Houston Astros star José Altuve had a very close encounter with a fan on Thursday night. During Game 2 of the ALCS against the New York Yankees, an Astros fan ran onto the field and hugged Altuve. According to TMZ Sports, the fan was arrested for the stunt that happened in the ninth inning. The guy was identified as Josė Alvarado and was able to dodge security enough to get to the World Series Champion before he was wrestled to the ground and escorted out of Minute Maid Park. TMZ Sports said Alvarado was taken into custody and charged with a misdemeanor criminal trespass.
Altuve wasn’t threatened by the fan and was happy to engage with him. “He kind of hugged me and said something like: ‘OK, we better win today, because I spent all my money on the ticket,’” Altuve said after the game, per the Associated Press. “He pulled his phone from his pocket and tried to take a selfie, and I was ready to take it, but then security guys got there and did their job.”
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Altuve also explained why he was not alarmed when the fan came up to him. “I saw someone running and I said: ‘Astros jersey; I’m fine,’” Altuve said of Alvarado who was wearing an Astros Craig Biggio shirt. After Alvarado was escorted off the field, the Astros earned a 3-2 win over the Yankees to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Houston manager Dusty Baker also talked about the incident, which happened as relief pitcher Ryan Pressly entered the game.
“You hate to see that happen because Pressly was ready and he had to back off and had to regroup himself, because when you’re coming out of the bullpen and they’re playing that song, his song, you sort of get into a flow of things, you take your warmup pitches, and then you’re ready to go,” Baker said. So that kind of broke that. But he’s been around a long time and he handled it well.”
The Astros, are playing in their sixth consecutive ALCS. In that span, the team reached the World Series three times and won it all in 2017. Houston has also recorded four 100-win seasons since 2017. Before that, the Astros only won 100 games in a season once, which was in 1998.
