Astros trio reaches milestones — in same game
This story was excerpted from Brian McTaggart’s Astros Beat publication. To learn the total publication, click on right here. And subscribe to get it often in your inbox.
They’ve mixed to play almost 4,000 regular-season video games of their careers with greater than 30 years of mixed service time, so it solely stands to motive Astros second baseman Jose Altuve, first baseman José Abreu and catcher Martín Maldonado would obtain some spectacular offensive milestones alongside the best way.
On Tuesday evening at Minute Maid Park, they every reached significant profession benchmarks in the identical recreation. Abreu grew to become the twelfth Cuban-born participant to achieve 1,500 hits, Altuve grew to become the fourth Astros participant to achieve 1,000 profession runs and Maldonado reached 100 profession house runs. Each accomplishment was acknowledged on the scoreboard throughout a 6-1 win over the Nationals.
“You feel great when those things happen, and they happened all in one night,” Astros supervisor Dusty Baker stated. “I got some more lineup cards to fill out, more than usual. Usually, you give away one and now we’ve got to give away three. I hope I can give away a whole bunch later.”
Abreu reached 1,500 when he doubled within the second inning, making him one in all 21 energetic gamers to have 1,500 hits. He and infielder Yunel Escobar are the one two Cuban-born gamers to achieve 1,500 hits when debuting after 2000.
“I think it just means I played a lot of baseball,” stated Abreu, who had 1,445 hits in 9 years with the White Sox earlier than signing with Houston final offseason. “I can’t forget about all those people who were by my side throughout that long time. Obviously, being able to do it here, I think it was even that more special.”
After a gradual begin, Abreu is coming round on the plate. He’s slashing .289/.313/.467 in June with two hits in 4 of his final 5 video games. That surge comes as fellow Cuban slugger Yordan Alvarez landed on the injured listing with an indirect harm.
“Everybody in this clubhouse is very disappointed and very sad of what happened to Yordan, with his injury,” Abreu stated. “We all would like to be in the lineup every single day and for him to be healthy. It’s difficult to stay healthy because of everything we do. After that, it’s up to everybody else in the lineup to just continue supporting him and hold it down until he gets back.”
Abreu performed a task in Altuve’s profession milestone as effectively, driving him house from second base with a single within the seventh inning. Altuve walked within the fifth and was thrown out making an attempt to steal one pitch earlier than a Kyle Tucker house run, however his 1,000th run got here two innings later.
Altuve is simply eight runs behind Lance Berkman (1,008) for third place on the Astros’ all-time listing, with Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell (1,517) and Craig Biggio (1,844) additional up the road.
“It’s a big number for me and I’m really happy and proud,” stated Altuve, who’s 48 hits shy of two,000 and 6 homers shy of 200 for his profession. “Obviously, I have to thank a lot of guys for driving me in. Abreu did tonight and I already thanked him, but it was probably 500 different times by Yordan in the last five years. Really happy to score 1,000 runs in my career and, like I always say, help this team win whenever we have to win.”
Maldonado, who earlier this 12 months hit a profession milestone when he homered in opposition to each Major League staff, is one in all eight energetic catchers with 100 homers. His 45 homers with the Astros are third-most in franchise historical past by a catcher, trailing Alan Ashby (69) and Jason Castro (67).
“This team is just a great big family and everybody in this clubhouse is proud and excited about the goals and things and the successes that everybody else in the clubhouse has also accomplished,” Abreu stated.
