Jose Altuve’s Incredible Fight and Kyle Tucker’s Brilliance Can’t Save the Astros — Yes, Joe Espada, It’s Time to Sound the Alarm

Jose Altuve keeps battling, keeps fouling off tough pitches, showing as much fight as Canelo with a title on the line. Wicked sinkers and devious splitters are turned back alike. Altuve will not give in or back down to another Seattle Mariners starter with elite stuff. And on the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Altuve finally breaks Bryce Miller.

He rockets a 96 MPH sinker that just catches the bottom of the strike zone into left field for a single that keeps the inning alive and brings Kyle Tucker to the plate. It’s arguably the best pitch that Miller throws in the entire at-bat. No matter. Jose Altuve will not be denied.

This is the kind of at-bat that gets the Houston Astros rolling when they’re anywhere near their best. And, indeed, Kyle Tucker does launch a home run into the right field stands just two pitches later, with Miller likely still frustrated by Altuve’s battle royal of an at-bat. The Astros will score four straight runs after Jose finds a way, with new full-time (for at least now) first baseman Jon Singleton smashing his own two-run home run just an inning later.

From sleepwalking on a dreary day in Houston, down 3-0 with two measly total hits (both those by Altuve too) to suddenly up 4-3. Only six outs from as monumental of a May win as you can get. Only, these Astros aren’t right. Joe Espada’s team isn’t anywhere close to stable let alone near its best. That elite back end of the bullpen — this time, Bryan Abreu and prized free agent signing Josh Hader will cough up that slim lead and then some. It ends in a 5-4 Mariners comeback win with Jose Altuve flying out to the wall for the cruel 27th out.

That means another quiet home clubhouse as the Astros players get dressed in their Sunday best for a flight to New York where the 23-13 Yankees are waiting for three game series that begins Tuesday night. If you weren’t worried about these Astros before — and there appeared to be good reason to put off fretting — you should be now.

Something is off with this team, with this still beyond proven core that’s always shown such a supreme sense for the moment in this golden era of Houston baseball. This Mariners series is a moment, an unexpectedly early important one. And the Astros have the moment in their grasp, roaring back to pull themselves off the mat and take the lead. By the power of Altuve’s fight and sheer will.

Only six outs away. . . Six outs from winning their third straight series, this one the biggest one yet. Six outs from convincing the rest of baseball that something is happening. But then. . . it’s all gone.

Jose Altuve and Kyle Tucker Need Help

When the game ends, Yordan Alvarez stops Jose Altuve as he comes into the dugout and the two men spend several moments locked in a discussion as the rest of the Astros shuffle off towards the dugout steps. Two proud proven champions coming together to try and figure it out. Two of the best hitting minds on the planet.

In some ways, that’s encouraging. But it’s also reflective of how desperate the search for answers is already starting to become. You get the idea that no one with the Astros really knows why it’s going so wrong.

“No, I think we played well,” Espada says when someone asks if losing two of three to the Mariners is a setback. “Six more outs and we could have won that game. We’ve just got to do a better job of playing 27 outs, clean baseball. But I don’t see it as a setback.

“I see it as we’re close.”

These Astros are close to edging themselves off the map. Espada’s team is 10 games under 500 again at 12-22. Only the pitiful Chicago White Sox have fewer wins in the American League. Only the White Sox, Rockies and Marlins have fewer wins in all of baseball. Houston is now 1-9 in one run games. If the Astros could have won just half of those games, they’d be 16-18, well within striking distance with no dire cause for alarm.

But they’re not. Instead these Astros keep finding ways to lose.

Only six outs away. . . Six outs from winning their third straight series, this one the biggest one yet. Six outs from convincing the rest of baseball that something is happening. But then. . . it’s all gone.

Bryan Abreu gives up the tying run in the eighth inning. Josh Hader, the $95 million closer, surrenders a mammoth home run to Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh in the ninth inning despite having Raleigh down 0-2, and seemingly as off guard against Hader’s sinker as Drake is against Kendrick Lamar.

“That’s baseball, man,” Hader says in response to a question about the Astros’ unexpected back-of-the-bullpen troubles. “It’s never easy in this game. You can write it up and say. . . on paper, it always looks easier. But you got to go out there and do what you do and execute. And do everything in our power to do it.

“Obviously, it hasn’t fell our way. We do what we do. We put in the work. We stick to our routines — and eventually it will turn around for us.”

“I don’t see it as a setback. I see it as we’re close.” — Astros manager Joe Espada

These Astros are threatening to waste a vintage Jose Altuve season and what is shaping up like an MVP worthy one from Kyle Tucker, who certainly seems to be swinging comfortable and confident as a married man. Just when it looks Houston may have righted things, it’s a meltdown against the Mariners.

It’s time to sound the alarm. When Altuve turns the entire offense around with that epic battle of an at-bat. . . . and the Astros still lose, the concern needs to become real.