HOUSTON -- Yordan Alvarez needed only one pitch to remind the Astros how much they missed him. Alvarez, who had missed the previous four games because of a sore neck, ripped a single into left field on the first pitch he saw in Saturday’s 6-1 loss to the Phillies at Minute Maid Park.
Alvarez didn’t stop there, hitting a leadoff double into the gap in right-center to start the fourth inning and later drawing a walk in a 2-for-3 return to Houston’s lineup. His presence is needed, considering the Astros’ offense has suddenly fizzled coming off a 5-1 road trip against the Braves and Rays.
“There’s not a whole bunch more to say, other than, ‘This guy’s a great hitter,’” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “The guy missed four games and he comes back and the first swing is a base hit. The situation is, you wish you could send him up there every inning, but you can’t. You just hope Yordan keeps doing what he’s doing and everybody else starts doing better.”
Alvarez has reached safely in each of the 21 games he’s played to begin the season, which is the longest active streak in the American League and is tied for the third-longest streak in the Majors this year. He ranks sixth in the AL with a .934 OPS.
“I’m happy to have him in the lineup,” said Astros starter Cristian Javier, who gave up three runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings. “He works just as hard as all of us.”
Perhaps the return of one of the most feared sluggers in the game can help ignite an Astros offense that has scored just one run in three consecutive games. The Astros have managed only nine hits and two runs -- both coming on solo homers by Jeremy Peña -- in the first two games against Philadelphia.
Phillies starter Aaron Nola held the Astros to one run and three hits in eight innings on Friday, and Zack Wheeler, who lost two games to the Astros at Minute Maid Park in last year’s World Series, threw six scoreless innings Saturday, giving up three hits.
“We’ve faced some pretty good pitchers the last few games,” Baker said. “Like I always say, they ask what’s wrong with the offense and what’s wrong with the hitter, but everybody says hitting is the toughest thing to do in baseball and good pitching beats good hitting. That’s pretty evident.”
Alvarez returned to his usual third spot in Baker’s lineup, with struggling first baseman José Abreu sliding down to the sixth spot -- the lowest spot in the order he has ever started a game. Abreu had a bloop single in the seventh inning Saturday, but is slashing a woeful .243/.276/.279 in his first year with the Astros. Abreu’s 44-game homerless drought is the longest of his career.
“You move guys around depending on how they’re doing, how they’re going,” Baker said. “That’s a big-time RBI spot. That fifth and sixth spot, especially, is a two-out RBI spot. He’s going to hit. But I’m hoping all of them make my job hard on where to put them by being productive.”
Javier, who started the Astros’ combined no-hitter against the Phillies in Game 4 of the World Series, wasn’t as sharp Saturday, giving up six extra-base hits, including a homer to Nick Castellanos in the fourth inning. Considering the struggles of Houston’s offense, there was no room for error.
“His slider today was more inconsistent than it had been,” Baker said. “They’ve got a bunch of left-handed hitters over there. They’ve got as many as we’ve seen. It doesn’t matter much when you don’t score a lot of runs. Our guys don’t like it; we don’t like it. We’ve just got to put that behind us, and we need this game tomorrow.”