José Abreu sparked the Astros offense over the last month of the season hitting eight homeruns and driving in 33 runs to lead the team to a division title and a first-round playoff bye with his efforts. Although he knocked in 90 runs during the regular season, Abreu underwhelmed with the lumber.
During the postseason the native of Mal Tiempo, Cuba has ratcheted up his production significantly to become a nice complement in the lineup for Yordan Álvarez. His four dingers, 12 runs batted and an OPS of .962 are a testament to that. In total he has driven in 17 runs in only 63 playoff at-bats.
Abreu has been a key bat for the Astros who are one game away from taking the series against the Rangers. With the offensive artillery they have at their disposal Houston has more than enough to repeat as World Champs.
Declaraciones de José Abreu previo al partido de hoy. pic.twitter.com/Oo3JKpYxGP
— Javier Gonzalez (@Astros_Coverage) October 22, 2023
Did you go to Buc-ee’s on the off day?
Yeah.
What was your reaction walking in there, and what all did you buy?
I was expecting that when I was driving on my way back here, and I wanted my kid to see something different. The sandwiches there are really good.
How do you describe Nathan Eovaldi as a pitcher, and what would be the best way to try to attack his game today?
He’s a really good pitcher. It’s hard to tell you the formula of how to go out there and try to beat him. But he’s a really good pitcher. And this team is known to not give up. So I feel we’re in a good position to go out there and have a good day.
After playing part of the year next to Dubón and then Altuve comes back, so Dubón moves, can you talk about Dubón’s versatility and what it means?
Dubón is a really good human being and then he’s a really good baseball player. He comes every day here ready to work, trying to get better every day.
And this team, the expectation is to get better every day. So I think I feel that Dubón is the guy that is really positive to be around.
Reggie Jackson is around the team a lot. You see him from time to time. How has he helped you?
The respect I have for Reggie is really big. He’s been around the team, and we talked for a little bit. And he’s basically trying to tell us how to be in a good position to go out there and compete every single day, and just keep everybody positive and giving good talks to everybody here.
After playing so long, how excited are you to be one win away from possibly reaching your first World Series?
Enjoy the day. Go out there and have fun, compete. Just try and enjoy as much as we can. As a lineup, go out there and try to put up runs. But basically just enjoy the game as much as we can today.
After home runs we’ve seen you do and uppercut celebration with Michael Brantley and some of the other guys. I wonder if you could tell us what that is and how it started?
I don’t know. It just happened. I don’t know.
Is this the best you’ve felt since you’ve been with the Astros? And how does it feel to kind of feel like you’ve gotten in your groove, this is the Jose you like to be as far as how you’re performing?
I’ve been playing in a completely different lane. I always tell myself to go enjoy the game. But like you said, you’re a hundred percent right saying that this is pretty much the best thing I’ve experienced in baseball so far, just being in this position right now.
I just want to make it clear, did you drive from Arlington yesterday? And if you did, how was your drive?
JOSE ABREU: I didn’t make the drive myself, I was driving with a friend. But I did it so my kid can experience what his dad is going through, just to see everything that I’m experiencing in a different way.
So I did everything for my kid, so he can experience all that himself.
You had a big month of September, and it’s carried over into October. Was there some sort of adjustment that you made late in the season?
I just understood that sometimes it’s not the volume of work that you do, it’s the quality of work that you do. I understood that, especially late in the year, and told myself that I don’t have to do a lot of things to get better, I just got to work smart and listen to the other people. But I think I finally figured it out, and I’m just relaxing a little bit more than when I got here.