Astros break out of scoring drought in a big way with 25 runs in sweep of Twins in Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS — Harry Heilmann won four American League batting titles with the Detroit Tigers in the 1920s. His worst average among any of them was an incredible .393 in 1925, and in that season the Hall of Famer produced the best road average in recorded baseball history — an almost unfathomable .456.
Dating to 1913, no major leaguer to play at least close to a full season has exceeded a .420 batting average away from his home ballpark. Not one bested a .400 road average between Stan Musial in 1948 and Ichiro Suzuki in 2004. But here is Jose Altuve, with 26 away games remaining on the Astros’ schedule, with a legitimate chance at baseball’s best road batting average in 91 years.
Five more hits in nine at-bats
of Thursday’s day-night doubleheader sweep of the Minnesota Twins raised Altuve’s batting average away from Minute Maid Park to .434.
His major league-best eighth four-hit performance sparked the Astros to a 15-7 victory in the afternoon game at Target Field. The offense continued to produce in a 10-2 rout in the nightcap.
The Astros’ 25 runs on the day matched their output from their previous 11 games combined. Their onslaught against the AL’s worst team featured a whopping 35 hits. Carlos Correa homered in each game. George Springer posted a home run and three doubles. Marwin Gonzalez tallied six hits.
Altuve’s five-hit day extended his road on-base streak to 41 games. His road statistics alone this season would give him more hits than all but two
of his teammates, Springer and Correa.
‘Best hitter in league’
Entering the Astros’ weekend series in Toronto, Altuve’s .365 overall average leads the major leagues by .020 and the AL by .048. His 1.003 on-base plus slugging percentage ranks second to Boston’s David Ortiz across the majors.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch has started to sound like a broken record when asked about his star second baseman, who should contend with the Angels’ Mike Trout and the Blue Jays’ Josh Donaldson for AL MVP honors.
“You guys can copy and paste everything I’ve said to this point,” Hinch said. “There’s not much more to say. He’s the best hitter in the league. Period.”
Altuve, who is six hits shy of 1,000 for his career, has three more four-hit games than any other major leaguer this season. He is the first player with eight four-hit games in a season since Carl Crawford in 2010. No other Astro has had more than six in one year.
“I feel great,” Altuve said, “because I feel like I’m doing something for my team.”
‘He’s like a video game’
Altuve was 9-for-13 in the four-game series against the Twins. In the Astros’ 19-hit onslaught Thursday afternoon, he opened the scoring with a run-scoring double off the wall in right-center field and scored when Twins
catcher Juan Centeno threw the ball into left field on Altuve’s attempt to advance to third.
His other four hits on the day were singles, two of which plated runs. He beat out a slow roller to third base for an infield single in the sixth inning of the second game, preserving his on-base streak in his final at-bat.
It’s to the point where Correa, the Astros’ cleanup hitter, now expects to bat when the three-hole hitting Altuve steps into the batter’s box with two outs.
“We call him the ‘create a player,’ ” starting pitcher Doug Fister said. “He’s like a video game.”
When Altuve won the AL batting title two seasons ago, he batted .341. Joe Mauer (.365 in 2009) is the last player to win a batting title in either league with an average that exceeded .360. Jeff Bagwell’s .368 average in his MVP campaign in 1994 is the Astros’ record.
No Astro has batted .365 this late in a season since Moises Alou in 2001. Even if he had 25 fewer hits, Altuve still would lead the majors in batting average.
“He just continues to amaze,” Fister said.
Especially on the road.