DETROIT — Yordan Alvarez was not in the Houston Astros‘ lineup for Saturday’s game against the Detroit Tigers for a rare scheduled day off.
Alvarez started all but one of the Astros’ first 84 games through Friday. That included the first seven of the team’s stretch of 13 games with no off day that runs through next Wednesday.
Manager Joe Espada said the rest day was “penciled in a long time ago” for Alvarez, who turned 29 on Saturday. Alvarez’s lone other off day this season occurred May 24 in the finale of a series at Wrigley Field.
Alvarez entered Saturday hitless over his last three games but leading all qualified hitters with a 1.045 OPS. He was tied for the American League lead in home runs (25) and third in RBIs (56).
Alvarez is one of two finalists to be named the AL’s starting DH for this year’s All-Star Game. He received the second-most votes among AL position players in the first round of fan balloting for the All-Star Game starters, as announced by MLB on Friday, behind Toronto infielder Ernie Clement.