‘The swing was there’: Alvarez (hand) smooth in 1st spring game
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve will miss not less than the primary two months of the season after having surgical procedure to restore a fractured proper thumb. The regular Michael Brantley goes to hitch him on the injured record to start out the season.
The very last thing the Astros can afford is to not have Yordan Alvarez, one of the crucial feared sluggers within the league, able to go to start out the common season in per week. That’s what made the Astros’ 5-4 win over the Nationals on Thursday at Ballpark of the Palm Beaches such an necessary night time for Houston. And it had nothing to do with the consequence.
Alvarez, who reported to camp in mid-February with a sore left hand and was eased into swinging the bat, made his Grapefruit League debut and went 0-for-3 towards Nationals pitcher Trevor Williams. The outcomes didn’t matter as a lot because the swings. Alvarez hit a pair of fly balls to heart discipline in his first two at-bats — the second discovering the warning observe — earlier than hanging out wanting.
“It felt good to make contact early in the at-bats, and I felt like the swing was there,” he mentioned. “I felt good. Obviously, I feel once I first received in there, I assumed I used to be going to be just a little extra misplaced on the plate [after] not seeing pitchers for a few months, however [the swings] each felt fairly [good], and I do know the season is approaching.”
Alvarez hit the third pitch of every of his first two at-bats on the screws, a lot to the delight of supervisor Dusty Baker.
“I was telling somebody on the bench, I said, ‘Man, if he hits this first ball out of here, I’m going to throw something,’” Baker mentioned. “If it wasn’t for the wind, it would have probably gone out. That was a pleasant surprise.”
Alvarez was on the injured record final July with proper hand irritation and wound up hitting .306 with 37 homers and 97 RBIs within the common season, ending third in American League MVP voting. In the playoffs, he hit three go-ahead homers, together with a momentous three-run shot in Game 6 of the World Series that despatched the Astros to victory.
Although he missed a lot of the Astros’ Grapefruit League video games, he started swinging the bat a few weeks in the past in a construct as much as Thursday. There doesn’t look like a treatment for Alvarez’s hand points, aside from relaxation.
“I’ve been working very hard in the cage and in practice,” he mentioned. “Obviously, I’m not going to get the quantity of at-bats to be totally prepared for the season, however it’s a really lengthy season.”
Alvarez additionally performed six innings in left discipline and made just a few performs, together with going again to the wall to catch a Luis García fly ball within the fourth. Alvarez may see extra time in left to start out the season with Brantley headed to the IL whereas he finishes his restoration from shoulder surgical procedure.
“Since the first day I’ve arrived here, I’ve been working on outfield defense, and I’m ready to play as many games as needed,” Alvarez mentioned.
Alvarez was initially going to get some at-bats in a Minor League sport on the again fields on Friday however felt so good on the plate Thursday, he’ll merely have a traditional exercise day as a substitute. He’ll be again in Houston’s lineup Saturday towards the Nationals within the penultimate sport of Grapefruit League play.
The Astros will go away for Houston after Sunday’s sport and can play Triple-A Sugar Land on Monday and Tuesday, so there’s nonetheless time for Alvarez to get just a few extra at-bats.
“A lot of it depends on how he can handle missing pitches or fouling off pitches you would ordinarily hit hard someplace,” Baker mentioned. “Like I mentioned, I’ll need to see and analyze and assess his progress and the way it seems to be.”
