0:09

Astros fans cheers, Rocky Lucky.

0:14

Welcome to the Crawford Bucks Cast, as.

0:18

Proudly porn for you by Crawford Bach from Carbach Brewing.

0:22

You're getting dap bear.

0:25

Oh my godness, the Crawford Box Cast starts now here

0:29

we go.

0:30

Here's Chris Gordy and Ross Viail.

0:34

And it is an all new edition of the Crawford

0:36

Box Cast, presented by the Crawford Bach and Carbach Brewing.

0:41

As we get into it, as this roller coaster of

0:44

a season for your Houston Astros continues. As as we speak,

0:47

the Astros have just won the Golden Boot or the

0:51

Silver Boot rather series and they are back in the

0:53

first place in the American League West. And man, it's

0:57

you feel much better from where you are. Just a week we could go. We see, we've seen you say,

1:01

Kakuchi make two starts now for the Astros, both very strong.

1:05

We've got Justin Verlander knocking on the doorf coming back.

1:08

Still no real update on Kyle Tucker. But here we

1:12

are as the Astro sit at fifty nine and fifty

1:15

five overall and back in the first place in Aos

1:18

with the Seattle Mariners having lost three in a Row.

1:21

I'm Chris Gordy. He is Ross, Virial and Ross. As

1:25

we talked about our friends over at Carboch Brewing. You

1:27

were over there on Monday as they did their watch

1:29

party for the Rangers game.

1:30

How was that?

1:32

Yeah, that was pretty good. We had a lot of

1:34

people come out. We were broadcasting from the Pizza and Pints,

1:38

which has been open after we've been talking about it for.

1:40

A long time. Had a slice of pizza. Dan Matthews

1:43

came by.

1:44

He had a pizza ad to slices brisket pizza that

1:46

was quite delicious. I also like, my favorite thing is

1:50

the board of Bruds that they're kind of working on

1:52

in tinkering on. They call it the Fun Series. I

1:54

like the West Coast ipa there. But of course, as you said, Crawford Boch is always a standby. Orbit came

1:59

out shooting stars is going to shock you. They were

2:02

looking pretty good. They had raffles giveaways. It was a

2:05

fun time and there was actually a little bit of a breeze once the sun went down. It was quite

2:09

pleasant out there at the beer garden. It over at

2:11

car Back brought.

2:12

Yeah, and they've got cool stuff going on all the time over there at car back and appreciate them for

2:16

doing that and talk to a bunch of people who

2:18

were out there, and the Crawford Bock was flowing, just

2:21

as it will be when the Astros get back home.

2:24

And by the way, Astros about to go into a

2:27

stretch of very difficult games. We'll get into that as

2:30

we roll along, but we start here ross as the

2:34

Astros go into Arlington and have a heartbreaker loss on Monday,

2:39

blowing that game before they come back and win Game

2:42

two in Game three of this series, and thus they're

2:44

done with the Texas Rangers for the regular season. They

2:48

win the Silver Boot Series for the eighth season in

2:50

a row, and it wasn't easy. Obviously, the tiebreaker came

2:54

into play last year decided who won the American League West.

2:57

We'll see what happens as the Rangers sit five and

2:59

a half behind me Astros now if that will come

3:01

to play again. But nonetheless, it was looking bleak there

3:05

for a little bit, as they had lost three in a row, they had lost six of eight, and now

3:09

here they are they've won two in a row and feel a little bit better about themselves.

3:14

Yeah, it's funny because it's just really been the Astros

3:17

experience this year.

3:18

I mean, they started off horribly, but since.

3:19

They've been winning, even the games that they win, they

3:24

just don't blow out folks a whole lot, and even

3:27

it feels like the games that they lose, like you mentioned the heartbreaker on Monday, losing an extra innings, They've

3:31

lost a lot of extra inning games.

3:33

It's kind of the.

3:34

Nature of the team right now, where the state of

3:36

the pitching, which has been pretty good so far this

3:38

season and bullpen has been good for the majority of the season, but having Kakuchi back there now in the rotation,

3:45

hopefully getting Verlander back as well. But the offense has

3:49

been an offense that isn't going out there and giving

3:53

you seven, eight, nine runs, So you're in these nip

3:56

and tuck battles. You lose an extra innings on Monday,

4:00

they were close games on Tuesday, and Wednesday you had

4:02

to use Josh Hater three games in a row for

4:04

the first time all season. So it's kind of been

4:08

It's just it's been a white knuckle ride, it feels like,

4:12

especially after the really horrible start to where every night

4:16

it almost feels like we're in these stressful games because

4:19

of how solid the pitching has been and how lacking

4:22

the offensive has been. Exploding for six runs in the

4:26

last game, we'll call that an explosion for this offense

4:30

and what we've seen from them lately.

