HOUSTON – Game 7 of the American League Championship Series should be a celebration of everything we love about the sport. It will feature everything from Bruce Bochy versus Dusty Baker to Max Scherzer versus Cristian Javier. But what almost certainly won’t happen is Bryan Abreu joining the Astros in relief.
Abreu’s absence will cast an unwelcome cloud over proceedings for Houston, a cloud that, if his suspension is upheld and the Astros advance, could reappear at the start of the World Series.
The situation has led to an underlying anger toward Major League Baseball among at least some Houston players and club officials.
The appeal of Abreu’s two-game penalty for an intentional throw against the Rangers’ Adolis García will be heard at a hearing on Monday. A decision will be announced in the first pitch.
John McHale Jr., MLB’s executive vice president of administration, will decide whether to maintain the suspension, reduce it to one game or lift it entirely. The timing leaves little time for either side to work out a case. The league is effectively judge and jury. And based on precedent, the chances of McHale effectively overruling the referees who ejected Abreu from Game 5 and overturning the suspension are probably slim to none.
The Astros needed to win Game 6 to potentially avoid losing Abreu for Game 7, but they lost 9-2. Now it’s all but certain that they’ll be at a disadvantage in their biggest game of the season, having to play without their second-best reliever because he allegedly committed an infraction they claim he didn’t commit. Even if they win, they could be without Abreu in Game 1 of the World Series if his suspension is upheld.
A number of Astros people, speaking on condition of anonymity as Abreu awaits his hearing, are seething about how the matter will unfold.
First of all, they think the idea that Abreu intentionally threw at García in Game 5 is absurd. The Astros were down by two runs at that point in the eighth inning, with no one out and a runner already on base. Jose Altuve was scheduled to start third for the Astros in the ninth. The game was still within reach, as Altuve demonstrated with his three-run home run.
Abreu’s exclusion from a postseason game and his subsequent suspension aren’t the only reasons the Astros are upset. Several players believe García also should have received a suspension for making contact with Astros catcher Martín Maldonado and, in the words of team manager James Hoye, for acting as an “aggressor” in an incident , in which both the benches and bullpens were emptied, but this did not result in an outright brawl.
However, the league generally follows precedent in such matters and only suspends a position player if he commits a truly violent act, such as throwing a punch. An example occurred on May 14 in Denver when the Phillies’ Bryce Harper stormed toward the Rockies’ dugout and tackled catcher Elias Díaz, triggering an event similar to that in Game 5. Like García, Harper was fined but not suspended.
Some at the Astros suspect the league is also favoring the Rangers because their general manager Chris Young worked for the league from May 2018 to December 2020. Young, a former major league pitcher, rose to senior vice president, replacing Joe Torre as the official who decided suspensions and fines for on-field matters such as intentionally hitting batters.
The league declined to comment. Young did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The kind of blatant favoritism the Astros people are suggesting seems highly unlikely. However, some in the organization still believe their club was unfairly targeted by the league for stealing electronic signs in 2019, while other teams had committed similar misconduct. The Red Sox were the only other team penalized, and it was for lesser infractions. No team has been accused of using a system as sophisticated as the Astros’.
Old resentments die hard, but the likely loss of Abreu in at least Game 7 of the ALCS opens new wounds. The situation is virtually unprecedented. When the league suspended the Dodgers’ Jay Howell for three games for having pine tar on his glove during the 1988 NLCS, the late Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti ensured that the replacement would only miss Games 4, 5 and 6.
“I don’t want a championship to ultimately be decided for fans and teammates — with the LCS winning seven games — by one man’s mistake,” Giamatti said in a written statement. “Therefore, Mr. Howell would be eligible to pitch should there be a seventh game.” (The Dodgers won in seven games and did not use Howell in the deciding game).
A regulation passed in the collective agreement of 2017 created the current situation. Prior to this CBA, a postseason disciplinary hearing was required to occur within 14 days of an appeal. But the players and owners agreed to a change after the appeal of Chase Utley’s two-game suspension for breaking Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada’s leg during an aggressive gaffe in the 2015 NLCS was not decided until the following March.
Since 2017, a postseason incident hearing must take place within 48 hours. Unlike Yuli Gurriel’s five-game suspension for a racist gesture toward Yu Darvish during the 2017 World Series, which was served at the start of the 2018 regular season, Abreu’s suspension would take effect immediately. His violation is considered an on-field matter. It wasn’t Gurriel.
The uncertainty surrounding Abreu influenced Astros manager Dusty Baker’s decision-making in Game 6. Baker put Abreu in the eighth inning with the Astros trailing 4-2. Abreu allowed one run, but Baker considered sending him out for a second inning, knowing his reliever might miss the seventh game. Instead, Baker hedged his bets and wanted to make sure Abreu would be available if he wasn’t somehow suspended.
“You wish you had a decision,” Baker said.
Without either of them, Baker turned to weaker replacements Rafael Montero and then Ryne Stanek in the ninth. The two combined to allow five runs, four of them on a grand slam by García, who had a strikeout in each of his first four at-bats. And that turned a close game into a defeat.
Game 7 managers traditionally use an “all hands on deck” approach with their pitchers, and that would particularly be the case with the Astros without Abreu. Virtually every pitcher is expected to be available, including Justin Verlander, 40, who could come out of the bullpen on two days’ rest after 82 pitches in Game 5.
The potential for a bitter end to this series would be much less if the referees simply warned both clubs instead of expelling Abreu. If the CBA leaves room for a player suspended in the postseason to delay his appeal. If the penalty could be postponed until the following regular season.
But no. Instead we have unwanted drama.
(Photo by Bryan Abreu: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)