me on I can't call it X by the way, it just sounds weird and it just sounds kind of repeat. I don't know, like you know,

I understand. You know, it's Elon Musks. He can do whatever he wants, and he's obsessed with the letter X, and he's obsessed with space Balls and all those different things, which I didn't know until listened to the Joe Rogan podcast when he was on of his obsession with the movie space Balls, which I think is a great movie. I think it's hilarious movie. And like all of his tesla's have like space Ball references, like ludicrous

speed and everything like that. So we you know, as you'll find out here as I host this show in the coming weeks, you're gonna know that sometimes I get a little sidetracked. That's just the add in me. And if you can deal with it, then we can have some fun. But jose Ra Katie last night unbelievable, And like I said, second time this week, I've thrown out Yeoman's work because Wednesday nights, I threw out that

word for Brian a bray you because he did. I mean, you don't win that game Wednesday night without Brian a bray You just coming in an absolutely throwing just stellar work at the Seattle Mariners as he was able to put together an effort. And then last night, you know, I was in on the nightcap with Ross Villerial and I said, Ross, you know, here's the thing that I think that we can rest on with Jose Rakeati. This

time of the year is Raketi time. How many times in the World Series in twenty nineteen game five up in DC when you needed a huge start and you're like, Jose Raketi, Oh, I mean, I hope just keep us close and maybe the bats can get to work, which they did that night, and you were able to get a win, and you were able to put yourself in position to be able to clinch the World Series at home. I don't want to go through bad times with us. Obviously that didn't

happen. Twenty twenty one. You were down one zero to the Braves in that World Series. In game two, you give the ball to Jose Rakeati goes out to the mound to El Karrido, the mazit Lan, and he is able to put together a strong start and you even up the series at one one. And then last night he's told early in the morning that there is a family emergency with JP France, which, by the way, his

wife Jessica on Twitter said the kids are great, We're all good. Thank you all for your support, and you know, just really appreciate everybody reaching out that did so. Sounds like at least that things have calmed down on the family emergency front with JP France. Definitely hope that everything is good there and hopefully he is able to rejoin the team here very soon. Of course,

be keeping tabs on that. But or Katie last night, I mean, I think that most of us probably could have looked at it and said, let's get maybe three innings out of him, because i think once he

got through three scoreless, you were like, okay. And I'm saying to myself as i am leaving a grocery store to pick up some much needed supplies to be able to watch the late night game, and I'm listening to Robert Ford and Steve Spark on the way back to the house, and I'm saying to myself, you know, doesn't sound like he's sawing a ton of pitches. Maybe you run him back out there for the fourth and they did.

Maybe you run him back out there for the fifth and they did. And after that, I'm in front of the TV at the time, I can see the pitch count and I'm like, you know, the sixth inning is not necessarily out of the question for him, and he went out there and he delivered. And we'll let you hear from Dusty up Baker next segment about the walkouts in the mound and you're thinking, all right, that's gonna be it for Jose Rakeati says he looked at Raketi and said, I gotta ride

with this guy. I'm gonna go with this guy. So credit to him and credit to others last night who were able to step up for this team as well. Again, you can get in on the phone lines at seven one, three, two on two five, seven ninety. Let's go ahead and start it off right now. Mark on the west side wants to away in Mark, what's going on Sports Tucks seven ninety. How you doing there?

Are you? I'm awesome, buddy, I mean, especially after a two one win, this show has a lot more energy when the Astros win. Can you agree? I agree? Listen, let me go over some stuff you know mine? Please? Last night I had the Astros on the radio and I had the Rangers Seattle game on the TV. And I'll tell you what that Seattle crowd was pumped, man, I have never seen a crowd at last and they you know, they wont eight and nothing. But

we've got some history with was bad history with Seattle. If it comes down to that, we end up playing them again, you know, with the narrowest rod Reagan. Still we've had you know, we've had some problems with them on the field. You know, they don't like it. We don't like them and they don't like us. And the Rangers we had to do with Simeon you know, I believe it was it Fromer earlier in the year and Maldonado. Yes, yes, So none of the three teams like each

other. But that being said, last night I was hoping as a Brave's ball was out, but it wasn't. But we got two runs out of it because they based it on where the runners would have been and I think Tucker was the last runners, so he's fast and they figured he would have scored on a double. So that's how we got the two runs. Two runs is not enough. That's not gonna win me a lot of games. Unfortunately, your Keatie pitch great. Like you said, our bullpen did a

good job. Now I want to get to Presley Pressley, I like a lot. I think he's a good closer. Thank god we had two runs and not just one. That guy just worries me sometimes. I mean always say, if we have a one or two run league with Presley coming in, get the first guy out that's key, which he did, right, and then another the next guy I believe got a hit, and no he did now to be made an error. Yeah yeah, yeah, that was the al Twove error. And then you get the next outs. I don't

have the ending breakdown in front of me. But then, of course the fourth hitter of the ending was Marino and that was the double that chas McCormick tried to make a play on in centerfield. I'll tell you what, Dan. First of all, you can't make errors like that big games like this, But it happened. And that ball I thought it was out, I mean McCormick. I thought either McCormick was going to make one of those great catches jumping up against the fence. That ball was within less than a foot

going out, which would have taed the game. It was just like a bruise ball, a braves ball. Yeah, that ball was what less than six inches from going out. It's a game of inches. You know that game was nerve rectal, but we won. That's the main thing. Let me answer yeah real quick. Okay, we got Verlander going today, which is good. I hope he repeat his last performance, and I hope we score at least five runs. Let's say we sweep this series, just hypothetically.

Okay, now, if the Rangers just win one game out of the four they've already lost the first two. We had the tape breaker with the Rangers where we win the division based on that scenario, and I'll let you go, but thank you. Yeah, I appreciate Mark. So I'm glad you brought that up. By the way, Corey Lighter on Twitter has done a great job if any of you follow him, and he has put together

a little spreadsheet, if you will, of scenarios. So the only way the Astros are going to win the Al West is going to be if they sweep this series. So they win tonight, they win tomorrow, and here are the scenarios that goes. So the Mariners have won two, say the Rangers win these next couple of games. The Astros, if that's the case, would finish in second and the Mariners would be in third ergo, the Mariners would miss the postseason, and the Astros would get that third and final

wildcard spot. Now, if the Mariners win one or two more games in the Astros sweep, then the Astros win the American League West. So say tonight, if the Astros win and the Mariners win again, then it's going to be a tie going into tomorrow, and that's going to be an all

important one for the Astros to be able to get that one. And if say the Rangers are able to win tomorrow, but then you're Houston Astros able to put together a another great effort, then that is going to mean that your Astros are Aos champions, and that means that we all get a stress free week. Everybody gets to take a deep breath and be able to have that buy and go in to the Alds instead of having to try to sweat it out in the wildcard round. I'll break all of those scenarios down and

everything more. Plus let you hear from manager Dusty Baker about some of the things that Mark just brought up right there, and I've brought up so far in the show today, John Stick and stay right there. I'll get to you here in just a second. So we're also here on the show today. I'm gonna get into a little bit of college football coming up bottom of

this hour Mike Craven from Dave Campbell's Texas Football. He is going to join us as there is a lot of great college football action happening around the lone Star state today. We will touch on all of that with Mike coming up bottom of next hour as well. My good buddy, you're a good buddy. Everybody's good buddy or him every weekday morning here on Sports Talk seven ninety with Sean Salisberry, Brian Lilima, gonna hop on and we're gonna chop up

some stros here coming up next hour. But all of that's in much more tons of Astro's conversation. You want to line up, you can at seven one three two one two five, seven ninety. We will also get into some Texans talk a little bit today as well, because there are some things that I do want to touch on. We will do all of that right here Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with you until noon Sports Talk seven

ninety. Welcome back to Space City Saturday one Sports Talk seven ninety Ibby Astros as they were able to pull off a huge win last night over the Arizona Diamondbacks out in Arizona. I'm gonna get to my Dusty Baker topic here in JA a few seconds. Coming up in about ten minutes, gonna be talking some college football as we'll break away momentarily again and that fifteen percent right there. We'll talk some college football with Mike Craven, senior writer for It,

