Jose Altuve is ejected for taking off his cleats and socks during the Astros' wild win

SAN DIEGO – Just moments after Jose Altuve was ejected for removing his left cleat and sock to prove his point, his reliever Grae Kessinger scored the game-winning run in the 10th inning and then made a sensational play on second base to seal the Houston Astros' wild 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.

Altuve managed a groundout to the third baseman in the bottom of the ninth inning, but insisted he had fouled the ball off his foot. In a crazy scene, he took off his cleats and socks to show the umpires where the ball had landed, and was ejected by plate umpire Brennan Miller. Manager Joe Espada was ejected after he continued to argue.

“Sometimes you get hit somewhere on the hand and you take your batting glove [off] to show you got hit. I expected to do the same thing,” Altuve said.

“It crossed my mind that this can't happen,” he added. “It's the ninth inning, the winning hit on second base, I'm battling a good pitcher, [Robert] Suarez, the closer, so obviously I'm trying to get a hit, make the run and win the game. I get a foul ball because it hit my foot and they just took it away from me. I don't think that can happen. There are four guys on the field and you can see the change in direction of the ball. You just have to make the right decision.”

Espada was still excited afterwards.

“It's a foul ball,” the manager said. “You have to see the ball when it touches the foot, the trajectory of the ball. I don't understand it. I don't understand it. It's happened twice this year. I have a lot of respect for the referees. They work hard. But there are four out there. You have to be able to see it. They missed that decision.”

It was Altuve's third career ejection, including regular season and playoffs, and second this season (June 30 against the Mets). His first career ejection came on August 6, 2016 against the Rangers.

Kessinger started the 10th as an automatic runner in place of Altuve, advanced on Yordan Alvarez's groundout and scored on Kyle Tucker's single to left against Adrian Morejon (2-2).

Astros relief pitcher Hector Neris loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning before getting Manny Machado on a forced play that aimed for a terrific backhand stop by Kessinger, who threw the ball to shortstop Jeremy Pena to end the game.

It was Kessinger's first game with the Astros since July 13.

“Right before he hit it, I thought he was going to hit the ball up the middle and it was going to bounce off the mound, and that's what happened. But catch it. That's the job,” Kessinger said.

He had assumed he would enter the game after Altuve was ejected.

“It's a foul. You have to see the ball when it touches the foot, the trajectory of the ball. I don't get it. I don't understand it. It's happened twice this year. I have a lot of respect for the referees. They work hard. But there are four out there. You have to be able to see it. They missed that decision.”

Astros manager Joe Espada

“When he started untying his shoe, I grabbed my glove. I didn't know if I was the one going in, but I didn't know what he was doing, but I was just getting ready,” Kessinger said.

The Padres were able to catch up and tie the score twice: first at 2-2 on Machado's 27th home run with one out in the sixth inning – Machado admired his 400-foot home run for several seconds, tossing his bat aside and pointing toward the Padres dugout as he began his run – and at 3-3 in the eighth inning when Fernando Tatis Jr. scored on Josh Hader's wild pitch with two outs.

Hader was booed and whistled for a pitch clock violation. But after a long delay, it was announced that there was no violation. Hader then threw a wild pitch that knocked Tatis down.

Hader was with the Padres from the 2022 trade deadline until last year before leaving as a free agent. He drew the ire of San Diego fans when he said late last season he wasn't ready to get more than three outs.

The Padres failed to extend their wildcard lead over Arizona and remained 3½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.