Editorial

Astros’ Kyle Tucker Pulls Off Some Absolute Magic That Left The Baseball Gods Smiling

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Kyle Tucker, an outfielder for the Astros, was absolutely atrocious at the plate Sunday ... at least to start the game. And then he went down a rabbit hole. [TikTok/Screenshot/Public — @mlbonfox]

[TikTok/Screenshot/Public — @mlbonfox]

Andrew Powell Sports and Entertainment Blogger
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And this is why we’re romantic about baseball, ladies and gentlemen.

Kyle Tucker, an outfielder for the Houston Astros, was absolutely atrocious at the plate Sunday … at least to start the game.

Taking on the Milwaukee Brewers, Tucker went 0-3 in his first three at-bats. And if that isn’t bad enough, all three of those outs were strikeouts. Oh, but it gets even worse. Two of those strikeouts came when Tucker just watched strike three zoom past him, still holding the bat to his shoulder. In the second inning, he even left a runner on third base because of this outright baseball sin.

But even though baseball can be a very, very frustrating game, Tucker didn’t give up, instead he went down a rabbit hole of superstitions at Minute Maid Park to fix up his hitting — and holy hell, he did it in flying colors. (RELATED: Astros’ Ronel Blanco Suspended 10 Games By MLB For Having Foreign Substance In Glove)

And what was his little piece of magic, you ask?

He changed his cleats.

Originally, Tucker was wearing green cleats, meant to be a homage to the Astros‘ mascot, Orbit. But the problem was, Tucker’s play was horrible in them, or at least the way he viewed it. So he ends up switching his cleats to some normal orange ones prior to his sixth-inning at-bat, and hot damn, it worked! He ends up hitting not one, but two home runs after the fact — back-to-back!

WATCH:

If this isn’t a baseball story, then I don’t know what is … magical stuff!