Dave Campbell's at Texas Football. Can you get to the Dusty topic here in just a second. First, let's go back out to the west side. John wants to weigh in here on Sports Talk seven ninety John. How you doing, Buddy? I am doing fine. Actually answered part of my question just a minute ago. But about the playoffs, my understanding is that if there's a tie between the Rangers, Astros, and Mariners, that the Rangers

and Mariners will go and knock the Astros. Where the Astros hold a series city the series over the Rangers, the Mariners hold it over us, and I guess the Rangers hold it over the Mariners, and so in case of the three way tie, I wonder why they would go and the Astros would not. And then secondly, if there's a four way tie with the Blue Jays, who gets to go? And then my other question is who is

the backup catcher for the Astros this year? If you know, it's Yin er Ds, no, the emergency catch Oh god, his name escapes me right now. I'll look it up here in just a second, but the primary is Jiner Ds. Yeah, because I you know, I always wondered who it would be. And obviously you don't want to ever use your emergency catcher, but there's a lot of times where I thought maybe you could pitch hit DS for Malvinado, and you know, if DS got hurt, you

could bring in your emergency catcher. So I'll just hang up and listen. Thank you all. I appreciate the call there, John saysar Salazar, And that's on me that I didn't remember who the third catcher is, but been in the minor leagues for much of this season. But yeah, I mean, anytime you have to go to the emergency part of the raw as you don't want to do that. But last night it worked out. But here's how it stands right now. Just to answer John's question even further, so,

Seattle is at eighty seven and seventy three. Astros are at eighty eight and seventy two. So that would mean that the Astros they win one more, that's two. If they win two, that locks them in they are in the postseason. And in that case, that would mean that the Mariners need to make up another game on the Astros. So if that happened, they would have the tiebreaker for the division. The Mariners would win the AL

West. So that means that in this scenario right here again you can find Corey Lder on Twitter and he lays it out, that would mean that they have won one more than the Astros. In this case right here, that means that they have won four. So the Mariners in that case would win the AL West. In the Astros would be second place and they would have that final wildcard spot and the Rangers would be missing out on the postseason. Which I know there's probably not a lot of tears being shed if that's the

case. That if in Arlington they are watching us in the postseason, and in this case right here too, that would mean if the Astros made the wildcard and say they go up to Minneapolis and take care of business against the twins that would possibly set them up, not possibly, it would set them

up for an alds on the road against the Mariners. Kind of a rematch of last year's alds in this case though instead of starting it off at Minute Made Park, you're starting it up there at T Mobile Park in Seattle. And I know that you know that is something that as Mark pointed out a little bit earlier, that it is creating a hell of a rivalry. Now.

I mean, somebody pointed it out on Twitter last night, and I can't remember exactly who it is, but they said, look, you know, you've got the Dodgers and Giants. That's a hell of a Major League rivalry. Obviously the one that everybody looks to. That's kind of the Ohio State, Michigan Army, Navy if you will, Texas O you is the

Yankees and the Red Sox. But I mean the way that the last few years have gone, and of course to just the vitriol that we have for the Mariners and their fans, and boy did they really show their backsides on Monday night with that beanball of jose Al twove. See that's the funny thing of all of this is the reaction to the hector nearest thing of just the handwringing that is going on with that after you know, you've got people just

verbally cheering somebody getting hit in the game. Which if there's anything that's happened with this entire situation of what happened in twenty seventeen, the guy that has wore it and has never apologized for it and has never you know, said why me or anything, it's been jose Al Tuove when it's been documented that he did not benefit from said scheme. And this is something that has go on for the last few years. And let's be honest here, most people

don't care about facts if it fits their narrative. And in this case right here, it's Yankee fans channing fl TWOV and all of those different types of things, and people just glomb onto it and go with it because there's comfort in a crowd. There's comfort in oh hey, everybody else is saying it, so I can say it too, right, And that's the way that most people go about it. So anyway, that is how the brakes go.

Sometimes I get to my Dusty Baker topic. I think I'll do it after we talk with Mike Craven here in a few minutes, but real quick, let's squeeze in Ray and Memorial right here on Sports Talk seven ninety Ray, what's going on, buddy, Hey, get good morning. I just want to make a quick comment on hanging up in this an our coup question.

It looks like I've been pretty critical some of the moves Dust he's made this season, but I was looking at just In verbend or going again tonight if I'm if I'm not mistaken, it looks like which means it looks like Wow may have gotten skipped into rotation, which is a good thing because he's been downl terrible lately. And I just want to see if I can get some cratification on there, because I'm no further under with you at at night.

I haven't seen Hunter Brown since he had a mild down a gift to cancer the laws and gave up six runs in the first inning, and I haven't seen him since I don't clare you on an eye up to listen all. I appreciate the call. Ray. This would be the fifth day for Justin Verlanders, so it would have worked out for him to pitch today. I think had the Astros already been in a clinch situation that you would not

have seen him pitch in this game. But because they are still very much in the race to try to clinch a spot, you need one of your best out there, and Justin has been that. With Hunter Brown, I think that it's probably a little bit of a couple of things. Number One, I think that probably it's overworked to this point, and that's not necessarily anybody's fault. It's just that you've had him in the rotation and he's thrown more innings than he's ever thrown, So I think there's a little bit of

fatigue there. And I think also too, here's the thing is, sometimes you have to put in the sweat equity and you have the tough results to

be able to learn in the future. I go back to my experience that I had working in my previous market before coming back home, to coming back home here to Houston in Atlanta, and I'm reminded so much of the Braves rotation that they had when Max Freed was coming up, and also too when you had Kyle Wright coming along, and Kyle Wright was one of those guys in Atlanta that people were like, what is it with this guy, like, come on, man, we've heard that you're supposed to be one of

the future greats in this rotation. And I remembered last year Brian Snicker when I was in a press conference talking about Kyle Wright and saying, you know what, I think last year in Triple A was so great for him. And then, of course, unfortunately against the Astros, he kind of found his legs in Major League Baseball and he went out and had a hell of an outing in Game four of the World Series in twenty twenty one, and that give him the confidence that he needed to be able to say, Okay,

I can get outs at this level. I think the good news is that Hunter Brown has I can get outs at this level. I think that for him, it's a all right, how do I space this thing out to be able to make sure that I'm as fresh as I possibly can be in August and September as I am in April and May at the beginning of the season when the arm is a little bit fresher, all of those different

types of things. So I think that probably that's something that he's going to get back in the lab and try to work on this offseason to make sure that next year when he gets at this time of the year, that he is a little bit more spaced out and he is able to throw some more quality innings and put out some more quality work this time of the year when you need him. But in the case of this, I mean, I know Dusty Baker was asked in the postgame last night about what his pitching situation

is on Sunday, and he would not get off of it. And I think it was a reporter from there in the Phoenix area. It did not sound like Brian McTaggart or Chandler Rome or Julia Morales or anybody that was in there talking with Dusty in the post game. But Dusty would not budge. He just said, hey, look, I'm worried about Saturday, and when

we need to worry about Sunday, we'll worry about Sunday. But for right now, we're worried about Saturday. So that's a huge one tonight again justin Verlander against Merrill Kelly, and you can hear it right here on your home of the Astros. Sports Talks seven ninety coming your way after Longhorns and Kansas wrap up here on at Sports Talks seven ninety. The coverage will get started over on our sister station at News Radio seven forty kat r H. All

right, let's get in some college football. We're gonna do that next with my good buddy Mike Craven at Dave Campbell's Texas Football. We will do that. We will get back into the Astros conversation because you know, Ray actually just brought up something there that I did want to get to here, but I kind of pinched myself on time a little bit. So I will get to that with Dusty here coming up to close out hour one. But all

of that and more still to come. Right here. It's Space City Saturday eight, Dan Matthews here with you until noon on Sports Talk seven ninety. This is Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety. All right, let's get right back to it's again you're home of the Astros and the Rocket Sports Talks seven nineties. You just heard right there from Big Voice guy. It is basically a Saturday on Dan Matthews with you here until noon, college football,

the conversation right here. Let's do it right now. Mike Craven from Dave Campbell's Texas Football joining us here for a few minutes, Mike, appreciate the time a game you're gonna be at, a game we're gonna have here on Sports Talk seven ninety. You're home with Longhorns here in Houston, Texas against Kansas As. Texas a pretty sizeable favorite in this one. But what necessarily concerns you about this matchup today against the Kansas Jayhawks. I think the

thing that would concern Texas is just Jayleen Daniels, right. I mean, he may arguably be the best quarterback, you know, not only in the Big twelve, but just kind of in the Southwest region, probably have the advantage at quarterback over Texas today. And so when you have a quarterback that can, you know, make make plays with his arm, but also with his feet, I think that puts defenses in a bind. And if Kansas

has a chance today, it'll be because he has a big game. And you know, part of this Texas offense I don't think has talked about enough is the work of Jonathan Brooks so far this season. I know that was a position of concern for some just because you just didn't know what necessarily what you had with b Jehan Robinson and Roshawn Johnson moving on to the NFL. But what can you say about the work that Brooks has done so far through

four games. Yeah, I think it's a testament to his character, right, I mean, you know, he sits behind the John Robinson, he sits behind Rushawn Johnson. You know, this is a former mister Texas football with a bunch of offers who broke you know, school records and came close to breaking some state records, and you know, and then he finally gets his opportunity, and then in the springing in the summer he gets beat out by a five star true freshman, and instead of transferring or sulking, you

know, he stays the course. He waits for his opportunity, and when he got it, he took advantage to the point that I don't think he can put him on the bench again, right. I mean, he's going to be the start running back for Texas as long as he's healthy the rest

of this year. And I think so so much in modern college football, we get stuck talking about the poor conversation, like, you know, all these kids never work hard, and they're always leaving and they're always looking for great But there's plenty of stories like Jonathan Brooks around college football that fly the opposite for it, and I'm happy that he's kind of getting his chance to shine. You can find him on Twitter at craven Mike. He is Mike

