![\"Houston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/houston-astros-v-san-francisco-giants-san-francisco-california-august-11.jpg\")
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 11: Yordan Alvarez #44 of the Houston Astros hits an RBI sacrifice fly ball in the top of the second inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on August 11, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
After dropping their Saturday contest to the Seattle Mariners<\/a>, the Houston Astros<\/a> will look to take the series from the M\u2019s on Sunday Night Baseball. Houston currently has a 63-61 record and is two games ahead of the Texas Rangers<\/a> for first place in the AL West.<\/p>\n Before the series finale, the Astros announced a fairly surprising decision regarding Yordan Alvarez<\/a>.<\/p>\n Update: The Astros lost 3-2 on Sunday. Yordan Alvarez went 1-for-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n More MLB<\/a> on Heavy: Chicago Cubs Announce Dansby Swanson News During Cardinals Game<\/a><\/p>\n Yordan Alvarez in LF on Sunday GettyHOUSTON, TEXAS \u2013 AUGUST 14: Yordan Alvarez #44 of the Houston Astros singles during the fourth inning against the Seattle Mariners at Daikin Park on August 14, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Alex Slitz\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Yordan Alvarez is getting a VERY rare start in left field for the series finale against the Seattle Mariners.<\/p>\n Alvarez does not play great defense, and for the past few seasons, he\u2019s exclusively been moved to the designated hitter role for the Astros.<\/p>\n Here is the full Houston Astros batting order for 8\/16:<\/p>\n Astros 8\/16: \u201cJ. Pe\u00f1a SS Y. Alvarez LF I. Paredes 3B J. Altuve DH D. Varsho CF C. Walker 1B L. Wade Jr. RF Y. Diaz C N. Allen 2B H. Brown SP\u201d<\/p>\n Astros 8\/16<\/p>\n J. Pe\u00f1a SS H. Brown SP<\/p>\n There aren\u2019t many changes to the Houston lineup, but the reason that Yordan is out in left field is that Jose Altuve<\/a> is back in the order, but he\u2019s the DH today, which puts Nick Allen<\/a> at second base. As you can also see, Hunter Brown<\/a> will get the start for the Stros, and Yainer Diaz<\/a> is forming a battery with Houston\u2019s ace.<\/p>\n Yordan is considered the frontrunner to win AL MVP with the monster offensive season he\u2019s had thus far.<\/p>\n More MLB on Heavy: Los Angeles Dodgers Promote 28-Year-Old Player During Brewers Series<\/a><\/p>\n Inside Yordan Alvarez\u2019s MONSTER 2026 Season GettyHOUSTON, TEXAS \u2013 JULY 31: Yordan Alvarez #44 of the Houston Astros bats during the second inning against the Texas Rangers at Daikin Park on July 31, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Alex Slitz\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Yordan Alvarez has played in 122 games this season, and he is putting up a phenomenal campaign. He\u2019s on Triple-Crown watch, and leads the AL in just about every major hitting category.<\/p>\n Here are his full 2026 stats, with the BOLD numbers indicating they lead the American League:<\/p>\n .321 average, 36 home runs, 88 RBI, 82 runs, 142 hits, OPS+ of 195, and 275 total bases<\/p>\n Yeah, there\u2019s a reason he\u2019s the frontrunner to win AL MVP, and perhaps one of the biggest storylines in MLB over the next month+ will be Yordan\u2019s triple-crown chase.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also added 5.5 bWAR and 86 walks to just 91 strikeouts over 442 at-bats.<\/p>\n More MLB on Heavy: Yankees Fans Split Over Aaron Boone Future Amid New York\u2019s World Series Aspirations<\/a><\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTJ French<\/a> covers the MLB for Heavy. TJ is a graduate of the University of Georgia. He has 2+ years of writing experience.
![\"Seattle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/seattle-mariners-v-houston-astros-houston-texas-august-14-yordan-alvarez.jpg\")
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\nY. Alvarez LF
\nI. Paredes 3B
\nJ. Altuve DH
\nD. Varsho CF
\nC. Walker 1B
\nL. Wade Jr. RF
\nY. Diaz C
\nN. Allen 2B<\/p>\n![\"Texas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/texas-rangers-v-houston-astros-houston-texas-july-31-yordan-alvarez.jpg\")
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\nFollow TJ French on X: @tj_french5 More about TJ French<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – AUGUST 11: Yordan Alvarez #44 of the Houston Astros hits an RBI sacrifice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-408758","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\/408758","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=408758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}