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Sean Pendergast
All new drinks are at McDonald's with
Tex
refreshers like the Strawberry Watermelon Refresher and the Mango Pineapple Refresher with popping Boba to grafted sodas like the Sprite Berry Blast with berry flavors and cold foam. Who knew ice cold drinks could be so fire six? All new drinks are here now at McDonald's. Refreshers contain caffeine.
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Tex
terms apply high deep to right field.
Sean Pendergast
All the way back and good. Four on the board for 44. The Astros lead this game six to three.
Sports Commentator
Got him.
Sean Pendergast
Ball game over, Astros win it six to four, winning the first two games here against Minnesota and moving back within two games of.500. That was a nice win with all their runs coming in one inning.
Sports Commentator
Blumer.
Tex
Yeah, yeah, Blummer. All the runs in one inning. That was Todd Callis on the call Space City Home Network. The Yordon Alvarez grand slam providing four of the six runs and Josh Hader coming in and getting another save. Good night last night for the Astros, who sit currently two games back of the Rangers in the division game and a half back in the wild card race.
Sean Pendergast
The the other thing too we didn't bring up. The first time we talked about the Astros this morning was that the relievers when they came in, they did a great job. But it was four perfect innings by those four guys. Yeah, it was a committee perfect four innings.
Sports Commentator
Yep.
Sean Pendergast
I don't know what they if they have A name for that or not.
Tex
Let's make one text 1 in 7. 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6, 10. The one thing we didn't hear there was Jose Altuve's at bat that allowed the Yordan Alvarez moment to happen. It was the. The Astros had, had, had got. Gotten on the board in the fourth inning, made the game 3 to 1, bases were loaded, Altuve up 3, 2 pitch that gets called a strike. Altuve immediately challenges it, as you're supposed to do. Immediately challenge without looking at the dugout. And he challenges it. And. And he's successful.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
And that drives in a run because bases were loaded. So now it's three, two. But more importantly, Jordan Alvarez gets a shot with three guys on base as opposed to coming up to lead off the next inning. That's one of the most painful things when Jordan leads off an inning. I'm like, oh, this feels like such a waste. You know, solo home run is all we got to root for here. But that was a huge at bat by Altuve and his explanation for it. I loved Jose Altuve challenging that pitch. And Jose Altuve, who's. Before the season, said he didn't anticipate using the ABS Challenge system all that much. Nobody's had more overturns.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
Than Altuve. A more successful challenges in Altuve, and
Sean Pendergast
then at a good success rate, too. Like, he's not just. It's not a volume shooter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's an efficient challenger. He is an efficient, productive.
Tex
That's right. This was his explanation for it. And this is the textbook explanation for using your challenges when you're not quite sure. Because he asked that. How confident was he that the pitch that he challenged was a ball? And again, if you go back and look, it was. It was outside. It was a ball outside. Cup inch or two, maybe. But he asked. They asked how. In the post game, they asked him how confident he was. He said not really, but the situation told me I need to challenge. I thought it was a close pitch, but you got to challenge that one because it's bases. Bases loaded, two outs, we're down in the game, and Jordan's hitting behind you. You've got to take a chance there. And that is the. That is the classic way to. To me, to look at the. The ABS Challenge system. I'm not a big fan. Although you made a. You made kind of a convincing case for it not being the worst thing in the world to challenge a first pitch of an at bat.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
I'm just not a fan of You've got the rest of the at bat to recover from that.
Sean Pendergast
Right.
Tex
This was a situation where, boy, even if you, even if, even if you wouldn't, even if that were one you wouldn't normally challenge, say, if it were a 2:1 pitch or a 1:1 pitch or whatever, you got to challenge it right there. Just because of the situation on the, on the, the off chance that Jordan Alvarez gets a shot with the bases loaded and that gives him a chance to do what he did last night, which is win the game for you.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, that's no in game winning decision. There's like, there's so many different factors that over time, certain ballplayers are going to start to look like they've got a better feel for it. But there's like, where you are in the game, how many challenges you have left, what is the track record of the umpire that you're working with? And one of the things they talked about on the broadcast last night was that, you know, they don't, they don't just know about the umpire's overall success rate. They know where he struggles at times and where he makes his bad calls. So there's a lot of things going into it in any given game plan, which man feels like a lot of extra information that batters have to keep track of compared to what they used to. And that's where it'll. It'll be fascinating at the end of this season to kind of parse out the data and see what, what team started to figure out about all of this. But I do think that with the Astros, at least they are. They're way more cool with guys challenging a first pitch and getting off to a clean slate and whatever. They've done a lot more research on it than I have. I do still think, look, Camp Smith had a successful challenge last night.
