Astros Top Twins 6-4 as This Team's Feeling Scrappy Again

Summary

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Payne & Pendergast – Astros Top Twins 6-4 as This Team's Feeling Scrappy Again

Date: July 1, 2026
Hosts: Seth Payne & Sean Pendergast
Main Theme: Houston Astros’ 6-4 comeback win over the Minnesota Twins and what it reveals about the team’s recent surge in resilience and chemistry.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Seth and Sean break down the Houston Astros’ spirited 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins, highlighted by a game-changing grand slam from Yordan Alvarez and a pivotal at-bat by Jose Altuve. The hosts dive into the significance of the win, discuss the emerging signs that the Astros are regaining their signature “scrappy” identity, and analyze the team’s new approach to automated ball-strike (ABS) challenges. The episode combines detailed in-game analysis with classic banter, storytelling, and listener takeaways for the season moving forward.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Astros’ Comeback Narrative

[01:55] Seth Payne:

• Astros put up all six runs in the bottom of the fourth inning after a rocky start from Mike Burrows.
• In Seth’s words: “Mike Burrows got a rough start, three runs in the first inning, but then reeled it in after that.”
• Astros are now within two games of .500—a notable turnaround from earlier struggles.

The Game-Changing Moment: Alvarez’s Grand Slam

[04:11] Sean Pendergast:

• Yordan Alvarez broke out of a notable slump (0 for 16) in a major way:

  “Another grand slam for Yordan Alvarez last night...he’s having a sensational season, he’s the leader in the clubhouse for MVP...he won that game for you with a swing of the bat last night.” [04:59]

• Noted Alvarez’s three-for-four night and his league-leading OPS (“still above a thousand” even in slumps).

The At-Bat of the Game: Jose Altuve’s Impact

[04:59] Sean Pendergast:

• Focus on Jose Altuve’s walk—set up the grand slam for Alvarez by challenging a close call on a 3-2 count with bases loaded.

  “...more importantly, it gives Yordan Alvarez a chance to come up with the bases loaded...Not leading off with the bases empty. And we know what happened after that.”

• Altuve’s quick challenge strategy—decisive and an example for using the new ABS system effectively.
• Memorable quote (relayed from Altuve):

  “Not really, but the situation told me I need to challenge. I thought it was a close pitch, but you gotta challenge that one. Especially with the bases loaded, two outs, we're down in the game, and Yordan is hitting behind you. You've got to take a chance.” [09:09]

Bullpen Bounceback and Defensive Flaws

[06:54] Seth Payne:

• Astros bullpen (De Los Santos, Oker, Brian King, Josh Hader) finally looked solid after weeks of unreliability.
• Brief criticism of Yordan’s outfield play:

  “Jordan was partly to blame for it...just let the ball bounce right past him in left field...there was nothing weird about it.” [06:44]

ABS System, Challenges, and Clubhouse Mindset

[09:09+] Hosts:

• Altuve and Astros are using ABS system with confidence and game awareness.
• Sean admits he was worried about Altuve’s absorption of the ABS system, but credits him for being “outstanding.”
• Seth points out the difference between Altuve’s plate discipline and riskier baserunning:

  “I didn't worry about his actual judgment about whether it was going to be a ball or a strike, but we did worry about his decision making. And yet we know he's great at the plate. Yeah. He's not great once he's on the base paths.” [11:09]

The Significance of Grinding At-Bats and Pitch Counts

[13:31] Sean Pendergast and Todd Callis (guest):

• Discussion on the strategic value of long at-bats against top pitchers.

  Todd Callis: “It was not the grand slam...it was the AB by Altuve. Saw seven pitches, Joe Ryan was getting really tired...Jose really squeezed him out of, you know—and then Yordan, obviously, with the big blow. But Daltuva was the at bat of the game.” [13:42]

• Emphasize how fans and teams now closely track pitch counts and competitive at-bats for strategic edge.

Debates and Learning Around ABS Challenges

[16:03+] Seth Payne & Sean Pendergast:

• In-depth discussion of when to use challenges and why hitters (even early in counts) might want to use them.
• Astros maintain a scouting book on umpires’ tendencies, using this to inform challenge decisions.
• Reference to previous controversial challenge from opposing player Christian Walker; consensus: follow the rulebook for challenges.

