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Speaker 1: I'll say it thing for you eleven four Sports Talk

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seven and I let's spend ten. You know what, Brian

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Bogus seven, We're gonna have to talk eleven minutes with

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you this week because I need you to walk me

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off the ledge because yesterday exacerbation, I don't know whatever,

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you know, pissed off, expert, exasperation, whatever, that too, Bogie

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three to one, Bray, you can't find the strike zone

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in the ninth runners in scoring position, and it was

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just another injury. It was like a microcosm of the

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entire season. And I keep trying to hold out of

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this notion that the Astros are still in first place,

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in which they are and they'd be in the playoffs

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today at the season end of the day. But man,

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it has been really two and a half months of

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just holding on for dear life.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think one extra minute's going to be

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enough to get you off the ledge that you're on.

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Speaker 1: That feels fair, thank you, But yeah, you're.

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Speaker 2: Right about yesterday. I think yesterday, you know, as much

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as it hurt, because it's a loss in a big

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game at the end of the season, and it's one

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that it felt like was in your hand and you

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didn't get it. That always hurts, but it's the way

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it happened. It's kind of all of your concerns with

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this team rolled into one. You know, obviously, the injury

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that happens, We've seen too many of those.

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Speaker 3: You know.

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Speaker 2: It's an offense that can't pull away and make it

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easy on the pitching staff. It's hitting with runners in

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scoring position. It's a bullpen that is you know, depleted

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and is starting to look gassed, looking vulnerable because they

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look depleted and gassed. And you know, every one individual

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concern that you could kind of point to and say,

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ooh that might be a problem, ooh that might be

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a problem. We saw them all all at once, and yeah,

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that's you know, it hurts kind of doubly bad watching

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it happen yesterday, because that's twenty games left in the season.

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You can't have one in your hand and not get it.

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Speaker 1: So bring you inherits that the closer's role when hater

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goes down, and I mean the first four or five

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appearances were like man and there is no slippage at all.

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This is going to be fun. And now he's having

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a hard time finding the striker zone. We talked about

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this in the first Star. When you're a two pitch

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pitcher against a team that doesn't strike out a lot

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or doesn't have a lot of swing and miss, that's

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a recipe for disaster. And we saw that again last night.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, when a brave New's right, it doesn't

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matter who you are, what style of here you are.

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His stuff is overpowering enough to get the best contact

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lineups to swing and miss. I mean, the whiff rates

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that he gets on each of his pitches individually are crazy,

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but they have to be working together, right. He's got

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to get that good crossfire angle on this fastball to

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his glove side to set up the big sweeping slider

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that comes off of the same plane but goes even

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further out of the zone. And you know, if you

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go back and look at kind of the pitch chart yesterday,

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there were misses outside of the zone. That's a problem.

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But the fastballs in particular that were in the zone

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weren't getting to that armside or to the glove side.

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They were in the middle of the plate. They were

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hit able pitches. They were pictures that weren't going to

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set up the slider going down in a way out

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of the zone, and anytime a pitcher is missing up

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into the arm side, the first thing that you think

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of is fatigue, and then you start looking at the velocities.

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It was a lot of ninety fives and ninety six

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is yesterday, when typically we see ninety sevens and ninety eight.

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And honestly, in a situation like that, where it's a

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gotta have it game and against the first place team

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in the American League, you would think a little bit

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extra juice run. And I was waiting to see ninety

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nine and maybe one hundred. So it's starting to look

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like he's got I don't think the closer thing has

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gotten to him. I don't think you know, he's an

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eighth inning guy that can't do the ninth inning. I

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think he's the one guy who's been the constant down

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there all year. You know, he hasn't had an injury,

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he hasn't had performance affect him, and him floated in

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and out of the high leverage situation. It's been full go,

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and they've probably they've leaned on him, you know, even

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when Hayter was there more heavily than anybody. And it's

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just it's starting to look like it's catching up to them.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and that just begs the question, what, what's the solution?

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Just a couple of days off, just something he has

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to work through. And I mean, it'd be nice if

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if the offense could go out there and score a

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bunch of runs, but they just end up in so

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many high leverage situations because of the nature of how

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the team is.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you hit it on the nose right there. There.

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There is no solution from a pitching standpoint. You only

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got the guys you got. You only are you know,

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have the availability of what you got. And if it's

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if it's a closing situation, it's going to be Brian

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A Bray you and you're going to have to live

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and die with him because that's what you got and

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that's what you're gonna have to do. The solution or

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you know, way around it is exactly that. It's to

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score more runs. You know, it's not if you lose

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a one run game because the bullpen gives it up.

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It's not necessarily on the bullpen. Guys aren't perfect. Guys

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are going to give up runs here and there. Complimentary

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baseball is there being times when you score so many

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runs early that you're starting pitcher can really settle in

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and just pound the strike zone and worry about nothing

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but getting deep into the game. You know, it's creating

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situations that aren't saved, situations so you can throw to

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the guys who haven't thrown in five days, who are fresh,

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versus the guys who've thrown, you know, three out of

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the last five days and been getting worn out all year.

