How Abreu talking to his bat and a 'reset' has helped him

LOS ANGELES -- Another chaotic game ended with a season first for the Astros: an extra-inning victory.

Following two tough one-run defeats, including Saturday’s loss on a go-ahead balk, Houston eked out a 6-5 win against the Dodgers in 11 innings on Sunday.

“Yeah, we needed to find a way to win, big time,” manager Dusty Baker said.

It wasn’t the cleanest of games, with a couple of baserunning mistakes keeping the Astros from putting things more out of reach.

But after Alex Bregman drove in the automatic runner in the 11th, Mauricio Dubón made a nice play in the bottom of the frame to prevent the Dodgers from retying the game, allowing Seth Martinez to nail things down.

The Astros, now 42-36, gained ground on the AL West-leading Rangers, cutting their lead to 5 1/2 games.

Here are three takeaways from the series in L.A.:

1) Abreu could be starting to turn things around
Houston’s big offseason acquisition, first baseman José Abreu has scuffled offensively this year, prompting his manager to give him Wednesday and Friday off to “reset.”

Abreu responded with two hits on Saturday and another two on Sunday, including a two-run homer in the fourth. Tony Gonsolin left a first-pitch splitter over the heart of the plate, and Abreu pounced, driving it a Statcast-projected 412 feet to center.

Regarded as one of baseball’s top sluggers throughout his nine seasons with the White Sox, Abreu’s power has been less present this year, as that was just his fifth homer. But it was an encouraging sign. At 110.4 mph, it was the highest exit velocity on a hit this season for Abreu.

It wasn’t an isolated incident, either. The nine balls Abreu put in play over the past two days have averaged 99.1 mph in exit velocity.

Abreu has been working on his swing mechanics -- primarily, putting more weight on his back leg to better enable him to stay behind the baseball. But there’s something else he’s trying as well: talking to his bat.

What does he tell it?

“Let’s go!” Abreu exclaimed in English. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

This isn’t something new for Abreu, who said he talks to his bat regularly, regardless of how he’s faring at the plate. He thinks he might have figured out why it hadn’t been working for him this year, though.

“I was talking to [my bats] in English, and they don’t understand English,” Abreu said through an interpreter.

2) Another rookie starter shoves
After quality starts for J.P. France and Ronel Blanco in the first two games went for naught, Hunter Brown turned in Houston’s finest starting performance of the series Sunday. The right-hander surrendered a leadoff homer to Mookie Betts, but that was all the Dodgers could manage off of him in six innings. Overall, Brown scattered three hits and two walks while striking out seven.

Prior to the game, Baker expressed his confidence in the 24-year-old to help right the ship for them after a tough loss, noting that he’s done it before.

Brown doesn’t take that trust lightly.

“I think it just goes to show what kind of team we are,” Brown said. “We all believe in each other. We’ve battled with a lot of different things, a lot of different adversity this year. [We] just to try and go out there and give us a good chance to win. And we fought hard today and came [out] on top.”

3) Montero’s struggles continue
With the Astros ahead by three runs in the eighth, right-hander Rafael Montero recorded two outs with ease. Then, he hit Betts with a changeup.

Betts stole second base and scored on a Freddie Freeman double, trimming the Astros’ lead to two. With a full count on Will Smith, Montero left a fastball up -- and Smith didn’t miss it, roping it to center field to tie the game.

Baker explained the decision to leave Montero in was partially due to the Astros’ bullpen being depleted, but also because things got out of hand on Montero relatively quickly, and Hector Neris wasn’t ready in time to face Smith.

Thus far, Montero has been unable to follow up his excellent 2022 campaign. In 31 1/3 innings across 33 appearances, he has a 7.76 ERA. His 1.82 WHIP is second highest among qualified MLB relievers, behind the Orioles' Cionel Pérez (1.94).

Asked if he might reevaluate Montero’s usage, Baker said: “I've already reevaluated, you know? And the thing about it is that, when am I supposed to use him? If not, you use up everybody else.”