Can Yusei Kikuchi do THAT again for the Astros?!?

[Applause] give him seven in a row you say Kikuchi with nine strikeouts in the game cuz sometimes you swing at the arm speed and the ball just never gets there and the slider down again eight in a row you say how impressive can you be in your first Astro start he has rebounded after that quick two-run lead for the Tampa Bay Rays I sent you two Sean and Joe a text after us kikuchi's first two at bats as a pitcher resulted in a hit and a two-run homer saying oh boy yeah here we go and then you say Kikuchi on Friday settled in and struck out 11 Tampa Bay Rays at one point he struck out eight in a row it was awesome to watch watch here was my question now that we've had a couple of days to think about it and also that we have a full series where Houston Astros pitchers struck out 41 Tampa Bay Rays are we as impressed by what we saw from us Kikuchi on F uh as we were on Friday right now are we as impressed I'm not it definitely ruined it a little bit to see Spencer arti outdo him with 12 strikeouts and it's unfair to Kikuchi that was a great performance by him but I I I will admit I need to see another start from us kuchi where he's looking really good before I'm thinking to myself oh the Astros actually didn't end up doing too bad in this trade yeah I mean they they they baseball is a fascinating sport because like he immediately starts throwing the change up more and pitches that he's not using in Toronto he's way more effective than he had been recently like is the percentages are so different than everything he did which is like how stupid are you Toronto if this actually works but the starter struck out 30 batters in three games like you said the entire staff had 41 that's over 50% of the outs they got were via strikeouts so it does it takes away a little bit like it just it's no offense to to to Kikuchi but when you know he gets 11 and then Blanco who's not at his best gets seven and then arag Getti gets 12 it just it takes away from the excitement a little bit how I felt you know I saw I was up here on Saturday a little bit and we talking to Sean and Brian and the guys it's like everyone's like oh okay well like you know he kind of they showed us a little bit after one start but then the next two starts happen and I'm just like ah it just it just takes away a little bit from it for sure if they scored more runs over the weekend we would be talking more about us Kikuchi today but as Sean explained to us a couple of weeks ago when Sunday goes was poorly for the Astros The Vibes are off and they scored zero runs in a game where the ray scored one run yesterday it's also the most extreme example of it because it's a they just didn't score any runs for two games yes and honestly for THS or uh Friday's game scor three the numbers for the Astros offensively of late are rough 3.05 runs a game over the last 17 somehow they are seven and 10 but only the white socks have have scored fewer than that over that stretch and yeah the offense is so bad the thing with Kikuchi is like I don't need to see 11 strikeouts again though I just need him to be what we asked the first time and we kind of want to reset those expectations let's go let's go back to the quality start thing like I'm not g to ask him to go out there and strike out eight plus guys over six Innings I I was want to see his next start which is I believe is going to be in this series um just get just give me a quality start and then I think we'll all be feeling still I'll feel better about the original start on Friday night if he can follow that performance up with another one and just be consistent at that point I mean he was an out away from a qu start which is why the whole quality start thing is like so stupid yes where it's like one out makes the difference of whether we could call it a quality start or not right and it's pretty quality if you're throwing eight straight strikeouts yeah like that's better than a lot of quality what he did is better than what a lot of quality starts are he tried a franchise record yeah I quality start whatever doesn't matter in that moment but there is a little bit of well came against the Rays H and maybe hun Hunter Brown can be like hey know how that feels having an awesome start where everyone goes against the a the Astros are certainly feeling pretty good about bringing in Kikuchi though and you've already heard the Astros are stamping themselves on this Kikuchi start this was said after the game courtesy of Chan larome in their meeting with us Kikuchi Wednesday the Astros encouraged him to throw his change up more and this is something he tweeted at 804 actually during that game on Friday he's already thrown 12 through four Innings the most he threw in a start with Toronto was 19 he only threw more than 12 six times in 22 starts he had seven punch outs at that moment in time he got four more he used his change up 26% of the time on Friday higher than a season average of 11% I do not know what it is about the Astros who historically have been able to bring in Justin Verlander whose numbers were not as good as they had been before in 2017 and have him looking the way that he did from 2017 on same thing with gar Cole same thing with Charlie Morton same thing with I guess you can make the argument Zach gry to an extent same thing with now uh ronell Blanco same thing with of late Hunter Brown and H say Kikuchi I don't know what it is that the Astros numbers people specifically those who are connected to the pitching coaches I don't know what it is that they see that allows them to see a pitcher should be throwing more pitches than others but it is the one thing that over most of the last decade the Astros have clearly had a leg up on an everybody in baseball regardless of who's the actual pitching coach especially because it just feels so simple at times that like I I don't understand other teams don't quite figure it out like you look at kikuchi's like swing and Miss R and it was an effective strikeout pitch on his change up when he was in Toronto but he just threw it so little and then the as is like hey dude throw it a lot more and then it goes very well like it it seems so so simple in a way but it's like maybe it's the outside voice is like gets to these guys but just doesn't seem that complicated it feels like every other organization should be capable of saying this pitch works really well for you you should throw it more yes yeah they because what H didn't we we might have talking about it might have been Dell and I I don't know it all Blends together but we were talking about how that the uh Astros pitch after trading for Kikuchi was like yeah we could fix them yeah and we're like so should we expect then and start one or is there a process to fixing this guy well that was my concern is that there's only a couple months left in the year so maybe they would eventually be able to fix him but to fix him when he's a rental means he's probably going to be more expensive for another team and