'Best hitter in the world': Yordan Alvarez dominating October as Astros near another World Series

ARLINGTON, Texas – Postseason baseball is not supposed to be like this.

In a sport where you can’t simply go one-on-one, where a pitcher may simply choose not to throw you the ball in a spot you can hit it, where solid contact and 100-mph line drives are no guarantee of success, one player cannot determine the outcome of a game, the fate of a team.

Yet night after night, series after series and now year after year, Yordan Alvarez is the body around which the Houston Astros rotate, digging them out after they fall into a hole, influencing outcomes even when he’s two, three or four spots away in the lineup.

They are now two games away from a third consecutive World Series appearance and six victories away from defending their championship after a 10-3 thrashing of the Texas Rangers in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, a win that squared the ALCS at two games apiece.

The heroes were many: Jose Altuve got his flowers, celebrated for playing in his 100^th postseason game and characteristically banging out three hits. Alex Bregman got the party started, a two-run, first-inning triple igniting a team-wide strafing of the Rangers’ pitching staff.

And Jose Abreu, a first-year Astro, administered the kill shot, a three-run home run that put the Rangers to sleep.

It is Alvarez, though, who is bracketed by Bregman and Abreu in the lineup, who banged out two more hits, drove in three more runs and broke a tie by hitting a ball 411 feet for a sacrifice fly, a plate appearance that was the baseball equivalent of a crushing lead block that enabled Abreu to waltz into the end zone.

In eight postseason games, Alvarez is now batting .419 (13 for 31), reaching base at a .471 clip, and has driven in 13 runs. It won’t appear on his playoff game log, but let the record reflect that the hitters in front and behind him in the lineup combined to drive in five runs.

And after getting shut out 2-0 in Game 1 of this ALCS, the Astros have scored four, eight and 10 runs in their next three games. The swagger is back, largely because of their cleanup hitter who often moves in silence but might give Bryce Harper a run as the most impactful hitter in the game.

“Alvarez is on fire right now. And he’s the best hitter in the world,” says outfielder Chas McCormick, whose third career postseason home run gave Houston a 9-3 lead. “So when our guy’s going, and we get Altuve going and Jose Abreu going, we’re one of the best teams in the world.

“Having Alvarez hit like he’s been hitting, nothing can stop us right now.”

Thursday’s action offered plenty of evidence.

'He drives in all the runs'

For both teams, Game 4 was the get-through game: No Justin Verlander, no Max Scherzer or Nathan Eovaldi or Framber Valdez on the hill. It figured that itinerant starters Andrew Heaney and Jose Urquidy would give way to a bullpen battle, and by the fourth inning, it was 3-3 and those fellows were footnotes.

Dane Dunning, Heaney’s capable piggyback partner, started the inning issuing two walks and a single, and after striking out Alex Bregman, was not going to face Alvarez with the bases loaded.

So Cody Bradford, a soft-throwing but deceptive rookie lefty, was summoned for the impossible task. Bradford was unscored upon in 4⅓ playoff innings this year. But Alvarez was a different ask.

They battled for nine pitches, Alvarez fouling off four pitches, fastballs at 91 and changeups far slower than that, before Bradford finally left one in the zone.

Alvarez clubbed it just to the right of dead center field, 111 mph off his bat and looking for all the world like it was his seventh homer in eight games this postseason. Bradford backpedaled and looked, hoping for the best. The ball went 401 feet and would have been a grand slam in 17 of 30 ballparks, according to Statcast.

In this one, it was a go-ahead sacrifice fly.

Yet for Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, Alvarez was the focal point of the sequence. The three-batter minimum ensured Bradford would have to face Abreu, too.

And if Alvarez was pounding away and softening up a piece of red meat, it was Abreu who got to eat.

He pummeled a Bradford fastball, a low screamer that eventually rose over the Astros bullpen and the first layer of seats, landing in the second level of Globe Life Field. It was 7-3 Houston.

“Yordan's hit two balls 111 to center field that haven't been homers. It’s crazy,” says Bregman, recalling a similar shot in Game 3 that center fielder Leody Taveras brought back over the fence to rob a home run. “I've never seen it before in my life. And for him to come through like that time and time again for us, it's huge.

“And then Abreu coming up with another big swing, it was massive for our team.”

You’d think Abreu had the best job in baseball, hitting behind Alvarez, but the year has at times been a struggle for the White Sox legend. He’s found a groove in October, hitting four home runs, three of them at least 430 feet.

Even if there’s not much on the table when he comes up.

“It’s been difficult at times, I’m not going to lie,” says Abreu through a team translator. “The most important things are the victories. If we keep getting the victories, I’ll continue hitting there.”

Um, why is it so difficult?

“He drives in all the runs.”

When told of his Cuban countryman’s gripe, Alvarez allowed a little grin.

“Like I always say, if they leave a pitch over the middle of the plate, and I’m able to make contact, I’m going to try to drive them in,” he says. “Both of us couldn’t have missed (Bradford). I couldn’t get it done.”

'He does that every day'

OK, so sometimes he’s pretty modest. But he does have his pride, and a good memory. When asked if this October was his most locked-in, he offered a mild rebuttal.

“I don’t know. I think 2021 was also pretty interesting,” he said, to the laughter of onlookers.

That’s fair. Alvarez posted a .315 average and 1.049 OPS and the Astros reached Game 6 of the World Series before falling to the Atlanta Braves. And 2022 wasn’t too bad.

Who could forget his two ninth-inning home runs to almost singlehandedly knock Seattle out of the AL Division Series? Or his gargantuan go-ahead home run off Jose Alvarado in the sixth inning of Game 6 of the World Series, a shot that made it rain champagne hours later?

But he batted .192 last postseason, drawing six walks to 16 strikeouts. Yet even at his less than best, he had a massive impact on Houston’s championship.

As for this year?

“He’s the best hitter in the game, hands down. He does that every day,” says center fielder Mauricio Dubon, who had five hits in nine at-bats in Games 3 and 4. “It’s a little bit more magnified because it’s the postseason. But he does that every day.

“He can beat you with a single to left field, or he can put it 460 feet dead center. Not many guys can do that. It’s crazy. The other team doesn’t want you to beat him.

“At the same time, it’s inevitable.”

It’s starting to feel that way, even if Alvarez, 26, strangely slips under the radar. The loudest boos during pregame introductions here are for Altuve and Bregman, members of the Astros teams who partook in the 2017-18 sign-stealing scheme.

Yet the Rangers were terrible those years. You’d think the guy squeezing the life out of their 90-win team, unsullied by scandal, might attract more enmity.

Oh, well. The Astros, now in their seventh consecutive ALCS, have responded as both internal and external observers believed – very much alive and likely now the favorites to win two of these final three games.

“When you give hope to the Houston Astros and some fuel, some adversity too, we take that really well,” says McCormick. “We had a huge amount of confidence coming here.”

It’s only growing. Four relievers covered the final 6⅔ innings, with high-leverage stars Hector Neris, Bryan Abreu and Ryan Pressly getting a needed night off. Justin Verlander will pitch Game 5. And the Astros have outscored the Rangers 57-18 the past five games at Globe Life.

They’ll also have the best player on the field, perhaps any field, batting cleanup.

“You can’t pitch around him because there’s danger in front of him,” says Game 4 winning pitcher Ryne Stanek, “and danger behind him. You’ve got to pitch to everybody.”

No, Alvarez is not a one-man team. Just one man who influences outcomes like few before him.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Astros even ALCS with Rangers with dominant Yordan Alvarez leading way