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Seth Payne
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Luke Morrow
Every style, every home
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Yep.
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Luke Morrow
sports radio 610 presents Seth Payne and Sean Pendergast.
Seth Payne
We coming to eighth time. Let's get the work in, man.
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Let's go.
Luke Morrow
Great day.
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Great day.
Seth Payne
Oh, give me some juice, baby. Oh, yeah. Let's do it.
Luke Morrow
Yes, sir. Happy Monday. Appreciate you starting the week with us, Payne and Pendergast, but Sean's out. I'm Luke Morrow in for him alongside Seth Payne. Hope you had a great holiday weekend. Seth, good morning. How was your July 4th weekend?
Seth Payne
It was great. It was absolutely incredible. We did all the stuff you're supposed to do. Yeah. Just did hot dogs and fireworks and lawn work. That was the try the trifecta for the things our forefathers would have wanted us to do.
Luke Morrow
That's right. Right. Very American. Well, glad you had a good time. I was. You know, we went out to. I live in West U. We went out to a damn.
Seth Payne
No.
Luke Morrow
Well, let's take it. Let's take it easy.
Seth Payne
I didn't know you were a West University in.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, yeah. I love telling people because it's a lot fancier than our reality.
Seth Payne
It's like Sean claiming that he lives in River Oaks. Technically. Yeah.
Luke Morrow
In our neighborhood. It's like mansion, mansion, mansion. Oh, there's our shack. Mansion, mansion, mansion. But we do live in a nice area at least.
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And.
Luke Morrow
But so we went to the local pool. There's a community pool. That's the best part about West U. Or some of just the perks in the. In the neighborhood. But we went to the pool on July 4th because they were having a whole pool party and there was a guy there that looked like he had to have either have been or is currently an athlete. And he looked like a football player. The dude was built. He was about 6ft, muscles on muscles, great shape. He. He was in the pool, like with a long sleeve shirt on. He had the hat on, glasses on the whole time. Like he was trying to keep a low profile. And you've probably had this experience too, Seth, but I spent the second half that we were there, I spent the whole time just like staring at this guy, trying to figure out like, who is this? This has to be somebody. And I imagine in your life as a former NFL player, people have probably looked at you trying to figure out like, this has to be a professional athlete. Who is this guy? And I don't know if he knew that. My eyes are on him for a long time, probably, you know, making his wife uncomfortable. But I was trying to figure out, like, this has to be. And I never figured it out, but I was like, this has to be either a former player or a coach or somebody who. This dude is too built to just be a regular guy.
Seth Payne
Yeah, no, that's. I don't get it. As. As long as I'm not lifting weights, I don't get it that much. As soon as I start lifting, it's like I could lift for two weeks and then immediately I start getting those questions. But I like, I look more looking like a beefed up librarian these days. So there's lots of tall guys, especially in a city this big. So I don't. And I'm old now, so I don't. I don't get that as much. But yeah, that's. Well, it's one of the things about being in Houston. There are. There's so many professional athletes, not just from the local teams, but from guys that retire and live here that I do. I find myself a lot of times kind of walking past somebody my own age in the grocery store and we kind of eyeball each other, and we're pretty sure that we used to both play in the NFL, but, you know, like, who's got room for more friends, right? Yeah.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. And I'm not the type of. I'm not going to go up to this guy and just make small chats. So I was like. I was like, creeping over towards the pool, trying to. Over, you know, trying to eavesdrop and hear if I could catch a name or something or like, what is this guy? Is he talking about the Texans? Is he talking about the NFL?
Seth Payne
Well, so do you get credit for this now, though? Okay. If you're. If you're an athlete. If you're a professional athlete at the public pool and it's in some, you know, it's like in a. In a normal suburb or out in the country or something, I feel like you get extra credit for being a man of the people I don't know of in West U. That applies as much.
Luke Morrow
It's true.
