HOUSTON -- All-Star shortstop Jeremy Peña, whose seventh-inning grand slam Saturday accounted for the only four runs the Astros scored in the first two games in their showdown against the Mariners, was scratched from Sunday’s lineup with left oblique soreness.
The injury occurred in the sixth inning of Saturday’s loss, when Peña was running to second base and tried to avoid the tag on a ground ball hit by Jose Altuve to second baseman Jorge Polanco.
“We just decided it was best to just give it a day, give it some rest and go from there,” Peña said. “We don’t know much about it yet. I don’t feel too bad. I don’t want to give a timeline yet, but I feel good at the moment.”
Mauricio Dubón, who was originally in the lineup in left field, started at shortstop in Peña’s place, with Jesús Sánchez moving from right field to left field, and rookie Zach Cole entering the starting lineup in right field. Cole hit a Statcast-estimated 443-foot homer in the third.
There was no immediate word on how long Peña could be sidelined, but it leaves Houston again without their two best offensive players. The Astros lost slugger Yordan Alvarez to a “significant” left ankle sprain Monday after he had missed 100 games while recovering from a fractured bone in his right hand.
Peña missed 27 games earlier this season after fracturing a rib on his left side after being hit by a pitch June 27. He returned to the lineup Aug. 1 and was slashing .273/.337/.455 with six homers and 22 RBIs in 43 games. He was hitting .474 (9-for-19) in the first five games of Houston’s final six-game homestand against Texas and Seattle.
“Injuries suck overall,” Peña said. “You never want to be injured; you always want to be out there. You feel like, not like you let your team down, but you want to be out there going to war with these guys. It’s always tough to watch the games from your TV.”
Alvarez, who’s eligible to come off the injured list Friday for the final road trip of the season in Anaheim, said Sunday he could walk without a protective boot. Alvarez isn’t traveling with the Astros to West Sacramento late Sunday for the series against the A’s, but manager Joe Espada said he could travel to meet the team in Anaheim.
“We’ll see where he’s at by the end of the road trip,” Espada said. “We all feel encouraged where he’s at right now.”
Alvarez said he’s still trying to get the inflammation down before resuming baseball activities and that he can walk without a protective boot at times. In 19 games since coming off the injured list on Aug. 26, Alvarez was slashing .369/.462/.569 with three homers and nine RBIs while splitting time between left field and designated hitter.
“Right now, I just have to accept the fact that this is happening,” Alvarez said. “Obviously, it’s frustrating that this is happening. I’m going to leave it in God’s hands and see what happens.”