COLLAPSE: Astros SWEPT by Mariners in CRUCIAL Series | Playoff Hopes HANGING by a Thread?

COLLAPSE: Astros SWEPT by Mariners in CRUCIAL Series | Playoff Hopes HANGING by a Thread?

Well, the Astros were swept out of home and onto the road. Their playoff hopes are in peril. We’re going to talk about it right now. Yel Diaz. This is Locked On Astros. Hello and welcome to Locked On Astros, your daily Astros podcast. Here are your hosts, Eric the Man Heisman and Brett Htown Wheelhouse Chansy. We are locked on Houston Astros. We hope that you join us for a daily lock on Astros podcast. My name is Eric Heisman is Brett Chansy and we are the Locked on Astros podcast. We hope that you make us your first listen. Whether it’s on Apple, Odyssey, Spotify, wherever you listen your podcast, go and check us out. Between Brett and I, we have over 18 years of podcasting experience. Whether it’s the off seasonason, the postseason, the regular season, wherever, whatever the time it is, we’re here to talk Astros baseball to go ahead and try to make sense of everything and talk you um off the depression, whatever it is. But uh definitely this was a weird series. We’ll go and talk about that more later, but this episode is brought to you by 5Hour Energy. Enough with boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5Hour Energy Shots. Go to www.5hourenery.com or Amazon today to get yours. So Brett, I I I laid out some on Thursday’s show, I laid up some um kind of things that made the Astros successful against the Rangers, and I said this is what the Astros need to continue doing to get the series win against the Mariners, but it was the basically the worst case scenario that happened this weekend. They did not do any of it. Uh so we’ll go and talk about what they did not do. uh the playoffs they’re in danger of not even making the playoffs right right now as we’re speaking they are on an outside looking in and we’ll go and get some injury updates and pitching plans for the rest of the time because I see a lot of TBAs in our future. But guys, thank you for making us your first listen and go ahead and subscribe to us. So Brett, how was your weekend? Oh, you know, um it was it was actually great. Um, you know, from an Astros perspective, it was terrible. But, um, I I’m definitely not going to let it pour water on, you know, had a good weekend, restful weekend. Um, if I’m being honest, but, um, I want to address some things here like Doug Fresh says, “There’s a reason the A’s made Jason Alexander available. You saw it right now.” Well, come on, man. Really? The guy had one bad game. Give me a break. The dude has been dependable. He’s been more dependable than Fber Valdez. Fron Valdez has been absolute just buns the second half of the season and Jason Alexander came in and had a stinker of a game. Gave up a granny, gave up a two-run home run. I mean, it just it looked bad and you could tell like um I was I I had a I had a vision of the dugout from my seat tonight and Jason Alexander, that dude was down on himself and um you know, his change up was working when it wasn’t working. But um this was just a game where you absolutely had to come out and you had to make a statement. Um some you know a lot of people were joking watch them come out game three and win like 12 to2 you know. Um but they do have a day off. Uh they lick their wounds. Um we’ll talk about injuries later and how that will impact hopefully the lineup of someone coming back that needed to be in the lineup tonight. But it it just it just looked like once that grand slam hit, it was like that took the wind out of their sales. You know, you had a couple guys get hits in early innings um to lead things off and then nothing behind it. And that that has been the tail of the tape for this team in 2025 is just, you know, get enough hits but don’t score enough runs or um get guys in scoring position or don’t even get guys in scoring position. So, um, it it just seemed like once they put that seven spot up there, you were like, “Okay, I mean, the Astros just are not going to come back from this.” Um, the Mariners are all up in their feelings about how they’re playing, and they should be. They’re they’re playing the best baseball out of all the teams in the West. Um, which I guess is not saying much because everybody after us is pretty much an abject failure on the season, Rangers included. But it’s tough to watch this because the this is worst case scenario, Eric, because I mean, if you take two of these three games, if you take one of these games, um if you take three games away from your games after a day off where they were eight and 11, um you’re talking about still having a oneame lead on the Mariners. But would have, should have, could have, here we are. Um, so there’s a lot of people that are on the ledge, a lot of people that are like saying it’s done, it’s over. Um, seasons seasons like Sinaara 2026, here we come. You know who’s not giving up? Believe it or not, the Houston Astros. Yeah, the Houston Astros. Uh, I believe Ari Alexander was on with Sports Talk 790, the pregame show, and they’re basically talking that the clubhouse mood is positive, and it’s because of Joe Spot. He’s not out out there being all doom and gloom. This is a much win, mustwin game. This is a game uh, everybody knows that it’s a must-win game. They know that he’s not out there to put a lot of pressure on the guys, but the