Altuve homers in 4 straight innings! A first in Expansion Era

ARLINGTON -- His performance in the last month, and really the entire season, has only cemented Jose Altuve’s legacy as one of this generation’s greatest players. Not that reaching 2,000 hits, 200 home runs and 200 steals faster than any player in history or hitting for his first cycle was something Altuve needed to validate his tremendous career.

What he accomplished in the first two games of the Astros’ dismantling of the Rangers at Globe Life Field was astonishing, even by Altuve’s high standards. It left his manager in awe, his teammates in disbelief and Altuve focused on closing out a division title that’s now the Astros’ to lose.

Altuve clubbed three home runs in each of the first three innings in the Astros’ 14-1 win over the Rangers on Tuesday night, tying the Major League record with five home runs in a two-game span. He’s the first player in the expansion era (since 1961) to homer in four consecutive innings (he homered in the ninth inning Monday), according to Elias Sports Bureau.

• Games remaining: at TEX (1), vs. SD (3), vs. OAK (3), at KC (3), vs. BAL (3), vs. KC (3), at SEA (3), at AZ (3).
• Standings update: The Astros are in first place in the AL West by one game over the Mariners, who hold the tiebreaker vs. Houston. The Astros currently are the second-best division winner in the AL, meaning they would bypass the Wild Card Series round

“It’s obviously amazing,” Altuve said. “It’s a good thing to do, especially the situation we are in right now trying to get to first place, trying to win the division. It’s good.”

When asked if he had seen anything like that before to lead Houston’s 20-hit outburst, manager Dusty Baker paused to think.

“Maybe Barry Bonds,” he said. “That was unbelievable. He was on the ball all night. We were hoping he would hit his fourth, but they were pitching him tough after that.”

Altuve, who had homered in five of his last six at-bats after his third-inning blast Tuesday, had two chances to become the first second baseman in history to hit four homers in a game, but to no avail. He grounded out in the fifth inning and struck out in the seventh before Baker removed him from a blowout game.

“I stayed with my same approach and if it happened, it happened,” Altuve said. “They made some good pitches.”

With Houston’s win and the Mariners’ loss at the Reds, the Astros are in sole possession of first place in the American League West for the first time this year. They’ll give the ball to ace Justin Verlander on Wednesday in a showdown with fellow three-time Cy Young winner Max Scherzer.

“We’re in first place and we want to pad that lead,” Baker said. “Tomorrow is very important and when we get back home, we got to start showing home-field dominance. Trying to figure out why we’re hitting so well on the road and not at home. We’ll figure it out. Right now, we’ve got a one-game lead, and we’ve got to pad it.”

Altuve led off the game with a Statcast-projected 406-foot homer off Rangers starter Nathan Eovaldi to left. He hit a solo homer off Eovaldi in the second that traveled 398 feet to left field. And he followed a two-run homer by catcher Martín Maldonado with a 426-foot homer to center off reliever Dane Dunning in the third.

“He can hit anything,” third baseman Alex Bregman said. “He can hit standing upside down. He can flat-out hit.”

Altuve’s only other three-homer game came in Game 1 of the 2017 American League Division Series against the Red Sox -- the year he won the AL Most Valuable Player and led the Astros to the World Series title. He’s the fourth player in Astros history to hit multiple homers in consecutive games -- first since Richard Hidalgo on Sept. 9-10, 2000 -- and the first Astros player to have five homers in a two-game span.

“We were like, ‘Oh my God, this guy already has three homers before a couple of their guys have an at-bat? What’s going on?’” said Maldonado, who hit two of Houston’s six homers. “Altuve’s one of the main guys. If he goes, we go as a team. That guy is going to be a Hall of Famer. Everything he does, you feel like it’s always getting better and better. Just like wine.”

It’s been a remarkable season for Altuve, who missed the first 43 games of the season with a fractured right thumb and 17 games later in the season with an oblique injury. He hit for the cycle Aug. 28 in Boston and became the third Astros player in history to reach 2,000 hits on Aug. 19.

As Altuve’s legend grows, he remains as humble as ever.

“It’s one of those days where you feel good and you get your pitch and you execute and good things are going to happen,” he said.