Jose Altuve, Houston Astros. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
Jose Altuve will miss some time, as he has been placed on the Injured List
Jose Altuve‘s bad slide into third base the other day has proven costly for him.
The Houston Astros‘ second baseman has been placed on the Injured List. Altuve has become baseball’s public enemy No. 1 this offseason and it has affected his play. The perennial AL All-Star is having easily the worst year of his career. It’s been so bad, he can’t even slide correctly without injuring himself in multiple ways on plays he didn’t even need to slide for. He’ll miss some time.
How will Jose Altuve’s injury affect the Houston Astros in the next 10 days?
Even if he’s only slashing .224/.284/.322 on the season, Altuve is still one of the most important players on this Astros team. There’s good news and bad news with this for the Astros regarding Altuve going on IL. The good news is they have a 5.5-game lead over the Seattle Mariners for second place in the AL West standings. The bad news is who Astros are playing the next 10 days.
Altuve will miss the final three games of the Astros’ weekend series vs. the lowly Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim. Then, they’ve got five games in four days vs. the AL West-leading Oakland Athletics. With a scheduled day off on Friday, the Astros play a brief two-game series with the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers before finally ending their 11-game road in as many days.
Simply put, the Astros need to take care of business vs. the awful Angels on the road and hope a lengthy losing streak doesn’t manifest against the two best teams in California in the Athletics and the Dodgers. Though it’s unlikely, this is an opportunity for Seattle to make up some ground in the AL West standings and try to end its league-worst postseason drought.