team knows where they are. And Joe Spot basically said before the game that uh these guys have been there before. They know they have been down two one or two games late in the season and they have come back. But it just feels like this team is a little bit different and uh let the things that made them successful against the Rangers was they uh scored early. the pitching limited the damage early and they uh basically scored a lot of runs and scor uh they uh played pretty good defense but to even with Hunter Brown even though he didn’t pitch poorly he gave up two home runs and uh the Mariners scored first in all three games and then you had the pitching wasn’t really on top of except for Hunter Brown he wasn’t terrible but Romer Valdez another poor start we’ll talk about how bad he’s been doing. But like Jason Alexander today, he’s been living by the ground ball and he’s been getting a lot of um ground balls, whether it’s double plays or just ground balls to the infielders, but in today’s game, he was facing a pretty legit lineup. And he was throwing cookies down the middle. And it’s not like he’s throwing it like 100 miles per hour. The No, he never has. He’s ne he’s not known for velocity. He’s not known for strikeouts. If you look at the saber metrics, everything is not there for Jason Alexander. If he’s off just a little bit, you’re gonna see a game like today where in one and one/3 innings, he’s already given up seven runs on seven hits, including two home runs. Yeah. Um this game, um you would you would like this to be a game where you’re like, oh, you know, you missed opportunities when I mean, you really didn’t have any. You you did have a few baseballs that Esoch Parades came around on a 97 mph um for seam that Gilbert threw him. I don’t know how he came around early on that. Eric, if that ball would have been fair, it would have it would have tested the glass above the train track. It would have absolutely hit one of the top panes and it would have probably been really loud. Um that that would have been a game changer. you know, last night’s game where Jeremy Pñena hits the grand slam and you think there’s a chance that they come back and, you know, they cut the lead by two and all that stuff. So, you just you just didn’t have those kind of fireworks tonight. Um, you know, the Mariners again, they’re just playing really good baseball. They’ve always had the starting pitching. Their bullpin is gassed, but right now it doesn’t seem to matter who you throw at this Astros team, Eric, because they’re just not getting the run production. Are they tired? I don’t know. Are they checked out? I really doubt that they’re checked out. Now, there didn’t seem to be a ton of energy in the building from the Astros themselves, but they do have pride in their game that they do care. They do still want to win. And I mean, there is still an outside chance that the Houston Astros win. I mean, the Mariners can stumble on themselves. Um, the one thing I would caution with the Mariners is remember, y’all have the record for most wins in a season, and y’all failed to even make it to the World Series that year. So, good job, guys, during the regular season, but your team has let you down every year in the playoffs in the existence of the Seattle Mariners. So, don’t count your chickens before they hatch because nothing’s a guarantee. And we’ve seen it in the playoffs. The Astros were were a shoe in to win 19. They were a shoe in to win 21 and they didn’t. So, um, take it easy. I know the Mariners fans are in their fields. You know what? We appreciate them being here because the more of them that are here, the more I mean, it’s good for us. You know, our algorithm goes up and welcome, welcome to Texas to all the Seattle fans. Hope you stay around even to next year. Well, I know that a lot of people thought the Astros were a shoe in for the playoffs this year, but right now it doesn’t seem as likely. We’ll go and talk about what the Astros have done since they had a 4-ame lead over the Mariners on September 3rd, but it’s been a it’s not been great. So guys, thank you for making Lockdown Astros podcast your first listen every day. All right, everybody. I want to tell you about Zipix today. Get your fix with Zipix toothpicks. Save 10% and you can get a little vial like this. I’ve got my B12 Zipix toothpicks. I’m not going to have one tonight because it’ll keep me up. It is a great boost of energy. But there’s also another reason why Zipix exists. It provides you a discrete way to satisfy your cravings for hand-to-mouth habit without vaping or smoking. And if you have that nicotine issue, then you need to get Zipix. that can be helpful tool to help you work to reduce your dependence on that. Um, available in six great flavors, 2 milligrams and 3 milligram nicotine options. If you need energy without the crash like I have right here, their caffeine toothpicks are a gamecher. 