​Houston Astros Isaac Paredes (15), Jeremy Peña (3), Jose Altuve (27) and Christian Walker (8) stand on the infield during a pitching change in first inning of Game 1 of an American League Wild Card Series in Houston, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)
Jose Altuve very nearly fell victim to the rarest of challenges: A review of whether or not he had both feet in the infield dirt when a pitch was delivered.In 2023, Major League Baseball cracked down on the infield shift after analytics-heavy teams like the Houston Astros began stacking fielders on one side of the infield or even moving an infielder into a shallow outfield spot. That brought along a rule change requiring teams to have two infielders on each side of second base and positioned no deeper than the back end of the infield dirt.In the fourth inning of the Chicago White Sox’s 6-3 win over the Astros in Game 1 of their wild-card series Tuesday, Chicago’s coaches thought they caught Altuve slipping.Sam Antonacci hit a ground ball to Altuve in the fourth inning that sent the second baseman to his left and a couple steps into the outfield grass for an easy putout. The White Sox immediately challenged, asking for replays to be checked to see if Altuve had both feet in the infield dirt when the pitch was delivered. On the TV broadcast replays, it was tough to tell if Altuve’s back heel might have been slightly touching the grass, but officials ruled that Altuve was positioned properly and the call on the field stood. Had they ruled that Altuve was partly in the outfield grass, Antonacci would have been awarded first base and Altuve would have been given an error. The at-bat would not have counted against the hitter.In the postseason, managers are able to challenge two calls a game – they retain the challenge if it is successful – and the White Sox’s Will Venable said he thought that was a good spot for a review with his team up 4-0 and nobody out in the inning. He credited Bryan Johnson, the team’s replay and video coordinator, with pointing out Altuve’s positioning. “That comes from the B.J. in the replay center who is aware of all those things and looking closely at all those things,” he said. “With two challenges, we talked about it before the game, before the series, that we want to go ahead and be aggressive. And so he noticed something immediately, that Altuve was on the grass to start. The problem with it is it’s just a really hard call to get overturned, but worth it with two challenges there.”After the replay went his way, Altuve looked across the diamond at shortstop Jeremy Peña and smiled as he looked back at his feet to make sure they would be fully on the dirt for the next batter.When the rule change was first instituted in 2023, there were 26 violations called against infielders. As teams adjusted to the rule, only two violations were called in 2024, one by current Astros third baseman Carlos Correa when he was with the Twins and ventured too far ac