KANSAS CITY -- In one of the most prodigious power displays in Astros history, slugger Yordan Alvarez became the third player in franchise history, and the first in more than 30 years, to club two home runs in one inning -- one of which was a grand slam -- to lead the Astros to a 10-8 win over the Royals on Friday at Kauffman Stadium.
Alvarez, who pulled even with the Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber for the Major League lead with his 23rd and 24th homers of the season, set a franchise record by driving in six runs in an inning, coming during the Astros’ nine-run first. He hit a two-run homer to left field in his first at-bat off starter Luinder Avila before crushing his second grand slam of the season off reliever Mason Black.
Alvarez, who went 3-for-5 with a single, joins Lee May (April 29, 1974) and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell (June 24, 1994) as the only players in club history to homer twice in an inning.
Neither Avila nor Astros starter Tatsuya Imai were able to finish the first inning. After the Astros sent 12 batters to the plate in the first, the Royals batted around in the bottom of the inning and scored five times against Imai, who has a 6.43 ERA in 35 innings, to cut the lead to 9-5.
That was all the scoring until the eighth, when the Royals pushed three across to cut Houston’s lead to 9-8. Kansas City stranded the bases loaded when shortstop Jeremy Peña charged a slow roller off the bat of Starling Marte and threw him out at first base by a hair. The Astros’ Brice Matthews clobbered a Statcast-projected 433-foot homer as a pinch-hitter in the ninth for an insurance run.
Peña led off the game with a walk and Alvarez snuck an Avila curveball 368 feet over the left-field wall for an opposite-field, two-run homer. The Royals pulled Avila after two outs and 49 pitches when he walked Peña with the bases loaded later in the inning, and Alvarez destroyed a 1-0 sweeper from Black and sailed it 419 feet over the center-field wall.
Alvarez’s sixth grand slam of his career made it 9-0 -- the most runs the Astros scored in an inning since putting up 10 runs against the Dodgers in a single frame on July 3, 2025. Houston had scored only eight runs in its previous four games.
Alvarez was considered by many to be the frontrunner for the American League Most Valuable Player Award prior to Friday’s game, and he helped further his case with his record-breaking first inning for the Astros.