Seth Payne
I don't think as much of, like, that you get. You know what's weird? When I lived in Jack, when I played for the Jaguars in Jacksonville, there's just gated golf communities all over the place. And most of the people, like, who have the means or a lot of them end up living in gated communities. It's almost just the standard. And I never. I always felt weird about that. So I lived like, you know, like in a normal house on a normal street, and people would always. People would always act like I was, like I was a saint walking on the earth for just living in a normal neighborhood. And I was like. I was like, yeah, I feel like. I feel like you're kind of calling all the other guys jerks. I didn't think anything of it, but, like, in Houston, it's not. As the gated community thing isn't as big a deal, at least, you know, inside the loop and everything, obviously. So you see a lot more just commingling in the public.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I went to a couple of weeks and maybe months ago now, I went to Starbucks and Cal McNair walked in to pick up his order. And I was the only person in there that recognized him. And look, I don't have. We know the McNairs, obviously, they listen, they pay attention. I don't have the ego to think that he knows who I am. I'm only here occasionally, but we locked eyes And I think he knew that I knew who he was. And we kind of like acknowledge each other, but I wasn't going to say anything. Nobody said a word to him. He came in, grabbed his coffees, went back out, and I was like, oh, that's cool. Like, that was just the owner of the Texans popping in here. Nobody even realized. So to your point, you can't exist around here as a celebrity or a star or an athlete or whatever without a bunch of people noticing. Nobody else went up to this guy. So I don't know. They were all busy with their kids, obviously. I said, go play over there. I'm trying to figure out who this guy is.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
But, yeah, I never got the answer.
Seth Payne
You should have. Yeah, you just have a casual walk up and you could have, you know, dropped your hot dog in front of him or something. I, you know, the last place I ran into Cal McNair in nature was at an academy. And he was buying, he was buying grilling supplies. Like, he was like, he's just, he is. He is about as down to earth, just the low key billionaire as you could, as you'd expect to see.
Luke Morrow
That's how I would. That's, that's the dream. I want to be Adam Sandler. Just like walking around in baggy gym shorts.
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Luke Morrow
You know, and people think like, you look like a schlub, but really you're just, you're a millionaire and you're just like, you're an everyday guy. That's, that's, that's the American dream here. Coming off July 4th weekend. Hey, the Astros are coming off. Let me not bury the lead. The Astros are coming off a big weekend as well. They take two out of three against the Rays, getting that win yesterday to nothing. The Rays third best record still as we wake up today, third best record in Major League Baseball. They entered the series on an eight game winning streak. To me, that was. I've always, still have been like one foot in if that with these Astros. So I still been skeptical, but that was the biggest series victory of the year. To me. It wasn't the Royals, it wasn't the Twins, the teams they've been beating recently. This was a really good race team. And the Astros, even though they didn't get a good performance from Hunter Brown on Saturday, still found a way to win two out of three. It felt like a really big prove it series, at least for me. I don't know how you felt, Seth, but for me, I came away thinking like, okay, maybe I can start to take this Team seriously, in the Al.
