Alvarez hits a pair of home runs to spark Astros

HOUSTON -- When Yordan Alvarez drilled a two-run blast in the third inning of Saturday's American League Division Series opener against the Twins, he responded with a bat flip that easily could have been seen from space.

When he went deep again four innings later, he may have launched his bat into orbit.

Alvarez logged his first multihomer game in the postseason as the Astros took Game 1 of the ALDS from the Twins, 6-4, in front of an announced sellout crowd of 43,024 at Minute Maid Park.

Jose Altuve set the tone for Houston's victory with a leadoff blast on the first pitch he saw -- but Alvarez stole the show and reminded those watching why he's one of the most dangerous sluggers in baseball.

"[Alvarez is] just one of the best left-handed hitters that I've played with, and one of the best hitters I've played with," said starter Justin Verlander, who tossed six scoreless frames en route to earning the win. "So to me in these moments, it's not surprising to see what he's capable of."

Unfortunately for opposing pitchers, it also doesn't really matter which side of the mound they attack him from.

Alvarez's first homer came off Twins right-hander Bailey Ober, who got the vaunted slugger to swing through an elevated four-seamer for a strikeout in his first at-bat. When the two met again in the third inning, Ober hung a changeup that Alvarez promptly drilled out to right field.

After Minnesota rallied against Houston's bullpen to pull within one run in the seventh inning, Alvarez came to the plate with the Astros in need of insurance. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli opted to go to southpaw Caleb Thielbar, who had not allowed a home run to a left-handed hitter all season.

Until Saturday, that is.

Thielbar served up a sweeper down and away that caught a corner of the zone, and Alvarez did not miss it. He watched the ball fly for a beat, and once it hit the right-field foul pole, he spiked his bat in triumph as he began his trip around the bases.

Add that to the ever-growing list of times Alvarez has come through for the Astros in a big moment in the postseason.

"When I go up there, [I] try not to think about the situation, try not to think about the noise," he said in Spanish through interpreter Jenloy Herrera. "[I] just say to myself, 'I'm the only one that can get the job done at this moment.'"

In the regular season, platoon matchups proved no problem for Alvarez, though his slugging percentage was significantly higher against righties (.625) than lefties (.507).

"You'd still probably rather take your chances bringing your good lefties in there and giving guys an opportunity to get him out," Baldelli said. "He just hit an off-speed pitch, stayed through it and found the barrel. He's strong. He doesn't have to get all of it to hit the ball out of the ballpark."

The Astros and Twins entered the ALDS with starkly contrasting recent histories. Houston, simply put, has been there before, having reached the ALCS in six consecutive years. Minnesota, on the other hand, won its first postseason game in nearly two decades as it swept Toronto in the best-of-three Wild Card Series.

Since 2003, the Astros lead the Majors with 70 postseason wins, whereas the Twins' four such victories in that span are the fourth fewest. Leading up to Saturday, Houston's veteran players stressed that prior exposure to playing in October gives them an advantage.

In Game 1, experience won the day, starting with the longest tenured Astro.

Altuve hammered a first-pitch fastball from Ober a Statcast-projected 377 feet to the train tracks in left field, sending the hometown crowd into a frenzy with the third leadoff blast in Astros playoff history. His 24 postseason homers trail only Manny Ramirez (29).

After enduring an 0-for-25 skid to open the 2022 playoffs and failing to drive in a run as the Astros marched to their second World Series championship, Altuve needed to see only one pitch to begin Houston's '23 run on a better foot.

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"That really got the fans into it right away," manager Dusty Baker said. "There was a lot of electricity in the building, and after that homer … things caught on fire quickly."