Astros’ Scrappy Identity Re-Emerges

[18:10] Sean Pendergast:

• “The biggest thing I like about the Astros as a team, Seth, over the last week or so, is that they've kind of had that feel of the Astros early in the season where it didn't feel like they were out of any games...They've shown much better resiliency.”
• Key stats: Astros were 2-17 when trailing in the 7th or later earlier in the year, now compiling comeback wins.

Lineup Depth and Unsung Contributors

[19:30+]

• Contributions coming from lower in the order—particularly Cam Smith, Taylor Trammell, and Delgado (recent Sugar Land call-up).
• Cam Smith’s recent emergence (multiple home runs) highlighted as a positive sign following trade for Kyle Tucker.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Sean (re: Yordan Alvarez):
  “He’s the leader in the clubhouse for the MVP...” [04:59]

• Altuve (on his crucial challenge):
  “Not really, but the situation told me I need to challenge...especially with the bases loaded, two outs, we're down in the game, and Yordan is hitting behind you. You've got to take a chance.” [09:09]

• Todd Callis (on at-bat of the game):
  “It was not the grand slam...it was diabat by Altuve. Saw seven pitches and you could tell, like Joe Ryan was getting really tired.” [13:42]

• Seth (on Altuve's strengths):
  “He’s not great once he’s on the base paths. The batter’s box is his safe space.” [11:17]

• Sean (on comeback mentality):
  “That’s something that’s, you know, the lineup feels like it’s lengthened a little bit here. It’s not just the top three or four guys doing stuff. You’re getting contributions from some of the other guys down in the order.” [19:30]

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Important Timestamps

• 01:55 – Astros’ comeback explained; Burrows’ shaky start and rebound.
• 04:11 – Yordan Alvarez’s grand slam and MVP-level season.
• 04:59 – Jose Altuve’s pivotal at-bat and quick challenge.
• 06:54 – Bullpen’s effective performance and defensive miscues.
• 09:09 – Altuve’s quote on challenge mentality; hosts discuss ABS strategy.
• 13:31-14:12 – Joe Espada and Todd Callis highlight Altuve’s at-bat as the game’s turning point.
• 18:10 – Astros regaining their “never out of it” identity.
• 19:30 – Positive impact of unheralded players stepping up.

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Takeaways for Astros Fans

• The Astros are showing increased resilience and lineup depth, shaking off early-season woes.
• Yordan Alvarez is an elite offensive force, capable of changing games instantly.
• Jose Altuve’s veteran poise and nuanced use of MLB’s new challenge system are translating to tangible game results.
• The bullpen’s improvement is as significant for late-game confidence as the offense’s firepower.
• The team’s “scrappiness” and comeback trend signal a true playoff contender re-emerging.

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This episode offers both hope and sharp analysis for Astros fans: this scrappy version of Houston baseball is back—led by stars, supported by depth, and growing in tactical sophistication.

Transcript

[Kelly Clarkson]

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[Sean Pendergast]

A little to the left? No, wait.

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[Sean Pendergast]

That sofa was four days old.

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[Sean Pendergast]

It was a sofa.

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[Sean Pendergast]

Sports Radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast.

[Seth Payne]

We coming to eighth time. Let's get the work in, man.

[Alltrails Announcer]

Let's go. Great day.

[Sean Pendergast]

Great day.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, give me some juice.

[Sean Pendergast]

Slamming.

[Seth Payne]

Oh, yeah, let's do it. High deep to right field. All the way back.

[Jeff Blum]

It good.

[Seth Payne]

Four on the board. 44. The Astros lead this game six to three. Donald Ball game over. Astros winning six 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.

[Jeff Blum]

Glover, the offense got after it in the bottom of that fourth inning. Mike Burrows doing enough to keep the Astros in the game to allow him that big comeback with that big fourth inning and then the bullpen going to Work shut down the rest of the way, but who knew the ABs was going to take it away from yesterday's game and give it today the following day? Pretty incredible day. And a good win for the Astros.

[Sean Pendergast]

All right, Blum, be quiet. We got a show to start here, man. Todd Callous.

[Seth Payne]

Pretty good encapsulation, though.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was. Yeah, it was not. Not probably. Probably. A little long for a bump into a show, I would say, but for

[Seth Payne]

anybody who missed it, look, Mike Burrows got a rough start, three runs in the first inning, but then reeled it in after that.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay, I was one of those people you're talking about. I didn't get to see the game last night. I was out to D, was my. My son. It was my son Sammy's birthday. So we went to the. The original Carrabba's over on Kirby.

