Yordan Alvarez did it again.
Down 2-1 in the sixth inning to the Seattle Mariners in Game 2 of the ALDS Thursday, Astros left fielder Yordan Alvarez homered to put Houston in front.
Alvarez fouled off Mariners pitcher Luis Castillo’s first sinker of the at-bat before promptly taking his second 371 feet to the opposite field.
Castillo had been pitching a gem, allowing one run, three hits, and striking out six through five and two-thirds innings before Alvarez’s bomb to the Crawford Boxes in Minute Maid Park’s left field.
It would appear the Mariners caught on to Alvarez’s hard-hitting ways, issuing him an intentional walk in the eighth inning — though Andres Munoz didn’t get much reprieve. Alex Bregman followed with a single to plate Jose Pena and make it a 4-2 game.
Ryan Pressly shut down any hopes of a Mariners comeback with a scoreless ninth inning, securing the win and a 2-0 Astros lead in the best-of-five series.
Alvarez’s go-ahead home run may have given Mariners fans some deja vu after his Game 1 heroics.
On Tuesday, the Astros were down 7-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning before they got two men on to give Alvarez an at-bat. The Cuban slugger capitalized on his chance, sending a no-doubter 438 feet to right field.
The ball left Alvarez’s bat at 116.7 miles per hour and sent Minute Maid Park into a frenzy, giving the Astros a walk-off victory.
Alvarez becomes the first player in MLB postseason history to have multiple career go-ahead home runs in the sixth inning or later while his team was trailing, and he accomplished that feat in back-to-back games with home runs off of Robbie Ray and Luis Castillo.
So far in the series, Alvarez has gone 4 for 8 with a double, a single, two home runs, and 6 runs batted in which amounts to 55% of the Astros’ runs this series.
The Astros will head to Seattle for game 3 Saturday with a chance to close out the Mariners and head to their sixth straight ALCS.
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