Speaker 1: I'm very happy to be joined by the manager of
your Houston Astros. Twelve thirty two is a time Matt
and Ross with you on Sports Talk seven ninety as
the Astros start a series of the Ace tonight, game
and a half behind the MS in the American League West,
and Joe was with a skip first off day in
seventeen days. I'm going to assume your one hundred new
list from missus the spot. It was quite lenksy.
Speaker 2: Yes, we got a really nice time together as a family.
It must need a break, Matt, for you know, for
the coaches, but most important for our players. It was
a long road and I thought we played really well
doing those seventeen games, so we ready here to get
going against the Ace.
Speaker 1: To me, Skip, the biggest positive was you didn't get
a whole lot of link out of your starting pitching
fromber gave you some quality starts, hunting and whatnot, but
you had a lot of nights where you're having a
battle using your bullpen guys in the sixth inning and
correct me if I'm wrong. It feels like everybody got
a good amount of work, but nobody felt like they
were overused.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2: I think you know, that's that's been you know, one
of our strength this season has been our bullpen and
everybody contributing, and and everybody's getting big innings, getting you know,
some of some of these guys four out, some of
them are going there for two hours, uh for two innings.
You know, credit to those guys, they've been they've been
really good, preparing themselves very well, getting rested and like
you mentioned, getting some quality starts from some of our
guys and then piecing it together with with a few others.
Speaker 3: But I thought this run was pretty good. And now
we you know, we're.
Speaker 2: Getting uh a few mondays off here after six in
a row, so it should be it should be good.
Speaker 1: You know, I was gonna ask you about your thoughts
about the six man rotation, but really your sixth guy
is a guy that you've bounced backwards and forwards to
the bullpen and starting rotation. It's Ryan Gusto. Is that
kind of the plan, at least for the foreseeable future,
to use him as a swing guy?
Speaker 2: You know what, Right now we are, we we're talking
things through. You know, we do have these off days
coming up. Gusta has done a really nice job being
that swing man. But you know, obviously we really like
when he goes out there and give us, give us,
you know, strong, five innings. But he's also a piece
that we could use in the bullpen and and and
give us you know, strong six out six.
Speaker 3: You know, you know, more than two innings of work.
Speaker 2: So we're trying to figure it out what's going to
be our next move here moving forward against the age.
And then we got four, uh four against Tampa.
Speaker 1: So you win three or four against Seattle. Look, a
division can't be won or lost in late May. But
the reality is if you had to drop three or four,
you'd probably felt pretty sick to your stomach. Winning three
or four kind of changes the morale of Hey, we
survived this. We've had Jordan gone for a long period
of time. Our starting rotation is a mess because of
injuries at this point, and hell, we're a game and
a half out. You really couldn't ask for much more
at this point.
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, the the effort was was there. You know,
these guys, they they knew the importance of this series
even though he's in May. But anytime you could win
series against team in your division, you know you're gaining
you gaining some games, you're gaining some ground, and you're
carrying some momentum, and you don't want to be too
far away from from these teams once, you know, June
July come comes around. So so I thought, we we
show up.
Speaker 3: And we play very well.
Speaker 2: We got some big hits when we needed to, and
are pitching again doing a fabulous job keeping us, keeping
us in it.
Speaker 1: Speaking of jor don I know you're probably getting tired
of aast basically every day, but just any update there.
Speaker 2: He's going to run the basis today, he's going to
do some outfield defense. We want to keep them, you know,
in game shapes of once he tells us, So you know,
I'm ready to go. He you know, we feel like
he's strong enough physically, you know, lower half. Uh so
he can uh start playing right away, but you know.
Speaker 3: He's going to come in here today.
Speaker 2: He's going to hit again off the machine and then
and then we judge from there.
Speaker 1: Astros manager Joe Spott, it was your honest sports Talks.
How about seven hits from Cam Smith in the series.
Looks like he's really blossoming at the plate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he is.
Speaker 2: He had made some adjustments he's starting to gain some confidence.
You know, success bring some confidence to your game, and.
Speaker 3: He's starting to.
Speaker 2: He started to feel good about where he's at. Offensively,
He's done a nice shop in right field. You know,
we knew that this guy is going to be a really,
really good player, but our job is just.
Speaker 3: Kind of moving him along, help him.
Speaker 2: Through this process. But he's starting to, you know, drive
the ball, getting some I've got some big hits for us,
and you know, excited to have him. He's he's you know,
he's been he's been really good for us.
Speaker 3: So you know, we'll keep him going. We'll keep an
eye on things, and we'll keep him going.
Speaker 1: So, Joe, if you weren't the manager of this team,
and you and I were sitting in the bar having
a beverage, and I said, our favorite baseball team is
going to put a left fielder out there has ever
played left and a right fielder has never played right before.
You're gonna be like, oh, hell, this is how bad
is it going to be? First of all, Cam is
fielding his position beautifully, and then al two Bays throw
Friday Night, which got off the base runner a boy
like thirty feet. I mean, all things considered. I mean,
it could have gone a lot worse. And I'm not
trying to jinx anything here, but my goodness, especially with
Camen right field, you guys are not missing any beat
out there, at least defensively.
Speaker 2: Well, we're having that beer at the bar and we're
talking about this particular situation. I'll tell you that I
had no doubt that these guys can do it, because
you got to take in consideration the athlete that you're
dealing with, the mindset off the player, the work ethic
of the guys. So I had no doubt that these
guys are going We're going to have some success and
figure things out.
