Houston Astros reliever Bryan Abreu appealed his two-game suspension for hitting Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers with a pitch in Game 5 and is active for Sunday’s Game 6 of the American League Championship Series.
Abreu’s appeal came just hours before first pitch of Sunday’s game.
Major League Baseball said Abreu’s hearing will occur in the next 48 hours, per terms of the Basic Agreement.
Abreu drew the two-game suspension on Saturday. MLB said all six umpires deemed that Abreu had intentionally hit Garcia with the pitch in the eighth inning of Friday’s game. Garcia hit a three-run homer in his previous at-bat against Justin Verlander and wildly celebrated.
The right-handed Abreu’s actions led to a benches-clearing incident and 12-minute delay before play resumed.
“Nobody was trying to hit him in the first place,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said before Sunday’s game of Garcia. “I mean, it looked bad. Nobody was even concerned about the antics after he hit the home run because everybody does that.”
The Astros lead the volatile series 3-2 and can clinch it with a victory on Sunday.
Abreu, 26, has a 1.42 ERA with 11 strikeouts and two walks in 6 1/3 innings over seven postseason games. The right-hander was 3-2 with a 1.75 ERA, five saves, 100 strikeouts and 31 walks in 72 innings over 72 appearances during the regular season. He gave up just 44 hits.
–Field Level Media