The Pecan Park Eagle

His 200th Hit Hatched a Smile About This Wide!

ASTRO*NOTES

ALTUVE WRAPS UP HIT # 200. Have you ever hung in there daily for weeks to make sure you had a chance to see a player achieve a certain baseball number over the long season – and then missed it – because you didn’t know the next game – the record-setting game – was going to be a day game – and not the night game you assumed it would be?

Yep. It happened to me yesterday. Even though I work with a report on the standings daily, I neglected to confirm the starting time for the series and season finale between the Astros and Rangers at Arlington on Wednesday. As a result, I got to watch Jose Altuve getting his 200th hit on digital tape at Channel 2 in Houston with reporter Randy McIlvoy. It apparently was a slicing single to right center, one that brought the whole Astros dugout to a standing state of applause – and also a far-spreading smile of joy and relief to the rapidly becoming most famous and most talented little big man to ever play big league baseball.

The hit was Altuve’s only safety on the day, but it gave him his fourth consecutive 200-hit season and simply helped him further on the way to his third AL batting title in four years, while also doing nothing to hurt his runaway chances for designation as the AL MVP in 2017. The one-hit day did drop Altuve’s average a point – from .348 to .347 – but no other batter is even close to a last weekend series over take of the little giant from Venezuela. Avisail Garcia of the White Sox is Jose’s nearest BA competitor, but at .329, he is not likely to catch our favorite son this late in the game.

Congratulations, Jose Altuve! Just stay healthy in the four game Red Sox series end to the season and then go get ’em in the first round of the playoffs, whomever they may be.

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HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE RACES, GB IN EACH

THRU GAMES PLAYED WEDNESDAY, 9/27/2017

L = LEADER BY LEAGUE AND WS OVERALL

Overall Leader gets home field advantage (HFA) in World Series.

GAMES TO PLAY: DODGERS 3, INDIANS 4, ASTROS 4, NATIONALS 4

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HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE SERIOUS CONTENDER SCORES

THRU GAMES PLAYED WEDNESDAY, 9/27/2017

ASTROS 12 – RANGERS 2

INDIANS 4 – TWINS 2

PHILLIES 7 – NATIONALS 5

DODGERS 10 – PADRES 0

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AMERICAN LEAGUE BATTING AVERAGE LEADERS

THRU GAMES PLAYED WEDNESDAY, 9/27/2017

NR * LOST TIME ON THE DL HAS REMOVED CORREA FROM AN OFFICIAL QUALIFYING PLACE IN THE RANKING OF TOP 40 HITTERS.

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