Pressly hoping to repeat All-Star season

JUPITER, Fla. -- With a fully healthy knee and his mechanics in line, veteran right-hander Ryan Pressly is poised to emerge once again this year as a force in the Astros bullpen. Pressly threw a scoreless inning in relief in Saturday’s 5-1 loss to the Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium in his second outing of the spring, and is pleased with how he’s pitching and how he feels.

“Right now, I’m trying to clean things up,” he said. “It’s Spring Training and I just want to make sure everything is feeling good, and once that happens, just a trickle-down effect of going on to the next thing. As long as I can consistently repeat my release point and my knee is fine, I think we’re in a good spot.”

Pressly was named to his first All-Star team a year ago after a tremendous first half in which he was nearly unhittable. He posted a 0.81 ERA and 0.69 WHIP in 33 1/3 innings in his first 32 games of the year. He suffered a right knee injury in July and tried to push through before undergoing surgery on Aug. 22. He came back at the end of the regular season and posted an 11.12 ERA in 10 games in the postseason.

“I was kind of just praying I would put up a good outing every time I took the ball last year just because when you don’t have your legs underneath you, your release point is all over the place,” he said. “I just wanted to try to get that as perfectly tight and strong this offseason so I wouldn’t have any other problems.”

Pressly, who had a Major League-record 40-game scoreless-inning streak snapped last May 24, will slot in as Dusty Baker’s setup man ahead of closer Roberto Osuna and is looking to regain his All-Star form.

“I think if you can throw up 40 scoreless appearances, I think your manager and your teammates are going to be extremely happy,” Pressly said. “Obviously, you want to try to repeat that. I want to try to take it day by day, and whenever that phone rings and they keep asking for me, I’ll show up whenever.”

Devenski slider coming around
The Astros’ bullpen, which lost key reliever Will Harris to the Nationals in the winter, would get a huge boost if veteran right-hander Chris Devenski can return to his 2016-17 form. Devenski has been working this spring to throw his slider harder, and he is even mixing in a curveball, with good results so far.

Devenski, an All-Star in 2017, has four scoreless outings under his belt this spring, allowing three hits and one walk while striking out four batters in 4 1/3 innings. The velocity on Devenski’s fastball has been solid at 95-96 mph this spring, but his slider started out sluggish at 78 mph (ideally, it should be around 84-85). So Devenski and pitching coach Brent Strom went to work.

“We did some work in the bullpen where we had the catcher come up in front of the plate and were talking about throwing my slider straight like a heater to get my heater feel,” Devenski said. “That kind of helped me with my mentality on my slider to throw a heater. My mentality with the changeup is really good throwing it like my heater. I wanted to get my slider like that, and the slider has been pretty good as of late. I mixed in a few curveballs [Friday], too.”

Devenski has one of the best changeups in baseball, and he threw it 36.5 percent of the time last year, as opposed to 44.1 percent fastballs. His slider represented 19.4 percent of his pitches last year.

“The changeup feels good,” Devenski said. “I’ve got that curveball now too, so it’s something I can keep in my pocket.”

After producing a 2.38 ERA and 0.93 WHIP across 110 games in his first two season in the big leagues, Devenski has a 4.56 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in 111 games in the past two seasons. He needs to get back to using his fastball/changeup mix to miss bats like he did in 2017-18 and that starts with good fastball command.

“A well-executed fastball in a good location is a great pitch,” he said. “That’s been the focus, executing one pitch at a time and mix in all the offspeed after that.”

Astros, Nats issue autograph policy
The Astros and Nationals, in conjunction with Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, set forth guidelines for players regarding autographs for the remainder of Spring Training while taking precautions against the spread of the coronavirus.

Based on recommendations issued by Major League Baseball, Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, Astros players and coaches have been advised to avoid shaking hands and/or exchanging items for fans to sign. That includes pens, balls and jerseys.

Instead, players and coaches will pre-sign items and will distribute them to fans periodically before and during the game.

For all remaining signature Sunday events at the ballpark, fans who obtain vouchers will no longer be able to bring personal items for players and coaches to autograph. The players will sign a team-provided item (autograph card, program, etc.). Fans won’t be permitted to bring their own items to be signed.

Up next
Right-hander Justin Verlander (0-1, 6.75 ERA) will make his second start of the spring when the Astros face the Mets at 12:10 p.m. CT Sunday in Port St. Lucie. Verlander gave up three runs (two earned) in 2 2/3 innings in his first start of the spring Tuesday. Watch the game live on MLB.TV.