HOUSTON — Bat met ball and Yordan Alvarez did not move. He craned his neck to track the baseball’s flight before beginning a delayed sprint down the first-base line. Home runs for Alvarez have been few and far between, so exercising caution during Sunday’s first inning seemed shrewd.After the fly ball curled into fair territory, Alvarez slowed to a jog. His 38th home run marked a career high and moved Alvarez back into a tie for the American League lead in his pursuit of the Triple Crown. The 337-foot solo blast restored order within Alvarez’s remarkable season, but silence still greeted him when he returned to the dugout.Alvarez jostled catcher Christian Vázquez’s head in hopes of beginning the proper celebration for his career milestone. The rest of Alvarez’s teammates mobbed him in response to a feat long seen as fait accompli. That it occurred on Sept. 6, in Houston’s 144th game, is perhaps the most perplexing piece of Alvarez’s prolific season.Alvarez hit 35 home runs across the first 107 games he played, production that had him on pace to shatter a slew of records. No player in the Astros’ 65-season existence has ever hit 50 home runs. Alvarez appeared primed to become the first. Even if he failed to reach that round number, Alvarez could still encroach on Jeff Bagwell’s single-season record that has stood for 26 years.Bagwell hit 47 home runs in 2000. Alvarez must hit 10 during the Astros’ final 18 games to overtake him. Doubting Alvarez is foolish, but the past two months have demonstrated how difficult it is for Alvarez — or anyone — to maintain a historic pace. There is no shame or ridicule for simply being awesome.The Astros struggle to function unless Alvarez is superhuman. His recent power suppression proves that. It is an indictment on Houston’s entire lineup, which relies on Alvarez to be its sole lifeforce and receives little production from those around him.Alvarez has hit three home runs across Houston’s past 35 games, a stretch in which the Astros are slugging .396 while scoring 4.2 runs per game. Eighteen of those 35 games featured three or fewer runs, including Sunday’s 3-2 loss against the Arizona Diamondbacks.“Throughout the season, I’ve been putting up big numbers, so teams sometimes change their plan. I don’t know how they’re going to pitch. When I go up to bat, I don’t know how they’re going to pitch to me,” Alvarez said through an interpreter.“They’re pitching me well, I don’t think that’s a secret. Sometimes they have their plan and that’s for me to chase. And I think sometimes it has to do with a little bit of anxiety and I start chasing. I think that’s what’s happening.”Alvarez’s 38th home run of the season Sunday marked a career high and moved him back into a tie for the American League lead. (Houston Astros / Getty Images)Alvarez’s plate discipline and swing decisions are what separate him from other sluggers. His career strikeout rate is three percentage points below league average. He chases outside the strike zone just 27.5 percent of the time. League average is 28.6 percent.In August, though, Alvarez swung outside the strike zone 33 percent of the time. There are only three months of his major-league career in which he’s chased more: June 2023, July 2023 and May 2024. Alvarez took just 51 combined plate appearances between June and July 2023. He received 118 this August, a month in which Alvarez hit just two home runs.