Culture / Sporting Life

The Hidden Star — Kyle Tucker Shows Why He’s the Most Underrated Player in Baseball While Driving Tony La Russa Batty

On This Astros Team, the Seventh Hitter Absolutely Changes Games

BY // 10.08.21

Kyle Tucker ranges back like he’s Deion Sanders getting a bead on a quarterback’s pass, tracking, tracking, tracking. At the last instant — the perfectly right instant — Tucker leaps and snares Yasmani Grandal’s screaming shot, robbing the Chicago White Sox of likely their last real shot to make this playoff matchup a real series. It’s a breathtakingly athletic play by a difference maker who sometimes seems hidden in the grass.

On almost any other team in Major League Baseball (any other team besides the LA Dodgers and maybe the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays), Kyle Tucker would be recognized as one of the club’s superstars. On the Houston Astros, he bats seventh and makes game changing defensive plays in back-to-back playoff games that almost become afterthoughts.

Happily.

That’s right, happily. Unless Kyle Tucker is a better actor than Daniel Day-Lewis, he genuinely digs being part of the deepest lineup in baseball. Tucker seems to like being able to go to a press conference with Carlos Correa — who is almost as good with the media as he is with the bat and the glove — and lay back and grin at Correa’s best lines.

Kyle Tucker does not have what you would call a look-at-me personality. If he wasn’t a budding baseball superstar he’d fit right at home in the offices of a video game developer.

If only, the White Sox wish. For Tucker’s super athletic talents are all over the Astros’ 9-4 brushback of the Chicago White Sox in Game 2 of a divisional series that seems headed for a quick conclusion. He steals at least two runs from Tony La Russa’s team with that catch, drives in Houston’s first run of the game and hits a two run home run to punctuate a five run seventh inning for the Astros.

If Fernando Tatis Jr. had this kind of game in October, he’d be all over SportsCenter. And highlight shows everywhere.

Consider Correa a believer.

“I’ve always told you guys he’s the most underrated player in the league,” Correa says of Tucker. “I’m glad he got this platform in the playoffs to show you how good he really is.”

It is enough to leave La Russa sound like he’s in denial. The White Sox manager keeps talking about what a close game the 9-4 loss is, about how his team had a lot of good hits, about how things could have been different.

“The score to me is very misleading,” La Russa says.

Custer probably thought he should have won the Battle of the Little Bighorn too. In truth, the White Sox have been outscored 15-5 in this series. The Astros have looked like the better defensive team. The better offensive team. And the better pitching staff.

But yeah, otherwise it’s been close.

Dusty Baker’s Astros are beating Tony La Russa’s White Sox with grit, smarts and star power.

The Houston Astros defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-1 behind the pitching of Lance McCullers with a home runs from Yordan Alvarez during the opening game of the American League Division Series
Kyle Tucker went high to catch a fly ball near the wall. (Photo by F. Carter Smith)

Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker, the Astros’ two 24-year-old potential future MVP candidates, arguably have been the two best players in the series through two games. They have both hit impact home runs and have driven in six of Houston’s 15 runs. And Tucker somehow tracks down that Grandal rocket with a 106.1 mph exit velocity when it matters most.

“I’ve always told you guys (Kyle Tucker’s) the most underrated player in the league. I’m glad he got this platform in the playoffs to show you how good he really is.” — Carlos Correa

The young player who was famously somewhat mockingly compared to Ted Williams while coming up with the Astros is certainly not stumbling in the outfield.

“I just tried to go all out for it,” Tucker says. “Our pitchers are out there working real hard. Any time we can make a catch or make a play to make it a little easier on them, it definitely helps out the team as a whole. To finish the inning with that big out, I think the momentum kind of changed. And everyone was real excited.”

No one gets more excited in the playoffs than Correa, who is determined to squeeze every moment out of what could very likely be his last run with the Astros. When October is over for the Astros, Correa will be the most coveted free agent in the game. But he’s in anything but a rush to get there.

“I enjoy the playoffs a lot,” Correa says. “As you can tell, I’m losing my voice already. It’s only Game 2. I get very hyped. I get very focused.”

Correa gets a monster hit of his own in that five run seventh, driving in two with a double over the head of White Sox right fielder Leury Garcia to make it 7-4 right after Alvarez breaks the 4-4 tie.

A smattering of “Sign Correa! Sign Correa!” chants breaks out during the seventh inning onslaught. This is not about next year for these Astros though. Not with them one win from returning to the American League Championship Series for the fifth straight season. It’s about the here and now for a team that’s long believed it’s championship worthy.

Everyone’s favorite free agent to be knows that special Octobers, special teams like the ones the Astros have had during this half a decade run, should be treasured.

“You never know if next year I’m going to be in the playoffs,” Correa admits. “I’m trying to enjoy every single moment that I get out there with my teammates.”

The Power of a Kyle Tucker

Carlos Correa’s next team is unlikely to have a No. 7 hitter like Kyle Tucker. Or anything close. Because really no one but the Astros does.

“I think Kyle was the best hitter in our lineup this year,” Correa says. “And he’s one of the best hitters in the game. The reason why I say that is because obviously the numbers will back me up. But also, I don’t see him getting fooled too often. It doesn’t matter if you throw a first pitch breaking ball or first pitch fastball. It seems like (Kyle’s) always on time. That’s something special. You don’t see many hitters that are able to adjust like that.

“He’s a natural hitter. Natural hitters are always the best hitters in the game. The future is bright for this kid right here.”

Sitting right next to Correa at the interview table, wearing a button up dress shirt that would work in a job interview, Tucker does not react to his all-star teammate’s high praise. Tucker is a former Top 5 draft pick (taken fifth overall in 2015) like his teammates Correa (No. 1 overall in 2012) and Alex Bregman (No. 2 overall in 2015). But unlike Correa and Bregman, Tucker did not get almost instant love on joining the Astros.

Instead, many of the beat writers covering the team repeatedly doubted him deep into the 2020 season and even beyond (though many of them feign having forgotten all this). Former manager A.J. Hinch also had his doubts about Tucker. Now, there is no denying Kyle Tucker’s supersized talents.

“Tucker is incredible,” says veteran Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel, who turns a 0-2 count into one of the biggest two out hits of the day as well . “He’s not somebody who can just hit. He’s an incredible athlete.”

Kyle Tucker will pop off the page with a jaw-dropping play — and then shift back into the shadows, content to be just another star in this Astros super galaxy. It turns out you can hide a supernova. You just need a team as good as these Astros to do it.

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