Ump Cam Shows Wild Angle of Jose Altuve’s Close Call With a High Pitch

Astros second baseman José Altuve was nearly hit by a pitch thrown by Rangers pitcher Dane Dunning during Thursday night’s Game 4 of the ALCS.

Dunning threw a 84 mph changeup in the fourth inning to Altuve, but the pitch went way left causing Altuve to react quickly to avoid being struck by the ball.

It almost looked like the second baseman was leaning backwards to walk under a limbo stick as he tilted his head back, but Altuve ended up falling completely over onto his back.

MLB on Fox posted a different angle of the pitch from the umpire’s perspective, and this makes the video seem even more intense. The close-up video shows just how close Altuve came to getting hit in the face or the arm by the pitch. His reaction makes more sense now.

Dunning ended up walking Altuve on this at-bat. Dunning was taken out of the game shortly after in the fourth inning, finishing with four strikeouts, three runs and three hits in 2.2 innings.