Speaker 3: And we you know, we're not there yet.
Speaker 2: They continue to work and get better. But I had
no doubt that both of these guys have the ability
and the mindset to make this adjustments.
Speaker 1: What is in your mind the most difficult part of
his transition for being a UNI or his entire life
to playing outfield.
Speaker 3: Is it the angles?
Speaker 1: Is it the cutoff man? There was maybe one throw
this weekend that you probably weren't crazy about, But generally speaking,
what do you think is the biggest thing not necessarily
has to overcome, but the thing that he said to you, Hey,
I can do this, but give me some time in
this particular area of the game.
Speaker 3: You know, for me, it's just perception.
Speaker 2: The ball off the bat right, you went from being
on the infield dirt. The balls getting to you quicker,
so you react into it much sooner. Angles and direction
that you take to the ball are are more quicker,
and you're reacting to the ball. Now the ball is traveling,
you know, far the way for you know, from.
Speaker 3: You, and you got to cover way more way more ground.
Speaker 2: Communication it's a factor, you know in a two ways case,
you know, having Jade to his to his left, you know,
dealing with that game situation, knowing the speed of the
runner and now you got to keep double place in order.
There's so many factors that go into this, and the
same thing with Cam. But but I think one thing
is that we we coaching these guys up. We have
weekly conversations with them, We show him video, we go
over game situations and just to make sure that.
Speaker 3: We are still teaching them how to.
Speaker 2: Play the position and continue to adjusts as we go.
Speaker 1: A couple more minutes here with Astro's manager Joe A
spotted with us here on Sports Talk seven Hue eighty.
So you've got these games coming up now with some
off days in between. You've also mixed in a lot
of Jose doing some dhing and I know that younger
players never want a DH. Have you noticed a change.
I know that Jose wants to play wherever he can play,
left field, second base, whatever you ask him to do.
But has he been more forthcoming and saying, you know,
the DH days aren't the worst things in the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think he's open to that. I
think Jose knows that, you know that, you know the
behind it. It's the fact that I want to keep them,
we want to keep them healthy, and the DH days,
you know, it gives them an ability a chance for
to be of his.
Speaker 3: Feet, and he's been more open to that.
Speaker 2: Also, he knows that gives me the ability to get
some of these young players on the field, and he
knows that for us when we need something, we need
to develop these this next generations of of you know,
major league players that are going to allow us to
keep this winning culture going. So, you know, Hose, it's
it's he's all in, but definitely more open to d
h You know, I I normally text him or call
him or tell him the night before my plans. And
you know, he's always been honest and open with me
how he feels when he comes to his playing time.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that, we haven't been seeing much of Brendan
Rodgers lately. It's been a lot of Dubon Uh. Ideally
for you, you'd probably like to see more from him at
the play. But how do you think that the whole
second base situation shakes out with Rogers Factory.
Speaker 2: In you know what he's gonna He's gonna continue to play.
Speaker 3: Dubon has been swinging a good bat of late, so
we we're gonna do that.
Speaker 2: But you know, just like the so these guys, I'll
put him in there and give them, give them opportunity
to try to match them up with uh some pitching
that I that I feel like they can handle.
Speaker 3: And and but it's you know, it's.
Speaker 2: Not an easy situation with having all these players uh here,
and I want to get them involved and I want
them all to contribute. So communication is important being patient
through this process. And but but he's gonna get He's
gonna he will get more. He will get some opportunities
here to play.
Speaker 1: Some and speaking of a communication, Lance Pacullors Junior on
the hill tomorrow.
Speaker 3: What what has that been like for you? It's very
unique situation.
Speaker 1: Are you still kind of checking and monitoring him more
than most? But he did throw ninety one pitches last
time out? Is it is it kind of like he's
just one of the guys. Now, where are you at
with them?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: You know, I think he's always been one of the guys.
You know. I always just talk to them, make sure
that he feels okay. I'll watch his bullpen just to
make sure that he's that he's the process is in
plays that he's not rushing to any of this or
we're not rushing them to any of this. So he's
been he's been really good. He's bouncing back very well.
He's working the weight room.
Speaker 3: He's great.
Speaker 2: He's bullpens in between starts. Uh, we have like no
issues now, is Uh? He'd be more efficient in the games,
throwing strips, putting guys away. Uh, so he could, so
he could get us.
Speaker 3: Deep in the game.
Speaker 2: And and I'm listen, the stuff is there. It's just
more execution and once he gets to going, I could
see him, you know, pitching deep in our games.
Speaker 1: It felt like to me, Skip, you were trying everything
in your power to keep him out there for that
fifth inning and to get that victory, and that that
had to be a hard walk for you, knowing that
he couldn't get it because of that.
Speaker 3: So yeah, you know, really trying.
Speaker 2: But he also you know, he understands, you know, we
were trying to his health, trying to keep him healthy
and and we're trying to win games. But yeah, I
really wanted him to get that the lass out there
in the fifth inning. Uh, him in a position to
win a games, but he'll he'll win. He'll win some
games here coming up.
Speaker 1: Skip, great visitors always, good lucka inst the ace tonight.
We'll talk again next week. We appreciate it as.
Speaker 3: Always, Bye fellas, thank you got it.
Speaker 1: That is manager Joe spotted with us here on Sports
Talk seven ninety