SAN DIEGO — Moments after Jose Altuve was ejected for taking off his left cleat and sock 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‘ wild 4-3 win against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.
Altuve grounded out to third for the final out of the ninth but insisted he had fouled the ball off his foot. In a crazy scene, he took off his cleat and sock, trying to show the umpires where the ball hit, which got him ejected by plate umpire Brennan Miller. Manager Joe Espada was tossed 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 was expecting to do the same thing,” Altuve said.
“It was going through my head that it can’t happen,” he added. “It’s the ninth inning, winning run on second base, I’m battling against a good pitcher, [Robert] Suarez, the closer, so I’m obviously trying to get a hit and drive the run in and win the game. I get a foul ball because it hit my foot and they just took it away from me. I don’t think that can happen. There are four guys on the field and you can see the change of direction on the ball. Just make the right call.”
Espada was still wound up afterward.
“It’s a foul ball,” the manager said. “You have to see the ball once he hits the foot, the flight of the ball. I don’t get it. I don’t understand. 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 missed that call.”
It was Altuve’s third career ejection, including regular season and playoffs, and second this season (June 30 vs. Mets). His first career ejection was Aug. 6, 2016, which came against the Rangers.
Kessinger started the 10th as the automatic runner in place of Altuve, advanced on Yordan Alvarez‘s groundout and scored on Kyle Tucker‘s single to left off Adrian Morejon (2-2).
Astros reliever Hector Neris loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 10th before getting Manny Machado to ground into a force play on a terrific backhanded stop by Kessinger, who flipped 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 it, I was thinking he’s going to hit a ball up the middle and it’s going to hit off the mound, and that’s exactly what happened. But go catch it. That’s the job,” Kessinger said.
He figured he was going to get into the game after Altuve was tossed.
“It’s a foul ball. You have to see the ball once he hits the foot, the flight of the ball. I don’t get it. I don’t understand. 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 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 that was going to be going in, but I didn’t know what he was doing, but I was just getting ready,” Kessinger said.
The Padres twice rallied to tie the score, first at 2-2 on Machado’s 27th homer with one out in the sixth — Machado admired his 405-foot homer 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 when Fernando Tatis Jr. scored on Josh Hader‘s two-out wild pitch.
Hader came on to boos and was called for a pitch clock violation. But after a lengthy delay, it was announced there was no violation. Hader then threw 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 drew the ire of San Diego fans when he said late last season he was reluctant to get more than three outs.
The Padres failed to add to their wild-card 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.