'He's a hitter': Yordan goes off once more

HOUSTON -- Another big night with the bat from designated hitter Yordan Alvarez wasn’t enough to rescue the Astros on Saturday night.

Alvarez, the slugger who’s off to a historic start in his big league career, went 2-for-4 with a two-run home run and three RBIs, but the Astros’ two-game winning streak came to an end in an 8-4 loss to the Blue Jays at Minute Maid Park.

Alvarez extended his on-base streak to 14 games, during which he’s batting .407 (22-for-54). It’s the longest on-base streak by an Astros player since George Springer’s 15-game run from Aug. 23-Sept. 9 last season.

“He’s a hitter,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “He’s a hitter with slugger’s power. Those are the kind of guys you want on your team. It doesn’t matter how you get the job done. … Whether it’s a soft single, whether it’s a homer or whatever, this guy has a knack of driving in runs no matter if [he’s facing] a right-hander or left-hander. He’s getting better and better.”

Astros starter Cristian Javier gave up a career-high-tying five runs in 5 1/3 innings, allowing a two-run homer to Cavan Biggio in the second and a long solo homer to Danny Jansen in the third, spotting Toronto a 5-0 lead. Alvarez’s opposite-field homer in the fourth cut the lead to 5-2, and he added an RBI single in the fifth to get Houston to within two runs.

On Friday, Alvarez drove in the 100th run of his career, which made him the fastest player in the expansion era (since 1961) and the seventh fastest all-time to reach 100 career RBIs. He now has 103 RBIs in 115 career games.

“It’s something I’m aware of,” Alvarez said. “I know what I’m doing out there, but something I don’t try to pay much attention to, or focus on. You focus too much on those kinds of things, that can make you a little too anxious out there and try to do too much on the field.”

Despite his punishing swing -- his 114.7 mph single off Tampa Bay’s Ryan Yarbrough on April 30 is the team’s second hardest-hit ball this year -- Alvarez has proven to be adept at handling the bat, as well. He doesn’t even place in the Top 50 in Major League Baseball in average exit velocity, and ranks fourth on the Astros behind Carlos Correa (91 mph), Kyle Tucker (91 mph) and Yuli Gurriel (90.8). Alvarez is at 90.1.

According to Statcast, his homer into the Crawford Boxes on Saturday was 97.2 mph off the bat and his RBI single in the fifth was only 74.7 mph.

“I said a week ago, I saw him getting his balance together and getting his opposite-field power like he did tonight,” Baker said. “It’s a pleasure to watch him hit. He just gets the job done and does what you got to do as a hitter, to really be a hitter.”

With Alex Bregman hitting in front of him and getting on base often, that’s helped Alvarez’s recent success. Bregman has consecutive three-hit games and has a knock in eight of his last nine games, batting .400 (14-for-35) in that span with six RBIs.

“I like to hit behind him because I feel like I have to be prepared,” Alvarez said. “I always think he’s going to draw a walk or get on base with a hit. It helps me feel sharp mentally because I need to be prepared at all times because he is almost always on base in front of me.”

Alvarez, the 2019 American League Rookie of the Year, is still about two months shy of a full season’s worth of games, which is something that amazes him more than his gaudy early-career numbers.

“It’s an honor to be here in the big leagues,” he said. “A couple of years ago, I was in the Minors and fighting to be here in the Major Leagues and was only able to watch on television. It’s something that’s super exciting and sometimes I have to sit back and think, ‘Wow, I’m in the big leagues.’”