Jose Altuve literally fell 90 feet short of a cycle
Just about everything is going right for the Houston Astros these days. Following Saturday’s 13-5 dismantling of the Royals, they’ve now won seven straight games overall, they’ve moved to a season-best three games over .500, and in the last two games alone have scored 26 total runs.
They’re definitely hot, but it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. There have been a few minor bumps in the road along the way. Unfortunately for Jose Altuve, one of those bumps rose up to trip him up on Saturday, costing him any chance to complete the cycle.
True story.
Altuve started his big night with a first-inning double. One inning later, he connected on a three-run homer, which gives him 13 for the season. In the fourth inning, he picked up a single. That left only the triple for Altuve to make history, which added some needed drama to a game that had been decided by the second inning.
Here’s the thing about cycles though. On average, there’s probably one player who falls one hit shy of the cycle every single day in baseball. On Friday, Altuve’s teammate George Springer was actually a double shy of the cycle. Regardless, the odds do not favor the hitter completing the cycle. The Astros, for example, only have eight in their history. But Altuve’s situation felt different considering he still had at least two more at-bats to come.
Altuve also has excellent speed despite that fact he only has 15 triples in just over 3,000 career at-bats. We knew anything in the alley or down the line was going to be interesting because he was going to go all out, and that proved to be true.
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That brings us to the moment of truth in the sixth inning. Altuve hit a line drive into the left-center field gap that looked like a possible triple the moment it left the bat. Altuve went hard out of the box, knowing what awaited him 270 feet away. He round first base smoothly. He approached second base. Then he ate it, hard, and the cycle went down with him.
Ouch.
There’s a chance Altuve wouldn’t have made it anyway, but he was going to force the Royals to execute to get him out. Unfotunately, he couldn’t execute the running part.
Also, just to be thorough, Altuve did get one more at-bat in the eighth inning. That one he ended with a less dramatic ground out to second base.
The cycle wasn’t meant to be on that occasion. Who knows though, maybe he’s saving it for Sunday’s series finale, which also happens to be the MLB Free Game of the Day on Yahoo Sports. Watch Altuve go for the cycle for real at Yahoo’s Sports Home, MLB index and video home beginning at 2:10 p.m. ET.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