Tex
On an OH1 pitch, he's tied for
Sean Pendergast
the 18th most successful challenges. But he, unlike Altuve, is indiscriminate in when he challenges. He's only got a 42% success rate on those challenges.
Tex
So he's, he's a volume shooter.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like all these other guys that have eight successful challenges usually have. Have at least four or five fewer challenges than overall challenges than he does.
Tex
He's one of those NBA players that like, oh, he averages two points a game. Oh, really? Must be really good. What's his shooting percentage? 37%. Why do you ask? So, so that was good last night. Big win. Big win for the Astros and they try to win their sixth consecutive series Tonight and they've got Tatsui Emi on the mound.
Sean Pendergast
I believe this is it. This is the, this is Imai vs Lambert in your mind. Right. Because you've wavered a little bit on your Emi is your, is your would be number two guy the playoffs started.
Tex
No, no, no. I'm not wa wavered on that. There's, there's nothing that's happened in this series that would make me waver on that. You know, certainly Burroughs didn't make me change my mind last night on that. Yeah, no, I, I and I'm loving this article that I'm reading from Chandler Rome that you sent me about, about Ema. Yeah, it is e my email against Taj Bradley tonight over at Dyke and Park.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
Chandler Rome has a really long article and it's very the part I've read about half of it so far during some of the breaks in the show about Imai's acclamation.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
To America and American baseball. And it sounds like the part that I've read mostly has to do with just he's connecting with his teammates a lot more. You know, he's got, he doesn't speak English, but he's got English sayings that he's got with certain teammates.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. And he's like, he tries to have different sayings. Like, he's put a lot of work into this.
Tex
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
Because he doesn't want to just be saying the same thing all the time.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
So I think that's where I end up. The thing with Imai and it's a lot easier to do this now where he's had, you know, he's had a handful of quality starts since he came back and not a full handful, but almost a full handful. And I think that there's that learning curve where sometimes people who are extremely conscientious and detail oriented, they start off slower because they're trying to nail down all of these details either in their preparation or their operation and everything. And where you can see that, like it happens with quarterbacks too. I think sometimes some young quarterbacks who are more who really pay attention to the process more don't get off to a fast start as fast start as somebody that just go out there, goes, goes out there and slings it. But over time it pays off. And hopefully that's what happened with Imai. It's that, yeah, for a guy that does pay a lot of attention to detail, every little detail that's off or different is going to make, make it that much more of a challenge early on.
Tex
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. He's got a routine with Stephen Okert, Seth, that involves a profound bow. In Japanese culture, young people are expected to greet their elders with a profound bow. And Stephen Okert, Even though he's 35 years old and older than imai, they greet each other with a bow.
Sean Pendergast
I'd be really. If I had to go live in Japan for a while, like, and had a job over there or something, I would go full imai and how well I handled, like a lot of the customs and everything and that. I wouldn't be good at it at first. You know how nervous I was even to throw the H's up because I always feel like, wait, am I doing it? Just. Is your index finger and your pinky supposed to be at a certain angle? All that. And it took me a while to get comfortable doing a simple, you know, a simple hand gesture. So the bows, like all the protocols
Tex
around the bows, man, you'd be a mess.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah, I'd be awful.
Tex
You would be a mess.
Sean Pendergast
Probably end up committing seppuku and I'd screw that up. I just wouldn't. I would want to, but I'm like, ah, how do I hold the knife? I don't.
Tex
The Japanese custom that you want to be executed. No, no.
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Tex
The okay, these. This may fall into the category of things that things that only bother Sean T. Pendergast, but maybe there's other people out there. Victor Caratini seems like a delightful human being. Really liked him as a Houston Astro. I said this off season this team is going to miss Victor Caratini and thankfully Christian Vasquez has been fine. He's come back down to earth a little bit, but whatever. Caratini plays a nice important role on the Twins. Caratini got a tribute video the other night. A 90 second tribute video the other night. I don't know, man. Maybe I'm a spoil sport. He played for the Astros for two seasons. They made the playoffs and got swept in the wild card round in one of those seasons and then missed the playoffs in the other season. He had a.263 batting average and a.735 OPS while he was in. Astro hit 20 home runs in two years. All well and good. Yeah, we need standards for the tribute.
