Altuve, in 100th playoff game, sparks Astros in G4
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Alden Gonzalez, ESPN Staff Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas — Jose Altuve became the seventh player in baseball history to play in 100 career postseason games on Thursday night, a product of additional rounds but also, mostly, an indication of the Houston Astros’ prolonged success.
His biggest lesson from that time?
“That in the playoffs, a lot of things can happen,” Altuve said.
The volatility is especially true now. The Astros dropped both games at home to begin this year’s American League Championship Series, spoiling a multitude of opportunities to drive in runs and making it seem as if they were no match for the scorching-hot Texas Rangers. They had reached this round for the seventh consecutive time and won it all only a year earlier, but suddenly it felt as if the Astros had run out of gas.
Then they went on the road and scored a combined 18 runs in 18 innings, tying the ALCS at two games apiece and placing the home-field advantage back in their favor.
Their latest victory, a 10-3 drubbing in Game 4 from Globe Life Park, saw Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Jose Abreu combine to drive in eight runs from the middle of the lineup. But it also saw Altuve set the tone with three hits from the very top, the type of spark he has provided over nearly an entire season’s worth of games in October.
“It’s been an honor to be his teammate — a Hall of Fame player and a Hall of Fame person, incredible leader every single day,” said Bregman, Altuve’s teammate over the past seven years. “From Day 1 of spring training, he shows up, works his tail off. He always has a smile on his face. He’s so nice to everyone that he comes into contact with — players, coaches, staff, people at the stadium, fans. He’s an unbelievable human being, and to be able to be his teammate, it’s been an honor. Hopefully I can be his teammate forever.”
Altuve turned on the game’s third pitch, a changeup near the middle of the strike zone from Rangers left-hander Andrew Heaney, and lined it down the third-base line for a leadoff double, later scoring on Bregman’s two-run triple. The Astros scored three runs before recording the game’s first out.
After the Rangers came back to tie the score on Corey Seager’s solo home run in the third, they answered with a four-run fourth inning. They loaded the bases with none out against Dane Dunning — on back-to-back walks from Martin Maldonado and Altuve and a single from Mauricio Dubon — then scored on a 401-foot sacrifice fly from Alvarez and a 438-foot three-run homer from Abreu. In the eighth, with the game practically out of reach, Altuve hit a deep line drive to left that was initially ruled a home run but was reversed to a double after umpires consulted with replay.
It gave him 10 career three-hit games in the postseason, tied with former teammate Carlos Correa for third all time. The only ones ahead of them are longtime New York Yankees Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter with 12 apiece. A few more inches, and Altuve would have had his 26th career postseason home run. 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 homered in Game 4, saw a similar stat on social media recently and could only shake his head.
“Just insane,” he said.
McCormick began his climb up the Astros’ minor league system when the big-league team won its first World Series championship in 2017, a title later tainted by the sign-stealing scandal. As the team began its prolonged run of success, McCormick could only hope their contention window lasted long enough for him to contribute to it. He’s now nearing the end of his third major league season, and there’s no sign of it ending any time soon.
Altuve is very much the face of that.
“He’s been the one who’s kept the window open,” McCormick said. “We’ve lost some great players.”
Altuve went 0-for-8 in the Astros’ two losses from Houston but has gone 5-for-9 in their two victories from Arlington, Texas, which is probably no coincidence.
He planned to keep the jersey from Thursday’s game and will perhaps eventually frame it — but his mind is elsewhere right now.
“Obviously it means a lot; it means the team’s been having success in the last years,” Altuve said of his 100th postseason game. “But I think the whole focus I have right now is about winning tomorrow.”
NASCAR driver Katherine Legge said she has been receiving “hate mail” and “death threats” from auto racing fans after she was involved in a crash that collected veteran driver Kasey Kahne during the Xfinity Series race last weekend at Rockingham.
Legge, who has started four Indy 500s but is a relative novice in stock cars, added during Tuesday’s episode of her “Throttle Therapy” podcast that “the inappropriate social media comments I’ve received aren’t just disturbing, they are unacceptable.”
“Let me be very clear,” the British driver said, “I’m here to race and I’m here to compete, and I won’t tolerate any of these threats to my safety or to my dignity, whether that’s on track or off of it.”
Legge became the first woman in seven years to start a Cup Series race earlier this year at Phoenix. But her debut in NASCAR’s top series ended when Legge, who had already spun once, was involved in another spin and collected Daniel Suarez.
Her next start was the lower-level Xfinity race in Rockingham, North Carolina, last Saturday. Legge was good enough to make the field on speed but was bumped off the starting grid because of ownership points. Ultimately, she was able to take J.J. Yeley’s seat in the No. 53 car for Joey Gase Motorsports, which had to scramble at the last minute to prepare the car for her.
Legge was well off the pace as the leaders were lapping her, and when she entered Turn 1, William Sawalich got into the back of her car. That sent Legge spinning, and Kahne had nowhere to go, running into her along the bottom of the track.
“I gave [Sawalich] a lane and the reason the closing pace looks so high isn’t because I braked midcorner. I didn’t. I stayed on my line, stayed doing my speed, which obviously isn’t the speed of the leaders because they’re passing me,” Legge said. “He charged in a bit too hard, which is the speed difference you see. He understeered up a lane and into me, which spun me around.”
The 44-year-old Legge has experience in a variety of cars across numerous series. She made seven IndyCar starts for Dale Coyne Racing last year, and she has raced for several teams over more than a decade in the IMSA SportsCar series.
She has dabbled in NASCAR in the past, too, starting four Xfinity races during the 2018 season and another two years ago.
“I have earned my seat on that race track,” Legge said. “I’ve worked just as hard as any of the other drivers out there, and I’ve been racing professionally for the last 20 years. I’m 100 percent sure that … the teams that employed me — without me bringing any sponsorship money for the majority of those 20 years — did not do so as a DEI hire, or a gimmick, or anything else. It’s because I can drive a race car.”
Legge believes the vitriol she has received on social media is indicative of a larger issue with women in motorsports.
“Luckily,” she said, “I have been in tougher battles than you guys in the comment sections.”
Legge has received plenty of support from those in the racing community. IndyCar driver Marco Andretti clapped back at one critic on social media who called Legge “unproven” in response to a post about her history at the Indy 500.
“It’s wild to me how many grown men talk badly about badass girls like this,” Andretti wrote on X. “Does it make them feel more manly from the couch or something?”
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