Astros win behind Valdez in the wake of Blanco’s suspension

Astros win behind Valdez in the wake of Blanco’s suspension

you don’t always get what you want but Joe asata he needed inning Innings from farmer Valdez and guess what he got those Innings tonight and ryell Blanco he’s not going to appeel his suspension we’ll talk about this in more on this edition of locked on Astros podcast J Diaz this is locked on Astros hello and welcome to locked on Astros your daily Astros podcast here are your host Eric the man Heisman and Brett htown wheelhouse [Music] chansy we are locked on Houston Astros and we update you join us for a daily locked on Astros podcast my name is Eric Heisman you can find me on X Eric talk stros you can find the show at lockon Astros your team every day Brett’s coming home from the ballp park uh he had a great time at the game and I said dude you gave me a break yesterday I was I had two big interviews today so why don’t you go ahead and take the day off and so he’ll be back we’ll be both back tomorrow what a game and I see in the chats that some people are like well the Astros have not scored enough runs they got three runs the A’s got what no runs in this game they’re on a four game winning streak I will take that but what is up Astros fans uh go ahead and make sure you make us your first listen on Apple Odyssey Spotify wherever you listen to your podcast go ahead and check out the locked on Astros podcast today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time Brett used game time to go to the game today so download the game time app create an account and use the code locked on MLB for $20 off your first purchase terms do apply so guys uh thank you uh for listening to us go and make us your first listen go subscribe to us on YouTube and go and check out Michael Connor after every game win or lose he does the locked on Astros postcast as well so guys thank you for listening to us being part of our locked on Astros uh community and thank y’all for being there throughout the whole losing streak that when the Astros were at the bottom a lot of y’all could have jumped ship a lot of y’all could have been like yeah the season’s over and I know Brett and I at times were overly positive and people are like y’all are homers y’all like um y’all don’t know what you’re talking about but we know that this team plays ball and this team is starting to play ball a a lot and so you see a much better Brandon baseball you see Alex bregman pulling over to show um the baseball uh Network how he’s swinging the bat now and he’s literally pulled over in a car and like did a um uh basically the Drake video where he was like uh showing him how to swing the bat and everything so Alex bregman is uh making a lot of waves across baseball because this guy was struggling and everybody was crapping on him this guy is not uh he’s lost it but Alex bregman is still one of the best players in baseball and so now you’re seeing it he’s having home runs he had five straight um extra base hits uh so that he was that streak was snapped today but I think what you’re seeing is Alex bregman becoming the player that the Astros know he can be and I think that everything so far for the past I want to say the month of May it’s looking good and I told you I’ve been telling youall wait till it turns may I think things are going to look a little bit more positive I think we’re g to be hearing a lot more positive things said I don’t think anybody would have told me that hey ryel Blanco would be caught with some rosin and sweat in his glove and that he would be suspended for 10 games so that um we were wondering how long it would take for uh that and oops that’s a wrong one um let me go and put the right one up but definitely it was a situation where uh Blanco did get suspended for 10 games and uh he said after um the game where he got ejected that he would be appealing that but he decided today after talking to his agent the Astros are on his six-man rotation so he likely would only miss one turn through the rotation so they just felt like it’s probably best for his career for his season for him only miss one game and he still claims that he did not know that you cannot have the uh the rosin and sweat on your left arm and it cannot go into your glove and so he just said that he sweats a lot and that he just put on his arm and it just happened to go down with a sweat into his glove and I my question is like where was it in the third inning where was it in the second inning why was it only the fourth inning that all of a sudden it’s the most stickiest stuff that umpire has ever seen and so I’m sure they’re going to do some testing and everything and I know Brett came on yesterday and said that what was Joe spata supposed to do I think Joe spata could have maybe uh just been a little bit more upset he just went up there oh yeah there’s Pinar yeah I signed I saw the pinear I agreed with the umpires that is is against rules you still stick up for your teammates uh your team and I just think that Joe B I don’t think he necessarily did the wrong thing in his opinion I just think that you guys stick up for repining even Dusty Baker last year if this happened last year Dusty Baker would have had said well we’ll see what the investigation says he wouldn’t have gone after the game and said oh yeah I saw the the pinear and it touched it it was sticky it everything like that so uh he’s not going to peel it and Dana Brown uh brought uh broke that news before the game I I believe it was maybe about two hours before the game so he’s not going to appeel