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Get the flavors you love. or be bold and try something new in store and online with www.5hourenergy.com or Amazon today. Hey guys, thank you for making Locked on Astros podcast your first listen every day. Whether it’s on YouTube, go and subscribe to us. Go and make this first listen Apple Odyssey, Spotify, wherever you listen to podcast, go and check us out. So, I know that we’re all stressed out because the Astros dropped this critical series against the Mariners. Before we talk about the record, I just want to alarm you that if you are driving, you might want to pull over. Uh you might want to sit down, but the Astros not only are three games behind the Mariners right now for AL West, but they lost that tiebreaker. That essentially puts them four games behind the Mariners if there is a tie at the end of the season for AL West. So there’s only six games left. I know the Astros the avenue the the remaining games are a lot easier for the Astros, but who knows what to expect for the rest of the season. You go to Sacramento, you play the A’s, who have played the Astros tough over the year, but they’re not the same team. They probably have the rookie of the year over there. But, uh, then you’re gonna go ahead and finish the season in Anaheim. Nobody Everybody wants to be the spoiler. Everybody hates the Astros. So, don’t you think the Angels are going to be gearing up to to go ahead and keep the Astros out of the playoffs? I don’t you know I honestly don’t I don’t really I mean I don’t I don’t because that’s the only purpose of their life right now Brett to be but but I don’t think they’re going we’re going to keep them I don’t I don’t know I I honestly don’t think that most major league players do that. I mean, you have some major league players like Tim Anderson who are basically crybab and say things like they wish the Astros would be hit in the head, every one of them after the scandal came out. I mean, yeah, you you you do have players like Joe Kelly that are that are that are basically grown babies and yeah, but Mike Trout just hit his 400th home run. Joe Adele, they they could care less about that. I think they just want to win games. They’re not be like we’re going to win game and keep them. I don’t know. Maybe they are. I would be really shocked if if if they were into that. We are playing the Rockies next and then right where No. Oh no. Oh no. The Rockies are Seattle. Um look, I mean, are the Rockies going to be like we’re going to we’re going to damage the Mariners position in the playoffs? I understand. Yeah. I mean, I guess they’re going to play sport. I just I I just don’t know that there’s this still this big vendetta. I don’t think from what the f like the fans want the players to be all tangled up in this whole thing against the Astros. I don’t think that’s still there if I’m being honest. It doesn’t have to be about the scandal, but just to keep another team in. That’s their whole purpose. That’s their World Series, so to speak. That’s their chance to say, “Hey, this is our playoff series.” And I’m not going to mock anybody because the Astros may not even make it to the playoffs right now. And Brett, it’s it’s been bad. And let’s go back to when the Astros had a four-game lead on September 3rd. The Astros have gone seven and N during that time. In that same time, the Mariners have gone 14 and2. The Mariners have played better baseball. Uh, plain and simple, the Mariners have earned where the spot where they’re at. The Astros have played piss poor baseball. The Astros have earned the place where they’re at, too. Yeah, they’ve they’ve earned the they’ve they’ve earned the And can you imagine if we didn’t have the most injured baseball team in all of baseball history? Can you imagine if you just take again two or three of those losses on off days and turn those into wins? What’s what’s interesting and the elephant in the room is they are three games ahead of us and they have played better than us. And I know I’m going off what if, you know, what about is and what about this, what about that, but you take a team that’s as often injured as injured as the Astros. You have their their biggest, their most feared, the most feared left-handed hitter in pretty much all of baseball, out pretty much all season long. You have Jeremy Pey who dealt with a significant injury. You lose Tucker. You lose Bregman. I’m just saying like you have a year where you have all this adversity and the Mariners are only three games in front of you. So despite what they’ve gone through, they’re still in this position with six games left. They can make it. Is it incredibly hard right now? Yes. Am I super hopeful? Am I the always positive, always throws guy? I’m the about as least hopeful as I’ve been in a long time that this team will make the playoffs. But here’s the real question. Is there a silver lining in not making the playoffs? Because right now, if you make the playoffs, I somehow want you to perform a miracle and take the division. I don’t want you to get in as a wild card because to me, the wild card’s a lot tougher this year than if you win the division. And that’s my take on that. Yeah. So, I know um it’s kind of weird the where the Astros are, but they they start off where they’re wishy-washy. They’re going back and forth where they’re like win one, lose one, win one, lose one. Then they went on this unbelievable run. They got this big lead and now they just don’t they can’t seem to win a lot of baseball games. They’re under 500 since the All-Star break. And yeah, I just don’t think this team is October ready. And I know we’ve had all these conversations about who’s the number two uh pitcher if the Astros go into the playoffs. Everybody’s like, “Well, it’s got to be Jason Alexander.” Well, Jason Alexander just showed what he could possibly do against a playoff team. Yes. And