Big Papi dubs Yordan 'Baby Papi'

Game recognize game. And a big-time recognition happened on the field after Houston’s Game 3 win in the ALCS on Wednesday night.

After Yordan Alvarez went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the Astros’ 8-5 win, the star outfielder joined FOX Sports’ MLB postgame show for an interview. And as soon as he arrived to the stage to talk to Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, and David Ortiz, he got some high praise from Big Papi himself: “Baby Papi.”

It doesn’t take too much digging to find the similarities that Ortiz was alluding to. Beyond the physical similarities (Ortiz is listed at 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, Alvarez 6-foot-5, 225), both have shown a particular knack for showing out in October. Ortiz even said to Alvarez on the FOX set that watching the Astros slugger makes him emotional, almost like he’s looking in the mirror.

It goes without saying that Ortiz, a three-time World Series champion with the Red Sox and a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 2022, had no shortage of memorable playoff moments. Big Papi is MLB’s all-time leader in win probability added in the playoffs, via Baseball Reference, and his 61 postseason RBIs are tied with Jeter for fifth most all-time.

But for Alvarez, whose Astros have reached the ALCS in all five of his MLB seasons, the 2023 postseason is shaking up to be the stuff of legends as well. Through only seven playoff games this year, Alvarez has six homers, 11 runs and 10 RBIs, joining fellow Astro Carlos Beltrán (2004) as the only players with 5+ HR, 10+ runs, and 10+ RBIs in the first seven games of a postseason. Alvarez’s numbers would be even better if not for being robbed of a homer by Leody Taveras in Game 3 on Wednesday night.

But how can Alvarez truly become the next Papi? An epic playoff comeback. The 2004 Red Sox are still the only team in MLB history to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series, doing so against the Yankees in the ALCS, much thanks to walk-off hits by Ortiz in both Games 4 and 5. That series featured a pair of Ortiz’s current crewmates with FOX Sports MLB, Rodriguez and Jeter.

As for Alvarez and the Astros? Houston is attempting to become only the fourth team in MLB history to overcome a 2-0 series deficit with both losses coming at home in a seven-game series. The others to do so were Jeter’s 1996 Yankees, the 1986 Mets and the 1985 Royals, all in the World Series (this excludes the 2020 playoffs, when all the games were all played at neutral sites).