it so that means the Astros are now down one player not just in starting rotation but they’re down to 25 players and so the Astros are have are already short-handed in the bullpen because uh they’re carrying six starters so now they’re going to be short-handed as a starter as well so a lot of people I’ve seen on X saying well why can’t you just send down GRE kessinger he’s not doing anything and bring up another pitcher you can’t do that that’s against the rules you have to uh send down a pitcher to bring up a pitcher you can only have so many pitchers on the team and so I think that’s a situation where the Astros are going to have to decide what’s more important is having uh Shan Dubin on this roster more important or bringing up somebody that can possibly go multiple Innings Dubin can probably go maybe two innings or so but if the Astros have another episode where their pitcher only goes three Innings like ryel Blanco did it’s going to kill their Bullpen their bull pin’s already running on fumes and we saw that in today’s game and ronell Blanco uh whether he’s right or wrong whether he knew it or not Joe SP said during spring training and uh Dana Brown said this too oh well we we got we get a memo Every Spring training we tell all the pictures everything and we they know the rules we go over all the rules and so whatever he did he knew what was going on and so I just think that this is a situation where Joe spot said yes we’re gonna have to go back over all the rules with the pitchers because we don’t want this happening teams don’t want to get these guys suspended and this is not something that he was like he was like here look at my hands there’s nothing sticky on my hands if you look at AJ pinski uh he did a podcast I forgot what the podcast is called but he was saying that if he was using it the whole game that was the fourth inning you would see a buildup of sticky stuff on his hand but there is not that there and so that’s what Blanco was saying if I was using it it would be on my hands it was it’s just the residue from the sweat and the rosin going down his arm but it doesn’t matter baseball’s not going to do anything they’re not gonna go back and say oopsie we made a mistake you’re unsuspended ryel Blanco and just go ahead and you can go and start playing baseball again so I think that um yeah like David says that rell’s spin rate has stayed the same there is no significant change Dana Brown confirmed that and he said that there was no uh no change and I know Dana Brown brought up Hermon and Sherer and other pitchers in past that I got a right they had a right to change the glove out even Yamamoto had a right to change out his glove so why did not Blanco not get that right and I think now we have people across baseball Astros um finally were kind of shedding that little cheater thing and now oh here we go the Astros are cheating again and it’s just it’s so bad that we’re trying to get rid of that Stigmata but now it’s back and you know who else is back hopefully from rales and we’ll talk about what he did for the Houston Astros today you can’t emphasize how important that was what uh he did to the Astros win a game and it’s because of fromer Valdez and he looked very confident out there we’ll go ahead and talk about that we’ll talk about the bullpen how much it’s been used recently and what will they send somebody else down there’s a lot going on Astros fans and we’ll talk about that in a second hey guys let’s go ahead and talk about game time I know Brett went to today’s game you might have saw him on TV hel holding up the sell sign but uh he got those tickets using the game time app and if you go on the app and I have it open up here right here you just search Houston you can see all the events it’s not just Astros it’s the Rockets it’s the Texans you can go to concerts everything and if you wait till you’re walking up to the ballpark you can probably find a better deal than if you get it weeks in advance and so you you can even save up to 60% if you just wait up to the last minute sometimes there’s Flash Deals you can uh they have exclusive andapp deals and select seats ahead of games or events they have Zone deals all in prices seat views the lowest price guarantee and plus the game time ticket coverage your P purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy into ticket industry so do what Brett does Brett when he goes through the game he doesn’t have a ticket he uses game time so take the guess work out of uh buying NBA tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account use the code locked on uh MLB for $20 off your first purchase again create an account redeem code locked on MLB for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed and go and catch out all the Astros playing baseball hey guys thank you for making locked on Astros podcast your first listen go and check out um Michael Connor with the locked on Astros postcast he does it after every Astros win lose tie um I don’t know if there’s gonna be any ties um unless Rob Manfred makes some type of ties or something but um I think what the Astros are doing is they’re playing some better branded baseball you’re seeing them win some games in Extra Innings you’re seeing them win some close games like the past two wins I believe are the first times they’ve won this season with not scoring five runs so you’re seeing the Astros winning with different uh ways of winning and so that’s when you know a team is rolling uh they’re on a four- game winning streak they are now what uh eight and six in May baby steps at this point baby