Blanco dazzles in his first start of spring
UPITER, Fla. — If the Astros are going to continue with their experiment to try out Ronel Blanco as a starting pitcher, the 29-year-old needed to pass a couple tests first: actually starting a game and making it to 50 pitches. Check and check. The Dominican righthander struck out five and walked none in 31⁄3 scoreless innings in Thursday’s 3-0 win over the Cardinals. Blanco, making his first start of the spring as the Astros try to stretch him out, hammered the strike zone, throwing 35 of his 50 pitches for strikes, giving up three hits.
“That’s been the focus,” Blanco said. “Just try to stay inside the strike zone and try to execute my pitches there.”
Blanco has had a remarkable spring, giving up just one run in 11 innings spread over five appearances. The typical grain of salt must be taken with those numbers, as he faced a Cardinals lineup featuring just four likely big leaguers. Still, Astros manager Dusty Baker was impressed and says the deeper it gets into the spring, the more impressed he is with his righthander.
“You can learn more towards this time of March than you can early, because the guys who played winter ball (like Blanco) are always sharp early,” Baker said. “Guys aren’t ready to hit breaking balls early in spring, but the more at-bats you get, you can good a pretty good barometer of where (the pitchers) are.”
Blanco, indeed, did come in sharp after an excellent winter season where he threw 202⁄3 scoreless innings in 19 relief appearances in the Dominican Republic.
His four-seam fastball that sits in the mid-90s and nasty wipeout slider are his most effective pitches, but he also worked in a changeup and curveball for strikes against the Cardinals.
However, he repeatedly turned to the slider, getting four of his swinging strikeouts on the pitch, including two against lefties.
“I just try to stay very aggressive with it and inside to lefties,” Blanco said.
Blanco, who started 11 games for Class A Quad Cities in 2017 but has thrown more than 40 pitches in an outing just once in the past three seasons, made the opening day roster out of spring last season, but that was partly due to expanded rosters after a lockoutshortened spring. He allowed five runs in seven relief appearances in the opening month and spent the rest of the season at Class AAA Sugar Land.
Baker says Blanco has a shot to break camp with the big league team again, whether that’s as a starter at the back of the rotation or a long reliever in a dazzling bullpen that’s filled mostly with oneinning guys.
Blanco, built with a sturdy frame, is obviously physically strong, but Baker said he’ll be keeping an eye on the pitcher’s mental strength.
“You look at how they compete,” Baker said. “If they can’t handle trying to make the club now, how are they going to handle it if we get to a championship season?”
Abreu’s workload pays off at plate
José Abreu has made it known he’d like to get plenty of at-bats with his new team in the spring. Baker obliged him by letting him go to the plate four times and be the only starter to play the whole game in a 3-0 win over the Cardinals on Thursday.
Abreu looked plenty comfortable hitting in the cleanup spot behind Alex Bregman, going 3-for-4, including a home run and double off Jack Flaherty, who figures to be in the middle of the Cardinals’ starting rotation.
“This is the best he’s looked, and I was hoping the four at-bats would help him as opposed to getting just two or three and coming out,” Baker said.
Abreu, who was in the designated hitter spot instead of his usual first base, has the most at-bats of anyone in camp, hitting .286 (8-for-28) so far with a .940 OPS.
With opening day looming in a couple weeks, Baker says he plans to let more of his regulars get at least four at-bats in games, including Bregman in Friday’s outing against the Nationals.
“You’ve got to have a couple guys in the middle of the order who are swinging it well who can jump-start you at the beginning of the season,” Baker said.
WCB contingent to return soon
The Astros had 14 players — including 11 big leaguers — competing in the World Baseball Classic, but with pool play done, they’re about to get back a big chunk of that group.
The Dominican Republic’s powerhouse team was filled with five Astros — shortstop Jeremy Peña and pitchers Cristian Javier, Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Hector Neris — but it managed to go just 2-2 in Pool C, including Wednesday night’s loss to Puerto Rico that eliminated the Dominicans.
The early exit was shocking considering the Dominican Republic entered the tournament as the favorite to win it all with a lineup highlighted by the likes of Manny Machado, Juan Soto and Julio Rodriguez.
“Hey man, that’s baseball,” Baker said. “The predictors are always wrong.”
Baker was unsure exactly what day those players would be back in camp after Wednesday’s latenight defeat, but he expects them back soon. Each Astros reliever made at least two appearances in the Dominican Republic’s four games, and Javier threw four innings in his start, so they all got enough work during their time away from camp. Peña received just eight plate appearances in the week he was gone, so Baker said he may try to get him in the lineup a little more in the final two weeks of spring training.
“The rest of them have kind of stayed on schedule,” Baker said.
There are still six key Astros continuing in the tournament: right fielder Kyle Tucker and closer Ryan Pressly (United States), second baseman Jose Altuve and starting pitcher Luis Garcia (Venezuela), starting pitcher José Urquidy (Mexico) and catcher Martín Maldonado (Puerto Rico).
Astros minor leaguers Derek West (Netherlands) and C.J. Stubbs and Colton Gordon (Israel) also competed in the WBC.