If I were Dusty, I would say " we want to give them the day off but both can hit if needed." Tie game bases loaded 9th inning: Imagine the gears grinding in Kotsay's head if he has to decide on a relief pitcher with both Altuve and Tucker with bats in hand in the dugout and Maldonado due up.
And this is why you get statements like the above. Keep them guessing, even if you know you won't use them. And I have no problem with this type of statement. It's probably why we get the injury report templates we do.
Tucker has been out for a couple of games with an ankle injury - oops, ankle soreness. Altuve got tackled running to 1B late in the game yesterday and the fans cheered as he lay on the field. I only saw one clip of it as MLB is downplaying it. https://abc13.com/houston-astros-jose-altuve-hurt-mlb-concussion-protocol/11912087/
And now... the real story Tucker exited a game a couple of days ago with foot (not ankle) soreness. MRI showed no structural damage and he's day to day. Altuve hit a slow roller to third and a bad throw caused the first baseman to reach into the baseline to try and catch it. His forearm collided with Altuve's head. He stayed in the game but was replaced in the 8th and is being checked for a concussion.
It never hurts to be more precise. I was just repeating the few reports I'd read since i can't actually see anything myself. The collision was described as a tackle and some people were upset at the fan reaction. The part about Tucker is totally on me since I don't see much difference between the foot and an ankle when describing the general location of soreness. I looked for info, but didn't find it with so much excitement about the bombs and the complete game.
Their line-up was posted about 5 hours ago. Dusty like to wait until the last minute. That would be in about 15 minutes.