PLAYERS CHOICE
MLB players honor Jose Altuve with Most Outstanding Award
Nov 9, 2017, 7:59 am
Jose Altuve was honored by the MLB players. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
Jose Altuve of the Astros might be named MVP later this month. But he picked up some other hardware on Thursday.
Altuve had a monster season for the Astros, winning the batting title with a .346 average, 24 HRs, 81 RBIs and 32 SBs. He hit .310 in the playoffs and led the Astros to their first-ever World Series title.
The second baseman is a seven-time All-Star and the 27-year-old has 1,250 career hits.
Altuve won his fourth consecutive Silver Slugger Award on Thursday, and will catch Craig Biggio if he can do it one more time.
Aaron Judge of the Yankees, considered Altuve’s main competition for MVP, was named AL Rookie of the Year by the players. Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers, the team the Astros beat to win their title, won the NL Rookie Award.
Corey Kluber of the Indians won the AL Outstanding Pitcher Award; Max Sherzer of the Nationals won the same award in the NL. Giancarlo Stanton won the NL Most Outstanding Award.
The AL MVP Award will be announced on Nov. 15. Altuve and Judge are considered the front-runners.
George Springer won his first career Silver Slugger Award on Thursday, after finishing the season with a .283 average, 34 HRs, 85 RBIs, and 112 runs. Springer's 5 home runs also tied the all-time single World Series record.
One other Astro is up for an award: manager A.J. Hinch (to be announced Nov. 14).
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Pete Crow-Armstrong hit a tiebreaking two-run homer for his first major league hit, and the Chicago Cubs swept the Houston Astros with a 3-1 victory on Thursday.
Nico Hoerner had three hits and Mike Tauchman went 1 for 1 with three walks as Chicago won for the fourth time in five games. Hayden Wesneski (2-0) pitched 2 1/3 perfect innings for the win in relief of Javier Assad.
Houston has lost a season-high five straight and eight of nine overall. At 7-19, it is off to its worst 26-game start since it was 6-20 in 1969.
First-year manager Joe Espada was ejected by plate umpire Jansen Visconti in the top of ninth.
Crow-Armstrong was recalled from Triple-A Iowa when Cody Bellinger was placed on the 10-day injured list on Wednesday with two fractured ribs. The 22-year-old outfielder, who is considered one of the team’s top prospects, made his big league debut last year and went 0 for 14 while appearing in 13 games.
He picked a perfect time for his first major league hit.
Houston had a 1-0 lead before Dansby Swanson scampered home on a fielder’s choice grounder for Miguel Amaya in the sixth.
Espada then replaced Rafael Montero with Bryan Abreu, who threw a wild pitch with Crow-Armstrong trying to sacrifice Amaya to second. Crow-Armstrong then drove his next pitch deep to right, delighting the crowd of 29,876 at Wrigley Field.