Alvarez endures long August: 'Nobody stays hot all year'

HOUSTON -- The only run the Astros have managed in the first two games of what has been a frustrating series for them offensively against the Orioles at Minute Maid Park came in the seventh inning Saturday night when Yordan Alvarez singled into right field to score Jose Altuve.

The plucky Orioles, battling for a Wild Card playoff spot, have handcuffed the Astros, holding them to eight hits -- seven singles -- in two games. Pinning Houston’s offensive struggles on one player wouldn’t be fair, but the recent offensive slide by Alvarez in the past few weeks has to be a concern for the Astros, especially considering he continues to deal with right hand inflammation that landed him on the injured list before the All-Star break.

• Box score

“I don't feel pain,” Alvarez said after the Astros’ 3-1 loss on Saturday. “It’s just something that comes up sometimes and bothers me. Obviously, I continue to play. That doesn’t justify the results I’ve been having.”

Alvarez was in the American League MVP race in the first half of the season and earned his first All-Star Game selection, though he didn’t play because he was hurt. He was named AL Player of the Month in June, a month in which he posted a 1.346 OPS with nine homers and 28 RBIs in 23 games.

Here’s how Alvarez’s June has compared to the two months that followed:

June: .418/.510/.835, 9 homers, 28 RBIs, 23 games
July: .286/.432/.714, 7 homers, 14 RBIs, 19 games
August: .234/.326/.312, 1 homer, 10 RBIs, 23 games

“They’re pitching Alvarez tough,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “It’s not a one-man offense. And so, we’ve got to pick it up some kind of way until Alvarez gets his stuff back together. Nobody stays hot all year long.

“I’m not worried about Alvarez. His time is coming. But in the meantime, we need some runners to put the pitcher in the stretch.”

Alvarez has only four extra-base hits in August and isn’t driving the ball like he did in the first half of the season, when he was hitting tape-measure homers. Just as Alvarez took off in early June, the Astros signed him to a six-year, $115 million contract extension, locking up one of the game’s top young sluggers.

On Saturday, Alvarez grounded out in the first and fourth innings before his soft single in the seventh cut Baltimore’s lead to 3-1 with his 80th RBI of the season. He was left on deck when the game ended.

“I know my body, and right now I’m not feeling super comfortable at the plate,” he said. “That’s something that happens throughout the season.”

Complicating matters for the Astros is starting left fielder Michael Brantley (shoulder) is out for the season; utility player Aledmys Díaz, who had been splitting time in left field in Brantley’s absence, has been out for more than a week with a groin injury; and outfielder Chas McCormick dislocated his right pinkie Wednesday.

The Astros’ short-handed offense isn’t the same when Alvarez isn’t himself at the plate. And with the playoffs barely a month away, the Astros aren’t in position, it seems, to consider putting Alvarez on the injured list to rest the hand.

“That’s not something that we've spoken about,” Alvarez said. “I don’t think anybody wants to go on the IL for any type of reason.”

Houston’s woeful offensive performance in the first two games of the Orioles series -- 8-for-59 -- had Baker tipping his cap to Baltimore’s pitching. Orioles starters Kyle Bradish (Friday) and Dean Kremer (Saturday) combined to hold the Astros to six hits and one run in 15 2/3 innings.

“They’re pitching the heck out of us,” Baker said. “They’re throwing everything out of the book at us -- a lot of cutters, changeups, breaking balls. Their pitching and bullpen, we knew it was good coming in here … and before you know it, it’s the fifth or sixth inning and we’ve had one or two hits. You have to give them some credit. You don’t like to do it, but it is what it is.”