Steve Sparks Talks Astros' Rays Split, Cold Bats, & Yordan's Injury Setback

But we're talking Astros with our good buddy Steve Sparks right now, who joins us every single week right here at this time on the show, and Sparky, me and Gordy you have talked about a ton this morning. You give up thirteen runs on Thursday, you give up only one run on Friday, and when then you give up sixteen on Saturday and no runs yesterday and you win that one too. Have you ever seen a weirder series in all of your playing years, broadcasting years, whatever it might have been.

You know, I don't think any Astros fan has seen that. I had one of the media relations guys look it up yesterday and minus won twenty one run differential in a four game series has never taken pace a place in Astros franchise history. The record was minus thirteen. So by eight runs the Astros scored less runs or got beat up by less runs in this four game set and came away winners in two of them.

That was pretty remarkable.

No, no, for sure, But I mean, as I mentioned, Thursday and Saturday not so great for the bullpen. Any level of concern with you, like, do you feel like that the innings are starting to rack up for those guys or do you just feel like it was a bad series.

I don't think the innings are really racking that day, and I think, you know, sometimes guys have bad games.

Is there a level of concern.

There's always a level of concern when a guy does it in back to back games. Brian King bounced back yesterday from a tough one that he had a couple of days before.

But when a guy has a couple maybe three.

Just from past experience, just knowing that what that feels like. Man, you get in a rut at a pitcher sometimes it's tough.

To climb out of it, so you do get concerned.

You're looking for ways and times to get them in that game so you know they can.

Clear that hurdle like King did yesterday.

But you know, sometimes you're not playing in lopsided games, so you can't get them in there for a ten days, and then that problem gets worse and worse.

Because they get rusty as well. So, man, it's such a mind game.

It's such a tough game when you don't have full confidence to go out there and pitch it your best ability. So we'll see, you know, if guys get an opportunity to get in there and get on a little bit of a role.

We know what can happen against.

Steve Sparks joined us here on the Seawan Salisbury Show for his weekly visits and Sparky. I mean, we talked about the two bad games in this series, but the two really good ones were because of your starters. Friday Night Fromber Valdez, he was awesome. Yesterday seam deal with Hunter Brown just unable to go nine innings like Fromber

Worked eighty three pitches, so that tied of Astros franchise record at nine inning.

Game Fromber and Hunter Brown are legitimately.

They're two aces, So they have two aces and they're spread apart in their rotation right now, which is beautiful.

You know.

Not to have them back to back allows you to kind of catch your breath with the bullpen guys, and for Joe a spot of being able to like kind of put the gas pedal on one of those guys in a particular outing to get a little deeper into these games is great for what they need right now now, Lance.

The way he's pitched the last couple of games looks like.

They've legitimately got three guys who can go out there and really pounce on some people fromer I think he had in the era below two. In May, he was perfect four to zero in his five games. I just can't say enough about him. We know that you know that things have gone sour every once in a while,

He can tell you, and I saved his on the broadcast.

By event, he can tell you any one of those three pitches are coming, throw it in the strike zone and still get weak contact or a swing and miss.

And I don't think you can say.

That about anybody else in baseball as far as three pitches go.

It's been a lot of fun to watch to watch from Bert Hunter pitch this this season. Sparky, no doubt, it's it's funny. Yesterday Jacob Melton makes his big league debut.

Gets the Monkey office back.

We've seen that a lot with these guys who you know, these hitters that remember Bragman didn't take like a couple of weeks for him to get his first hit. It seems like a lot of these guys they call up and they get they get their first hit in their first game or two. But the thing that stands out to me, Sparky, is how many times in the last two years or so, you guys have had to say

I know.

That's why Dana was kind of brought in here to be the GM, was to repool his farm sat and get it back going. But man, it's just been amazing how many rookies the Astros have had the last two years plus, and yet all these guys seem to come up and contribute and play a big role.

You know.

I attribute some of that, Chris to the culture that they have in the locker room.

Twenty five years ago.

I mean, guys who were coming into the locker room and you were expected to say absolutely nothing. You know, you didn't really feel like you were part of the team until year two, really, to be honest with you. And I think it's a tribute to what the Astros have been able to develop when they had guys like Korea and Springer.

Coming up to the big leagues.

I think that the Astros recognize that those guys were going to help them win games very quickly. So to be able to simulate and feel like they were part of the team right away was going to be paramount for the team to turn it around.

So I think that culture has remained.

So I think it's been ten years that the Astros have welcome young guys into the clubhouse and said, all right, let us help you. You know, we're all about winning here. We don't care about this tenure or what you say or what you don't say.

We want you to help us win baseball games.

And I think as soon as guys come to spring training, you know, I think guys like Jacob Melton and camp Smith feel like they're part of the team.

Sparky as good as as good as Hunter Brown and Fromber have been. We saw Lance take a you know, a step further in his getting back into the groove. Granted it was against the A's, but he pitched very well with the twelve strikeouts. But I look at the four and the five and Ryan Gusto and Colton Gordon are doing everything they can. What is the It feels like, you know, Colton Gordon at least every time out he's given you five innings.

Why are they so quick to go grab Gusto?

In your opinion, it feels like to me, I know he was he was a starter, then he was bullpen and he was back to the starter and felt like, all right, they maybe it's an issue of having to get his workload back up, But I mean, I look at it, seventy nine pitches, eighty three pitches. Just feels like in the fourth of the fifth they're ready to go grab him and he's not getting those five complete

I think it kind of goes back a little bit to what we were talking about with with Fromber and Hunter Brown split up in their rotation, and I think you feel really goods like if Gusco pitches the day after Saint Hunter or the day after Fromer, you got a loaded bullpen that next day after the CG or he's gone seven or eight innings, and you feel like,

So I think that's part of it.

