Grand slam by Gonzalez the biggest blow
After DL stints, Altuve and Correa celebrate playing with one another by blasting homers
ANAHEIM, Calif. — On contact, Jose Altuve retreated back onto the outfield grass awaiting David Fletcher’s pop-up. One was out and Mike Trout, already with a triple, stood on deck during the third inning of a game still in peril.
Altuve read the fly ball. He decided not to catch it. Between first and second base, Kole Calhoun stood frozen. Altuve grabbed the baseball and tossed to first base. Fletcher was out.
Soon, too, was Calhoun. Gurriel lobbed to Carlos Correa, who covered second base.
Friday night was already quirky.
On the first day of Players’ Weekend, a three-day adventure when uniforms are redesigned and nicknames appear on their back, the Astros donned an obnoxiously orange get-up en route to a 9-3 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.
This unconventional double play developed a new layer. Altuve bounded to the dugout with a smile at his heady exploits.
His return to routine required two games and nine plate appearances. Altuve was shelved for 21 games with right knee soreness, warranting the first trip to the disabled list of his magnificent career. Correa was unavailable, too, combating back soreness.
For the first time in more than a calendar year, both men homered in a regular-season game. Altuve annihilated a solo home run in the second off Andrew Heaney to open the scoring. Correa replicated the feat in the seventh, his first home run since June 17.
Sandwiching those two shots was Marwin Gonzalez’s second career grand slam in the fifth inning. Not since May 2, 2017 had the switch-hitting utilityman knocked a bases-loaded blast.
the switch-hitting utilityman knocked a bases-loaded blast. Two months later, during a 19-1 evisceration of the Toronto Blue Jays, Correa and Altuve homered together.
Friday, they reprised the role. Both their caps and jerseys were fluorescent. Players with pseudonyms like “David Burd,” “Red Dawg” and “I Am Groot” roamed the field. The whole charade injects levity into the sport’s most stressful time.
The Astros are engaged in a ruthless race to win baseball’s best division. Their win on Friday kept them 1½ games ahead of Oakland for first place in the American League West.
The Astros played loose, battering four Angels pitchers for 12 hits while supplying stellar defense. Altuve turned the heady double play. Josh Reddick dove head over heels to rob Calhoun of an extra-base hit in the sixth inning.
In the seventh, Reddick started a relay to erase Rene Rivera at home plate. The Angels catcher tried to score from first base on Jeffry Marte’s single. Reddick fired to Altuve who rifled a missile to Martin Maldonado, applying the tag while starter Dallas Keuchel watched from behind the plate.
Keuchel threw seven innings of two-run baseball. Taylor Ward’s prodigious two-out, two-run homer in the seventh, moments after that relay, was his only regret.
Command of Keuchel’s twoseam fastball was precise. Homeplate umpire Marvin Hudson called 10 of them strikes.
Keuchel’s cutter concluded two of the six strikeouts he collected. Eric Young, Jr. was the sixth victim, fanning on three pitches to end Keuchel’s final inning.
Hudson employed a miniscule strike zone, drawing ire from both dugouts. Keuchel engaged him in an extended conversation after the second inning.
In the fourth, Albert Pujols yelled at Hudson and traced his zone with his hands after fullcount cutter which appeared to sail inside was called strike three.
The fifth-inning rally finished the game.
Facing the Astros lineup a third time with just a one-run deficit, Angels starter Andrew Heaney encountered danger. Leadoff hitter Alex Bregman muscled a oneout, opposite-field single.
Altuve beat out the back end of the surefire 5-4-3 double play he rolled. Correa blooped a single and cleanup hitter Tyler White coaxed a close four-pitch walk. Angels manager Mike Scioscia barked throughout White’s atbat, exacerbated at the array of close pitches.
Gonzalez loomed. He saw three sinkers. Heaney elevated the final one, a fatal mistake. Gonzalez massacred it onto the rocks in center field, establishing a five-run lead.