Yordan Alvarez takes Astros' playoff pressure on his shoulders after post-Braves rallying cry

Late season impromptu team meetings following being swept are not usually good signs. That is exactly what the Houston Astros just had after being swept at home by the Atlanta Braves in the final three home games of the season. The losses knocked the Astros out of first place. The Astros now trail the Texas Rangers by 1 game in the AL West with six to play.

Usually, it's guys like Jeremy Pena or the injured Carlos Correa who are looked at as vocal team leaders. Yordan Alvarez is also considered a leader, but he prefers to lead by example. Alvarez is not normally one to speak up and speak out at meetings. That changed Sunday night.

After the meeting, Yordan Alvarez told the media what went down. “It was three slaps in the face that they gave us right in front of our fans,” Alvarez said, according to his translator. "Use tomorrow to take it as a reset day of rest. The only thing left is to go out there and win the six games that we have left.”

Alvarez pressed a sense of urgency into his teammates. Now the question is do they have enough left in the tank to respond?

Houston has 10 of their 14 hitters batting under .235 in September. They have 3 players with OBPs over .315 in September. The offense has primarily relied solely on Alvarez, Isaac Paredes and Yainer Diaz in the month of September, and Diaz shares time with Christian Vazquez.

The bullpen has completely fallen apart. AJ Blubaugh has allowed runs un 5 of his last 7 appearances, allowing 9 ER in 6 IP. Bryan Abreu has allowed back-breaking, game-changing HRs in 2 of his last 4 outings. Bryan King has been a mess since July 10, watching his ERA rise from 2.03 to 5.40. Enyel De Los Santos had allowed 2 ER in each of his last 3 outings before landing on the IL. Tatsuya Imai is essentially a dead roster space. Ronel Blanco has allowed 25 ER in 31.1 IP since returning from Tommy John surgery, including 5 ER in 4.1IP on September 13, which was his last appearance. Blanco, like Imai, is also unusable but still on the roster for some reason.

Yordan is a proud player. He is having an MVP-caliber season. He doesn't want to see the team come undone at the end of the season they way it did last season, when he was on the IL and unable to do anything about it.

This year, Alvarez is trying to impose his will on his teammates, to rally them together for one more week to try to win the division and make the postseason. Do his teammates have anything left to give him?

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