Astros' nightmare scenario unfolds after Yordan Alvarez pulled from game with injury

For much of the second half, the Houston Astros have struggled to find much in the way of consistent offense. Injuries of varying severity to guys like Jeremy Peña, Jose Altuve, Isaac Paredes, and Jake Meyers have played a role, but there are other bats that have underperformed despite being healthy. However, most thought that the Astros' offense would start to get back on track with the return of Yordan Alvarez.

If you ask anyone, they will say that a healthy Alvarez is the key to making Houston's lineup work the way they want it to. Perennially among the best hitters in all of baseball when he is on the field, the Astros missed Alvarez dearly for most of this season while he dealt with a very stubborn hand injury. Since returning from the IL, Alvarez looked like he hadn't missed a beat.

Unfortunately, all of that is in jeopardy now. During the seventh inning in the Astros' matchup against the Rangers, Alvarez was injured on a play at the plate and had to be removed from the game with what is very clearly some sort of lower body injury.

Yordan Alvarez suffers apparent injury on play at the plate, forced to leave game early

No one should be an alarmist just yet as we don't know the extent of Alvarez's injury, but the video certainly doesn't look promising and that he had to be immediately pulled from the game after scoring a run isn't ideal. It is hard to tell exactly what is bothering him, but it did look like he slipped crossing home plate and immediately pulled up lame on his left leg and struggled to stop himself.

We will almost certainly get an update after the game from manager Joe Espada, but you can almost guarantee that Alvarez is going to need more testing tomorrow to see exactly what is going on. With so little schedule left, it isn't crazy to think that Alvarez could miss the rest of the regular season. As to his availability for the postseason or even 2026, that is going to depend a lot on what injury he is dealing with.

**Update**

The Astros announced that Alvarez left Monday's game against Texas with what is currently being described as an ankle sprain. Certainly not the worst case scenario, but also a pretty brutal development.

For an Astros team that is hanging on for dear life in the AL playoff race, this is the last thing Houston could afford to have happen.

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