Astros use highly unusual shift against Albert Pujols

The Houston Astros used an unusual shift to defend against Albert Pujols on Thursday night, and it worked.

During Pujols’ at-bat in the bottom of the third, the Astros put three players to the left of second base, moving their shortstop and second baseman to the shallow part of the outfield. The shift was very similar to what teams will do against slow-running, pull-hitting lefties.

Check out this shift the Astros are putting on Albert. pic.twitter.com/sODLGJtXWj

— Trent Rush (@TrentRushSports) September 15, 2017

Here is a @statcast look at how the #Astros shifted Albert Pujols. L: Correa / Altuve starting position
R: Groundout to Correa in the OF pic.twitter.com/fTxXRebY5R

— David Adler (@_dadler) September 15, 2017

Pujols grounded out to deep shortstop and was thrown out on the play.

Houston has been known for having a predilection towards defensive shifts, so if anyone was to use an extreme shift on Pujols, it would be them. But it’s rare to see that sort of shift on a right-handed batter, for a few reasons. One, that’s a long distance for the person on the right side of the infield to run just to reach first for the force out. Two, that’s a really long throw for the shortstop and second baseman to make from the shallow outfield. Such a shift only is possible because Pujols is incredibly slow these days. Credit to Houston for taking advantage of that.