Speaker 1: Eleven O three Sports Talk seven ninety your astros win
one nothing over the Phillies. We're going to spend ten
quality minutes with the man we joints is every Wednesday
here on the show space City Home Networks. Brian bogus
Sevic Brian one nothing. We've seen quite a few of
those over the course of the year. How many times
have we seen and how many times are we not
shaking our heads over the fact that Jake Myers batting
clean up for the local nine last night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was that was a little unexpected. Showing up
at the ballpark and looking at the lineup. I think
it's just kind of speaks to where the organization, where
the coaches are at with you know, some of the
guys who struggled early, right Christian Walker, Yaner, those guys,
they've been waiting for them to turn it around. You know,
we're going to be here in a couple of days
and it's gonna be the halfway point. You know, at
some point your leash has run out, and when you're
right out the lineup every day, you've just got to
take the guys that are swinging the bat the best,
and I know you know your four or five hitters
prototypically aren't going to be Jake Myers and Cam Smith,
but they're both swinging the bat well, and you got
to get guys behind Penya Parades Altuve who are going
to potentially drive and run. It didn't happen yesterday, but
you know it's not it's not a terrible idea.
Speaker 3: It is interesting how the game worked out yesterday, Ranger Suarez.
I mean, the era is about a one this month
Fromberg gives you quality starts.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if today's baseball fan wants a hundred
of those kind of one nothing games, But I was
in tune with it because I, first of all, appreciate
what both guys did, and secondly, I wanted to see
who was gonna flinch first, and of all people, Cooper
Hummel was the man to be the hero for the
local nine last night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you you know, if you're if you're
a true baseball fan, you really appreciate games like that
because you know everything you have to do everything well
in a tight game like that. It was obvious from
you know, the first couple of innings that was going
to be a low scoring game. So all of a sudden.
You know, you've got to play good defense. You know
you've got to run the bases well, you can't make
a mistake pitch, you know, over the middle of the play.
You got to really tighten down when there's runners in
scoring position. And that's fun baseball to watch, in my opinion,
when both teams have to be on it. When you're
a lot of times watching a ten to nine game,
it can be a little bit sloppy and it just
all gets kind of washed away with all the runs
that are being scored. I enjoy a game like that,
but yeah, Major League Baseball doesn't want to do that
every night.
Speaker 1: No, how did Farmer do it yesterday? Where he was
kind of a voiding disaster? They Philly's got on the
base pass a lot through some a few hard knocks
some of the walks, and that's something. What nine nine
walks for Farmer over the last couple of games, But
every single opportunity presented itself and he came through and
didn't let anybody cross the paystation for Philadelphia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, first of all, you know, he had really good
stuff yesterday. His command wasn't as sharp as we've seen
at times, but just the pure stuff to move in
on the fastball. You know, the break on the curveball
was all really good. And when you have that good
of stuff, you know you can just keep going to
the well and eventually be successful. But I think what
was really important yesterday was he kept a really level head.
You know, he had a walk. I think in each
of the first three innings. There were a couple of
errors mixed in, so like there's a lot of traffic
on the bases, and sometimes, you know, as a pitcher,
you can get into those situations and you think, Okay,
I got to get nastier. I've got to go for
the strikeout here. I've got to you know, put a
little bit more on this fastball and hump up a
little bit. He just kept us cool and kept making pitches.
And when he does that, you know, you're gonna get
ground balls, you're gonna get double plays, you're gonna get
yourself out of the inning. And I thought he did
a really nice job navigating some tough situations by keeping
his head and not trying to do more and not
making situations worse.
Speaker 3: Brian bogasvik with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and the big series with the Phillies and then the
Cubs coming to town as well. Players and coaches and
everyone will always say publicly, yeah, we want to win
every game and we take them all the same. But
how much truth is that as you as a former player,
like when when it's the Phillies and Cubs coming in town,
they're a little extra juice.
Speaker 2: I think so, but I think it probably it comes
more externally. You know, you get there and there's a
little bit of a buzz in the stadium, it's crowded,
the fans show up earlier. You know, there's more stimulation
from that standpoint. You know, guys know that they have
to be on top of their game. You're playing a
good team, you're playing a first place team. You're going
to see a ton of really good pitching. So guys
can feel that. But it's not like it's okay, now
we're going to try harder. Now we're going to you know,
really focus on our scouting reports and you know, dot
eyes and cross teas. That stuff is happening regardless, and
I just think there's a little bit extra juice just
because of the buzz that's in the stadium. But now
you know, it's it really sounds cliche to say it's
one of one sixty two, but it really is, And
especially this time of the year where you've got a
bunch of games behind you, so you're kind of in
the the the drag of the season. But at the
same time, you know you're so far from the end
where you're not really scoreboard watching or anything. So so, yeah,
in the clubhouse, it's just one one of one's sixty two.
But yeah, you can you can feel a little bit
of extra juice when you know that the fans are
into it.
Speaker 3: Both Bryce Harper and jord On Alvarez missing from the series,
and we were talking about in the last hour Brian
about we've talked a lot about pitching injuries, but position
player injuries. I think it feels like are up. I
don't know if you agree with that, but we were
just kind of thinking, is it guys just pushing their
bodies to the limit or are we just kind of
noticing the injuries? And it's always been like.
Speaker 2: That, probably a little bit of both. You know, we
hear a lot more of the day to day stuff
regarding you know, the twenty nine teams that aren't in
our city, so we can feel that a little bit more.
But yeah, you know where strength and conditioning has gone
over the last ten years, You're really pushing the envelope.
