Astros Lose Another Extra-Inning Game
Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast dive into the Astros' 3-2 loss to the Phillies Monday night in extra innings, and Sean comes to the realization that he feels the same way about Texans running back Dameon Pierce as he does about Astros outfielder Chas McCormick.
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00:00They've had five games on this road trip now. They're two and three. They've led in all
00:05five games. They've led it fairly substantial, substantially deep into all five of these
00:11games. Yeah. And they've only been able to close the deal on two of them so far.
00:16It's a, it's been, it's been frustrating yet now because of the Astros standing where they
00:24sit in the standings. I look at it with, is more encouraging in some respects. All right,
00:30you're playing, you're playing it down to the wire with really good baseball teams with this
00:35rotating cast of characters where Caratini gets his first start at first base. The last night
00:43he's been, he's played there three times this season, but that was his first start. That makes
00:47nine players who have played first base for the Astros this year. That feels like a lot.
00:51You've got Shea, Shea Whitcomb coming up with a double that gave him the lead and you're doing
00:58all of this while also Jeremy Pena is playing the worst defensively that he's played in his
01:02entire career. Like I feel, I don't know what the hell's going on with Jeremy Pena. I trust
01:07that somehow this it's, this is a flukish stretch that he'll get back on track. But
01:13the fact that they've been slugging it out with really good baseball teams and coin flip games,
01:19not overly distraught. I would love to, it would be awesome if they were, it'd be awesome if they
01:23were stacking up a winning record on the road versus these really good baseball teams. But man,
01:28they're, they're figuring out a way to get it done. It might be, I've seen a lot of people say
01:33that a lot of Astros fans say that they are maybe more emotionally tied to this team and proud of
01:40them than any in the stretch since 2015 just because, because of that, because you're getting
01:46these performances out of guys that you barely were aware of until just the last couple of months.
01:53Well, it's hard to find a team. I'd have to go back and look, but it's hard to find a team during
01:56this window of the last decade or so 2015 we'll use as the benchmark that's been hit with more
02:01adversity in season than this team. I mean, they hit one time, they had seven starting pitchers
02:06on the injured list. You know what I mean? Like, and you kind of almost forget because it's been
02:10so long now that yeah, Kyle Tucker's not out there. Right. Jordan's had issues in the last
02:15week L2 vase meeting rests. You know, it's just, it's a, it's one after the other, after the other
02:22of hits. So where you could, you could be saying, ah, here we go again. Ah, and yet a credit Joe
02:27Espada for keeping it all together and figuring out a way to, to just be competitive right this
02:33moment. Yeah. Because we'll be competitive. And then by the way, let's not forget, they were
02:3710 games back in the middle of June and they're leading by three and a half games. So it's not,
02:41this is not a team, Seth, we're not sitting here in a, at least not, not yet, but in,
02:47in a muck of five teams battling for the last wildcard spot, they've managed to put themselves
02:51back in a position where they control the division. Like it's, it really is. It really
02:56is remarkable. Am I feeling on the Baltimore series and the game last night? And I think
03:01the game tonight is going to be this way. Verlander and Nola tonight should be, you know,
03:05Verlander. I mean, I don't expect Verlander to go seven innings or anything like that.
03:10Cause he's still coming back from the injury. But on paper, that's like,
03:14that's a matchup you put on the WrestleMania poster. You know what I mean? With the two guys
03:17staring each other in the face, like this is going to be fun tonight. My feeling on the last five
03:22games last night in the Baltimore series is like, this is what post-season baseball feels like,
03:26you know, these are two good teams. And in the Oriole series, they were the ones coming up with
03:31the big hits. You know, they had 13 runs in that series and 10 of them were driven in on three
03:36swings. You know, they, when the time, when, when they needed a big hit late in the game,
03:41they got it. And the Astros were able to muck a split out of that whole thing,
03:43undermanned. And then last night, kind of the same thing. You're right. Like
03:46Shay Whitcomb is the one getting the big hit for this team in a game that finished three to two,
03:50like they're, they're pricing it together. Yeah. You know, Brian King comes up here. Yeah.
03:55The other two, the other guy that I'll give a credit to, I'll give him, I'll give him the July
04:01and August MVP for this team, Rob Manfred, because honestly, thank God for the ghost runner.
04:06I, this, this team right now, but again, this goes back to Dana Brown and Joe Espada,
04:12the way they're managing the roster. All right. You're, you're working with one less reliever
04:17right now than ideally you would, because you've got a six man starting rotation, but
04:22without the ghost runner, man, the Astros could be just devastated and having to go some long,
04:28more than 10 innings and a lot of these extra inning games they've had.
04:32I know everybody's always heaping praise on Rob Manfred, but let's, let's, let's hug a little
04:37bit more. They were for a year. I thought the pitch clock people were like into, like, I don't
04:42know. I thought a lot of people like kind of the speeding up of the game, but they, I think a lot
04:46of people did, but a lot of people were really against it out of the speeding up of the game.
