(SportsRadio 610) - Jose Altuve's peace out shot vs Yordan Alvarez's. How do they compare?
Altuve's walkoff home run in Game 6 of the 2019 ALCS is the best walkoff in franchise history. No doubt.
A walk-off bomb in the ALCS to send your team to the World Series is bigger than a walk-off in Game 1 of the ALDS. That's obvious, but there are some things that make Yordan Alvarez's dinger more impressive.
Here are two reasons:
THE LAYOUT FOR THE NEXT GAME
Altuve: Gerrit Cole, who had dominated the Yankees earlier in the series, was going to pitch Game 7 on full rest. However, Game 6 was a bullpen game in which the Astros used seven different relievers, capped off with closer Roberto Osuna giving up a game-tying two-run shot to DJ LeMahieu. If Altuve hadn't hit a homer in the bottom of the ninth then the pitching options would've been limited in extra innings and the pen would've been limited in Game 7.
Alvarez: If the Astros don't win Game 1 then they would've been in a situation where they'd have to beat Seattle three times out of four with Luis Castillo on the mound for the Mariners in the next game.
Winner: Alvarez. Cole, the best pitcher in the world at the time, on the bump in a decisive game is a more comfortable situation than having to beat a hot team three outta four times starting with Castillo on the mound.
THE PITCHER IT WAS HIT OFF OF
Altuve: Despite dumbass Cody Bellinger acting like it's unheard of for someone to hit a clutch postseason homer off of Chapman, it has been done many times including before and after Altuve did it. In 2016 Chapman allowed a game-tying bomb to Raji f'n Davis in Game 7 of the World Series. In Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS Chapman allowed a homer to Mike Brosseau, whose head he had thrown at earlier in the year. The notion Altuve needed a buzzer to homer off of Chapman was a joke. If you want to talk realistic cheating theories, Chapman has fallen off since they started searching for sticky stuff on pitchers. Chapman has been broken so bad he isn't even showing up to New York for the playoffs this year.
Alvarez: Yordan hit his walkoff off the reigning Cy Young Award winner, not an unclutch broken soul.
Winner: Alvarez.
A wise man once told me that sports are fluid and what's true today may not be true tomorrow. Altuve's homer is the GOAT, but if the Astros get to the World Series this October, or win the whole damn thing, we will need to reevaluate this discussion because it felt like the Astros were in serious trouble if they lost that game.
What a time to be alive.
