In Tuesday’s AL Division Series Game 1 between the Houston Astros and the Seattle Mariners, Yordan Alvarez won it with a walk-off home run that sent everybody at Minute Maid Park into a collective frenzy.
Upon hitting the ball – which left his bat at an incredible 116 mph, by the way – Alvarez knew it was out.
He took a look to his dugout and showed the flair and confidence of the great ones, flipping his bat and starting his home run trot in style.
Fox Sports MLB had a fun poll for their followers: which bat flip was more impressive, Alvarez’s or the one by the Toronto Blue Jays‘ Jose Bautista in the 2015 ALDS against the Texas Rangers?
@JoeyBats19 pic.twitter.com/7efCaVyrlr
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) October 12, 2022
A Little History
For reference, during the best-of-five ALDS matchup between the Rangers and Blue Jays, Bautista hit an important three-run homer in Game 5 that helped seal the Jays’ victory and their ticket to their first Championship Series since 1993.
He, too, had an iconic bat flip that would put some fire in the rocky relationship between the two organizations.
The “feud” would extend into 2016 and serve as fuel for the brawl in which Rougned Odor punched Bautista in the face.
Texas had won the first two games, but the Blue Jays came from behind both in the series and in Game 5 to take home the precious “W”.
Seeing the poll by Fox Sports MLB, the Blue Jays’ official Twitter account obviously chose Bautista’s iconic Division Series home run because it was huge for the franchise.
Toronto would go on to lose the ALCS against the Kansas City Royals that year.
Alvarez’s home run was one of the single most exciting plays we have seen in a while, and he is just getting started.
