\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, really well,” Espada said. “We wanted to come out here and win a series, and we did that. I thought our guys competed well. I thought we did the right thing, coming out here and getting back in the race.\n\n“We’re still in first place, but I thought the energy was almost like a playoff series. That’s the commitment we expect 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 for the cycle at any level before Sunday afternoon. Not while he was playing in Cuba as a kid, not while he was in the minor leagues, not while he was sitting on his couch with a controller in”,”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 Mc Taggart”,”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″:{“__type name”:”Team”,”id”:117},”Person:670541″:{“__typename”:”Person”,”id”:670541}}} window.adobeAnalytics = {“reportingSuiteId”:”mlbglobal08,mlbcom08″,”linkInternalFilters”:”mlb”} window.globalState = {“tracking_title”:”Major League Baseball”,”lang”:”fr”} window.appId = ” /*–>*/
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SEATTLE — Astros slugger Yordan Alvarez had never hit a cycle at any level before Sunday afternoon. Not when he was 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.
“Not even on PlayStation,” he said.
One pitch after Alvarez was briefly hobbled by a foul ball to his shin, he hit a double 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 home run, 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 major leaguer this year to reach the cycle (Wyatt Langford on June 30) and the second to do so in T-Mobile history (Miguel Tejada on Sept. 29, 2001).
“It’s not easy to do, especially for a hitter,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “He was able to hit the ball, which looked like it was 150 yards away, that home run. And then to be able to hit a triple shows not only how good a hitter he is, but how athletic he is.”
Alvarez was able to retrieve the ball he hit for the double and after the game he was also given the home run ball. The fan who found it, Amy Franz, returned the ball to Alvarez and received a ball signed by the slugger.
“I’m really excited,” he said. “I felt a little pressure at that point, but I knew I needed a double and when I hit the ball I thought, ‘There it is.'”
Alvarez opened his historic effort with a first-inning single off Bryan Woo, and three innings later added his 20th home run of the year, also off Woo. The home run hit the right-field upper deck facade, traveling a Statcast-projected distance of 429 feet.
Alvarez tripled in the sixth inning on a fly ball to center field that was nearly intercepted by Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez, who injured his right ankle jumping on the wall and was removed from the game.
“It was a confusing play,” Alvarez said. “When I hit the ball, I thought it 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 went down, and he went down. I just knew I had to keep running out there.”
Altuve completed his cycle last year at Fenway Park by hitting a pitch from Kyle Barraclough over the Green Monster for a home run and Houston’s first cycle since Brandon Barnes on July 19, 2013. Altuve isn’t surprised Alvarez joined him on the Astros’ cycle list.
“He can run,” Altuve said. “He can hit a lot of balls in the gaps, singles and home runs. He’s the perfect guy to get multiple cycles.”
Alvarez repeatedly came to bat with a triple to go to complete the cycle, but he couldn’t do it. His triple Sunday was just the sixth of his five-year career.
“I think the triple is probably the hardest part, but when you get on the field, it’s not really something you think about, ‘Hey, I want to make the cycle,’” he said. “To make the cycle, you really have to have a really good day.”
Alvarez had to receive treatment on his shin because of the foul ball and said he had inflammation, although he didn’t think it was anything serious. Despite home runs from Alvarez and Jeremy Peña, the Astros lost the final game of the three-game series in Seattle.
“I thought we played really well,” Espada said. “We wanted to come out here and win a series, and we did that. I thought our guys played well. I thought we did the right thing, coming out here and getting back in the race.”
“We’re still in first place, but I found the atmosphere was almost like a playoff series. That’s the commitment we expect from our players.”