Houston Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez is in danger of losing out on his opportunity to win the Triple Crown.
The Houston Astros have had an up and down season, but one player who has been quite the opposite, and actually at some points dominant is designated hitter Yordan Alvarez who has been one of the best batters in the MLB from the plate.
With the performance that Alvarez has had so far this season, he has put himself in a position to be able to win the Triple Crown. However, lately his availability and, in a sense, his performance as well has slipped, and he actually missed games on September 11th and September 12th against the Tampa Bay Rays, which could cost him.
So, let's take a look at Alvarez's performance compared to the rest of the AL when it comes to the key stats of batting average, RBIs, and home runs to see what he has to do in order to win the Triple Crown.
Starting with batting average, Alvarez is in a decent spot in the AL as he is No. 1 in batting average with a .310, but Rays left-fielder Chandler Simpson is just behind him with a batting average of .305.
While Alvarez is in the lead for batting average right now, he must stay consistent, and he may even need to get in a good rhythm at the plate, otherwise, he could lose his advantage over Simpson.
Next, taking a look at RBIs, Alvarez has 96 so far this season, however, that ranks No. 2 in the AL, as first baseman Pete Alonso of the Baltimore Orioles has 100, which ranks him No. 1 in the American League.
With the regular season being about halfway through the final month, four RBIs is quite a bit of ground to make up for Alvarez, especially with Alonso still healthy and looking to add to his cushion.
So, as Alvarez heads into the final stretch of the regular season, Alvarez may have to get a lot more aggressive to enable himself to pass Alonso for RBIs, because if Alvarez does not, he will not be able to win the Triple Crown.
Now looking at home runs, Alvarez has 38 home runs this year, which places him No. 2 in the AL, while Rays' third baseman Junior Caminero has 40 home runs this season.
For Alvarez, this is probably the category that will be the most difficult because most pitchers do their best to limit him and it is very hard to not only get a hit in the MLB, but to hit a home run is even more difficult, especially because the Astros just have 12 games left to play.
With that said, Alvarez has to take advantage of any poor pitches he gets in the final 12 games of the regular season to catch up to and pass Caminero, and while Alvarez has the capability to do that it is going to be very tough t accomplish.
Overall, Alvarez has had an incredible season, but for him to win the Triple Crown, he has to maintain his lead in batting average in addition to catching up to and passing Alonso in RBIs, as well as Caminero in home runs. If Alvarez can accomplish this feat, he will notch his name in history as the second MLB player since 1967 to win the Triple Crown.
