Altuve to skip All-Star Game for 2nd year
Astros second baseman Jose Altuve confirmed he will skip the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium after he was hit by a pitch on his left knee Thursday.
Altuve was elected to his franchise-record eighth All-Star game as the American League’s starting second baseman but was officially replaced on the roster Saturday by Cleveland’s Andrés Giménez.
“We were not sure how this (knee) is gonna respond and I don’t want to take any chances,” Altuve said. “It’s disappointing. We were ready to go there. And like I said, I wasn’t planning on getting hit. But you know, when you go out there and play every day, this is the kind of thing that happens.”
Altuve exited in the first inning of Thursday’s 3-2 win over the Angels in Anaheim after he got hit with the first pitch of the game. He did not play on Friday against the A’s at Minute Maid Park but returned to the Astros lineup at designated hitter on Saturday.
Altuve said he is unlikely to go to Los Angeles at all for All-Star festivities, instead remaining in Houston to receive treatment for his knee.
McCullers nears rehab assignment
Injured Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. threw two simulated innings on Saturday, the final planned step of his forearm recovery ahead of a potential minor-league rehab assignment.
McCullers threw his entire arsenal while facing hitters at Minute Maid Park and exceeded 40 pitches, including about 15 breaking balls. He said he feels ready for a game, which would mark his first game action since he injured the flexor tendon in his right arm during his Game 4 start of last season’s American League Division Series against the White Sox.
“This is like the end of my rehab that we had come up with,” McCullers said.
Julks walks it off for Sugar Land
A pitching duel took 10 innings before a run scored in the Sugar Land Space Cowboys’ 1-0 win over the Reno Aces on Saturday at Constellation Field.
Corey Julks delivered that run, sending a single up the middle to score Jose Alvarez and give the Space Cowboys a walkoff victory.
Julks’ single was the fifth walkoff win for the Space Cowboys this year.
JP France tossed a season-high seven scoreless innings, allowing just one hit to go with seven strikeouts and only one walk. France is tied for first in the Pacific Coast League with 97 strikeouts and is sixth with a 4.25 ERA and 1.29 WHIP.
Parker Mushinski made the fifth appearance of his MLB rehab assignment Saturday, striking out three through two scoreless innings. Nick Hernandez provided a scoreless 10th to set up Julks’ walkoff single.