[Seth Payne]

Happy, but I don't know if a birthday was worth missing. A masterpiece performance by Mike Burroughs.

[Sean Pendergast]

Four ones in five innings.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, well, no, I mean, it was all in the. It was all in the first inning. I mean, he loaded the bases up, hit Caratini to score a run. It was a mess.

[Sean Pendergast]

I did see that. I saw that.

[Seth Payne]

Looked like it was going to be a disaster.

[Sean Pendergast]

I saw that on the TV above the bar. There we were. Our reservation was at 7:30, so we got there about 7:20. I did see the caratini, but. But it was nice having the phone sitting there at the table. And then all of a sudden, you know, you look down at your phone and it's six to three, Astros. I'm like, oh, anytime the score jumps like that, like, it goes from like three to two, and then you look down five minutes later and six to four, this was what it was like that game where they played Kansas City and they scored nine runs in the first inning. When it jumps like that, you're like, oh, Yordon did something. Jordan did something. And sure enough, another grand slam for Jordan Alvarez last night, courtesy of Todd Callis and Jeff Blum there from Space City Home Network.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, and, you know, Jordan had come into the night on an over 16 streak or whatever it was, and it was quite the opposite of that. He's very, very good.

[Sean Pendergast]

He gets into these little. You know, that happens to everybody, and it happens to Yordon, Happens to the best of them. You get into these little. These bad streaks or whatever. In most seasons with Yordon, when he gets into a bad. Like a bad slump. You look at his ops, and it's still, like, above 850. He's still walking this year he still walks. Yes.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

This year the number is a thousand.

[Seth Payne]

Like, you look you.

[Sean Pendergast]

You, like, Jordan's in a slump. He's not hitting. He needs day off. He got a day off this weekend. Like, oh, he's just. Joe Espada's favorite term is a breather. He needs a breather, whatever the case may be. And you look and his OPS is still above a thousand, you know.

[Alltrails Announcer]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

And obviously last night, three for four and a half. Grand slam helps. Helps that number. He's at like 10:40 right now or whatever. He's having a sensational season. He's the leader in the clubhouse for the mvp. And he won that game for you with a swing of the bat last night. But, Seth, the big at bat that's getting talked about a lot, too, from last night's game is Jose Altuve. The plate appearance right before Jordan Altuve is your leadoff guy now because Jeremy Pena is on the IL. And Jose Altuve with a 3, 2 count called third strike. Quickly challenges it. Quickly, quickly, that's key. Challenge it quick. Quickly challenges it and wins the challenge. Walks, drives in a run. So that makes it three to two. But more importantly, it gives Jordan Alvarez a chance to come up with the bases loaded. Not leading off with the bases empty the next inning. And we know what happened after that. We just heard it.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. No, and it was huge. Yeah. Jordan, when he got his first hit. Sean. Happy birthday to Sammy. When he got it, first hit, the exit velocity was 115 miles per hour. Line drive. Yeah. And he asked for the ball. Just is. Because, you know, it was a momentous occasion for him getting the ball after, you know, getting a hit. After his dry run.

[Sean Pendergast]

Did he really ask?

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't see if they actually gave it to him or not.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh. Because he was over whatever I got.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's hilarious. The other thing, though, too, about the. The three runs allowed in the first inning. Yeah. Jordan was partly to blame for it. Jordan. Jordan just let the ball bounce right past him in left field. And Blum very generously said that it took a weird bounce. I went back and watched it a couple times. It was. There's nothing weird about it.

[Sean Pendergast]

It was.

[Seth Payne]

It was classic Newtonian physics on this bounce, Sean, There was nothing about it where you're like, whoa, how are you going to handle that?

[Sean Pendergast]

Pure gravity. It's it.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, that's. That's it. But no. And then the relievers came in and did a really good job. So it was a De los Santos, Oker, Brian King, and then Josh Hader. Yep. Just kind of mowed them all down.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Home Depot Announcer]

Yeah.

