AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RANGERS VS ASTROS

October 20, 2023

Bryan Abreu

Globe Life Field

Houston Astros

Pregame 5 Press Conference

Q. How are you holding up physically at this point in the season considering how much you pitched and pitched deep in the playoffs last year, and now you're working deep into October again? How is that wearing on your arm, or does it bother you at all?

BRYAN ABREU: I think I've been feeling pretty healthy. The coaching staff have been doing really good. The trainer has been working on my arm to keep it healthy. That's probably the main thing that making me be able to keep pitching in the postseason, too.

Q. I think in your first Spring Training your first Big League camp I remember you being in awe of Justin Verlander. What's it like to be his teammate since you've been with the Big League club. And how much did you look up to him growing up and watching him pitch?

BRYAN ABREU: I look up to him a lot. When I heard the name of Justin Verlander, everything that he was doing was impressive at that time. I wasn't aware of everything in baseball, because I used to be a basketball player. And when I started learning that, I didn't think in my life that I was being able to be on a team with Justin Verlander. That was a really huge privilege for me. And be able to consider all the knowledge that he has and learn from everything that he does, that's a privilege to me.

Q. Four years ago you were coming up, and you saw these guys win a lot. And now four years later you've become more and more important in that bullpen. What's that journey been like for you?

BRYAN ABREU: I think to me was learn, because I made my debut being a young kid, and I didn't realize how MLB works and all that. And I tried to learn as fast as I can. And tried to figure out how to be consistent to doing all the right stuff. That's probably the main thing that bringing me here to this point.

Q. I'm wondering about your slider that you use so much. Is that a pitch you've always had? How did it develop into the pitch that it is today?

BRYAN ABREU: My slider develop with time. At the beginning wasn't really good, though, because I have more curve than a slider. And when I start to learn all that, I kind of lean on the slider more because it's more aggressive to my arm slot and my arm speed. And that's probably one of the thing that helped my slide to be more good.

Q. When you walk off the mound after an inning, it looks like you touch your heart, touch your chest. Can you reveal what that message is about?

BRYAN ABREU: Every single time that I go into the game, I do it by the grace of God. I'm a religious guy. Everything I do, I just play for Jesus. I just go everything in there, I don't care about the results, I just care about to compete and do everything right. And doesn't matter how the results go to me, I've just been grateful that God gave me the opportunity to come out on the field healthy.

Q. Rafael Montero went through a little bit of a rough stint for a couple of months in the first half. How did you see him handle that?

BRYAN ABREU: Montero, he's a veteran guy. He knows how to do everything. He knows how to bounce back from really bad moments. That's baseball. That's everything. And also as a teammate, we just have to support him and try to help as much as we can with the mental part. I think that's the main thing that we help each other out at.

Q. Javier said that you organized all the bullpen guys wearing cowboy hats and western stuff on the way here. Do you have any plans to dress up on the way back? How often do you organize you guys dressing up like that?

BRYAN ABREU: That was an idea that came up when we were flying from Minnesota to Houston. We just said playing and all that. Okay, we just want to dress as a cowboy to fly to Dallas. And I just agree with it. When I got my outfit and all that, they didn't bought it. I was like, come on, man, did you say we were going to dress like that? And then they figure it out and bought everything.

Q. You mentioned basketball earlier. Do you watch basketball? Is there a player or team that you watch and follow closely?

BRYAN ABREU: Not really, I haven't been paying attention to basketball too much. I've been worried about baseball. But I used to just watch several players, I used to watch highlights. That's the only thing I can do right now.

Q. Speaking of wardrobe, you change necklaces regularly and you had the logo for a while, how do you decide which one to wear? Is there some superstition in which one you decide to wear and when?

BRYAN ABREU: Not really. I just broke this one when I was playing at WBC. And I couldn't fix it. I just got the chance to get the Astros logo and just got the opportunity to wear it, and for a while when I fix this one, I just came back with my flag.

Q. Before Game 3 you hadn't had a lot of runs since July 15th. I was wondering how aware were you of that and was there any just sense of -- I don't know if disappointment is the right word -- after that outing?

BRYAN ABREU: I think that's part of baseball. Obviously every single time that I go into the media or something that show up that I was doing everything like really good in the past three months.

And after that I just say, okay, just keeping on track, that's part of baseball. And we just have to move forward and try to throw more heaters in the coming games.