Altuve's slam not enough after bullpen falters in 9th

HOUSTON -- The moment Astros second baseman Jose Altuve rocketed a grand slam into the Crawford Boxes in the seventh inning Monday afternoon, Minute Maid Park was as loud as it has been at any point this season. He had changed the game with one swing, like he’s done so many times in his incredible career, and put one of baseball’s best bullpens six outs away from a fourth consecutive win.

Altuve’s heroics weren’t enough to rescue the Astros, who watched the Twins rally to tie the game against closer Ryan Pressly in the ninth inning -- snapping his string of 28 consecutive converted saves, including the playoffs -- and take the lead against Bryan Abreu in the 10th to hand Houston a 7-5 loss.

“Boy, that was a big home run Altuve hit,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “We were hoping to get some more because those guys are trying to stay in first place in their division. This was a ballgame. We just came up on the short end.”

Altuve, playing in only his eighth game since returning from a fractured right thumb suffered in the World Baseball Classic in March, hit a 99-mph fastball from Twins reliever Brock Stewart and sent it into the Crawford Boxes for his seventh career grand slam. The homer, which had a 109-mph exit velocity, put the Astros ahead, 5-4, in the seventh.

Altuve became the eighth player to reach 700 career RBIs with the Astros. The grand slam was the first go-ahead slam by an Astros player when trailing by three runs in the seventh inning or later since Brian Bogusevic’s walk-off winner to beat the Cubs on Aug. 26, 2011.

“I think this guy [Stewart] has really good pitches so I was looking for something, hoping for something in the middle and I got it,” Altuve said.

After going 0-for-4 in his first game of the season May 19 against Oakland, Altuve is slashing .407/.484/.741 and has homered in two consecutive games. He’s six home runs shy of reaching 200 homers for his career.

“He’s incredible,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. “He can barrel up any pitch, any spot, any time. We’ve seen it for the last decade. He’s incredible. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of guy.”

Astros reliever Hector Neris extended his scoreless streak to 15 1/3 innings in the eighth inning, turning the ball over to Pressly, who hadn't blown a save since July 30. Pressly was one strikeout away from his 29th consecutive converted save before Royce Lewis hit a two-out RBI single to tie the game. It was Lewis who put the Twins ahead, 3-0, with a three-run homer in the third inning.

“That’s the first time in a long time,” Baker said of Pressly’s rare hiccup. “You know it’s going to happen. It doesn’t make it any easier to take. Shoot, what did he have? Twenty-two in a row [in the regular season]? Hopefully he starts another streak like that tomorrow.”

Abreu entered in the 10th and gave up a first-pitch homer to Ryan Jeffers. The Astros had three chances in the bottom of the 10th against hard-throwing closer Jhoan Duran, who struck out Altuve, got Jeremy Pena to bounce out and struck out Yordan Alvarez to end the game. The Astros fell to 27-3 this season when leading after seven innings.

“A guy that throws a 104 [mph] and 105 fastball with a 98-100 split is really tough, obviously,” Altuve said. “They were tough pitches. I couldn’t put the bat on the ball and he struck me out.”

Don’t sweat it, Altuve, was the message from Baker. He had his moment and will have many more in 2023.

“He’s looking good for a guy who hasn’t had many at-bats or Spring Training,” Baker said. “They came in with Duran. He was throwing 104 and then a 99-mph splitter. That’s as good a stuff as you’ll see. It’s a tough one to lose. We just made a couple of mistakes and they didn’t miss them.”