Houston Astros Slugger Yordan Alvarez Blasts Club's Fastest Home Run of Statcast Era
Yordan Alvarez's 27th home run of the year stood out from the rest.
The Houston Astros left fielder crushed a three-run bomb in the third inning against the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday, sending a low-and-inside cutter to the second deck in right field. Alvarez just barely managed to wrap it around the foul pole, giving Houston a 3-0 lead they wouldn't relinquish.
MLB.com's Sarah Langs reported that the 117.7 mile-per-hour home run was the fastest by any Astros batter since Statcast was introduced in 2015. On top of that, Alvarez's homer was the team's fastest base hit of any kind in the Statcast era.
The only harder-hit balls were groundouts by Alvarez and Carlos Correa.
Alvarez came up empty in his other three at-bats Wednesday, but he still managed to extend his on-base streak to 21 games as a result of the home run. In that span, Alvarez is batting .382 with an 1.176 OPS.
On the season, Alvarez is hitting .298 with a .995 OPS.
Alvarez made his MLB debut in 2019, winning AL Rookie of the Year despite only appearing in 87 games. After playing just two games in 2020, Alvarez cracked the 30-home run and 100-RBI marks in 2021, then finished third in AL MVP voting in 2022.
The fact that he has only played in 99 games thus far in 2023 will likely exclude Alvarez from earning very many MVP votes this time around. Still, he is on the verge of a second-straight season with 30-plus homers and a batting average over .300.
Alvarez and the Astros have Thursday off, but will return to action for a road series against the Kansas City Royals over the weekend. First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. ET.
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