steps so I think that um there was a play I want to say it was the early in game I forgot what inning um I believe is Alvarez he made a great hit today and the outfielder I believe it was Kepler no it whoever the guy was playing right field he Dove for the ball and it looked like he caught it but it actually touched the ground but Joe spot didn’t review it it didn’t end up costing Astros but you have to wonder like are they watching the game are they looking at what’s reviewable or something I mean it was in a glove but the it the ball was kind of almost out it was kind of like a snow cone catch and it touched the ground so maybe if you got that reviewed that could have been a hit for Alvarez so I just think that there’s certain times that Joe SP as he learns to be a manager or all the different uh things that go in into being manager I think he’ll get a little bit better but relying on your Ace fromer Valdez I know a lot of people say Justin Verlander Ace but fromer Valdez is one of your Aces and he’s been pretty good this year this was his ninth or tth start after starting the season um um on the I no I don’t know if he started on I but he started a little bit slow but he looked pretty good today and the Astros needed it because he struggled in his last outing but you had ronell Blanco that pitched only three Innings yesterday then he had all the controversy of um him using the the rosin and the sweat apparently sweat and rosin is illegal if it’s in the glove not if it’s on his hand but if it’s in glove hand that’s illegal so I just think that um it’s just something that all eyes were on fer Valdez and he answered Bell he did what you’re supposed to do he did didn’t let uh yes in eighth in the seventh inning he let a balk kind of mess with him a little bit but he um had only 82 pitches going into the seventh inning but he had a great game and uh so seven Innings he had only two hits two walks eight strikeouts and his ER on the season is 2.97 97 pitches uh sorry that was yeah 97 pitches not 90 I don’t know um why I said 90 but um so 997 pitches so this dude did exactly what you were supposed to do you would love to have eight but then Seth Martinez came in and got his second career save in the big leagues so it just it was great to see fromal this step up and just do what he’s supposed to do he had 11 ground outs one fly out and eight strikeouts so if you wonder why you have Alvarez typically play in Outfield when fber Valdez is on um on the Mount that’s why because he gets a lot of ground balls and he doesn’t get a lot of fly balls so um I think that a lot of things went well in this game and I think that it was exactly what the Astros needed because you had to use all your arms in the Extra Innings game on Monday then Tuesday you had that game where you had ronell Blanco leave early so there’s just a there’s been a lot of stress on the bullpen you had hater go two innings yesterday um uh Miller thankfully went two innings as well so he was UN available for this game but the Astros may do with it and they may have to make some type of move to bring up somebody with some type of length without ryell Blanco for the next 10 days or I guess nine um days because technically today was ryell Blanco’s first day on the suspension list and for those of yall just Jo joining the show um I don’t know if you know this but the Astros will only be playing with 25 players not 26 they don’t get to call somebody up to replace Blanco so that’s the bad thing about suspensions we learned that with Brian and Bru when he started the season on with the two game suspension you can’t replace these guys and so um I know with the long-term uh peed suspensions I’m sure that they’ll allow you to um carry the 26 players in that situation but it’s 10 game suspension for uh foreign substance that type of thing even though the rosin bag is perfectly legal sweat are you gonna make sweat illegal put it together and make sticky stuff just watch that video that David con put out and you have baseball players all across the league uh retired mostly but they’re coming out and saying this is stupid this is ridiculous and they mean it’s probably part of the rule book but why gu colonist for everybody and so it it’s just it’s just unfair a lot of people are saying that the Astros are maybe being singled out here I don’t know the situation but Valdez did what he he did today and it meant so much for the Houston Astros he dominated them four straight wins and the Astros are now kind of percentage points ahead of the A’s for third place you heard that right the A’s the Astros are technically in third place by mathematical terms um they’re still tied technically but uh they’re still um so uh the Astros need to get another win and the good news is the angels are coming town and the angels are just as bad as the the A’s are so the Astros are playing great baseball at the perfect time and when they’re you’re playing some of the worst teams in baseball and this is the time to make up ground get that momentum going get some stuff get get your mojo back you see bregman out there smiling you see the team having fun you see fromer Valdez with this smile on his face he’s not stressed um sweating bullets out there he had fun in this game and that’s what I think the Astros have lacked a lot this season and I know a lot of um there’s been a lot of reports by Bob Nale that there’s been a two play players in a locker room that have not liked Joe and that there’s already names being floated around who the Astros next manager is um and one of those is Alex Kora I don’t know