Last night, the Astros and Padres were tied in the top of the ninth inning when Houston’s star second baseman Jose Altuve came up to the plate. With two outs, Altuve hit a ball off his foot and it bounced directly to San Diego’s third baseman who made the easy play at first for the final out of the inning, stranding a man at second.
Altuve pleaded with the umpire trying to explain to him that the ball hit his foot before going into play. The umpire called him out and stood firm on that decision. To really hammer home his argument, Altuve removed his shoe and sock, pointing to where the ball hit him. Umpire Brennan Miller threw him out of the game for the excessiveness of the gesture.
Altuve spoke at length to the reporters after the game about the decision to remove him from the game. “It was going through my head that it can’t happen…It’s the ninth inning and the winning run is on second base, and I’m battling against a good pitcher, Suarez, the closer. So, obviously, trying to get a hit and drive in the run and win the games, I get a foul ball because it hit my foot and they just took it away from me. I don’t think it can happen. You’ve got to see the change of direction on the ball and just make the right call…It was a foul ball, It was obvious. I just wanted my at-bat against Suarez. I know he’s great, but I wanted to keep battling against him,” he said.
The Astros ended up winning the game in extras. Today, Altuve will be back in action as Houston takes on San Diego in game three of this series tonight at 6:40 p.m. The game is available on AT&T SportsNet Southwest and MLB Extra Innings.