he’s been doing great. uh the Astros won the previous what seven games that he pitched or something but tonight he showed that he was human and that uh against a good lineup it’s could be hard for him to get through that lineup but Romer Valdez he has been be he has been a basically a high school kid and I hate to say that because Romer Valdez has been a good pitcher for the Astros a good find for the Astros but in his past 10 starts And he even said that, I know it’s been 10 bad starts. I recognized I had been throwing the ball as well. This is baseball. That stuff happens. I have to keep on working and keep on making adjustments. But, uh, since, um, after winning 13 consecutive games started by Valdez from May 7th through July 22nd, the Astros are 1 and9 in his last 10 starts. Valdez himself is 1-7 with a 6.6 16-year A with a 1.51 whip. On most teams, that guy would be sent down to TripleA. But because he’s Palmer Valdez, there’s still talk about, well, he might be the number two guy if the Astros make it to the playoffs. Well, yeah. I mean, he’s not going to you’re not going to deep you’re not going to take him out of the starting role. That’s that’s impossible. He he’s he’s he’s got he’s got too much going on um there and he’s he’s cemented himself. Um, I’m sitting here trying to keep up with the comments. Um, you know, right here, um, Tikki says, “We’ll sweep the A’s and the Angels. The M’s will take two from the Rockies and get swept by LA.” If that happens and we win six and and they go they go four and two or they go two and four, um, then you know what? The Astros are in. The Astros win the division with that, I believe. Um, we but we I mean, we are going to have to win pretty much all six games. Yeah. I mean, you you can hope for a miracle sweep by the Rockies, but I I don’t I don’t have a lot of faith in that. I I’m not going to I’m sure I’m sure betting on the Rockies would be very fruitful on FanDuel if if you made that bet because they’re obviously not favored, but the thing is tonight having Jeremy Pñena scratched from the lineup was not good. And that just I’m sorry that that had to kill some kind of vibe in the in the in the clubhouse. Yeah, we’ll definitely have to address that next. Um, we’ll talk about Pino, we’ll talk about Alvarez, and we’ll talk about somebody that hit a home run that he hasn’t done in a long time. 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Um he was dealing with some uh left oblique soreness and he was um Dana Brown said on the pregame show that he was going to get a some imaging and they’ll know some more results later. They don’t think it’s anything serious. They’re expecting him to miss probably about two g days or two games or whatever that is. But I don’t know if that means just today or Monday or does that mean uh today and Tuesday? I think we’ll know when they know more. But uh Jeremy Pena was the the guy that almost got the Astros back into the game on Saturday, but uh you of course you’re always going to miss his presence, not only leading off because Aluve uh jumped back into the leadoff spot today, but Jeremy Pena, the Astros can’t go anywhere without him. Yeah. Um, they can’t go anywhere without him. They can’t go anywhere without Frober. They can’t go anywhere without Jason Alexander. They can’t go anywhere without Yordon Alvarez. There’s a lot of guys that they can’t go. You can fight him at HL Willhouse. Just kidding. No, I mean what? I know. I know what you mean. Robert Valdez needs to be better is what you’re trying to say. Yes. Yeah. I mean, look, Zack Cole’s out there crushing home runs. 441 feet. That was an absolute blast. Yeah. Crazy. crazy. Um, but it’s just it’s just one of those things where with a team that saw Taylor Trl hit a home run in Yankee Stadium, a team that has seen pitcher after pitcher after pitcher go down. I mean, we lost four of our starting pitchers to start the year. You know, we were literally throwing out aaa lineup in beating teams with aa lineup, right? So you give me a full strength Houston Astros in 2025 and that’s a big middle finger to the league and I think the Astros clearly have 95 to 97 wins at this point. Injuries away um he his hamstring was tested today when uh he struck out but he actually threw the bat and so the ball get got by Cal Riley so he had to run to first base. So, um, I think Cal Rally thought that that was a foul ball and so that’s why he wasn’t really hustling and trying to get Parades, but Prades was safe. Nothing really happened. But I know you talked about that foul ball that almost was a home run. But then later on, it just looked like Prades never left. He had that home run and it was a beautiful home run to the Crawford boxes. I believe it was like three or four rows back, but it was no doubter. He uh you could tell the confidence that he had in in his face, but at that point it was too late. The Astros um were down 73 at that point. But it’s good to see that he’s getting back in his groove because hypothetically um Jordan Alvarez has not returned to resume baseball activities right now. He’s out of the walking boot, so that’s a good thing. But uh he is on IIEL until at least the last two games of the season. So, um, likely we won’t see him until probably the ALDS at the Soonest, but Joe Spot did say before the game that he’s not a guy that’s going to require a lot of at bats or uh, no time. And so once he said he says he’s ready, he’ll come back. But, um, the question was asked, well, if Alvarez comes back, where do you play Brad Prades? and he said essentially well by that time we hope that Brad Prades will prove that he can play a position and then we’ll go ahead and put him at first second or something and then Alvarez will be playing of course DH because he’ll be dealing with that ankle injury right you know I mean if you look did you did you look up how many I don’t know if you saw my text um how many games have the Mariners won out of their last 16 games I told you 14 and two okay 14 and two. