Houston Astros' Star Yordan Alvarez Dominates This Specific Pitch in a Way That No One Else Does
The Houston Astros toppled the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night 6-4 to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five American League Division Series.
As a result, the defending champions are now just two wins away from heading back to the American League Championship Series.
Houston got a great pitching performance (6.0 shutout innings) from Justin Verlander in the win, while also getting a multi-home run performance from slugger Yordan Alvarez.
He homered early in the game off starter Bailey Ober and also took reliever Caleb Thielbar deep in the seventh.
Alvarez is one of the most feared hitters in baseball and this is part of the reason why.
Per Inside Edge on social media:
Yordan Alvarez is one of the best changeup hitters in the league. He has the most home runs (18) and best SLG (.783) since the 2022 season on changeups.
Alvarez just has ridiculous plate coverage and there's almost nothing you can throw him that he can't get to. He can catch up to premium velocity, so as a result, you want to throw him offspeed.
Well, from right-handers, sliders and curveballs tend to break right into the heart of the plate, so those don't work great.... Changeups which tend to break down and away are then the preferred way of throwing him, but those clearly don't work either.
Even in a year in which he battled an oblique injury, Alvarez hit 31 homers and brought in 97 runs. He hit .293.
He owns a .257 career playoff batting average with eight homers and 29 RBI.
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