\n\n”,”providerName”:”Twitter”,”providerUrl”:”https://twitter.com”,”thumbnail_url”:null,”type”:”oembed”,”width”:550,”contentType”:”rich”},{“__typename”:”Markdown”,”content”:”“I thought we played really well,” Espada said. “We wanted to come here and win a series, and we did that. I thought our guys performed well. I think we did what we had to do, come here and get back in this race.\n\n“We’re still in first place, but I thought the energy almost felt like a playoff series. That’s the kind of dedication we want from our players.””,”type”:”text”}],”relativeSiteUrl”:”/news/yordan-alvarez-hits-for-cycle”,”contentType”:”news”,”subHeadline”:null,”summary”:”SEATTLE — Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez had never hit a cycle at any level until Sunday afternoon. Not when he was a kid playing in Cuba, not when he was in the Minor Leagues, not when he was sitting on his couch with a controller in his hand.”,”tagline({\”formatString\”:\”none\”})”:null,”tags”:[{“__typename”:”InternalTag”,”slug”:”storytype-article”,”title”:”Article”,”type”:”article”},{“__typename”:”TeamTag”,”slug”:”teamid-117″,”title”:”Houston Astros”,”team”:{“__ref”:”Team:117″},”type”:”team”},{“__typename”:”PersonTag”,”slug”:”playerid-670541″,”title”:”Yordan Alvarez”,”person”:{“__ref”:”Person:670541″},”type”:”player”},{“__typename”:”GameTag”,”gamePk”:745230,”slug”:”gamepk-745230″,”title”:”2024/07/21 HOU@SEA”,”type”:”game”},{“__typename”:”ContributorTag”,”slug”:”brian-mctaggart”,”title”:”Brian McTaggart”,”type”:”contributor”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”apple-news”,”title”:”Apple News”,”type”:”taxonomy”},{“__typename”:”TaxonomyTag”,”slug”:”key-moments”,”title”:”Key Moments”,”type”:”taxonomy”}],”type”:”story”,”thumbnail”:”https://img.mlbstatic.com/mlb-images/image/upload/{formatInstructions}/v1721614761/mlb/d1uwiv4zs6z5hwtjliff”,”title”:”Yordan Alvarez hits for the cycle in Astros final loss to Mariners”}},”Team:117″:{“__typename”:”Team”,”id”:117},”Person:670541″:{“__typename”:”Person” ,”id”:670541}}} window.adobeAnalytics = {“reportingSuiteId”:”mlbglobal08,mlbcom08″,”linkInternalFilters”:”mlb”} window.globalState = {“tracking_title”:”Major League Baseball”,”lang” :”nl”} window.appId = ” /*–>*/
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SEATTLE — Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez had never hit a cycle at any level until Sunday afternoon. Not when he was a kid playing in Cuba, not when he was in the Minor Leagues and not when he was sitting on his couch with a controller in his hand.
“Not even on PlayStation,” he said.
One pitch after Alvarez was briefly hampered by a foul ball on his shin, he doubled down the right-field line in the eighth inning to complete the 10th cycle in club history and the first since Jose Altuve on July 28 of last year in Boston.
Alvarez went 4-for-4 with a single, a homer, a triple and a double — in that order — in the Astros’ 6-4 loss to the Mariners at T-Mobile Park. He’s the second player in the majors this year to hit for the cycle (Wyatt Langford, June 30) and the second to do so in T-Mobile history (Miguel Tejada on Sept. 29, 2001).
“That’s not easy, especially for a slugger,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He could hit the ball — it looked like it was 500 feet, that home run. And then to hit a triple tells you not only what a good hitter he is, but how athletic he is.”
Alvarez was able to retrieve the ball he hit for the double and was given the home run ball after the game. The fan who came up with it, Amy Franz, gave the ball back to Alvarez and got an autographed ball from the slugger.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “I felt a little bit of pressure, but I knew I needed a double and when I hit the ball I said, ‘There it is.'”
Alvarez opened his historic effort with a first-inning single off Bryan Woo, and three innings later he added his 20th home run of the year, also off Woo. The homer hit the gable of the upper deck in right field, traveling a Statcast-predicted 429 feet.
Alvarez tripled on a fly ball to center field in the sixth inning, but the ball was nearly caught by Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez. He injured his right ankle while jumping the wall and was removed from the game.
“It was a confusing play,” Alvarez said. “When I hit the ball, I thought he was going to carry a little bit more and then I saw him jump to the wall and catch the ball, and then I saw him hit the wall and the ball fell, and he fell. I just knew I had to keep running there.”
Altuve completed his cycle last year at Fenway Park by hitting a Kyle Barraclough pitch over the Green Monster for a home run. It was Houston’s first cycle since Brandon Barnes on July 19, 2013. Altuve isn’t surprised to see Alvarez join him on the list of Astros cycles.
“He can run,” Altuve said. “He can hit a lot of balls in the gaps, and singles and homers. He’s the perfect guy to get multiple cycles.”
Alvarez has come to bat a few times and needed a triple to complete the cycle, but he couldn’t do it. His triple on Sunday was only the sixth of his five-year career.
“I think the triple is probably the hardest part, but when you get out there it’s not really something where you think, ‘Hey, I want to do the cycle,'” he said. “To get the cycle, you really have to have a great day.”
Alvarez did require some treatment on his shin from the foul ball and said he was suffering from inflammation, though he didn’t think it was anything serious. Despite home runs by Alvarez and Jeremy Peña, the Astros lost the final three-game series in Seattle.
“I thought we played really well,” Espada said. “We wanted to come here and win a series, and we did it. I thought our guys performed well. I think we did what we had to do, come here and get back in this race.
“We’re still in first place, but I thought the energy almost felt like a playoff series. That’s the dedication we want from our players.”