Red-hot Astros sweep Angels
Altuve helps finish sweep with 2 HRs off Lincecum
A faded superstar walked off the Minute Maid Park mound and disappeared into the visitors’ dugout. The worst start of Tim Lincecum’s decorated career was over shortly after it began, and soon, too, could be the Los Angeles Angels’ experiment of him in their rotation.
Jose Altuve and the Astros teed off on the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner in a 13-3 drubbing Sunday. They scored four runs in each of the first two innings, the latter of which Lincecum did not survive. With the three-game sweep, their winning streak against the cellar dwellers of the American League West reached 11 games.
Altuve homered off Lincecum in the first and second innings and drove in a career-high six runs, bolstering his MVP-caliber pace. Each long ball set a career high for home runs in a season. His 17 are the most by an Astros second baseman since Craig Biggio’s 21 in 2006.
With 64 games left in the regular season, Altuve is batting a major league-best .360 with a 1.003 OPS
that ranks third. He has a chance to become the first player to lead the AL in batting average, on-base percentage and stolen bases since Ty Cobb in 1917.
“The guy is a joke. He’s up there playing Xbox,” Astros right fielder George Springer said. “It’s something special to watch.”
Altuve is the first Astros player to own a .360 batting average this late in a season since Lance Berkman in 2001. Berkman batted .361 through July 24 that year and wound up hitting .331.
Heart of the order
“It’s really tough to face a hitter when you have (Carlos) Correa behind you and when you have Springer on base every time,” Altuve said. “It’s fun, and I go almost every day to Carlos and Springer and thank them for what they’re doing for me.”
Ten games over .500 for the first time this season, the Astros have matched their longest winning streak in one season against a single opponent. They also beat the Cubs 11 straight times in 1980. It’s their longest overall streak against a single opponent since 12-game skeins against the Reds and Phillies that spanned the 2004 and 2005 seasons.
Their latest win came at the expense of Lincecum, the former Giants ace who saw his dismal ERA balloon to 8.70. After Correa followed Altuve’s second homer with a double, Angels manager Mike Scioscia took the ball. All hittable pitches In facing 13 batters, Lincecum recorded half as many outs (four) as he allowed runs.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t putting balls where I needed to at all, from the first pitch,” he said. “Anything I was putting over the plate was a hittable pitch.”
Mike Fiers, the losing pitcher in the Astros’ lone loss to the Angels on May 27, pitched well behind the run support. The 31-yearold righthander allowed three runs despite yielding nine hits and completed seven innings, his longest start since June 11.
Barring the Astros’ trading for a starting pitcher before his next turn, Fiers preserved his spot in the rotation. He lowered his ERA to 4.69.
“I’ll definitely take seven innings (and) three runs, one early and then two late,” he said. “I’ve got to take that into my next start. I can do this. Confidence goes a long way. I think it’s big.”
Altuve accounted for two of the Astros’ seasonhigh five home runs in the game. He launched a three-run homer in the first and lined a two-run shot in the second. On his first strike, he crushed an 85 mph fastball 421 feet to left-center field to open the scoring. Eight of his home runs have come in the first innings of games.
Luis Valbuena, Preston Tucker and Evan Gattis added solo blasts. Correa doubled twice in a threehit game.
“We had a pretty explosive offensive day,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “That was fun to see.”