Altuve believes he’s recovered from injury, but Hinch decides to err on side of caution
SEATTLE — He keeps saying he feels great, but he keeps staying out of the lineup and probably will until the Astros’ threegame series with the Angels in Anaheim, at the earliest.
Jose Altuve ratcheted up the intensity while testing out his sore right hamstring Saturday afternoon in the outfield at Safeco Field in front of manager A.J. Hinch and trainer Nate Lucero. Altuve ran sprints forward and backward and made other moves designed to test if he can handle explosive actions.
“I feel great. I went outside; I ran really hard. I just feel good,” Altuve said. “I’m really anxious (to play), but like I said, we still have a lot of games left. To try to hurry for one game, you can miss more games. I’m ready for whenever they decide to put me back there.
“At this point, we have done everything. … Yes- terday we hit; it was really good. Like I said, it was their call. They know what they’re doing.
Altuve said his supervisors were pleased with what they saw. Lucero ran side by side with Altuve during a couple of drills, which involved changing directions. He looked like a defensive back.
“Very happy with where he’s at,” Hinch said. “I’m going to go one day too long rather than one day too short, I can tell you that.”
Altuve hurt the hamstring running to first base on June 12 against the Seattle Mariners in Houston.
After three games off, he played Tuesday and Wednesday, leaving the latter early with the hamstring still bothering him.
He has been out of the lineup three straight games since, including Saturday night’s 6-3 loss to the Mariners.
The Astros don’t seem to regret the decision not to put Altuve on the DL right away. Hinch said Saturday the rule of thumb is that once half the possible 15-day disabled list time is spent day-to-day on the bench, the roster can start to be crunched.
“We had the two National League games (against the Rockies on Wednesday and Thursday in Colorado) which created a little bit of difficulty, but for the most part … sometimes you can absorb that depending on the health of the rest of your players,” Hinch said.