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Um sorry, I’m I’m I’m trying to keep up with everybody on the show here. Um it’s great. We’ve got a lot of Mariners fans giving us compliments and we appreciate that. Um right here I see See if this is a compliment. Um you guys have had a heck of a rain. Thanks for the competition. I know all too well as a Mariner fan what it’s like to fall short. Obviously I want to win the West, but you guys still have time. See there is right there. What you see? you see game recognized game there but then there’s reality because like you said the Astros will have to win all the games and then the Mariners will have to lose basically the Tigers have fallen apart they’ve lost six in a row I mean I mean never never too late to start a six-game losing streak Mariners that would be great um and you know what I’ve I’ve turned over New Leaf though um If that happens and the Astros do in some utopian Astros utopia world where they win the West on the last game of the season like they’ve done before. I’m not going to dance on the Mariners fans second place graves. I’m not going to do that. I’m going to be the better person. Okay. Um but oh man, it’s it’s it’s going to be really tempting. Um the thing is this team and yes the Mariners have had injuries as noted by some of their fans. They lost Kirby, they lost Miller. They they lost a lot of pitching throughout the season, but my point earlier was, and it’s not an excuse, the Astros have had to deal with more injuries than any team in Major League history. Plain and simple. I think the medical staff needs to be cleared out. I mean, I’m sorry. Um when a team doesn’t perform well on the field, who t who gets the axe? is the manager, right? And when players come back too early repeatedly over and over and they don’t do imaging, they don’t know what’s going on and it’s a fracture, it’s a bruise, they don’t know what it is and all this stuff, then I’m sorry. We need to get a medical staff in here that I kind of knows their butt from the hole in the ground because they act like they didn’t kind of like this. Dude, this is the umpires this weekend were were horrible. this. They missed so many calls today for the They even tried to say how 2A didn’t get hit by that ball. Oh man, the crowd. I don’t know if you heard on TV. They we let that dude have it. They were like I was like I was like, “Are you from the school of the blind?” Like we were all like yelling at him. It was It was brutal. I was like, “That guy probably needs protection tonight because he was Man, he just it it was it was just really really bad.” But here’s the thing. You You can’t make excuses. You can’t blame You can’t blame refs or I’m sorry umpires. You can’t blame injuries. Why? Because you got to suit up and you have to play with the guys that you did. And you proved that you could in the first half. Second half, you just have stumbled and fumbled all over yourself. So, the Astros really have nobody to blame really but themselves. Like I’ve been mentioning, the Astros controlled their own destiny and they’re they played the Mariners, the team that they were tied with going into the series and they played piss poor baseball. And so, uh, them being three maybe four games technically behind the Mariners, that’s on them. And the they played the offense was terrible, the pitching was not up to par. And the Mariners, to their credit, their starting pitchers went out there and dealt. They they got the job done. And so the Mariners might be one of the better teams in the AL West right now. The Astros have had a good team, but just for some reason, whatever it is, they just can’t find that consistency to get the offense, the pitching, and the bullpen and defense all together in one game, except for against the Braves and the Rangers. But the the sucky thing is you were like, “Oh, well, they’re playing the A’s.” That’s a easy because the A’s are not very good. The Astros this year are four and six against the A’s. They have scored 52 runs. They’ve allowed 52 runs. So, it’s Come on, Eric. Kick my dog. Advantage right there. Well, hey, real quick. Um, I’m not going to try to say this guy’s name because I’ll probably butcher it. And don’t you try to do it because you’ll butcher it. I know for sure. Um, he says this. It’s just our time. It’s just our time. I hate y’all, lol. But I respect what y’all done this last decade. Y’all kept the West looking good. Salute. So, there you go. This is the kind of banter that I like between our fan base and their fan base. And and and this is what I’ll say, what I’ve seen in this show, what I’ve experienced more from this show, from any fan base than and I literally think that the Mariners and the Astros are one of the best and one of the most underrated rivalries in baseball, Eric. I