On Tuesday night, while playing for the Houston Astros against the Texas Rangers, Jose Altuve went deep in each of his first three at-bats. He began by hitting two home runs off of Nathan Eovaldi, who was making his comeback from the injured list as an All-Star right-handed pitcher.
Eovaldi was greeted by Houston’s star second baseman with a home run to lead off the game, and he closed his appearance with a home run with one out in the second inning.
Altuve hit his third home run of the game, as well as his 15th of the season, in the third inning off of Dane Dunning, a starter who came out of the bullpen in order for the Rangers to give Eovaldi his first start since July 18. Eovaldi had been taken out of the game due to a discomfort in his right forearm.
Since Houston’s victory in the first game of the series on Monday by a score of 13-6, Altuve had gone deep in each of his previous four at-bats. The run was stopped by Dunning in the fifth inning when he got him to ground out.
Because Altuve hit two home runs in the first game of the series, he now has multiple home runs in each of the last two games for the first time in his career.
Since Richard Hidalgo in the year 2000, Altuve is the first player for Houston to have consecutive games with multiple home runs.
In the first game of the series, the No. 9 and leadoff hitter for the Astros, respectively, Mauricio Dubón and Jose Altuve, hit back-to-back home runs for the Astros.
They were successful once again on Wednesday when Martin Maldonado hit a home run from the bottom of the order in the third inning, and then Altuve added another one to give them a 9-0 lead. In the first three innings, Houston scored three runs in each of those innings.
