CHICAGO — The day began with second baseman Jose Altuve leaning against the Astros’ dugout railing, pretending he was a flying bird and trying to disrupt Paul Clemens’ focus while the rookie reliever conducted a pregame TV interview. Soon, Altuve was sprinting across Wrigley Field’s infield dirt, stealing his eighth base in 10 games and turning a gutsy sixth-inning at-bat into a game-changing right-field single on a 3-2 count with two outs. J.D. Martinez’s out-of-nowhere, three-run homer followed, with the baseball ending up near Waveland Avenue. As did Ronny Cedeno’s ninth-inning, go-ahead safety squeeze, which scored Justin Maxwell and pushed the Astros to a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs [...]