Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker homer in Astros’ win over Angels

HOUSTON — Aaron Judge and Juan Soto of the Yankees are the most feared lineup duo in the Major Leagues these days. They’ve combined for 94 homers and 241 RBIs and are rivaling Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the Yankees, Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews of the Braves, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey of the Giants and Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell as historically great tandems.

The Astros feel pretty good about their slugging super duo, as well, especially if they swing the bat like they did in Saturday’s 10-4 win over the Angels at Minute Maid Park. Yordan Alvarez and Kyle Tucker both had four hits, including back-to-back homers in the seventh, to inch the Astros closer to the American League West title.

“We had a big contribution from the bottom of our order and Yordan and Tuck in the middle,” said Astros manager Joe Espada, whose team banged out a season-high 20 hits. “Huge offensive production from everyone.”

The Astros (85-70), winners of eight of their past 10 games, remained five games ahead of the second-place Mariners with seven games remaining. Houston can clinch the division title as early as Monday, when Seattle comes to town for the final three home games of the season.

Tucker missed 79 games earlier this year while recovering from a fractured shin, so he and Alvarez don’t have the bulk numbers of other potent duos in the league. Alvarez’s homer was his 35th of the season, while Tucker followed with his 22nd homer to make it 10-2.

“He didn’t even let me enjoy the homer because I was getting into the dugout and he was already hitting his, but just very happy to have him back,” Alvarez said.

Espada has slipped Yainer Diaz into the third slot in the order, in between Alvarez in the No. 2 hole and Tucker in the cleanup spot, four times since Tucker returned Sept. 6, but he said postgame Saturday he plans to keep them back-to-back going forward. Tucker has an .811 OPS vs. left-handers in 2024 and 1.134 OPS against right-handers, and Alvarez has a 1.028 OPS against left-handers and .916 OPS against right-handers.

What’s more, Alvarez’s .965 OPS against left-handed pitching is the second-highest for a career by a left-handed hitter (since 1900), trailing Barry Bonds (1.189). Tucker is ninth on that list with a .839 OPS against lefties.

“Right now, they’re two of the best lefty hitters against lefty pitching,” Espada said. “I feel good about having those two guys back-to-back against lefties. Right now, I have no intention of putting a righty in between them. They’re so good at what they do and they get tougher when they bring a lefty in because now they’re just thinking about using the other side of the field. They’re tough at-bats.”

Alvarez snapped an 0-for-12 slump when he doubled off the left-field wall in the first inning off Angels starter Reid Detmers, with Tucker following with an RBI double. Alvarez hit into a bases-loaded double play in the second, before a single to left-center in the third, a single to right in the fifth and a Statcast-projected 403-foot homer to left in the seventh. Tucker hit a towering homer to right two pitches later.

“Obviously I wasn’t super comfortable at the plate before, but today [I] was able to tell the difference,” Alvarez said.

Tucker is hitting .405 (17-for-42) with two doubles, three homers, seven RBIs and a 1.167 OPS since coming off the injured list. He’s the 14th player in Astros history to have consecutive four-hit games, with Michael Brantley the last do it on July 5-7, 2019.

“I’m trying to get as comfortable and normal as possible, but the [swing] has felt decent the whole time [since his return],” Tucker said. “The last couple of games or week or so, it’s felt a little better, so I’m going to try to keep having good at-bats and try to do my job and get on base and move guys over and get them in.”

Alvarez’s 164th career homer broke a tie with Cesar Cedeno and put him alone with the ninth-most home runs most in club history. His career-high 52 multihit games are the most by an Astros player since Brantley’s 56 in 2019.

“Things weren’t going well and, thankfully, today things went well,” Alvarez said. “I was trying to stay positive, and today we got the results.”