Yordan battling virus, but you'd never know it by his 2 homers

HOUSTON -- One day after he missed the pregame introductions and went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series with what manager Dusty Baker called a virus, Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez left a couple of Rangers pitchers feeling ill.

Alvarez continued his torrid 2023 postseason by crushing a pair of solo home runs in the Astros’ 5-4 loss to the Rangers in Game 2 of the ALCS on Monday night at Minute Maid Park, becoming the sixth player in history with two multihomer games in the same postseason. He also passed Randy Arozarena for the most homers (12) by a Cuban-born player.

“I didn’t know about that until you just mentioned it now,” Alvarez said. “I’m finding out now, but I’m very happy.”

The two homers by Alvarez -- and a solo homer by Alex Bregman -- weren’t enough offense for Houston, which went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position in losing its second in a row to the Rangers. Alvarez has done his part, though, with six home runs, eight extra-base hits, eight RBIs and a 1.261 slugging percentage in the playoffs.

“He’s been incredible,” Bregman said. “He’s a big-time, big-time player and he’s been huge for us.”

Alvarez hit a Statcast-projected 420-foot homer off starter Nathan Eovaldi into the upper deck in right-center field in the second inning after the Rangers scored four times in the first. He cranked a two-out solo homer to right field in the eighth off reliever Aroldis Chapman to get the Astros within 5-4. It marked his sixth homer in six postseason games, tying Giancarlo Stanton for the most in a team's first six playoff games.

“Like I always say, whenever I go out there, I just try to go out there and look for a pitch to hit, and usually if the pitcher leaves something over the middle of the plate, I can do it,” Alvarez said.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said giving up three solo homers, including two to Alvarez, isn’t enough to justify pitching around the slugger, especially considering Kyle Tucker (0-for-8) and José Abreu (1-for-7) are both struggling hitting behind him this series.

“We weren't thinking about putting him on base, with nobody on there,” Bochy said. “You try to keep him in the park. He's a good hitter. He got a couple of balls he could handle. That's baseball, but no, I didn't want to start putting guys on when we had a lead. That's the last thing I want to do at that point. We attacked them, and he got us a couple of times.”

Baker said Alvarez was dealing with a virus in Game 1. Alvarez confirmed the illness after Game 2, but he didn’t want to divulge details.

“He's fine,” Baker said. “He's better today than he was yesterday. And like I was telling somebody yesterday, as a responsible man, a family man, you go to work, you know? And I never saw my dad in the bed ever sick, and I'm sure he was sick. And sometimes as a man you just go to work.”