4:31

Yeah, what's lost in all this is how good the

4:35

Astros pitching has been. I mean, we talk about Spencer

4:39

Urghetti goes six innings of one run ball against the Rays,

4:43

takes a loss because they can't get him in he

4:45

run support. They lose one to nothing. Hunter Brown goes

4:48

out there and pitches six innings of one run ball.

4:50

It's a game that they end up blowing. But frob

4:53

Ert Valdez has a near no hitter. I mean, he

4:56

was one out away from a new hitter the other night.

4:58

He was fantastic, And you say Kakucci yesterday. You know,

5:01

maybe not dazzling is a word used, but five and

5:04

the third eight strikeouts, you know, gives up a home

5:08

run and then puts a man on and then they pull him, and then that run scores.

5:11

You always hate that because it's not it gets attributed

5:14

to him.

5:14

But you know, if he just could have gotten a

5:17

couple more outs there, it would have been six innings of one run but regardless, through the first two, in

5:23

first two outings of Cacucci, you would say so far

5:27

and time will tell, But so far this trade has

5:29

been a win for the Astros.

5:32

Yeah, of course, so far. It's early. It's been two starts.

5:35

It's not like I mean, you put it perfectly, not

5:38

like he dazzled out there.

5:39

But he's been effective.

5:39

And what you need to ask yourself is how much

5:42

better were those last two starts than what Jake Bloss

5:45

would have provided you? And Jake Bloss right now is

5:49

in triple A for Toronto. And oh, by the way,

5:51

Joey lo Berfido in twenty three played appearances has struck

5:54

out eleven times. He's got one extra base hit. He's

5:56

hitting like one eighty something. So it's yeah, again again,

6:00

it's early, it's early, it's early. But Yusakakuchi is helping

6:03

this team. He started two games, you've won both of them.

6:07

You need every game. You're gonna have to scratch and

6:09

claw in the American League West because this Astros team

6:13

is just not been perfect all year long.

6:15

When they hit, they can't pitch. When they pitch, they can't hit.

6:17

Bullpen has blown a game here and there, but for the most part has been good. But it has to

6:22

start with the offense in the back end of that offense.

6:24

But absolutely right now, you for for twenty twenty four,

6:28

which is what this deal was made for, and Dana

6:30

Brown knowing that that you might have to take it on the chin in twenty five or twenty six or whatever.

6:35

But the Astros need to get in the playoffs that is,

6:37

that is and win the American League West, because they

6:40

ain't gonna doesn't look like they're gonna win a wild card the way that they're like five back or whatever

6:44

it is in those standings. So you need to get

6:47

into the playoffs. You need to do that via the

6:50

winning the American League West. Every game matters. You're knotted

6:54

up at this point virtually with or a head by

6:56

a half game. Excuse me of the Seattle Mariners down

7:00

the stretch. You need you Sekakuchi more than you need

7:03

Jake Bloss, Joey Lo Brafdo and Will Wegg.

7:07

Yeah, I want to touch a little bit on the offense here. As you know, they still have one of

7:11

the best batting averages in all of baseball. I think

7:13

they're third. They've been number one for much of this season.

7:17

But what's crazy Ross is they are thirteenth in run scored.

7:21

I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a discrepancy

7:23

that big where it's you have the third best batting

7:26

average in all baseball, ye, you're thirteenth in run scored.

7:29

They have no problem getting hits, they have no problem getting men on base, they cannot get the men around

7:34

to score. And it just feels like every night they're

7:37

three for ten or you know, one for nine with

7:41

runners in scoring position. It just feels like they are

7:43

not clutch when it comes to that. How do they

7:46

fix that or is this just who they are this season?

7:50

Yeah, it'll be interesting and it's something we've talked about

7:52

on this podcast a lot. How they started out the

7:55

season like twenty sixth in teams with team risk right

7:59

now fifteenth seven to fifty three ops with runners in

8:03

scoring position. First in baseball is the Kansas City Royals.

