While hitting a single in the seventh inning of today’s game, Jose Altuve collided with A’s first baseman Christian Bethancourt, knocking down players to the ground. Altuve remained on the field and then played second base in the bottom half of the inning, but he was replaced prior to the bottom of the eighth and underwent concussion protocol. Manager Dusty Baker told reporters (including The Houston Chronicle’s Danielle Lerner) that Altuve “didn’t look too good in the eyes” in the aftermath, and is planning two lineups for Tuesday’s game based on Altuve’s availability.
The star second baseman hit his 10th homer of the season in the 5-1 victory over Oakland, elevating Altuve’s fantastic slash line to .286/.349/.556 through 146 plate appearances. Even despite Altuve’s importance to the Astros lineup, it is possible Baker could opt to give him an off-day tomorrow just as a precaution even if he clears concussion protocol. Mauricio Dubon and Aledmys Diaz are on hand to fill in at the keystone, though naturally the Astros would be in trouble if Altuve had any lingering concussion symptoms that forced him to miss an extended amount of time.
More from Houston…
- Kyle Tucker missed the last two games since leaving Saturday’s game with a sore left foot. Baker told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart and other reports that an MRI didn’t reveal any structural damage, so Tucker is just day-to-day for now. While Tucker hasn’t matched the heights of his breakout 2021 season, the outfielder has still been quite solid, hitting .239/.335/.439 with eight home runs in 179 PA.
- Jake Odorizzi tossed 41 pitches during a bullpen session on Sunday, his third bullpen session since suffering a lower leg injury earlier this month. Odorizzi told Brian McTaggart and other reporters that wasn’t a clear timeline yet in place, though he figured he would be able to get back to action relatively quickly since his arm wasn’t impacted by the injury, but such aspects as “strengthening, positioning, mobility” still need work.
- Talking to The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome (Twitter links) and other media on Friday, Lance McCullers Jr. said he is roughly at a “mid-January” place in relation to the usual rhythms of his offseason prep work. McCullers suffered a right flexor tendon strain during the playoff last year, and then hit a setback while rehabbing the injury during the winter. While there’s still obviously a ways to go, McCullers has been hitting some gradual checkpoints in his recovery, including throwing off the rubber for the first time on Friday.
How long til we find out the full range of cheating that was going on circa 2017? Genuinely curious. Will it be when most players from that era have retired?
When Bauer goes public. He’s the person I think will name names of all the players on all the teams doing it.
Re sign stealing also?
You mean the Buzzer Bozo?
But he would do it only out of spite
Nobody cares what Bauer has to say, he cheated too.
I would love to find out as well. Not only how in depth the Asterisks went, but what other teams, if any, were replicating something similar or even given warnings like Red Sox and Yankees. Manfred came out and said that as many as eight other teams were investigated. However, nothing ever came out of the investigation, or we were kept in the dark. Another topic is when did the cheating actually end. I was at a game in 2018 at Minute Maid and heard the “rally drum”. Now it’s obvious what it actually was.
We know what Boston and New York were doing, and most teams did the exact same thing. They were using the replay room to try and figure out what signs were being used by the catcher. Someone would tell the offensive players what signs were being used and if a runner got to 2nd base, he would try to decode those signs for the batter (if they hadn’t been changed at that point in the game). Neither NY nor Boston were sending signals to the batter from the dugout. Their cheating only worked if they got a runner to 2nd base and if the opposing teams had not changed signs (which they do a lot during games). Many teams were doing this but most stopped when the commissioner’s office told them to knock it off.
Well done, as usual, however let’s be honest – you don’t know for certain that neither NY or Boston were sending signals. You’re basing that on the information received to date. What was actually done is anybody’s guess. I heard through back channels that the Dodgers were doing something. But as you said, most teams were at some point. I can say with some certainty that the Cubs were not doing it. Some players wanted to, but were revoked by guys like Rizzo who were strongly against it.
The problem of stealing signs is MLB fault for not doing anything back before 2017 when they knew what was going on. A couple clubs complained to MLB about the sign stealing by Astros but they ignored it and did nothing. Of course it was because they didn’t want MLB get a black eye over it. Poor leadership by MLB commish is who should get the most blame.
Lots of teams were pointing fingers at more than just the Astros. A simple Google search will tell you that aside from the Yanks, Astros, and Sox obvious actions, the Rangers, Dodgers , Brewers (the Rangers actually accused Bernie the Brewer lol), among others.
Seems to have been more rampant in the AL than the NL, but then again the NL has a good # of bottom feeders who have no incentive to cheat
I mean he is paid to write while you sit here and seethe
lol what is this in reference to?
Hitting the tsauce a little tearly there, tstats?
Someone had a comment about mark being a bad writer! I don’t know where it went but it was there and that is what I replied to.
My mistake, carry on bud! Haha
Stay away from illegal drugs kids…
I think whenever Lance does return, he should wear his batman shoes, just to say hello.
The two biggest shocks to me are that Christian Bethancourt is in the majors in 2022 and that’s he’s drawing starts at first base. I get it’s a bad Oakland team, but that’s surprising. Maybe the A’s just like their former Braves prospects that can’t hit.
Braves has A’s old 1B so the A’s are just being cheap and using a old vet for a 1 year stop gap. I will be surprised if he is still the A’s 1B by Sept when they can give some younger players a chance to play.
As a Braves fan since 1994 I remember CB as a top prospect but he has never really done anything special. I’m quite shocked as well Oakland is playing him there has to be better bats out there.
He mainly platoons over there against left handed pitchers. He also plays catcher as a back up. Its mainly because the A’s do not want to spend more than minimum amount on players so they have a team full of AAAA players.
They got away with cheating and forever will be known as the Houston Cheaters. I even live in Houston and will never cheer for this team again.
Aww. Go cry about it.
Lost draft picks and a $5 million fine. How did they get by with it? If anything, they were punished unfairly, being they were not the only team doing it. They should be thanked for being the fall guys.