ASTROS POSTCAST: Pitching Dominates As Houston Astros Take Down Los Angeles Angels

ASTROS POSTCAST: Pitching Dominates As Houston Astros Take Down Los Angeles Angels

This is the Astros Post Cast, your instant game reaction for the Houston Astros, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. [Music] Now, if you’re a lover of baseball games that are a little bit more sexy in terms of run scoring and hits all over the place, tonight’s game was not for you. But the only thing that matters is that the Houston Astros find a way to get the victory in this ball game and on top of it extend their lead in the American League West to three games because the Seattle Mariners lost tonight as the Astros get a great night of pitching out of their team and out of their starter and we’re going to get through it all here on the Lockown Astros Post. Hi and welcome tonight if you’re live with us here on the Lockown Astros Post. I’m your host Michael Connor. Thank you for stopping by, spending some of your time on a Friday night with us as we wrap up the Astros 200 win over the Los Angeles Angels, a team that you absolutely should beat. Correct. I think we would all agree to that. But you know what you have to do is you actually have to go out there and do it. And even if it wasn’t the prettiest in terms of run scoring in this game, they got the win. That’s all that matters. Tonight’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with MonarchMoney. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. So, what if he had to dial it down to one thing in this game that you’re talking about more than anything else? What is it? This is what you’ll be talking about. Christian Javier needed that. The Astros needed that out of him in the absolute worst way tonight. Six innings of Tell me if you’ve heard this out of Christian Javier before. Six innings of shut out hitless ball. Yeah, it’s cuz he has done that literally twice in games where it ended up in those games resulting in no hitters being thrown. Tonight doesn’t end up that way. Um the Angels did find a way to eek out two hits. They also found a way to eek out three walks against Craig Kimbell. I’m not going to spoil our positivity by reminding you Craig Kimell was available for a reason. Um, he was available for a reason. Just hope and pray, hope and pray, hope and pray that it works out. But Javier is what you’re talking about tonight. The Astros have had their issues, we know this, of getting starters to give you any kind of length. And Javier has struggled with that since he’s come back. You know, he’s coming off of a major surgery. It’s not going to be perfect when you do come back, but he’s four starts in now, and without a doubt, easily his best start, obviously. First start against Boston was five with two. Uh second one against Baltimore, three with one. He came out because he was not feeling well. Uh the last one was just so inefficient against Baltimore in Baltimore. Five runs in two innings. Three of them were earned and then again tonight. Six innings of shutout hitless baseball. And it’s a good reminder of who he is because I mean I I’m not saying that anybody forgot who he is. He is a little bit of a un or undertalked about aspect of the Astros success uh throughout the years and really that 2022 season one of the more unheralded uh guys that was out there for them winning a world I say unheralded and the guy literally started what was a no hitter in the World Series um and did that in the regular season that year as well but he’s not a guy that talks much you don’t hear from him you he’s not out there so he doesn’t get like national love or anything I guess what I’m trying to say here And this team has two guys that are ace quality on it in Frober and in Hunter Brown. And they’ve needed a third badly. And I think the hope always was that the third would come back and it would be Christian Javier and he’d slot right in there and he’d start figuring out. And maybe, just maybe, this is the sign tonight that that is going to come for him. did walk three. Pitch count at times early was, you know, got up there a little bit, but he he settled and that’s what the best pitchers always end up doing. They settle into the game, they find their way. 85 pitches tonight for Javier, 51 of them for strikes. But it’s all about building back. Correct. And that was a big stepping stone for Javier tonight. A stepping stone that the Astros needed to see out of him because we’ve talked about a lot of things. offense. Look, again, not great tonight. Okay, at the core, what the Astros do and what’s made them great for the last few years, really. I mean, you know, I say last few years for a lengthy period of time has been at the core of it, they are elite at run prevention. That starts a great defense and that starts a great pitching. Without a doubt, they are beat up in that bullpen. The bullpen should scare you. still scares me to death. There is not going to be one moment of the bullpen that I’m going to