The Houston Astros are doing their thing. They thumped the Texas Rangers on their own home field by a score of 14-1 to further exacerbate their opponents' freefall down the standings and push up their own lead in the AL West. Jose Altuve provided some of the biggest fireworks of the evening, giving himself a feat never before seen by a Houston player.

Altuve had himself a GAME against the Rangers, hitting three home runs in the first three innings. Those dingers, two of which came courtesy of Nathan Eovaldi and another from Dane Dunning, gave Altuve a streak of four consecutive plate appearances with a home run after going yard in his final trip to the plate in the Astros' 13-6 win over the Rangers the previous day. Including a home run earlier in that game gives Altuve five dingers in six plate appearances. Only Manny Ramirez, Josh Hamilton and Shawn Green have done that, according to Bradford Doolittle of ESPN.

The entire Astros lineup was rolling against the Rangers, starting with their leadoff man. Altuve didn’t think much of his explosive performance other than it was just one of those games where everything's working, per ESPN. The star second baseman added that doing so now, in the home stretch of the season, is helpful.

“It was just one of those days where you feel really good,” Altuve said, via ESPN. ”I was just trying to get my pitch, put a good swing and it happened…Obviously, this doesn't happen very often. Last month of the season where we are trying to get to first place, stay there, so good timing.”

Altuve missed too many games to be an All-Star in 2023 — he didn’t debut until May after suffering a hand injury in the World Baseball Classic and missed several weeks in July with an oblique issue — but he is nonetheless performing like one. On top of hitting for the cycle for the first time, his OPS+ of 164 is the highest in his career, as he has a slash line of .321/.406/.563, 86 hits, 39 RBI, 15 home runs and 13 stolen bases in 68 games.

The Astros are in the thick of a highly competitive race for the division title. The Seattle Mariners trail them by just a game and the Rangers, despite going 6-14 in their last 20 games, are only two games out. Houston will need Jose Altuve to keep mashing as they look to repeat as champions.