The playoff-hopeful Houston Astros did themselves a favor this week by profitable their high-stakes sequence towards the Texas Rangers, but it surely got here at a price.
The left ankle harm that star slugger Yordan Alvarez suffered in Monday evening’s sequence opener is “pretty significant,” supervisor Joe Espada mentioned, in a growth that might shift the steadiness of the American League playoff image.
“This is going to keep him out for a while,” Espada mentioned. “Let’s not get into days, weeks, any of that. We are going to take [it] one day at a time, but this is going to take some time to heal. We don’t have that many days left in the regular season.”
Alvarez, a three-time All-Star, sustained the harm within the first inning of Monday’s 6-3 win when he landed awkwardly on dwelling plate as he hustled to attain a run, inflicting his left foot to roll to a close to 90-degree ankle.
The 28-year-old Alvarez instantly exited Monday’s recreation however had not been positioned on the injured listing as of Wednesday morning.
The Astros started Wednesday in sole possession of the second American League wild card spot, placing them on monitor to face the Yankees within the Bronx within the best-of-three wild card spherical of the playoffs.
After all, the standings can change dramatically between now and the tip of the common season, which is scheduled to conclude on Sept. 28.
Getting into Wednesday, the Astros had been a half-game forward of the Boston Purple Sox, who held the third and remaining wild card place, and had been three video games in entrance of the Cleveland Guardians and 4 forward of the Rangers, who had been each on the skin trying in.
The Astros trailed the Seattle Mariners by a half-game for first place within the AL West.
No one is taking the Astros evenly — particularly the Yankees, who’ve been eradicated by Houston in 4 postseasons since 2015.
However there’s no denying Houston’s lineup appears completely different with out Alvarez in the course of it.
From 2021-24, Alvarez exceeded 30 dwelling runs in all 4 seasons, whereas his .958 OPS over that stretch trailed solely Aaron Choose’s 1.056 and Shohei Ohtani’s .984 amongst MLB hitters.
This yr, nevertheless, has been a problem for Alvarez, who missed 100 video games from early Could till late August because of a hand harm. General, the lefty-swinging Alvarez is hitting .273 with six dwelling runs and a .797 OPS in 48 video games.
“We need him in there, right?” Espada mentioned. “But there’s other things that we can’t control. It’s a freak accident that happens on a baseball field. That’s not what we need right now, but we do have guys here that understand the situation that we’re in. We’ve got talent. We’ve got guys that want it. We’ve got guys that can fight.”
Alvarez’s harm is the newest for an Astros staff that’s been with out one other massive bat in Isaac Paredes since mid-July because of a proper hamstring pressure. The Astros re-acquired Carlos Correa earlier than the commerce deadline to fill the void at third base, however Paredes may return to the Astros earlier than the tip of the common season.
Houston entered Wednesday ranked twenty first within the majors in runs scored and was averaging 4.3 runs per recreation.