8:06

Last year, they were second behind the Orioles. The year

8:09

before that, I can't remember exactly off the top of

8:12

my head, they were like top five. So they've been top five the last couple of years. They just haven't

8:17

been there this year. I think some of that is

8:19

not coming up in clutch situations and some bad luck

8:21

that will you know, has turned somewhat and hopefully can

8:24

turn to more of a degree. But I think also

8:27

you're just having guys kind of physically it's the dog days,

8:31

it's August. They haven't been able to score runs. You

8:34

had Channel of Rome put out the stat I can't

8:37

remember the exact numbers, but basically, like infield innings played, Altuve,

8:43

Pena and Bregman are all amongst the leaders in baseball.

8:47

Like those three guys, they've not been getting spelled. Jeremy

8:51

Pania looks like he's going through it.

8:53

At the plate.

8:53

You're seeing some signs of life again from Bregmant and

8:55

hopefully that can happen. And Altuve has been getting hits,

8:59

but it's just been a ton of singles lately.

9:01

It hasn't been the extra base hits.

9:03

So you need all three of those guys to be

9:06

performing down the stretch and then into the playoffs if

9:09

you're going to compete. And you know, brings to mind,

9:13

and something I thought about today really is remember how

9:16

last year you would get the l two va Well,

9:19

Brigman only think got one day off, but the occasional

9:22

Jeremy Paine a day off and be like and people

9:24

be like, Oh, what's going on, what's Dusty Baker doing? He needs to win these games right now, and you've

9:28

kind of had to go all in because of how far back you've been. But how much is that going

9:32

to cost you on the back end of playing these

9:35

guys so much that you could possibly see some fading

9:38

down the stretch. It is certainly something that I think

9:41

is in play.

9:43

One element that is very interesting is they bring up

9:46

Zach Dezenzo, who we know is one of their top

9:48

rated prospects in their system.

9:50

I believe he's was top five.

9:53

You know, a lot of people believe can be the future at third base if Alex Bradman leaves this coming

9:58

off season, which a lot of people think is it is going to happen. But Dezenzo gets an opportunity d

10:03

HS the other night, then play some first base yesterday

10:05

and actually played pretty decently, made a nice defensive play there.

10:09

But he goes over in his debut.

10:11

But then two for three yesterday, you know, showing some

10:15

signs of life with the bat, and I thought it was very interesting. I think it was Brian McTaggart was

10:19

on with you and Matt Thomas, who made a parallel

10:22

to Evan Carter who got called up with the Rangers

10:25

last year mid season, was one of their higher ranked

10:28

prospects and he started raking and was a big part

10:32

of what they did and route to winning a World Series. And I'm not saying Zach Dezenzo was going to be that,

10:36

but it was kind of interesting because I just looked

10:39

at it as they're just bringing this kid up because they don't really have any other options, and they're just

10:42

gonna give him a chance. But what if they do

10:45

catch lightning in a bottle with the Zenzo. What if this guy does start to hit for them and could

10:50

be a very good, you know, mid season edition with

10:54

all the rest of this veteran lineup.

10:56

Yeah, I mean that would be great. That would cure

10:58

exactly what has been a the Houston Astros. And I

11:01

think they did call him up, maybe perhaps a little prematurely,

11:04

out of necessity. It's not like his numbers at Double

11:06

A were great. They were good in Triple A, but

11:08

in an extremely small sample size. But you needed something,

11:12

you have to spark this team. You're trying to figure

11:14

it out and Joe Spot and Dana Brown have a

11:16

tough task because you're trying to see, like, Okay, Jake

11:19

Myers gives us a great May, but since May he

11:21

hasn't been good. Chas McCormick was great last year, but

11:24

this year he's been an absolute disaster. You want pedro

11:27

Leone to work out, but he's a twenty six year

11:29

old guy you called up from Triple A. Zach Dezenzo

11:31

doesn't have a whole lot of seasoning, but you call him up.

11:34

You got to do something. You got to figure it out.

11:36

That lightning in a bottle that you're talking about, they

11:38

need to try to grab a hold of that and

11:42

have it happen. If they're gonna win this world series,

11:44

they're gonna need something like that. Because if you're going

11:47

to day one of a playoff series and you're Joe

11:50

Espoto writing out or typing out your lineup card and

11:54

you're putting three John Singleton, that's not super exciting. It's

11:58

just not so if it is a young kid who

12:01

can perform and maybe get his head on straight and

12:05

get those nerves out, which it looks like he did last night with those couple of hits. Hard hit contact

12:09

by the way on three of his at bets, and

12:12

then the other one he drew a walk. Okay, we're

12:15

not putting him in the Hall of Fame, but it's

12:17

at least encouraging.

