Lighting up Camden Yards ASTROS 23, ORIOLES 2
Club records for runs and extra-base hits set on a night when Alvarez slugs 3 home runs
BALTIMORE — A mound visit was made for reasons unknown to anyone who watched this annihilation. Baltimore pitching coach Doug Brocail bounded to counsel Taylor Scott, the latest Orioles hurler handed the assignment of attacking Yordan Alvarez.
It was the seventh inning. The Astros led by 14 runs in a game they would win by 21 to pad their winning streak to eight. Franchise records were nearing extinction and the hottest hitter of this hammering lineup loomed.
Scott started Alvarez with a sinker and followed with a slider. The breaking pitch hung. Alvarez attacked. The Astros’ revolutionary rookie launched his first career grand slam deep into the Baltimore night at Camden Yards.
The Astros reached 20 runs and Alvarez authored another chapter to the staggering start of his major league career.
“I just don’t think we should ever put limitations or even expectations on guys, let’s just see how they do,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s obviously gotten off to an incredible start to his career and doing things at a pace that is incredible.”
Alvarez finished Saturday’s 23-2 victory with three home runs and seven RBIs. His 51 RBIs are the most by any man through his first 45 games. Saturday’s effort put him past Hall of Famer Ted Williams for the record.
Alvarez hammered his final blow off center fielder Stevie Wilkerson’s softball-style offering in the ninth, completing this Oriole obliteration.
“Just trying to hit the ball hard,” Alvarez said through an interpreter, “and hit it well.
“Everyone was very happy. Everyone knows the chemistry of this team. When something goes well for one of us, it goes well for all of us. To be able to celebrate with my teammates all my good fortune was great.”
A day after appearing lethargic against the barren Baltimore pitching staff, the Astros applied a beating befitting of both clubs.
Baltimore appeared every bit the worst team in baseball. The Astros swung in a manner that suggested they could name the score. Houston totaled a franchise-record 23 runs and matched another club high with 25 hits. Their 13 extra-base hits broke a single-game record set in 2001.
“It’s really hard to explain what happened today,” Jose Altuve said. “Such a great game for us, a lot of good at-bats put together. This is what happens when you go out there and try to just have a good at-bat.”
All of Alvarez’s home runs landed near Eutaw Street beyond the right-field concourse. His first, a 442-foot solo shot in the first inning, bounced off a railing and landed on the street. Players who hit the roadway on the fly are rewarded with a commemorative plaque.
“Tomorrow,” Alvarez joked. Ten Astros produced hits. Five had three-hit efforts. Yuli Gurriel totaled a four-hit night for the fourth time in his major league career.
Houston launched six home runs. It upped Baltimore’s season total to 240. Nineteen more and the staff will set a major league record.
Eight of the Astros’ first 13 hits garnered extra bases. They chased Baltimore starter Aaron Brooks after three torturous innings. He yielded nine earned runs and four of the Astros’ six home runs.
“By the third inning I was like ‘How am I going to finish this game?,’ ” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde told reporters.
By the fifth inning, the Astros struck 12 balls in play 100 mph or harder. Neither Michael Brantley nor Alex Bregman emerged to play defense in the home-half, sparing Baltimore any further ignominy from the magnificent middle of the Astros’ order.
Their two replacements, Aledmys Diaz and Jake Marisnick, went 5-for-6.
“It was a treat for me,” said starter Aaron Sanchez. “That’s special. I said when I first got here that one through nine is dangerous. Even the guys that came off the bench.”
Seven days ago, Sanchez set an almost unapproachable standard with his first start for the Astros. He spun six hitless innings against the Seattle Mariners. Three relievers finished the 12th no-hitter in franchise history. In a state of stupor afterward, Sanchez wondered what he could author as an encore.
Rendered an afterthought amid the offensive ambush, Sanchez finished five innings of one-run ball. He walked three and struck out six. Jonathan Villar struck Sanchez’s eighth pitch for a leadoff double, ending any flirtation with more history. Villar scored on a sacrifice fly.
Sanchez continued to refine Astros-aided arsenal. Sixty-one of his 90 pitches were either four-seam fastballs or curveballs. His changeup received four swings and misses, too. Command of Sanchez’s four-seam fastball was initially imprecise. The defense behind him was shoddy, too, exacerbating the problem.
Each of Sanchez’s three walks came in the first two innings. Baltimore loaded the bases against him during the second. Two reached via free pass. Sanchez required 42 pitches to collect six outs, ensuring his evening would be short.
Carlos Correa loomed to begin the third. He jumped ahead in the count 2-1. Brooks bisected home plate with a fastball.
Correa lifted it to a place righthanded hitters are not supposed to reach. The baseball landed on a patio that is atop both team’s bullpens in left-center field. It went 474 feet, farther than any home run Statcast has measured inside Camden Yards.
The only Astro to match the distance since Statcast started tracking distances? Alvarez.
“He was joking with me that he has more power than me,” Alvarez said.
Correa’s blast put the Astros up eight.
The beating was only beginning.