Seth Payne
No, 100%. And I think. I mean, so much of it revolves around the pitching and what are they going to. What are you going to see from them? And we know the bullpen is. Has really come along in the last month or so, but I think getting those performances out of Arrogetti and Lambert are probably the most promising developments. And, like, Lambert has been pitching well, but I also think you're at a point now where, you know, Espada at times, I think, has left Lambert in too long. He's left a lot of pitchers in too long, and a lot of that comes from earlier in the season when, man, they just didn't have. They didn't have enough guys in the bullpen. The starters weren't giving. Weren't. Weren't. Weren't eating up enough innings that he was really in a fix. Where now I would say both, arguably with Araghetti and Lambert, you might say, man, you could have left them in a little bit longer, but they were both like, he was in a good position with both of those guys to where I understand. I understand why he would. And it worked out like with Lambert yesterday. You know, you bring Okert in to face a lefty, and they. They end up swapping him out. And it was. But. But it all worked out. And they, like, they have the relievers. When you can line up Okert, King, and Hayter, you feel just awesome about that compared to whatever the hell we felt like in the first couple months of the season when we might have to see a bray, you out there in a clutch situation.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
No, the bullpen handle their business again yesterday. And this bullpen has been really good, as has the team. I mean, the Bull, over the last six weeks. The bullpen, I believe, is still number one in ERA, and the Astros are number one in the American League. They're 25 and 16 in their last 41 games, which is a quarter of the season. If you played like that all year, you'd win just about 100 games, which is pretty remarkable. So they have the highest winning percentage the last six weeks. So if you're an Astros fan, you're probably thinking, like, how come you're only buying in now? But because on the flip side, and we know this, with baseball, you can always find stats to make your argument. But on the flip side, the Astros still, despite this run, have the fourth worst run differential in the American League. And I'm a big run differential guy. You know, the run differential tells you that they've overachieved by six games so far, they have the. They're still only in third place in the worst division in baseball and they're also four games under.500 against winning teams even after this weekend series. So they, they've been playing really good baseball the last six weeks. But then for me, there's, it's still hard for me to settle some of those bad numbers that I usually look for over the course of an entire baseball season to tell me how good a team truly is.
Seth Payne
Yeah, no, you're exactly right to care about run differential. You know, the stat heads try to tell you it's like it's some kind of. It's a Pythagorean theorem of like whatever the win loss ratio of points for and against. It's like, yeah, okay, no, we don't have to, we don't have to attach. We don't have to attach any lingo to it. It's better to score more runs than you allow. And like, over the course of the season you can. Those things tend to balance out. I think that the biggest, the biggest and craziest thing is that this series that you feel best about, or at least you know, I think you and I both feel a lot more confident after winning A Series vs. The Rays is. It is as you're also sending Jake Myers and Joey Lo Profito down to Triple A and just continuing this, this whatever the hell's going on in the outfield to the point where, I mean, you know, yesterday they pinch hit disenzo for Taylor Tramel, and I find myself like wondering, like, how am I getting angry about this? And yet I am because I feel like Espada is just trying to get too clever too quick and then disenzo ends up doing well out there. But these are the options. Like, there's just, there's no options that you feel awesome about for really giving you any kind of offense in the outfield.
Luke Morrow
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Luke Morrow
Yeah, for sure. And I think it's. I don't know who it's an indictment on. Like, I didn't like at the time. You could go back. I don't tweet a whole lot, but you could find the tweet at the time of the trade deadline last year where I thought Jesus Sanchez was the best addition for the Astros. It obviously did not work out last year here in Houston, but then I hated that trade for Joey Lo Profito. And so far now as we sit here on July 6, I don't know what Sanchez's numbers currently are. I haven't checked the last like two weeks, but he was having a really good year.
Seth Payne
Yeah.
Luke Morrow
And Lorfito, he was playing a lot
Seth Payne
better than he had in Houston. Remember. Remember also that the, the Blue Jays hitting coach up there at the beginning of the season, it basically said that the Astros ruined Sanchez.
Luke Morrow
Right.
Seth Payne
I'm paraphrasing, but right.
Luke Morrow
So maybe it was never going to work in Houston. Although of course they did change hitting coaches. But ye yeah, like that was a career low OPS he had for his half a season in Houston. That's not the norm. That's the outlier. I like Jesus Sanchez, and he's having a really good year. Meanwhile, Lo Profito goes down to Triple A, and so I don't know if that's like more of an indictment on Dana Brown, where you look at the Dubon trade, you look at that trade, neither one has worked out well for the Astros or if it's more of an indictment on Jim Crane for forcing those like money saving moves. But here we are on July 6th where Loper Fido, one of the big additions of the off season, is now in Triple A along with Jake Myers. And you have lamonte Wade in the lineup. And then to your point, the Zenzo who in Dana Brown's defense to Senzo got a big, you know, had a big at bat to tie up the game there yesterday or Saturday rather. But, but yeah, that's just to me it's another sign of just some of the holes, I guess on this team of that Lope Jesus Sanchez would be a big help. Instead you have Low Profito now he's in Triple A and you look at this lineup, there's only three guys with an average ops, a league average OPS on this team. But they have the pitching right now and they keep finding ways to win here the last six weeks.
