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Culture / Sporting Life

Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz Lose Their Minds Over Yordan Alvarez — The Story of How a Young Slugger’s Legend is Growing

Even a Red Sox Great Can't Help But Be Wowed by the Hitter Who Put Houston on the Brink of its Third World Series in Five Years

BY // 10.22.21

BOSTON — As disappointed Boston Red Sox fans pour out onto Jersey Street, they notice a familiar target and start screaming at Alex Rodriguez, who is perched up on the Fox Sports set. And now A-Rod is about to compare Yordan Alvarez, the young Houston Astros slugger who broke their collective hearts, with one of their ultimate heroes.

“This is the first time in 20 years that a guy reminds me of Big Papi,” A-Rod says minutes after the Astros complete a 9-1 Game 5 win that puts them on the cusp of their third World Series in five years.

Big Papi is David Ortiz, one of the most beloved figures in Boston sports who built his legend on big October moments. Ortiz happens to be sitting next to Rodriguez on the outdoor set amid the madness — and the now mad fans — and he agrees.

“This guy reminds me a lot of me,” Ortiz says.

And so the legend of Yordan Alvarez grows. Nine games into his second postseason, the 24-year-old Cuban hitter with the plate discipline of a much more experienced player is already being compared to one of the recent greats of the game.

The Houston Astros defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-1 behind the pitching of Lance McCullers with a home runs from Yordan Alvarez during the opening game of the American League Division Series
When you hit baseballs as far as Yordan Alvarez does, you need to refuel. (Photo by F. Carter Smith)

Alvarez is at full strength in the playoffs and the aura is building. Swing by swing. This is what anyone who’s closely watched Alvarez as he debuted in the Majors in 2019 and almost immediately started rocketing hits around always imagined he could be in the playoffs. A game changing force.

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Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale is the best he can be these days in Game 5. Nasty, throwing darts with an arrogant, chest-pumping confidence, virtually unhittable. To everyone except Yordan Alvarez.

Alvarez breaks Sale’s spell with booms. A home run atop The Green Monster, among the Red Sox faithful paying more than $1,000 for those coveted seats, to get Houston started. A two run double roped into the left field corner to open up the lead and allow the rest of the offense — especially Yuli Gurriel (3 for 5 with 3 RBI) and Michael Brantley (2 for 5) — to catch up in what turns into a dominant Astros win.

“I left my nuts out there on that mound tonight,” Sales says afterwards. “That’s for sure.”

The lanky 6-foot-6 pitcher, all arms and legs, is folded into a chair in the interview room, looking barely comfortable and pissed. He passed a group of Houston reporters waiting to go down to talk to the Astros while getting off the elevator (old Fenway’s 1912 roots tends to make it a very democratic place.)

Sales’ defiant tone in the postgame makes it sound like he still hasn’t come to grips with what Alvarez did to him. Left-handed hitters aren’t supposed to be able to do that to him after all. David Ortiz himself is the only other left-handed hitter —  back when Sales pitched for the White Sox — who has ever recorded three hits in a game against him. Yordan gets three in a series-shifting playoff game that do more damage than a Karen at a school board meeting.

“He’s a great hitter,” Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez says. “He don’t care it’s a righty or a lefty. He can hit both.”

Alvarez does not seem bothered by much in life. He’s always hit ever since he was a little boy on the island of Cuba oblivious to how much opportunity there could be off it. He always expects to hit. The only thing different now is how much his national profile is rising. New York Times human interest feature? Check? Discussion topic on PTI? Check. Some of MLB’s biggest names (Ortiz, A-Rod, Frank Thomas and Reggie Jackson) recognizing and calling out his talent? Check.

This disciplined masher is not just a Minute Maid Park legend anymore. His feats have gone national.

How Yordan Alvarez Changes Everything

If Alvarez hits like this the rest of the playoffs, a second World Series title becomes infinitely more realistic for the Astros. His bat changes the equation.

In the 2019 playoffs, with Alvarez’s knees already hurting him and not much experience under his belt, he muddle through without being able to make much of an impact. Then he missed almost the entire 2020 season (taking just eight at-bats) due to surgery on both knees.

Now, the baseball world is finally seeing what Yordan Alvarez can do. What he can still become.

“Honestly, I still think he has a little bit to show of his capabilities,” Gurriel says. “There’s still a little bit more left in there. Imagine when he is at his best.”

Yordan Alvarez is like cryptocurrency. You know it’s going to skyrocket up again. You just don’t know how high it’s going to go.

On the day that the Astros get back their 2020 ace version of Framber Valdez, Alavrez shows why he’s talented enough to deserve mention with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Vladimir Guerrero among the best young hitters in the game. One night after one of the most impressive wins of this entire golden age of Houston baseball — that Game 4 late inning rise from the mat with everything stacked against them that brought back visions of Marwin Gonzalez in Dodgers Stadium — the Astros ripped the hearts out of Red Sox fans by showing how bright their future is.

Framber, Yordan, Kyle Tucker. . . that’s the heck of a new nucleus to go with the older forever one of Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman and Lance McCullers Jr. These Astros could be spoiling a lot of beautiful afternoons at Fenway for a long time to come.

“Honestly, I still think he has a little bit to show of his capabilities. There’s still a little bit more left in there. Imagine when he is at his best.” — Yuli Gurriel on Yordan Alvarez

After this one, Alvarez leans against an MLB backdrop in the bowels of the old ballpark, answering reporters questions. Just a few feet away, a truck the Astros are using is being packed up with all the equipment a Major League team travels with. It is anything but a glamorous setting. Complete with the questionable old stains on Fenway’s concrete floor.

But this is where a new star is introduced on the national stage. One who is a real student of the game. Alvarez watches as much video as any of the Astros hitters, using his brain as much as the brawn his hulking frame gives him.

“I’ve seen him throw a lot before,” Alvarez says of Sales, who hasn’t thrown quite like this in years. “I haven’t faced him, but I’ve seen him throw a lot. As a lefty especially, the angle that he throws from can make it a little uncomfortable. But just being able to face him, the one key I was able to take away from that is I want to be able to attack the fastball.”

Alvarez attacks it — and leaves Sales wondering what happened to his visions of dominance. One man happened. Yordan Alvarez. Now, the Astros are one home win (in tonight’s Game 6 or a Saturday Game 7) away from another World Series.

No one in Houston — or Cuba for that matter — who follows baseball is surprised by The Alvarez Game. The Astros front office long felt this was coming. Yordan Alvarez has had his playoff breakout, his first real monster October moment.

The new David Ortiz? Anything seems possible for Yordan Alvarez and the Astros now.

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