MLB WORLD SERIES: PHILLIES VS ASTROS

November 3, 2022

Bryan Abreu

Citizens Bank Park

Houston Astros

Pregame 5 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll go ahead and get started with questions for Bryan.

Q. How beneficial is it to have both Josh Miller and Bill Murphy, who were with you in the minor leagues, now at the big league level? How beneficial has that been in your big league career?

BRYAN ABREU: I think that I got all the benefit, like they just watch me since I was younger, they have been working a lot on me. I think that that is a great benefit for me.

Q. What did you learn from Pedro Martínez the other day? And what was it like to talk to him for a little while?

BRYAN ABREU: He was talking to me and he was just saying a couple histories of him, like when he was playing with the Expos and where he made, like, he just told me like he was playing a bad team and out of 17 games he won, he got through like 13 complete games that year. And he was just telling me a couple histories and telling me how proud is he for me.

Q. How much credit do you give Christian Vázquez for what you pitchers were able to accomplish last night?

BRYAN ABREU: I mean, I have to give him a lot of credit. He's the catcher who was calling the right pitches. He was aggressive, attacking the strike zone. He's been doing awesome.

He came from another team and tried to adapt to us and learn how we use all the pitches. I got to give him a lot of praise.

Q. When Vázquez did first come over and you guys were all getting used to him as a staff what were those conversations like? Like, what questions did he ask you guys as pitchers and what questions maybe did you ask him or what did you tell him to help him with that?

BRYAN ABREU: Mostly Vázquez doesn't get close a lot with the pitchers to talk strategy. He probably asks Maldonado as a catcher, you know, have to learn all the breaking balls our pitcher's using. When he comes close to us, it's probably asking about the location that he wants all the pitches and that's probably the most thing that he does with us.

Q. When did you realize that you had the ability to spin the ball the way you do? And how do you think anybody ever hits that slider?

BRYAN ABREU: I don't know. I mean, before signing with the Astros, I just have the ability to spin the ball by myself. It's something naturally that I do. I don't know. I just try to throw my slider in the right location because obviously we are playing against the best hitters in the world and if I miss it, for sure they're going to hit it.

Q. Who has the ball, first of all? And last night when you're coming in, obviously it was a pretty important game last night, but what's that pressure like when you have to hold a no-hitter?

BRYAN ABREU: I'm going to be honest, I didn't realize that we were throwing a no-hitter. I just came in. I was just so focused on executing all the pitches because I knew that that's a really important game for us. And I was just studying the hitter down in the bullpen and I didn't watch the box score. I just came in and executed all the pitches.

Q. Where is the ball?

BRYAN ABREU: Probably in the Hall of Fame. I don't know.

Q. Has it hit you what you guys did last night? Do you have your arms around it?

BRYAN ABREU: Excuse me?

Q. Has it hit you what you guys did last night with the history making game that you and your teammates had?

BRYAN ABREU: They were pretty excited about it. Like supporting each other. They were pretty happy. I don't know. That was awesome like being part of the history of baseball. What can I say?

Q. When you pitch at home the energy of the crowd obviously must play into how you perform. How was it yesterday in this ballpark that you can hear the crowd from blocks away, you guys managed to silence the crowd. How does that play into how you pitch in a game?

BRYAN ABREU: It's mostly about mindset. Like we just have to be focused and execute all the pitches. Like we are aware that the crowd is part of the game and they're always going to be pretty loud, even if it's home or away. But we just have to stay focused, like me and the catcher. That's probably the main thing. And pitching in a crowd like that, just kind of quiet and all that stuff, that help a lot to focus better.