The Houston Astros finally got the offensive output they had long been waiting for on Thursday night. The team's stretch of eight games scoring five runs or fewer ended in a dominant 7-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, during which Houston mustered 12 hits.
Carlos Correa, Christian Walker and Victor Caratini each had two-hit performances individually. Jesús Sánchez, who entered the contest in the midst of an 0-28 slump at the plate, exploded for a 5-5 outing — the second five-hit game of his big-league career.
The Astros will be looking to keep that offensive momentum going through the rest of their four-game tilt against the Orioles, with additional reinforcements in the form of Yordan Alvarez returning to the lineup in the near future.
Alvarez could play a major role in the Astros' late-season push
Fortunately for the Astros, their recent slide — a 3-6 record in their last nine games, during which they've averaged just 2.1 runs per game — has coincided with a 2-7 skid by the Seattle Mariners, the club providing Houston the stiffest competition in the division. The Astros lead the AL West by a narrow two-game margin heading into play on Friday.
The Mariners stocked up on bats at the trade deadline, adding Eugenio Suárez and Josh Naylor to a lineup that already possessed the likes of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena.
The Astros followed suit by acquiring Correa and Sánchez, but The Athletic's Chandler Rome believes Alvarez will have the most significant impact on the club's ability to maintain its advantage over the Mariners.
"Alvarez’s mere presence will change the entire complexion of Houston’s unbalanced lineup and make opposing pitchers more wary of how they approach the hitters around him," Rome wrote. "How effective he will be after a three-month absence is a legitimate question, but just slotting him amid the slew of right-handed hitters atop the Astros’ order will be a benefit. If Alvarez can produce to his capabilities, it could start to solve the team’s scoring woes while catapulting the lineup into a formidable threat for the season’s final five weeks."
Alvarez — a World Series champion, three-time All-Star and the 2019 American League Rookie of the Year — has been limited to just 29 games this season, during which he has hit .210 with three home runs and 18 RBIs. The Astros placed Alvarez on the injured list on May 5 with a right hand fracture.
But his MLB return could be around the corner, as indicated by his performances during a rehab assignment with the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Astros' Double-A affiliate. Alvarez went 2-4 at the plate in his debut this past Tuesday before going 3-4, with two doubles, in his second game on Thursday.