I really do. And I’m not saying it’s historic like the Yankees Red Sox or or or Giants, you know, Dodgers, but this rivalry has been so contentious. the Mariners and the Astros come to play each other. I mean, going back to 2022, you know, that that huge run that I mean, they were in all those games. It wasn’t like we beat the brakes off of them. So, the thing is this is this is this is just a good Mariners team. I mean, I don’t know. Do they do they finally get it done? I know Mariners fans are cautiously optimistic because they’ve seen great teams before. I mean, Kerby Jr. couldn’t even get to the World Series. So maybe Cal Riley gets him over and freaking Julio Rodriguez, he was he was basically a ghost of himself to start the season and now he is the guy that when they signed him, we were like, “Oh crap, we’ve got to face this guy every season.” Well, against the Angels this year, to go off that, they are I still think hate the LAA, but um they are six and four against the Angels. They’re uh they’ve scored 45 and they’ve allowed 38 runs. So, they’ve played a little bit better against the Angels. The Angels are a much worse team. I don’t think that their the future is bright after especially after they missed the opportunity to trade show Otani, but um I think that the Astros have the benefit of trying to win at least two out of three against the Ace and maybe go for the sweep against the Angels, but it they’re not going to make it easy. They’re not going to roll over, play dead just because oh, we’re not uh in the competition. But the A’s are a good team. Nick Curtz is out there like hitting home runs left and right. He’s got 30. He’s only played 106 home games this year. So, this guy is probably going to win the rookie of the year. So, the Astros, can we somehow get him in the off season? Can we get Nick Girtz? Why not? No, it’s Dude, they’re not going to trade him. I know the A’s have made terrible trades in the past, but they’re not letting this kid go. They’re probably going to try to extend him and get keep him in the folds for a long long time. But the Astros, they control their own destiny. They can’t worry about the Mariners. They can’t worry about the Guardians because the Guardians should be their primary focus right now. Maybe even the Tigers because if the Guardians continue to win, I know they lost on Saturday, but uh if the Guardians continue to or Sunday is when they lost, but if the Guardians continue to win, they can knock out the Tigers. So, yeah. uh from the first place there and then the Tigers could fall to the last wild card spot. So you could be neck andneck with the Tigers. So it’s could be interesting. You can’t say that you’re not entertained. This series was not fun, but the Astros still have a chance of making the playoffs. It doesn’t It’s not easy. You’re going to have to expect a lot of teams to lose to get in, but they’re not out of it. like you said, they’re tied with the other teams. And by the way, with the Tigers, uh, Detroit, uh, they are two and four. So, the Tigers have the advantage, the tiebreaker over the Astros. There you go. Yeah, they don’t have they don’t really have anything. Emilio’s asking, I know we’re going a little bit long. He says, “Mr. Bre, are you pulling the plug on a Walker like you did Jose Abrau?” No, because I would have pulled the plug on a Walker way earlier like I did Jose Abrau. Jose Abrau didn’t hit as many home runs as him. He also didn’t get hot like Walker did. So, these two things are not the same. One of these things is not like the other. And Christian Walker is not Jose Abrau. Jose Abrau is not Christian Walker. That’s all there is to it. Um, do we have any young position talent? Oh, heck yeah. We have you have you seen Zack Cole? This kid’s amazing. Um, we’ve uh we’ve got Jeremy Pñena. Um, you know what? I took a picture of Koreah in the batters box and Altuve at the plate because I still cannot wrap my mind around the fact that Koreah is back. I think a full season with the Astros at third base will be cool. We’ll see what happens to Paradius’s position next year. And I know I’m talking like the season’s over, but um there are some there there are some fun things that that we have to discuss in the off season um when that does come. Now, hopefully the Astros can take care of business and get into the playoffs. Like Mike Stanton said, getting into the playoffs is the hard part. Once you’re in, all bets are off. Once you’re in, you can get hot and you can surprise some people. So, you know what Astros? Hey, go shock the world. Uh, the Mariners did what I didn’t think that they would do. They would t they tamed the Houston Astros. The Astros were on a hot streak uh off the Mar the Braves and the Rangers series. unfortunately didn’t go the Astros way, but they still have time to uh claw their way back in. If they get into the dance, they can learn how to dance without with the players they got and figure it out. But we’ll go and preview the A series tomorrow. But guys, thank you for making Lockdown Astros podcast your first listen every day. My name is Eric Heisman. He is Brett Chansy. We’ll be here all off season, all regular season, all postseason, whatever it is. Go ahead and make sure you tune in to the Lockdown Astros podcast. Make us your first listen every day and we will see you uh tomorrow. Ghosts. That catch on Saturday by Roblox was crazy. He had a

