SAN DIEGO — Moments after Jose Altuve was ejected for removing his left cleat and sock while trying to prove a point, his replacement, Grae Kessinger, scored the go-ahead run in the 10th inning and then made a sensational play at second base to seal the Houston Astros’ 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.
Altuve was thrown out at third base for the final out of the ninth inning, but insisted he fouled his foot. In a wild scene, he took off his cleat and sock, trying to show the umpires where the ball had hit, which earned him an ejection from home plate umpire Brennan Miller. Manager Joe Espada was ejected after continuing to argue.
“Sometimes you get hit somewhere in the hand and you take your batting glove off to show you got hit. I expected to do the same thing,” Altuve said.
“I was like, ‘This can’t happen,'” he added. “It’s the ninth inning, I score a winning run at second base, I’m batting against a good pitcher, (Robert) Suarez, the slugger, so obviously I’m trying to hit and score the run and win the game. I get a foul ball because it hit my foot and they just took it away. I don’t think it can happen. There’s four guys on the field and you can see the change in direction of the ball. You just have to make the right decision.”
Espada was still angry afterwards.
“It’s a foul ball,” the manager said. “You have to see the ball once he hits the foot, the trajectory of the ball. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. It’s the second time this year. I have a lot of respect for the umpires. They work hard. But there are four of them on the field. You have to be able to see it. They missed that call.”
It was Altuve’s third career ejection, including the regular season and playoffs, and second this season (June 30 against the Mets). His first career ejection came on Aug. 6, 2016, against the Rangers.
Kessinger led off the 10th inning as the automatic runner in place of Altuve, advanced on Yordan Alvarez’s groundout and scored on Kyle Tucker’s single to left field off Adrian Morejon (2-2).
Astros reliever Hector Neris loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning before grounding out Manny Machado in a force play on a great backhand save by Kessinger, who threw the ball to shortstop Jeremy Pena to end it.
It was Kessinger’s first game with the Astros since July 13.
“Right before he hit, I thought he was going to hit a ball up the middle and it was going to hit the mound, and that’s exactly what happened. But go catch it. That’s the job,” Kessinger said.
He thought he was going to get in the game after Altuve was ejected.
“It’s a foul ball. You have to see the ball once it touches the foot, the trajectory of the ball. I don’t understand. I don’t understand. It’s the second time this year. I have a lot of respect for the referees. They work hard. But there are four of them. You have to be able to see it. They missed that call.”
Astros manager Joe Espada
“As he started to untie his shoe, I started to grab my glove. I didn’t know if I was the one going in, but I also didn’t know what he was doing, but I was just getting ready,” Kessinger said.
The Padres rallied twice to tie the score, first at 2-2 on Machado’s 27th home run with one out in the sixth inning — Machado admired his 405-foot home run for several seconds, tossed his bat aside and gestured toward the Padres’ dugout as he began his trot — and at 3-3 in the eighth inning when Fernando Tatis Jr. scored on Josh Hader’s wild pitch with two outs.
Hader was booed and called for a pitch clock violation. But after a long delay, it was announced that there was no violation. Hader then threw a wild pitch that brought Tatis in.
Hader was with the Padres from the 2022 trade deadline through last year before leaving as a free agent. He drew the ire of San Diego fans when he said late last season that he was reluctant to get more than three outs.
The Padres failed to extend their lead over Arizona and remained 3½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
