What he achieved within the first two video games of the Astros’ dismantling of the Rangers at Globe Life Field was astonishing, even by Altuve’s excessive requirements. It left his supervisor in awe, his teammates in disbelief and Altuve centered on closing out a division title that’s now the Astros’ to lose.
Altuve clubbed three residence runs in every of the primary three innings in the Astros’ 14-1 win over the Rangers on Tuesday evening, tying the Major League report with 5 residence runs in a two-game span. He’s the primary participant within the growth period (since 1961) to homer in 4 consecutive innings (he homered within the ninth inning Monday), in line with Elias Sports Bureau.
“It’s obviously amazing,” Altuve mentioned. “It’s a good thing to do, especially the situation we are in right now trying to get to first place, trying to win the division. It’s good.”
When requested if he had seen something like that earlier than to guide Houston’s 20-hit outburst, supervisor Dusty Baker paused to suppose.
“Maybe Barry Bonds,” he mentioned. “That was unbelievable. He was on the ball all night. We were hoping he would hit his fourth, but they were pitching him tough after that.”
Altuve, who had homered in 5 of his final six at-bats after his third-inning blast Tuesday, had two possibilities to grow to be the primary second baseman in historical past to hit 4 homers in a recreation, however to no avail. He grounded out within the fifth inning and struck out within the seventh earlier than Baker eliminated him from a blowout recreation.
“I stayed with my same approach and if it happened, it happened,” Altuve mentioned. “They made some good pitches.”
With Houston’s win and the Mariners’ loss on the Reds, the Astros are in sole possession of first place within the American League West for the primary time this yr. They’ll give the ball to ace Justin Verlander on Wednesday in a showdown with fellow three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer.
“We’re in first place and we want to pad that lead,” Baker mentioned. “Tomorrow is very important and when we get back home, we got to start showing home-field dominance. Trying to figure out why we’re hitting so well on the road and not at home. We’ll figure it out. Right now, we’ve got a one-game lead, and we’ve got to pad it.”
Altuve led off the sport with a Statcast-projected 406-foot homer off Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi to left. He hit a solo homer off Eovaldi within the second that traveled 398 toes to left area. And he adopted a two-run homer by catcher Martín Maldonado with a 426-foot homer to middle off reliever Dane Dunning within the third.
“He can hit anything,” third baseman Alex Bregman mentioned. “He can hit standing upside down. He can flat-out hit.”
Altuve’s solely different three-homer recreation got here in Game 1 of the 2017 American League Division Series in opposition to the Red Sox — the yr he received the AL Most Valuable Player and led the Astros to the World Series title. He’s the fourth participant in Astros historical past to hit a number of homers in consecutive video games — first since Richard Hidalgo on Sept. 9-10, 2000 — and the primary Astros participant to have 5 homers in a two-game span.
“We were like, ‘Oh my God, this guy already has three homers before a couple of their guys have an at-bat? What’s going on?’” mentioned Maldonado, who hit two of Houston’s six homers. “Altuve’s one of the main guys. If he goes, we go as a team. That guy is going to be a Hall of Famer. Everything he does, you feel like it’s always getting better and better. Just like wine.”
It’s been a outstanding season for Altuve, who missed the primary 43 video games of the season with a fractured proper thumb and 17 video games later within the season with an indirect harm. He hit for the cycle Aug. 28 in Boston and have become the third Astros participant in historical past to achieve 2,000 hits on Aug. 19.
As Altuve’s legend grows, he stays as humble as ever.
“It’s one of those days where you feel good and you get your pitch and you execute and good things are going to happen,” he mentioned.
Content Source: www.mlb.com