12:18

He's six foot five, he's a big.

12:20

Target at first base, and if he can just comport

12:22

himself well over there, he doesn't have to, you know,

12:25

flash gold glove type leather because that's not what John

12:28

Singleton does.

12:28

He can make some.

12:29

Plays, but at least don't embarrass yourself at first base.

12:33

Get some hits.

12:34

That's gonna be an improvement of what you've had all season,

12:36

which is a mismash of guys, starting with jose A

12:39

Brew of course, who was a disaster.

12:42

Yeah, and we're starting to see, you know, they've parted ways, right,

12:46

I mean, they moved on from Josea Brew, they moved

12:48

on from Montero, and you know they're just they're making

12:53

moves where they're saying, look, we got to go with guys,

12:55

so we're gonna help this team down the stretch. Trey Cabbage get sent back down to Triple A. So you

13:01

know they're trying everything they can, and you know the

13:03

reality is they need Kyle Tucker back. Chandler Rome did

13:07

write a piece in The Athletic this week about the

13:11

bone bruise, which is, you know, in our estimation, one

13:14

of the worst bone bruises in the history of bone bruises.

13:17

But Chandler spoke with some doctors who said this is

13:20

not out of the realm of abnormality. That some bone

13:23

bruises are you know, deep and take a long time

13:27

to heal.

13:28

Yeah.

13:29

Man, So yeah, if you read The Athletic, Chandler room

13:31

doing a great job with the Athletic.

13:33

I'm a subscriber. I love it.

13:34

But anyways, that's enough of the free plugs. But yeah,

13:38

it's a good article from Chandler. But it's just funny

13:41

to me that it has even come to this where

13:43

a beat reporter for the team is reaching out to

13:47

Orthopedis to cross the city in nation or whatever because

13:51

the Astros trainer doesn't talk. Kyle Tucker hasn't talked. You've

13:57

kind of just getting that not the run around, but

14:00

I mean conflicting reports. Joe spot over the weekend saying

14:03

it would be aggressive to say Kyle Tucker is back

14:06

of the end of August. Then Dana Brown this week saying, yeah,

14:09

we expect him by the end of August, and nobody

14:11

knows anything. And apparently, according to the article from Chandler Rome,

14:15

it's one of those things where you can wake up one day and all of a sudden, the soreness is gone.

14:19

It can take a couple of days, or it can take a couple of months. Unfortunately for Kyle Tucker, it's

14:24

toward the ladder of that. But the saga hopefully, like

14:28

we can all laugh about this in a couple of years and the Astros go on and win the World Series.

14:32

But the saga of the.

14:33

Shin Brus of twenty twenty three has somehow just become

14:37

this huge.

14:38

Storyline for the Astros this year. It's incredible.

14:41

Well, as I know from my bone bruis that I

14:43

suffered in the Astros Media softball game where I was

14:47

rounding second running to third and fell down and hurt

14:50

my arm and thought it was broken. It was not

14:52

a break. It was just a very deep bone bruise

14:54

and it took many weeks to heal. So, Kyle Tucker,

14:56

I sympathize with you. We are brothers and bone bruds together,

15:00

and uh, let's hope that this.

15:02

Thing heals up quickly.

15:03

But the good news Ross is we are uh, we

15:06

are on a track with mister Verlander. Justin Verlander has

15:10

been he's been clear, he's got his uh, his bull

15:14

his last bullpen thrown, and he's going to start for

15:16

sugar Land either Friday or Saturday this weekend. If all

15:20

goes well there, he'll make at least one more minor

15:22

league rehab start, and if all goes well there, we're

15:25

looking at Justin Verlander rejoining the big league club very soon.

15:30

So that's some good news for a neck injury. A

15:33

couple weeks ago, we just had no idea or no

15:35

timeline on when he would be back.

15:38

Yeah, I'm kind of interested to see number one of course,

15:41

when he's going to get back and what Justin Verlander

15:45

we get because this year, I mean you just look

15:48

at his numbers, even from a raw ERA standpoint, which

15:51

Yusai Kakuchi is teaching everyone that ERA is not everything,

15:57

but he's outperformed is era his field in a pinch,

16:00

it was like a four ninety nine, not like I

16:03

pulled it up three ninety five ERA, And so he's

16:07

due for a little bit of bad luck from those metrics.

16:10

But if he's refreshed, he's.

