Jake Meyers is sent to Triple-A<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI think it\u2019s a beautiful experience to be able to start the All-Star Game,\u201d Alvarez said Saturday, through an interpreter. \u201cI think it\u2019s every player\u2019s dream to be able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Alvarez was limited to 48 games by injuries, including a fracture in his right hand that sidelined him for 100 games and an ankle sprain that curtailed his season in mid-September. It ended his streak of four straight seasons surpassing 30 home runs, while the Astros, wanting for his presence, missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016.<\/p>\n
A healthy Alvarez has roared back this season. Entering Saturday, Alvarez led all qualified major-league hitters in offensive categories including OPS (1.055), total bases (198), on-base percentage (.431) and slugging percentage (.625). He paced the American League in home runs (27) and ranked second among qualified AL hitters in batting average (.319).<\/p>\n
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\u201cI came this year hungry to be able to stay out there on the field,\u201d Alvarez said. \u201cI think it\u2019s something unfortunate what happened last year. And I think the numbers (represent) the bit of rest of that I had from last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Astros manager Joe Espada said he believes Alvarez \u201cmade huge strides in how he takes care of himself, from nutrition to how he rests and works out\u201d that have aided his availability. Alvarez has started all but two of Houston\u2019s first 91 games this season, playing 74 at designated hitter and 14 in left field.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is probably the best first half I\u2019ve seen of a position player at the major leagues,\u201d Espada said. \u201cIt has become more difficult to hit now than it was when I first started coaching (so) that how consistent and how good he is, sometimes you scratch your head wondering how he makes it look this easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Espada said he convened his team prior to Saturday\u2019s game against the Rays at Daikin Park to announce Alvarez\u2019s selection to the All-Star team, which surely surprised nobody given his numbers.<\/p>\n
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\u201cYordan\u2019s so shy, he doesn\u2019t want any recognition, humble guy,\u201d Espada said. \u201cBut we told him not only what he means to the organization as a baseball player, like what you guys see on the baseball field, but also just a great teammate, a good father, good husband. Just a good guy to be around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even by Alvarez\u2019s standards, his on-field performance this season has been impressive. His average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate all ranked among the top 2 percent of major-league hitters entering Saturday, per Baseball Savant. His 15.4% walk rate would mark a career-high for a full-length season.<\/p>\n
The latter reflects opponents\u2019 caution with Alvarez. He has seen his lowest rate of in-zone pitches since his rookie year in 2019, yet he has wreaked damage with opportunities afforded him. His OPS entering Saturday was 84 points higher than the second-highest among qualified hitters, that of Juan Soto.<\/p>\n
Alvarez has authored multiple first-half highlights, including a June 12 game in Kansas City in which he homered twice in the first inning, his five home runs across a three-game span May 25-28 at Texas, and his tying the Astros franchise record with his seventh career grand slam June 30 against the Twins.<\/p>\n
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Where the Astros, who were 43-47 entering Saturday, would stand without Alvarez\u2019s production and consistency anchoring their lineup is a sobering thought. Barring changes to the AL roster, the Astros\u2019 one All-Star selection this year would be the team\u2019s fewest since 2014, when only Jose Altuve was selected.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s All-Star Game will be played on July 14 at Citizens Bank Park. Alvarez, who has already said he does not have interest in doing the Home Run Derby, said he hopes to take in the experience with his family again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been there before with me,\u201d Alvarez said, \u201cand I think my son that plays baseball, who loves baseball also, is going to have a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez earned a spot on the AL All-Star team for the July 14…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-361444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}