Guys are bigger, stronger, faster, they work out more, they
push themselves harder, and you know, as you push yourself
towards that edge a little bit, every once in a
while it goes a little bit too far and you
get bang up and you know, you get injured. I
think also teams are more willing to be cautious with
players and guys feel a little bit of something and
you immediately say, okay, we're not going to push it.
You know, we're gonna sit you down for a couple days,
or we're going to put you on the I L
for for ten days and get ahead of it because
you know, there's so much volume throughout the course of
the season that you know, and with with the length
of the season plus the expanded playoffs, and there's there's
just more of a path to getting into the playoffs,
and the goal is really to be healthy in that
full strength at the end. So I think teams have
also figured out that, you know, weighing the option of
pushing a guy during the middle of the season versus
laying back and having him healthy at the end. It's
more valuable to do.
Speaker 1: That boogie with us here on Sports Talk seven ninety.
The Astros have been very fortunate over their history to
have great eighth and ninth inning guys. This bring you
hater combo sub to e er a winning games, very
very rare poor performances. I mean, Bullpen in itself has
been a hero all year long, but these guys have
been an outstanding one two combination that I think that
the Astros obviously said we think we can spend some
serious money on Josh and to be well worth it.
Last year good, this year phenomenal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you try really hard not to take
it for granted, but it feels pretty automatic, right. It
feels like once you get to those two guys that
you're going to get two zero's and the game's going
to be over. And you know, the kind of stuff
that they have, the power stuff, overwhelming fastballs, overwhelming sliders.
It allows for margin of error for them, and even
on days when they don't have their best stuff, they're
still going to win most of the time because it's
just that good. I mean, you miss a spot with
ninety nine, it's still ninety nine and really difficult to hit.
And when you have two of those guys, you know,
you can make an argument that there are other, you know,
tandems at the back of the bullpen that are as
good as those guys are have been as good. But
I don't know that you can really make the case
that there's anybody that's been definitively better than those two.
Speaker 1: Everyone it says, all right, what do you do with
the deadline? Do you stand pat if it ain't broke,
don't fix it At the second best record in the
American League. You got some guys coming back, And then
there's always this conversation about the Astros need another left
handed bat. Now, clearly, if Jordon comes back, whatever it is,
and he picks up where not necessarily left off pre injury,
but the normal Jordon we're in let me ask you this,
as we speak to you today, even with Jordon still
on the injury list, how desperate do you believe the
Astros are if they are at all for need of
a left handed bat in their everyday lineup.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't call it desperate, but I would say it
would definitely be useful even with your you know, assume
Jordon comes back and he's healthy, and he's Jordon, and
he's producing like crazy, and you've got that big lefty
bat right in the middle of the lineup. I think
you still need another one. You know, a lot of
times we'll see this team, you know, put out a
very right handed lineup against the power right handed pitcher,
particularly right handed pitchers with good sinkers, and it's really
difficult to score runs. You know, you need that balance,
not just because you get the platoon advantage of going
to the other side, but oftentimes just having the lefties
in the lineup to make the pitcher throw to different locations,
make them use different pitches, make them go to their
change ups more. You know, getting them off of their
spot a little bit can create mistakes. You don't want
to run out of lineup there, even with yourd on
in it where there's eight other right handed hitters, where
a pitcher can just go sinker down and sinker down
and in slider, I got you, and just do the
same thing over you're not. You know, you have to
make them go all over the strike zone because that
creates opportunities for them to screw up that creates opportunities
for them to be off with something and then you
get the advantage. So yeah, even if it's not an
everyday type of bad, even if it's a guy who
you know can come in and platune with somebody, or
just be an option to give somebody a day off
and give you a matchup advantage every once in a while.
I think it would definitely be a welcome addition.
Speaker 3: Talking about the bats the Astros do have, we're also
talking about batted ball luck and how it's been pretty
good for Pinion Myers, but it's been pretty bad for
guys like Altuve, Walker, Yanar Diaz as well. Can you
just you as a player and then now you as
as an analyst of the game, just how much, if
at all, do do you pay attention to those types
of things.
Speaker 2: You do because you kind of want to know what's
going on, and you know, everybody is always looking to
make an adjustment. Everybody's looking to, you know, change something
to try to try to get better. And you know,
if you're going out there and you're doing everything the
way that you're supposed to do it and it's just
not finding a hole, then you have to kind of
sit back and say, Okay, I don't need to make
change just for change's sake. You know, eventually things will
turn in my favor. So yeah, you want to be aware,
aware of that. But at the same time, you know
you don't need those numbers to know whether or not
you're executing your fads. You know, if you're swinging at
good pitches, you know, if you're making quality contact. You know, yeah,
the numbers might reinforce it one way or the other,
but you really have a good feel for where your
swing is at regardless of what that number says.
Speaker 1: Brian great self is always thank you very much for
the time. We'll talk again next week. And what is
your TV schedule the next handful of days.
Speaker 2: I'm on the rest of the series and I am
off for the weekend.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, you're not gonna be there for the
Kyle Tucker Ryan Presley tribute Friday night.
Speaker 2: I will not. I'll have to I'll have to catch
a replay.
Speaker 3: Not as nearly a dedicated as we thought you were.
Speaker 2: That's fine.
Speaker 3: Let the man enjoy a weekend, you know what. You
take the family off for a nice dinner, and they
deserve it all the time you spend away out or.
Speaker 2: I'll be sitting at swimming so all weekend. I see
you know what you're dad in the year.
Speaker 1: Thanks Boggy for the time. As always, we'll see Brian
Bogus Civic