Craven. Senior writer. Dave Campbell's Texas Football joined us here for a few minutes on a Space City Saturday and one more on the Texas front. I mean, I think we can agree here, Mike that two parts of this team just looks so different than we've seen in past years. That's upfront offensive and defensive line. Is it because now they finally have depth, size, everything that you need at those positions, that there's real genuine buzz for people

to believe that this team can do some damage this year. I believe. So, you know, I'm usually the guy and I grew up around this program, so I'm usually the guy cautioning people from getting a little bit too over the top with Texas love. But I think that's absolutely the difference.

You know, they usually have a pretty good seven on seventeen. Even in their bad years in the odds, you know, they had good wide receivers, they had decent quarterback play, they had you know, a decent secondary, but they haven't had the toughness, and that toughness comes from the offensive line. If you can be an offensive line led football team, they're gonna be a tough, gritty football team because that's just what those guys up front

bring. And Texas hasn't had good offensive lineman. They haven't had a culture established by the big, tough guys in a long time. It's been more you know of a wide receiver culture, a quarterback culture, a defensive back culture, and so I just think that they're tough for the first time in a long time. I think the word soft is used for Texas. Even back during the really good years of Matt Brown. I think the reputation across

the country and then the NFL was maybe it wasn't a tough program. I feel like Bo Davis, Kyle Flood, just that sec influence and the guys that they're bringing in has really made that locker room and that program tougher than it used to be. And that gives me hope that maybe they avoid kind of the collapse of the upsets that maybe they have in the past. Yeah, no doubt about it. I mean you talked about Kyle Flood, he

is renowned. Bo Davis, I mean on the defensive line. When it comes to programs trying to hire a top tier defensive line coach is a reason why Bo Davis's name is thrown out there as much as it is a couple more questions again, Mike Craven Dave Campbell's Texas football joined us for a few minutes here on a Space City's Saturday. Let's flip up to Arlington a game that's I mean, I kind of had to do a double take here,

Mike when I saw eleven am kick for A and M and Arkansas. Usually, if nothing else, that's an SEC Saturday night game for Tom Hart Cole Cublick in the through to be able to call that one. But we're gonna get it earlier in the day. The Max Johnson time is here. Connor Wegman done for the season with a foot injury. What does this offense look like differently with Max Johnson now at the helm? I'm not sure, you know, honestly, I think we're still starting to are still trying to figure

out kind of you know, what is a Bobby influence here? What's the Jimbo influence still at quarterback? Does that change now? You know that Connor Wigman's out. All I can go buy is the second half against Auburn, and Max looked better than Connor, and they threw the ball around. He had a couple of touchdown passes. He threw it eleven times and the second half completed seven of them. So now Matt Johnson's had double digit starts in the SEC. He started for A and M, he started against SEC or

against OR four LSU last year. He started in this game against Arkansas and led Texas A and M to a victory. So now I think that their position pretty well at the backup quarterback position. I just think it takes away a little bit of their upside. I think with Connor they had an opportunity to maybe upset l maybe push Alabama to be the best team in the SEC West. I think with Max Johnson there, they're probably back firmly into an eight and four seven to five team. But for me, you know,

I don't think it's about the offense. I think the offense is going to be fine for A and M. For me, it's just about that defense and if they've really turned a corner. Final one for you, Mike again, Mike Craven Dave Campbell's Texas Football joined us for a few minutes, and that is a game that we're gonna have over on our sister station, the home of the Houston Cougar's AM nine fifty KPRC them going out to Lubbock and

taking on Texas Tech. Is this a winnable game for Dana Holgerson's team today or is it just kind of like what we saw a couple of weeks ago. It's a roster trying to find their way in the Big twelve. They're not quite to where TC was at the time, and maybe where Texas Tech is right now. I think there's still a little bit behind. But I mean this Texas Tech team has been so bad and they don't have their starting quarterback. The offensive line plays been really poor. So they're a team that's

beat up obviously. I mean, you lose to West Virginia on the road. I mean, I'm not going to bet on Houston not having a chance to come in there. I will say the advantage for Tech is they've been kind of Jekyl and hide home versus away. I mean, they've been as good at home as they've been bad on the road, and so I think being at home, being in front of a sold out crowd, based knowing

that this one needs to be a win. It's Hall of Fame weekend, so you know a lot of the big spaces and names are back in Lubbock, you know, for this game. I think Tech is gonna be ready to prove that, you know, they're better than what the start is. Baron Morton's a pretty solid backup quarterback also, so I'll take Texas Tech in this one. But I think with how poor they played and with the questions they have up front, you know, anybody's beat able when you have a

poor offensive line. Again, you can find them on Twitter at Craven Mike. He is Mike Craven, senior writer for Dave Campbell's Texas Football. He will be in the building today at dk our Memorial Stadium. They're in Austin for the two thirty kick of Texas and Kansas. Mike, appreciate the time, buddy, Always great to catch up with You will do so again here very soon as so we move along in the college football season. Absolutely, sir, any time. I appreciate it. Mike Craven Again, great work

that he does over there. Dave Campbell's Texas Football. I mean, look, you know, when you're talking about covering football in this state, is

there anybody that does it better than that magazine? I mean, I remind you all that I'm coming back home from Atlanta, where college football is king in that market and in that state, and obviously the last couple of years the Georgia Bulldogs doing what they've done on the field, and every single year, right around Memorial Day, you go to the grocery store and you see the Athlon is there, You see that the Lendis is there, Lindy's Magazine,

which I don't think is as huge here even though we have the Lindy's Report here on Sports Talk seven ninety. But you see those magazines. Of course here in the Lone Star state. When you see Dave Campbell's Texas Football is on the magazine racks, you say, let's go. Football season is here. We're ready to go. And Mike helps contribute to that great publication.

By the way, speaking of football in this state, got to give a shout out to the high school alma mater as the Saint Thomas Eagles going over to Kincaid last night taking down those Falcons twenty eight to thirteen, So huge shout out to coach Rick McGuire and the Saint Thomas Eagles going in there and getting a huge win Class of O four. What's up? Eagle fight never dies. Men of Saint Thomas stand for all to see, honor,

truth and understanding. Our motto will always be these days we spend together, We'll cherish till we die because the world must know that we are the Men of Saint Thomas High. Anytime I can built that out, I absolutely do love forty five hundred Memorial Drive forty five hundred forever. All Right, that's enough of that. Let's get back into the Astros conversation. We will do

that coming up next. Plus you're gonna hear from Dusty Baker, because I think that Dusty gets a lot of grief, but it's what he didn't do that might have been his best move yet. We'll talk about that and much more to close out hour one of the show right here on Space City Saturday. I am Dan Matthews. We are Sports Talk seven ninety, your home the Astros and the Rockets. Space City Saturday continues live Sports Talk seven nineties. Oh yeah, we are on an island in the sun, and the

sun is shining a lot brighter today. Two to one Astros last night over the Diamondbacks. As the playoff hopes still very much in play. We will talk about that in much more here on the show. If you want to weigh in, you can see three two and two five seven nineties. We get back into the Astros conversation. I know a lot of you definitely want

to be able to talk that. So last night in the game sixth inning, Dusty Baker goes out to the mound, and you're thinking to yourself, all right, hey, look, jose or Katy has given us much more more than we could have ever asked for in this outing, and if that's the end of the line for him, then that's it, and that's the way it's going to be. But then you had Dusty Baker turning around and

leaving the mound. He didn't lift up his right arm, he didn't lift up his left arm to signal for somebody to run out of the bullpen. Very rare. You see that if the pitching coach comes out there, then you know there's no threat that the pitcher is going to be pulled from the game unless there's an injury or something like that which the manager would still be

out there, but ergo, he left him out there. And Dusty talked about that after the game of the decision to not pull him, and he said that it was actions that he saw that told him maybe this isn't the