breathe easily. I think that’s pretty common when you talk about bullpens in tight games in late season and then into postseason scenarios where you’re never going to completely trust what they’re able to do for you on a given night. And that’s definitely the case right now. But if you can shorten the game enough with three guys that are going out there and doing it in a short series consistently, you’ll have a chance to win all those games. And if you can find a fourth guy that does it even better. They’ve had a fourth guy doing that recently. Of course, excuse me. Jason Alexander has been tremendous. It’s going to be interesting to see how they do this whole bullpen thing with McCullers. I know that they’re saying it’s shortterm. I don’t believe a word that they’re saying. I think he’s out there for the rest of the season. If he can give you something out of that bullpen, that’d be great. Maybe it’s a piggyback type of situation with Luis Garcia coming back. Who knows? Who knows what it’s going to be? Of course, Monday’s unless I missed it. Uh I was doing the Texan show earlier, so I did not get to catch pregame comments from anybody. Um, in terms of if there was a starter announcer Monday, doesn’t look like there was a starter announcement Monday, but that’s the u obvious, you know, thing that could happen is that Luis Garcia comes back for that one. But again, the development tonight, we’ll talk about the bad offense in a second. I say bad offense, just offense that couldn’t do anything. Javier was tremendous. And I think it’s easy to get caught up in all the little things here and there. Like I said, the negative. Yeah, Craig Kimber loaded the bases, walked three guys. Okay. Yeah, they didn’t, you know, they didn’t score barely anything tonight. They look kind of anemic up there at the plate. Okay, got it. That’s a huge positive. That was a huge positive for them. Win number 75 on the season. Like I mentioned, Seattle coughed one up against the Guardians tonight. walk-off for uh I think it was Steven Quan that hit it and the Astros extend their lead in the West to three games. Little breathing room. Don’t forget when you think about the schedule moving forward, it’s looming. You got the rest of this series. You got three against the Yankees here at home at the Rangers at Toronto, at Atlanta, home for Texas, and then that final series against Seattle’s coming up the 19th through the 21st. And I’m going to be honest with you, you’d like to go into that series with at least a four game leading this division. You got the room to do it. Now, it’s all about going out there and doing it. They’ve gotten it back to three. Don’t let it slip back to one, one and a half, whatever. Keep it right there. Now, let’s talk for a minute about the offense and then we’ll take a look at tomorrow’s baseball game as well as they’re going to look to pick up win number two of this series, which is a four gamer across the weekend. We’ll talk about it here in just a brief moment. Locked on Astros Post. First up, what are you doing paying for gas? Are you still paying full price for gas? Well, stop leaving money behind. Get real cash back every time you fill up with the free upside app. Simply download the free upside app in the app store or Google Play right now and start earning cash at the pump today. Use my unlimited, excuse me, uh, promo code season and get an extra 25 cents back per gallon on your first fill up. You can make up to $300 a year from buying gas that you need already. How nice is that? At first, I thought it was too good to be true, but it’s totally totally legit. Real people are getting paid to make their daily commutes. You can, too. 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Monarch is built for people with busy lives. Think like me. If you’ve put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all of your accounts in minutes. See clear data visuals. Get smart categorization of your spending and finally feel free finally feel free and in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Don’t let your financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on MLB. Astros take down the Los Angeles Angels tonight, two nothing the final, pushing their lead in the American League West to three games over the Seattle Mariners who lost tonight. Hate to see it. Love to see it. The absolute best as the Astros keep winning when they need to. They did that yesterday. They got that series victory. Hey, I got to give a shout out right now. This is a guy that I love to hate on. Now, look, I don’t love to hate on anybody, but there’s just, you know, how there, you guys know this, you’re fans of the team, you watch the games, there’s always a player or two on every team that you just don’t really like. Even on the great teams, like even the like the 2017 Astros, Luke Gregerson, Lou Gregerson was that guy for me without a doubt. 