Alden GonzalezESPN Staff Writer Oct 20, 2023, 2:00 AM ET4 minutes read
Jose Altuve takes first place with an incredible jump shot
Jose Altuve makes an acrobatic out to end the seventh inning for the Astros.
ARLINGTON, Texas – Jose Altuve became the seventh player in baseball history to play in 100 career postseason games on Thursday night, a result of extra rounds but, more importantly, an indication of the continued success of the Houston Astros.
His biggest lesson from this time?
“A lot of things can happen in the playoffs,” Altuve said.
The volatility is particularly pronounced now. The Astros dropped both games at home early in this year’s American League Championship Series, wasting numerous opportunities to drive in runs and giving the impression that they were no match for the red-hot Texas Rangers. They had reached this round for the seventh straight year and had won it all just a year earlier, but suddenly it felt like the Astros had run out of gas.
Then they hit the road and scored a total of 18 runs in 18 innings, tying the ALCS in two games apiece and putting home-field advantage back in their favor.
In their most recent win, a 10-3 win in Game 4 against Globe Life Park, Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Jose Abreu combined to score eight runs from the middle of the lineup. But Altuve also set the tone with three goals from the top, the kind of spark he provided for most of a season in October.
“It was an honor to be his teammate — a Hall of Fame player and a Hall of Fame person, an incredible leader every day,” said Bregman, Altuve’s teammate for the past seven years. “From the first day of spring training, he shows up and gives it his all. He always has a smile on his face. He is so nice to everyone he comes into contact with – players, coaches, staff, people in the stadium, fans. He is an incredible person and it was an honor to be his teammate. Hopefully I can be his teammate forever.”
Altuve converted the third pitch of the game, a changeup near the middle of the strike zone from Rangers left-hander Andrew Heaney, and laid it down the third base line for a leadoff double, later setting up Bregman’s two-run triple achieved. The Astros scored three runs before recording the first out of the game.
After tying the score on Corey Seager’s solo home run in the third inning, the Rangers responded with a four-run fourth inning. They loaded the bases with no outs against Dane Dunning — with consecutive walks by Martin Maldonado and Altuve and a single by Mauricio Dubon — and then scored on a 401-foot sacrifice fly by Alvarez and a 438-foot triple. Run homer from Abreu. In the eighth, with the game virtually out of reach, Altuve hit a deep line drive to left that was initially ruled a home run, but was converted to a double with replay after the umpires consulted.
This gave him ten career three-goal games in the postseason, tying him for third all-time with former teammate Carlos Correa. The only ones ahead of them are long-time New York Yankees Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter, with 12 players each. A few more inches and Altuve would have hit his 26th home run of the season. Only Manny Ramirez (29) produced more.
Altuve, 33, joined Jeter, Williams, Ramirez, Jorge Posada, David Justice and Yadier Molina as the only players to reach 100 career postseason games. Astros outfielder Chas McCormick, who also had a hit in Game 4, recently saw a similar statistic on social media and could only shake his head.
“Just crazy,” he said.
McCormick began his rise in the Astros’ minor league system when the big league team won its first World Series championship in 2017, a title that was later tarnished by the sign-stealing scandal. As the team began its extended run of success, McCormick could only hope that the competitive window lasted long enough for him to contribute. He’s now nearing the end of his third major league season and there’s no sign of it ending soon.
Altuve is sort of the face of it.
“He was the one who kept the window open,” McCormick said. “We lost some great players.”
Altuve went 0-8 in the Astros’ two losses to Houston, but went 5-9 in the two wins against Arlington, Texas, which is probably no coincidence.
He planned to keep the jersey from Thursday’s game and may make one at some point – but his mind is elsewhere right now.
“Of course it means a lot; it means the team has had success in recent years,” Altuve said of his 100th postseason game. “But I think my whole focus now is on winning tomorrow.”