move to make just yet. All right, we'll get to that audio here in just a second, but it was Dusty Baker going out to the mound in saying that you know, he saw something in jose or Keaty's eyes that told him that this wasn't the move to make, and that he said, okay, look for us, that this guy can be able to get some outs and that he can find his way out of this inning. And he did. He found his way and he was able to work his way through

the rest of the inning. The other part that I liked, and we'll let you hear from Dusty a little bit later on in the show, is that he talked about a lesson that he learned from Bo Schembeckler that in terms of handling your players and just kind of getting a little bit of a feel of should I make this move or should I not? And in the case right there, he said, now, this guy's still got the competitor in

him. He's not ready to come off this mound just yet. I mean, we've seen we've seen other, you know, demonstrative ways that pictures tell managers know, I'm good, leave me out here. I mean Max Scherz

or years ago. I think it was Davy Johnson at the time, who was the manager of the Nationals. I don't believe that it was Dave Martinez just yet, but I believe it was Davy Johnson going out there and you know you Scherzer basically yelling at him, telling him, no, you're not pulling me off his mound, get back to the dugout and leave me out here. And he did, and Scherzer was able to work his way out

of it. And I've talked about it before the back of the baseball card, and some people, I know they gloss over with that's saying, but it's so true. In this case, certain guys have proven that they deserve the benefit of the doubt of if you go out there and they let you know, no, I'm good, let me work my way out of this.

And I think that Hosier Katy for the reasons that I mentioned earlier in the show has shown you that this time of the year, he deserves that benefit of the doubt because for the resume that I've given you, at this time of the year, he's been able to get some really strong outs for you and been able to put you in position to win some very crucial games. Talked about the World Series starts and this one. Now, I mean, he finds out yesterday morning out there in Arizona. Hey, JP's not

gonna go today. It's gonna be you. And he talked about in the post game as I was listening to his comments where he said, I was prepared, I mentally prepare myself that I'm going to be out there on the mound. And it's the old saying you don't have to get ready if you stay ready, And in baseball that's so true, I mean, because you never know how the complexion of the game is going to change. Who's to say that Archidi wasn't going to be needed in the second inning of this game

yesterday because the Astros are very much in postseason mode. There is not going to be a ton of Hey, let's let him work his way out of this. There is over these next couple of days until the Astros had that spot clenched up, they will be playing postseason baseball, and they will handle it as postseason baseball. Now, again, certain guys earned a benefit of

the doubt. I think that Justin Verlander, if he's in a little bit of a tight spot tonight, probably will have a little bit more of a leash to be able to work with, as opposed to say, if you had Christian Javier out there tonight, or maybe even Hunter Brown or somebody else starting this game, that you very much need Because for the scenarios that I threw out that the Astros if they win this game tonight, are pretty much

in the postseason. If I'm not mistaken, I think they are in the postseason if they win this one tonight, and the scenarios that have been laid out with the graph that is out there that yes, the Astros are locked into second place if they win this game tonight, because let's see what happens in terms of they win this one and the Mariners only win three games, that would put the Mariners at eighty eight wins, and that would put the Astros at eighty nine. So the Astros are in the postseason. So you

only need one more to be able to find your way to October. And if they win this one, and I'll get to you here in just a second queue, if they win this one, then you are into the postseason no matter what. But I talked about this deal a night with Ross ross Villereal in the nightcap, and that is, if you have an opportunity to go for the division on Sunday, go for the division because that shows your team, Hey, we're not just going for this thing. We're going for

this thing. And I think that everybody to a man will absolutely be on board with that of do we want to guarantee ourselves at least a chance to be able to have the week off and be able to give us give ourselves some serious rest or do we want to just get into the postseason? Because I think the Astros, judging from the results the last few years, they're not about just getting in. They want to be able to not only get in, but give themselves every single opportunity to be able to make a run

at this thing. So we'll see if indeed that is the case. You can jump in on the phone lines if you would like at seven two two five seven ninety as promise Q in humble, He joins us now on Sports Talk seven ninety Q, how you doing, Buddy Good? Yes, there's desipline it out there. Hannah Brown has been atrocious. Verlanda has had one or two good games since he returned from about the JP franch Hannah Brown, they all have been atrocious. So him not putting Hannah Brown and that man,

I was like, please don't put this guy in the game. The game is too close. We know he's as Oh, he's gonna give up a home run, maybe a two runshine three run shotting and we lose the game. What it didn't moved by Dusty. Dusty does not deserve to take the flat that he gets. I only believe they give Dusty flat is because he's a black manager and they want to make sure that they get these shots in on him when something goes awry. It is not Dusty's fault. The

pitching has been a troaches just like Matt Thomas. All right, appreciate the call to you. I mean with Dusty, I think that a lot of the grief that he gets is because the result doesn't work out. And I think we do that a lot as sports fans. Is we focus so much on the result and we say, oh, that was a failure. How could you not know that. I understand the yiner Das situation. I've been on record of the yiner Das situation that yiner Diaz deserves more playing time.

Dusty has come around on Chas McCormick. Chas McCormick's an everyday player now, and he's earned the right to be an everyday player. And I think that probably there was a little bit of you know, meeting, Maybe there was that with Dana Brown the front office, or maybe even just kind of looking at things and kind of taking a step back. If you're Dusty insane, you know what, Maybe I am holding him too too high of a standard

in terms of what I'm asking out of him. And he deserves to be an everyday guy, and he is, and credit needs to be given in that regard. With Raphael Montero, and I understand the other night that was incredibly frustrating. I shared that same frustration with you. But I go back to a couple of things that Dusty has done incredibly well this season. Remember at the beginning of the year, when he was being asked about having Mauricio Dubon and also Jake Myers in the lineup almost on a daily basis. I

appreciated what Dusty said when he was asked about that. He said, I got about six months. I forget however many months he had, but it equated to the entire season. I've got to be able to count on all twenty six of these guys, so I've got to give confidence to these guys. And I understand that that's going to annoy some people in terms of certain guys getting opportunities, but that is very much an old school approach of you're

in there, you're not going anywhere. You're gonna have your opportunity. With Rafael Montero. While the results as of late have not been great, I think we can all agree that Dusty's handling of Rafael Montero has been pretty expert level this year in terms of he had that bad stretch there. I'm trying to remember when the Dodgers series was. I think that was in June where

Dusty then said, maybe high leverage is not your spot right now. Let's kick you back to middle relief and let's have you try to find your legs per se. And he did, and Rafael Montero for a stretch here later on the season had been really good, and lately that has not necessarily been the case. But all in all, I think that a lot of the things that Dusty gets a lot of grief for are again the results not necessarily

working out. I'm giving him credit for what he did last night because in the age of analytics and the binders are out and all of those different types of things, there would have been a situation where a manager goes out there and says, well, the book says to pull you, I gotta pull you. You don't play blackjack that way. I understand some of you have the cards out there in Vegas and you're saying, well, the book says to hit on this if the dealers showing a five, so I need to

hit on this. And of course the table gets mad at you if you're sitting at third base and they say you just took the bus card, whatever it might be, you screw the table. Well, in this case right here, Dusty was sitting at third base and he did not screw over the table. And that is something we can absolutely be very thankful for. All Right, so we'll get some more of your phone calls if you would like at seven, one, three, two and two five at seven ninety.

I do want to continue the Astro's conversation as we get in an hour two because are you prepared for the HLPM? What is the HLPM? I'll explain that right here in Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Saturday, Dan Matthews here on your home, the Astros and the Rockets City. Oh what the coach and you pay sit grated? Didon grated? Did crated? Welcome to another Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety Dan Matthews Live and local Htown breakdown

of the world that matters to you? Does Houston Storms World? All these great Houston fans here, We love you all, So finish up on that to do list. Load up the cooler because you can't drink and talk sports all day if you don't start now. This is face City. Saturday's insane. Here's seven nineties Dan Matthews. That's all true and exactly what you heard. Lance McCullers. Stay there in that production Htown, born and bred Htown till I'm dead. Appreciate you all out there. You can join in on

the phone lines if you would like. Seven one, three, two and two five seven ninety. Gonna get into more of the astros conversation because before I get to Terrence here in just a second, what is the HLPM high leverage Phil Maton? Are we aware of how good film Maton's been in the month of September? Because I think there's a couple of different things that I'll get to here in just a second with film Maton that people hold against him,

and I'm being one of those people. But he has a point eight four er a only one earned run given up in ten appearances here in the month of September. He's been somebody they've been able to count on, and he's been somebody that's been able to get results. And I think that the two things are Number one. Filmmates on. Everybody fills a role on a major league roster of twenty six guys, And in terms of pitching in the bullpen, there's always a guy that is the here eat this guy, and

