How the White Sox neutralized Astros star Yordan Alvarez, 'the best hitter on the planet'

Yordan Alvarez was held to one hit in eight at-bats as the White Sox completed a series sweep of the Astros on Wednesday. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)

The Chicago White Sox have accomplished quite a bit to author an unprecedented turnaround from three straight 100-loss seasons to a playoff team.

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This season and this week, they did something that few teams in baseball have been able to: Put the clamps on Yordan Alvarez.

The Houston Astros' slugger, a Triple Crown threat for most of the season, the major leagues' batting champion and seemingly a lock to be American League Most Valuable Player, found himself neutralized this week as the White Sox swept the Astros in their American League wild-card series.

The White Sox finished their two-game sweep with a 7-3 win Wednesday night at Daikin Park. In that game, they held Alvarez hitless in four at-bats with two strikeouts, including the Astros' biggest plate appearance. For the series, he was 1-for-8 with no extra-base hits.

"They did a good job and what they did worked for them," Alvarez said through interpreter Otto Loor.

ALSO SEE:5 key moments in Astros' Game 2 loss to White Sox

The success against Alvarez wasn't limited to the small sample size of a best-of-3 series. In seven games against the White Sox during the regular season, Alvarez was 4-for-20 with 1 RBI. He had one extra-base hit against Chicago, his fewest against any AL opponent this season.

"I mean, we'll probably have the same attack plan next year, so don't want to give away all the secrets there," White Sox manager Will Venable said with a grin. "But (pitching coach) Zach Bove and the pitching department do a great job of kind of picking zones, picking pitch types that they want to attack him with.

"At the same time, (Alvarez) hits everything, man, and you've really got to do your best to execute and kind of hope for the best. He's just that talented of a hitter. He doesn't really have any holes. The few areas that we believe that we could expose, we've done a good job executing and were able to kind of suppress his offense."

Houston Astros Jose Altuve, left, Carlos Correa, and Yordan Alvarez (44) watch as the Chicago White Sox celebrate their 7-3 win in Game 2 of an American League Wild Card Series, eliminating the Astros from the playoffs, in Houston, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle)

That was epitomized in unquestionably the Astros' biggest opportunity Wednesday. After trimming a 4-0 deficit to 4-3, they put two runners on with one out in the fifth inning with Alvarez - whom Venable called "arguably the best hitter on the planet" - coming to the plate.

Venable summoned Anthony Kay from the bullpen for a lefty/lefty matchup with Alvarez, who hit .265 with 10 of his 42 homers against southpaws this season.

Kay missed outside with his first three pitches before Alvarez took a strike. The fifth pitch, a 97.5 mph sinker on the outer edge, was struck 97.5 mph off the bat by Alvarez - 95 mph is the Statcast threshold for a hard-hit ball - but right to left fielder Sam Antonacci on the left-field warning track.

Kay then walked Isaac Paredes to load the bases before getting Jose Altuve to fly out to end the Astros' last true threat to catch the White Sox.

"I kind of knew that I was gonna be in the pocket to face (Alvarez) and the guys after him, and I feel like we kind of did a good job against him in the regular season, a couple series that we faced him," Kay said. "To be able to hold him to nothing, that's kind of the key to (facing)that lineup, and we did a pretty good job of it.

"At this point in the year, you've gotta take your egos, put them to the side and just do your job. No one's gonna throw a complete game out here. Everyone's gonna get their guys, get their pocket in the lineup and keep it moving, hand it off to the next guy."

WHITE SOX 7, ASTROS 3

ChicagoABRHBIBBSOAvg.Totals36786413Antonacci lf411001.286Doyle cf1010001.000Teel c512103.300Vargas 3b510002.000Murakami 1b500003.125Benintendi dh211110.3331-Acuña pr-dh110000.000Peters cf-lf311111.286Meidroth 2b312310.571B.Montgomery rf400001.250C.Montgomery ss300012.167HoustonABRHBIBBSOAvg.Totals32353115Peña ss412102.375Alvarez lf400002.125Paredes dh200011.167Altuve 2b412101.250Diaz c400002.000Walker 1b400003.000Spence cf400001.125C.Smith rf311102.286Allen 3b300001.000Chicago400003000_780Houston110100000_352

1-ran for Benintendi in the 6th.

E_Allen (1), Spence (1). LOB_Chicago 6, Houston 5. 2B_Antonacci (1). HR_Meidroth (1), off Abreu; Peña (1), off Burke; C.Smith (1), off Burke; Altuve (1), off Burke. RBIs_Teel (1), Benintendi (1), Peters (1), Meidroth 3 (4), Peña (1), C.Smith (1), Altuve (1). SB_Acuña 2 (2), Peters (1).

Runners left in scoring position_Chicago 3 (Antonacci 2, Murakami); Houston 2 (Altuve 2). RISP_Chicago 4 for 9; Houston 0 for 2.

ChicagoIPHRERBBSONPERABurke443308726.75Brazobán1-310001160.00Kay, W, 1-02-300010110.00Hicks200003210.00Fedde200003340.00HoustonIPHRERBBSONPERABrown, L, 0-12-3543123640.50Blubaugh11-300002150.00Lambert302222486.00Abreu22-311116442.45Hader11-320001220.00

Inherited runners-scored_Kay 2-0, Blubaugh 3-0, Abreu 2-2, Hader 1-0. HBP_Brazobán (C.Smith), Fedde (Paredes). WP_Brown.

ABS Challenge_Burke (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Burke (Ball-Overturned to Strike); Lambert (Ball-Confirmed); Vargas (Strike-Confirmed); Murakami (Strike-Confirmed); Spence (Strike-Overturned to Ball).

Umpires_Home, Alex Tosi; First, Ryan Additon; Second, Alan Porter; Third, Edwin Moscoso; Right, Alex MacKay; Left, Paul Clemons.

T_3:05. A_36,015 (41,000).

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Venable acknowledged bringing in Kay with four straight righties behind Alvarez represented a risk, but a move worth it given the urgency of the situation.

"You're kind of in a tough spot where you don't really want to walk him in that situation, and you have the righties behind him," Venable said. "So we thought that our best chance was to fire Anthony Kay against him, hope to get him out, and then hope for the best with Paredes and the righties behind him.

"So it was a gamble. Obviously, Alvarez hit that ball really hard. Antonacci was able to make that play (so) it paid off."

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In the series, Alvarez faced six different White Sox pitchers, with varying repertoires and arm angles. He hit just two balls out of the infield, the line drive to Antonacci and a single in Tuesday's opener against reliever Grant Taylor.

"They pitched him tough - I think they pitched us tough in general," Astros manager Joe Espada said. "I think as a whole, they came in with a pretty good game plan.

"They made sure they came in with the objective of not letting Yordan beat them. If I'm on the other side, I would have come in here with the same game plan. But I thought they executed really well. We couldn't get our bats going. We had some opportunities but just couldn't get that big hit."

The Astros created few run-scoring opportunities for Alvarez, who came up just twice with a runner in scoring position during the series. The offensive failure was team-wide and hardly marred one of the best individual seasons in Astros history that will likely see him join Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell (1994) and Altuve (2017) as Houston players to take home the MVP.

"Obviously, it's a long season," Alvarez said. "It's impossible to not have some good memories and keep the positives with you."

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This article originally published at How the White Sox neutralized Astros star Yordan Alvarez, 'the best hitter on the planet'.

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