Astros WIN Another Series, LOSE Josh Hader

Astros WIN Another Series, LOSE Josh Hader

Remain calm. All is well. All is well. Will Josh Hater pitch again this season? Do the Astros have enough bullpin arms without him? Should I get a second opinion about this mole on my neck? Is a powerful witch doctor using voodoo to injure the most important Astros players? All of that and more on today’s show. Welcome back to Banging the Cam, the Houston sports show that does not apologize for championship rings and tings with new episodes dropping every Monday and Friday presented by Bowlolan Media. I am Ross Bowlan and out of all the injuries the Astros have dealt with this season, Josh Haters shoulder strain might hurt the most. Quickly, if you are watching on youtube.com/bangingthecan, crush that subscribe button, throw us a like on the video, and when a comment occurs to you over the course of today’s show, throw it in the comment section below. All of these things help us grow bars. Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? It was all good just a week ago. On Friday, August 8th, the Astros faced New York for the first of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium. Heading into the ninth, the game is tied two to2. Joe Espatada calls on all-star closer Josh her to keep it that way. And keep it that way he does. Then Joe Espatada sends Josh her back out there in the bottom of the tenth to secure the win after the Astros put up three runs to take a 5 to2 lead. It works. The Astros get the win and everyone is happy. Yay. Unfortunately, it’s entirely possible that was the last time we’ll see Josh her pitch this season because by Tuesday it was announced he was dealing with shoulder soreness. So with hindsight, was it a good idea to send hater back out there for a second inning? Probably not. Should we be blaming Joe Easatada for misusing Josh her? Probably not. Do I have a spin to make us all feel better about potentially losing one of the most important players on our roster for the remainder of the season? Probably not. By Wednesday, it was announced that Josh her would be seeking a second opinion on his strained shoulder. And Job was dropping ominous quotes like, “This is going to take a little bit longer than the two weeks.” And suggesting we give Josh his space as he evaluates the severity of his injury. It’s almost never good when an athlete is forced to seek a second opinion on an injury. So obviously we all fear the worst here and the worst could be a devastating blow to the Astros chances at making a deep postseason run, right? Right. Maybe, just maybe, because remember the Stros won the 2017 World Series without a true closer in the postseason. We were running the trader Ken Giles out there and he allowed runs in every single one of his World Series appearances. We also used Chris Dinsky, Luke Gregerson, Brad Peacock, and hell, Charlie Morton recorded a four inning save in game seven to clinch the title. And with Josh Hers sidelined, it’s really not all that difficult to identify his de facto replacement from our remaining bullpin arms. It’s Brian Abrau. The same Brian Abrau that has been damn near unhitable for big stretches over the last few seasons. The same Brian Abrau that recorded a save and closed out the Red Sox series on Wednesday evening. The same Brian Abrau that has a 1.64 ERA over 54 appearances this season. So yeah, it feels extremely shitty that on top of all the injuries to pivotal players the Astros have endured this season, they lose their star closer for the home stretch of the regular season while battling in what has become a tight AL West. But is it a death nail for the Astros chances at a real postseason run? Probably not. You use Brian Abrau as your high leverage closer. You use Susa and Ourt and and and Brian King and Caleb Ort and De Los Santos and Shawn Dubin as setup men and you figure it the [ __ ] out. That’s that’s where we’re at. That’s what’s going to have to happen. So, is it a gut punch to lose Josh her as Joe Espatada described it? Absolutely. Of course. He has converted 28 of 29 saves this season or some crazy [ __ ] like that. Okay, it hurts. No way around it. But it is nowhere near a backbreaking blow when you consider the following. We’ve got Spencer Arrietti back and he’s working off the rust. We’ve got Christian Javier back and he looked extremely effective in his start against the Red Sox. Luis Garcia and JP France are both continuing their rehab assignments in Sugarland for the Space Cowboys and should be on the Astros roster by the end of the month. Barring setbacks, Lance McCullers Jr. is making a start in Sugarland today. Brandon Walter has progressed to the bullpen. The Astros are not lacking in effective big league arms. It’s just going to be a matter of GM Dana Brown and manager Joe Espatada coming up with a proper plan for how to utilize those arms and fill what is admittedly a massive gap created by the loss of Josh her. We’ve got Framber Valdez and Hunter Brown as our clear-cut one-two punch. You’ve got Christian Javier, Spencer Ericetti, and Jason Alexander. After that, eventually JP France and Luis Garcia join that list plus Lance McCullers Jr. That’s eight starters right there. You really only need what? Four starting pitchers for the playoffs, right? So, the question becomes, do we convert one or more of those guys I just named like LMJ or JP to bullpin guys for the postseason? I obviously I don’t have the answers right now. Time will tell. But my point is the Astros front office is on the cusp of having a lot of options when it comes to arms regardless of losing Josh her. Now on the offensive side of things, Jordan Alvarez has been taking BP in Florida and is apparently going to progress to live batting practice this weekend and Jake Meyers is getting close to game action. So yeah, all is well. Nothing to see here. Remain calm. Women and children to the lifeboats first. Everybody chill. Stop freaking out and stop bringing up Ryan Presley. No disrespectment to America’s closer. Bad news about Josh her aside, the Astros took care of business in their three-game home series against the Boston Red Sox, taking two of three games after being swept by the Socks in Boston to start August. This was a big big series win to make it three series wins in a row. By the way, quietly, the Stros did not spoil the return of Carlos Koreah to Houston on Monday, winning a great game. Great game, highly enjoyable 7 to6 win, despite Alex