BIOGRAPHY
Ryan Pressly was born December 15, 1988, in Dallas, Texas. He is a pitcher in the MLB.
The Twins traded Pressly to the Houston Astros for minor leaguers Jorge Alcalá and Gilberto Celestino on July 27, 2018. In 26 regular season games pitched with the Astros, Pressly had a 0.77 ERA and walked only three batters. Houston's focus on analytics has largely been credited for his post-trade success.
Before the 2019 season, Pressly signed a two-year contract extension with the Astros worth $17.5 million. In 2019 he had three saves and a 2.32 ERA in 55 relief appearances in which he pitched 54 1⁄3 innings and struck out 72 batters (11.9 per 9 innings), and tied for the major league lead in holds (31).
In 2020 he had 12 saves (3rd in the AL) and a 3.43 ERA, in 21 innings in which he struck out 29 batters (12.4 per 9 innings) over 23 relief appearances.
Pressly was critical in the Astros’ victory in the 2022 World Series, closing out five of six games, as he allowed just two hits, one walk, and no earned runs in 5+2⁄3 innings. This impressive run included a 5-out save in Game 5, and the final three outs in Game 6 as the Astros clinched the title. In Game 5, he entered with a 3–2 lead in the eighth, one out and runners on first and third. He struck out Brandon Marsh on three pitches—all sliders—and induced a sharply-hit Kyle Schwarber groundout that first baseman Trey Mancini smothered. Per Baseball-Reference.com, the Marsh strikeout rendered 9.2% championship win probability added (cWPA), the most on any single out over the prior six World Series. For his World Series performance, Pressly led all players in the 2022 edition with a 33.87% cWPA. In total, Pressly went 6-for-6 in postseason saves (while allowing no earned runs) to become the 16th reliever with six postseason saves in one postseason.
