SAN DIEGO — Moments after Jose Altuve was ejected for removing his shoe and left sock in an attempt 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' wild 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.
Altuve grounded to third for the final out of the ninth inning, but insisted he had hit the ball with his foot. In a farcical scene, he took off his cleats and sock, trying to show umpires where he had hit the ball, prompting home plate umpire Brennan Miller to eject him. Manager Joe Espada was ejected after further arguing.
“Sometimes you get hit somewhere on your hand and your batting glove comes off. [off] “To prove that you got hit. I was hoping to do the same thing,” Altuve said.
“It was going through my head that this couldn't happen,” he added. “It's the ninth inning, winning run on second base, I'm fighting a good pitcher, [Robert] “Suarez, the closer, so obviously I'm trying to get a hit and get the run to win the game. I get a foul ball because it hit my foot and they took it away. I don't think that can happen. There are four players on the field and you can see the direction of the ball change. You just have to make the right decision.”
Espada was still nervous after that.
“It's a foul ball,” the manager said. “You have to see the ball once it hits your foot, the trajectory of the ball. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. That's twice this year. I have a lot of respect for the umpires. They work hard. But there are four out there. You have to be able to see it. They didn't make the right call.”
It was Altuve's third career ejection, including the regular season and playoffs, and his second this season (June 30 vs. the Mets). His first career ejection came Aug. 6, 2016, against the Rangers.
Kessinger started 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 getting Manny Machado to ground into a force play on a tremendous backhanded stop by Kessinger, who threw the ball to shortstop Jeremy Pena to end the game.
It was Kessinger's first game with the Astros since July 13.
“Right before he hit it, I thought he was going to hit the ball up the middle and crash into the mound, and that's exactly what happened. But you have to catch it. That's the job,” Kessinger said.
He thought he was going to enter the game after Altuve was ejected.
“It's a foul. You have to see the ball once it hits your foot, the trajectory of the ball. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. That's twice this year. I have a lot of respect for the referees. They work hard. But there are four out there. You have to be able to see it. They didn't make the right 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 going in, but I didn't know what he was doing, I was just getting ready,” Kessinger said.
The Padres rallied twice to tie the score, first at 2-2 on Machado’s 27th homer with one out in the sixth (Machado admired his 405-foot shot for several seconds, tossed his bat aside and gestured toward the Padres dugout as he began to jog) and at 3-3 in the eighth when Fernando Tatis Jr. scored on Josh Hader’s wild pitch with two outs.
Hader entered the game to boos and was called for a shot clock violation. But after a lengthy delay, it was announced that there was no violation. Hader then took a wild pitch that brought in Tatis.
Hader was with the Padres from the 2022 trade deadline through last year before leaving as a free agent. He earned 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 add to their wild-card lead over Arizona and fell 3½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
