Altuve’s late three-run blast lifts Astros over Yankees.
Altuve smashes go-ahead shot to lead homer barrage and stave off a sweep
NEW YORK — Astros manager Dusty Baker calls his second baseman strong-willed but sensitive. Jose Altuve is well-compensated, well-traveled and a world-class talent. Inside, he is like us all — he craves approval. Altuve has almost none away from home. For three interminable days, Yankee Stadium fans serenaded him with slurs and spewed venom.
Altuve’s 31st birthday featured thousands of strangers who wanted him to suffer. They called him a cheater and chanted unrepeatable phrases. Altuve absorbed every ounce of abuse with no outward acknowledgment. His performance plummeted. Fans relished it, and the Astros spiraled.
On Thursday, the Astros stood
on the precipice of a sub-.500 record. Altuve arrived for his penultimate plate appearance in this house of horrors. The six-time All-Star fulfilled the one item always on his agenda.
“I was trying to do my best to play the game,” Altuve said. “You don’t like to get booed by anybody, but that’s part of the game. I was just going out there and trying to do my best to help my team to win.”
Altuve hit a go-ahead three-run homer against Yankees reliever Chad Green in the eighth inning, and the Astros took a long-awaited lead. Their heart and soul had a rare reason to smile inside this stadium. The blast by Altuve, who had four hits in his previous 35 atbats, staved off a Yankees sweep. Houston won 7-4, salvaging a game after three days in this unwelcoming environment.
“You couldn’t have scripted that any better,” Baker said. “Boy, that was huge. It quieted the fans for a little while anyway. I can’t tell you how happy everybody in the dugout was for Jose. He’s one of the best guys that you’ll ever meet in this game.”
Most of the 10,042 who paid for Thursday’s matinee might disagree. Altuve bore the brunt of the frustration all week. Fans waited more than a year to excoriate him and four other Astros from the 2017 club for their misdeeds. Teammates are adamant Altuve did not condone or participate in the sign-stealing scheme. Few outside Houston will offer any reprieve.
Altuve is the face of the scandal for so many, a once-lovable man loathed by crowds around the country. His American League Most Valuable Player award from 2017 is forever tarnished, but nowhere more than in New York, which houses the runner-up, Aaron Judge.
Unfounded rumors that Altuve wore a buzzer during the 2019 American League Championship Series only stoked further frustration in New York. Altuve ended that series and captured a pennant with a prodigious walk-off home run. Thursday’s scene only added to the distress of Yankees fans, who had their ace on the mound with an opportunity to sweep the Astros. Another spitefilled crowd left for home with no win to celebrate.
“We were here in (2017) in the playoffs. It’s probably because it’s not full capacity, but I promise you it was just as bad or maybe even worse,” Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. said. “They’re passionate fans who are going to let you know. We’re OK, though. We know what to expect. We’re all grown men here, and we know what we have to do.”
McCullers matched up against a former teammate in an anticipated duel. He and Gerrit Cole share an agent and, for two years, shared a clubhouse. Cole’s hair is shorter than during his two seasons in Houston. His face is cleanshaven. His bank account is bigger. Otherwise, little is different about his dominance. He wielded a menacing fastball and three elite secondary pitches in his first meeting against the Astros on Thursday.
Cole controlled every Astros hitter but one across seven excellent innings. Yordan Alvarez annihilated two home runs for Houston’s only scoring offense against the ace. Catcher Martín Maldonado contributed two singles, but no other player reached base more than once. Houston averaged just an 85.9 mph exit velocity on the 20 batted balls it struck against Cole. His fastball topped at 99 mph. It averaged 96.7.
“If we didn’t get him today, to a degree, you’re not going to get him,” Baker said. “I can’t imagine him any sharper than he was. I could tell this guy is a quality pitcher. I could tell by his demeanor that he wasn’t satisfied with some pitches he made, but our guys stayed off some tough pitches he made. They battled.”
Cole’s method of dominance differed Thursday. He struck out 62 batters in his first six starts of the season, but no major league lineup strikes out at a lower rate than Houston’s. Cole struck out only four. Alvarez waved over a fastball in the second before starting his noteworthy day. He is only the third man to hit two home runs off Cole in the same game. Alvarez has played 113 major league games. Six have included at least two home runs.
“No major adjustments (after the first at-bat),” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “He made a good pitch in that first at-bat — he snuck a fastball by me — and the next couple at-bats what I was trying to focus on was (to) cover the plate and make sure I swung at a good pitch.”
Cole had not allowed a home run since opening day. Alvarez smashed a slider down and away in the fourth to change that. Houston’s hulking designated hitter admired his work for a few seconds before starting a trot up the first-base line. He hammered a 98.5 mph four-seam fastball to dead center field in the seventh, slimming Houston’s deficit to one.
Cole faced only two more batters. Yankees manager Aaron Boone turned to Green in the eighth. He walked Kyle Tucker and yielded an infield single to pinch hitter Aledmys Díaz. Maldonado struck out to momentarily quell the rally. Altuve sauntered to the plate. The crowd came to another abuse-filled crescendo.
Green filled the count against Altuve, a free-swinging leadoff man who showed some patience. Altuve got ahead 3-1 before fouling off a 97.1 mph fastball. Green returned with another at the top of the strike zone. It sailed above Altuve’s 5-foot-6 frame. He ambushed it anyway.
“This guy can hit,” Baker said. “You don’t win a couple batting titles if you can’t hit, and you certainly don’t win a couple batting titles if you’re not capable of hitting bad balls. He’s been struggling since he came back, but we anticipate this will get us rolling again.”
Altuve trotted around the bases with no expression. The baseball landed near Houston’s leftfield bullpen. Fans roused from their stunned state to start booing again. Teammates spilled from the dugout to congratulate him. Baker greeted him at the end of the dugout with a hug. The two men talked before the game about hitting a home run on their birthdays. Baker tried to do it often as a player. Altuve had never accomplished it.
“We were just super happy that on his birthday he could have a great at-bat, and on top of that, we reminded him that he was the MVP,” Alvarez said.
Altuve received praise up and down the dugout. When it concluded, the second baseman hung over the railing. Television cameras panned to him, another constant in these chaotic three days. For the first time, Altuve cracked a smile.
“I’m just a guy that wants to go out there and help his team win,” Altuve said. “It doesn’t matter where we’re playing or against what team. It’s going to mean the same for me as always that I helped my team to win.”