HOUSTON — With every big swing, Yordan Alvarez is owning this October.
It’s a ferocious comeback for the powerful slugger who struggled in last year’s World Series as the Houston Astros lost in six games to the Atlanta Braves.
Alvarez and his mighty bat did it again Thursday, launching a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth inning off Luis Castillo that lifted the Astros over the Seattle Mariners and their ace, 4-2, for a 2-0 lead in an American League Division Series.
“I call him Grande,” manager Dusty Baker said of the 25-year-old Alvarez, who started in left field and batted third. “He comes up big. We love having him at the plate. He likes to be in the big moment. His concentration and discipline is way ahead of his years.”
Alvarez batted just .100 (2-for-20) with no homers and six strikeouts in the 2021 World Series, but he’s making that memory more and more distant for critics. With all of baseball talking about his hitting, he was asked how he would describe himself at the plate.