Seth Payne
Yeah, somebody asked me about Lamont Wade this weekend. About like, so is he, is he a rookie? And I'm like, I'm pretty sure. Let me check. Yeah, he's 32 years old. Like, whatever. Like I know his numbers are promising so far, but it's a very small sample size and it's. He likely is what he is at this point in his career.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. Big series coming up though. Well, first, before I get to that, let me put you on the spot here already 6:12 in the morning. Who do you think was, what was. Who had the bigger pitching performance, Spencer Arrogetti or Lambert in terms of like trying to take that and move forward? Like, who do you think that was bigger for Arrogetti and what he did Friday or Lambert yesterday? Because okay, well, I was just to set it up like Araghetti had the great start to the year then had really been scuffling and we thought like now, you know, he's regressed to the mean. But then pitch really well Friday, Lambert. Meanwhile, we're waiting for the other shoe to drop. And yet the guy just keeps dealing. I don't know if it's ever going to drop.
Seth Payne
Yeah, I think that, I think with Eric Eddy because we've seen this. Eric Eddy has acknowledged it himself. Like, man, he tends to be pretty streaky. He'll have this awesome month where you feel like he's the, he's the next Hunter Brown. He is. And then he just has a month like the previous month. And I think for Eric, Eddie and especially right now, you know, as a, as you approach the All Star break, whatever he's figured out or whatever he's had to do. Hopefully this is just back onto that stretch where he's done in the past. You know, have a great second half of the season. I think it was a bigger day for him. Lambert. Yeah, I'm growing kind of maybe a little too casually comfortable with Lambert. And I just part of it is he just does it with, you know, attacking the zone, a variety of pitches, just changing up his velo and everything. He just feels like. He feels like a true craftsman. You know, he understands his craft.
Luke Morrow
Yeah. And he was like, look, he was a first round draft pick, went to Colorado where all pitchers, you know, go to fail. And then now here in Houston has been given maybe a better opportunity and things are certainly clicking for him this year. So he's always had like the ability and the talent. Just hasn't been able to put it together at least to this season. But yeah, he's been pitching really well
Seth Payne
as a pitcher going to Colorado. Just think about what that must do your psyche in terms of like your career. This is in Baseball Almanac for the rest of your life, no matter how well you pitch, it's not gonna look that good. And that's the, that's the high. Like, that's a high standard. You just. There's people gonna have to explain. You're gonna end up being a Hall of Fame pitcher, but people are gonna have to explain to future generations exactly why the first five or six years of your career didn't look that impressive.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it's like in the office where Ryan says that Pam is like a Scranton 8, but a New York 5 or something along those lines. It' like, well, you know, he has a five ERA in Colorado. That's like a four and a half ERA somewhere else or maybe a four ERA somewhere else. Like, it's not bad. You got to use. You got to grade it on a. On a scale.
Seth Payne
I feel like if you're like, you've got aspirations of being a great novelist or something, but you're forced to take a job at Buzzfeed and you're just like, this is the, this is the crap I'm going to be putting out. I'm going to be writing listicles for the next six years.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. Big still. Big couple of days coming up here. Starting tonight. No rest for the Astros. 545. First pitch against the Nationals. And I know we haven't really had to care about the Washington Nationals for a few years really since that World Series, but they are over.500 and they have one of the better offenses and their pitching is lousy, but they have one of the best offenses in the league. And Seth, as you pointed out before we came on the air, you had the three good arms over the weekend. And now you get Mike Burroughs tonight ima tomorrow against one of the better offenses in the league on the road nonetheless. So now let's see if you could keep this momentum going with these guys the next two nights.
