Yordan Alvarez took sole possession of the major-league home run lead Wednesday night, and with it, full ownership of baseball’s rarest offensive feat still in reach: he now leads all of baseball in batting average, home runs, and RBIs, putting him on pace to become the sport’s first Triple Crown winner since Miguel Cabrera in 2012.
Through Wednesday’s games, Alvarez’s .328 average sat 20 points ahead of Tampa Bay’s Yandy Díaz, his 34 home runs led Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber, who sat one back at 33, and his 77 RBIs put him six ahead of the Yankees’ Ben Rice. The homer that pushed him past Schwarber for sole possession of the home run lead came in the eighth inning of Wednesday’s series-clinching win over Miami, a two-run shot off Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara.
Cabrera remains the last player to lead his league outright in all three categories, hitting .330 with 44 home runs and 139 RBIs for Detroit in 2012, a feat that had not been accomplished in 45 years before that. No one has done it since.
Alvarez has talked about his approach at the plate in matter-of-fact terms even as the numbers around him have grown historic.
“I was just trying to make sure that the ball was in the zone and I was able to connect on it,” he said through an interpreter after Wednesday’s game, describing the mindset behind his go-ahead homer.
The pursuit comes as Houston tries to climb back into playoff position, sitting two games behind the first-place Texas Rangers in the AL West after Wednesday’s sweep of Miami. Alvarez has been the offensive anchor through the team’s uneven first half, missing extended time last season to an ankle injury before returning healthy and, this year, mounting the best offensive season of his career.
With more than two months left in the regular season, Alvarez’s Triple Crown case remains far from settled, as batting average races in particular can swing on a bad week, but no hitter in baseball currently stands closer to the feat than he does.
