Astros champion Kyle Tucker hit the ground running after hitting a pop-up window in the seventh round of Friday night’s 9-5 win over A’s in Oakland, frustrated that he wasted an RBI opportunity with teammate Jose Altuve sitting on the third base.
As Elvis Andrus, A’s short-stop, moved to the right, backed away and typically caught the pop-up window about 10 feet beyond the dirt inside the shallow right field, Altuve caught it with guard down. Andrus stopped for a fight before he realized that Altuve was breaking into the house, slipping safely before Andrus’s desperate throw.
That’s right, Altuve scored on a sacrifice flight … in short.
The hectic game, which left Tucker with an unexpected RBI and gave the Astros a 6-2 advantage, made Altuve and his colleagues smile from ear to ear. Altuve reached his first four set appearances on Friday as a first-hit on Friday – a role George Springer has held for the past five seasons.
Altuve’s sprint speed from third to home was 30.4 feet per second, according to Statcast, which means he was flying. A sprint speed of 30 feet per second is considered elite (27 is the MLB average).
Only two games in the season, Astros play with the kind of excitement and agitation – as indicated by Altuve’s crazy house – which was largely absent last year, when they went to a record 29-31 in the regular season . . Altuve had the worst year of his career, but he started with energy in 2021.
Altuve’s run in the seventh – one of four he scored on Friday – was the difference in the game before Astros fought in the ninth and scored three runs to open it.