Seth Payne
Yeah, I'm, I am excited for what hangs in the balance in terms of my own psyche over the next three days. That's the, I mean like Burroughs and Imai immediately just give us something to feel really good about headed into the All Star break and. Except we'll probably see Burroughs again. Right? Yeah. So there's a, like there's this, this next couple, this next couple series before the All Star break where Jordan will also be for those you didn't know, he's not going to be doing the Home Run Derby. So you don't have to worry about any of that.
Luke Morrow
Yeah. Screwing up the swing.
Seth Payne
Yeah. They talked about it was Cameron. Oh, they were talking about with Cameron Arrow yesterday about you know, like the perceived that sometimes guys go into a slump or just don't do as well after they do the Home Run Derby. I don't. I could go either way on that debate. I'm just glad to not have to be a part of it.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, I don't like it. I wouldn't want my guys like Jordan in the Home Run Derby. I think they've tried to crunch the numbers before. I think people have done the quote unquote studies and found that it really doesn't have a huge overall on average. It doesn't have a huge impact on these guys second half of the season. But there are enough cases we can point to where maybe it's just coincidence but it's like, ah, that guy, you know, he didn't do so hot second half of the year or at least the weeks that followed the Home Run Derby because it is a, you know, it can be a tiring experience. It can, we believe, alter your swing. I just, it's also down there.
Seth Payne
I even just for from an injury standpoint, I like, it's, it's like going out, it's a different sport almost doing a Home Run Derby. Even though it looks very, very similar to the thing he does every single night, it's still, you're taking all these monstrous hacks in a row and like for whether it messes up your swing or it could, you know, tweak your oblique or Something I just don't like. I. I don't want Jordan Alvarez going out and splitting a bunch of firewood during the ulcer break either. You know, it's a similar motion. Yeah, but it's. It's that. That can be dangerous sometimes. The similar motion where it feels comfortable to just go all out. It's. You feel it the next day.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, it can be dangerous. Ask Chris Hansen and Jack Del Rio.
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Ever. Do you ever.
Seth Payne
Like, you ever go to the gym and you haven't done legs in a long time and you decide to do legs? Or let's. Even if you have been doing legs, but you decide to do some kind of groin exercise or something, you think, oh, I'm in great shape and everything. Sure. I'll just get on that adductor machine and do six sets there, and then you can't walk for three weeks afterwards.
Luke Morrow
Yeah, exactly. No, I know. I know it too well. Baseball talk on Sports Radio 610, presented by Xfinity. Score. The most reliable Wi Fi 1 price 5 years guaranteed Xfinity. Imagine that. By the way, yeah. Jordan's also the same guy that got injured like stepping on home, so let's not have him swing a bat any. Any more than he really needs to. Coming up. Hey, we have a big soccer game tonight and. Or match, I should say. You could tell I'm not a soccer guy. Big soccer match tonight. And we also got big news over the weekend that a red card suspension was actually suspended. Are we happy or should we be embarrassed? We'll talk about it next here on Pain and Pendergast.
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Would you look at that? It's time for some of our favorite Snapple reel facts. Real fact 1433. Toe wrestling is a competitive sport. Real fact 732. The chicken is the closest living relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex. And reeled back 1599. A man once ate an entire airplane. Yowch. Did he have any hot sauce?
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Luke Morrow
From high school baseball to the men's NCAA College World Series to MLB and all the way to the National Baseball hall of Fame, how will you make your mark in MLB? The Show 26. Available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series XS and Nintendo Switch. Rated E for everyone. Officially licensed by MLB Players, Inc. Presented by T Mobile, the official wireless
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Luke Morrow
With an awesome network and great savings, there's never been a better time to join T Mobile. Visit your neighborhood store to make the Switch Today, the Recap show is an inside look into the world of global soccer and women's sports.
