He may be a rookie, but Yordan Alvarez is already making Major League Baseball history…
The 22-year-old Cuban professional baseball first baseman and outfielder for the Houston Astros homered and knocked in a pair of runs on Monday in an 11-1 winover the Oakland A’s, making him the first player to have 35 RBIs in his first 30 career games since runs batted in became an official statistic in 1920.
Alvarez has surpassed Albert Pujols, who had 34 RBIs in his first 30 games with the St. Louis Cardinalsin 2001.
“I was very happy and very grateful [about the record], something I just found out about when I got here to the clubhouse,” Alvarez said through an interpreter.
“Especially with [Pujols], it’s an honor and a privilege. When we were in Anaheim, I spoke with him, and he gave me a lot of advice, a lot of information to help me out.”
The left-handed slugger is hitting .342 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs since he made his MLB debut with the Astros on June 9.
At the time, he was tearing up the Pacific Coast League, with 23 home runs and 71 RBIs in 56 games.
Alvarez was one of three Cuban-born Astros players — along with Yuli Gurriel and Aledmys Diaz— to homer in the 11-1 trouncing of the A’s on Monday. That had happened only once before in MLB history, when Jose Abreu, Alexei Ramírez and Dayan Viciedoall homered for the Chicago White Sox in 2014.
