The debate about who should be starting in center field and second base for the Astros appears to have been answered, at least for now. Mauricio Dubón is hitting .357 with one strikeout in his first 29 plate appearances while filling in for the injured Jose Altuve. Chas McCormick has solidified himself in center field with an .877 OPS through Monday's game. Astros manager Dusty Baker even moved McCormick into the leadoff role on Saturday to take over for Jeremy Peña, who batted leadoff for the first eight games of the season. McCormick hit a two-run homer and had a two-run single in Sunday's 5-1 win over the Twins in Minneapolis, and Peña's bat got going in the sixth spot. Peña, after going 2-for-24 in the previous five games, went 3-for-8 on Saturday and Sunday against the Twins, including a homer. "Hopefully this will be a lineup we can stick with for a while and maybe they'll produce, and as long as they produce, we'll try to get as much mileage out of this as we can," Baker said. |
McCormick says he enjoys being a spark plug and being able to "get the boys rolling." He says he doesn't have as much to worry about being the leadoff hitter and has more confidence. He was 1-for-4 with a walk, a run scored and a double in Monday's 8-2 win at Pittsburgh. "I've been watching Altuve do that for a couple of years now and it really can turn a team around," he said. "I just kind of want to get the boys going. … You think I would get more fastballs in the leadoff hole but, in the big leagues, you just get a bunch of offspeed [pitches]. My job is to get on base and I'm happy Dusty gave me the call and put me in the leadoff spot. I've got a long way to go, though." As comfortable as McCormick feels in the leadoff spot, he knows he's got plenty to prove. Despite last year's playoff heroics, including his game-saving catch at the wall in Philadelphia in Game 5 of the World Series, McCormick went to camp battling with Jake Meyers for playing time in center. Nearly two weeks into the season, he's the starter and the leadoff hitter for the defending World Series champions. "I think all year I'm going to be fighting for a spot, to tell you the truth," he said. "That's all right. It's the big leagues. There's a lot of good players in this league. My job is to be ready to go every day, and even when I'm not playing. It's something I've worked on every single day. I've got to keep contributing. That's what I have to do. I have to perform. When you're performing, you'll play." |
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"It was a cold night, coldest night I ever spent in Atlanta. I heard a bunch of clanking of the seats. Everybody was leaving. I heard them and I said, 'What is that noise?' And I turned around and everybody was leaving." -- Baker on being the next batter after Hank Aaron hit his record 715th home run in Atlanta on April 8, 1974. |
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When Astros rookie catcher César Salazar made his first Major League start on April 5, his father, César, traveled from the family home in Hermosillo, Mexico, and was in the stands on his 58th birthday to watch his son. It was quite the birthday present for Dad when the Astros beat the Tigers, 8-2, with his son behind the plate. "Today was for him," Salazar said postgame. "It was an emotional day; it was a special day. I'm just so grateful and happy that he was able to stay and watch the game. It was my first start." Salazar was born in Mexico but came to the U.S. when he was 16 years old to live with a host family, Anthony and Debbie Tarantola, in Tucson, Ariz. Salazar had been playing on a travel ball team from the border town of Nogales, Mexico, since he was 12. His mentor, Luis Valenzuela, who is a second father to him, recruited players for Mexico and gave them opportunities to get exposure in the U.S. "We got in touch with them and he liked what he saw," Salazar said. "He started inviting me, and in one of those tournaments, he invited Anthony and Debbie's son, Vinnie Tarantola, to play with us. I was one of the few guys that actually spoke English a little bit. We started getting to know each other, and after a week and a half of knowing each other, they gave me the opportunity to live with them." Salazar, 27, wound up getting recruited to play at the University of Arizona, and he was taken in the seventh round of the 2018 Draft by the Astros. Salazar speaks fluent English and credits the Tarantola family with immersing him in the language. "I knew how to write, I knew words, I just didn't know how to communicate," he said. "The thing that helped me a lot is my host family wouldn't speak Spanish to me. They wanted me to be in that uncomfortable situation for me to learn English. I'm grateful for that. It took me a year to really feel comfortable." |
THIS DAY IN ASTROS HISTORY |
April 15-16, 1968 Norm Miller scored the only run in what, at the time, was the longest night game in Major League Baseball history, crossing home plate in the bottom of the 24th inning in a 1-0 win for the Astros over the Mets at the Astrodome. Miller was on third base when Bob Aspromonte hit a grounder to shortstop Al Weis, who allowed it to skip through his legs and end the game after six hours, six minutes. "I'm lucky Al Weis missed it, or nobody would have ever heard about me," Miller joked years later. "I remember not getting any balls in right field for 15, 20 innings. Between innings, [I was] lying on the ground. Back then the Astroturf was so hard, and Jimmy Wynn and I were lying on our backs and resting our knees." |
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