Seth Payne
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Date: July 6, 2026
Hosts: Seth Payne & Luke Morrow (in for Sean Pendergast)
Podcast: Audacy / SportsRadio 610
In this episode, Seth Payne and guest co-host Luke Morrow recap a pivotal weekend for the Houston Astros, who took two out of three games against the formidable Tampa Bay Rays. The hosts analyze the Astros’ recent surge, debate lingering skepticism, and preview an upcoming “gut check” stretch. Along the way, they muse about Houston’s unique sports celebrity culture, outfield roster drama, and the always-vexing debate around star players in the Home Run Derby. The tone is laid-back, candid, and brimmed with insider banter—a show for Houston sports lovers, by Houston sports lovers.
“There’s so many professional athletes…from local teams, guys that retire and live here…I find myself a lot of times kind of walking past somebody my own age in the grocery store and we kind of eyeball each other, and we’re pretty sure we both used to play in the NFL, but who’s got room for more friends, right?” (Seth Payne, 03:55)
“He came in, grabbed his coffees, went back out, and I was like, oh, that was just the owner of the Texans popping in here. Nobody even realized.” (Luke Morrow, 06:08)
“That was the biggest series victory of the year to me. It wasn’t the Royals, it wasn’t the Twins. This was a really good Rays team…maybe I can start to take this team seriously in the AL.” (Luke Morrow, 08:00)
“When you can line up Okert, King, and Hader, you feel just awesome about that compared to whatever the hell we felt like in the first couple months of the season…” (Seth Payne, 09:30)
“Despite this run, [they] have the fourth worst run differential in the American League…only in third place in the worst division in baseball and they’re also four games under.500 against winning teams even after this weekend series.” (Luke Morrow, 10:20)
“I find myself like wondering…how am I getting angry about this? And yet I am because I feel like Espada is just trying to get too clever too quick…” (Seth Payne, 11:55)
“He just does it with…attacking the zone, a variety of pitches…He feels like a true craftsman. You know, he understands his craft.” (Seth Payne, 16:27)
“You had the three good arms over the weekend…and now you get Mike Burroughs tonight, Imai tomorrow against one of the better offenses in the league, on the road nonetheless.” (Luke Morrow, 18:38)
“Even though it looks very, very similar to the thing he does every single night, it’s still, you’re taking all these monstrous hacks in a row…That can be dangerous sometimes.” (Seth Payne, 20:37)
On Houston Athlete Sightings:
“As long as I’m not lifting weights, I don’t get it that much. As soon as I start lifting…immediately I start getting those questions. But I look more like a beefed up librarian these days.” (Seth Payne, 03:55)
On Astros’ Outfield Drama:
“These are the options…there’s just no options that you feel awesome about for really giving you any kind of offense in the outfield.” (Seth Payne, 11:55)
On Colorado’s Pitcher Struggles:
“As a pitcher going to Colorado, just think about what that must do your psyche…it’s in Baseball Almanac for the rest of your life, no matter how well you pitch, it’s not gonna look that good.” (Seth Payne, 17:39)
On Avoiding Home Run Derby:
“I don’t want Jordan Alvarez going out and splitting a bunch of firewood during the ulcer break…That can be dangerous sometimes. The similar motion where it feels comfortable to just go all out. You feel it the next day.” (Seth Payne, 20:37)
The Astros’ convincing series win over the Rays has started to sway even the doubters, but looming rotation questions and outfield uncertainty mean the next few games will be a true test—the “gut check” referenced in the episode title. Seth and Luke blend sharp analysis with Houston-local color, sprinkling relatable sports banter with thoughtful context on the team’s deeper issues. As the Astros enter a crucial stretch before the All-Star break, optimism meets realism on Payne & Pendergast.