Phil is that guy. He is usually when he's given the ball by Dusty Baker, or if it's to start the inning, to run out of the bullpen, pick it up and start doing his warm up pitches. It's here eat this in terms of worked down by a lot, and I don't really want to get into more of my high leverage guys. So you're going to

eat this and do your best to try to keep us here. But you're going to be pitching into this situation or he comes into a pretty unenviable spot where it's hey, man, do your best to hold us, and maybe he gives up a run or two. And you know, he also had had some bad outings early on in the season where he had really struggled,

and a lot of that is fatigue. When on the I l for a second, came back and it looks like kind of like what I talked about a little bit earlier with Hunter Brown, that Maton was a guy that probably ran into a rough spot in the season and over a course of one sixty two when it comes to relievers, that's going to happen. You're going to have a bad stretch. You're going to have adjustments made against you where you're just like, the hell is happening, man, Like I'm making the pitches,

they're just hitting the ball, and that's just baseball. And sometimes the unperfect science of the game happens to you and it's unfortunate and it's not fun. But Maton has been a guy that all of a sudden you look at and are you putting the initials HLPM next to film Maton of high leverage film

Maton, because it does seem like we're doing that right now. We did it last night in the seventh inning, philm Maton gets the seventh comes out there, works a clean inning and was fantastic, hands it off to Hector Nerris Nerris with a little bit of the walk bug there in the it's but still able to find his way out of it. And a two nothing game in the seventh inning. Yeah, that's high leverage film Matson. And then

of course the ninth inning, Ryan Pressley. I understand. I'll get to that a little bit later on, but first I want to get to a Terrence N. Galeria join us here on Sports Talks seven ninety Terrence, what's going on, Buddy and the man? It's awesome to hear your voice on a Saturday, Space City Saturday. Love hearing you talk, love the show so far, and honestly just want to get your take on, Well, first, are they gonna start Verlander tonight? Verlander is tonight? Against Meryl

Kelly. Yes, was that that's not a schedule start though, so Verlander is very much a guy that likes to stick to his every fifth day, and since he pitched on Monday, this would be his fifth day. Oh so perfect, It is pretty much scheduled. Well, anyways, the other thing, you've got some stuff to go through it. But can you explain, like what the scenarios are, because I heard them talking about it the

other day of like us winning, Mariners losing, Rangers winning. That'll you know what the math is there on what the Astros need to do to just kind of clench this. Yeah, for sure, Terence appreciate the call, buddy, and I know who that is. What's up, buddy, how you doing? Shout out to t Mac out there? All right, So let's just go through it the worst case scenarios. So the Astros took care

of the first part last night. They won one. Now, if say tonight doesn't go their way, and God forbid, say tomorrow does not go their way, then you need the Rangers to win these next couple of nights and keep the Mariners there at that eighty eight win plateau. Because if that's the case, then the Astros get that wild card spot and are able to find their way into the postseason. Now, the doomsday scenario we here.

If those things that I just talked about happen and the Mariners win tonight or even tomorrow, and they win three out of four against the Rangers in this series, then that has the Astros on the outside looking in to the postseason, and it has the Mariners finishing second and the Rangers winning the AL West. Now, over the next couple of days, if the Astros are able to win tonight, every single scenario has them finishing no worse than second.

They are locked into the second spot. They clinch a playoff spot they are going if they win one of these next couple of games. Now Here is where things kind of change a little bit. Say the Mariners only win one more game, then the Rangers win the West. If they don't win any more games, the Rangers win the West. If the Mariners win all four,

then the Mariners leap frog the Astros to win the AL West. In the Astros again locked into that second spot, they would play in the Wildcard round against the Minnesota Twins, and then you would move on to face the Mariners. If You're able to beat the Twins in that best of three Wildcards series and face them in the ALDS. So that is how that breaks down. Now here's where it gets really good for the Astros. They win tonight, they win tomorrow, they are in two out of three scenarios. You're

AOS champion. The only way they are not the AOS champion is if the Rangers are able to bounce back these next couple of nights and beat the Mariners. If that's the case, they have a game lead on you, they will win the AOST. Now, if the Mariners win one of these next two games in the Astros win these next two games, your Houston Astros are AOST champions, and they get this next week off and they are able to find their way into the postseason as champs of the AOST and able to have

that second spot in the buy in the American League playoffs. And then if the Rangers lose these next two games and the Astros have won all three, same thing. The Astros are going to go into the postseason and the Mariners will finish in third place because the Astros have that tiebreaker over the Rangers. I understand a lot of mental gymnastics to be able to go through. It's just a scenario that you're just looking at and it's really just pretty simple,

you know. Here when it comes to the Astros, the simple scenario is exactly what Al Davis said years ago after they won the Super Bowl with the Raiders. Just win, baby, that's it, Just win. I said it last night on Twitter. I said, there's no passing grades. There's no letter grades this time of the year. Like it's one of those things that I heard Dusty Bakers say when he was on with the Matt Thomas Show. And it's so true. Nobody asks you how you won the division.

They just look back and say, hey, you won the division. There's not gonna be people out there. Yeah, the Astros won the AO West, but god, that two in seventh stretch against the Royals and the A's man, I mean, you know, how do we look at this thing. There's no asterisk, there's no any of those things. It's Hey, the Astros won the AOST. That's exactly what that has said. So it's

past fail this time of the year. That's the way you look at it, and you are trying very much to pass in the Astros for all the things that we've lamented that they had not done to this point, ie not beating the A's in the Royals. In those series, it can be washed away if you win and take care of your business. And if you do that, then you're in, and if you don't, then you're the ones.

Kind of like what Alex Bregman said after one of those games, if you don't take care of your business, you're sitting on your hindside at home for the postseason. And the Astros don't want to be sitting on their couches for the postseason. They want to be in the postseason, and we all want that to be the case, so we will hopefully make sure that happens. All right, we'll get some more of your phone calls. Carl and

Debbie, stay right where you are. You want to join in, We got a couple of lines open if you would like to hop on as well. At seven one three, two one two five seven ninety a caller brought up a good point that I had in my notes that I did want to

get to in the show today. As we'll continue the Astros conversation, I will sprinkle in some Texans in as well, so as a matter of fact, we'll try to do all of that here as we continue on in this final hour of Space City Saturday. I'm Dan Matthews here with you until noon on Sports Talk seven ninety, your home of the Astros and the Rockets. It's Space City Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety. Here, it's understands kind o case, Sports Talks seven ninety, Space City Saturday. What's going on

everybody? Dan Matthews here with you for about another forty five minutes one thirty here on at your home of the Astros and the Rockets. It's being a College of Football Saturday. You're gonna get the Texas Longhorns taken on the Kansas Jayhawks. I know Lex is up there in Austin, so WEX will be there inside DKR Memorial Stadium taking that one in today. Also two one thirty on KPRC nine fifty, You're gonna get You're gonna get to you of h

and Texas Tech two thirty kick there in Lubbock for that one. Also on KPRC nine fifty to night. I know there's a ton of us here in

town that don the Purple and the gold Well. You're gonna be able to get LSU at ole miss that's a huge one there in Oxford, and you will have Chris Blair and the crew on the LSU Sports Radio network for that one at five o'clock over on KPRC, so that likely will come and being joined in progress over there after the U of H and Texas Tech game wrap up and a lot of stuff happening here on our family of stations here at

iHeart Houston and the cluster of stations we've got here. Of course, you're home of the Astros and the Rockets Sports seven ninety Astros coming your way tonight, seven ten. First pitch from out there in Phoenix between the Astros and the Diamondbacks. Justin Verlander getting the start against Merrill. Kelly had a tough one last night against Zach Gallen as he was able to hockey terms here stand on his head for the most part, but you were able to get a

puck into the net behind him. If we stay on the hockey parlance of this and the Josea brayu At double that just missed being a home run. As it was funny, you know, as I was watching it last night with TK and Blummer on at and t and they made the joke about stat cast saying that's a home run in all thirty ballparks of it going four hundred

and I guess what thirty two feet or something like that. He smoked it and you were able to get both of those runs home, which ended up being a huge one of getting Kyle Tucker home because once you got him home, that was the go ahead and eventual winning run, so huge for him in that regard. Carl, I hope you don't mind, because I need to let the ladies get to the front of the line. Debbie joining us here on at Sports Talks seven ninety Debbie, appreciate the call. How you

doing the day? I'm great? How are you doing very well? I appreciate you asking. Okay, I haven't heard anybody comment about this. There's a documentary that's coming out Tuesday on Frontline about the Astros cheating scandal. Yeah, go ahead and go ahead. No, no, no, please, no. I was just gonna say, I just wanted to see your comments on it and how you think it might impact the Astros and how convenient it is it is coming out the day that the playoffs start, just to get