[Sean Pendergast]

I mean, and that was good to see De los Santos because he's been atrocious lately, so that was good to see him. And then the other three guys you just named Oakr, Brian King and Josh Hader, all lefties. A righty arm performing like those guys would be nice to have out there, although blue ball's done a nice job. Um, but those three guys had been your linchpins in the bullpen. So seeing those three guys come in and do what they did was really good. I love this quote from Altuve because challenges. The challenge system was a big topic on the show yesterday because of the Christian Walker aborted challenge from the night before, where Christian Walker looked into the dugout after a called third strike. Should have been like a similar situation to Altuve. Should have been a ball four. Should have, you know, should have kind of kept the inning a little juiced. And Walker challenges too late, looks into the dugout challenge aborted. He strikes out. He's seething. Astros lose by one. Blah, blah, blah. I love this quote from Altuve. He was asked if he was confident that if the pitch that he was challenging when the count was three two, if he was confident that it was actually ball four. Umpire called it strike three. This is his quote. 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. Especially with the bases loaded, two outs, we're down in the game, and Jordan is hitting behind you. You've got to take a chance, end quote. I take back everything I said before the season about my nervousness or anxiety over Altuve using the ABS system. I apologize to Jose Altuve for conflating his ratchet base running for what his dis. What his decision making at the plate would be with the ABS system. He's been outstanding. He's used it, as Matt Kawahara points out in his article in the Chronicle, he's used it way more than he had forecasted he was going to use it before the season. Nobody's had more, more turned over calls, you know, successful, successful challenges. Thank you, then Jose Altuve. But that quote right there, that is the thought process. That is how you, you hitters who are challenging oh one pitches, stop it. I don't care what time of game it is, you stop challenging oh one strikes, stop doing it.

[Seth Payne]

That's going to be happy about this. I know you weren't Watching the game.

[Sean Pendergast]

That quote from Jose. Oh, is this going to. Is this going to turn the tables on Altuve?

[Seth Payne]

What you're. No, no, no, no, no, no. Not on Altuve. Go ahead. Just. Christian Walker got out there and challenged. I honestly, it was the first pitch. He was successful. He was successful. He got up, he rectified, he got off the. Whatever psychological glitches he may have had.

[Sean Pendergast]

Oh, my God. Anyways, so, yeah, so, yeah, I love that when Altuve says, yeah, I wasn't real confident, but you got to challenge that because it's bases loaded, two outs down in the game, and most importantly, Jordan is sitting behind you. You know, that's. That is a challenge worth losing. You know what I mean? Like, if you lose that in a strike three and it's the end of the inning, I can live with that because all these challenges, like, most of them, are within a, you know, a fraction of an inch. So I'm still amazed that some of these guys are so like, Isak Paredes being as good at that as what he is. And I would have predicted that because he's. He's a very discerning hitter up there at the plate.

[Seth Payne]

But I love.

[Sean Pendergast]

I love that quote from Altuve.

[Seth Payne]

Altuve. You know, this is what we failed to recognize, you know, when we were forecasting this before the season began, was that, oh, yeah, let's remember Altuve is awesome at the plate. He does. Look, he's got. He knows when he's chasing, you know, he knows when he's. When he's reaching way out of the zone because he's capable of making those hits. So I didn't worry about his actual judgment about whether it was going to be a ball or a strike, but we did worry about his decision making. And yet we know he's great at the plate. Yeah. He's not great once he's on the base pass.

[Sean Pendergast]

Right.

[Seth Payne]

So this falls into the category of. Okay, this is all still at the plate.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

So we should have. We should have known and recognized.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's true.

[Seth Payne]

That it's actually once he gets onto the base pass.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

That's where the problems begin.

[Sean Pendergast]

The batter's box is his safe space.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. Getting onto the base pass. He has. He's great at that. It's what he does when he's on them. Yep. That's the issue.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yep, yep, yep. He's good at taking the reservation. He's not good at keeping the reservation. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah.

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[Kelly Clarkson]

Hey, y', all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder what if? Like, what if it doesn't fit?

[Sean Pendergast]

Uh, little to the left. No, wait.

[Kelly Clarkson]

Yep. Should have gone with Wayfair. Or what if it doesn't hold up?

[Sean Pendergast]

That sofa was four days old.

[Kelly Clarkson]

Should have ordered from Wayfair. Or what if it's that material that makes that noise?

[Sean Pendergast]

It was a sofa.

[Pacific Life Announcer]

I swear.

[Kelly Clarkson]

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[Sean Pendergast]

Every style, every home.

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[Sean Pendergast]

Here was Joe Espada. After the game last night, he said the Altuve at bat, the walk was the at bat of the game.

[Seth Payne]

Thinking the Altuve challenge turned out to be a pretty, pretty huge.

