Altuve beat big odds to get 1,000th hit at age 26

HOUSTON — It was the first pitch of the at-bat, a 93-mph fastball on the inside half of the plate, up around the shoulders.

Here’s what made this one unusual for Jose Altuve. Not a single one of his 3,464 Major League plate appearances had come against this pitcher — Cardinals closer Seung Hwan Oh.

Another hitter might take a pitch, maybe get a feel for the delivery and the fastball movement. Baseball’s best hitter had a different thought process.

“He’s extremely confident,” said George Springer, one of Altuve’s teammates with the Houston Astros. “He’s not scared of anybody.”

Altuve is at that point in his remarkable career where he knows what he knows. He’s as pure and gifted a hitter as baseball has seen in a long time.

He has lightning-quick hands and a sense of what he can and can’t do. He’s relentless in his preparation, both in the use of video and fine-tuning his swing with hundreds of hours in the batting cage.

When Oh delivered that fastball in the bottom of the ninth inning of an eventual 8-5 Cardinals victory Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park, Altuve took a quick stride into the pitch and swung the bat smoothly in a nearly seamless motion.

He lined the baseball into the left-field corner. Only this wasn’t just another at-bat. This was a milestone moment, his most significant but not his last. His third hit of the game on Tuesday gives him 1,000 for his career. That’s 1,000 hits in 786 games.

For some perspective, only one active player, Ichiro Suzuki, collected 1,000 hits faster than Altuve. He did it in 696 games.

For additional perspective, there’s this: Pete Rose got his 1,000 hit in his 831st game, which is 45 more games than it has taken Altuve to get there.

As Altuve stopped at first base after the hit, he turned and tipped his batting helmet to the cheering crowd, and then motioned toward the home dugout and did the same to his teammates.

“They’ve been there for me,” he said. “They’ve pushed me. They’ve inspired me.”

Maybe the best thing about 1,000 hits is that it allows every baseball fan on the planet to pause …

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