into the Astro's head. Yeah, I appreciate the call. No. So this is something that we covered, believe about a couple of weeks ago when I was in with Matt Thomas while Ross was on vacation. And I mean, I think at this point with the Astros, it's just kind of like there's nothing new, There's nothing to necessarily be a distraction because the distraction is on a nightly basis. When they go on the road. You don't have as much of people making a side show of themselves and fans who think that

they are more important than they really are. Of I'm gonna wear a jersey with an asterisk going it, I'm gonna come through the game as a trash can, all these different things where it's just like you're one of forty two thousand in the stands. You're not important. So I really appreciate that you think you are, but you're not. And in this case right here, I mean, is there necessarily going to be anything that's new information? Probably

not. I think this is honestly a topic of conversation where books have been written, you've had stories written about this, and you've had everything pretty much said. So I think it's going to be interesting to some. I don't necessarily think it's going to be interesting to anyone here because again, we've talked about everything that has gone on with this, and we know what has gone on with this, and there's not necessarily anything other than I think Mike Fires

is out of the game. I'm sure he's going to be part of this, and I'm sure he's going to sit down and say, oh is the integrity of the game. That's why I had to speak up, and we all feel the way we do about Mike Fires. So to answer your question, Debbi, no, I it's not going to have any effect on the team. I mean, they've been dealing with this ever since it came out, and I think that for the most part, here's the way that I read it now when it comes to the Astros with all of this, the

read I get from opposing players is they're over it. And last year was absolutely vindication for the Astros, kind of like the Patriots after Spygate. When the Patriots went out and won another Super Bowl or two after Spygate, it was people saying, Okay, they're good. And I think that for the most part, across Major League Baseball, you still have some loudmouths out there

that I want to try to make themselves feel important. I mean, you had a few years ago, Carlos Rodan seeing what he said, which I hate to tell you, Carlos, the reason why the Astros didn't get punished is because of the group that you're part of, the Players Association. That is a huge reason why they did not get punished, and they were not punished by Major League Baseball for their cooperation in trying to get to the bottom of all of this. And for the most part, like I said,

I think that most players now look at jose Al two. I'm just putting a name, you know, just to kind of personalize this thing even more. Jose Al Two va Alex Bregman, who, if I'm not mistaken, are the only last two players from that twenty seventeen team that remain on this roster. And I think they look at those guys and they have respect for those players because they say, still proven they can do it, still showing

they can do it, and still winning. And I think for the most part, players are just like, hey, you know what it happened, It's done. They're good guys in that clubhouse. They've proven that they're good guys in that clubhouse, and I just don't necessarily think it's anything other than it's something nice for PBS to be able to put on the air. Carl and Dickinson wants to weigh in here on Sports Talk seven ninety Carl, what's going on, buddy, Yeah, tell the gentleman a little while ago,

get the anger out of his heart. Okay, I'm a white dude. I'll call in your show all the time giving phrase and support for Dusty Baker. It ain't about color. Demands of a winner. You know, you can't listen to people out there, you know, naysayers all the time. They're out there no matter what you do. The guy's a gentleman and he's a great coach. I told you all that just the other day. Ain't got nothing about color. I'm like I said, I'm a white dude.

I love him. Then we need more love in our hearts. And that's it. Another thing I on is found on real quick Menaldo. I'm tired of hearing about y'all, you know, the enterdeas and Minaldo. I'm telling you what. Minaldo has been hitting a lot of home runs this year, a lot of doubles and Cutch. I mean situations the other night enteredeas lost the ball underneath them, the crucial run got in. Okay, So you know that's another argument that doesn't have much weight to it, you know.

I mean, that's the man play. The other guy gets to play his share. Everything's cool. You know, we gotta win. That's the number one thing. We gotta win. And that's it. And about coloring about none. And the guy that called him was very intelligent gentlemen, but he shouldn't have thrown that thing. That's old nowadays, you know that that old thing don't work no more. You know, just like Kaepernick. He you know, he's sitting down, not because what he did about color. He

got set down because he said something about America. You know, we got a great nation here. You can't do that. So anyway, thank you for letting me give him a two cents. Thank you, sir. I love your show. By bye. I appreciate the call, Carl. And when it comes to Dusty, here's the thing. There are some very unenviable positions in sports, and I think that major league manager is definitely one of

them. Let's go to a previous example that I think could fits of a beloved manager here in town, a J. Hinch who not to open up old wounds here. But the twenty ninth yeah, it was twenty nine, twenty nineteen World Series. You got Garrett Cole out in the bullpen, and you decide to go with overworked Will Harris. Will Harris gives up the home run to Howie Kendrick and that kicks off the Nationals able to go on a run there and able to close out Game seven and win the World Series.

And of course, what were a lot of the phone calls because I wasn't here at this time, but I gotta believe a lot of the phone calls were, how can you do that? How can you leave Garrett Cole out

in the bullpen? And you saw Garrett Cole kind of like when I first got to Atlanta years ago where the Braves played against the Dodgers in a postseason series, and you could see the TBS cameras at the time after David Carpenter, former astro who was pitching for the Braves at the time, gave up the go ahead and eventual winning home run to Jose your Rebra to a wan Wan your Rebay for the Dodgers for them to be able to win Game four of the NLDS and move on to the NLCS over the Braves. And you

can see clear as day that Craig Kimbrell was standing in the bullpen. He's got Eddie Perez right next to him. He's Gout's arms crossed and Eddie Perez saying something to him to the effect. And you know you didn't need John Boy to read lips here where he said I'm mad because I told him I had two innings if it was available. And Garrett Cole, I think, kind of felt the same way of I want that ring man, and I told you that I was available if you needed me, And of course you

know it was if we needed him in the ninth. We were going to use them in the ninth. But aside from that, it was not going to be a situation that we went to Garrett Cole. And that's the thing with manager kind of like what I talked about earlier, is that like it or not, when you take on that position, if your moves don't work, people are going to criticize you for it. That's what comes with the territory and the other nights. Like I said, you bring in Montero,

it backfires on you just tremendously. And of course people, how could you put Montero in in that spot. He's been awful, He's been just terrible, and you cannot count on him in that spot. That's again the result. It didn't work out, So of course people are going to get upset, and of course you have surprises like Bennett Susa who have come up, and of course, hindsight being twenty twenty, everybody's saying, why didn't you

put Susa in in that spot? Because Montero, even with him going into a little bit of a struggle here recently, is still a guy that you believe you can still count on. He's still a guy kind of like I talked about high leverage film Maton, that's kind of been a thing of necessity as of late, and Maton has been able to reward Dusty for his confidence. But in terms of Montero, it's a guy that you feel like has

earned enough of the benefit of the doubt. Of yeah, he's been struggling, but I think he's a guy that has good enough stuff and can find his way. And Montero's problem has been of course accuracy, not throwing strikes and not being able to get outs. That's been a problem, and it seems like the strikes he is throwing right now are going the other way for base hits, and that's not necessarily something you want to see. So whenever

things go right, it's the player. Whenever things go wrong, it's the manager. And I don't care as we go on throughout the years if it's Dusty Baker who is in that spot, or whoever it is that might be the manager in years to come for the Astros, because it is a year

to year thing with Dusty. But in terms of the moves that he's made, I mean, I think, if nothing else, a lot of praise needs to be given to him for one of the things that I talked about earlier on in the show, the move he didn't make, because, like I said, in this age of analytics, you'd have a lot of managers who would go out there and like I said, the blackjack example, kind of like people say, well the card tells me to hit, or card

tells me to stay on this play. A lot of them live and die by the binder and it doesn't work out for them, or it does Baseball is a perfectly imperfect sport that the results sometimes you look at it you just say, how did that happen? That's so weird? Like last night the play made by by Jeremy Painia that saved the season. That is a goal glove play. That is an amazing play that when things aren't going your way, that ball might be two or three inches to the right of his glove

and gets out in the center field. We've got a tie ball game at that point, but luckily it didn't. And sometimes, hey, Ron Washington has a saying that's how baseball goes. Well, sometimes that's how baseball goes, and sometimes the other way is how baseball goes and the results sometimes are not what you like. But I think more than anything with Dusty, that's what it is. Is that sometimes he is the victim of just the results

and that sucks. But if there's a guy that has been doing this long enough and can handle it, it's Dusty Baker, and he's not worried about it. I mean, as I talked about a little bit earlier on in the post game, I was listening to it before the show today where somebody was trying to hammer him on who's going to be Sunday starter. And he

just said in so many words, we're in postseason baseball. Man, I'm worried about tomorrow, and I'll worry about the next day after that, and if we need to worry about games after that, and then we'll worry about games after that. But for the Astros, the magic number is one. Just win one more game. It doesn't matter how you do it, it doesn't matter when you do it again. Like I said, just pass one more test. And if you do that, then we're talking postseason baseball next

week. And if you do it two more times, then we're talking postseason baseball next week. But we're getting you ready for an NLDS. So either way, let's have one more to be able to open the door for other things. Let's hope all of that is the case. We'll continue the Astros conversation coming up next, my good buddy Brian Alima Sean Salisbury Show, gonna

hop on with us for a few minutes on Space City Saturday. Dan Matthews here with you for about another thirty minutes on a Sports Talk seven ninety, your home of the Astros and the Rockets, Space Saturday on Sports Talk seven ninety Sports Stalks seven ninety and Matthews here with you for about another thirty minutes or so. Let's get right to the phone lines. Let's talk with a man who you can hear every single morning as part of the Sean Salisberry Show.