Bregman hitting a two-run ding-dong in the first inning to celebrate his first time back in Houston since dawning another jersey. As I said, Christian Javier looked extremely impressive. The two runs Bregman drove in were the only two Javier conceded across five innings of work with five strikeouts, giving up three total hits. Koreah drove in a run. Uh Christian Walker drove in too. Chaz McCormick hit a ding-dong. Chaz. Chaz. He also made a great play in center field. Chaz back. Aras hit his first ding-dong as an Astro as well. A two-run bomb. Very, very enjoyable game one. Game two on Tuesday. Uh we don’t really need to relive game two, do we? Suffice it to say, uh Spencer Ericetti looked better. Eric Getti looked better. definitely saw him shaking some of the rust off in real time. He only yielded two runs across five innings, but this was an absolute beatdown once we got to the bullpen. We had Chaz McCormick pitching in the ninth. Chaz Chaz hit 80 mph off the bump. Astros lose 14 to1. Uh, flush it and move on. Hunter Brown got his 10th win of the season in game three on Wednesday, getting 20 outs while only giving up one run. Then Susa and Abrau close the door. Astros win the game four to one with Jeremy Pena hitting a ding-dong in the first. Yanier Diaz driving in a run in the first as well. And then Yanir hitting a two-run ding-dong in the bottom of the n bottom of the sixth, excuse me. Really solid series win against what has proven to be a formidable Red Sox team that should make the wild card. And hey, in other good news, the Mariners finally lost a couple of games against the Baltimore Orioles. So, we are back up to a one and a half game lead in the AL West leading the division. Shout out to the Mariners for grabbing a share of the division lead for like 24 hours. Very cool. Way to go. So, what’s next for the Astros in the back half of August? The boys start a three-game home series against the Orioles tonight. We’ve got uh Framber pitching tonight. Uh, the summer of George continues on Saturday with Jason Alexander on the bump and Christian Javier is scheduled to be the game three starter on Sunday. After the Baltimore series, the Astros head to Detroit to face the first place Detroit Tigers for three games. Detroit trails Toronto by a half game for the best record in the American League. And so, yeah, obviously that will be a big series. After Detroit, we’ve got another series against the Orioles. This time in Baltimore, this time it’s four games. Uh then a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies at home and a three-game series against the Los Angeles Angels at home to close out the month of August. So, if you’re the Astros front office, I’d say you hope to win 10 of those 16 games. like that would be a very successful stretch. No, the Orioles are a last place team. The Rockies are a last place team. The Angels have the fourth worst record in the AL. That’s 13 of the last 16 games of August against those teams I just named. Should be a lot of winnable games. Meanwhile, the Mariners will be facing the Mets, Phillies, Athletics, Padres’s, and Guardians to close out August. frankly a lot more losable games. So the Astros goal to me before the end of August should be to open their division lead back up to somewhere between four and seven games. That’s what I am hoping for personally. That would be a very positive outcome. Don’t [ __ ] around and blow should be wins during this stretch or September is going to get sweaty as hell and I have enough stress in my life. do not need a sweaty September. In other Houston sports news quickly, the Rockets released their 2025 2026 schedule and will play double the amount of nationally televised games as last season. 28 nationally televised games, including the NBA season opener against the Thunder in OKC and a Christmas Day game against the Lakers. We are so back, baby. We are so back. love this for the Rockets and our fans. I do have to say though, I have to say their schedule release video featuring some spazzed out dork playing a realtor running around giving a tour of what seems to be a multi-million dollar house was one of the most cringe-worthy things I’ve ever seen. If you’ve got little kids, you recognized the serious blippy energy this guy was giving off. I made it 30 seconds in before I had to close this video, step outside, slap myself across the face, and scream into the abyss. Then I forced myself to watch the rest of it because it’s my job to talk about this stuff. But I really wish I hadn’t. The kid fakes taking a [ __ ] at two different points in the video on toilets. I hated everything about it. Uh if you haven’t watched it, don’t. But the good news that came from it is uh that we now know the entire Rockets 2025 2026 schedule, including those two huge games that I just named. It’s going to be a very exciting, very fun Rocket season. Obviously, the first with Kevin Durant and the first time since the James Harden era that we can reasonably say that we have championship expectations. Very, very, very exciting stuff. That will do it for today’s show, but remember we have new episodes dropping every Monday and Friday. To start and end your week on youtube.com/bangingthecan, crush the subscribe button. Ring the bell to turn on notifications so you are notified immediately when new episodes drop. And please let me hear from you in the comments. I want to know what you think about the Astros situation, about Josh her, about the Rocket schedule and the insane social media release that they did. Uh, if you’re listening on podcast platforms, rate and review. On that same note, please share the most unapologetic Houston sports show in existence with your friends and family. Follow us on social media, bangingthe, on Tik Tok, Instagram, threads and Twitter. I am Rossbolan. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at WRBolan. Those are the two social sites on which I’m most active. Wrben. I’ll be back Monday to discuss the results of the Astros threeame series against the Orioles. Enjoy your weekend. Until next time, Htown, stay down.

Ross Bolen discusses the Houston Astros losing Josh Hader to a shoulder injury, their 3-game series against the Boston Red Sox, injury updates and returning players, and what remains for the rest of August. Plus, the Rockets 2025-2026 schedule release.

Video Produced by Kade Orris
Presented by Bolen Media: https://www.bolenmedia.com

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