After repeatedly crushing baseballs in Triple-A all season, Houston Astros fans waited patiently for top prospect Yordan Alvarez to come up and put his power on display. He showed that jaw-dropping power again on Friday night with his third home run in his fourth MLB game.
After lining a single into the outfield with a 114.1-mph exit velocity earlier, Alvarez put some more lift on the ball in his next at-bat and nearly sent it out of Minute Maid Park. The rookie crushed a 2-0 pitch to left-center field and watched as it hit off the train tracks.
Houston certainly took their time bringing up a player with some of the best power in all of the minor leagues. Alvarez posted a 1.184 OPS with 23 home runs and 16 doubles for Triple-A Round Rock in 56 games and he is now bringing that power to Houston and letting fans enjoy some real moonshots.
The Astros are playing without Carlos Correa, George Springer and Jose Altuve right now, but keep finding ways to score runs. Once the trio are healthy, Alvarez should see plenty of great pitches to drive out of the yard and should drive in plenty of runs as well.