He is Brian Lima joins us for a few minutes. Talk some Astros baseball, of course, Brian also doing some great work with Apollo Media as well, and former ballplayer himself, as me and Brian talked about on the text machine yesterday. But let's talk to stuff happening on the field, Lilima, and that is where we gotta start with jose er Keaty in the start we got from him last night. I mean, just how much of a nail's performance was that by him? Big Dan? What's up man? First

of all, glad to hear you on the air waves. Thanks Buddy. I would say what jose or Keati did last night is no surprise if you've been following this team, especially over the golden age of baseball, if you want to call it for the Houston Astros, he seems to, for the most part, step up in big moments. There was a really big pitching performance for him back in twenty nineteen in the National's Ballpark where he came out. I believe he was a rookie and pitched his ass off. Obviously,

you saw last night JP Franz getting the scratch. They gave him a couple they gave Josier Kid a couple of hours notice, and he goes six innings, six innings and only gives up two hits. I mean, come on, you couldn't ask for more for a guy that's missed a big part of the season. They missed him in this rotation and they needed that outing more than anything last night. Yeah, it was a monster outing from him.

And I mean, you know you're able to get just enough offense. But another thing too, you know I brought up earlier on in the show, and I want to get your thoughts on this. How surprised are we by HLPM high leverage film maton? Now? For me, last year we saw a filmmate Todd that was extremely consistent, and then this year it was consistent, and then he had some rough outings, and then he'd go back consistent,

and then he'd have a couple of rough outings. But then here over the last I don't know, a couple of weeks, he's been nails, man, And you can't say enough about this bullpen being taxed early in the season, coming around and pitching better down the stretch, and then here lately, man just like he fits right in with those guys, and he's a serial killer, dude the dude and literally never smiles, which I want that out on one of my bullpen guys. So yeah, you can't. You

can't really say enough about what he's done here lately, especially again. Brian Lima joined us here co host de Sean Salisbury Show Monday the Friday, six to ten in the morning right here Sports Talk seven ninety Also too, you can see some of his work as a senior contributor over at Apollo and Media.

You know the lineup last nights, I mean, you know, it's kind of an up and down performance, but you're going against one of the best in baseball, the guy that started the All Star Game for the National League and Zach Gallen. You're gonna get another tough test again tonight with Merrill Kelly. But this lineup with Michael Brandley in it, I mean, the complexion completely changes. How much pressure does he take off the rest of the

lineup. When you've got a guy like him in the bottom of the order. I mean, Michael Brandley, dude, like you could he could miss. I think it was Chandela Rome of The Athletic that tweeted it out a couple of weeks ago, like you could freeze him and then unfreeze him like ten years later. And he's gonna get three hits for you. And I've always said about Michael Brandley, he's gonna roll out of bed and if he's healthy, he's gonna hit three hundred for you. And if you look at

the lineup last night, he was hitting in the sixth hole. I mean, we're talking about a career hitter that's that's damn near near three hundred and he's hitting six for you. It extends this lineup tremendously. You know, he's not gonna strike out a lot, He's gonna put the ball in play, and it just it makes this lineup so much d for and so much

more deadly because you have a guy that just knows how to hit. I think a lot of people say professional hitter a little bit too much, But if you look at the definition of professional hitter like Michael Brandley's gonna come up. I just I have to have Michael Brandley in the lineup every single day if he's healthy, there's no questions. I don't care. Maybe he's playing left field, d damn, I can't. I don't care if he's even playing first base, which I know is not gonna happen. He's just got

to be in the lineup somehow, some way. No, I agree with you on that, and I think we're kind of seeing that bear out too, Brian. I mean, you know, it kind of looked like it was these two days on maybe a day or two off. But I mean I almost kind of wonder, and I would love to, you know, hear it from Dusty as well. Off. There may be a scenario now that Brantley came to him and said, hey, look, I'm good like you gotta let me go here and you gotta let me do this thing.

And I guess the only time will tell. We'll see what the lineup looks like tonight. But you know, I can't believe I'm even asking this, because I hope, you know, Lil Mom'm coming from a genuine place when I asked this, But any concerns about jose Al TV because the Batsmen a little shaky this past week, and then the defense kind of as well. We kind of saw this in the twenty twenty ALCS where he kind of went through a little bit of a funk. Is that kind of what he's doing

or is it just baseball's happening to him right now? Yeah, I think it's kind of funny you bring up twenty twenty. There are people that were like, oh, jose Al Tub has the yips, Like, look, do I have concerns about jose Al Tube. No, if you ask me, if I had concerns about jose Al Tubi and his base running, I would probably be more concerned about his base running than his defense. I just think that this game of baseball is so damn hard. Even the best players

in the world are gonna have off days. They're gonna make errors. You're gonna see balls thrown away, You're gonna see bonehead mistakes from him, like we saw the other day where he's trying to do too much, airmailed Alex Bregman. It goes into the stands and they cost him a raw and things like that. I don't really have concerns about josel two bay. Dude, He's been in so many big time games, He's had so many big time

moments. So I think it just comes down to baseball's happening, right, so, so and again, like, if you're succeeding thirty percent of the time in this game, then you're a Hall of Famer essentially with how you hit it the plate. And then if you've got a building percentage of like I don't know, nine fifty, you know you're doing pretty damn good. So I don't don't have any concerns about joseal two bad. I think, like you said, it's just baseball. So we know, Lalima, how

this shakes out. If the Astros get any combination of a win over these next couple of days, they're in. It's it's done, it's over with. They are in. The only way they are getting in for sure in terms of getting that buy is they win these next couple of games and there is a combination of either the Mariners losing one or losing both of these next couple of games are actually yeah, yeah, of that happening for the Astros

to find their way in. I mean, just you know, if it all shakes out in the Astros have the chance tomorrow to go for the division. I talked about this earlier in the week with Sports RV. Talk about it here with you right now. I kind of feel like Dusty, if he's in that situation, has to signal to his guys, Hey, we're going for this. I'm gonna try to get you those days off. I mean, am I wrong in thinking that? No, I don't think so. I mean, if you can so the whole whole. Now, I

wouldn't say it's the problem. But if you look at the wildcard situation and if they get into the let's say they get the sixth spot, that means they're gonna take on They're gonna take on the Minnesota Twins first, which I don't fear two nuns with you, Dan, I don't fear anybody in the AL. When the Astros get into October, it's a completely different story.

If they go through Minnesota, I think they'll win that series. And then let's say that the Rangers somehow hang onto the division will probably go and play. They'll play up in Arlington against the Rangers. So that would mean that your pitching lineup is a little bit is a little bit different because of how the rotation is kind of set up. So your starters like JB and Fromber,

I don't know how it would look. I believe that they would be ready to go for like games two or three of the Wildcard series, and they would be ready for the Alds, so on and so on. If you get the division and you get a couple of days off, that means everybody gets the rest. All your bullepin is going to be fresh, and all your starters will be lined up ready to go. So if you can go get the division, damn go get it now. I feel the exact

same way. I mean, I think if nothing else, you know, you're telling your guys, hey, look we're gonna roll the dice here. We've got a safety net if it doesn't work out. Yes, pitching wise, we probably would be a little bit up against it in terms of going

into that series. But I mean, I'm with you, Brian. I feel like that this is a team that this has been weighing on them so much to be able to try to just get to the postseason that I feel like if they get a combination of these next two games and get a win in these next two games that they kind of look at it and say, all right, we can breathe. Now we're to a familiar place. I mean, I just I got I kind of have that trust in this team, don't you. Yeah, that's I mean, you said it perfectly.

