FREAKY FINISH!

Astros beat the Padres 4-3 in 10 innings after wild scene in the 9th

Astros Jose Altuve, Kyle Tucker, Hunter Brown
Jose Altuve was ejected in the ninth inning. Composite Getty Image.

Moments after Jose Altuve was ejected for taking off his left cleat and sock trying to prove a point, his replacement, Grae Kessinger scored the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and then made a sensational play at second base to seal the Houston Astros' wild 4-3 win against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.

Altuve grounded out to third for the final out of the ninth but insisted he had fouled the ball off his foot. In a crazy scene, he took off his cleat and sock, trying to show the umpires where the ball hit, which got him ejected by plate umpire Brennan Miller. Manager Joe Espada was tossed after continuing to argue.

“Sometimes you get hit somewhere in the hand and you take your batting glove to show you got hit. I was expecting to do the same thing,” Altuve said.

“It was going through my head that it can’t happen,” he added. “It’s the ninth inning, winning run on second base, I’m battling against a good pitcher, (Robert) Suarez, the closer, so I’m obviously trying to get a hit and drive the run in and win the game. I get a foul ball because it hit my foot and they just took it away from me. I don’t think that can happen. There are four guys on the field and you can see the change of direction on the ball. Just make the right call.”

Espada was still wound up afterward.

“It’s a foul ball,” the manager said. “You have to see the ball once he hits the foot, the flight of the ball. I don’t get it. I don’t understand. That’s twice this year. I have a lot of respect for the umpires. They work hard. But there are four out there. You have to be able to see it. They missed that call.”

Kessinger started the 10th as the automatic runner in place of Altuve, advanced on Yordan Alvarez’s groundout and scored on Kyle Tucker’s single to left off Adrian Morejon (2-2).

Astros reliever Héctor Neris loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 10th before getting Manny Machado to ground into a force play on a terrific backhanded stop by Kessinger, who flipped the ball to shortstop Jeremy Peña to end it.

It was Kessinger’s first game with the Astros since July 13.

“Right before he hit it, I was thinking he’s going to hit a ball up the middle and it’s going to hit off the mound, and that’s exactly what happened. But go catch it. That’s the job,” Kessinger said.

He figured he was going to get into the game after Altuve was tossed.

“As he started to untie his shoe, I started to grab my glove. I didn’t know if I was the one that was going to be going in, but I didn’t know what he was doing, but I was just getting ready,” Kessinger said.

The Padres twice rallied to tie the game, first at 2-2 on Machado's 27th homer with one out in the sixth and at 3-3 in the eighth when Fernando Tatis Jr. scored on Josh Hader's two-out wild pitch.

Hader (8-7) came on to boos and was called for a pitch clock violation. After a lengthy delay it was announced there was no violation. Hader then threw a wild pitch that brought in Tatis.

Hader was with the Padres from the 2022 trade deadline through last year before leaving as a free agent. He drew the ire of San Diego fans when he said late last season that he was reluctant to get more than three outs.

Neris earned his 18th save.

The Padres failed to add to their wild-card lead over Arizona and remained 3 1/2 games behind Los Angeles in the NL West.

Machado admired his 405-foot homer for several seconds, tossed his bat aside and gestured toward the Padres’ dugout as he began his trot.

Last week, Machado broke Nate Colbert’s 50-year-old club record of 163 homers and now has 165 in his six seasons with the Padres.

Hunter Brown had retired nine straight batters before Tatis hit a leadoff single two batters ahead of Machado.

The Astros took a 3-2 lead in the eventful eighth. Alvarez doubled into the right-center gap with one out, advanced on a balk by Jason Adams while Kyle Tucker was batting and scored on Adams' wild pitch that put Alex Bregman on with a walk.

The Astros took a 2-0 lead in the fourth. Singles by Tucker and Bregman put runners on first and second before Jon Singleton lofted an opposite-field blooper to left for a run-scoring double. Jeremy Peña's groundout brought in Bregman.

Brown allowed two runs and five hits in six innings.

King struck out seven in seven innings. He was charged with two runs and five hits.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Astros: Placed OF Ben Gamel on the 10-day injured list with a broken left leg three days after he ran into the wall at Angel Stadium while making a running catch. Gamel will be out indefinitely. C CĂ©sar Salazar was recalled from Triple-A Sugar Land.

Padres: Luis Arraez was back at DH despite jamming a knee into home plate while being thrown out Monday night.

UP NEXT

Astros LHP Framber Valdez (14-6, 2.91 ERA) and Padres RHP Dylan Cease (13-11, 3.58 ERA) are scheduled to start on Wednesday.

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Should Ryan Pressly and Framber Valdez be on the trading block? Composite Getty Image.

The Houston Astros have some big decisions to make this offseason and deciding whether to re-sign Alex Bregman is only part of the equation.

Following the Astros being eliminated by the Tigers, GM Dana Brown said the club may have to get “creative” this offseason, and exploring the trade market could be a real possibility.

With so much salary already committed to Rafael Montero, Jose Abreu, and Lance McCullers for the 2025 season, it's hard to believe the club will be spending a bunch of money in free agency.

Which also means they may elect to let Justin Verlander and Yusei Kikuchi come off the books permanently and sign elsewhere.

(For the purposes of this video, we're going to be talking about the pitching specifically. If you want to hear our thoughts on the outlook for the offense, be sure to watch our video from last week. You can find it here.)

If the Astros do consider making a trade this offseason, which pitchers would make the most sense to deal? Let's start with Framber Valdez. The club should be able to get a big haul for Framber, and he's projected to make around $18 million this season.

Framber is also a free agent after 2025, so his time in Houston may be coming to an end in the near future anyway.

Typically, we wouldn't consider the possibility of the Astros trading Framber one year before free agency. History tells us they let players walk after the final year of their contract. They didn't trade Bregman before the 2024 season, and we know what happened with George Springer, Gerrit Cole, and Carlos Correa.

But the Astros are in a different place now than they were a few years ago. The current version of the Astros aren't nearly as deep as those other teams.

The 'Stros don't regularly win 100 games like they used to. They're just another contending team over the past two seasons. But fortunately for them, they're in the AL West. So they should have a great shot to win the division once again.

But as currently constructed, they're not the dominate team they were a few years ago. Trading Valdez could bring some young talent into the organization and safe the club money that could be reallocated to other parts of the team (outfield, first base). They should be looking for a trade similar to what the Brewers received for Corbin Burnes.

If the Astros don't plan on offering Framber a long-term deal, then why not get something for him while they still can?

Astros owner Jim Crane would probably argue that he wouldn't want to trade away his best pitcher in what could be Kyle Tucker's final year with Houston. Which is a fair point, and why this probably won't happen, considering their history with players in the final year of their contracts. But based on everything laid out above, it might be time for a change in philosophy.

Another player they could look to move is Ryan Pressly. Would he be willing to waive his no-trade clause for the right situation? Pressly is 35 years old and in the last year of his contract. He's set to make $14 million this season, and one could argue that it's time for Bryan Abreu to take over the setup role. Pressly has done some amazing things for this organization, but $14 million for a seventh inning guy is hard to justify. And just to be clear, we're not letting Josh Hader off the hook. Pressly had a lower ERA than Hader in 2024. But good luck finding anyone that would trade for Hader's massive contract.

This is one video you don't want to miss as we evaluate the Astros pitching staff heading into 2025, and explore some trade possibilities that could improve the roster in the short and long-term!

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