BOSTON — With two swings of the bat Saturday, Yordan Alvarez almost singlehandedly beat the Red Sox.
In the first inning, he clubbed a solo shot to right for the first run of the game. Later, in the sixth, he hit another one out to right, this time with a man aboard. Those three RBI more than covered the Houston Astros’ margin of victory in a 5-4 win over the Red Sox.
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“He controls the strike zone, hits for average, he’ll take his walks,” said Alex Cora, identifying Alvarez’ strong points. “For me, he’s up there with (Aaron) Judge, to be honest with you. You bring in a lefty, he hits lefties. I don’t know, it seems like he likes hitting here.”
That’s isn’t Cora’s imagination. Even before Saturday’s power display, Alvarez had slashed .460/.555/.919 in 10 career games at Fenway Park, with four homers and 12 RBI.
“That (left field) wall kind of keeps him close,” said Cora, “He can shoot it the other way and then he can (hit it out to right). The closest thing to David (Ortiz), probably, in the game. Very, very very similar to David Ortiz.”
Cora wasn’t alone in heaping praise upon Alvarez.
“For me,” said Rafael Devers, “he’s the best hitter right now in the big leagues. As a position player, you see him and it looks very uncofortable to pitch to him, so I don’t know how the pitcher does it. But I feel like he’s very good.”
“He just covers so many areas of the plate,” said Red Sox starter Josh Winckowski, who allowed the first of the two homers. “There’s a lot of really good hitters that do have a hole here and there that if you can get to, you can do well. But he just think he covers so much of the plate. I remember last year at Fenway, I threw him a pitch that was at the middle of shins, height-wise, and he scooped it the other way. There’s really not many places where you can attack him.”
As impressive as the numbers cited above are, they don’t take into account what he’s done in the postseason at Fenway. In the 2021 ALCS, Alvarez was 6-for-13 in three games here, with a double, homer and four RBI.