Sean Pendergast
This is, this is that you. They've lowered their standards too much and giving Victor Caratini, I think, and I
Tex
hate that he's the one. I hate that he's the one. I'm making an example out of. Because the fact of the matter is there may have been another tribute video that's even below the Victor Caratini line.
Sean Pendergast
Right.
Tex
That I missed. But I didn't miss this one. The other day I saw this one. I saw it on social media, asked people who were at the game and asked AI, was, was this an actual tribute video that played before the game? And both entities, humans and the robots, said yes, it was. It was a 90 second video and I watched video and it was great. Yeah, I like Victor Caratini. I just feel like we need standards for this.
Sean Pendergast
You know where I am on this though, Sean? You're really going to hate this. Yeah, I feel like for one, Major League Baseball. I don't know why they insist on this, but by far they are the most annoyingly decrepit and antiquated sport when it comes to big board entertainment during the game, including just showing. They are so reluctant to show any replays from, from the game at all on the big board. I don't, I don't understand why it's that way.
Tex
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
And so I'm kind of all for like anything, anything at all that you guys are willing to do to improve my, my short attention spanned brain while I'm watching a game tour. Like, oh, look at that. It's a nice. Oh yeah, Caratini. I remember that play.
Tex
The. Not to nitpick, but the, the tribute video played 20 minutes before the game.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
So that's not going to help you. The victor, unless they replay it during the game.
Sean Pendergast
Helps people maybe get their butts in the seats quicker.
Tex
Got to get in for the victor highlight tribute video.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
This was so I, I spent more time than I should have yesterday coming up with a criteria for a player being deserving of a tribute video. Okay. This is the Pendergast criteria for former Astros being tribute video worthy. If you are not on one of the World Series teams, not on one of the World Series title teams, either 2017 or 2022, if you're just a regular player who didn't play in the World Series.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
You have to have been an All Star. Just fulfill one of these criteria. Not all of them, just one. You either need to have been an all Star one time, been a winner of a major award one time. Those two things would probably go hand in hand. If you won an award, chances are you were probably an all Star or you had to lead the league in one major statistical category. You had to have a batting title or an RBI title. I'd even take like win, you know, wins above replacement, you know, whatever. You have to have one of those bold numbers on your baseball reference page.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
That's not a high bar to clear one all Star season. Okay. That's if you weren't on the World Series teams. Now if you were on one of the World Series teams but you didn't fulfill the All Star award criteria.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
Then one of three things needs to have happened with you. You need an iconic game saving or game winning play in the World Series. I will call this chaz the Chaz McCormick rule. Chaz deserves a tribute video based almost entirely on that catch that he had against the Phillies in game five of the World Series. He's a hero for that one play. Now, you know, you got to go find another 84 seconds worth of stuff to put in there. It can't just be you replaying one catch and going, everybody give a round of applause for Chaz McCormick. Like, you've got to come up with something. But that gets him inside the velvet rope of the tribute video world. Okay, that's number one. You need an iconic individual game performance. Like, Chaz was just one play, but, like, if you had a game where you went four for five or you were, say, the starting pitcher and a combined no hitter in a World Series, okay, Christian Javier has never been an All Star or won a major award or anything, but Christian Javier being the starting pitcher in the no hitter in the World Series against the Phillies, when the Astros are trailing 2 to 1 in that series, I mean, they went on to win the rest. You know, they, they, they swept the rest of the way after that. Christian Javier would be deserving of a tribute video someday when he leaves, even with his 12 ERA that he's got this year.
Sean Pendergast
Oh, yeah, definitely. Good. He had a 12 ERA on another team, especially Vigne.
Tex
Yeah. Then you're like, yeah, start that guy.
Sean Pendergast
I. Okay, wait, is there.
Tex
I have one more. If you have, like, an iconic memorable performance on the way to a World Series, like in the playoffs, I'm talking about preferably against the Yankees, we'll call this the Lance McCullers 24 straight curveball rule. If you have some sort of game that people remember you for, like when people bring up Lance McCullough's name 20 years from now, for Astro fans, that's probably the most memorable thing, was him throwing those 24 straight curveballs in the ALC.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
That is good enough for me that I'm not a monster.
