The Houston Astros are the American League champions in 2021 and a significant player in the ALCS outcome was designated hitter Yordan Alvarez. The 24-year-old power hitter had a monster series and takes home ALCS MVP honors.
"It means everything," Alvarez told reporters after he was awarded the ALCS MVP trophy. "I think there are a lot of things that I could say that's behind the trophy, but all I can say is it just means everything."
In the six-game series, Alvarez hit .521/.538/.869 with three doubles, a triple, a home run, six RBI and seven runs scored. He got at least one hit in every single game. It wasn't just the numbers, though, it was his big hits and imposing presence in the middle of that Astros batting order that scored 37 runs in six games.
Let's walk through the series the big man had.
In Game 1, Alvarez got the Astros on the board first with a sac fly in the bottom of the first.
Despite getting blown out the next two games, Alvarez still collected a hit in each.
In Game 4, with the Astros nearly facing a 3-1 series deficit, Alvarez did his part in the huge ninth-inning rally with an RBI single.
In Game 5, Alvarez took over. He homered to lead off the second. He singled off the Green Monster in his next at-bat. He hit a two-RBI double off the Monster in the top of the sixth to give the Astros some breathing room with a 3-0 lead. Notice he drove home all three runs to that point.
In Game 6, he doubled home the first run of the game in the first inning. Next at-bat, he doubled again. He tripled and scored in the sixth for a 2-0 lead, meaning he drove home one of the Astros' runs and scored the other at the time. He would single in the eighth for a four-hit game.
Over the final two games of the ALCS, Alvarez had seven hits. The entire Red Sox team had five. According to ESPN Stats, Alvarez is the first player, ever, to out-hit the entire opposing team over the final two games of any series in MLB postseason history.
Though the Astros obviously had several players worthy of praise in this series, Alvarez set himself apart and made himself the easy pick for MVP.
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