Reigning MVP is liking what he is seeing from this year’s team
The robe was draped over the back of a chair, two seats down from the locker of one of the best players in baseball, the reigning American League Most Valuable Player and the longtime heart of the Astros.
He has worn that hitter-of-thegame robe. The championship belt from the 2017 season was his quite often, too.
Jose Altuve knows how it feels to lead a team, carry a team.
The Astros lost 14 of the 21 games Altuve missed during his recent stint on the disabled list. They have won seven of the eight since he has been back. But though he isn’t playing poorly, he isn’t carrying the team right now. Wednesday, he drove home the game’s first run with a single in the first inning, then proceeded to strike out four straight times.
Tyler White finished what Altuve started, earning the celebratory garb in reward for a 2-for-4 afternoon that included a walkoff blast over the left-field wall in the bottom of the ninth inning that gave the Astros to a 5-4 win over Oakland.
First golden sombrero
As disappointed as he was in his golden sombrero, a careerworst underachievement, Altuve was happy for the team and for White.
“Right now, he is playing good, one of the best hitters on the team, right behind (Alex Bregman),” Altuve said. “We need those kinds of hits right now, and it’s good to see him getting them.”
White’s hot hitting stretch — he has the fourth-best OPS in the AL since the All-Star break — is a far cry from when he struggled at the major league level and failed to hit his weight after making the ballclub in spring training two years ago.
For only a handful of players could a batting average lower than one’s body weight possibly be good. Despite his just-shy-ofportly build, White isn’t one of them.
How long can this last? Perhaps longer than you think, Altuve said after the Astros showered White with a homeplate welcome of an ice bucket and a gum tray.
“When you have the ability to put the ball in play, the results are going to be better,” Altuve said. “He puts the ball in play.
“I think we all get better once you play in the league a little bit, but you have to adjust, and he did all the adjustments. He’s been very consistent lately and just needs to keep on doing what he is doing. I think he will.”
The Astros have confidence in each other in the way champions do. They talk about being able to beat any team at any time. Manager A.J. Hinch has said it almost daily since spring training began.
Hinch, who will sign a lifetime contract extension with the team on Thursday — OK, it won’t be that long, but few would argue if it were — pushes a lot of buttons for a manager. Most of the time, he hits the right one.
Because of his style, the Astros are not a “let’s see what happens” team. They are a “we will make it happen” team.
Ahead of last year’s pace
They have won so much of late that they have been taken for granted in some ways.
Houston is two games ahead of its 2017 pace, but last year it had a double-digit lead in the AL West from May 28 through its final finish of 21 games up on second place.
Not only do the Astros have a better record than a year ago, their 221-run differential is significantly higher than last year’s 153-run advantage at this point. This team is that good. The A’s have given a spirited chase and are just 2½ games back. This series loss was just the second in the last 21 for Oakland, which won’t see the Astros again. Houston finished with a 12-7 head-to-head edge that could prove the difference in a playoff race in which the division winner avoids a wild-card elimination game.
The Miracle Mariners, who entering play Wednesday had given up 43 more runs than they had scored, shouldn’t even be in the discussion, but they are. Though they are starting to slip after somehow managing to be only a half-game out at the start of July.
The Astros say the heat behind them in the standings is not good or bad. It just is what it is. That has always been Altuve’s approach.
“There is a lot of baseball left,” he said. “If we play the way we can, we will win a lot of games. “We will play the way we can.” When a guy who just struck out four times says his team will get it done — and the guy is Jose Altuve — it’s a good bet that robe is coming his way soon.