00:00It's a Mokarum Injury Lawyers Reaction Monday on 95.7 The Fan.
00:05Cheers, Payne and Pendergast.
00:10Early in the season, early in the season,
00:15adversity came in hard on us.
00:18Very hard.
00:20Meet Maddie.
00:22We were down in the standings.
00:25We're down in our record.
00:2710, 15 games under 500.
00:30When adversity came knocking on that door,
00:32you guys never opened that door.
00:33You guys just came together and came closer together
00:36because you guys knew that at the end of the day,
00:39we were the best team in the West.
00:41I am so proud of all you guys, man.
00:44Young players, veteran players, training staff.
00:48Keep these guys on the field, coaching staff.
00:50Hey, hey, hey, hey.
00:51So proud of you guys.
00:52Hey, we won the West.
00:55Let's go.
00:56There you go.
00:57A little victory speech from old Joe Espada.
01:01I like that metaphor of adversity coming to knock on the door.
01:05What's adversity look like?
01:06I'm picturing like death, but not quite as bad.
01:09The Grim Reaper.
01:10The Grim Reaper in a Rangers outfit.
01:13Yeah.
01:14Like in Rangers colors.
01:15Yeah.
01:16Or like a mafioso or something.
01:17Yeah.
01:18But they didn't let him in the door.
01:19They didn't let him in the door.
01:20That was when May 22nd was when the turnaround started.
01:23That's it, man.
01:23From May 22nd to August 2nd, they had the second best record in baseball.
01:27Behind Milwaukee.
01:28Yeah.
01:29Yeah.
01:29And then everything just, everything went kaput and weird in different ways.
01:34Yeah.
01:35But it made it, if you tried to like do a graph of the highs and lows of this season,
01:42man,
01:42it's all over the place.
01:43And at times the pitching staff was up and the hitting was non-existent.
01:48Yeah.
01:48The bullpen was doing great, but the starters were horrific.
01:5281 and 81 is the perfect record for this team.
01:55Right.
01:56Right.
01:56It's exactly what they are.
01:57Like half the time, I'm feeling good about this team.
02:00Half the time, I don't even know if they belong on this level of baseball.
02:03It was like noise canceling headphones.
02:05Right.
02:05You know, it was like whenever there was a positive wave, there was something dragging
02:09it down from underneath.
02:10And that's, that's what you get is the first, the, the first, you might call it the worst
02:15team to ever win a division and make the playoffs.
02:18You'd be accurate.
02:19By record, you'd be accurate.
02:20Last I checked, they do measure by record in baseball.
02:23So you would be accurate if you, if you thought that.
02:25Now, I guess the question becomes, can this team do anything in the post season?
02:29What's your confidence level?
02:30They can do anything.
02:31Look, I know they can beat the White Sox.
02:33The weekend, they're five and two against the White Sox this year.
02:35Now, the issue for the Astros is they kind of had to empty the chamber just to get here
02:39because it went down to the final day.
02:41They're starting Peter Lambert on two days rest.
02:44Yeah.
02:44He gave you two innings.
02:46But you know, the, but the White Sox don't have their pitching lined up perfectly either.
02:50Good.
02:50Yeah.
02:51So that, that at least isn't as big as if they were able to go one, two, three with the
02:56White Sox, but they're not, they're like, it's not ideal for the White Sox either.
03:00No.
03:00Well, and the, the, the thing is, look, Hunter Brown is the guy who you want to start in
03:04game one of a playoff series.
03:05If you were starting Hunter Brown in game one of this wild card series with the White Sox.
03:09And if those of you, maybe you guys were all dialed in on football yesterday, understandably
03:14so.
03:15The Astros play at four o'clock in the afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday, and if necessary on Thursday.
03:21So mid-afternoon game, I kind of like that.
03:24Kind of like that.
03:25You know, it's not, you don't have to stay up too late, but you don't have to, you know,
03:28bug out at lunchtime or anything like that.
03:30So four o'clock the next few days, if they were to want to start Hunter Brown in game
03:34one, they'd have to do it on three days rest.
03:36And they're just like, I don't think they're going to do that.
03:37They're going to start, I think they're going to start him on full rest.
03:40And if it goes three, they're going to start Wisneski on full rest.
03:42And they're going to hope they cobble something together in, on Tuesday in some sort of bullpen
03:47game.
03:47And maybe, maybe Pecco who threw three shutout innings again in a non-starting role.
03:53He had another good game yesterday that I would imagine he's going to be part of that
03:57in some way.
03:58Um, look, man, it's just fun to have a playoff baseball back in our lives.
04:03It's been a couple of years.
04:04It's and it's fun.
04:05Uh, this whole Lucas Spence dynamic in this last week has been one of the weirdest things
04:10ever.
04:11The tweet yesterday that made me laugh, like the Astros had two players finished with a,
04:16uh, what was it?
04:17A slugging percentage of higher than 500.
04:20Yeah.
04:21You're not Alvarez six Oh six or whatever he was Lucas Spence.
04:25That's right.
