Alvarez on 100th career homer: 'I didn't notice it until I looked up at the scoreboard'

Houston Astros outfielder Yordan Alvarez knocked the 100th home run (HR) of his career in the team’s 7-6 extra innings loss to the Detroit Tigers at home on Monday, per a report on the franchise’s website.

The 25-year-old Alvarez launched a three-shot missile to right field in the bottom of the fifth inning of the first Space City Monday game of the year to erase the Tigers’ 4-1 lead over their hosts. 

“[Zero] to 100 real quick,” the Astros said in a tweet following the play, which laid the groundwork for what would be an unsuccessful comeback attempt.

Sports Illustrated (SI) reported that the HR traveled 435 feet.

According to the team report, it took 372 games for Alvarez, who came to Houston by way of a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2016, to cross the century mark in dingers, making him the fastest Astros player to achieve the milestone.

He leapfrogged ex-outfielder and current Houston Christian University (HCU) skipper Lance Berkman, who took 452 games to notch his 100th HR.

Per the Astros, Alvarez was aware he was zeroing in on the mark, but didn’t think anything of it.

“My thought was, at the moment, ‘OK, cool, I tied the game there,'” the Cuban slugger said in the report. “And then I didn't notice it until I looked up at the [scoreboard]. And it said home run 100. It’s cool.”

Alvarez, whose HR in Game 6 of last year’s Fall Classic helped Houston dispatch the Philadelphia Phillies toward a second title in half a decade, tallied a .429 batting average as of Tuesday, SI reported.

The 2021 American League Championship Series Most Valuable Player (ALCS MVP) swatted 37 homers last year.

He’s in the first full season of a six-year, $115 million contract extension he inked last June.

Houston (3-2) is off to a bumpy start in its title defense, losing three of the last five games since Opening Day on Thursday. Its series against Detroit continues on Tuesday with Framber Valdez taking the bump at 7:10 p.m.