The lefty slugger will man left field and hit cleanup in his first big league action since May 2.
HOUSTON — He hasn’t played for the Astros in nearly four months, but the team is welcoming Yordan Alvarez back into the fold.
Alvarez has been nursing a hand injury since early May. The injury, described by the team as a right-hand fracture, has kept the slugger out of action since May 2.
Before landing on the injured list, Alvarez had a .210 batting average over his first 100 at-bats of the season. Three of his 21 hits were homers, and he drove in 18 over the course of the first 31 games of the season.
Alvarez will be a welcome addition to a ballclub that has been searching for a left-handed bat for its lineup.
Alvarez was initially expected to return faster than he did, but his injury recovery period took a turn in late May when the team announced that the hand injury was worse than it originally appeared.
Alvarez will bat cleanup and play left field in his first game back. The Astros take on the Rockies in the first game of a three-game series at Daikin Park.
The Astros are in the middle of a heated division race with the Seattle Mariners. Entering Tuesday’s matchup, Houston held a 1.5-game lead over Seattle. It’s worth noting the teams will play each other in a three-game set in late September, about a week before the end of the regular season.
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