04:50I am like hook, line and sinker into the biggest, the biggest question is all right. The injuries to
04:54the pitchers and like, how long can they sustain this? And like all of that, how much is it
04:59affecting the pitchers? We'll see. Yeah. And when you say, thank God for the ghost runner, you're
05:03saying in spite of the fact the Astros lost last night, they didn't have to use four more guys to
05:07get to the 13th inning or something like that. Plus though, I do think as much as I used to
05:12comply, I used to kind of complain about the old hardliners that were always promoting the demise
05:19of small ball and baseball. There's been a lot more small ball on this team and it does, man.
05:24And those critical situations, it gets fun when you got to, you got last night was a perfect
05:30example of it had gone the Astros way. You've just, you know, Schwarber sit around and, you
05:35know, it gets that and it sucks in the moment, but for baseball, I think it's good. We've seen
05:41more bunts. We've seen more just gamesmanship and strategy in those 10th innings that it's,
05:47it's weird because you know, one of the most gimmicky of the rule changes has also led back
05:53to some of the more old school decision-making. They have, I wish the Astros are a little better
05:58at it. I I'll be honest. I like it selfishly just because the games are over it. Like last night,
06:03eight 40 extra inning game. It's done at eight 40. Anybody who's awake right now,
06:08I think probably appreciates it. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. This isn't me
06:12telling the nine 30 audience. So what was me? I have to get up early. These are all,
06:16if you're listening, you'll our pain, right? Look, we, everybody listening and us talking
06:21right now are people who have to also contend with these AL West road games. So I like there's
06:28a, there's a higher likelihood that at any given night on an AL West road game, you're kind of
06:32like, all right, you know, yeah, I can stick around for the end of this game. So it's because
06:36it's, it's, it's, it's over. And then they lose an extra innings and you're like, I stayed up to
06:421130 for this. My wife is going to get yelled at because I'm moody today for this. Right, right,
06:49right. Here's Joe Espada. His thoughts on last night's game. Yeah. You know, I thought we were,
06:55I thought we play well, you know, we were in the game there, you know, or one hit away from,
07:00from winning that game. But yeah, you know, that's what happens. You play,
07:04played these type of teams and everything is closed. Every play matters. Every pitch matters,
07:09every bat, you know, matters. So again, turn the page, got another one tomorrow.
07:14Yeah. It's playoff baseball, man. I mean, these are, these are the types of teams you're going
07:17to be seeing in October. So that's, that's kind of how I look at it on, on the interwebs yesterday,
07:23Seth, because the Astros were playing their first game in Philly since game five of the world
07:28series back in 2022, they were there was a lot of reliving going on yesterday. And if you recall
07:37game five of the world series in 2022, late in the game, I believe in the eighth inning,
07:44cause Presley was in featured this center field McCormick on the move. He's at the track. He's at
07:52the wall. I said, remember that was a Chaz catch. That's the Chaz never has to pay for a drink ever
08:04again, play. He can be bad for the next, however many years and Chaz McCormick will still be loved.
08:10Now Chaz is putting that to the test this year because Chaz has not been good this season.
08:14And this is where, this is what dawned on me yesterday. I was watching that play Seth. I'm
08:18like, damn, and Chaz was a player back then, man. Like he was an integral part of this team.
08:23He had secured that starting center field spot. That's one of the biggest plays and most memorable
08:28plays certainly in recent Astros history back in 2022. And it may, you know, it made me think of,
08:35it made me think of Damien Pierce. Cause cause I, it made me think of Damien. A lot of people
08:42have been comparing Damien to Hosea Bray. You, and I hate doing that because Hosea Bray, you
08:47was bad at his job from the time he got here and overpaid too, by the way, to be bad at his job.
08:55So I don't want to put that evil on Damien Pierce. I watched Chaz make that catch again yesterday.
08:59I'm like, man, I just, that guy was so good in 2022. I just wish he was good like that again.
09:04Cause that is a memorable play. And I'm like, man, I feel like I just played Mad Libs. Who,
09:09who was I saying this about like two days ago? And it was Damien Pierce.
09:13Damien Pierce was great in 2022, like Chaz underpaid in 2022, like Chaz and making memorable
09:20plays in 2022. Like that play where he trucked Evan Jags probably the same week as the world
09:27series. You know what I mean? It was like six games into the season or whatever it was. He
09:32probably did it like the same day Chaz made that catch. That's who people, that's who Damien Pierce
09:37is. He's Chaz. He's not a Bray. You stop it with the Bray you. And it's, you know, I mean, there
09:41were people that were upright, you know, I would go on with the afternoon show and they couldn't
09:46believe that I was pulling for Myers in the competition of McCormick versus Myers because
09:52what am I an idiot? So it is, I guess the biggest difference, I don't want to get overly technical
09:57here. The biggest difference between the Texans and the Astros situations there is that the Texans
10:02did not win a world series in 2022. So you have that added element to it that with Chaz, it was,
10:07man, he came up big in a big moment. He felt like, oh, he's got that it factor or what have you.
10:12Yep. Yep. I just, man, like yesterday I'm watching that catch. I'm like,
10:16I wish this guy were as good as he was in 2022. I'm like, I just said that like two days ago.
10:20Who did I say that about DP, man?