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And we've seen far too few of those games where

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it's the offense just taking over and saying, hey, pitchers,

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you guys essentially have the day off today.

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Speaker 3: Brian Bogusvik is here on Sports Talk seven ninety. It's

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been a tough goal of it the last fifteen thirty

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games or so for jose Al toove, and I find

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myself Brian questioning like, Okay, is this just a typical

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jose Al too a slump or is this some decline?

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What are you seeing from him at the plate?

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Speaker 2: A little bit, a little bit of both. Maybe you know,

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he's he's always a guy who when he struggles is

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going to get super aggressive, so you're going to see

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some wild swen He's also a guy who you know,

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all throughout the course of his career will We'll hunt

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pitches and guess in certain situations, and every once in

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a while, you know, he guesses wrong and takes a

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swing that looks ridiculous. But you know, it's an extended

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kind of version of that right now, which makes me

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think that, you know, is he in a situation where

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he's having to do more of those things to kind

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of keep up and less and less just straight up hitting.

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You know, Granted, he can always break out of it

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and look completely locked in for the next you know,

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months plus and just go on a tear that's still

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in there. We've seen him get hot this season, but

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it just looks like a guy who's relying more and

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more on hunting one pitch at a time or one

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location at a time, versus a guy who, you know,

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there were times when it didn't matter what speed or

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what location he's through it and he could hit it

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in any direction at any time, you know, trying to

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get himself out of it. But it just it hasn't

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happened recently.

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Speaker 1: Well, Gie, the runners in the scoring position number has

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been the one that's discouraged so much. We look at

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every single loss and we can go back to that

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one particular category. Is there some sort of magic elixir

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that you would give a particular hitter, whether it's a

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different approach to the plate, whether it's swinging early, swinging later,

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trying to position the you know, to pull the ball,

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go oppo, whatever, because it just feels like that. So

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much of the angst is these key hitters in this

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Astro lineup with runners at second and third or bases loaded.

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A couple times in that game last week against the Yankees,

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when the ninth inning, with the tying run at the plate,

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Correa strikes out, Walker strikes out. That that hurt. Those

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aren't terrible, terrible ways to end games. What do you

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do when you get the guys on the bases and

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you're just looking for that one clutch hit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there's there's a lot of things that come into play.

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First of all, crazy as this sounds, the thing that

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correlates most of hitting with runners in scoring position is

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just team batting average. In general. Generally, teams that can

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hit hit with runers in scoring position. But that's not

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been the you know, the Etros are near probably they're

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probably in the top third of the league still in

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batting average overall. And then we see their struggles with

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runners in scoring positions. So that's kind of uh, you know,

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can't make heads or tails of that. But I think

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the thing that you would look at now, right, hitting

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with runners in scoring position used to be all about

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take what's out there. Right, there's a man on third

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less than two outs, just get him in second and third,

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get him over maybe, or get him in maybe get

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the guy over at the same time, and kind of

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take what's out there. But now you know, there's such

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a different approach to hitting, where it's all about trying

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to have biginnings, especially early in games, because that's what

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wins games. Right, You have to put u big crooked numbers.

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There are very very few two to one games anymore. Right,

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everybody's getting on a race to five or a race

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to six, and you have to have bigginnings to do so.

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But when you're struggling with runners in scoring position, sometimes

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I would think just take a step back, you know,

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if you're up there and it's a man on third

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with one out in the second inning, instead of taking

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the approach of like, Okay, I'm having my regular at bat,

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maybe I hit a double that'll score and put me

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in scoring position will be in position to have that

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big inning. Just take what's out there, maybe a little

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bit earlier in the bat, earlier in the game, cash

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in one, and maybe just that gets the ball rolling

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a little bit. It seems like a lot of times

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there's more focus on here's our opportunity to have the

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beginning versus here's our opportunity to get that one that's

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out there right in front of us. And you know, mathematically,

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does it make sense to do that? Maybe not, but

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at the same time, it could kind of jump start

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things a little bit.

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Speaker 1: We kept eleven minutes. Thank you very much of the

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time as always.

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Speaker 2: Are you off the ledge?

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Speaker 1: No boy, and your boy Josh Reddick was losing his

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mind last night too, So all you guys are space

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that you're kind of feeling it right now?

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Speaker 2: I think yeah, I think I think everybody's feeling it

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right now. All right.

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Speaker 1: Are you working this weekend?

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Speaker 2: Yes? All right?

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Speaker 1: Well, maybe maybe you're the ma. Maybe you're the election

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that'll fix things because that series coming up in a

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couple of days. Thank you for the time, as always, friend,

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We really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: All right, see you guys. All right,