Slash Line: The beginning of the end

Well, let's talk a little baseball, returning with another edition of Slash Line, my column for this Major League season. I was watching the return of José Abreu last night, hoping that he can recover. The challenge doesn't seem easy at all, but best of all, Abreu has the solution literally in his hands: he needs to bring back the best possible version of his swing — or at least recover everything that is enough to contribute to victories of the Astros.

As we expected, after 29 days, Cuban first baseman José Abreu returned to the Houston Astros lineup last night.

Abreu hit 1-for-3 and drove in his fourth run of the season in 80 plate appearances. His batting average, which had been at .099 on April 28, rose to .108—over .100 for the second time in his last 17 games. Abreu was out of the Astros lineup for 25 games, calling the demotion “the best thing I've ever been through in my career.”*

*The Astros went 15-10 without Abreu in the lineup, moving up in the American League West (Monday's loss left them 4 1/2 games behind the first-place Mariners).

“I just need to get my hands where they need to be so I can be in the best position to hit the ball,” Abreu said before Monday's game. “I don't think we should complicate things too much. “That's what I was working on, just getting my hands in the right position.”

Abreu made a good impression last night in his return to the lineup. His RBI single quickly became the second-most traveled ball put into play this year. The right-center hit fell 312 feet from the plate at T-Mobile Park. Among his 56 batted balls this year, only the 338-foot double Abreu hit on April 13 (against Texas at Minute Maid Park) surpassed last night's single.

Last year, during his first season with the team, Abreu hit in the team's first 13 games, but finished April averaging a disconcerting .536 OPS. In May, he dropped to .533, and the worst part was that he entered June with just one home run in his first 225 plate appearances as an Astro.