Sean Pendergast
No land. It's not like Lance. Now, I guess Lance isn't a perfect comparison just because, like, it's. You would. Even if Lance didn't have that game, obviously he's the guy who's going to get a tribute video.
Tex
He made it. He made an All Star game. He fits.
Sean Pendergast
Right?
Tex
Right?
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. No. And all. So, so somebody like that, but, But a performance like that, it's got to be something iconic.
Tex
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah. I guess I just. Personally, I'm. I don't. I guess maybe I don't look at the tribute video as something that should only be reserved for. I'd be cool with a Dexter Fowler tribute video. I don't. Yeah. Like, I. Anybody that played for the team at all. And part of it is I really. I, I give the team the right to basically say, we liked this guy.
Tex
Yeah, he was a really good dude.
Sean Pendergast
We liked him. We liked him on the team. He was cool. He was cool to the equipment staff.
Sports Commentator
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
Whatever it might be.
Sports Commentator
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
I like. We like that guy. We're going to give him a tribute.
Tex
No, that's fine. And I. And that. And the team obviously feels the way you feel about this? I feel like we're lowering our standards a little bit with the tribute videos. And I feel terrible again that it's Victor Caratini.
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Tex
I'm not to your degree where you'd be doing a Matt Dominguez tribute video from the incest. Like, who the hell was that? He was the third baseman on that horrible team in 2013. Dexter Fowler Treat. Now, the thing I remember about Dexter Fowler with the Astros.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
Was he. He was. He was, like, one of the few veterans on the really bad Astros.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
And he bought everybody, like, a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black to open the season that year. They all came in and they had a bottle of whiskey in their lockers that year.
Sean Pendergast
So I was here in 2013. Sean. No, no, no.
Tex
But Matt Dominguez is a really obscure name.
Sean Pendergast
Do you remember Matt Dominguez?
Sports Commentator
Huh?
Sean Pendergast
What's that? I remember the name. I couldn't remember.
Tex
Yeah, yeah. No, that wasn't a shot at you.
Sean Pendergast
I was still doing csn, like, even though we weren't talking about the Astros at all in 2013, I was doing CSN Houston, so I had to, like, bone up. And I didn't have Comcast at the time either, which is ironic that they were giving me a check, but.
Tex
Same exact thing. Same. No, it was. That was. That was a shot at Matt Dominguez, not a shot at you.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
So that's the criteria. And for me, if the Astros were to ever hire me in a position of tribute. Video determinator.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
Then that would be. Those would be the criteria. Am I being text in. Am I being a jerk?
Sean Pendergast
You're a little bit. As the listeners know, you're kind of snooty and snobby about some things. I think you're being a little snooty and snobby about maybe. I think you're being a little bit of a killjoy, because it doesn't. I guess. I guess. What's the downside to them showing those tribute videos?
Tex
That I get upset about it because we're lowering our standards.
Sports Commentator
Yeah.
Tex
That's the downside.
Sean Pendergast
You also. You flip on players after they leave way quicker than I do, too.
Tex
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
I like. I. I'm kind of of the opinion that as long as they don't leave in a jerk. Fat. A jerk like fashion, I just. I live and let live, and I'm cool with those guys. I flip on them immediately.
Tex
I root against, and I would say even some of the ones that I claim to root for after they leave.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
There's a little part of me that when I go look at their ops being 676 or something like that. Yeah. I'm like, okay, well, that's good. At least it's not doing. At least they're not doing this for the Astros. I'm glad they're doing this somewhere else.
Sean Pendergast
I'm the one that has to keep being reminded that we're doing the Petty cast when we do the pedicast.
Sports Commentator
Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
You know, like at least twice during each pedicure. Like, hey, Seth, is the pedicure. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to be a jerk.
Tex
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy who tells tells his co host to go die at the end of the show yesterday is actually the nice guy on the show.
Sean Pendergast
Well, that was deserved.
Tex
Yeah, I stand by that. You number snobs back in the old southwest days. Yeah.
Sean Pendergast
I was never the one that was being overly strict about it, but I understood why people were would say, oh, are you 33? Are you 34? Or whatever like that.
Tex
I do, too. If you have any shot of getting in the emergency exit row, if it's
Sean Pendergast
just like it for this, I like it. For the sake of just clarity.
Chase Sapphire Advertiser
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Sean Pendergast
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that there are a lot of people that would just. There are a lot of people that were liars and cheaters in the old southwest system, and they would jump on a little bit.
