Another ALDS game, another day for Yordan Alvarez to make history for the Houston Astros and break the hearts of the Seattle Mariners.
HOUSTON, TX — Alvarez hit another game-changing home run on Thursday, this time going opposite field with a two-run homer to boost the Houston Astros to a 4-2 victory and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five ALDS. Game 3 is set for Saturday afternoon in Seattle (1:07 p.m. local time), marking the first postseason game in the Emerald City since 2001.
Three things we heard in the Houston Astros locker room on Thursday
Jose Altuve’s defense set tone early
In the top of the third, with Seattle’s J.P. Crawford on second base and two outs, Houston second baseman Jose Altuve ranged to his right on a ball hit by Julio Rodriguez and made an acrobatic play, throwing to first to end the inning. It was the first of two consecutive “jump throws” from Altuve that helped reinforce the importance that Houston manager Dusty Baker puts on defense and it improved the chances of the Astros winning.
https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1580657105559642113/video/1
“People forget he’s a Gold Glover,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said of his middle infield partner. “He’s great at second base and today he showed it by making some really big plays. In the playoffs, you have to play clean defense and we did that tonight.”