Inside the Astros

Astros Legend Jose Altuve Did Something for First Time in His 15-Year Career

After 15 years of Major League Baseball, Jose Altuve just did something for the first time during his Hall of Fame Houston Astros career.

Brad Wakai

Apr 3, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Houston Astros outfielder Jose Altuve (27) adjusts his batting gloves before going to shag balls during batting practice before a game against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field
Apr 3, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Houston Astros outfielder Jose Altuve (27) adjusts his batting gloves before going to shag balls during batting practice before a game against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field / Nick Wosika-Imagn Images
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The Houston Astros won on Thursday.

It was a much-needed victory for a team that just got swept at home against the San Francisco Giants where their lineup struggled to produce runs for the second straight series.

The hope was some time away from Daikin Park would help the bats wake up, and for many in the batting order, that was the case.

The Astros scored the most runs they have in a game to date this year, putting up five on the scoreboard that was powered by homers from Christian Walker and Jeremy Pena.

However, it wasn't all roses.

Jose Altuve, who has been the team's best hitter during the early part of the campaign, had the worst performance of his 15-year career by striking out five times.

It took the future Hall of Famer 1,828 games before having this lowlight, accumulating 8,072 plate appearances before the final at-bat of Thursday's contest resulted in his fifth strikeout.

During the span of his career, Altuve has recorded 2,241 hits, 230 home runs, 431 doubles, 31 triples and 813 RBI while getting selected to the All-Star Game nine times, winning seven Silver Slugger Awards, three batting titles, an AL MVP and the two World Series titles.

Because of that, this five-strikeout day likely won't bother the star too much.

After this performance, Altuve is still slashing .321/.367/.429 with a homer, an RBI and an OPS+ of 135 this season, so he's still performing at a high level to start the year.

He likely would have loved to go his entire career without striking out five times in a single game, but this will be a footnote in the discussion about Altuve whenever he decides to hang up the cleats.

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Brad Wakai
BRAD WAKAI

Brad Wakai graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Journalism. While an undergrad, he did work at the student radio station covering different Penn State athletic programs like football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and other sports. Brad currently covers the Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros for Sports Illustrated/FanNation. He is also the Lead Contributor for Nittany Lions Wire of Gannett Media where he continues to cover Penn State athletics. Brad is the host of the sports podcast I Said What I Said, discussing topics across the NFL, College Football, the NBA and other sports. You can follow him on Twitter: @bwakai

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