TLDR: Yordan Alvarez launched his 40th home run of the season as Houston clubbed five homers to beat Kansas City 6-2 and grab a one-game AL West lead.
- Thu Sep 1712:30 PM CT
Alvarez's 40th homer of the year
Yordan Alvarez has done a lot of damage in his career, but he'd never gotten to 40 home runs in a single season until Thursday night. He took Royals starter Seth Lugo deep in the fifth inning, and Brian McTaggart summed it up perfectly for anyone who's watched Alvarez grow into this lineup's centerpiece.
Barstool Baseball@StoolBaseballNUMBER 40 FOR AIR YORDAN
It's a career-high by a wide margin. Alvarez's previous best was 37 homers back in 2022, the same year he signed his big extension and helped Houston win the World Series. Getting to 40 slots him sixth on the franchise's single-season list, behind names like Jeff Bagwell, Lance Berkman, and Alex Bregman's 41 from 2019 — with 9 games still left to climb higher. He's also right in the thick of the AL MVP race, sitting 1 home run behind Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero for the league lead.
Alvarez wasn't even the whole story Thursday. Jeremy Peña went off in the same series, homering on the first pitch he saw for the second time in as many days and running his line to 7-for-9 with 3 homers over the set.
Add it up and Houston hit a season-high 5 homers as a team in the 6-2 win, the kind of night that makes a lineup feel dangerous heading into October. Astros improve to 77-76 with the NL East-leading Braves coming to town this weekend to close out the home schedule.
The timing mattered beyond the box score. Boston beat Texas 4-3 the same night, which handed Houston sole possession of first place in the AL West, plus the tiebreaker, with 9 games to go. That's the difference between hosting a Wild Card series and controlling your own division. Still, not everything around this club is settled — Ken Rosenthal raised questions about manager Joe Espada's job security even with the Astros pushing for the division, noting it's unusual for an incoming GM to inherit someone else's hire.
Foul Territory@FoulTerritoryTV"Usually, you want your new GM to pick their own manager." @Ken_Rosenthal isn't sure Joe Espada's job is safe, even if the Astros win the AL West...
None of that noise showed up on the field Thursday. Alvarez is peaking at the best possible time, the lineup is hitting home runs in bunches, and Houston controls its own fate in the West with a week and a half to go. The Braves series this weekend is the last measuring stick before the real stretch run starts.