If the New York Yankees ever have an opportunity to land Houston Astros star slugger Yordan Alvarez, at least they won’t need to worry about how he’d adjust to Yankee Stadium.
Alvarez has long loved hitting in the Bronx, a trend that continued in Tuesday's 9-7 Astros win. The AL MVP favorite went 3-for-5 and had a go-ahead eighth-inning triple, giving Houston a half-game lead over Texas in the AL West.
The Astros’ win came after blowing late leads against the A’s this past weekend.Â
“This is the way we need to come here and play today,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “Any other way wasn’t going to be acceptable. We needed to come here today and play like a team that is hunting to win a division, and we did.”
Having Alvarez in the nightly lineup surely helps, and his history of success at Yankee Stadium bodes well for the next two games.
Houston Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez loves hitting at Yankee Stadium
Alvarez entered Wednesday hitting .333 with nine home runs, 17 RBI and a .968 OPS in 80 regular-season plate appearances at Yankee Stadium. Those are the most home runs he's hit at any stadium outside the AL West, though it would be difficult to blame any Yankees fans for feeling like that total is missing an extra digit.Â
And while comparing Alvarez to famed Yankee killer David Ortiz is admittedly unfair, there’s definitely a familiar feeling when he steps into the batter’s box in the Bronx. Both have similar frames — Alvarez is 6-foot-4 and 237 pounds, whereas the Red Sox typically listed Ortiz at 6-foot-3 and 230 pounds — and possess left-handed swings perfectly built for Yankee Stadium.
Ortiz hit .316 with 16 home runs, 35 RBI and a 1.025 OPS over 247 regular-season plate appearances at the old Yankee Stadium. Those in the Bronx might not appreciate the reminder, but Ortiz also added three more homers in the playoffs, including one in Game 7 of the 2004 ALCS.Â
Even a move to the new stadium in 2009 couldn’t stop Ortiz, who had 15 homers and a .794 OPS in 268 plate appearances at the new venue. Luckily for the Yankees, they didn’t meet the Red Sox there in a postseason series until 2018, two years after Ortiz’s retirement.
Interestingly, Alvarez hasn't yet homered at Yankee Stadium through five postseason games in the Bronx. Given the Yankees’ luck, that’ll probably change this October.Â
If the postseason began today, the Yankees would be the No. 4 seed and host the No. 5 Red Sox in the Wild Card Series. Despite having a worse record than those two, the Astros would have home-field advantage over the No. 6 seed (currently the Guardians) by way of winning the AL West.
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