MONTERREY, Mexico -- Prior to Sunday’s game, Ryan Pressly already owned the club record for scoreless innings by a reliever. He surpassed that a while ago when he reached 28 2/3 innings to top Todd Jones, who strung together 28 1/3 scoreless from 1994-95.
But Pressly now owns the record for any Houston pitcher, starter or reliever. His 1 2/3 scoreless frames in the seventh and eighth innings in the Astros' 10-4 win over the Angels in the Mexico Series finale brought his streak up to 33, passing Roy Oswalt, who threw 32 1/3 scoreless innings from Aug. 27 to Sept. 11, 2008.
Per the Elias Sports Bureau, the last pitcher with a scoreless innings streak as long as Pressly's was Chris Sale, who threw 35 consecutive scoreless innings for the Red Sox between July 6 and Sept. 21 last season.
“I’m unbelievably lucky and blessed to be associated with Oswalt there,” Pressly said. “That’s unbelievable. That guy’s unreal. I watched him growing up. Being next to his name, that means something to me.”
Pressly’s dominance goes back a while. The last time he gave up a run as an Astro dates back to Aug. 10 of last season, when he allowed one in a 5-2 loss against the Mariners at Minute Maid Park.
In 38 regular-season appearances with Houston, Pressly, who the Astros acquired from the Twins prior to the Trade Deadline last year, has yielded two earned runs over 36 2/3 innings.
“I don’t want to say it’s unnoticeable,” manager AJ Hinch said. “But it’s just so expected that he comes in and gets through his innings, gets some soft contact, gets some punchouts and on to the next outing.”
Even before he added 1 2/3 scoreless innings to his record on Sunday, Pressly had one of the lowest reliever WHIPs in the Majors at 0.53. He also has not walked a batter all season.
“For me, it’s just being able to have the control that I’m having right now, and being able to throw everything for a strike,” Pressly said. “It helps me a lot to make balls look like strikes and strikes look like balls. That’s what I want to keep working on.”