I feel like with everything that they've dealt with this year, all of the injuries, all of the nonsense about, you know, questioning Dusty Baker's lineups and inconsistent lineups and things like that, struggling at home, going thirty nine and forty two at home, which is ridiculous in my opinion, all of that being said, and yet here we are with a really good chance to get into the playoffs, and you still have a chance of winning the division.

Just get into October, and it's like it's like it's like when you look at March Madness the big instead of a tournament. Just get into the tournament and anything else can happen. So I think when you get to October for this team, it's like a switch flips on a completely different season everyone's own. Oh, and it's just a super familiar territory. They've been in so many big games over the last what sense, I mean, dam they won the wild card game back in twenty fifteen. They missed out on the

playoff in twenty sixteen. Then obviously we saw the run from twenty seventeen to hear on out with all the alcs's four World Series appearances, two championships, World Series titles. So yeah, just get in, Just get in, Just get in somehow, someway, that's it. Just when you win,

everything else takes care of itself. As I threw out last night on Twitter, Brian Alima again every morning six to ten Sean Salisbury show is how you can find him at Belima seven ninety is how you can find him on Twitter. Also to senior contributor to Apollo Media as well. He is a busy man and I appreciate Tim carving out a few minutes on his much deserved weekend rest. Brian, You're the best, buddy. We'll catch up soon.

I gotta believe what is Salisbury having you boys over the house tonight for the games? No, Salisbury's out in Phoenix. He was actually at that game night he was watching. Yeah, he was at the Diamondbacks and Astro's game. I'm act just finished up at the gym. My fourteen you Bandito's Black Team place to night at six and eight, first fall tournament of the fall season. So we're gonna go try to get two doubs man all right for it? All right, you know hey, helping out the youth as well,

trying to show him the winning ways. Gotta love that. Brian Alima again, join us here. Appreciate it, buddy. Good luck tonights and hopefully Monday. It's a happy show for you and Sean. Let's hope. So let's let's hope the Rangers miss the playoffs completely. What a choke job that would be, yours, your lips to God's ears. Appreciate again, Brian Lima carving out a few minutes for us here again. You can hear

him every morning six to ten right here, Sports Talk seven ninety. All right, let's wrap it up here in the final segment of a Space City Saturday this edition. It's been a lot of fun with you all here for these couple of hours, because coming up next a victim of his own success, still very good, but maybe just not as good in some people's eyes. I'll talk about that also too. Dive into a little bit of Texans conversation as we close things out here on this Saturday to Space City Saturday.

Right here, Sports Talk seven ninety, your home of the Astros and the Rockets. We now return to Space City Saturday, Sports Talk seven ninety. Yeah, what an amazing Saturday it is. I mean, you heard Doug Pike say it a little bit earlier. But whether if you can believe it or not, starting to cool down a little bit, starting to cool down a little bit, kind of went Jimmy Conway on you now that you no, no, Now, you insulted him a little bit. You insulted him

a little. Now. I didn't insult him. I didn't insult him a little Good fellas for you right there. I'm sure somewhere Clanton is smiling ear to year if he is indeed listening. But still great Saturday. I mean we're getting into the meat of the really fun time of year here in Houston, and it becomes even more fun if indeed the Stros can find their way into the postseason. As like giving you the scenarios, I mean, you

get one more, then you're in no matter what. You get two more, you need a little bit of help, but then you are division champs.

And I think we can all agree that's what the Astros want. Because I looked at it at first and immediate first glance, I say, if the Astros play against the Twins, they beat the Twins, they find their way to the DS, and if they take on the Rangers in the DS, I think that you've got a mental edge over the Rangers from what we've seen so far this season that they look at it and it's, oh, man, I really want to beat those guys. I don't necessarily know if

they believe they can beat the Astros at this point. I think the Astros no, they can go into that building and have it half full with Astros fans and be able to win. So I think if nothing else to burden approof is on the Rangers, not necessarily on you to this point. So look, win one more, you unlock a door. Win two more, you unlock a door behind that, which is where even more of the nice

golden treasure is. So that's what the Astros are trying to do. This was talked about a little bit earlier on in the show Ryan Presley and just the way he is looked at as the closer of this team, and it kind of came to me this morning, especially after last night's game where you have a little bit of a shaky ninth inning, and sure he was the I guess you could say, you know, not a beneficiary, but he definitely had some tough luck in that inning of L two Va booting a ball

that is a routine bouncer that he should have had and should have been an ounce. And then you look at a situation where you don't even get to Moreno, if the inning goes the way that it did, where you would hopefully be able to go three up, three down right there and it's a clean ninth inning. Closer is kind of like manager is a similar situation where your margin of error is in probably thin because there is no margin of error.

You don't have the benefit of the doubt if it doesn't go your way because everybody looks at the closer, and even if a runner gets on base, it's a situation where, oh, that's weird, how did you allow that to happen? That you can't be doing that. You gotta come in, strike out the side and get out seven twenty eight, excuse me,

twenty five, twenty six, twenty seven. Math was never my thing, I apologize, but in this case, right here getting those important outs in either the top or in this case, bottom of the ninth inning to be able to close out the game. And I know that Ross has given you the save numbers this year for even the best in baseball. And you know everybody looks at the closer spot and they want Marianna Rovera. There's a reason why Marianna Rovera is only one guy is because he probably was the best to

ever do it. It's going to happen. You're going to have rough patches, You're going to have blown saves, You're going to have situations where maybe he comes into a tie game and he gives up a couple of hits, gives up a run, and it is a game that does not go your direction. Well, this case right here with Ryan Pressley, I think, if nothing else, he's kind of working against himself. To the college football example, here, team wins the national title of the year previous, they

have all of their players coming back for the following year. They go ten and two people immediately go to the coach and say, coach, what's wrong? What happened? You had everybody back? You had him all back from a national championship team. How did you not finish this off? Championships be hard, folks, and a lot of luck does have to go your way, but also too, a lot of good things have to go your way from you making them happen. And in the case of Pressley, I think

sometimes he probably to his own admission, has not been great. I mean remember after the blown save against the Baltimore Orioles, somebody asked him about being fresh, and he said, it's my job to stay fresh. And ever since then we've seen Ryan Pressley get back to being the Ryan Pressley that we have known. But in terms of him moving off that closer spot, it's the old saying wishing one hand and in the other, and you're not going to have Brian to bray you in that spot now. Now I think down

the road that is a possible spot for him. But for right now, you got Ryan Pressley in that spot, and you got a really good one in that spot. Real quick. We got about a couple of minutes Martin and Engleton wants to weigh in here on Space City Saturday. Martin, what's going on, buddy, Go get your shuine bucks, keep them here, keep them here. He locked the door and locked the door and they did

and they sure did. Hey, yeah all of the day. Oh man, if the Astros could win a division, it would be it would be really hilarious, especially over the Rangers. You know. I mean, after all, the Astros was struggled three September and really the whole year, and it would be hilarious if they could win a divisions Sunday and yeah, so we win tonight and win Sunday, Astros and hopefully we can win a division and that would be just hilarious. Appreciate Yeah, no, I appreciate the

call. Thanks to Martin and Angleton for way and end. Hey doesn't that look like somebody we know? Oh? It does. More good fellows for you there if you wanted that here on a Saturday with just a couple of minutes to go. But now, look, I feel like this team needs

the division and the worst way. And like I said at first when I looked at it, and I said that the wild card would be an outstanding scenario for the Astros for the way that it would line up for you to be able to go into the DS and face a team that you know you

can beat, then that would be a good situation for you. But in this case, now, I think that you look at this team from a pitching perspective, and he also too from some of the guys in this lineup that I think, frankly right now need a day or two off to be able to kind of recalibrate and kind of take a deep breath, and you in the division. That puts you in a great spot where this can be

a team that has been banged up at times this year. I know the Chandler of Rome on Twitter yesterday shared that the Astros I believe had some of the fewest or the fewest amount of players on the IL this season. But still it's also the guys that you've put on the I l at times jose Al Tuove. This lineup moves with jose Al Tuove. If he is swinging the bat and he is being jose Al Twove that we know in terms of being an absolute elite hitter, then that is a huge part of this lineup.

If it is a situation where he's not going, then you probably have to be a little bit more creative. I think even two, we've seen kind of Kyle Tucker struggle a little bit. We've also seen at times you know, seen Jordan Alvarez struggle. I mean, he takes another strike three last night, and kind of like what I was just talking about with Ryan Pressley, it's kind of the same deal a little bit with Alvarez and also too a little bit with Kyle Tucker, kind of the victim of their own

success in certain ways. So all right, that's gonna do it for Space City a Saturday. I'm Dan Matthews. It's been a lot of fun. We'll talk to y'all next week.