04:25Five Oh nine.
04:26I mean, it's fitting as a team that, uh, that leads major league baseball in home runs.
04:31And if you want to talk about feast or famine, uh, yeah, have a triple a player come up and
04:36help you seal the deal in a triple a ballpark that, uh, it's everything was very fitting about
04:42the Lucas Spence experience.
04:43I say it in the past tense.
04:45It continues.
04:46Oh yeah.
04:47It continues on for at least two more games.
04:49For Chicago for at least two more games.
04:51Now Joe Spada is still looking for his first win in the post season.
04:55Yeah.
04:55The one season he made the post season, they got swept by the, uh, by the Detroit Tigers.
05:00So let's at least go get a win on Tuesday so we can, so we can celebrate that.
05:04I was happy for a Spada, you know, given that speech, you know, it wasn't the greatest
05:07rah-rah speech after a division, but who cares?
05:09He was, he was happy.
05:11You know, Joe, the, I look, the odds are that this team's probably not going to make huge
05:16noise in the post season, although the way the bracket is set up, somebody out of the
05:20White Sox, Guardians, and Astros is going to make the ALCS.
05:23Yeah.
05:24One of those three teams is going to be in the ALCS.
05:26So I think if you're the Astros, you say, Hey, look, why not us?
05:29We're home for this first series.
05:31And these are two teams, the Guardians and the White Sox at the Astros have played pretty
05:34well this year.
05:34Look, Astros, look, small sample size, et cetera, et cetera, but Houston was 19 and 12
05:43against teams that are currently in the AL playoff.
05:46Yeah.
05:47They should be terrified of us.
05:49Yes, they should be.
05:50Yeah.
05:50That's a, that is a dominant win percentage by baseball standards.
05:53Yes, sir.
05:54Don't, don't bring any of that small sample size garbage my way.
05:57No, no.
05:57It's like a 96 win pace or something like that.
06:00So yeah, they've got a 90, if they had to play an entire season against one of the AL
06:03playoff teams.
06:04That's right.
06:05They win 96 games.
06:0696 games.
06:07Brother.
06:08I'm excited about it, man.
06:09A little playoff baseball tomorrow at four o'clock in the afternoon, tomorrow and Wednesday.
06:13Yeah.
06:13And I do look, I think the, the quick turnaround, even though it's not ideal for the Astros
06:17pitchers, it also puts the White Sox in a situation where they're not going to be able
06:20to start off with a couple of their best.
06:22And they got to go on the road.
06:23Yeah.
06:24Yeah.
06:24Yeah.
06:24So that's, so that's, that's good.
06:26I was really nervous for, for two reasons.
06:29One is, you know, cause the Texans started at noon on Sunday and, and the way
06:33it's worked the last few years is when the Astros had been playing on Sundays during football
06:38season is it just typically does not go well for when the Texans are losing, the Astros
06:42are losing.
06:42And it just turns into a horrible, horrible Sunday.
06:45So I got, when the Texans got off to the start, they did, I'm like, ah, they're going
06:49to screw the Astros.
06:50Aren't they?
06:50The Texans they are.
06:51Cause the Astros started at two o'clock.
06:53And, and then the other reason I was nervous was because they scored 13 runs on Saturday
06:57night.
06:58You know, that's gone the last few years, Seth, when the Astros go out and score double digit
07:02runs one night, you know what happens the next day?
07:04Oh yeah.
07:04Yeah.
07:04Yeah.
07:05Bats go silent.
07:06Yeah.
07:06Not yesterday, sir.
07:07Nine, nothing.
07:08They outscored the A's 22 to two to close out the division.
07:13Maybe this team has the clutch gene against Seth.
07:15Maybe just maybe.
07:16That's a, I look from one day to the next side.
07:20Who knows?
07:20Who the hell knows?
07:21Yep.
07:22Um, I, it just, this I'm, I'm way more, I was worried that I was going to be somehow, you
07:27know, not excited or anything about the playoffs because it's such a, a mediocre feel to everything.
07:33Uh, seeing the guys celebrating the clubhouse, there was, they had to like, they had to spill
07:36over into the batting cages and everything.
07:38Yes.
07:38Minor league clubhouse.
07:39Yes.
07:40They're in the batting cages.
07:41Yeah.
07:41Yeah.
07:42Yeah.
07:42Yeah.
07:42Got me going.
07:43Plus I just, as I told you before, I, last week I really leaned into, Oh, the rest of
07:47baseball is going to hate.
07:48That's why I was just pointing at you just now.
07:49Cause I'm pointing at you because almost the way that a basketball player points at someone who
07:53gave them an assist, like, Hey, good dish.
07:55You got me excited for the playoffs last week when you brought that angle up that an 81 and
08:0081 Astros team that makes noise in the, an 81 and 81 Astros team, even being in the
08:06post season probably pisses people off.
08:08Boy, if they turned around and actually made some noise in the post season, that would really,
08:12really make people angry.
08:13So I'm, I'm here for that.
08:14I like that angle a lot.
