NEW YORK — With their pitching staff sputtering amid a playoff push, the Houston Astros are turning to a familiar face in search of a spark.

Longtime Astros pitching coach Brent Strom will rejoin the organization as a pitching consultant for the season’s final 29 games, manager Joe Espada announced on Thursday. Strom is expected to be in uniform and in the dugout for Houston’s series opener against the New York Mets on Friday at Citi Field.

“Strommy is one of the architects for this organization on the pitching side of things,” Espada said before Thursday’s game at Yankee Stadium. “I’m excited to bring him back, listen to his perspective, his experience. I feel like there’s a value in having him around right now as we make this push here to win the division.”

Houston entered Thursday with a half-game lead over the Texas Rangers atop the American League West despite a 4.68 ERA. Only five teams have a higher one. Dismissed general manager Dana Brown’s inability to fortify the staff — especially Houston’s struggling starting rotation — during the trade deadline frustrated many in the Astros’ clubhouse. That Brown’s six major-league, offseason additions have produced a 5.51 ERA didn’t help matters, either.

Just two starting rotations have a higher ERA than Houston’s 5.17 mark. The team has received just 10 starts of at least seven innings across the season’s first 132 games.

“Sometimes, we can spend a lot of time looking at things that are not particularly important right now during this stretch,” Espada said. “It’s about competing, me against him and my experience with Strommy has been that. It’s something we can all use during this stretch.”

Strom, 77, spent eight seasons as the Astros’ pitching coach from 2014-21, a stretch in which Houston separated itself as one of the premier pitching organizations in the sport. From 2015-21, no American League team posted a lower ERA than the Astros and only one — the Cleveland Guardians — had a lower WHIP.

Following his Astros tenure, Strom had coaching stints with both the Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks. In 2023, Strom oversaw the Arizona pitching staff that captured the National League pennant. Pittsburgh did not renew Strom’s contract after last season.

Under Strom’s watch, the Astros produced two American League Cy Young Award winners — Dallas Keuchel and Justin Verlander — and a runner-up in Gerrit Cole. Strom earned industry-wide acclaim for his part in helping to turn around the careers of Cole, Verlander, Collin McHugh, Charlie Morton and Ryan Pressly.

Strom has worked with multiple members of the Astros’ existing pitching staff, including setup man Bryan Abreu, starter Cristian Javier and offseason trade acquisition Mike Burrows, whom Strom coached with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“He’s got this presence about him (to) connect with younger pitchers (and) older pitchers,” Espada said. “Also, (he is) very simple in how he teaches things. He can go outside the box, but he also stays on: ‘This is what you need to compete during the stretch.’ There is that experience that I think is needed.”

Strom left the Astros after the 2021 season. At the time, he described the decision as an opportunity for him to reset and for Houston to enjoy the work of his two proteges — Josh Miller and Bill Murphy — who had assisted him throughout the season. Miller remains the Astros’ head pitching coach. Murphy left the organization this winter to become the Pirates’ pitching coach. Ethan Katz replaced Murphy and now assists Miller.

“It’s a fresh (set) of eyes. He’s going to be in our meetings. He’s going to be helping in the throwing programs, video analysis,” Espada said. “I just feel like this is something we will benefit from having around.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Temperatures topped out at 87 degrees Thursday afternoon. But there was some real Tennessee humidity smothering the Vanderbilt Health Football Center as the Chicago Bears and Tennessee Titans met for a joint practice. This felt like one of those old-school days of training camp. High heat. Intense competition. A session that went well over two hours.

Count Bears defensive tackle Grady Jarrett among the enthusiasts of what went down at the Titans’ facility — tacked on to the work the Bears got done in Cincinnati with the Bengals last week.

“You can’t finish training camp without a good burner,” Jarrett said. “Today we had one. It was fun to come out here and compete against them, man. It was an awesome day.”

The Bears felt good about their work across all three phases. And now they’ll have a Saturday preseason finale at Nissan Stadium followed by the 53-man roster deadline on Sunday evening.

Before we get there, here’s a snapshot review of all we saw and heard during Thursday’s practice and interviews.

Player in the spotlight

Caleb Williams’ final pass of practice was an end zone interception, a dice roll late in an end-of-game, touchdown-to-win situation. Williams said he lobbied for a play call and was ultimately looking for tight end Colston Loveland on a shot from the 20-yard line with 12 seconds remaining. But Titans safety Tony Adams cut in front of the pass near the goal line for the takeaway.

In retrospect, Williams said after practice, he wished he had trusted Bears coach Ben Johnson more in that situation “to be the magician of a play caller that he is.”

“I was pushing for a specific play, trying to feel it, trying to get a matchup,” the Bears’ quarterback said. “But we were super far out compared to the play (design). And (it’s) just trusting him. He’s done it for a while now. So it’s just being able to trust him with the play call, go through our reads and get the ball to the right spot.”

