HOUSTON — Even atomic clocks need an adjustment. Twenty-seven times over the past 50 years a leap second has been added to the official time of humanity, Coordinated Universal Time. Reliable, and the official keeper of team equilibrium, Jose Altuve is the Astros’ atomic clock. To see him go 0-for-25 and go 24 days without hitting a fastball for an extra-base hit was to know time in Astroworld was akilter.
And then came the leap second that might have changed the series.
Altuve’s first swing on the first pitch thrown by Phillies starter Zack Wheeler in World Series Game 2 on Saturday recalibrated Astroworld. Altuve waffled a fastball from Wheeler 103.8 miles per hour for a double. It was his hardest hit off a fastball since Sept. 27—a month of fastballs, or 114 fastballs ago to be exact.
