Jose Altuve’s birthday just got a whole lot better with one swing of the bat

Jose Altuve wasn’t having a very happy 31st birthday before he came to the plate in the 8th inning against the Yankees on Thursday.

Happy birthday, Jose Altuve. Just don’t expect any parties to be thrown in your honor in the Bronx tonight.

Altuve was having a miserable 31st birthday by the time he stepped to the plate in the top half of the eighth inning on Thursday. The Yankees led the Astros 3-2, and the 10,000 hostile fans in attendance made sure he was reminded of the sign-stealing scandal that may have taken the 2017 title away from New York.

With chants of “cheater” and “f**k your birthday” raining down on him, Altuve faced reliever Chad Green with one out and runners at the corners. On the sixth pitch of the at-bat, Green threw Altuve a 96.3 mph fastball up and in. A few seconds later, the ball was 404 feet away in the left-field bleachers, the Astros had a 5-3 lead, and the fans were silenced.

Jose Altuve made it a great birthday after all

As he circled the bases, Altuve must’ve felt that the weight of everything he and the Astros have endured the last week at Yankee Stadium had been lifted from his shoulders. They had to expect a frosty reception in their first series in New York since the scandal was exposed in 2019, but the depth of the hatred and taunting hurled at them still had to have an effect — especially on a player like Altuve, who’s usually gregarious and fun-loving. But the fun had been taken completely out of the game for him.

Altuve had been 3-31 with one extra-base hit before his home run. Green’s fastball was the third-fastest he had ever homered off of in the Statcast era. He hadn’t homered since April 8 and had only two RBI over his last eight games. Altuve is just the sixth player this century to hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the eighth inning or later against the Yankees in the Bronx.

Teammate Martin Maldonado added a two-run home run in the top of the ninth, giving the Astros a 7-4 win that ended the Yankees’ five-game winning streak.

It started out as the worst possible birthday Altuve could imagine. With one swing of the bat, he gave himself a huge present.