So long, slump! Yordan homers twice on four-hit night

HOUSTON -- When Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez flied out to deep right field on a ball off the end of the bat in his final plate appearance on Tuesday, he came back to the dugout and told manager Joe Espada he was close to breaking out of his early-season slump.

“Any time he says he’s close, he feels it,” Espada said.

Alvarez carried that feeling into Wednesday night, which was bad news for the Blue Jays. The slugger blistered five baseballs, including a pair that he sent over the fence for his first two home runs of the season, en route to a 4-for-5 outing in the Astros’ 8-0 win at Minute Maid Park. Alvarez was 3-for-24 to start the season before that.

“I still felt good at the plate during all that time,” Alvarez said through an interpreter. “So I knew that it was only a matter of time and obviously, we were able to see it today.”

Behind the two homers from Alvarez and one each from Jose Altuve and Jeremy Peña, the Astros took two of three games from the Blue Jays after getting swept in four games by the Yankees to start the season. Houston outscored Toronto, 19-2, in the series and outhit them, 35-9. Five Astros pitchers combined for a one-hitter in Wednesday’s finale, just two days after Ronel Blanco no-hit Toronto.

“That was something we talked about with the guys, try to get today’s win and go into the off-day with a fresh mind,” Alvarez said. “Obviously, we had been in this situation in the past. It’s too early in the season to be worrying about situations like that. We just have to go out there and win.”

Alvarez pounded the ball all five times he was at the plate -- a 105.4 mph single in the first inning, a 108.2 mph homer in the third, a 109.5 mph double in the fourth and a 109.5 mph homer in the sixth. Even his only out, a fly out to center in the seventh, was scorched. It traveled 404 feet at 105.4 mph off the bat.

“Welcome to Minute Maid,” Alvarez joked about flirting with another homer in the seventh.

Still, he became the first player in the Statcast era (since 2015) to have five batted balls with an exit velocity of at least 105 mph and three batted balls with a projected distance of at least 400 feet in a single game.

Alvarez hit a Statcast-projected 422-foot homer to right-center field off Jays starter Chris Bassitt in the third inning and cranked a 444-foot homer to nearly the same spot off lefty reliever Tim Mayza in the sixth. Alvarez is 8-for-18 in his career against Bassitt, with five homers and 11 RBIs.

“He’s one of the best hitters in baseball,” Bassitt said. “That’s what makes him challenging. He doesn’t really have a weakness other than a four-seam up. I don’t even consider that a weakness, but I don’t have a four-seam. It’s tough.”

It was Alvarez’s 16th career multi-homer game, tying him for second in Major League history for the most multi-homer outings in a player's first 500 games (Wednesday was Alvarez’s 489th game). Only Ralph Kiner (17) had more multi-homer games in that span.

“I always say, for me, he’s up there with the best hitters in the game,” said Altuve, whose seventh-inning homer had a 105.4 mph exit velocity to match Alvarez’s softest hit of the game. “When he gets hot, he does crazy things.”

Espada moved Alvarez to the second spot in the lineup this year, behind Altuve. Alvarez admitted it’s taken some time to adjust to the spot considering Altuve doesn’t see many pitches when he bats and he’s quick to get to the plate in general.

“Sometimes he’s sitting next to me and the next thing I know he’s already over there hitting, so then I need to rush and get ready,” Alvarez said. “As long as I know where Altuve is, I’ll be OK.”

Blue Jays manager John Schneider was hoping to escape Houston without seeing Alvarez get hot. Instead, Toronto had a front-row seat for the resurgent slugger’s laser show.

“He’s tough,” Schneider said. “You hate seeing him come up as an opposing team and manager. He’s an imposing dude and can do damage. He hits righties, he hits lefties. He’s one of the premier hitters in the league, and today he did his thing.”