José Altuve hit a home run on the first pitch he saw on Sunday to open the game between the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees, who won the Bronx Bombers 6-3 in 10 innings.
Altuve raised to 15 his homers in the season, top number among the waiters in the Major Leagues. It was his seventh homer to start a game in 2022 and the 28th of his career with those characteristics, to increase his historical leadership among the Venezuelans, escorted by Ronald Acuña Jr. (25) and César Hernández (18).
That sonorous turn was the first of three in the commitment, with which Altuve became the fourth member of the Houston Astros (since 1965) to add at least 6,000 times at bat, only surpassed by Craig Biggio (10,876), Jeff Bagwell (7,797) and Puerto Rican José Cruz (6,629), according to Baseball-Reference. Biggio and Bagwell are members of the Hall of Fame.
The 32-year-old right-handed slugger is the 12th native with 6,000 or more opportunities at the plate. The list is headed by Omar Vizquel (10,586), followed by the immortal Luis Aparicio (10,230), Miguel Cabrera (9,851), David Concepción (8,723), Bob Abreu (8,480), Andrés Galarraga (8,096), Víctor Martínez (7,297), Elvis Andrus (7,090), Magglio Ordóñez (6,978), Oswaldo Guillén (6,686) and Asdrúbal Cabrera (6,632).
Altuve also walked a couple of times in the game, in the third and fifth innings, while reaching base on error in the 10th. Plus, he stole a pair of pads after recording just three steals in his first 56 games of the season. In fact, he barely had four steal attempts before Sunday’s game.
Since returning from the disabled list on May 2, after overcoming a left hamstring strain, the Astros’ figure is hitting .296 on average (186-55), with 37 runs scored, 13 doubles, 14 home runs. , 23 towed and 20 passports. While he has reached base safely in 13 of his last 14 games, going back to June 11.
