SHOCK AND AWE
‘Best hitter for a reason,’ Alvarez amazes even his teammates with home run barrage
The day Yordan Alvarez awed the Astros began with no pregame batting practice. He “didn’t take a lot” of swings in the team’s underground batting cage, either, before authoring the signature moment of his magical season.
“I think that’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever been a part of,” utilityman Mauricio Dubón said. “He’s the best hitter for a reason. It was so amazing watching him do that and watching what he’s been doing all year. He’s the best hitter I’ve ever played with.”
Around the Astros clubhouse, the refrain remains the same. Jose Altuve declared it the day Alvarez signed his sixyear, $115 million contract extension. On the night Alvarez reached more rarified air, Justin Verlander joined the chorus.
“He’s one of the best hitters I ever played with,” Verlander said after firing five hitless innings in the 5-0 win. “I would say that was a surprising night, but it wasn’t.”
Alvarez saw nine pitches, took four swings and hit three home runs in his first three at-bats against Oakland A’s starter Adrián Martinez. No Astro had ever struck three home runs against the same pitcher in the same game. Only 11 men in franchise history have ever hit three in one game.
Each of Alvarez’s three home runs traveled at least 431 feet. All flew to straightaway center field. According to ESPN Stats and Info, he is the first player to hit three home runs of at least 430 feet since Nelson Cruz on July 25, 2019. Alvarez’s three totaled 1,329 feet. He struck each one at least 108.7 mph off the bat.
“That was the best game I’ve ever seen live from a hitter in my career,” catcher Martín Maldonado said.
Hitters have one hangup with Minute Maid Park, an offensive haven with one of baseball’s most inviting short porches protruding out in left field. Righthanded pull hitters can lift lazy fly balls for home runs into the Crawford Boxes. Lefties have the luxury of a right field wall 326 feet away. Neither side can conquer center.
Few are more aware than Alvarez. Four months ago, in the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, he hammered a 106.4 mph missile into the left-center field gap off Detroit Tigers closer Gregory Soto. The baseball traveled 397 feet. Alvarez assumed he hit a walkoff home run and did not run out of the batter’s box. It died at the warning track, leaving an embarrassed Alvarez to settle for a long single.
The Astros won the game and Alvarez apologized to his teammates, vowing never again to assume and to always hustle. So, in the first inning Friday, he sprinted out of the box after mashing Martinez’s middle-middle sinker 434 feet to the same area of the ballpark.
The baseball landed atop the Budweiser bar between the batter’s eye and Houston’s bullpen, making Alvarez’s hustle a moot point. The blast offered more hope for an awakening after Alvarez’s abysmal August. He slugged .312 and struck four extra-base hits in 92 plate appearances. Hand problems plagued him. So did poor posture in his batting stance. He posted a 50 percent ground ball rate — more than 12 points above his career average.
“When he’s standing too tall at the plate, he crashes with his upper body and he has no space,” hitting coach Alex Cintrón said. “He is jumpy and started hitting ground balls because he had no space. When his upper body leans a little toward the plate, he can see the ball with a better angle. He has space to come inside the ball. (He has) a short landing instead of a big-time leg kick.”
Whether Alvarez developed the bad habits because of his bothersome hand — or hands — is another matter entirely. Friday did provide an emphatic end to three days of avoidable drama. Manager Dusty Baker’s assertion Wednesday that Alvarez’s hands hurt irked the player, who sought out reporters and contradicted his skipper. Alvarez termed it a “miscommunication.”
Baker’s inability to communicate — or at least craft a public explanation to appease Alvarez — is a misstep, especially for a man with a reputation as a players’ manager. Calling it anything more egregious is disingenuous, but it did invite more speculation about the actual state of Alvarez’s hands.
“My body feels great. I think it’s felt great all season,” Alvarez said Friday. “Obviously we all know I was battling with a little bit of hand soreness in August. That’s not to justify the results there, but that was something that was affecting me then. After a couple days off the team gave me, I feel better and am just continuing on.”
Perhaps Friday offered validation for Baker. However clumsily the reasoning was conveyed, Wednesday’s off day did work wonders. Alvarez has six hits since. Four have fallen for extra bases. He crushed a flat changeup from Martinez for another home run on Friday, giving him two in three innings.
“He was in a little funk there, but watching him get ready at the right time is scary,” Dubón said.
Half-filled champagne flutes sat strewn on a table a few feet away from Dubón’s locker. The team commemorated its sixth consecutive postseason appearance with a small toast and some brief speeches. Baker addressed the group, as did a few players.
Reaching the playoffs has become routine for a franchise with five straight American League Championship Series appearances. Acknowledging the moment is mandatory, but Houston has far loftier goals. For the team to reach them, this version of Alvarez must reemerge.
The Astros saw flashes of it last October when Alvarez captured ALCS MVP honors. He threatened Aaron Judge in the home run race during the first half of the season before fading thus far in the second. Recency bias can dominate some baseball discourse. Few in the Astros’ clubhouse forgot the recent past.
“The whole year has been unreal,” Dubón said. “It’s unreal, but at the same time, we’re not surprised. It’s normal, but at the same time, that’s how good he is. When he hit the third home run …”
Dubón stopped midsentence and stared. He could not find adequate words. Few of his teammates could, either. Alvarez did something to a baseball only a select few in this sport can claim. He arrived at home plate after Jeremy Peña struck Martinez’s hanging slider onto the train tracks.
Though he had a lefthanded reliever warming, A’s manager Mark Kotsay allowed Martinez to face Alvarez a third time. The rookie fired a first-pitch sinker. It grooved into the middle of Alvarez’s strike zone. Alvarez directed it toward his bullpen.
“I’ve never seen a ball fly that far,” said Phil Maton, who was warming up when Alvarez hit the ball. “I was initially thinking it might land in the bullpen, but it cleared the bullpen and up on that party deck. I don’t think they’ve ever had a baseball up there before.”
The home run traveled 464 feet. According to Baseball Savant, only one of Alvarez’s 97 career home runs is longer — the 469-foot missile he struck against A’s starter Paul Blackburn on May 30.
“It’s pretty cool when a major league player can make other major league players be in awe,” Verlander said. “It’s not something that happens all too often. That was kind of one of those moments where everyone was like ‘my goodness.’ It’s just incredible what he’s able to do. I’ve only seen a few guys be able to do stuff like that over the course of my career.”
Asked after the game whether he could hit a ball farther, Alvarez cracked a smile and presumed he could.
“I didn’t know it was possible to hit that there,” Trey Mancini said. “Sometimes balls seem to die a little bit in center field here. That trampolined off his bat and went to a place I didn’t know guys could hit it here. If anyone can do it, it’s him.”
Added Alex Bregman, who watched it unfold from the on-deck circle: “I was walking up to the plate and I was still in shock of how far that ball went. For it to be the third one, that’s insane. But that’s what he’s capable of doing. He’s unbelievable. He’s having an insane season.”
Bregman is the last Astro to hit 40 home runs in a season. After Friday, Alvarez is four away from joining him. Seventeen games remain for him to reach the milestone.
“That was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in person,” Mancini said. “I was in awe. I’m kind of finding it hard to come up with the words to describe that night. It was incredible.”