Houston Astros’ playoff hopes hang by a thread after a devastating sweep by the Seattle Mariners. Can the reigning World Series champions mount a miraculous comeback?

Eric Huysman and Brett Chancey break down the Astros’ recent struggles, analyzing their precarious position in the AL West standings. The hosts dissect key performances, including Framber Valdez’s concerning 1-7 record in his last 10 starts, and discuss the impact of injuries to Jeremy Pena and Yordan Alvarez. With crucial series against the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Angels looming, Houston faces an uphill battle to secure a postseason berth.

Tune in for expert insights on the Astros’ path forward and potential wild card scenarios in this must-listen episode for every Houston fan.

The Houston Astros were swept by the Mariners, putting them three games (4 with the tie breaker) behind in the AL West. While they are currently tied with the Cleveland Guardians for the last Wild Card spot, the Guardians hold the tiebreaker with their record versus the Astros. Jason Alexander was ambushed, but he threw way too many pitches in the strike zone. Yordan Alvarez gives us an injury update.

0:00 Astros swept by Mariners, playoff hopes in peril

5:19 Astros clubhouse mood remains positive despite losses

15:46 Astros’ poor performance since September 3rd lead

25:44 Yordan Alvarez injury update and potential return

30:54 Astros control their own destiny despite struggles

36:10 Young talent on Astros roster for future seasons

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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