GASOLINE OUT: Championship Series MVP winners shut down in SM

By Juan Páez

During the Major League Baseball Championship Series, both the Cuban Yordan alvarez like the Puerto Rican Eddie rosario they had an impressive action with the bat. Such was their offensive outburst that both propelled their respective clubs to the World Series and took the Most Valuable Player titles from the aforementioned instance. However, when the Fall Classic rolled around, the two’s hitting went into an icy slumber that was far too far from what they did in the previous stages of the postseason.

The most extreme case was that of Álvarez, who was completely silenced. After tormenting the pitching of the Boston Red Sox, he was not the same slugger against the pitchers of the Atlanta Braves, who were crowned World Series champions on Tuesday.

Against the red-legged, Yordan had 12 hits in 23 legal at-bats, with five extra-base hits, six RBIs and a superb .522 / .538 / .870 line. But everything changed against the Tomahawk team. In front of the eventual baseball champion, Álvarez was one more piece of the cold lineup of some Astros that could not bring out his condition of devastating lineup. The islander finished the series with just two hits (a triple) in 20 valid chances, without RBIs and with frequencies of .100 / .308 / .200.

After going 3-1 in Game 1, Alvarez completely shut down between games two and five, during which time Houston won two and lost another pair. In that period, the giant Antillean was blank 13 official opportunities, including five strikeouts. It wasn’t until his third inning in Tuesday’s engagement, in the seventh inning, that he saw a single drop. But with a 7 × 0 score and with the Braves nine outs from touching the Commissioner’s Trophy, it was too late for the Astros.

DIFFERENT LUCK

Regarding Rosario, the left fielder failed to repeat his regular-round performance against Houston. In three games against the Sidereal in the knockout stage, he gave up four hits in nine valid chances, with two doubles, a home run and averages of .444 / .444 / 1,000. But his World Series performance wasn’t even close.

Rosario, acquired instead from the Cleveland Indians by Pablo Sandoval, dropped frequencies of .227 / .346 / .318 in the Fall Classic. The worst part is that after driving in nine runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Championship Series, he didn’t produce even a hairline against the Sidereal. The best things about him were his five runs and four walks.

To give you an idea, Rosario had hits in all of her 2021 postseason games before starting the World Series. He had never gone blank, but was ultimately zero on his hit box in three of the six challenges. However, in the end he was the one who smiled last and raised the long-awaited champion trophy.