it's not like one of those episodes of antique shop where you're bringing in an antique that's bust it up you clean it up a little bit and you sell it no this is just like something you're fixing and leaving out on the side of the road after you're done with it you're getting tin starts of a fixed picture basically is is the idea of it but we thought oh maybe it maybe start one he's fixed and apparently because the because the fix is hey you know that pitch throw it more that pitch throw it less boom now now you're an Ace and that's why like we'll see what happens in the next start because I we know he can be that good he's he's done it before I mean Paul Paul said has talked about this where he saw him in Seattle we saw his numbers look like the start of the season with Toronto like he can be a really good pitcher he he puts together great stretches it's really a matter of can he do it the rest of the way and he might have to because we don't know when we're going to see Luis Garcia again Lance McCullers done for the year they basically confirmed that yesterday and with Justin Verlander who as Joe pointed out has been dealing with the shoulder injury not just the neck thus his lengthy absence still has to make two rehab starts to get back even if things are feeling better for him right now uh shout out to the minute M Park Paul Park now for a moment in time I got a little arrogant I got a little cocky I thought that the people that worked at the Houston Astros um specifically those who are in charge of the stadium sounds I thought that they were listeners of the show and I thought to myself if they're going to play this little sound effect after every single strikeout then they are Gant and George fan number ones p1s as they call them because they were doing this after every single us Kikuchi strikeout you it turns out that that was something that happened in Toronto I did not know that I didn't either I'm really bummed out about that I I honestly was so excited for for a moment I felt so bad I just I felt bad saying telling you the truth in the text I should have just lied to you yeah you should have I feel like I would have done the research I sent the text back and I was like I should have just been a bad teammate and let you come in today and just like yeah but like they listen to me I had a long midnight walk just walking down the street just playing some sad music I found a statue you playing that song that song's kind of sad that is a sad song uh I I found a statue as I often do I rode my motorcycle around town at night I found a statue and guess what there is a statue of me in in Houston you just have to find it it's in the right spot and I looked at the Statue up on this pedestal and I took off my my helmet and I threw the helmet at the Statue and I said who are you and eye of the tiger was playing in the background slowly and now guys I'm I'm on my comeback but that was a devastating moment for my pride and thank you please respect me in this very difficult time I did find it funny just like the shots of like Justin Verlander every time they played it and he great apparently Sparky was getting annoyed by it on the radio broadcast oh you you fun Dy that really surprises me I thought he was the fun one especially because I've worked with those sound people they used to request music when I was producing games and they would request the most garbage music for us to bump back with and like they never complained so I'm a little surprised like that annoyed them used to it I thought he was the fun is the fun one but maybe he just doesn't like Lisa L I will say he did hear it for eight outs in a row at one point so it's a little overboard it feels like no it's not new pitch clock too so that's like once every 30 seconds he's hearing people like repetitive things people like laugh tracks on sitcoms oh we can't have you say after you say kuchi throws a strike out I think we have to keep it now well it it always should have happen now there has Mariners are idiots for not doing it yes now if he okay it let's go bad situation here for a second I if he gives up five earned runs in the first inning and then strikes strikes out for out number three you can't play it like like there's got to be there's got to be some rules like we tried this already with Ryan Presley we said Ryan Presley can't have his entrance song they kept it but like if Kochi is getting smoked you can't you can't keep playing it you can you can you're wrong no if he's having a bad first inning you want to get him back on track and apparently he likes it I was going to ask did did they do it in the first did he a did you strike someone out in the first inning B did they do it in the first inning they must have because that would have been fun yeah I'm sure that went over well with Astros Twitter that that was my favorite part is just the sequencing of how things went for us Kikuchi whereas just immediate off the bat oh my God we're bleeped and then slowly throughout by like the fourth inning it was oh okay no this guy's good it also helped that the Astros scored some runs got back into it three but yeah I mean but enough to like enough runs yeah yeah the first thing was uh he gave up a double to a guy that should be a Houston Astro uh Yan Diaz then he gave up a home run to Carlson who also could have been a Houston Astro and then he struck the next two guys up okay so they probably they probably went right to the US right immed after the two run Homer after as people are tweeting panicking and yeah they went with the Lisa Lo drop good to know they stood on business and and he did a hat tip that was nice you say Kikuchi what did we what did we think about the Hat tip deserved yeah it was a good it was a good tip of the hat for your debut yes yeah if now second start and he has the same thing it's like okay we can't be tipping our hat every time you pitch six Innings two in runs but he loved it he's happy here that's all it matters yeah no again for debut good I want them to abuse the usay button hit it over and over over and over after every strike yeah every swinging strike I was going to say every out you guys are going a little every swinging strike how about every swinging strike I just know how Paul no I I want to get any these hitters heads wait every swinging strike yeah every C strike to no no no no no no just the ones where the swinging Miss okay so that way we won't we won't kill it well you know well it it it'll be sort of like uh in Mortal Kombat there was this certain thing that you did if you like face planted uh the this random guy like would pop his head out from around the corner and go toy yeah it be like that just like that and really it would get in their heads what a pull just a great reference I don't know how many people are going to get that reference but I get it and I love it all that matters to me right now young Shong over there doesn't seem to understand this reference I got a lot of references okay some would say that's a sign of something