Astros' Jose Altuve Forced to Leave Game Early With Foot Injury

The Houston Astros have been in San Francisco this week, taking on the Giants in a three-game series. It started off great on Monday night thanks to a late comeback by Houston down to its last strike and the Astros ended up winning 6-3 in the 10th inning.

While the Astros fell to the Giants in the second game on Tuesday night 4-1, the disappointing loss only got more worrisome after star second baseman Jose Altuve got injured. The incident came right at the start of the game.

The Astros offense was threatening early in the first inning with two on and one out. Altuve was hitting cleanup in this game, and faced a 2-2 count. He didn't get a chance to make anything happen as Giants starter Carson Whisenhunt lost control of a slider and the pitch directly hit Altuve's left foot in the batter's box.

There wasn't a way Altuve could've avoided that as his left foot was in front. He was clearly in a lot of pain when it happened and remained limping when he was on first base. Altuve's grimacing didn't really stop and he was eventually taken out of the game in the bottom of the second inning as Nick Allen took his place.

The Astros announced that Altuve left the game with a left foot contusion. This is a soft tissue bruise and it just depends on how severe it was for how quickly Altuve can return from this. Given his reaction and thoughts postgame, this became more painful than he thought.

Altuve's Sore Foot Injury

Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve (27) calls time out during the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Astros manager Joe Espada mentioned postgame that Altuve went through imaging and it came back negative, per MLB.com's Brian McTaggart. However, Espada said that Altuve will go through more imaging seeing how sore this got.

"He’s going to be sore," Espada said. The Astros skipper mentioned that this was going to be the case based on where the pitch hit him.

Altuve was asked postgame about his situation and how he felt.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that bad but it was pretty sore, so I had to come out of the game," Altuve said to MLB.com. “It was getting a lot worse and I didn’t want to do anything stupid."

This is unfortunate timing for the nine-time All Star given that he was just getting hot with the bat and getting out of a slump. Altuve is hitting just .240 this year with a .695 OPS, but he started to turn it around over the past week or so.

The seven-time Silver Slugger had an .848 OPS with a .304 average in his last seven games along with a homer and four RBI. He also had 31 hits over his last 30 games. The Astros have an off day on Thursday which will help his recovery, but it's difficult to say if Altuve will return in the upcoming series against the Seattle Mariners at the moment.

Altuve suffered a Grade 2 oblique strain earlier this season in mid May and was out for about three weeks. He came back much earlier than the initial potential timeline of six weeks.

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