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Alvarez’s massive shot gave Houston a big late lead.
Game 6 of the World Series had potential to be the final one. The Astros came in with a 3-2 lead in the series and were returning home to Houston with a chance to clinch. However, early on, the game was a pitcher’s duel as Astros starter Framber Valdez and the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler trade zeroes and both came up with timely outs. That changed in a big way in the sixth inning.
In the top of the sixth, the Phillies had taken a lead thanks to a Kyle Schwarber home run that had broken a 0-0 deadlock. However, the Astros’ offense is a powerful one, and the key people in that were set to come up in bottom of the sixth. As they looked to rally, the Astros then started the bottom of the sixth well after a hit by pitch and a Jeremy Peña single gave them runners on the corners, and brought slugger Yordan Alvarez to the plate.
While Alvarez was one of the best hitters in baseball this year and was good in the Astros’ ALDS sweep of the Mariners, he hasn’t been great in the last two two series against the Yankees and Phillies. Coming into Game 6 of the World Series, he gone just 2-for-19 in the first five games, with no home runs. However, he more than made up for that by demolishing a home run to deep center field.
The titanic blast off Philadelphia reliever José Alvarado put the Astros in front, as they went on to add a fourth run before the inning ended.
While he has struggled in this series, there’s only so long that you’re going to be able to hold Alvarez down. The Phillies found that out the hard way in a very inopportune time.
