Astros Jose Altuve hits first career grand slam in 8-1 rout of Red Sox

Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve collected his second four hit game of the season, including his first career grand slam, in the Astros 8-1 rout of the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

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Altuve now leads the major leagues in hits with 173. The next closest is Toronto’s Melky Cabrera with 160. He also leads the majors with a .339 batting average, seven points ahead of Seattle’s Robinson Cano.

His grand slam came in the second inning off of Boston starter Joe Kelly. What made this particularly difficult for the Red Sox fans, not to mention manager JOhn Farrell, was that Altuve’s big hit came after an overturned instant replay call.

The original ruling was that the Red Sox had turned a double play, which would have ended the second inning with the Astros having scored two runs. Astros manager Bo Porter came out to challenge the double play, saying that Xander Bogaerts had released the ball before stepping on second base. Upon review, the umpires agreed, leaving the Astros with runners on second and third.

Robbie Grossman drew the walk, then Altuve put the game out of reach at 6-0 in the second inning.

Altuve now has 53 multi-hit games on the season.

While Altuve does not seem in danger of breaking Jeff Bagwell‘s franchise record with a .368 mark set in the strike-shortened 1994 season, he could be in line to break a few franchise marks this season. He is tied for the major league lead with 510 at bats, which puts him only 150 behind Enos Cabell‘s franchise mark of 660 set in 1978. He also has a legitimate shot at Craig Biggio‘s franchise hit record of 210 set in 1998.

He is only ten more four hit games away from breaking that record!

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Astros’ Jose Altuve hits first career grand slam in 8-1 rout of Red Sox

By Mike Marteny | Aug 17, 2014