16:12

Had this time off and he's ready to go down

16:14

the stretch, he can let loose a little bit more because we're getting close to August September than we are

16:19

earlier in the season, and.

16:21

He can round into form.

16:22

You're not asking the guy to go out and be who he was in twenty twenty two when the dude

16:27

is winning a cy young but you're just asking him

16:30

to be good, solid part of this rotation, not give

16:33

up a ton of runs. You're gonna have five other guys, and this pitching has really been rounding in a form.

16:38

I'm curious after two il stints, forty one years old,

16:42

how he can bounce back. If there's one guy, I'm not doubting it's justin Verlander. I do think he will

16:46

be effective, but certainly something we're going to be keeping

16:48

an eye on down the stretch.

16:49

We did get some not so great news.

16:52

Luis Garcia still has yet to throw, and now we're

16:55

a battle against the clock here. If it's you know,

16:58

if we go another week where he is to get to throw, I mean, the odds of him getting back

17:02

before the season ends just looks more and more slim,

17:05

and then of course last Sunday we got confirmation. I

17:09

think I was one of the first people to put it out there when Joe A spot A said it.

17:11

But Lance mccullor is safe to say he will not

17:15

pitch at all this the rest of this year. So

17:17

I say, Lance, get healthy, get ready for the start

17:20

of next spring training, because the reality is you're not

17:24

gonna have hove Er, You're not gonna have hi.

17:28

Erkeati to start next season, so you're gonna need be gone.

17:32

Yeah she's probably gone.

17:34

Yeah, I mean you're gonna need Lance McCullers to be

17:36

ready to go for spring training next year. And you know,

17:38

I think Luis Garcia is getting close to entering that

17:41

category as well.

17:43

Yeah.

17:43

Yeah, that's good and bad news unfortunately, but also underscoring

17:47

the fact that you needed to make a deal with the deadline and everybody getting all up in arms about

17:51

these prospects got traded away. I understand, but something had

17:55

to be done, and you you just couldn't keep throwing

17:58

Jake Bloss out there and then hoping that a forty

18:00

one year old with two il stintz was coming back, hoping that a guy that you're rushing or I keep

18:06

trying to say ahead of schedule rather than rushing. You're

18:08

ahead of schedule on Tommy john surgery. Returning from that,

18:13

you can't pray on that, and you certainly can't pray

18:16

on on Lansow Colors Junior now that he's basically out

18:18

for the year. So it sucks having those two guys

18:22

shut down. I mean mc callor's gone for good. Luis Garcia were running out of time and you can't necessarily

18:27

factor him in the plans. But hopefully Verlander comes back,

18:31

Hopefully everybody stays healthy and you can go to that

18:33

six man down the stretch because the Astros definitely need it.

18:36

And I pulled it up.

18:37

I mentioned earlier Gordy that the pitching really has turned

18:43

it around since that bad first month. So since May first,

18:46

Astros in eer Braves number one in baseball three point

18:50

five seven, Astros number two three point six to one.

18:54

This is starters and relievers.

18:55

So as far as the pitching has gone since May first,

18:59

they've had the second in baseball.

19:00

Hitting's got to do their job.

19:02

Well, that is pretty crazy. Well, hopefully you do your

19:06

job and you enjoy plenty of Crawford Bach from Carbock

19:09

Brewing as you watch the Astros or listening to them

19:12

on seven ninety and Ross and Clothes in closing a

19:16

tough stretch you had for the Astros. They gotta go play three up in Boston against the mighty Red Sox,

19:21

who have turned into a pretty hot contender that really

19:24

good pitching this year, pretty good offense. And then you

19:27

gotta go play Tampa, who's not great, but the same

19:30

Tampa team that just came and took two out of three against you a minute made. You got to go

19:33

play them in their house. And then you get a little bit of a breather with the awful Chicago White

19:38

Sox coming to town next Friday.

19:40

But still a tough week of games for the Astros ahead.

19:44

Yeah, that's baseball.

19:45

You want to win some ball games, you gotta you want to win the American League West. It's not gonna

19:49

all be Slappy's. Nobody's gonna hand it to you. Go out there, take care of the business and win these games.

19:54

He is Ross Viial. I'm Chris Gordy.

19:56

This has been an all new edition of the Crawford

19:58

Box Cast, presented by a Carbox bring in the Crawford

20:01

Box and make sure you get your hands. I'll plenty

20:04

of Crawford bock. It is a home run every time.

20:06

We'll talk to you guys next week, right here on