McCormick takes cue from teammate to power two-homer game

HOUSTON -- It was vintage Jose Altuve, except Jose Altuve wasn’t standing in the batter’s box.

Altuve is a dead pull hitter who can turn on pitches that are up in the strike zone, or slightly above the zone, and hammer them into left field as well as anyone in the league. So when Astros outfielder Chas McCormick was needing a cue to pull the ball more, he tried to be more like his 5-foot-6 teammate.

McCormick was able to pull a pair of fastballs into the Crawford Boxes in the Astros’ 9-4 win over the Red Sox on Monday night at Minute Maid Park, including a 94.8 mph fastball from Boston starter James Paxton that was above the zone. McCormick cranked it into the left-field seats for a three-run homer that put Houston ahead, 7-3, in the fourth inning.

“I’ve seen him hit those pitches a lot,” McCormick said. “Paxton just had a really good fastball, so I had to make sure to get my foot down and just be ready to hit every pitch, especially up, because his ball just rises.”

McCormick homered off reliever Chris Murphy, also pulling a fastball into the Crawford Boxes, in the eighth inning. That was followed by a homer from Yainer Diaz. The offensive outburst helped the Astros end a three-game losing streak and gain a game on the first-place Rangers. Houston is 1 1/2 games behind Texas and remains one-half game ahead of the third-place Mariners in the American League West.

“It was a tough weekend [swept at home by Seattle], but we needed to come out ready to play today, and we needed to get a 'W' today and that’s what we did,” McCormick said. “I thought we all had good at-bats today. Hopefully we can carry some momentum the rest of this homestand.”

McCormick, who drove in four runs, is hitting .350 with four homers and a 1.084 OPS in his past 11 games. He’s emerged as a threat in the middle of Houston’s lineup, slashing .286/.374/.544 this season with 19 homers and 54 RBIs, both of which are career highs.

“He’s been great,” said Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who went 3-for-3 with two walks. “He’s controlling the strike zone and he’s hitting the ball out of the ballpark. He’s doing so many things well. It’s been awesome.”

McCormick began to take off at the plate on June 8, which is the date slugger Yordan Alvarez suffered an oblique strain that put him out for nearly two months. McCormick began to get consistent playing time with Alvarez on the shelf, and is slashing .317/.405/.597 with 14 home runs and 38 RBIs in 53 games since.

It’s no secret McCormick has thrived on hitting the ball to right field by hitting pitches outside and low to the opposite field. Only the titanic swings of Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge produced more homers to the opposite field last year than McCormick, who hit 10 of his 14 homers to right in 2022. He’s hit 11 of his 19 homers this year to left field or left-center.

“I felt last year I had trouble pulling the ball a little bit and I wanted to make sure I could hit the ball to right field and left field,” McCormick said. “I worked on it this offseason, I worked on it all year this year. I’ve always been a good fastball hitter, but being able to stay on balls like that is really helping me out.”

So what’s been the key?

“I’m standing a little taller up there and more narrow,” McCormick said. “Last year I was a little wide and it was tough to get to fastballs up like that. Everybody throws really hard these days and it gets on you -- even offspeed [pitches] gets on you -- so I was able to be a little taller up there and get to pitches like that.”

The Astros, who held a team meeting following Sunday’s sweep at the hands of Seattle, fell behind, 3-0, in the first inning on Monday when Adam Duvall socked a three-run homer off starter Cristian Javier. They answered by scoring three times in the second for a 4-3 lead, and McCormick’s homer off Paxton in the fourth swung the momentum.

“It was tough, obviously, to go down 3-0 early today, but that’s baseball,” McCormick said. “You’ve got to fight back.”