That was another bankable learning experience during a camp that has been filled with positive development for Williams, who is approaching his third NFL regular season with his confidence building and with the push from his coaches as intense as it’s ever been.

“Shoot,” Johnson said before Thursday’s practice. “There is no end line here. This is a continual process that we started well over a year ago now. And we’re just continuing to build on things we see that he’s doing well and (pointing out) things that we feel he can get better at.”

One of the most emphasized improvement areas right now for Williams is accelerating his growth when it comes to coverage recognition and folding that into his understanding of the Bears’ playbook. That may be using safety alignment or his identification of certain defensive looks to find shortcuts within plays to help his decision-making.

“It’s just being able to process those things faster,” Williams said Thursday. “And it’s just being faster or more comfortable with the plays and being able to not necessarily think about the plays anymore.

“Now I’m more or less getting up there and trying to figure out what I can fix to make sure this play works.”

It seems unlikely that Williams will play Saturday in the preseason finale. So his next under-the-spotlight performance will likely come on Sept. 13 at Carolina.

Pressing question

What’s the latest with Darnell Wright’s right elbow?

It’s still encased inside a bulky brace during practice and still causing him discomfort at times. And after persevering through much of 2025 after a torn ulnar collateral ligament — Wright only missed one full game — the All-Pro offensive tackle left practice Tuesday with what Johnson described as “a reaggravation of some things that went on last year.”

Still, Wright continues to display his toughness. He was back for a light practice Wednesday at Halas Hall, then locked in for Thursday’s much more demanding outing.

That is the kind of heart and perseverance that energizes Bears coaches and players.

“It’s not just Darnell,” Johnson said. “He’s a great example of it, but we have almost the entire roster fighting their tails off to get back on the field. They do not like missing time. They want to be out there competing. They want to be out there with their teammates. And to me, that’s a sign we’re moving in the right direction. I get a lot of positive vibes from that.”

Quote of note

Johnson praised rookie safety Dillon Thieneman for his growth, pleased with his daily approach to his transition to the NFL. Thieneman is a bit soft-spoken by nature. “I don’t even know what his voice sounds like really,” Johnson quipped.

But Johnson understands that Thieneman’s play style and work habits speak volumes.

“He just comes into work and gets after it. (He’s) a little bit robotic like that — in a good way. I’m saying that as a compliment. He just puts his head down and grinds. And what you’ve seen is slow and steady progress throughout (camp).”

Keep an eye on …

The biggest skirmish of Thursday’s practice came between the Bears defense and Titans offense after veteran safety Xavier Woods drilled receiver Wan’Dale Robinson on a downfield pass. It was the kind of hit that evoked a loud “oooh” from the grandstands — and then some ill will from Robinson’s teammates.

Most notably, center Austin Schlottmann went after Woods, and before long a brief melee ensued with the whistles from the officials howling. Robinson, Titans coach Robert Saleh said, was being evaluated for a possible concussion and called the hit by Woods “cheap.”

From the sounds of it, however, the Bears defense wasn’t planning a condolences note.

“We practice a certain way,” Jarrett said. “We’ve got a way we want to play ball. Nothing is done with malice. But we have to play our style of defense the way we want to at all times. Sometimes things happen. That was just one of those things that happen.”

Quick hits

— The Bears defense came up with its biggest splash play Thursday when quick pressure from defensive end Montez Sweat contributed to an errant throw by quarterback Cam Ward to tight end Gunnar Helm. Safety Cam Lewis was there to collect the reward with a diving interception.

— Thieneman found himself on the wrong end of two Titans highlights, the first a ridiculous one-handed snatch by Helm, who had a five-inch, 30-pound size advantage on the play. Later in the afternoon, running back Tony Pollard beat Thieneman for a 50-50 deep ball down the left sideline.

— Arguably the prettiest throw of Thursday’s practice came during a team red zone period when the Bears twisted the Titans defense into a knot with multiple backfield play fakes. Tight end Cole Kmet, meanwhile, slipped into the clear into the right side of the end zone and hauled in a beautiful touch pass from Williams. A potential runner-up candidate: Williams to receiver Rome Odunze for an explosive completion on a left-to-right crossing pattern during a move-the-ball period.

— Defensive tackle Gervon Dexter (hamstring) did not make the trip to Tennessee. Defensive end Austin Booker (groin) did but did not participate in practice.

— The Bears defense was banged up frequently through practice. Cornerbacks Jaylon Johnson and Tyrique Stevenson did not finish practice after coming up injured. That left rookie Malik Muhammad and Terell Smith as the outside corners during a team period late in practice. Linebackers Jack Sanborn and D’Marco Jackson also came off the field late in the session. Those appeared to be cramping situations.