ALTUVE USES THE FINAL “BACK” IN A “BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK”
TO OPEN HIS LEAD IN THE BA RACE ~ BY AN ORANGE-TINTED CRACK!
2018 American League Batting Average Leaders
Through Games of 6/21/2018:
| # | Leaders | Team | G | AB | H | BA |
| 1 | Jose Altuve | Astros | 76 | 303 | 105 | .347 |
| 2 | Mookie Betts | Red Sox | 57 | 221 | 76 | .344 |
| 4 | Jean Segura | Mariners | 71 | 296 | 99 | .334 |
| 3 | Mike Trout | Angels | 75 | 259 | 86 | .332 |
| 5 | Eddie Rosario | Twins | 7O | 278 | 89 | .320 |
| 6 | Matt Duffy | Rays | 58 | 230 | 73 | .317 |
| 8 | JD Martinez | Red Sox | 72 | 273 | 86 | .31501 |
| 7 | Michael Brantley | Indians | 62 | 254 | 80 | .31496 |
| 9 | Andrelton Simmons | Rays | 64 | 235 | 73 | .311 |
| 10 | Nick Castellanos | Tigers | 72 | 295 | 89 | .302 |
* Astros Players Above Featured in Bold Type.
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Shades of Jose Lima
“I ain’t afraid of no back-to-back-to back nightmare when I pitch! Now get in there and try to hit what you ain’t going to see! ~ “I wll even pitch to you with one paw tied to my tail! ~ That’s how confident I am!!”
Jose Lima never gave up any triplet run of consecutive homers in the year 2000, but he did give up a few back-to-backs that are remindful of how close he lived to that possibility.
Lima had four back-to-back games as an Astros pitcher in his scary opening year of Enron Park, but he just couldn’t bring the whole house down in his descent into a pitcher’s hell. Explanations of how he avoided any back-to-back-to-back MLB meltdowns too are thinner in credibility than the duct-taped waistline of a Houston Texans cheerleader. It was right there — waiting to happen all year in his career collapsing season of 2000 — it simply beat the law of odds and averages for astounding defiance.
Lima’s 4 Back-To-Backs in 2000
| # | DATE | IN | HR DUO vs. LIMA | FOE | H/A | RESULT |
| 1 | 4/10/00 | 3 | Renteria-Lankford | SLC | H | L, 7-8 |
| 2 | 4/15/00 | 3 | Martin-Jackson | SDP | A | L, 3-5 |
| 3 | 4/27/00 | 1 | Young-Gutierrez | CC | A | L, 3-12 |
| 4 | 9/11/00 | 1 | Kent-Snow | SFG | H | L, 7-8 |
Make no mistake. Lima of 2000 gave up home runs in cluster patches. We did not stop to count them all while we did a brief stop-and-see run through yesterday into every home and away box score in the 2000 Astros season, but we noted many games in which Lima allowed a single batter to interrupt many other double homer innings by getting one batter, by hit or out, to do something other than simply split a back-to-back chance or do the straight three homer thing.
About our data, please remember too: We simply are not threatened by our own possible honest errors of fact or perception, so please feel free to point them out if you discover any and we will correct what is confirmable as error and in need of correction.
Clusters is definitely the descriptor for Lima’s HR surrender pattern. According to Baseball Almanac.Com, Jose Lima holds the National League single season record for home runs surrendered as a result of the 48 he gave up in 2000.
One more thing. None of these observations should be taken as diminishment’s of Jose Lima’s talent. The guy was a talented pitcher with some good stuff — before the club moved from the Dome to the downtown ballpark we all know now as Minute Maid Park. His 21 wins for the 1999 Astros speaks loudly for him. As for 2000, he just seems to have been one of those guys who got caught up in the fear of how a certain change (the short porch in left at the new park) was going to hurt his performance — and then he couldn’t let it go. And it didn’t just hurt him at home. Half of his four back-to-backs from 2000 happened on the road – not at Enron Field.
I had the enjoyable opportunity of meeting Jose at a baseball function some time after his days with the Astros were done. What a wonderful, funny, and friendly guy he turned out to be. I was quite saddened by the news of his early death in 2010.
Just know this, Jose. — Even our bad memories of what you brought you into our lives were good. And your broad range of good guy talent will be forever appreciated by many os Astro fans.
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Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
June 22, 2018 at 4:46 pm |
How could one not love “Lima Time?”
June 24, 2018 at 12:38 pm |
Lima went way out of his way to be nice before an Astrodome game to my then 10 year old daughter and her friend. I was not fond of the antics but he made huge fans of my daughter and me that day. I wasn’t with them when they went exploring and somehow he got them down on the field for a few minutes and walked them around. That autograph on a ticket stub is a cherished memento. He passed way too soon.