Yordan plays HERO with clutch eighth-inning home run to lift the Astros!
Yordan doing Yordan things. On Saturday afternoon, the clutch-hitting Yordan Álvarez was as clutch as ever by hitting a 392-foot moonshot to give the Astros a 3-2 win over the Athletics, their sixth straight victory and ninth in their last 10 games. As a key man of the result, rookie starter Hunter Brown had his best outing of the month.
It was the eighth inning and Yordan came up to the plate to lead off against lefty Richard Lovelady, who didn’t want to pitch Yordan inside or even in the middle of the zone. Four or the five pitches Álvarez saw in the at-bat were in the outer part of the strike zone.
The fifth one was an 87-mph slider that the giant star destroyed into the right-field seats to record a solo shot and his 10th long ball of the season.
Yor... you know the rest. pic.twitter.com/hGRz4R54JE — Houston Astros (@astros) May 20, 2023
Yordan drove in two of the Astros’ three runs as he hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning to crack the scoreboard. In that same inning, red-hot Kyle Tucker singled home the Astros’ second run of the game.
Going with what Brown did on the mound, the right-hander threw six innings in which he allowed five hits and two earned runs. He didn’t issue any walks and struck out nine hitters, a career-high for him.
The bullpen was masterful this time in the hands of Ryne Stanek, Héctor Neris (the winning pitcher), and closer Ryan Pressly, who took home his ninth save of the season.
As an additional offensive note, José Altuve got his first hit of the campaign, a double off JP Sears to lead off the contest.
Besides, he made this great play...
The Astros will go for the sweep on Sunday when both teams collide again at 1:10 pm CT. James Kaprielian is announced to start for Oakland and Framber Valdez will get the ball for Houston. See you then!
VIDEOS AND BOX SCORE HERE.
Source: The Crawfish Boxes
