ARLINGTON, Texas — Tell me the player you would rather have up in the most heated, pressurized situations possible than Jose Altuve. 

And I am not talking just active players. 

Really, pick anybody. Babe Ruth. Ted Williams. Barry Bonds. Ken Griffey Jr. Is there really anyone whose heart will beat slower and whose game will rise higher in the biggest moments than Altuve, a 5-foot-6 giant of the sport? 

“He is calm under pressure,” Astros third baseman Alex Bregman said. “He’s so confident in his ability, always so focused. Such a great, humble guy. I can’t say enough good things. It’s literally an honor to take the field with him.” 

Altuve endures wrath away from Houston more than any member of the 2017 sign-stealing Astros — perhaps fueled further by the conspiracy theory that he was wearing a buzzer to alert him what pitches were coming when he hit the walk-off homer to win the 2019 AL pennant over the Yankees. The boos are relentless in The Bronx for Altuve (the boos are pretty relentless everywhere), but so is his ability to ignore it and keep thriving. 

It is why he was the ideal hitter to be coming up in the ninth inning with two on and the Astros down two runs in the aftermath of a benches-clearing skirmish in the previous frame that had intensified the drama, trauma and stakes of this game. Who better than a player who has proven persistently that he can soar in the biggest situations, who has endured through one fire after another? 

“The moment never gets too big for him,” Astros closer Ryan Pressly said. “He thrives in these kinds of situations so you have the right guy up. … We’ve seen it time and time again. You almost expect the guy to do that.” 

What Altuve did was hit a three-run homer to turn a two-run deficit to a 5-4 Astros win. He turned what was three outs away from the Astros being down 3-2 in this ALCS against the Rangers to putting Houston one win away from its fifth World Series appearance in seven years. Altuve’s brilliance is a through line to the success. That was his 26th homer in 101 postseason games. Three of them have given the Astros the lead in the ninth inning or later. 

But none were quite like this because of what came prior. Adolis Garcia had hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning off Justin Verlander to give Texas a 4-2 advantage. Garcia moved slowly as he watched the arcing trajectory, wolfed toward his dugout and then spiked his bat. Astros players later insisted they were not annoyed by the theatrics, nor were they harboring ill-will from a July 26 incident between the teams that had Astros catcher Martin Maldonado and Garcia as key actors. 

Garcia next batted with a runner on first and no out in the eighth. Reliever Bryan Abreu hit the Rangers right fielder in the ribs with a first-pitch 99 mph fastball. The Astros, as you would expect, said it would be crazy to hit Garcia in that moment and put two on with no out, considering it was a playoff game they already trailed by two runs with just one more inning to try to rally. 

But if there was a “smoking pitch,” Abreu said the plan was to go up and in while Maldonado stated the plan was down and away. 

Garcia did not charge the mound. Rather he turned and aggressively went toward the catcher. Maldonado said he understood why Garcia was mad, due to the sequence of homer and hit by pitch and tried to tell Garcia it was not on purpose. Abreu also attempted to reassure Garcia, but Abreu said that Garcia screamed, “bulls–t,” at which point Abreu said he stopped trying to make the case. 

The benches and bullpens emptied. There was screaming and some pushing, but nothing heightened. After the players dispersed, the umps gathered and decided to eject Abreu because, crew chief James Hoye said after the game, they thought the hit-by-pitch was purposeful, and to eject Garcia because they viewed him as the aggressor in creating the benches-clearing episode. Houston manager Dusty Baker, furious at Abreu’s ejection, screamed at the umps, fired his hat in anger and also was ejected. 

Baker would not initially leave the dugout when play was ready to resume. Texas manager Bruce Bochy complained afterward that the delay was “too long” and might have negatively impacted his closer, Jose Leclerc, who had been needed to get the last out in the top of the eighth. 

In the ninth, Leclerc allowed a single to pinch-hitter Yainer Diaz and walked Jon Singleton. That turned the lineup back to the top. Back to Altuve. Back to the ideal candidate to handle a visiting crowd in a froth and with an Astros season teetering. 

“Number one, he wants to be up there,” Baker said. “Number two, he’s got a high concentration level, because that’s what it takes in big moments like that, is concentration, desire, and relaxation all encompassed into one. Everybody can’t do all three of those things. This dude is one of the baddest dudes I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen some greats.” 

Yes, pick the great who you want up there in a situation like that. Make your short-list. 

Altuve has to be on it.