Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve continued his monster start to the 2016 season yesterday by going 4-for-4 in the Astros’ 6-3 loss to the Seattle Mariners. Altuve raised his batting average by 24 points while blasting his ninth home run on the season.

That 9th home run was a very special one for a young boy named Dillon with terminal cancer. Dillion initially asked Altuve to break his bat during his first at-bat before the boy asked him about hitting a homer.

“He was like, ‘OK, now you’re going to hit a homer.’ I was like ‘Eh, I hit a home yesterday, so don’t expect me to hit a homer today, but I don’t want to make you feel bad if I don’t,’” Jose Altuve said. “He was like, ‘Yes, you’re going to make it. We’ll see.’ As soon as I hit the home run and I got to second base, I remembered what he said. I really like the kid. He was really happy to be here. I hope God blesses him for what he’s been through right now.”

That blast was Altuve’s 6th leadoff home run this season alone. After hitting 15 home runs in 2015, Altuve already has 9 not even through the first week of May. Altuve is on pace to hit 45 home runs while driving in 245 runs batted in. (Yes, these rates are still inflated).

It’s Altuve’s 26th birthday today, and so far this season, the 26-year-old three-time American League All-Star has been one of the best players in baseball. The Twitter account Ace of MLB Stats has this Altuve fact for us:

Altuve is batting .330/.417/.618 with 9 home runs and 19 runs batted in to go with 10 stolen bases in 29 games this season for Houston.

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