By Hal McCoy
Andrew Abbott is back and back in a big way.
After enduring a lost in space spring training and most of April, he is back to being what Cincinnati Reds manager Tito Francona calls, “Abbott-ish.”
With his mother, Jeannette, nervously watching from her Great American Ball Park seat on Mother’s Day, Abbott gave mom nothing to worry about.
He pitched six scoreless innings Sunday afternoon to highlight a 5-0 Reds victory over the Houston Astros.
And that wasn’t just an outlier. Abbott has now pitched 16 2/3 straight scoreless innings and given up just two runs over his last three starts.
After losing, 10-0, Friday night to extend their losing streak to eight games, the Reds pitching staff held the Astros (16-25) to one run and seven hits Saturday and Sunday.
Thus the Reds won the series, their fourth straight series win at home-sweet-home GAPB.
Chase Burns provided six one-run innings Saturday, Abbott gave them six no-run innings Sunday and the bullpen contributed six scoreless innings — three Saturday and three Sunday..
On Sunday, it was bullpenners Tejay Antone, Sam Moll and Graham Ashcraft all pitching 1-2-3 innings and 20 of the last 21 Astros went down.
Antone, coming off three Tommy John surgeries, struck out two of the three hitters he faced.
An indication of Abbott’s dominance was the fact he struck out Yordan Alvarez three straight times. Alvarez is one of baseball’s best and most dangerous hitters.
“You’re not going to see that very often,” said Francona. “That kid is some kind of hitter. You kind of marvel because he is so good. He doesn’t strikeout very often.”
Alvarez was the game’s second hitter and Abbott struck him out with a low-and-away curveball. Then he got him again in the third with the same pitch. The third time, in the sixth, it was a low-and-away sweeper.
The first-inning strikeout seemed to perk up Abbott.
“When I struggle, I can’t land my off-speed stuff,” he said. “And that makes me a one-dimensional pitcher. Today was one of the first few games I’ve had this year where I was able to get stuff in the zone and go out of the zone with it.
“He’s a great hitter,” Abbott said of Alvarez. “I didn’t want to make a mistake to him, but I’m going to play to my strength and use that to my advantage and spinning it is one of the best things I do.”
And he had Alvarez spinning on his heels. Ashcraft struck out Alvarez in the ninth, the first time Alvarez has struck out four times in five years.
Said Francona of Abbott, “He was Abbott-ish. We need him. Like hitters, you’ve heard me say it, players find their level and he’s kinda finding that now. He had a tough spring and it kind blended into the season.
“You’re not just dealing with numbers, you’re dealing with people.”
Francona’s lineup looked as if he drew it out of a top hat — Will Benson leading off, Spencer Steer batting second, Blake Dunn playing center field and batting sixth.
It was because of the unknown by the Astros. Manager Joe Espada started the game with an opener, relief pitcher Kai-Wei Tang. Francona didn’t know how long Tang would pitch.
And for three innings the Taiwan-born Tang baffled the Reds on no runs and one hit.
But he had not pitched more than three innings or thrown more than 40 pitches in a game this year.
Espada gambled and sent him back out for the fourth and the Reds teed off — four straight hits and three runs.
Elly De La Cruz, who had three hits, opened with a single up the middle. Sal Stewart doubled off the right-center wall, sending De La Cruz to third.
On a 3-and-0 pitch, JJ Bleday tripled to the right field corner for two runs. Tyler Stephenson singled Bleday home and it was 3-0.
De La Cruz again singled to lead off the fifth and Houston relief pitcher Cody Bolton walked Bleday, Dunn and Matt McLain to force in a run to make it 4-0.
In the sixth, Steer launched a home run into the left field seats for a 5-0 lead. The resurgent Steer has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games.
Bleday, an off-season signee to a one-year $1.4 million contract, should have made the team after an outstanding spring training.
But Francona and the coaching staff wanted Bleday to play every day rather than be a part-timer off the bench, so he was sent to Triple-A Louisville.
He kept hitting at Louisville and was called up and has been a recent starter in left field and a constant contributor.
“I’m blessed to be here,” said Bleday, originally a No. 1 draft pick of the Miami Marlins.
So are the Reds.
“The guys on this team are great,” he said. “There are no egos here and everyone works very hard. It’s a very tight-knit group. Even though we struggled for a bit (eight straight losses), we knew we were going to get out of this and we have some great leadership here.”
Francona certainly appreciates what Bleday is doing.
“He went to Triple-A and did very well, got hot and came up and kinda picked up where he left off, which doesn’t always happen, as we’ve seen,” said Francona obviously referring to Rece Hinds.
“He is a really good fastball hitter, but today he got a 3-and-0 breaking ball and he stayed through it enough to keep it fair,” Francona added. “He’s very dangerous and he can also handles some lefties. He has given us a big lift and we’ve kinda hit him all over the lineup.”
The big news, though, was the return to the pitcher Abbott was when he made the All-Star team last year.
“I’m close, but I feel I still have a few things to crank out,” he said. “I never get complacent in this game, but today was definitely a good step against a good offense, a veteran-heavy team.”
In fairness to the Astros, they have 14 players on the injured list, but with pitchers, Hunter Greene, Emilo Pagan, Caleb Ferguson and Rhett Lowder on their injured list, they feel sorry for nobody.,