Bryan Abreu has been much better in 2024 than Astros fans think

On Tuesday, despite an eventual loss to the Athletics through 12 innings, the full force of the Astros bullpen's big three was on display. Houston trotted out Ryan Pressly, Josh Hader, and Bryan Abreu out of their usual order. Pressly's number came up in the eighth — pretty typical — and he allowed just one hit before closing out the side. The Astros couldn't get anything going during their turn at the plate, so Josh Hader entered in the ninth in hopes that the lineup would be able to pull off a walk-off victory.

Hader walked one batter, but otherwise took the A's down easily. By the end of the ninth, the Astros were threatening with two runners in scoring position, but Kyle Tucker couldn't capitalize on the moment and bring them in.

That made Bryan Abreu the next man to try to close it out. He sat the A's down in order in the 10th, and when the Astros still couldn't get anything going during their turn, he came back again for the 11th and struck out the side, just one ball in the dirt away from an immaculate inning.

Abreu's gotten something of bad rap over the last few weeks, but it's sort of hard to understand why. Although his 3.30 ERA isn't ideal for a reliever, there's more underneath that number.

Bryan Abreu blanking Athletics through two extra innings proves how valuable he's been for Astros this year

Abreu's 71 appearances lead all major league pitchers, and he's only given up more than one run in four of those games. It's clear where the hate is coming from: a ninth inning appearance on Aug. 23 against the Orioles that only ended up lasting 1/3 of an inning, after he allowed five runs (four on a grand slam from Anthony Santander) and only induced a single out before getting pulled, but the damage was done. A two-run triple from Ramón Urías made the game 7-5 Baltimore, and the score stayed put through the bottom of the inning.

It was an awful showing, but it was also a complete oddity. Before that outing, Abreu hadn't given up three or more runs since April 11, his sixth appearance of the season. If you take out that disastrous third of an inning against the Orioles, he has a 2.69 ERA.

Astros fans never really had anything to worry about, but his performance against the Athletics just made that clearer.