Tex
Don't get me wrong. If you were in my group of five.
Sean Pendergast
Yeah.
Tex
And you belonged in a group of five behind me, but you were kind of leaning into. It's just like, I know it ends with B50, but I'm like, B52. Like, it's. Yeah. No, you're a horrible person. All right, pain and PenderGast with you. NFL hot. NFL coach, hot seat rankings. Does this sound like the coaches on the hottest seats? And what are the hot. What's the hottest seat in Houston right now? We will get to that. Coming up next. There's a pill version of Ozempic.
Podcast Host
Hello, I'm Ozempic and I'm other GLP1s.
Tex
Kind of like him. Hey, did I hear there's a pill version of Ozempic?
Podcast Host
Yep, you sure did. Ask your doctor about which FDA approved uses of the Ozempic pen or pill may be right for you. Call 1833 ozempic or visit ozempic.com to view the medication guide and learn more about ozempic semaglutide tablets 9 milligrams and ozempic semagLutide injection 2 milligrams there's a
Tex
pill version of Ozempic. Hey y', all, Poodle and Matty here from Reality Gaze. Grab your favorite thong because for the first time we're heading to the villa for the new season of Love Island Us. I can't wait to watch Ariana babysit these shiny, oiled up adults who I'm pretty sure aren't there for the right reasons. From the home wrecking bombshells to the absolute wreckage of movie night, Pull up a daybed and join us every Wednesday
Podcast Host
for all the Love Island USA drama.
Tex
Find Reality gays wherever you get your podcasts.
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Episode: Altuve had the AB of the Game + We Need Tribute Video Standards
Date: July 1, 2026
Hosts: Seth Payne (“Tex”) & Sean Pendergast
Podcast: Payne & Pendergast (Audacy)
This episode focuses on two major Houston sports topics:
[01:48–06:57]
Astros Recap:
“I don't know if they have a name for that or not. Let's make one.” — Tex [02:40]
Altuve’s Critical ABS Challenge:
“Not really, but the situation told me I need to challenge. I thought it was a close pitch, but you got to challenge that one because it’s bases loaded, two outs, we’re down in the game, and Jordan’s hitting behind you. You’ve got to take a chance there.” — Tex paraphrasing Altuve [04:07]
Debate Over Challenge Usage:
“He’s not a volume shooter... He is an efficient challenger.” — Sean [03:57]
“Boy, even if you wouldn’t normally challenge... you gotta challenge right there. Just because of the situation.” — Tex [05:06]
“It’ll be fascinating at the end of this season to parse out the data and see what teams started to figure out about all of this.” — Sean [05:29]
[07:19–09:17]
“He’s got a routine with Stephen Okert that involves a profound bow.” — Tex [09:17]
“You know how nervous I was even to throw the H’s up because I always feel like, wait, am I doing it just...? So the bows, like all the protocols around the bows, man, you'd be a mess.” — Tex [10:09]
[11:59–18:59]
“We need standards for the tribute.... They made the playoffs and got swept in the wild card round in one of those seasons and then missed the playoffs in the other season...” — Tex [12:57]
“If you have any shot of getting in the emergency exit row... I like it for the sake of just clarity.” — Sean [21:42]
“I'm not to your degree where you’d be doing a Matt Dominguez tribute video from the insects. Like, who the hell was that?” — Tex [19:00]
“I just feel like we need standards for this.” — Tex [13:14]
"What’s the downside to them showing those tribute videos?" — Sean [20:26]
Efficient Challenger:
“He’s not just a volume shooter. He is an efficient, productive challenger.”
— Sean [03:57]
Textbook Use of Challenge:
“The situation told me I need to challenge.... That is the classic way to look at the ABS Challenge system.”
— Tex [04:07]
Tribute Video Threshold:
“You have to have one of those bold numbers on your baseball reference page.”
— Tex [15:03]
Sparring over Traditions:
“As the listeners know, you’re kind of snooty and snobby about some things.... I think you’re being a little bit of a killjoy...”
— Sean [20:14]
Adapting to New Cultures (with humor):
“You’d be a mess [with the bowing].”
— Tex to Sean [10:09]
This episode offers a quintessential slice of Houston sports talk — detailed game analysis, nuanced takes on evolving baseball rules, and candid debate over the sentimental boundaries of honoring ex-players. Payne & Pendergast’s chemistry keeps the discussion lively and relatable for H-Town superfans and casual listeners alike.