Yordan Alvarez is one bad man and a top-end American League MVP candidate. The Houston Astros slugger showed that in a big way during Game 1 of their American League Divisional Series against the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday.
Seattle opened up a 4-0 lead early in the game, primarily due to the performance from stud rookie Julio Rodriguez at the plate. The upstart American League West team tagged potential AL MVP Justin Verlander for six runs in just four innings.
It really did look like Seattle was going to take this one as the team makes its first playoff appearance in two decades. The Mariners were up 7-3 heading into the eighth inning. Alex Bregman then homered to send in Yordan Alvarez and make it a 7-5 game.
With the score the same in the bottom of the ninth inning, Alvarez took to the plate to face Robbie Ray, who had just entered the game with two outs and two men on base. What followed was more Houston Astros playoff magic. We’re not kidding.
Yessir. Alvarez launched a hanging sinker over the right field fence for a walk-off three run blast, plating Jake Meyers and Jeremy Pena as well as himself for the dramatic 8-7 win. The ball was rocketed off his bat at 116.7 miles-per-hour and traveled 438 feet. It was a no doubt blast. Insanity.
Related: Yordan Alvarez and AL MVP candidates
Yordan Alvarez should be in the AL MVP conversation
We know the history-making regular season Aaron Judge had with the New York Yankees. Shohei Ohtani’s two-way dominance for the Los Angeles Angels can’t go unnoticed, either. We also know that the MVP is a regular-season award. But Alvarez’s clutch hit Tuesday evening in Houston was a continuation of his brilliance throughout the regular year.
- Yordan Alvarez stats (2022): .306 average, 37 HR, 97 RBI, 1.019 OPS
The Cuba native was just on a whole new level for an Astros team that ran away with the American League West title and finished 33 games ahead of Ohtani’s Angels. That has to count for something, right?
As for Judge, that’s a completely different conversation. Either way, people had their eactions to Yordan Alvarez going deep and winning Game 1 of this ALDS series and making playoff history in the process.