I think the other part is getting stretched back out against really hard doing what Gusto's done so far this year. I think he's pitched seven games the starter, six games as a reliever, and it's hard to get into a routine, so I think he's kind of a massage in that situation. And the other thing is I think other teams the more the more they get a chance to see you, they're able to make adjustments.

And if you use your eyes on occasion, you start to see.

Guys maybe give up a few line drives the last couple of innings before he comes out. Those are the little red flags you're looking for as a manager or a pitching coach to say, all right, we might want to get somebody up.

Talker Steve Sparks here on Sports Talks of Any and Sparky, we got Dana Brown on Saturday to give an update on your on Alvarez and kind of you know what's going on there, and you know, we come to find out that that they do a little imaging after that inflammation goes down and there is a break in there and Dana reveals that it's about sixty percent healed. But by one breath, it is reassuring. Okay, now we know what it is. We have a little bit of the

And I get it.

Sometimes injuries are just they're hard to diagnose. But for the fans out there, I think fans are just frustrated because this is the second straight ear of one of your star players missing significant period of time and oh, it turns out there is a break in there.

Yeah, and I understand that, and I've seen this. I've seen this for years.

This is you know, sometimes those the small fractures just don't show up on X rays or imaging because because of cloudiness or whatever. It might be that they were able to diagnose rag Getty's thumb break very quickly because it was just in a spot where it wasn't as cloudy and it was more clear, and they got on it very quickly.

But people have been going on on and.

On about this forever. It's just sometimes is clear with the inflammation. So I think the good news is right now, Chris, and I understand the frustration is that the Ashers are.

Playing good ball.

They played above five hundred without yord On last year. I think they were fifteen games above five hundred without.

Tucker in the lineup.

They've been able to keep their heads above waters when they're waiting for these guys to get back.

And I don't think it's going to take ord On that long to get back. And you know, when you're talking about that it looks.

Like because of the calcification that it looks like he's healing pretty quickly. Then I don't think it's going to be too much longer, And thank goodness, the.

Astros are still in the thick of things.

But at the same time, I understand that it's frustrating, and I'm sure it's frustrating for everybody involved when you can't see things as clearly as you'd like to.

Again, Steve Sparks joins us for his weekly visit here on The Sean Salisbury Show, hour three every single week, And Sparky, I can't remember. Were you on the Pittsburgh series last year when they faceball schemes?

I was not okay, I remember, I remember.

I remember watching some of the stuff that he was doing in the you guys know about the water bags and stuff like that.

Some of the crazy stuff.

Yeah, I've seen trying to switch around to one and all that stuff. I remember Schiens doing that. I can't remember if I was working that game or not, but I know he pitchedway pitched six innings, gave up two or one on run in that game against the Astros.

But they've got their hands full tomorrow night.

Yeah, I mean and for you, I mean, you know when you get to see a guy like him get to go to work. I mean, is that add a little bit of extra juice to the game for you?

It does?

Yeah, I look forward to it. I love watching great pitching. You know that game yesterday TODs Bradley the race? How could you not love that? Do you guys know the story with Bradley what he was able to do the last time he faced the Astros.

The pitching coach introduced a new grip and a new pitch. In between the first and second inning, after.

He gave up a couple of runs to the Astros, he introduced the new pitch to him, a one seam.

Fastball, and he dominated the Astros after that. And then he goes yesterday.

Seven innings that no earn runs against the Astros with that one seam fastball.

Again, so pretty crazy the Astros.

You know, I had a couple of the coaches asking yesterday on the plane ride to Pittsburgh, what was that pitch that Bradley was going They were trying to figure out what it was, and it was a one seam fastball.

A lot of guys throw the two team fastball for sink, but the one seam fastball doesn't have as much lateral movement, and he learned it on the fly. It was pretty remarkable, very talented, twenty four years old, and just like schemes, he's just getting started.

Interesting. I'm thankful for the new scheduling.

I went up to see those guys again and goes man, that the Rays were just a thorn on your side this season.

I'm good on not seeing.

That Bradley again. Hey, I was looking yesterday.

There were I think seven teams that had either thirty or thirty one wins.

In the American League.

Seven teams, and you start thinking about these series in late May and in early.

June, thinking that it didn't matter too much. It's so early in the season. Man, There's going to be.

Crazy tiebreakers by the time we get to the end of this thing because of how close everybody's gonna be bunched at the end of this thing.

I think for sure, hopefully the Astro is one of those teams on the right side of the tiebreaker. But we're always on the right side whenever we talk with this guy, because he is Steve Sparsany joins us here on the Sean Salisbury Show, Sparky, appreciate the time, Buddy. Is there a Primanny Brothers trip in this one? Primanny Brothers overrated, properly rated. What do you think of sandwiches with fries on them?

Yeah?

Well, my son he lives in Tennessee.

He flew in yesterday, so he met me on this trip and that's number one on the box. We're also going to go to the Roberto Clemente Museum in about forty five minutes, so we're gonna get a little private tour with Joe spot On some of the other coaches and staff.

So my son and I are going to go on that. That's an unbelievable trip.

If you ever go to Pittsburgh, the Roberto Clemente Museums is my favorite I've ever been to. So it's gonna be a fun.

Weekend or a fun fun a few days here with my son.

No, that's awesome, man, We'll go enjoy that.

Hey.

We appreciate your time every single week with us and great stuff as always

Thanks Dan, see Gordy