[Todd Callis]

You know what, I'm glad that you brought that up because I thought that was like the at bat of the game. It was not the grand slam. The grand slam was pretty awesome, but it was diabat by Altuve. Saw seven pitches and you could tell, like Joe Ryan was getting really tired, you know, after that at bat. He used a ton of pitches and Jose really squeezed him out of, you know, and then Jordan, obviously, with a, with a big blow. But Daltuva was the at bat of the game.

[Sean Pendergast]

Boy, that is the thing, too. He touched on the Joe Ryan aspect of it. There Joe Ryan, who's basically the ace of the Minnesota staff. And we feel that. I feel that a lot. Like we're, we're in an age, an era now where fans are just way more in tuned with pitch counts. I mean, it's there at the bottom of the screen growing. When I was growing up, there weren't pitch counts at the bottom of the screen. You didn't, you weren't sitting there like, looking at the pitch count going, oh, boy, I sure hope we get five out of this guy or get six out of this guy. Guys just pitched. So now you're more in tune with it. That is a demoralizing thing. When you have an at bat and your pitcher throws eight or nine pitches in at bat and loses that at bat. Yeah, that's a big deal.

[Seth Payne]

You feel. You really. You understand how much of a greater loss. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. Keeping track of the competitive at bats, it's one of the better. It's one of the ways the viewing experience has changed for the better, I think. Yeah. Like, it kind of helps you. It kind of helps you be more intelligent without having to work at it.

[Sean Pendergast]

It does. It stresses me out more though, man. Like when they lose those at bat, like when an Astros pitcher lose a nine pitch at bat, I'm like, no, but.

[Seth Payne]

See, but, but the flip side of it is that it makes you really appreciate the EOC paradises of the world or the, or the Alex Bre. You know. All right, okay. He's making them work.

[Sean Pendergast]

He's.

[Seth Payne]

He's getting that pitch count up.

[Sean Pendergast]

That's exactly right. His.263 batting average is different than other guys. 263 batting averages.

[Seth Payne]

You know, Christian Walker just. I just had to fact check myself, be sure my memory wasn't. It wasn't harming me. It was. Yeah. It was an. It was an 01 count.

[Alltrails Announcer]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

First pitch, he challenged it and he was successful.

[Sean Pendergast]

Okay. And then if he's successful, all's well that ends well. Like, I just think it's empirically that's just a dumb thing to do. Unless it's just a completely. You know, unless it's just a really. Just abhorrently bad call by the umpire.

[Seth Payne]

I don't know. You know, they, they say that they've got a strategy for which, you know, when did you use it? Based on leverage, etc. Etc. I mean, there were two outs, I suppose, and whatever.

[Sean Pendergast]

What? Well, they have a strategy too. There have been some good articles about how the Astros use that, and I Thought the most interesting part was they have a book on the umpires, too. Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. And last night's umpire was. He's one of the most accurate in the league. So that was where. Initially I was kind of surprised, too, because in the first is the bottom of the first, and Walker's up and, you know, callous had mentioned a couple of times, and I think. I think callous kind of slyly thrown a little shade at two nights ago umpire.

[Todd Callis]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

But just brought up a couple times how this is one of the most accurate via the tracking in the league. And Walker got it right up and made an accurate challenge.

[Sean Pendergast]

So I saw people. People who I think are intelligent. I saw people saying that. That Christian Walker got hosed on that challenge the other night. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He looked into the dugout and took like, three seconds to challenge. Like, he didn't get hosed.

[Seth Payne]

I don't know.

[Sean Pendergast]

I think I thought it was a good call.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah, he didn't get hosed on the challenge. He got hosed on the call.

[Sean Pendergast]

He did.

[Alltrails Announcer]

He.

[Sean Pendergast]

He did. He did. He did. I saw people saying that he got hosed on the challenge part of him. Like, how can you say that? He looked.

[Seth Payne]

That was like, by the letter of the law. I mean, Espada didn't complain about it.

[Sean Pendergast]

No.

[Seth Payne]

You know.

[Sean Pendergast]

No, no, he didn't at all.