2022. Oh, I was a Mauricio Dubon hater when he first got here. Absolute hater. And you know what? I came around. It took me a while, but I came around on him. I got to see his value over time, but that 2022 season when he came over here and hit 208 and they’re playing him a bunch, I’m like, what are we doing here? Also, Jose Siri. Um, pitching wise on that team, Jake Rizzy. They traded him. Him and I would say Stan didn’t fit that mold that year. Man, it’s really hard. That team was so good pitching wise. I mean, so good. God, you ever want to go down a rabbit hole looking how good a team was pitching? Go look at the 2022 Astros and you find one guy, is that right? two guys that did any pitching in games with an erra over over four or that even reached four and that was uh Rell Blanco who pitched in seven games had a 711 and then Pedro Bayas who pitched in three games had 1157 everybody else was under three the entire roster team RA that year was 290 stupid good no wonder they won the World Series I say all of that to say that Caleb tonight he has been that guy for me. Uh, for sure. I have not been a Caleb Ort fan at all. I look, most of the time he comes in, he’s not very good. He’s got an ERA on the year. That’s got to be I mean, I know that RA is not everything for relievers. I don’t want anybody to think that I think that that’s how you evaluate evaluate relievers completely, but 436. He’s been a guy that just comes in, walks people, just gets guys out. There’s traffic all the time. His whip is 13. That’s not good. And for a guy that’s got 98, he doesn’t get a lot of strikeouts. He’s got more strikeouts than innings pitch, but it’s not like elite strikeouts. Tonight, Caleb Ort came in there and was absolutely filthy. And he got the save on top of it. So, props to you, Caleb Ort. It’s not good enough for this. This is the locked on player of the game. That goes to Christian Javier tonight for six innings shut out, hitless baseball. But a special appreciation night for Caleb Bort. I’m with Caleb Bort’s number one hater. Probably not his number one hater. He just doesn’t I’m never comfortable when he pitches. I’m also not comfortable with the offense. Let’s just say that right now. They didn’t do a lot tonight. Now, I’m not going to spend blavor a lot of point time on this because look, they won at the end of the night. That’s all that matters. They scored more than the opponent. Two nothing. They got the victory. Uh you got two hits out of Pena tonight, two out of Altuve, two out of Walker. Obviously, Koreah had the big blow there, the line drive over there to right that gave the Astros a one- nothing lead and manufacture another one in the eighth. And credit to Yordon there. Hey, you know what he’s going to do? He is better at this than anybody else in the team. When there is a drive, a situation to drive in a run like that, the runner on third and less than two outs, he’s going to find a way to get the ball into the outfield in the air and get the run home. And that’s exactly what happened. They could have had more. They should have had more. Of course, he had the bases loaded situation earlier in the game where of course Yinard Dia is out there flailing at the first pitch. He sees outside of the zone, rolls one over to third base and they get an easy step on third, throw it home, get Cray out at third. That is the one thing from this game tonight that absolutely drove me absolutely insane was that at bat by Yanner Diaz. What are you doing, dude? Just take a pitch occasionally. You don’t have to swing first pitch every single time. I get so frustrated because I expected so much more out of him this year and he has been overall abysmal and we know that. We know that. Zero’s ops is just barely over 700 like by 01. Runners are in scoring position tonight. The Astros are two of 14. They left 13 men on base. That can’t happen again tomorrow night if they want to keep winning baseball games because I will say this, there is um you know they got to have a little bit more than that. little bit more. Be great if they, you know, occasionally scored some of those runs when they got runners in scoring position. So, just had to say it tonight. But again, you got the win. That is all that matters. Okay, two nothing. 75 wins on the season. And here we are talking about this team with a three-game lead in the division. And there you go. We will be back again tomorrow night when the game wraps up. It’s a 610 first pitch tomorrow night. Just want to make sure I confirm that right now. Yes, 610 first pitch. Make sure that you come right back here to this channel to join me soon as the game ends for the Locked on Astros post. You guys have a great rest of your Friday night. Celebrate responsibly. We’ll talk after game two of the series locked on Astros.

There was not a lot to write home about at the plate for the Houston Astros on Friday, but that wasn’t the case for the pitching as they kept the Los Angeles Angels off the board in the win. Michael Connor discusses the victory on the Locked On Astros Postcast.

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