if Alex K would come back to Houston not necessarily because of Alex cor but he was part of the main driving force behind the the signed stealing Scandal so would you really want him back if that’s going to draw all that attention back to the Astros for that so I don’t know if he is the right answer but I think right now the Astros are going to give Joe spot a chance and um they he they’re gonna see what he can do he had I I told you to start season he’s gonna have some bumps in the road he’s a rookie manager he’s it’s not always going to be rainbows and unicorns whatever so aspa is learning so um I’m not making excuses I do think that he does need to stick up for his team I think this was the perfect opportunity for him to stick up for his team and um we’ll talk some more about that in a second um and uh there is a Jose Brady update because I see um maybe not in today’s show but um uh I think Jose Bru has a little update and he he’s working out with a certain former Astro who’s a Hall of Famer we’ll talk about that in a second hey guys uh the the Texan schedule came out today I don’t know if you saw that but this is the perfect time to go to FanDuel what are the odds for the Texans going to the Super Bowl I know they’re pretty high the Texans have what six Prime Time games and a lot of people are thinking some great things for the Texans so what’s the over unders of um them going how many games they’re going to win how many touchdowns is CJ Stout going to throw this is all stuff that you can go find at FanDuel all you have to do is just go download the app and just look for all the information um I’m sure the odds are changing for the Houston Astros the Astros are on a 4 game winning streak what is FanDuel saying right now so right now it’s a winner take all time in NBA and NHL and FanDuel is giving you a shot to bring home a big win of your own right now new customers get $150 bonus Bets with any winning $5 bet that’s 150 bucks to bet on spreads money lines player props and more visit fanduel.com lockon and make every playoff shot count the Rockets are not quite there yet but maybe uh next year FanDuel it’s America’s number one sports book hey guys thank you for making locked on Astros podcast your first listen every day Weathers On YouTube go and subscribe to us go and make us your first listen Apple Odyssey Spotify wherever you listen to your podcast go and check out the lock on Astros podcast go and make us your first listen on uh YouTube as well go and subscribe us subscribe to us and give us a big fat thumbs up and go and check out Michael Connor on the locked on Astros postcast and you can go and watch all that on your Amazon Fire TV stick all you have to do is just go to free uh channels app and you can go and watch Brett and I every day on your big screen and some of yall have some big screens out there so you’ll see a big picture of me and Brett that might be a little bit scary there but also go and check out all the play-by-play action on Series XM just download the app and search Astros so um I know that um the bullpen was um kind of on fumes uh we already talked about that you have Josh hater that all of a sudden is pitching more than one inning he’s being a team player and I think that this is is a good thing for Houston Astros um Ryan Presley he is all of a sudden a pitcher that he’s not the same dominant Ryan Presley that the Astros have known and love and I’ve seen a lot of rumors across baseball I think that there’s a article by the athletic written that um Ryan PR Presley is likely to be traded at the trade deadline um especially if the Astros are out of it but he’s uh likely especially if he’s struggling as much as he is there’s a $2 million buyout on his option and um so the Astros might buy him out anyway so if you’re going to buy him out you might as well trade him at the trade deadline some team could use him as a closer somebody can use him as a setup guy something like that a lot of people say well uh what about Justin ver Verlander I saw a whole article on well if the Astros fall out of contention where can Justin Verlander go why the Astros are starting to win again they still have 119 games left they’re on a four game winning streak let’s hold your horses and I think that a lot of people are saying Alex bregman I’m one of them that said that maybe he could be traded but I think it’s there’s still long time before the the trade deadline so the Astros have two months to evaluate where they are and evaluate what need they need to do they are way over the luxury tax threshold they even over the second luxury tax tax threshold so there going to be some penalties and so if they’re going to have a losing season Jim Crane is going to have to evaluate how much how important is it for him to hold on to certain players and so um yeah I know verland has a no trade clause um but if he wants to not be on a losing team he could always he’s already accepted trades to uh winners I would just hate to see him go to the Yankees or some team like that so um so U fromer Valdez did his job today the Astros scored just am amount a right amount of runs and they I know a lot of people are like well they’re not getting job done there’s they’re still they only scored three runs they only got what they got eight hits the A’s only got two hits on a game they had um they scored three runs I know um one of them was or two of them were on sacrifice flies uh the other one I think scored on a eror or I forgot what happened how the other one scored but the Astros scored three runs in this game where you only allow zero