Álvarez returns from double knee surgery to win ALCS MVP

HOUSTON (AP) — Two years after winning an AL Rookie of the Year Award, Yordan Alvarez has an AL Championship Series MVP to add to his trophy case.

The 24-year-old Cuban was 4—for-4 with two doubles and a triple for the Houston Astros in Friday night’s pennant-winning 5-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox. He drove in the go-ahead run and scored the second.

After missing last year's postseason while recovering from double knee surgery, Alvarez hit an ALCS-record .522 (12 for 23) with one homer, three doubles, the triple and six RBIs in Houston’s six-game victory. He scored seven runs against the Red Sox and got nine hits in his last 13 at-bats, raising his postseason average to .441 with two homers and nine RBIs.

“I was just focused on doing the job,” he said through a translator

Alvarez had a hit every game.

He had an RBI single in the seven-run ninth inning of the Astros’ 9-2 win in Game 4, then hit a go-ahead homer off Chris Sale in the second inning the following night and added a two-run, fourth-inning double for a three-run lead as Houston rolled 9-1.

Alvarez doubled in the a run in the first inning Friday night, then tripled in the sixth and alertly sprinted home from third ahead of the throw from Kyle Schwarber, who had turned an unassisted double play on Kyle Tucker's grounder to first.

“He is just that type of player that single-handedly, he can win you a ballgame,” Boston’s Xander Bogaerts said.

Alvarez batted .277 during the season and set career bests with 33 homers and 104 RBIs, both team highs. He became the second-youngest Astros player to reach 100 RBIs behind César Cedeño in 1974 and the youngest to hit 30 home runs.

He joined Jose Altuve (2019) and Justin Verlander (2017) as Astros winning ALCS MVP following Mike Scott (1986) and Roy Oswalt (2005)...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/lvarez-returns-from-double-knee-surgery-to-win-16556421.php