Astros win today six to4 over the Rangers you say Kikuchi was good again was really good again the Astros are now two and0 in starts that you say Kikuchi has started two runs four hits five and a third walk three eight KS maybe not as dominant in this start as he was the Tampa start hey he give up two runs in that start too if he's going five innings plus and giving up two runs I'm very happy with what you say Kikuchi is giving you and two starts in I'm happy with what he's given the Astros I think have to be I think that no matter what you thought of how much they gave up and and what the the price was to get him he's exactly what the doctor ordered at a time when you needed him most because now you're not trying to do the kind of things that you've been forced to do with your offense bringing young guys up to try and fit into to give you a spark you were relying on pitchers that had never been there before that were like Jake Bloss that were trying to do things that you weren't sure they were ever going to do he has he's got the above average stuff we knew that and maybe already him getting with the law firm and talking to the guys within the organization to just change up his sequencing and the way he uses his pitches he's been very very effective and I don't know you could ask for a whole lot more for what they didn't have to offer and what they got out of it at the trade deadline yeah I mean jury's still out like we're not grading things after two starts but through two starts I I've really liked what I've seen um from us Kikuchi far better than than what I thought we would see through two starts let's hope he continues I didn't see his pitch usage today um watching it before he started the show it looked pretty similar I think he was using his slider more but the Rangers also had some lefties in the lineup or Tampa I believe used nine righties so you're going to throw some lefties in there where they weren't in the lineup against Tampa your pitch usage is going to be a little bit more but it does still seem like an uptick in change UPS and it still seems like he has pretty much abandoned the curveball allog together yeah and the other thing that's a positive in all of this is the fact that the lineup got better I think the Rangers lineup with what the Rays lost at the deadline too was an upgrade the Rangers upgrade over the Rays he's still able to do what he what he did again today uh and that's what you're going to face here for the stretch of time in August where you're going to need him to continually do this kind of thing very encouraging after two starts in yeah he's been uh he's been good through two now the Rangers offense is better than Tampa uh 4.22 runs a game Tampa is at 3.96 their fourth worst in all of baseball so he has faced two below average lineups uh Tex is much better than Tampa but still happy with what he has given you and then the offense the offense did some things now you weren't facing the best pitching from Texas ureno was on the mound now he's been okay this year but he only lasted four Innings you get to the bullpen but six runs 13 hits for an offense that has been struggling you take what you got offensively today uh no doubt about it and and you know this is and again I give you credit for this because you the best offensive lineup is having both kartini and Diaz in the lineup right now and it's paying dividends yet again because five of those hits were between those two guys your two catchers Diaz at DH getting another three hit game kartini with two hits that's big for for a team that's right now struggling to find guys that can put the bat on the baseball a and then denzo gets a lot of credit too with going 0 for four last night but two for three tonight drew a walk scored two runs it's it's not I don't think it's fair to him to believe that he can sustain that kind of prod productivity but if he can be that a guy that gets you a knock or two and does what kind of Joey Loredo has done for you that's great yeah the um the lineup looks much deeper whenever you have kartini in the lineup and it also looks a little deeper when Den zenzo is in there now a Singleton's still been good enough against rties to be in the lineup but you look at today's lineup and you know tve bregman y on your normal stuff jer's in there pñ probably still a little bit too high but kartini two hits uh Meyers he hit the ball hard today he had an over for five but he hit the ball hard like three different times and then the zenzo reaches three times had two hits duban had a couple of hits like the looks deeper when kartini's in there it looks a little bit deeper when disenzo is in there too uh when Tucker's back man that's not a bad lineup it's not badine and you know when we talked about the fact that we were looking at first base as more of a platoon situation I if if you can platoon those two guys at first base because denzo is capable of playing first and you don't foresee many times he's going to be playing third with bregman there that that's that's an upgrade in itself and if you get the two catchers both in the lineup that's that's going to be provide you with an upgrade offensively as well it's nice to see duban get a couple of knocks cuz he looked lost earlier in the last week or so so yeah the big if is when do you get Tucker back yeah that was uh I mean Burman was telling us what rival stations were were doing earlier well they had Danner Brown earlier um I mean Dana Brown was hopeful that they get him back in August today he said in August but then Joe as spot said prior to the game that he's not sprinting yet he's jogging but not sprinting which cool like you can jog around the bases you can jog to first base isn't it also when they say he's he's painfree but there's a reason why he's not sprinting yet you would think that whether it's discomfort or some kind of bad feeling yeah that's the reason why you're not sprinting yeah the only thing I can relate to that is a totally different injury it was a beer league softball injury won a couple of championships in my day uh I pulled my hammy a couple of times and like you can walk around feeling totally fine but then you run out in a full Sprint and you fill it again it's tight you know what I mean sure so like maybe there's something like that going on although it's not supposed to be a muscle strain it's supposed to be a bone bruise but I've never had a bone bruise so no but I just I wonder that if you're not if you're painf free then that means you're ab and you're not able to run that's still a big hurdle to climb because you're going to obviously need them to do that but I think you can be both I think you can be painfree and unable to Sprint I think the pain you probably feel the pain maybe when you're sprinting but from the from the the level of encouragement of saying well that's a great update but at the same time if he's not running yet then you can't see a in the next week or so when he's back I don't need him to Sprint but you're going to need him to run the Bas he doesn't need a Sprint he doesn't need a Sprint around the Bas that now there's going to be a time once you get on the basis where no I'm willing to take Kyle Tucker as a DH jogging around the bases over somebody else if you're on playing left dhing and running full speed like would you rather John Singleton DH and be able to Sprint or Kyle Tucker DH and run 75% sure you'd rather have the the eye and the bat of Kyle Tucker but the problem that I have too is is twofold in the fact that one I'm worried about if he does at a certain point I think he is going to have to Sprint but also more importantly he did all of this while in the Box swinging a bat and I don't know how you're going to try and prevent or combat it from happening again and the last thing I want to do is if we're doing what you said and just you need him you'd rather have him than Singleton but all along the thing was you don't want to bring him back to Le 100% CU you're going to really need them and you you can't you don't want them at like 7 I don't think I don't think the the time to do it's on August 7th but if today were a must-win game yeah I want him at 75% as my DH uh not on August 7th because you're right you do need to get him as close to full strength as you can