runs that’s a that’s good baby steps like we can’t criticize them for winning three to nothing like three runs is enough when other team loses I mean only scores one run the A’s were playing good baseball to start season they’re not that that a team that started the season they’re dealing with a lot of injuries and they don’t have the depth of a team like the Houston Astros uh the Houston Astros have already been challenged to start the season so I think that we will see a change and so I know I see Supreme panda saying that um they would leave duon at first base I think Singleton has earned some playing time I know he struggled recently you’re seeing him strike out a little bit um not make as good at contact as we saw during that uh that little hot streak there but I think they’re still going to see what they have in John Singleton and he carried the Astros for a little bit there so duban um I Joe SP was asked about that well what about L profo and cabbage at first base why you playing duban at first base and they um as P said well I think that they’re making great progress at first base but at the same time I like dubon defense at first better and especially with a ground Ball P player like fromer Valdez you want somebody that’s plays great defense out there so and I agree and I think in situation where and I I think I’ve even mentioned this on this podcast you don’t put l perfo who’s that hasn’t played a major league game at first base at first base um for a ground ball pitcher you get do that for somebody like um Christian Javier or josei when he comes back somebody who’s a flyball pitcher so I think that is a situation that you have to consider um so hopefully Singleton took day off maybe his Bat kind of wakes up again because he was becoming this ultimate power threat for the Houston Astros um Jose Abu apparently I’m surprised about this but apparently faced his first live pitching action in Florida and guess who was there that’s right Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell Jeff Bagwell was there to help him and there’s also some other coaches there but he took his live uh first live pitching um down there on the field and so we’ll see where he where he is the Astros are not going to rush him back once he feels like he’s ready to come back the Astros will say okay come on but right now they’re getting some production out of Singleton they’re getting some production out of duban in this game so I think that um duban like you’re not going to put duban at first base full-time he like people are mentioning in chat he is a utility player that’s part of his um his just his strength is he could play anywhere he could play Third Base he can play second all across the out the infield all across the Outfield only thing he can’t do is catch or pitch and I’m sure he could pitch if you wanted to um or he probably could catch for an inning or so but I think that what he’s doing for the Astros is good and he needs to find his way in the lineup but the Astros are doing things right now Seth Martinez this guy is probably running on fumes because every time he goes out there it seems like he pitches two to three Innings or something like that no they’re not going to try to extend him to be a lawn reliever but uh he seems to be doing pretty good and um uh Aaron Brooks to his credit he had one two three four five six seven eight nine hard hit balls against him and he only allowed three runs he had five strikeouts and Pitch seven Innings so this was somebody that they called up the A’s called up from the minor leagues to and he only he allowed seven hits one walk and he only allowed three runs so the Astros are still struggling with runners in scoring position uh they had well actually today 0 for three with runners in scoring position so doing the math that’s the zero batting average runners in scoring position so but they still got the three runs and they still got the job done they are now 18 and 25 at last I looked unless somebody won they’re five and a half games behind the Mariners the Rangers are freef falling and so we’ll see what happens so a lot of people have asked uh who’s going to be on the mound tomorrow it’s going to be Christian Javier Christian Javier looked like he didn’t have his best stuff in the last game he’s got to be on point he’s got to go more than three or four Innings he’s got to go deep in this game the bullpen is still a little bit taxed uh maybe you can have a few guys back tomorrow but I think that the Astros are be just fine but now they’re down to five starters they’re down to 25 players and they’ve got to make the best of it for the next nine days but if any team can do it it’s the Houston Astros and um guys thank you for making locked on Astros podcast your first listen every day Brett and I will be back tomorrow as we discuss uh what happens tomorrow games hopefully you have Christian Javier do pretty good and uh we’ll see bregman hit some more home runs and we need Alvarez to get that power back but we’ll discuss that and more on tomorrow’s locked on Astros podcast ghost thros [Music]

Join Eric Huysman for the Locked On Astros podcast as the Astros get another win over the A’s. Framber Valdez helped his manager by pitching deep into the game after Ronel Blanco’s early exit the day before. Blanco will not appeal the 10-game suspension, and the Astros will be a player short.

Locked On Astros is a daily podcast about the Houston Astros, hosted by Eric Huysman and Brett Chancey. It is part of the Locked On Podcast Network.

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