Astros DH Yordan Alvarez Hits Walk-Off Home Run v. Royals

Even during his worst offensive stretch of the season, Houston Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez is still producing at an MVP level, hitting a walk-off home run for the Astros on Monday.

Houston Astros fans celebrated the Fourth of July with their own fireworks display in the ninth inning, courtesy of designated hitter Yordan Alvarez.

Alvarez was in the midst of one of his worst offensive stretches of the season, hitting around .230 heading into Monday's game. 

However, even with those rough numbers, he still posted an OPS of 1.000 over that time. In the ninth inning on Monday,

Walk-off home run for Yordan Alvarez!

(via @astros)

pic.twitter.com/UND6RE8n2G

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) July 4, 2022

It was Alvarez's 24th home run of the season, still five homers back of Aaron Judge, who is well ahead with the league lead.

However, Alvarez might have even better numbers than Judge at the moment, currently hitting .310/.410/.653 with 24 homers, 57 RBI and an OPS+ nearing 200.

For context, a league-average OPS+ is 100, so he's 100 points better than that, which is an insane statistic in itself.

Also, while he's hitting .238 over his last seven games, he's slashing .387/.476/.792 in his last 30 games with 12 homers, 32 RBI, 16 walks, 19 strikeouts and 24 runs scored.

Alvarez is leading the AL in OPS, slugging and OPS+ through Monday's game and he's been nothing short of the leader on this Astros team to date this season.

That extension he signed earlier this season is looking better and better for Houston as Alvarez looks to become the first Astros player to win AL MVP since Jose Altuve in 2017.

Houston has three more games against the Royals this series and with the win on Monday, they improved to 52-27 on the season 14 games clear of the second-place Seattle Mariners in the AL West.