Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle
The early season finds Yordan Alvarez not yet locked in but ever a threat. After a measured spring, and amid a quiet first series, Alvarez delivered a swing Saturday that proved decisive.
It came two innings after an awkward at-bat. Mets starter Griffin Canning got Alvarez to foul off a sinker and a changeup in the zone, then buried a slider in the dirt. The Houston Astros slugger flailed at it and stalked back to the dugout still seeking his first hit of 2025.
“From the moment I struck out, I was looking for a slow pitch like that,” Alvarez said afterward, through an interpreter.
Article continues below this ad
He arrived to face Canning again in the sixth, with a runner on first base in a tied game. Canning stole a strike with a low fastball, then spun four consecutive sliders. Two missed the strike zone. Alvarez fouled away another under it. The last caught the bottom of the zone.
Alvarez annihilated it. The ball left his bat at 110.6 mph and struck the center-field wall 416 feet away to the right of the Astros’ bullpen fence. Paredes, a below-average runner, scored easily. Alvarez lumbered into second base with the go-ahead hit in a 2-1 Houston win.
It was a welcome sight for the Astros late in a series dominated by pitching. Alvarez went hitless in his first 10 plate appearances of the season, which included three walks and a sacrifice fly. He had put just one ball into play with an exit velocity above the 95 mph hard-hit threshold.
“He’s trying to get a feel for himself right now,” Astros manager Joe Espada said Saturday night. “I don’t think he’s feeling locked in. But once again, he gets the game winning double when he’s not quite there yet. That tells you how good he is.”
Article continues below this ad
Spring training numbers matter little for players of Alvarez’s status, yet he went 5-for-34 with one extra-base hit and 13 strikeouts in Grapefruit League play. Canning retired him in his first at-bat Saturday on a flyout on a pitch well below the zone. Alvarez threw down his bat as he jogged to first base.
One series is a minute sample and Alvarez is always a threat to enact damage. He still may be seeking his form. Alvarez arrived for his final at-bat Saturday with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth. Max Kranick, a right-hander making his first MLB outing since 2022, induced a pop-up on a high fastball.
“Making adjustments,” Alvarez said. “It’s only been three games. Pitchers have been good. Just making adjustments, that’s what the game’s about.”
Houston’s offense overall authored a slow first series. The Astros did not record an extra-base hit in their first two games, the lone major-league team to do that this season. Jeremy Peña ended that drought in their 84th plate appearance, lining a slider from Canning into the front of the Crawford Boxes to open the bottom of the fifth Saturday and break a scoreless tie.
“We were talking about it before the game; we had to find a way to break that,” Alvarez said. “We didn’t even know about it until someone mentioned it.”
Article continues below this ad
Peña said he was “just looking for a good pitch to hit and drive.” But Canning had established his plan by that point. The Mets right-hander threw 47 sliders on 87 total pitches against a lineup with seven right-handed hitters, Alvarez and switch-hitting catcher Victor Caratini the exceptions.
“Big swing,” Espada said of Peña. “Canning was throwing his off-speed pitch a lot today. We just needed to have him miss toward the middle of the plate with that slider and Peña got one there.”
Spencer Arrighetti, Bryan King, Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader combined on a one-hitter Saturday. Framber Valdez, Abreu and Hader worked a 3-1 win in the opener to make meager support stand up. Houston’s hitters combined to go 1-for-17 with men in scoring position and strand 20 baserunners in the series.
“I feel like we were taking good at-bats,” Peña said. “We had some really hard-hit balls that were getting caught. So, we didn’t really change anything. We just kind of stayed with it. It’s early in the year. It’s only three games in. But it was good to get the first one out of the way.”
Article continues below this ad
The top of Espada’s lineup did realize objectives in the series. Jose Altuve reached base six times in three games from the leadoff spot. Isaac Paredes, hitting second, drew two walks Saturday and saw an average of 5.4 pitches in his plate appearances.
Slotting Altuve and Paredes in the 1-2 spots is meant to create more traffic on the basepaths for Alvarez and hitters behind him. Paredes’ patience can give Alvarez a longer look at opposing pitchers. The Astros envision more opportunities like those Alvarez inherited Saturday.
“Yordan is the heartbeat of this lineup,” Peña said. “When he’s going, we’re going. So it was good to see him come in in the clutch and give us the lead.”