[Seth Payne]

Like, Espada basically conceded. Yeah, he looked into the dugout. I was given. I was giving Christian Walker a little bit of a break just in that. Okay. I can see his head turned towards the dugout. I don't know if he was actually looking at the dugout. Right. Potter just flat out said, yeah, he looked at the dugout. It was just. That's the very letter of the law is you're not allowed to look at the dugout before you make your challenge. So I don't. Yeah, I don't. I haven't yet seen an explanation for how he actually got hosed with anybody. Like, I haven't seen a good explanation for it.

[Sean Pendergast]

Someone said.

[Seth Payne]

Just like, I. It. It doesn't make any sense.

[Sean Pendergast]

Someone said Cam Smith challenged the first pitch last night, too. And one. I don't know if that's accurate or not, but that would be on brand for Cam Smith challenging an 01.

[Seth Payne]

Cam ended up. Cam had a good. I mean, Cam's had a good few games.

[Sean Pendergast]

Had a night. Yeah. Well, I said that yesterday. The game two nights ago. And this brings me to a broader take on the Astros. But the game two nights ago, where Cam hit the two home runs and they were two bombs. They were both over 400ft. Maybe. Maybe this is Cam kind of coming around here and being the hitter that they thought they were ultimately going to get. Maybe not right away, but ultimately thought they were going to get when they traded Kyle Tucker for him. I think that my. My biggest thing that I like about the Astros as a team, Seth, over the last, I'll say, week or so, is that they've kind of had that feel of the Astros early in the season where it didn't feel like they were out of any games. You know, the couple of those games in that Detroit series were comebacks, late comebacks. The two wins on Saturday and Sunday were both late comebacks. Monday, they didn't win the game, but they scraped some stuff together. Scrape some stuff. I mean, they hit two bombs in the bot in the bottom of the ninth inning. They didn't win the game. But if Christian Walker had successfully challenged that pitch, maybe that game goes to extra innings. And then even yesterday they fall behind early and then they're able to put a big inning together. And obviously you get Yournan Alvarez hitting a grand slam, and that cures a lot of ills offensively because that was the only inning they scored any runs in was in the fourth inning. They scored all six of their runs in the fourth inning, and four of them came on one swing of the bat. But I think that's something that's, you know, the lineup feels like it's lengthened a little bit here. It's not just the top three or four guys doing stuff. You're getting contributions from some of the other guys down in the order. Taylor Tramell and Cam Smith. Delgado's had some contributions last week, get sent down to Sugar Land and called back up because of the Pena Il stint. So that's. That's the big thing, too, in the last week is they've shown much better resiliency. I mean, you've cited that stat a few times prior to this past week or so, which is. For most of the season, they've been terrible if they've been trailing seven in the seventh inning or later in game.

[Seth Payne]

Yeah. For. For the better part of the first half of the season. They don't. They were. It was like 2 and 17 or something ridiculous when trailing in the seventh inning. And part of that is. Yeah, when you. I mean, when you couldn't trust your bullpen whatsoever, that that's obviously going to make a big difference. And they've just. You feel so much more solid about everybody except the Brayus. Still, when you get into those final couple. Couple innings right now. Yeah. Cam Smith challenged the first pitch. It was. Yeah, it was the first pitch on an oh and one count. I think. No, I think this is where is you and I learn about how teams are handling the abs.

[Sean Pendergast]

Yeah.

[Seth Payne]

I think the thing that I've started to realize is that the we. We act like an 01 count is we act like it's no big deal. Why are you challenging it? I do think the teams are way more. I think they're actually looking at that first pitch as is one of the better times to challenge it, to have a clean slate. If you feel get ahead of the

[Sean Pendergast]

count, maybe certain guys are more comfortable batting from ahead. That makes sense. I'm still going to get angry when I see it happen, but I'll accept that we can't.

[Seth Payne]

Shauna, the speed at which you can turn into a dinosaur these days has accelerated dramatically. So you got to be careful on this.

[Sean Pendergast]

You're right.

[Seth Payne]

We got to be open to checking our biases and everything.

[Sean Pendergast]

You're right. All right. We've got the latest on the Brendan Sorsby situation. I think this was the most practical ending to this saga for everybody involved. And with that in mind, Sourceby is going to be part of the 2027 QB class. How closely should Texan fans be watching quarterbacks on the collegiate level this year? Curious what people think about that. We'll discuss that coming up next. Oh, by the way, Baseball talk On Sports Radio 610 presented by Xfinity. Score the most reliable Wi Fi 1 price, 5 years guaranteed Xfinity. Imagine that.

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[Seth Payne]

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There's only one Ozempic.

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